History Main / WakeUpCallBoss

** The point where the manga and anime changed from Ichigo fulfilling Rukia's duties while he was borrowing her power, to a darker series dealing with the consequences of her lending him her power was the moment when Byakuya and Renji entered Karakura Town. Renji easily defeated Uryuu, followed by Ichigo and then dropped his guard giving Ichigo a chance to win. And then Byakuya ended the fight so fast Ichigo couldn't even see the blow that felled him. From that point on, the [[MythArc Thousand Year Blood War]] event, which had been recently been introduced with Uryuu's arrival, was kicked up a gear.
** The entire Soul Society Arc turned out to be nothing more than a warm up. Ichigo and his companions went through hell and high water to defeat the shinigami, rescue Rukia and almost dying in the process. Even Byakuya was finally defeated in the climactic battle that ended the threat to Rukia... and then Aizen revealed he was the BigBad and that all the skills Ichigo had learned to that point were just a foundation for the true threats that were yet to come. The final arc, which had been slowly unfolding with the introductions of Uryuu and Byakuya was now kicked off in earnest.

** The First Floor Field Boss, [Worm Disciple], is there to force players to deal with debuffs. Unlike most games, magic resistance is active rather than passive; you have to circulate prana through your circuits to wear away cruses and effects. Since the [Worm Disciple] is a FlunkyBoss that paralyzes players, if you don't know how to resist debuffs, you'll die quickly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pronty}}'', for most of the first stages, is a relaxing, peaceful game set in an underwater environment, until you face Lamina the {{cyborg}}-shark abomination. Whose body is covered with blades that shaves away a big chunk of your health with a single scratch, and has an ability to spam a RainOfSwords at you constantly requiring you to put your dodging abilities to the test. It can perform a DashAttack at you as well, and marks a massive spike in difficulty after the first few bosses.

* Another ''Dungeons And Dragons'' example is ''TabletopGame/RedHandOfDoom'' from 3e. The whole campaign has you dealing with the titular Red Hand which is a whole army. Yes, the party is actually going up against an entire army! The first encounter is with six hobgoblins followed by another six hobgoblins reinforcing plus a hobgoblin bladebearer, a Red Hand cleric and two hell hounds. This encounter is meant to be above the party's experience level and is meant to drive home how tough the whole campaign is; the villains are not just {{Mooks}} but a professionally trained army backed up by spellcasters and powerful monsters. They think strategically and can be even more deadly in the hands of a clever DM.

* In the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure ''TabletopGame/KeepOnTheShadowfell,'' the fight with Irontooth is this. [=KotS=] was the introduction to 4e for many, many players, and the Irontooth fight is usually where parties have their first abject lesson in battling "waves." It's actually 2 encounters -- the fight outside the lair at the waterfall, and the fight inside the lair, where the party faces a tough force of kobolds and THEN, 3 rounds in, has to deal with even more monsters. If the party let any of the kobolds escape from the previous fight to join this one, they will get butchered. If they didn't take a short rest before charging in behind the falls and into the fight in the lair, they will get butchered. If they haven't wiped out most of the initial force by the time Irontooth and the rest of his cronies jump into the fight, they will get butchered. If they try tanking Irontooth instead of keeping on the move... you get the picture. Parties who are experienced with the 4e rules (or have played through this part of the adventure more than once) tend to find this fight [[EarlyBirdBoss beatable but still tough]]. New parties, on the other hand...

* While the preceding bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'' escalate in difficulty in various ways, V2 takes it to the next level by being a MirrorBoss to V1, possessing every bit of his predecessor's [[LightningBruiser speed and mobility]] (meaning getting close enough to [[LifeDrain heal from his spilled blood]] will be difficult) along with every weapon the player has unlocked so far. If you have somehow not learned to parry, dodge and shoot while blitzing across the map by this point, then you better either learn pretty fast or prepare to die. ''A lot''.

** Cagney Carnation is the last boss of the first island, and the point at which the game's infamous difficuly ''really'' starts kicking into gear, since he assaults you with tricky attacks and makes you keep track of multiple on-screen hazards at once. Every boss after him ups the ante in some way, making him serve as a test of whether or not the player has what it takes to make it to the end.

** ''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3'': The spiked Koopa boss -- the very first boss in the game -- comes under this. Not only is he a generally tough boss with multiple attacks and overpowering attack methods, but he just happens to also be the ''most'' difficult boss in the entire game (that includes the final boss as well). Only adding to this is the that the boss cannot be fought the way [[DamnYouMuscleMemory Mario fights koopas]]. The fire power up is a liability since the lack of a dash button means you have reduced Wario's speed ''and'' deprived him of an effective frontal attack. Even with running available Wario cannot adjust his speed in air and has to commit to his maximum jump height before leaving the ground, so the timing is still completely different from, say, a koopling. The fact that the level was [[ThatOneLevel aggravating]] didn't help things either.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the kids score a string of early victories against the Pride, stealing the Staff of One from Nico's parents, liberating Old Lace from the Yorkes family basement, and pulling Molly away from her parents, and they start to feel overconfident. And then they meet the vampire Topher, who easily manipulates Nico and Karolina (the two most powerful Runaways at that point) into fighting each other, and then proves to be a hard bastard to defeat, and the only reason they survive is because he tries to drink Karolina's blood, which turns out to be loaded with solar radiation. It leaves them all badly demoralized at a time when the Pride are closing in on them.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ComicBook/DoctorOctopus was this in his first appearance, giving the wall-crawler his first real defeat. It [[HeroicBSOD shatters his confidence]] badly enough that he actually considers giving up crime-fighting, until a pep talk from [[ComicBook/FantasticFour the Human Torch]] prompts his HeroicSecondWind.

