History Main / ThatOneboss

* ThatOneBoss/{{Atlus}}... no, this ''isn't'' a genre, but a '''''company'''''. Yes, this one company made ''so many'' games with sadistically hard bosses that it ''[[UpToEleven needs its own section]]''!

!!Miscellaneous Examples

* BonusBoss is completely banned from being That One Boss, because it's not mandatory to fight them and easily preparable.

[[RageQuit I don't mind taking second place]].]]

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* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' has the notoriously hated bane of no-save playthroughs, the Giant Bat in the church. It spends most of its time fluttering erratically around, which makes it hard to hit - especially with the twin hassles of [=RE0's=] simplistic aiming system and fixed camera angles. After it takes a few hits, it begins spawning countless smaller bats, which interfere with your ability to aim at the creature by forcing your auto-aim to lock onto them instead. They can also get in the way of your shots, and will whittle down your health by biting you themselves. There was a glitch where, if you ran into the save room after the boss fight was triggered, the giant bat would die when you returned to the church, but this was removed in the HD remake of the game.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' fifth edition starter adventure ''The Lost Mines of Phandelver'' has Klarg Clawhammer, a bugbear mercenary and boss of the first real dungeon the players will be exploring. Due to his Bugbear abilities, if he attacks first during the first round combat he can easily deal enough damage to drop most first level characters in one round, 2d8+2d6+2, or an average of 18 damage. Due to Phandelver being part of the starter set, Klarg is the first real high damage enemy most players will encounter, and while his damage goes down after the first round, it is a hell of a wake up call in a mostly easy warm up dungeon.

