Ueda wished the game to have a unique presentation and change how both players and developers would perceive what bosses should be in video games. To ensure that the programmers focused entirely on the colossi boss battle quality, he limited the enemies to just the sixteen colossi, that could only be approached one at a time, and have various behavior patterns.

Though limiting the presence of enemies to only bosses was partly intended to differentiate the game from others, Ueda also expressed that it was to ensure that the programmers' focus was entirely on the colossi so that their quality would be as high as possible.