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Looks like those team building exercises paid off.

"Folks they always complain.
'Bout how their bosses are pains,
but I can't sympathize
because before my eyes
are TWO BOSSES! It drives me insane!"

All too often, an adventurer manages to make it to the last floor of a dungeon to retrieve the Holy Talisman of Power... but finds that he has to fight two bosses at the same time. He has just come face to face with a Dual Boss.

A Dual Boss is a pair (or group) of bosses that you must fight at the same time (not one at a time). These are two or more fully powered bosses, as opposed to a Flunky Boss who decided to bring his Mooks along for the ride, or a Wolfpack Boss where the members wouldn't really qualify as bosses by themselves.

Dual Bosses may be identical or complementary: Popular combinations include a Mighty Glacier paired with a Fragile Speedster, a Warrior with a Squishy Wizard, or similar combination of opposites. Character-wise, they are often The Dividual, twins, siblings, lovers, or just partners or identical constructs/vehicles.

Dual Bosses usually start out fairly, alternating attacks every few seconds or hits (with the exception of the occasional Combination Attack) in patterns that give the player opportunities to evade and strike back or making the bosses hit each other. This teamwork may disintegrate as their health declines however, and as they Turn Red, they might begin attacking the player independently — although it's not uncommon for each boss to fight individually straight from the outset. If the bosses attack with complementary elemental powers, they may hit the player with a Yin-Yang Bomb.

Defeating one boss often causes the other to Turn Red to maintain pressure on the player: the trope for these cases is Kill One, Others Get Stronger. Otherwise, the battle becomes significantly easier once the player has taken one of them out. Some more vindictive bosses may have the ability to revive each other if the player doesn't kill the second boss fast enough. They might be in Synchronization with the same Shared Life-Meter, halving the effort required if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, they might escalate the fight with a Fusion Dance that merges them into a more powerful single boss.

Not to be confused with the Duel Boss. Compare Cognizant Limbs, Wolfpack Boss, Asteroids Monster. A Puppet Fighter is a character in a fighting game who functions as this trope to anyone who faces them.


Examples:

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    Action-Adventure Games 
  • ANNO: Mutationem: In the underground facility, two sword-wielding cyborgs attack Ann. During the fight, they'll both either fight Ann at once or one of them will retreat to recover before jumping back in.
  • Bound by Blades have the Orikaras, a Battle Couple of elemental-powered demons who fights you before the last boss. They take turns attacking with either water or fire projectiles, but you can only harm them one at a time (the female half, then the male half).
  • Cave Story:
    • The Final Boss has you fight the Undead Core, alongside a transformed Sue and Misery. On top of that Misery also summons more creatures for you to kill.
    • Earlier in the game, a pair of dragons function as a Skippable Boss, as pictured above.
  • Demon Hunter: The Return of the Wings: Kira and Kiba fight together. Aside from both of them being a Moveset Clone of Gun's two classes, they have a unique Combination Attack and fully revive each other if not defeated at the same time.
  • In Ghostbusters: The Video Game, you at one point have to fight two powerful ghosts named Cruster and Crusto at the same time in the library.
  • Goof Troop has the red and blue skeletons at the end of Stage 3, followed in the next stage by Green Rumbler and Red Rumbler.
  • Hollow Knight:
    • The Fungal Wastes has the three Mantis Lords, which are this with a dose of Sequential Boss. Their first phase has you fighting just one, but when she's defeated, the other two will attack you at once. They alternate between launching their nails at you simultaneously and charging you in quick succession individually. The Godmaster Boss Bonanza DLC has a variant where you fight all three at once.
    • The final boss of the first Godhome Pantheon is a fight against two of the Nailmasters. The battle starts with Oro by himself, but Mato will join after damaging Oro enough and they will both fight at the same time.
  • La-Mulana does this with the Mini Bosses Gozu and Mezu. Another interesting example is Amphisbaena, which is a single creature but it has a head on each end, so the spirit is the same.
  • The Legend of Zelda series:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Lanmolas, minibosses from the last dungeon, are always fought in pairs, requiring Link to keep track of both speedy menaces while trying to take each one out.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: The Gohmas in their dungeon stage. Weirdly, these are placed in a location where beating them isn't essential. Link's Awakening also has dual Dodongo Snakes as mini-bosses in three dungeons. This game marks the tradition of later games having minibosses that like to show up in pairs, such as Lizalfos, Stalfos and Darknuts. Sometimes with the added catch that both need to be defeated in quick succession or they come back to life.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Koume and Kotake, the witches in Spirit Temple, at least until they merge together and form Twinrova. Their respective elemental attacks are based on fire and ice, and their weaknesses are ice and fire; thus, reflecting one's attack to the other with the Mirror Shield will be key (when merged, they're weak to both elements, but only when the shield has accumulated enough energy from the same element and is fully charged). They're also fought in a linked game of Oracle of Ages and Seasons.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The last boss (Twinmold, the giant centipedes) before Majora, found in Stone Tower Temple. Due to their gigantic size, using the Giant's Mask is recommended (though not required). In the 3DS remake, the mask is required, but can only be used when one of the worms is defeated.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: The Gyorg Pair, the boss of the Palace of Winds, with the twist that you have to jump between the larger and smaller flying creatures. Also, the Temple of Droplets has you fight two Madderpillars (the Mini-Boss of the first dungeon) at once.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: Gleeok in the Temple of Ice — while its two heads are attached to one body, that body is never seen, although the same is not true of Gleeok in other games.
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: The Heedles, the minibosses of the House of Gales, are fought as a pair, requiring Link to keep track of two speedy, fire-trailing foes at the same time.
    • Hyrule Warriors: Zelda and Link serve as one for Ganondorf in the Battle for the Triforce stage; if you don't strike them both down at once, they will keep getting back up. this is offset a little by the fact that when you take down one, you have a sizable time frame (less than a minute) to defeat the other, so it's not required to somehow have both of them in the same sector to accomplish the mission. Made easier in Legends and Definitive Edition, where you can control and swap between more than one character on the battlefield.
  • The end of the first "episode" of LEGO Batman features a dual boss fight involving Batman, Robin, the Riddler and Two-Face. It's somewhat reminiscent of Batman Forever.
  • Mander and Dogman from MediEvil 2, both of which are faced together on two occasions.
  • Ōkami: Lechku and Nechku, faced in Wawku Shrine. Two wolves versus two demonic clockwork gentlemanly owls. The owls are the bosses.
  • Ōkamiden: The game has Sen and Ryo, fought at the end of the Playhouse. Later on, when King Fury Turns Red, he summons a copy of himself that performs the same attacks he does.
  • No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has New Destroyman, two cyborgs made from the severed halves of the original Destroyman. One of them fights Shinobu up close with punches, while the other one fights at a distance with Eye Beams and runs away a lot. Because they have separate health bars and can revive each other if one dies, this fight becomes a very annoying game of chase.
  • One Piece: Unlimited Cruise has a number of Dual Boss fights.
    • Episode 1 has a battle against Captain Kuro and Don Krieg. Only the former is a real threat, almost raising the fight to That One Boss status.
    • Episode 2 has a few of them. You fight Red Haired Shanks and Dracule Mihawk at the end of island 2. There is also a bonus Dual Boss on the same island against Rob Lucci and Paulie. Island 3 has a boss fight halfway through against Kaku and Rob Lucci, both in their Devil Fruit forms.
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has the Guardian Ape return later as the Headless Ape, and it is joined by a brown-furred Ape, possibly its mate.
  • Spider-Man (PS4) has two separate levels involving fighting two members of the Sinister Six at the same time. The former battle is against Vulture and Electro, while the latter is against Scorpion and Rhino.
  • Spider-Man: Miles Morales has Peter's last training mission for Miles, which pits him against two holographic Vultures. In this case, the second Vulture was a metaphor for Peter's inexperience fighting supervillains for the first time. And since this is Peter who set the mission up, both "Vultures" exchange in some hilariously over-the-top Boss Banter.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game series:
    • Bebop and Rocksteady in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game and in the SNES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. In the former, they are both fought solo beforehand.
    • Tokka and Rahzar in both the arcade and SNES versions of Turtles In Time.
    • In Mutants In Manhatten, when the turtles reach the boss of the current stage, there's a chance that a "bonus boss" will appear and fight alongside the original boss.
  • Vagullion in Ys Origin is presented as a dual boss during the Hugo campaign, but suvberts it because one of the demons chases after Epona instead. However, the second half of this battle has Vagullion split into two.

    Action Games 
  • Another Century's Episode likes to dabble with this, sometimes pairing up major antagonists or Dragons from different series to wail on you.
  • The Adventures of Bayou Billy has gunner Schwartz N. Eiger and Lightning Rod at the end of stage 7. Then Rocky and Rocco for the final battle.
  • Both battles with Natia in Bomberman Hero. The first time, she's accompanied by the spider-like robot Cronus (though she mostly just floats around taunting you and providing Collision Damage until Cronus is defeated, making this close to a sequential boss), while the rematch suddenly reveals that she has a twin.
  • Custom Robo:
    • After attempting to break up a domestic squabble, the husband and wife who had been fighting each other turn and fight the protagonist and Harry together.
    • The tournament at the police HQ ends with the protagonist and Marcia fighting Ernest and Linda.
    • Sergei and Oboro are fought togehter twice. Subverted the second time when Sergei turns on Oboro at the start of the fight.
    • The game has Eliza and her Backup Twin, Isabella as the penultimate battle of the game.
  • Evil Genome has the Prism Sisters, two genetically-modified human sisters attacking you together as the second-to-last boss, by sending bouncing projectiles with each sister either flanking the arena's left and right, or top and bottom. They use a Shared Life-Meter however, so you only need to actually concentrate on attacking one of them.
  • In Evolva, the bomb which is about to blow up the planet is guarded by two identical giant parasytes.
  • The second to last fight in the Data East arcade game Hippodrome involves a pair of assassins. Appropriately enough, the level is called "The Twin Paradises."
  • Gungage has two Hellhounds that attacks the player in a single chamber, where they will repeatedly attempt to double-team on the player.
  • Killer7: Kurahashi and Akiba, turned into Heaven Smiles, serve as the dual boss of the second chapter (Sunset). They will send hovering brains to your character, though they can be shot. Defeating the duo requires a cryptic series of steps to hurt their real brains, and only Kaede can defeat them thanks to her scope weapon.
  • The King of Dragons features the Royal Knights in stage 12 and Cyclopes in 15. These double as recurring bosses - Black Knight is fought in stage 9 and Cyclops in 6.
  • Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade has a battle against two knights; Hell Knight and Black Knight. You fight them right before the hell entrance. The duo later returns during the Final Boss fight in which they are his summons.
  • Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance has the final battle against Deimos and Phobos. You have defeated them in separate boss battles, but as you confront Arruntius one last time, the villain then sacrifices his own daughter to revive both of them, necessitating you to defeat the two gods - this time both at once.
  • Lone Soldier has the bosses in the third stage, an urbanized area, being a husband-wife team ofsupersoldiers. The husband spams machine gun rounds all over the place as the wife use explosives instead, and can even pull a Shockwave Stomp if you got too near. The single Life Meter shown during the boss battle is actually an indication of their collective health, each which they occupied half of.
  • Metal Slug:
    • The first game has a battle with twin tanks Shoe and Karn, although given the placement where they're on separate elevations you'll only need to actually fight one at a time.
    • Variant in the fourth game; the first boss, the Cool Airship Brave Guerrier, survives its initial encounter and shows up later to back up the Sea Satan, but you'll only need to destroy the Sea Satan to complete the stage.
    • The seventh game has the Craplops, who upon defeat will detach itself into the Upper and Lower Type, attacking you as two entities.
    • Subverted with the GBA version's the Twin Dragon tanks. Despite their name, they only attack one at a time - you'll only fight the second after destroying the first.
  • Monster Eye have a rhino beetle and stag beetle monster duo in the waterfall level. They initially attacks one at a time, firstly with the rhino beetle forcing you to flee into a cavern before the stag beetle tries roughing you up with it's pincers, but as you escape to the open you're then cornered by both monsters simultaneously and have to fight them together.
  • Ninja Commando have dual or triple MiniBosses as enemies. You fight two Sumo wrestlers in Edo-period Japan, gets assailed by a trio of mummies in Egypt, and Warring States China have three musclebound mercs each holding a BFS that you must defeat before facing Lu Bu.
  • Samurai Western have a pair of midgets, Killer and Nathan, who bounces all over the place and run circles around you during their boss fight. They each have their own health bar and can be killed in any order.
  • Shantae: Half-Genie Hero:
    • Twitch and Vinegar are fought together at the end of Cape Crustacean's first section.
    • Later on, the Hypno Baron/Squid Baron boss fight at the end of Hypno Baron's castle starts after you beat Squid Baron by himself.
  • Shinobi 3DS has Trickshot, a pair of flying robots which have a combined form then split apart for the fight itself.
  • Silent Scope series:
    • Silent Scope 2 has the ninjas, Sho and Kane, two bosses that each take 10 hits from a sniper rifle, teleport around, move really fast all around the screen, and create illusions of themselves to throw off your aim.
    • The first game had the somewhat less frustrating Tom & Jerry.
  • In Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge, the final bosses for Spider-Man's levels are Carnage and the Rhino. Rhino charges back and forth on the ground while Carnage harasses you on the rooftops.
  • Time Crisis:
    • In II, you fight Wild Dog and Ernesto Diaz at the same time, though the battle ends with Wild Dog being defeated and you later fight Diaz in the final battle. Then in Time Crisis 3, Wild Dog and his younger partner Wild Fang fight you together.
    • In the spin-off, Crisis Zone, the office level ends with a battle against the URDA's two lead enforcers, Tiger and Edgey, who attacks you at the same time. Approximately 80% of difficulties from said battle comes from Edgey, though - while Tiger hits like a tank, his attacks are relatively easy to dodge and he's difficult to miss due to his massive size. Edgey on the other hand swoops around the area at lightning speed while spamming his Flechette Storm all over the place, and can hack away player's lives in an instant.
  • Twisted Metal:
    • Twisted Metal 4 includes a boss fight against Super Slamm and Super Auger.
    • The Twisted Metal reboot includes a boss fight against the Brothers Grimm, formed by previously playable monster truck Hammerhead and newcomer Slayer.
  • Virtual-ON:
  • The Wonderful 101: One of the last missions in the Brutal Bonus Level Operation 101 is a fight against twin brothers Laambo and Walltha at the same time, who otherwise never appear together in the main game's story. Downplayed since their on-foot fights are closer to minibosses by the game's standards; their "proper" boss battles involve the gigantic mecha they pilot, which are absent in Operation 101.

