What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time)

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:54 am

Not by milking, just in regular play.

By runtime, not physical length.

Same bosses with multiple forms count as one. Boss rushes do not.

Go by reasonable (average) play standards. If you need to meet or adjust to pretty specific conditions to earn a speedkill that would throw your strategy off in the next stage you were expecting to regularly play, don't count that uncommon quickness against the candidate.

A full-screen score calculation or a standard "to the next stage" transition signals the end of a stage.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:03 am

Even w/ the extended last stages in the last couple of Ikeda Cave games, I think any average stage in an old Toaplan game (eg, Tatsujin) would be longer. Some of these stages are 10 minutes... and aren't even last stages.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:13 am

I'd think it would be some Compile game.

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:54 am

To me one of the longest boss fights I've ever been in in a shmup involved G-Darius and Queen Fossil, that bitch takes forever to take down seemingly never dying. I've actually fought with her once when I first played it nearly 5 minutes hitting her with everything I had, she didn't seem to take blow up and get destroyed for an answer.

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:25 am

I played like... 10-15 minutes of Xevious without ever seeing a boss or change of scenery. So that one gets my vote for longest stage. I dunno about bosses though. The longest one I've seen personally is Yukari, the Phantasm mode boss from Perfect Cherry Blossom. She has what, 12 healthbars? Something silly like that.

shinsage · Post by **shinsage** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:32 am

First stage boss of Einhander comes to mind.
Haven't played it in years, but yeah.

J-Manic · Post by **J-Manic** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:46 am

The longets boss fight ever, in my experiences, would have to be the final boss in DoDonpachi; after the Queen Bee. Damn! I can never remember it's name.

Someone wanna help me out?

RGC · Post by **RGC** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:00 am

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:46 am

RGC wrote:Some levels of Super Aleste are either 10 mins, or certainly feel like it.

Gunhed is surely up there too for some of its lengthier later stages.

Ah yes, the ol' Gunhed/Blazing Lazers shmup title for the PCE/TG-16 platform...especially the last stage where you have to face all the previous bosses from earlier stages. Is that your idea of shmupping fun?

What was Compile thinking that a "2nd 'Boss Rush' placed at the last stage should give our Gunhed/BL players a run for their money..."? (This is so "old school way of thinking" -- but yes, it does give shmuppers some extra shmup filler content to deal with if attempting such a serious 1CC session on it though -- shouldn't be a problem for ace GH/BL players.) ^_~

Fucking deja-vu "from the grave" all over again -- didn't I just kill that motherfucking end-stage boss just while ago? -- Wha? It's back from the grave already? Here we go, again...this is the last time, damn it! (Those bulging veins on my forehead look like they're just about ready to 'pop'.....) ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

D · Post by D » Mon Apr 16, 2007 12:06 pm

Raiden DX/training stage

Fenrir · Post by **Fenrir** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:40 pm

The wobbling level of Gradius V sure takes its sweet time - or at least it feels like it.

junkeR · Post by **junkeR** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:57 pm

Arvandor wrote:I played like... 10-15 minutes of Xevious without ever seeing a boss or change of scenery. So that one gets my vote for longest stage. I dunno about bosses though. The longest one I've seen personally is Yukari, the Phantasm mode boss from Perfect Cherry Blossom. She has what, 12 healthbars? Something silly like that.

Yeah, I think Xevious wins in this one. I played it for a good 20 minutes straight thinking the stage would end somehow... Nothing changed it just kept going. So then, I put the controller down and went on my computer for about another 20 minutes. Somehow, I never got shot down the game just kept going... the music was driving me insane so I shut it off and I think I either threw the cart away or sold it. What a bad game.

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:56 pm

DJ Incompetent wrote:Same bosses with multiple forms count as one. Boss rushes do not.

Warning Forever? lololololol.

DBH87 · Post by **DBH87** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:39 pm

J-Manic wrote:The longets boss fight ever, in my experiences, would have to be the final boss in DoDonpachi; after the Queen Bee. Damn! I can never remember it's name.

Someone wanna help me out?

Hibachi i think

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:47 pm

I haven't fought it myself, but from what I've heard of it, Titanic Lance from Darius Gaiden is probably in the running for the "boss" category. As for stages, Radiant Silvergun's levels are pretty dang long...

