History BossInMookClothing / RPG

* In ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'', near the end of the second game, the Marvel Lab where Dr. Don and his assistant Sam take refuge contains a special group of Robopon in a certain room that appear at random. Defeating them may get you a medal that can be used at Play-Land to play extra minigames. The main problem is that the group is highly leveled and will wipe the floor with you the first time you run across them unless you come prepared. There is a Dragon Robopon in the past version of Delica Castle that is the same type of battle.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire''', there's a female Cooltrainer named Jennifer on Route 120 that most players tend to ''desparately'' try to avoid making eye-contact with when passing through the route for the first time. The reason why? She carries a Milotic. Ordinarily a powerful Pokémon, thanks to monstrously high HP and Special Defense stats, this one also knows Refresh, Recover, and Water Pulse. It's tough enough to take Thunderbolts to the face and shrug it off with Recover, and Refresh prevents you from wearing it down with Poison or Burns (and any status that doesn't get wiped triggers the Defense-Boosting Marvel Scale ability). Water Pulse causes Confusion at a relatively high rate as a side effect and it's damage is basically supercharged thanks to Same-Type Attack Bonuses and the rainy weather in the area. Basically, either the thing goes down in one or two rounds, or you WILL get [[TotalPartyKill your party wiped.]] In Emerald that Milotic was replaced with a Sableye instead, but for the former games be wary of her.

** The Big Empty's variant of Mister Gutsy is three times tougher than the Wasteland Gutsy's at its initial level, and levels up with the player, along with attacking in groups. The Robo-Scorpions are even more common, can take more punishment than a tank, and are armed with very damaging stinger lasers.

** The Big Empty's variant of Mister Gutsy is three times tougher than the Wasteland Gutsy's at its initial level, and levels up with the player, along with attacking in groups. Ditto the Robo-Scorpions, which are even more common.

** A lone Elite Wizzerd in ''The Thousand-Year Door'' probably isn't tough enough to count (despite having both the "needs a lot of strategy to defeat", to some degree, and the "has a variety of different attacks" qualifications). Unfortunately, they generally come in groups of ''four or five''. A defense of 5 is almost insurmountable in this game, so you pretty much need to use defense-ignoring attacks (here's hoping you've got plenty of Star Power--Art Attack works well, but even from a full meter, you can only chain two of these). They have 12 HP each and have three different damaging attacks, one of which does 8 damage to one party member and one of which does 7 damage to ''both'' party members. They can also buff their attack or defense, become dodgy (attacks may miss), become transparent (attacks ''will'' miss), electrify themselves (deal damage if you try to attack them directly), '''heal''' themselves, and when only one remains, it will inevitably split into five, only one of which will actually take damage. And they only appear on the lowest levels of the Pit of 100 Trials, after you've likely worn out your items and star power fighting Piranha Plants and Dark Bristles on the previous stage and regular Wizzerds on the stage before that.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': The Unknowns in the Gelnika probably qualify, as do the Ghost Ships in the Junon Reactor (which know an attack which removes a member of your party from the battle, and have to be morphed into items to stand a chance against one of the {{Bonus Boss}}es without using any exploits). It also had the notorious Midgar Zolom. It's tough to find unless you know where to look, and it uses an attack (Beta) that will nuke your party (literally), as well as normally potent attacks. The silver lining? Enemy Skill Materia can make Beta your DiscOneNuke (if you survive it, assuming you survived long enough for him to cast it). The [[BuffySpeak plant-things]] in Mount Nibel(and the Northern Crater) probably also count, as their Magic Breath attack can [[OhCrap put all party members to sleep, silenced, poisoned and in frog form AT THE SAME TIME]], usually as its first move and before the player can even attack or escape.

