Guild Wars 2

Some immediate thoughts on the final boss fight:

1. The part where he breaks the room is nice, but it’s also the worst part of the fight. In fact, if the updrafts were easier to see, it might not be such a problem. Right now, the updrafts blend in too well with all the weird smoky/whispey effects going on. It doesn’t help that the sky box’s dark colors makes the whole place tough to see.
2. To keep flying, I have to fly onto the updrafts, which I had little idea I had to do that the first two times I attempted the fight. In fact, this is probably the only time I ever encountered flying into a small spiral on the ground that would propel me upwards. All previous encounters with anything like this functionality was from the giant swirling wind columns in Verdant Brink. Therefore, I attributed an updraft as a giant swirling wind column, not a tiny spiral on the ground.
3. The updrafts functionality is different from the bouncing mushrooms. While I did recognize that they are supposed to launch you into the air, I assumed I had to jump on the updraft much like a bouncing mushroom rather than just run into it.
4. The boss was a bipedal creature reminiscent of the Mouth of Zhaitan. In my opinion, it’s not visually distinct and I doubt I can pick out its silhouette when compared to the Mouth of Zhaitan’s silhouette. I think it should have a vastly different and highly stylized body shape. The Mouth of Zhaitan had what was basically a giant beer gut; so did the final boss in HoT.

I disagree on the updrafts. I personally think that they’re fine and that further development time should not be wasted on them.

A lot of people think that we’re fighting Zhaitan’s body when it’s really just the representation of his mind – this was done so we could actually have good fight mechanics from a game design perspective. It doesn’t leave me upset at all, but wouldn’t be saddened to see a visual upgrade if enough people were.