What Makes A Great Double Boss Fight?

If one thing good, then two thing... more good. Right?

Yeah, kinda. Double bosses are a unique fight form factor that can make for memorable encounters, but there are unique pitfalls to avoid that can depend on what type of double boss you're trying to make. Let's go over some!

Featuring:
Hollow Knight
Batman Arkham Asylum
Streets of Rage 4
Super Mario 3D Land
Megaman X Legacy Collection
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Hades
No More Heroes 2
Bug Fables
Dark Souls
Devil May Cry 3
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Nier: Automata

Patrons get ad-free episodes early, plus access to our behind-the-scenes podcast.

#hollowknight #gamedesign #darksouls

[Garomasta]

One cool thing about double bosses is when they do combination attacks that utilize their unique attributes. Master Hand and Crazy Hand are a good example with many of their attacks making use of the fact that they're just hands: they rub against each other to create static electricity and form a dog-shaped shadow puppet among other things.

[gundamliam]

The Mantis Lords will forever remain my favorite HK boss. The way they fight in tandem is so satisfying

[pedroaugustocosta]

My favorite thing about the Mantis Lords in Hollow Knight is how beautiful the battle is, one time I was playing in a friends house, it was me playing, and three friends that didn't knew the game, they weren't paying attention, and all four of us were chatting, and I entered the battle with the Mantis Lords, halfway through, when you face two sisters at once, silence, the three of them were dead silent, watching me battle( at this point I ha already finished the game and the pantheon of hollownest, so that battle was easy for me), I finished without taking damage, and they looked at me and said how incredible that fight was, it was like a dance, a proud moment for my gamer self.

[jakksonkobalt]

The Twins in Terraria is an interesting double boss where not only are they both modified versions of a previous boss, but they fill different roles and it punishes you for not focusing down one of them by making them both really difficult if they are both on phase 2 at the same time. Sort of like the reverse of the DMC boss fight in the video.

[juanrodriguez]

I like it when the two bosses interact with each other, maybe they start playing ping pong with a projectile, maybe one grabs you so the other can aim at you, maybe one pulls the other towards you, or one puts a temporary shield on the other. Is really neat.

[fabmilan_]

I think Dark Souls 3's double bosses deserve some attention in a follow-up. Lorian and Lothric, Sister Friede and Father Ariandel, and the Demon Prince are some of the most well-designed I've experienced and definitely the gold standard for double boss fights in the series.

[skateify]

Another really important angle on the Ornstein & Smough fight is the implications it has for the rest of your run. You'll only have access to the weapon and armor set of the one you killed last, and each has its own uses depending on your character build. Choosing one permanently locks the other, so the choice isn't just about how you want the fight to go, but potentially your entire playthrough.

[BE-fwlr]

I quite enjoyed fighting Lancer and Susie in Deltarune chapter 1, the fact that they covered for each others "weaknesses" when it came to sparing made it an interesting challenge.

[Masterdramon]

The final encounter with Galeem and Dharkon in Smash Ultimate is a really unique take on this concept. Little surprise from the series that's been perfecting the mechanics of a double boss fight since Melee, thanks to the Hands.

The two kaiju-sized bosses aren't really fighting you at all - they're mortal enemies fighting EACH OTHER, with the Smash fighters in the way as collateral damage. Any time you put one in a vulnerable state, you need to punish quickly and then back off, as the other one will be pushing for a devastating follow-up as well. And their attacks have been carefully designed, thanks to the sheer size difference, to be tough but fair; any possible combination is avoidable with the correct screen placement and dodge timing.

Accordingly with the lore, focusing on defeating one first will make the battle much harder, as the remaining one no longer has the distraction of its foe and can focus all its most devastating attacks on you. The entire fight thus becomes about carefully managing both of their health bars, so you can defeat both Light and Dark in as quick succession as possible and restore balance.

[BunnerTime]

I think one of my favorite double bosses is the Dreadnought Twins from Deep Rock Galactic. Unlike the other Dreadnought bosses, the Twins are vulnerable from any angle, and while they can effectively teleport by burrowing into the ground they're relatively easy to take down. The problem is, once one of them gets too far behind the other on health, they burrow next to each other and become invulnerable while sharing health with a net gain. This means you have to cooperate with your teammates to keep their damages roughly the same so that the hard work isn't undone.

