Own
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Before Teddy settled on pins he was originally designing a mode for Arcade where you would choose between different skills on your ascent through the dungeon. Meaning what skills you would end up using would largely be left to chance. Diminishing the reliance on the same skills every time in favor of adapting to the cards you're dealt.
I thought that was pretty interesting and might be worth revisiting in a final mode, Boss Rush Mode. This unlocks when you've either beaten Story Mode or Arcade Mode on any ending, with the final fights of Boss Rush depending on whether you whether you've beaten True Ending in Story Mode or Arcade Mode.
It is extremely streamlined to ferry you from battle to battle as quickly as possible. There is no gear menu or shop to fiddle with. There are no level up menus to get bogged down by. So how would it work? When you enter the mode it looks like this:
A single, random skill at bronze charge and a random utility spell for you to pick up before going through the portal. The loadout you pick will determine what sort of items you're equipped with automatically. A loadout with Shadowclone or Berserker might put the Mysterious Cube on you, for example, and Burning Weapon + Insult to Injury. As you progress through the boss rush several things open up.
- The left and right loadout options become unlocked, affording different options to choose.
- More skills gradually get added to each layout up to a certain number. At first one random one might have a chance to have a silver ring around it, indicating silver charge. Later on one or two might get a gold ring. Which means deeper into the boss rush one of the three layouts might have: Bronze Frosty, Bronze Cloud Strike, Silver Spirit Slash, Gold Dodging Strike, Haste, Provoke.
You gain stats for every battle completed, with your shield likewise gaining health and a random shields ability between each room.
Between each fight you return here, losing your old skill selection and having new options to choose from for the boss ahead. Or perhaps every 2-3 fights, if that might be a bit excessive.
If the mode might need added complexity, you could maybe have every successful bossfight award keys that you could use to unlock things for the Boss Rush run in this waiting room. A small selection of randomized talents to individually, permanently unlock for the run with keys. Or unlocking a minimum number of single use health potions you take into all remaining fights with keys. Or a selection of randomized Arcade pins that would be appropriate for the Boss Rush mode to individually, permanently unlock for all remaining fights with keys. Or a Time Crystal 1-up to retry if you die, bought with key.
I don't know if that extra layer of fuss and complexity would be truly necessary, though.
Ideally the Boss Rush would include every single 'proper' bossfight the game has to offer, including every elite an area has to offer together as a boss battle. Maybe allowing you to save and quit every 5 floors if it's taking too long. If the fights order weren't randomized within the 'chapter' of the game they took place in, this is the sort of line-up I would imagine seeing:
1. x1 Elite, all Pillar Mountain enemies
2. Vilya
3. Gigaslime
4. x1 Elite, all Evergrind Fields enemies (Bloomo, Boar, Red Slime, Rabby)
5. The Zoo
6. x1 Elite, all Pumpkin Woods enemies
7. Jumpking
8. The Helloweed variant boss who sprouts thorns that explode into flames
9. x1 Elite, all Flying Fortress enemies (2 Guardian crystals)
10. Phaseman
11. Sentry
12. Gundam
13. Marino
14. Red Gigaslime (Blink is guaranteed this battle, as is an inclusion of Dodging Strike somewhere among the loadouts)
15. x1 Elite, all Seasonne enemies
16. Smashy + Bashy
17. Toy Machine
18. x1 Elite, all Season Temple enemies
19. Autumn+Summer
20. Hydras
21. Winter
22. Elder Boars
23. Shrubboss
24. Queen Bee
25. Black Ferrets
26. x1 Elite, all Mt. Bloom enemies
27. Power Flower
28. x1 Elite, all Tai Ming enemies
29. Cursed Priestess
30. Giant Thorn Worms
31. Mimic
32. Troll
33. x1 Elite, all Desert enemies
34. Fharmamera (+Super Salad in the mix of all the harmless veggies, that actually -does- deal some considerable damage?)
35. Marino 2
36. Solgem
37. x1 Elite, all Ghost Ship enemies
38. Captain Bones
39. Evil Eye
40. Luke
41. Shadow Gigaslime
42. Terrorweed
43. Super Gundam
44. All Season Hydras
45. Bishop
46. Dad
47. Zhamla
48. Grindea
If you wanted a solid 50, I suppose including Zhamla (Survive) and Teddy + Freddy before Vilya would get you there.
... in hindsight, this might be a lot of unnecessary work for a mode that encourages adapting to various skills while taking on every boss in the game. I'd still enjoy it, I think, but I don't know how many others would!
