Climax Boss

A climactic, plot-important Boss Battle, usually occurring after a major revelation in the plot (e.g., about 2/3 into the game). Naturally, this means higher stakes and a more dramatic tone than your regular boss fight. The boss in question is also likely to be a major figure in the overall plot or a personal enemy of one of the main characters instead of some sort of one-scene monster. If you suddenly start hearing Battle Theme Music that's not the usual one used for boss battles and you know you're not even close to the Final Boss, then you're definitely dealing with one of these.

Note that to qualify for this trope, the boss must be at least somewhat of a challenge; if they're a complete pushover, that's Anti-Climax Boss. However, the boss fight does not have to be overly difficult, and a particularly difficult boss fight does not qualify as a Climax Boss unless it comes at a climactic point in the plot. Final Bosses also do not qualify, nor do bosses fought very close to the Final Boss (unless said boss was a constant presence throughout the story, meaning that you're finally getting some payoff for all that buildup); ideally a Climax Boss would take place somewhere around the two-thirds or three-quarters mark, not nine-tenths.

See Pre-Final Boss for bosses that come right before the final boss, Wake-Up Call Boss for the first hard boss fight early in the game and Hopeless Boss Fight when there is no way in hell the boss will be beaten just because of plot. Also differs from a Disc-One Final Boss in that the Climax Boss is not presented as the final boss despite being more dramatic than the usual boss.

Not to be confused with Pivotal Boss, which is a boss that the battle literally pivots around, like a wheel and its axle. Contrast Anti-Climax Boss, That One Boss, Final Boss. Inversion is The Unfought, where this kind of battle is set up, but never happens. It isn't usually required to beat them in Orgasmic Combat.

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Examples

Action Adventure Game

• Batman: Arkham Knight has the Arkham Knight fighting you in an excavator and then the stealth duel with him immediately after. It's also the only classic "hit their weakpoint three times" boss in the game.
• Most Metroidvania-type Castlevania games tend to have one or two. The vast majority become Final Bosses if on the path to a bad ending:
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has Richter Belmont.
  • Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has Julius Belmont, who has just learned Soma's real identity.
  • Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has the second battle with Dario Bossi, as well as Aguni if a certain soul is used.
  • Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has the second battle with Stella and Loretta.
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has two: Albus and, if on the path to the good ending, Barlowe.
• Cave Story: The Core fight, which comes after a minor plot revelation and is followed by a more important one. Plus, it's got its own BGM track, loads of creepy atmospheric build-up, and is followed by both a Player Punch and a fork in the road.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Devil May Cry has the final fight with Nelo Angelo, occurring at the end of Mission 17 of 23 (concluding the third quarter of the game), and followed up by two massive plot twists one after another: Nelo Angelo is Dante's twin brother Vergil, and Trish is working for Mundus.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening has the second battle with Vergil, where Arkham makes his move to acquire Sparda's power. Lady's part in the scheme is uncovered and the tower that was the site of all the game till this point is changed drastically.
  • Devil May Cry 4 uses the first fight with Sanctus. Nero turns out to be a descendant of Sparda whose blood is used to power the Savior, Nero's sworn brother Credo is killed, and with Nero out of commission Dante steps up as the player character.
  • Devil May Cry 5 has the final battle with Urizen. V makes his play to reunite with Urizen and rebecomes Vergil. After the battle Dante gives Nero the biggest reveal yet, that he is his father.
• Hollow Knight, open-ended game that it is, has several options.
  • Soul Master comes at the end of the City of Tears' story, guards the Desolate Dive spell, and is a major lore figure.
  • For the general game (you dont have to fight the others, but you do have to do these fights), there's the choice of the Broken Vessel, Uumuu, or the Watcher Knights (the first guards the Monarch Wings, the others guard Dreamers), whichever you want to fight first. Killing one of these and getting to what they're guarding (killing a Dreamer or finding the Monarch Wings) triggers a major status quo change as the Infection will leak out of the Black Egg Temple and transform the Forgotten Crossroads into the Infecteed Crossroads. Uumuu's charge Monomon serves as the climax of Quirrel's story, while the Broken Vessel's existence has serious implications as another member of the Knight's species.
  • If you're going for the Dream No More ending, the climax boss is Hornet's second boss fight, Hornet Sentinel (Her first fight, Hornet Protector, is more a Wake-Up Call Boss). She guards the Kingsbrand needed to reach the bottom of the Abyss and learn the Knight's past, and there are no bosses between her and the back-to-back Final Boss and True Final Boss- just platforming challenges.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising: Some of the arcs' Final Bossess stands out as a Climax Boss for the entire game.
  • The first arc has Medusa, the original game's Big Bad in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the heroes after 25 real-life years. Her defeat only concludes the first third of the game, as Hades reveals himself as the Big Bad and the true leader of the Underworld.
  • The Aurum arc has Aurum Pyrrhon, a fusion between Pyhrron and the Aurum Brain — the latter of which is the Hive Queen of the Aurum empowered by Pyrrhon himself after taking control over his mind. Its defeat leads to the game's Wham Episode where there is a 3-year Time Skip and everything gets fucked up courtesy of the Chaos Kin.
  • The Chaos Kin arc has the Chaos Kin itself causing arguably the most trouble in the game, even more so than Hades himself! The Kin's defeat leads to another sole chapter where Dark Pit revives Pit before the latter faces the Lord of the Underworld.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The wizard Agahnim is fought after retrieving the three Pendants of Virtue and the Master Sword. Link only thought he was the Big Bad, and after defeating him, is transported to the Dark World to rescue the seven maidens.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Phantom Ganon and Twinrova fill this role in different capacities. They are typically the first and last adult bosses respectively. Phantom Ganon's second phase is a preview of the fight with Ganondorf, and he contacts you at the end of the fight to taunt you. Twinrova are Co-Dragons to Ganondorf, and are more active before their fight than any other boss.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages: You fight Veran-possessed Nayru 3/4 of the way through the game. Veran then possesses Queen Ambi and continues her Evil Plan to build the Black Tower to the heavens.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Helmaroc King. It being the kidnapper of Link's sister, Aryll, as well as having kidnapped other girls and overall terrorizing the Great Sea. But it's only Ganondorf's second-in-command.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Zant is only the penultimate boss in the game, as he confesses after his defeat that Ganondorf is back in the Light World and ready to take over Hyrule. He's also a Final-Exam Boss ending with a crazed and desperate finale.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: The Diabolical Cubus Sisters are this, being faced inside the Ghost Ship (which technically acts as The Heavy of the game, next to Big Bad Bellum). Upon its defeat, Link sees Tetra completely petrified and learns of the game's Big Bad, the ancient squid-like demon Bellum.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The game has the fight with Byrne at the top of the Tower of Spirits, unique boss theme and all. He's fought at the top of the Tower of Spirits, just before Malladus finally possesses Zelda's body.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has two such bosses:
    • The first two battles with The Imprisoned. It is a nameless threat that has been looming over Link and haunting his dreams from the very start, and battles with it close the first and second acts of the game. It's later fought a third time, but by that point the old woman watching over it makes it already clear that every resealing is only temporary and it will keep growing more and more powerful (and the third fight occurs not too long after the second, which also confirms her fears that the seals also last shorter every time). It becomes the Final Boss Demise after devouring Zelda's soul in the past era.
    • The last of the three fights against Ghirahim. He was active in impeding Link's progress and trying to kidnap Zelda, and his final, desperate fight is the last thing you need to do before facing off once and for all against the real Big Bad.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Yuga, appearing in Hyrule Castle as a boss with a very similar backstory and battle to Agahnim in A Link to the Past. It's after he's defeated that Link actually learns about Lorule and the captured sages.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has Phantom Ganon, who is revealed to have fooled (and put into danger) many people across the land of Hyrule in his Princess Zelda persona on behalf of his evil creator, and attempts to lure Link into several enemy ambushes in different parts of Hyrule Castle after the four temple dungeons are conquered (and thus the evil character's actions are undone). After realizing that Link won't succumb to his traps so easily, he confronts him directly in the castle's throne room (and unlike his weaker boss appearances upon the defeats of Gloom Hands in the overworld, here he challenges Link in a proper dungeon boss fight, being considerably more difficult to defeat as a result). After Link wins the battle, he and the Sages he helped along the way have a blunt communication with Big Bad Ganondorf, thus foreshadowing a grueling fight against him in the near future.
• In the Metroid series, Ridley often plays this role as the second- or third-to-last to last major boss fought, as he often guards the way to the Final Boss and is equally often That One Boss in any given game:
  • Metroid: Zero Mission: In contrast to the original, Ridley is treated as the climax boss before Mother Brain, after several added cutscenes heralding his impending boss fight. The original Metroid had very little plot to speak of and both Ridley and Kraid were given equal importance as the bosses that had to be killed to access the final boss.
  • Metroid: Samus Returns: The Metroid Queen is demoted to this, unlike in the original Metroid II where she was the Final Boss. In this remake, she's still a major threat due to being the progenitor of the Metroids, and the elaborate Sequential Boss fight against her reflects the urgency to slay her. But after Samus wins the fight and peacefully takes the last Metroid alive with her, the real Final Boss awaits in the surface: Proteus Ridley, who plans to seize the Metroid. Indeed, unlike in his other appearances in the series, Ridley inverts the roles.
  • Metroid Prime: Ridley again, as Samus first goes to the planet the game takes place on chasing him, tracks him throughout the game, and finally battles him right before going to the final boss' area.
  • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Ridley once more, who again appears early on — this time as a boss battle — and later acts as the final Leviathan guardian fought before Samus and the Federation take the battle to Phazon's origin on Phaaze.
  • Super Metroid: Ridley once more! This time he sets the entire plot into motion by stealing the last Metroid at the beginning of the game, but when Samus finally catches up to him and defeats him, the Metroid has escaped containment, setting up the last leg of the story.
  • Metroid Fusion: The game breaks with tradition by having Nightmare act as the climax boss; it's foreshadowed in the background several times before it's fought, and its very existence foreshadows that the research on the BSL station involves biological weapons.
• The "White Assassin" in Mirror's Edge is actually the only actual boss fight in the game. The after-fight cutscene also makes it the Wham Level.
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams: In Will's story, Reala fights NiGHTS after revealing the latter was actually a Nightmaren all along.
• Ōkami has two Climax Bosses: Orochi and Ninetails. Both bring a new revelation: Orochi's death causes all the other bosses to be let loose upon the world, and Ninetails reveals the existence of Yami.
• Spider-Man (2000) features Venom emerging in the introduction cutscene, and the eventual conflict between him and Spidey is built up all throughout the game. His second and final fight which is a Timed Mission since he has captured Mary Jane marks the point where the last third of the game begins.

Action Game

• The final battle with the Blood Ark in Another Century's Episode 3, at the end of the middle stage of the game. While it is a battle against the Final Boss pilot, and it has the first use of a specific boss battle theme, it is almost laughably easy, since your forces have been getting upgraded, and the villain is using the same mech he had at the beginning. The climax comes from the removal of his unusually obscuring mask which averts Paper-Thin Disguise.
• Several in Asura's Wrath. Each of them is an episode all on their own, or at least have a fight that lasts most of the episode. The fights against Yasha, Augus, Olga's fleet, and Wrath Asura are probably the best examples.
• Darth Vader in The Force Unleashed. In the Wii/PS2 version, the second duel with Kento Marek, aka Galen's father may count as well. And for the DLC, OBI-WAN KENOBI AND LUKE SKYWALKER!
• The fourth and final battle with Prince Vorkken in The Wonderful 101. He turns out to be the one at the last Super Reactor, and he even killed the Geathjerk officer that would have attacked the Super Reactor offscreen, showing that he's no longer fully loyal to anyone anymore. He is fought right after Immorta gives his backstory, and right before The Dragon Gimme is introduced, two major turning points in the game that mark its Cerebus Syndrome.

Beat 'em Up

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes: Chapter 10 of Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire, and Chapter 12 of Azure Gleam all feature a third encounter with Shez's rival Byleth, the Rogue Protagonist from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Unlike most examples of this trope, while Byleth is an exceptionally powerful and fearsome foe, they're not the boss of the chapter — your intended target is the person who hired them, and fighting your way around Byleth to reach your target is anything but straightforward.
• God of War:
  • Subverted in the original game. Not only were there not a lot of actual boss fights (plenty of big mooks though), but most of them every last one of them except Ares seemed to just randomly appear out of nowhere.
  • In God of War II, Lakhesis and/or Atrophos, two of the Sisters of Fate. (Clotho, the third sister, is more of a Puzzle Boss.)
  • Subverted in God of War III, where the real turning point of the game's plot (finding and freeing Pandora) isn't done with a boss fight at all, but a puzzle. Seems to be a common theme in this series. (Though some might suggest the rock scorpion would qualify as this trope.)
• Ninja Gaiden II (the original NES version) has a climax boss in Ashtar, who we initially believe is the Big Bad behind the game. Ryu defeats him about halfway through the game, but the threat posed by the Dark Sword of Chaos isn't over yet, and the true Big Bad turns out to be Jacquio, who you defeated in the very first game, and who has revived himself using the Power of Evil. The same Final Boss music is used for both major battles.
• The first Splatterhouse installment has (Fake) Jennifer; it takes place during Stage 5 of 7, has a unique boss theme, and changes the Excuse Plot from a Roaring Rampage of Rescue to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Streets of Rage 4 has two distinct cases:
  • At the end of Stage 7, the heroes fight Estel a second time, due to her continued insistence on arresting the heroes for breaking the law. After the fight, Mr. Y, one of the two leaders of the Y Syndicate alongside his sister Ms. Y, orders the two officers beside him to open fire with bazookas on the train the fight was taking place on, against Estel's protests as doing so would kill civilians on the train. After this point, Estel finally realizes the heroes were right about the Syndicate being dangerous and assists them the next time she sees them.
  • Stage 10 has the heroes defeating DJ K Washi in order to prevent him from playing a concert of Mind-Control Music that would've been broadcast to the entire city, a plot that they had uncovered several stages prior. But that's not the end of the game yet as they still need to track down and stop the Y siblings, which takes another two stages.
• The first Shredder fight in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. Once he's defeated, the actual time-travel part of the game begins.