* One of the earliest and most notorious offenders is the [=WarMECH=] (later translated as "Death Machine", [[GrandfatherClause then back to WarMECH]]) from the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI first]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game. He has as many hit points as the penultimate boss, and his attacks range from powerful regular attacks to literally [[NukeEm nuking the party]] on the spot. There is also the distinct possibility that you can run into '''''TWO''''' [=WarMECHs=] at the same time, which is pretty much a death sentence.
** The UpdatedRerelease version actually made it ''worse'' - they doubled its hitpoints and it regenerates 100 hit points per round (due to its high defenses, even knocking off 100 hit points per round is something you won't do until much later than your first potential encounter with it). In both the original and the rerelease, people find it more difficult than the FinalBoss. But you only have a 1/64 chance of encountering it, thus making it a BonusBoss in Mook Clothing.
** The Earthgift Shrine bonus dungeon has Abyss Worms. Higher Attack than the four bosses (and the four Fiends!), no magic weakness, and such a high M Def as to make your Mages practically useless. Good luck.

*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' as the Brachiosaur. Based on the brachiosaurus. It casts Meteor, Ultima, Snort and has over 46,000 HP.

* More examples from the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games:

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has ''tons'' of examples. Super enemies in this game are usually characterized by exceptionally high defensive stats, forcing you to rely on otherwise unorthodox strategies.
*** The Jackanapes (known as "Harpy" in the PSX version) is an example of one of these. The first time you can encounter it, its attacks will do several hundred more points of damage than you can take (even at higher levels, it will still eat your HP quickly), and it's fast enough that you're almost certain to lose one or two party members before you can run away. It also always back attacks the party, and it can also dodge almost ALL of your attacks and magic, so if-- no, ''when''-- you are unlucky enough to meet one, you won't be able to fight it out.
*** There's the also the Prototype, which has a couple of glaring weaknesses, but is very hard to hurt otherwise; the Dhorme Chimera, which outdamages you at the point of the game you fight it; and a group of five Mini-Dragons, which are upgraded Dhorme Chimeras. Also, at a later point in the game, in the Second World, a moogle advises you to avoid a desert; heeding such advice awards you an enemy-free journey, but disregarding it sends you against the Sandcrawler, an enemy with very high HP. While its regular attacks don't do a whole lot of damage, it ''frequently'' uses Maelstrom to reduce your entire party's HP to single digits, leaving you at the brink of a TotalPartyKill. Then there's the Landcrawler in the Merged World, which has even more HP and, in addition to using Maelstrom frequently, uses Crush to deal heavy damage and inflict confusion on a single target.
*** The Tot Aevis from the Merged World brings this trope to mind. The enemy itself appears in a plot related, but ultimately optional dungeon. While most enemies have between 2 to 4 Thousand HP, rendering them kill-able in a short time, the Tot Aevis has 33,000 HP, more than the boss of the dungeon that contains it. It can make use of a Wind Attack that targets all of the party, and has a single target attack which can inflict Petrify. The reward when killing it is 7 ABP, more than the multiple enemy formations in the dungeon, second only to the boss, but otherwise gives nothing else, no EXP, Items, or Gil.
*** The Shield Dragon in the Second World's Sealed Castle, and Exdeath's Soul in the Merged World's Sealed Castle are yet ''more'' examples of this trope. They have 20,000 HP (more than many enemies in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon) and exceptionally high defenses. Shield Dragon also has auto-Reflect, and its Knock Silly attack hits two party members at once and inflicts confusion on the targets. Exdeath's Souls always use instant death attacks and are just as difficult to kill.
*** Also, the Tonberry in Istory Falls makes its debut appearance in this game...and it has as much HP as ''Leviathan, the boss of the area''.
