History Main / TheBattleDidntCount

* You will fight ''VideoGame/CaveStory'''s beloved toaster-shaped mini-boss Balrog many times, and he will usually fly away afterwards, looking suitably upset but otherwise no worse for the wear. At one point, he will easily ''toss a gigantic boulder across the room'' immediately after being thoroughly trounced by you. The game evokes this trope at several other points as well.
** One justified example is the island's core-once you've beaten it, Misery and the Doctor show up and rant at you about how abysmally stupid you are to have destroyed the floating island's [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Master Emerald]]-equivalent. Then they haul it off to the Doctor's lab, where he works out a way to keep it nominally alive so the island won't crash out of the skies.

* In the original ''WWE Day of Reckoning'' video game for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, your character is put in a match with either Ric Flair or the Big Show at the end of his stint on Sunday Night Heat, to prepare you to move to Raw (Flair) or Smackdown (Big Show). This match is incredibly difficult to win -- the AI will counter nearly every move you make, and has far more impactful moves than you do -- but it can be done. The ensuing cutscene, however, will play out exactly the same as if you'd gotten your ass handed to you (which was clearly the developers' intent for the match).

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': So Terra managed to beat up Master Xehanort and everything's fine and dandy, right? [[spoiler:The following cutscene has him committing GrandTheftMe on Terra and leading on to the ''true'' final fight of Terra's story. That said, Xehanort is losing the fight in said cutscene before possessing Terra, so the fight's outcome wasn't completely ignored.]]

** ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' has the battle with the Thief, who gets trashed enough to fall on the ground unconscious, but gets up the moment nobody looks seconds later and escapes on hoverboeard that didn't get damaged during the heated fight either. Then there is Thug-4-Less leader, who is seen crashing in his helicopter and exploding with his mecha after respective boss fights with him, yet somehow survives all of that and keeps comng for more. Only the third time he stays down for good.

** ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' has the battle with the Thief, who gets trashed enough to fall on the ground unconscious, but gets up the moment nobody looks seconds later and escapes on hoverboeard that didn't get damaged during the heated fight either. Then there is Thug-4-Less leader, who is seen crashing in his helicopter and exploding with his mecha after respective boss fights with him, yet somehow survives all of that and keeps comng for more. Only the third time he stays down for good.

* In ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' [[GeneralRipper Baron Praxis]] manages to do this ''twice'':

* ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' has a frustrating BossBattle against [[GeneralRipper Baron Praxis]] to stop him from getting the [[MacGuffin Precursor Stone]]. It's your second fight against the guy, so him escaping and gloating is no surprise. But even winning doesn't stop him from getting away with the {{MacGuffin}}! Come on!

* In multiple characters' story mode endings in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', defeating v-13 is followed immediately by dying (or worse) to CutscenePowerToTheMax v-13. When you defeat Terumi in Arcade mode, he writes it off as just a warmup.
** Chronophantasma also abuses this to a '''disgusting''' degree, especially when Azrael is involved.
* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift'' you fight Hazama many times throughout all of the characters' story and arcade modes. Even if you beat him without getting hit, even if you finished him off with an Astral Heat, the following cutscene will show him being just fine while your character is struggling to catch their breath.
* True to form, in ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCrossTagBattle'' this also comes up in battles against really strong characters like Jubei and Azrael, due to the PowerCreepPowerSeep from a multi-franchise crossover. For example in the UNIEL Story, Hyde bumps into [[spoiler:Weiss]] being attacked by Azrael and Carmine and he jumps in to save her; even though the player wins the ensuing fight, the result is Hyde and [[spoiler:Weiss]] taking the chance to book it after they realise they're not hurting either of them.

** If you enter a cheat code allowing you to [[GameBreaker deal 100 points of damage to an enemy]] and use it to kill a boss that was supposed to [[VillainExitStageLeft survive the fight]], the game will still consider they were alive for the following cutscene. Prime examples of this are the first fight with [[RoundhouseKick Onikage]] (in the first game) and [[BoobsOfSteel Lady Kagami]] (in the sequel).

* ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZeroIII'' pulls this with [[spoiler:the very final fight in the game. Jason had wanted Kane to come to him and the entire charade had been stalling for time since the start; he just needs to drag the final fight out long enough to show Kane something he knows [[CassandraTruth Kane will never believe if just told first]]. If the player controls Jason for a PostFinalBoss, he quietly admits to Eve he doesn't think he can win, but has enough of a home-field advantage to drag things out. If the player sides with Kane for a {{Superboss}}, he succeeds in disabling the SOPHIA J-1, but Jason isn't bothered by the loss of a prototype model - he bought the time he needed.]]

** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'': If you're skilled, you can actually beat Ridley on Ceres Station. He'll drop the baby Metroid...and then immediately pick it back up again. The game continues as normal from there.

* In ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZeroIII'', Jason gets put into a HopelessBossFight against Kane's Metal Attacker in the first area. While you can beat him with your underequipped tank, the game treats it as if you lost to Kane. [[spoiler:Exaggerated in the final battle, where despite the fact you have to [[ZeroEffortBoss actively try to lose]] to Kane as Jason, the game acts as if Kane is winning regardless of who you pick.]]
* ''You'' get to pull this stunt in ''VideoGame/ThreadsOfFate'' when you need Rod's hovercraft and he makes you a deal: beat him in a duel and he'll take you wherever you need to go. If you win you win, and he takes you there, but if you lose he gloats and says too bad... and then the local innkeeper shows up and chastizes him for his gloating. Then she threatens to never make his favorite meal for him again if he doesn't give you a ride, and he backs down and takes you where you need to go.

* In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKainDefiance'', Raziel has to battle [[spoiler: Janos Adron possessed by the Hylden Lord.]] After defeating him [[spoiler: The Hylden Lord's control over Janos temporarily fails. Janos begs Raziel to kill hem, but he can't bring himself to do it. Then the Hylden Lord takes control over Janos again and has enough strength to destroy Raziel's physical form.]]

** Many of the bosses in the game are fought by most of the five playable characters. Naturally, this means that these bosses have to survive being "killed" by the player several times. [[spoiler: In most cases, the character who fights the boss the last time chronologically does end up killing him or her]] ([[spoiler: One notable exception is Odin. Mercedes is the last character to fight him, but instead of killing him, she destroys his weapon]]).

* In ''Videogame/SaltAndSanctuary'', the tutorial boss fight against The Unspeakable Deep will likely end in your swift defeat since its attacks can kill all of the starting characters in one or two hits. You then wash up on the island's shore, where the game begins in earnest. Defeating the Unspeakable Deep is actually rather simple, if time-consuming, since all of its attacks are rather predictable and can be rolled through by a character with <25% equip load. Even if you beat it, the ship still sinks -- which makes sense since a huge demon is stomping around on it during a violent storm -- and you still wash up on the island's shore. Winning rewards you with 8000 salt (8800 if you picked the ring that grants bonus salt as a starting bonus), a top-tier upgrade material that you normally only get one of per playthrough, and an achievement, so it's not a total waste of time.

** The trio of convicts that commandeered an army jeep also seem to adhere to this for ''every battle you have with them''. They're in the center of a massive courtyard of zombies, and even if you blast them multiple times with a shotgun point blank, then wreck their jeep (and steal the [[{{BFG}} mounted fifty calibre machinegun]]) they'll respawn later. And the jeep will be fine. And the gun will be back.

* In ''Monster Monpiece'', the FinalBossPreview is a regular match that's heavily stacked against the player. However, it is easily possible to win this match via a simple battle of attrition - simply decking the boss out. The game will proceed as if you lost, of course.

* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'' with [[BigBad Nitrous Oxide's]] "Survival of the Fastest" challenge, where he challenges the best driver of the planet to a race for the fate of the whole world. When you beat him the first time he at the very least agrees to not destroy the world, but he refuses to actually admit defeat and leave until you gather all of the Time Relics and race him again. When you do that he ''finally'' admits you beat him and leaves, earning you the GoldenEnding.

* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'', Kalas fights Giacomo, Folon and Alyn at one point, and Giacomo uses a device to cut off the guardian spirit's influence (somehow this doesn't affect the battle at all.) and the party beat the three down. As in, lying on the floor not moving. In the battle scene at least. The cutscene then followed up has them standing up, and the device breaks, and the party fight them again. Full health, full power for them. Party? ......Not so much.