First-Person Shooter

• Lazarus Malkoth in Dark Watch is a rare example where the Big Bad qualifies as this trope instead of being the final confrontation. He is fought at the start of the story's final act when the main protagonist's lover Tala turned traitor and allowed his forces to invade the Darkwatch citadel.
• Doom: The Cyberdemon is the boss of the second episode out of three. It was even featured on the sequel's cover!
• Doom Eternal: The Khan Maykr is fought in the mission straight after Nekravol, which reveals the secrets of the Argent Energy she's been manufacturing. The very next mission after her fight is the Final Boss, the Icon of Sin.
• Yuma in Far Cry 4 provides the game's only proper boss fight.
• Halo:
  • Halo 2:
    • The Prophet of Regret, unless you just jump on his chair and punch him in the face, then he's a textbook Anti-Climax Boss.
    • The Heretic Leader is another example, although he's only the first boss, he's the hardest of the three, at least on Legendary.
    • Legendary co-op turns all the boss fights into That One Boss instead. The Heretic leader becomes the easiest because if you get lucky, you can assassinate him in one hit. The Prophet of Regret is a absolute nightmare (you have to watch out for his teleporting chair). If his giant laser (one shot kill) doesn't get you, the grenade spamming grunts will. If they don't, then the elites (both dual wielding plasma pistols AND using swords) sure will. On top of that, if you are skilled/fast/lucky enough to survive all three, your partner had better damn well be too. The final boss almost seems EASY after that.
  • In Halo 3, the Dual Boss against two Scarabs and the assault on the Citadel can count. On the other hand, Truth is hyped up to be this, but he just gets killed by the Arbiter in a cutscene.
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein has the Ubersoldat, the second boss who benefits from both plot placement and grandiose battle.
• Serious Sam 4 has Lord Achriman, fought in the thirteenth level "Anathema Unto God". He may not be the Final Boss, but Achriman is the Big Bad of the game and the fight with him concludes both the France chapter and game-long search for the Holy Grail, here an alien artifact that the Earth Defense Force wants to use against Mental's forces. It is right after this fight that General Brand reveals himself to be Evil All Along, that the Holy Grail is actually an Artifact of Doom, steals the artifact for himself and takes Sam captive as an offering to Mental, kicking off the final conflict of the game in Russia.
• Strife has The Programmer. Most of the game to this point had been preparing to storm his castle. During his fight, you are introduced to The Sigil and spend the rest of the game collecting its components from his colleagues.
• ULTRAKILL has The 1000-THR "Earthmover", a Humongous Mecha that serves as the boss of Violence, the 7th out of the 9 Layers of Hell. The Earthmover is fought as an epic Battleship Raid boss where you scale on its titanic body while mowing down gauntlets of mooks in your way until you kill it from the inside by destroying its brain, followed by a thrilling escape sequence where you try to escape with your life while dealing with one more gauntlet before the Earthmover explodes. The Earthmover also has lore significance, as shown by its lore entry implying that V1 was designed to counter it and its ilk by infiltrating them from the inside during the Lensman Arms Race, meaning they've fulfilled their purpose by killing it. A hidden book can also be found in an otherwise empty alleyway in the city sitting on its back whose texts are implied to be the thoughts of Hell itself where it praises V1 and the Earthmovers for causing great carnage and destruction in their wake, hoping that the latter killed off humanity.

Platform Game

• Several in Copy Kitty due to the game's length being extended several times over its development, including the swordsman Arikan, the Humongous Mecha Fortress Virs and Giga Dengrahx (all of whom were formerly the game's Final Bosses), and Yoggval, a Recurring Boss throughout the game who eventually gets taken over and powered up into a final battle as Phoenix Yoggval.
• Kirby
  • Kirby's Adventure has Meta Knight and King Dedede.
    • The face off against Meta Knight is hyped up much earlier, as Kirby faces off his minions in Mini-Boss fights, in addition to Meta Knight himself dropping Kirby a few Invincibility Pops seemingly as a means to test him. And sure enough, he's fought in one of the game's last levels (right before Rainbow Resort and the Fountain of Dreams), his fight is rather unique (it's a sword duel with Sword Kirby being mandatory), and the revelation that he is a member of Kirby's species.
    • Kirby finally faces off King Dedede at the end of Rainbow Resort to obtain the last piece of the Star Rod. What succeeds afterwards is the revelation of the game's true Big Bad: Nightmare.
  • Both King Dedede fights in Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3, being Disc One Final Bosses fought close to the end of the game. If Kirby has enough pieces of a legendary weapon in each respective game, he gets to fight the true Big Bad and Final Boss: Dark Matter Blade in 2 and Zero in 3.
  • Kirby: Squeak Squad has the face-off against the game's Big Bad, Daroach, causing all the problems in the story. Then, the chest that Daroach is guarding becomes very important in the story, as it contains the game's ultimate evil: Dark Nebula.
  • Kirby's Epic Yarn:
    • Capamari is the last of the bosses fought that is original to the game (besides Big Bad Yin-Yarn), and it really shows when he is fought in two distinct phases. The rest of the game has Kirby facing off his recurring adversaries (albeit brainwashed): King Dedede and Meta Knight, before facing off Yin-Yarn himself.
    • Speaking of Meta Knight, he is the last boss faced in Patch Land before the planet is stitched together completely. However, Yin-Yarn has completely taken over Dream Land at this point, as such Kirby and Prince Fluff must go there to finally stop him and save Kirby's homeworld.
  • Kirby Mass Attack: Skullord is The Dragon to Necrodeus, the last foe faced in Planet Popstar, and the cause of all the Skullys roaming around there. After the Kirbys defeat him, all the Skullys disappear, but the Kirbys must obtain all the Rainbow Medals to get to Necro Nebula and face off Necrodeus himself.
  • Kirby's Return to Dream Land also has two:
    • The first gives us Grand Doomer serving as Planet Popstar's Final Boss, whose defeat triggers the completion of the Lor Starcutter and the group arriving at Halcandra.
    • The second gives us Landia, Magolor's nemesis who is responsible for dismantling the Lor earlier in the game, and crashes it down when the heroes arrive at Halcandra. However, Landia's defeat leads to the revelation that Magolor was using the heroes the entire time to seize the Master Crown so that he can bring forth his plan in taking over the universe.
• Klonoa
  • Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and the Wii remake has Ghadius's Dragon, Joka/Joker. After dealing with him for the majority of the game, and witnessing him murder his grandfather, Klonoa's battle with Joka serves to signal the beginning of the endgame, opening the path to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • Klonoa: Lunatea's Veil has Cursed Leorina (Leorina transformed by the Power of Sorrow), also serving as the Disc-One Final Boss. Defeating her reveals the existence of the true Big Bad of the game, and allows Leorina to go through a Heel–Face Turn and join forces with the heroes.
• Mega Man:
  • X vs. Zero in Mega Man X5. This battle is built up by four games' worth of storyline (even included in a prophecy, or something close to one for a sci-fi series), gives genuine conflict to the characters involved, and one of their deaths brings about the end of the series (supposedly). The awesome battle theme cements its status as one of the best battles in the X series (some say even the entire Mega Man continuity).
  • Craft in Mega Man Zero 4 serves as this, as he's introduced as the leader of the Einherjar Eight Warriors in the beginning of the game, is fought at the midpoint and kidnaps Neige, then is fought as the penultimate boss after becoming The Starscream from Neige's words during her captivity and shooting Dr Weil with his own Kill Sat, while also killing millions of Neo Arcadian civilians in the process.
  • Prometheus and Pandora serve as this in the Mega Man ZX series, a unique example of a recurring Climax Boss. In the first game, Prometheus is fought after four of the eight Pseudoroids are defeated when he attacks and tries to destroy the Guardian HQ while challenging Vent/Aile to a match to see if they can join "the game". Pandora is fought after all the Pseudoroids are defeated and Vent/Aile enter Area M to destroy Model W, only for her to run interference for Serpent to get it to safety. Then they're both fought in the penultimate mission, where they reveal Serpent is just an Unwitting Pawn and there's someone else running things behind the scenes. In Advent, they are once more the penultimate bosses where they reveal their reasons for betraying and killing Albert before Albert reveals he planned for this and awakens Model W's ultimate form.
• Blinky (though for whatever reason the game addresses him as Clyde, who is actually the orange ghost) in Pac-Man World 2 counts, being the final and most difficult member of the Ghost Gang confronted, employing a Climactic Volcano Backdrop, and having his own dramatic and unique Battle Theme Music.
• RosenkreuzStilette: Although the eight members of the Rosenkreuzstilette can be fought in any order after the prologue a la Mega Man, Freudia Neuwahl is clearly intended to be the last one that the player fights. The game's Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors is structured in such a way that most players will fight her last and, unlike the other Rosenkreuzstilette, Freudia can't be killed by her weakness as it can only take down half of her health bar in a full use^note Which is arguably a moot point anyway since most players will have used it up on her stage. Freudia also has a unique battle theme, is fought on a far larger stage, and doesn't change her tactics when brought to half health. From a story perspective, Freudia is encountered in the prologue as the game's Warm-Up Boss and is the Rosenkreuzstilette who shares the closest bond with Spiritia. Tellingly, Freudia is the player character in the sequel.
• Spyro the Dragon:
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon gives us Scorch, the boss of the penultimate world, Evening Lake. The cutscene before the fight gives a major plot revelation: The Sorceress is not a Well-Intentioned Extremist, which she reveals to Bianca. Bianca, this Not Being What She Signed Up For, finally performs her Heel–Face Turn. Anyway, the Sorceress needs a "Monster to End All Monsters" so she takes one of her minions, as she and Bianca have done twice already, but this one is unique. Unlike previous times, this minion is frightened and needs to be pushed over by his partner. Also, you don't see the boss in the cutscene this time. Then, we get to the actual fight, in which Bentley tells Spyro that the Sorceress is going to use Scorch to crush her enemies, starting with them.
  • The Legend of Spyro:
    • In The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, The Destroyer is the weapon used for Malefor's world destruction plot, it's fought near the tail end of the game in a dramatic, high-stakes battle where Spyro and Cynder must scale its massive body to destroy its purple crystals, it's the final obstacle faced before the Burned Lands where Malefor's forces reside, and it's immediately followed by Ignitus' death.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles: The last Launch Base Zone boss (the final boss from Sonic 3 alone) becomes this in the full game, marking the end of the game's first half. It's also a turning point in the story, as it's when Sonic stops the relaunch of the Death Egg, knocking it down to Angel Island's volcano and setting in motion the 'Sonic & Knuckles portion of the story. In the second half Knuckles himself serves as this. He is guarding the last room before the Master Emerald, battling Sonic in front of a picture of a prophecy depicting Super Sonic fighting Doctor Eggman. After the battle Eggman reveals his true goals and steals the Master Emerald to restore the Death Egg. From then on Knuckles helps Sonic and the goal is to stop the Death Egg.
  • The Egg Viper in Sonic Adventure. To a degree, the Egg Walker too, but it's pretty easy.
    • E-101 Mark II qualifies as well, and possibly Alpha/ZERO. They each get their own unique themes and act as the final bosses to their side-stories. E-101 Beta Mk II also comes straight after a Wham Line clarifying the playable character E-102 Gamma's Foregone Conclusion (after destroying Beta, he himself is his remaining target)..
    • To a degree, the Sonic and Tails vs Gamma character battle. While it's a pathetically easy boss on any side, it occurs just after Gamma's Pet the Dog moment rescuing Amy, leading her to stand up for him and break the fight up, finalizing his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Despite being the penultimate boss, Metal Sonic serves this role in Sonic CD. Prior to this point, Metal kidnapped Amy Rose and changed the past to help Dr. Robotnik rule the future, leaving Sonic to spend the entire game undoing his actions. When Sonic finally confronts him, they duke it out in a style of Boss Battle previously unseen in this series, racing, along with appropriate music.^note The former plays in the Japanese and European versions, the latter in the American version. This race concludes with Sonic finally rescuing Amy and defeating Metal, with only Robotnik left to oppose him. It's arguably the most memorable moment of the game, as well as the most challenging.
  • Egg Albatross has this role in Sonic Heroes. Coming in at the 2/3 part of the game it is far more elaborate than any boss thus far, with three phases with distinct attack patterns. Afterwards, Eggman's egg fleet is shown in the distance as his master plan nears completion and in the Dark story this is the first time Shadow sees one of the Shadow androids, casting doubt on his origins. To top it all off Eggman is revealed to be Metal Sonic in disguise.
  • Metal Sonic serves this role again in Sonic Mania. Though he's still the boss of Stardust Speedway, this time it's halfway through the game (Zone six out of twelve) and he heralds the point where Mania stops playing around and starts getting serious. His battle is much longer than the previous bosses, has four phases, and Metal himself is only vulnerable at specific times during the fourth phase while you're being chased by a wall of spikes. And like in CD this climax is accompanied by an amazing remix of the Japanese theme from CD. As of the Encore update, the final phase of the battle is changed to Eggman using the Phantom Ruby to make Metal Sonic transform into a One-Winged Angel.
  • Sonic Superstars: Throughout the game, Fang the Hunter harasses Team Sonic and it finally comes to a head in Golden Capital Zone Act 2. It features a multi-stage battle as you navigate stage hazards and fend off his ever increasing firepower. It culminates in Trip's Heel–Face Turn to stop him from activating his trump card, which she destroys with the power of her super form. Later, in Trip's story mode where she becomes a playable character, she confronts Fang again in Golden Capital Zone, and then one final time as he ascends to be her mode's Final Boss, using the same mecha that was teased in the main game.
• Super Mario Bros.
  • Super Mario Bros. 3 has Ludwig Von Koopa, who is the last Koopaling fought in order to save the Mushroom World. Afterwards, Bowser kidnaps Peach again, setting the stage for the final world.
  • Super Mario World does this twice.
    • Ludwig Von Koopa once again, but in different circumstance. He is fought midway through the game and is the only Koopaling to have a unique battle style. Afterwards, the rest of the game has Mario facing off the last 3 remaining Koopalings (prior to Bowser) under harder conditions to the first 3 Koopaling bouts.
    • Speaking of last Koopalings, Larry Koopa is the final Koopaling the Mario Bros. faces right before Bowser himself, with his castle preceding Bowser's. This also counts as Book Ends in some way, as Larry's fight is a harder version of Iggy's.
  • Super Mario Sunshine has Mecha-Bowser. After Shadow Mario kidnaps Princess Peach, he takes her to Pinna Park, where he tries to take Mario down with this giant robotic Bowser lookalike. It's one of the few bosses in the game with a unique battle theme, and its defeat is followed by the reveal of Shadow Mario's identity. It's Bowser Jr.
  • New Super Mario Bros.: If, let's say you want to play all the worlds in a specific order, then World 4's Tower fight against Bowser Jr. should come off as this, since it's the first battle against the Koopa prince that has him fighting much more aggressively and Mario defeating him in a different way (if he doesn't use the Fire Flower or the Mega Mushroom).
  • Super Mario Galaxy has the second fight against Bowser in his Dark Matter Plant, afterwards you only have to collect a certain number of Power Stars for the Comet Observatory to reach the Center of the Universe (you can skip the Engine Room and Garden domes entirely).
  • Each fight with Bowser Jr. in New Super Mario Bros. Wii is this, as he is the The Heavy of the game after all. New Super Mario Bros. U does this again, especially the last one — since taking his airship down entirely removes the MacGuffin Bowser Hand that caused most of the problems in the story.
  • Super Mario Odyssey has the first fight against Bowser in the Cloud Kingdom.

