One Winged Angel / Square Enix

Æstuans interius, ira vehementi!
Æstuans interius, ira vehementi!
Sephiroth!^note His first form as the final boss is not actually pictured, human Sephiroth is never properly fought in the original game.

Square Enix probably loves this trope even more than Disney does. It's almost a rule that their games MUST have a giant transforming final boss (if that was not already evident from the fact that it has its own subpage, and even named the trope).

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• The Final Fantasy series has a ton of examples.
  • Sephiroth (pictured) from Final Fantasy VII, whose Ominous Latin Chanting Leitmotif is the Trope Namer (having one wing instead of an arm, ignoring those other wings on the underside). He began as a human, then transformed into the aptly named (if only due to mistranslation) Bizarro Sephiroth, a cocoon for what he intended to be his ultimate form, the angelic Safer Sephiroth.
    • Aside from Sephiroth, there's also Hojo: Beat him in human form, and the Jenova cells he implanted in his own body will turn him into Helletic Hojo, a hideous, writhing, grotesque mass of flesh. Beat him in that form, and he crosses the Bishōnen Line to become the much more humanoid but still eerily non-human Lifeform-Hojo N.
    • Referenced in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where Sephiroth really does grow a single wing, before he dies.
    • Returns again in Advent Children COMPLETE: this time, he grows it just before unleashing a brutal and bloody stab fest against Cloud.
    • Returns yet again in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in which he can sprout his one wing to power his attacks after taking enough damage, and Safer Sephiroth is his Final Smash.
    • And again in Final Fantasy VII Remake, midway through the final boss fight.
  • Crisis Core is quite possibly the hugest example of this trope. Two of the four main male characters become one winged angels — one of which is black-winged and the other is white-winged. Then when you fight them, they in turn transform into monsters, still retaining the wings.
    • There are even several varieties of mooks and monsters who have been infused with genes from those two and thus have a single wing sprouting from their back. The second half of the game feels like the monsters from the first half decided to reappear after having visited a grand Unpaired Attachable Wings clearance sale. It reaches a point where you expect everything that isn't a robot to have a bizarre feathery wing graft. Ironically, the only character who you would expect to sprout a wing doesn't in this game — Sephiroth.
  • In Dirge of Cerberus, Azul, one member of the Super-Soldier Quirky Miniboss Squad, is on his own a pretty large bruiser who hefts an assault cannon, but on top of that, he can turn into a Behemoth for extra headaches. And unlike traditional Boss Encounters, he can switch between them at will.
  • The original Final Fantasy had Garland, who transformed from a human knight into a gigantic demon named Chaos.
  • Killing Emperor Mateus in Final Fantasy II causes his soul to split into two of these. The main characters fight one at the end of the main story. Their dead comrades fight the other.
  • Final Fantasy III had monsters shed their human forms, though a few of them just got bigger. Inverted with the Final Boss, who is more humanoid in battle than on the map.
  • Final Fantasy IV had Zemus the Lunarian wizard transform into the demonic insectoid Zeromus, which transforms into a more boney form when the heroes shine the light of the Mineral MacGuffin on him. Various bosses also do this — Scarmiglione transforms into an undead monster, Baigan turns his arm to snakes, the Dark Elf transforms into a dragon, and several monsters show up on the map as hooded, cloaked figures, although if that is actual transformation or just a limitation of map sprites is unclear.
  • Final Fantasy V had Exdeath twice, first into his true form of a sentient evil tree, and then into a hodgepodge of various monsters out of the Void when he learns that Evil Is Not a Toy and becomes Neo Exdeath.
    • Also Gilgamesh, who gets extra arms and more demonic looks.
  • Final Fantasy VI had Kefka, who began the game as a skinny human in jester garb. In the final battle, he became a muscular, towering God of Magic with purple skin, four angel wings, and two demon wings. His angelic form and golden backdrop evoke Lucifer as an angel of light.
  • Final Fantasy VIII had the fake president turn into the zombie Gerogero. And Ultimecia, who you fight as a "normal" witch, after which she summons Griever, then junctions herself onto Griever, then finally morphs into an eldritch horror that has her human form as legs and a skirt that’s so large it’s literally seen to be under and behind the party, as her time compression begins. Yeah.