* ''VideoGame/WarioWare'':
** In ''Warioware Inc.'', there is a boss stage called "Punch Out", whose third level contains an opponent that is fast, demands quick reflexes and has a OneHitKill move that is spammed. Unlike the other level up boss stages, which are optional, it must be completed to clear Remix 2.
** Dribble and Spitz's boss stage from ''Warioware Twisted''. You need to outrun a boulder and jump over holes, by violently shaking the GBA, which makes it hard to see the holes.
** Ashley's boss microgame from ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched'' features borderline BulletHell patterns of projectiles to dodge and an end boss that has three separate pieces shooting things at you.
** Jimmy P.'s stage in ''Smooth Moves'' is level 2 of "Produce Stand-Off",in which you must defeat the Strawberry Bandit in a sword fight. Unlike the easy version of the minigame, the guide doesn't appear, and the opponent is much more unpredictable.
** ''Warioware DIY'' has Orbulon's boss stage, a slider puzzle that comes in two versions. Both require multiple moves to complete under a rather strict time limit, making it the most complex boss in the game.
** ''Warioware Gold'':
*** The Ultra League has a boss stage from an earlier stage set to level 3 that always appears on the first playthrough, and in the case of the Dancing Team, it's the boss microgame Punch Out. This means your opponent is "Red Typhoon" Gaz Puncho. Despite having the exact same starting health as you unlike the third opponent in ''Inc.'', he still moves quickly, and he is free to use his uppercut at any point during the fight, and the uppercut is an instant KO. The Ultra League is hard so chances are you might reach this point with 2 or 1 life left.
*** Ashley's boss microgame in ''Gold'' is a harder version of ''Crossing Guard'' from ''Twisted!''. You have to use the system's gyro controls to move suspended bridges and help kids and ostriches safely cross to the other side. Level 2 introduces even faster horseback riders, while level 3 has bombs that must be dropped.
** ''[=WarioWare=]: Get It Together!''
*** Continuing with ''Gold''’s example, Ashley’s boss game, “Great Juice”, always appears in the first playthrough of Remix 2.0 on the third difficulty level, and it must be completed as 5-Volt, which is easier said than done. Because 5-Volt’s main movement is teleporting, you’ll land on the grapes with no jars underneath more times than not (and if the meter fills up, you lose), especially since the jars occasionally move, and the clunky movements make it difficult to correct that mistake (as well as the fact that if the timer on one of the jars runs out, you also lose). In addition, you’ll need to contend with the wasps, which must be hit so that they don’t reach the spill meter, but 5-Volt will instantly be knocked out if she touches the stingers, resulting in you instantly failing the microgame.
%% Needs more context** In ''Warioware Twisted'', all you need to know are these six words to know you're in trouble: "Ladies and gentlemen: Wario de Mambo!"
* While the final bosses of the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series usually take longer to break than other culprits, the final showdown with [[spoiler:Quercus Alba]] in ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth Investigations]]'' gets special notice for being so long and difficult that there's a save point ''in the middle of the fight''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfENnDvb4UA And here's a song about how difficult it is.]] Amusingly enough, the song in that link is a parody of the Air Man song that is the page quote.
* ''VideoGame/SDGundamCapsuleFighter'' has three of them.
** The first is the [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Psyco Gundam]] in the "Kill Three Psyco Gundam" mission, due to the fact that, at harder levels, it has infinite special attacks and, thus, it will gladly go into its BeamSpam special to prevent being killed. Even more frustrating when it does so at its last sliver of life with only 10 seconds left in the match.
** The second is the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam Apsalus II]] from the "Destroy the Apsalus II" mission. Not only does it have a stun beam weapon and an ability that reverses your controls temporarily, it's flanked by two [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Acguy]] [[TheMedic Repair]]s meaning that if you don't kill them off ASAP, it'll just keep regenerating its HP while it keeps hitting you with beam weaponry.
*** What makes the Acguy Repairs even more of a pain is that they're one of the few units with Auto Lock-On Jammer (which disables Auto Lock-On when the unit reaches 30%), thus you're resorting to the old Eyeball Mk I to shoot these guys down!
** The third is the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Aile Strike Gundam]] from the "Test Factory" mission. It spends 9/10ths of its time boosting around the boss room in the air and, as you're trying to shoot him down, you're attacked by [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Balls]], [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Hizacks]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Astrays]], as well as missiles that will outright stun you in your tracks.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'':
** The dual boss fight with Captain Vor and Lieutenant Lech Kril on Phobos isn't that hard, as the bosses don't do much damage, but it is NOTORIOUS for glitching out and being impossible to beat. Have fun farming the Miter, Twin Gremlins, and Trinity!
** General Sargas Ruk can be a pain in the ass for new players. The first phase of the fight is pretty easy, all he does is spray fire at you, and you have to blow off his arm. The 2nd phase he gets a room clearing Supernova that's next to impossible to dodge and knocks you down, doing a huge chunk of damage, he also gains a missle attack in this form that will absolutely WRECK you if you get hit by it, and you WILL get hit by it. His 3rd phase cuts the bullshit and he gains an attack that launches Fire Pillars out of the ground underneath you similar to Ember's World on Fire, with the appropriate damage, standing still for more than 3 seconds with kill you unless you're playing as Rhino or another beefy frame.

* In Creator/SternPinball's ''Pinball/HighRollerCasino'', the Craps game comes across as this, as it has a difficult target to shoot, an open-ended number of shots to make, and can only be advanced during single-ball play.

