History Main / PreFinalBoss

** The first four games have a sub-boss to fight just before your final opponent. ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'' have Goro before Shang Tsung and Shinnok respectively, ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'' has Kintaro before Shao Kahn, and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' has Motaro before Shao Kahn.

* ''VideoGame/TriangleStrategy'''s Morality ending has Kamsell serve as the final obstacle before freeing the enslaved Roselle and leaving Norzelia. After he's defeated, the party makes it to the Great Falls without incident... and then along comes [[EvilOldFolks Idore]], hellbent on keeping the Roselle in slavery, to provide one last boss fight.

* Almost every BigBad confrontation in ''VideoGame/GhostReconBreakpoint'' and its DLC campaigns is preceded by a boss fight against a Behemoth mecha. Nomad even lampshades this at the end of ''Operation Motherland'', noting how unoriginal it's starting to become.

Another variant is for the penultimate boss of the game to be followed up by a [[BossOnlyLevel final level that contains nothing except for the last boss.]]

** In ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'', Taranza faces Kirby in the end of the Royal Road, where he brainwashes [[DistressedDude King Dedede]], turning him into the Masked Dedede. After Dedede's defeat, Taranza summons Queen Sectonia, the true BigBad of the game, who promptly [[YouHaveFailedMe blasts him with her magic for his failure]] before facing Kirby as the FinalBoss of the game.

** DoubleSubverted in ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot''. Before the final confrontation, the secretary Susie unleashes the Mecha Knight+ to fight Kirby. After his defeat, the President Haltmann reveals himself, dismisses Susie and then fights Kirby as the DiscOneFinalBoss. After ''that'', he tries to use the Star Dream, but at the last moment, Susie steals his controller, resulting in the Star Dream gaining sentience and setting off to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy all organic life]]. After that, Kirby, using the Robobot Armor provided to him by Susie and taking [[EleventhHourSuperpower the Halberd Mode]] from copying Meta Knight's Halberd, sets off to fight the Star Dream, the real FinalBoss of the game.
*** The Meta Knightmare Returns Extra Mode has President Haltmann preceding a BossBonanza from the Star Dream itself after he views Meta Knight as its new administrator and tests him in this specific order: Dark Matter Blade, Queen Sectonia, and Galacta Knight.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'': The final dungeon has Link defeating a Paras first before taking on Ganon himself.

** ''VideoGame/PhantomHourglass'': After Bellum's initial defeat in its true form, the demonic squid entity proceeds to possess the Ghost Ship. Immediately after Link and Linebeck defeats the ship, Bellum possess Linebeck himself as the TrueFinalBoss.

*** Count Bleck from ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''. He appears to be the BigBad, but his subordinate Dimentio turns out to be TheManInFrontOfTheMan.

*** In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'', Once Princess Shroob is defeated, Mario and Luigi, along with their baby counterparts, battle Elder Princess Shroob after she's freed from the Cobalt Star.

** The first two games and the first ''Tag Tournament'' game have a "rival" character fought in Stage 7. What character you choose to play will determine which rival you fight; for instance, playing as Nina means that you will face Anna as your rival/

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionSeries'':

** King Dedede himself is fought just before the actual final battle in ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'', ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' and ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3''. In the first game, he turns out to be trying to prevent the ''real'' BigBad, the Nightmare, from corrupting the Fountain of Dreams, while in the latter two games he's the victim of the DemonicPossession via Dark Matter. However, if the player did not [[GottaCatchThemAll collect all pieces]] of the ltter two games' respective [[EleventhHourSuperpower final weapons]] (Rainbow Drops in ''2'', Heart Stars in ''3''), he will end up being the FinalBoss, with the bad ending playing.

** ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' has the first phase of the final battle consist of a fight against [[DualBoss both Giygas and Pokey Minch]]. However, Giygas is invincible in this phase and deflects all attacks directed at him, making Pokey the ''actual'' target of the fight (with Giygas functionally being nothing more than an extra turn for Pokey). It's only after defeating Pokey that the party is able to directly butt heads with Giygas himself.
** ''VideoGame/Mother3'' sees the party fight the game's BigBad, Porky (an older and more malevolent Pokey, who goes by his Japanese name in both the FanTranslation and the English release of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''), just before the final battle against the Masked Man at the site of the seventh and final needle. An immediate giveaway that Porky isn't the final boss is the fact that he has to be defeated violently, whereas Giygas was defeated through the power of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve in ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' and ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994''. Appropriately, the Masked Man's fight revolves around a similar battle of emotions.