  • Final Fantasy IX had Kuja invoke the game's Limit Break Super Mode Trance, shedding his clothing to become a glowing super-powered being covered in red fur and feathers. Earlier in the game, Zorn and Thorn fuse together to form Meltigemini, a two-headed demonic entity that's also their true form.
  • Final Fantasy X had Yunalesca, Seymour, and Jecht all turn into various monstrous forms.
    • Interestingly, Jecht's is justified by the plot. The game's summons, Aeons, are acquired by receiving them from a fayth, a precursor of sorts. In order to gain the Final Summoning and combat Sin, one of the summoner's guardians must become a fayth. Braska chose Jecht, and his one-winged angel form is that of the aeon Braska summoned.
    • And then there's Seymour, who has three separate boss fights (after the first where you fight him as a mere mortal) with increasingly larger and more powerful forms. The fact that he's basically this entry's Expy of Sephiroth, complete with long Anime Hair, Faux Affably Evil persona, megalomania, and a motivation to achieve a twisted form of apotheosis in order to wipe out humanity doesn't help things.
  • Final Fantasy X-2 inverts the trope. Each of your party members finds a unique Dressphere which allows her to become a huge multi-target monstrosity — essentially a Boss — for a limited time.
  • Final Fantasy XI is a bit more reserved. The Shadowlord and Promathia (initial release and second expansion) have two-stage battles, but rather than undergoing a physical change for the second stage, they just get a new set of abilities and a fresh HP Bar.
    • The third expansion features three bosses back to back in the final battle, though the final one, Alexander, takes over the fight himself after you deal enough damage to the Prince who is piloting his current body. This is played a bit more straight in the first expansion, Rise of the Zilart, when Eald'narche is knocked off his floating platform and his eyepatch comes off, revealing a glowing eye and he starts flying for the rest of the fight. Lady Lilith plays this traditionally straight, going from her normal attire to Lilith Ascendant◊ for Round 2.
  • Final Fantasy XII had Vayne use the power of nethicite to Hulk Out and become Vayne Novus.
    • After a lengthy battle with his 2nd form — he transforms into his one-winged angel form. The scene plays out which Vayne absorbs a portion of the Dreadnaught Bahamut fortress onto his body...Thus becoming a hideous monster/dragon himself.
  • Final Fantasy XIII features Galenth Dysley, who masqueraded as a frail old man and the leader of the Sanctum. His true form is the giant-robotic-rape-face fal'Cie Barthandalus.
    • Orphan, the true final boss, has his own one-winged angel form. Which makes it a one-winged angel form of a one-winged angel form.
    • Additionally, mid-game boss Cid Raines goes One Winged Angel by transforming into a Cie'th hybrid, complete with patches of crystal-looking skin and hair, and an enormous claw. Halfway through the fight, he mutates further and sprouts a pair of wings.
    • And in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Caius has two One Winged Angel forms; the first being Chaos Bahamut, a Palette Swap of Fang's Eidolon. The second, which serves as the final boss, is a gigantic purple dragon known as Jet Bahamut...and then Caius summons Amber Bahamut and Garnet Bahamut.
    • The third game in the trilogy, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII features its own One Winged Angels — much like Raines, Snow Villiers transforms into a hybrid Cie'th during his boss fight, gaining a claw-like growth on his arm similar to the one Raines had and black markings covering parts of his skin. The game's final boss, Bhunivelze, also goes through multiple different forms.
  • Interestingly enough, Final Fantasy XV significantly downplays this. The penultimate battle against Ifrit simply has him stop holding back when he realizes that lazing about and tossing out the occasional attack isn't working. The Final Boss, Ardyn Izunia, has no form change at all. The closest he gets is summoning Armiger.
  • In Final Fantasy XVI, Ultima transforms twice in the final battle - his second phase has him transform into a dark version of Ifrit Risen called "Ultima Risen", and after he's bested in that form, he shrinks down back into a humanoid form called Ultimalius, this time clad in armor and bearing the powers of all Eikons at the same time.
