History Main / SeeminglyHopelessBossFight

** In the Ultimate raid "The Unending Coil of Bahamut", Bahamut uses Gigaflare multiple times, which deals heavy damage to the entire party. So you can imagine what happens when '''Teraflare''' is used after a long charge, and Nael deus Darnus is preventing you from mitigating the damage. Everyone dies. If you ''actually'' passed the phase by dealing enough damage to Twintania and Nael while Bahamut was readying the attack, Bahamut uses the attack anyway, only this time, the Phoenix arrives and resurrects the entire party with a damage buff. [[RageBreakingPoint Bahamut isn't too happy about that]].
** In the final boss of the "''Endwalker''" expansion, [[spoiler:the Endsinger forms a massive planet-like rock before hurling it at the party. If you have your LimitBreak ready, then a Tank can consume it to ensure the party survives through what is established to be the literal power of hope and strong emotion. Turns out the boss can just rewind that anyway and send another one hurling at you, leaving you to take the full brunt of it as your party is hopeless to respond. That is, until the prayers of your comrades form a protective barrier around you and your party, absorbing the attack.]]

If a boss ''seems'' hopeless, but actually requires a trick to defeat it, that's a PuzzleBoss, not this trope. Contrast HeadsIWinTailsYouLose, an inversion where the boss must be beaten but the player still loses in the following cutscene.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'', Bowser's Star Rod is powered up by Kammy Koopa's special arena, rendering the Star Beam useless and Bowser invincible until the Star Beam is powered up by Peach and Twink.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', the Shadow Queen is invincible upon going OneWingedAngel and revealing her true form. After a few rounds of futile attacks, the Crystal Stars go to the places Mario visited and serve as a conduit for all the [=NPCs=] to cheer Mario on in his final battle. The Shadow Queen is weakened by ThePowerOfFriendship and rendered vulnerable to Mario's attacks.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', there are two Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fights in immediate succession, separated only by a cutscene. First, [[BigBad Count Bleck]] is impervious to all damage until Mario's companions arrive, giving the Pure Hearts the power to nullify Bleck's invincibility. After Bleck is defeated, [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan Dimentio]] merges with Luigi and the Chaos Heart to become [[OneWingedAngel Super Dimentio]], who is also invincible thanks to the Pure Hearts' power having already been used against Bleck. The Pure Hearts are restored by the powers of [[ThePowerOfLove love]] and [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]], however, and Super Dimentio is also rendered vulnerable to damage.

** Neutral: Double Subverted. [[spoiler:While the battle against [[EldritchAbomination Photoshop]] [[OneWingedAngel Flowey]] seems like a hopeless GroundhogDayLoop at first, eventually the souls he's using for power start helping you instead, providing you health and weakening his defense. After the player beats him however, he loads FILE 3, a file he saved at the beginning of the fight, restoring his and the player's health. He then kills them and then reload the save file 32 times in rapid succession. He then surrounds the player with bullets, gloats and tries to finish the player off for good with them. They heal the player when they collide with them. Flowey tries to load another save file, but he finds out he can't. The SOULs exit him and rebel against him. Flowey turns back into his normal self.]]

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* In a case that's very faithful to the source material, ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarLostParadise'' has the boss fight against Thouzer. At first, the best that can be done to him is ScratchDamage, as Hokuto Shinken techniques appear to barely have any effect, and he does highly-damaging Nanto Ho-Ohken techniques. Midway through the fight, Kenshiro figures out his secret (dextrocardia) and strikes his inverted pressure points to injure him in a cutscene. From that point onwards, your attacks become much more effective.

[[folder:Light Gun Game]]

* ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'': Temperance in the fourth game, which chases you throughout the London level. His absolutely massive {{Kevlard}} absorbs literally everything you throw at him, and your only hope is to repeatedly shoot him in the face, but even after firing what seems like a thousand shots your bullets still fail to leave a single dent in Temperance's life bar. But then, as you make your way up the Tower of London, Temperance follows you from the outside, at which point if you survive long enough you will trigger a cutscene causing a clock-face to drop on Temperance's skull, crushing the otherwise invincible monster.

