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Role-Playing Games where bosses don't pose any real challenge before getting beaten.


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    Dark Souls 

  • Dark Souls:
    • The Gaping Dragon and Dark Sun Gwyndolin are jokes. In both cases, the environment actually helps you. The Gaping Dragon's attacks are easy to avoid thanks to the huge boss arena and the fact that it takes a few seconds to recover after trying to charge you. Gwyndolin only uses easy to avoid ranged attacks and has no melee attacks, in an endless corridor with plenty of columns for you to hide behind. The battles are more tedious than difficult, since Gaping Dragon has high health and Gwyndolin is a "Get Back Here!" Boss who teleports away every time you come near him.
    • Quelaag isn't a very difficult boss either, especially for ranged characters, since her only ranged attack is slow and has extremely short range. Even melee characters shouldn't have any trouble as long as they avoid her shockwave attack.
    • Pinwheel is a near-memetic example of this trope, especially compared to the dungeon he's in. By the time you get to him, you should be leveled up and have good enough weapons to curb-stomp him into the ground immediately. This is because he can be encountered very early in the game and was balanced as such, but most players encounter him later due to how unintuitive and difficult it is to get to him at all. His attack patterns and damage are fine, he just has low health by late game standards (about as much as the Taurus Demon or Capra Demon) and thus by the time players encounter him he goes down in two combos.
    • The final boss Gwyn, Lord of Cinder becomes this if you're good at parrying or exploit Good Bad Bugs.
    • The towering Ceaseless Discharge can be taunted into falling off a cliff, with only a few hits from your sword necessary to serve as 'encouragement'.
    • Seath the Scaleless is blind and immobile, only capable of pivoting on the spot, and has a huge blind spot that none of his attacks can reach on his left flank.
    • The Bed of Chaos only takes three hits to kill, but good Lord does it ever make you work for them.
  • Dark Souls II:
    • The Old Iron King, the boss residing at the end of the notoriously-frustrating Iron Keep, is decidedly less difficult than most of the encounters before reaching him, most notably the agonizing fight with the Smelter Demon earlier on. Being a large, immobile target with highly-telegraphed attacks and residing in an arena with a wall fixture that the player can hide behind to avoid most of his attacks does not do him any favors. Most players consider the real "boss" of Iron Keep to be the hole in the Old Iron King's boss arena, which is very easy to accidentally fall into or have him knock you into.
    • The Dark Souls II equivalent of Pinwheel is often cited as the fight against Prowling Magus and his congregation midway through traversing Brightstone Cove Tseldora. The NPC summon outside the boss arena, Benhart of Jugo, is entirely capable of slaying the boss and most of his minions by himself if you so desire.
    • Later on, the brutal, dreary Shrine of Amana, a Bubblegloop Swamp level from Hell which features bottomless pits masked by shallow water everywhere and highly-aggressive enemies that aggro extremely quickly, is rounded out with an encounter with the Demon of Song, who is a large frog-like creature with slow, easily-to-dodge attacks and a moderately low health pool. It's not quite a pushover, but next to the madness you had to trudge through to face it, it pales in comparison. It also has permanent "wet" status, making it cripplingly weak to Lightning damage. A good bow or crossbow with a supply of Lightning Arrows or Bolts will let you shoot the thing to death without it even getting near you. A competent cleric will be able to cook the thing well done in just a few spell casts.
    • The Final Boss herself, Queen Nashandra, can also be viewed as a wash compared to previous encounters, especially for ranged builds that can stay out of the curse buildup zones she spawns in, as her beam attacks take ages to come out and she is cripplingly slow. The Dual Boss fight before her is several times more difficult than she actually is. Which is presumably why she got you to kill them for her. As if she wasn't easy enough, there's also a bug that lets you completely break her AI and have her just stand there and do nothing the entire time you wail on her.
    • King Vendrick is an invoked example. Throughout the game he is built up as the Final Boss, similar to Gwyn of the first game. He was the king of Drangleic in a golden age, until he went to a pointless war against the giants and directly caused the kingdom's downfall. After finding the four great souls needed to reach Drangleic Castle, you make your way to the undead crypt and fight the Royal Aegis, Vendrick's final defender. Finally you have reached the king. And you find him as a Hollowed corpse mindlessly walking around in circles, so Hollow that he doesn't even attack you until you attack him first. He is by far one of the toughest bosses in the game, hitting hard enough that he will very likely one-shot you and having sky-high defense that has to be reduced by having a certain item in your inventory before you do more than Scratch Damage (each copy of the item you have reduces his defense by half, and you'll need a minimum of four copies out of the five in the game to start doing decent damage), but he's still basically just a really big version of the normal Hollow enemies.
  • Dark Souls III: Yhorm the Giant is one of the Lords of Cinder, the four main enemies you need to kill. He's a towering, seemingly invincible juggernaut, and he is...unless you pick up and use his Achilles' Heel, which is obligingly located within the boss arena, and/or finished Siegward's questline, in which case you also have a backup Achilles' Heel covered in plate armour running around and backing you up.

    Final Fantasy 

  • The Final Fantasy series has its fair share.
    • In the original Final Fantasy on the NES, it's very well possible to defeat the final boss, Chaos, in one turn. A Master in particular can defeat him in one attack, potentially depleting all of his 2,000 HP. Later releases buff the HP of Chaos and other bosses, so this no longer applies — notably, the Pixel Remaster version gives him 20,000 HP while your party is at around the same power level it'd be in the NES version, turning him into a grueling final boss if you're not prepared.
    • Final Fantasy II
      • After fighting your way through the Ice Cavern and defeating the Adamantoise, the traitorous General Borghen appears at the exit to fight the party. While the Adamantoise can be a nasty Early-Bird Boss, Borghen is a complete pushover. And when you meet him as a zombie in hell, he's once again a pushover compared to the other bosses of the dungeon.
      • The Emperor himself is barely more threatening than the mooks with him in the battle. He doesn't stay dead for long, though.
    • In a very stunning moment, the Useless Useful Spell in Final Fantasy Legend actually works on the final boss! This is a bug, though; the Saw is supposed to instantly kill any enemy with defense below the user's strength, but instead it only kills enemies with a defense above that value. Since the final boss has sky-high defense... (This is not the case if you choose to fight him fair and square, however.)
    • Final Fantasy Mystic Quest:
      • The very first boss, the Minotaur, is undead, and vulnerable to your Cure spell. Chances are you'll be hoarding your casts till Fireburg, but you can spare one to take him on with, right? Failing that, just have Kaeli cast Life, since she leaves the party right after anyways.
      • The Dark King is weak to the hero's Cure. note  Cast Cure on the boss to break the damage limit and do over 10,000 damage. You can potentially kill him in two-three casts if your level is high enough. Even more amusing: the Dark King has multiple One-Winged Angel forms. However, they all use the same HP counter — the Dark King merely changes form depending on how damaged he is. If your Cure spell does enough damage, the Dark King will actually skip forms trying to keep up.
    • Final Fantasy VI:
      • In the World of Ruin, you were told the Eight Dragons were powerful creatures by several NPCs, but unfortunately, most of them have many glaring weaknesses, taking the challenge out of them. Holy Dragon can be muted, Skull Dragon can be Rasped to death, Blue, Red and Ice Dragons fall to Poor, Predictable Rock, and Earth Dragon can be cheesed with the Angel Feather relic equipped on your entire party.
      • the final stage in Kefka's four-form boss fight can be considered anticlimactic. There are multiple methods to defeat it in one turn, the blindness that it can cast on you doesn't work in the original SNES version, and if you prepare, you'll have ample time to heal from the Fallen One attack. The boss's signature attack, Goner, can't even kill you, and when you compare this form to the third form, Rest, which ended off its fight casting an instant-kill attack twice, it can be considered underwhelming. However, when it comes to story purposes, (the boss's grand entrance and lively as well as somber boss theme), this battle isn't anticlimactic.
    • Final Fantasy VII: Palmer easily qualifies. Most players who get into the boss fight against Palmer expect him to be strong since they had fought Shinra villains (the TURKs and Rufus) previously and they were able to hold their own in a fight. However, Palmer in battle is downright pathetic. His only attack is shooting his mako gun that has a fire, ice, or lightning effect and can be nerfed with M Barrier or nullified/absorbed with certain armor or materia. His only redeeming feature is having a big chunk of HP.
    • Final Fantasy VIII has the first fight against Seifer, which is also a Duel Boss. Sadly, it mostly just serves to show that Squall is Seifer's superior; with a bit of grinding it's actually possible to have higher stats than Seifer in every way, including health. Fortunately the game gives you several rematches, and none of them are this easy.
    • Final Fantasy X:
      • The fight against Seymour Omnis is a joke considering that his previous appearances have been That One Boss for many players. It makes it even easier if you utilize his own built-in Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors that YOU can manipulate to choose his weakness...or just summon Anima. And then there's Yu Yevon...
      The Spoony One: And now, the final battle! The group has battled all over the planet, fighting demons, dragons, monsters, unholy abominations, and finally we reach the ultimate puppetmaster. The Demonic Deity that perverted the entire world in its image. This is the ultimate evil that dominated the wills of men, leveled entire continents, brought the world to its knees, killed millions, and commanded the destiny of all life in Spira and what is this?
