History Main / MarathonBoss

* ''{{Persona 4}}'' is similar. All of the major bosses tend to take upwards of ten minutes to defeat, but all of the bosses near the end of the game can take anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour to finish off. The last boss is guaranteed to take ''at least'' one hour.

-_>what is with all these heads and where do you get off being so impossible anyway. we spent more than half the game fighting you.

->what is with all these heads and where do you get off being so impossible anyway. we spent more than half the game fighting you.

* Non-game example: the fight against DMK in ''ProblemSleuth'' takes up nearly half of the entire series. It's a deliberate parody of JRPG boss fights though, so it's heavily [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] of course.

* ''FinalFantasyVI'' has Kefka, who has four forms. Mild, but still annoying. By the way, you'll spend time healing after his Fallen One attack.

** BonusBoss NemesisL 10 million HP.

** The emperor bulblax in ''Pikmin 1'' was even worse, if only because you had a limited time before you have to go back to your ship.

* Elizabeth Greene in ''{{Prototype}}''. Depending on how you've set up Alex and how you use artillery,tanks, and helicopters, you can potentially take down Greene in, oh, say, fifteen minutes of continious pounding.

{{Boss Battle}}s are supposed to be ''hard'', which does not exactly equate to "taking a really long time to beat." That doesn't stop developers, though. Some bosses really do take a long time to beat, whether they trump your party so much that you take time to heal wounds mid-fight (or they heal their own wounds mid-fight), or the bosses themselves have so much health that your 16-hit [[{{Cap}} 9999-per-hit]] attack equates to you sneezing on it. Or [[ThatOneBoss both,]] if the developers really hate you. If the fight lasts over the time of most TV shows (around an hour, at least), they fit this trope.

Can be related to SequentialBoss, as while one part of the boss isn't long, all the parts together ''are'', and/or FakeDifficulty, as developers sometimes make bosses difficult just by giving them a huge amount of HP. Has a good chance of happening with [[FinalBoss Final]] and {{Bonus Boss}}es. See the MarathonLevel for the level version of this, which may well have a MarathonBoss at the end.

* ''MegaMan 9'' plays with this trope. One of the achievements there can be gotten only after fighting a boss for at least 10 minutes and win.

* Yiazmat in ''FinalFantasyXII'' (see image above) regularly takes players as much as 12 hours to kill, thanks to its astronomical 50 million HP. (You're allowed to leave and come back.)
** The [[UpdatedRerelease International]] [[NoExportForYou version]] nerfs him a bit by making him vulnerable to the four "Break" abilities. Allowing you to reduce his stats greatly. Combine that with the fact that the damage cap is removed (So you can do more than 9999 damage per attack) and he goes down much easier.

* The final boss in ''{{Persona 3}}'' is the [[SequentialBoss "lots of smaller fights in a row"]] variant. Unless you're insane enough to [[LevelGrinding build everyone to Level 99]], in which case... fifteen minutes. Less if you have Armageddon.
** The battle against [[spoiler:Fortune and Strength]] probably qualifies, too, though it pales in comparison, typically lasting a mere half hour or so.
*** On the other hand, you can easily manipulate [[spoiler:Fortune]] into casting the fear status on itself and its partner, leaving both succeptible to Ghastly Wail, 1-hit-killing anyone in the field with Fear. Takes all of 1 minute, two if you mess up.

