History HopelessBossFight / RoleplayingGames

* The Website/{{Newgrounds}} flash game ''Mobile Weapon'' contains an example of this. At some point in the game, you fight Fleet Commander Ariel Highwater in her mecha, Serra Superion. The mecha has ridiculous health and power and will maim your party within a few hits. However, you don't lose the game: you merely need to repair your own mechas after the battle. You'll never hear from her again. The battle actually subverts the trope - if you grind a lot of monsters to level up to maximum level and stack up on repair items before facing her, she becomes the {{Superboss}} instead. She will still be, by far, the hardest boss in the game. Defeating her will not alter the plot at all, as she will just run away from you. You will, however, get a [[SelfImposedChallenge great sense of accomplishment from beating a very hard boss]]. Oh, and the [[InfinityPlusOneSword infinity plus one grenade launcher]] too.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'' has a special enemy encounter, known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Something Truly Evil"]]. You can't fight it, and it won't let you simply escape from it. Your only options are "Suffer For Me" ([[CastFromHP sacrifice 2 Stamina]]), "Cry For Me" ([[CastFromSanity sacrifice 2 Reason]]), "Bleed For Me" (reduce your Stamina to 3), and "Give Up For Me" (reduce your Reason to 3), as well as hope and pray that you satisfy it enough to let you escape before you die or go insane from it. Alternately, you can select "[[PressXToDie Die For Me]]"...

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': Seen in Ventus's story when you fight [[spoiler:Vanitas]] for the first time in the badlands, as soon as he is down to one HP the game ends the battle. Later, [[spoiler:Micky teams up with Ventus]] and the fight is winnable.

* The DOS Dutch freeware RPG VideoGame/{{Avalon|1998}} has one, in the first fight against [[SdrawkcabName Esor Amreh]]. As soon as you get him down to below 2000 HP, he instantly KO's you with a "Dark Poison", leading to you recovering in Caddman's house. Once you obtain the antidote to the poison, you can fight him again and defeat him.

* The DOS Dutch freeware RPG [[{{VideoGame/Avalon}} Avalon]] has one, in the first fight against [[SdrawkcabName Esor Amreh]]. As soon as you get him down to below 2000 HP, he instantly KO's you with a "Dark Poison", leading to you recovering in Caddman's house. Once you obtain the antidote to the poison, you can fight him again and defeat him.

** The game also has two types of these: Fights that are just ''really, really'' hard to win, and fights that you can't win at all (because the boss' HP won't go down). This can become downright ridiculous, like the first fight against [[spoiler:Commander Brute]]. Cue a long string of "Impressive !" as he flinches constantly under your attacks... without losing any HP. During the second encounter, he doesn't get any stat buff but loses that plot invincibility. CurbStompBattle [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome ensues]].

** Right after the end of Chapter 4, the [[BigBad Wasp King]] leads an attack on the Ant Kingdom to steal one of the artifacts Team Snakemouth found. He has no clear HP (you aren't even allowed to use [[EnemyScan Spy]] on him, but Spy Specs will reveal that his health is at 999 for this encounter), his regular attack hits hard, and after a few turns he uses fire magic that is a OneHitKO on the party.

** One of the ''.hack'' novels also features [[HeroKiller The]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast One Sin]], an [[BonusBoss event boss]] that many players of the game thought was Hopeless. It turned out to be a particularly intricate PuzzleBoss which doubles as an JustForFun/{{egregious}} case of ThatOneBoss (probably to the point where if TV Tropes exists in the .hack {{verse}} and some of the players were Tropers, they'd probably think that it's an exception to the BonusBoss rule for ThatOneBoss!), and the two players who defeated it (Orca and Balmung) gained [[UltimateGamer386 extreme notoriety.]]

** In the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork6CybeastGregarAndCybeastFalzar'', you can't touch BonusBoss [[VideoGame/{{Boktai}} Count of Groundsoaking Blood]] until you go on a sidequest related to his game.

* The Website/{{Newgrounds}} flash game ''Mobile Weapon'' contains an example of this. At some point in the game, you fight Fleet Commander Ariel Highwater in her mecha, Serra Superion. The mecha has ridiculous health and power and will maim your party within a few hits. However, you don't lose the game: you merely need to repair your own mechas after the battle. You'll never hear from her again. The battle actually subverts the trope - if you grind a lot of monsters to level up to maximum level and stack up on repair items before facing her, she becomes the BonusBoss instead. She will still be, by far, the hardest boss in the game. Defeating her will not alter the plot at all, as she will just run away from you. You will, however, get a [[SelfImposedChallenge great sense of accomplishment from beating a very hard boss]]. Oh, and the [[InfinityPlusOneSword infinity plus one grenade launcher]] too.

*** In the finale, you get a preview of the BonusBoss fight against Caroline and Justine. Unfortunately, they'll automatically reduce you to 1 HP in two turns, ending the battle.

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' has the first fight with Odin. After a few turns of seemingly reasonable combat, he casts Will of Thunder ([[ArmorPiercingAttack makes Thunder-elemental attacks bypass resistances and immunities]]), Concentrate ([[ChargedAttack makes the next magic attack do 2.5 times more damage]]), and finally his SignatureMove, Thunder Reign ("severe"-level [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]] damage to all enemies), wiping your party instantly. There are several similar fights throughout the game but in those cases, [[SeeminglyHopelessBossFight something happens to turn the tide against the enemy at the last second]] -- no such luck here.

