History Main / BossDissonance

** Quick Man is an utter pushover compared to his meatgrinder of a stage.

** Doc Robot from ''3'' not only has souped up and harder versions of certain Robot Master's stages, but you have to fight him 8 times (2 per level) and he takes the powers of the Robot Masters from ''2''! I mean, Spark Man's stage was easy, but FIGHTING A FASTER, LARGER VERSION OF QUICK MAN IS NOT!!!

** ''Mega Man and Bass'' deserves special mention: the game is boss-focused if you choose Bass and a level-focused if you choose Mega Man, despite the maps and the bosses being all but exactly alike.

** ''MegamanZX Advent'' has the Floating Ruins which are relatively easy if you have Queenbee and Vulturon, but then you have to fight [[BlowYouAway Aeolus]] and his [[ShockAndAwe stupid lightning spinners]].

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' Zig-zags between the two extremes during the first half. On the one hand, you have the easy Skyview Temple followed by [[ThatOneBoss That One]] WakeUpCallBoss Ghirahim, and on the other, the much more difficult Earth Temple and Lanayru Mining Facility having very easy bosses. A DownplayedTrope in later dungeons, however: Notwithstanding Tentalus (and it's still arguable), the other bosses are generally on par with their levels of residence difficulty-wise. In fact, it's after the first half of the game when overworld bosses battles appear, further blurring the difficulty ratio.

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' Zig-zags between the two extremes. On the one hand, you have the easy Skyview Temple followed by [[ThatOneBoss That One]] WakeUpCallBoss Ghirahim, and on the other, the much more difficult Earth Temple and Lanayru Mining Facility having very easy bosses. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck And that's just the first half of the game.]]

[[AC:BeatEmUp]]

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' Zig-zags between the two extremes. On the one hand, you have the easy Skyview Temple followed by [[ThatOneBoss That One]] WakeUpCallBoss Ghirahim, and on the other, the much more difficult Earth Temple and Lanayru Mining Facility having very easy bosses. And that's just the first half of the game.

* ''{{Xenogears}}'' gives up entirely on random encounters halfway through and only offers boss battles (although the overworld and previous areas are still accessible should you want to level up). This is due to budget cuts that left the game incomplete.

* The ''VideoGame/Game/MegaMan'' series varies widely:

** [[MemeticMutation You can't beat]] [[MemeticBadass Airman.]]

'''A SuperTrope to EasyLevelsHardBosses, HardLevelsEasyBosses.'''

!!Examples (that don't fit in the {{sub trope}})s:

A SuperTrope to EasyLevelsHardBosses, HardLevelsEasyBosses.

* The ''Game/MegaMan'' series varies widely:
** Those goddamn disappearing blocks... and SpikesOfDoom... and BulletHell...

*** The ''MegaManZero'' series is focused on difficult bosses, generally. Stages are SLIGHTLY easier than the boss you have to face off against.

** Successfully maneuvering the stages in ''MegaManX 6'' is a considerably more challenging task than winning the boss fights.

** Elite Four member Flint, from the ''Diamond/Pearl'' games, is a challenge to the ElementalRockPaperScissors crowd. He's ostensibly a trainer of Fire-types... but there are only two Fire-type Pokémon to be found in Sinnoh, so he's filled out his team with representatives of other elements as well (who often use Fire-type moves). He's probably harder than the Champion.

*** Actually, the entire elite four is a case of Boss Dissonance. While the members are very predictable aside from the slight problem Flint's slightly more diverse team in DP can give, the Champion has a team of the strongest Pokemon in the region with diverse movesets, one of which is both so strong it is banned from competitive play and is literally the strongest that a Pokemon of its species could possibly be.

* DeusExHumanRevolution manages to have both types simultaneously. It just depends on how you actually approach the fight. All of the bosses are trivially difficult if you know which weapons they are vulnerable, too. For example, the first boss the first boss can easily be eliminated by [[spoiler:spamming him with the Stun Gun]]. The [[spoiler:Typhoon augmentation]] also pretty much serves as a GameBreaker for three of the fights. However, this is potentially a very stealth heavy game, some of the most effective weapons against them are not the most obvious choices, for example, the [[spoiler:Combat Rifle]] is pretty awful compared to most other weapons for the boss. It's entirely possible to walk into the third boss with little ammo, ineffective weapons, and if you make a certain story decision [[spoiler:being unable to use any augments and having an InterfaceScrew on top of that]]. So, if you go into the bosses prepared properly, they are trivially easy, but if you are not properly prepared (which might be likely due to WrongGenreSavvy and assuming very effective anti-boss weapons are useless since they would be in most games) then they are far more difficult than the rest of the game.

!!Examples (that don't fit in the {{sub trope}}s:

This is a SuperTrope to EasyLevelsHardBosses and HardLevelsEasyBosses. Examples that do not fit either will be listed here. If the enemies are hard enough, it's possible that the game has just gone the whole hog and become a BossGame.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Other]]

[[/folder]]

->''"Because while the regular enemies are a breeze to kill, the bosses will bend you over and *bleep* with mayonnaise, and just shove their hand up *bleep* with their fingers out [[ClusterBleepBomb *bleep* *bleep* *bleep* *bleep*]], and trust me when I say [[NoodleIncident you'll never look at a pencil the same again]]."''
-->-- '''{{Wiiviewer}}''' on ''ArcRiseFantasia''

This is a SuperTrope to EasyLevelsHardBosses, HardLevelsEasyBosses.

See also SNKBoss. If the enemies are hard enough, it's possible that the game has just gone the whole hog and become a BossGame. The opposite (no bosses at all) is MooksButNoBosses.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Easy Levels, Hard Bosses]]
[[AC:ActionGame]]
* In ''{{La-Mulana}}'', once you have a healthy number of Life Jewels, the Body Armor, and the EXP-doubling Scripture, it's nearly impossible to die unless you do so on purpose. That is, until you face a boss...
* Green's level in ''GunstarHeroes''. "Gee, that was a short level, and this boss doesn't seem that tough... wait, ''[[SequentialBoss what]]?''"

* Most of the levels in ''AlteredBeast: Guardian of the Realms'' are painfully easy. The bosses, on the other hand, are just painful.
* ''StreetsOfRage''... Ugh. ''Streets of Rage''. All of the bosses were better off taken out with the specials than losing lives over, which made the Boss Rush at the end even worse, when specials are disabled.

[[AC:FightingGame]]
* In ''SoulCalibur 3'', the Chronicles of the Sword mode is like this, with mostly easy battles against random soldiers and difficult battles against difficult [=AI=]s with powerful weapons and stage effects stacked against you. The final battle is particularly trying, as it is only hard because you fought a whole slew of enemies without a chance to heal, and the stage you fight in eliminates your blocking ability (plus your enemy has Soul Edge).
** Of course, all the "real-world" fighters show up as optional minibosses, typically tough because they're always [[OverNineThousand Level 60]]. Then a [[BossInMookClothing random dude named Ende]] fills that role in the final stage. This is not explained.
** Go back to a normal fight after the final battle chronicles. Just do tales of souls. It is one of the more screwed up feelings. in the world to go from sliding across the floor on your teeth, even if you are using the cheapest moves known to man, to the unrecognizable feeling of actually being able to hit the enemy.
** For the most part (except for the endgame bosses with superarmor, and even then some), all fights can easily be won by spamming [[{{Gamebreaker}} anti]]-[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard AI]] moves.
* Boss fights in the entire ''{{Street Fighter}}'' series are hard. Akuma in ''Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo'' easily takes the cake as the hardest, although ''Street Fighter 1'' Sagat, ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' Final Bison and ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' Gill are also very hard. The fights before them are cakewalks, mostly.
* Azazel from ''{{Tekken}}'' 6 is probably the best example. The rest of the fights are a breeze. He is impossible to beat.

[[AC:FirstPersonShooter]]
* ''MetroidPrime''. Retro Studios themselves said that the bosses were meant to be the challenge and that the rest of the game was meant to be easier. Perhaps less extreme than many of these examples, but it's more noticeable on Hard mode for sure.
** A more FakeDifficulty example would be the titular FinalBoss's second form. The basis of the fight it to wait for Prime to create a pool of phazon and use the phazon beam on it, however, on hard it will delay this for minutes on end hoping to get a few hits in on its shockwave attack. And to make it worse, most players will be low on health after the first form and while the shockwave is easy enough to dodge, it will end up spawning Metroids close to death along with the pool making getting a clear shot on it that much harder.
** ''Prime 3'' was likely developed with the same modus operandi: Most of the game is somewhat simple, but the bosses (especially the Leviathan Guardians) can be very difficult to beat. ''Prime 2'', however, is NintendoHard from beginning to end.

* Any of Koei's button mashers certainly qualify. In ''DynastyWarriors'', ''SamuraiWarriors'', and spin-offs, expect to kill mooks as if they were ants, but if anyone with a name shows up, you're in for a boss fight. Depending on difficulty, it can range from a CurbStompBattle where you are the stomper to one where you are the stompee.
* ''SengokuBasara'', being an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of ''SamuraiWarriors'', works the same way. Well, with the exception of [[JokeCharacter Naoe Kanetsugu]], who is billed as a boss, has a health bar, an intro, and can be duelled in the third game, but has the health and damage of a regular {{mook}}. He's never anything more than a MidBoss, though.