** Yans from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX''. Cute little lambs that proceed to Comet and Meteor you to death. Thankfully, they're only found in one optional area. Unfortunately, if you want to be able to melee [[BonusBoss Ozma]], you're going to have to go there to get the last friendly monster encounter (who also happens to be a Yan), making the risk is necessary. Since Ozma is the simplest source of the pumice...
** There's several from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.
*** A Tyrannosaur has 12,770 hitpoints and can cast Meteor.
*** Mantodea's other stats aren't anything special, but its regular old attack can wipe out most characters in a single hit.
*** There's also the Fiend Dragon, found in the final dungeon. It's rare, but if you run into it, you have to deal with a monster that not only packs high HP and powerful magic, but also is the only monster in the game (aside from the Final Boss) to have Heartless Angel, which reduces everyone's HP to 1. It then likes to follow up with Southern Cross, which also hits everybody, and will probably wipe out the whole party. Oh, and you can encounter ''two'' of them at the same time. Isn't that fun?
*** The Intangir on Triangle Island in the World of Balance. It has auto-Vanish, a staggering 32,000 HP, absorbs all elements, and is immune to almost every status effect. Most of the time, it doesn't do anything, but if you try to get the Vanish off it so you can actually hit it, it'll smack your party with Meteor and disappear again. The only legitimate way to beat it is to cast Stop on it, beat on it, heal yourself after Stop wears off, and repeat as necessary. When you finally bring him down, he will hit whoever killed him with Meteo, which is a guaranteed kill if it connects. You gain no experience for beating him, but you do get a whopping 10 Magic Points. [[GoodBadBugs The Vanish/Doom trick]] works well against the Intangir since it's already invisible, though it will still hit whoever casted Doom with Meteo.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': The Unknowns in the Gelnika probably qualify, as do the Ghost Ships in the Junon Reactor (which know an attack which removes a member of your party from the battle, and have to be morphed into items to stand a chance against one of the {{Bonus Boss}}es without using any exploits). It also had the notorious Midgar Zolom. It's tough to find unless you know where to look, and it uses an attack (Beta) that will nuke your party (literally), as well as normally potent attacks. The silver lining? Enemy Skill Materia can make Beta your DiscOneNuke (if you survive it, assuming you survived long enough for him to cast it). The [[BuffySpeak plant-things]] in Mount Nibel(and the Northern Crater) probably also count, as their Magic Breath attack can [[OhCrap put all party members to sleep, silenced, poisoned and in frog form AT THE SAME TIME]], usually as its first move and before the player can even attack or escape.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' had a whole slew of these called Rare Monsters. They showed up among the normal fights on the world map, but were boss-tough. Generally, though, they only came after you if you attacked them first.
*** There's also Wild Saurian (which shows up in the ''first open area of the game''), the Werewolf (second area this time), Dive Talon (shows up early, but you can get a DiscOneNuke from it), and the Entites.
*** Also, the Wild Saurian eats the wolves in the area which adds to its overall HP and ''actually allows it to level up.''
*** The Elementals can count since they're usually of a much higher level then the players in areas they are found in, and will aggressively attack the player if they so much as whiffed even a scent of magic in their area. Even White Magic will cause them to go Aggro. They also are immune to all elements, except their own, [[ElementalRockPaperScissors which they of course absorb]]. They also take around 1/2 damage from physical attacks.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has [[TyrannosaurusRex T-Rexaur]]. The game even tells you that "It's better to run if you encounter one". However, if you hit it with Blind (or better yet, Death), it goes down pretty easily.
*** There are a handful including Elnoyles and Ruby Dragons both have very high stats or any monster that could also be encountered in Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell.