** Although not a conventional battle, Crono's trial is a good example of this. Regardless of whether Crono is declared innocent or guilty of kidnapping Marle at his trial (which is dependent on what he says, and what he did at the Millenial Fair), he is thrown into prison, and the Chancellor attempts to have him executed. Though this is a semi aversion, being pronounced guilty gets you a death sentence, however getting innocent gives you a much lighter three days of imprisonment instead... it's just that the Chancellor has it out for you and tells the guards that it's an execution so the end result is the same.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' Inverts this trope with Guest characters. Guest characters cannot be killed like normal units in battle. If their HP hits zero they simply lie unconscious for the remainder of battle until they are revived or until the battle ends. Once they join your team, however, they can be KilledOffForReal. Played straight in a number of 'kill the leader' battles where even if you manage to kill the boss, they will immediately get back up and teleport away to safety.
* In ''VideoGame/Grandia1'', this trope is used so often with so many characters that you will spend most of the final cutscene waiting for the Big Bad to get back on its feet again after trouncing it only twice. Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} examples are [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Nani, Saki, and Mio]], as well as [[spoiler: Baal]].

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': So Terra managed to beat up Master Xehanort and everything's fine and dandy right? [[spoiler: The following cutscene has him committing GrandTheftMe on Terra and leading onto the ''true'' final fight of Terra's story. That said, Xehanort is losing the fight in said cutscene before possessing Terra, so the fight's outcome wasn't completely ignored.]]
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'': Invoked a number of times during the battles in the latter portion of the game. Notable examples include [[spoiler:Aqua being nearly killed by Vanitas after soundly defeating him in a fight, and Sora suddenly being overpowered by Terra-Xehanort out of nowhere after fighting and defeating him one-on-one.]]

** Both games involve this as a FinalBossPreview, with Darths Malak and Sion respectively. The fight against Sion is awesome; the one against Malak isn't - even if you manage to beat him without him scratching you even once (not at all difficult on easy or with a dedicated fighter), at some point Bastila will jump in and sacrifice herself to save you - which of course means that now you'll be fighting ''two'' enemies. [[AnnoyingVideoGameHelper Stop Helping Me]]! In Sion's case it's justified; he's using the Force to hold his body together in spite all of the damage he takes. Earlier in the game being on an exploding starship failed to kill him, so naturally you can't either.
** And when you kill [[spoiler:Kreia]] the first time she just gets back up and gets a bunch of flying lightsabers to kill you with.

* ''VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals'', in the first battle against Gades. You win, but he blasts you anyway. Then again, [[HopelessBossFight you're really not supposed to win]], unless you've grinded an unholy amount. In fact he's actually stronger than in the rematch were you're supposed to beat him. He drops a nifty weapon, though, so it's in your best interests to try.

** ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'' has several similar fights (once again this includes Gades, but also multiple fights with Daos), in which you're expected to lose, but if you do win, you get a powerful piece of equipment and then get blasted in a cutscene.
** When Gades attacks Parcelyte in ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals'', you kick his ass...at which point he gets up, proceeds to wreck the city, and gets back into the battle. Once you beat him again, he warps off, with Maxim realizing that Gades was JustToyingWithThem.

* ''VideoGame/SacredEarthAlternative'': If the player wins the FinalBoss battle against [[spoiler:True Konoe, she kills the replica in the following cutscene and absorbs the latter's soul and power.]]

** In ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', when you fight Captain Rowd. It's ''really'' unlikely that you beat him (it would take a ''lot'' of LevelGrinding and it's so early in the game there's very limited opportunity to do it); but if you do; you get a very short cutscene where he steps back in disbelief; and then calls on about 50 soldiers to all dogpile you to get the plot back on the rails.
** In ''VideoGame/SuikodenV'', if you win the not-quite HopelessBossFight at the start against [[spoiler:Childerich and Dolph]] (actually not that difficult to do with just a little grinding), they just get up completely unharmed, while your character is still worn out, injured and overwhelmed.

