Couldn't I Have A Short Break Before The Next Fight?

Last time I complained about a feature of video games, it was lousy wingmen A.I. in flight combat games. Today, it's the consecutive boss battles with no save point.

It came up last night as I tried once again to beat what I think is the final boss of Genji: Dawn of the Samurai. From my last save point, I march down the hall and reach Evil Leader Kiyomori, who has a really powerful Amahagane (special mystical item), and once he kills me, he's gonna take mine and make his even more powerful. I beat him, but he makes a portal and escapes. I give chase and find he's combined his already awesome Amahagane with that of his 2nd-in-command, Kagekiyo, to make an even awesomer Amahagane. Except, oh no, Kagekiyo takes it for himself, kills Kiyomori, turns into a shiny gold guy, and I'm into another boss fight. Unfortunately, I exhausted most of my health recovery items fighting Kiyomori, and I was summarily stomped.

I understand the idea behind following the first boss fight with another, even harder boss fight. In the game world, the events are happening in rapid succession. There wouldn't be an opportunity for whatever saving the game represents in their world. Except, if we take that to its logical conclusion, there isn't sufficient time for the wounds my character sustained to heal, as they had by the time I started battling Kagekiyo. I'm not complaining about that, mind you, it probably bought me another couple minutes of life in the battle, but it doesn't jibe with the "no saving" issue.

The worst one of these had to be the conclusion to Phantom Dust. You face a copy of yourself (Fight 1). Then, your former best friend and his girlfriend (sort of) simultaneously, without having healed from the previous fight (Fight 2). Your health will replenish after this battle, which is nice, since the happy couple combine into a 3-story tall, half-mechanical, half-arthropod monstrosity (with 3 separate hearts, each one whose health you must exhaust) you fight as you run up a spiral staircase (Fight 3). Having beaten that form, you're faced with some sort of dark angel thing, which you have to defeat (Fight 4). If you're killed in Fight 4, you start over at Fight 3, rather than Fight 1, but there's no saving. You have to make it through all four fights in one sitting.

That's what bothers me about those scenarios. I like to beat games by consistently making a little progress. It's a nice thing about Thief: Deadly Shadows, because you can save whenever you wish. With the boss battles stacked one on top of the other, you either make a lot of progress, or you make no progress. It's more all or nothing than I like. I guess you're supposed to feel a major sense of accomplishment, but I usually just feel relieved that I made it through. Lots of big sighs and "Finally!"s coming from me when I succeed.