Rhythm Game

• In Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure, Raphael starts learning that Napoleon has plans greater than simply unleashing his minions and stealing things. His investigation takes him to the courtyard in Versailles — where Napoleon himself shows up and challenges Raphael to a duel. They both live to see another day, but the game gets considerably darker and more serious from his duel onwards.
• Purge the King from Space Channel 5 Part 2.

Role-Playing Game

• After beating the third boss of Abomi Nation, Furcifume himself ambushes you during the post-battle cutscene, immediately thrusting you into another battle. Also serves as a Final Boss Preview, as he uses similar tactics and abilities to his Final Boss incarnation.
• AdventureQuest Worlds gives us the Lords of Chaos, who are all Climax Bosses save for Discordia (who wasn't really a Chaos Lord) and Kimberly (other than the health bars which players on all servers worked to get their health bars down to 0 during the One-Eyed Doll Live Event, although Kimberly had the ability to heal the health bar a few times).
• Baten Kaitos seems to have an affinity for these: the first game has Geldoblame, Kalas, and the final fight with Giacomo, Ayme, and Folon; the second game has Guillo, Shananth, and Wiseman, though the last of those is actually hidden away in a sidequest.
• Bloodborne has Rom, the Vacuous Spider. Defeating her causes the Blood Moon to descend, opening up the endgame areas and causing previous areas to get harder. The Blood Moon phase is also when the game goes full ahead with the cosmic horror, which had previously been limited to a few scattered enemies and oblique hints. Everything usually hidden is now permanently visible (including the Eldritch Abomination hanging out on the safe house), most survivors go insane, and enemies include Cthulhumanoids and minor Great Ones.
• Breath of Fire 3 had Garr, the Dragon-slayer at the end of Angel Tower, and the Dragon Elder much later in the game.
• Chrono Cross:
  • The first act has Miguel. Chronopolis by itself reveals a lot about the nature of what happens when you mess around with time too often; Miguel is just where the story reaches its apex with it.
  • The second act has Fate, the true form of the recurring antagonist Lynx. Just before you learn of several secrets regarding yourself, Fate and the world as a whole. And after the dragons, including their surprise member Harle make their play now that Fate is out of the picture
• Chrono Trigger
  • The Hopeless Boss Fight against Lavos. It's actually winnable if you're of a high enough level, but you'll have to go through the New Game Plus before you get to that point. And go through New Game Plus several times before it ceases to be hard.
  • Magus. In addition to having intense boss music, it's where the true nature of what Lavos has done to the planet and the timelines starts emerging.
  • The battle against Azala and her BlackTyrano. The battle not only closes the Prehistory story arc, but also reveals that Lavos came from outer space in this era as a meteor and caused the ice age that killed the dinosaurs, and most importantly, the heroes find a Time Gate that leads to a fifth time period, Antiquity, when prior to that they could only travel between four time periods (Present, Middle Ages, Bad Future and Prehistory).
• Cordelia's dragon form in Child of Light, which happens shortly after a huge revelation (Nox's betrayal) in the game. Her battle music is also different from the normal boss music.
• Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls. Epic music, extremely challenging for the right reasons, and takes place in a huge and grand hall. Defeating the pair is the final test before meeting Gywnevere and receiving the Lordvessel, kicking off the second half of the Chosen Undead's quest.
• Velstadt serves as this in Dark Souls II. He is the final obstacle to gain entry to the final area to get to the Throne of Want. and defeating him reveals Vendrick's darkest secret. That he himself has turned hollow and succumbed to the Undead Curse.
• Pontiff Sulyvahn and Saint Aldrich in Dark Souls 3 are the Big Bad Duumvirate for the first half of the game, and are both fought and killed at around the halfway point. Sulyvahn is The Heavy and responsible for countless other enemies and bosses you've already encountered, and is revealed to have masterminded a significant part of the plot. Aldrich, meanwhile, is the last major boss the player fights before they're supposed to go to Lothric Castle (assuming they killed Yhorm first). Their fights also come with two major revelations to add to their tensity; the Cathedral of the Deep had invaded and defiled Anor Londo, and Sulyvahn had fed Gwyndolin to Aldrich.
• The first Digital Devil Saga has Varin Omega and his demon form, Ravana… story-wise, anyway. In the second game, it's Heat's new demon form Vritra, the last real boss fight before Gale and Cielo's sacrifices and Serph and Sera's fusion leading up to the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• The Arishok at the end of Act II in Dragon Age II. This victory earns Hawke the title of "Champion". This in turn makes Hawke the most important person in Kirkwall, which forces Hawke to take sides in the Mage-Templar conflict in Act III.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest V: Kon is the last opponent before the last timeskip, and marks the transition to the fatherhood portion of the game. He even has an appropriately climactic setup, kidnapping the Hero's wife and having a unique battle setup where the kidnapped wife needs to weaken him in order to damage him.
  • In Dragon Quest VIII:
    • First, there's the two-stages fight against Dhoulmagus, fittingly the first boss fight using a different more threatening-sounding OST. The battle is actually so intense that one could be forgiven to think it's the Final Boss, especially since it takes place after the Disc-One Final Dungeon. However, it's only after this battle that the truth about the scepter and the real Big Bad is revealed.
    • Then, there's Marcello, which really starts ramping up how bad the Big Bad is making things once Marcello is beaten.
• Elden Ring:
  • Radahn serves as this for many story arcs. More than one character talks of how he was once the greatest warrior of the Shattering and how his final battle with Malenia brought Caelid to ruin. His defeat is the key to a few character quests: Iron Fist Alexander realizes his limits in battle; no longer tied to Radahn, Jirren starts to hunt Sellen, causing her to entrust her Soul Jar to you; Ranni's fate is unsealed and northern Nokron is unsealed, allowing progression into Fia's quest. That he gets an entire festival that makes his former castle non-hostile in a world burned by time and war shows how important he is even in his current state.
  • Lichdragon Fortissax is the climax boss of Fia's questline. He is the draconic brother of the ancient dragon Lansseax; the friend of Godwyn The Golden; the last line defending the carcass of the Prince of Death; and pretty much everything you'd expect a draconic climax boss wreathed in lightning and necrotic briars to be. Defeating him allows Fia to give birth to the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince, which can be claimed by the player to be used to usher the Age of Duskborn.
  • Astel, Naturalborn of the Void, is the climax boss at the end of Ranni's questline. At the point you encounter this starspawn horror, you've learned that Ranni plans on putting an end to the Age of the Erdtree and its Golden Order and have the next era be one dedicated to the Stars and the Dark Moon. You have explored both Nokron and Nokstella, the two civilizations of the Dark Moon-worshipping Nox. And you have, if not outright seen its ruins for yourself, then at least read about the destruction of a third Nox civilization in item descriptions. And you know that Astel is what caused that destruction. It, and the powers it conjures, represent both the final obstacle standing in the way of you reaching Ranni and helping her make the Age of Stars a possibility, as well as the dangers that await humanity in her Age should it come to pass.
  • Morgott the Omen King serves as this for the main story arc. He is the boss of the royal capital Leyndell and the last enemy before the Erdtree. His defeat reveals the biggest obstacle to entering it is the Erdtree itself, which has created a barrier of thorns to keep the Elden Ring out of reach. From then on you have to work on finding a way to burn the Erdtree to gain access to the inside. Appropriately, he is the last Demi-god that has to be faced, showing that your goals are higher than thought before.
  • A confrontation with the mysterious Lord of Blood is foreshadowed from the very first zone (via his followers Varré and Nerijus) and constantly built up to throughout the game via item descriptions, NPC dialogue, fights with his Bloody Fingers and Sanguine Nobles, and a preview fight against him as a projection in Leyndell (without revealing the connection between the Omen and the Lord of Blood). When you finally find him, you'll be rewarded with one of the game's toughest bosses and three significant narrative answers: what the Bloody Fingers are working towards, why the Haligtree is decaying, and what exactly happened to the missing Empyrean Miquella. Taking this information back to Gideon also yields some important information about Queen Marika's motivations. Gideon's dialogue itself also indicates that Mohg is intended to be the last shardbearer the player fights, even after Malenia.
• Fate/Grand Order: Singularity #7: Babylonia and Lostbelt #7, Nahui Mictalan both feature an insanely difficult boss not only poses just as much if not more of a threat than current arc's Big Bad, but also introduces major lore changes when they are revealed.
  • Babylonia has Tiamat, the Beast of Regression. Tiamat is set to devour all of Uruk and is a foe completely unrelated to the existence of the singularities. Not only that, but she is the very first Beast-class opponent players face, and her encounter reveals the true person of the Servant summoning system is to oppose beasts like her. Her powers also hint that Angra Mainyu from the original Fate/stay night would've become a Beast if someone wished on the corrupted grail.
  • Nahui Mictalan has ORT, the Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud. Not only is this a major case of Unseen No More (Oort was first referneced twenty two years prior to its fight in Nahui Mictalan), but it is also revealed that Oort is directly responsible for the setting as we know it - Oort's impact with Earth is what destroyed the dinosaurs, allowing mankind to flourish when extraterrestrial bacteria arrived shortly after in the Chixulub meteor. As for the fight itself, it is the first and so far only single player story raid, requiring you to throw a literal army of servants at ORT to win. Due to all of the gimmicks in the fight, including disabling using defeated servants for the rest of the fight, it also functions as a Final-Exam Boss and test of how well you've level up your servants, their skills, and your craft essences.
• Final Fantasy series:
  • The Emperor in Final Fantasy II, who has every appearance of being the final boss, but there's still two more dungeons afterward.
  • Xande in Final Fantasy III is the Evil Overlord behind all the conflict in the game, until you kill him, at which point the Cloud of Darkness appears and you're transported to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon to fight it.
  • In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, after the revelation that despite Fusoya and Golbez successfully killing the Mysterious Girl, she won't stay dead, the moon's crystals are all shattered, which results in the resurrection of Zeromus with only Golbez and Fusoya there to stop him. Fans of the first game will immediately know how overwhelmingly fucked they are.
  • In Final Fantasy V, the fight with Exdeath at his castle is the last boss before the worlds merge, and even gets its own unique battle theme.
  • Final Fantasy VI has the fights against Kefka at Narshe and against AtmaWeapon on the Floating Continent, which are the last fights of their respective acts of the story. The latter in particular directly precedes the game's biggest twist, in which Kefka kills Gestahl, destroys most of the world, and becomes the godlike ruler of what remains, radically shifting the focus of the story in its third and final act.
  • Jenova:LIFE in Final Fantasy VII could be seen as one, even though the fight itself isn't too difficult. However, Hojo at the end of Disc 2 would fit the description most accurately, being late in the plot, being an Act Boss, and also giving his own revelation before going into battle.
    • Crisis Core has two, Angeal Penance and Sephiroth. Angeal's battle ends the conflict between Zack and Angeal that had been brewing since the first chapter, ending with Zack inheriting the Buster Sword from him. Sephiroth's battle ends Zack's relationship with Shinra as he is now on the outs with the company and must make his way without them.
    • Fittingly Jenova:Dreamweaver serves this role in Final Fantasy VII Remake. The battle serves as the point where fighting Shinra takes a back seat to finding Sephiroth, which is exemplified with President Shinra dying just beforehand. The revelation that the Whispers are just as much on your side as against it is shown when they save Barret after being stabbed by Sephiroth.
    • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has two, Scarlet with her Crimson Mare Mk II, and Gi Nattak. The battle with Scarlet concludes Shinra's attempts to acquire a Weapon and closes the subplot that Sephiroth is trying to trick Cloud into killing Tifa, after which Tifa is given a tour of the Lifestream to see the battle for control Sephiroth is creating there. Gi Nattak expounds on the lore behind the Cetra and the Gi, as well as introducing the Black Materia plot that makes up the last third of the game.
  • Both battles with Edea in Final Fantasy VIII, and later the battle with Adel.
  • Garland AND Kuja in Final Fantasy IX.
  • Seymour Natus in Bevelle and later Yunalesca in Zanarkand in Final Fantasy X.
  • Staying true to the Final Fantasy tradition of making sweet, sweet love with this trope, Final Fantasy XI has several of these.
    • In the Rise of the Zilart expansion, Kam'lanaut in the Stellar Fulcrum.
    • In the Chains of Promathia expansion, Tenzen on the airship. Omega and Ultima Weapons may count as well.
    • In the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion, Gessho in Talacca Cove.
    • Though not yet finished, the Climax Boss of the Wings of the Goddess expansion seems to be Cait Sith Ceithir. But considering the bombs they love to drop in every set of missions, the final fight of every mission set seems to be a Climax Boss..
  • Final Fantasy XIII has a whole series of Climax Bosses, the Eidolons. They appear for each party member when they cross their Despair Event Horizon—and typically mark the point where the characters begin overcoming their Fatal Flaws.
    • As for the overall plot, there's the first battle against Primarch Dysley, a.k.a. the fal'Cie Barthandelus.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • Shadowbringers has Innocence, the final Lightwarden and most powerful of the Sin Eaters. Due to Vauthry turning out to be him, his defeat marks the end of the Sin Eaters' portion of the plot, as well as the end of Eulmore's role as antagonistic faction. After defeating him, however, the Player Character's body starts to break apart from the Light they absorbed from the Lightwardens, Emet-Selch shows up, kidnaps the Crystal Exarch, and usurps the role of main villain for the final part of the main plot.
    • Endwalker has Hydaelyn, the goddess your character has worked for since the game's beginning. Her fight is one final test to see if the Warrior of Light and the Scions are ready to face the Endsinger.
  • Final Fantasy XV: Has two. Leviathan serves as the final boss stopping Noctis from entering Imperial territory. During the fight he faces the greatest challenge yet from the Astral as Imperial forces battle around as he struggles to reunite with Lunafreya and face Ardyn. That Lunafreya dies despite his efforts, Ignis loses his eyesight and the gameplay taking a drastic turn cements her as the Climax boss. The second is Ravus. Originally one of Noctis' rivals who had seen that he is the one to stop Ardyn, he was killed and infected with Starscourge to fight Noctis and his allies once again. This is the final battle before the Time Skip, where Noctis finds out that his journey requires him to sleep in the crystal for ten years, gains an audience with Bahamut and wakes up in a ruined world.
  • Final Fantasy XVI has a few, each ending a certain act structure and beginning a new dynamic in the story.
    • Garuda is the first, forcing Clive to bring out the power of Ifrit and awaken as its Dominant, drastically changing his part in the story and revealing that the nature of the world is vastly different than anyone had realized.
    • Typhon heralds the true Big Bad of the story Ultima, mortally wounds Cid whose final act is to pass on his name and cause to Clive. Other plot developments include the revelation that Joshua is alive and disrupting Ultima's plans his own way and Titan's Dominant Hugo destroys Cid's hideaway, causing a Time Skip where Clive is using a new hideaway and name.
    • Hugo/Titan ends a massive escalating rivalry that had been growing ever stronger with each act, as Clive reveals he killed Benedikta/Garuda causing Hugo's anger to hit its peak. That Titan literally becomes a mountain sized beast of stone shows how great their battle has escalated.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics has these at the end (or near the end) of each Act:
    • Act I: Argath. Ramza figures out that his brothers are dicks.
    • Act II: Cardinal Delacroix/Cu Chulainn. Oh my Ajora, the Lucavi are real!
    • Act III has two, back to back.
    • Wiegraf /Belias. The Dark Side Made Him Forget why he's fighting Ramza in the first place.
    • Marquis Elmdore and his bodyguards, Celia and Lettie. Alma is to be the vessel of Ultima.
    • Act IV: Dycedarg, your elder brother/Adrammelech. This is the end of the Beoulve family.
  • Dark Lord in Final Fantasy Adventure and its remakes. After Storming the Castle, you finally confront the Big Bad. Only to realize The Dragon, Julius, has played you and Dark Lord for fools and completed Dark Lord's plans without him.
• All of the trophy bouts in Fleuret Blanc. They always occur at the end of a day and are thus usually in the proximity of an important plot event, and it's (usually) the first time you're able to bout a member. (In the case of Masque, it's also their first appearance.) Gameplay-wise, both Florentine and her opponent have twice as many Hit Points as they do in normal bouts, making the fight longer and more intense.