** The story battles with [[spoiler:Reaper Beat]] and [[spoiler:Taboo Minamimoto]] are on invisible time limits, but with a good pin deck and equipment the player ''can'' beat them before the timer runs out, which will cause the boss to drop their rewards. Regardless of the outcome, though, the cutscenes after the battles will act as though Neku never stood a chance.

** More hilariously, [[spoiler:Zeke was trying to make this an InvokedTrope during his [[RecurringBoss first two battles]], but an invisible wind-up for his attack keeps getting interrupted by outside factors. When he opens with this move next time and instantly floors the entire party, they're shocked his boasts actually had something behind them.]]
* Played with in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' after the first fight with Moebius. After getting PunchedAcrossTheRoom by Noah and Mio's [[ATasteOfPower first Interlink]], he dusts himself off and suddenly admits "We'll say I lost this one, yeah?" The party notice he's not quite talking to them and he actually bows out for a different reason ([[spoiler:his own Interlink is visibly overheating]]) but he still leaves with a surprising amount of grace.

* In multiple character's story mode endings in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', defeating v-13 is followed immediately by dying (or worse) to CutscenePowerToTheMax v-13. When you defeat Terumi in Arcade mode, he writes it off as just a warmup.

*** Beating Phase 1 just gives your ally [[spoiler: Balder]] enough time to recover.
*** Beating Phase 2+3 gives your other allies enough time [[spoiler: to activate the Void card]]

* In the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series (and the related ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' and ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi''), after you defeat opposing playable characters in battle, they are usually shown retreating, only dying if the story requires it or it's the last stage. This is most noticeable in stages where your objective is to chase down the enemy commander before they get a chance to retreat and live to fight another day. After catching and defeating them, you then get a cutscene - where they retreat and live to fight another day.

** [[spoiler: The Lich King does this. After you get him to 10% of his health, he one-shots everyone in the party and prevents you from resurrecting. A cutscene brings you back to life and imprisons the Lich King, making him unable to do anything, so your entire party can just wail on him until he dies. Technically his HP doesn't drop to zero, but it's the same thing.]]

** Zig-zagged with the battles against Vile, Bit & Byte in ''VideoGame/MegaManX3''; even if you blow out all their HP, they will leave the field in the first fight... unless the fatal blow was with a weakness weapon, in which case they die instead. The bosses you fight in the first two Doppler stages depend on which of the trio you fragged; the first alternate boss requires both Bit and Byte to be scrapped, while the second merely requires you kill Vile.

** [[SmugSuper Infinite]] in ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' defeats Sonic in a 5-on-1 cutscene fight in the prologue, but loses to him in their first proper boss fight, expressing shock at how powerful Sonic is. Despite this, the following cutscene has him overpower Sonic and suddenly decide that he's NotWorthKilling. He'll even proceed to brag to Eggman that he's ''never'' lost to Sonic, unlike him. The [[CharacterCustomization Avatar]] later fights Infinite (who had previously traumatized them by killing all their comrades), and comes out on top in the boss fight. Yet again, the following cutscene has Infinite acting like he's still invincible and sparing the Avatar on a whim, not even dwelling for too long on why [[spoiler:his powers briefly stopped working.]]

** There's a mission where you have to defend a base for 30 minutes. If you're talented enough, it's possible to fend off your attackers, go on the offensive, kill the Zerg standing army, burn the Zerg base to the ground, and then begin mining operations where the Zerg base once stood. However you're still "rescued" and subsequently declared outlaw for allying yourself with a traitorous faction when the timer rolls to zero.

** The final Protoss mission in the expansion has you defending a temple. The outlying computer bases are on islands that are ridiculously heavily fortified to prevent players from carrying out this trope. However, skilled players can easily gather the resources necessary for 4 or 5 keys of guardians and 2 keys of corsairs. These units, when properly managed, can tear through the static defenses leaving only the pathetic standing army to stop you. As your reward for killing the unkillable bases the game forces you to sit for 30 minutes while you can do nothing but look at the screen before cutting to a video of you almost dying anyway.

** ''Warcraft III'' has a mission similar to the one in Starcraft, but there are no magically-spawning enemies, and if you destroy the enemy bases, the mission ends regardless of time; the cutscene always shows Uther and a bunch of Knights coming to the rescue, though, even if there wasn't a single Undead left on the map just a second ago.