      • The whole boss rush after Braska's Final Aeon counts. Yu Yevon possesing Aeons looks cool and all, but you can't lose because you have permanent Auto-Life. This is most likely because developers realized that completing post-game content and strengthening Yuna (as her stats determine those of her Aeons') would heavily penalize players, but many will tell you that the execution is lacking.
      • Omega Weapon in original versions of the game. As the boss of Bonus Dungeon full of hardest encounters in the game and with highest encounter rate, you'd expect hard fight. It does hit rather hard and its Nova attack will wipe out most parties that didn't fiercely grind in Monster Arena, but its HP caps at 99999, so badly wounded Auron with Celestial Weapon can kill it in one hit. The developpers realized this as well, as subsequent releases of the game make it much harder, with raised stats and ten times as much HP.
    • In Final Fantasy XIII, the final form of Orphan is quite weak compared to its first form and Barthandelus. It can be pretty easily defeated within one or two staggers, and is vulnerable to several status effects. As an homage to the Final Fantasy Legend final boss, it is possible to kill it with Vanille's Death Full ATB Skill while it is staggered; however, the chances of that happening are pretty slim.
    • Final Fantasy XIII-2: If you prioritize story progression over character development, then the final boss fight can be Very Hard. If you end up with a high-level party because you've been on a long Fragment hunt or something ... not so much.

    Paper Mario 

  • Monstar in Paper Mario 64 is an intentional example. He only has 20 HP, low for that point in the game, and he has one attack, whick looks flashy and ultra-powerful, but ends up only doing 1 point of damage. Once you defeat it, it's revealed that the creature was being controlled by a gang of Star Kids wanting to keep intruders out.
  • Doopliss in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is also an intentional example. Not only do you get to him shockingly quick, but he has a piddling 40 HP and his idea of a decent attack is turning into a shadow of Mario and throwing your own standard attacks at you. Compared to the previous boss who had 60 HP and an arsenal of buffs he's not very imposing, and even the narration remarks how refreshingly easy of a battle it was. Then "Mario" and your party leave, the camera stays fixated on the shadow of Mario, and you're suddenly controlling that. Cue entire second half of a chapter where you have to fight your own friends and the guy who stole your body, with the defected former member of the Shadow Sirens lending you a hand. The rematch with the boss isn't much more difficult than it was the first time, but by then you damned well worked for that victory.
    • Depending on the situation, Bonetail may fall into this. The Pit of 100 Trials is an optional but insanely difficult challenge, with its great depths in playtime, lack of save and recovery blocks, and the progressive Demonic Spiders, despite the breathers with badges every 10 floors, with the challenge culminating in a fight against the boss at the 100th floor guarding the game’s greatest badge. However, rather than Bonetail himself, the brutal enemies may actually take the cake in difficulty. Despite having the highest stats in the whole game, it’s not all that easy for him to fit in That One Boss category when compared to the Shadow Queen and even his younger brother Gloomtail. The former can attack three times per turn (2/3 times drains HP) and the latter, despite being obviously weaker and easier, has two incredibly powerful moves his older bro lacks. However, the strain of completing the previous 99 floors of the Pit of 100 Trials contributes to the difficulties faced when fighting Bonetail, as items, FP, and HP are more likely to be depleted by the time he is reached than when the player confronts the Shadow Queen, having save and recovery blocks right beforehand. Despite this, other than stats, one of the things that makes Bonetail stand out is its unique fire breathing, which can give you one of four negative status ailments. However, using the Feeling Fine badges will leave only the freeze breath to give a status effect, making him much easier to handle, with his only standouts being using an occasional freeze breath and at random intervals recovering his HP (20 to be exact and two times possible at most).
  • The final boss in Paper Mario: The Origami King has three phases. The first phase can beaten after just one Vellumental summoning and two 1000 Fold attacks. After this, all the Toads you collected leave, and you can't use any weapons or items. This basically means every coin you've collected, every Toad you've found, every weapon you equipped, and every item you bought throughout the game was completely meaningless. The two phases after the first phase are just simple mini-games that involve a little bit of jumping, button mashing, and rotating.

    Pokémon 

  • A variation occurs in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team. If you get a Grass-type as a result of the personality quiz at the beginning of the game, Groudon becomes a cakewalk. See, by that point in the game, you'll be used to the bosses being a Difficulty Spike, and have prepared accordingly. Additionally, the villagers will have already told you how powerful Groudon is, and just before you reach him you'll find Alakazam, Charizard, and Tyranitar barely concious. Finally, you'll have had to go through a slew of powerful defensive Mons on your way through the dungeon. Then when you finally get to him, his ability kicks in, allowing you to spam Solarbeam at him.
    • Even if you're not a Grass Type, Groudon starts so many squares away that if you have Iron Thorns or Silver Spikes, you can toss so many at him that he'll go down in a round or two of hits when he finally gets to you.
    • And in the post-game, there's the Western Cave dungeon. Before unlocking it, you see a cutscene where Mewtwo throws Charizard and Blastoise for a Curb-Stomp Battle. Then, when you unlock the dungeon, you go through 98 floors of powerful enemies, monster houses and such, where you're certain to gain at least five levels for your team along the way. Then, at the very end, you get to Mewtwo...who doesn't have much in the way of attacks and is easily beatable in a few attacks thanks to the levels you gain on the way to him.
  • Mewtwo in Pokémon Stadium. One on his side, six on yours (that can include one of him). To reach him, you need to fight some of the most blatant cheaters ever and he doesn't feel that powerful in comparison.
  • Discounting endless Level Grinding and some Gameplay Derailment, some bosses in Pokémon are not as difficult as some players perceive them to be.
    • Pokémon Red and Blue:
      • The eighth Gym Leader of Pokémon Red and Blue is Giovanni. He also just so happens to be the leader of Team Rocket, and you already had a few serious encounters with him in Celadon and Saffron City, so you can expect this to be one doozy of a fight, right? ...well, no, actually. His team consists entirely of Ground-types with low to average Special stats, so you can easily steamroll him with a Water or Grass-type. In fact, you should already have a Pokémon with Surf (a strong Water-type move) to even be able to reach him. He also suffers from Artificial Stupidity, as he still uses the same AI from his prior encounters, which includes a tendency to use a Guard Spec at random to try to block incoming crits. When his team is as slow and frail as it is, he has no time to be wasting turns on mildly shoring up his defenses, especially not when other trainers at that point at least use healing items. Yellow makes Giovanni considerably tougher on the whole, largely by way of significantly improving his team's movesets (nearly all of them have Earthquake, and Nidoking and Nidoqueen gain Thunder to at least have a fighting chance against Water-types) and swapping out his Rhyhorn for a Persian, which has an always-critting Slash on its side, but he's still not as tough as some of the fights before him. FireRed and LeafGreen also improved his team's movesets, giving the mighty Earthquake to his entire team, but strangely swapped out his Rhydon for its unevolved form, Rhyhorn.
      • Lance, the most powerful member of the Elite Four and the game's only Dragon-type trainer, certainly looks like he'd be a powerhouse at first blush, but then you break down his team a bit. Aerodactyl is a joke, with nothing but various Normal moves to work with, and Gyarados is strong on paper but has a x4 Electric weakness to worry about. Of his actual Dragon-types, his two Dragonair are unevolved and therefore have mediocre stat totals with no real strong points. This leaves Dragonite, and while it may have gigantic stats, its movepool consists of two Psychic-type boosting moves and two Normal-type attacking moves, meaning it has no STAB and can't hit anything effectively, and can be walled fairly easily by Rock and Ghost-types or taken down in a single shot by an Ice Beam or Blizzard. This is even worse if you've brought one of the game's many Poison-types against him, at which Dragonite will do nothing but spam boosting moves. Notably, when the Updated Re-release of Yellow showed up, nearly all his team's moves had been swapped out, and in future appearances, he'd be buffed even further.
    • Pokémon Gold and Silver:
      • Olivine Gym and by extension its leader Jasmine. Jasmine's Pokémon are level 30-35 — way ahead of the last gym (and even the next gym). She's also using the newly discovered Steel Type — so surely this should be a difficult gym of the likes you have little to no experience facing, right? Wrong — Jasmine's the only opponent in the gym. And since all fire types are special in this game, a good fire type (Such as a Typhlosion with Flame Wheel) will wreck her Pokémon. If Steelix doesn't get knocked out, it might even use Sunny Day, which will ensure its demise. This is changed in the remake, in which Jasmine at least puts up more of a fight due to the physical/special split, and short of massive overleveling, her Pokémon might actually be able to get a few hits in on you.
      • The final boss of the "evil team" subplot is the current leader of Team Rocket, fought in the Goldenrod Radio Tower. He has three Pokémon, two of which are first-stage Pokémon—even his fellow executives at least had fully-evolved teams or teams with six members. Only his Houndoom is a notable threat. The fact that he wasn't even named in his first appearance (being given the name Archer in the remakes) only furthers the sense of "wait, that's it?"
      • The entire Johto Elite Four is this. They're about ten to fifteen levels lower than every other Elite Four in the series (partly because you then explore a second region afterwards), have fairly predictable teams with weak Pokémon (and to make it more blatant, the fairly weak Bruno is the only non-champion member returning from the last game) and are generally pretty easy to defeat with less than half a team. Champion Lance puts up more of a fight, however, owing to the three Dragonite on his team.