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' has the first fight with Odin. After a few turns of seemingly reasonable combat, he casts Will of Thunder ([[ArmorPiercingAttack makes Thunder-elemental attacks bypass resistances and immunities]]), Concentrate ([[ChargedAttack makes the next magic attack do 2.5 times more damage]]), and finally SignatureMove, Thunder Reign ("severe"-level [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]] damage to all enemies), wiping your party instantly. There are several similar fights throughout the game but in those cases, [[SeeminglyHopelessBossFight something happens to turn the tide against the enemy at the last second]] -- no such luck here.

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' has the first fight with Odin. After a few turns of seemingly reasonable combat, he casts Charge ([[ChargedAttack makes the next attack do 2.5 times more damage]]), Will of Thunder ([[ArmorPiercingAttack makes Thunder-elemental attacks bypass resistances and immunities]]), and then finally obliterates your party with his SignatureMove, Thunder Reign ("severe"-level [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]] damage to all enemies). There are several similar fights throughout the game but in those cases, [[SeeminglyHopelessBossFight something happens to turn the tide against the enemy at the last second]] -- no such luck here.

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'' has the first fight with Odin. After a few turns of seemingly reasonable combat, he casts Charge ([[ChargedAttack makes the next attack do 2.5 times more damage]]), Will of Thunder ([[ArmorPiercingAttack makes Thunder-elemental attacks bypass resistances and immunities]]), and then finally obliterates your party with his SignatureMove, Thunder Reign ("severe"-level [[ShockAndAwe Thunder]] damage to all enemies).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'': During the first battle, you get beaten senseless by a band of [[BlackKnight Black Knights]]. Different versions vary, but whether you see a cutscene or not, you're on a path to a battle you can't avoid, can't run from, and can't win.

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/FossilFighters'' you have to face the police chief [[spoiler:who's actually the boss of the criminal organization you've been facing.]] His dinosaur that he summons has max evasion so every attack you throw at it will miss. Though it isn't superpowered the fact that you can't hit it makes it a Hopeless Boss Fight.

** ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic IX'' had an interesting take on the Hopeless Boss Fight, that may have actually been kind of cool if the whole game hadn't been released as a [[ObviousBeta shoddy rush job]]. To defeat the game's BigBad, a god of chaos named Njam the Meddler (sort of an {{Expy}} of Loki) the [=PCs=] first had to trick him into chasing them to the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Tomb of a Thousand Terrors]]. They then had to make their way through the place, which had deadly booby traps and the most lethal monsters in the game, until they got to the final room, where they could activate a lever that would imprison Njam forever. Of course, Njam was trying to stop them the whole time, and he'd appear out of nowhere at random times. Trying to fight him was suicide, as you couldn't harm him, but if you just avoided him long enough, he'd disappear and you'd have at least a few minutes before he'd attack again.

** The first battle against [[spoiler:the Cloud of Darkness]] is unwinnable, and they will use the Particle Beam attack against the party, dealing 9999 damage points.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'': With sufficient LevelGrinding it is possible to win the majority of the hopeless boss fights. If you defeat Kain the first time you fight him, the game [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose pretends you lost]]. If you defeat the Dark Elf without the Twin Harp, it sets the game back to before the battle. The only fights that are unwinnable under any circumstances are those in which a) the player does not have control of the characters, or b) the fight ends [[ScriptedEvent regardless of how you're doing]].

* At the end of the tutorial for ''VideoGame/MortalShell'', you face off against the RecurringBoss Hadern in a duel. While you ''can'' technically win if you've adapted to the game's combat system really, ''really'' quickly, the odds are stacked heavily against you- Hadern has [[MirrorBoss all your capabilities]], plus the Mechanical Spike upgrade for the Hallowed Blade that you don't have, as well as appropriately boss-level HP. After he beats you, you get transported to the game's starting area, but on the slim chance you beat ''him'' you get an achievement and a valuable Glimpse of Reverie as a reward before being transported to the same place anyway.

** The second phase of the second battle with Chronos is also meant to be such, as you aren't given any clues as to how to prevent him from using his time reversal technique [[note]]Just activate Ludger's Chromatus when he tries to use it[[/note]], which will result in the fight ending if he pulls it off successfully. However, if you manage to stop him, you're allowed to defeat him and get some EXP for your efforts, though the following cutscene is unchanged.

** The second phase of the second battle with Khronos is also meant to be such, as you aren't given any clues as to how to prevent him from using his time reversal technique [[note]]Just activate Ludger's Corpse Shell when he tries to use it[[/note]], which will result in the fight ending if he pulls it off successfully. However, if you manage to stop him, you're allowed to defeat him and get some EXP for your efforts, though the following cutscene is unchanged.

* The DOS Dutch freeware RPG ''Avalon'' has one, in the first fight against [[SdrawkcabName Esor Amreh]]. As soon as you get him down to below 2000 HP, he instantly KO's you with a "Dark Poison", leading to you recovering in Caddman's house. Once you obtain the antidote to the poison, you can fight him again and defeat him.