* In ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders'' when you finally defeat Chief Scalpen, he doesn't die like the other bosses, he is simply wounded, and his sister enters the screen and pleads for mercy... "Please, don't shoot my brother, he was only following orders!", "Alright, Ma'am, we won't shoot him!" [[MoreDakka Despite the fact we've already shot him about 50 times!]]

* In the final Loki series mission of ''VideoGame/WingCommander III'', you're given the option to engage [[BigBad Prince Thrakhath]] at the end of the mission, but [[TimedMission your carrier is about to jump out of the system]], so if you stop to engage Thrakhath you won't make it home, and wind up stranded in the system (game over). However, if you conserve your missiles in the earlier parts, you can [[MacrossMissileMassacre salvo-fire all of them]] and run for the carrier while the missiles track him down. If they make the kill before you land you get the death message, but at the end of the final mission in the game he shows up again as if nothing had happened to him in the Loki system.[[note]]This only works in the original version. The ''Kilrathi Saga'' compilation changed the coding so that the second he dies the carrier jumps out, even if there's time left on the countdown.[[/note]]

** You can shoot someone with a few dozen bullets, and drain of his life points. But often enough he either gets away anyway or at least tells you his life story before dying. Psycho Mantis is quite talkative before his end, while Sniper Wolf gets away after the first battle. Revolver Ocelot escapes whatever you throw at him, it though he sometimes at least shows he got hurt. Liquid, however, is the game's master of this little maneuver: his first battle with Snake ends when the helicopter he's piloting gets shot down in flames, and when he reappears uninjured a matter of hours later, it is probably the least absurd comeback he pulls off (the others involve an explosion right next to him so strong it knocked Solid out ''from across the room'', and being beaten to death followed by a twenty-story fall).

** Interestingly justified in [=MGS3=]: Snake Eater. All of your fights with Ocelot end with him either narrowly surviving or knocked out. When he is knocked out, you can pull out a weapon and kill him...but because the game takes in the past, and we have already seen him in the present, [[NonStandardGameOver the game ends]] with a screen that says "Time Paradox." You can even hear [[TheCameo Col. Campbell]] say "You can't go changing history like that!" And there's only one time you can get to him when he's knocked out, and it's in the ProlongedPrologue, so once you progress past this point, Ocelot is SavedByCanon.
** ''3'' does have one fairly blatant example however - near the end of the game, you rig a warehouse holding an experimental supertank to explode and have a duel with the BigBad. He falls, the place goes boom, and as our heroes escape the BigBad drives out ''in'' the tank, meaning that neither planting the bombs nor the battle mattered; not helped by the presence of ''two more battles'' against the duo later.

** ''Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword'' has a noteworthy exception: you aren't supposed to be able to kill [[HopelessBossFight Vaida]] in Chapter 24/26 but rather keep your distance, and she'll become recruitable a few chapters later; if you ''do'' kill her, however, she is KilledOffForReal and never appears again. In fairness, she's not a particularly major character so unlike most Bosses, her death doesn't impact the gameplay very much.
** A similar thing happens for the player's party in some recent ''Fire Emblem'' games. For characters vital to the plot, except the main character, a dialogue will take place in which they say "I'm retreating." Then, though the units remain unplayable, they still appear in cutscenes to make it so the game wouldn't require a million cutscenes to replace the events of what happens when important characters die. [[FridgeLogic However, not much explanation goes into the reasoning of why the retreated characters can't be healed by a team of high-leveled healers...]]

* This happens constantly throughout the PSP game ''VideoGame/JeanneDArc''. The most egregious example happens to be English general John Talbot who you fight at least a dozen times, and he's always frustratingly hard. What the game doesn't tell you is that Talbot is actually immortal, and will never die for real, no matter how times Jeanne cuts him down. Eventually you're saved from Talbot by him just bored with fighting you.

* In ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters'', Feinne clocks in at a thousand levels and is supposed to be unbeatable without Gig's help, but thanks to grinding and planning, you can actually defeat her in those battles where you're really expected to lose. While the very first one leads to an Asagi encounter (and a very sudden end due to the plot - and the world - being broken) later ones (such as after Feinne destroys Raide) simply have the cutscene act out as though you were beaten. (May be justified since merely defeating Feinne is not enough to actually kill her.)