* ''DragonQuestVIII'' features a FinalBoss where before you could even ''attack'', you had to use a special item ''seven times''. Moreover, you're being attacked the whole time, and pretty much have to heal every other turn. ''Then'' comes the absurdly large health meter - and this boss has a habit of healing himself regularly, stretching it out even further.
** Let's not forget that the item you mentioned has to be used by ''all 4 members of your team'' in the same round to have an effect. That means you're forced to drag it out even ''longer'' because when one person has to stop to heal the team, the other three have to waste their turns as well, since the item won't work if all 4 people aren't using the item.
*** but worst of all after you beat this boss and a ton of bonus boss forms the ultimate battle of ultimate battleness is when you have to fight all these forms in a row ( they're already hard on they're own)
* ''DragonQuestIV'' does this. [[spoiler:Necrosaro/Psaro the Manslayer]] refuses to die. He will transform six times for a whopping seven forms. His fourth form, the one where he finally gets serious, has the most HP and he constantly spams a healing technique. DragonQuestIV's final fight can be boiled down to whether he runs out of HP before your healers run out of MP.
* Elizabeth Greene in ''{{Prototype}}''.
** Depending on how you've set up Alex and how you use artillery,tanks, and helicopters, you can potentially take down Greene in, oh, say, fifteen minutes of continious pounding.

* TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker: While not an actual boss, you have the option to train with Orca in a sparring match where you have to hit him as many times as you can before getting struck 3 times. If you manage to hit him 1000 times, he will stop the fight and cry with pride over your unrivaled awesomeness. He even lampshades it afterwards by asking you if your left index finger is numb. (which after holding onto the lock-on key for about 30 minutes, it usually is)

* As well as (also optional) Omega Weapon in ''FinalFantasyVIII'', though considering the GameBreaker potential in the game, this might not be the case.
** Because monster difficulty in VIII is [[DynamicDifficulty scaled to the character levels]], while damage is capped at 9999 per hit, any boss can be a MarathonBoss if you LevelGrind before reaching it. On the other hand, since a character's combat power [[GameBreaker isn't linked to their level]], a LowLevelRun can make any boss battle trivial.
*** Perhaps that explains why [[BigBad Ultimecia]] also took over an hour to kill.
*** Ultimecia really deserves special mention. There are two abilities that can break the standard cap of 9999 damage, and both are fairly hard to get, so you'll probably be damaging at or below that cap with every attack. The "Regen" spell heals you by a small amount every once in a while, apparently a set fraction of your maximum health. When you cast Regen on yourself with a maximum health of 9999 HP, that being another cap, the healing is still in the double digits. If Ultimecia's second form casts Regen, it'll heal itself in the high quadruple digits. Ultimecia has four forms. Have "fun."
**** [[UselessUsefulSpell Cast Dispel on her?]]
* In ''FinalFantasyIX'', the optional MarathonBoss was Ozma.
** In this case, it's because the Ozma challenge was a GuideDangIt, ThatOneBoss BonusBoss LuckBasedMission, in which you would spend more time healing, reviving and waiting to counter its attacks than actually dealing much damage. With a mere 65000 HP, Ozma can be taken down with less than nine hits, but that's before he casts [[StandardStatusEffects Curse]], followed by [[TotalPartyKill Meteor]].
* The optional boss Nemesis from ''FinalFantasyX'': 10 million HP.

** As well as many of the Dark Aeons and the mother of all [[BonusBoss bonus bosses]], Penance from ''FinalFantasyX International''.
*** The weakest of the Dark Aeons has around 1 million HP. Dark Anima has 8 million HP (the highest of the Dark Aeons). Penance tops that with ''12 million HP''. And unlike some of the marathon bosses, all of them are '''hard'''.
*** There's a video of the Penance fight on Youtube. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVYjVrEgCkA It's just under 49 Minutes long.]]
** Lest we forget Angru Mainya from X-2, if you're not using Cat Nip.
*** A joke compared to the BonusBoss Trema, who has 999999 HP, which is insane considering his defense. Funnily, he still goes down easier than [[ThatOneBoss Paragon]] that ''he killed in the pre-fight cutscene''.

** Also, the Elite Four are invariably a chain of Marathon Bosses, especially if you count the slog through Victory Road. Unless you should be lucky enough to have brought Pokemon that have a) speed like Suicune on steroids b) supereffective attacks against all opponents and c) a several-level advantage, you will be at it for quite a while.
*** Luckily, the game ''does'' let you save and heal in between each boss.
*** If by 'heal' you mean use healing items. Once you start against the Elite Four, there's no [[TraumaInn Pokemon Center]] for you to access.