      • While Mewtwo is often a powerful opponent that's hard to beat and harder to catch, getting to it in HeartGold/SoulSilver is far more difficult than actually fighting it. Its moveset at the level it's fought at (70) leaves it with Psycho Cut, Amnesia, Power Swap, and Guard Swap. The latter two merely swap your status buffs and its own, and Psycho Cut runs off its weaker Attack stat. If all that weren't enough, sticking a Dark-type in front of Mewtwo leaves it utterly unable to fight back.
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:
      • One of the criticisms of Ruby and Sapphire was that the person who meets the default Rival archetype (Brendan or May) doesn't even fully evolve his/her Pokémon and is only fought a very small number of times. This is what makes more people consider Wally as the rival, since he actually challenges you in Victory Road while Brendan or May give up.
      • With proper training and knowledge of opponents, using Shedinja can turn almost any battle, including the Champion into this. To clarify, Shedinja has only one hit point, so any attack it suffers will one-hit KO it; however, to compensate, it has the ability Wonder Guard, which makes it immune to any attack that isn't super-effective. This means that several of your opponents, even late in the game, will be absolutely helpless against it. Wallace, for instance, only has one team member who's even remotely capable of damaging it (Luvdisc, who can use the confusion-inducing Sweet Kiss). As soon as she goes down, you've already won.
      • Tate and Liza have only two Pokémon, at a point in the game when most gym leaders have at least four, and both of them are weak to Surf, a powerful move that you are required to have in order to get to the gym in the first place. Oh, and you face them in a double battle, which makes it even easier because Surf can hit both of their mons at once, making it entirely possible to win the battle with one attack. Emerald gives them four more Pokémon, but Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire revert them back to two.
      • Maxie and Archie only have three Pokémon and all of them are used by the other members of Team Magma / Aqua. Even in the remake, where they have Mega Evolution for their last battle, they can be taken out easily. Maxie has it the worst since his signature 'Mon has a quadruple weakness to Water in a region flooded with the stuff.
      • The whole Hoenn Elite Four is like this (except Steven), but Glacia is probably the worst. She specializes in the Ice-type, giving her team loads of common weaknesses. Glacia is especially bad when you consider that Hoenn only has two families of Ice-Types, making her team very repetitive, and her Pokémon are also saddled with poor stats. In the remakes, she at least gets a pair of Froslass to add to her team... but in the original Ruby and Sapphire, Froslass didn't exist yet. This means that one of the Elite Four has two Pokémon (a pair of Sealeo) who aren't even fully evolved on her team.
      • Zinnia in the remakes' Delta Episode. Faced at the climax of the plot, she's a powerful Lorekeeper with a team of powerful dragons that wants to stop a catastrophe by harnessing the power of Rayquaza. Her team includes Mega Salamence, Noivern, Altaria, Goodra, and Tyrantrum. With such a setup and such a Game-Breaker Pokémon on her team, you'd think this would be a challenging boss battle, right? It would be... if not for the fact you'll more than likely sweep all of her Pokémon with your newly-acquired Mega Rayquaza.
      • After Zinnia, you face Deoxys, a powerful Mythical Pokémon previously only encountered via real life limited-time events. At level 80, ten levels higher than Rayquaza, you'd expect a great challenge. And you get that... if you try and catch it there and then. Unfortunately, in a straight-up battle, while Deoxys is quick and powerful, it can't take hits very well, meaning just about anything from Mega Rayquaza will knock it out... assuming it doesn't get one-shot by Deoxys, that is. Even then, Deoxys's only attacks are Hyper Beam (which leaves it a sitting duck for a turn) and Psycho Boost (which gets less dangerous the more often it's used).
    • Pokémon Black and White: The final battle with N. His legendary dragon can be easily defeated by your own due to Artificial Stupidity (it loves to use its signature move, which you're resistant to and can power up your own dragon's signature move as well), and most of his other Pokémon can be one-shotted with the proper type matchups. But then you face the real Final Boss, who isn't nearly as much of a pushover...
    • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2:
      • For the eighth Gym Leader, Marlon is practically a pushover. You could probably beat his entire Gym with little more than one strong Electric Type and a Grass on the side for the few trainers that have Water/Ground hybrids. There are only two edges he really has — one is that all three of his Pokémon know Scald, which is useful against Pokémon that use physical attacks, which you likely aren't going to use against Water Types save Thunder Punch, Seed Bomb, Power Whip and such. The second is that his Jellicent is very bulky and can use Recover, but even then it's mostly an issue of being stalled out moreso than being disadvantaged.
      • The Champion, Iris, has been deemed as this by quite a few players. For starters, she's only one level higher than the Elite Four before her. In addition, while it looks like they overpower her like crazy, all her Pokémon are either weak to type coverage that's relatively simple to obtain (Ice and Fighting-type attacks in particular, both of which are more than easily obtainable), very slow and easy to hit (Lapras, Aggron, and Druddigon), or both. Most of them also have rather underwhelming movesets in the initial battle, at least on Normal Mode. The rematches and Challenge Mode do buff her movesets up considerably, though.
      • There's also Black/White Kyurem. Similar to the Pokémon Stadium example above, unlike the past main series Pokémon games where you have to capture the Legendaries, this one forces you to actually fight and KO it. Despite being a Legendary Pokémon, you still have a possible team of six Pokémon (or one really over-leveled one if you're the kind of person who only uses starters) in a battle system more designed around using a team instead of one on one. It's completely possible to OHKO it on the first turn with the right move even if you're a little below the intended level for fighting it.
    • Pokémon X and Y:
      • Whereas some of the prior villain leaders were nasty pieces of work and Ghetsis in the original Black and White is That One Boss, Lysandre in X is a complete joke. You fight him literally right after you get Xerneas, which wouldn't be so egregious if he didn't have a Mienshao, a Honchkrow, and a Mega Gyarados, all of which the Life Pokémon treats as fodder via Moonblast. Pyroar will survive this move on the first shot, but even if Xerneas can't take it down, that still leaves the rest of your team. He's less of a comedy in Y, as Yveltal doesn't have the same killing power against Honchkrow and Gyarados.
      • And we have the Champion from X and Y, Diantha, who is widely considered even worse. With Pokémon weak to Steel, Ice and Fairy-type attacks up the alley, and some with unorthodox movesets, there are quite a few Pokémon that can tear through her with little concern. Her ace, Mega Gardevoir, while strong, doesn't come out until last, and although it can hit pretty hard, its physical Defense leaves something to be desired, leaving it easy prey for an Iron Head or Shadow Claw.
    • Pokémon Sun and Moon:
      • The final Totem Pokémon, Totem Kommo-o, has a quadruple weakness to Fairy and appears in an area with the Fairy-type TM, Dazzling Gleam. Dazzling Gleam can be learned by a lot of Fairy-types and even a few Pokémon that aren't part Fairy. If that wasn't enough, you also get Fairium Z just before fighting it, and its two allies, Hakamo-o and Scizor, are both Level 32 and essentially sitting ducks. This is mitigated somewhat in Ultra Sun and Moon, where it's given Poison Jab (super-effective against Fairy-types), a Roseli Berry (which lessens the power of super-effective fairy attacks), and is fought before receiving Fairium Z rather than after, and its ally Scizor is much higher leveled.
      • The Post-Final Boss encounter with Tapu Koko. You're introduced to the powerful guardian deity (which is capable of taking on the Ultra Beasts) at the very start of the game, and now you fight it... yet despite this build-up, in addition to there only being one of it versus what is likely a full party of six, you've just become the Champion, and thus any one member of your team will likely knock it down in a few shots.
    • Pokémon Sword and Shield:
      • Chairman Rose has a team of powerful Pokémon at his command, and a number of moves to go with, but the most glaring problem is the one shared with his employees: a crippling overreliance on Steel-type Pokémon and no attempt to cover for their weaknesses. Caught a Gigantamax Centiskorch or Machamp in the Wild Area? Fully evolved an Arcanine or Conkeldurr? Started with Scorbunny? Gee willikers, he didn't think his plan to start a second Darkest Day all the way through... The narrative even pushes this considering Eternatus uses Flamethrower.
      • Eternamax Eternatus is particularly intimidating with insane stats, a horrific visage and powerful moves to go with it. Against any trainer with a single Pokémon, it would have caused no end of havoc and panicked reaching for the Revives. The big reasons it's more of a Paper Tiger than anything is that it's fought as a Max Raid Battle and you and Hop are supported by Zacian and Zamazenta, two immensely powerful Olympus Mons with anti-Dynamax moves and none of the lousy AI that plagues the other Max Raid Battle allies. Sure, you can help them, but the cover Legendaries do enough lifting that the fight basically plays itself. It's great for spectacle... and not much else. At least regular Eternatus can pose a threat to a reasonably-leveled trainer...
    • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
      • Geeta is significantly underpowered for a supposed Champion. Most of her team just doesn't have good stats, with only Kingambit standing out in that regard, and they also aren't used well—Veluza uses Mold Breaker instead of its signature ability of Sharpness, making its offense completely mediocre, and she sends out Glimmora, a Pokémon designed for use as a lead due to its Glass Cannon stat layout and ability to automatically set Toxic Spikes, last (and not Kingambit, a Pokémon designed to be used for a Last Stand). Add in Gogoat and Avalugg, two very mediocre Pokémon, and you have a recipe for an easy 6-0. It also doesn't help that, due to her Pokémon's typings, 5 of them are weak to the basic STAB moves of Skeledirge, the final evolution of one of the starters, meaning many players are likely to already have something that can easily sweep her team!note  Even the rematch with her at the Academy Ace Tournament doesn't do much to improve her status, as she merely levels up her team by around five levels higher than when you originally faced her at the Pokémon League, with the same strategies as before.
