A Tomb Raider boss designer points to Malenia as a clear fight

Marcin Matuszczyk, who builds boss fights for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, says the team is looking at Elden Ring. For him a good boss is built so that a loss is explained by the player's mistake, not by confusion or bad cues.

He used Malenia as the example. Her strikes are visible in the animation ahead of time, audible, and backed by effects. In his view the warning should live in the world itself, not in an icon on the screen. That is why the team leans on movement and flashes rather than interface prompts.

The studio's order of work runs against the usual monster sketch. First they decide which player skill the fight is testing, and only then they build the encounter and the enemy's appearance.

For anyone who remembers the older Tomb Raider, that is a real shift. Bosses there were often ordinary enemies with a larger health bar. Judging by these comments, the remake wants longer fights that are easier to understand.