  • Final Fantasy XIV is rife with these. Ironically though, these were largely absent in Legacy and for the most part, A Realm Reborn but become increasingly common as the story progresses in its expansions.
    • Gaius during the Praetorium raid shows off his armor taking on a more powerful golden sheen when confronting the Warrior of Light, implying that he had been holding back during 1.0.
    • Returning from Legacy, Nael van Darnus appears during the Second Coil of Bahamut raid, her enthrallment from Bahamut in its most advanced stage as she shatters her armor and transforms into a dragon-like humanoid with large wings to fight the party.
    • During the early Coerthas part of ARR, an impersonator in the guise of an Ishgardian inquisitor uses magic to turn into a dragon, only for Drillenmont to point out that he's simply using a glamour for intimidation. The Harriers on the other hand, have access to real enchanted dragon blood that lets them transform into draconic beasts.
    • Ysayle during during the post 2.0 story demonstrates that she can uniquely summon Shiva by using her own body as a medium, effectively transforming into her.
    • Slightly adverted when Hraesvelgr states that she's only summoning a phantom of what she believes to be Shiva.
    • Speaking of Hraesvelgr, he reveals thathe supposed heretical blood magic that the heretics use to transform into dragons is tied directly to their own lineage as every living Ishgardian, high and lowborn, are all descended from King Thordan I and his knights twelve, who all devoured Ratatoskr's flesh and eyes to gain power and longevity. Only a mere sip can trigger the transformation, meaning the entire population is one drip away from turning into the creatures they fear the most.
    • Happens to Estenien at the end of the initial Heavensward story where he's possessed by Nidhogg's blood magic from still wearing his blood soaked armor and holding both of his eyes, allowing Nidhogg to revive himself through his body and take on his original complete form. He can also shift between this form and Estenien's though the armor is now corrupted with his eyes fused to his mail. In his final battle, he displays not only an inbetween humanoid dragon form wielding a spear, but also a version of his real form with his wings and spikes glowing hot red, which he previously used to overpower his own brother.
    • Of course, the current King Thordan and his knights, the Heavens' Ward are no exception to this as each of them can take on a primal-like form, together becoming the Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy VII with Thordan himself becoming his original predecessor (now calling himself a god king) after absorbing both Haldrath's corpse and Nidhogg's lost eye which kept the body preserved.
    • Lahabrea and Igeyorhm can fuse to form a lich-like creature called an Ascian Prime, forced to do so when pushed into a corner by the Warrior of Light's overwhelming power.
    • Zenos himself merges with Shinryu itself by using his Resonant power, effectively becoming the Primal itself.
    • Yotsuyu pulls a Ysayle and summons Tsukuyomi into her body, though unlike Shiva, Tsukuyomi more resembles a transformed Yotsuyu with her skin being half jet black and pure white, grows in size and has a pair of bunny ears along with a crescent moon formed behind her. Slightly turns into Clipped Winged Angel territory as the transformation seems to be temporary regardless of the Warrior's intervention and is bleeding out her own life force, feeding on her misery and sorrow to sustain it.
    • Each of the Four Great Lords has a large animal form and a more humanoid form for when they go all out, though Genbu's animal form is much smaller.
    • Soroban after having Genbu's soul take refuge in his body is able to shift between his and Genbu's forms at will, though it's only temporary until Genbu finishes his training.
    • Vauthry in Shadowbringers turns into a angel...Well, at least as angelic as a Sin Eater can be. His fat, ugly body turns into a beautiful, golden haired archangel-like Light Warden with wings made out of swords, stylized heavily after the biblical Archangel Michael.
    • Emet-Selch does this twice. First, he reveals his true name and shows his real, Ascian form, looking like a gigantic sorcerer with a huge mantle. In the second half of the fight, he summons all the souls of the dead Ancients and fuses it to himself, becoming a huge, torso-less thing, with 'wings' formed entirely out of Ascian masks.
    • Elidibus as the Emissary knows he's not nearly strong enough to confront the Warrior of Light with his own power, so instead he borrows the corpses of others, namely Zenos and later Ardbert. In the final battle however, he merges with shades of heroes he's summoned from history and other worlds, transforming into a giant version of the original Warrior of Light with chalk-white skin and an off-colored mostly black organic version of his armor.