      • The Final Boss of the Operation Starfall plot, Cassiopeia/Penny, is also disappointingly easy; especially right after winning the battle with Clive/Director Clavell, who was a more appropriately challenging boss beforehand. Their team consists of nothing but evolutionary forms of Eevee. Their stats aren't that impressive despite being in the 60s level range, and they also have terrible movesets, knowing weak moves like Quick Attack that they should've forgotten long ago. With the right Pokémon and moves as well as being at comparable or higher levels, you can easily defeat her team without much difficulty and thus complete the plot.
    • In general, any battle with a legendary Pokémon (such as Mewtwo or any cover legendary) can become this if you decide to just lob a Master Ball (which can capture any Pokémon without fail) at them.

    Other 

  • Alpha Protocol:
    • One of the final bosses is armed only with an easily dodgeable rocket launcher with a very slow rate of fire. If you can get into the room that he is holed up in, he panics, curls up into a ball, and can be defeated with a single punch.
    • The other final boss isn't much of a challenge either. He uses weapons that have a high fire rate, though they don't do much damage and are easy to avoid, especially considering that all bosses in the game show you where they're aiming. He doesn't cower in the corner when you reach him, but he can't take much damage, and almost never decides to melee attack you.
  • Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Done intentionally, twice: almost every opponent in the B-Ball Dimension's Arena goes down extremely easily (particularly the second-to-last one, which does nothing for three turns and then blows itself up), with the exception of the very last one. Also, the monster that guards the all-powerful b-ball Shimmerglobe is a single Ball Spider — a regular enemy from much earlier in the game that is inexplicably treated as a boss.
  • Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal:
    • Abazigal. Out of the game's storyline villains, we have Illasera the Warm-Up Boss (who is a near-Zero-Effort Boss for anyone who brought their party over from Shadows of Amn), Yaga-Shura the Puzzle Boss (whom you fight alongside his huge army of not-insignificant mooks), Sendai the Sequential Boss who is also a Mook Maker, and Baltazhar, who teleports around a lot and uses a lot of weird special attacks (and is immune to Time Stop). Abazigal... is a Palette Swap of the dragons you meet in Shadows of Amn with more HP. He stands still. He wing buffets you. He shields himself with outdated protective spells and has a slightly annoying lightning breath that will be lucky to kill your party mage at this point in the game. What doesn't help is that the stage's Mid-Boss, Draconis, is the game's That One Boss and a lot more annoying to fight.
    • In standard BGII, the "place trap" ability of thieves can make any fight an Anti-Climax Boss if they're positioned right and you have a chance to plant them before the fight. This is especially grim when fighting Irenicus on the Great Tree, since you can walk past him before he becomes hostile, cover the place in the nastiest traps you have available, and then finish off the surrounding parasites, at which point there's a short conversation, he becomes hostile, and:
      Irenicus: I have enough power to deal with you!
      SNAPSNAPSNAPSNAPSNAP
      Irenicus: Apparently, no I don't. [dies]
  • Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean: Malpercio in Algorab Village. This is a fight against the Big Bad, the evil god you've been trying to stop the whole game, who's ravaged the home of the Children of the Earth... and he hits about as hard as the regular encounters in the area, moves once per turn, and only has one finisher.
  • Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled: The Forbidden is pathetically easy, easier than some enemies in the final dungeon.
  • Bloodborne:
    • The secret final boss, Moon Presence, is laughably easy especially since it immediately follows the fight with Gehrman, The First Hunter, one of the more challenging bosses in the game if you haven't become overpowered after completing the DLC. The boss is not very fast and most of its attacks are simple flails that have gaping blind spots on the boss's sides, and it's only actually dangerous move (a shockwave that instantly reduces the player's health to 1) has a very long windup animation that leaves it vulnerable for several seconds of free damage.
    • The Witch of Hemwick is generally considered to be the easiest boss in the base game, only slightly beaten out by the entry below. The Mad Ones summoned by the Witch are not very dangerous as long as you keep your distance, which isn't hard, because they merely walk toward you instead of running. The only real danger with the Witch is if you don't manage to kill the second Witch in time, leading to the first Witch coming back to life. And if you decided to empty your Insight to 0, the Mad Ones won't even spawn at all, leaving the Witches as the only enemies.
    • The Chalice Dungeons caps off its progression with the secret optional boss Pthumerian Queen Yharnam, the easiest boss in the entire game by a pretty significant margin — it's entirely possible to oneshot the boss with the correct builds. Considering that it also happens to be the final boss of the Defiled Chalice and follows directly after the headless Bloodletting Beast, Defiled Watchdog, and Defiled Amygdala fights, the final fight being essentially a cakewalk Breather Boss is well-earned.
  • BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: After an entire game of buildup, the final boss fight against STORM ends up being a purely defensive "survive a certain number of turns" mission, with several minigames mixed in between phases. The atmosphere is suitably dramatic, but for players anticipating an epic final challenge it can be somewhat of a letdown. Thankfully, the postgame unlocks two new endings, which both have more traditional and challenging True Final Bosses.
  • Bravely Default: You eventually have to storm the last Eternian stronghold. One of the paths pits you against a menacing-looking Zombie Dragon. If you know Square Enix, two Phoenix Downs is all you need.
  • Bravely Second: Compared to the likes of Geist the Bloody, the demo version of Ba'al v: Urchin is a total joke. Yes, it's the last boss you fight, but it has a Light weakness that is disappointingly easy to exploit and not enough Physical Defense to tank it. Its gimmick is that it can evoke copies of your characters to parallel that character's attacks with Dark, but a decent setup can vaporize those and still deal terrible, terrible damage to the Ba'al.
  • Citizens of Earth: The actual final boss is a Cutscene Boss, where the hardest part is hoping that a Game-Breaking Bug doesn't trigger and crash the game. The boss right before that, Secretary Supreme, is not that hard either due to the game going out of its way to avoid damage sponge bosses.
  • Demon's Souls: After the intensely difficult task of acquiring all of the titular demon's souls, you take a trip to the Final Boss, King Allant, who has almost no offensive ability whatsoever aside from some sluggish lunges with the Soulbrandt sword, as he is in a captive and weakened slug-like form, effectively letting you punch him to death, if you so desire it.
  • Diablo: The titular villain himself, in the first incarnation, is painfully easy to defeat. His only ranged attack is a simple blockable instant hit explosion but can be prevented by going melee, he's fairly susceptible to common magic, and has pretty low armor class. Doesn't help that there is an easy way to lure him out without waking his mooks. Excusable because in actuality, the body you're fighting is that of a helpless child.
  • Diablo II:
    • The Summoner. You fight through a reality-bending Escher twister full of demons in search of a power-mad sorcerer, who keels over in two or three hits on Normal difficulty. The weakest super-unique creature in the game, hands down. Only the non-boss uniques in the first act are squishier.
    • Diablo himself on higher difficulties: he's not easy, but the Super Uniques you fight in the Chaos Sanctuary are much harder. It doesn't help that you can heal up near the seals, since he will never go near them, and ranged characters can even snipe at him while out of range from his attacks.
    • Baal is even worse than Diablo: His attacks aren't all that strong, and the worst he can do is use a pair of curses that give mana burn and half physical resist & speed, respectively. Even worse, the last 2 Super Unique monsters you fight in Baal's throne room before you face him are much stronger.
  • Digital Devil Saga:
    • The first game has one in Ravana, who is somehow both this and, story-wise, the Climax Boss. While his first form is rather tricky, players of Nocturne will immediately recognize the gimmick from the Ongyo-ki fight, and the second form is only challenging due to the unique (until you reach the final boss, anyway) ailment he inflicts, which is an incurable (by the player, at least) version of Panic. Other than that, it's a rather simple fight, with his strongest attack being easily no-sold by throwing up a Void/Drain Force.
    • The second game has its Final Boss, Brahman. It has five very predictable forms that can be taken out easily provided you can spread around resistances, as each form uses a different element. Its ultimate attacks are simply a buffed Megidolaon with no extra fluff and a skill that maxes its stats and minimizes yours, which can easily be canceled out with Dekaja and Dekunda. Though it should be noted that it's not entirely the boss's fault — the preceding boss, Meganada, is widely considered to be one of the toughest bosses in both games, and in beating it, you're probably more than prepared for what comes next.
  • Dragon Age II: The final boss, Knight-Commander Meredith, could conceivably have been difficult to beat, since she's both a Cowardly Boss and a Flunky Boss who summons dozens of the fantasy equivalent of Humongous Mechas to fight you. But not only does the fight avert the Arbitrary Headcount Limit that has held firm for most of the rest of the game, allowing every one of your companions to fight her simultaneously, but, depending on your choices, you'll also be backed up by Knight-Captain Cullen, Guardsman Donnic and the city guards, your surviving sibling, and Zevran and Nathaniel, if they both survive Origins and Awakening respectively. She goes down without much fuss. (For extra anti-climactic flavor, there comes a point in the fight where the boss will stun everyone so she can engage in Evil Gloating, during which she doesn't defend herself. If you have multiple party members who, due to either class talents or items, are immune to stun effects, they can easily kill her in mid-sentence.)
