History Main / OptionalBoss

** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'': Consul X only appears in one cutscene of the main story, however, she can only be fought if the player goes through Eunie's Ascension Quest, where she is fought together with another boss. If this question was not completed, then the segment where the party finds and kills her in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeongets replaced by a minor fight with generic grunts.

** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'': Consul X only appears in one cutscene of the main story, however, she can only be fought if the player goes through Eunie's Ascension Quest, where she is fought together with another boss. If this question was not completed, then the segment where the party finds and kills her in the VeryDefinitiveFinalDungeon gets replaced by a minor fight with generic grunts.

* ''VideoGame/WakuWaku7'' and ''Galaxy Fight'', the two fighting games made by Creator/{{Sunsoft}} for the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo, shared a common bonus boss named "Bonus-Kun", a punching bag (from "[[PlanetOfHats the Punching Bag Planet]]") with a limited moveset who parodies [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]]. In ''Galaxy Fight'', [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu after you defeat Felden]], you get to fight a final Bonus Boss in the form of Rouwe, an old man dressed in a karate gi.

* The UsefulNotes/Xbox360 game ''VideoGame/BlueDragon'' has several Dragons that don't ''need'' to be beaten, but give the player a useful accessory if they are.

* ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'' has seven optional bosses: Persona, King Kelolon, the Cave Worm, the Blue Dragon, the Holy Beast, Legendary Spirit Sorcerer Fu, and The Immortal One in the Backyard. Players with access to UsefulNotes/{{XBox Live|Arcade}} can get a new downloadable dungeon with an extra boss [[spoiler:Professor K, aka The Killalon]].

* Ragu o Ragula is an optional boss in all of the ''VideoGame/WildArms'' games for UsefulNotes/PlayStation, [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]], and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]]. Angolmois also appears in some of them. In fact, the Wild [=ARMs=] games have many bonus bosses, often found [[SealedEvilinaCan sealed in crystals]] found throughout the game. Ragu o Ragula is neatly incorporated into all of these titles as the sleeping demon who is fated to destroy Filgaia, centuries after the conflict-of-the-day is finished off. Big extra credit for overachieving heroes. The other bonus bosses can range from CallBack characters, characters who are no longer a part of the main plot and have been more-or-less forgotten by the main cast, and [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext nudie mags]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Cuphead}}'':

* ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'':
** At the start of the game, before you board the Duel Express, you can visit [=KaibaCorp=] to find Rebecca trying to get back at Kaiba for tearing up her grandfather's copy of Blue-Eyes. Kaiba has no patience for this but lets you challenge her instead. However, because you've just started and your deck flat-out sucks, [[EarlyBirdBoss you'll be struggling due to lack of resources]].
** A sidequest, briefly available after restoring Obelisk, leads you to dueling the Big Five as part of a stage performance.
** If you visit Italy after Canada's been made available to you, you'll get to rematch Jean-Claude Magnum, who has a better deck than the first time. In this same time frame, you can also find Tea worrying about fortune-telling, and have to fend off Johnny Steps and Crump back-to-back.
* In ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Duel Academy'' there is an event where you can challenge and duel Pharaoh, Dr. Banner's cat. To do so, you must be a member of the Slifer dorm, and have defeated Jaden, Syrus, Chumley and Banner three times each. If you then talk to Banner on a Saturday, you can duel Pharaoh, and get a card afterwards. (Panther Warrior for winning, Bone Mouse for losing, and Outstanding Dog Marron for drawing).

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 2'' has Roger the kangaroo, who appears in the fourth stage if you beat the third stage with low enough health to get a "Great!" from the announcer. Beating him and the rest of Arcade Mode will unlock him and his MovesetClone Alex, who is a dinosaur.
* In ''Tekken 6'', there's Nancy. She's one of several [[HumongousMecha giant robots]] developed by the Mishima Zaibatsu, perhaps to combat [[BigBad Azazel]], who [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers is finally free after 10,000 years.]] Her appearance is sort of a BigLippedAlligatorMoment in that you get rewards for beating her but if you don't, it has absolutely no bearing on your progress and you don't get the option of fighting her again without restarting. [[spoiler:She is playable, but only in one level of Scenario Campaign.]]
* The ''VideoGame/VirtualOn'':

* The mainstream ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros.''

* ''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3'': Hinyari is located in [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Sherbet Land.]] Amusingly, you can just walk right out of the battlefield through a conveniently placed door.

* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos Origins'': [[spoiler:Nasca, Valara, Heughes, and Wiseman]] are optional bosses fought to tie up loose ends; one of them allows access to the game's TrueFinalBoss. There's also Arma Prototype M, a.k.a. The Wicked Gawd, who is the final boss of the Coliseum and is ''absurdly'' hard.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'': Returning to Bowser's castle as Mario and Luigi and solving the cold-storage vault puzzle using hints scattered along the path to said vault let's the bros fight three Shroobs. They do a lot of damage but have relatively small health and simple attack patterns. Defeating them rewards the bros with the powerful Magic Window attack.

