History ThatOneBoss / DevilMayCry

** The release of the Special Edition brings us none other than [[spoiler: Dante himself]] who is so ridiculously powerful missions 19 '''''and''''' 20 are treated as a single fight with him. And boy he's gonna make you earn that win. [[spoiler: He has full access to all his weapons and styles which he will happily use on the player, his Royalguard in particular, ''can now be used on your projectiles''.]] So if your dodging is not impeccable, be prepared to lose a huge chunk of life from what you though was a safe distance. On top of that [[spoiler: He gains [[ImmuneToFlinching super armor on many of his moves]], allowing him to ignore your attacks and unleash his more powerful techniques with impunity.]] And to top it all off [[spoiler: during the second round ha can shift into Sin Devil Trigger instantly, with every single devastating move it grants at his disposal, to the point some of them are nerfed to give the player a fighting chance.]] Needless to say, this is not a fight for the unprepared.

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** Bolverk. Not only is he fast, but he also hits hard, and his wolves Freki and Geri are both very hard to hit. Oh, and he can also block bullets, just in case you though you can just shoot him to death, like you can with most bosses in this game. Thankfully Lucia never fights him outside of Secret Rooms.

** Urizen has an arsenal of tricks he unleashes in every boss fight.
*** While he sits on the throne, he bombards the player with fireballs, diving energy projectiles, erupting geysers and [[BeamSpan laser beams]] while also sending out time bombs that slow them down, exposing them to the afformenitioned assault. And don't think just because you got close to him, you can pound on his shield non-stop. Urizen can push you away and force you to repeat the cycle, and the crystal itself grows spikes to hit the player.
*** After getting up, he regains most of his abilities while also gaining new ones. Urizen now utilizes tendrils attached to his body, sending them after the player and damaging them severely if they get caught; this move is very difficult to dodge. Also he spins around and pounds the ground with his fist, making tendrils cover a large area in front of him. And, yet again, his shield must be broken to deal any damage to Urizen and regenerates in a few seconds, giving you a short window to hit him with your hardest-hitting attacks.
*** In Mission 17 Urizen becomes much more mobile, zipping around the battlefield while still employing his projectile barrage and pummelling you with his fists and legs. As he loses more health, he starts shooting time-slowing spheres and summoning blades that quickly home in on you. During the final stretch of the fight, Urizen pulls out his most dangeroud move: he charges up and makes spikes erupt from the ground, following it up with a brutal uppercut.

** The aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob that you can't even damage unless you hit the blue crystals scattered around its stage, which will solidify it and allow it to be damaged. It will also attack you with rapid fire projectiles regardless of what state he is in, which makes him difficult to counter. To make matters worse, in his blob form it is also capable of swallowing you whole to send you into another dimension; where you fight [[DegradedBoss degraded versions]] of any of the previous bosses (Phantom, Griffon, or even Nelo Angelo). This process will take a large chunk off your health ''and'' Devil Trigger bar, and if you allow it to happen more than once, Nightmare might even ''enter Devil Trigger'' to increase its strength and regenerate for a short while. On the other hand, breaking out of the dimension does give a lot to your Devil Trigger bar. And just to make it all the more tedious, you encounter this boss three times across the game, all toward the endgame.

** [[spoiler:Sparda-powered Arkham]], whose OneWingedAngel form is a blob with ''very'' accurate projectiles. In addition, he could submerge into the demonic waters of the stage, protecting himself from attacks and summon annoying demonic dolphins. The [[SequentialBoss second phase]] of the fight also prevents you from using Devil Trigger and Style moves (greatly limiting your move list), while the boss will fire the aforementioned projectiles even faster, forcing a painfully slow long-range fight. It's tough, [[spoiler:even though Vergil does help you as an ally]].