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Guardian, the final boss from the Descent DLC. While it's an enormous Rock Monster with about a dozen limbs and can take you down quickly if you make a mistake, it's also got an enormous Weak Point and will fold like a cheap lawn chair once you target that point.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: Rhapthorne. After Dhoulmagus put up SUCH a fight, and several other of the people Rhapthorne is either directly controlling or influencing putting up another fight (Sir Leopold, Jessicanote , Marcello), the only way you can't finish the battle in less than 10-15 turns is if you decide to gimp yourself or refuse to exploit tension.
  • Dragon Quest IX: Just like Rhapthorne, Corvus doesn't appear to get that much stronger when he goes into his second form. (He has less health than a mere Climax Boss, King Godwyn... and that's not even adding the health from his first form. Heck, Godwyn even has more HP than Barbaros in his second form!) He more or less just gains a few new attacks, can inflict status ailments, etc... but once more, he doesn't really offer that much new to the game. Kind of a shame that this was intended to be the hardest game.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Oblivion:
      • The final battle against Mankar Camoran is fairly anticlimactic. He's a decently leveled character, but he is not overly challenging. The only caveat is that he's resistant to magic weapons (which you'll almost certainly be wielding by default at this point) and is backed up by his two kids, who keep respawning after you kill them.
      • The expansion Big Bads aren't much better. Jyggalag is the Daedric Prince of Order (Shivering Isles) and Umaril the Unfeathered is an ancient Ayleid sorcerer (Knights of the Nine). Both are far easier to defeat than they should be, but by then the player character can be very tough anyway and it seem they simply haven't kept up.
      • Mannimarco is the Arc Villain of the Mages Guild questline and also seriously fails at delivering the level of threat he was renowned for in-story, being a fairly generic mage. Thankfully, there's a mod that overhauls him and his entire dungeon to be suitably terrifying and difficult.
    • Skyrim:
      • This strikes twice at the end of the main quest. The only plot relevant Dragon Priest (extremely powerful undead sorcerers) is easily the weakest of them all and Alduin only appears to differ from the elite Ancient Dragons (which you've likely been slaughtering in droves) by having a few more hit points. It's even worse during the final battle in the afterlife, since you are assisted by the souls of three legendary Nord warriors
      • Ulfric Stormcloak, should you choose to side against the Stormcloaks in the Civil War questline, is hilariously weak. Ulfric is one of the first NPCs you encounter which, due to a quirk in the game's Level Scaling system, means that he is scaled to be challenging to a level 1 character no matter when you face him. This was adjusted in a patch, but he's still quite weak, wearing almost no armor and wielding a steel axe with a very minor enchantment.
    • Both of the main bosses in the Dawnguard DLC fall into this — after surviving a much more challenging set of waves of enemy units, Vythar is standing on a balcony that overlooks a large cliff. One use of Unrelenting Force is all it takes to finish him off, since one thing vampirism doesn't grant immunity to is fall damage, and after defeating Naaslarum and Voslarum, his gear can be collected. Lord Harkon also feels underwhelming as a result, no matter how many of his vampiric abilities he uses, since he doesn't send waves of enemies to wear you down.
    • The final boss of the Thieves Guild storyline, Mercer Frey, gets a huge amount of buildup, and a big deal is made about how you can't fight him 1-on-1. However, he's no different from any other mook aside from being able to turn invisible, and if one merely climbs the stairs on either side of the statue, the fight can be ended easily with Unrelenting Force. Admittedly, the main reason you can't fight Mercer 1-on-1 seems to be his Agent of Treachery Nightingale power, which he ends up using to turn Brynjolf and Karliah against each other, leaving him to fight the Dragonborn without his ace in the hole.
  • Evil Islands:
    • Erfar the Silvertongue. Flunky Boss extraordinaire aside, he will likely drop from a single attack. He doesn't even have the dignity to leave something decent behind, instead granting only one coin.
    • The Curse, mixed, oddly enough, with a Hopeless Boss Fight. It's shaped up to be a huge threat that had wiped out almost an entire race in the past. You're given the game's most powerful weapons and spells before the final fight and... you can't damage the Curse with them, and it kills you in a single hit. The only thing you can do (and all you need to do) is to leave Tka-Rik to fight the Curse, cast Weaken on it and/or Strength on him, and heal him, and it'll be over in a few moments.
  • Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon: One of the final areas is filled with giants who fill the entire corridor (crawling) and deliver punches that damage your whole party and may very well kill your less rugged mages in one blow. Depending on whether the Random Number Gods like you, they may only punch once in so many turns. In contrast, the final boss is a wizard who is really a disguised dragon but who is also not even half the threat of a single giant. Though this is not because of the boss (the dragon's fire breath hurts) but because of the level design. The final boss is in an area where you can sidestep all his attacks, and the giants are not.
  • Fable II ends in this way. After being transported to the Tattered Spire to confront Lucien, he is killed by the player (or by Reaver, if you take too long) by simply shooting him once. Fable III lampshades the hell out of it ("What kind of rubbish game lets you kill the villain in one hit?!")
  • Fallout has both a Big Bad and The Dragon, but it's possible to kill them both without ever meeting them. You can kill Lou Tenant near the vats by hacking into the computers near his office and activating the base's self-destruct command. The Master, for some reason, has a live nuclear warhead in his Vault compound, which you can set the timer on and then get out of there. Fighting them straight-up, though, is another story.
    • Similarly, the final boss of Fallout 2 was absolutely brutal, and borderline impossible... unless you hack the turrets in his room and convince a squad of Enclave soldiers to back you with a high Science and Speech skill, respectively. After that, he can still kill you easily if you're not careful, but he'll go down fairly easily.
    • Fallout: New Vegas gives your character a whole lot of motivation to kill Benny, but dealing him his death is rather simple. He can go out with a whimper through Out with a Bang, or dismissed to crucifixion. If you face him in combat on his own turf, his weak trophy gun makes him no tougher than the rest of his gang. He was supposedly an expert knife-fighter from his tribal days, but can be faced in single combat in an arena with mediocre unarmed skill.
    • There's also Caesar, who, should you go out of your way to assassinate him, is a pushover compared to his Praetorians and Dragon. Of course, the actual challenge is simply getting there and getting out, considering he has an entire camp of Legionnaires surrounding him. (And in fairness, he's in his 50s and he has a brain tumor, that'd probably impede his fighting skills a bit.)
    • His counterpart, General Lee Oliver, isn't much better (though, oddly, Oliver can beat Caesar in a fight without much trouble). The only challenge in the fight is his rangers, which, if you're at the point of facing Oliver, you've already killed plenty of. If you've gotten your hands on upgraded Securitrons, they become a greater threat to you than Oliver, in the five seconds of them indiscriminately bombarding his position with rockets.
    • If you choose to fight him, Salt-Upon Wounds in Honest Hearts is as tough an opponent a boss is likely to be by himself. However, you're fighting alongside the Burned Man himself, who will curb stomp him and his mooks easily even if you do nothing at all.
    • Old World Blues has Dr. Mobius after the GIANT ROBO-SCORPION in the FORBIDDEN ZONE — which is, yes — FORBIDDEN TO YOU! You don't even have to fight Dr. Mobius if you don't want to. Indeed, it turns out that the threatening messages he keeps sending out were recorded when he OD'd on Psycho and didn't know what he was doing, and he was just trying to protect you from being 'studied' by the Think Tank to figure out a way to leave Big Mountain. If you do, he's a pushover. And after that, you'll either have to talk down or fight the Think Tank.
      • Even if you do choose to fight the Think Tank, it is ridiculously easy once you've retrieved your actual brain, to the point that Talking the Monster to Death is really just there for some Video Game Caring Potential. This is also acknowledged in that they aren't especially equipped for battle and haven't had a combat drill in decades, which sends them into a panic once it turns out their safeguards for this don't work anymore.
        Doctor Klein: DOES THIS WEAPON HAVE SOFT LOCK? ANYONE?
    • Father Elijah, the final boss of Dead Money, is pretty easy to kill in combat alone (plus you can hack a terminal to cause the turrets in the room to shoot him). The hardest part of the fight is escaping the vault after your bomb collar's detonation sequence is activated, since you have 60 seconds to go back the way you came (even though the entrance is 20 steps away, but is blocked by a laser barrier). However, you don't even need to fight him in the first place. As soon as the door opens, you can start your escape, and by the time Elijah realizes you tricked him into coming into the vault and starts the 60 second timer, you'll be less than 10 seconds from the elevator (which is a one-way trip, trapping Elijah in the vault forever). Of course, after everything you went through to get here, you deserve a break.
    • Fallout 3:
      • Despite being an advanced A.I., President Eden can be convinced to commit suicide with just two mid-level Speech checks. The argument that convinces him to kill himself isn't particularly impressive either, as it basically just amounts to telling him that he sucks and should die. And if your Science skill is high enough, you don't even have to attempt those. Furthermore, Eden's self-destruction code is in Autumn's office, not exactly well-hidden either.
      • Colonel Autumn is one dude with a coat and a laser pistol, with two standard Enclave soldiers flanking him. It's often theorized that 3's ending levels were balanced around the assumption that the player would be doing a Low-Level Run, and consequently even a mid-level character (much less one that's managed the Absurdly Low Level Cap) can end up blowing his head off in a single shotgun blast.