; I was mainly basing this off Kirby Super Star's Arena Mode, where you had to choose different abilities between each fight and were given a limited number of heals throughout the boss rush.
I thought that was pretty interesting and might be worth revisiting in a final mode, Boss Rush Mode. This unlocks when you've either beaten Story Mode or Arcade Mode on any ending, with the final fights of Boss Rush depending on whether you whether you've beaten True Ending in Story Mode or Arcade Mode.
It is extremely streamlined to ferry you from battle to battle as quickly as possible. There is no gear menu or shop to fiddle with. There are no level up menus to get bogged down by. So how would it work? When you enter the mode it looks like this:
A single, random skill at bronze charge and a random utility spell for you to pick up before going through the portal. The loadout you pick will determine what sort of items you're equipped with automatically. A loadout with Shadowclone or Berserker might put the Mysterious Cube on you, for example, and Burning Weapon + Insult to Injury. As you progress through the boss rush several things open up.
- The left and right loadout options become unlocked, affording different options to choose.
- More skills gradually get added to each layout up to a certain number. At first one random one might have a chance to have a silver ring around it, indicating silver charge. Later on one or two might get a gold ring. Which means deeper into the boss rush one of the three layouts might have: Bronze Frosty, Bronze Cloud Strike, Silver Spirit Slash, Gold Dodging Strike, Haste, Provoke.
You gain stats for every battle completed, with your shield likewise gaining health and a random shields ability between each room.
Between each fight you return here, losing your old skill selection and having new options to choose from for the boss ahead. Or perhaps every 2-3 fights, if that might be a bit excessive.
If the mode might need added complexity, you could maybe have every successful bossfight award keys that you could use to unlock things for the Boss Rush run in this waiting room. A small selection of randomized talents to individually, permanently unlock for the run with keys. Or unlocking a minimum number of single use health potions you take into all remaining fights with keys. Or a selection of randomized Arcade pins that would be appropriate for the Boss Rush mode to individually, permanently unlock for all remaining fights with keys. Or a Time Crystal 1-up to retry if you die, bought with key.
I don't know if that extra layer of fuss and complexity would be truly necessary, though.
Ideally the Boss Rush would include every single 'proper' bossfight the game has to offer, including every elite an area has to offer together as a boss battle. Maybe allowing you to save and quit every 5 floors if it's taking too long. If the fights order weren't randomized within the 'chapter' of the game they took place in, this is the sort of line-up I would imagine seeing:
1. x1 Elite, all Pillar Mountain enemies
2. Vilya
3. Gigaslime
4. x1 Elite, all Evergrind Fields enemies (Bloomo, Boar, Red Slime, Rabby)
5. The Zoo
6. x1 Elite, all Pumpkin Woods enemies
7. Jumpking
8. The Helloweed variant boss who sprouts thorns that explode into flames
9. x1 Elite, all Flying Fortress enemies (2 Guardian crystals)
10. Phaseman
11. Sentry
12. Gundam
13. Marino
14. Red Gigaslime (Blink is guaranteed this battle, as is an inclusion of Dodging Strike somewhere among the loadouts)
15. x1 Elite, all Seasonne enemies
16. Smashy + Bashy
17. Toy Machine
18. x1 Elite, all Season Temple enemies
19. Autumn+Summer
20. Hydras
21. Winter
22. Elder Boars
23. Shrubboss
24. Queen Bee
25. Black Ferrets
26. x1 Elite, all Mt. Bloom enemies
27. Power Flower
28. x1 Elite, all Tai Ming enemies
29. Cursed Priestess
30. Giant Thorn Worms
31. Mimic
32. Troll
33. x1 Elite, all Desert enemies
34. Fharmamera (+Super Salad in the mix of all the harmless veggies, that actually -does- deal some considerable damage?)
35. Marino 2
36. Solgem
37. x1 Elite, all Ghost Ship enemies
38. Captain Bones
39. Evil Eye
40. Luke
41. Shadow Gigaslime
42. Terrorweed
43. Super Gundam
44. All Season Hydras
45. Bishop
46. Dad
47. Zhamla
48. Grindea
If you wanted a solid 50, I suppose including Zhamla (Survive) and Teddy + Freddy before Vilya would get you there.
... in hindsight, this might be a lot of unnecessary work for a mode that encourages adapting to various skills while taking on every boss in the game. I'd still enjoy it, I think, but I don't know how many others would!
; I was mainly basing this off Kirby Super Star's Arena Mode, where you had to choose different abilities between each fight and were given a limited number of heals throughout the boss rush.