So I've been thinking lately about a few things. I've taken issue with how certain older bosses don't really stand up to the glory of the newly added ones. For example, a Deerclops feels like just a larger mob or a miniboss at best, when you compare it with Klaus. I ended up coming up with ideas on how to improve the original Giants and making them more of a threat, so that you get that feeling that you're facing a dangerous boss monster.
That made me think about Ancient Guardian/Minotaur. It's... basically a Rook, except bulkier, faster, and obviously it deals more damage. While it was something for the old standards, nowadays he feels... very uninteresting and underwhelming. After all, the Ruins are intended to be this endgame location, very deep into the caves where not many adventurers dare to step foot into. It's supposed to be a high risk, high reward area, full of powerful ancient knowledge and items, but also full of dangerous encounters. I believe Ancient Guardian in particular could use a rework, as he's basically the final boss of that area, and the final step before being able to face off the current final boss of the game - the Ancient Fuelweaver.
Inside the Ruins' Labyrinth lies an arena in the center. It looks like it was specifically created for fighting purposes, with a graveyard nearby to bury the ones who didn't emerge victorious. The Ancient Guardian should be the champion of this arena. He could take more on the "minotaur" part of his concept (since that is his prefab and the entire area is a reference to greek mythology), and become a bipedal warrior. Here's a concept I came up with:
It's heavily based on The Grand Forge Boarrior, as its posture and behavior is very fitting of the concept of a minotaur that's purpose is to protect the Ruins. It would also allow Klei to reuse a lot of assets that they already have, and give the underappreciated Ancient Guardian some new attacks to spice the battle up.
Ancient Guardian could be asleep until the player enters the area; that's when the beast would wake up and immediately start pursuing it. During the fight, it would swing one of the Thulecite Clubs, and at lower HP thresholds he would turn it into several hit combos. He should occasionally also perform the spin attack, just like Boarrior started doing when below 50%HP.
I know this is might be a very bold and ambitious idea, and no matter how great it might be, the chances of implementing it are rather low. Still, I believe it's good to dream a bit, so I'd love to hear the feedback of the community!
↧
Ancient Guardian rework/visual update
↧