** The aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob that you can't even damage unless you hit the blue crystals scattered around its stage, which will solidify it and allow it to be damaged. It will also attack you with rapid fire projectiles regardless of what state he is in, which makes him difficult to counter. To make matters worse, in his blob form it is also capable of swallowing you whole to send you into another dimension; where you fight [[DegradedBoss degraded versions]] of any of the previous bosses (Phantom, Griffon, or even Nelo Angelo). This process will take a large chunk off your health ''and'' Devil Trigger bar, and if you allow it to happen more than once, Nightmare might even ''enter Devil Trigger'' to increase its strength and regenerate for a short while. On the other hand, breaking out of the dimension does give a lot to the Devil Trigger bar. And just to make it all the more harder, you encounter this boss three times across the game, all toward the endgame.

** The aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob that you can't even damage unless you hit the blue crystals scattered around its stage, which will solidify it and allow it to be damaged. It will also attack you with rapid fire projectiles regardless of what state he is in, which makes him difficult to counter. To make matters worse, in his blob form it is also capable of swallowing you whole to send you into another dimension; where you fight [[DegradedBoss degraded versions]] of any of the previous bosses (Phantom, Griffon, or even Nelo Angelo). This process will take a large chunk off your health ''and'' Devil Trigger bar, and if you allow it to happen more than once, Nightmare might even ''enter Devil Trigger'' to increase its strength and regenerate for a short while. On the other hand, breaking out of the dimension does significant damage to Nightmare. And just to make it all the more harder, you encounter this boss three times across the game, all toward the endgame.

*** The third and final one is nightmarish; Vergil drops the Beowulf in favor of the Force Edge, a broad sword, which he can either use as a homing boomerang to hit you from a distance or as a way to extend his already extremely damaging sword combos. His Devil Trigger duration becomes ''even longer'' and allows him to perform LimitBreak attacks, (which either spams Judgment Cuts on the entire map or has him chasing you around by dropping from above and smashing your skull with his sword, before teleporting back to the air to repeat the process). In other words, he ''will'' obliterate you if you're not extremely careful and precise, as even one small slip on your part will allow him to combo you and deal massive damage.
*** Oh, in DMD mode, all three fights will be ''even worse'' thanks to his use of Summoned Swords, similar to albeit not as heavily used as Nelo Angelo's.

*** The first fight is tough due to the lack of Devil Trigger, coupled with Vergil's insane speed with his katana Yamato and his signature Judgment Cut, orbs of space that can cut you up regardless of your distance.
*** The second is ''a lot'' harder, because he will start using [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] whenever he can, which increases his attack, defense, speed ''and'' heals him continuously for the duration, just like yours. To make matters worse, he also uses the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves, which, while slow, is used in conjuction with his teleportation abilities to deal ''massive'' damage, in addition to his Yamato (which he will start using when his health is reduced to half).
*** The third and final fight is nightmarish; Vergil drops the Beowulf in favor of the Force Edge, a broad sword, which he can either use as a homing boomeramg to hit you from a distance or as a way to extend his already extremely damaging sword combos. His Devil Trigger duration becomes ''even longer'' and allows him to perform LimitBreak attacks, (which either spams Judgment Cuts on the entire map or has him chasing you around by dropping from above and smashing your skull with his sword, before teleporting back to the air to repeat the process). In other words, he ''will'' obliterate you if you're not extremely careful and precise, as even one small slip on your part will allow him to combo you and deal massive damage.

** The aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob that you can't even damage unless you hit the blue crystals scattered around its stage, which will solidify it and allow it to be damaged. It will also attack you with rapid fire projectiles regardless of what state he is in, which makes him difficult to counter. To make matters worse, in his blob form it is also capable of swallowing you whole to send you into another dimension; where you fight [[DegradedBoss degraded versions]] of any of the previous bosses (Phantom, Griffon, or even Nelo Angelo). This process will take a large chunk off your health ''and'' Devil Trigger bar, and if you allow it to happen more than once, Nightmare might even ''enter Devil Trigger'' to increase its strength and regenerate for a short while. And just to make it all the more harder, you encounter this boss three times across the game, all toward the endgame.

