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

[BrightSuzaku]

....I thought Xevious was only 1 nearly-never-ending stage. Does that make it the longest stage ever? I guess it's only as long as your patience will allow, I'm terrible at Xevious.

I've never experienced a ridiculously long stage in a shmup yet, if only because I'm not quite good enough to ever reach those points. Then again, I still can't beat the 1st boss of Gradius V alone.

[Mortificator]

Xevious has 16 stages. They just kind of flow into each other, since they're vertical strips of one big map, but you know you've entered the next stage each time you cross the thick horizontal band of forest. Xevious Arrange also displays the stage number on-screen.

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.)

The third stage of R-Type Final feels like the longest of the huge battleship stages in the series. It might just seem longest to me because of all the slowdown. In the same vein, Life Force or Abadox might be the longest boss battles, since you spend the entirety of those games slowly killing a huge enemy from the inside. I tend to only think of the core of the warship/creature as the actual boss fight, though.

Does any shooter have bosses that don't time-out?

[Observer]

The battle against Utsuho on Touhou 11 is damn long, if only due to the ridiculously large health bars and the final, infamous, gravity well spellcard. Same could be said of Touhou 10. The Mountain of Faith spellcard feels eternal.

The last boss on Ether Vapor, through its several attack modes, also takes quite a while to bring down.

The battle against Xiga on RSG can get quite long too.

I think the final boss of Diadra Empty (the giant crystal/Stone-Like tribute) can become extremely hard to clear as it regenerates its health after finishing the insane attack patterns, which include bombing the fuck out of screen, releasing a gigantic stream of light bullets, tracking lasers, casting entire armies of enemies on your face and such delicatessens.

Oh, speaking of Darius Gaiden, I reached Storm Causer and spent quite a lot trying to beat it.

[Taylor]

There's got to be an euroshmup where you spend 15 minutes fighting the same 4 waves of enemies or something.

[Observer]

There's got to be an euroshmup where you spend 15 minutes fighting the same 4 waves of enemies or something.

You just reminded me each Chapter of Steel Saviour takes like 9+ mins to clear except for the last one. Hopefully, it's not that bad. And, actually, the different effects, layers, camera and enemy design are quite nice.

Oh, Protöthea. The stages for PC were long enough (Xevious clone with FPS controls) but the Wii version is simply a nightmare I don't wish to anyone.

[BulletMagnet]

There's got to be an euroshmup where you spend 15 minutes fighting the same 4 waves of enemies or something.

Change "4 waves of enemies" to "3 attack patterns" and you've got the last boss of X2: No Relief.

[shadowbringer]

bosses:
Phantasm Romance's stage EX-3:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3211257 (lenght: 5:18, part 1/2)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3211413 (lenght: 4:04, part 2/2)

Phantasm Romance's stage EX-4:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3212001 (lenght: 4:22, part 1/2)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3212168 (lenght: 5:29, part 2/2)

Perfect Cherry Blossom's Phantasm stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5eupXPNryE (lenght: 10:16)

Border Down's stage 6C:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6A488n9HLo (starting at 1:44, ending at 8:07)

Border Down's stage 6D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtpXcyqejmM (starting at 1:46 until the end at 7:48)

stages
Raiden DX's level 0:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDFGQfKl4s (lenght: 8:40, part 1/2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo-MlEramDs (lenght: 5:04, part 2/2)

Summer Carnival 92' Recca's Area 7:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tutxFbEqbA (approx. lenght: a bit over 8 minutes)

Phantasm Romance's stage EX-4:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3211711 (lenght: 4:09, part 1/2)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3211882 (lenght: 4:01, part 2/2)


I don't know or remember about lenght of stage+boss runtimes combined.. (btw, Phantasm Romance is a danmakufu script, I heard that the script was distributed as freeware, and nowadays has a 2.5 version, which isn't shown in the links I've posted here. These videos were taken from this list: http://www.nicovideo.jp/search/%E5%B9%B ... 0%E8%A1%8C )

[null1024]

Radiant Silvergun.

QFT. This game has some way too long bosses, especially if you suck like me, and can't level up your weapons enough.

[Kollision]

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

ahmmm I take back my statement....
I finally figured out why it always took so long

[dpful]

I remember some of the bosses in radiant silvergun taking FOREVER. especially at the end of the saturn version

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I remember some of the bosses in radiant silvergun taking FOREVER. especially at the end of the saturn version

Same could said of the later ST-V cartridge version of RSG with it's lengthy end-stage bosses.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[gunbird18]

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.

Agreed!

I just picked up Taito Legends 2 for $5 (35 Taito games=no brainer) and fired up Metal Black. Second and Third stage bosses took forever. Haven't seen the last few, but I am sure they are longer!

[Exarion]

Yukari from perfect cherry blossom. The shortest battle I could find was 6 minutes, and i've seen it take up to 15 minutes, though some milking might have been involved. She average seems to be around 10 minutes.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

Gaiares Boss 2... if one has third level V-laser and non-homing missiles. Takes forever to get those non-homing missiles to hit in just the right spot enough times for the clamshell to open up, and the V-laser is also too large to hit the small area in the clamshell. (Then when the clamshell opens up, it's also a lost cause when the boss homes in on the ship after all that work to get the clamshell to open.) On the other hand, Boss 2 with third level G-beam and homing missiles can take at most a minute or so to eliminate.

[Ed Oscuro]

Not actually the longest, but Gradius Galaxies drags on and on...I play it all the time though x_X

[sunburstbasser]

I think a full run of Blazing Lazers on normal takes me right about an hour, not milking anything and just surviving. I never timed it, but Space Megaforce seems a little longer to play through. It does have some more stages, at any rate. I sort of expect this from a console shooter. I like arcade shmups shorter.

And Truxton II is INSANE in how long it is. The first level is at least twice as long as it should be, and even in replays the game overstays its welcome.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I suppose the longest would be a game like nolmtest, its just 1 unending stage