    Beat 'em Ups 
  • Bayonetta 2 does not have a dual boss in the main game, but Witch Trial V has several verses that throw two bosses at the player at once: Alraune and Young Loptr in Verse 3, Masked Lumen and Adult Loptr in Verse 5, Bayonetta and Jeanne in Verse 8, and Unmasked Balder and Rosa in the ninth and final verse.
  • You thought that Slice in stage 4 of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs was tough? Prepare for two of them in stage 7 (although these are palette swaps with reptilian look and named Slisaurs).
  • Captain America and the Avengers has two sets of these as mid-level bosses appearing after a boss flees: Klaw and Living Laser in Scene 1, and the Controllers in Scene 5.
  • The Shtrom & Druk duo in the 6th level of the classic Captain Commando. Also notable that they're both a Palette Swap of the 2nd level boss, Shtrom Jr., who was already That One Boss on his own!
  • Chipmonk! have a few bosses showing up in pairs, including two hedgehogs brutes and two squirrel knights. Their movesets are entirely identical to each other, however.
  • Cleopatra and Mark Antony from Dante's Inferno are damned for their shared Lust, so its only fitting that the giantess and her armored lackey are fought as a pair. It also is accurate to the original Inferno, where those damned for lust are tied to their lovers while being thrown around by hurricane-winds.
  • Dark Judgement have a quadraple boss, Muscle the leader who is flanked by the triplet sisters Sumei, Leca and Lila, all of them having a single life-bar stretching from one end of the screen to another displayed at the bottom.
  • Agni and Rudra from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. After all, they are Bash Brothers who are adept at fighting together, although they have a tendency to bicker with one another and can actually hurt each other with their slashes in-battle by accident. Defeating one of them before the other gives the remaining boss a power-up.
  • Quite a few examples in the Double Dragon series.
    • In the middle of Mission 3 in both the arcade and NES versions of the first game, the player has to fight against twin clones of Abobo before arriving at the enemy's hideout. Later in Mission 4 (in the arcade version only), there's also a battle against twin clones of the Mission 1 boss (a black Head Swap of Abobo with a Mr. T-style mohawk and beard) before the final boss fight with Willy and his bodyguards (who are all clones of the Mission 2 boss, who was in turn a head swap of the player character).
    • In the arcade version of Double Dragon II, the player has to fight against twin clones of Burnov (the Mission 1 boss) near the end of Mission 3, and then twin sets of all the previous bosses (Burnov, Abore and Chin) before the boss battle with Willy in Mission 4. The final boss battle will be against clones of both Lee brothers if a second player is present.
    • The NES version of Double Dragon II features the twin ninjas at the end of Mission 2, as well as the twin Lee Brother clones from the arcade version in Mission 8. Subverted by the Bolo enemies, who always come in pairs (with one exception in Mission 4) but never fight together (the second Bolo always appear after the first one is defeated).
    • The Chen Brothers in Super Double Dragon, Ron-Fu and Ron-Pyo, in the end of Mission 4. In the American version though, the player has to fight them separately, one in the upper balcony and the other in the lower balcony. In the Japanese version, both are fought at the same time on the upper balcony.
    • Hong and Wong, the Twin Tigers, in the end of Mission 3 of Double Dragon Advance. They're loosely based on the Chen Brothers from the SNES version.
    • Double Dragon Neon has the penultimate boss battle with Skullmageddon and Evil Marian.
  • Father and Grandpa Andore in Final Fight, who appear exclusively in the second area of the West Side stage in which the player must face both at the same time in a steel cage match. They are essentially stronger versions of the standard Andore enemies, who are giant mooks. To make sure the odds are stack against the good guys, the game throws in a third Andore relative named Uncle Andore if two players are present.
  • The second time in God Hand that you encounter the Three Evil Stooges, Felix and Bruce take you on together, with Conchita dropping in and out of the fight from time to time. When you fight them in the arena, it is possible to cause this to happen by triggering more than one of their icons.
  • In God of War II, Lahkesis and Atropos.
  • The first Golden Axe has the Bad Brothers at the end of the very first stage.
  • Hulk: While there are points where you fight them separately, at one point you have to fight both Madman and Half-Life together.
  • Kabuki Z has the kunoichis, a pair of sisters who attacks you together.
  • The Royal Knights and the 2nd Cyclops Boss Battle in The King of Dragons.
  • Like a Dragon:
  • Lucifer Ring have the Minotaur and Orobas Beast Men duo, forming a Fat and Skinny dynamic as they attack you both at once.
  • MadWorld has the Masters, Jedi knock-offs that come in an older/younger pair (looking rather like Obi-Wan and Anakin). Their answer to the Force is magnets, so they're tethered to each other for most of the fight and accordingly share a health bar.
  • In Metamorphic Force, you fight a duo of small cyclops midway through the fourth level.
  • Ninja Gaiden:
    • The original arcade game has a recurring pair of Road Warrior-lookalikes who first appear at the end of Round 2, as well as twin sumo wrestlers at the end of Round 4. The third stage also ends with a battle against a trio of claw-wielding acrobats.
    • Kelbeross, Jaquio's pet dogs, in the first two NES games.
    • Great Koganei, the third boss in Ninja Gaiden III for the NES, has the ability to create a duplicate of himself.
    • The Mission Mode in Ninja Gaiden Black and Sigma featured twin bosses that made an already hard game even harder.
  • The Ninja Warriors Again has a bastardly hard fight against Phobos and Deimos, a pair of giant silver and gold androids in Stage 6. They have a Shared Life-Meter however, and lose twice as much health if you hit both at the same time.
  • Several of the Bianky-like Mini Bosses in Panzer Bandit come up in pairs of two.
  • The Lugg Brothers in The Pirates of Dark Water for the SNES. They're huge, powerful and attack you at the same time, and enjoy picking you up and hurling you across the screen or bodyslamming you. And to make matters worse, you have to fight them twice, once in Andorus and later on aboard the Malestrom, and the second time, they've got that annoying little creep Konk with them. He's actually present during the first fight, but doesn't actually get involved until later on.
  • Randy and Andy from River City Ransom, as well as Benny and Clyde.
  • Scott Pilgrim:
    • The Katayanagi twins in the comic and its live-action film and video game adaptations.
    • In the game, you face off against Todd Ingram's bandmates Envy Adams and Lynette Guycott in a mid-boss battle in Stage 3note .
  • The boss of the oil refinery in Shatterhand.
  • The first stage of Shuihuzhuan: Liangshan Yingxiong ends with you battling Zhang-San and Li-Shi, two bandit lords, at the same time. Both becomes regular mooks afterwards.
  • Streets of Rage:
    • Mona and Lisa in the first and third games. In the first game, they were merely Palette Swaps of Blaze, but in 3, they had their own sprites and Wonder Twin Powers (and yet they are much easier than in the first game).
    • In two-player mode, every boss except Mr. X is a dual boss battle.
    • The second game had robots Particle and Oxygen as the bosses of Stage 7. The 6th boss is basically a repeat of the second and third bosses.
    • In Streets of Rage 4, you face a rematch against Estel and the Commissioner at the end of Stage 7. The final boss battle is a face-off against Mr. and Ms. Y.
  • The Fan Game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rescue Palooza has several boss fights where the player has to fight two or more opponents at once.
    • Bebop and Rocksteady are both fought at the same time at the end of the level in April O'Neil's apartment.
    • The Dimension X level ends with a boss fight against both General Traag and Granitor.
    • Dirtbag and Groundchuck are fought simultaneously at the end of the ship level.
    • Tokka and Rahzar together serve as the boss of the construction site level.
    • The streets level ends with a boss fight against three Triceratons.
    • The final level has a boss fight where the player faces Shredder and Krang at the same time.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge has two examples:
    • In Stage 4, you fight against Dirtbag and Groundchuck.
    • In Stage 7, you fight Bebop and Rocksteady as a duo after having defeated them separately in the first two stages of the game.
  • Ultra Toukon Densetsu has the Red Kings, who serve as Triple Bosses. They show up one at a time, and woe betide players once ALL three of them are present as they repeatedly stomp the players to a pulp.
  • Vendetta (1991) had the Rude brothers, a giant and a dwarf. The health bar only applied to the giant. Get that bar to zero and the dwarf would die with his brother even if you didn't hit him once, but if you hit him enough times he'd die, leaving his brother still standing. The bonus stage had the player fight every boss two at a time; three in the case of the Rude brothers.
  • Vigilante has the Mad Brothers (the Tough Brothers in the TG16 version) as bosses of the junkyard level.
  • X-Men Legends has a fight against Avalanche and Sabretooth, which is made stranger by the fact that they share the same voice actor. Beat up Avalanche enough, he retreats and you win the fight. Sabretooth is unkillable — he'll just come back from offscreen. Makes sense with the Healing Factor.
  • X-Men Legends 2 has Sinister and the brainwashed Beast, who is undefeatable. Sinister will immediately make for his reviving machine, which will recharge Beast's health immediately.