** You're on your own for the ships leading up to it, but against Sa-Matra itself, the [[NotCompletelyUseless P'kunk Fury]] can deal with it rather swiftly.
*** The Sa-Matra is a piece of cake once you realize that you're supposed to use the ships which the sorta-optional plot development gives you right before the fight. Using most other ships is a right pain.
* Arg.... ''FullMetalAlchemist and the Broken Angel'', for the PS2. Practically every boss-fight is like this. Espcially the endgame, where you have to [[spoiler: fight THREE giant chimeras at the same time, one of which heals itself, then fight two MORE bosses with no refuel (Though, these two are a bit easier once you figure them out.) And then, TWO MORE bosses. While winning the last one is optional,]] it makes it pretty darn hard to achieve OneHundredPercentCompletion.
** This deserves further clarification: the abovementioned optional fight is against [[spoiler:Colonel Mustang and Major Armstrong simultaneously. They have 6999 and 9999 health respectively, and your regular attacks do ''one damage'' per hit.]] DeathOfAThousandCuts indeed. The kicker? You need to do this fight ''twice'' to get 100% completion, because the fight ends before you can grab the item drop from whichever one you beat second.

* ''ShinMegamiTensei Nocturne'' has [[spoiler: Noah who likes to change what he takes damage from and is one of the few things resistant to almighty spells so if you don't have demons with multiple elemental attacks you will have a long ass battle, and even if you do its still going to take awhile.]]
** While he doesn't take as long as some of these other examples [[spoiler: Hitoshura himself]] in Digital Devil Saga takes around 30 minutes to beat ''at least.'' It doesn't help that he is ''extremely'' difficult where, if you are unlucky, you can wipe at any time (and ''not'' from [[ThatOneAttack Gaea Rage]])

* All of Monster Hunter. Almost every mission is a boss fight, and while the earlier ones can take 10-15 minutes, the end game bosses can take up to 45 minutes (it actually has a time limit in this case), and some of these are even with four hunters hitting it.
* SquareEnix really seems to like these. The Tonberrys of the {{Final Fantasy}} series are marathon ''random encounter'' monsters. They're little and cute and they don't attack for several turns, but their ridiculously high HP makes it almost impossible to kill them before they reach you. And once they do ... ow.
* The TrueFinalBoss of NoMoreHeroes, [[spoiler:Henry]], on [[IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels Bitter difficulty]], can take nearly a ''thousand'' hits before dying.
** And that's not even mentioning the fact that you generally can do less than ''ten'' hits off a ''dark step'' (the timing for which is tighter in this fight than in any other in the game). Trying to exploit his normal openings will land you ''maybe'' three hits at a time, and a high chance of getting countered by something nasty.
* The BonusBoss in ShadowHearts that is required for the GoodEnding is a real grind. It's not particularly challenging, as its attacks don't vary much, but the fact that you have to fight it with only one character, who takes all the damage and has to do all his own healing, can make the fight last half an hour or more.
** Are you sure? The mask boss Atman is an UnWinnable HopelessBossFight if you only have [[spoiler:[[TheMedic Alice]]]]. You need to do a GuideDangIt SideQuest to have [[spoiler:Yuri]] join. At which point the fight is winnable. Hard, and definitely a LONG slog, but winnable. If you include the hoop-jumping required to actually ''win'' this fight, it becomes a double-marathon boss.

* Fallout 3 has this in some of the expansion packs, although with new high level creatures rather than bosses. There are now ghouls that can take several dozen shots to the head from the strongest weapons in the game and not flinch.

