Video games love a good David vs. Goliath moment. There’s something visceral about standing at the feet of a skyscraper-sized monster, holding nothing but a piece of sharpened steel and a prayer. But when we talk about the score of the giants, we aren't just talking about a leaderboard or a soundtrack. We’re talking about the mechanical "weight" of these encounters—how games like Shadow of the Colossus, Elden Ring, and even Monster Hunter calculate the success of a player against the impossible.
It’s about scale. Pure and simple.
Honestly, most games get this wrong. They give the boss a massive health bar and call it a day. But the true "score" or metric of a giant encounter relies on limb-based physics and staggered states. If you’ve ever played Shadow of the Colossus, you know the feeling. The music swells, the "Score of the Giants" (the literal orchestral movement) shifts from a low, rhythmic thrum to a triumphant brass section as you reach the weak point. It's a psychological score as much as it is a mathematical one.
The Math Behind the Massive
How do developers actually track your progress against a titan? Usually, it's not a linear 100 to 0 health drop. In modern game design, the score of the giants is often tracked through "breaking points."
Take Monster Hunter Rise as a prime example. You aren't just hitting a wall of meat. You are targeting a specific hitbox—the tail, the horns, the legs. When you reach a certain damage threshold on a limb, the "score" for that part triggers a trip animation. This is a hidden economy. The game is constantly tallying how much "stagger pressure" you’re applying. If you don't hit the threshold fast enough, the meter resets. It's punishing. It’s brutal. It makes you feel small because the giant is effectively ignoring your paper-cut damage until it hits a critical mass.
📖 Related: Catching the Blue Marlin in Animal Crossing: Why This Giant Fish Is So Hard to Find
Why Stagger Meters Changed Everything
Before the Souls era, giants were basically just animated backgrounds. You hit their toes until they died. Now, the score of the giants is often tied to a "Posture" or "Stagger" bar. In Elden Ring, the Fire Giant is a perfect case study. He has massive HP, sure, but the real game is played through his ankles. Breaking the shackles on his left leg isn't just a visual flair; it’s a phase transition that changes the entire mechanical score of the fight.
- Limb Damage: Calculating the specific impact on weak points.
- Posture Breaking: The invisible bar that leads to a critical hit.
- Environmental Interaction: Using the arena to subtract from the giant's defensive score.
The Sound of Scale: Music as a Scoreboard
We can't talk about the score of the giants without talking about the literal music. Kow Otani, the composer for Shadow of the Colossus, revolutionized how we perceive size through sound. He didn't just write "boss music." He wrote a reactive score.
The track "The Opened Way" is probably the most famous piece of giant-slaying music ever written. But notice how it works. It doesn't start at 10. It builds as you find the path up the beast’s fur. When you're just standing on the ground looking up, the music is terrifying and dissonant. It feels like you're losing. Once you're on the giant’s back, the "score" shifts. The rhythm stabilizes. You feel like the hunter, not the prey. This auditory feedback tells the player more about their "score" in the fight than any UI element ever could.
Some people think the difficulty in these games is artificial. They're wrong. It’s about pacing. A giant shouldn't die in thirty seconds. If it does, the scale is lost. The encounter becomes a chore rather than an event.
👉 See also: Ben 10 Ultimate Cosmic Destruction: Why This Game Still Hits Different
Why Some "Giants" Feel Like Push-Overs
Ever fought a boss that looked huge but felt like a wet paper bag? That happens when the score of the giants—the balance between player power and enemy mass—is poorly calibrated. This usually comes down to "I-frames" or invulnerability frames. If a player can simply roll through a giant's foot stomp without any consequence, the giant loses its "weight" in the game world.
God of War (2018) handled this by forcing the camera to stay tight on Kratos. When you fight the mountain-sized dragon, Hraezlyr, you can't see the whole thing at once. This creates a sense of "positional scoring." You aren't fighting a monster; you're fighting a landscape. The game tracks your "score" by how well you manage the space around you, throwing shock crystals to trigger environmental damage. It’s a different way to win.
The Misconception of "Bullet Sponges"
A common complaint in gaming is the "bullet sponge" giant. You know the type. You're in a shooter like Destiny 2, and you're just clicking on a massive head for ten minutes. That's a failure of the score of the giants philosophy. A true giant encounter should be a puzzle.
In Dragon’s Dogma 2, the giants (like the Talos) have specific medals or "weak points" scattered across their bodies. You have to literally climb them. The "score" here isn't about your DPS (damage per second). It’s about your stamina management and your ability to stay attached while the world shakes around you. It’s more like rock climbing with a sword than a traditional fight.
✨ Don't miss: Why Batman Arkham City Still Matters More Than Any Other Superhero Game
How to Master the Giant Encounter
If you want to actually improve your performance—your "score"—against these massive enemies, you have to stop playing it like a standard hack-and-slash.
- Watch the Telegraphed Weight: Giants are slow. They have to be. Physics demands it. If a giant is going to swing a club the size of a redwood tree, there will be a "wind-up" or "telegraph." Your score improves when you stop reacting to the hit and start reacting to the wind-up.
- Manage Your Verticality: In games like Monster Hunter, the "score of the giants" is won in the air. Use your Wirebug or your mounting mechanics. Getting off the ground nullifies 80% of a giant's move set.
- Patience over Aggression: You can't trade hits with a giant. You'll lose every time. The goal is to maximize your "burst" windows when the giant is recovered from a heavy attack.
The score of the giants is a delicate balance of art, sound, and hard-coded physics. It's why we keep coming back to these games. We want to feel small. We want the odds to be stacked against us. Because when that health bar finally hits zero, and the music hits that final, soaring note, the "score" isn't just a number on a screen. It’s the feeling of having done the impossible.
Actionable Next Steps for Players
To truly dominate giant-scale encounters in any modern RPG or action title, start by reconfiguring your UI to show "Stance" or "Posture" damage if the game allows it. Focus your entire build not on raw attack power, but on impact or stagger values. In games like Elden Ring, a heavy jump attack with a "cragblade" infusion will contribute more to your hidden "score" against a giant than ten quick slashes. Secondly, turn your music up. These developers spend millions on dynamic scoring that tells you exactly when a boss is entering a vulnerable state. Listen for the shift in tempo; it’s your cue to go all-in. Finally, study the "recovery frames" of the giant's largest attacks. Most giants have a 3-5 second window of total stillness after a major slam. That is your primary "scoring" window. Ignore it at your own peril.