[chenchestarze]

I still think one of the coolest themes for a double boss is the Mario and Luigi memory boss fight in Bowser's Inside Story, where you have to fight Bowser's memory of the brothers AS Mario and Luigi, where the memories exhibit basic traits of a player character, like sometimes fucking up action commands or reviving the other brother if they go down. Plus, there's some cute characterization through things like the Luigi memory being able to run away temporarily or how they'll use power-ups as attacks that you need to dodge or block.

[EveCitrus]

If we're talking Triple Bosses, the Elite Trio from Mario and Luigi: Dream Team is a great example. They each have their own function in the fight (healing each other, calling in hoards of smaller enemies, mixing up other attacks, ect), as well as teaming up together in interesting ways. It creates a really interesting dynamic where you can't focus down one, and have to account for each member in your strategy. It's also one of the most difficult fights in the whole series, especially because, in order to win, you have to take out all 3 of them at the same time. The only example I can think of for a triple boss, and an insanely clever use of the concept

[dotinhadois]

i think the twins from terraria are very simple but very effective, you fought the eye of Cthulhu before, so you know that when they get to half HP the fight changes, so you don't want both of them to reach half HP together and want to finish one off completely, thing is, is very hard to not damage one of them, so it become a battle of not only choosing your target, but also avoiding hurting the other one as much as possible

[hairlessgrizzly]

Ko-Shi and Ro-Shi is one of my absolute favorite bosses in Nier Automata
They could've easily just made a slow climb up the tower, with a few enemies and items every now and then, but they gave us a great boss fight with story significance and makes the climb WAY more interesting

Yoko Taro rarely disappoints

[PiePiellow]

An idea that I wish I saw more often in games is a double boss fight that is actually 2 "rival-like" characters fighting each other while the player just happens to be on the middle of the crossfire, so the bosses keep going back and forth between beating you up or each other up, and sometimes even doing accidental combined attacks.

I know I already saw this somewhere once and fell in love with it, but I legit don't recall where lol

[thurtik]

Thank you for mentioning Bug Fables, I think the game deserves much more recognition than it gets. Also on the topic of multi-bosses, you could've also mentioned the sparring match against team Maki (even though that's a triple-bossfight), they have each a designated role, they combo their attacks together, support/buff eachother and they have tons of interactions between eachother depending on which one of them you target. It's easily one of the most interesting bossfights the game has to offer.

[gnicegnorc]

Another way double bosses can work in a game is for the fight to revolve around their relationship with each other. In UNDERTALE you come across two guards in Hotland, and if you want to complete the battle in a Pacifist run you need to convince the first guard to confess their true feelings to the second guard.

[NickAndriadze]

Yeah, The Twins from Terraria should definitely not go unnoticed. These two play around really well with the attacks that each of them have, utilize each other's advantages and try to protect each other from their disadvantages. Retinazer prefers to stay far away and blast you with its laser whilst Spazmatism forces you to constantly stay on your toes and never slow down. Plus the fact that each of them have two phases really make them stick out even further than they already do. Honestly, the Don't Starve Together remake ''The Twins of Terror'' really doesn't do them much justice. Their mere existence is enough of a godsend already, but the boss(es) had an insane amount of potential and I'm sad that the developers didn't play that much around with the source material they had. If they did, they would make me love this already one of my favorite bosses of Terraria, _even more_ so than I already did.

[joeduffy]

One double boss fight I don't think many would think of is Galeen and Dharkon in Smash Ultimate.
I think it's interesting how you fight them both and they attack each other too. Bosses that damage each other is pretty different.

[DripTheSeawing]

one that I think deserves a spot on this list is "Killing Two Birds" from A Hat in Time's death wish mode. It combines the conductor and DJ groves into one fight, and since they are pretty much the same boss mechanically, their attacks overlap really well together. This makes for a hard, but not aggravating, challenge. also, having the two rivals fight you in unison is so freaking cool.