    • In the Puppets' Bunker, 2P's unconscious form gives birth to a legion of white blank female bodies that form that stick to each other to form a sphere made out of them and when that form is depleted, they reconfigure into a giant humanoid resembling her original form with half-fused bodies forming her skirt and heels. Even her sword is made out of them.
    • Ryne herself gets one when she decides to be the vessel for Shiva just as Ysayle did. Unfortunately because of her inexperience and underdeveloped power, she succumbs to the will of the Primal. Her first form gives her longer white hair, pale skin and a blue robe. She can switch to a decidedly more skimpier light-based form patterned after Hydaelyn when using her light powers.
    • On Savage, she gets a third form in which Hraesvelgr becomes her clothing and his head for a weapon.
    • As revealed in the final part of the Eden raid, it's revealed that the very first Sin Eater was actually a horribly mutated Mitron when Ardbert's Blade of Light struck him, causing his body to overflow with light and transform into Eden.
    • After merging with Gaia (now revealed to be the reincarnated Loghrif), they become an Ascian Prime, but rather than fight the Warrior of Darkness in that form, they used the aether accumalated from the Primal fights to transform into a more interpretation of the mythological Eden.
    • And just like the previous tier, the final battle's Savage mode has Gaia forcibly turned into the Oracle of Darkness, wielding a stylized black robe and a hammer as her weapon of choice.
    • Albeleo in the Lacus Litore raid becomes the demon Adrammelech from Final Fantasy XII.
    • All of the bosses fought in Delebrum Reginae are your former Blade comrades already enthralled by Misija's Save the Queen and horribly mutated further into unrecognizable forms, the only thing remaining of their original forms being their Resistance Weapons. Even worse is that the two Trinity bosses are actually trios of soldiers merged into a single being, rendering their condition irreversible.
    • Misija herself gets one at the end of the raid when she uses Save the Queen on herself combined with the wellspring of aether at the center of the dungeon, transforming into a version of her ancestor's corrupted form, still retaining her hairstyle. However, she instead chooses to fight you in some some strange throne-like contraption with three Save the Queens holstered in it. The horror might have been complete if it were not for the contraption's humanoid torso wielding a tooting horn...that she uses as her auto-attack to hit you with.
    • Staying true to the series tradition of "angelic" final bosses, the Endwalker expansion gives us the Endsinger. After spending most of the game as a Non-Action Big Bad, when finally cornered, Meteion fuses with the other Meteia to become a giant airborne monster heavily remniscient of a Seraph.
  • The Final Boss of SquareSoft's "introductory" RPG, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, mutates through four different forms.
  • In the Dissidia Final Fantasy games, every character has an "EX Mode", and for many of the villain characters, it's their One-Winged Angel form. Kefka, for instance, gains his 'God of Magic' appearance, and the Emperor assumes his 'Emperor of Hell' form. Ironically, as a result of loading issues, Sephiroth doesn't assume his 'Safer Sephiroth' form from his game, instead taking on his Kingdom Hearts single-black-wing look. Similarly, Exdeath doesn't use his Neo form as his EX Mode. Instead, it shows up as an alternate costume in the prequel. Its default setting is based on artwork — when it goes EX Mode, its colours change to match the actual game sprite.
    • And then, since Chaos is now his own character and not just Garland's transformation, he too gets his own One-Winged Angel form. In fact, he gets two — during "Utter Chaos", he changes color and goes to huge proportions, then in Dissidia 012, an Alternate Universe version of Chaos goes berserk and insane to become Feral Chaos.
    • Shinryu himself has three forms in Dissidia NT, first as the Planesgorger golden serpent that's mainly encountered in cutscenes and then fought during the CGI cutscene near the end by both the heroes and villains and their deities. It's only when they destroy that form that Shinryu reveals a second, more traditional form with crystal wings. Even when that form is defeated, Shinryu pops up again with an even bigger and more sinsiter jet black and gray/silver form with multiple tentacles.
  • The original Final Fantasy Tactics's entire villainous cast did this, with a Zodiac theme, giving at least six One-Winged Angel forms. The final boss does this as well, in typical Square fashion.