• Fossil Fighters does this twice, first with a showdown of Olympus Mons, then against the leader of an alien race of dinosaur people before even learning about the Final Boss.
• From the Fuga: Melodies of Steel series:
  • The original game has the boss of Chapter 10, Shvein Hax and the Tarascus— an Evil Knockoff of the Taranis powered by the displaced heart of the "Lost God" Vanargand. This boss not only happens just before the children of the Taranis achieve their goal of finding their kidnapped families, but the cutscene before the fight reveals that Hax plans to use the Tarascus to resurrect the Vanargand, and that the Radio Woman guided him just as she was guiding the children for an unknown agenda.
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 has the boss of Chapter 3, when the Tarascus finally catches up to the rogue Taranis, with the events following the boss heralding the end of the game's first act. There's also Chapter 6, the first fight against Jihl and the slightly upgraded Belenos. Not only does it cap off the first half of the game with Malt having finally gotten out of his Heroic BSoD prior to the fight, but it also heralds the point in the story where Jihl starts to lose his free will and sanity to the Belenos' power, and his role as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds starts to come more to the forefront. The cutscenes following the boss also indicate that Hanna may still be alive in some form. Finally, there's the boss of Chapter 10, where the true Big Bad of the story reveals themselves and hijacks the Belenos, with the story afterwards having the children experience a scripted loss that Malt has to undo at the start of the next chapter.
• Glory of Heracles III has the boss of Mount Atlas, Baor. Not only does it reveal said character's fate, but what follows is a massive Wham Episode.
• Golden Sun:
  • Saturos in Golden Sun, albeit far earlier than is the norm for this trope (barely a quarter of the way through the game, maybe even less if you accidentally went straight to Imil from Bilibin instead of going to Kolima first).
  • Agatio and Karst in The Lost Age, which incidentally is the only boss fight you're allowed to lose.
  • Blados and Chalis in Dark Dawn cap off an entire Climax Dungeon. Given that you completed your original goal (obtaining a roc feather) just before entering the dungeon in question, this probably doubles as Disc-One Final Boss as the only real hint that you're not nearing the end of the game is that you've only just reacquired your sixth party member and there are supposed to be eight of them.
• Jade Empire: Grand Inquisitor Jia fights you right after she reveals that you had the entire plot backwards.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • The fights against Dragon-Maleficent and Possessed!Riku in Kingdom Hearts. Chernabog may also qualify, as he directly precedes the Final Boss.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has three of these. Vexen serves as the first one in Sora's story, in which he is the first Organization member to be rematched, and right in the middle of a Wham Episode; he is also the first to be killed off. The rematch with Larxene is the second one, as it occurs right after the biggest revelations in the plot. In Reverse/Rebirth, this role is given to Zexion, despite being The Unfought in the Game Boy Advance version: he attempts to trap Riku in an illusion, only for this to backfire when Riku stops fighting with his inner darkness and finally embraces it; he is also the last Organization member in the game (but not the series) to be killed off.
  • Kingdom Hearts II doesn't have a traditional Climax Boss, but instead a Boss Rush through Xigbar, Luxord, Saix, and Xemnas in his regular form prior to the Final Boss. In the Final Mix version, Roxas is added to the start of this Boss Rush.
  • Data-Sora's Heartless in Kingdom Hearts coded, who seems to be the last boss in the last chapter, but there is in fact another chapter and another boss waiting after him.
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days has Saix, who had served as the closest thing to a Big Bad the story had and is finally fought when Roxas makes his pivotal decision to leave the Organization. Some argue that Xion, who is the penultimate boss, also qualifies, while others consider that to be the real Final Boss since the following one is almost impossible to lose to and is only the last boss due to being a Foregone Conclusion.
  • Master Eraqus for Terra's story in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Also, the final bosses of all three story modes might qualify since there is a True Final Boss for the game in the Final Episode unlocked after completing the three story modes. And even THAT boss becomes another Climax Boss in the Final Mix version, which adds one more bonus storyline ending in its own final boss.
  • In Kingdom Hearts 3D, Sora has Xemnas, who appears to drop bombshells about the Organization's purpose and ends Sora's storyline but not the game. Riku has Xehanort's Heartless, and the teenage Xehanort. The last one is arguably more challenging than the final boss, who is fought after the villains' main plan is already stopped. It originally wasn't supposed to be in the game at all, which would explain the lower difficulty, as the prior Climax Boss was supposed to be the Final Boss.
  • Similar to Kingdom Hearts II, there is no single Climax Boss in Kingdom Hearts III, instead being a Boss Rush through Luxord, Larxene and Marluxia, Riku Replica and Xigbar, Vanitas and Terra-Xehanort, Xion and Saix, and Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort prior to facing the Final Boss.
• Templar Octienne, the Balor, and Gadflow in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
• Knights of the Old Republic: Darth Malak, who's also the final boss, is first fought inconclusively right after the huge revelation about what his interest in the Player Character is.
• The Legend of Dragoon had roughly one per disc. Disc 1 had Feyrbrand and Graham and Freugal (second time), Disc 2 had Lenus (first time) and Disc 3 had the Divine Dragon. Freugal and Divine Dragon were variations in that a lengthy amount of plot was developed after defeating them that had nothing to do with the bosses themselves. In addition, the final bosses to the first three discs usually had a large plot bomb dropped on the player either before or after the fight.
• Isolde in Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis. Combined with the awesome song Nefertiti, it's easily one of the best boss battles in the game. And you battle her twice!!
• Mass Effect:
  • The first game allows you to come face-to-face with Saren on Virmire, right after you learn the true nature of Sovereign, the starship he's been using to wreak havoc around the galaxy and brainwash people to his will, along with its goals. He possesses powers from all three of the skill trees available in the game and is an example of Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, considering that no matter how much damage you do to him, he gets away scot-free, leaving you to make a Sadistic Choice on whether to save Kaidan or Ashley when you destroy his base.
  • Mass Effect 2 has the mission on the abandoned Collector ship featuring that game's Big Bad, Harbinger, whom you never directly confront but rather have to defeat his multiple drones which he can Villain Override. This isn't your first time confronting such an avatar, but that occasion falls under Wake-Up Call Boss. This is right after you learn that his plan for an Alien Abduction is considerably larger in scale than believed, and that the Collectors are all that's left of the Protheans.
  • Mass Effect 3's closest equivalent is the fight on Thessia, where the underpinnings of the Asari culture are totally undermined, Kai Leng steals the secret of the McGuffin that you've been trying to construct in order to have any chance of winning or surviving the war with the Reapers, and like in Mass Effect, is another Heads I Win, Tails You Lose.
• Mega Man Battle Network: Colonel, MegaMan's former ally from the fifth game, who MegaMan refuses to fight throughout the sixth title until he realizes that words cannot get through to him. Among his new attacks is a finishing move that is used once your HP reaches a certain point. If it connects, you are instantly killed unless MegaMan is equipped with Under Shirt.
• Mega Man Star Force:
  • The first game has the two battles against Gemini Spark, with the first battle resulting in the story taking a darker turn and the second battle signaling the beginning of the endgame.
  • The second game has the battle against Rogue at the end of the Bermuda Maze, representing the clash between his and Geo's philosophies. Defeating him allows the bad guys to take the OOPart from Mega Man and set their plan into motion.
  • The third game has Dread Joker. The fights against Jack Corvus and Queen Virgo inside Meteor G could also count, though they're both directly before the Final Boss.
• Mother:
  • In EarthBound, most of the problems in the Eagleland section (Onett to Fourside) were caused by the Mani Mani Statue sent by Giygas. The statue manipulated six people directly^note Lier X. Agerate, Everdread, Carpainter, Pokey Minch, Aloysius Minch, and Geldegarde Monotoli and large crowds though them, and is finally confronted by Ness and Jeff in an illusion world it created. It's not a defenseless statue, though, and fights back. Destroying it lets everyone in Fourside manipulated by it go back to normal, except for Pokey.
  • The chapter-based structure of Mother 3 means that every chapter ends with a major boss battle and a cliffhanger that changes the course of the plot. Special mention, however, goes to the fight against Mr. Generator at the end of Chapter 5. The battle follows a major bit of foreshadowing regarding Lucas' connections to the Pigmask Army's leadership and is followed up by a cutscene where Fassad, the regime's mouthpiece, is put out of commission and the protagonists come face-to-face with the Pigmasks' commander for the first time. The fight also marks the point where the main cast finally becomes capable of directly taking on the Pigmasks' rule over the Nowhere Islands, destroying the superweapon that they use to terrorize dissidents and gaining key knowledge about the regime's inner workings. The rest of the game focuses on the protagonists butting heads with the Pigmask Army and racing to stop their plan to wake the Dark Dragon for their own ends.
• NEO: The World Ends with You has the fight with Susukichi at the end of Week 1 and the fight with Tsugumi/Grus Cantus at the end of Week 2. Especially the latter, because it comes right before a Wham Episode that reveals the full extent to which the Ruinbringers are Fixing the Game — they're actually just the Shinjuku Reapers, and as long as Shiba's around, nobody is going to be able to get out.
• The Knave of Hearts in NieR attacks the main characters' hometown just as you finish collecting the sealed verses to cure Yonah. You can't defeat it yet, only seal it away. And while you're busy with that, the Shadowlord kidnaps Yonah.
• Enoch in OFF, the largest and most powerful Guardian in the game's world that is faced right before the Room and shortly after the reveal of what, exactly, the "sugar" the Elsen are so obsessed with is really made of. He is also the first character in the game who explicitly points out that "purifying" a Zone kills almost all life in it and fills it with monsters called "Secretaries." The player does have the option to go back and see this as soon as Dedan is killed, but it is always optional; Enoch finally mentions that something happens to a Zone in his last words.
• Persona 4:
  • Shadow Mitsuo, the boss of Void Quest. Both in gameplay because he tends to be a brick wall for many players, and in story because the Investigation Team thinks his arrest will bring the end of the kidnappings. It doesn't.
  • Kunino-Sagiri, the fragment of the Big Bad inside Namatame. Namatame has kidnapped your little cousin in an attempt to save her (or so he thinks), and at this point in time, he is supposed to be considered the true killer. He can end up being the final boss of the game if you go with the bad ending. And on top of all that, he's another stone wall for players.
• Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth:
  • The Old Doll FOE, which counts as this for the third labyrinth. Early on in the dungeon, it's only visible on the map and cannot be actually encountered. Then, it ambushes the player in a cutscene, but you escape. Then comes the last floor before the real boss fight, where it chases you through most of the floor. It will catch you at least once, and successfully trapping it is very much like a climax for that floor, though neither it nor the dungeon are over.
  • Best Friend serves as this for the game as whole. It's fought at the end of what you believe is the last dungeon, it gets its own battle music, is Rei's Shadow, making it the embodiment of all her issues which you've spent most of the game trying to figure out, and its defeat leads into a Wham Episode that finally gives The Reveal of Zen and Rei's true natures.
• Persona 5 has a few:
  • The fight against Shadow Sae Niijima. Immediately after this you replay the escape sequence from the beginning of the game using your current stock of Personas instead of the shadowy Arsene, and the timeline catches up with the interrogation, where you face a choice that can cause you to get a Non-Standard Game Over.
  • The seventh palace has two. The first is Black Mask Akechi, which outs him as the cause of the mental shutdowns, reveals his status as a wildcard as well as his motivations and being Shido's bastard son, and then (maybe) kills him off. The other is Shadow Shido himself, a multi-stage boss fight against the leader of the conspiracy and the one who framed Joker for assault before the game started.
  • Persona 5 Royal turns Yaldabaoth, the former Final Boss, into one of these. On account of having originally been the Final Boss, his defeat marks the end of the Phantom Thieves' fight against The Conspiracy, sees the real Igor freed, and restores Lavenza to her true form. However, when he merged reality and Mementos, he unintentionally causes Takuto Maruki's Persona to awaken (assuming you maxed out the Councillor Confidant before fighting Shadow Sae, otherwise Yaldabaoth remains the last boss), causing the Doctor to become the new God of Control and setting the stage for the game's final arc and True Final Boss.
• Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth has Doe, who is fought at the end of the seemingly last labyrinth and is revealed to be a cognition of Hikari's father who was actually trying to help her, but got corrupted by her trauma-distorted cognition. The battle with him helps Hikari overcome her depression and come to terms with herself, as well as granting her and her friends the last key needed to leave the Cinema, leading to The Reveal of the true Big Bad and opening the path to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Phantasy Star:
  • Phantasy Star II has Neifirst, who concludes the end of Rolf's initial mission to end the Biomonster threat. Nothing Is the Same Anymore once she is killed; Nei dies as well, Climatrol has blown up, and Rolf and his party are now wanted by the Motavian government as terrorists.
  • Phantasy Star III ends each generation with a climax boss. Rhys battles the king of Cille to complete his goal of finding Maia, and depending on who Rhys marries, his son will have to fight one of the former generals in the war between Orakio and Laya: Siren for Ayn, and Lune for Nial.
  • Zio of Phantasy Star IV has all the trappings of being a Big Bad; he's an evil sorcerer running a Religion of Evil on Motavia. And just like Neifirst, meeting him brings with it the death of a main character, namely Alys.
• In Planescape: Torment, the first half of the game is devoted to learning about, finding, and reaching Ravel Puzzlewell, original speaker of the Arc Words and the one responsible for your immortality. She has a lot of exposition and confrontational dialogue for you… and is not letting you go without a fight. After you defeat her, the real Big Bad shows up as the Transcendent One steps in to kill her for real.
• Pokémon:
  • In the second, third, fourth, and sixth generations of Pokémon, the fights against the leader of the local crime syndicate typically take place immediately before battling the eighth Gym Leader and put an end to the main conflict of the story. In the third, fourth, and sixth generations, the battle against the game's flagship legendary also takes place in the same scenario. The first generation mixes it up as Giovanni, the Big Bad, is the eighth Gym Leader. The fifth generation abandons this formula completely; the leader, Ghetsis, is the Final Boss (though N is the Climax Boss when he reveals himself as Team Plasma's King, and later faces the protagonist with his legendary Pokemon opposite of the game's mascot). However in the fifth generation sequels, Ghetsis is fought after defeating the 8th Gym Leader, and prior to entering the Pokemon League.
  • The same logic may be applied to whichever Legendary Pokémon is featured in the cover of your game. After all, they're usually the reason the evil team leader even has a goal to begin with. A reckless awakening later and suddenly the whole region is under massive danger because the Legendary Pokémon in question started messing with a fundamental force of the universe. Only by capturing/defeating them can you prevent certain doom and restore the natural order of things, and chances are that the criminal leader has already been dealt with by then.
  • The Eighth Gym Leaders in each game usually qualify, especially considering how much time you're going to have to spend Level Grinding between beating them and tackling the Elite Four. Giovanni in Pokémon Red and Blue is probably the best example from a story perspective, being the ringleader of Team Rocket, and Clair in Gold, Silver, and Crystal is probably the best example in terms of difficulty.
  • Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald have another Climax Boss: Norman, the fifth Gym Leader, and the player's father. Despite the fact that his Gym is closest to home, he refuses to fight you until you beat the other four Gym Leaders in the western half of the region. During the entire first half of the game, growing strong enough to challenge Norman is the player's primary goal. Beating him allows the player to use the Surf TM, unlocking the eastern half of the Hoenn region. Surpassing your father is what really gets you noticed by various NPCs. And Norman represents an increase in difficulty compared to the other Gym Leaders. The remakes make this even more apparent by adding particular focus on Norman's battle and its aftermath, wherein he sees you off as you and Wally set out for the other half of Hoenn and he even smiles at how proud he is at you surpassing him.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon has both battles against Lusamine; the first one at Aether Paradise after learning she's Lillie's mother and her idea of "protecting" Pokémon is to cryogenically freeze them, and the second one in Ultra Space after she's fused with the Ultra-Beast Nihilego.
  • Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon has the second battle with Necrozma, having transformed into Ultra Necrozma, which occurs before the player's final Trial and takes the place of Motherbeast Lusamine from the original games. Faced at Level 60 at a point when Trainers' Pokémon are in the low 50s, it's easily the strongest Pokémon in the story. And that's without accounting for a diverse movepool, an Ability that makes super effective moves hit harder, an aura giving it a +1 boost to all its stats from the start, and stats eclipsing those of Arceus.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has a battle against one of your friends at the end of each storyline. All three of them boast balanced teams that would not be out of place as the Champion's team in other games (the exception being Penny (who uses a gimmick team of Eeveelutions with weak movesets), who is preceeded by the much tougher Director Clavell). Defeating them signifies the completion of their respective story and all three are required to unlock the final story.
• Radiata Stories features a branching storyline that ultimately sees the main character on one side or the other of a war. Each side has Jack visiting the Fire Dragon's volcano approximately 3/4 of the way through the game, though; in the Human Path Jack attacks and slays the Fire Dragon, while in the Fairy Path Jack tries to prevent the Fire Dragon's death, fails, and engages in a Hopeless Boss Fight against Cross.
• Shining Force has the fight against Kane, the Runefaustian general that destroyed the main character's hometown and is given the greatest build-up of all the bosses in the game. He's also one of the toughest, with an extremely high attack proportional to that of the playable characters'.
• Shining the Holy Ark has you fight Rilix after you learn that the King is nothing but a puppet and that she plans to revive the thousand year kingdom. Oh, and she plans to kill you.
• Shin Megami Tensei main games:
  • As a general rule of thumb, bosses immediately before alignment lock or as a consequence of choosing your alignment tend to be this.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei I, Thor is the final boss fought before a major Point of No Return, and how you handle him and Gotou serves as your first major alignment decision. Once you beat him (or on Law, ally with him), the nukes start flying and Tokyo goes up in flames.
  • Uriel and Raphael, Michael, and the fake YHVH in Shin Megami Tensei II. They're all fought sequentially, mark the game's first major climax (these are the ones responsible for everything wrong up to this point, and even get new boss music. After beating them, however, more plot twists emerge and new villains (namely Lucifer, Satan, and the real YHVH) are revealed.
  • The Moirae Sisters take this role in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne as the guards of Yuko Takao, who the Demi-Fiend has been looking for since the Conception started. Later, Girimehkala and Sakahagi act as the second Climax Boss fight, with Sakahagi being built up as a great evil power that has to be stopped.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey:
    • Maia Ouroboros is built up as the last demon in your way of escape and is also the first major boss after the Tyrants. She is also a massive step up in difficulty after the already tough Asura and must be fought twice.
    • If you follow the Law or Chaos routes, there is also Commander Gore. He is regarded as one of the hardest bosses in the entire game, and will restore half of his full HP when you first get it down to 0. Luckily, if you go Neutral, then this fight is avoided, as you are fighting for the good of humankind. On Neutral, the Climax Boss is Zelenin, your brainwashed former ally who guards two of the MacGuffins necessary to save the world.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei IV, depending on if you sided with Jonathan or Walter, the Climax Boss is either Lilith or Yamato-Takeru. Lilith has been dogging you since near the beginning of the game, while Yamato-Takeru works for Tayama, the most loathsome character in the setting; the two of them had been the main villains of the game up to this point, and winning this battle resolves their arcs and makes way for the real bad guys, namely the White, Merkabah, and Lucifer.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse:
    • Krishna, leader of the Divine Powers, serves this role, as the threat that the Divine Powers pose is enough to make humans, angels, and demons cease their three-way war as much as they need to in order to stop them. He is fought in Tsukiji Konganji, which he's set up as HQ for himself and his fellow polytheistic gods, and once he's downed, the first three factions go back to being at each other's throats. Then it turns out the Powers all faked their defeats and they proceed with the next step of their plan for humanity's "salvation".
    • After the second of two alignment locks, you either fight Dagda on Bonds as he takes your powers away in revenge for betraying him while Danu tries to make a new Dagda to keep you alive, or all of your partners (except Asahi, who's already dead by this point) on Massacre as they try to stop you and by extension Dagda from carrying out your omnicidal plans to remake the universe.
• Skies of Arcadia features quite a few. There are two Hopeless Boss Fights against Ramirez, and the fight against Galcian's fleet and Galcian himself near the end. The fights against the Gigas and the other Admirals, whether in their ships or in hand-to-hand combat could count.
• The battle against Luca Blight in Suikoden II embodies this trope, especially since you have to beat him three times in succession, then duel him with the Hero afterwards.
• Solatorobo: Red the Hunter:
  • The tenth chapter of the game has what players going in blind would presume to be the Final Boss, with Red defeating a transformed Bruno and working together with Elh to seal away Lares, fulfilling the goal the two established at the start of the game. However, following the game's credits is the start of the game's second half, thus solidifying the fight against Bruno as being this trope along with being a Disc-One Final Boss.
  • Afterwards, we have Red's fight against Nero in the third chapter of Part Two, where Red not only comes to terms with his identity as a hybrid, but also gains the upgraded Dahak Mk2 to fight against Nero with. The cutscene following this fight also has Nero cryptically mention that Red will be unable to resist the "Order" when it comes. Red's final fight against Nero and Blanck's combined mecha in Chapter 8 has this plot point reach its climax— after Red defeats Nero and Blanck, Tartaros gives Red the order to destroy all life, resulting in Red finishing off the duo and afterwards nearly choking Elh to death.
• Super Mario Bros. RPGs:
  • Each boss battle with the Big Bad Smithy's weapon-based minions in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Also, Punchinello for being a stand-in to the weapon fight.
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga has Cackletta's first fight about halfway through. Unusually for this trope, you face the Big Bad at her full power and not only soundly defeat her, but also completely foil her plans and leave her at death's door. The second half of the game instead has her working to regain her power (by possessing Bowser's body) while devising a new plan.
  • Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time has Petey Piranha, who has considerably more health than the previous bosses and whose defeat signifies the (apparent) rescue of Princess Peach. Slightly later is the battle with Bowser and his Baby self, which gets its own theme, is one of the tougher fights so far, is a dark mirror of the Bros' fighting style, and precedes the reveal that the Peach you rescued was Princess Shroob in disguise.
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
    • The fight against the Alpha and Beta Kretin in Bowser's Flab Zone is a rather critical moment in the game, as it reunites the Mario Bros. with Peach, who reveals to them of the game's Greater-Scope Villain (the Dark Star), the history behind it, and Fawful's ultimate plan in utilizing the star itself.
    • The later fights in the corrupted Peach's Castle also count as well. First is the Mario Bros' face-off against the game's Greater-Scope Villain, the Dark Star, in Bowser's airway system, prior to obtaining Bowser's DNA and becoming an incomplete version of Dark Bowser. Second is the last Giant Bowser Battle against the monstrous Peach's Castle's robotic form (controlled by Fawful himself). And finally, is Bowser's face-off against the game's Big Bad, Fawful, now souped up as Dark Fawful. All of this is preceded by Dark Fawful's second form merging with Dark Bowser to form the game's Final Boss.
  • Bowser Jr. and his paper self are this in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has Magnus von Grapple 2.0, who is The Dragon to the main villain, is a recurring boss, is fought in the main villain's hideout after so much hype and build-up, and some of the highest stats in the game, only being beaten out by a few other bosses.
  • Super Paper Mario does this twice with Mr. L who easily eclipses all other bosses as the most personal to the heroes (being a corrupted Luigi brainwashed by Nastasia). Mr. L is first introduced at the end of Chapter 4 (basically the game's midpoint), and it really shows when he fights like a dark counterpart to the heroes (one of his attacks has him healing with a Shroom Shake), and his second part with Brobot having absurdly high HP at 255 (though it can quicky be destroyed by spamming Squirps' boosted powers). Mr. L then causes more trouble again by fighting the heroes with his Brobot L-Type in the game's Wham Episode (after Sammer's Kingdom is destroyed), to which defeating him leads to a series of events further shaking up the heroes (courtesy of Dimentio).
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of the Abyss has Van. While the party defeats him, it's a fake ending.
  • Tales of Berseria has the Hopeless Boss Fight against Innominat, which starts Velvet's massive Heroic BSoD and sets the tone for the second act of the game.
  • Tales of Graces continues the tradition with Emeraude, who is both this and That One Boss.
  • Tales of Legendia has Vaclav, after which point the true face of the game starts getting turned on its head, the invasion subplot is dropped, and the story focuses more on an Apocalypse Maiden.
  • Tales of Symphonia loves these. Not only does it have a bunch of them, it likes to spring them on you in groups: three climax bosses in a row, one of whom is all but unbeatable: Remiel, Kratos, Yggdrasill; two in a row: Pronyma, Yggdrasill; two in a row: Kratos, Origin.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has Commander Brute, the apparent leader of the Vanguard and Marta's father.
  • Tales of Vesperia has Barbos for the end of Part 1 and Alexei for the end of Part 2.
  • Tales of Xillia really liked this trope, having not one but four of these, due to multiple characters competing for the role of the main villain. First is King Nachtigal, who turns out to just be the Disc-One Final Boss. Then comes Gaius, who also doubles as an open-ended boss (you can either win or lose). Then comes the battle against Gilland and Celsius, which wraps up of the main conflict of the game up to that point. And finally, the battle with the real Maxwell, which starts off as a Hopeless Boss Fight but then becomes winnable.
    • In Tales of Xillia 2, it's Victor, who's definitely That One Boss.
• Archos in the single-player campaign of Telepath Tactics. Unlike previous bosses, he is an established character, and one of the major players in the central conflict: this is the first time you're fighting someone directly affiliated with the mining company, rather than one of their patsies.
• In Terranigma, the fight against Dark Morph marks the end of the second chapter, and the revival of mankind, which sets up the rest of the game's plot.
• The Tiamat Sacrament: Gyle as a strategy board boss is fought right after a rather complex revelation. First, Kelburn betrays the party to Ry'jin and reveals that he was spying on the Saphirites for the villains' behalf. Then he frees Az'uar and reveals he had to play along with the villains in order to steal the sixth Soul Gem from under Ry'jin's nose. The two then have to rescue Xandra and team up with the remaining Saphirites to drive Gyle's forces out of town.
• Uncommon Time has three, one for each chapter.
  • Though it's a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere, the Winterspirit, fought at the end of Movement 1 immediately after the World Tuning fails, definitely fulfills the role.
  • Teagan, fought at the end of Movement 2.
  • The Herald of Winter, fought at the end of Alto's Vision Quest. It represents Alto's subconscious hatred and desire to destroy the world. If you lose, you're treated to a Non-Standard Game Over where the Herald dominates Alto's personality and ushers in an ice age that will destroy civilization.
• In Undertale, Undyne is fought at the end of Waterfall, a backstory-dense level which reveals much about the Underground and its history. She will also make explicit the consequences of your chosen playstyle in her pre-battle speech; on a Pacifist route, she mentions her surprise that a human would be so non-violent and mock you for it, on the Neutral route, she'll remember the names of all the monsters you've killed (changing her speech entirely if you've killed Papyrus), and on a No-Mercy route, after being mortally wounded, she'll realize that you're out to kill humans and monsters alike, transforms herself into Undyne the Undying, and give you your first real challenge of the run.
• Selvaria in Valkyria Chronicles, who stands at the top of a fortress and will rain bullets down upon any fool who's in the open long enough with a BFG. The strategy to defeat her is long and involved and can easily take several retries if you're not careful.
• Selvaria in Valkyria Chronicles III, because The Nameless is supposed to assassinate Prince Maximilian. Turns out she's the reason why nobody else tried doing this! And then things goes downhill from there, with The Nameless branded as traitors and Gusurg missing, only to turn out to have switched sides.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky has multiple. Archbishop Gebhart and the Judgment are particularly notable, as they mark the end of the childhood arc. The third fight against Rutger also counts, as it involves taking down a long-term villain who presents a major threat to the world. Oliver, fought during the liberation of Avishun, may also count. He isn't a major villain and the battle doesn't coincide with as important a plot event as the other two examples, but it is fairly important (and difficult). All of these get special Battle Theme Music, too.
• Wild ARMs: Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, Big Bad of the first half of Wild ARMs 2, is fought at the transition point between the two halves of the game. Bucks tradition by including major plot points immediately after his boss fight, rather than before.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Two instances.
  • The rematch with Metal Face at Prison Island, approximately halfway through the game. Shulk's Monado is finally upgraded to be able to hurt Metal Face, a number of important characters are either killed off or revealed to still be alive, and the aftermath of the fight completely changes Shulk's motivations going into the second half.
  • The battle against Egil in the Heart of Mechonis, about three-quarters of the way into the game, after which the major plot shake-up happens. Egil is attempting to destroy the Bionis (and will, if you fail to stop him in time), and he represents the climax of almost all of the build-up, even from the beginning of the game.
• The chapter-based structure of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 results in every chapter boss corresponding with a major shift in the story and a cliffhanger, but its most prominent example is the fight with Praetor Amalthus at the end of Chapter 9. While unusually late, Amalthus had been a constant presence in the story since Chapter 5 and by this point has been outed as the direct cause of every major conflict in the game. His fight leads to the deaths of several key characters, re-contextualizes his actions in earlier chapters, and directly precedes the very twist-heavy final chapter.
• Like the previous game, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has one roughly at the end of every chapter, corresponiding with a major plot development. Special mention, however, goes to the boss fight at the begining of Chapter 6, coming right off the heels of the shocking revelations of Chapter 5, against Consul N and the false Queen of Agnus. In addition to piling on even more plot twists, by the time things calm down, the heroes have learned about the Big Bad and a lead on how to confront him and Mio's impending death, an issue that had been hanging over the party's heads for the whole game up until that point, is no longer an issue, meaning the heroes are now free to start looking for a way to take the fight to their enemies.
• Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection has 3, all centered around Thermidor and Exmachina in some way.
  • The fourth boss fight, against Thermidor's familiar, Fafnir, not only has him reveal his true colors as a demon, but also implies that he was responsible for Ragna's Dark and Troubled Past.
  • The first encounter with the Big Bad, Marquis Zahar, is just a Hopeless Boss Fight, but it also reveals Exmachina, the doll-like girl who works for Zahar, is actually his sister Mia, who went missing for seven years. Worse, she refuses to acknowledge Ragna as her brother, insisting he got the wrong person. Ragna is so heartbroken over this that he goes into a long period of Heroic B So D until the attack on Starfall Hamlet.
  • The scenes after the final fight against Zahar reveals Thermidor as The Man Behind the Man to Zahar. He admits to reviving him just to retrieve the Demon Lord Lucian's sealed powers from Luna Mundus as he strikes the killing blow to him. Not only that, it is also revealed that Mia was the reincarnated soul of Lucian.

