So, I am using the word accidental here, because I have yet to see another quest that has the same feeling towards it.
In my eyes, the final quest of Stonefalls, to be more direct, the final Boss Battle, really showed how you can make an Epic scale fight in a single player Mission. It did basically everything right, from the buildup (though this was the weakest part it still payed up), to the atmosphere set up, the boss design and even the conclusion.
No other Quest stuck in my head like this one, even weeks after I did it, and I had a more epic feeling during this Battle than I had fighting Molag Bal himself. (I honestly had to look for a youtube video of the fight because I really dont remembered it).
Lets see what exactly this quest did right that for some reason no other Quest seem to get right...
1. The enemy is really hyped up before and doesnt Disapoint.
We hear about the Brothers of Strife all through the Main Quest of Stonefall, and we even see one in action, even though killing a ship full of NPCs doesnt feel this epic in a game where our Character can do the same, without much effort, it still kinda felt like these Brothers were a force on their own. So when we finaly meet this giant burning pile of bones, reaching out of a giant Lava Lake, it has a lot to live up to, and it does by some simle tricks, which come in the following points.
2. The Enemy is actually to strong for you alone.
Since this is ESO and we are used to just cutting through enemys like a warm knife through butter, we attack the enemy right away, but... well, it does nothing. Here is the simple trick, outside of the windows where we are supposed to attack him, he takes no damage at all. So, we attack, expecting to chunk a solid 5% of his Health bar with our first basic Spell, and... nope, his Health Bar doesnt move. Then we hear the mage calling us back to defend him, while he weakens the enemy. We are not powerfull enough to actually beat this enemy alone. In a game as easy as ESO, thats not easy to show, and its honestly the point where most bosses fall appart, because there is no real danger or challenge. There is also no real challenge or danger to this fight, but the mechanisc in this mission distract from that, as follows:
3. Multi Phase Boss fight that actually feels right.
It starts with us defending an NPC from Skeletons that emerge from the Lava, and even though, like everything in this game, there isnt actually a way to fail, the combination of the visually threatening enemys, the music that gives you the feeling that you fight with your back to the Wall, and the well times cries for help of the NPCs, we actually feel like we might fail here. Sure, I could use a Level 1 Sorc Pet only and have it solo all Skeletons and the NPC we have to protect still wouldnt die even if it takes me an hour, but the situation still feels like something is at stake here.
Then we get to the point where we can fight him, and yeah, like all other bosses, his Healt Bar melst like Ice Cream in a fire, but then... he just recovers all the damge we did to him, not once but two times. Here is to mention that this was also the perfect amount of resets, cause its enough to make us feel like we have no impact on this mighty enemy, without making it frustrating.
4. He actually deals some damage.
HIs first attack after the reset actually hurts. You take alot of damage from an attack that you most likely dont avoid the first time, because, why should you. BUt then suddenly, half your HP is gone, which makes the second time he casts this spell really something you look out for.
5. Beating him feels good.
Our Mage friend sacrifices himself so that we can beat this massive enemy, and even though now he just turns into the normal weak MOb like every other boss in the game, since he was unbeatable before, finaly being able to strike him down feels like an accomplishment. Not to forget that we just lost an NPC we followed all through Stonefalls, and who really grew on us. (And yes, I know, Ironic that I say this without mentioning his name once, but I am really bad with names), so its also revenge.
All these points together make the quest look bigger than it is. While its still the typical ESO no risk of failure design, it doesnt feel like that at all. You feel like you really beat a foe bigger than yourself in the end. Its a battle you will remember long after its gone.
Now lets compare that to the next Boss fight against Vox.
She has nothing like that, shes a typical tank and spank boss, who does no damage to us while going down like Neymar at the World cub after another player ran past him. Shes hyped up to wield this super powerfull weapon, but other than once SCRIPTED even where she knocks us down, we see nothing of this power. And in the end, shes down in seconds and you are left with the typical "Was that it?" feeling ESO gives you after most boss fights.
Now, how could this been improved?
Actually quite easy, let us fight her before she kills us. Let us damage her, but her mace has too much lifesteal to really take her out, and when we actually manage to get her to half health or so, he bashes us to the ground, immedialty pushing us in the red zone, showing how poerfull this weapon of hers really is, THEN have the scripted final blow that sucks us into the mace.
That way we actually see the power of this weapon, that was hyped up so long, and when we fight her after we freed the souls, it becomes clear that the power came from the Weapon and not her.
Damn, let us open the Spirit portals WHILE fighting her, watching her grow weaker and weaker with each escaping soul, have her lose mechanics the more we weaken the mace, until shes just an old priest wielding a weapon too big for her.
And just like that, just tweaking the mechanics of the boss fight, we would have another rewarding boss fight, that actually holds up to the hype we got before.
Another good example, though not as good as the final Stonefalls Quest is the fight against manimarco, who actually was really interesting, knocking us around, and having our companions, one by one leaving the fight to stop the portals.
What was missing here was the sense of danger, which could again, be solved without actually making the fight harder, by having the portals actually spawn dangerous ghosts, that really hurt us but cant kill us, then have the Prophet join the fight to heal us, like he did in the tutorial quest. Again tricking us into beliving that we are actually in danger.
Wow, that post turned out way longer that i planed it to be...
So for everyone who actually took the time to read it all, thank you very much, please let me know what you think about that.
Here, have a cute little Khajiit as a reward for staying with me^^