  • In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, we have Queen Remedi, who turns into the Li-Grim, the spirit of the book and responsible of changing the world.
    • Averted in Final Fantasy Tactics A2. After defeating Illuia towards the end of the game, you'd expect her to regain her power and transform, but she just vanishes as she dies. Her death, however, summons a demon from another dimension that the party has to deal with right after, making it a Marathon Boss.
  • In the final battle of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, the Big Bad fuses with an airship and transforms the ship into a giant red crystal. At the same time, the main character follows this trope more when his telekinetic powers manifest themselves as a blue surfboard thing, some sort of face guard, and a giant blue wing.
• Sheex, Fahna, and Thanatos all do this in Secret of Mana. Geshtar might also qualify, since his boss form, though clearly humanoid, is classified by the game guide as being robotic.
• This is brought to an extreme in SaGa Frontier, which offers 7 characters and 7 final bosses. Unfortunately, Emelia's Big Bad is ultimately a rather unimpressive human, so they give us a boss from nowhere who is giant and can transform.
• All the final bosses in the Romancing SaGa trilogy fall under this:
  • Romancing SaGa: Saruin has two forms, his second being his upper half of his body sticking out of a sphere while he grows extra appendages on his torso and back (in the remake anyway).
  • Romancing SaGa 2: The 7 Heroes gradually join the amalgamated form every 6,000 HP dealt.
  • Romancing SaGa 3: Oblivion changes to a more crazed, shinier form with more wings that can also change into four other forms representing the four Sinistrals, but only if the form chosen was that of a Sinistral not defeated. The protagonists can transform too.
• Kingdom Hearts has a ton of these. Let's start with the first one.
  • First of all, some of the Disney villains use their canon One-Winged Angel forms: Jafar becoming a genie, Ursula becoming a giant, and Maleficent becoming a dragon. Also, Oogie Boogie merges with his manor upon his first defeat, though that doesn't help him very much at all.
  • One of the first bosses in the game is Guard Armor in Traverse Town. When you return to Traverse Town to seal the Keyhole, you fight it again, and it almost immediately transforms into the much more powerful Opposite Armor when you do.
  • Shortly after arriving in the penultimate level, Hollow Bastion, you fight Riku, who has grown to wield the darkness and subsequently grown powerful. Later, after Ansem possesses him, you fight him again. This form of him falls under the category of That One Boss, enough said.
  • Lastly, the final battle against Ansem has multiple phases, but he doesn't actually transform until you reach part 4 of the fight. Departing from the usual thing with bosses transforming, people tend to find his form when he first possessed Riku harder, and his final form in End of the World to be a pushover.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the final boss Marluxia will first fight you in his human form, and after a short break to give you time to heal and save, you'll fight him again when he's merged with a living machine armed with sickles for hands.
    • And in Re:CoM, after you beat that form, he manifests all the life force he has left as a giant angelic grim reaper. Less HP, but more devastating attacks.
• Kingdom Hearts II was more generous with original versions of this.
  • In Beast's Castle, once you defeat the Shadow Stalker Heartless, it immediately turns into the much bigger and stronger (and cooler) Dark Thorn.
  • On the second visit to Port Royal, the Grim Reaper Heartless is a mild challenge at first, but then it gains immortality from the cursed Aztec treasure. The rematch has you periodically forcing the Grim Reaper out of One-Winged Angel mode so that you can actually hurt it.
  • In Halloween Town, the Prison Keeper Heartless is a miniature version of this. It keeps Lock, Shock, and Barrel in a cage hanging from its body, and eats one of them to gain power: it can throw giant fireballs if it eats Lock, rain down mini-fireballs if it eats Shock, and charge and bite if it eats Barrel. Beat it up enough, and it coughs up the brat it ate. When its health gets low enough, it eats all three of them, gaining all three attacks for the rest of the fight.
  • In the Pride Lands, Scar fights Simba as he did in canon. Then he recovers from his Disney Villain Death and fights the heroes as a Heartless, corrupted by darkness. Then, on the second visit to the world, his lingering ghosts form a titanic Heartless called the Groundshaker.