* ''VideoGame/BloonsMonkeyCity'' takes this to Tower Defense genre. Can you take on Bloonarius who can spawn a lot more bloons as it degrades? How about Vortex who stuns Bloons in its radius? Or maybe Dreadbloon who can cover itself in ceramic properties every degrade while also having lead properties? Or something like Blastapopoulos who can shoot stunning lava? Didn't we mention they can get even tougher than a Z.O.M.G.?
* ''Videogame/DwarfFortress'':
** Of the non-procedural megabeasts, Bronze Colossi qualify the most. They're huge, extremely tough, and far faster than one'd think for a statue of that size, meaning that any solid hit or grab on any of your dwarves will result in certain death, and unless you use cage traps, cave-in traps or [[SquareCubeLaw gravity]] only the best of squads, armed with masterful iron or steel, will even survive.
** Of the procedurally generated beasts (Titans and Forgotten Beasts), two things can bring them into this position. One is being made of a hard material, like rock or metals, as they will be just as invulnerable as bronze colossi with the added bonus of unusual anatomy and any extra attack such beasts can get (such as poison secretions or fire-breathing); especially bad if you get a metal BlobMonster, because there ''is'' no anatomy to exploit. The other thing is webbing: While fire breath and deadly dust are dangerous, there are ways to handle them and aren't necessarily instant death (or even death at all, if you have good shields and layout). Webs just mean every last one of your ultra-legendary warriors will get bogged down by web that makes sure they cannot dodge or block, only try to escape and take every blow at full force. And taking a blow at full force from something the size of Godzilla is obviously not an option. The only way to fight them is trap abuse, getting lucky with a dwarf that manages to escape and hit back, or notoriously buggy marksdwarves.
* ''Videogame/Splatoon2'' gives us the ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign, which alongside some of its NintendoHard levels are revamped boss rematches from the main game's Octo Canyon single-player campaign.
** Octo Samurai's Revenge has the titular boss be much faster than its predecessor. And you aren't fighting him with a standard weapon; you have to face him with the Baller special, which has a pretty slow detonation speed. Thankfully, you can't take damage while using the Baller. Unfortunately, this is balanced out by you becoming incredibly susceptible to knockback. This can already be frustrating in mutliplayer, but when fighting 1-on-1 on a tiny arena with minimal fencing to prevent you from flying off? It can be a nightmare, and the AI is more than aware that this is the only way it can kill you.
** The penultimate boss fight, [[spoiler:a BrainwashedAndCrazy Agent 3]], is a MirrorBoss with scarily good AI, a very small arena, multiple phases, and [[SNKBoss the ability to cheat by changing and spamming specials]] (most notably, using Splashdown ''four times in a row'' at one point). It is not uncommon for players to just take the [[MercyMode skip offer]] due to losing five times, and is regarded as harder than the FinalBoss (which just has you finding and destroying a bunch of stationary and defenseless targets). And this is the ''easier'' version of the fight against this character; a much, ''much'' more difficult version awaits as the TrueFinalBoss for those trying to get HundredPercentCompletion.
* The 2005 electronic handheld game ''Pokemon [=ThinkChip=]+ Battle Trainer'' involves you training Pokemon and battling trainers. But good luck battling Gym Leaders (such as Clair) that have Pokemon with moves with status conditions (which, unlike the main core games, prevented your Pokemon from moving at all and made you unable to throw Pokeballs in wild battles) without the items to cure the status and using only one Pokemon.
** Besides Gym Leaders, the main goal of the Battle Trainer is to, according to the manual, get a high enough Trainer Point count and catch the three Legendary Beasts (Entei, Suicune and Raikou), Lugia, two of the Weather Trio (Kyogre and Groudon) and Ho-Oh in events which rarely occur and you can only catch them if you get them to the HP zone of the 100s. However, some Legendary Pokemon will make it tedious.
*** The first of such that you will have difficulty with is Raikou. It carries two powerful moves; Thunder, which paralyzes your Pokemon automatically if it is not spammed, and Hyper Beam. It gets even worse if you got the Battle Trainer that comes with only the Charizard figure, since once Raikou unleashes Thunder, even if you got Charizard to the maximum HP (which is 450 HP), it's often an instant OneHitKill, meaning you had to get Raikou to the HP zone of the 100s and pray that it doesn't use Thunder.
*** Kyogre. Where to begin? It carries three moves, which are Ice Beam, Water Spout and Hydro Pump. Ice Beam will often become a problem, since if Kyogre uses any other move after using Ice Beam and then uses it again, this technically means that Kyogre can simply freeze your Pokemon solid again. If you don't have any Full Restores, Burnt Berries or Frozen Cures, you are screwed.
*** Groudon, if you bought the initial release of Battle Trainer, which comes with the Pikachu figure only. It carries Earthquake, which means that it can deal a huge amount of damage to Pikachu.
* ''VideoGame/OneHundredPercentOrangeJuice'':