* In ''VideoGame/TearsToTiara2'', before your final encounter with them, battles with Izebel and/or Laelius always have a timed survival or some form of escape as the winning condition, with defeating them being a bonus option. But no matter whether or not you defeat them, the story always pretend you took the escape option.

* Pretty much every battle in ''VideoGame/EarthDefenseForce'' has this. The narrative describes the EDF forces dwindling and being driven back, with repeated need for decisive victories - yet in every battle the player has participated in, including ones that were supposed to be the decisive ones, the EDF trounced the Ravagers.

* The second boss of ''VideoGame/ImmortalDefense'' is unstoppable as a plot point: [[spoiler: in order to set up the rest of the game, in which you essentially go insane as a result of failing to defend your planet, the boss has to actually penetrate your defenses and destroy your planet.]]

* Units in ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'' are usually considered dead after their hitpoints drop to 0, including enemy leader. Some story-important enemies, however, doesn't follow the convention.

** Glildur is ''Sceptre of Fire'''s recurring antagonist and the closest thing it has to a BigBad, so he always flee in the off-chance that the player manages to defeat him and comes back no worse for wear later, until the final scenario.
* In ''VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness'', Kurtis and Vulcanus are all just fine after their respective battles. Mid-Boss generally appears bandaged up after his fights and missing some teeth (Most notably the second time, where his sprite looks like a friggin' mummy.)
** This continues well into ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2|CursedMemories}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3|AbsenceOfJustice}}'', where, Axel the Prism Rangers, Mao's Teachers, The Vatos Bros, and the FinalBoss of ''Disgaea 3'' are all more or less perfectly fine after their final battles.

** ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 4|A Promise Unforgotten}}'' does this quite literally when the chief of the Information Bureau decides that, since she controls all the information in the Netherworld, she can erase her defeat by Valvatorez simply by refusing to acknowledge it as a fact. After the team tries and fails to counter her InsaneTrollLogic, Valvatorez shrugs his shoulders and decides she's right -- so he'll just have to beat the crap out of her again. [[AndIMustScream Over and over. Forever.]] Upon hearing this, the chief decides that The Battle Did In Fact Count.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Langrisser}}'', you're supposed to run from the first battle, while King Alfador remains behind to [[HeroicSacrifice die with dignity.]] You can, however, win it if you're awesome enough with the tactics...at which point the King sends you to go get reinforcements. Needless to say, while you're away, the story corrects the little matter of His Majesty's survival...

** Up to and including the survival of ''Gihren Zabi himself.''

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', defeating BigBad Alduin for the first time, causes him to simply taunt you and fly off, Dragonrend or no. Subverted in that another dragon called Odahviing later reveals that a fair number of dragons, himself included, are starting to question Alduin's lordship. Running from your battle (which you won, fair and square) painted him as a DirtyCoward. Double subverted in that this reveal never translates into the gameplay at all.
* Saren, TheDragon in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''. The first time you encounter him at Virmire, it doesn't matter how well you do against him, when his hp reaches 0 the cutscene will show him stepping down of his flying saucer towards you and grabbing you on the air like if he has just beaten the shit out of you.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', during the fight with Kai Leng on Thessia, you take his shields down no less than three times, with him running off each time while his shields recharge and letting the accompanying Cerberus gunship rail on you. After the third time, a cutscene kicks in where, in a superb display of CutsceneIncompetence from Shepard and his/her squad mates, Kai Leng - seemingly unwinded - tosses them all aside and orders the helicoper to blow up the temple they're in. The fight is incredibly easy by comparison of a lot of encounters you've had by this point, making Kai Leng's 'victory' seem incredibly forced. It's only made worse by the fact Leng in-character is a SmugSnake who goes out of his way to [[IShallTauntYou mock you]] [[EvilIsPetty in an email]] [[KickTheDog for failing to save Thessia]]. This makes it fairly cathartic in the last battle with him when Shepard spends the whole time mocking him for it.
* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' has this for most of it's boss fights, where immediately after depleting a boss's health bar, the boss seems to have just been winded rather than loaded with dozens of bullets.
* Played with in ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'': four guys ambush you, and will tell you to come quietly because there's no way you can beat them at this point in the game. However, if you've been levelling up from doing sidequests, you can beat them quite easily. The following cutscene has them get up and smack you in the head with a hammer (Something actually dangerous as opposed to the makeshift tools the rest of the kids are using for the game) and drag you off anyway.