      • As for the Optional Bosses from the DLCs: General Jingwei at the end of Operation Anchorage can be convinced to fall on his sword if you have a high enough Speech Skill. If not, prepare for a long fight. The Alien Captain at the end of Mothership Zeta has the same stats as the unshielded alien mooks.
  • Freedom Force: The Big Bad is a brutal Multiversal Conqueror. He's also four feet tall and barely tougher than his henchmen. However, after you beat him, you face a tough, suitably epic fight against the Greater-Scope Villain. But even then, Microwave can hold him down single handedly.
  • Golden Sun: Dark Dawn:
    • The boss of Tanglewood. It's your typical Warmup Boss and it's in the beginning of the game, but it's anticlimatic due to Garet and Isaac assisting you with their strength and summons, allowing you to win the fight in just a few turns.
    • In a series with Superbosses being noticeably more difficult than the rest of the game, the Ogre Titans stand out as easier than the storyline bosses. You need the Infinity +1 Sword that they are weak to to fight them in the first place, they start the fight off slow to allow you to buff, and only use physical attacks (which do minimal damage thanks to the easy buffs).
    • Blados and Chalis. No One-Hit KO attacks and no Djinn screws, both of which are standard for Golden Sun bosses. At worst, they can do some Mana Burn and some Status Effects, which can be healed or even ignored if you aren't depending heavily on Psynergy. The second battle is even worse, as they have barely changed at all, while your group has leveled up and gained new allies, weapons, and Djinn. Their new ally is more dangerous, but the battle can be ended by just beating the main two first.
  • Gothic:
    • In the first game, the final boss just stands there occasionally sending demons or firing fireballs at you. Its human bodyguards present a much greater threat.
    • Gothic 2 had a similar issue, especially if you're a mage. The final boss is an undead dragon, and most players pick up the spell "destroy undead" at some time or other. They fixed this in the expansion by giving all dragons insane regeneration and high armour.
  • The Final Boss Pope Zera in Grandia II is initially very tough, having superimposed his will over the dark god Valmar's. But after the first time you beat him, the Valmar portion breaks apart and he flees, leaving the pieces of Valmar you collected earlier in the game behind him to stall you. Every single one turns out to be stronger than he is, the only dangerous spell he has is the game's ultimate explosion-damage spell, but you can see it coming a mile away and all your characters are faster than him, fast enough to knock him out of it and cost him a turn while he's charging up. He also has a meager 32000 HP, which makes it possible to kill him in two to four turns if you're strong enough. But the two most glaring weaknesses he has are that 1: He is a single target, while all other bosses had multiple parts or allies to prevent you from just cancelling all their attacks, and 2: he is not affected by Contractual Boss Immunity to Millenia's Spellbinding Eye, which renders him completely immobile for several turns. Lampshaded in that the characters themselves mock him for being so pathetic before delivering the final blow. His mind may have been strong enough to bend a god to his will, but he forgot he was a puny human beneath all that bluster.
  • Kingdom Hearts: The game typically doesn't slouch on its boss fights, but there exist a couple of notable exceptions:
    • Behemoth, the last boss encounter of Hollow Bastion, is quite pathetic in comparison to the gauntlet of bosses that precede it, namely Dragon-Maleficent and Ansem-Riku, in numerous ways — it slogs around its boss arena at a snail's pace, takes ages to turn around, its only offensive attacks are its slow stomps and an easily-telegraphed homing energy shot, it keels over when hit a few times, allowing you to pile on more damage for a good ten seconds or sonote , and it's cripplingly weak to Gravity magic. Any damage Behemoth actually manages to do becomes moot when you realize you can heal up the entire party twice in the time it takes for him to get off one measly attack. The only nuisance with the fight is the fact that you have to hit the horn on its head to damage it, which is high up above the ground... except this is easily mitigated by simply jumping up onto its back and wailing away at it on its shoulders. Behemoth is so laughably easy that it shows up at least a few more times as a Degraded Boss during the final level and Coliseum tournaments.
    • The Hades Cup in the Olympus Coliseum sports several encounters that earn their chops as certified Superbosses — the Dual Boss of Leon and Cloud, the rematch with Cerberus, and the encounter with Hades himself are all quite challenging. The very last opponent in the Hades Cup is the Rock Titan, who has HP and attack strength that rivals that of the other bonafide Superbosses... and attacks that take weeks to connect and can be seen from a mile away, making it very unlikely that it will manage a single hit on you while you and your companions hack away at it for a good ten minutes until it crumbles to dust.
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Despite their colossal size, both Balor and Tirnoch (respectively Climax Boss and Final Boss) are quite easy. Some mook encounters can be more difficult than those two fights.
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords:
    • Darth Nihilus. You spend half the game scared to death of facing him because the dude eats planets. But then, you reach him. You have back-up, he can't feed on your character because the Exile's Force connection is... peculiar (the same as his), and he goes down in maybe 30 seconds.
    • There's even an option to sacrifice one of your teammates to weaken his power, which is completely pointless and makes you wonder just how underlevelled the devs seemed to think you would be at that point. Note that the Exile near the end of this game can easily destroy most other "bosses", except maybe Darth Sion and Traya. But that only serves to improve the constant feeling near the end of how awesome your character is, nothing quite like defeating Atris with a single blow. Or just use Force Crush, which cannot be defended against. Evil Is Cool indeed!
    • Traya is ridiculously easy to defeat. All you have to do is walk around the three lightsabres she floats in front of her and it becomes a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Lands of Lore 2: The final battle against Belial. If you're good, you will finish him off with a single blow. It might very well be a glitch though, because if you're playing evil, you're in for a very tough fight, followed by another one against the Draracle.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III: There's at least two.
    • Class VIInote  as well as Aurelia, fight against Arianrhod and the Stahlritter at Juno Naval Fortress at the climax of chapter 3. Many remember Arianrhod as being That One Boss in Trails to Azure due to how absurd her health was, including the fact that she has two phases: one with the helmet on and one with the helmet off. So many people expected that with all four of them, this would have been one of the most epic and anticipated fights in the series. It unfortunately doesn't live up to the hype, mostly thanks to the numerous amounts of Game-Breaker setups the player has access to at this point, and Aurelia is Purposely Overpowered for this portion of the game. In fact, the Aion Type Alpha-II in the Divine Knight fight, literally the next fight, posed more of a challenge.
    • The Final Boss battle is easier than the battles you fight to reach it, which are against groups of hard enemies. After each battle two or three of the party say The Rest Shall Pass, and the party is down to four for the final fight. The boss has a huge health pool (over one million HP), but it doesn't hit very hard, and there's one of it and four in the party, so it's easy for the party to heal and buff each other while they grind the boss down.
  • Live A Live:
    • OD-10 from Cube's chapter. The entire chapter lacked battles, so Cube is incapable of having leveled up. But OD-10 is pretty disappointing, nonetheless. It has eight little spheres around it, healing OD-10, whenever they get hit. The spheres can be easily taken out with one attack. OD-10 itself has no attack that damages Cube a whole lot and can be easily defeated by having Cube stand right next to it and letting OD-10 hit him. His counter is always activated and eventually deals enough damage to kill it.
    • Streibough in Oersted's chapter. The final boss of the scenario and, while the emotional aspect is there, a pitiful battle in general. The boss is not a fighter, anyway, and one or two attacks can easily kill.
    • In the Final chapter, after defeating the Big Bad of the game, Odio the Lord of Dark, the boss then turns into his original Oersted form. This boss is still intent on fighting and the player can, but the parameters have been altered to their original form, making this a pitifully easy battle to win, even if it's a Duel Boss. However, this counts as a Bad Ending.
    • If the player chooses to not fight the Big Bad in his changed form, but let him live, he will send all of the previous bosses at the player in a Boss Rush. But they are rehashes and, with your leveled-up party, are nowhere near the threat they were in the original chapters.
    • The Gamahebi in Oboromaru's chapter can be this, if the player has gone through the scenario, in a specific manner.
  • Lunar: Dragon Song: The four dragons. The plot makes you expect one hell of a fight, as do the graphics — the dragon is so big your characters are shrunk slightly to fit them on the screen. But the dragon will go into rest mode, not to awaken until the next turn ends, if you hit it hard enough... which is easy to do. Rinse, repeat. Unless you're underlevelled, the dragons are the easiest bosses in the game. One exception to the rule is the Black Dragon, who will eventually take a form of a darkened version of Jian who won't be stunned like the other dragons while in this form and also inherits Jian's special ability of attacking three times at once and stacking damage. This, however, is hardly an exception, because once you learn Dark Jian only attacks when your Jian attacks and mimics every other command Jian does, you can make your Jian stall by using items or cards while Dark Jian will continuously heal himself with HP Gabryel and Flora can tear through anyways.
  • Mass Effect 2:
    • At the end of the suicide mission, the player faces the Human Reaper. It's basically a fetus. A giant, Eldritch Abomination robot fetus. Made of people. If you just want to get it over with, using the M-920 Cain (read: portable mini-nuke launcher) takes off 2/3 of its HP. However, unless you have your Heavy Weapon Ammo research completely maxed, you can only fire it once. Not like you really need to, anyway. It's easy enough to beat without firing a nuclear bomb at it.
    • In the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, the titular boss is really ineffective: slow, not giving much of a punch, fragile. But you still have to pass through three stages like this.
