ULTRAKILL: FPS Bosses Done Right 

Hakita said that ultrakill's bosses are designed more like bosses from character action games. It works extremely well.

I believe the Leviathan fight is there more for spectacle than challenge. Take in count it is sandwiched between 5-3 and 6-1, which as of now are easily the hardest non secret levels in the game, so a breather is appreciated.

"it's attacks are as Chaotic as can be, making staying alive a tall Order" i see what you did there

Sisyphus breaking out of his own flesh prison and then proceeding to laugh evilly when he's dying really gives me the vibes that you NEEDED to kill him right at that moment, otherwise he would've stolen your thunder and destroyed everything in hell before you could...

Just a minor correction. When minos says "Judgement!", he doesn't just teleport to you. No, he literally dropkicks you so hard that it causes an explosion, even when he doesn't hit you. Minos literally has nuclear dropkicks.

22:45 there's something oddly terrifying, even if you've beaten him before, about the statement: "We THINK he's held back by a stamina system, but we don't know for sure"

the p-2 boss tests your perserverance and patience *_when his whole thing was rolling a rock up a hill and failing constantly_* *_THIS IS WAY TOO DEEP_*

P-1 introduced your brain to super human cognitive function P-2 forces you to develop it good god with the amount of escalation in this game P-3 is going to either destory you irl or force you to either ascend or be equally as cracked as whoever P-3 will be.

Not to mention before you fight Sysphus prime, you have to fight through a whole army of Maurices, Cerberus, machines, husks, and angels

The leviathan fight became memorable to me after I learned how to quick mount rockets. After that, it became an aerial dogfight against a Kaiju Another thing to add: Minos's became so fun to P-rank after I learned the minimum amount of movement needed to dodge him. I felt like I came out of a Donguri990 video. When your game reaches that level, you know it's peak.

2024 edit just because people keep asking: No, I'm not going to do another ULTRAKILL video because I'm gonna wait on the game's full release to make a mega-video on it. Okay so just a correction: As fate would have it, the P-2 boss, along with some parts of P-2 in general was nerfed right after I uploaded this video. P-2 boss' attacks are no longer unparryable on Violent's Phase 2. However, his stamina is increased so he can attack for longer intervals. Also, I forgot to mention this but parrying the P-1 Boss' melee attacks restore his stamina.

Worth noting that a first-person shooter is really about _controlling space,_ which is why bad FPS bosses tend to be of the variety that you can just corner-camp. In regular FPS combat, you're constantly maneuvering through a 3D space--that's part of what makes it fun. If you can trivialize a fight by camping one spot, you've lost part of the fun. Even a game that focuses heavily on holding specific angles, like CounterStrike, is filled with _many_ angles so that you cannot camp _all_ of them. Each of Ultrakill's bosses controls space in a different way: - V2 controls space the same way you do--by having fast, hard-hitting attacks and the ability to quickly maneuver. You can't corner-camp V2 because V2 has all of the tools you have, and uses those tools aggressively to fill the area around you with danger. - As noted in this video, Minos constantly tests your spatial awareness by striking 50% of the arena with one punch. Minos controls space by being physically *huge*; you can't corner-camp Minos because he can hit you no matter where you hide. Also the homing black hole attack helps. - Gabriel controls space with both his teleportation (similar to V2's movement) and his rapid ranged attacks. The homing attacks in Gabriel 2 are even more oppressive. You can't corner-camp Gabriel because Gabriel has both aim and speed on his side. - Leviathan controls space like Minos did, by being fucking huge. Its sweep and lunge force you to maneuver around it, and it fires enough projectiles that parrying isn't safe. - Flesh Prison controls space by demanding that you control space, using the black holes and massive light beams to push you around while demanding that you keep the eyeball minions in check. - Minos Prime controls space by not giving you any room to breathe. He's a rushdown character in an FPS. (And he has a homing projectile!) - Flesh Panopticon controls space by spreading its healing minions around the arena, emphasizing the need to control the _entire_ arena. At least, until... - Sisyphus Prime does what Minos Prime don't. Well, more accurately, he does what Minos Prime does, but _better!_ Note that all of this is made possible in part by level design and game mechanics. V1 is itself highly mobile and the arenas are all very open, with easy-to-read cover or no cover at all. This pushes the gameplay toward mobility as your primary space-control tool. Contrast CounterStrike, where corners are tight, long sightlines are rare, and movement is methodical and precise; the map design and gameplay of CounterStrike works _with_ the way CS players control space, not against it.

Excuse me, how the in the F*** does this not have more views???? This is high quality!