    Eastern RPGs 
  • Astra Hunter Zosma:
    • The second story boss, Waxing and Waning, is a pair of fairies.
    • The Aquila Arena tournament has several miniboss pairs: Bullogna and Sorelami, Flarp and Droll, and Patch Sr. and Pill Jr.
    • One of the postgame superbosses is Lunita and Maru, the protagonists of Crescent Prism.
  • Baten Kaitos, at the end of one rather frustrating dungeon. The bosses in question are large cat-esque creatures that happen to be fire- and water-element creatures. Both the original and Baten Kaitos Origins also feature Trio Bosses, in the form of three enemy commanders: Giacomo, Ayme, and Folon in the original, and Valara, Nasca, and Hughes in Origins.
  • In Beyond the Beyond, the battle against Ramue and Shutat, the leaders of the Vicious Ones, forces you to fight them in tandem before taking on the Final Boss immediately afterward.
  • The Poes Edgar and Virginia in Lunar Knights.
  • Bravely Default has three in the same side quest chain, notable in that one of the bosses is the same each time. The boss fight in the Harena Ruins is against the Jackal and his hired bodyguard, Khint. Once one of them is at half health, Khint pulls a Screw This, I'm Out of Here!. After this, you can fight Profiteur, who has also hired Khint to guard him... only for Khint to ditch him too when one of them is down to half health. Finally, at the Grand Mill Works, you fight Khint (who this time fights to the death) and his current employer, Khamer.
  • Breath of Fire series:
    • Breath of Fire I: The "SlimeX" fight against 3 slime-men, who later merge into a single entity.
      • There's also the boss fight against 3 K.Roach.
    • Breath of Fire III: Balio and Sunder Hopeless Boss Fight the first time, and difficult (but possible) to kill the second. The third time?
      • Also, the Ammonites. And the "Sample" bosses near the end of the game, most of which are old bosses fought as a pair or more (2 Mikbas, 5 Rookies, 3 Stallions, etc…)
    • Breath of Fire IV: The four pillars inside Ershin's mind and the Grunts during the Scias/Ludia arc.
  • Bug Fables has several examples:
    • The rival exploration team, Mothiva and Zasp, are fought first in the Golden Hills, and later in the Termite Colloseum. Defeating Zasp first will get Mothiva to revive him, while defeating Mothiva will permanently increase Zasp's damage.
    • Kali is fought together with brainwashed Kabbu in the sidequest. Defeating Kabbu first will get Kali to revive him, while defeating Kali will end the fight.
    • Cenn and Pisci, false exploration team that abuses their "rank" to smuggle items, are fought simultaneously in the sidequest. Defeating one increases the other's damage.
    • Termite guards Cross and Poi are fought together in the Termite Colosseum.
    • Team Slacker, Stratos and Delilah, are fought together post-game as a Superboss in the Underground Tavern. They both can heal each other for 15 HP, and should one fall, the other would revive them, and given that they take two actions per turn at low health, they may revive each other and then heal, ensuring that both must be taken down in one turn.
  • Child of Light has the first boss, a pair of decapitated Living Statues holding their heads. One of them can charge up a powerful attack, while the other can grant either of them a speed buff.
  • Solt and Peppor, several times in Chrono Cross (once joined by Ketchop).
  • Chrono Trigger:
    • A couple of bosses including Masa and Mune (before they combine into Masamune), and Azala and the Black Tyranno. The Golem Twins, who each counter with "copycat" attacks, are a more infamous example.
    • The DS version has the Archeofangs, two very annoying bosses who need to be defeated within mere seconds of each other (or at the same time) or the one alive will revive the other at full HP. Doing this is much harder than say, FFV's Gargoyles, because the two Archeofangs have different stats and weaknesses. To make matters worse, they also drain your MP throughout the fight as well. Fortunately, their attacks tend to be relatively weak.
  • The Blade Bearer and Cannoneer of Code Vein are the only major dual boss in the game. Taking inspiration from Ornstein and Smough, the Blade Bearer is a nimble swordstress that slashes you with ice attacks while the Cannoneer is large, lumbering, and lights up the arena with its firey projectiles. In their Depths rematch, when you defeat one, the other will absorb the elemental powers of their fallen partner and gain new attacks.
  • Dark Souls:
    • The first game started it off with two very infamous examples:
      • The Bell Gargoyles on the roof of the church in Undead Parish. Once you get the first one down to half its health, another one appears that breathes fire along with its halberd and axe-tail attacks, also with half a health bar. It's almost impossible to fight both of them with the area attack fire breath and tremendous physical attacks, so it's pretty much compulsory to summon Knight Solaire to tank their attacks while you hack away at their backs.
      • Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough are found together as the first major boss in Anor Londo and are generally considered one of the tougher challenges of the game. Ornstein leaps and lunges with a lightning spear at high speeds. Smough stomps around at a slower pace, but his giant hammer smarts more and throws you around the arena. Any strategy other than continuously backing away to keep them both in sight is almost a guaranteed death sentencenote . Oh, and when you kill one of them, the other absorbs their partner's power and comes back stronger and fully healed: Ornstein becomes a giant with a virtual one-hit-kill move, or, alternatively, Smough gets a big lightning charge for his hammer and a five-mile shockwave attack that you either were out of to begin with, or just got hit by.. Fun.
    • The sequel has FIVE examples:
      • Two Dragonriders show up in Drangleic Castle, with one initially shooting from afar with a greatbow until aggro'ed.
      • You fight Throne Watcher & Throne Defender at the same time. When one is defeated, the other will attempt to revive him back to full health, meaning that you must beat both at around the same time.
      • The Darklurker will create a clone of itself that shares the same lifebar when you get it to around 50% health.
      • The Superboss of Crown of the Sunken King DLC are the Power Trio of graverobbers, each about as strong as a Dragonrider, but extremely deadly altogether as their fighting styles complement each other.
      • Lud and Zallen, another Superboss, now of Crown of the Ivory King DLC, are elephant-sized, spellcasting sabertooth tigers, though Zallen initially is lazing on the wall and only joins Lud when the latter is clearly in trouble. If you kill either one, the remaining one gets enraged and buffs up to the point his health starts regenerating.
    • The third game didn't want to be left out:
      • Pontiff Sulyvhan can create a magical clone of himself. Kill it and he'll just create another one. Made a bit easier in that the clone and Sulyvhan move and attack in tandem, making them much easier to predict than the usual Dual Boss.
      • Initially, Prince Lorian is fought on his own. After defeating him, though, Prince Lothric will enter the battle, completely healing his brother and adding his magic attacks to their arsenal. And he'll keep resurrecting Lorian until he's dead himself.
      • The Nameless King is fought while he's riding his dragon, the King of Storms. You'll have to kill the dragon first, but while doing that Nameless with be hurling lightning bolts and smacking you around with his sword-spear from atop his mount.
      • Sister Friede, the final boss of the Ashes of Ariandel DLC starts out on her own, but in the second phase of the fight, Father Ariendel joins the fray as well. You can also turn this around on them: if you use the NPC Summon sign outside the boss room, Slave Knight Gael will join you... but only upon reaching the second phase.
      • The first boss of the The Ringed City DLC are a pair of almost identical batwing demons called the Demon in Pain and the Demon From Below respectively, and are differentiated by the Demon From Below having a fiery glow while the Demon In Pain has a more crimson glow and some grotesque wounds on its face. Compared to other Dual Bosses from the series they have a unique mechanic in which periodically, one of the demons will ignite, empowering their melee attacks and increasing its aggression for while before returning to normal again after a big, final attack. By comparison the demon currently not empowered will stay in the back, firing Toxic sludge and explosions at the player while they're distracted with the ignited demon. In addition, whether you kill the Demon In Pain or the Demon From Below first changes the third phase of the fight, in which the demon you killed last revives as the Demon Prince. Killing the Demon From Below first will give the Demon Prince the ability to spawn floating fire orbs that fire at the player continuously, while killing the Demon In Pain gives the Demon Prince Frickin' Laser Beams.
      • Also from the Ringed City: the Spear of the Church boss fight has a stronger-than-normal Painting Guardian accompany the player summoned to serve as the boss (or the generic Halflight character who spawns if playing offline). Another Guardian spawns in when the Spear of the Church is reduced to half health.
  • Demon's Souls has the Maneaters. Although the battle starts out with only one of them to deal with, another appears after a fixed portion of the original's health has been whittled away. As if this wasn't bad enough, the arena in which they are encountered also happens to be a narrow rooftop walkway which is exceedingly easy to be pushed or knocked off of.
  • Inverted slightly in Deltatraveler. The Obliteration Route has you fight both Ness and Paula in a boss battle. The inversion comes from the fact that this fight is a set-up. You can spare both of them and abort the route, but kill Ness, and you learn the TRUE boss in this scenario is Paula. And she isn't holding back anymore.
  • Devil Survivor:
    • one character who particularly likes these: Kaido. Most of your battles involve another character fighting alongside them: Honda in most cases, and Midori during one possible plot twist.
    • There's the last two Devas, who team up to fight you and bring six or seven teams of lesser demons with them.
  • Blue Fang and Red Horn in Dragon Quest VIII. Although they're optional due to being part of a sidequest, they have one dangerous move, where they team up and pummel one of your characters simultaneously. This is especially nasty if the one who initiates it has tension built up. However, it can only be used if they're both alive, so killing one will remove this potential threat, giving you some leeway to take out the other.
  • EarthBound (1994) does this with the final boss, though Giygas is invulnerable during the first phase, and Heavily Armed Pokey ditches fighting after that phase ends.
  • Elden Ring has many examples, such as a Crucible Knight and Misbegotten Warrior in Redmane Castle, Perfumer Tricia and a Misbegotten Warrior in the Unsightly Catacombs, the Erdtree Burial Watchdog duo in the Minor Erdtree Catacombs, the Crucible Knight duo in the Auriza Hero's Grave, the Valiant Gargoyle duo in Siofra Aqueduct, the Tree Sentinel duo at the Capital Outskirts, the Night's Cavalry duo in the Consecrated Snowfield, and most of the Crystalian fights (either duos or trios). But the most notorious (and the only mandatory one) is the Godskin Duo - two separate bosses, the Godskin Noble and the Godskin Apostle, put together, with a shared health bar. Similar to Ornstein and Smough, the two bosses require totally different strategies for beating them which become almost incompatible when put together, with the Apostle being slow to move but with wide-reaching attacks, while the Noble is mostly melee-only but with the ability to close the distance between itself and the player rapidly, as well as some nasty quick attacks. Unlike Ornstein and Smough, they each have fully-developed boss move sets and, allowing them to be used as separate individual bosses elsewhere in the game. To add to the fun, the shared health bar is independent of the life status of the two actual beings you're fighting, and they'll only fully die once the shared life bar is depleted - they can each re-summon the other if one of them dies, and if both of them die before the health bar is fully gone then the boss fight doesn't end and instead one of them will come back to life out of nowhere. Their shared 26,350 HP total means that you'll end up killing them four times together instead of two (individually, the Apostle has 6,668 health and the Noble 8,000).
  • Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code:
    • In the Sidon Sewers, the party has to fight Balaam and a brainwashed Berserker Cainite.
    • In Jordan Crossing, the party runs into a strange man who ate a Shedim, but they also have to fight a strange apparition who seems to be controlling the man.
    • In the Fortress of Dan, the party fights Henock and Nestor's revived corpse.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy:
    • In Epic Battle Fantasy 2, there are the Zombie Hydra, whose two heads count as separate bosses with individual health bars. They can also revive each other, so you better make sure you kill both of them in the same turn.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 3 has the three-headed Pyrohydra, whose heads once again act as separate bosses with different stats and health bars. When you kill one head, stats are doubled for the two remaining heads, and when you kill one more, the last head has tripled stats.
    • Epic Battle Fantasy 4: Godcat has you fight each form separately, then face both at the same time.
  • In the PS3 version of Eternal Sonata, you have to fight Count Waltz together with Ruined Body. In the original Xbox 360 version, you only had to fight Ruined Body.
  • Eternal Twilight:
    • The first boss, Ragos and Lagos. When one dies, the other will be powered up and gain a powerful party-wide skill.
    • Dios and Mios are a pair of robots that guard the COSMOS artifact.
    • Zathus and Garrus, two of the Blood Council, are fought on the right side of Sidoma Mountain.
    • The final B-Rank Echo battle consists of the two Magi who weren't saved in Delta Fort.
  • Etrian Odyssey: Each of the first three games has a Mini-Boss fight against two characters: Ren and Tlachtga in Lost Shinjuku (first game and the remake Millenium Girl), Artelinde and Wilhem in Frozen Grounds (second game and the remake Fafnir Knight), and the Deep One and the Deep Lady in Molten Caves (third game). In the first two cases, the paired characters use skills based on certain explorer classes, so they also qualify as Mirror Bosses; and by the time you face them you realize their intentions aren't as benevolent as you originally thought. In the third case, the paired characters already pose themselves as evil characters, but at one point you may choose to join their faction's side if you wish. The third game has a second example should you instead stick with the faction of Armoroad until the end: Automaton King and Olympia, serving as the dual Final Boss.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy V has a few:
      • The early-game battle against Magissa turns into one once she summons her husband Forza, though it's possible to take her out before she's able to do so.
      • Two Gargoyles guard the location of each sealed tablet. You must kill them at the same time (or at least, one after the other in very quick succession), otherwise the remaining Gargoyle will revive its comrade.
    • Final Fantasy VI gives us Ultros and his friend Mr. Typhon. They proved so popular to come back as a DLC battle in Final Fantasy XIII-2.
    • Final Fantasy VII has the Turks on multiple occasions, as well as the two-headed dragon boss in the icicle mountain region.
    • Final Fantasy IX has an example that counts as a Dual Boss and a Duel Boss (as well as a Wake-Up Call Boss for good measure): Black Waltz 1 and the Sealion, who you fight as Zidane alone. If you're not properly leveled up this can be one of the more difficult fights. Later on are Zorn and Thorn. Once they're defeated the second time, they fuse into a single boss that is slightly more difficult to kill.
    • Final Fantasy VIII: has Fujin and Raijin, Wedge and Biggs, Minotaur and Sacred (the Brothers GF), and the Iguions.
    • Biran and Yenke from Final Fantasy X. Made more difficult than usual because you can only fight them with Kimahri. Still not very hard, especially compared to the boss right after them.
    • Ormi and Logos in Final Fantasy X-2 each get one solo boss fight but are otherwise fought together practically every time they appear during the first two chapters of the game. A couple of those times, their employer, Leblanc, joins them to make it a 3-on-3 battle against the three playable characters.
    • Enki and Enlil at the end of Chapter 6 of Final Fantasy XIII. They have palette swapped versions, Jabberwocky and Bandersnatch, which can be fought as a regular mob not very long after their boss battle.
    • Final Fantasy XIII-2 has Pacos Amethyst and Pacos Luvulite, who revive each other endlessly, so you have to bring them both near to death before killing either one.
  • The Golden Sun series has something of a tradition of these, in keeping with the series' love of using Evil Duos over solo antagonists:
    • Saturos and Menardi from Golden Sun. The first time you'll face them is during the prologue, where they are a Hopeless Boss Fight. While Saturos fights you alone atop the the Mercury Lighthouse, you'll get your shot at a proper battle against him and Menardi together atop the Venus Lighthouse. They even top things off with a shared One-Winged Angel form, the Fusion Dragon, during the final phase.
    • In the sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, you take on Saturos and Menardi's successors, Karst and Agatio, on top of Jupiter Lighthouse. Near the end of the game, you'll also take on a pair of Flame Dragons who turn out to be a magically transformed Karst and Agatio.
    • Dark Dawn follows in its predecessors' footsteps with Blados and Chalis, as well as the Kaocho generals Ku-Tsung and Ku-Embra. Blados and Chalis fight you twice over as a pair; the second time, they're escorted by the Chaos Hound, aka Volechek.
  • Hellpoint: The Arisen Congregators are two Arisen androids. The Arisen Bishop fights with a laser-shooting staff and the Arisen Censer fights a radioactive incense dispenser and super speed.
  • The Mu bosses in Illusion of Gaia are Jack and Silvana, a pair of married vampires. They battle together, complete with a combination attack. When one dies, the surviving spouse flies into a frenzy and Turns Red. Generally considered That One Boss. Hilariously, if you kill Silvana first, Jack flips his shit, but if you kill Jack first, Silvana is outright grateful.
    Jack: You! You did that to my wife! I'll never forgive you!
    Silvana: I'm glad he's gone. It's your turn next! Get ready!
  • Journey On: The Corrupted Knight and Corrupted Mage are fought as a pair. However, AOE skills are ineffective against them, since the knight resists physical attacks while the mage can absorb dark magic.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Kingdom Hearts: Played with by Clayton and the Stealth Sneak. The two start off with Clayton riding the Steath Sneak. Knocking him off allows them to be fought separately, but only Clayton needs to be defeated to win the battle. There's also a battle in the Hades Cup where you fight two Sneak Armies at once.
    • Kingdom Hearts II:
      • Volcanic Lord and Blizzard Lord are fought together, but only one is "active" at a time. Each alternates between attacking Sora directly and hanging back to incapacitate the other party members. Whichever Lord is hanging back tries to float away from Sora and is untargetable, with any hits it does receive having a chance of being blocked. Each one's reaction command has you hurl it into the other for heavy damage and the battle ends on a slightly different cutscene depending on which dies last.
      • Larxene's Absent Silhouette invokes this by splitting into two copies of herself. There's a reaction command that merges her copies back together.
    • Then there's the Crimson Prankster in 358/2 Days, which splits into two copies that have separate health bars and revive each other if not killed in quick succession.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep gives Aqua a wonderful fight against Hades and the Ice Colossus, a copy of the Ice Titan, during her storyline.
    • KH series loves this, especially to up the power on some arena bosses, who were usually a problem alone, but as a pair are quite more fun. KH1 had Cloud and Squall Leon. KH2 had Tifa and Yuffie. BBS had Hades and Zack.
    • Kingdom Hearts III has plenty more of these.
  • Last Scenario has two Dual Boss fights and Nintendo Hard Wolfpack Boss fights.
  • Knight Eternal: The Final Boss is Stray and Strasza, since the former wants to kill the queen of Zamaste and avenge Uno, while the party wants to question her and come to a peaceful solution.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails:
    • Trails in the Sky - The 3rd: One of The Nightmare Arena's challenges, is a Dual Boss against Cassius and Loewe, the two strongest characters in the trilogy.
    • Trails to Azure: Shirley battles the SSS while bringing in a large monster to aid her.
    • Trails of Cold Steel II: Xeno and Leonidas take on Class VII at the ruins of Garrelia Fortress.
    • Trails through Daybreak: Walter Direwolf will fight alongside Cao in Chapter 4, and if the player doesn't take the Ouroboros route for Chapter 5, he'll team up with Lucrezia.
  • Legend of Mana features a dual boss fight with Sierra and Vadise during the Dragon Storyline.
  • Liar Jeannie In Crucifix Kingdom has Celaeno and Alcyone, two elite Pleiades Knights. Individually, each one is on par with the Final Boss and follow the rule of bosses being allowed to act twice per round, which means they get a total of four actions per round.
  • Lie of Caelum:
    • Vanu and Keisar attack the party after the latter finds the first relic of Souen Forest.
    • In the True path, Kado and Mai attack the party and transports them to a Mental World to do battle.
    • In Souen Caverns, the party is worried that they'll run into the powerful Apex Pike. When they get to the bottom, they end up fighting two Apex Pikes.
    • On the day of the second mission, Claire and Nanase challenge Kyou and Hitoshi in order to take the latter pair's ranks.
    • During the gauntlet in the West Azure Mall, the party fights two upgraded versions of the Junkyard Frame.
    • Although Cyril and Cecil were supposed to have a third member for the Underground Tournament, that member runs late, forcing the two to fight the party while being one person short.
  • Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals has an interesting variant. The boss of the Sword shrine is a pair of Monster Clowns who fight separately but automatically revive when you kill them. Once you've beaten them both once, your party works out they're reviving each other so you split your 4-character party into pairs to fight them both at the same time, played out as 2 consecutive boss battles.
  • The Dragon Angels in Lunar: The Silver Star are the last obstacle you have to reach before getting Althena's Sword, the last piece needed to complete the Dragon Armor ensemble and tackle the Magic Emperor. It's also a Duel Boss, since Alex must face them on his own.
  • Mari and the Black Tower: The original Void Beast was a singular boss, but in the rematch, there's two of them.
  • Monster Hunter:
    • There are quests where you must hunt at least two large monsters, although only up to two large monsters can be present on the map at once. Basic strategy involves using Dung Bombs to keep the two present bosses separated so you don't have to fight both of them at once, but some quests are set in "arena" maps where both monsters will be in the same single area at all times. Also, the more monsters there are to hunt, the less health each individual one will have, in order to keep the quest reasonable. Sometimes, these quests are themed, such as pairing a monster with its subspecies.
    • Hunting quests with "Unstable" environments may throw a second, optional large monster at you that is only hinted at with a "DANGER" icon in the quest info. Since you don't have to kill it, it will have full health. Killing or capturing the monster will net additional rewards.
    • Monster Hunter 4: The game introduces the first proper case of this trope with the Seltas Queen, who always has a Seltas by her side. The Seltas on its own is unlikely to be a threat, being a Warm-Up Boss at best (and if you kill it, she'll eventually summon another one), but it complements the Seltas Queen by sitting on top of her and flying her around (despite the Queen being a good six times his mass), firing projectiles at distant foes and swiping at those who get close. It's also a case of We Have Reserves as the Seltas Queen is completely uncaring for the wellbeing of the Seltas, hitting it if it gets in the way of attacks and outright eating it if she is hungry. 4 Ultimate adds the Desert Stetas Queen, who is even more callous with her partner, firing the Desert Steltas at the Hunter(s) with enough force to shatter the poor bug on impact, then promptly reaching into the ground to pull out another one.
  • The remake of Nocturne (RPG Maker) has Khaos and Shylphiel as the Final Boss. Worse yet, one of the bosses will cast a barrier that allows them to counterattack for each other.
  • In Odin Sphere, several boss battles have you face off against two bosses at once. In these cases, they will spawn at the opposite sites of the area, slowing approaching the player character in the middle.
  • Pandora's Tower: The respective Masters of the Dawn Tower and Dusk Tower, while initially found separately, team up when you unlock the Tower's common ground (the Blacklight Barbican). Not only do they make up a formidable team, but once you deplete the HP of one Master you must hurry up and defeat the other, or else the fallen monster will come back with 25% their HP.
  • Persona 2:
    • Innocent Sin:
      • The fight against Ixquic and Belphegor. Ixquic is noticeably different than her demon companion, as she is weak to Light and Sword attack, has lower damage output and lower HP, but she becomes a real pain when coupled with Belphegor's multiple resistances and poison-inducing attacks.
      • If you make the wrong choices, you'll end up having to fight Shadow Yukino and Lady Scorpio at once. The first is a Fire/Lightning/Nuclear hard-hitter, while the second is a Water user who deals ailments and heals.
    • Eternal Punishment:
      • Right upon entering the science laboratory, the squad has to fight against two Red Berets.
      • In the fights against the Shadow selves, Katsuya teams up with Shadow Ulala. Shadow Katsuya is a Nuclear user with a One-Hit Kill attack, while Shadow Ulala is a Wind user with a HUGE damage output who can charm your party members.
      • Likewise, Shadow Baofu teams up with Shadow Maya. Shadow Maya is weak to Physicals but reflects all magic attacks in the game, and on top of that she Freezes and heals. Shadow Baofu on the other hand Resists all physical attacks and is a heavy damage dealer with quite a few nasty tricks up his sleeve.
      • In Tatsuya's Scenario in the PSP remake, the very first boss is a duo of Byakhees.
  • Persona 3:
    • The game does this three times with the Full Moon Shadows Empress and Emperor, Chariot and Justice, and Fortune and Strength. First time the two bosses have similar skills and strategies, just leaning towards magic or physical. The next time the two can fuse together and split apart again. The next time one protects the other until you beat it, the protected one creating a roulette of effects each turn.
    • Jin and Takaya are faced together right before the Hanged Man Shadow, though their skill sets are pretty minimal and they are easily defeated.
    • In The Answer, there's Akihiko and Ken, Junpei and Koromaru, and Yukari and Mitsuru. You are also restricted to using only Aigis and Metis for those fights.
  • Persona 5 has the superboss Caroline and Justine. You have to defeat them both at the same time, otherwise the surviving twin will revive the other at half HP to undo your efforts.
  • NieR:
    • The first battle with "The Betrayers" Devola and Popola counts, as does part of the second battle.
    • Also, the first boss battle against Hansel and Gretel.
    • The battle against Ko-Shi and Ro-Shi, as A2 and 9S ascend the Tower in NieR: Automata is a completely off-the-wall example, as not only are two characters fighting two different bosses, with control regularly switching between the two, but they're completely different styles of boss battles (one being fought on foot in the traditional hack-and-slash style while the other is fought in a flight unit in a shmup style.) The two bosses eventually combine together at the top into one boss and the fight becomes an inverted dual boss, with control still switching between A2 and 9S regularly.
  • Phantasy Star Online 2:
    • The game has dual bosses at the end of one story quest in the Naberius Forest (Fang Banther and Fang Banshee) at the end of the Naberius Tundra area (Snow Banther and Snow Banshee) and at the end of the Wopal Facility area (Rheo Madullard and Nepto Cassadora) as well as many sub bosses spawning a second boss depending on how many human players are present.
    • The limited quest "A World Engulfed in Shadows" is a Boss Rush with dual boss battles against Plosiorgles and Bayaribbles, Vilma Leopard and Falke Leone, 2 Box Duvals, Anga Fundarge and Dio Hunar and potentially Drago Deadleon and Greuzoras Drago should the player take too long killing Drago Deadleon.
    • The emergency quest "Lead Border-Breaker" begins with a dual boss against Tranmizer and Tranzexia and ends with a dual boss against 2 Cougar NX.
  • In the Pokémon series starting from the Hoenn games, you will often be challenged by two trainers at once. Most of these fights simply have you pull out two Pokémon at once, but major story bosses usually give you an NPC ally to work with.
    • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:
      • Liza and Tate, Gym Leaders that you fight in a Double Battle with two Pokémon on each side. Depending on how well you've prepared, this is either a fun battle, or those two bosses.
      • In Emerald, you team up with Steven to fight Team Magma Leader Maxie and Admin Tabitha in Mossdeep's Space Center.
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have Mars and Jupiter in Spear Pillar where you fight alongside your rival. In Platinum, there is also Flint and Volkner in the post-game, where they are fought by the player and the player's rival at the entrance to Sinnoh's Battle Frontier.
    • HeartGold and SoulSilver have a post-game Dual Boss battle where you and your rival battle Clair and Lance.
    • Pokémon Black and White have subway bosses Emmet and Ingo. They run the Double/Single Lines (respectively), but in the Multi Lines you and the other player character fight them together.
    • Pokémon X and Y:
      • Early in the game, there's a battle against Tierno and Trevor, with you teamed up with Serena/Calem.
      • There is also a fight against Celosia and Bryony at the Poke Ball Factory, again with Serena/Calem at your side.
    • In Sun & Moon and their Ultra counterparts, every Totem Pokémon you face in the Trial Challenge is this, though an unusual variant: The fight begins with the Totem alone, but it will summon a partner to gang up on your Pokémon, two-on-one, at the end of its first turn. If the partner is knocked out, the next partner will take its place at the end of the next turn (though the list is finite, and once you defeat the last partner, no more will appear). You only have to knock out the Totem Pokémon, however—once you defeat it, it will stop summoning partners.
    • Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia has a battle just before the Final Boss where you fight the three bosses you just fought separately (Rhyperior, Magmortar, Gallade) at the same time. If you are playing a WIFI Mission where you have to help Darkrainote , at the end, when you least expect it... BAM! You fight a second Dual Boss, which is Drapion and Gliscor, the bosses you encountered earlier in the game.
    • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky: The first bosses are a (very weak) Koffing and Zubat at the end of Beach Cave.
  • Rave Heart: Sharky fights alongside his Robo-Thug, which can also be considered a boss in its own right due to its durability.
  • RealityMinds:
    • The boss of Chapter 4 is Kvena and a copy of Revethor that she created as a puppet.
    • In the post-epilogue, the party must defeat Rasheed and Reffian in order to recruit them and unlock the cameo boss battles.
    • Lienne and Feliestasha from the author's other game, Feliestasha, are considered the easiest of the cameo boss pairs.
    • Nelly and Sue from mobcharacter57's game, Genomessi Saga, are considered the second easiest of the cameo boss pairs.
    • Alvar and Rihanna from the author's other game, Blood of Justice, are considered the second hardest of the cameo boss pairs.
    • Elliette and Ruveira from the author's other game, Elemental Field, are considered the hardest of the cameo boss pairs.
  • In the original Romancing SaGa for the SNES you had both a Sequential Boss and a Dual Boss battles of the Minions of Saruin in the final dungeon, in the remake you would only fight all three at once if you defeated them in the final dungeon and collected the treasures that they guarded.
  • Sacred Earth - Promise:
    • Balcruade and Zuleika are the final opponents of the tag team tournament.
    • The penultimate boss is Fate and a living suit of armor, the Adjudicator. Unlike the previous example in the tournament, you get a full party of three.
  • Salt and Sanctuary:
    • The Architect, the most brilliant and vicious Salt Alkymancer you could hope to find who packs some powerful spells, and the Unskinned, her best creation, a massive, hulking Lightning Bruiser of a brute that will knock you around the arena and into its maker's traps. Occasionally called the Ornstein and Smough of the game, but they're not nearly as awful.
    • The Coveted is an odd example; technically, the boss is simply a giant Artifact of Doom of an executioner's axe. Problem is, you're also fighting two ghosts that are fighting each other, and you, for the ax itself, with one ghost always having the axe and swinging it around if he's not throwing it at you, while the other throws electric bolts all over the arena while he can't get the axe. You cannot harm the ghosts, so you have to end their squabble by destroying the axe itself.
    • The Three are a Triple Boss, as fits the pantheon. The King, the Knight and the Judge were all slain, and are locked up in one of the Crypt of Dead Gods' rooms, left to shamble with their powers faded and their corpses being mere mockeries of their past glory. They will all fight you at once, ganging up on you with zero mercy, making this particular fight one of the most difficult in the game.
  • Shin Megami Tensei:
  • At one point in Skies of Arcadia, the party is split into two groups. The two separate parties navigate a dungeon together, but don't meet up until just before the boss fight, which is appropriately against two bosses. There are a handful of other examples, but those two are the most prominent.
  • Super Mario Bros. RPGs:
    • Super Mario RPG has several: Hammer Brothers, Knife Guy and Grate Guy appear together later in the game, and then there's the fight with Cloaker and Domino, which includes a different Sequential Boss depending on which one you kill first.
    • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga has two fights with the "Shadow Thief" Popple and his sidekick Rookie, an amnesiac Bowser. Late in the game, you fight Popple again with Birdo as the new Rookie. There's also Jojora and her friend in Joke's End, though taking out Jojora is optional as she has such high defense all attacks do only one point of damage.
    • Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: Bowser teams up with himself from the past at the end of Thwomp Volcano.
    • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story has Bowser Memories M and L, the bosses of the Memory Banks.
    • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam has a lot of these, and all of them can team up to attack the bros. simultaneously:
      • The first four Koopalings you encounter are fought in this manner, with Wendy and Roy, then Ludwig and Larry facing the bros. Focusing one of them down is in the best interests of anyone who's good at countering, as the remaining Koopaling will only be able to use a devastating wand blast that while likely to OHKO whatever bro it hits, will do a similarly ridiculous amount of damage to the user if it's successfully reflected back at them with a hammer swing.
      • Bowser Jr. and his paper counterpart always attack as a pair, so if one of them is KO'd, the other will revive them using a 1-Up Mushroom when their turn comes up, meaning both of them need to be brought down in quick succession.
      • And there's the final battle against the two Bowsers.
      • Kamek and his paper counterpart are the same as both Bowsers Jr, attacking with combined attacks and resurrecting each other until you defeat them both.
    • Paper Mario has the Goomba Bros, The Goomba King w/ The Goomba Bros, The Koopa Bros. (a quadruple boss who are also an obvious Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles parody), and several others. Paper Mario 2 had a trio of the Shadow Sirens, replacing one of their members for a rematch. The penultimate boss was Bowser and Kammy.
  • In the ZEXIS route of Super Robot Wars Z 2: Saisei-Hen, you get to fight Grace O'Connor and Ribbons Almark at the same time, the former being the Big Bad of the Macross Frontier series and the latter being the Big Bad of the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 series.
  • In the Tales Series:
    • Tales of Symphonia uses this one a few times:
      • Minor villains Yuan and Botta
      • Summon Spirits Luna and Aska, the Sylph
      • Sheena and her Guardian Spirit
      • The Dragons in the Dragon's Nest, and the other dragons at the Remote Island Human Ranch (also a Sequential Boss with Rodyle)
      • Summon Spirit Celsius with her partner Fenrir
      • Alice and Decus in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Oh, and Lloyd and Marta... you get the picture, right?
    • Tales of Hearts has you fight twin Mechanoids Chlorseraph and Clinoseraph, a Dual Wielding, Hot-Blooded Omnicidal Maniac and a double-shield-wielding, defensive, ice-cold soldier, in their Link-Drive Mode. Not to mention when your party takes on the entire Chalcedny Squad.
    • Tales of Vesperia:
      • The recurring foes Adecor and Boccos, who you fight several times, and who also act as tutorials to some of the gameplay aspects. They can actually be tough to beat, since Yuri fights them alone more often than not.
      • There's also Belius who creates a double during your fight. This is stoppable however, as you can relight the candlesticks scattered around the fighting area to end the illusion.
      • There's also Tyson and Nan and optional bosses Gauche and Droite... Wow, Vesperia really likes this trope.
    • Tales of Xillia has the final boss fight against Gaius and Muzét.
      • There's also the earlier fights against Wingull and Presa, Jiland and Celsius, and Presa and Agria, to name a few.
    • Tales of Graces has the Dispaters, which have the potential to become Those Two Bosses.
    • Tales of Zestiria has a fight against Rose and Zaveid in a late-game sidequest. This can be particularly cruel since the two of them are normally your party members and that Rose is the only one besides Sorey who can armatize meaning that you aren't fighting at your full party strength. What's worst is that it comes pretty much out of nowhere, meaning most players wouldn't expect and be prepared for it.
    • Tales of Berseria has the first stage of the Final Boss fight, a match against Artorius and Innominat. There's also the Optional Boss against Jude and Milla.
  • The final level of the single-player campaign in Telepath Tactics is this...sort of. It pits you against both Big Bad Tarion and The Dragon Pathos, but you don't fight them at the same time; instead, Pathos is part of the front line while Tarion hides in the back and must be approached separately.
  • Trials of Mana has Bil and Ben, a pair of ninja who you fight on two different occasions. They start out as a single enemy, but split into two after taking sufficient damage, without losing any of their deadliness. Both times, but especially the second, they qualify as That One Boss.
  • Undertale has Dogamy and Dogaressa, and later RG 01 and RG 02 ("like, team attack"). Sometimes regular enemies can team up, but they're not bosses.
  • Liz and Ard from Wild ARMs 2.
  • The Optional Bosses Grindcore Minks and Hanemoka's dual noise forms from The World Ends with You. Also not-bonus-bosses Kariya and Uzuki and Shiki and Megumi.
  • Tyrea and her Telethia guardian in Xenoblade Chronicles 1
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon:
    • Ichiban fights Reiji Ishioda as part of two separate dual boss fights (as well as two solo fights). The first time, he and Nanba fight together; the second time, he's with Mirror Face.
    • Goro Majima and Taiga Saejima team up to take on Ichiban and his friends near the start of the third act. Majima goes in first, then is joined halfway through the fight by Saejima, and they even have their own Limit Break where Saejima grabs Majima by the legs and spins him around, allowing Majima to slash nearby targets before Saejima pitches him knife-first towards Ichiban, the two finishing with a knee to Ichiban's head and a punch to his solar plexus respectively.
  • Yogleks & Omulgun in Ys are red and blue Oni heads that are fought together. Only Yogleks can be damaged, and when hit, they switch places.