* ''VideoGame/CopyKitty'':
** Phoenix Yoggval has an annoying tendency to repeatedly come BackFromTheDead numerous times in the same fight. Just when it seems Boki's finally destroyed it for good, it suddenly comes back ''again'' with a massive power boost, features faster and stronger attacks, and on top of that, [[InterfaceScrew Boki's cursed]], reversing the player's movement, all but ensuring it'll completely destroy her. The game lingers on Boki's death animation for a few seconds before revealing that, on top of [[PowerCopying copying his attacks]], Boki also copied his ability to [[CameBackStrong Come Back Strong]], and the CurbStompBattle flips to Boki's favor as she not only easily crushes Phoenix Yoggval one more time, but also destroys the artifact that keeps raising him. The game also subverts the contrivences many games fall into with the trope. In a display of DevelopersForesight, if you reach the aforementioned phase with less than 20 HP remaining, the game will grant you the HP boost, just to let you live long enough to experience the desperation. If you're sufficiently skilled however, and [[NoDamageRun avoid taking any damage]] up until the third attack in its last phase, the game skips the pretence and simply grants you the upgraded powers.
** A more traditional example can be found in the FinalBoss of Boki's Normal campaign. After getting a handle on the battle with [[EliteMook Supreme Thremnat]], he'll create a shield that while not invulnerable to her attacks, won't damage him. Tiring of the fight, Supreme simply [[NoKillLikeOverkill blasts Boki with his massive rainbow laser]]. Only when the blast clears is it revealed Boki copied the same shield, evaded his attack, and now not only has access to the same shield, but an upgraded shot and the same laser-blasting GrappleMove that's been a source of massive damage. [[CatharsisFactor Have fun]].

* In the first major boss battle of ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', Luke and Tear battle the Liger Queen, with levels in the low single digits. It looks like they're finished halfway through, but then in comes Jade Curtiss, who is [[ATasteOfPower level 45]], and smokes the boss on his own. (In the anime adaptation of the game, he just [[OneHitKO one-shots the boss]] with [[ShockAndAwe Indignation]].)
* The final boss fight of VideoGame/BakuganDefendersOfTheCore is Maxus Helios, who is immune to your hits due to siphoning energy from the Earth’s core. Then the core’s embodiment Abyss tells you to destroy the crystal created from her corrupted energy, which is a deliberate AntiClimaxBoss (in that you cannot be hit back), which weakens Maxus Helios so that Maxus Dragonoid is once more a match for it.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', Bowser’s Star Rod is powered up by Kammy Koopa’s special arena, rendering the Star Beam useless and Bowser invincible until the Star Beam is powered up by Peach and Twink.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', the Shadow Queen is invincible upon going OneWingedAngel and revealing her true form. After a few rounds of futile attacks, the Crystal Stars go to the places Mario visited and serve as a conduit for all the [=NPCs=] to cheer Mario on in his final battle. The Shadow Queen is weakened by ThePowerOfFriendship and rendered vulnerable to Mario's attacks.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', there are two Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fights in immediate succession, separated only by a cutscene. First, [[BigBad Count Bleck]] is impervious to all damage until Mario's companions arrive, giving the Pure Hearts the power to nullify Bleck's invincibility. After Bleck is defeated, [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan Dimentio]] merges with Luigi and the Chaos Heart to become [[OneWingedAngel Super Dimentio]], who is also invincible thanks to the Pure Hearts' power having already been used against Bleck. The Pure Hearts are restored by the powers of [[ThePowerOfLove love]] and [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]], however, and Super Dimentio is also rendered vulnerable to damage.
* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', they play with this a bit in the FinalBoss fight against Cackletta. It starts with [[HPTo1 the bros at 1 HP]] forcing you to heal first. In a twist, her speed stat is high enough to the point where it's highly likely she will attack first, meaning that the player has to survive her initial [[AlphaStrike barrage of attacks]] with a maximum of just 2 HP in total.