** The normal mode has the Store Manager, who has 8 HP, +3 Attack and +2 Defense, making him a pain in the rear to defeat, as he can easily KO any one at full health if he's lucky enough to roll a 6, or sometimes a 5. Even Marie Poppo, Arthur, and Kiriko, who have the largest HP pools (7 and 8 respectively), aren't safe.
** The 2019 "Minions Of The Masters" Event adds three giant bosses to the new Co-Op mode, but among them, The Star Devourer is arguably the worst. The Star Devourer is basically a giant star-riding Marie Poppo who has 75 HP, +1 Attack and -1 Defense, however, she comes with a passive that deals +1 damage for every 200 stars she has. She can also use cards to give her a boost. She's also accompanied by Big Poppo (Yep, she's back), who will hunt down other players and force them to fight her; Big Poppo doesn't deal damage, but she can steal stars from them depending on the force of her blows, and the stars go to her boss. The Star Devourer can also use cards to give her a boost: sometimes she steals stars from players who are at a certain distance from her or Big Poppo; there is a card that have the players pay stars when they want to use cards for one chapter; another one reduces all stats of the players to -1 for one battle, among other nasty tricks. So, you have to play smart and being lucky enough to dish out enough damage before she gets too strong because, as stated before, she deals +1 additional damage for every 200 stars she has in hand, and if she defeats all players or amasses 1000 stars, you lose.
** The 2019 summer event "Summer Games" adds the Summer Beast, which is basically just a tanned QP in a swimsuit. Her base HP is only 5, which may sound pathetic and easy for Co-op boss standards, but there's a catch. She can revive up to '''10 times''' per KO and has a hype mechanic which when full, allows her to gradually increase her HP by attacking players with [[LimitBreak Rampage]]. She can summon up to four [[DemonicSpiders Seagulls]] to her aid and she has some very nasty [=AoE=] attacks at her disposal with the potential of inflicting a TotalPartyKill if you're unlucky. It's a deceptively difficult battle and one that will test the patience of you and your allies.
* A particular Mario fangame, [[http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f1673.html ''Super Mario Adventure'']], has a sadistically hard one that's part of a boss gauntlet in the final area that many people have just resorted to outright cheating. The gauntlet starts up. A fiery version of [[VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland Hookbill the Koopa]] is the first boss, and he is considered rather easy, as all you have to do is jump on his head a couple of times while avoiding a fire shield that spins around him (but worry about the game's awkward hitbox). The next boss however is possibly harder than most bosses on this list. It's [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Fry Guy]] - a boss that in his own game, could be defeated by Mushroom Blocks. Those aren't here. Instead, you have to wait for some Fly Guys to fly in and jump on top of them for them to fall on Fry Guy. [[GuideDangIt The game has no indication whatsoever on this, and no other fight has worked like this]]. You're going to have to pray to the RandomNumberGod, because his flames and direction are completely random and unpredictable. The Fly Guys thankfully don't hurt you, but you're going to have to rely on the Fly Guys being above Fry Guy before jumping on one. [[HitboxDissonance Fry Guy's hitbox is also abnormally big here, meaning you're likely to get hurt trying to jump on those Fly Guys too]]. The game expects you to [[DamageSpongeBoss land 15 hits on Fry Guy with this, making it a huge chore as well]]. Expect a LuckBasedMission with this, because unless if you happen to cheat with this one, you're going to be here for a while. If you happen to defeat Fry Guy, you're not done yet - the game has two more bosses to throw on you. [[BigBad The following one is]] [[TheChewToy Luigi]], [[GoddamnedBoss who fires out Bullet Bills you have to bounce back at him - while he's spamming fireballs, but is still rather manageable]]. [[HijackedByGanon The last one is]] [[spoiler:Bowser]], who follows a simple pattern, but is very hard to land a hit without getting hurt due to a fire shield similar to Hookbill before. But the painful part is what happens if you lose to those following two? You have to go all the way back and fight Hookbill and Fry Guy all over again. How fun.