* Seen in a few of the ''{{Kirby}}'' series; some Kirby games have easy stages, in most of which it's a breeze (or a [[AWorldwidePunomenon Spring Breeze]]) to either avoid all enemies or simply suck them all up, and bosses which are comparatively hard. In general, though, the difficulty of bosses in the series depends heavily on what power you bring with you -- with the right one, most bosses are much easier than their level, while without one they tend to be comparatively hard.
** And, by extension, the Subspace Emissary portion of ''SuperSmashBros. Brawl'', with fairly standard stages (barring a slew of GoddamnedBats and DemonicSpiders) and absolutely brutal bosses, ''especially'' Tabuu. Your Mileage May Vary, though.
* ''{{Spyro}}: Year of the Dragon'' has rather easy levels, but the boss of the first world is freakishly tough, and after that they just get tougher and tougher.
* ''{{Iji}}'' plays this pretty straight; unless you're trying to get some of the UnlockableContent, playing on [[HarderThanHard Ultimortal difficulty]], or trying out a SelfImposedChallenge, you can get through most levels in your sleep. The later bosses, though, ramp the difficulty up to the point where even a maxed-out Normal difficulty Iji can have trouble with the likes of Sentinel Proxima or General Tor. (On the other hand, Elite Krotera isn't particularly hard, and Annihilator Iosa is an AnticlimaxBoss once you [[PuzzleBoss know what to do]].)
** Note, however, that one of the hardest bosses isn't counted as a boss - Asha's second fight can be skipped (except on Ultimortal) but takes place during the stage, meaning a restart of the whole stage if you fail, not just the boss fight.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLand 4'', World, and Shake Dimension. 4 just had slightly more difficult bosses than the easy levels, Shake Dimension had about 1 easy boss and 4 that to some fell into ThatOneBoss, and World... has more bosses than levels. It managed this by having four worlds, two levels per world, one boss at the end of each level, one at the end of each world and a mini boss fought up to three times per level. And the bosses were pretty complicated.
* ''MischiefMakers:'' Some of the stages can be frustrating, but most are fairly simple matters. The bosses, however? Especially the late-game ones? Don't worry, we'll have the comforting tea ready for you when you inevitably get your behind handed to you over... and over... and over again.

[[AC:RealTimeStrategy]]
* While clearing maps in the ''DawnOfWar II'' campaigns is not necessarily easy, especially if the enemy have a lot of EliteMooks or vehicles (or worse, a way to replenish their forces), they pale in comparison to the bosses. These things tend to be {{Damage Sponge Boss}}es ''and'' {{Flunky Boss}}es, with at least two special attacks that can kill entire squads if they're in the wrong place and, unlike every other enemy, they don't become easier to kill with each level, some of the later-game bosses being ''even more'' difficult to kill at level 20 or 30 than the ones fought at level 5.
* ''Heroes of Mana'' is an extreme example of this. Standard enemy monsters are about the same strength as your units. Type matching will almost always win the day against regular enemies. However, boss enemies are a different story. About 1 in 3 levels have bosses. Most are actually not that bad. However, some of the recurring bosses become ''extremely'' powerful later on in the game. Take Celestan, for example, the most frequent [[RecurringBoss Recurring Boss]] in the game. His attacks do a very large amount of damage, first of all- he can kill most units in three hits in his later appearances. Also in his later appearances, his attacks have a 100% chance of confusing the unit it hit, which makes them simply wander around uselessly. His range is also obscene, reaching across 5 blocks or more. On top of that, his HP level is enormous- in the 3000s, compared to the average unit's 300-400. The only way to effectively defeat him is to summon lots of units and simply swarm him. Even surrounded by hordes of other units, it sometimes takes him ''minutes'' to die.
** Never mind the final boss. After going OneWingedAngel on you, she is the only creature on the stage. This should be fairly simple, but the boss ''will. not. die.'' The only real course of action is to summon all the units you can and swarm her. This would be fine except her attacks do ''enormous'' damage, and she also occasionally causes a massive explosion that heavily damages everything within a large radius of her. "Heavily" as in, either kills the units or puts their HP so low that another attack will instantly do them in. Also, by this point in the battle, you will likely have harvested all available resources, so if too many units die you will too. Not only that, but at the end, you have to send the main character in to attack. If he dies, it's game over, so all you can do is bring him in and hope you can kill her before she uses an enormous attack.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' fits in both the categories, but since the "Wrath of the Lich King"-expansion, it's veered more toward harder bosses. Most "trash" groups can be handled by just using area-of-effect attacks (since both AOE threat generation and AOE damage got a large boost) and become little more than speedbumps to slow the players down between the bosses. There are occasional trashmob groups that do require proper tactics, but they are a minority.
** To almost every player between level 20 and 25... Shadowfang Keep. The trash mobs are a joke, since they're pretty widely spaced out. And then you get to the endboss, Lord Godfrey. If you don't stand in front of his [[ThatOneAttack Pistol Barrage]], he's pretty easy, but since this is probably only the second or third instance dungeon you've been in at this point, you probably will. It will hit the group's [[StoneWall tank]] (heavily armored guy that serves as the damage sponge) hard, and will probably OneHitKill the healer.
* ''RomancingSaGa3'' seems to be infamous for this. Oftentimes, dungeon monsters will be destroyable without even having to expend any significant amounts of resources, leading the player to believe that they are overpowered, only to encounter a boss fight wherein they may be forced to use all of their item/magical resources, and ''still'' end up losing.
* ''PoPoLoCrois'' is pretty much like this; plenty of boss fights have nearly ten times the HP of a random trash mob and will take plenty of time to kill if you don't [[GameBreaker use focused attacks, especially when you get multi-hit attacks that total to over a thousand damage]], which makes them go ''much'' quicker than just having some spike damage while some party members (and summonable espers) constantly put pressure on the boss's HP.
* ''TalesOfVesperia'' falls squarely into this. Regular fights tend to not be much of a problem after you've gotten your party's healer, unless you get ambushed or end up in a massively linked encounter. The bosses, though, especially the ones following [[ThatOneBoss Gattsuo]], can be out-and-out murder the first couple of times you attempt them.
* A number of ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' bosses could be considered this; the Summers area is fairly easy and enemy-free, but if you attempt leaving it to go to the desert, you encounter the Kraken, who will be more than happy to completely tear your party apart with his tornado attack. The Giant Step cave is fairly easy, seeing as how all the enemies are basically vermin, but the giant ant at the end will (quite literally) chew you up and spit you out.
** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' plays this straight; despite a few difficult parts, the mooks in most areas can just be plowed through with a minimum of thought. The bosses, on the other hand, will be more than happy to smash you into dust if you try to brute force them; you ''have'' to learn each party member's respective role or you won't make it past the first four chapters.
* ''KingdomHearts''. Strategy hardly matters at all unless facing a boss (and then there's several candidates for ThatOneBoss).
** ''{{Chain of Memories}}'' is particularly extreme. Not only does the above apply, but several Sleights enable you to tear through enemies, but relying too much on sleights against bosses can leave you vulnerable as you use up the first card you put into a sleight.
* ''ChronoCross'' is one of the worst offenders. Because your magic is refreshed at the beginning of each battle, you can safely use every spell you have every time, including your healing magic. You're even given the option to use any healing magic you have left after a battle to heal you to full health. So not only is each battle pathetically easy, but the battles don't wear down your health. The bosses, on the other hand, are much harder because there's no easy way to refresh your magic mid-battle -- and as such, the bosses can outlast your resources until the battle simply becomes brutal.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}: Oath in Felghana'' has this; most of the dungeons are relatively simple (although things toughen up towards the end), but bosses throughout are capable of slaughtering you within seconds if you aren't prepared.
* In ''TreasureOfTheRudra'', you'll rarely find a regular enemy that can give you any kind of trouble. Then you get to the boss, who can wipe out your whole party in 2 shots.
* Nearly ''all'' of the bosses in ''VideoGame/LastScenario'' can qualify as ThatOneBoss, and although the rest of the level is generally not easy, it's still much easier than what it leads up to. And it's possible to get items that prevent RandomEncounters, making the difference that much more obvious.
* ''KingdomOfLoathing'''s bosses tend to be substantially more difficult than the mooks surrounding them, at least in terms of combat. Getting access to the bosses may require solving puzzles or gathering items however.
** Conversely, at the higher-end speed levels, once players have sufficient skills/familiars/items/knowledge, bosses become quite easy to defeat and the rest of the area becomes the major challenging factor, as for the experienced player, every battle is an almost guaranteed win, but the trick is to make it through the area as fast as possible with minimal expenditure of resources.
* ''ArcRiseFantasia'' has battles that make you feel as though you're ten levels higher than the enemies of the area. But you have to fight loads of them in order to LevelGrind to a state you can reasonably take on the bosses.
* ''{{Persona 3}}'' although being a SMT game normal battles can wipe you if the enemy gets first attack or you aren't aware of their attacks/weaknesses, it's the TOWER bosses (not the Full moon bosses) that can truly give you trouble. On both the Journey and The Answer, Tower Bosses comes in groups of 3 or as one major enemy. These enemys have massive health bars, often no weaknesses, party hitting attacks way before you do, self-buffs and party-debuffs, and incredible attack power. While normal fights can be summed up as "Get first attack, attack each enemy with weakness, All-out attack", Boss fights are a grueling affair of barely keeping above death, chipping away at boss health, keeping up with a buff/debuff cycle (especially party defense and -enemy attack, so everyone doesn't get one shot on a single turn), and watching your main character die for WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou. And let's not even talk about hard mode.
* ''BatenKaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' has fairly easy mooks, but, hoo boy, are the bosses tough. One bad hand in the wrong place can screw you over big time. There's a half-dozen bosses that could easily be ThatOneBoss, and most of the rest are no slouches. ''Origins'', meanwhile, is just [[SequelDifficultySpike straight-up hard]].

