Cool game, AWFUL boss design

I'm having a pretty good time with it for the most part, but holy crap do the boss fights suck! The constant ad spawning is the only thing that makes them difficult, but not in a fun way, just in an extremely annoying way. It's a real bummer they couldn't design more interesting boss fights instead of having to rely on something so cheap and uninspired to artificially boost the difficulty.

It bothered me at first, but eventually I learned how to deal with it, and got more tools to make it easier, like the aggro plant. The last major boss I fought was this huge tree that spawned adds in a relatively set pattern and I thought that fight was pretty well designed for a solo fight. The adds were definitely a big reason the fight was difficult, but you could prepare for them and learn from the fight. Every attempt I felt like I learned more and got closer to beating it, which is the sign of a good fight imo. The fights with seemingly unending adds are less fun, but still manageable.

Mostly I think it's a concession for being a multiplayer focused game, because a huge issue in Souls games was always that bosses became an absolute joke once you brought other people along. But those adds ensure that multiplayer bosses are still a real threat in Remnant. There's probably a better middle ground between Dark Souls and Remnant than where they landed, but I don't think it's a terrible first attempt.

I think the ads exist mainly as a means to funnel you more ammo, otherwise they would have to peroidically spawn ammo on shelves and shit which would be worse in my opinion. There is one boss fight that doesnt have ads near the end where they solve that problem in a different way, but prior to the fight they give you a couple of ammo crates as if to say 'you might run out of ammo here'.

This might be a weird comparison but even games like Destiny and the Division shower you with ads to give you ammo. I feel like the main reason people didnt complain with those was because they werent constantly being compared to Dark Souls.

I get that ads have a purpose. My issue with them in this game is that they seem to be relying on them to provide the challenge during boss fights. Otherwise, they'd be pretty straight forward (at least the ones I've seen so far, granted I'm still in the first world). I just think it's a shame the boss fights aren't inherently more interesting/challenging in and of themselves. Admittedly I was venting a bit having just beaten Singe after about 15 attempts!

I should also point out I've been playing solo, which probably made it more of an issue for me.

I also played through it solo, (judging by the quicklook it doesnt look that much easier in co-op) and I agree that without the ads the bosses (except the one I mentioned earlier) would be easy, but the same could be said for bosses in a lot of other shooters. I wouldnt call it bad design but thats obviously subjective. I will admit that some of the bosses seem like lazy reskins of special enemies though.

I'm curious what you would have wanted out of the boss fights in this game? Do you have any examples of boss fights in shooters that require ammo management that are good and not overly reliant on ads? I dont mean to put you on trial or anything, I love good boss fights as much as anyone but I feel like boss fights in shooters (that arent arcadey) tend to not be as good as melee based action games. (which is why I spent so much more time with Monster Hunter than any shlooter)

Yeah, I guess I don't really have a good answer. It's a tricky problem to solve. I thought about it and I think my problem with the ads in this game is due to it being a shooter that also has a stamina mechanic, so you can't even always create the space you need between them and you. Maybe that's why it feels worse in this compared to other shooters?

That could be it. I rocked the cultist outfit pretty much the entire game, which is light, so maybe that's why I didnt find it as oppressive.

That reminds me though, did you play Vanquish? That was a game that I liked but had a lot of the same problems that you brought up, including stamina management, in it's own weird way.

I'm inclined to agree. Some of the boss fights are still pretty enjoyable in spite of this being the case. However, it seems like too many of them were designed for multiple people to tackle, making doing them on your own a fucking nightmare. I've been stuck on The Undying King, which has to be one of the cheapest bullshit boss fights I've seen in recent memory. Ads spawn constantly, often off screen, and you almost never get a chance to heal or use any other items. Nothing about the fight is fair or fun.

I don't think having ads in boss fights is inherently bad. But yeah, I think this game is overly reliant on them as they tend to do sometimes more damage and are a greater danger than the bosses themselves. In contrast with other shooter boss fights, Borderlands 2 and TPS boss fights are pretty well-designed. They usually have ads but are rarely the focus of the fight. Depending on your play style, ammo management might not necessarily be a factor but it is part of the game to an extent. One upgrade I really wish Remnant had, which it very well may and I just haven't seen it yet, is the ability to upgrade max ammo capacity. Automatic weapons chew through ammo like no tomorrow.

@killem_dafoe: I've been stuck on The Undying King, which has to be one of the cheapest bullshit boss fights I've seen in recent memory

Yeah, that fucker almost made me quit the game, but I was finally able to take him down solo. The real bullshit part doesn't happen till you think you've killed him....

@admiral_crunch: I haven't played in a few days, but I still haven't beaten him. I've put in a good 50 attempts overall. I went to grind some materials and upgraded a bunch of weapons, got a bunch of of skill points, still wasn't able to do it. I've been playing co-op with my buddy in his game, which is been completely different from mine. I have a bunch of new weapons I didn't have before. Maybe those will help? But I was waiting until we get to attempt that fight together. Solo...it's just completely unmanageable. I did manage to deplete his entire health bar ONCE, but I already knew what was coming due to watching a bunch of videos on YouTube, lol.

I think they're pretty well designed in that they are actually fun and every time you die you feel like you've learned something, gotten better in some way and are ready to jump right back in.

The fights seem designed as resource and aggro management exercises, pick your battles, always be moving, use the correct gun at every stage, etc.

That said, the Undying King fight was truly something, it stopped my progress for a good few days until I finally managed it, and damn it was close.

I finally finished the game, so figured I'd make a follow up post.

