Discussion Main / TrueFinalBoss

Undertale example is pretty bad in regards to Spoiler Policy, being all covered under - and I don't think such excessive detail regarding all the route leading to the boss is needed. And the game has two different TFB's really. How about something like this.

• Undertale: the game's alternate routes have different and much harder encounters replace the last two bosses of the most commonly first run "neutral route"
  • Pacifist Route, requiring you to have completed Neutral first, reset the game and then make extra sure to never kill anybody and befriend everybody available. Asriel/Flowey assumes his true form to fight you, and you actually save the Neutral route's penultimate boss from him during the fight.
  • Genocide Route, requiring you to meticulously hunt down and kill every single living thing in every area of the game. Sans interjects before the usual final bosses to try and stop you from destroying the world. The Neutral's last bosses still actually face you if you get past him, but you kill them in one hit in a cutscene.

Necron from Final Fantasy IX. I think this definitely qualifies as True Final Boss. You spend the whole game going after Kuja, fight Kuja, have Kuja go One-Winged Angel on you, only to find that you're still not done fighting. Necron inexplicably pops up out of nowhere, yelling "CRYPTIC METAPHOR!!!", then attacks your party.

The Legend of Zelda: Time To Triumph, the third game of the Return of the Hylian trilogy of fanmade Legend of Zelda games, has this. After you beat the regular final boss Ganon in Hyrule Castle, he will tell you that there are still monsters out there to kill, and that your quest is not over yet. If you've completed the trading quests for the elemental arrows, the guy who gave them to you will have completed a bridge to the north of his house in the future after you beat Ganon. This will open up the first dungeon of the second quest. At the end, there is a Hylian stone tablet that begins a story about the three Goddesses of Hyrule battling an evil entity, and the story is finished in the stone tablet at the end of the second 2nd-quest dungeon (which you need all 40 power stones to access). In the conclusion of the story, it is said that the Goddesses scattered the evil entity's power by creating a bunch of devilish creatures, and that the evil entity's power shall not be set free until you kill all of these devilish creatures. As logic would dictate, the Bestiary Guy is the evil entity you're after. After reading the story in the two 2nd-quest dungeons and killing every type of enemy in the game, return to the Bestiary Guy's house, and he will no longer be behind his desk, instead, you will find an active portal that takes you to the true final dungeon, which is aptly named "Final Destination." After killing every type of enemy in the dungeon, you can enter the boss door and witness the Bestiary Guy's transformation into a dark wizard who casts Dark Inferno and summons zombies. This guy is the True Final Boss of the game.

You don't need all Pokémon to fight Deoxys in Rescue Team. Bah, I think I didn't had even 25% of them. Once day (a cutscene), Blastoise just mentioned it (and Xatu confirmed that it exists)

I'm wondering if we should add notice explaining that a True Final Boss is not a Bonus Boss, because I'm seeing many examples that are Bonus Bosses.

Although I'm a Touhou fan, I believe the Touhou character Flandre Scarlet is not of this trope, instead being a Bonus Boss. The reason is simple: A True Final Boss is a boss that either replaces the final boss if you fulfill certain requirements or comes after the "normal" final boss if you fulfill certain requirements.

In Touhou however, the Extra Stages (one of which Flandre Scarlet is the boss of) do not come after the final boss, but rather are selectable on the title screen. That's not a True Final Boss, that's an unlockable level. The only Touhou examples that fit this trope are Mima in Story of Eastern Wonderland (beat without continuing to fight her final form), Yuka Kazami (2nd) in Lotus Land Story (beat the game on Normal or higher without continuing to get to her stage, so it's partially easy mode mockery, and note you can't continue on Stage 6), and Kaguya of Imperishable Night (beat the game once to unlock Final B stage on your next playthrough, can't continue on Final B). Everyone else is just a Bonus Boss.

Does anyone else have the feeling that we may be seeing a non-game example of this trope in the sixth and last Scott Pilgrim book, Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour? I can just see the evil side of Scott (representing Scott's neglect of virtually every woman who ever loved him) arriving on the scene after Gideon is down for the count.