Arkham Shadows had a good reason for ending the way it did

Major story spoilers ahead
Batman: Arkham Shadow
.

Batman's Arkhamverse is littered with boss fights against the Dark Knight's essential villains. Batman: Arkham AsylumThe mutant Titan henchmen and Bane himself would provide the framework for every other brutal enemy in the franchise to follow; Batman: Arkham CityMr. Freeze would include all the dynamic and cerebral attacks available to players; Batman: Arkham Origins would double Cityan epic Ra's al Ghul encounter for a cinematic parrying skills check against Deathstroke; and Batman: Arkham Knight would finally allow players to get their hands on the Riddler after timing 243 puzzles at Pinkney Orphanage.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a much more linear and tight experience than that Arkham games immediately evolved into po Asylumbut that works tremendously in her favor Shadow takes a slower, more emotional approach to Arkhamverse storytelling. Batman: Arkham Shadow it features three boss fights – two of which use new gadgets that players acquire beforehand, and the other allows players to rely solely on their fists – and unlike all other entries in the series, it does not end with a boss fight. Instead of what Shadow he achieves them by the subtle climax of the story he tells.

Batman: Arkham Shadow lacks a main antagonist in the traditional sense

If District Attorney Harvey Dent/Rat King/Two-Face was a slightly smaller character, it might be easy to imagine how a boss fight against this character might have gone. Of course, later in the Arkhamverse, Two-Face has no problem letting a coin decide the fates of others and carrying dual pistols, with Batman also having no qualms about violently subduing him.

However, Batman: Arkham Shadow records a much more enlightening and tragic portrayal of Harvey, revealing that he and Bruce Wayne grew up together and became family to each other. So while Shadow almost had a boss fight for Harvey, as Camouflaj's Ryan Payton told Game Rant in an interview, the idea was never as black and white as the boss fights experienced by players in the franchise: “We had conversations and prototypes and playable games of different iterations. about what could be considered a fight with Harvey Dent's boss, none of them were the traditional 'Batman beat up Harvey Dent' – his half-brother, someone he cares for and loves.” Payton continued,

In the end, we obviously didn't deliver the Harvey Dent boss fight at the end of the game for two reasons: one was actually in terms of scope – we really put as much time into it as we could and as much as we had available. this project; and two, because if you zoom out on the story and see where Batman is as a character at the beginning
Batman: Arkham Shadow
and you see where it ends, I'm actually really proud of the fact that the players end up taking on the big bad guy and Batman doesn't put a dent in it.”

Batman: Arkham Shadow's Ending is in the service of Bruce Wayne's character development

It's probably the lack of a boss fight that gives Batman: Arkham ShadowThe ending's emotional resonance and the sight of Harvey struggling with his alarming prognosis as Two-Face is born hits harder than Batman could hit. That Bruce Wayne doesn't engage Harvey, let alone Joe Chill, with anger or revenge is a highlight for the protagonist and shows how much he's learned throughout the game. As Payton states,

“He's showing sympathy and I think he's showing that he's willing to understand somebody that he may not agree with or that he's very angry with.”

It's not just about Harvey Dent, but the man who killed his parents, Joe Chill, who was standing right in front of him, and I thought it was really important that we communicated that, so it took precedence over having any for me kind of like a traditional boss fight at the end of a video game.”