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

Major story spoilers follow
Batman: Arkham Shadow
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Batman's Arkhamverse is peppered with boss fights against the Dark Knight's fellow villains. Batman: Arkham AsylumTitan's mutant henchmen and Bane himself would provide a framework for every other brute enemy in the franchise to follow; Batman: Arkham CityMr. Freeze would include all the dynamic and cerebral attacks that players have at their disposal; Batman: Arkham Origins would double CityThe epic encounter with Ra's al Ghul for a cinematic test of parrying skills against Deathstroke; and Batman: Arkham Knight Finally, it would let players get their hands on the Riddler after doing 243 riddles in the Pinkney Orphanage.

Batman: Arkham Shadow it's a much more linear and tight experience than what Arkham the games evolved immediately after Asylumbut that works hugely in his favor as Shading takes a slower, more emotional approach to Arkhamverse storytelling. Batman: Arkham Shadow features three boss fights—two of which use new gadgets that players obtain beforehand, and the other of which allows players to rely solely on their fists—and unlike every other entry in the series, it doesn't end with a fight with the bosses. Instead, what Shading achieves is the nuanced climax of the story it tells.

Batman: Arkham Shadow does not have a main antagonist in the traditional sense

If Prosecutor Harvey Dent/The Rat King/Two-Face had been a lesser character, it might have been easy to assume how a boss fight against the character might have turned out. Of course, Two-Face later in the Arkhamverse has no problem letting a coin decide the fate of others and wields dual pistols, with Batman having no qualms about violently subduing him.

However, Batman: Arkham Shadow chronicles 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 Shading He 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 players experienced in franchise: “We've had discussions, prototypes, and gameplay elements of various iterations. about what could be considered a fight with Harvey Dent's bosses None of them were the traditional 'Batman beating up Harvey Dent' – his adoptive brother, someone he cares about and loves.” Payton continued,

Obviously, we ended up not shipping a Harvey Dent boss fight at the end of the game for two reasons: one was actually from a scope perspective – we invested as much as we could with the time and resources we had into this project ; and two, because when you zoom out of the story and see where Batman is as a character at the beginning of it
Batman: Arkham Shadow
and see where it ends, I'm actually very proud of the fact that the players face the big bad at the end and Batman doesn't pull any punches.”

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

It's undoubtedly the lack of a boss fight that gives Batman: Arkham ShadowIt wraps up the emotional resonance, and seeing Harvey face his alarming prognosis when Two-Face is born hits harder than any punch Batman could have thrown at him. Rather, Bruce Wayne not embracing Harvey, much less Joe Chill, with anger or revenge is a highlight for the protagonist and demonstrates how much he's learned throughout the game. As Payton says,

“He shows sympathy and I think it shows that he's willing to understand someone that he might disagree with or that he might be very angry with.

This doesn't just apply to Harvey Dent, it also applies to the man who killed his parents, Joe Chill, who was sitting right in front of him, and I thought it was very important how we communicated that, so it took priority versus having a sort of traditional endgame boss fight with me.”