    Fighting Games 
  • In Kirby Fighters 2, you face King Dedede and Meta Knight together multiple times, and they get stronger and use new attacks with each encounter. The first battle is against a pair of Waddle Dees disguised as Dedede and Meta Knight, but every battle after that is against the real duo.
  • The first phase of the final battle in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pits you against metallic copies of any two of the following: Doctor Doom, Dormammu, Akuma and Wesker (the second joins about ten seconds into the fight). They share a life meter, so knocking one of them out kills both of them. Hitting both of them deals double damage, so hyper combos with large hitboxes are useful.
  • Variation: Mortal Kombat: Deception has the Noob-Smoke tag team, basically two different characters who share one HP bar.
  • Juli and Juni in Street Fighter Alpha 3 are fought together before facing M. Bison as the final boss. The first Alpha game also features an inversion: a "Dramatic Battle" mode based off Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie where two players can take on M. Bison together as Ryu and Ken.
  • Super Smash Bros. series:
    • Super Smash Bros. Melee: Crazy Hand, introduced in this game, is fought only beside Master Hand and has a surprisingly different move set. The conditions to face Crazy Hand varies from title to title since his first appearance, but usually involve playing on higher difficulty levels. The two of them also appear in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror as the bosses of Candy Constellation.
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
      • In a co-op Event Match, Dark Link and Dark Samus are both battled at the same time, and you and the other player have to defeat them both.
      • Duon (fought in the "Subspace Emissary" Adventure Mode) is a variation on this, as it's two giant robots with completely different movesets... attached to each other at the back.
    • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: As part of getting the True Ending of the "World of Light" Adventure Mode, the player has to face both Galeem and Dharkon. In a twist to this battle, it's a Mêlée à Trois, as the two bosses will take potshots at each other if they can get away with it, given their mutual hatred for each other.

