Day 48: Fortitudo
And now we come to Fortitudo from the original Bayonetta.
As the general of Father Balder's army and one of the four Auditio of the Hierarchy of Laguna, the Bringer of Flame certainly know how to put up a good fight. But first, let's talk about this boss' design and build-up.
Whoever designed Fortitudo must have been on some wicked awesome drugs because this is one of the most interesting boss designs I've seen so far. An upside-down faced statue with claws, wings, and two dragon heads really tell you that you are dealing with a divine being not of this world.
As for the build-up, Fortitudo is shown through flashbacks to have been the Auditio in charge of leading the lower Laguna in an attack on the Umbran Witches, and we even get to fight him briefly in a playable flashback moment where he ambushes Bayonetta and two of her comrades. Fast forward to present day, and he appears constantly through the game's opening levels to taunt and persuade Bayonetta. It got the point where I was excited for a potentially awesome boss fight with this upside-down faced freak. And boy did it not disapoint.
Upon arriving to the ruins of an old colosseum, Bayonetta finds Fortitudo there waiting for her and after some smack talking, Fortitudo kicks off the battle by spewing fire onto the colosseum floors, forcing Bayonetta to seek refuge a top of a platform so she can fight back.
Your main goal, obviously, is to unload all of your attacks onto Fortitudo to lower his health, all while he attacks you by whipping his tail at you or by having his dragon heads try and bite you.
Eventually, Fortitudo will become fatigued from taking all of Byonetta's abuse, and the floors become safe to walk on again. While Fortitudo is still dazed, you must go up to one of the dragon heads, grab onto it, and toss the giant Auditio around like a ragdoll!
After that awesomeness, Fortitudo will continue to attack Bayonetta by sending his dragon heads after her. Dodge them and they'll get stuck in the ground, giving you ample time to attack them. But don't think that's all the dragon heads have in their arsenal, because they can shoot fireballs at you too.
After a while, Fortitudo will retreat to a safe spot and attack Bayonetta with more of its fire breath in an attempt to light the floors on fire again, while also the platform Bayonetta needs to stand on to avoid the boss' lava attack. In a series of quick time events, Bayonetta must jump from each destroyed platform and up to Fortitudo so she can grab one of his dragon heads to drag him back to ground level so she can toss him around some more and then rip one of the dragon heads off with her bare hands!
Platinum Games...I fucking love you.
When Fortitudo gets his bearings straigh, he'll breath fire onto the arena floor once again, creating spouts of lava that you need to avoid while trying to grab an hourglass to turn back time so Bayonetta can put the platforms back together again.
Hop back on top of the platform and repeat the process until you rip of Fortitudo's second dragon head.
Once both of Fortitudo's dragon heads are gone, he'll create an explosion that causes the colosseum to go sky high, causing it to fall apart in the process, forcing Bayonetta to finish of the boss while standing on a giant piece of the broken colosseum.
In the final phase of the fight, Bayonetta must finish Fortitudo off quickly as there is a time limit you need to worry about now. But it's a fair amount of time so you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
As Bayonetta continues to lay in on Fortitudo, he'll fight back by slamming into the platform you're standing on, spewing out more fire, and having his tail dig through the platform in an attempt to attack Bayonetta from beneath her.
Once all of Fortitudo's health is gone, Bayonetta ends the fight by grabbing onto his tail, flinging him across the sky, and summoning the demon bird Malphas to peck away at Fortitudo's upside-down face to the point where there's nothing left but a big gaping hole where his face was. A perfect end to a perfect first boss.
While Gomorrah has the honor being a great boss that sets up future events of the second game, Fortitudo has the honor of having amazing build-up leading up to his fight.
The fight itself is also really fun and fast-paced, just like every other boss in the Bayonetta series.
Thanks for the awesome fight, feather face.