Depends on the game, and on the fight.

Taking for example Bloodborne, the way these fights are designed I’d hate if Orphan or Lawrence had a full second phase health bar, just as it is, they are super tough fights but they work, well; at least Orphan does… I wouldn’t mind one on, say Mergos WN which I find lacking. Maybe others could be fun but (Bias alert) the game works really well how it is, I wouldn’t change it.

On the other hand I feel a bunch of Elden Ring bosses would benefit from a full second health bar, both for narrative and mechanical reasons. especially Malekith , Morgott, and Messmer…

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(but the fucking sunflower gets 3 healthbars?argghhhh)

I guess that Malekith would pose too much of a roadblock for new players, but again on replays feels too short. Same with the others.

I think lies of P did it mostly right, they are well integrated on the narrative, they are fun, they increase the game difficulty at the right point but not too much, and don’t feel like padding. They compensate the lack of exploration and build variety of the game. So it works here.

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my only gripes are Brotherhood pt 2, (long, t tedious endurance fight) and final boss ( phase1 should be balanced better, this one does feels like padding but narratively it’s needed)

Mostly, If they serve the narrative well, I tend to like them. They just need to be fun.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.