DBH87 · Post by **DBH87** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:49 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Even w/ the extended last stages in the last couple of Ikeda Cave games, I think any average stage in an old Toaplan game (eg, Tatsujin) would be longer. Some of these stages are 10 minutes... and aren't even last stages.

seconded truxton levels are pretty long

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:11 pm

Do we want to consider the entirety of R-Type Final's third level as one long boss fight? (Or the third level of R-Type Delta, whichever is longer.)

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:40 pm

PFG 9000 wrote:Do we want to consider the entirety of R-Type Final's third level as one long boss fight? (Or the third level of R-Type Delta, whichever is longer.)

Naw, I wouldn't.

Giant ships with significant pace and/or song changes in a exclusive section at the end where only that part (boss section) being destroyed signals the end of the stage should count as "battleship guns being stage, battleship core/hull being boss" relationship.

I would choose G Darius's vs. boss mode treatment of Queen & Fire Fossil as illustrations.
(in the game, both these bosses replace the second half of the stage where the player can only attack its weaponary. Only after the boss does its little cloud-jumping transition and the music realigns itself does the boss itself become attackable. Vs. Boss mode only lets you play from that cloud-jump point.)

SFKhoa wrote:
DJ Incompetent wrote:Same bosses with multiple forms count as one. Boss rushes do not.
Warning Forever? lololololol.

lawl, loopholez

Never played it, so I can't get technical...yet

ahnslaught · Post by **ahnslaught** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:22 am

shinsage wrote:First stage boss of Einhander comes to mind.
Haven't played it in years, but yeah.

I haven't played it in a while either, but I remember killing that guy in about 5 seconds with the Grenade weapon.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:37 am

In my own personal experience the longest boss fight I have had was with that fucking level 2 boss from Gradius V. He has somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 different forms and sometimes it's a real bitch to get any hits in because the actual area where you can hit him is restricted to his 'Core', which ends up splitting into 2 smaller Cores, and then 4 smaller Cores after that. It's even worse if you slip up and die and lose your options or didn't have any good powerups to begin with.

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:36 am

DJ Incompetent wrote: lawl, loopholez

Never played it, so I can't get technical...yet

Basically, it's a boss rush, but at the same time, it's technically the same boss coming back to fight with a different form depending on what parts of the boss you destroyed first.

I'm pretty sure you're more or less leaning towards console games, so this is out of the question, pretty much.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:32 am

Uh? Am I skipping something? If the question is indeed "boss fights", then Stages 6C, 6D of Border Down can clock (without milking, just score-oriented playing) 5 minutes each. I am probably missing some other boss fights, also Titanic Lance clocks at about 5 minutes if one is fast.

HeLGeN-X · Post by **HeLGeN-X** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:32 am

Well I just played Metal Black for the first time a little while ago, and the 2nd stage boss just would not die for the past 10 minutes! I must have used like 20 beams on his ass.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:25 am

The end boss of 19XX takes a relatively long time to bring down, at least a couple of minutes IIRC.

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:56 am

Hmmm, I'd have to find replays of some of the Touhou extra mode bosses like Yukari and the phoenix chick from Imperishable Night that don't do any milking, and see how long they take. They're pretty epic boss battles. I'm fairly certain they're longer than most of the ones mentioned so far.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 2:39 am

Yeah, Imperishable Night just on Easy the last boss and the true last boss were both pretty long fights. Then again, all of the boss fights take forever since the spell cards make them practically invincible.

dial911 · Post by **dial911** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 2:45 am

Radiant Silvergun.

Kollision · Post by **Kollision** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 7:45 pm

Parodius MSX, 3rd stage boss.
I hate him.

Darkseed · Post by **Darkseed** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:14 pm

The second stage boss fight in Gradius V, especially if you only have the standard shot.

EPS21 · Post by **EPS21** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:37 pm

Thirding Tatsujin/Tatsujin Oh. I guess that's why they put in a button to speed the game up though.
The extra stages in the Touhou series also a good contender, but the fact that it's an extra thing and not a part of original game may/may not be what DJ Incompetent is looking for.

DJ Incompetent wrote: By runtime, not physical length.

You mean like, how tall in pixels the image background is?

shmups.system11.org

What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time)

What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time)

Gunhed's last stage's brutal - 2nd go-round of Bosses fest!

Re: What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time

Re: What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time)

Re: What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time)

Re: What is the Longest Boss Fight? Longest Stage? (by time)