Kirby and the Forgotten Land dev says the final battle might have been too challenging

You never think of Kirby games as being too difficult. They’re always experiences that are welcoming to players of any age and skill level, and that’s largely the case for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. We say largely because it appears there was a slight bit of pushback with the game’s final boss.

In an interview with IGN, Kirby franchise director Shinya Kumazaki spoke about the final encounter in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which fans know was quite a battle. According to Kumazaki, that battle at the game’s end might have been a bit too far outside the usual for Kirby games.

“When you’re thinking about maybe your childhood experience playing video games, there might have been games where you just feel like it’s impossible to beat because it’s so difficult. And I think the idea is that to be able to provide something that you can enter easily and is approachable, but also provide that sense of achievement in that you might have an experience where you’re playing a game as a younger self, or even now. There comes a moment when you achieve something or you did something and you’re like, ‘Okay, I can get it now. I did it.’ And that sense of achievement is as a result of the person playing the game – their skill level is going up, and also becoming used to how to play that game.

For the first time in the Kirby series, we provided two different difficulty levels to really try to also provide an option for the experienced gamer audience to get a more fulfilling gameplay experience. And I think we were able to do that. But perhaps the steep uphill curve towards the end of the game, especially the final boss, might’ve been something that’s maybe slightly too steep, and perhaps we can look into maybe balancing it out a little bit. That’s something that I want to continue to explore.”