Games with best boss scoring?

[1000Eyes]

My fav boss scoring are definitely games where the boss fights feel like they obey the same rules as the stages. Usually this means very bullet-based scoring systems like Psyvariar or Giga Wing.

I guess the popular view is that bosses are supposed to be a break from normal gameplay and is supposed to be very dodge-centric, but tbh the more i play the more i find stage scoring to be adequately engaging. I find it interesting that while CAVE is most popular dev around here, their boss scoring is rather understated, usually just some form of canceling a large bullet pattern at the right time. Guwange is pretty cool if inconsistent, and it kinda falls into the bullet based archetype as well.

The fact that bosses tend to be 1v1 opponents who are not supposed to die quickly ties many devs hands when it comes to scoring, so prolonged milking and boss looking silly as it shoots patterns that have been misled to empty air is always a threat. I tend agree that bosses are more exciting if you try to let them live as long as possible, but it is uncommon for games to account for this and instead a lot of repetitive milking is more common. Milking is pretty fun in the two games I mentioned imo, since their mechanics account for this during the stages already. In GW it is pretty intense to try and time the reflect, and Psyvariar the exp gain is actually slowed so you cant chain iframes forever.

I dont like systems where you speedkill bosses that much. It looks a little boring, and all those pretty patterns go to waste

[Sumez]

I guess the popular view is that bosses are supposed to be a break from normal gameplay and is supposed to be very dodge-centric, but tbh the more i play the more i find stage scoring to be adequately engaging. I find it interesting that while CAVE is most popular dev around here, their boss scoring is rather understated, usually just some form of canceling a large bullet pattern at the right time. Guwange is pretty cool if inconsistent, and it kinda falls into the bullet based archetype as well.

I think the bigger difference with bossfights isn't so much a shift from shooting to dodging, is that the game doesn't control the pace of progression, but you do (except for some early ones up to around Tatsujin).
The typical challenge around boss scoring is that as long as you can minimize damage to the boss, you can artificially extend the duration of the fight quite long. Of course, things like timeouts (or increasingly less reasonable patterns) can help mitigate the issues, but typically the challenges around boss scoring still comes down to approaches becoming either repetitive, boring, or borderline exploits. I'd say any game with great boss scoring at least has to mitigate how long the fight would last.

[glenjamin]

I've always enjoyed radiant silvergun's boss scoring with the destructible parts changing the boss attack patterns, especially in fights like 2B where you can continue your chain into the boss fight. The graze milking can be a bit much though, I think it would have been good if there was also a time bonus like in Ikaruga to also incentivize killing the boss fast.

[DMC]

Dimahoo bosses extends the item collecting scoring system very well. In addition to containing exclusive secret items they also contain standard items, which allows you to collect items you missed during the stages. For instance, if you missed a food item during stage 1, you can get that food item during the first boss and complete the food category.

Games with lock-on multiplier systems typically extend naturally to bosses where you can lock-on to multiple parts, like Soukyugurentai but I presume the Ray series as well.

Two features I like with Raizing bosses are the RNG selection of attacks, and RNG timing/overlap of attacks. They make each battle feel unique. For instance, stage 3 boss Donryu in Soukyugurentai, there is sometimes a random overlap between two attacks (the missiles and the vulcan shots) which gives rise to a nice difficulty spike.

[BulletMagnet]

I dont like systems where you speedkill bosses that much. It looks a little boring, and all those pretty patterns go to waste

I tend to appreciate games with the ability to "milk" a boss to some extent paired with a boss timer, which means you have to balance the leeching with actually bringing the big guy down or else miss out on the big prize if you get too greedy. If memory serves Border Down explicitly rewards you for killing a boss as close to "zero" on its timer as possible (before or after, interestingly, as the boss doesn't retreat in this particular case); others just have the boss eventually start throwing near-impossible patterns at you if you toy around with them too much.

[Faith]

Just sharing some thoughts on a few favorites for boss scoring!~

RefRain: to score well, must milk every single boss (except TLB cannot milk). RefRain have system where you can stun boss, and if you use shot on stunned boss it increase a hit counter that is used for scoring. So... only ever want to attack stunned boss. But you cannot chain stun, because doing chain stun will very fast reduce stun duration. So have to wait for that invisible stun timer to run down! So for RefRain, typical boss scoring loop is: enter boss with special (MEFA2) fully charged; hit boss with MEFA2 to stun it; use shot on boss until it is not stunned anymore; stop shooting and dodge for 12-13 seconds, repeat; It is a bit more complicated because to recharge special you need to use the secondary Concept Reactor to turn bullets into prisms to destroy them. But this is general idea. Very fun and definitely interesting!~

Blue Revolver: has a "Break" system where you like have to either "break" boss parts in specific order, or "break" away from the norm and do something special to trigger bonus (like either end boss phase below a set time, or above a set time (so not speed killing), or doing something special like making boss hit itself with own attack). This was fun and unique and very satisfying to do too!

Crimzon Clover: all boss have quite a lot of destructible parts, but also to score well need to reach boss with high Break Rate (so performance during level also matters a lot) and to destroy all parts with lock-on multiplier at max and also to ideally end boss phase and get boss kill while using Double Break (because during Double Break your Break Rate is increased 4x). Also very often it is a big challenge to align all stars so that you manage to get lock-on shot as death blow to boss while in Double Break (especially in Unlimited). And of course, infamous Stage 4 boss is very milkable: goal is to keep destroying respawning RNG turrets while dodging crazy patterns and doing minimum damage to boss to maximize number of turrets! Very technically challenging.

Edit: oh yes, also forget say, if you Double Break during boss in Crimzon Clover that makes them really, REALLY angry lol. So you need to know bosses very well if you are going to do that x_x!~

>I find it interesting that while CAVE is most popular dev around here, their boss scoring is rather understated, usually just some form of canceling a large bullet pattern at the right time.

Muchi Muchi Pork all bosses have aggressive milking of their destructable parts and to time your Lard Attack so that you get all the Golden Pigs from destroying those parts; but also to recharge your Lard Attack (bomba, SD, so on) to use it to destroy each part or phase. This game probably my favorite Cave to score boss, but also quite tedious and it will drag game length a lot lol!!~

[SquidDude]

This feels like an obvious answer, but I think Garegga does it the best (and the other YGW games too).
The bosses all feel distinct from one another when playing for score, and none of them really feel like a boring survival challenge tacked on to the end of a stage with no scoring opportunities, like what happens in a lot of games.
Plus the final GS milk is one of the ballsiest score strats I've ever seen, it's awesome. You'll feel like a real big scoreplayer if you pull that off in a run.

[utsunderthesky]

I like Blazing Star

Bosses have a timer so you cant sit there milking them, and they also dont get boring.

[Jeneki]

I appreciate bosses that have multiple parts that when destroyed get replaced with bigger, meaner ones. Adds a nice risk vs reward element, where you can go for extra parts or straight for the core.