* ''VideoGame/BravelySecond'' opens InMediasRes with the battle against The Kaiser Oblivion. Your attacks do nothing, and the Kaiser inflicts a TotalPartyKill with his first attack. This would appear to be a standard HopelessBossFight, but after you unlock NewGamePlus, [[spoiler: you can use [[TitleDrop Bravely Second]] to win the fight, [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and completely derail the game's plot.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' plays with this on two occasions.
** In Chapter 5, Rean challenges Victor S. Arseid, the Radiant Blademaster, to a duel. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration Fittingly for someone considered the strongest swordsman in the Empire]], Victor is so powerful a decently-leveled Rean can barely even do ScratchDamage to him. Then Rean triggers his SuperpoweredEvilSide, which strengthens him to the point he can ''damage'' Victor... but not enough to actually ''win''. The point of the battle was for Rean to learn to accept and control this power.
** The final battle is a BossRush against three HumongousMecha. The first is a standard boss fight (in fact it's a little on the easy side), but the second throws up a shield that nullifies all attacks, forcing Rean to summon his ''own'' recently-acquired HumongousMecha to even the odds. This results in an UnexpectedGameplayChange and an actually winnable fight. The actual FinalBoss right after, however, is a case of HeadsIWinTailsYouLose, setting up a {{Cliffhanger}} for the sequel.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', [[spoiler: Izanami will cease taking damage once her HP is low enough and will unleash an unavoidable OneHitKill, killing the player’s party members one by one until everyone is dead. The player character is roused back to action, however, by the people he has formed Social Links with over the course of the game, gaining the ultimate attack to defeat Izanami and bring back his fallen companions]].
** In ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'', a similar sequence happens when fighting the final boss [[spoiler:Enlil]]; [[spoiler: When her OneWingedAngel form's HP is low enough, she will prevent the party from making any more moves and remove them at first one at a time, then everyone else after removing two party members, only leaving the party's combat support in the battlefield. Then in all of a sudden, Hikari steps in and tries to persuade her with her words alone, which take the form of support skills that appear to have no effect. Since Enlil somehow still considers Hikari a friend, she chastises her after the first support skill used, then does absolutely nothing. After three turns, the P3 male protagonist, P3 female protagonist, P4 hero and Joker answered to Hikari and returned, finally finishing Enlil off with a single Unison attack.]]
** It should also be worthy to note that [[spoiler:Enlil]] shares [[BlueAndOrangeMorality similar moral grounds]] and mythological status as [[spoiler:Izanami]].
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' has a non-FinalBoss version - the fight against Cognitive [[spoiler:Wakaba]] in Futaba's Palace. The first phase is impossible, as you cannot use attacks which do an adequate amount of damage[[note]]she takes 5x damage from Physical attacks and very little damage from Gun and magic attacks; even in ''Royal'', where she also takes 5x damage from Gun attacks, only Joker has access to Gun skills at this point, and actual guns have even more limited ammo than they did in the original due to [[AuthorsSavingThrow them being refilled after each fight]][[/note]] because she's too far away for them to connect. As if being unable to do decent damage wasn't bad enough, she ''then'' uses a combo best described as the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' move Fly on steroids - Rapid Ascent and Sphinx Dive, where she spends several turns in the air out of range of ''everything'', then slams into the entire party. The first phase ends with Morgana admitting that countering this is beyond his capabilities. [[spoiler:Then Futaba, who has ''entered her own Palace'', blunders into the battle and overcomes the gaslighting that created the monstrosity, resulting in her awakening to a Persona - one perfectly suited to MissionControl. Oh, and she's effectively a RealityWarper as long as she's in this world because it's [[MentalWorld basically made out of her mind]]. Not only can she tell when a Sphinx Dive is imminent, allowing the party to adequately prepare, she wishes a ballista into existence, allowing the party to shoot Cognitive Wakaba down during a Rapid Ascent, thereby preventing a Sphinx Dive and trapping her in range of physical attacks for a few turns.]]
*** Even before this, in Kamoshida's Palace, the party (at this point just Joker and Morgana) are drawn into a fight against a pair of Shadows that overpower them and knock them to the ground. During the following cutscene, Ryuji awakens his own Persona in time to save them from execution. You then fight the same Shadows again, and you quickly figure out that they're weak to Electric attacks, which Ryuji's Persona just happens to have.
*** Later, [[spoiler:much like in ''Persona 4'', once the FinalBoss Yaldaboth is nearly dead, he unleashes an attack that immediately ends the battle. In the cutscene that follows, ThePowerOfFriendship restores the public's belief in the Phantom Thieves, giving them their HeroicSecondWind and allowing Joker to evolve Arsene into Satanael, whose ultimate attack allows Joker to finish off Yaldaboth.]]

