Day 42: El Jefe
And now we arrive to my favorite Playstation exclusive first boss. Coming at #9 we have furry Fidel Castro himself, it's El Jefe from Sly Cooper Thieves in Time.
El Jefe is the one sent to Feudal Japan by Le Paradox in order to get Riochi Cooper's cane, and that's exactly how the fight starts. El Jefe steals Riochi's cane and Sly gives chase until he winds up at the construction site of El Jefe's pigeon magnet of a statue where the fight will begin.
In phase one, you must chase El Jefe to the first of three platforms surrounding the statue by walking across some tightropes, with El Jefe throwing fireballs at you the whole time. When you make it to the platform, you must engage the boss head on.
El Jefe will attack Sly by creating a wave of fire that you have to jump over, chase you with his electrified sword, slash at you with his electrified swords, and throw a singular fireball at you. When El Jefe prepares his fireball attack, that's your cue to put on your samurai armor and reflect it back at him. This will daze El Jefe, giving you plenty of time to attack before he roars and continues the fight. The process will repeat until a third of his health is gone, then it's onto phase two.
You have to chase El Jefe to the second platform just like in phase one while he continues to throw fireballs at you, but this time you have to jump on smaller platforms that can easily be destroyed by El Jefe's fireballs as well as leap and slide across some bamboo stalks.
The fight will continue when you reach the second platform where El Jefe gains two new attacks. On top of the attacks from phase one, now he'll create an even bigger fire wave that can only be dodged when Sly's wearing the samurai armor, and he'll cover the stage in electric balls that Sly needs to jump over, adding some extra challenge for when he starts chasing you with his electric blade. But keep dodging until he throws a fireball for you to reflect back at him so you can lay the smackdown.
After taking enough damage El Jefe runs away again to the third platform and you have to chase him by walking across a teetering balance beam and leaping across even more bamboo stalks, and yes, while El Jefe throws even more fireballs at you.
Me: Gotta say with all the times I mentioned fireballs today I'm surprised Yoshi didn't come back.
Lyra: Well, that's because you had me put him down when we talked about the Medieval Dragon, remember.
Me: Oh yeah, that's right! You did hide the body well enough, right?
Lyra: Uh...(Looks outside where she looks at Yoshi's corpse covered in leaves and his feet are sticking out) Sure...
Me: Perfect!
After making it to the final platform, it's time to finish El Jefe once and for all. All of his attacks from the previous two phases are here, but now he has a new attack where he takes both of his blades, electrifies them, and spins around in the middle of the platform while holding them out, forcing you to jump in order to avoid them. Keep reflecting his fireballs and beating him up until he's down.
El Jefe is definitely one of the tougher first bosses out there given his wide variety of attacks, and how much they can hurt you if you're not careful. Despite the difficulty of the fight, it still manages to be enjoyable. Add in some amazing atmosphere and excellent music, and you have one of the best bosses in the Sly Cooper series.