History Main / EasyLevelsHardBosses

** The first, second, and fourth bosses have resources or alternate options on hand to let you beat the boss if you specialized in stealth or hacking if you take the time to look, leaving only the third boss (the one where directly applied violence really IS the only option) for you to deal with. Even then, a hacker can find the third boss easy to defeat with a minimum of effort by [[TheTurretMaster carrying turrets from the beginning of the level into the fight with you]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'':
** The Game Gear version is notorious among the Sonic games for having this trope due to not providing rings at all in the boss acts, which are always Act 3. The '''first zone''', Underground, is a blatant offender, which has ThatOneBoss thanks to awkward bouncing bombs, a slope, and the small Game Gear screen, but [[PlatformHell Green Hills Act 3]] and the final boss count too.
** In the Genesis version, the Casino Night Zone boss is the first difficult boss in the game, after the game's biggest BreatherLevel.

* ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast'': Most of the levels in ''Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms'' are painfully easy. The bosses, on the other hand, are just painful.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'' usually has bosses that are significantly harder than the arena fights. The game recognizes that and features boss difficulty override option in major assists menu.

* Most of the levels in ''VideoGame/AlteredBeast: Guardian of the Realms'' are painfully easy. The bosses, on the other hand, are just painful.
* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage''... Ugh. ''Streets of Rage''. All of the bosses were better off taken out with the specials than losing lives over, which made the BossRush at the end even worse, when specials are disabled.
* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' lets you slice up mooks with relative impunity. The first boss will tear you up if you rush him the same way. It just gets worse from there.
* ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheArcadeGame'' is notorious for this. Most of the levels are pretty standard until you reach the boss, who feels like they have more health than all of the enemies in the level combined. Bonus points for the last level [[spoiler: which has THREE tough bosses at the end and the last two have to be beaten consecutively without healing.]]
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManAndVenomMaximumCarnage'' has simple levels that involve beating up rioters. The boss fights are either introductions to EliteMooks or pit you against super villains with powerful attacks who are hard to beat unless you know their AssistCharacter weakness (even then, you're still in trouble if you screw up or forgot them); Shriek's the only one who isn't immune to being snared by webs. And then there's [[ThatOneBoss Muzzoid]], who is very difficult to beat without an exploit.

* ''[[VideoGame/MaximumCarnage Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage]]'' has simple levels that involve beating up rioters. The boss fights are either introductions to EliteMooks or pit you against super villains with powerful attacks who are hard to beat unless you know their AssistCharacter weakness (even then, you're still in trouble if you screw up or forgot them); Shriek's the only one who isn't immune to being snared by webs. And then there's [[ThatOneBoss Muzzoid]], who is very difficult to beat without an exploit.

* This is one of the trademarks of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei''. While enemies will quickly kill you for making mistakes, bosses are usually orders harder than the surrounding mooks, the earlier parts of ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and the entirety ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' are standout examples due to the sheer prevalence of [[ThatOneBoss Those Bosses]].

These patterns are AcceptableBreaksFromReality for {{Boss Game}}s. See also SNKBoss and AuthorityEqualsAsskicking.

* Similarly to ''Undertale'', the enemies ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' only take a couple of turns to spare, and attack with simple patterns, whereas bosses can take up to 20 turns to defeat, while launching difficult and powerful attacks.

* ''Videogame/BravelyDefault'': It's easy to abuse the Brave/Default system to end most common battles in one turn. The "Brave" command allows a character to have an extra turn, with the caveat that in the next round they will have to wait one turn for each turn they get thanks to that command. With that command, a character can act as far as four times in a row. There is no downside to having everyone Brave four attacks in the first turn when you're certain you can end the battle with it and steamroll the random encounters — though if you fail, you're effectively giving the enemy three free turns in a row. However, using this tactic against a boss is a recipe for disaster. One of the earliest lessons in this comes from [[WakeUpCallBoss Ominas Crowe]] (the game's second boss), who will Fire and Poison your party into oblivion with his free 3 turns if you try to bumrush him like a normal encounter. In general, unless you're vastly overleveled, you'll have to think strategically and to deduce the bosses' patterns to defeat them.

Contrast HardLevelsEasyBosses, MooksButNoBosses.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' was developed with the same modus operandi: Most of the game is somewhat simple (with the exception of some scripted instances of high action that involve large numbers of normal enemies, usually Space Pirates of some kind), but the bosses - especially the Leviathan Guardians - can be very difficult to beat. This leaves ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' as the only game in the trilogy that [[SequelDifficultySpike averts this]], due to it being NintendoHard both level-wise (especially because of the presence of Dark Aether) and boss-wise.

* ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean'' has fairly easy mooks, but, hoo boy, are the bosses tough. One bad hand in the wrong place can screw you over big time. There's a half-dozen bosses that could easily be ThatOneBoss, and most of the rest are no slouches. ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosOrigins'', meanwhile, is just [[SequelDifficultySpike straight-up hard]].

** The entire Jade Regent adventure path by Paizo loves this trope, with mooks filling the dungeon of the day until a suddenly much-more-difficult boss appears. In one case, a dungeon full of joke monsters like Dire Corbies brings down an out of nowhere fiendish tentacles horror designed for a party three levels above the [=PCs=]. In another, [[LawOfConservationOfNinjitsu mook ninja]] give way to a flying, magic-using oni attacking in a room literally set up for her benefit.

These patterns are AcceptableBreaksFromRality for {{Boss Game}}s. See also SNKBoss and AuthorityEqualsAsskicking.