    First-Person Shooters 
  • In Atomic Heart the twin ballerina robots that play a huge part in the game's promotion are encountered as a Route Boss close to one of the endings of the game.
  • In BioShock 2, after rescuing all the Little Sisters in a level where you have to deal with a pissed off Big Sister (which is also That One Boss for a while). Near the end of the game, you are in the room with just a pane of glass between you and the thing you came for when suddenly two Big Sisters come at you.
  • Borderlands 2:
    • The game has you fight the brothers Boom and Bewm, with it turning into a Flunky Boss after one of them dies.
    • The Headhunter add-on "Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre" caps off its plot with a fight against newlyweds Bridget Hodunk and Colin Zaford, a pair of raging Goliaths that you've been trying to hook up. If one of them goes down, the other will rush to their side to revive them, healing the couple back up to full and causing them both to go up a level, so you want to try to wear them down equally.
  • The Vampire Twins from Daemon Summoner, serving as the second-to-last boss, where they attack you together in tandem.
  • In Deep Rock Galactic, one Dreadnought variant takes the form of Twins that attack you simultaneously, a fireball-spewing Arbalest that likes to snipe from the ceiling, and a stomping, flame-breathing Lacerator that gets in close. The Twins aren't quite as tanky as other Dreadnoughts, but they're a lot faster. More dangerously, they have seperate life bars, but if one of the Twins takes significantly more damage than the other, they'll break off their attacks, turn invulnerable for a moment, and pool and redistribute their health. Unless a team coordinates their fire and whittles down the Twins' health at a similar rate, the Twins can soak up an absurd amount of bullets.
  • Doom: The two Barons of Hell (AKA the 'Bruiser Brothers') serve as the final opponents awaiting at the end of the first episode.
  • The final battle in The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is one of these, as you fight two man-sized mechs that serve as the Big Bad's personal bodyguards.
  • Half-Life 2:
    • A pair of Gunships acts as a dual miniboss in the Nova Prospekt courtyard. Two more Gunships show up while Breen is trying to teleport away at the end of the game, but fighting them is completely optional as they're only there to impede you from destroying the teleporter.
    • The first boss fight in Episode Two is against an Antlion Guard and Guardian along with their normal antlion minions. They don't hesitate to attack you at the same time, but you've got a healthy supply of SMG and Shotgun ammo, a safe spot where they can't strike you, and several exploding barrels lying around the valley...
  • Halo series:
    • In Halo 3, the Covenant deploy two Scarabs at once. Good thing you've got co-op. And you get flying vehicles right before it.
    • On a lesser scale, any encounter with Hunters could count. They always appear in pairs, carry massive fuel rod guns, and have armor that reflects any shots not placed directly on the weak point.
    • On the first level of Halo: Reach, you have to fight two Zealots at the same time. This is one of only three encounters with Zealots in the game. On the final mission, you have a Wolfpack Boss fight with the Field Marshal and three Zealots.
    • In Halo 5: Guardians, you'll eventually have to fight up to three of the Warden Eternal's bodies all at once. Thankfully you should have your whole squad backing you up.
  • Gorc and Pic from Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. The only thing that kept them from being that pair of bosses was their tendency to get stuck in the vent-lifts so you could choose to fight only one at a time. If you were lucky...
  • The final battle in Kingpin: Life of Crime is a shootout against both the Kingpin and his invincible female bodyguard.
  • Krazy Ivan have quite a few, notably Demonseed and Sentinel, two giant squid-like mechas, the "Reflex" duo, and the last two giant robots, Fireball and Bane, the former who attacks from ground while the latter is a flying robot hovering in circles.
  • In Left 4 Dead and its sequel, the Survivors may find themselves fighting off multiple Tanks in Survival Mode or during the finales of The Passing and Swamp Fever. The Sacrifice, a campaign playable in both titles, will simultaneously throw three Tanks at the Survivors if all three generators in the finale are started at once, followed by four more Tanks after the bridge stalls.
  • The vores in Quake make their first appearance this way.
  • Rise of the Triad has an add-on, appropriately-titled Extreme Rise of the Triad (now available as a free download from 3D Realms), where one of the levels forces the player to fight two copies of the game's second boss. Only one of the two bosses needs to be killed by the player to end the level, but it makes the task much harder than fighting just the one, like in the regular game.
  • At the end of the Way of the Wang DLC fron Shadow Warrior 2, after completing all the trials, your final challenge before claiming the Fist of Gozu is fighting both corrupted versions of Kamiko from the regular game at once.
  • Scathe has the Winnowers, two gigantic grub-like monsters who can spam you with their Projectile Webbing attack.
  • In Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix, you fight a Dual Boss battle against The Torturer (who's armed with an M60 heavy machinegun) and Deviant1 (who's up on a balcony with a sniper rifle) inside a prison yard. Both characters do increased damage, so much so that Deviant1 can kill you with a single shot. They also can absorb more bullets than a normal human, although the difference isn't too unrealistic. The game is otherwise devoid of boss fights (except for 2 battles against an enemy helicopter).
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has no Final Boss, as Frau Engel herself is killed at the end of the game when you ambush her on live TV in an encounter which amounts to "Press the melee button to chop her arm off and brain her with an axe". However the final level involves a huge fight on the roof of the Ausmerzer against a pair of Zerstörer (Destroyer) robotsnote , plus six Ubersoldat and an unending tide of regular troopers.