[[AC:ShootEmUp]]
* ''BlastWorks'' is like this. The earlier bosses actually become easier if you manage to hold on to enough firepower, but the later bosses especially obliterate in bulk.
* Any given BulletHell game. Regardless of how difficult the stages get, the boss usually has a ''much'' higher chance of killing the player.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' games. It ranges from cases where a player skilled enough to beat the game is unlikely to ever die on the stages (''Imperishable Night'', ''Subterranean Animism'') to bosses just being the leading cause of death (''Mountain of Faith'', ''Undefined Fantastic Object'').
* ''SilentScope'' series, most of the time.

[[AC:SimulationGame]]
* ''[[EVOTheSearchForEden EVO - The Search for Eden]]'' was fairly notorious for this, with most of the levels (except one [[ScrappyLevel bonus stage]]) presenting next to no challenge, and most of the bosses verging on NintendoHard.
** That said, trying to play through the levels while scrounging up every octalock, and only releasing the octo-lock in time with the beat to keep the multiplier going, and still trying to get 100% purified? Good luck.

[[AC:SurvivalHorror]]
* Most, if not all, SurvivalHorror games. The endless zombie hordes can be dangerous at times, but they're really there just to fill out the game and cause players to waste ammo.
** ''DeadRising'' and it's [[DeadRising2 sequel]] are good examples, the zombies, even with their enormous numbers, are one continuous joke to the player and are hardly a threat, but the games bosses which are survivors who are either insane or evil, are considerably harder and can kill you many times unless you aren't properly prepared.

[[AC:ThirdPersonShooter]]
* ''JetForceGemini'' is notorious for having easy-ish levels... until the bosses. And they are brutal.

[[AC:WideOpenSandbox]]
* ''NoMoreHeroes'' lets you slice up mooks with relative impunity. The first boss will tear you up if you rush him the same way. It just gets worse from there.

[[folder:Other]]
[[AC:ActionAdventure]]
* ''CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'' varies depending on the character you use. With Leon Belmont's defensive abilities and special weapons, levels can be quite challenging, especially when you have to engage in any platforming due to CameraScrew, but the bosses are easy once you learn their pattern (yes, even [[ThatOneBoss Death]]). With bonus character Joachim Armster, it's the opposite - his attacks blaze through regular enemies, most of the platforming challenges are removed (since he has no whip swing), but because he can't block or use healing items, the bosses are ''insanely hard''. The worst is [[BonusBoss the Forgotten One]], who is hard enough for Leon to beat, and nigh impossible for Joachim to beat. While the Orb it drops acts as Leon's InfinityPlusOneSword, for Joachim the Orb does nothing at all.

[[AC:BeatEmUp]]
* The first ''{{Splatterhouse}}'' game has only two examples:
** The fifth boss, Mutant Jennifer, is a pain in the ass compared to her long but somewhat easy stage... that is, if you avoid taking the path to the necromancer midboss.
** The very short sixth stage, being the most annoying stage in the game because of those evil, constantly-spawning life-sucking fetus monsters, has a fairly easy boss right at the end. All you had to do is keep hitting it, killing the bubbles that form around it in the process. Of course, the hard part is dealing with the bubbles that drop from the ceiling.

[[AC:HackAndSlash]]
* ''{{Diablo}} 2'' does both kinds. Act 1 and 2 have bosses that can chew you up in the matter of seconds if you blink. Especially [[ThatOneBoss Duriel]], who's not only super tough and super fast, but you must also [[BossRoom fight him in a small chamber that doesn't even leave any room for strategy]], so if you're playing a ranged character, you can kiss him goodbye. In Acts 3, 4, and 5, the EliteMooks and their [[BossInMooksClothing leaders]] that you need to fight before facing the boss are MUCH harder than their infernal masters. Mainly because when facing the boss, all you really need to do is dodge. In hell difficulty, act bosses and superuniques without minions are usually much easier than normal uniques and their minions since act bosses don't get extra boss modifiers and immunities.

[[AC:{{MMORPG}}s]]
* ''AtlanticaOnline's'' many dungeons have an odd version of both types. In order to complete a dungeon, each level must be cleared of enemies, including mooks and a boss, and usually a couple of minibosses.
** It is level-focused in that if you fail to kill all enemies on a floor within an allotted time, you fail the dungeon. Also, nearly all enemies will group together in 3s, and most are much stronger than their level indicates.
** The boss difficulty kicks in around the last few battles involving the boss and minibosses. They have the HP equivalent of over a dozen mooks, often cast spells that damage/debilitate all your mercenaries, and to top it off, have a wall of mooks in front of them and as support.
** Oh and the Nation dungeons also throw EscortMission aspects into the mix.
* ''CityOfHeroes'' has examples of both kinds. For example, the Imperious Task Force is rather easy the entire way until fighting Romulus at the end, in which many a team has grinded to a halt while they figure out how to use their skills to defeat him. On the other hand, the Elite Bosses in the Lady Grey Task Force (especially the weakened Hamidon encountered in the 2nd to last mission) are considered to be more annoying battles than the rather straight forward Archvillains who are supposed to outrank them.
* ''SpiralKnights'' has both kinds in the form of the second-tier bosses. The Royal Jelly Palace a clear boss-focused level, being fairly easy followed by a deeply difficult DamageSpongeBoss that can be a huge pain to deal with, since it regenerates health constantly. On the 'difficult levels' side, the Ironclaw Munitions Factory is absolutely full of traps and high-damage rockets, killing you if your mind wanders for a mere moment, but the Roarmulus Twins at the end are a breeze if at least one person in the party knows the fight.

[[AC:PlatformGame]]
* ''[[SpyroTheDragon The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night]]'' has some killer boss battles and regularly throws regular-and-above-regular enemies at you right in the MIDDLE of difficult fights. One example of this being the final stage of the battle against Skabb the pirate, seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjNIIRJ51As&feature=related here]].
* The ''Game/MegaMan'' series varies widely:
** Those goddamn disappearing blocks... and SpikesOfDoom... and BulletHell...
** [[MemeticMutation You can't beat]] [[MemeticBadass Airman.]]
** Quick Man is an utter pushover compared to his meatgrinder of a stage.
** In general, using a robot master's weakness on him makes the battle easier, although the amount the difficulty is lowered depends on the boss and the weapon.
** Doc Robot from ''3'' not only has souped up and harder versions of certain Robot Master's stages, but you have to fight him 8 times (2 per level) and he takes the powers of the Robot Masters from ''2''! I mean, Spark Man's stage was easy, but FIGHTING A FASTER, LARGER VERSION OF QUICK MAN IS NOT!!!
** Burst Man's stage is a leisurely swim, followed by a boss that will slam you straight into the instant-kill ceiling of his room.
*** The ''MegaManZero'' series is focused on difficult bosses, generally. Stages are SLIGHTLY easier than the boss you have to face off against.
** Fan games are almost universally boss-focused, perhaps because creators are willing to put work into their robot masters but treat the regular enemies as the sprite rips they are.
** ''Mega Man and Bass'' deserves special mention: the game is boss-focused if you choose Bass and a level-focused if you choose Mega Man, despite the maps and the bosses being all but exactly alike.
** Successfully maneuvering the stages in ''MegaManX 6'' is a considerably more challenging task than winning the boss fights.
** ''X8'' is more or less boss-focused - every boss even gets to turn invincible at some point and fire a tricky DesperationAttack. On the other hand, it gave us not one but two Ride Chaser stages...
** ''Mega Man 5'' has both extremes: the stage from hell with an easy boss (such as Gyro Man) or the easiest stage you've ever seen with the boss from hell (such as Gravity Man).
* ''LegendOfKay'' has boss battles that are a relief compared to the evil stage difficulty. You will often find yourself overrun with mooks, all with different weaknesses which makes the situation a clusterfuck. The exception is the second form of the final boss who is an example of unfair difficulty, as the only way to dodge his combo is to use the Breakable Jongs on the outside of the arena to keep away. Each jong can only be destroyed by one weapon type and the types aren't in a logical order E.G. Sword, Claws, Hammer. So you can't just press the cycle button once per jong; you often end up whacking futilely against one with the wrong weapon and falling into the lava.
* In ''MickeyMousecapade'', the shortest level in the game, the Pirate Ship, houses ThatOneBoss, Peg Leg Pete (Captain Hook in the Japanese version).