** And that isn't even the hardest fight. Mundus is a whole new league of difficulty; you fight him in a gruelling three-phase battle, the first of which will force you to fly across the sky of an alternate dimension he summons, firing projectiles against the demon god while avoiding his plethora of attacks, including laser blasts, lightning and explosions. Even after forcing him back to the ground for the second phase and [[spoiler:the help of the Sparda Devil Trigger]], his slow but powerful attacks will wreck you if you don't avoid it. Fortunately, the third phase is you against his ClippedWingAngel form, which is a lot easier.

** The aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob that you can't even damage unless you hit the blue crystals scattered around its stage, which will solidify it and allow it to be damaged. It will also attack you with rapid fire projectiles regardless of what state he is in, which makes him difficult to counter. To make matters worse, in his blob form it is also capable of swallowing you whole to send you into another dimension; where you fight [[DegradedBoss degraded versions]] of the previous bosses. Although beating them quickly will result in you dealing a significant damage to its health, this will only happen once and the next time you get swallowed, it will just take a large chunck off your health ''and'' Devil Trigger bar. You encounter this boss three times across the game, all toward the endgame.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' has [[spoiler:Arkham]], whose OneWingedAngel form was also a blob with hard-to-dodge projectiles. In addition, he could submerge, protecting himself from attacks and summon annoying evil demonic dolphins. The [[SequentialBoss second phase]] of the fight also stripped the player character of his Devil Trigger SuperMode and Style moves while firing aforementioned hard-to-dodge projectiles even faster, forcing a painfully slow long-range fight. This one's difficulty comes mainly from the fact you can't use your style moves during the fight, greatly limiting your move list.
** This assumes Agni and Rudra didn't bring you to the point of hurling your game into the nearest solid object beforehand.
** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' also has [[WakeUpCallBoss Cerberus]], who was a major cause of returns, resales, and complaints of the [[DifficultySpike difficulty]] of the game, followed by [[DualBoss Agni and Rudra]]. Cerberus was the boss at the end of the third level (meaning if you died, you probably didn't have enough continue items and had to play the level over) and Agni and Rudra were the end of the fifth, [[EarlyGameHell mostly because of your lack of Devil Trigger as well as your low stats and lack of powerful moveset]].
** [[HornyDevils Nevan]]. She has a regenerating bat shield, electrical attacks that cause huge amounts of damage if not avoided, an attack that drains your health and heals her, and can only be damaged for a small amount of time after you destroy her shields.
** All three of Vergil's fights are absolutely brutal, and they only rank up in difficulty over time. The first fight is tough due to the lack of Devil Trigger, coupled with Vergil's insane speed with his katana Yamato and his signature Judgment Cut, orbs of space that can cut you up regardless of your distance. The second is ''a lot'' harder, because he will start using [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] whenever he can, which increases his attack, defense, speed ''and'' heals him continuously for the duration, just like yours. To matters worse, he also uses the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves, which while slow, is used in conjuction with his teleportation abilities to deal ''massive'' damage, in addition to his Yamato (which he will start using when his health is reduced to half). The third and final fight is nightmarish; Vergil drops the Beowulf in favor of the Force Edge, a broad sword, which he can either use as a homing boomeramg to hit you from a distance or as a way to extend his already extremely damaging combos. His Devil Trigger duration becomes ''even longer'' and allows him to perform LimitBreak attacks, (which either spams Judgment Cuts on the entire map or has him chasing you around by dropping from above and smashing your skull with his sword, before teleporting back to the air to repeat the process). In other words, he ''will'' obliterate you if you're not extremely careful and precise, as even one small slip on your part will allow him to combo you and deal massive damage. And in DMD, all three fights will be ''even worse'' thanks to his use of Summoned Swords, similar to, albeit not as often as Nelo Angelo's.