    MMORPGs 
  • City of Heroes has a few occasions when you can find yourself facing multiple powerful bosses, but a classic example is during the Behaviour Adjustment Facility Trial, where the league must face Siege and Nightstar at the same time after defeating them each separately, and like many examples must be defeated at the same time to prevent regeneration. There are also continually respawning reinforcements. Somewhat subverted however in that the standard strategy has teams fighting them entirely separately, while coordinating the battles to ensure that they go down together.
  • Fire Nasod Ignis and Water Nasod Leviathan in Elsword. At first, you fight each of them separately as mini-bosses, but then have to deal with them together once you reach the end of the Altera Plains.
  • Final Fantasy XIV occassionally enjoys using this trope:
    • The second boss of Haukke Manor and its respective Hard mode pits you against a Spellcaster/Tank combo of Manor Jester and a Manor Steward/Butler simultaneously.
    • The final boss of Stone Vigil (Hard) and the second boss of Amdapor Keep (Hard) both have a second copy of the boss joining midway, though in the latter case the Boss splits into half.
    • Played straight with The Dragon's Neck, where player have to fight Ultros and Typhon at the same time.
    • Played straight again with the second phase of The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate), which features raid series bosses Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser.
    • The Eden's Verse: Furor raid features different versions of Garuda and Ifrit, who are first fought separately, then fought together before fusing into Raktapaksa.
  • Guild Wars 2 has the Lovers, Ralena and Vassar, who are fought as bosses in the Ascalonian Catacombs. They both have different professions and attack patterns (Ralena being an Elementalist and Vassar a mesmer). For bonus points, they're stronger the closer they are together and driving them apart from each other is key to victory.
  • Phantasy Star Online 2:
    • The Snow Banshee and Banther, bosses of the Tundra on Naberius, and their forest-dwelling Fang variants. The Banshee starts out fighting you alone while the Banther looks on from above, but the latter jumps in to assist once its mate's health drops too far. The higher the difficulty, the earlier the Banther gets involved.
    • The boss of the Ascended Facility, Nepto Cassadora, is fought alongside Rheo Madullard, which previously appeared alone as the area's mini-boss.
    • Seeing how Dark Falz Double's human form is a pair of Creepy Twins, it should come as no surprise that when you fight them, it's as two separate monsters working together. However, they fuse together into a single being halfway through the fight.
  • Runescape: The Twin Furies, Avaryss and Nymora, who are fought at the same time as Zamorak's generals in the Heart of Gielinor. They share a health pool and can unleash a powerful Combination Attack.
  • Spiral Knights: the Roarmulus Twins are a pair of gigantic Gun Puppy turrets fought at the end of the Ironclaw Munitions Factory, invulnerable except when one of them hits the other with a rocket. They also appear in the Ironclaw Shadow Lair as the Red Roarmulus Twins. The Gloaming Wildwoods Shadow Lair ends with a pair of Rabid Snarbolaxes (who have Silkwings to heal them).
  • Several of them appear throughout the Shadow of Revan story arc in Star Wars: The Old Republic, beginning with Darok and Arkous in the pre-expansion Forged Alliances storyline, then a (married) pair of Mandalorian champions during the Blood Hunt flashpoint, and two pairs of Revanite leaders in the Battle of Rishi. Fittingly, aside from the Mandalorians, each pair is composed of one member of the Republic and one member of the Empire.
  • Vindictus has numerous examples of this trope, with anywhere from 2 to 5 bosses in a mission (not including mini-bosses). Depending on the mission, they are either identical or complimentary. In most missions, they appear at the same time, usually 2 or 3 of them. The Hoarfrost Hollow mission "Prepare for Counterattack" is a hybrid of this and Sequential Boss — the mission starts out with 1 boss, and 4 more arrive, 1 every 2 minutes, as "reinforcements"; each one higher level than the previous. If they can't be killed fast enough, it's possible to end up fighting all 5 at once (it's pretty typical for solo players to have to fight the last 2 or 3 simultaneously).
  • World of Warcraft:
    • Romulo and Julianne, a parody of Romeo and Juliet. First they are fought in sequential order, then both at the same time. They need to die together to avoid one resurrecting the other.
    • Scarlet Commander Mograine and High Inquisitor Whitemane in Scarlet Monastery Cathedral. Like above, it starts with one, then another comes, resurrect the other, then you have to fight both at the same time.
    • Jarien and Sothos, Optional Boss in Scarlet Stratholme.
    • Skarvald and Dalronn in Utgarde keep.
    • Swamp Lord Musel'ek and Claw in Underbog
    • The Twin Emperor Vek'lor and Vek'nilash
    • The Eredar Twins, Lady Sacrolash and Grand Warlock Alythess. Both must be fought at once, and killing one twin causes the two to fuse together, with the surviving sister gaining some of the former's powers.
    • The Crusader's Coliseum raid has 3 separate multi-boss fights, all somewhat different in execution. First you fight not one but TWO Jormungar. They have separate healthpools but if one dies before the other, the surviving one Turns Red and starts doing 50% more damage.
      • The Crusader's Coliseum is home to two more Dual Boss fights. The Twin Valkyr fight is an Ikaruga-style encounter with a black Valkyr and a white Valkyr. There are black and white portals around the ring, and players have to click the portals to change color; you absorb damage of the same color as you but take extra damage from the opposite color. You need to switch colors when each boss does her big attack.
      • The other is Faction Champions fight. You fight 6 (in 10 man or 10 in 25 man) bosses, each a superpowered version of the playable classes. It's the only PvP style boss fight in the game.
    • The ogres King Gordok and Cho'Rush the Observer from Dire Maul. Gordok is a hard-hitting melee warrior, while Cho'Rush is a spellcaster (may be a shaman, priest or mage at random).
    • Valiona and Theralion in Bastion of Twilight. While you never have to melee them both at the same time, one is in the air using his or her ranged powers while you're fighting the other on the ground.
    • Elemental Ascendant Council also in Bastion of Twilight. Four bosses total. You start off against two of them, then they switch out with the other two when one of the first pair reaches 25% health. Then when one of the second pair reaches 25% health, they combine into the Elemental Monstrosity.
    • Omnitron Defense Council in Blackwing Descent. The fight consists of four separate golems with a shared health pool. Only two are active at the same time however.
    • Nefarian makes his return as the last boss in Blackwing Descent and he is joined by the reborn Onyxia for the first phase of the fight.
    • Conclave of the Winds consists of three separate bosses that must be defeated within a minute of each other.
    • The Four Horsemen encounter from Naxxramas has you fight four death knights at once; letting them get too close to each other means a wipe for the raid, so two are tanked in separate corners with the tanks switching often, and the other two are tanked by ranged casters.
    • The Illidari Council is another council fight, with four different bosses that must be fought at the same time. They have a shared health pool.
    • The first three phases of the Kael'thas fight are examples of this. First, you fight his four advisers, one at a time. Then you fight all the legendary weapons at once. After that, you fight the four advisers again, but this time all at the same time. After they're dead, Kael'thas himself enters the fight and then it's a regular single boss fight.
    • The High King Maulgar encounter in Gruul's lair puts you against the titular boss and a few other ogre bosses that must be fought simultaneously (three are tanked by real tanks, one is tanked by a mage spellstealing his buff, and the fifth is tanked by other ranged dps, preferably two warlocks or two hunters).
    • Mannoroth and Varo'then are fought simultaneously in the Well of Eternity instance. Players initially focus on Varo'then while Mannoroth fights Illidan and assists Varo'then by summoning demons and using Fel Firestorm to burn the players. Players then focus on Mannoroth once Varo'then dies.
    • Warmaster Blackhorn combines this with Flunky Boss. Blackhorn is the leader of a pack of dragon riders, so he and his six Vrykul underlings are each riding a dragon, for seven rider/mount Dual Bosses. The fight starts with fighting his minions, who attack the raid two at a time, so melee players have a Vrykul Dual Boss, while the ranged have a drake Dual Boss; and finishes with Blackhorn and his dragon mount, Goriona as the true Dual Boss.
    • The Will of the Emperor encounter in Mogu'shan Vaults is a Mook Maker which is defeated by beating the two biggest mooks, Jan-Xi and Qin-Xi, while the machine keeps pumping out lesser mooks.
    • The Protectors of the Endless in Terrace of Endless Spring are an example of Triple Bosses. As expected, they Turn Red when you kill one of them. There are even bonuses for killing the "hardest" one last.
    • The Twin Consorts in Throne of Thunder.
    • The Twin Ogron (Pol and Phemos) in Highmaul
    • Hans'gar and Franzok in Blackrock Foundry.
    • The Felhounds of Sargeras in Antorus.

    Pinball 

    Platform Games 
  • Bimmy and Jimmy(Freddy and Jason), the bosses of the "Boo! Haunted House" level in The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures.
  • Azure Striker Gunvolt Series:
    • In Azure Striker Gunvolt, the Sumeragi Swordsman Elise splits into two bodies with their own personalities for her fight, where they have separate life bars. The gimmick of their fight is that if one dies before the other, the survivor will use their Limit Break to revive the other at one-third of her health. This requires both being killed at once, which is harder than it sounds because not only do they constantly move around, thus opening the possibility you'll Tag and shock one more than the other, one of them actually takes slightly more damage than the other. During their rematch in the Boss Rush, it's revealed she actually has Triple Literal Split Personality, with this third body joining in on the fight and being completely invulnerable to harm (hence no life bar) but in addition to the previous gimmicks when you finally kill both of the other bodies she will revive them both to half their health. Luckily, she'll only do this one time, as she's taken out by a third party when she tries again after Gunvolt beats them once more.
    • Azure Striker Gunvolt 3: During the final stage Sunrise Palace 2 "Karma", the ATEMS Adept Serpentine uses her Septima to create sentient illusions of Gunvolt's past foes to impede them during her level. This results in dual Mini-Boss fights against Viper/Jota and Tenjian/Zonda where they have individual life bars and use Combination Attacks. Once their combined life bars are reduced to a total of one-third like other bosses, they'll even execute a unique Combination Attack Limit Break, though even reducing one's life bar before the other won't stop them, as they'll only go down when both of their health bars are depleted. A later free update adds Merak/Teseo as a hidden boss fight in the stage with similar mechanics.
  • The Castlevania series makes use of this relatively often:
    • That One Boss of the first game is Frankenstein's Monster and Igor (though damage can only be and need only be dealt to Franky). The preceding Boss Battle is against a pair of mummies.
    • Castlevania: Rondo of Blood has Carmilla and Laura, though Laura merely serves as an annoyance while Carmilla is still alive and only start attacking you after you kill her mistress.
    • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a few pair of bosses. Except for the last one mentioned, they later become Degraded Boss who nevertheless retain their boss strategies.
      • The popular duo of Slogra, skeleton-with-a-beak-wielding-a-spear, and Gaibon, a fire-breathing gargoyle, is your first proper boss.
      • The Werewolf and Minotaur fight in tandem team maneuvers.
      • A triple boss of heroes past antagonize you in a later area.
    • The Dragon Zombies in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Notable in that if you kill one without immediately killing the other, the survivor will eat the fallen to regain some health.
    • Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin's dual-protagonist mechanic lends itself to a couple of Dual Bosses:
      • Stella and Loretta. Trying to heal them can be MIGHTY DIFFICULT to say the least...
      • One section of the Brutal Bonus Level starts with a Dual Boss of two Frankensteins (when you only fight one of him in the main game). The section following that ends with the return of the aforementioned triple boss from Symphony.
      • And lastly, the final boss is Dracula and Death instead of just Dracula as is fairly traditional for the series. They fuse for the second form.
  • Copy Kitty has the hard mode version of the Kumalo boss.
  • Crash Bandicoot series:
  • Cuphead: One stage has you dealing with Ribby and Croaks, two frog bosses wearing boxing gloves.
  • Donkey Kong:
  • The Seal the Deal DLC for A Hat in Time has a Death Wish contract called Killing Two Birds where Hat Kid fights both the Conductor and DJ Grooves at once.
  • The Corners from Iconoclasts share a health meter, but fight as a duo. On low health, they start to use their attacks in tandem.
  • In Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, the fifth boss is a duo of two Recurring Bosses, and the Final Boss is a Palette Swap of the fourth with the addition of an invincible companion. The first boss also comes in two.
  • Various bosses from the Kirby series, which include:
  • The Little Mermaid has Flotsam and Jetsam as the bosses of the second stage.
  • Loopmancer has one of the possible outcomes, where the game comcludes with you fighting Song Boyong and his monstrous creation, Tianwu, both at the same time, each sporting a different health bar.
  • Mega Man (Classic):
  • Mega Man X series:
  • Mega Man Zero series:
    • In the Boss Rush of Mega Man Zero 2, "one" Boss fight stands out: Zero fighting against Herculious Anchortus (defeated in the previous game) and his brother Kuwagust Anchus.
    • And again later, with the baby elves in Mega Man Zero 3.
  • Mega Man ZX:
    • The first game has the penultimate mission where Prometheus and Pandora, who Vent/Aile had previously fought separately, now fight together with a Shared Life-Meter.
    • Advent has Urgoyle and Argoyle the Shisharoids, who each have their own separate health bar and can be defeated separately, which gimps the other's combat options. It also features the return of Prometheus and Pandora as the penultimate boss, this time with proper Combination Attacks.
  • In Mega Man Star Force
    • Gemini Spark, being comprised of two individuals, gives you two sources of attacks to overwhelm you. In the first game this is subverted as Spark White is completely invincible and you have to defeat Spark Black to win. In the second game both Sparks have their own HP value, and if you defeat one, you disable their Gemini Thunder Combination Attack, but the surviving twin will get stronger attacks to compensate.
    • Acid Ace R and Dread Joker R in the third game's postgame also qualify. The sibling rivalry which defined the originals is absent with the rematches, as Omega-Xis quickly points out before the fight. You don't fight them both at the same time, but you do have to defeat them one after the other with no breaks.
  • Metroid:
    • Metroid: Other M: The two snake creatures (Fune and Nahime) early on in the game. Sometimes the tougher enemies can be fought in pairs or threes, acting as miniboss battles. Overlaps with Wolfpack Boss in those cases.
    • Metroid Dread: At various points, Samus would battle with two Chozo Soldiers; one silver and one gold, who attack her upon entering certain areas.
  • Plok has the Bobbins Bros. Later on in the game (during a flashback when you play as Plok's grandpa), you have to fight against THREE of them.
  • The "Axe and Sword twins" in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Also a Puzzle Boss and That One Boss, though most of the bosses in that game are almost as frustrating.
  • Depending on what time of day you do the stages, Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? has a few paired bosses, including dragons and Magic Knights.
  • One of the forms of the final boss of Rayman.
  • Spyro 3 did this with a pair of Eastern dragons as the Evening Lake mini-boss, the Fireworks Factory side mission Bad Dragon. It also used a variant in the last two Sparx-only bosses, where the formerly single beastie split into two smaller versions of itself which then had to be fully killed as this trope. Thankfully, because each boss started as one monster, the two resulting things shared a health bar.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog series:
    • In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles fights two sub bosses in Launch Base Zone Act 1 instead of Sonic and Tails just having one.
    • Sonic and Diablon, one of three possible final bosses in Shadow the Hedgehog.
    • Whisker and Johnny in Sonic Rush Adventurenote .
    • Halfway through Death Egg Mk.II Act 1 in Sonic 4: Episode II, Eggman and Metal Sonic will team up to fight you. Though, you only need to attack Metal Sonic, as Eggman is simply there to be an invincible obstacle.
    • The True Final Boss of Sonic Mania pits Super Sonic against Eggman and the leader of the Hard-Boiled Heavies, the Heavy King, who has decided to go into business for himself against Eggman and take control of the Mineral Macguffin. Eggman and the Heavy King alternate back and forth, each one challenging Super Sonic whenever the other drops the Phantom Ruby, which occurs whenever Super Sonic hits them.
  • Sundered: Subverted with Legion and Salvation. The game hypes them up as a Dual Boss through Boss Subtitles and they do attack you as a pair, but they can’t actually be killed: depleting one’s hit points just knocks it out for a while, and makes the other one become invincible and attack you relentlessly until the incapacitated one revives. Harming them also does not affect the boss health meter in any way. The real boss is Rivalry, a large crystal floating in the center of the room, and it only becomes vulnerable when either Legion or Salvation is knocked out.
  • Super Mario Bros. series:
  • Tiger Road: The boss of the fourth stage is a pair of Dual Wielding swordsmen that can stack on top of each other as part of their attacks. The second-to-last two enemies you face in the game consists is a pair of Ryuken's bodyguards.
  • Toy Story 2: The final boss level consists of three bosses at once, specifically Stinky Pete, the Gunslinger and the Blacksmith who each appeared individually as minibosses in previous levels.
  • The Meta Rangers in Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble. First, you fight Ranger Log, then Ranger Digi, then they team up to fight you on their final health bar. When you revisit the fight during the Boss Rush, they fight you together right from the start.
  • Dual Dragon from Wario World.
  • In Wonder Boy in Monster World, Gragg & Glagg attack from either side of the Boss Room.