* In the ThirdPersonShooter game ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'', the first dungeon boss is randomized each time the level is played through on Campaign or Adventure (like most bosses in this game). It could be Shroud, it could be Brabus. Or, it could be Gorefist. He has some pretty powerful sword attacks that sometimes inflict Bleed. Sounds like something you can get used to dodging, right? Well, the real threat of the battle isn't him, but the Rot Warts that spawn occasionally and can swarm you from either side or if you're trapped in a corner. If they explode on you, they deal as much damage as Gorefist can with one swing of his sword, not to mention inflicting Root Rot, assuming a whole gang of them doesn't explode on you at once and kill you right away. It is very difficult to solo this boss, especially if it's your first time playing, since one would have to shoot Gorefist, dodge his attacks, and keep an eye open for the Rot Wart, either shooting them or dodging their explosions, all at once, with very little time to heal or use Oilskin Tonics. He's not unbeatable even solo, but still pretty tough for a first boss of the game, especially since on your first playthrough, you won't have Root Mother at Ward 13 yet and thus will only have the minimum of three Dragon Hearts (the most effective method of healing). To put it in perspective, one of the two potential world bosses, the Ent, summons Rot Warts as well, ''but he's much easier''. (Although, an update did decrease the amount of Rot Warts to make it a little easier)
** Or, you could get Riphide at Leto's Lab. Throughout the battle he multiplies, eventually having eight of himself throwing projectiles and unleashing shockwave-like blasts that are easy to dodge if there's only one or two of him, but difficult with eight of him, at the same time trying not to get too close to them because of their physical attacks. In addition, occasionally one of him will start healing them. Hitting the ones doing the healing twice will stop the process, but it's difficult to do so if they happen to do this at the same time as the shockwave, especially when there are eight, in which two will cast the healing spell at once. They share the same health meter, too, so you can't just eliminate some of them to make the fight easier. And like Gorefist, if it's your first time playing, you won't be able to upgrade your Dragon Hearts before this.
** Raze, one of the four possible dungeon bosses of Rhom, can be very difficult solo. (You will get two dungeon bosses at random, the first of which must be beaten to progress to the world boss and the Undying King) He breathes fire which you cannot dodge and which inflicts Burn, and he summons many skulls and exploding enemies that inflict Radiation.
** Then there's the Root Mother. Well, actually you're not fighting her, you're protecting her from a horde, so it's more of a horde battle than a true boss battle, but it is harder than any other horde battle (aside from The Risen) due to the fact that if they kill the Root Mother, you lose, so it's not just your health you have to worry about. Aside from the fact that you can get two archers and a Root Brute at once, all of whom can inflict Bleed, this is also the second "boss" you will encounter in the game (and one of few that will always be encountered on every campaign), and like Gorefist, if it's your first time playing, you won't be able to upgrade your Dragon Hearts yet since Root Mother herself is the one who upgrades them for you after this battle is over. Not to mention likely not having a lot of weapon mods unless you've beaten a lot of bosses on Adventure, with only three Dragon Hearts.
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel and turn invincible, at which point you must defeat a wave of minions to force him out-- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. The Parrot Pals aren't terribly sturdy, but they're small, agile, and can hover out of the range of any melee attacks while pelting you with lasers. By contrast, the All-Stars are much bigger and tankier, and can drop Dummy Shields for further protection. Both the Parrot Pals and the All-Stars have more health than usual. On its own, that would be annoying, but not too bad... but there's ''also'' a three-minute timer that causes you to ''instantly lose'' if it runs out. That timer turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.

