When Silksong pulls them into the spotlight again, did Boss Runbacks have his day?

Hello and welcome to the first of the almost occasional series of functions, which we initially call a great question in which we have not achieved a decisive position on something that we had a good time in the office this week, we present this, the EG community, for further interrogation.

Let me paint a photo: Vlor, Despoiler of the Night, raises its powerful fists towards the black sky, thick swelling of cracking magic signaling the incoming heavy rain of the erroneous spears from unknown dimensions. The sword up, you push, using this rare moment of susceptibility to a chip, chip, left in Vlor’s Health Bar. Only – your time is turned off; Your avoidance is too slow, and before you know, you bubbling another crying of death, rejecting potentially winding five -minute Odyssey from the palace of the deserted ruin of Vlor and another chance for his best.

Yes, I am talking about the classic bossy round – perhaps a distant cousin, to an inexpressible intermittent interruption from the boss – and one of the most dividing mechanics that were accepted by programmers inspired by Souls Software. For some time, if you asked, I would probably evangelize Runback; If there is one thing I have learned to fight with creativity, then peace is not just virtue, it’s a necessity. Anger raises impatience, impatience raises carelessness and suddenly you have two dozen giant spears protruding on the top of the head at an angle.

Therefore, my old argument was that Runbacks were an important opportunity to re -judgment – a chance to breathe rage when you travel a familiar path, ready to re -face a powerful opponent with excellent mental balance. By Dark Souls 3However, the rounds of the boss of the series became much less serious and by that time Elden Ring He arrived – let’s ignore Ray Lucaria – it seemed that he was ready to send them to the trash of video games history once and for all, rejected aside as a senseless a bit of the Faffal Heritage. Do you know what? I didn’t miss them.

But when other programmers began to benefit from the popularity of games, Runbacks – next to other friends of Soulsian mechanics, such as global resting points and currency drops to death – they began to spread elsewhere. Over the years, we saw the subspecies adopted by Nioh, Salt & Sanctuary, Lords of the FallenMortal Shell, BlasphemousSteel growth, nine salts and Lies P; The full list is long. And although some studies have decided on the monkey as accurately as possible to get maximum authenticity, others, especially in recent years, or completely threw out rounds, or shortened them so much that they felt little more than compulsory nod. For some time it seemed that Runback could finally fall out of fashion, but then Hollow Knight appeared: Silksong. By punishing difficulties and often long turnover, Silksong helped resurrect the conversation again: doing bosses Really Serve for the target, are they only archaic, annoying a little treated time, which is long ago her best?

In particular, at Silksong, the house of Peppiatt Eurogamer – a huge fan of the original empty knight – is torn. “On the one hand,” they explain, “I really appreciate what the Cherry team did, making them dynamics: in most cases you can’t simply self -power to the boss, because the path is developed with threats that do not react the same every time. The enemies can stop, do not throw the missiles that go through your jumps, or up/down through the area. games, even in case of awakening.

From the perspective of design, Silksong gets preliminary thumbs, but with player Perspective, the house is much less convinced. “I don’t like,” they continue. “It reminds me of most of the rescue in Dark Souls 2, often sloppy, unnecessarily long and interrupting the overall flow of this experience. I like Runback: I think it’s a good way to self -ulate players and have them (very quickly) teaching the play nuances, but Silksong Erg Errs on the sadistic side for me sadistic.

I asked the same question to Edogamer Ed Ed, a man so firmly embedded in glorious worlds at the moment that it is strange that the castle did not transform into Mossy. “I’m not completely reluctant to Runbacks,” says Ed. “I played enough soul games to appreciate how the repetition becomes muscle memory, and therefore, to the hell, the souls of the demon are almost completely running, because the whole levels must be completed before the boss battle. But even from the software slowly withdrew them, and Elden Ring not only generous with the sites of grace, but adds marika outside boss Especially Archaiic, especially with the Sites of Grace, but adding Marika’s rates outside the boss door.

“I don’t mind dying many times for the boss,” adds Ed from the convenience of his favorite poison. “I have a muzzle repeatedly dying on a small floating worship, which I should easily bypass, but irritating adhesives just out of reach. Where is my swat flies?!”

But what does a novice have to say about this topic for Soulslis? Robert Purchese from Eurogamer becomes Silksong with only limited experience of this kind of games and does not continue, he is great to play. “It’s such a small line, right?” He says. “One evening I was very fed up with a speculative blind jump into the abyss. I couldn’t land it – I’m not even sure if I had to land it – but I still tried, and every time I was associated with long turn. And at that moment I cursed the game design.” But in the midst of this assembly fury, the memory caused by Bertie, going back to his time, playing mass games in multiplayer online.

“I have been doing runs there for years,” he explains. “Even in a more disinfected experience, such as World of Warcraft, you need to escape back to the corpse, if your team dies in the dungeon and try to resurrect everyone that can be extremely dangerous depending on where you die. But in older MMOs, where the sows were not installed, and all the enemies were extremely The healers, if you were the most difficult if you were again. Perhaps this is a sign that they will still endure.

So it’s us; He sat on both sides of the consensus fence. So we ask Is Boss Runback an outdated fragment of the game design that should be sent to the past, or is there value in these long phrases? Przemys, as they say, to you.