* The first ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' had the aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob with hard-to-counter rapid fire projectiles and fearsome power and resilience. This trope also applies to the final battle with Nelo Angelo ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Vergil]]) in the first game because of his extremely fast and powerful attacks, his highly annoying shield/counter attacks, and his summoned swords, which attack independently in a variety of ways. And that isn't even the hardest fight. Nelo Angelo on DMD? Difficult but manageable. Nightmare? Lives up to its name, but not impossible. Mundus on DMD mode? A whole new league. No other boss in the series destroys some players with as great a frequency as that thing. Good luck trying NOT to kill him without using any healing items, and especially without relying on an Untouchable.

** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' also has [[WakeUpCallBoss Cerberus]], who was a major cause of returns, resales, and complaints of the [[DifficultySpike difficulty]] of the game, followed by [[DualBoss Agni and Rudra]]. Cerberus was the boss at the end of the third level(meaning if you died, you probably didn't have enough continue items and had to play the level over) and Agni and Rudra were the end of the fifth.
** Beowulf is also a pain in the ass when he turns red and start throwing cages at you.

** All three of Vergil's fights are absolutely brutal, and they only rank up in difficulty over time. The first fight is tough due to the lack of a Devil Trigger ability for Dante, coupled with actually getting used to Vergil's insane speed. The second is easier in some respects, but [[spoiler: Beowulf's attacks]] deal crazy damage on difficulties higher than Human. The final fight, which is [[spoiler: the final boss]] can absolutely ''obliterate'' you if you're not extremely careful and percise, as even one small slip up allows him to combo off of you and take a lot off of your health bar.

%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

* The first ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' had the aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob with hard-to-counter rapid fire projectiles and fearsome power and resilience.
** This trope also applies to the final battle with Nelo Angelo ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Vergil]]) in the first game because of his extremely fast and powerful attacks, his highly annoying shield/counter attacks, and his summoned swords, which attack independently in a variety of ways. And that isn't even the hardest fight. Nelo Angelo on DMD? Difficult but manageable. Nightmare? Lives up to its name, but not impossible. Mundus on DMD mode? A whole new league. No other boss in the series destroys some players with as great a frequency as that thing. Good luck trying NOT to kill him without using any healing items, and especially without relying on an Untouchable.

[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dante_4_4550.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:237: [[MirrorBoss Dan]][[BigGood te]], the toughest boss ever to defeat in ''Devil May Cry 4.'']]

** This trope also applies to the final battle with Nelo Angelo ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Vergil]]) in the first game because of his extremely fast and powerful attacks, his highly annoying shield/counter attacks, and his summoned swords, which attack independently in a variety of ways. And that isn't even the hardest fight. Nelo Angelo on DMD? Difficult but managable. Nightmare? Lives up to its name, but not impossible. Mundus on DMD mode? A whole new league. No other boss in the series destroys some players with as great a frequency as that thing. Good luck trying NOT to kill him without using any healing items, and especially without relying on an Untouchable.
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' has [[spoiler:Arkham]], whose OneWingedAngel form was also a blob with hard-to-dodge projectiles. In addition, he could submerge, protecting himself from attacks and summon annoying evil demonic dolphins. The [[SequentialBoss second phase]] of the fight also stripped the player character of his Devil Trigger SuperMode and Style moves while firing aforementioned hard-to-dodge projectiles even faster, forcing a painfully slow long-range fight. This one's difficulty comes mainly from the fact you can't use your style moves during the fight, greatly limiting your movelist.

** And in an interesting twist, just as you keep all unlockables on harder unlocked difficulties, so does Dante. On unlockable difficulties, he adds weapons to his moveset that he chronologically gets later on in the story. So he's NG+ just like you.

** This trope also applies to the final battle with Nelo Angelo ([[spoiler:ie. Vergil]]) in the first game because of his extremely fast and powerful attacks, his highly annoying shield/counter attacks, and his summoned swords, which attack independently in a variety of ways. And that isn't even the hardest fight. Nelo Angelo on DMD? Difficult but managable. Nightmare? Lives up to its name, but not impossible. Mundus on DMD mode? A whole new league. No other boss in the series destroys some players with as great a frequency as that thing. Good luck trying NOT to kill him without using any healing items, and especially without relying on an Untouchable.