** [[http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Uragnites Uragnites]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' hide in their shell the second you hit them, which has them acquire massive damage reduction and a powerful HealingFactor effect, and any further physical hits while in the shell will be countered with a deadly area poison effect. It's normally best to build TP and use a [[LimitBreak Weaponskill]] when the thing pops out again, while mages can just whack the shell once, then run away and nuke safely while it's in the shell, immobile. Even being level 75, one of these mobs at 30-ish take awhile to kill.
** Malboros have a lot of HP, and can inflict so many status ailments with ''one move'' that an unprepared party can wind up killing each other instead, if they aren't outright defeated by something like [[TakenForGranite Petrify]] or an Instant Death countdown.
*** Great Malboros in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', particularly in the [[BonusDungeon Omega Ruins]]. All encounters with Great Malboros in the Omega Ruins will be "Ambushed!" encounters; if you don't have First Strike in any of your characters' equipment, prepare to face anything from a mere normal attack to the dreaded Bad Breath, which will leave you with a blinded, Berserked, Confused, and poisoned party that tries to kill each other but can't and ends up wiped out in four turns thanks to poison [[TookALevelInBadass taking a level in badass]] in ''X''.
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has a lot of these enemies. In the final dungeon, about half of the enemies have either powerful party-hitting attacks, a lot of status immunities, the ability to inflict tons of bad status effects, or some combination of the above. And they all have over 40,000 HP.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' has the Yellow Dragons. Harder than most bosses, but they can drop [[LethalJokeCharacter Onion equipment]].
*** There are also green and red dragons. Both are stronger. The only thing stronger than red dragons is the final boss, and the Bonus boss added into the DS version.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' for the DS in general has a lot of these, adding to the already NintendoHard nature of the game.
*** You may encounter a variety of dragons after you recruit Edge that possess a lot of HP and may have a nasty attack. One of the worst is the Thunder Dragon, which is slightly faster than your characters and uses a powerful attack. Good luck trying to revive your tank.
*** There will be instances where an enemy will have a party-hitting spell (whether it'd be a normal spell or a special attack). At first these aren't too dangerous, but then it gets ridiculous to the point where two of these can kill a party that's ''overleveled''. Oh, and they love to come in groups.
*** Trap Doors in the Sealed Cave. They cast instant death spells that are 100% guaranteed. But they have a weakness: reflect their death spell back at them!...which you can't do without Augments thanks to how their spell works. If you're not playing the DS version, good frigging luck.
*** Everything in the final dungeon. The last two floors are also applicable to the original version. The really fun part? A lot of enemies in the final dungeon actually have the boss music playing during their fights. LampshadeHanging?
**** FridgeLogic: Many of those same enemies appear on the earlier floors ''without'' the boss theme.
*** The most notably tough enemy in the final dungeon is the EvilMask/Deathmask. Deathmasks start off an encounter by casting Reflect on themselves, then on your party. They then bounce very powerful spells like Holy and Flare off of themselves, and bounce Curaga spells off of you onto themselves. They have a whopping 37,000 HP and decent evasiveness, and are very tough to run from. The DS version makes this worse by giving it Laser Barrage, an attack that deals large amounts of damage to your whole party. Oh, and they're incredibly common, too.
*** Right near the beginning of the game, Sand Worms. Which you can encounter between Mist and Kaipo. At a time when Cecil's your only party member. Sandworms can take about ten hits from Cecil at this point in the game, and can deal ~200 damage to him when he'd only have ~300 HP.
*** What makes this particular encounter worse is the fact Sand Worms are fairly easy in the original versions that you're likely used to by now, and you may not have realized yet how much harder the DS version is. You will when that Sand Worm completely annihilates you.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' has Azi Dahaka, which guards the electric gates that block the way to Vegnagun at the end of the game. Screw up on ''one'' note, get frustrated with the entire puzzle, and then try to go through the barrier thingy anyway? Yeah, bad idea. Only good thing about that monster is you can run away from it.
*** A lesser example is Aeshma in the prior area. It has relatively high HP for that area, made all the more noticeable by its unbreakable barrier that prevents all physical damage, meaning no [[GameBreaker critical health Cat-Nip'd Trigger Happy gunner]] can save you. And while you CAN escape, it won`t help if it hits you with Emblem of Thanatos, which does boss-level damage (well over 1,000) and is the first sign that it's more trouble than it's worth as it appears as a normal enemy.
** Starting with Chapter 11, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has a bunch. Ochus, Tyrants, and Juggernauts all fit the bill well enough, but the absolute perfect examples are the Adamantoise and relatives. If you attack one of them as soon as you get to Chapter 11, it will [[TotalPartyKill step on you]]. Thankfully, they're quite docile and easy enough to avoid.
*** Another example from XIII is the King Behemoth. They're rather common in Pulse, often seen prowling around and sometimes fighting other enemies. What makes them so hard? They have a TON of hp, and they also take quite a while to stagger. Get him down to half health, and he instantly heals up to full health and stands on his hind legs. He's even harder to stagger now, and does a brutal physical attack that will kill anyone but a guarding Sentinel, as well as casting an AreaOfEffect lightning effect that will probably kill your Medic or Ravager. He's possible to kill in Chapter 11, but only barely, and you need a lot of patience.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' has several. Raspatil, an Undying Cie'th appearing in Oerba 400 AF, definitely counts. It has over three million HP, hits incredibly hard, and can summon other monsters, including [[DemonicSpiders Wladislaus]]. If you go for completing the bestiary, it'll probably be one of the last fights you have.
*** Pretty much anything that pops out of the spacial anomalies can easily wipe your party if you don't know exactly how to handle it. The Metal Gigantuar can easily wipe your party with 10,000 Needles, which in XIII-2, hits the entire party. Kanna Kamuy can Daze, Poison, and Deprotect at will, and then chomp you to death easily. Tonberries start out fairly manageable, but grow more and more powerful as the fight drags on, and ''will'' unleash a TotalPartyKill attack if you take too long.
*** In TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, one of the final platforms contains a fixed encounter with a Proto-Behemoth and two Schrodingers. The Proto-behemoth unleashes devastatingly powerful physical attacks; even if nothing else in the dungeon gives your party any trouble, the behemoth is still a threat. Meanwhile, the Schrodingers will spam Deprotega until it sticks, and then join in the melee alongside the behemoth. Also, the Schrodingers have high HP, many resistances, and drain HP from you on attacking. If you can't evade them, this can be a tougher fight than the actual final boss.
** in ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', every enemy in the large size group such as the Chocobo Eater, Cyclops, and Dreadnaught qualifies, having massive amounts of HP, and often possessing attacks that can potentially OHKO you if you don't guard them properly. A number of them are fought as mandatory battles at some point, but they appear as normal encounters in the same areas, as well.
*** All of the Last Ones could be considered this, as well, being far stronger versions of monsters that only show up once you've defeated a huge number of their species, and visually only distinguished by their pure pink color scheme. Almost every monster species in the game has one including aforementioned giant monsters, who tend to be much tougher then most of actual boss fights in the game. They're also actually treated like bosses in that you're graded on how quickly you can defeat them.