* In ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Pop Fever]]'', normally you have to deal with Popoi at the end of a story route, who is already fairly challenging. However, if you do well enough on the hardest story route, you run into [[spoiler:Carbuncle]], who will outright BREAK you. Basically, his dropset gives him a ton of large Puyos-more than any other character in the game-making it easier for him to both set up large combos or offset repeatedly to trigger Fever. Couple this with a brutal AI that can set up 5 and 6 chains in the blink of an eye and is prone to immediately going into a [[LimitBreak 30-second Fever mode]] the moment you think you have him threatened and you have one of the nastiest single-player fights in the series.

*** Continuing with ''Gold''’s example, Ashley’s boss game, “Great Juice”, always appears in the first playthrough of Remix 2.0 on the third difficulty level, and it must be completed as 5-Volt, which is easier said than done. Because 5-Volt’s main movement is teleporting, you’ll land on the grapes with no jars underneath more times than not, especially since the jars occasionally move, and the clunky movements make it difficult to correct that mistake. In addition, you’ll need to contend with the wasps, which must be hit so that they don’t reach the spill meter, but 5-Volt will instantly be knocked out if she touches the stingers, resulting in you instantly failing the microgame.

** ''WarioWare: Get It Together!''

** ''ThatOneBoss/PokemonGo''

** ''ThatOneBoss/TheWitcher''

** ''ThatOneBoss/{{Seihou}}''

** ''ThatOneBoss/FireEmblemHeroes''

* Ashley's boss microgame from ''VideoGame/WarioWare Touched'' features borderline BulletHell patterns of projectiles to dodge and an end boss that has three separate pieces shooting things at you.
** In ''Warioware Twisted'', all you need to know are these six words to know you're in trouble: "Ladies and gentlemen: Wario de Mambo!"
*** The same game has Dribble and Spitz's boss stage. You need to outrun a boulder and jump over holes. Simple enough, but how is the outrunning done? '''By shaking the GBA in a violent manner!''' This can make it hard to see the holes, and if you '''can''' see the holes, then chances are the boulder is on your tail. Oh, and you need to get 5 points on it in the Spindex, but good luck doing that when it goes to level 2 and 3; those difficulties make the boss microgame nearly impossible.
** In ''Warioware Inc.'', (at least in the GBA version) there is the boss stage called "Punch Out." And the third level of that contains an opponent that is fast. Remember when the level up boss stages are optional? Here, this is '''NOT''' the case; Remix 2 will not let you through until you beat him, and he might be hard for first time players. He moves the fastest out of all of his opponents, so you need to have perfect reflexes. However, remember the OneHitKill move that the second opponent had on one heart? Here, he can use it ''anytime he wants,'' so if you are not quick to dodge, and you are on your last life in Remix 2, it's back to start for you.
** Similarly, ''Smooth Moves'' involves this for two required stages (Jimmy T. and Jimmy P.), except it is the second level of the boss stage. In Jimmy P.'s stage, you have to take on Produce Stand-Off again, and the Strawberry Bandit is no pushover. For starters, the guide doesn't appear, meaning that you have to deal with the Strawberry Bandit's hard-to-parry movements. He can also be unpredictable, so if you are not focused when he strikes, you're dead.
** ''Warioware DIY'' has Orbulon's boss stage in the form of a slider puzzle. Why is it hard, you may ask? Well, the puzzle is randomized, so you can never get the same puzzle twice. And you need to do this with the timer breathing on your neck, but sometimes you can be stuck on it; should this happen, you're screwed. And what is worse is that for Orbulon's set to be completed (getting all Orbulon's microgames unlocked) you need to do this slider puzzle multiple times.
** In ''Gold'', when you are clashing against [[spoiler:Wario Deluxe]], you make it to the Boss Stage, and you need to hear these words to know that a certain final boss microgame is seeking a rematch and, due to it dropping the Wii Remotes and resorting to use all the control schemes in ''Gold'', you are in even more trouble: "Ladies and gentlemen: let's... DANCING!" Be prepared to spend a lot of coins on this.
*** Besides this, the Ultra League has a boss stage from an earlier stage set to level 3 that always appears on the first playthrough, and in the case of the Dancing Team, it's the boss microgame Punch Out. This means your opponent is "Red Typhoon" Gaz Puncho. Despite having the exact same starting health as you unlike the third opponent in ''Inc.'', he still moves quickly, and he is free to use his uppercut at any point during the fight, and the uppercut is an instant KO. The Ultra League is hard so chances are you might reach this point with 2 or 1 life left.
** Ashley's boss microgame in ''Gold'' is a revived ''Crossing Guard'' from ''Twisted!'', but it is harder than the ''Twisted!'' version, even on the first difficulty level. You must not only deal with the kids, but also the faster ostriches. If you are trying to go for the target score in the Index or trying to get Ashley's score mission done, then you must deal with even faster horseback riders in level 2, and bombs that must be dropped in level 3, with both levels involving two bridges. Not even ''Basic Training'' is harder than this boss microgame.