# Squid in a Round Room
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [November 3, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936 "2008-11-03T22:25:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/1 "2008-11-03T22:25:51Z")
So I am playing Force Unleashed and there is a point where you fight a Bull Balrog. This is the game’s ‘Squid in a Round Room’.
As anyone who has played such games as Half-Life, Fable or Kameo knows exactly what I am talking about. Shooters invariably have you stuck in a room with a monster that can reach almost anywhere in the room from almost anywhere else in the room. Usually it’s with long tentacles. You are then stuck in this room dodging the obstacles while trying not to get hit. Generally it requires you to simply dodge and spam a ranged attack until finally it goes down. Also, every hit takes you down by 10% or more of your health.
It’s generally a very significant boss battle, and usually consists of at least 50% of the most boring parts of the game.
So here tell us about your favorite squid in a round room moments in your favorite video games.
I’ll give another:
Lost Planet, when you fight that weird beatlelike thing that fires big icicles all around the room.
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### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/2 "2008-11-03T22:29:26Z")
> [@mswas](#):
>
> As anyone who has played such games as Half-Life, Fable or Kameo knows exactly what I am talking about.
I played and beat all three, and I have no idea what battles you’re talking about. 😃
But, hmmm… IIRC the old _Shadows of the Empire_ had you fight a dianoga that qualifies under your definition. I think.
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### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/3 "2008-11-03T23:00:22Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#):
>
> I played and beat all three, and I have no idea what battles you’re talking about. 😃
>
> But, hmmm… IIRC the old _Shadows of the Empire_ had you fight a dianoga that qualifies under your definition. I think.
Never played it. What’s a Dianoga?
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### Author:  [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/4 "2008-11-04T01:43:42Z")
Thaardus, from Metroid Prime. Though many bosses had aspects of this, Thaardus made it difficult for you to go into your morph ball, thus negating the squid aspects.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/5 "2008-11-04T01:44:50Z")
There’s quite a few fights similar to this in Okami, but to be honest, I didn’t really mind.
I know there is one in that horrid Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/6 "2008-11-04T02:56:25Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> I know there is one in that horrid Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Horrid? You just called one of the greatest games ever made _horrid_?
This now ends our friendship.
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### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/7 "2008-11-04T03:51:44Z")
> [@mswas](#):
>
> Never played it. What’s a Dianoga?
A small version of the Dianoga was the monster in the garbage compactor that dragged Luke under the water in Star Wars.
[Time index about 4:13 for the start of the boss fight.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvVIeEA0aCA)
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### Author:  [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/8 "2008-11-04T03:53:27Z")
Zelda: Twilight Princess has another squid in a round room boss.
I’d nominate FFX, but come to think of it, the gameplay was more turn-based than real-time so you really didn’t have to duck much.
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### Author:  [@Nicolas\_Bourbaki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicolas_Bourbaki)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/9 "2008-11-04T05:26:21Z")
The end boss from _Star Trek: Elite Force_ was certainly a candidate for the ‘worst boss fight of all time’ contest. It was in the center of a circular platform, and it stayed there. It was basically a piece of architecture with a couple of animated tentacles on it, and it lobbed plasma at you to the tune of ‘two hits and you’re dead’. Also, it had about as many hit points as the number of rounds of ammo you had, so you essentially had to circle-strafe continuously while holding down the left mouse button. And to top it all off, it even _looked_ kinda like a squid, too.
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### Author:  [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/squid-in-a-round-room/470936/10 "2008-11-04T06:24:49Z")
Somehow I feel everyone who’s had trouble should go play
[You Have to Burn the Rope](http://www.mazapan.se/games/BurnTheRope.php). One of the toughest bosses ever. It’s like your weapons have no effect on him!
Soul Reaver had a boss battle that was actually a sea creature in a round (octagonal, actually) room, but it wasn’t too hard to defeat him. You had to know not to try and shoot at him, though, and instead shoot out the windows. What’s more, you couldn’t even move around the room much since there were only a few platforms. Luckily that game also had one of the best player death mechanics ever.