Thanks for making this. As a game developer, one of the things I struggle with is deciphering why certain parts of other games work so well. Ultrakill was one of 3 games (Sekiro, Ultrakill, and Titanfall 2) that inspired me to make my own fps. This video will really help me out when I start designing my bosses. Again thanks. Edit: I have decied on a name, Book of the Machine

I love how after fighting sisyphus, you can go back to Minos and realize hes actually kinda slow

Saving the video to watch when I'm not multitasking so i can read it

For P-1, strongly recommend beating Gabe 2.0 first, you get used to parrying his throwable attack and it carries over super well.

I love that P-1 and P-2 bosses both use martial arts style fighting to counter your range

The Leviathan fight also works as a good tutorial for the rocket launcher. The wide open arena benefits rocket riding, the location of the weak point means you might accidentially learn the magnet + rocket interaction, plus the fireball spam is hard countered by explosive attacks, which reflect the attacks back at him.

My big gripe with Leviathan is that you can parry the bite lunge, but it's infinitely harder and less rewarding than Minos punching. I don't think they give you the Down To Size combo modifier for it either. Instead of increasing the parry window, they made it appear unparryable. It would have been great for every act to have a Giant boss with a specific special parry.

Using mountain king for cokm was such a nice detail lmao Also something about the Flesh Panopticon I love is the fact that it’s health and attacks are perfectly accurate for what an actual p-2 flesh prison would look like, with it’s difficulty in comparison to it’s p-1 counterpart perfectly matching that of Minos and Sisyphus, but hakita just decided to detonate it with high-grade explosives anyways.

One of my favorite things about V2 and Gabriel is how the average player must go about facing each boss. With V2, the boss plays by YOUR rules. Jumping, sliding, a hitbox the same size as the player with the same weaponry. You have to not only be the better one when facing him, but learn how to use the tools you both have better than V2. and even in the second encounter, where you both are sporting new weapons, it continues to push mind and body further to make you stronger when you finally finish. But Gabriel.. Oh, Gabriel... You must play by the BOSS' rules. Of course, with the skill and practice you can make either boss a walk in the park, but without a proper plan, not everyone can just mosey on into the fight and expect everything to work out. Gabriel pushes you to learn attack patterns and focus on the attacks he's throwing, rather than how much you can attack him. With patience and proper dodging, you can overcome him. Ultrakill is truly a masterpiece that brings out a player's skill while also allowing them to enjoy the world, the gameplay and the lore.

Using In The Hall Of The Mountain King for the corpse of king minos segment was honestly incredible

Minos and sysiphus are playing Tekken in an fps game Fun fact : minos saying " *die* " and sysiphus saying " *destroy* " are both reference to the fact they are going to absolutely decimate you ...

Fun fact: Sisyphus Prime often says "Destroy!". This is a slight nod to the fact that he will destroy you. This reference is best observed on Violent Difficulty.

The fact that Sisyphus specifically only giants when he’s below 75% percent HP is just a chef’s kiss of character design.

Ultrakill Bosses change the tuning of the gameplay from run and gun to something more Akin to a Dance. kinda like how fights are in faster paced melee/sword games

24:50 My man literally shat himself

ultrakill does everything right.

Amazing analysis video! Ultrakill's bosses are a blast to fight for the reasons you mentioned, especially the freedom of how you approach and battle the boss. Also, Leviathan is personally my favorite boss in the game because it's a giant snake, making it visually unique from the small humanoid bosses, and its build-up is downright scary. However, I also agree that it could've been better, like making it a mobile giant boss rather than a stationary one, but I still enjoy it for what it is, and I'm grateful we got a boss that's both a Supreme Demon and a giant snake.

i love watching these types of videos when i know literally everything about the game i just love the effort in these

Ah! That Clair De Lune strat is called “coin-punching” (I think). If you do it fast enough, you can kill him before he even starts fighting. I’m sure you already knew that, but hey, it’s a cool technique

24:07 Something to be said about that. This fight is you doing what Sisyphus would’ve never been able to accomplish *Beating an insurmountable task*

in the Leviathan’s fight it should be noted that you can use the whiplash to sort of ride on Leviathan’s weak spot, it’s just as fun as it sounds lol

Leviathan is exactly as Max0r described: the only limit is how hard you can ball. It's way more fun if you're rocket surfing and playing the floor is lava while fighting it

loved the video, I did wish you included the tiny little cutscenes like V2 gliding on ground or King Minos' dialogue after he's free from the Flesh Prison though, this video needs more views, and you need some more subscribers!

Always nice to see breakdowns like these for any kind of game. It's great study material for future game designers.

Personally, the leviathan fight is pretty fun! All your points are valid, but here's my favorite part: Riding the leviathan WITHOUT falling off.

