# Phantom Blade Zero Fixes My Biggest Annoyance With Boss Fights

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/phantom-blade-zero-fixes-my-biggest-annoyance-with-boss-fights/
- Published: 2026-10-29T11:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-07T03:38:02+00:00
- Original publisher: IGN
- Original article: https://www.ign.com/articles/phantom-blade-zero-fixes-my-biggest-annoyance-with-boss-fights
- Topics: Entertainment, Gaming

## Key points

- The writer says boss retries often waste time.
- Repeating easier phases can overshadow the hard parts.
- Phantom Blade Zero prompted him to question that design.

## Summary

IGN opinion writer Travis Northup argues that “Scrub Tax” in difficult action games wastes players’ time after they die, through long walks back, unskippable cutscenes, loading screens or having to repeat boss phases. He says Phantom Blade Zero addresses his frustration with boss fights by challenging the assumption that every death should send players back to the start.

Northup describes repeatedly replaying an easy first phase to reach a difficult later one, recalling a Lies of P boss whose slow opening became tedious after dozens of attempts. He says he had grown so used to this design that he did not realise how much it bothered him until playing Phantom Blade Zero; the supplied article text ends before explaining the game’s specific approach.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.