[[AC:RacingGame]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Blur}}'' is a weaponised racing game featuring several boss races. Each boss race is competitive until you pick up your first weapon and blow the boss off the road, usually putting him so far behind that there is no way you can possibly lose unless you are extremely bad at the game.

[[AC:RailShooter]]
* ''ZombiePanicInWonderland'' manages to hit BOTH kinds of dissonance on the same game. The first world is what you'd expect (i.e.: Easy), but the boss is ThatOneBoss, with [[TurnsRed attack patterns that change as his health goes down]] and hard-to-dodge moves. The other two worlds are notably harder, but their bosses are really easy, with their predictable, non-changing patterns and dodgeable attacks. Clearly the dev team took more time to make the first boss than the other two combined.

[[AC: RolePlayingGame]]
* DeusExHumanRevolution manages to have both types simultaneously. It just depends on how you actually approach the fight. All of the bosses are trivially difficult if you know which weapons they are vulnerable, too. For example, the first boss the first boss can easily be eliminated by [[spoiler:spamming him with the Stun Gun]]. The [[spoiler:Typhoon augmentation]] also pretty much serves as a GameBreaker for three of the fights. However, this is potentially a very stealth heavy game, some of the most effective weapons against them are not the most obvious choices, for example, the [[spoiler:Combat Rifle]] is pretty awful compared to most other weapons for the boss. It's entirely possible to walk into the third boss with little ammo, ineffective weapons, and if you make a certain story decision [[spoiler:being unable to use any augments and having an InterfaceScrew on top of that]]. So, if you go into the bosses prepared properly, they are trivially easy, but if you are not properly prepared (which might be likely due to WrongGenreSavvy and assuming very effective anti-boss weapons are useless since they would be in most games) then they are far more difficult than the rest of the game.

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy]]
* Almost any ''FireEmblem'' level where the boss doesn't move. Most of the time, the boss is effectively a regular enemy at a high level with better weapons, and it's fairly easy to surround them and wear them down. It's even easier when they have no ranged attacks, allowing you to pick them off at no risk. On the other hand, the regular enemies in the game tend to be cannon fodder, while the boss is usually stronger than all the regular enemies in a level combined. Bosses that can actually move are extremely dangerous.
** ''Thracia 776'' comes to mind, considering how anticlimactic Beldo is once you get to him. The game is easily the hardest in the series in many fans' eyes.
* ''SuperRobotWars'' does this with bosses sometimes. Tough bosses are not determined necessarily by their health or statistics, but whether or not they can hit back. This leads to some interesting instances, such as in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. The penultimate boss is harder, despite being weaker than the final boss simply because the final boss had very limited ammunition for his attacks.
** ''OGGaiden'' also has this. You face off with the extremely hard Dark Brain, who has hundred thousands of HP, two forms, regenerate one-third of his HP each turn, can OHKO your character, is generally very hard. Then after that, you go on to fight the final boss... [[spoiler:Shu Shirakawa in Neo Granzon]]. However, [[spoiler:Shu]] has less HP than Dark Brain, less threatening attacks, less regeneration, and all in all, is even easier than Dark Brain.
** In Ryusei's Scenario in ''[[SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration OG1]]'', you have to fight the [[spoiler:R-Gun Rivale]] which regenerates HP and EN like crazy, has a field that can reduce damage and there are minimal HP/EN Regeneration areas for your characters. The fight after it, however, is easier since the area near the boss is a recovery field. Sure, the boss is on it and also has a field that reduces damage, but when you clear the area and gang up on it, it is all a battle of attrition; If you have SP Regeneration, the battle will be much easier.

[[AC:RhythmGame]]
* ''RockBand'' has some songs that don't fit where it sorts them when sorting by difficulty. On the first one, "Don't Fear The Reaper" appears towards the middle of the songlist for Drummers (there's TWO sections that will kill untrained and trained ones alike, even if the drummers in question can clear [[HarderThanHard Impossible]] charts). DLC, however, is where this problem is especially evident, as "I.V." (part of the 20 Free songs for ''RockBand 2'' owners) is slotted as a 4/7 (3 dots) [[FakeDifficulty despite numerous]] ''[[FakeDifficulty charted]]'' [[FakeDifficulty double-kicks on the drum chart.]]
** Even more infamous are some of the guitar parts. "Constant Motion" in particular is a 6/7, which looks fairly accurate until you hit the guitar solo, which is widely considered to be one of the most difficult (if not ''the'' most difficult) one in the entire game, including the 1000+ DLC songs.

[[AC:RolePlayingGame]]
* ''{{Pokemon}}'' is generally considered to be either one or the other. Technically, it might be a boss-focused game, since Gym Leaders are essentially harder versions of the normal random battles, but also have the same crippling weaknesses as the main battles. In addition, bosses usually [[PoorPredictableRock use only one type]] (making ElementalRockPaperScissors too easy), while many normal battlers use varied types, making this one contested.
** Elite Four member Flint, from the ''Diamond/Pearl'' games, is a challenge to the ElementalRockPaperScissors crowd. He's ostensibly a trainer of Fire-types... but there are only two Fire-type Pokémon to be found in Sinnoh, so he's filled out his team with representatives of other elements as well (who often use Fire-type moves). He's probably harder than the Champion.
*** This was altered in the latest MissionPackSequel, ''Platinum'', where a few more Fire-types have been added to the list of Pokémon obtainable in Sinnoh. Flint (as well as fellow derivative trainer Volker) now has a proper PoorPredictableRock team and is much easier to deal with.
*** Actually, the entire elite four is a case of Boss Dissonance. While the members are very predictable aside from the slight problem Flint's slightly more diverse team in DP can give, the Champion has a team of the strongest Pokemon in the region with diverse movesets, one of which is both so strong it is banned from competitive play and is literally the strongest that a Pokemon of its species could possibly be.
* ''{{Xenogears}}'' gives up entirely on random encounters halfway through and only offers boss battles (although the overworld and previous areas are still accessible should you want to level up). This is due to budget cuts that left the game incomplete.
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' is a rare case that can play this one both ways, due to the way the "Battle Rank" system works. Which monsters you run into in a fight are scaled up or down based on how many battles you've done, as well as where you train- Depending on the location, the enemies you fight may be much stronger or weaker than what is "level appropriate". Bosses are set at +2 BR and scale up at different points, so it's entirely possible to go rush headlong into a boss fight you're unprepared for, even though you're capable of slaughtering everything else in the region.
* ''{{Persona 3}}'' swings like a weathervane in a tornado. On the one hand, Tartarus is [[StealthPun Hell]] to go through, stuffed to the gills with DemonicSpiders, and if you can handle Tartarus, you will not have any trouble whatever with the Full Moon bosses. On the other hand, the Tartarus bosses? They're nearly all ThatOneBoss, designed as [[BeefGate Beef Gates]] par excellence, and only get harder as you climb the tower - and LevelGrinding won't help you. And then just when you think that's the rule, there's the FinalBoss... who is a Full Moon boss, fought in Tartarus. And it is ThatOneBoss to end all [[ThatOneBoss Those One Bosses]] (unless you have [[GameBreaker Armageddon]]). [[NintendoHard It's a Megaten game.]]
** Pretty well justified, though - Full Moon bosses usually have decently long cutscenes between the last save point and the actual battle, while Tartarus bosses don't.
* The hyped but forgettable XBOX 360 game ''Two Worlds'' featured this due to its item combining mechanic. Duplicate weapons could be squashed together into one weapon with better stats, so those mid-level swords you find dozens of are really all pieces of the InfinityPlusOneSword. If you've done any side quests at all on your way to the boss (and it's pretty hard to avoid detouring through the gorgeous countryside), you'll probably kill the final boss in two hits. TheDragon right before the boss? Not so much.
[[/folder]]

Boss Dissonance comes in two main forms: In one, a game possesses bosses much harder than the stages that surround them, and in the other, a game possesses difficult normal stages but relatively easy bosses.