    Puzzle Games 
  • Some trials in Elemental Story contains two bosses, one of which having evolved once and the other being evolved twice.
  • Puzzle & Dragons: There are several dungeons with multiple boss characters in one fight. For the most well known ones...
    • The Wednesday dungeons have you fighting multiple masks. The Legend version has you fighting two sacred masks in a technical dungeon.
    • The Thursday dungeons have multiple dragon... plant? monsters. The Mythical version has you fighting three dragon fruits, known as the tri-fruit.
    • The Friday dungeons have spirit bosses. The Mythical version has you fighting Angelit and Devilit, the second hardest Daily dungeon fight.
    • "Thoth and Sopdet Descended". If you kill one, the other will revive him/her at 50% health.

    Rhythm Games 
  • In Friday Night Funkin', having originally fought the Girlfriend's parents seperately in previous weeks (the Father in Week 1, the Mother in Week 4), you take them on together during Week 5 in a Christmas-themed rap battle.
  • Towards the end of Sevens Code's story mode, you start taking on the members of HALZiNA two at a time, except for one who is still fought solo. This is represented by each pair's respective battle songs being combined into a medley and the effects of both their attacks applying at the same time.
  • In Space Channel 5 Part 2, the first part of the King Purge battle has you taking on Purge and the Mecha President Peace.

    Roguelikes 
  • Absented Age: Squarebound:
    • Yayoi and Hoop fight the party at the midpoint of the Green Corridor.
    • The boss of the Steel Corridor is a pair of Oil Pit Squids.
  • The Binding of Isaac:
  • Brutal Orchestra:
    • One of the bosses in the Far Shore are the Hickories, two crazy pyromaniac lovers. One of them has a gas can to douse the party in, to lead into the one with the flamethrower to set ablaze. If the player isn't careful and only focuses on one, they will use the move "Burning Passion <3" to match their HP to the one with the highest health.
    • Osman Sinnoks, one of the final bosses, starts just being a hard-hitting boss with a One-Hit Kill attack he performs at the end of each turn. When his health reaches zero, he then splits into two, Osman and Sinnoks. They both retain the instant-kill move.
  • DRL, just like the game it's based on, has its first episode end with you fighting the Bruiser Brothers. But here, they are two elite Barons of Hell.
  • Dungeon Crawl has the twin unique elves Dowan and Duvessa. Duvessa focuses on melee combat while her brother slings spells from a distance. If you kill one, the other gets a boost: Duvessa goes berserk and Dowan gets several significantly more dangerous spells.
  • Enter the Gungeon:
  • Hades: Theseus, the Hero of Athens, and Asterius, the Bull of Minos. The two are the bosses of Elysium, and while Asterius will go after you with an axe and try to rush towards you (going especially berserk once half his HP is gone), Theseus will often stay away and throw slowly-aimed but deadly precise javelins at you when he isn't keeping you away with spear-twirls, and if he loses half of his health, he will summon the help of the gods and spam blasts all over the arena as one of the gods that likely didn't help you that run comes to his aid.
  • SYNTHETIK features a fight with two tanks in the first section of final level. One of them has a pair of miniguns and an ability to call airstrikes, and other one has a massive cannon, a laser turret, and an ability to call orbital strikes.

    Shoot 'em Ups 
  • Chimera Beast had the first boss, two lamprey-like organisms which could only be damaged when their heads were visible.
  • The first boss in Cho Ren Sha 68k is this. One neat thing is that you can use the charged ball attack they use for a one-hit-kill if you make them aim at each other before they fire.
  • The red and blue robots fought right before the boss of stage 3 in Contra III: The Alien Wars.
  • Darius series:
    • Emperor Fossil and Queen Fossil in Darius Twin. Emperor shoots large singular beams while Queen shoots spreads of smaller laser bursts. Destroying one causes the other to go berserk: If Emperor is the first to die, Queen will shoot more numerous bolts (although not enough to truly qualify as Bullet Hell), and if vice versa, Emperor's beams get larger and faster.
    • Dual Spin in Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX consists of the fish parts of Mirage Castle and Phantom Castle flanking the player(s) from both sides and behaving similar to the respective phases they enter when their Castle armors are destroyed. They are notably only in Another Chronicle EX and not the single-screen adaptation Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours due to how much screen space they occupy, plus having them in a pincer formation encourages multiple players to take them on at once (Another Chronicle and its EX expansion are four-player games).
  • The twin dragons Devaria and Givaria in Deathsmiles' Extra Stage.
  • DoDonPachi dai ou jou Death Label puts a cruel twist on this at the end of the first loop by making you fight not one Hibachi, but two of them! They're actually at reduced power, as one by itself is hard enough. At the end of the second loop, you fight the two Hibachis again...this time at full power.
  • The Apostles of the Seed Dusk and Dawn from Hellsinker tag team at you and also uses various combination attacks.
  • The Elites in Hero Core, which are also a Mirror Boss.
  • In the Hunt has your submarine fight two snail-like submarine robots as a boss. One always faces right and the other always faces left, but other than that, they share exactly the same attacks. Destroying one of them makes the other become a lot more aggressive.
  • RefleX brings us its Area 3 midboss, Gemini. True to what the Gemini sign symbolizes, it's comprised of two entities. One unit can be damaged by your weapons and fires blue shots and a blue Wave-Motion Gun, while the other is immune to your shots and must be damaged by reflecting the aforementioned blue attacks.
  • The rather obscure but excellent Shoot 'Em Up Steel Saviour has a dual Mini-Boss in the form of two cool looking flying thingies. When one is destroyed, the other goes... ballistic. Starts at 2:04 here.
  • In TaleSpin (Capcom), Mad Dog and Gibber serve as the bosses of the Storm Clouds.
  • Touhou Project:
    • In Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square, the fifth game, we have Yuki and Mai as the stage 4 bosses. Interestingly, after downing one, the other gets a new, much more dangerous moveset and heals to full.
    • Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom has the Prismriver sisters... kind of. Over half the fight is one-on-one, and the spellcards where all three are together are much more like having one boss with three hitboxes.
    • Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night has a thematic example: At the end of Final A, Kaguya comes to assist Eirin. But it's a survival card and the bosses don't move, so there being two of them makes no difference.
    • Yousei Daisensou ~ Touhou Sangetsusei takes it up to three with you having to face the three bosses of the three stages all at once after you have beaten themnote ! Then the Extra Stage pits you against both of the midbosses at once.
    • In Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires, Seiga, the stage 4 boss, fights alongside Yoshika, the boss of stage 3, resurrecting her every time she is defeated.
    • Subverted in stage 4 of Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character; it looks like you will have to fight both Benben and Yatsuhashi Tsukumo at first, but then it turns out you only fight one of them (which one depends on your shottype). Played straight in the Extra Stage, where you face both at once for the midboss fight.
    • In the Extra Stage of Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, Junko and Hecatia Lapislazuli fight you in tandem and join together in the last spellcard.
    • In Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons, Satono Nishida and Mai Teireida are fought at the same time as both the stage 5 bosses and the extra stage midbosses.
    • In the fangame Touhou Labyrinth, the Hibachi twins hit every note of this trope. One is immune to magical attacks, the other to physical attacks. When one is killed, the other gains significant stat boosts and a new arsenal of party-wiping attacks.
    • In Touhou fangame Mystical Chain, all boss fights are like this, but it also has a slightly off-kilter example in its fight with Fujiwara no Mokou and Kaguya Houraisan: it's really them fighting each other, and you're just collateral damage.

    Stealth-Based Games 
  • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has the "Brothers-in-Arms", the legendary ships HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign, who use their speed and maneuverability to try and funnel you between their broadsides. And, true to form, after sinking one, the other sets itself on fire and tries to ram you until either you or it are killed. The battle is recycled in Rogue with the Cauldron and the Pilgrim.
    • Black Flag also has a dual assassination of Templar agents Burgess and Cockram, with a bonus objective to assassinate both simultaneously.
  • Shinobido has at least two unskippable Dual Boss battles, but they're actually very easy, since you have to bring down only one of them to win.

    Survival Horror 
  • ANNIE: Last Hope have an Advancing Dual Boss of Doom in one of the last stages, where you battle two infected monsters who went on an uncontrollable rampage and pursues you down a series of circling corridors, requiring you to flee and attack both at once.
  • You have to fight a pair of Keepers at the end of The Evil Within. It's actually pretty easy, considering the large open arena and that they don't respawn like they usually do.
  • The Fatal Frame series has some such examples:
    • Fatal Frame II has the Kiryu Twins, Akane and the Azami doll. They fight similarly, except that the doll Azami cannot be damaged and attacking her provokes Akane to attack. Akane is also the only one who has a Fatal Frame moment.
    • Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse has you fight Kageri Sendou alongside her doll Watashi. Kageri acts like a regular ghost, but Watashi limbs around like a zombie and continuously comes after the player. It also cannot be defeated and vanishes when Kageri is defeated.
    • Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water has the Matchmaker and Tadasuma (called the Marriage Celebrant and Funeral Celebrant in English) both confronting you in the penultimate battle, before you go facing Ouse. Both are fast-moving and fire slow but homing projectile attacks.
  • The Goat Sisters, a black and white humanoid goat-imp in Rule of Rose attack you simultaneously in a cramped space, making much of the battle a struggle at staying out of their weapons' range.
  • In Silent Hill 2, the final time Pyramid Head appears, James has to deal with two of them. Instead of being vulnerable like always, they need to be attacked until they kill themselves.

