History Main / BossDissonance

* The first ''{{Splatterhouse}}'' game has only two examples:

* ''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.

* ''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.

* ''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.
* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has seen both extremes and everything inbetween over its long existences in various shapes and forms.

* In ''MickeyMousecapade'', the shortest level in the game, the Pirate Ship, houses ThatOneBoss, Peg Leg Pete (Captain Hook in the Japanese version).

* The WebGame [[http://www.miniclip.com/games/zombo-buster-rising/en/ Zombo Buster Rising]] has rather easy levels as long as you grind for money and upgrade your characters. The boss on the other hand is ThatOneBoss who is simultaneously a DamageSpongeBoss, a FlunkyBoss, and a TimeLimitBoss (with a form of BossArenaUrgency) who will ''destroy'' you if you don't have a good strategy, even if you have upgraded everything.

* The WebGame [[www.miniclip.com/games/zombo-buster-rising/en/ Zombo Buster Rising]] has rather easy levels as long as you grind for money and upgrade your characters. The boss on the other hand is ThatOneBoss who is simultaneously a DamageSpongeBoss, a FlunkyBoss, and a TimeLimitBoss (with a form of BossArenaUrgency) who will ''destroy'' you if you don't have a good strategy, even if you have upgraded everything.

* The bosses in {{God Hand}} actually aren't that hard (Exception to Azel), all of them having easily abused patterns. Now the regular levels, on the other hand...

* ''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.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' 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.

* ''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.

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

** Successfully maneuvering the stages in ''VideoGame/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).

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' does this occasionally. The difficulty of a boss isn't necessarily determined by the amount of HitPoints or statistics they have, but primarily by their unit abilities and whether or not they can successfully CounterAttack. As a result, fighting such a boss will invariably lead to the next one being an AnticlimaxBoss and/or BreatherBoss. This leads to some interesting instances, such as the case in ''[[SuperRobotWarsAlpha Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden]]''. The penultimate boss is harder than the FinalBoss, despite being weaker than the latter simply because the FinalBoss has very limited ammunition for its attacks.
** ''SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' uses this as much as possible, though given its DynamicDifficulty, this trope is more or less invoked to give players a reprieve of a particularly hard, but potentially, [[MarathonLevel long]] scenario.

* ''VideoGame/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 ''[[VideoGame/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.

* ''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.
* ''TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' [[ZigzaggedTrope 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. There's also, of course, the fairly difficult first battle against The Imprisoned ''outside'' a dungeon. A DownplayedTrope in later dungeons, however: Notwithstanding Tentalus, 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 curve.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' the fandom is split between which is the pushover and which is the utter meatgrinder: [[ThatOneBoss Quick Man]][[hottip:*:veterans, who tend to relish in self-imposed challenges like no-damage runs, are nailed to the wall trying to decipher his AI pattern; newcomers inevitably tackle Quick Man last and just bull rush him whilst loaded up with Flash Stopper and E Tanks]], [[ThatOneLevel or his stage]][[hottip:*:newcomers are helplessly shredded by his barrage of instant death lasers, while veterans pretty much know the stage by heart]].

'''A SuperTrope to EasyLevelsHardBosses, HardLevelsEasyBosses.''' If a game is one or the other, place it there.

* ''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.

** 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.

* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' manages to have both types simultaneously. It just depends on how you actually approach the fight. All of the bosses are trivial if you know which weapons they are vulnerable, too. For example, the first boss can easily be eliminated by [[spoiler:throwing the barrels of poison gas lying around or 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.

* VideoGame/{{KidKool}} has levels that have [[FakeDifficulty blind jumps, water-hopping, fans that blow you around, cheap deaths, and awful controls]]. Th bosses are way too easy.

* ''[[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]].

** Doc Robot from ''VideoGame/MegaMan3'' 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!!!

* ''{{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.

** ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'' Quick Man is an utter pushover compared to his meatgrinder of a stage.
*** Except for people doing no damage runs, which, as pointed out [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDNEzzLPxIQ here]], makes Quick Man much harder than his stage.

* 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.

* ''{{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 ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' 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.