[[folder:Hard Levels, Easy Bosses]]

* In ''{{Castlevania}} Rebirth'', The amount of damage you sustain by the normal stage enemies is determined by the stage number, in the vein of Castlevania I and III. However, every boss in the game always inflicts the minimum amount of damage for the particular difficulty mode you are playing through.
* In ''SuperCastlevaniaIV'', Stage 8 is frustratingly difficult, but the boss (Frankenstein) is one of the easiest in the game.
* Arguably, ''ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink''. The game itself was pretty hard, but many of the boss fights weren't. The most extreme example was a wizard boss who was basically a gear check (whether the player won came down to whether he had the Reflect spell or not).
** How hard the bosses are really depends on how good you are at dealing with ''Zelda II'''s somewhat "squirrelly" jumping and attacking physics. If you're good at it, then the bosses aren't that hard compared to getting through the levels. If you're not good at it, then even the Horsehead can be a challenge.
** This trope applies to the post - ''Majora's Mask Zelda'' titles as well. Some of the dungeons are very tough, ending with an unmemorable and anti-climactic boss fight.
*** Even before ''MajorasMask'' - we had ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'s'' [[ThatOneLevel Water Temple]], one of the most hair-pulling 3D temples with [[AntiClimaxBoss Morpha]], one of the easiest bosses ever (sit in a corner, and watch how you effortlessly get a no-damage win).
*** Even ''in'' ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', there's the Stone Tower Temple, likely the most diabolical and [[MindScrew convoluted]] dungeon in the game (and one of the most in the entire series, for that matter), but whose boss simply requires you to turn into a giant and constantly hit its permanently exposed weak points (tail and head) to be defeated. This boss, Twinmold, doesn't even try to attack you, since it just moves around the [[VisualPun battle arena]].
* Richter Mode in ''CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' is a fairly extreme example. Even the easiest mooks can kill you if you aren't careful, and some of the more challenging mooks can kill you in one or two hits. On the other hand, bosses can usually be kept at a distance and killed without too much difficulty (and if you use [[GameBreaker Hydro Storm]] on them, most die as fast as your average mook).
* There are three bosses in ''CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'': Carmilla, Death, and -of course- Dracula. Carmilla sticks to a laughably easy pattern that can be avoided by simply standing still and deflecting her fireballs with Dracula's Rib and Dracula himself can be taken out in roughly 15 seconds with either the Sacred Flame or the Golden Knife. Meanwhile, Death -normally among the hardest bosses in the series- can be dealt with here by simply dropping a garlic in front of him [[ZeroEffortBoss and leaving to make a plate of nachos]].

[[AC:ActionGame]]
* ''Spider-Man: The Movie'' game has harder bosses in the beginning of the game, when you're fighting faceless mooks, and harder levels towards the end, when you fight omnipowerful robots.
* ''{{God of War}}'' featured several really difficult and lethal environmental challenges, along with a few miniboss pile-on challenges. Fighting the bosses, particularly the end boss, was practically a relief.
* ''NinjaGaiden'' games tend to have hard levels early on. For example: Even the second level in Ninja Gaiden 2 for the NES has gusts that blow Ryu into pits and takes a bit of mastery, but Baron Spider (the boss) is trivial, especially if you have the Fire Wheel and the Clones. A lot of the difficulty of bosses comes from having half one's life bar from the previous stage and trying not to die.
* Captain Cabot Toth of ''StarWars: Jedi Starfighter'' is mindnumbingly easy. Especially compared to the level you just faced. Made all the worse by the fact that he's vulnerable to your [[ValuesDissonance Force lightning]].

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' high level dungeons tend to fall in this category. Getting to a boss requires carefully planned engagement with mook groups using every bit of "crowd control" the party has to offer, but most of the bosses are fairly straightforward. Some bosses do require comparable efforts... because they are accompanied by minor mooks.
** The true "Endgame" bosses (which require teams of 10 and 25 to face), on the other hand, go back and forth between this trope at a ludicrous pace; The Mount Hyjal scenario exemplifies this trope in ''both'' forms, pitting you against endurance battles with the bosses; depending on the makeup of your team, these are usually either [[AnticlimaxBoss comically easy]] or [[ThatOneBoss ludicrously difficult]]. The final boss, on the other hand, fits squarely under ThatOneBoss (and has an actual break before facing him, unlike the others).
** This trope is also evident in many of the smaller, 5-man dungeons, where a suboptimal group may easily beat the bosses but [[PartyWipe wipe]] hard on the [[{{Mooks}} trash]] leading up to them. [[ScrappyLevel Gnomeregan]], I'm looking at you.
** Cataclysm dungeons and raids have significantly harder trash mobs than previous ones and tend to require unique strategies for each one. Some of them are fairly easy with a little crowd control and strategy, others have mechanics that must be followed to avoid wiping (such as tanks swapping after taking stacks of a debuff), and still others are so hard that groups will not pull them if they do not have to. At times, there may be only two or three trash pulls between bosses, each of which is completely different, rather than several encounters with similar enemies.

* ''CrashBandicoot''... in the first two games, the bosses were oftentimes the only thing that ''didn't'' kill you.
* Sometime appears in the ''[[SuperMarioBros Mario]]'' series, though it varies; earlier games in the series tended to have bosses as difficult or harder than their levels (though they were NintendoHard overall.)
** Also, near every ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' or other game hack ever created, simply because the bosses are far more difficult to edit than the levels; hence, most hacks usually leave the normal bosses after massively tough, NintendoHard levels, meaning that the bosses go down in about 2 seconds as a result.
*** Reznor may be an exception, as you need to attack ''very quickly'', on pain of death by lava. Of course, in the [[RecurringBoss last few encounters]], you've pretty much gotten used to that.
*** Subverted by ''KaizoMarioWorld''. The first game featured two boss fights, against [[spoiler:the Big Boo and Invisible Bowser.]] The second had two, [[spoiler:Underwater Bowser and Reznor, but in a room full of spiked logs and rising lava.]]
*** Inverted by ''Brutal Mario''. The levels are harder, but not mind-numbingly hard. The ''sub''-bosses include [[ChronoTrigger The Mammon Machine]] and [[DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], and the Koopa kids are simply brutal, brutal fights.
** Mario games have shaken the trend a bit recently. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' has pathetic bosses like Gooper Blooper, but Phantamanta and Eely-Mouth can be extremely difficult. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' has some tricky bosses, particularly in the daredevil runs; Bouldergeist in particular is rather frustrating. The bosses in ''New SMB Wii'' always retreat into their shell after each hit, so even the easier fights at least take some time to win. Then there's the final boss.
** However, VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 plays this straight with the final Bowser battle.
* The ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]]'' series usually has bosses much easier than the stages before them, with the exception of [[ThatOneBoss one boss per game]] who gives people trouble.
** Let us not speak of a [[ThatOneBoss certain boss]] in the second game.
*** [[WakeUpCallBoss Good morning]], today we have a heaping helping of bottomless pits, stupid sidekicks, and [[MercyInvincibility going through the boss]] because of said sidekick.
** As is to be expected of a fangame, ''[[SonicRoboBlast2 SRB2]]'' is also a large offender, with bosses that are very basic compared to the stage, at least until (of course) you reach a [[ShoutOut familiar]] [[ThatOneBoss mechanical behemoth]]. Of course, this could be attributed to the [[DevelopmentHell ten years spent designing the game]].
* The first ''DonkeyKongCountry'' game. The levels get increasingly harder, but all the bosses (except for K. Rool) are a cakewalk.
** ''Donkey Kong Country 2'' qualifies as well. The bosses are more challenging than those in the first game, but none of them will make you tear your hair out in frustration. Many of the levels, however, are absolutely brutal.
* ''IWannaBeTheGuy'' is like this to an extent. Both parts are [[PlatformHell incredibly hard]], but the bosses are easier... "easi'''''er'''''" being the key word here.
* ''Super [[VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins Ghouls & Ghosts]]'', which lives on almost every [[NintendoHard top-10 hardest games of all times lists]], has some of the easiest bosses ever. Not just easy for SG&G, or easier than the levels around them. Drop dead simple. The Hydra is perhaps the easiest boss in any videogame (and his level is one of the hardest. There's dissonance right there); you stand there and shoot him with his weapon, while dodging rock attacks that he telegraphs a mile away and only throws out every 3-5 seconds anyway. The final boss is pathetically wimpy.
** ''However'', there is one exception: The Hardest Thing To Do In The Entire Game. It happens to be a boss fight. Having to beat Asteroth and Nebiroth [[spoiler:with the Goddesses' Bracelet, one of the crappiest weapons in the game,]] is absolutely brutal, and probably the place where even the die-hard NintendoHard fan throws the controller across the room.
* The original ''PrinceOfPersia'' has levels filled with precipitous falls and SpikesOfDoom of the deadliest sort. The almost only boss in the game is Jaffar, who fights like all the other {{Mooks}} and can be killed just by pushing him off the platform if you get behind him. (This doesn't apply to the SNES version, which has completely different bosses and many more of them.)
** But right before Jaffar is a PuzzleBoss that stumps many players. The Level 6 boss is likely to be a stumbling-block for first-time players, too.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLand 1-3'', being based off the Mario series, fell into this, bar the one boss in the first game that actually posed a challenge.
* While ''BanjoTooie'' wasn't really hard, the bosses actually got easier as the stages progressed, with the final boss being difficult more due to length than challenge. The sequel didn't have bosses per se, but the challenges offered by Grunty were all pathetically easy with the proper application of creative thinking.
** Mostly, this is because the characters grow disproportionately powerful compared to the bosses, provided you find the items. There's no excusing [[AnticlimaxBoss Minji-Jongo]]. Try the bosses on Boss Replay, and the final boss suddenly becomes hair-pulling.
* In ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'', Marching Milde was a relatively easy boss, but she came at the end of a frustratingly long stage, one of the longest in the game.
* ''{{Battletoads}}'' might as well be the level-focused poster-boy. The bosses are rather easy, but several of the stages are almost up there with ''IWannaBeTheGuy'' in difficulty.
* ''{{New Super Marisa Land}}'''s bosses are, with the exception of the World 7 boss, much easier than the stages preceding them.

