History Main / RouteBoss

* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters XI'': If you get certain special wins, you can fight [[VideoGame/BurikiOne Gai Tendo, Silber]], [[VideoGame/FuunSeries Sho Hayate, or Gyazu]]. If you can't do some of the requirements for some of them, you have to fight Abel (Rugal's son and FinalBoss of ''KOF 2003'') as an obligatory sub-boss.

*** BonusBoss Beelzebub cannot be fought in the Chaos route because he joins you.

Oftentimes the occurrence of these bosses depends on the player character's moral alignment--e.g. playing the "heroic" path will only let you fight villainous characters, and [[HeroAntagonist vice-versa]]. In other cases, they simply result from different paths sending the player to different areas--e.g. choosing to explore one area will you get one boss, while choosing a different area gets you a different boss.

*** The Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes have exclusive final bosses. Azure Moon ends with fighting Hegemon Edelgard, while Verdant Wind has Nemesis, who also brings along The Ten Elites to serve as minibosses on the final map.
*** Crimson Flower is the only route where Rhea appears as an enemy while in her human form, being the stage boss of the map directly after the plot branches, and also appearing in the penultimate map as part of a BossBonanza.
*** Dedue is fought on both Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, but in the former route, he has a unique demonic beast form.
*** Thales is actually fought on all routes except Crimson Flower, but Azure Moon is the only one where he's fought while he's disguised as Lord Arundel, which is notable as he fights in a completely different manner while in the disguise.
*** Crimson Flower and Silver Snow share a final boss, The Immaculate One, but the two fights are very different. Firstly, the minibosses are different, with Crimson Flower having Gilbert, Catherine, and Cyril, themselves exclusive bosses to that route, while Silver Snow has the route exclusive White Beasts. The Immaculate One also has different stats and skill sets in each version of their battle, with the Silver Snow version being generally weaker until she TurnsRed partway through.

Compare and contrast with SkippableBoss: In both cases, the boss is one that may or may not be fought, based on player actions. However, with a Route Boss being on the relevant route ''will'' result in the boss fight, while in SkippableBoss it may well be possible to turn away from the boss two steps from its arena.

** At Sky Battalion, Spade's fight in Lilac's story is replaced with a fight against Shuigang helicopter in Carol and Milla's stories. Instead, Spade is fought much later as a boss in Trap Hideout.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX2'', the player has the option whether or not to face the X-Hunters in the Maverick stages. If no, in the final level X has to fight a resurrected Zero before facing Sigma.
** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX3'', the Doppler stage bosses are different depending on how X deals with Bit, Byte, and Vile. If X kills both Bit and Byte by using their weaknesses against them before reaching the Doppler stages, then X will face Press Disposer instead of their FusionDance Godkarmachine O Inary. If X kills Vile with his weakness before Doppler, then he will face a Mosquitus MiniBoss, and in the same level Volt Kuragiel will be fought instead of Vile.

** Taking the BrutalBonusLevel Nightmare Areas in ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' would lead to a boss different from the eight main Bosses. Finishing once, the boss would be [[EvilKnockoff Nightmare Zero]] (which unlocks Zero as a playable character), beating a Nightmare Area a second time would lead to [[TheDragon High Max]] (unlocks the final levels), and on third and subsequent revisits it would be [[LoneWolfBoss Dynamo]] (a PinataEnemy due to how many Souls he yields each defeat).

*** The fourth stage has different bosses depending on the route Shadow takes. In The Doom, Neutral/Dark route stage, Shadow faces Heavy Dog, a ground-based G.U.N. mech. In Neutral/Hero route, Shadow faces Egg Breaker in the Mad Matrix. And in Pure Hero path, Shadow faces Black Bull again in the Death Ruins.

*** The final boss of each ending is determined by the mission Shadow completes on the sixth stage. Dark path pits Shadow against Sonic and Diablon, Neutral path pits Shadow against Eggman in Egg Dealer mech, while the Hero path has Shadow fight Black Doom.

*** In the final dungeon, the two leaders of the factions you didn't side with will fight you, while the leader of the faction you did side with is skipped. Additionally, only the hidden Neutral path gets to fight [[TrueFinalBoss Lucifer in his true form]]; he's limited to his first form in the Law and Chaos paths, and the normal Neutral path skips him entirely.

* ''Videogame/{{Deltarune}}''
** At one point, Susie and Lancer will have you make a machine for them to use against you, and you are given options on what type of machine it is (you can even make it a duck). However, when you finally confront your creation, Susie and Lancer blow it up and fight you themselves.
** Later played with in the second chapter. The chapter has a secret boss, like the first, and it's just as optional as Jevil, albeit a little less subtle in discovery. However, going down the [[EarnYourBadEnding Weird Route]] has them replace the chapter's usual final boss as a mandatory battle. The fight is almost exactly the same, until they reach critical health, though. The normal route, meanwhile, sees the Thrash Machine repaired and outfitted as part of a PuzzleBoss, the customizations made to it genuinely making a difference in the moves it uses against the players.

** In any Neutral route (any playthrough where you don't go to the True Lab), the last two bosses are Asgore, followed by Omega Flowey. It should be noted that you cannot fight the second one indefinitely; if you beat him in two playthroughs, he won't fight you again because he knows he'll lose, thus locking you out of the fight.
** If you ''do'' go through the True Lab, the fights against Asgore and Omega Flowey are skipped and instead you fight the God of Hyperdeath. This is also the route that unlocks the GoldenEnding.
** If you're going for endings such as the "no ruler" neutral ending or Genocide/No-Mercy run, you cannot [[SkippableBoss skip Muffet]].

*** Papyrus ''doesn't'' fight you, he just stands there. This is in sharp contrast to his WakeUpCallBoss status in all other routes.
*** MiniBoss Mad Dummy turns into Glad Dummy and also refuses to fight you.

*** Mettaton ditches the show-ratings thing and the EX form, and instead shows up in the NEO form. He goes down in one hit, which is far different from his ThatOneBoss EX fight.

* In ''VideoGame/DoDonPachi Resurrection'', each stage has two different midbosses depending on whether you fulfilled certain conditions in the previous stage or in the case of Stage 1, before the route split. The A-route midboss is an a boss original to this game, while the B-route midboss is one of the bosses from the original ''[=DoDonPachi=]''.

** Later played with in the second chapter. The chapter has a secret boss, like the first, and it's just as optional as Jevil, albeit a little less subtle in discovery. However, going down the [[CorruptTheCutie Weird Route]] has them replace the chapter's usual final boss as a mandatory battle. The fight is almost exactly the same, until they reach critical health, though. The normal route, meanwhile, sees the Thrash Machine repaired and outfitted as part of a PuzzleBoss, the customizations made to it genuinely making a difference in the moves it uses against the players.

* In ''Literature/DeathtrapDungeon'', in order to pass the Dwarf Trialmaster's test, you must enter an arena and, depending on the choices you make, fight either a [[ScaryScorpions giant scorpion]] or a [[ALoadOfBull Minotaur]], as one of two optional bosses, before completing the challenge.

** Later played with in the second chapter. The chapter has a secret boss, like the first, and it's just as optional as Jevil, albeit a little less subtle in discovery. However, going down the [[CorruptTheCutie Weird Route]] has them replace the chapter's usual final boss as a mandatory battle. The fight is almost exactly the same, until they reach critical health, though.