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' has the notoriously hated bane of no-save playthroughs, the Giant Bat in the church. Firstly, it spends most of its time fluttering erratically around, which makes it hard to hit - especially with the twin hassles of [=RE0's=] simplistic aiming system and fixed camera angles. But that's not what makes it ThatOneBoss. It's the fact that, after it takes a few hits, it begins spawning countless smaller bats, which interfere with your ability to aim at the creature because, more often than not, your auto-aim will lock onto them instead. They can also get in the way of your shots, and will whittle down your health by biting you themselves. Most guides recommend using the [[PlayingWithFire napalm grenades]] loadout for the grenade launcher, as these kill it quickly (5 hits) and have a longer-than-usual stun effect on it, but even this tip (and the fact there's a 6-pack of them in the save room before you fight the boss) are rendered useless because being stun-locked ''doesn't keep the giant bat still''. Meaning it jerks in the air when hit, and this throws off your auto-aim's lock, making it very hard to exploit the stunlock effect. Fans used to recommend exploiting a glitch where, if you ran into the save room after the boss fight was triggered, the giant bat would die when you returned to the church... until this glitch was removed in the HD remake of the game.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' has... well, every boss that you actually ''have'' to face.
** The Tyrant in the sea plane is a nightmare because it's a LightningBruiser that can take a real beating, hits like a tank, and can charge across the cargo hold, which isn't relay big enough to give you much room to manuever. Worse, unless you carefully stockpiled the explosive arrows for your bowgun, and/or brought the anti-B.O.W gas grenades, you don't have much in the way of firepower.
** Nosferatu if you're not good with the Sniper Rifle. If you get the bright idea to bring your big guns with you to cover your ass, then you'll just wind up hosing yourself later as they won't be available for most of Chris's half (since you lose control of Claire immediately after the fight and don't control her again until close to the end of the game), so non-skilled snipers are left with the MortonsFork of either getting stuck at a brick wall of a boss or crippling themselves for most of the latter half of the game.
** Mutant Steve Burnside is supposed to be a HopelessBossFight, as you're expected to run from him to the door you came in through. The problem is that he's so fast, and his axe has such a long range, that it's almost impossible to ''not'' get hit by him as you flee.
** And then there's the final boss, Alexia. She comes in two battles; in her first battle, she throws around walls of fire that impedes your ability to manuever around her, and her only melee attack is a OneHitKill. Unless you found the [[GuideDangIt obscure path]] to unlocking the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Magnum]], she is extremely tough to defeat. And then, in the second battle, she has two distinct phases, with no intervals between the two. Oh, and there's a time limit you have to have killed her by, or you get a game-over.
*** In the first phase, she constantly spawns small, skittering minions that swarm you and can quickly knock your health down to nothing. Add in her own flailing tentacles, and killing her before she kills you is challenging.
*** In her second phase, you need to hit her with a special weapon - the linear launcher - to kill her... except, in this phase, she's become a flying monster that zigzags erratically around the room and sporadically rains down hard-to-dodge fiery blood. If you don't know the secret that shooting flying-Alexia enough with normal weapons will put her in a "stunned" state where she moves slower and is more easily targeted with the linear launcher, and even that's only helpful if you have ammo left considering the prior phrase's DamageSponge traits, your only real hope is to try to track her and get lucky or keep firing and hope she banks into your shots.
* In Videogame/ResidentEvil4, you will eventually come across a fight with two El Gigante enemies (which mark your third and fourth encounter with them). It's possible to drop one into a pool of lava and have to deal with only one (and you also must be '''very wary''' when said Gigante is thrashing around in the lava since getting too close to the lava pit whilst its thrashing about in it will have it [[TakingYouWithMe grab Leon, killing him along with it]], so until the lava hatch closes back up, do NOT get close to the thrashing Gigante in the lava pit, lest you don't care and [[TheManyDeathsOfYou like to die a lot]]), however both of them have functionally double the health of the first two. Additionally, you can be aided by a dog you saved from a bear trap, which causes the first encountered El Gigante to become distracted and chase it, making it far easier to shoot the guy. The second one can be avoided entirely by going a different route, and doesn't have to be fought if you ''do'' go his route thanks to the various objects that slow him down (You just have to reach the end, and hope dumbass Ashley doesn't get left behind/killed by it...). This fight with the Dos Gigantes is unavoidable, and there are no distractions to help you defeat the boss. You just have to learn to dodge the attacks with the somewhat stiff tank controls (which do not help in this fight), and unload on him. Even with max powered weapons, he has a terrible habit of just whipping around and slapping you for huge damage, and will soak a lot of it. Like a lot of bosses, you may have to cut into your total money and buy a rocket launcher to have any chance at survival, or whip out that Rocket Launcher you've been saving since picking it up in the Castle's gallery room display case to kill one of them so that they aren't as troublesome.

