Day 30: Black Knight (Shovel Knight)
A concept that almost never fails when making a boss fight is the idea of fighting your equal, Someone with the same set of skills and goals as the main character. We'll call these guys the Rival Character.
There have been many rival characters in video games that have brought about many great boss battles. There's the second Sonic vs. Shadow fight in Sonic Adventure 2, the Dark Pit battle in Kid Icarus: Uprising, and the final battle against your rival in the Pokemon Gen 1. But today I want to grab my shovel and dig into the first fight against the Black Knight from Shovel Knight Shovel of Hope.
Yeah, out of the four campaigns Shovel Knight offers, I'm going with the very first boss you face in the vanilla version of the game. Don't get me wrong, I considered the fight against the Black Knight from Specter of Torment, but something about the first battle against the Black Knight in Shovel of Hope just makes me remember it more.
I mean, the fight is standard, the Black Knight will attack you by launching projectiles, swinging his blade, perform a series of downward thrusts, and occasionally take some time to taunt you. All you have to do is attack him enough times, he'll run off elsewhere, and you're done. Simple but fun boss battle with a fair amount of challenge that lets the player know what the other bosses are capable of.
I think the real reason why I like this battle against the Black Knight so much is just the mystery surrounding his character when you first meet him. You don't know who he is or what he wants. All you know is that he has ties to the main villain of the game, the Enchantress, he tells you about her Order of No Quarter, and his sole purpose as of right now is to make sure Shovel Knight doesn't proceed further. I wanted to learn so much more about his character after this fight, especially if he just runs off after the battle without so much as saying a clichéd line.
In conclusion, while the actual battle against the Black Knight is fine enough, the real reason I like this fight is for the Black Knight himself, proving that a boss' character can be just as important and engaging as the actual fight.