  • Most notably, final boss Xemnas fights you as himself, then as a spaceship, then as a suit of armour with a BFS, then as a suit of armor again this time hurling everything he can at you (including the landscape), then himself again with different powers, a different robe, and the ability to clone himself. And unlike Ansem in the first game, he's no pushover.
  • Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days brings us a One Winged Angel form for Xion. It's… rather difficult to describe… It's sort of like an armored monstrous Nobody form of none other than Sora. Interestingly, this is the form the boss assumes for all four phases of the fight (which correspond to five Limits Sora learned in KHI: a combination of Ragnarok/Strike Raid, Sonic Blade, Ars Arcanaum, and Trinity Limit), with each phase bringing new weapons rather than new transformations and the final phase bringing a bit of a growth spurt too.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep notably averts this. Aside from Maleficent, who takes her dragon form in Aqua's story, every character's final boss remains human. Vanitas simply takes off his helmet and pulls out a different Keyblade for his 2nd stage; Master Xehanort migrates into Terra's body, with the player taking control of Lingering Will for his 2nd fight; Terranort, the True Final Boss, simply summons Xehanort's Guardian familiar from Kingdom Hearts I for his last battle; and for Aqua's story, the final bosses are two different characters.
  • Inverted in Kingdom Hearts coded, the final boss first appears as a giant Darkside, then as a humanoid, then a simple Shadow Heartless.
  • In Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Ansem transforms his Guardian into a new form and shifts the battlefield for the second phase of his fight. However, of the four final bosses, he's the only one to do this in another aversion.
  • In Kingdom Hearts III, Master Xehanort mostly averts this. The start of his fight is against his replica vessels, which are just armored humans, then he absorbs them and gains a creepy goat armor, but doesn't change the fact you're still facing an armored human. Finally, you face… good old Master Xehanort in his regular outfit, but wielding the χ-Blade this time.
• In Super Mario RPG (co-developed by Squaresoft), Final Boss Smithy first looks like an evil bearded robot with a hammer, but he's so ticked against Mario and his friends for defeating him he assumes his second form: the same robot, except with a giant skull for a head which can be switched to four alternate forms.
  • Also, the Czar Dragon falls into the lava of Barrel Volcano and turns into Zombone.
• World of Mana:
  • Trials of Mana: All three of the final bosses transform into giant monsters before you fight them. One of them has two forms you fight, though to avoid scarring anybody, his two forms collectively about as much HP as the other two bosses.
  • In Secret of Mana, only you never fight the human bosses in their normal form; instead they tend to go One-Winged Angel right from the start. Even Big Bad Thanatos ends up becoming the Dark Lich for his fight.
  • Legend of Mana does have human bosses, and they're much harder than the One-Winged Angel bosses due to being smaller and faster.
• Chrono Trigger contains at least two instances of this, in various forms: Masa and Mune combine to form a hulking beast, while Queen Zeal becomes a giant, crowned mask and gloves with increased magical power.
  • The 'Dragon of Fire' fight in Chrono Cross. While the first time you fight him, he's fairly small and humanoid, partway through the second fight, he will change into an even larger (and cooler) dragon in the style of muscle growth.
  • Happens again in Cross to Dark Serge/Lynx, who transforms into a bizarre-looking giant purple humanoid embedded into the floor.
• Parasite Eve has this for Eve, the main antagonist. She starts off by possessing the body of a woman, changes into a slightly disturbing form by having a giant fin instead of feet, long arms with sharp claws, and crazy hair. By the time you see her near the end of the game, she becomes a multi-breasted bloated monstrosity as she prepares to give birth to the Ultimate Being, which changes slightly when you fight her for the last time, but she also changes form from here by becoming an almost angelic figure once her HP gets low enough.
  • The protagonist accomplishes this as well in the first game, with her ultimate attack (of the two pure attacks in the game) 'Liberation', the form being angelic, but in a biological manner. And the 'secret boss' from the first one manages the same form. Only she remains in it throughout the fight.
  • The sequel also has the final boss look and fight in a similar way as Eve's final form from the first game.
• Guildenstern in Vagrant Story is a textbook example. He turns black, spouts wings, merges with the game's main religious symbol to turn into a giant cross-shaped... bug... thing, and flies around casting things with names like "Judgment" and "Bloody Sin".