** There's several from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. A Tyrannosaur has 12,770 hitpoints and can cast Meteor. Mantodea's other stats aren't anything special, but its regular old attack can wipe out most characters in a single hit.
*** There's also the Fiend Dragon, found in the final dungeon. It's rare, but if you run into it, you have to deal with a monster that not only packs high HP and powerful magic, but also is the only monster in the game to have Heartless Angel, which reduces everyone's HP to 1. It then likes to follow up with Southern Cross, which also hits everybody, and will probably wipe out the whole party. Oh, and you can encounter ''two'' of them at the same time. Isn't that fun?
*** And then, there's the Intangir on Triangle Island in the World of Balance. It has auto-Vanish, a staggering 32,000 HP, absorbs all elements, and is immune to almost every status effect. Most of the time, it doesn't do anything, but if you try to get the Vanish off it so you can actually hit it, it'll smack your party with Meteor and disappear again. The only legitimate way to beat it is to cast Stop on it, beat on it, heal yourself after Stop wears off, and repeat as necessary. When you finally bring him down, he will hit whoever killed him with Meteo, which is a guaranteed kill if it connects. You gain no experience for beating him, but you do get a whopping 10 Magic Points. [[GoodBadBugs The Vanish/Doom trick]] works well against the Intangir since it's already invisible, though it will still hit whoever casted Doom with Meteo.

