Do gamers love multiphase bosses? I know my friend group and I hate them.
All about the execution. I think the second phase should have lower health and higher difficulty which either intensifies the current moveset, or changes it up.
Sometimes they suck, but I like it when a boss changes it up mid fight and forces me to adapt the tactics I'm using against them.
Case in point:
spoilers for Dark Souls 3
The final (non-DLC) boss of Dark Souls 3, Soul of Cinder is a masterwork of this. In phase one it cycles between the sorts of builds players used a lot in the previous games (e.g. a curved sword wielding pyromancer). Jumping between aggressive mode that require a more reactive play, and more defensive, magic utilising modes that needs to be countered by closing range and hitting hard before it has chance to unleash its hard hitting spells.
Phase two drops the mode switching mechanic in favour of a much more aggressive moveset that forces you into balancing defensive play and finding an opening to actually get a few hits in (or if you've built your character around sorceries spamming Crystal Soul Spear to kill it in, like, five seconds).
I think having moments like this that put you on the back foot and force you to adapt to a combat encounter is much more entertaining than, like, giving the boss a tonne of health.
