Sporting over 100 bosses and more on the way, the developers at Grinding Gear Games give us a bit more insight on the process of curating engaging and epic bosses and their mechanics from scratch in Path of Exile 2. Heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Series X|S November 15.
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00:00I think, honestly, making bosses in Path of Exile 2 is the most satisfying part of the
00:23job.
00:24It is so enjoyable from start to end, even after it's gone out, it's satisfying.
00:29I think if I could choose to do anything all the time, full time, that would be the single
00:34thing.
00:46Bosses in Path of Exile 2 come about two major ways.
00:49You obviously have the more traditional approach where you create a narrative and you design
00:55a boss around that narrative.
01:11The second way, which I think is something that can be very unique and create some of
01:16the more interesting encounters, is letting the creative genius of our artists do what
01:22they need to do.
01:24They can come up with something completely abstract.
01:28And this is how you get some of the most awesome things, because all of a sudden it can be
01:32something with 100 tentacles, or 9 limbs, or no limbs, or 1000 teeth, or none, and obviously
01:41things that aren't even in my imagination.
02:04While a boss in Path of Exile 2 ultimately is the culmination of decades of experience,
02:10taking hundreds if not thousands of bosses and its predecessor, taking all that knowledge
02:14together, and puts it in a package that delivers the best of what could possibly be of boss
02:19encounters in an action RPG environment with bosses that are utilizing souls-lighting cannons.
02:32Despite the fact there's over 100 bosses, and more to come, a lot more to come, every
02:39single boss fight is completely unique, hand-animated from scratch, it is designed from scratch,
02:45it is balanced from scratch, and it doesn't reuse a single asset in our library or anything
02:50like that.
03:09One of the main challenges balancing boss fights in Path of Exile 2, especially compared
03:13to its predecessor, you have to, in a single attempt, reduce the boss from full life to
03:17zero in order to then progress through.
03:19If a player cannot defeat them now, then they're stuck.
03:25Which helps in many ways, because it makes the bosses feel so much more satisfying to
03:29kill once you do overcome it and learn it.
03:36It is very, very important to us that Path of Exile bosses' mechanics, especially around
03:42telegraphing, feels fair to the user, as opposed to them being cheated out of something when
03:47they happen to die.
03:49We want to make sure that hitboxes are accurate, and of course, when something hits you, it
03:54feels like it hits you.
03:57It ultimately makes it feel that much more satisfying when you kill it, and you feel
04:02that much more pride when you are able to overcome something difficult, knowing that
04:07the game hasn't robbed you of this thing.
04:14At the end of the day, you want to see that healthy balance where some people are struggling,
04:18and you want to see that moment, that second-hand moment where someone overcomes that challenge
04:23and is so happy for doing so, and so I'm looking forward to that.