** The Earthgift Shrine bonus dungeon has Abyss Worms. Higher Attack than the four bosses (and the four Fiends!), no magic weakness, and such a high M Def as to make your Mages practically useless. Good luck.
** The Brachioraidos is a recurring one in the series. Its looks and translated name have changed drastically with each installment, making it hard to notice. Its appearances in order have been:
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' as the Brachiosaur. Based on the brachiosaurus. It casts Meteor, Ultima, Snort and has over 46,000 HP.
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' as the Vlakorados. Square stops caring what the monster is shaped like.
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' as the Th'uban. This one breaks the tradition by being a bonus boss.
*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Advance'' as the Brachioraidos. Not a random encounter but a roaming sprite.
* More examples from the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games:
** Later ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games usually have Behemoth in this role. This could also be considered a meta-example the DegradedBoss, as Behemoth debuted as a boss in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', but is a recurring ultra-strong "regular" enemy in the rest of the series. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' had a monster called the Grand Dragon in a certain place accessible around Disc 1 that exists for the specific purpose of screwing you over if you don't heed the nearby Moogle's warning. Adequate preparation (stock up on Phoenix Downs, equip everyone with Antibody and Auto-Reflect) can render these Grand Dragons quite beatable, and thus turn this early accessible area into a convenient high-speed level-up treadmill. (Doubly so if you realize the Grand Dragons are a multiple of level 5, you'll be able to defeat easily it with [[UselessUsefulSpell Lvl5 Death]].)

** One word: Tonberries. Loads of HP, and two signature attacks. ''Knife'' a deadly stabbing attack which the tonberry must usually spend time getting into range to use and''Everyone's Grudge'' (aka ''Karma''), which is based on the amount of enemies (or sometimes tonberries) that the target has defeated. If you're finding yourself in a place chock full of Tonberries, switching to a party that hasn't been used much can help.
*** Oddly enough, the Tonberries in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (which were called Pugs in the original US translation) were much easier. You still had to have a fairly high level to beat them, but you were already close by the time you got to that part of the game anyway. However, they also punish you for level grinding, in that their main spell (which Strago can learn) is Step Mine. It does damage based on how many steps you've taken.
*** ''Everyone's Grudge'' in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' is based on the amount of Tonberries killed, and only them. Since you can't exactly switch out for another character solo, there's a quest in the game that allows you to reset the "Tonberry Hate". You'll need it, as some BonusBoss Tonberries can use ''Everyone's Rancor'', which hits for 50 HP for every Tonberry killed. While ''Everyone's Grudge'' can be annoying most of the time, not resetting hate before facing a Tonberry with ''Rancor'' any time is suicidal.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Robopon}}'', near the end of the second game, the Marvel Lab where Dr. Don and his assistant Sam take refuge contains a special group of Robopon in a certain room that appear at random. Defeating them may get you a medal that can be used at Play-Land to play extra minigames. The main problem is that the group is highly leveled and will wipe the floor with you the first time you run across them unless you come prepared. There is a Dragon Robopon in the past version of Delica Castle that is the same type of battle.

* Summoners in ''VideoGame/FableI''. The only saving grace you'll get from them is that they appear near the end of the game and you'll never fight more than two at once. That's where pleasantries end: they can't be staggered, have a fair share of unblockable attacks(including a ranged, [=AoE=] one that additionally - a rarity - turns off friendly fire), always appear with a few [[GoddamnedBats Minions]] and have tons of hp. If you manage to kill it, it explodes after a few seconds, further damaging you.

** There's also Wild ''Dragonite'', ''Metagross'' AND ''Tyranitar'' in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite''.

* MegaManX Command Mission has the Meltdown. If you play the game with frequent backtracks to Gaudile's Laboratory to [[LevelGrinding grind]] in the Eternal Forest, you might run into one at a moderately high level. However, if you play the game straight through, you'll start running into them in Chapter 7's Vanallia Desert. They have absurdly high HP, Armor, and Shield stats compared to other enemies, and have a [[OneHitKill One Hit]] TotalPartyKill that they unleash after three turns in the form of a [[NukeEm nuclear explosion]] that deals 9999 damage to your entire team. It's strongly advised to just run (meaning Zero is a bad choice to have in the party, as he hardly ever runs).