Shoot 'em Up

• Battle Garegga has Black Heart at the end of Stage 5 (of 7), which comes at the end of a stage with a couple revived bosses in between and is by far the hardest boss at this point due to a combination of tricky attacks and having only one part with a ton of hit points rather than a "core" and individually-destructible components like all previous bosses, ensuring that the player can't weaken its attacks before going in for the kill. After Black Heart is defeated, the player then proceeds into the enemy base.
• The penultimate boss of Einhänder, Schwarzgeist. Defeating this boss leads right into the game's Wham Episode.
• Gradius V has Elephant Gear, a massive Spider Tank that must be dealt with by flying around its legs and destroying all of its cores, or by waiting for it to walk away. A cutscene follows after the battle, showing that the Vic Viper we were playing as is our future self that is seen in the beginning of Stage 2, since it time-traveled to the past to destroy the giant battleship that serves as the 8th and final stage, which can only be destroyed with two ships.
• ALLTYNEX OS from Kamui is probably the game's most important boss fight, but there's still the Adjudicator to fight after it.
• In Panzer Dragoon Orta, before Orta and her dragon take on the Dragonmares and Abadd, they must face The Empire's greatest creation: The Imperial Defense Unit Bacharsuha, a towering mecha that is fought near the end of the game. It's a brutally hard boss fought in an epic battle, it has plenty of nasty attacks, like firing a barrage of missiles or a Wave-Motion Gun, and its destruction marks the end of The Empire and its emperor's life.
• Dread Bomber in Raiden II is the last boss before you go into space, has four forms, and is considerably harder than previous bosses.
• ZODIAC Virgo from RefleX. Ever since this mechanical terror destroyed the Human-Type Cancer, it's inevitable that the player has to fight it later on, resulting in one of the longest boss fights in the game besides ZODIAC Libra. It destroys the Phoenix and kills its pilot, only for the ship to resurrect as ZODIAC Ophiuchus.
• Thunder Force has the Vasteel Original from V, which happens to be the resurrected Rynex from the previous game, and which was discovered by Earth and its technology reverse-engineered for great gain until an A.I. based on it went haywire and turned against humanity. The boss theme, "Duel On Top" is a remix of IV's intro theme.
• Sol Cresta has the Stage 5 boss, Shadow Mandler, piloted by Chandor.

Stealth-Based Game

• Assassin's Creed II has the first fight with Rodrigo Borgia. Especially once the other Assassins arrive.
• Assassin's Creed III has Connor against his father Haytham, mainly since he's a far more effective swordsman than any other enemy in the game and requires a specific move to beat him. He actually feels more like a final boss than the actual final boss.
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has Paladin Fulke, also known as The Instrument in the Order of the Ancients. It becomes a Gondor Calls for Aid moment as all of the allies Eivor's racked up to that point when they go after her, not to mention it's very personal for them since she's not only held their brother Sigurd in captivity for days on end... but has also cut off his arm and left it as a souvenir for them to find.
• Dishonored has Daud only halfway through the Flooded District, who serves as a Mirror Boss and is far more difficult and personal than any other target in the game. He's not the final target, nor even the last boss in his level, but facing off against him and his assassins (and proving you're better than any of them) is certainly a high point.
• Hitman: Absolution has both Wade and Sheriff Skurky who act as Co-Dragons to Blake Dexter, both are fought at the end of the most unpleasant levels in the game (Rosewood where Wade killed all of the staff, and the town of Hope being invaded by the ICA), they cap off the first and second arcs of the game, and they are both fought with Point Shooting unlike the other targets (though Wade can be killed by other means).
• The Hind-D gunship, piloted by the Big Bad, in the original Metal Gear Solid.
  • Colonel Volgin and the Shagohod in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
  • The fight against Metal Gear Ray in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
  • Cunningham in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
  • Metal Gear Sahelanthropus in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, who also serves as the Final Boss of Part 1.

Strategy Game

• Crying Suns has two such bosses, both of which come before a major plot revelation rather than after.
  • General Vivar comes right before your encounter with the Strand A Idaho, who brings you up to speed on all the dirty secrets your AI companion Kaliban has been keeping from you.
  • The boss of Chapter V, Admiral Okonkwo, comes right before your meeting with Oberon, where you finally learn who caused the Shutdown and lock yourself into one of the game's multiple endings.
• In the Fire Emblem series:
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
    • Lundgren is the final boss of Lyn's story arc, has newly-introduced battle music, is the first character in the game to wield Silver-grade weaponry, and is far more statistically imposing than the bosses before him.
    • The main story has Marquess Darin of Laus and Sonia Reed. The latter is, bizarrely, completely optional.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has: Tirado, Carlyle (Eirika's route), Vigarde (Ephraim's), Orson, and Lyon.
  • The Black Knight/General Zelgius from both Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening has three, each accompanied by a common boss battle theme: Gangrel at the end of the first act, Walhart at the end of the second act, and Validar just a few chapters before the end of the game.
  • Fire Emblem Fates has three, depending on which route you're playing, all against someone the Avatar cares for. In Birthright, it's Xander who forces the Avatar into a final duel after Elise is killed defending them from Xander's attack, but it's really so he can commit Suicide by Cop by letting the Avatar kill him. Conquest has Ryoma who has just been led to believe that the Avatar has killed Hinoka and is overcome with rage; unlike Xander in Birthright, Ryoma really is fighting to kill his sibling, though he'll wait at least twenty-five turns before he makes his attack. Revelations meanwhile has Gunter, after his status as The Manchurian Agent for Anankos and the murderer of Scarlet is revealed and he attacks the Avatar's forces with an army of Vallite soldiers. The first two are also examples of duel bosses since Xander and Ryoma will separate the Avatar from their forces for the fight (though it's possible-almost mandatory in Ryoma's case-for them to reach the Avatar in time).
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has the final battle of Part I. It's a dramatic battle where the Flame Emperor shows off all of their true power and launches a full invasion of Garreg Mach Monastery, epic music that is exclusive to this chapter in the main story plays, and pretty much every major antagonist up to this point converges in this fight. It's also notable in that if you're a Black Eagle and attended Edelgard's coronation in the previous chapter, you can defect to her side and fight alongside her in this battle instead of against her, making Rhea the Climax Boss in her stead.
  • In Fire Emblem Engage, after fleeing from Zephia and the Four Hounds of Elusia and having your Emblem Rings stolen, you face them again in Florra Town (the first area you visit in the game after leaving the Somniel), except Veyle's Superpowered Evil Side ordered the nearby port town to be burned to the ground. Along with King Hyacinth being revived as a Corrupted, their side still has the original six Emblem Rings, but your side has the other six, and the battle erupts into a furious clash of wills to determine which side takes the advantage in the war. You also learn before the battle that Zephia created Veyle's "evil" personality to ensure she remained Sombron's perfect killing machine.
• Galaxy Angel — the first fight with Noa in the Black Moon's core.
• The Grand Zamboa in Third Super Robot Wars Z: Jigoku-hen because the Anti-Spiral was pretty much the General in charge of this "battalion" of the Ba'al with something like half the villainous series used under his authority. The entire original story practically surrounded what he was doing in the background. In a lot of ways, he was kind of like what the Aerogators were to the entire Balmar Empire in the Alpha series. Everything in the story was leading up to the encounter with the Anti-Spiral.
• XCOM 2 has an Avatar, the strongest unit in the alien army, who emerges during normal missions once the proper conditions are met late in the game. After the Avatar is destroyed, the alien Elders begin to ramp up their plans for humanity, hurtling the game into the grand finale.

Survival Horror

• Cry of Fear has Doctor Purnell. After spending much of the game having your efforts at escaping the haunted Stockholm being stymied by him, you finally confront him in the attic of a mental asylum. Since all of the enemies you've fought so far are near-mindless abominations attacking you with whatever they have on hand and no sense of self-preservation, his fighting style is noticeably distinct by way of being another living human who has both a gun and the sense to take cover. The sun finally rises after you beat him as well, and though you still have a few monsters to fight before the ending, the last stretch of the game has a distinctly different tone from the rest.
• So you've rang the bell tower in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Jill declares "it's finally over" as the rescue helicopter descends. Nemesis has other plans: he shoots down the helicopter, infects Jill with The Virus, and it's the first time in the game you're actually forced to stand your ground and fight (either as the sick and dying Jill or as Carlos). Cue a two day time skip, the game is far from over, and now Jill and Carlos are stuck in their Darkest Hour.
• Silent Hill 2 has Eddie Dombrowski. His boss fight accompanies The Reveal of Silent Hill as a Genius Loci, his death is an emotional turning point for James, and immediately after is the Lakeview Hotel.
  • Silent Hill 3 has the Memory of Alessa, at the conclusion of the very same amusement park Heather dreamed of in the opening. Bracketed with plot revelations galore, it's a multi-part fight against an increasingly-dangerous enemy which ultimately symbolizes Heather's will to survive, no matter how hard things get. This separates her from Alessa, whose final message is about her giving up. Heather even notes, 'We're not that alike after all.'

Third-Person Shooter

• Skorge in Gears of War 2.
• The Lupino Showdown from the original Max Payne, which has Max fighting roughly thirteen mooks that swarm in one after another after him before Jack Lupino himself makes his entrance with two of his personal guard and a sawed-off shotgun. He's also hopped up on drugs and completely insane.
• Sin and Punishment:
  • The battle against Kachua, which actually shares its battle theme with the final boss, and where Saki first transforms into a monster.
  • The fight at the end of Stage 6, a lengthy, 3-stage ordeal, ending in a hand-to-hand fight, and ultimately resulting in one of the characters being knocked out, and the other transforming into a monster in order to storm the final level.
• Spec Ops: The Line: Right between Lugo's death and Adam staying behind for a Last Stand near the end of the game, Captain Walker has to fight a hallucination of Lugo, who is programmed as a Heavy with far more health.

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has the culprit of the 3rd case, Celestia Ludenberg. The case is an extremely complex one involving a double murder, an obfuscated timeline, and a Frame-Up on another student, and it's also the last case where the Killing Game was being played properly; The fourth case turns out to be Suicide, Not Murder, the fifth case was a frame job by the Mastermind (the "victim" having actually died earlier), and the sixth case directly confronts the Mastermind.