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': You have to fight Radagon right before the Elden Beast. And no, there is no checkpoint between them; you get no chance to replenish your resources, and if you lose to the Elden Beast, you'll have to fight Radagon again.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey III'' features, in the route where you side with the Abyssal King, a battle against Kujura in the final stratum that directly precedes the final boss (Deep Princess). The trope is averted in the route where you side with the Senatus, as the two final bosses (Automaton King and Olympia) are fought together in DualBoss form.

The first form of a OneWingedAngel final boss does ''not'' count; in order for it to be this trope, it must be an entirely different boss.

May be part of a BossBonanza, where the final dungeon has many bosses. Contrast PostFinalBoss.

* ''VideoGame/Hours2020'': While [[spoiler:Ronin]] might seem like the final boss, considering the fact that his level is called the "grand finale", it is actually just the precursor of the ''actual'' final boss, [[spoiler:Resident Mind]].

* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagicClashOfHeroes'': [[spoiler:Aidan, due to having been corrupted by the Binding Blade]]. Right after he returns to normal upon his defeat to Godric, he turns against Azh Rafir in another battle and defeats him, which triggers Rafir transforming into [[spoiler:Lord Bloodcrown, who is ''then'' challenged by Nadia in the real FinalBoss battle]].

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'': In the final stage of ''Separate Ways'', Ada has to defeat [[spoiler:Jack Krauser, who is revealed to have survived his defeat to Leon]], and then confront the FinalBoss, (Saddler).

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'': The climax of the ''Octo Expansion'' concludes with a MirrorBoss fight against [[spoiler:a brainwashed Agent 3]] that is followed immediately with the fight against a doomsday machine controlled by [[spoiler:Commander Tartar]] (the BigBad of the expansion's story).

** Later in "The NESTS Saga", it's only used in ''KOF 2001'' where before getting to NESTS' leader Igniz, you have to defeat Original Zero first, with [[AssistCharacter the help]] of Krizalid (who somehow survived after the end of ''KOF '99''), Ron (renegade master of Lin and NESTS' ally) and Glugan (Zero's CoolPet, a black lion).

** ''Literature/IslandOfTheLizardKing'': The final battle has you entering the Lizard King's fortress and making your way to its top for you to confront the King. The King merely sics his CoolPet, his Black Lion (a powerful, unavoidable enemy with SKILL of 11) on you, and if you manage to defeat the lion, you will then face the Lizard King whose SKILL is 12 (if you have a [[FlamingSword Fire Sword]] and / or a pet monkey however, you can bring down the Lizard King's SKILL to a lower, much more reasonable level).

* ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZeroIII'': On the way through Area X, you fought all the other MA pilots at their strongest, and the one last roadblock before the final boss is Leibniz with a brand new Garuda Rising. It's just as fast as the old model, but it has way more health, leaves itself vulnerable for only a short time, recovery items are hard to get, and it has a OneHitKill DesperationAttack up its sleeve if you manage to remove all its health bars. And you have to fight this monster using your underpowered Metal Attacker. The final boss is a ZeroEffortBoss...if you're playing as [[DuelingPlayerCharacters Jason]].

** On the Shura path, Enma serves as the last boss before fighting Isshin Ashina.

* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'': Usually seen when TheDragon fights the player before the FinalBoss emerges. Seen in [[VideoGame/StreetFighterI the first game]] where Adon, Sagat's disciple, is the fighter to defeat before getting to his master and actual champion of the tournament; in the [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII the second game]] where the player has to defeat not one, [[CoDragons but three Dragons]] (Balrog, Vega and Sagat) before getting to M. Bison; and ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Alpha 3]]'' where you have to defeat Balrog and/or [[DualBoss Juni and Juli]] (with a few exceptions; most notably, [[TheHero Ryu]] has [[TheRival Ken]] as his penultimate opponent) before getting to M. Bison again.

** In the [[KillEmAll Genocide Route]], before fighting Sans the Skeleton, you confront Mettaton NEO. However, in a parody of this trope, [[AntiClimaxBoss he goes down in one hit]].