  • Mass Effect 3:
    • Kai Leng, who was built up as a badass in cutscenes where he: kills Thane/Kirrahe/the Salarian councilor, outsmarts Shepard, shows off abilities similar to a Phantomnote , and seriously wounds and possibly kills Miranda. When he actually confronts you in gameplay, he loses all of the abilities he had in cutscenes, instead favoring just running around and taking potshots at you with his Power Palms, which is weaker than the version used by normal Phantoms. It's almost impossible to lose to him in both fights unless you do absolutely nothing note  or run into a grenade thrown by one of his flunkies. One of the upgraded forms of the Lash ability from the Omega DLC pierces shields and barriers as long as they have health. Kai Leng only has shields and health. If you have a fast enough recharge time, you can kill him so quickly that the game fails to recognise it and you have to load a save.
    • The Illusive Man. Either you just shoot him in a quick-time trigger or he shoots himself.
  • Mega Man Battle Network:
    • Mega Man Battle Network 1 was rather weak in terms of boss health — nobody surpassed 1000HP in the game, unlike the sequels. The final boss, the Life Virus, was basically a glorified virus with a very predictable moveset and a shield that went down long enough to whale on its health and waste it in so early as one turn flat with the proper battlechips. To be honest, you can soley rely on the Program Advance Guts Shoot — it does 500 damage, so two hits of that will pulverize any boss lacking a protective barrier or guard.
    • Mega Man Battle Network 2: after a long, LOOOONG day of backtracking back and forth through the entire net, you finally come face-to-face with Gospel's Supreme Commander, (not really) Freezeman! ...Unfortunately, what could have been a climactic fight is rendered an utter joke by two simple facts: He's Aqua Element. And standing on Ice Panels. Both of these cause you to take double damage from Elec attacks, and they stack. 3 guesses as to how you take him down in a matter of seconds.
    • Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar and Cybeast Falzar: Falzar is a letdown of a final boss compared to previous ones in the series, having less than 2000 HP (which was the standard amount for every game past the first), easily avoided attacks, and not being a particularly difficult target (Evasiveness being the usual justification for less HP). Its opposite version counterpart, Gregar, puts up much more of a fight in every regard, although it is relatively easy as well.
  • Monster Girl Quest: The Imp, which Luka feels "great power" coming from in an earlier scene. Doubles as a Zero-Effort Boss, as all you need to do is attack. If you choose to hit her with your most powerful technique instead, she is so terrorized that she starts running away (though not fast enough). Quadruples as a Bait-and-Switch Boss and a Breather Boss, because what the power is really coming from appears right after it and right before you fight the Four Heavenly Knights. Alice the 16th also counts, but for a different reason. It's not at all that she's weak, but rather you're too strong. It's possible to win with Sylph and Undine alone because of how powerful Luka's control over the spirits is.
  • Monster Racers: The Legendary Racer, Misaki. After That One Duel Boss, you face someone who is not very fast, lacks an on-start Nitro Boost or other such gimmicks, has no terrain bonus, and.... well, is just one racer as opposed to three. Exactly the opposite of the previous fight, making this even less climatic.
  • NetHack: Vlad resides in the bottom half of the dungeon and, while not the final boss, is a required kill. However, he is so easy at that point that some people have used a "Vladsbane", which is basically a random, weak object made even weaker if possible, to defeat him. Some forks of the game, such as UnNetHack, have made an effort to increase his danger level, and eventually he was upgraded considerably in version 3.6.1 of regular NetHack to make him more of a challenge.
  • Neverwinter Nights:
    • In the vanilla campaign, Blackguard Aribeth does not have any resistance whatsoever to Harm, a cleric spell that drains the target down to their last few HP. Also, the cleric henchman automatically prepares this spell every day and uses it against opponents without needing to be told to. Net result: near-instantaneous surrender or death, and you don't even need to know the spell yourself.
    • Thanks the lack of Useless Useful Spells, plenty of bosses in Neverwinter Nights 2 can wind up dying in just a few rounds. A cleric PC is particularly well-equipped, with Harm to kill tough enemies, Slay Living to kill strong-willed enemies, and Heal to kill undead. The only threatening bosses for a cleric by the third act of the game are the dragons.
  • OFF: Both final bosses are real pushovers. The context of these boss fights is that near the end, you can chose to root for one of two opposing people: The Batter and the Judge. No matter who you choose, the fight will be very easy. The bosses both have an absurdly low HP stat equivalent to the very first boss, and if that wasn't enough, you will additionally get a huge advantage depending on who you choose. If you choose to play as the Judge, he will be at an extremely high level; his strongest attack can 2HKO the boss. In case you want to stretch out the suffering a little, he also has a Palsy-inflicting attack the boss is not immune to. Meanwhile, the Add-Ons, which would have balanced out the fight, are nowhere to be found. If you choose to play as the Batter, you will outnumber the boss four to one. And if even that wasn't enough, you can cheese the boss battle entirely by choosing to play as the character you are rooting against, and then lose on purpose. Not that it would be necessary.
  • Ōkamiden: Akuro, once you figure out how to stop That One Attack. His fire and lightning attacks can be stopped with Galestorm, which you're required to get, and stopping said attacks leaves him vulnerable. If he uses his ice attack, you have to back up and avoid his hands, which isn't that hard. Did the sidequest to get Fireburst? You can stop his ice attack, too. Worried about ink? The hands drop it (along with health) if they're attacked. Of course, once you defeat him, he powers up...
  • Penny Arcade Adventures:Charles in Episode Two. It's even lampshaded: "SISSY BOSS FIGHT!!!"
  • Persona 3:
    • The members of Strega have spent the entire game hounding your team, even killing one of your members. Yet when you finally get the chance to face them outside of a cutscene, they're... well, pathetic. There are random encounters that are more complicated and dangerous than them.
    • This trope applies to all bosses fought outside the Tartarus, despite them being the plot critical fights. Word of God is that since the player has a lot less time to prepare for them, they were made easier on purpose.
  • Persona 4: Adachi is very easy to beat for having been the murderer you spent the whole game tracking down, having attacks that only do mild damage and only one turn to your team's four. This is perhaps justified considering that he doesn't have the same level of combat experience that your team does, since he only entered the TV World for the first time recently. However, after defeating him, he's revealed to have been possessed by a much stronger enemy with more hard-hitting attacks and two moves per turn. And even then, it's only an alter-ego of the game's True Final Boss.
  • Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: The Merciful Clergyman, the boss of the second dungeon. For a boss, he doesn't have all that much HP, and doesn't hit very hard outside of him main gimmick: he'll place a "vow" on the party, preventing you from using a certain command. (Like Attack, Skill, or Items) What makes him such a joke is that he has no vow against Poison damage, and he happens to be very vulnerable to Poison.
  • Persona 5:
    • The boss battle against the traitor is even easier, as not only do they have an extremely predictable attack pattern, but at this point in the game, the player likely has every resource available to defeat them. Goro alternates between two sets of attack patterns (physical barrier + two physical attacks, magical barrier + two mid-level magic spells when his health falls halfway), and his most dangerous attacks (Desperation, which spikes attack at the cost of defense, and Leviatine, a very powerful Almighty attack) are situational (he'll do the former if he knocks down a party member; he'll do the latter once he's low on health).
    • The last Mementos quest is the toughest and the only quest ranked at the highest S-Rank(Royal demotes the boss to an A-Rank while adding in more difficult S-Rank targets), pitting the team against Mara. Mara will always open the battle with Tarukaja (increases its Attack), which the player can easily remove through Tarunda (decreasing opponent's Attack) or Dekaja (nullifies opponent's buffs). Cue Mara using Tarukaja again, followed by Dekaja, and a pitifully easy battle.
    • The Mementos targets for Takemi and Iwai's Confidants are rather easy compared to other Targets. This may be because their Confidants are among the first to open up, although they have steep stat requirements for the events unlocking the requests (Takemi's requires Rank 4 Charm, while Iwai's requires maxed out Guts).
    • The new 3rd semester Final Boss of Royal has three forms, and while the first one puts up a fight, the second form is more of an interactive cutscene than a battle, and the third outright is a Cutscene Boss. A bit of a let down for the final opponent, who is a Persona-user who evolves their Persona for the second and third phases.
  • Planescape: Torment:
    • The end boss is easier to fight than most of the bosses who came before him, especially if you found enough secrets to jack your stats up much higher than they would normally be by the end of the game. The real fun, though, is in the multiple ways you can win the fight, including several ways you can convince him to give up and merge back with you.
    • Even more amusing: Remembering that Vhailor is said to gain more power when he faces great injustice, reviving him, and siccing him on the Transcendent One. Vhailor will literally gain enough power to kill a god single-handedly when faced with the level of evil the Transcendent One represents, while you laugh and laugh and laugh.
  • Return to Krondor: The final boss, 7-foot-tall pirate leader Bear, dies automatically after you click the cursor on him to attack him (due largely to your character having been transformed into a absurdly overpowered avatar with 16 attacks per turn and a huge flaming greatsword).
  • Rune Factory Oceans: The Legendary Golem. This thing was the antagonist's trump card, and it seemed like a pretty good one: it took all of the final bosses of the DS games working together to merely seal it away the first time, and the ensuing battle created the world. But well, he's back, and there's little that our heroes can do to stop him besides going up there and giving him an old-fashioned beatdown. Here we go! Punch punch punch. Punch punch punch. Punch punch punch.