Non-video game examples:

Anime & Manga

• Attack on Titan has plenty of these, for each arc and the entire series as a whole.
  • For the Battle of Trost arc, it's Eren's first bout against the Colossal Titan after seeing him for the first time in 5 years (coupled by the titan itself once again breaching the Walls, this time for the Trost District). This is prior to Eren unlocking his Attack Titan form and using it to seal the breach to prevent incoming Pure Titans from invading (the Pure Titans themselves become the Climax Boss for Season 1).
  • For the Female Titan arc, the titan does this to herself in her first bout against Eren, to which Eren faces her in rage after she wipes out Levi's Squad (sans Eren and Levi themselves). This is prior to the titan revealing herself to be Annie Leonhart, one of the graduates of the Training Corps and a member of the Military Police.
  • For the Clash of Titans arc (and Season 2 of the anime), it's Reiner and Bertolt — who reveal themselves to be the Armored and Colossal Titans respectively. While the Survey Corps are occupied with the Colossal, Eren faces Reiner in their titan forms in a fit of rage after years of being deceived. Eren eventually loses due to Bertolt's intervention, and the last part of the arc/season has the Survey Corps rescuing Eren — culminating in Eren's encounter with the Smiling Titan.
  • For the Royal Government arc, Kenny Ackerman and the Anti-Personnel Control Squad become this, being the Survey Corps' Evil Counterparts (Kenny himself being one to Levi) and the biggest threats to the protagonists'. While they eventually are defeated and retreat, Rod Reiss (the true leader of the walls) becomes the Final Boss after consuming part of the Titan serum to become a 120m titan. Rod himself becomes a Climax Boss for the Season 3 anime and the entire series pre-Time Skip, as his defeat marks the end of the corrupt Walled government and the Survey Corps gaining hope for the first time in years.
  • The Return to Shinganshina arc has Eren's second bout with Reiner, this time taking him down with ease given Eren's improved skill and the Survey Corps' use of the Thunder Spear. All of this preludes Bertolt's transformation and the Beast Titan entering into the playing field as a threat. The three warriors themselves, particularly their War Chief Zeke become this for the entire franchise as defeating them means putting an end to the Paradis Island Operation and realizing the true threat beyond the walls.
  • Eren's bout against the War Hammer Titan (Lara Tybur) becomes this for the series post-Time Skip, as all of this preludes Eren's descent to villainy against the protagonists and the rise of the Yeagerists.
  • Whichever side your on, Eren, Zeke, the Yeagerists, and the Paradis Military against the forces of Marley become this for the War for Paradis arc. This is the battle that kicks off the Rumbling, setting in motion for the series' Final Boss — Eren himself.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba:
  • Hantengu, Upper Rank 4 of the Twelve Kizuki and one of the Arc Villains of the Swordsmith Village Arc, is the last opponent faced before Nezuko becomes immune to sunlight, and after the Hashira Training Arc, Muzan Kibitsuji arrives with Kagaya sacrificing himself, leading to the events of the Infinity Castle Arc where the Demon Slayer fight against the remaining members of the Twelve Kizuki.
  • Kokushibo, Upper Rank 1 of the Twelve Kizuki and The Dragon to Muzan, serves as this to the Infinity Castle Arc. The fight against him reveals key elements of the series lore, and it also marks the ending of the Twelve Kizuki, who had been the most prominent antagonist up to that point. Suitably, once Kokushibo is defeated, Muzan himself takes center stage.
• In Hollow Fields, Summer Polanski serves this role with her Death Trap. After two volumes of tormenting Lucy Snow and indirectly threatening her with detention, she makes the decision to go all the way and outright attempt to kill her. Escaping this situation requires Lucy to use the skills she learned up to this point, as well as team up with Claude and act on the fly. She then goes on to confront the Big Bad in Volume 3.
• In Kill la Kill, Nui Harime is first fought immediately after revealing that she was Isshin's killer.
• One Piece
  • Arlong serves as this for the East Blue saga, the first major saga of the series. He's Nami's Arch-Enemy and the primary driving force of many of her actions since she first met Luffy and Zoro, and he's also the strongest pirate in the East Blue. On top of giving Luffy a more difficult fight than any other previous antagonist, his defeat causes Luffy to receive his first bounty and fully establishes the Straw Hats as the strongest pirate crew in their home sea, signaling that there's nothing left for them to do there and that they're ready to enter the Grand Line.
  • While the series has continued long since his defeat, the Alabasta arc, and Crocodile's defeat at Luffy's hands, actually kicked off a lot of the major events that are still transpiring in the manga, such as the first shakeup in the Seven Warlords which helped propel Luffy into notoriety, enable the rise of a potential Big Bad of the series, and the eventual termination of the Warlord system with its own ramifications.
  • Donquixote Doflamingo's final battle with Luffy goes in four stages (Fight with Luffy & Law, dealing with both Luffy and Law separately at the same time, battle with Luffy across Dressrosa, Race Against the Clock final showdown) which took over 30 chapters, with him being the first to push Luffy to his limits post-Timeskip, and signifying that the New World is only going to get more challenging from then on. Doflamingo himself seems to have regarded himself as the "gatekeeper" keeping all the major players in check, with it only going to be total chaos once they collide with him gone. He also marks the final instance where a Warlord is the Big Bad of an arc, after this point, the paradigm shifts to the Straw Hats and their allies fighting the Emperors and the World Government, and the Warlords are relegated to mostly secondary antagonists.
  • Charlotte Katakuri is highly formidable compared to the rest of the Big Mom Pirates — we're talking as bad as Jack, if not worse. In fact, he is the biggest threat aside from Big Mom in the whole Totto Land Arc, who only comes into the foray when the tea party commences, but from that moment on, he is shown racking up a body count with no effort and bringing an incredible sense of danger along with him and being the one person who is able to assist his entire family at once when they are incapacitated. His Climax Boss status was cemented in Chapter 878 when Luffy forced him into a mano o mano confrontation to cut off his pursuit of the Straw Hat Pirates.
  • Kaido's one of the most prominent, powerful, and influential villains of the series, with multiple antagonists pre- and post-Time Skip either serving him directly (Jack was sent by him to Zou and Orochi gained Power with his help), answering to him as they do business together (Caesar and Doflamingo via the SMILE fruits), allying with him to save their own skin (Drake, Hawkins, and Apoo), or in some way being personally affected by his actions (Moriah's zombie army is a direct consequence of Kaido killing his crew). By the end of Wano, alongside Big Mom, his defeat is what truly begins the final saga of the series, as it definitively kickstarts the Dawn of an Era that will change the world forever.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica has Oktavia von Seckendorff, Sayaka's Witch form. Her arrival in the story reveals the final Awful Truth about becoming a Magical Girl (Magical Girls are doomed to turn into Witches and they can't be changed back) and the fight against her and its conclusion (Kyoko performing a Mutual Kill against the Witch as an act of mercy to Sayaka and so she doesn't die alone) leads the story to its Darkest Hour before the next episode reveals Homura's origin as a Magical Girl.

Fan Works

• Grand King Ghidorah in The Bridge. Nearly everything bad in the series can be tracked back to him in some fashion (he's in part responsible for Bagan in the first place, caused Monster X and the evil Xilians to exist, and a number of other things), and his fight marks the Godzilla family finally mending and uniting together against a single threat.
• Chapter 4's culprit, the Ultimate Luchador, Tetsuo Garcia, in Danganronpa: Komm Susser Tod, who had been established to be a potential threat to the group since Chapter 1 and its revelation that he is Sparkling Justice, and him deciding to be Defiant to the End leads to both Monokuma's Villainous Breakdown and another student exposing the Ultimate ???'s talent to prevent the survivors from uniting, setting the stage for the last two chapters.

Film — Animation

• Dreamworks films
  • Megamind: Megamind and Metro Man have been at constant odds against each other for many years, but it seemingly reaches to an end when Megamind uses his death ray to successfully kill Metro Man. However, Megamind becomes bored and feels a sense of emptiness without a nemesis; as such he secretly creates a new superhero through Hal/Tighten. Except Tighten becomes a far bigger threat to Metro City that Megamind ever was, forcing Megamind to make a Heel–Face Turn and stop him.
  • Monsters vs. Aliens: The Humongous Mecha summoned by Gallaxhar proceeds to wreck havoc on San Francisco, but is defeated by the combined efforts of the monsters at the Golden Gate Bridge. However, this is just one probe defeated, as Gallaxhar proceeds to launch a full-scale invasion.
  • Shrek:
    • Shrek: The Dragon, being the guardian of the castle imprisoning Princess Fiona; Shrek is tasked by Lord Farquaad to rescue Fiona in exchange for getting the exiled Fairy Tale creatures away from Shrek's swamp. Shrek does just that, but in a Bait-and-Switch, Farquaad is revealed to be the Big Bad wanting to be king of Duloc by marrying Fiona and maintaining an oppressive rule over the creatures, whereas the Dragon eventually reforms after falling in love with Donkey.
    • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: The battle between Puss in Boots and the Wolf atop the Wishing Star serves as the climax of Puss' Character Development. Having learned the Wolf is Death itself coming for him after wasting eight of his nine lives, Puss reflects on his journey and gains a new respect for life and death, managing to fight the Wolf to a draw and earning the chance to live his last life well. Jack Horner, who wants to use the Wishing Star to steal all of the world's magic, serves as the film's Final Boss.
• Pixar films
  • Toy Story
    • Toy Story 2 has the Emperor Zurg toy from Al's Toy Barn, which was sort of foreshadowed in the opening scene where Rex fails to defeat his in-universe video game-counterpart; he hinders the toys' progress in trying to pursue Al McWhiggin in taking Woody to Japan. As a matter of fact, Rex uses what he learned from the game to defeat him!
    • Toy Story 3 has both the cymbal-banging Monkey (who acts as Lotso's surveillance operator monitoring the security cameras and arguably the biggest threat warned by Chatter Telephone in Andy's toys' attempt to escape) and Demo-Mode Buzz Lightyear (who is easily among the most personal of Lotso's minions, being Andy's Buzz Lightyear brainwashed). Both of the toys' defeats result in a much easier time for the toys' escaping.
  • Monsters, Inc.
    • Monsters, Inc. has Sulley and Mike's epic chase/showdown against Randall Boggs in the Door Factory, concluding with Boo beating up the reptilian monster and Sulley banishing him into the human world. That leaves only Mr. Waternoose for Mike and Sulley to deal with.
    • Monsters University actually does this twice. The first is the monstrous librarian in the second game, in which Oozma Kappa successfully escape from — with Squishy obtaining the flag in the process. This leads to a series of events where the Oozma Kappa's are subjected to a cruel prank, visit the Monsters Inc. facility after going through a Heroic BSoD, and needing the motivation to advance further into the Scare Games. This eventually leads to the climatic Scare Simulator showdown between Oozma Kappa and Roar Omega Roar, particularly Mike's face-off with Johnny Worthington. Mike seemingly makes the game-winning scare to grant Oozma Kappa the championship, only for him to find out that Sulley tampered with the settings, resulting in Mike escaping to the human world to prove himself.
  • Finding Nemo has a boatload of obstacles that Marlin and Dory must navigate to reach Nemo, but none more significant than finally reaching the Dentist's office, where Marlin, Dory, Nigel, and the rest of the Tank Gang work together to save Nemo from Darla and P. Sherman, and get Nemo back to the ocean. They ultimately succeed, with Marlin, Nemo, and Dory having a happy reunion before a group of fisherman stir up conflict once again as the Final Boss.
  • The Incredibles franchise:
    • The Incredibles has Mr. Incredible's bout against the Omnidroid 8, to which upon defeat it ushers in newer motivation for the superhero himself — at least prior to encountering Syndrome.
    • Incredibles 2 has Elastigirl's bout against the Screenslaver, who is later revealed to be a brainwashed pizza deliveryman acting as the face of a grander scheme. And sure enough, Elastigirl eventually finds out that Evelyn Deavor, the co-CEO of DevTech is the true mastermind behind the story's main conflict.
  • Ratatouille has Chef Skinner, who attempts to render Auguste Gusteau's will (of having Linguini take over the restaurant) moot just so he can maintain power in the restaurant and continue his line of frozen foods despite Gusteau's itself experiencing a renaissance from Linguini himself (secretly controlled by Remy). Remy successfully gives Linguini the will after an epic chase sequence from Skinner, which results in Linguini becoming the restaurant's new owner and Skinner's firing. However, the recent success of Gusteau's gets the attention of Anton Ego, the food critic responsible for the restaurant's downfall, who returns once again to test the protagonists if they can appeal his taste buds.
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie: The Blue-Shelled Koopa General leads the charge against the heroes in Rainbow Road as they try to make their way back to the Mushroom Kingdom. His kamikaze ultimately succeeds, as Mario and Donkey Kong sink and are eaten by the Maw-Ray, and the rest of their allies are captured by Bowser's Koopa Troop. This leads to the climax where Bowser attempts to marry Peach.