    Third-Person Shooter 
  • Bloodrayne:
    • The final battle in is a 3-way fight between Rayne, the Devil, and the Nazi Commander.
    • She fights twin Nazi officers earlier on.
  • Ghost in the Shell have a pair of robots as it's fifth boss, attacking you from above a ceiling respectively with missile launchers and lasers. They have a tendency to try out-flanking you throughout the battle.
  • The G.I. Joe arcade game by Konami unsurprisingly does this with the boss fight against Tomax and Xamot, with both Crimson Twins being battled at once.
  • The third level of Gungage features two giant dog-like creatures, one red and one blue, attacking you at the same time. Their attacks include fire breathing, charge attacks which temporarily stunt you, and summoning fire below you. On top of that, you have to fight on a raised platform, so if you do not watch out you can fall off the edge.
  • Jet Force Gemini: The gigantic cyborg mantises, known as the Mechantids, serve together as the bosses of Eschebone, and the third boss overall in the game. They swap positions constantly, and while one of them attacks you directly the other sends projectiles from the distance. It is Lupus who confronts them (and wins).
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising has Magnus and Dark Lord Gaol in Chapter 24.
  • Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville has the Gargantuar Brothers. If one is defeated, they'll occasionally attempt to respawn via a Tomb Raiser, which must be destroyed to prevent their resurrection.
  • Resident Evil:
    • At one point, Resident Evil 4 pits you against two Gigantes instead of the usual one. You can, however, just give one a lava bath. There's also the optional Bella Sisters in the Ganado camp. You thought Dr. Salvador was bad? Try two female versions at once.
    • Resident Evil 5 has a two-on-two battle against Albert Wesker and Jill Valentine. Played mostly for fanservice, as Wesker proves to be nigh unkillable and killing Jill results in an instant game over. Your AI partner literally advises you to run and hide, and the fight automatically ends in seven minutes when Wesker runs out of spare time. Damaging Wesker enough causes the battle to end prematurely (which can be achieved by hiding strategically and attacking at certain opportunities) and is an unlockable achievement/trophy.
  • Star Fox Zero has Pigma Dengar and Andrew Oikonny in the Meddlesome Mercs stage.
  • Vanquish has dual Argus robots in Act 2-3, and dual Bogeys for the Final Boss battle.
  • Warframe features the fight against Captain Vor and Lieutenant Lech Kril on Ceres. Neither Grineer officer bothers to change their tactics from their earlier fights on Mercury and Mars, respectively, so it's not quite as difficult as many instances of this trope.

    Turn-Based Strategy 
  • Every time the main characters of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness cross over as bonus battles in other universes, they're usually fought in the order of Flonne -> Etna -> Laharl (with Flonne and Etna acting as backup).
  • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce has a few dual boss encounters. Sunny Day and Funny Face in particular always come as a pair.
  • Happens a few times in the Fire Emblem series.
    • In the Boss Rush in the last level of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the Morphs of Lloyd and Linus show up together. Earlier on is Jasmine and Paul.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Caellach and Valter both attack you at the same time in Chapter 15, and you have to wipe them and their combined armies out.
    • In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, there's Pain and Agony, and in the endgame, Lekain and Hetzel.
    • In Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, Iago and Hans tag-team you at the end of the game, and are the final obstacles before facing Garon himself. On the Birthright route, Benny and Charlotte are the primary threats in Chapter 14, and fight you while paired up.
    • In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, your final obstacle before Duma himself is a fight with Berkut and Rinea. Or rather, what's left of Rinea. Duma himself is fought alongside Jedah, although Jedah is a Skippable Boss.
    • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes have you face Hubert and the Death Knight on the streets of Enbarr before the final showdown against Edelgard at the Imperial Palace.
    • In Fire Emblem Heroes, certain Heroes will fight you together in Bound Heroes Battles, often being paired up with heroes who were close to them in the games where they came from. In the case of Fallen Takumi, he fights alongside a copy of himself.
    • In Fire Emblem Engage, the bandit twins Tetchie and Totchie serve as the bosses of Chapter 13. Later, you fight against members of the Four Hounds in pairs in a few chapters (Marni and Mauvier in Chapters 16 and 19, and Zephia and Griss in Chapter 23).
  • The Incubuses in Odium. Actually pretty weak both on their own and in tandem. Also sort-of overlaps with Flunky Boss since there are two monsters with them that can inflict the annoying Harmless Freezing on you.

    Tower Defense 
  • Kingdom Rush: Vengeance gives us the first one in the series with the Ghost Kings. Two ghosts that slowly move down each lane, ignoring troops, but individually have less health than other bosses in the franchise. The main catch is that the Purple Ghost King is immune to physical damage while the Blue Ghost King is immune to magic.

    Western RPGs 
  • Deltarune:
    • Midway into Chapter 1, Kris and Ralsei fight both Susie and Lancer simultaneously.
    • Near the end of Chapter 2, the main characters fight both Queen and a hijacked Berdly; winning through mercy requires loosening Berdly's wire to free him, while winning through violence requires attacking Queen directly, with Berdly freeing himself at the cost of frying his arm.
  • The Architect's twin pet dragons found in the Silverite Mines in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
    • Somewhat unusually for a RPG and for the series, both battles against the Big Bad, Alduin, invert the trope. Each time you fight Alduin, you're the one with backup (Paarthurnax and any follower you may have at the Throat of the World, the ancient Nord heroes in Sovngarde).
    • In the DLC Dawnguard, Voslaarum and Naslaarum, twin Revered Dragons, engage the Dragonborn in combat in the Forgotten Vale, diving into and out of a frozen lake that serves as the battleground.
  • At the end of Icewind Dale II, the player gets to fight the halfbreed twins Isair and Madae (respectively a high-level sorcerer and cleric). They are aided by a wide variety of pretty competent Elite Mooks
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:
    • On Korriban, if you decide to go Light-Side completely, then after getting the star map in Naga Sadow's tomb, you may end up fighting both Yuthara and Uthar at the same time, although they can both be easily weakened earlier- or you can persuade one of them to join you on the Light Side...
    • On the Unknown World, if you choose the Dark Side and recruited Juhani, you must fight her and Jolee together.
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords has a Dual Duel Boss on Nar Shaddaa- Atton is caught in the bar by the Twin Suns, a pair of deadly Twi'Lek assassins. It's a fairly tough fight, and ends with them fleeing; they're a lot easier the next time you meet them, as at that point, you have a full three-strong party.
  • During Garrus' loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, Harkin throws two YMIR mechs at you. By that point in the game, they aren't nearly as scary as the one at the end of Freedom's Progress, especially if you can take advantage of the critical detonation caused by killing one with a head shot, since the blast will often completely destroy the other one.
  • Mass Effect 3's Citadel expansion pack has you fighting both the traitorous Brooks and Shepherd's clone in the Normandy's shuttle bay, the latter boss being an exact replica of the player's class. To make matters worse, the clone can use Medi-Gel to heal himself/herself, and can also revive the other boss whenever she's down.
  • Neverwinter Nights has penultimate boss fight against Corrupted Copper Dragon and Corrupted Silver Dragon.
  • In Neverwinter Nights 2 You will need to fight 2 Black dragons after you try to strike down Crystal Heart for Nolaloth.
  • Sinjid:
    • Battle Arena has the Shadow of the Reaper, who's paired with a Time Bomb in battle. The Bomb can't be targeted nor does it need to be destroyed in order to win, but it will explode if the Shadow isn't killed within 70000 seconds, causing instant death. They're pretty hard to beat.
    • Shadow of the Warrior features a pair of Samurai as the final opponents found in the Human Portal.
  • Claw Brother and Blade Brother, a pair of Chinese Vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

    Wide-Open Sandbox 
  • Dead Rising 2 has three instances of psychopaths:
    • Ted Smith and Snowflake, is a trainer who doesn't like hearing the word "slow" paired with a tiger. They're both independent, with Ted being a close attacker and Snowflake performing hit-and-run attacks. As an unusual case, Snowflake can be tamed by giving food, and brought to the safe house.
    • The twins, Amber and Crystal, who both come at you armed with katanas and can easily take you down in a few hits while making sexually suggestive comments. They seemingly attack in coordinated hit-and-run attacks. They subjectively appear as That One Boss, but at least there's no worry about zombies. Unlike typical examples, they have separate health bars and only one of them needs to be killed to activate a cutscene which shows the remaining twin commit suicide by impaling herself.
    • Reed Wallbeck and Roger Withers, one being a ranged specialist with a stunning rocket launcher and the other Dual Wielding swords. They behave typically, trying to fight together, and both needing to be downed.
  • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories features Sgt. Martinez and Diego Mendez during the final fight.
  • Terraria has The Twins, two giant robotic eyes connected by a string of flesh. One, called Retinazer, shoots Slow Laser at you, and the other, Spazmatism, uses Hellfire.

    Non-Video Game Examples 
  • The final showdown in Assassination Classroom has Koro-sensei facing off against both Kotaro Yanagisawa and the Reaper.
  • In Destroy the Godmodder, many bosses are summoned in pairs. However, near the middle to end game, the pairs exceeded two at a time. As in, EIGHT BOSSES AT ONCE!
  • The kung-fu film The Deadly Breaking Sword has thee hero fighting several challengers, most who comes one at a time. Except for a pair of assassins who calls themselves the Sword Spirits Duo, who attacks together.
  • In the climax of Duel With The Devils, the protagonist have to scale a tower with enemies on each level, the second which is guarded by two Giant Mook wrestlers.
  • Deconstructed in Gamaran: Gama is confronted by two Muhou School members, Sekiryuu and Seirin, who fights in perfect tandem Dual Wielding a pair of steel whips each, in order to overwhelm the opponent under a barrage of attacks from four directions... but since they move close and at the same time, Gama manages to slay them both simultaneously by Dual Wielding his own daisho.
  • Kiss of the Dragon: Jet Li fights a pair of twins who attacks him multiple times throughout the film.
  • The Night Unfurls has Mandeville's familiars, both clad in golden-coloured armour and wielding a BFS. Kyril internally remarks that they are a challenge, thanks to their synchronicity.
  • In Pokémon World Tour: United, Vermillion City's Gym Leaders, Calico and Aegeon, fight as a pair. This is reflected in their Gym Badge, the Dual Duel Badge. Their first fight with Rose and Cobalt is a standard Double Battle, which they win. Their second battle, which takes place after a series of Alolan-style Pokemon Trials emphasizing teamwork, is a single battle featuring Cobalt vs Calico and Rose vs Aegeon, but with the twist that, because they each carry only half the badge, both of them still have to be defeated to obtain it.
  • The Raid 2: Berandal: Rama versus the Brother–Sister Team of unnamed fighters, the Baseball Bat guy and Hammer girl.
  • Scott Pilgrim fights two of Ramona's Evil Exes at once. Kyle and Ken Katyanagi are identical twin brothers and their attacks are synchronized, but each is a powerful Ex.
  • True Legend (2010) has the Iron Twins, a Brother–Sister Team of martial artists who are the Big Bad's proteges, whom are always seen together and tries to fight The Hero both at once.
  • In combat robotics (such as Robot Wars and BattleBots), multibots, also known as clusterbots, function in this way. Notable examples are Typhoon Twins and Psycho Chicken on Robot Wars and Pack Raptors and Witch Doctor on BattleBots. In both cases, the former are two robots identical in fuction and shape, while the latter is an asymmetrical scheme with a leader and a much smaller assistant — Scramble for Psycho Chicken and Shaman for Witch Doctor. It's not as unfair as it sounds — in all major robot combat competitions, multibots are put in the weight class of their combined weight, meaning each unit is otherwise at a weight disadvantage. The Cone Army would've been an exaggerated instance of this trope in that it was planned to have 37 units, but it was rejected by the BattleBots staff.
  • A Piece in the Game of Gods: As said in Part 41:
    The idea of intentionally confronting Arakthiel and Kr’aethar simultaneously filled me with a cold dread and a fierce determination.
  • Happens fairly often in Power Rangers with some of the more notable instances in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers being:
    • King Sphinx and Goldar fight Jason, then later the Megazord. note 
    • Goldar, Scorpina, and the Evil Green Ranger ambush the Megazord. note 
    • Goldar and the Samurai Fan Man fight the Dino Zords. note 
    • Goldar, Scorpina, and Babe Ruthless fight the Dragonzord Fighting Mode and Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. note 
    • Robogoat, Eye Guy, Grumble Bee, Socadillo, Salaguana, and Dramole fight the Thunder Megazord and White Tigerzord. note 
    • Rito Revolto, Lizzinator, Fighting Flea, Stag Beetle, and Octophantom ambush the Thunder Megazord and White Tigerzord. note 
    • Goldar and Rito Revolto fight the White Ranger in the cave dimension. note 
    • Master Vile and Blue Globbor fight the Ninja Zords, the Shogun Zords, and Ninjor. note 
    • Professor Longnose, See Monster, Garbage Mouth, Brick Bully, Crabby Cabbie, and Parrot Top fight the Alien Rangers, then later the Battle Borgs and Shogun Megazord. note 
    • This would be the case in general whenever Goldar and Scorpina, then later Goldar and Rito, were sent down to fight the Rangers together, or when Goldar would assist a monster.
  • In Power Rangers Zeo, whenever Big Bad Battle Couple Prince Gasket and Archerina would come out to fight, they would almost always leave the Rangers hurting.
  • The climax of 65 has Mills fighting a pair of T-Rexes.
  • In Weak Hero, Dongha and Seongmok are decent standalone fighters that become near-undefeatable when they team up, earning them the title of the Mok-ha Duo. Their introduction alone has them defeating the fourth-strongest fighter in the series while barely breaking a sweat, and the protagonists are only able to stand a fighting chance when the two are split up.

Alternative Title(s): Multi Boss

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