• High-ranking Reapers in The World Ends with You have the ability to transform into a Noise form for combat. Higashizawa becomes a giant ram, Minamimoto a lion (though unlike the others, he alternates between his Noise and Reaper forms during the battle), Konishi a tigress, and Kitaniji a snake. The latter truly takes the cake, though, as he then pulls a One-Winged Angel of his One-Winged Angel form, fusing with Joshua to become a five-headed dragon that takes up the majority of both screens.
  • This returns in the sequel, NEO: The World Ends with You, with Tsugumi becoming a crane, Ayano becoming something resembling a flower, Minamimoto becoming a lion again, and Susukichi turning into a giant deer/elk. The only Reaper you fight who DOESN'T do this is Shiba (although it's implied that he can do this and chooses not to).
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest provides the first example in the series and one of the first examples in gaming. In spite of persistent rumors about a "pet dragon", the Dragonlord in the Japanese version did indeed transform into his more powerful true form: from a warlock to a huge purple dragon. Even the US translation of Dragon Warrior flat out states that he "revealed his true self" when you defeat his first form. At the time of this game's release, this was quite surprising. However, as seen throughout this page, this trope has become standard practice and numerous examples have occured since. In turn, looking back at the Dragonlord's transformation comes across as yet another example out of many.
  • Malroth in Dragon Quest II, Zoma in Dragon Quest III, and Calasmos in Dragon Quest XI are the only final bosses in the series who don't transform into more powerful forms.
  • Dragon Quest IV features this as a plot element. One of the main prizes sought by the villains is the mysterious "Secret of Evolution" originally discovered by Estark, King of Hell, which allowed him to become the Ultimate Life Form. Everyone who obtains the SoE is transformed into a large, fearsome creature: Estark took the form of a monstrous insectoid wielding a pair of Sinister Scimitars, the Marquis de Léon became a giant lion monster with an extra four arms, Balzack became an obese, inadequately-winged demon wielding a club^note in the NES original, he simply became a vaguely more monstrous humanoid; incidentally, Balzack's newer form is also a lesser version of Pruslas, a monster encountered later in the story, and Psaro the Manslayer became Necrosaro, or Death Psaro, a massive creature that can be best described as a hideous mutation of the form Estark took. This mutated-Estark form is later imitated again by Aamon in the Remakes.
    • An extra note on the Final Boss instance of this in the game, which actually lends to an impressive sense of the passage of time: the final fight against Psaro actually has seven phases — the first three consist of Psaro — having achieved Estark's insectoid form — losing his limbs as you do battle with him, but in the fourth phase, he loses his head… only for the SoE to take effect and force him to a new form, called Death Psaro, with a face growing out of what used to be his abdomen. Each phase after that consists of him growing new limbs and a second head, which in narrative terms implies that you're not causing real damage as this mutation is taking effect. However, once the mutation is complete, Psaro can be killed. So ferocious is this last stage that it gets its own new battle music. Again, Aamon imitates this progression as the True Final Boss.
  • In Dragon Quest V, Grandmaster Nimzo uses the Secret of Evolution himself, but only has two forms and fight phases, total.
  • In Dragon Quest VI, Archfiend Mortamor has three forms total, passing from Evil Old Folk to a giant red hulk of a demon, to a monstrous, demonic face with a pair of free-floating hands.
  • Dragon Quest VII plays this straight with Demon King Orgodemir the first time you fight him. The second time, he starts out in his One-Winged Angel form before reverting back to his humanoid form, then transforming into a hybrid of the two forms and finally melting in his final form. While this is a Clipped-Wing Angel in appearance, it is still a One-Winged Angel in function, as it is the most powerful of his forms by far.
  • Special mention must also go to Dhoulmagus of Dragon Quest VIII, who is a mid-boss who does this, by imbibing the power of the scepter he stole from Trodain Castle. The staff has a mutating effect on several of its subsequent owners, including Jessica and Sir Leopold, a fearsome dog owned by the Magician Dominico. Lord Rhapthorne, the demon who resides within the scepter, also has this — he first appears as a firefly-like spirit, but later grows to his titanic and obese second form.
