game mechanics & conventions

you know what’s a really good game mechanic? creating a boss battle that centers around your inability to do damage. you have to play tug-of-war in order to put the enemy into a damagable state, and you have to play a stupid minigame to prevent him from escaping every turn. once he recovers he can force you to blow a turn to prevent him from healing. and then he launches a massive attack that requires you to counter every move he makes or else you lose the tug of war and get a ton of damage dealt to you. which, by the way, you can’t heal unless an enemy is randomly spawned carrying such an item, and you don’t accidentally kill that enemy.