Basic Trope: A boss has relatively low health, but has powerful attacks.
- Straight: The Climax Boss, Claidheamh, of Tales of Troperia is rather fragile for the point of the game he's in but all of his attacks hit like a train.
- Exaggerated: Rocket-Tag Gameplay against Claidheamh.
- Downplayed: Claidheamh has a normal health pool and has higher than average attack power for the part of the game it’s in but it’s a slow and large target that’s easy to damage rapidly and it’s defense is very poor.
- Justified:
- Claidheamh has some comedically weak armor, and while his muscles help him become more explosive, powerful, and fast, they're not protecting him from getting stabbed, slashed, bashed, and fried to a crisp by the party.
- Or Claidheamh comes up in a second encounter, having discarded his heavily damaged armor in exchange for gaining a lot of dexterity, being able to pull off a One-Handed Zweihänder trick. So while he hits a lot harder, he also goes down fairly easily.
- Claidheamh actually is supposed to be a Lightning Bruiser, but unfortunately he's been caught at a time where he's at his frailest, but most explosive.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Claidheamh has low defense, but frequently dodges attacks, making the fight take longer than it normally would.
- Alternatively, Claidheamh has low defense but doesn't have powerful attacks, turning it into a Breather Boss.
- Double Subverted:
- Just before the fight, Sir Robert obtains a skill that always hits, rendering Claidheamh's speed meaningless.
- Claidheamh gets much more formidable once he Turns Red.
- Parodied:
- Claidheamh is feared across the entire world for being able to level cities, but once Sir Robert fights him in single combat, he keels over from being poked.
- Alternatively, there are two famous duelists who argue over two styles of fighting, one being a Marathon Boss and one being a Rush Boss.
- Zig Zagged: (both from Double Subverted)
- The skill does pitiful damage, so the fight still takes a long time.
- ...But his berserk stage still isn't impressive.
- Averted: Claidheamh's ratio of attack to defense is average.
- Enforced: The manager of the development team told the monster designers to make bosses that hit hard and died fast, because they're more exciting than Marathon Bosses.
- Lampshaded: Quirby remarks, "This Claidheamh's silly toy looks like he's Compensating for Something. This shouldn't take too lonGAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
- Invoked: Claidheamh studies offensive tactics above all else, so he can defeat his opponents before they know what's coming to them.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Claidheamh realizes that while being a Glass Cannon makes for a more exhilarating fight, it is far more practical to be a Stone Wall.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The player base is bemused, having expected Claidheamh to have a longer fight and more phases due to genre requirements.
- Less skilled players find it virtually impossible to beat Claidheamh because of the frantic nature of the fight, since mistakes are quickly punished with death. On the flip side, skilled players who intuitively understand Claidheamh's can kill him so quickly that there is no time to get into the fight and immersion is lost.
- Reconstructed:
- Due to the power escalation of Tales of Troperia, the battle against the last boss is considered a microcosm of the whole game. Some players prefer this approach for this reason or because it stands out from other final bosses.
- Fortunately, the final boss comes back with a plethora of new attacks on New Game Plus, forcing even experienced players on the defensive and providing them a legitimate challenge. Meanwhile, players who lose a certain number of times acquire an item that allows them to reflect the painfully powerful attacks back at Claidheamh using a simple mechanic introduced near the beginning of the game.
Return to Rush Boss, but make sure to kill it before it kills you!