  • Salt and Sanctuary:
    • The Untouched Inquisitor, in terms of story, is one of the most vile players in this whole game, having purged the Dome of Light, an utterly devoted and joyful church of the same religion he had, because his twisted mind saw sin in it. All the lore you find within the now-forgotten Dome speaks of his destruction of the place, how he sacrificed everyone inside to fit his version of holiness and made restless phantoms out of everyone involved so that his "Untouched" could flourish. The Untouched Inquisitor, in terms of gameplay, is probably the easiest boss due to his somewhat predictable (if high-range) attacks and frankly unimpressive damage, and the only difficulties he poses are the fact he can float around (giving melee builds some difficulty) and that he has decent knockback to his strikes. Ultimately, the fails to match up to the lore that hypes him up and ends up eclipsed to the once-proud, now enslaved pet of the Dome whose will he personally broke.
    • The Unskinned and the Architect fall under this as well. They simply don't put up that much of a fight, because one of them is a dumb brute whose style of attack you've already seen several times, and the other's attack style relies more on positioning and traps, and thus isn't much of a threat to someone who's learned proper positioning, and gets utterly gimped to uselessness if her brutish partner dies. The fact the lore makes the pair one of the most powerful entities in the whole island does not help them much. Neither does their story-wise position: they're stuck between the most infamously hard boss of the game (who is related by family to one of the pair) and either The Dragon to the final enemy and the entity responsible for sinking your ship at the start, or a triple encounter that is significantly harder and also a big Wham Episode as a whole.
  • Shin Megami Tensei II: It's accepted by many that the endgame bosses starting with, depending on route, Lucifer or Sabaoth are the toughest. On Neutral, however, there's an extra boss fought in between Lucifer and the Godly bosses: Kuzuryu, the gigantic dragon controlled by Lucifer that had gone berserk after his death and threatens to destroy the world and kill everyone. Stephen and even Daleth ask Aleph to kill it...only for a joke of a fight to start that, if the party is strong enough, can be auto-battled — while Lucifer had deadly status attacks and Satan and YHVH can one hit kill a character, Kuzuryu has nothing going for it.
  • Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne: The Final Boss, Kagutsuchi. While having an awesome premise, two forms, all of the high-tier elemental skills, and extremely powerful Almighty attacks exclusive to him... there's nothing much really to him. Buffing and debuffing as normal generally works, as he rarely cancels them, and provided you do that, even his ultimate attacks do little damage.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: Pillar Zelenin, the final boss of the Chaos path. Notably, the fight is more or less identical to the fight against Judge Zelenin, which could potentially be the first boss after the alignment lock if you're on the Neutral path. (The first objective after the alignment lock is to collect four MacGuffins and these can be collected in any order; this boss guards one of them in the Neutral path, though it is notably the only one that's a true boss rather than a Mini-Boss and can come as a shock to New Game Plus players who had already played the Chaos path and were expecting the same Mini-Boss that guarded that one on that path.) While it's still no cakewalk, it pales in comparison to the Final Boss of the other two paths (which legitimately rivals the Optional Bosses in difficulty).
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV: The bosses of the "Errand for the Apocalypse" quest — the Horsemen of the Apocalypse all fought at once. Players who have challenged the individual riders in their respective 1/256 chance battles may go in expecting a battle that requires being Crazy-Prepared, only to discover that the four Riders are actually quite weak in this battle: They lack the terrifying high-end attacks that they use when fought individually, and have no more than 2000 HP each, making them easy to kill with a few Area of Effect attacks by a team capable of handling the individual Riders.
  • Skies of Arcadia: Unless you're spectacularly underleveled, Galcian, of all people is this when not in Hopeless Boss Fight mode. His attacks are easy to recover from, contain no debilitating Status effects (aside from the entirely-blockable Eterni spells), and he goes down after a couple Pirate's Wraths and Prophecies. Guess that's why he's not the final boss...
  • Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood: The final form of Emperor Ix, where his two previous forms did ridiculous damage if you missed even one tap or drag on the touch screen, and had defense like crazy. Of course, this is because Super Sonic has been activated for the final fight, and by the end of the game you have the eye-hand coordination to pull off the simple rapid tapping patterns. In fact, the boss is designed for you to beat it in one round (because he regenerates to full health after the turn), and you have more than enough chances to do him in even if you somehow screw up the first round.
  • Tales of Symphonia:
    • Mithos. Not only is he the final boss of the game, but he's the Big Bad for the end of the game too. He's easily beatable by the time you finish the game, and can be beaten with relative ease with just spellcasters (yes, that includes Colette). He has a somewhat annoying status effect-inflicting attack in his first form — Rejection — but isn't too hard.
    • The duel-battle against Kratos late in the game. It's presented as a very important battle, in terms of emotions for the characters and storyline, as defeating this boss means you will be offered a pact with Origin, so you can obtain the Material Blade. Since it's a duel, you only get to fight as Lloyd. Problem this, the boss is a pushover — he still uses some of the spells he used when you were fighting him with a full team the last few times, but lacks the bigger damaging spells like Judgement and doesn't even use his Overlimit. The battle is likely made easier, to compensate for the fact that one has to fight it solo, but fails to live up to the in-game tension that was being built up. The post-battle scene also implies that the boss wasn't going all-out, after all, due to being a Death Seeker.
    • Despite being the penultimate plot-mandated Summon Spirit to obtain, the battle against Luna and Asuka. They are fought only after having gotten the other elemental Summon Spirits, which includes Shadow, whose element they are weak to. The player also has obtained the Tethe Seal: Dark skill for Sheena and the Amethyst, a skill and accessory that make the target's/wearer's attacks Dark-elemental, which means you go into the battle with more than enough options to make whatever weapon your party has equipped strong against the Light Summon Spirits.
  • Tales of Xillia turns the real Maxwell into a pitifully easy boss in Milla's route, because it skips the previous three phases that were unwinnable on Jude's route and the boss is also very susceptible to the Four Elemental Spirits, which the player had quite some time getting used to using in-battle, making the boss a pushover.
  • Tales of Berseria has two notable ones as a form of Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • Therion Teresa, despite being a Therion, proves to be the weakest of them all. The boss is of all things, weak to void damage meaning your party will probably run circles around them. Teresa armatized with a therion, it was intended to be done with Malaks — and she's not in her best mind at all. However, this turns out to be a trap — since the boss right after this is considered to be one of the hardest (non-optional) battles in the game.
    • Aifread. The entire game is spent listening to Eizen and his crew hyping him up as this badass. Yet, like the example above, the boss is weak to void, is somewhat slow, and is more of a Breather Boss if anything. By this point it's a Mercy Kill. You aren't fighting Aifread at full strength, you're fighting a twisted parody of him after he had been tortured by the abbey's experiments.
      • The same can be said of Shenlong, a dragon who, when you first fight it, is a Hopeless Boss Fight. When you finally do manage to fight it in a sidequest, it's significantly easier since by that point, you've chased it around so much it's tired, and In-Universe, it's a Mercy Kill.
  • Trials of Mana: Out of all the three final bosses, the Masked Mage, Kevin and Charlotte's final boss, happens to be considered the easiest, posing very little threat compared to the Dragon Lord and the Dark Majesty. This owes to the fact that he's simply a slow-moving wall of health that mostly uses powerful offensive spells on occasion. One of the heroes who happens to be linked to him story-wise can learn an attack that deals maximum amounts of damage to this boss.
  • Undertale:
    • Mettaton NEO, available only in the Genocide Run. The previous boss, Undyne the Undying, was the second-hardest boss fight in the entire game, so one may think that this boss ramps up the difficulty even further. Not at all; He can be killed in a single turn. In fact, if you try to wait for him to attack, he does not attack at all. It is impossible to lose.
    • The Pacifist Run's final boss, Asriel Dreemurr, also counts. His presentation and music are very impressive, and his attacks are quite difficult to dodge, but all challenge is instantly thrown out the window when you realize that you can't actually lose the fight. Whenever you "die", you simply get right back up and continue to fight the boss.
    • As Undertale is a game that encourages the player to avoid lethal solutions entirely, most later bosses on a Neutral run can end up being this to a player who doesn't shy away from killing but doesn't actively go out of their way to kill enough monsters to trigger a No Mercy run (which has new, very powerful bosses). They are designed to be challenging to a level 1 player, where you have 20 HP, while even a relatively modest level 6 (out of 20) doubles that and gives you additional defense.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: The character who for story purposes is The Dragon turns out for gameplay purposes to be the final boss. It's a nice two-stage fight, which might lead some to think an even bigger one is coming up. But he just gets killed in a cut scene. Completely justified because his Clan is Ventrue, a Clan that usually never bothers to get their hands dirty because they specialize in Mind Control, gambits, and having lots of Mooks at their command.
  • Wild ARMs 2: Played with a little bit, featuring a Puzzle Boss that could only be killed with an Instant Death ability.
  • Your Bizarre Adventure (a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Fan Game): Despite his formidable Stand abilities, ability to inflict bleed damage, and status as the storyline's Final Boss, the Boss of Passione can be easily defeated by exploiting his predictable AI. If left to his own devices, he invariably delivers a series of normal attacks that conclude with a heavy punch that can be perfect blocked, leaving him open to whatever the player can throw at him for a time. Thus, continuously blocking until an opening presents itself takes a lot of the challenge out of the battle.


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