* ''VideoGame/PaperMario'':
** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'':
*** Atomic Boo, fought in Creepy Steeple if you enter the main hall and take the Spin Hammer attack to the swarms of Boos enough times. He isn't particularly hard, but knowing he even exists is a bit of a GuideDangIt.
*** Bonetail, the oldest and strongest of the Shadow Queen's three dragons, is the boss of the optional Pit of 100 Trials.
** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'':
*** You can rematch Francis, Chapter 3's boss, in the final chapter's second episode if you tell Mimi (disguised as Merlon) that you fear him most.
*** Both Flipside and Flopside Pit of 100 Trails are optional dungeons just like its predecessor, so you can expect their respective bosses, Wracktail (a stronger version of Fracktail) and Shadoo (taking on darker forms of the heroes: Luigi, Bowser, Peach, and Mario respectively), to be optional bosses as well. Shadoo takes it up a notch where you have to do the ''entire dungeon again'' to fight it.
*** After you beat the game, Sammer's Kingdom is restored, which means you get to finally have a chance to do the entire Duel of 100 — culminating in End Boss as the last Sammer Guy you get to defeat to win the ultimate prize.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' has three:
** Tiny martial arts master Jinx, who you can fight three times after defeating his apprentice, Jagger, each fight harder than the last. The boss lives in Monstro Town.
** Mokura, a green cloud miniboss that may appear in Land's End or Belome's Temple, dodges the player unless they track the boss down, and has two forms.
** The game's {{Superboss}}: the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' ShoutOut Culex, a powerful magic-using entity from another dimension who attacks using four elemental crystals and is harder than the game's FinalBoss. It too lives in Monstro Town.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': One long sidequest chain [[SidequestSidestory with its own story]] that covers almost half of the game leads to a bonus boss. Though this one is not overleved, it stands out because the quests that lead to it can be [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost forever]], the battle is under a tune only reserved for a few select {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s, and [[spoiler:the boss is one of the [=NPC=]s involved in the sidequest chain: Bana, the Nopon Kingpin.]]
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': [[DualBoss Neilnail Albus and Neilnail Furvus]], a pair of [[MiniMecha Skells]] fought in the 'Twin Dolls of Mystery' Time Attack mission, were originally supposed to be a story boss, but that plot thread was scrapped. They're still present in the game to be fought optionally, because defeating them yields unique items necessary to craft Level 60 Skells, among them the powerful Ares 90.

** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU'': Depending on which path you choose after defeating Morton Koopa in Layer-Cake Desert, you can complete the main game without either taking on Larry Koopa in Sparkling Waters or Wendy Koopa in Frosted Glacier, as both victories result in Soda Lake being unlocked, starting with the game's first airship level and boss fight with Bowser Jr.

** The Watcher's Keep is an extra content with a series of dungeons ending in the possible confrontation with Demogorgon. Since you can seal the demon forever rather than undergo a very difficult battle, this is a [[Metatrope trope within a trope]], in that it is a [[SkippableBoss skippable]] optional boss.

** There's also an optional (and completely story-irrelevant) fight against some demon knights in the Underdark.

* The ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' [[GameMod ROM Hack]] VideoGame/EquestriaBound has a few optional bosses, who always drop the parties {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s. According to the hack creator, this was to prevent [[RareRandomDrop Sword of Kings]] situations.

** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': Atomic Boo, fought in Creepy Steeple if you enter the main hall and take the Spin Hammer attack to the swarms of Boos enough times. He isn't particularly hard, but knowing he even exists is a bit of a GuideDangIt.
** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'': You can rematch Francis, Chapter 3's boss, in the final chapter if you tell Mimi (disguised as Merlon) that you fear him most.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': The Champions' Ballad DLC is an involved quest administered by one of the Sheikah monks, mirroring your journey in the main game by adding new trials to the key areas on the map. After going around Hyrule and completing several tests, a new dungeon opens up. [[spoiler: The monk, Maz Koshia is at the end, and looks like any of the other inanimate mummified monks, giving the typical speech once Link reaches the end of a shrine. But then he starts ''moving'', tells you he has a final test, and teleports you both into a boss arena--he is your opponent. Maz Koshia turns out to be the most challenging boss in the game (more than ''[[FinalBoss Calamity Ganon]]''), borrowing from many previous bosses and tough enemies while adding tricks of his own. For a shriveled mummy, he's pretty strong, with a lot of health, hard-hitting attacks, and multiple phases that keep you constantly on your feet. Hearts, armor, food buffs, and the upgrades to your Champion powers obtained during the DLC certainly help, but even so, they still don't make him easy.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' has the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series's first bonus boss. If you play the post-credits sequence for 100% and the extra ending, you have to butt heads with [[spoiler:Phantoon from ''Super Metroid'', who not only has new powers, but is also much scarier-looking than before. For technical reasons (namely the absence of items and thus the impossibility of a PlayableEpilogue), the Phantoon fight was intentionally left out of Hard Mode.]]