*** Great Malboros in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', particularly in the [[BonusDungeon Omega Ruins]]. All encounters with Great Malboros in the Omega Ruins will be "Ambushed!" encounters; if you don't have First Strike in any of your characters' equipment, prepare to face anything from a mere normal attack to the dreaded Bad Breath, which will most likely inflict Confusion on your party members, causing them to kill each other and themselves.

*** Don't forget Great Malboros in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', particularly in the [[BonusDungeon Omega Ruins]]. All encounters with Great Malboros in the Omega Ruins will be "Ambushed!" encounters; if you don't have First Strike in any of your characters' equipment, prepare to face anything from a mere normal attack to the dreaded Bad Breath, which will most likely inflict Confusion on your party members, causing them to kill each other and themselves.

**** Worse, there are certain places where these enemies can spawn regardless of player level, for example, you can encounter an Overlord outside GNR as early as Level 6. And God help you if you encounter a Reaver in the Metro tunnels at that level.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': The Unknowns in the Gelnika probably qualify, as do the Ghost Ships in the Junon Reactor (which know an attack which removes a member of your party from the battle, and have to be morphed into items to stand a chance against one of the {{Bonus Boss}}es without using any exploits). It also had the notorious Midgar Zolom. It's tough to find unless you know where to look, and it uses an attack (Beta) that will nuke your party (literally), as well as normally potent attacks. The silver lining? Enemy Skill Materia can make Beta your DiscOneNuke (if you survive it, assuming you survived long enough for him to cast it). The [[BuffySpeak plant-things]] in Mount Nibel(and the Northern Crater) probably also count, as their Magic Breath attack can [[OhCrap put all party members to sleep, silenced, poisoned and in frog form AT THE SAME TIME]], usually as its first move and [[HarderThanHard before the player can even attack or escape]]

** There is a complete reversal of this is in ''DigitalDevilSaga''. The final [[BonusBoss secret boss]] is the [[spoiler:Demi-fiend]] from Nocturne. His random encounter music plays during the battle, giving the impression that you're just a random bunch of mooks for him. And quite frankly, if you're not prepared, [[HarderThanHard you]] ''are''.

* The unique monsters in ''XenobladeChronicles''. All of them are tough enough to be considered bosses, and the sole distinguishing visual characteristic some of them have prior to being targetted is being slightly to ''much'' larger then the normal enemies in their vicinity. It's only after targeting them and seeing their level, odd name, and fancy info window that you can know for sure. They're also almost always aggressive, even if they're of a normally passive monster type, so one who has enabled the option to see monster info from a distance can potentially identify them in this manner, as well.

*** The Overlords and Albino Radscorpions are at least used ''like'' bosses, in that you almost never fight more than 1 than a time (2 or maybe 3 at once in certain very specific situations, including Vault 87 if you're above Level 20, and GNR Building Plaza at Level 15+). However, there are multiple free-roam dungeons(e.g. Red Racer Factory, Franklin Metro Utility, and Dunwich Building at high levels) and one main plotline mission (Presidential Metro) near the end of the game where you're expected to fight ''several'' Feral Ghoul Reavers ''at the same time''. Bear in mind each individual Reaver is about 1/2th as tough as a Behemoth, and hits almost as hard.

*** The Overlords and Albino Radscorpions are at least used ''like'' bosses, in that you almost never fight more than 1 than a time (2 or maybe 3 at once in certain very specific situations, one of which is in Vault 87 if you're above Level 20). However, there are multiple free-roam dungeons(e.g. Red Racer Factory, Franklin Metro Utility, and Dunwich Building at high levels) and one main plotline mission (Presidential Metro) near the end of the game where you're expected to fight ''several'' Feral Ghoul Reavers ''at the same time''. Bear in mind each individual Reaver is about 1/2th as tough as a Behemoth, and hits almost as hard.