History Main / FisticuffsBoss

[[caption-width-right:350:Note: this is from a RailShooter.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sin_punishment_deko_boss_battle.png]]

** [[spoiler:This is repeated in the sequel when Isa loses his gun while fighting Deko Gekisho. Except now you're handcuffed to'em and the only advantage you have is flight and slightly more flexible juggle ability, while he has a far more varied moveset, the handcuffs stun you if you try to roll away too far and he'll pull you in with them if you spend too much time far away from'em.]]

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', the FinalBoss doesn't need to be a FisticuffsBoss, but since she has the bad habit of breaking your guns, it's generally better to do it that way, though she also has the habit of breaking arms.
*** The succeeding CutsceneBoss, Ocelot, is virtually a FisticuffsBoss though as he drops all your gear into a lake and engages you in some fancy CQC.

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' is a one-on-one fisticuffs fight with [[spoiler:Gary]]. By this point your hand-to-hand fighting ability is way better than his, making this an AnticlimaxBoss. It should be noted, however, that pretty much ''every'' boss in the game is a FisticuffsBoss.

* In ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'', fighting a Clockstopper might necessitate this. [[WalkingTechbane Their presence alone wrecks technologies...]] the problem is how you ''define'' technology. They'll obviously be immune to guns and explosives, but they can also see language, clothings, domestication as technologies, regressing the srea back to the stone age, and even something as simple as using a rock or a stick is considered a weapon, thus a technology and don't work. But your fists are likely to work.

1) TheHero lost all his equipment during or before the battle, leaving only their most basic items.\\

The two (In-Universe) major reasons are either:
1) TheHero lost all his equipment during or before the battle, leaving only their most basic items.

You made it to the boss. Now you're going to use your most powerful weapon to easily beat it, right? Wrong! Every weapon except your fist (or, depending on the game, your basic melee weapon) is either disabled, removed, or unusable, i.e. DuelBoss meets NoGearLevel. This can be a form of FakeDifficulty, particularly if it involves a UnexpectedGameplayChange (you never had to/have been able to use your fists before). Expect a speech or two about how GoodOldFisticuffs is the one true form of combat.

1) TheHero lost all his equipment during or before the battle, leaving only the most basic things.
2) TheHero and the BigBad's ultimate weapons and attacks countered each other until the only thing they can do is punch each other.

The true reason might be that the author wants to show that the Hero's win wasn't due to only his weapons and attacks, that he and the BigBad are NotSoDifferent (if they both finish the fight with only punches or their first weapon), to make a comment on the futility of the fight (and violence in general) or evoking DavidVsGoliath.

* ''VideoGame/DoomTheRoguelike'': The Angel of Death, though if you're engaging it with fists instead of a [[ChainsawGood more decent melee weapon]], you're either really good, or about to get scythed to pieces.

* ''Videogame/DoomTheRoguelike'': The Angel of Death, though if you're engaging it with fists instead of a [[ChainsawGood more decent melee weapon]], you're either really good, or about to get scythed to pieces.
* In ''Videogame/{{Oddworld}}: Stranger's Wrath'', after being stripped of his equipment and [[spoiler:outed as a [[OurCentaursAreDifferent Steef]]]], Stranger decides that [[HeKnowsTooMuch he can't let D. Caste Raider and his crew live]] and fights them bare-handed. Luckily for him, he gains a new charge attack and there's [[BattleAmongstTheFlames fire everywhere to knock them into]].

* Non-videogame example in ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga''. [[spoiler:The FinalBattle has Kuuga and [[BigBad N-Daguva-Zeba]] both end up reverted to human form, forcing them to finish the fight hand to hand without their powers. Yuusuke ultimately beats Daguva to death. Even before they smash each other's TransformationTrinkets that forces them to de-transform, the two of them simply elect to slug each other rather than use anything more than their pyrokinesis at the start. Moreso since extra lore states that Ultimate Kuuga has access to black versions of his weapons' Rising forms, and Daguva is implied to be capable of the same].]

* Non-videogame example in ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga''. [[spoiler:The FinalBattle has Kuuga and [[BigBad N-Daguva-Zeba]] both end up reverted to human form, forcing them to finish the fight hand to hand without their powers. Yuusuke ultimately beats Daguva to death.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', at the start of the battle with [[spoiler: Yami, the lord of darkness and the game's final boss, he steals all of Amaterasu's brush techniques, and the player must earn them back one at a time by beating down on the boss.]] In an earlier battle in a "cursed zone" (and whenever she uses up all her ink), Amaterasu temporarily loses her godhood, stripping her of both brush techniques and weapons. The player then literally has to kick a demon to death, which may be the most absurd image in the entire game.
** {{LetsPlay/Chuggaaconroy}} refers to this as "Wolf Kung-Fu" and actually prefers this over the brush techniques.
** [[spoiler: Or, you could always bypass the kicking and use exorcism cards on Yami at first...]]
** Similar thing in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]''. The final boss removes all of Soma's Souls and concentrates it into three nodes. Each of them attacks differently and represents a different type of soul; killing one restores all Souls of that type to Soma.