** This trope also applies to the final battle with Nero Angelo ([[spoiler:ie. Vergil]]) in the first game because of his extremely fast and powerful attacks, his highly annoying shield/counter attacks, and his summoned swords, which attack independently in a variety of ways. And that isn't even the hardest fight. Nero Angelo on DMD? Difficult but managable. Nightmare? Lives up to its name, but not impossible. Mundus on DMD mode? A whole new league. No other boss in the series destroys some players with as great a frequency as that thing. Good luck trying NOT to kill him without using any healing items, and especially without relying on an Untouchable.

** In ''Devil May Cry 3'', the third and final fight with Vergil is relatively manageable...on anything other than Dante Must Die, where he will make your life living ''HELL''. He has a metric ''crapton'' of health, and all of his attacks from other modes, except they now deal enough damage to kill you in two or three combos, and he gains his [[ThatOneAttack Summoned Swords]]. And he still has his ''Super'' SuperMode from the other difficulties, of which he has two variations. The first consists of rapid teleporting attacks, where he either [[FlashStep flash steps]] above your head to cleave your skull, five times consecutively, with shorter intervals between each strike, or in front of your face to unleash a combo, and he randomly chooses between the two three or four times before going back to normal. The second includes going ''offscreen'' while rapid-fire chucking [[RazorWind Judgment Cuts]] at you, which comes in two patterns: The first has each Judgment Cut appear where you stand and can be "dodged" by simply walking around, but GOD HELP YOU if he chooses the second one, where they pop up ''completely randomly'' within a set radius around you. It's not rare to jump to avoid one of those orbs and then accidentally jump into another one, which carves away about 50% of your full health on DMD. And the worst part is, he [[HealingFactor regenerates health]], without you being able to do a single thing about it, and he actually regenerates based on ''percentage'', not health total, meaning that he can easily heal all the damage you did in the last two minutes over the course of ten seconds. And OH GOD, does he spam those moves.

** This trope also apply to the final battle with Nero Angelo ([[spoiler:ie. Vergil]]) in the first game because of his extremely fast and powerful attacks, his highly annoying shield/counter attacks, and his summoned swords, which attack independently in a variety of ways. And that isn't even the hardest fight. Nero Angelo on DMD? Difficult but managable. Nightmare? Lives up to its namesake but not impossible. Mundus on DMD mode? A whole new league. No other boss in the series destroys some players with as great a frequency as that thing. Good luck trying NOT to kill him without using any healing items, and especially without relying on an Untouchable.
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' has [[spoiler:Arkham]], whose OneWingedAngel form was also a blob with hard-to-dodge projectiles. In addition, he could submerge, protecting himself from attacks and summon annoying evil demonic dolphins. The [[SequentialBoss second phase]] of the fight also stripped the player character of his Devil Trigger SuperMode and Style moves while firing aforementioned hard-to-dodge projectiles even faster, forcing a painfully slow long-range fight. This ones difficulty comes mainly from the fact you cant use your style moves during the fight, greatly limiting your movelist.

** [[HornyDevils Nevan]]. She has a regenerating bat shield, electrical attacks that cause huge amounts of damage if not avoided, an attack that drains your health and heals her and can only be damaged for a small amount of time after you destroy her shields.
* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'' however, ThatOneBoss is clearly and easily identified. In keeping with the BishonenLine, the rematch with Dante is way, ''way'' harder than any of the other bosses. All the other bosses have a pattern. Dante's pattern is to [[PerfectPlayAI wait until you attempt an attack, then dodge with computerized precision and counter with an impossible-to-avoid attack]]. Don't even get started on what he does on higher difficulties. You can't even effectively use ranged attacks because he will ''deflect your bullets by shooting them out of the air.'' It was cool when he did it in the tutorial level, but as a real boss... ugh.