I am curious about a genre that I don't really play, namely pure adventure games, and what the most memorable fights in such games are.

Now, to be a pure adventure game, the game must not contain aspects from other genres. In particular, the game must not have a battle system; instead, combat would typically be treated as a puzzle like the other puzzles typically found in the genre. In particular, this excludes games like Quest for Glory (but includes most King's Quest games (not 8, from what I hear)) and Sword of Hope, and it *definitely* excludes the entire Zelda series.

Even though I don't play pure adventure games, I actually have one example, the dragon fight in Colossal Cave:

The way you kill the dragon is something along the lines of this (">" indicates what the player types):
> kill dragon
With what? With your bare hands?
> yes

And that is how you kill the dragon.

So, what battles from pure adventure games do *you* like?

The rabbi fight at the end of The Shivah. It's the biggest puzzle in the game and it requires you to really understand the character.

The Legend of Kyrandia Hand of Fate. That final battle was annoying. Took me forever to figure out what to click and in what order. It was pretty much just trial and error for the final sequence against the game's big bad. Memorable because of how annoying it was.

You mean "apart from Monkey Island", right ?

I absolutely loved the Rabbi fight (because it was funny as hell), but you didn't really need to understand the character. Once you managed to grab his gun (which was relatively easy when you followed the hints/thoughts of your character), it was just a question of... well... questions ;) Because a Rabbi always answers with a question, doesn't he?

...I tried to not go into spoilers...

But yes, the answer is that simple. I don't say it's the biggest puzzle in the game on account of its difficulty, I say it's the biggest because it starts with the hint you get before the title screen and continues with every single dialogue choice in the game that always includes a "Rabbinic response", that is always a question.

Then when you fight the other rabbi, it's really a contest of who is truer to the role of the rabbi.

Haha, yes, I was about to point that out myself.
Monkey Island fighting scenes are so classic that the question probably auto-excludes them.
Well, of course there's also Monkey Combat, but... let's try to forget that.

As for the question and its answer, the space battles in Interplay's Star Trek games are something that goes out of the ordinary point-and-click format. Whether its good or bad is debatable.

Then there's also Blade Runner, where using weapon can even change the storyline.

The Feeble Files has a short first-person shooting section.

Sam&Max games had some gun usage somewhere, but don't recall which game or what kind of puzzle.

None of these really qualifies as a combat puzzle though, maybe Blade Runner comes closest.


Oh yeah, there's one puzzle (the second last puzzle) in Stasis which might qualify. I don't spoil it here, but for those who are curious and for some reason don't want to play the game, a walkthrough (by me) can be found here:
http://www.adventuredoor.net/walkthroughs/stasis-walkthrough/

Remember that one dialogue with the other Rabbi, where he even gets a bit mad when you "pull a Rabbi" on him, answering all his questions with counter questions? This makes the final battle even funnier ;)

The Shiva (and most other games from Wadjet Eye) is a pretty funny game. I think I'll have to replay it very soon.

Ah yes. I remember that. The final scene doesn't carry as much weight if you shoot the villain in the face in the middle of his last poignant speech.

Woah, you make WRITTEN walkthroughs !!?

You're the last hero of the internet.

King Graham vs gravity. An epic battle of the ages.

The Sam & Max games had some "boss fights" worth mentioning.

(medium to pretty darn spoilers)

There's the Season 2 finale "What's up, Beelzebub", which lets you team up with Satan in order to win a snowball fight in hell.

And there's the Season 3 episode "Beyond the Alley of the Dolls", where you're directing Sam clones via musical cues to win a boss fight against an evil ventriloquist's puppet on and around the Statue of Liberty.

And of course there's the election battle in Season 1's "Abe Lincoln must die", in which Max tries to win the presidential election against the severed stone head of the Abraham Lincoln statue.

Oh! Oh! And then there's of course this. You really want to see this. Just a minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDUv-UhBAB0&t=1h05m40s

Oh yes, the final battle in 25th anniversary certainly was memorable...I wonder if/how many people ragequit the game at that point...

Also HAAAAAAAAAA YOU SAID ADVENTURE GAMES YOU ONLY SAID ADVENTURE GAMES YOU DIDN'T SPECIFY COMPUTER ADVENTURE GAME AHAAAAAAAAA

So, in most "fighting fantasy" book games, combats were resolved with a very simple and elegant system of dice rolling and stamina points. But sometimes, very rarely, you had encounters where the whole fight was presented like the rest of the book. You had to choose how you'd strike (or even parry) and go to the corresponding paragraph to see the results and to select your next fighting move, until you or the enemy died. With, of course, a dramatic description for each move. I loved that. It really added tactics, and specifics, to fights that were usually more abstract, generic and random.

The exemple I have in mind comes from "Seas of Blood", which apparently had are awesome.