Film — Live Action

• DC Extended Universe:
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: The much-hyped fight between Batman and Superman occurs; while Batman has the upper hand with the Kryptonian spear, Superman ends the fight reminding Batman of his past simply by coincidentally sharing their shared mothers' name. The whole time however, Lex Luthor was preparing his creating of Doomsday who is later unleashed after Superman makes it to him and Batman defeats Luthor's men.
  • Wonder Woman (2017): Erich Ludendorff is believed to be Ares, given he is the general of the German Army opposing Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman kills him, so the war should end right? Except Sir Patrick Morgan, the pacifist in the Imperial War Cabinet who allied with Wonder Woman is revealed to be Ares.
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • The Fellowship of the Ring: The Battle in the Mines of Moria become this, culminating in Gandalf's epic standoff against the Balrog. This becomes the start of the Fellowship's Dwindling Party, since Gandalf seemingly sacrifices himself and does not appear in the rest of the film (which becomes a struggle against Saruman's forces).
  • The Two Towers: The Final Battle in Helm's Deep and Isengard becomes this for the entire trilogy, as Saruman and his forces are effectively defeated — leaving only Sauron and Mordor left for the Race of Men to deal with.
  • The Return of the King: The Battle of the Pelennor Fields with Sauron's army, commanded by the Witch-King of Angmar, against the forces of Gondor, Rohan, and the Army of the Dead. Not only does Sauron lose one of his deadliest servants, but this marks the beginning of hope for the race of Men, who later storm Mordor in an epic Final Battle to distract Sauron's forces so that Frodo and Sam can cast the ring into the fire.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Phase One:
    • Iron Man 2 has Tony against Rhodey who steals the Mark II armor as a means to restrain a drunk Tony Stark. This would be a critical moment for Rhodey as he would later upgrade the suit to become War Machine.
    • Thor has The Destroyer, who nearly kills the titular hero himself, only for him to be worthy of Mjolnir once again and gain back his power. The rest of the film has Thor's conflict against Loki who (temporarily) takes over Asgard during Odin's "Odinsleep"
    • Captain America: The First Avenger has Steve's first bought with Johann Schmidt, who reveals himself as the Red Skull by taking off his prosthetic face.
    • The Avengers has Loki's brainwashed S.H.I.E.L.D agents (led by Clint Barton) hijack the Hellicarrier, leading to a series of conflicts such as Banner "hulking out", Barton vs. Romanoff, and Coulson's death, the last of which becomes the motivation to unite the heroes against Loki.
  • Phase Two:
    • Iron Man 3: Because "The Mandarin" is nothing more than a washed-up actor who is way out of the heroes' league, the fight against Aldrich Killian's Dragon, Eric Savin becomes this — as Savin himself is killed and Stark saves the Air Force One passengers, but President Ellis is kidnapped with Rhodey's Iron Patriot armor stolen.
    • Thor: The Dark World: Thor and Loki vs. Malekith's Dragon, Kurse who seemingly kills Loki, motivating Thor to stop Malekith from bringing the Nine Realms into darkness.
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier has Captain America's first fight with the Winter Soldier, who reveals himself as Bucky Barnes to Rogers's shock.
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron has Stark using the "Veronica" against a brainwashed Hulk, who rampages around Johannesburg. This becomes a contributing factor to the Hulk being labeled as a monster and forcing the Avengers to go into hiding in the Barton household.
    • Ant-Man has the Good vs. Good situation with Ant-Man against Falcon, mainly because Ant-Man needs a device from the Avengers Headquarters in their campaign against Darren Cross. This impresses Falcon enough to recruit him into Captain America's team the following film.
  • Phase Three:
    • Captain America: Civil War has the brawl between Captain America's and Iron Man's Avengers, all of this preluding Captain America's (and Bucky's) more personal fight against Iron Man in the Hydra Research Facility, and Zemo being the mastermind behind the Avengers' fracture.
    • Doctor Strange has the first fight against Kaecillius, who kills the Ancient One, leaving Doctor Strange to take the mantle as Sorcerer Supreme and continue his campaign against the Zealots and eventually Dormammu.
    • Thor: Ragnarok has the much-hyped fight between Thor and Hulk, who has become Sakaar's champion under The Grandmaster. The rest of the film has Thor recruiting Hulk/Banner in the campaign to escape Sakaar, and eventually stop Hela from taking over Asgard and conquering the universe.
    • Black Panther has the ritual fight between T'Challa and Killmonger, to which T'Challa loses out of grief for Zuni's death and Killmonger takes over as the King of Wakanda. Killmonger and T'Challa later fight again, this them in an all out war between T'Challa's and Killmonger's factions in Wakanda, as well as their personal bout in their Panther Habits.
    • Avengers: Infinity War has the build-up to the fight against Thanos become this for the entire Infinity Saga, with almost every single hero taking on Big Bad Thanos himself in his ultimate goal to steal all the Infinity Stones for his decimation campaign. While the heroes ultimately lose, this was expected by Doctor Strange — who puts all the plans in motion for Thanos's eventual downfall, even if it took 5 years for that to happen.
    • Spider-Man: Far From Home has Peter Parker's fight against "Molten Man" in his "Night Monkey" suit. This preludes Mysterio revealing himself as the mastermind behind the "elemental attacks" (which is basically special effects from his drones to make himself look like the hero).
  • Phase Four:
    • Spider-Man: No Way Home has Peter Parker's first bout with the Green Goblin in Happy's apartment complex, who takes over Norman's personality and wickedly encourages the other supervillains (sans Doctor Octopus) to embrace their powers for evil. The ensuing conflict results in the death of Aunt May and preludes the re-appearence of Raimi-Peter and Webb-Peter.
    • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has Namor and the Talokans' first invasion of Wakanda, which results in the death of Queen Ramonda after she sacrifices her life to save Riri Williams. This preludes Shuri consuming the modified heart-shaped herb and succeeding her brother as the Black Panther.
• Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has the battle against Knuckles in the underwater temple, which serves as the climax of their feud and provides a turning point in the movie since Robotnik successfully steals the Master Emerald, revealing his treachery to Knuckles. Sonic convinces Knuckles to join forces to fight against Robotnik, turning their previous enmity into the beginning of a friendship. Robotnik powered by the Master Emerald serves as the movie's Final Boss.
• Star Wars
  • Original Trilogy
    • A New Hope has Obi-Wan's fight against Darth Vader, to which the former sacrifices himself and allows the rest of the heroes to escape the Death Star. The Final Battle is an aerial dogfight between Luke Skywalker and the Rebels against Vader and the Empire, culminating in the Death Star's destruction.
    • The Empire Strikes Back: Luke's first bout against Vader can be this for the entire trilogy, as this is culminated by one of the most famous revelations in film history: Vader is Luke's father.
    • Return of the Jedi has Jabba the Hutt, who serves as the Arc Villain for the heroes' Tatooine arc. The rest of the film is the Rebels' last stand against the Empire, led by The Reveal of their leader, The Emperor himself.
  • Prequel Trilogy
    • Anakin's and Obi-Wan's first bout against Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones is eerily similar to Luke Skywalker against Vader, as it marks a critical point in the trilogy where the Clone Wars kicks off. To make this even more jarring, Anakin loses a hand just like what he would do to his son many years later!
    • Obi-Wan vs. General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith. The rest of the film has Palpatine putting the final pieces together in his rise to power as Emperor, which includes the clones turning on the Galactic Republic and Anakin fully succumbing to the Dark Side and becoming Darth Vader.
  • Sequel Trilogy
    • The Elite Pretorian Guards become this in The Last Jedi after Kylo Ren kills Snoke in a surprise twist of events. Ren himself takes over as the film's Big Bad with the Final Battle being him and his forces against Luke Skywalker in Crait.
    • Kylo Ren's final bout with Rey on the second Death Star wreckage in The Rise of Skywalker. This becomes a turning point for Ren, as he later allies with Rey for the Final Battle against a fully restored Palpatine.

Literature

• Voldemort does this to himself in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the entire Harry Potter series, as he is resurrected just in time for his first bout against his nemesis, Harry Potter. This officially kicks off the Second Wizarding War with the Death Eaters against the Order of the Phoenix.
• In Fengshen Yanyi, the Grand Tutor Wen Zhong is the most powerful servant of King Zhou, supervisor of all civil affairs and a skilled general with amazing taoist magic at his disposal, as well as being pals with powerful taoists Immortals who are more than willing to lend him a hand and plague Jiang Ziya and his disciples, especially the dreaded Mo Brothers, the extremly powerful Zhao Gongming and the infamous Ten Heavenly Lords. Wen Zhong takes the longest to defeat of all the invasions and marks the first time when all the forces of Kunlun Mountain Range have to come and lend a hand to the heroes, and even then they find their match.
• Journey to the West: Among the countless demons and monsters fought by Sun Wukong and his pals, only two are really noteworthy for their skills, power and trouble: the first was the Bull Demon King, former buddy of Monkey, almost equal to him in battle and so strong and rebellious that Wukong needed help from Nezha and the Heavenly Soldiers to finally force him to surrender, all of this taking place halfway through and resolving a lenghty miniarc. The other candidate are the three Demon Kings of Camel Lion Mountain Ridge, three extremely powerful demons and former buddhist mounts who require a lenghty battle and the help of Buddha to relent. Most notably, all demons met after them aren't nearly as strong.

Live-Action TV

• Each Story Arc of the Chouseishin Series usually culminates in a fight against a major villain who is far stronger than any of the Monsters of the Week faced previously. Sometimes they'll have to unlock a new Super Mode to defeat them too.
  • Chouseishin Gransazer: Logia plays this role multiple times throughout the show as a sort of Recurring Boss for Tenma, providing a new challenge for him or one of the other Gransazers each time he appears. Before him, Karin was the first foe to be fought by three Gransazer Tribes, and Lucia was the first foe the Gransazers have to form Dai-Sazer to defeat.
  • Genseishin Justiriser: Kaiser Hades, who is built up as the Big Bad, fills this role midway through the series, requiring the heroes to unlock their Justi Kaiser mecha formation in order to defeat him.
• Choushinsei Flashman: Great Emperor Ra Deus is the overlord of the Mess and the one responsible for the Flashmen all being snatched from their parents as infants. He's fought and destroyed in the penultimate episode, needing two hits from Rolling Vulcan to go down no less. The final episode sees his Number Two taking the reigns, though the conflict isn't about him so much as it is the Flashmen needing to leave Earth before they perish from the "Anti-Flash" phenomenon.
• Cobra Kai: Happens every midseason.
  • Season 1 has Kyler Park, the Jerk Jock who becomes Miguel's main bully when he transfers to West Valley High School and the reason why Miguel learns karate from Johnny Lawrence. Miguel finally faces him and his gang off in the lunchroom midseason and defeat them with formal karate training; the rest of the season has Miguel preparing for the All-Valley culminating in a finals match-up with Robby Keene.
  • Season 2 has Hawk, who bullies his (former) best friend, Demetri — forcing Robby and Sam to fight him and his Cobra Kai Mooks. The ensuing fight leads to a series of events where a handful of Cobra Kais defect to Miyagi-Do, effectively becoming legitimate Rival Dojos to each other.
  • Season 3:
    • For the Miyagi-Dos, it's the Cobra Kais once again — led by Hawk and Tory, who fight them at Golf n' Stuff. This becomes a Hopeless Boss Fight given the Cobra Kais possessing greater skills learned under John Kreese, as well as Sam's fear of Tory turning the tides in favor of the aforementioned dojo. The Miyagi-Dos would later face the Cobra Kais again, the former of which teamed up with Eagle Fang, at the LaRusso Household.
    • For Robby Keene, it's Shawn Payne, The Bully in juvie who gives his a legitimately tough fight ending in Keene's favor despite the latter taking Kreese's advice in "Striking First". The rest of the season for Robby's arc is him joining Cobra Kai out of anger for Johnny and Daniel seemingly betraying him, with Johnny himself as his own Final Boss.
  • Season 4:
    • Daniel and Johnny do this to each other in a tournament-style fight after a series of disagreements in wake of Terry Silver's return. This ends in a draw and the dojos splitting up prior to the tournament.
    • While most of them end up being Curb Stomp Battles, each of the four finalists' bouts in the Quarterfinals become this in the All-Valley — as all of them become critical in the characters' (as well as the story) development. Eli defeats Kyler Park convincingly, but it's a crucial moment for him because 1.) he finally takes down The Bully that has tormented him for years now, 2.) he proves to his peers that he doesn't need a mohawk to be badass. Sam initially struggles going against Piper Elswith, prior to realizing the importance of combing both Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang styles. Tory defeats Devon Lee convincingly, but not without questionable calls from the referee; this becomes very important after Tory defeats Sam and wins the All-Valley. Robby brutally defeats Kenny Payne after going full-No Mercy by Kreese's suggestion, which become the final straw leading to Kenny's Start of Darkness and Robby's Heel Realization.
  • Season 5:
    • Miguel and Robby do this to each other, as a way for Johnny to finally have them bury the hatchet between their animosity that has lasted for so long now. The rest of the season has the both of them continuing their war against Cobra Kai: first in the Sekai-Taikai qualifier, then in the Final Battle against the Cobra Kais in the Flagship dojo.
    • Terry Silver does this to himself against Daniel, beating him rather convincingly in Stingray's apartment. They fight again at the Flagship dojo in the Season Finale with Daniel giving him the beatdown.
• King Octávio in Deus Salve O Rei is one of the primary villains introduced halfway through the series and becomes practically the biggest threat of the show if it were not for Princess Catarina being the real instigator of the crisis. He is slain just three episodes before the show ends by Afonso himself and the rest of the story is holding Catarina on trial for her crimes and executing her.
• Kamen Rider Saber: Master Logos isn't the Final Boss, but he's the mastermind behind the show's Myth Arc and it takes the Kamen Riders all putting their swords together to give Touma a reality-warping Super Mode in order to defeat him.
• Shane is the main antagonist of the second season of The Walking Dead, as he tries to usurp Rick after losing leadership of the group as well as Lori and Carl's affections to him. The penultimate episode of the season features their final confrontation that resolves their story arc and proves Shane wrong in that Rick is a man who can do what needs to be done to protect his family and friends.

Web Animation

• RWBY: The Curious Cat serves as this to the titular team being the Arc Villain of Volume 9. For the past few volumes, the team were second guessing themselves as to whether or not their actions did any good, a vulnerability the Cat seized to nearly possess Ruby by entering her heart when it was most broken and the rest of the team fought to allow her to make her own decision about what she would do. Upon returning, Ruby leads the team to victory over the cat with the assurance that they can make a difference and critical knowledge around their world and the Brother Gods who created it.

Podcasts

• Dice Funk features at least one per season.
  • Season 1 has Rinaldo's fight with Jayne, which leads to her death and the appearance of Allana.
  • Season 2 has Drop's duel with Jem, who is the last major obstacle before the party gains access to an airship which they need to go to the Feywild and stop Welch.
  • Season 3 has several throughout.
    • The fight with Lady Nim is the first major shakeup to Illium's situation in the season.
    • Later in the season episodes 31 and 32 features 3 major battles at the same time. Rolen and Veltari's fight with Gylan, who is an important antagonist and a major step on their way to taking down Danto. Claire and Robin's fight with Asriel, Dora's primary ally whose death throws a wrench in her plans. Finally there's Dora's fight with Warden Light, ending in his imprisonment and the destruction of the Barrier around Illium.
  • Season 4 has the courthouse battle with Catarina versus the rest of Team Loser, resulting in Catarina's death and the team being hired by Justice Alistair.
  • Season 5 has three.
    • The Bastards' fight with Jacklyn, is the moment when they officially become fugitives from the Sol government.
    • The fight with Kajita the Sun Dragon precedes the revelation of the truth about the The Maxwells and The Mothman.
    • The fight with Cassius serves as a Final Boss Preview and happens shortly after the death of Adler and the reveal of Cassius' Evil Plan.
  • Season 6 has the fights with the false Lady of Pain and later Abraham which mark the beginning and end of the Second Faction War respectively.
  • Season 7 has the fight with the Friar is the first major blow the heroes strike against King Wolfram and happens right before a major revelation.

Web Videos

• This was one of Game Dude's many gripes about Mickey Mousecapade: he gasped in astonishment at how short Pete's level was, and complained that, despite being on the cover art, he isn't actually the Final Boss.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has Azula, Zuko, and the Dai Li vs. Aang and Katara in Ba Sing Se's catacombs during the Season 2 Finale. Despite Team Avatar's efforts, The Bad Guy Wins when Azula electrocutes (and temporarily kills) Aang, and later solidifies the Fire Nation's dominance in the Avatar world by taking over Ba Sing Se. Season 3 basically kicks off with Team Avatar trying to recuperate from that loss prior to Aang's ultimate confrontation with Fire Lord Ozai.
  • While any of the Big Bads from The Legend of Korra prior to Season 4 could vie for the spot (Amon taking away Korra's bending prior to Korra herself unlocking her air powers and having her bending restored by Aang, UnaVaatu destroying Raava and the connection Korra has with her past Avatars), none had a more severe impact on Korra's life than Zaheer — who basically pushed Korra past her limits by poisoning her with mercury, resulting in her PTSD (something Amon, Unalaq, or Vaatu couldn't do). It's also worth noting that he is the last foe Korra faces prior to the 3-year Time Skip, which has Korra continuing to cope with her trauma prior to facing off Kuvira.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep", the Tantabus can be considered this for Luna's Redemption Quest that began in the second episode because she only defeats it by finally forgiving herself for that event and being willing to move on.
• Two of these are fought in the Samurai Jack episode "XCVIII". Jack goes on a Journey to the Center of the Mind and relinquishes the anger that has corrupted him for the past 50 years, finally purifying his Enemy Within Inner Jack. Meanwhile, Ashi defeats her mother the High Priestess in a Duel to the Death, finally completing her Redemption Quest and completely escaping her influence.
• In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Maul qualifies. He's the last Force-wielding antagonist faced in the series and the last antagonist to be defeated via direct combat, and serves to show how far Ahsoka has come as a Jedi while simultaneously displaying how close the end is.

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