Might be interesting to look at subversions of the 'Kill the Foozle' stereotype as well. Two good examples pop to mind: Fable 2 and Chrono Cross.
Fable 2 is quite interesting. The 'Foozle', a "big bad" named Lord Lucien Fairfax, is a fairly well built up and established villain. The main character goes through his / her entire life with the goal of revenge against this man and, in classical fashion, he appears as the "final boss" of the game. What's unusual, however, is that instead of ungodly endgame powers and a health meter from here to Australia, Lucien is... well, distinctly human. The player can kill him with a single attack, ANY single attack, and if they opt to simply stand and listen to Lucien ramble on about his scheme for world domination long enough one of the support characters will simply draw a pistol and kill him outright. In my opinion its a brilliant gameplay twist that doubles as critique on the whole Foozle concept.
And then there was Chrono Cross... where if you kill the Foozle you actually doom the world. Really. Instead you have to literally create a "song" of elements to free the princess trapped inside the Time Devourer from her own despair, and the beast basically melts off into the void afterwards. Violence is the wrong solution to this final boss -- instead, to succeed the players must complete a story of heartbreak and reconciliation.
Both of these, I'd say, are brilliant twists and exposes of the traditional Foozle role. Should you ever decide to do a follow-up to this article, maybe such "anti-Foozles" would be a subject of interest?
Fable 2 is quite interesting. The 'Foozle', a "big bad" named Lord Lucien Fairfax, is a fairly well built up and established villain. The main character goes through his / her entire life with the goal of revenge against this man and, in classical fashion, he appears as the "final boss" of the game. What's unusual, however, is that instead of ungodly endgame powers and a health meter from here to Australia, Lucien is... well, distinctly human. The player can kill him with a single attack, ANY single attack, and if they opt to simply stand and listen to Lucien ramble on about his scheme for world domination long enough one of the support characters will simply draw a pistol and kill him outright. In my opinion its a brilliant gameplay twist that doubles as critique on the whole Foozle concept.
And then there was Chrono Cross... where if you kill the Foozle you actually doom the world. Really. Instead you have to literally create a "song" of elements to free the princess trapped inside the Time Devourer from her own despair, and the beast basically melts off into the void afterwards. Violence is the wrong solution to this final boss -- instead, to succeed the players must complete a story of heartbreak and reconciliation.
Both of these, I'd say, are brilliant twists and exposes of the traditional Foozle role. Should you ever decide to do a follow-up to this article, maybe such "anti-Foozles" would be a subject of interest?