* Ight in ''Videogame/BreathOfFireIV'' is completely impossible to damage at first due to carrying a very large shield. Once Ryu is knocked unconscious, however, he will transform into the Kaiser Dragon and unleash Kaiser Breath twice; Ight's shield is obliterated the first turn, then Ight the second.
* In ''Videogame/NiNoKuni'', the second round against the boss Vileheart is fought without Oliver; the goal is to survive long enough for Oliver to have a BigDamnHeroes moment and join the fight with his new [[LightEmUp Mornstar]] spell, which makes the third round considerably easier.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': The fight against Kon goes very badly at first, with his shield shrugging off every attack. Then it breaks three turns in, and he can be fought as normal.
* ''VideoGame/Mother3'', in the Final Battle. [[spoiler: The fight starts with your entire party except for Lucas being wiped out, and you can't revive them (if you do, the Masked Man knocks them out instantly). Lucas can't bring himself to attack the Masked Man. The Masked Man lays a relentless barrage of attacks on Lucas, and it's all you can do to keep Lucas alive. But then Hinawa's spirit appears and tries to appeal to the humanity in Claus and get him to remember himself, but Claus keeps attacking. Flint then taking two PK Love Omegas for Lucas to protect him, and then you can finally attack back, but the goal is to just wait until Hinawa's efforts finally break through to Claus and get him to remember who he is, ending the fight.]]