The whole boss + infinite ads thing never stopped sucking imo, but I will say that it does at least get easier to manage as you progress and get better gear/weapons/mods. Which isn't to say it gets easy, you just have more tools at your disposal to deal with it. And there were a few bosses that mixed things up a bit at least (although I wasn't a fan of the final boss trying to be a Destiny raid boss fight).

A few people here said they had the most trouble with The Undying King, but funnily enough I ended up not having too much trouble with him compared to some of the others. I gave the heart to the Elf Queen though. I wonder if it results in a different fight with the Undying King?

I still think it's a good game, but playing solo definitely made it a lot more frustrating than it should have been at times (especially the boss fights).

Are you playing by yourself? Because when we killed the Undying King we came just off of the Ixillis fight ... and compared to that he was a cakewalk. It took us two tries with 3 people.

The Ixillis fight was a lot easier for me solo. I was able to down him the second time I tried that fight. However, that fight got so much harder in co-op for some reason.

Yeah, I played my entire main story solo; however I played a lot of public co-op games in other people's main quest which allowed me to see boss fights that were not in my game.

I just started playing solo last night, with the game coming to Gamepass. The first world that was spawned for me wound up with me in the sewers having to kill a couple of huge roots while enemies poured down the hallway at me.

It very much feels like an exercise in try, die, upgrade gear and talents, repeat. I could see it having more value with friends, but going solo was a pretty bad experience.

Getting there was largely fine, though there were one or two enemy placements that were...a bit much for one player.

EDIT: Day 2, I’ve found my groove. This game is alright!

Forgive the OT but I just can't help my double-takes. There's a lot of talk about commercial marketing in this thread. :D

I agree the boss fights are str8 doo doo.
The ads are literally the only thing making them difficult. I'd much rather learn timing and when to attack then to just learn how to micro manage between dps and resource management.

The fact that ads are supposed to be a source of ammo is a ridiculous design choice imo. Just give me like double the ammo and this whole reliability on ads for ammo falls off a cliff. I'm running around in circles on every boss essentially doing the same thing. What is the point of having all these bosses if they especially have the exact same play style.

Take damage>>run away>>spawn infinite ads>>> repeat. This gets old so fast and doesn't even make me want to experience all the bosses.

Remnant: From the Ashes is one of the nicest surprises.
Game came to me out of the left field and I just love it. Playing with friend so that might impact the fun factor but there really isn't much that I don't like about the game.

Setting is amazing and even tho my friend is a total lunatic (in a good way) I still get really immersed when we play.

WARNING: be careful playing this on Xbox if you have a family!

We just lost all our progress in this game on one of our Xbox profiles. As far as I can tell this is what happened:

1. gf and I are both playing this game on our respective xbox profiles
2. I was playing, returned to ward 13 to conclude my session for the day
3. gf wanted to play, so she turned on her controller (which logs on her profile on the Xbox)
4. I'm done, so I press Home, sign off
5. The game doesn't notice profile has changed, and autosaves my stuff over my gf's profile
6. That shit gets synced to the cloud immediately, so my gf's progress is just gone

As my gf was way more invested in this game (and didn't like her starting character that much), she eventually was fine continuing with my save.

But I'm afraid to play it now, because I fear this will happen again and we'll lose her or my progress again if another profile logs in on the xbox with the game running. In theory it should be fine if we "Quit" the game before switching profiles, but I've seen that be buggy as well, so I don't trust it anymore.

I don't care that much for loot driven games, but my gf enjoys it a lot... it scratches that borderlands itch in that it is a loot based co-op game you can play online with friends.

I played the entire campaign solo, all of the DLC solo, and have run adventure and survival mode solo. I play the game on hard. The boss fights in this game are just as difficult as Dark Souls boss fights, but instead of stamina management, it is ammo and reload management. It can be very easy to get greedy because it feels good to spray an entire clip downrange and wipe out all of the adds, but then that leaves you scrambling to reload both of your guns while you dodge out of the way of the boss, and then you end up having put in zero damage and are only down ammo and have made no progress in the fight.

Being able to reliably pick off adds, either through smart grouping or mod usage, and then using your free time to pump rounds into the boss, alleviates a lot of difficulty. The game feels fast-paced and tense and everything from the music to the gunfeel is pushing you to shoot as much as possible, but that's not the strategy. Just like you shouldn't swing until your stamina bar is empty in Dark Souls, you should not shoot until you hit the bottom of the magazine. Every enemy in the game is designed to have a very easy-to-read melee attack supplemented by a very generously-paced projectile attack, with the intent being that you need to read the animations and plan ahead around these openings. In fact, almost every projectile in the game can be dodged by strafing while aiming down sites, save a few elite types with spread projectiles and some of the bosses. Dodhing into swings is usually the play since you can avoid the hit and get closer to put more rounds more accurately into the enemy. The i-frames are ridiculously generous and the attacks are cartoonishly telegraphed.

There are three bosses which have been exceedingly difficult on account of the multiplayer design, and even those can be pushed through with a combination of armour, accessories, and mods. One boss summons a storm cloud which continuously fires an endless barrage of projectiles at you and has its own rather large health pool, one is that floating triangle from the QL or playdate or whatever, and the last one is the multiplying Root boss on earth. All three of these fights leave literally no breathing room for solo players and you really have to dig in to your equipment and mods and get to learn the enemy patterns flawlessly. On the Root monster specifically, every run where I got hit a single time resulted in me dying, but clearing that stupid idiot out and coming out the other side is one of the best gaming moments I've had in a while, right up there with decimating an entire combat encounter plus a Marauder in Eternal.