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* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the kids score a string of early victories against the Pride, stealing the Staff of One from Nico's parents, liberating Old Lace from the Yorkes family basement, and pulling Molly away from her parents, and they start to feel overconfident. And then they meet the vampire Topher, who easily manipulates Nico and Karolina (the two most powerful Runaways at that point) into fighting each other, and then proves to be a hard bastard to defeat, and the only reason they survive is because he tries to drink Karolina's blood, which turns out to be loaded with solar radiation. It leaves them all badly demoralized at a time when the Pride are closing in on them.

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* The Gnoll Chieftain, the boss of "The Decisive Battle" quest, is many ''VideoGame/{{Vindictus}}'' players' first introduction to just how tough the bosses of the game can get. If you try to take this guy like the rather easy bosses that came before him, you're going to get owned in short order. He is the first boss to make extensive use of smash attacks, which are more powerful than regular attacks, can lay you out with just one hit, and cannot be blocked with Fiona's shield without a special skill that you only learn after defeating him for the first time. His [[DropTheHammer big-ass hammer]] takes off a LOT of HP with its smash attacks, often breaking your armor in the process (and trying to repair your armor with two tons of big red beast bearing down on you is no easy task!). He can also debuff your strength, reducing the effectiveness of your attacks and making it harder to pick things up and hurl them at him. Players taking this guy on must learn to read the boss's behavior in order to determine what's coming so that they can get the hell out of the way, as well as the use of things like spears and chains to stun the boss so that they can get off their combos and do damage before the boss recovers and brings the hammer to bear again. Needless to say, while you ''can'' solo him with difficulty, this guy is best taken with a party that knows what the hell it's doing.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' games can be hard, and often pack a Wake-Up-Call Boss to let you know that.

* The first boss fight with Jack Baker in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVII''. His sadism and nigh-invincibility are well established early on, so you know the inevitable fight to the finish will be no joke. Sure enough, he comes at you after a trek through a Molded-infested basement that's probably drained your ammo severely, attacking with a pair of enormous chainsaw shears that can kill you in only two or three solid hits. Your only real chance is to grab the other chainsaw and fight very defensively, blocking or dodging his attacks, stunning him by kicking a hanging body into him, and sneaking in a swipe or two before he recovers. It also doesn't help that your chainsaw tends to stall out at very inopportune moments, leaving you vulnerable while it revs back up...

** After the time-skip, the first massive challenge the Straw Hats and cohorts are presented with is Donquixote Doflamingo, ''yet another'' Warlord of the Sea. Not only was Doflamingo terribly strong and smart, he also had access to many resources and connections that the vast majority of pirates don't, operating in a way similar to the Four Emperors (the series' strongest characters), albeit at a smaller scale.

Compare with ThatOneBoss, though this trope is specifically for bosses that appear early in the game and are merely a sample of the rest of the game's challenges. Also compare with DisappointingLastLevel and EarlyGameHell (for when not just the first or second boss is difficult, but also the early levels[=/=]chapters are as well). Contrast with WarmUpBoss, a first boss that frequently is impossible (or at least very hard) to lose to. See also HopelessBossFight and FinalBossPreview. Compare SkillGateCharacters, which are [=PvP=] characters/factions/whatever that serve a similar purpose in separating newbies from the experienced.

* ''WakeUpCallBoss/DarkSouls'' (also includes ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', and ''VideoGame/EldenRing'')

* Chapter 2's Samurai Goroh from ''VideoGame/FZero GX'' Story Mode, as he employs RubberBandAI in the worst ways possible after a relatively calm Chapter 1.

* Cademmimu in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' was full of these. While not the first flashpoint after The Esseles or Black Talon, everything between it (Athiss, Hammer Station, Mandalorian Raiders) was full of mechanics that veered between simple tank and spank, ShootTheMedicFirst, or were, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny after World of Warcraft, simple in nature]] and a lot of players would easily figure them out. Cademmimu on the other hand, required players to kite mobs around to avoid crowd control or DeathByAThousandCuts and pay attention to environmental hazards. The final boss of Cademmimu was a ''notorious'' newbie trap in the day, as he would make 3/4ths of the stage an almost instant death trap, forcing the players to run over to the safe segment.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Ash's battle with Lt. Surge. He's the first Gym Leader to make Ash earn a badge (and for once, compared to the earlier two Gym Leaders who gave him a badge for doing a random good deed, it was fair and square, no less). To beat him, Ash has to revise his one-note strategy of having Pikachu use electricity, especially since Surge's Raichu outclassed him in that regard, combined with finding a [[PowerUpLetDown fatal flaw in his logic]].