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has a few of these fights, most prominently featured against Xord and Metal Face. Due to their mechon armor preventing them from taking damage normally, their fights tend to start off as a seemingly hopeless boss fight before a cutscene or two renders the fight winnable.
* All three of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'s'' final boss fights feature this.
** Neutral: Double Subverted. [[spoiler: While the battle against [[EldritchAbomination Photoshop]] [[OneWingedAngel Flowey]] seems like a hopeless GroundhogDayLoop at first, eventually the souls he's using for power start helping you instead, providing you health and weakening his defense. After the player beats him however, he loads FILE 3, a file he saved at the beginning of the fight, restoring his and the player's health. He then kills them and then reload the save file 32 times in rapid succession. He then surrounds the player with bullets, gloats and tries to finish the player off for good with them. They heal the player when they collide with them. Flowey tries to load another save file, but he finds out he can't. The SOULs exit him and rebel against him. Flowey turns back into his normal self.]]
** Pacifist: [[spoiler: Asriel Dreemurr turns out to be one of these as well in two different ways. First, any time he actually defeats the player, the player's soul comes back out of sheer determination. Second, he completely immobilizes the player upon assuming his second form. After a few rounds of hopeless struggling, the player gains the ability to SAVE the souls Asriel has absorbed--and eventually Asriel himself.]]
** Genocide: [[spoiler: Sans will attempt to get the player to RageQuit by making his turn last forever. Because of the game's turn-based combat system, the player can't attack until Sans's "attack" is over, even though said attack is literally nothing. Sans eventually falls asleep, though, allowing the player to drag the dialogue box over to the "FIGHT" button and kill Sans.]]
* ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' has this in what's basically the real final boss of the game: the MiniGameCredits of Ending E. The credits change into a BulletHell minigame that you have to beat to unlock the GoldenEnding, but the patterns to actually be able to shoot the credits eventually become nigh impossible to power through by design (while it is technically possible, you have to be insanely skilled and have a ton of patience) leading to your death and the game itself mocking you for it in the game over screen. But if you continue to press on despite the overwhelming odds, after enough deaths you can choose to receive help from other players across the game's network, which gives your player a shield and [[MoreDakka a stupid amount of ammunition to unload]], making the sequence finally beatable for anyone. [[TearJerker And then you find out the reason that you were able to receive help was because]] [[HeroicSacrifice those players willingly gave up their save data to give your player a chance to succeed.]] [[WhatYouAreInTheDark Would you choose to do the same?]]
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'':
** At the start of the game, Adramelech shows up with a band of fellow demons, killing Nanashi's mentors before toasting him dead. In the afterlife, however, Nanashi forms a contract with Dagda, who brings him back to life, repairs his smartphone, and grants him the power to summon demons, allowing Nanashi to repel Adramelech and save Asahi.
** While visiting the Tokyo Skytree, Nanashi and Asahi happen upon a group of angels guarding the tower. After dispatching them, the herald Aniel shows up, and is much, ''much'' higher-leveled than them, proceeding to tear the two [[FantasticSlur "unclean"]] ones a new one...until Flynn and Isabeau show up, driving off Aniel and saving the duo from dying for real (more specifically, Asahi, since [[DeathIsCheap Nanashi can be simply revived by Dagda]]).
** During the Mikado mission, Nanashi has to fight against Azrael to get the party's gear back. A few turns in, Azrael summons a small army of angels, ending the battle early. What follows is [[ControllableHelplessness two dialogue options to either rush Azrael or fight the army]]; do either, and the other attacks. After choosing either option three times, Nanashi almost passes out from the effort, when [[SupportPartyMember Hallelujah]] steps up and asks him to trust him. Hallelujah reveals himself to be a HalfHumanHybrid with powerful magic, and obliterates the army, allowing Nanashi to fight Azrael without interference.
** In the Bonds route, [[spoiler:the fight against Dagda seems like it's going to be lights out for Nanashi [[KilledOffForReal for real]] as Dagda takes his powers back from Nanashi, causing him to slowly die and lose control of his demons, until Dagda's mother Danu creates a more obedient clone of Dagda to ensure Nanashi's survival, allowing the original Dagda to be killed off without repercussion on Nanashi's part.]]
* The first boss of ''VideoGame/RakenzarnFrontierStory'' will regenerate its health if you knock it down by around 35-40%. After it [=KOs=] Makoto or several turns pass, the game moves on to after the fight in the next chapter. Later, you return to the fight in flashback form when Makoto gains summoning powers to nullify its ability.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''
** ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'': After the player and Hop seemingly defeat [[spoiler:Eternatus, it enters its Eternamax form and prevents any further attacks. Then Zacian and Zamacenta arrive from the Slumbering Weald and use the Rusty Sword and Shield held by the player and Hop to enter their Crowned Forms, fighting alongside the two trainers in a glorified Max Raid.]]
** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': After the first battle at Lab Zero, [[spoiler:the Paradise Protection Protocol locks any Poke Ball that isn't the Professor's and sics the game's box Legendary on you.]] When you find yourself in the following battle, you're unable to do anything because [[spoiler:you have no usable Pokémon. After a few turns, it comes up that the Poké Ball of ''your'' Legendary is still usable because it belonged to the Professor. The Koraidon/Miraidon not only regains its battle form, but [[EleventhHourSuperpower Dragon-type Terastallizes]], allowing you to win the battle.]]
* ''VideoGame/BugFables'': Partway through the [[CreepyCentipedes Beast]] fight, it will oneshot the party for an unavoidable 99 damage per party member[[note]]This game uses low-number stats, meaning that no party member will likely break even 30 health[[/note]]. [[spoiler:Kabbu will then realize his mistake in endangering his team for the sake of trying to avenge his master and friend. Making a new promise to fight the Beast in order to save Vi and Leif, Kabbu fully heals and gets a buff through willpower alone and the fight carries on, with him having the strength to finish the Beast off]].

* In the final battle with the [[spoiler: APITEX]] in ''VideoGame/EtherVapor'', the boss can't go down easily with its attacks. Suddenly, your ship goes into Overdrive mode, making the boss even more vulnerable to your attacks.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'', after defeating Tageri, [[spoiler:the Stone-Like emerges from the remains]] and attacks you with several different patterns of bullets for 60 seconds. You can't even shoot, much less damage it. After you dodge and absorb the BulletHell, your ship [[spoiler:performs a HeroicSacrifice BeamSpam with the energy charged up during that time. Shinra [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascends to a higher plane of existence]] according to the storyline in the Japanese version.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense Bloons TD Battles 2]]'' features one as the final tutorial. You’re pitted against [[PyroManiac Gwendolin]], who periodically gets powerful towers like a Ring of Fire for free, and the Bloons you can send are too weak to get past them. However, Gwendolin has an AchillesHeel: [[CripplingOverspecialization all of her towers can only use fire and magic to attack]], so a rush of Purple Bloons (introduced in this mission) can easily get past her defenses.