[[AC:{{Roguelike}}]]
* ''PokemonMysteryDungeon''. The dungeons themselves will see you using up the majority of your wiles and resources, while most bosses can be made utterly harmless with a single [[StandardStatusEffects status seed]]. Bosses with minions are exceptions, though, depending on your items and moves.

* In the RPG ''{{The 7th Saga}}'', random encounters are invariably more dangerous than a typical boss; just walking from one town to the next requires a ton of ForcedLevelGrinding. There are a few [[ThatOneBoss obscenely overpowered bosses]], but they're [[RubberBandAI special]].
** The Japanese version, Elnard, is quite a bit easier. [[DifficultyByRegion The localizers]] [[FakeDifficulty increased enemy stats, reduced player stats, cut experience gain, and overpowered the rival encounters.]]
* In the first two ''ShinMegamiTensei'' games, random encounters come hard and fast and you're pretty lucky if you can get to the end of the boss without being horribly mangled. The Boss you fight, on the other hand is at best marginally harder than one of the standard enemies outside... that you had to fight like eighteen of every two steps.
* The ''FinalFantasy'' series varies widely, but the most pronounced example of BossDissonance would likely be ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''. Bosses are, with few exceptions, strategically simple to kill and not possessed of extraordinary strengths. The rest of the game is an [[FakeDifficulty infamous]] veritable [[NintendoHard nightmare]].
* Some players call {{Demons Souls}} this. Helps that there's sometimes an exploit that makes the boss a breeze. (safe zones, inability to attack at a distance, etc.)
** A straight forward example is [[ThatOneLevel 5-2]], Most players have a load of trouble with the level it's self, however, the Boss is pretty easy and is weak to both Fire and Magic.
* {{Touhou Mother}} is often stated to have fairly easy bosses, but many dangerous random encounters that make the dungeons themselves much more difficult to go through than any boss fight.
* ''TheSpiritEngine2'' is usually this type, since normal enemies can be quite difficult (generally they accomplish almost as much in one turn as a boss, except there'll be three of them and they mostly have enough health that you can't just hope they run out first) and are very numerous. Certain regular enemies also have armor values far outstripping the bosses, since the author learned his lesson after giving a few bosses in the first game too much armor; this means that dealing significant damage to them is only possible with a few specific moves. And that's ignoring the two sections where you have to fight several defensively-oriented groups of enemies on a time limit.

[[AC:ShootEmUp]]
* Big Core in any version of the original ''{{Gradius}}''. His only attack is a four-laser spread, albeit one that gets faster the more your ship is powered up. The only time where he might be more difficult is on Stages 1 and 4, where dormant volcanoes will reduce your flying space. And even if you have a hard time hitting him (as a result of being underpowered or possessing the Double powerup, which halves your firing rate), you can still "defeat" him by [[HoldTheLine waiting until he self-destructs]], which usually takes no more than a minute.
* In both ''Nanostray'', the obstacles in the stage makes the stage much harder than the boss.
* Nearly every boss in ''ThunderForce III'' is much easier than the stage preceding it, especially if you have [[GameBreaker Sever]], in which case they'll go down in under 20 seconds each.
** And in ''Thunder Force VI'', if you're using the Rynex-R, and have at least one Over Weapon gauge ready, most bosses will go down in at most ''five'' seconds. I'm not exaggerating. On [[HarderThanHard Maniac]] difficulty, this is a big relief from a normal shooter-turned-BulletHell.
* ''Sly Spy'', an obscure arcade-only game, has extremely simple boss fights. All the actual bosses have only a single, easily dodgeable attack with the motorcycle and underwater levels being the worst offenders. However, some boss fights are just rushes of EliteMooks which are very good at eating away at your health.

[[AC:SportsGame]]
* The bosses in ''[[BackyardSports Backyard Skateboarding]]'' are incredibly easy compared to the challenges on each level.

[[AC:SurvivalHorror]]
* ''ResidentEvil4'', in some cases. Granted, the mooks aren't much harder, but there are a couple bosses that can be instantly killed with one hit from a rocket launcher, or a few shots from an upgraded magnum. Avoiding the super powerful weapons swings things closer to the lethal boss end of the spectrum; the bosses will take several shots from a normal gun and can dish out serious pain.
** By the fifth stage (and especially on Pro), the Island, it's '''both'''. You will pull your hair out fighting Krauser again and again, and then when you do beat him, spend the next few hours warding off waves of enemies and machine gun turrets.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* ''DungeonsAndDragons'', regrettably, often works out like this - singular powerful monsters can often be a trivial challenge, simply because everybody gets their one set of actions a round. So the boss gets to move and attack... and then four to six party members get to do the same thing. Boss monsters tend to get buried in a pile of player character actions. Not to mention how many spells, even at low levels, can win such fights with a single dice roll, and at high levels with ''no'' dice roll. Fourth Edition attempts to avert this with Solo monsters, which get a lot more HP than normal enemies, and may also receive multiple actions to make them a challenge for a full party.
** And, since the boss is usually at the end of a day, in 4th edition players may decide to use their daily powers against them (since you lose your chance after an extended rest), speeding things up a bit.
** A Balor? No sweat. [[http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/ Tucker's kobolds]]? Run.

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy]]
* In the various ''FinalFantasyTactics'' games, bosses are almost always easier than regular battles. This is because you have five people and they have only one, so you can move five times as fast as them, and more often than not their attacks can't hit everyone at once, or take a long time to charge.
* ''{{X-COM}}'''s end boss is technically a four tiles terrain with 40 armor, who dies if one of its tiles is destroyed, and is guarded by [[DemonicSpiders Etherals, Sectopods, and Chryssalids]]. So you are basically trying to shoot a terrain tile (explosives deal a fixed 50% damage to terrain, other weapons deal between 25 and 75% damage), while trying to have at least one soldier survive MindControl and OneHitKill for the final showdown.

[[AC:WideOpenSandbox]]
* ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game'', was like this, mostly because the only characters that could be considered to be bosses (stronger body armor, powerful weapons, pinpoint aim), also had the same weaknesses as the rest of the enemies (basically, headshot kills no matter what and the ability to waltz right up to them and choke them to death), and also took you on basically one on one, or with less minions, which meant a boss fight was much more favorable than the normal swarm of enemies coming to take you out.
* In ''ArkhamCity'' you will be killed by random groups of street thugs more often then Mr. Freeze, [[spoiler: Solomon Grundy]], [[spoiler:Clayface]], [[spoiler: Ras Al Ghul]] and [[spoiler: Deadshot]] combined especially if you're playing on Hard.
* No gunslinger in ''RedDeadRedemption'' is as deadly as a pack of wolves or a solitary cougar.

[[folder:Other]]
[[AC:ActionAdventure]]
* ''CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'' varies depending on the character you use. With Leon Belmont's defensive abilities and special weapons, levels can be quite challenging, especially when you have to engage in any platforming due to CameraScrew, but the bosses are easy once you learn their pattern (yes, even [[ThatOneBoss Death]]). With bonus character Joachim Armster, it's the opposite - his attacks blaze through regular enemies, most of the platforming challenges are removed (since he has no whip swing), but because he can't block or use healing items, the bosses are ''insanely hard''. The worst is [[BonusBoss the Forgotten One]], who is hard enough for Leon to beat, and nigh impossible for Joachim to beat. While the Orb it drops acts as Leon's InfinityPlusOneSword, for Joachim the Orb does nothing at all.

[[AC:BeatEmUp]]
* The first ''{{Splatterhouse}}'' game has only two examples:
** The fifth boss, Mutant Jennifer, is a pain in the ass compared to her long but somewhat easy stage... that is, if you avoid taking the path to the necromancer midboss.
** The very short sixth stage, being the most annoying stage in the game because of those evil, constantly-spawning life-sucking fetus monsters, has a fairly easy boss right at the end. All you had to do is keep hitting it, killing the bubbles that form around it in the process. Of course, the hard part is dealing with the bubbles that drop from the ceiling.

[[AC:HackAndSlash]]
* ''{{Diablo}} 2'' does both kinds. Act 1 and 2 have bosses that can chew you up in the matter of seconds if you blink. Especially [[ThatOneBoss Duriel]], who's not only super tough and super fast, but you must also [[BossRoom fight him in a small chamber that doesn't even leave any room for strategy]], so if you're playing a ranged character, you can kiss him goodbye. In Acts 3, 4, and 5, the EliteMooks and their [[BossInMooksClothing leaders]] that you need to fight before facing the boss are MUCH harder than their infernal masters. Mainly because when facing the boss, all you really need to do is dodge. In hell difficulty, act bosses and superuniques without minions are usually much easier than normal uniques and their minions since act bosses don't get extra boss modifiers and immunities.