Really good vid underrated channel love the editing between gameplay sounds and background music

This is a really nicely made video, nice work man

I love how the Die attack syncs with the music drop at 19:15

here before this blows up god this needs more views such quality content

A boss in it's purest form is supposed to be a test of everything you've learned up to that point. Fittingly the Pure being of Will that are the Prime souls are the only instance in any game ever I've seen of a boss testing every single aspect of your skillset without feeling drawn out or scripted. That is truly something I never though I'd see in a game.

One of the best parts of the boss design in Ultrakill is that you have to stay in the danger zone and engage with the boss. The bosses are either big enough that they can attack any point in the room or mobile enough to chase you down if you try to run away. Your only methods of healing require you to either approach the enemy or put yourself in their line of fire. Your defensive options require you to pay attention to what the enemy is doing. All of that combines to make it so the classic FPS anti-boss technique of "chip away at them from behind cover" is completely ineffective.

Great video, great channel, great coverage of a great game.

The editing of this video is amazing!

11:00 THE TIMING

This vid is lovely and I appreciate your text commentary

i often found myself forgetting to read the text because the gameplay was so fun to watch great video

Damn, this video claps harder than Mr. Keep em coming.

08:12 "So when I tell you that, uh... *tink* YOU CAN PARRY THIS MAN It's basically the rule instead of the exception. Game devs (Gay devs), take notes. This is the coolest shit you can do in a video game. It makes you feel like an anime protagonist."

Fun tip with birb: using screwdriver railgun against sisyphus permits healing while hes boxing you up with his combo

Damnnn, you're improving a lot man! 10/10 Rep+

love the transition at 10:51

It's been ages since I enjoyed a video communicated entirely throught text this much. Good show.

Hope this gets more views, it's a great analysis and I love the editing If I could make a suggestion, please add some sort of transition between subtitles, like a fade, or a short gap without any text (like Netflix does) Sometimes when the text changes, I'm focused on what's happening on-screen, and I don't notice the new text until it's too late

Sisyphus' evil laugh always creeped me out. He was being killed off for good, but that laugh made me feel like he had some greater plan

Incredible video!

Commenting to boost this video in the algorithm. Great video!

I don’t know if you realized this about ultrakill, but the music is so great, the creator Hakita even loves music, it’s all amazing

Every time, every god damn time, when I hear any of gabriel's songs, chills go down my spine.

16:00 I find that parrying the cyan projectiles of the Flesh Prison helps to defeat it faster, as it does quite a bit of damage.

10/10 video, I can feel the pain on beating p2, when I don't have p1 unlocked at all. This will be fun.

Love the video!

underrated channel, im gonna sub

Hearing Okayasu talking in that tunnel caught me off guard 😂 I love dumb edits/bits like that cuz that's something I'd throw into a video myself

With the only way to heal being to douse yourself in blood, unlike most fps games, healing requires you to do this neat trick not many people know about called: P l a y t h e g a m e

15:24 Pretty clever by saying chaos and order, conveniently its the names for flesh prison's and minos' songs

After beating act 2 like a week ago, I’ve gotta say these bosses have been some of the best I’ve fought in years. I actually felt absolutely thrilled to beat them after learning the patterns, figuring out proper weapon management, and using the blood mechanic to its truest potential. Ultrakill is going down as one of my favorite games

the leviathan is supposed to teach you how the rocket launcher works, giving you a massive arena to rocket ride in and having the projectile barrage attack that can reflect projectiles with the rockets. sure, it isn't hard at all, but it is nonetheless a great boss at what it does

I enjoy how most of these bosses are actually challenging for a first timer

Excellent video. This highlights it perfectly. I think the algorithm should RECOMMEND this VIDEO to FIRST PERSON SHOOTER enjoyers. But for real, ultrakill is uber underrated rn. They keep waiting for the full release

Pretty sure that sisyphus does chains of attacks without a stamina system. It was 4 telegraphed attacks in combination with about 3 untelegraphed ones, after which he cannot attack, then 5 telegraphed and 3 untelegraphed, after which he taunts. This is the most common pattern I've seen in gameplay, at least on violent difficulty. This, of course, doesn't take into account phase 2.

phenomenal video, i approve

Love the whole vide

Underrated chanel (im sorry if i typo it)

Minos is a fighting game character put into an FPS game and I live for it

Thank god Hakita made all the attacks of phase 2 Sisyphus parry able in violent. Although it will be much harder for newer players because Sisyphus now has infinite stamina from what I can tell. Yeah be very afraid for what p-3 will bring, for Minos was a test of skill, Sisyphus one of might, and whoever they are, a test of pure will.