  • Dragon Quest IX:
    • Anyone who eats a Fygg — a wish-granting fruit of the World Tree — tends to have this forced on them; four of these seven fruits grant their respective wishes by turning the wish-maker into a monster with the power to act out his desires — surprisingly, there's really only one (maybe a second) case of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity that results. The Final Boss eats all seven, so stand back, y'all.
    • King Godwyn of the Gittish Empire transforms into a skeletal serpent dragon after his first defeat. He even warns the Hero about it in advance.
      King Godwyn: ...Hmph. I see I shall have to beat your lesson into you with a good deal more force. Very well. But I'm warning you: you won't like it...!
    • Inverted with the Hero, who starts the game with angelic powers and wings, only to wake up wingless and powerless after the title sequence. To defeat the Big Bad, he must eat a Fygg and become completely mortal, which continues the inversion in narrative terms, but in actual gameplay, he retains all of the fighting power and skill he's achieved until then.
  • Dragon Quest X:
    • Version 1: Nelgel the Netherlord uses his Netherscythe to open a portal that summons Dark Hands to transform him into a giant hulking ape-like creature known as the Netherfiend after his first defeat.
    • Version 2: Maldragora transforms into a dragon god like deity with a snake for a tail via the Dark Hands. Anlucia the Maluminary, Anlucia's Evil Twin, also does this when confronted near the end of the first half of Version 2's story.
    • Version 3: Nadraga calls upon the Dark Hands ^note  Noticing a trend? to transform him into a very large Dragon monster after being defeated the first time.
    • Version 4: Kyronos takes a page from Orgodemir's book, first starting off as a Frezia-like monster and [[BishōnenLine then transforming into a metallic angel]].
    • Version 5: Jagonuba, the true villain of the game, as well as the summoner of the Dark Hands that Nelgel, Maldragora, and Nadraga use to transform into their respective final forms, starts off as a hulking red demon, ala Mortamor, before absorbing lots of light to transform into a eight armed monster with a lean ghost-like body.
  • Dragon Quest XI:
    • After being defeated the first time, Mordegon unleashes the full power of the Sword of Shadows and transforms into Mordragon, a giant skeletal serpent with the Sword of Shadows becoming an actual dragon that serves as his "tail".
    • In his final confrontation against the party, Jasper transforms into a purple muscular demon with wings.
• Drakengard has two examples: Manah, when the gods give her a Villain Override, and Furiae, after being placed inside a Seed of Resurrection.
• In Valkyrie Profile, specifically in the Seraphic Gate, if you depleted Iseria Queen's HP by half, you're in for a surprise.
  • Loki goes into One Winged Angel mode before he fights Lucian, and then again during the A ending events; you never get to fight his original form, though.
• In Bahamut Lagoon, Alexander does this. He's already a massive dragon by default, but after killing him, a dozen of the creatures that are used for vessels of reincarnation for dragons rush into the room and sacrifice themselves to him. He ends up coming back as a multi-headed monstrosity that takes up half of the map.
• Bravely Default has Airy with three monstrously powerful forms, a grotesque larva, an equally grotesque pupa, and a butterfly-winged human form that has nearly TWO TIMES the HP of her first form with nasty spell combos.
• Live A Live:
  • The evil daimyo Ode Iou transforms himself into Gamahebi just before the Boss Battle with him begins.
  • Odio, the Lord of Dark aka Fallen Hero Oersted, who was originally human before he rejected his humanity and claimed the power of the Lord of Dark appears to the heroes as an ominous cloaked figure in the final chapter. When the final battle begins, he opens up the cloak and becomes the entire battlefield. A battlefield that seems to be made up of corpses. Your opponents in the first phase of the battle are grotesque creatures that vaguely resemble the parts of a human face. After destroying all but one part of the "face" (which almost can't be destroyed in the first phase), it "blossoms", revealing a winged vaguely humanoid thing sitting on a flower called "Purity of Odio". The 2022 remake adds another form after the Boss Rush with its incarnations from the previous chapters, as Odio draws upon all of the hatred of the world to manifest as a massive demonic form, trapping Oersted's body within it in the process. This new form is known as "Sin of Odio".

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