[[AC:{{MMORPG}}s]]
* ''AtlanticaOnline's'' many dungeons have an odd version of both types. In order to complete a dungeon, each level must be cleared of enemies, including mooks and a boss, and usually a couple of minibosses.
** It is level-focused in that if you fail to kill all enemies on a floor within an allotted time, you fail the dungeon. Also, nearly all enemies will group together in 3s, and most are much stronger than their level indicates.
** The boss difficulty kicks in around the last few battles involving the boss and minibosses. They have the HP equivalent of over a dozen mooks, often cast spells that damage/debilitate all your mercenaries, and to top it off, have a wall of mooks in front of them and as support.
** Oh and the Nation dungeons also throw EscortMission aspects into the mix.
* ''CityOfHeroes'' has examples of both kinds. For example, the Imperious Task Force is rather easy the entire way until fighting Romulus at the end, in which many a team has grinded to a halt while they figure out how to use their skills to defeat him. On the other hand, the Elite Bosses in the Lady Grey Task Force (especially the weakened Hamidon encountered in the 2nd to last mission) are considered to be more annoying battles than the rather straight forward Archvillains who are supposed to outrank them.
* ''SpiralKnights'' has both kinds in the form of the second-tier bosses. The Royal Jelly Palace a clear boss-focused level, being fairly easy followed by a deeply difficult DamageSpongeBoss that can be a huge pain to deal with, since it regenerates health constantly. On the 'difficult levels' side, the Ironclaw Munitions Factory is absolutely full of traps and high-damage rockets, killing you if your mind wanders for a mere moment, but the Roarmulus Twins at the end are a breeze if at least one person in the party knows the fight.

[[AC:PlatformGame]]
* ''[[SpyroTheDragon The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night]]'' has some killer boss battles and regularly throws regular-and-above-regular enemies at you right in the MIDDLE of difficult fights. One example of this being the final stage of the battle against Skabb the pirate, seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjNIIRJ51As&feature=related here]].
* The ''Game/MegaMan'' series varies widely:
** Those goddamn disappearing blocks... and SpikesOfDoom... and BulletHell...
** [[MemeticMutation You can't beat]] [[MemeticBadass Airman.]]
** Quick Man is an utter pushover compared to his meatgrinder of a stage.
** In general, using a robot master's weakness on him makes the battle easier, although the amount the difficulty is lowered depends on the boss and the weapon.
** Doc Robot from ''3'' not only has souped up and harder versions of certain Robot Master's stages, but you have to fight him 8 times (2 per level) and he takes the powers of the Robot Masters from ''2''! I mean, Spark Man's stage was easy, but FIGHTING A FASTER, LARGER VERSION OF QUICK MAN IS NOT!!!
** Burst Man's stage is a leisurely swim, followed by a boss that will slam you straight into the instant-kill ceiling of his room.
*** The ''MegaManZero'' series is focused on difficult bosses, generally. Stages are SLIGHTLY easier than the boss you have to face off against.
** Fan games are almost universally boss-focused, perhaps because creators are willing to put work into their robot masters but treat the regular enemies as the sprite rips they are.
** ''Mega Man and Bass'' deserves special mention: the game is boss-focused if you choose Bass and a level-focused if you choose Mega Man, despite the maps and the bosses being all but exactly alike.
** Successfully maneuvering the stages in ''MegaManX 6'' is a considerably more challenging task than winning the boss fights.
** ''X8'' is more or less boss-focused - every boss even gets to turn invincible at some point and fire a tricky DesperationAttack. On the other hand, it gave us not one but two Ride Chaser stages...
** ''Mega Man 5'' has both extremes: the stage from hell with an easy boss (such as Gyro Man) or the easiest stage you've ever seen with the boss from hell (such as Gravity Man).
* ''LegendOfKay'' has boss battles that are a relief compared to the evil stage difficulty. You will often find yourself overrun with mooks, all with different weaknesses which makes the situation a clusterfuck. The exception is the second form of the final boss who is an example of unfair difficulty, as the only way to dodge his combo is to use the Breakable Jongs on the outside of the arena to keep away. Each jong can only be destroyed by one weapon type and the types aren't in a logical order E.G. Sword, Claws, Hammer. So you can't just press the cycle button once per jong; you often end up whacking futilely against one with the wrong weapon and falling into the lava.
* In ''MickeyMousecapade'', the shortest level in the game, the Pirate Ship, houses ThatOneBoss, Peg Leg Pete (Captain Hook in the Japanese version).

[[AC:RacingGame]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Blur}}'' is a weaponised racing game featuring several boss races. Each boss race is competitive until you pick up your first weapon and blow the boss off the road, usually putting him so far behind that there is no way you can possibly lose unless you are extremely bad at the game.

[[AC:RailShooter]]
* ''ZombiePanicInWonderland'' manages to hit BOTH kinds of dissonance on the same game. The first world is what you'd expect (i.e.: Easy), but the boss is ThatOneBoss, with [[TurnsRed attack patterns that change as his health goes down]] and hard-to-dodge moves. The other two worlds are notably harder, but their bosses are really easy, with their predictable, non-changing patterns and dodgeable attacks. Clearly the dev team took more time to make the first boss than the other two combined.

[[AC: RolePlayingGame]]
* DeusExHumanRevolution manages to have both types simultaneously. It just depends on how you actually approach the fight. All of the bosses are trivially difficult if you know which weapons they are vulnerable, too. For example, the first boss the first boss can easily be eliminated by [[spoiler:spamming him with the Stun Gun]]. The [[spoiler:Typhoon augmentation]] also pretty much serves as a GameBreaker for three of the fights. However, this is potentially a very stealth heavy game, some of the most effective weapons against them are not the most obvious choices, for example, the [[spoiler:Combat Rifle]] is pretty awful compared to most other weapons for the boss. It's entirely possible to walk into the third boss with little ammo, ineffective weapons, and if you make a certain story decision [[spoiler:being unable to use any augments and having an InterfaceScrew on top of that]]. So, if you go into the bosses prepared properly, they are trivially easy, but if you are not properly prepared (which might be likely due to WrongGenreSavvy and assuming very effective anti-boss weapons are useless since they would be in most games) then they are far more difficult than the rest of the game.

[[AC:TurnBasedStrategy]]
* Almost any ''FireEmblem'' level where the boss doesn't move. Most of the time, the boss is effectively a regular enemy at a high level with better weapons, and it's fairly easy to surround them and wear them down. It's even easier when they have no ranged attacks, allowing you to pick them off at no risk. On the other hand, the regular enemies in the game tend to be cannon fodder, while the boss is usually stronger than all the regular enemies in a level combined. Bosses that can actually move are extremely dangerous.
** ''Thracia 776'' comes to mind, considering how anticlimactic Beldo is once you get to him. The game is easily the hardest in the series in many fans' eyes.
* ''SuperRobotWars'' does this with bosses sometimes. Tough bosses are not determined necessarily by their health or statistics, but whether or not they can hit back. This leads to some interesting instances, such as in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. The penultimate boss is harder, despite being weaker than the final boss simply because the final boss had very limited ammunition for his attacks.
** ''OGGaiden'' also has this. You face off with the extremely hard Dark Brain, who has hundred thousands of HP, two forms, regenerate one-third of his HP each turn, can OHKO your character, is generally very hard. Then after that, you go on to fight the final boss... [[spoiler:Shu Shirakawa in Neo Granzon]]. However, [[spoiler:Shu]] has less HP than Dark Brain, less threatening attacks, less regeneration, and all in all, is even easier than Dark Brain.
** In Ryusei's Scenario in ''[[SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration OG1]]'', you have to fight the [[spoiler:R-Gun Rivale]] which regenerates HP and EN like crazy, has a field that can reduce damage and there are minimal HP/EN Regeneration areas for your characters. The fight after it, however, is easier since the area near the boss is a recovery field. Sure, the boss is on it and also has a field that reduces damage, but when you clear the area and gang up on it, it is all a battle of attrition; If you have SP Regeneration, the battle will be much easier.

[[AC:RhythmGame]]
* ''RockBand'' has some songs that don't fit where it sorts them when sorting by difficulty. On the first one, "Don't Fear The Reaper" appears towards the middle of the songlist for Drummers (there's TWO sections that will kill untrained and trained ones alike, even if the drummers in question can clear [[HarderThanHard Impossible]] charts). DLC, however, is where this problem is especially evident, as "I.V." (part of the 20 Free songs for ''RockBand 2'' owners) is slotted as a 4/7 (3 dots) [[FakeDifficulty despite numerous]] ''[[FakeDifficulty charted]]'' [[FakeDifficulty double-kicks on the drum chart.]]
** Even more infamous are some of the guitar parts. "Constant Motion" in particular is a 6/7, which looks fairly accurate until you hit the guitar solo, which is widely considered to be one of the most difficult (if not ''the'' most difficult) one in the entire game, including the 1000+ DLC songs.