* VideoGame/WinnieThePoohsHomeRunDerby has a bunch of these.
** Piglet throws his balls much faster than Eeyore and Lumpy before him do. It's a major DifficultySpike.
** Kanga and Roo start to bounce the balls, which can be frustrating when you're used to the ball coming straight at you.
** Rabbit throws the ball really slowly, and then the ball comes REALLY fast at you. If you're playing against him the first time, you'll freak out.
** Owl zigzags the ball and the ball comes in really fast. The zigzagging ball makes it easy to score a bunch of Foul Balls and unless you've upgraded the Power Stat, successful hits will often stay in the park because of the wonky ball momentum.
** TIGGER. He will throw the ball at you normally, but then IT BECOMES INVISIBLE. Yes, the ball is invisible. And you have to successfully score 28 homeruns out of 40 balls. That means you can only miss, hit, or foul 12 balls.
** Christopher. Freaking. Robin. You have to hit FORTY HOMERUNS out of FIFTY balls. Christopher Robin can use a combination of ALL of the strategies of the other characters, and will usually use Kanga and Roo's or Owl's technique. And he's capable of using invisible balls too. Oh he can throw balls normally too, but they're usually too fast for you to hit.

* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesBattleForNeighborville'': The optional Bounty Hunt boss Captain Featherbrainz will drive you bananas. At first, he just seems like Captain Deadbeard with an inflated health pool, but at three points in the fight, he will hide in his barrel, at which point you must defeat a wave minions to force him out-- the first consists of three Parrot Pals, the second has four more Parrot Pals and an All-Star, and the last is five Parrot Pals and two All-Stars. All of them are Champions, meaning they have more health than usual. Doesn't sound too bad, and it wouldn't be... if not for the three-minute timer that causes you to ''instantly lose'' if it runs out. That timer turns what would otherwise be a tedious but overall tolerable encounter into a harbinger of salt-encrusted migraines. Of course, taking the boss on with a few allies can make things easier, but it's still a chore to fight him solo.

** ''ThatOneBoss/{{Omori}}''

* ThatOneBoss/{{Atlus}}... no, this ''isn't'' a genre, but a '''''company'''''. Yes, this one company makes ''so many'' games with sadistically hard bosses that it ''[[UpToEleven needs its own section]]''!

* If the boss is ''almost impossible'' to be defeated, especially in the FightingGame, that will be an SNKBoss instead.

* ThatOneBoss/{{Atlus}}... no, this ''isn't'' a genre, but a '''''company'''''. Yes, a company makes games with ''so many'' sadistically hard bosses that it ''[[UpToEleven needs its own section]]''!

* ThatOneBoss/{{Atlus}} (no, this isn't a genre, but a company. Yes, a company makes games with so many sadistically hard bosses that it [[UpToEleven needs its own section]].)

* ''BloonsMonkeyCity'' takes this to Tower Defense genre. Can you take on Bloonarius who can spawn a lot more bloons as it degrades? How about Vortex who stuns Bloons in its radius? Or maybe Dreadbloon who can cover itself in ceramic properties every degrade while also having lead properties? Or something like Blastapopoulos who can shoot stunning lava? Didn't we mention they can get even tougher than a Z.O.M.G.?

** ''ThatOneBoss/{{Touhou}}''