Winning makes us feel good; it validates our revenge. Instead, Lucien takes on measly button press to go down. He dies before we can even process that we’ve killed him, before we can savor proving our mastery in the way of the classical boss fight, and that creates a very different reaction in the player.
Estimated reading time: 7 min
Dominik Johann Tom Auxier on the functions and psychological effects of video game bosses.