[[AC:RolePlayingGame]]
* ''{{Pokemon}}'' is generally considered to be either one or the other. Technically, it might be a boss-focused game, since Gym Leaders are essentially harder versions of the normal random battles, but also have the same crippling weaknesses as the main battles. In addition, bosses usually [[PoorPredictableRock use only one type]] (making ElementalRockPaperScissors too easy), while many normal battlers use varied types, making this one contested.
** Elite Four member Flint, from the ''Diamond/Pearl'' games, is a challenge to the ElementalRockPaperScissors crowd. He's ostensibly a trainer of Fire-types... but there are only two Fire-type Pokémon to be found in Sinnoh, so he's filled out his team with representatives of other elements as well (who often use Fire-type moves). He's probably harder than the Champion.
*** This was altered in the latest MissionPackSequel, ''Platinum'', where a few more Fire-types have been added to the list of Pokémon obtainable in Sinnoh. Flint (as well as fellow derivative trainer Volker) now has a proper PoorPredictableRock team and is much easier to deal with.
*** Actually, the entire elite four is a case of Boss Dissonance. While the members are very predictable aside from the slight problem Flint's slightly more diverse team in DP can give, the Champion has a team of the strongest Pokemon in the region with diverse movesets, one of which is both so strong it is banned from competitive play and is literally the strongest that a Pokemon of its species could possibly be.
* ''{{Xenogears}}'' gives up entirely on random encounters halfway through and only offers boss battles (although the overworld and previous areas are still accessible should you want to level up). This is due to budget cuts that left the game incomplete.
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'' is a rare case that can play this one both ways, due to the way the "Battle Rank" system works. Which monsters you run into in a fight are scaled up or down based on how many battles you've done, as well as where you train- Depending on the location, the enemies you fight may be much stronger or weaker than what is "level appropriate". Bosses are set at +2 BR and scale up at different points, so it's entirely possible to go rush headlong into a boss fight you're unprepared for, even though you're capable of slaughtering everything else in the region.
* ''{{Persona 3}}'' swings like a weathervane in a tornado. On the one hand, Tartarus is [[StealthPun Hell]] to go through, stuffed to the gills with DemonicSpiders, and if you can handle Tartarus, you will not have any trouble whatever with the Full Moon bosses. On the other hand, the Tartarus bosses? They're nearly all ThatOneBoss, designed as [[BeefGate Beef Gates]] par excellence, and only get harder as you climb the tower - and LevelGrinding won't help you. And then just when you think that's the rule, there's the FinalBoss... who is a Full Moon boss, fought in Tartarus. And it is ThatOneBoss to end all [[ThatOneBoss Those One Bosses]] (unless you have [[GameBreaker Armageddon]]). [[NintendoHard It's a Megaten game.]]
** Pretty well justified, though - Full Moon bosses usually have decently long cutscenes between the last save point and the actual battle, while Tartarus bosses don't.
* The hyped but forgettable XBOX 360 game ''Two Worlds'' featured this due to its item combining mechanic. Duplicate weapons could be squashed together into one weapon with better stats, so those mid-level swords you find dozens of are really all pieces of the InfinityPlusOneSword. If you've done any side quests at all on your way to the boss (and it's pretty hard to avoid detouring through the gorgeous countryside), you'll probably kill the final boss in two hits. TheDragon right before the boss? Not so much.
[[/folder]]

* ''{{Ys}}: Oath in Felghana'' has this; most of the dungeons are relatively simple (although things toughen up towards the end), but bosses throughout are capable of slaughtering you within seconds if you aren't prepared.

* The ''FinalFantasy'' series varies widely, but the most pronounced example of BossDissonance would likely be ''FinalFantasyII''. Bosses are, with few exceptions, strategically simple to kill and not possessed of extraordinary strengths. The rest of the game is an [[FakeDifficulty infamous]] veritable [[NintendoHard nightmare]].

** A more FakeDifficulty example would be the Titular Final Boss's Second form, The Basis of the fight it to wait for Prime to Create a pool of Phazon and use the Phazon Beam on it, however, on hard it will delay this for minutes on end hoping to get a few hits in on it's Shockwave attack. And to make it worse, most players will be low on health after the first form and while the Shockwave is easy enough to dodge, it will end up spawning Metroids close to death allong with the Pool making getting a clear shot on it That much harder.
** ''Prime 3'' was likely developed with the same modus operandi: Most of the game is somewhat simple, but the bosses (especially the Leviathan Guardians) can be very difficult to beat. Averted with ''Prime 2'', however, which is NintendoHard from beginning to end.

** [=EXCEPT=] for Wiegraf/Belias. Even if you survive Wiegraf, Belias is tough.
*** Belias is accompanied by three particularly nasty [[EliteMooks Altima Demons]], though. He wouldn't be anywhere near as tough without them.

* In ''ArkhamCity'' you will be killed by random groups of street thugs more often then Mr. Freeze, [[spoiler: Solomon Grundy]], [[spoiler:Clayface]], [[Spoiler: Ras Al Ghul]], and [[Spoiler: Deadshot]] combined especially if you're playing on Hard.
* No gunslinger in RedDeadRedemption is as deadly as a pack of wolves or a solitary cougar.

[[AC:ActionGame]]
* ''BatmanArkhamAsylum'' is [[ZigZaggingTrope a weird, complicated example.]] Getting through the levels isn't too easy or too hard. The standard enemies, on the other hand, start off easy and get easier and easier as you get new abilities and gadgets... except for the knife-wielding ones. Until you figure them out... then there are the ones with guns, who are impossible to fight head-on... but incredibly easy to take out with stealth in most levels... then the ones with stun batons, who are really hard but pretty rare. Whew. Then you have the bosses, who span the difficulty scale from one end to the other, including two repeat bosses (both of whom are technically a PuzzleBoss and both use the same puzzle each time... kinda), one that gets ''easier'' every time, and one that might actually get ''harder'' every time. The former also takes to surrounding itself with the aforementioned enemies, including the easiest ones and the hardest ones, which means that the difficulty of the fight swings wildly ''throughout the fight...'' throw in [[spoiler:the Killer Croc]] for an AnticlimaxBoss and the first boss, which is a BreatherBoss that can ''kick the crap out of you anyway'' before it gets around to [[spoiler:dropping dead on its own]], and you have a game that has no idea how hard it's trying to be. [[ParanoiaFuel Do not let your guard down.]]
** Another interpretation is that the game knows exactly how hard it's trying to be, and only throws anticlimax sequences at you to lull you into a false sense of security. "Oh man, that last fight was a cakewalk, I guess I'm getting bett- *gets their ass kicked*"
** Or maybe seeing as the studio had only made one game before, they're not too good at it. Or the difficulty is thematically tied instead of how far into the game you are.
** The creators admitted that they created the bosses late in the creative process, so that might be a reason for it.

* A number of ''{{Earthbound}}'' bosses could be considered this; the Summers area is fairly easy and enemy-free, but if you attempt leaving it to go to the desert, you encounter the Kraken, who will be more than happy to completely tear your party apart with his tornado attack. The Giant Step cave is fairly easy, seeing as how all the enemies are basically vermin, but the giant ant at the end will (quite literally) chew you up and spit you out.
** ''{{Mother 3}}'' plays this straight; despite a few difficult parts, the mooks in most areas can just be plowed through with a minimum of thought. The bosses, on the other hand, will be more than happy to smash you into dust if you try to brute force them; you ''have'' to learn each party member's respective role or you won't make it past the first four chapters.

-->-- '''''{{Wiiviewer}}'' on ''ArcRiseFantasia'''''

* Boss fights in the entire {{Street Fighter}} series are hard. Akuma in ''Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo'' easily takes the cake as the hardest, although ''Street Fighter 1'' Sagat, ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' Final Bison and ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' Gill are also very hard. The fights before them are cakewalks, mostly.

* ''SengokuBasara'', being an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of ''SamuraiWarriors'', works the same way. Well, with the exception of [[JokeCharacter Nanoe Kanetsugu]], who is billed as a boss, has a health bar, an intro, and can be duelled in the third game, but has the health and damage of a regular {{mook}}. He's never anything more than a MidBoss, though.

* ''SengokuBasara'', being an AlternateCompanyEquivalent of ''SamuraiWarriors'', work the same way. Well, with the exception of [[JokeCharacter Nanoe Kanetsugu]], who is billed as a boss, has a health bar and can be duelled in the third game, but has the health and damage of a regular {{mook}}. He's never anything more than a MidBoss, though.

* ''Game/TheGodfather: The Game'', was like this, mostly because the only characters that could be considered to be bosses (stronger body armor, powerful weapons, pinpoint aim), also had the same weaknesses as the rest of the enemies (basically, headshot kills no matter what and the ability to waltz right up to them and choke them to death), and also took you on basically one on one, or with less minions, which meant a boss fight was much more favorable than the normal swarm of enemies coming to take you out.