** Arguably, every Extra boss in the Touhou series is relatively guilty of this. The only thing that really puts Yukari in a league of her own is her final card/attack, Danmaku Bounded Field. She's invincible during the whole thing, and it lasts for a minute and a half. Have fun.
*** Even better, the timer for her last card stops any time you die or bomb until your invincibility wears off, unlike every other time-out card in the entire series. Have fun, indeed.
** Typically the last spellcard in any game is absurdly long. The average spellcard lasts about 15-20 seconds, 45 if you're going for the timeout. Final spellcards can last ''two and a half minutes.'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MR9jOpH94&fmt=22 Kanako Yasaka's final card is particularly terrifying.]]
*** Once again, Yukari takes the cake. Her [[BonusBoss optional]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKz5BJXWDYQ&fmt=22 Last Word spellcard]] in ''Imperishable Night'' is an extended version of the aforementioned last spellcard in ''PCB''. Except you're not even allowed to bomb ''at all.''
* Since [[DotHack the .hack// games]] try to emulate an MMO, they had to include a couple of these bosses. For instance: most of the Phases, in particular Macha, Corbenik (the FinalBoss), and Skeith, the last of which is arguably the hardest boss in the ''series'', and especially the final Cubia fight, in which you fight your way through three of his "Cores", with each having more health than the last. Then you get to fight Cubia proper... and he fully regenerates his health once you kill him. So you get to kill him ''again''... and then he regenerates ''again'', at which point the plot takes over and he's killed in a different way.

* The {{Bonus Boss}}es from ''DigitalDevilSaga'' [[spoiler: Demi-fiend/Hitoshura and Satan]] will each take about 30 minutes each ''at least''. They're also HarderThanHard, being ruthlessly hard even by MegaTen standards.

* SuperRobotWars games have a bad habit of this. The worst offenders are probably the OriginalGeneration games. In OG2, any boss worth mentioning is going to have over 100,000 HP, and the last few stages will have [[SequentialBoss lots of them in a row]]. All of the last three stages (four if you face the TrueFinalBoss) are going to have over a million HP's worth of bosses, and that doesn't even include {{Mooks}}' HP.

* Dark Gaia, final boss of SonicUnleashed will force the player through multiple rounds of at least three different, yet similarly difficult styles of gameplay that must be executed with near flawless percision to win. Mercifully, the game marks each genre change as a checkpoint of sorts, meaning that deaths aren't ''too'' frustrating.

{{Boss Battle}}s are supposed to be ''hard''. This does not exactly equate to "a really long time", however. It doesn't stop developers, though. Some bosses really do take a long time to beat, whether they trump your party so much that you take time to heal wounds mid-fight (or they heal their own wounds mid-fight), or the bosses themselves have so much health that your 16-hit [[{{Cap}} 9999-per-hit]] attack equates to you sneezing on it. Or [[ThatOneBoss both,]] if the developers really hate you. If the fight lasts over the time of most TV shows (around an hour, at least), they fit this trope.

* Bosses in the first two ''{{Ys}}'' games get most of their difficulty from this trope. In the first game, you're evidently supposed to fight the final boss at level 24 (that being the {{Cap}} in the [[VideoGameRemake remake]]), but old walkthroughs generally recommend level 40 so you're killing him by a method other than DeathOfAThousandCuts. It's a bit harder to tell what level you're supposed to be at for the second game's fights, but killing every {{Mook}} you see, then consistently hitting the boss with fully powered-up attacks, leaves you doing so little damage that you need to hit the bosses twice to even notice a change in their screen-spanning life bars.

*''KingdomHearts: ChainOfMemories'' has Ansem, the final boss of the [[AnotherSideAnotherStory Reverse/Rebirth mode]]. Most bosses have two, maybe three health bars. He has ''four''. [[MostAnnoyingSound Add the taunts]] to further madden players...

* The BigBad Primagen in ''Turok 2: Seeds of Evil'' already has a ton of HP, and also has an annoying regeneration ability that can draw out the fight even longer.