** Played [[GuideDangIt confusingly]] straight by [[spoiler:Asgore. At this point, you've spent the entire game knowing that defeating monsters in battle will kill them for real, but Asgore arbitrarily manages to survive with 1 HP.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' outright abuses this trope: of the game’s bosses only Elizabeth Greene and Taggart have the decency to actually die. Captain Cross is probably the worst example since he’s a normal human in a game where normal humans get turned into LudicrousGibs from the mere shockwave of Mercer slapping his hands together, yet he walks away from his beating completely unscathed with the game pretending the battle never took place. The game even manages to zig-zag this with the Supreme Hunter, whose survival is justified by having him regenerate FromASingleCell - until his final fight where he apparently forgets this power, and dies for good with no explanation for why that battle ''did'' count.

* ''TabletopGame/TruthAndJustice'': The villains have their own "Villain Points" that the GM can spend to give them a sudden escape - a secret passage, dropping a smoke bomb and disappearing, actually having been a robot double, whatever. It serves as a pacing element to the plot, always giving a villain an out until the climactic final confrontation, while limiting the capacity for GM Fiat to protect a CreatorsPet villain from ultimate comeuppance. Once a villain is empty, they're caught and this trope can no longer apply (until they escape again for another story).

->''Well, thanks for the entertainment...pretty good warm-up there.''

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' outright abuses this trope, of the game’s bosses only Elizabeth Greene and Taggart have the decency to actually die. Captain Cross is probably the worst example since he’s a normal human in a game where normal humans get turned into LudicrousGibs from the shockwave of Mercer slapping his hands together, yet he walks away from his beating completely unscathed with no attempt at explanation. On the other end of the spectrum is the Supreme Hunter who is capable of regenerating FromASingleCell, until the final boss fight when he forgets about this.

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' outright abuses this trope, of the game’s bosses only Elizabeth Greene and Taggart have the decency to actually die. Captain Cross is probably the worst example since he’s a normal human in a game where normal humans get bisected by a stern glance from Mercer, so the story more or less pretends the fight didn’t happen when it has him walk away from his beating unscathed. The Supreme Hunter is more justified since he’s shown regenerating FromASingleCell after the first round against him, but he apparently forgets about this ability later on.

** in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', Yuri's DualBoss fight against Don Whitehorse. It's meant to be a HopelessBossFight, as the Don's stats are ludicrously high for the point in the game the fight takes place. However, it actually is ''possible'' to win, especially on NewGamePlus. If you do, however, the outcome is still presented as the same, with Yuri barely able to stand and the Don having apparently not even broken a sweat.

** [[SmugSuper Infinite]] in ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' defeats Sonic in a 5-on-1 cutscene fight in the prologue, but loses to him in their first proper boss fight, expressing shock at how powerful Sonic is. Despite this, the following cutscene has him overpower Sonic and suddenly decide that he's NotWorthKilling. The [[CharacterCustomization Avatar]] later fights Infinite (who had previously traumatized them by killing all their comrades), and comes out on top in the boss fight. Yet again, the following cutscene has Infinite acting like he's still invincible and sparing the Avatar on a whim, not even dwelling for too long on why [[spoiler:his powers briefly stopped working.]]

** [[SmugSuperInfinite]] in ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' defeats Sonic in a 5-on-1 cutscene fight in the prologue, but loses to him in their first proper boss fight, expressing shock at how powerful Sonic is. Despite this, the following cutscene has him overpower Sonic and suddenly decide that he's NotWorthKilling. The [[CharacterCustomization Avatar]] later fights Infinite (who had previously traumatized them by killing all their comrades), and comes out on top in the boss fight. Yet again, the following cutscene has Infinite acting like he's still invincible and sparing the Avatar on a whim, not even dwelling for too long on why [[spoiler:his powers briefly stopped working.]]