This is surely a great video!This can help a lot of people who's struggling with certain bosses in this game! Oh,and also,i was wondering,what's the noise V2 made after he wall jumped in 2:45 ?Or did i missed some small updates on him?

You should make more Ultrakill videos. Your editing and video style is great. Make videos on stuff like Levels, Enemies, Weapons, and even the Lore and Music.

19:15 When this requiem leitmotiff hits

ok the wait of the world update made the game so much easier if you can confidently and consistently parry attacks cause parrying instantly fills your stamina and heals to up to "full" as in up to your hard damage cap, this was definently to make sisyphus easier since all his attacks are parryable even in phase 2 but it made tons of other bosses and situations so much easier like flesh prison in which you can actually use the stupid cyan move to destroy 2-3 eyeballs and full heal (if you didnt get hit by the purple black hole), if im not mistaken before this update the heal wasnt big enough to be usefull but now its almost a full heal

The video was GREAT!, Also pro tip for future P-something:learn the parriable attacks of the bosses. It worked for me. Like u can fight a boss once, close the level, go to the sandbox and practice its parrys. Also it didint feel right for u to not explain the backstorys of the bosses.but it is a video about gameplay so i understand

4:06 “You are already dead”

Can't believe you didn't include the Rodent brothers

My prediction is that the final boss of Act III is going to be the soul of Hell itself, considering many things point to Hell being sapient and malicious. But P-3 is going to have Lucifer. In the Divine Comedy, he resides at the center of the rings of Hell, and resides there as punishment from God. In ULTRAKILL, God banished him there after Lucifer questioned him on the morality and purpose of Hell - he holds narrative weight similar to Minos and Sisyphus, and fits being on the lowest level (assuming the trend of the Prime Sanctum door being on the last layer of the act.)

the bosses are so fun and challenging, and the game itself is both fun and funny

Oooh I love videos praising ULTRAKILL

this video is already, funnily enough, kind of outdated, just because a patch dropped that nerfed (or balanced) sisyphus it increased the volume of his voicelines, added a slight trail to his teleports (so you can see where he goes kinda), and most importantly made phase 2 of sisyphus parriable on violent with his stamina increased to compensate so yeah, he's a little bit more fair lol

Another FPS game which I think does bosses decently well is Half-Life Entropy Zero 2 - where the game has pretty much three main bosses, Plan-B and (spoilers) Clone cop and the Advisor. The final boss you can kind of cheese it though but imo the best boss fight in the game is Clone Cop, which as his name suggest, is a clone of you. Gameplay wise, this also means he has a similar loadout as you. While he doesn't have all your weapons he will switch weapons depending on your position - for example if you're at a medium distance he'll use his pulse rifle but if you get too close he'll pull out his shotgun and try to rush you. Most enemies in the Game you and isolate, rush, overwhelm and thus kill them pretty quickly - this doesn't work with Clone Cop who will just pull a reverse card on you. In addition to this he can teleport around the arena and if you don't pinpoint where he is quickly he can quickly ambush and kill you depending on the difficulty you're playing on. From what I could tell I think he's also aware of where you place mines and remote detonation bombs. In one of my playthroughs I tried placing a bunch of remote detonated bombs in one of the areas he usually teleports to in order to essentially cheese and end the fight quickly (based on what I saw from my last playthrough) - but not once did he either teleport into that area or run near it. Yeah, he doesn't come near in quality as Ultrakill's bosses, but he's definitely one of the better designed ones imo.

1:21 this made me giggle dubiously

I had never realized how there are "two anime references" in 2-4, this is awesome lol, now I'm gonna think of Jojo and Attack on Peak everytime I re-visit that level

Good stuff

both Minos and Sisyphus Prime are basically fighting a fighting game character in an FPS good video!

24:01 Correction. Unlike Minos, Sisyphus Prime's attacks are still parriable in phase 2

Leviathan used to be my least favorite (but still enjoyed boss) until I learned rocket riding. While rocket riding has diminishing returns, you can reset that by landing on the ground or landing on AN ENEMY. Fighting Leviathan while flying and jumping ontop of them to refresh it is a thrill and everyone should try it. Now its probably my 2nd favorite next to V2-2

sisyphus prime teaches you patience and perseverance? boy i sure wonder what that could relate to in the story of sisyphus

Small correction: Yellow mode on V2 means moving in a straight line until he hits a wall

24:15 nah bro, pure damn chance that I got to him But seriously, words of encouragement were not what I expected to see in a video. Just beat Sisyphus' ass this night on standard and boy did I feel satisfied, after 57 retries on this session and I'm guessing 200 more from previous ones. It was fucking 3am and I literally had to stop myself from screaming

22:32 ayo he's got some cake 😳