** Strangely enough, the Marine's final battle, also against a Queen, simply has none of his weapons do any damage to her. You are forced to avoid her attacks and use the environment to kill her, making the Queen more of a PuzzleBoss.
*** This battle is meant to be an homage to the ending of the second Alien movie.

* ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'''s Asha the Assassin is only vulnerable to the most basic weapon, the Shotgun... because anything else will make him teleport away, and the Shotgun is ''the only weapon he deems too weak to be worth bothering to dodge''.
** He doesn't dodge the Buster Gun either, but it's basically a rapid-fire shotgun anyway.
** He dodges kicks, too, it should be noted. So much as he may feel like a FisticuffsBoss, ''actual'' GoodOldFisticuffs are ineffective.
** To disable [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Iosa the Invincible]]'s force field, you must first kick her into a wall to stun her.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' plays the trope to the hilt for its final boss fight, down to Ezio telling his opponent that they should settle it like men. [[spoiler:The {{HSQ}} is still off the charts because the man he's challenging to a fistfight is ''the frickin' Pope''.]] This is less annoying than other examples in that fighting unarmed is not too different from fighting any other way, [[spoiler:and you're punching the hell out of ''the frickin' Pope''.]]

* There is a subversion of this trope in nearly every ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' game. No matter what skill you're carrying (or sometimes, not), Meta Knight [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen won't even give you the time of day until you pick up that freakin' sword]].
** Not true. At least in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' on SNES, if you wait long enough the battle against Meta Knight will begin without taking the sword. With the right power (say... rock?) this can make that fight almost too easy.
*** Note that he's waiting for you to pick up the sword while in a battleship that's ''falling from the sky''. It's understandable that he'd lose his patience eventually.

* Fisticuff {{Final Boss}}es are something of a tradition in VideoGame/MetalGear.

* In the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', after you beat both forms of Metal Gear REX, you fight Liquid Snake on top of REX. However, he's removed all your weapons, and your shirt. This also happened in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', in which Raiden lost all his weapons except a sword before the final showdown, and in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'', in which all of Snake's equipment catches on fire and must be discarded by the player before the final bosses.
** A version with a twist appears in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', when Cyborg Ninja challenges you to a bare-handed fight. You're free to continue attacking him with your firearms, but he'll block most of them with his sword, and counterattack with lethal power. If, however, you remove your weapon and attack him with your fist, he'll drop his sword as well, making the fight actually easier.
** Fisticuff {{Final Boss}}es are something of a tradition in VideoGame/MetalGear. In ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'', you box Gray Fox in a mine field, and burn Big Boss with an [[ImprovisedWeapon aerosol can and lighter]].
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' the FinalBoss doesn't need to be a FisticuffsBoss, but since she has the bad habit of breaking your guns, it's generally better to do it that way, though she also has the habit of breaking arms.

** And, of course, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' has [[spoiler:an old man's fistfight between Snake and Liquid Ocelot, on top of a truly huge precipice, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on top of Outer Haven with the reactivated World War II-era ''Iowa''-class battleship ''USS Missouri'' in the background]].
** The final boss of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' is a true fisticuffs boss if you challenge him as Snake (either in the Boss Survival mode or in one of the ''Substance'' version's ''Snake Tales'').

** Fisticuff {{Final Boss}}es are something of a tradition in Franchise/MetalGear. In ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'', you box Gray Fox in a mine field, and burn Big Boss with an [[ImprovisedWeapon aerosol can and lighter]].

* Villain example in ''LargoWinch''. Then final boss approaches your team with a machine gun, then ''throws it away'' and [[HonorBeforeReason engages]] [[WhatAnIdiot in a melee]] [[TooDumbToLive fight]].

** Rapps, one of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''[='s=] ''many'' [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]], is arguably an example, since you must fight him without the use of magic.
*** Depending on your affection value with Yuffie, that is. When the time comes for [[spoiler: her to steal your materia, she'll]] leave one or two materia with you. Depending on your luck, this can mean a few decent Magic Materia, or, if you're ''really'' lucky, a [[SummonMagic Summon Materia]].

* Variation: Link loses his Master Sword at the start of the battle against Ganon in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', forcing you to use your other weapons. Except not really, because you still have the Biggoron's Sword.
** If you bothered to do the [[GuideDangIt wonderful side-quest]], that is.

* In the fight against Brad in ''{{Sin and Punishment}}'', only your sword does damage to him. Since it's the same button (and device) as your gun, you might not notice.

* For a non video game example, the Literature/FightingFantasy book Seas of Blood ends with a fight against a cyclops who snatches away your sword, forcing you to fight bare-handed.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', you can join different dojos in San Francisco. Matches for these dojos are strictly hand-to-hand combat with no other items, except when fighting Lo Pan. Though underhanded, Lo Pan is GenreSavvy enough to draw a gun when he starts losing.

The true reason might be that the author wants to show that the Hero's win wasn't due to only his weapons and attacks, that he and the BigBad are NotSoDifferent (if they both finish the fight with only punches or their first weapon), to make a comment on the futility of the fight (and violence's in general) or evoking DavidVsGoliath.