Quote Originally Posted by ReloadPsi View Post

Ah yes, but on those occasions when they pull them both out... then it's not strategic. It's cheap and it's lazy.
I don't see how it's really any diffrent from a barrier change boss or bosses with invincibility modes and nasty counters like Guard Scorpion, Ymir, and the Mist Dragon.

I mean all the boss does is throw a monkey wrench into the players rhythm and strategy by becoming temporarily invulnerable and forcing you to go on the defensive. It's still the same principle concept as the bosses I listed above. It would be cheap and lazy if the boss used this time to say... restore all it's health, but they don't do that, they just change the flow of battle. A lazy boss is the Oblitzerator from FFX, who would be a challenging fight, especially at that early stage in the game but instead, the game makes the fight completely pointless by having the party telegraph the strategy for beating it, and said strategy cripples the boss to the point it losses most of it's health and can perform no action, making victory guaranteed. That's a lazy design boss fight because why would should you bother if the designer is just going to give the win to the player anyway?

The Palings work, because they force the player to change their own strategy and upset their rhythm, so I would argue its a good thing because it forces the player to react instead of just "hit it til it goes down". Yiazmat is probably more of a real argument for a lazy boss fight design since it's more of an endurance match than one that requires real strategy.

Just like those chests with an insanely low random chance of giving you a Ribbon or something equally desirable. Screw them with a rusty ice pick.
This I completely agree with. Never again Squenix, I may like FFXII but I will be pissed if you try the random generated chest bulltrout again. I'm already grinding for levels, skills and drops, don't make me farm treasure chests as well.