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Final Boss, New Dimension

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"Going to some other dimension to fight a final battle is such a cliche!"
— Xiaomu, Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier

You're off to fight the Final Boss, so you end up having to go to another dimension. A Video Game trope, probably caused because the developers want it to be memorable, impressive, and/or awesome. May very well have an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield or be a High-Altitude Battle. It might also come with a Surreal Theme Tune. The main thing, however, is that it's in its own dimension, universe, or whatever. Fighting the boss in a different time period also counts. May also be applied to Superbosses, even though they're not the final boss. A common part of Trippy Finale Syndrome, it is usually to be found in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Depending on the characteristics of the new dimension, it may or may not invoke Interesting Situation Duel. Sister trope to Amazing Technicolor Battlefield.

A particularly common variant involves going To Hell and Back, usually to defeat a baddie planning to unleash Hell on Earth.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In the final two episodes of the first season of Beyblade, protagonist Takao and antagonist Yuriy are warped into an otherworldly, frozen wasteland during their game. The outside just sees an enormous, spiked block of ice.
  • Apocalymon, the final Big Bad of Digimon Adventure, was fought in a strange void that is neither in the Digital World nor the physical world. Digimon Adventure 02 had its final battle in the Digital World, but the first phase of the battle was fought in yet another plane of existence. Digimon Frontier's final battle took place literally in the void of space, and its climax happened in a wormhole tunneling between the real and digital worlds.
  • Emperor Muge Zorbados, the Dimension Lord Big Bad of Dancougar is fought by the Dancougar team in his own pocket universe.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • In Dragon Ball Z, the final battle against Kid Buu takes place on the Sacred Planet of the Kais in Other World.
    • In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, during the battle between Broly and Gogeta, the fighters eventually have a full on Beam-O-War, which results in the two seemingly breaking into another dimension. Eventually, the two clashed with a Punch Parry so strong, it resulted in the two sending themselves back to the real world.
  • Zig-Zagged in Fairy Tail, which divvies up the final battle against Acnologia between two locations: one is set in another dimension, the Space Between Time, where the seven Dragon Slayers battle his disembodied spirit; the other half between the rest of the cast and his mindless body takes place in Hargeon, the humble Port Town where the series began.
  • In New Getter Robo, the Oni Gods are faced in a universe made of Getter Energy.
  • Kirby's final battle with Nightmare at the end of the five-part series finale in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! is divided into two parts. The first takes place on a gigantic chessboard, and the second takes place in Kirby's dream, where he takes control of the Star Rod and uses it to overwhelm Nightmare.
  • The Naruto franchise:
    • In Naruto, the final villain, Kaguya (not counting Sasuke) has the ability to travel to different dimensions. The final fight is fought through different dimensions, such as a volcano dimension, a frozen dimension, a sand dessert dimension and an extreme gravity dimension. The last part of the battle takes place in the central dimension, a dimension which Kaguya uses to access the other ones.
    • In Naruto the Movie: Road to Ninja, during Naruto's final battle with the Masked Man, the two temporarily teleport to another world where the mask comes off to reveal Menma, Naruto's Alternate Self.
  • In Pokémon Adventures, Gold, Silver, and Crystal battle Mask of Ice, or Pryce, for one last time inside the void of time.
  • The fight for Star Memory in Rave Master takes place inside Star Memory itself.
  • The fight with the original Demon Lord in Superior takes place in a Pocket Dimension that may or may not be a physical representation of her mind.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the final battle takes place in a pocket universe.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, after Alexander opens the final door, everyone finds themselves in a new dimension where they must battle him for the fate of the world.

    Film 
  • In Doctor Strange (2016), after a brief preview of the Dark Dimension early in the film, Strange heads there in the end to confront Dormammu.
  • In Mortal Kombat: The Movie, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage end up following Shang Tsung to Outworld for the final fight.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The final battle of Kamen Rider Build takes place inside a rift between the main series's Earth and an alternate one.

    Podcasts 

    Tabletop RPG 
  • Judges Guild adventure Dark Tower (1979), using Dungeons & Dragons rules. The final battle against the Big Bad Pnessutt the Lich took place in the highest level of the Outer Plane of Hades. The party had to activate a planar portal to reach him.

    Video Games 
  • The final Specter fight in Ape Escape is fought in Dimension X, if the stage name in the NTSC version is to be trusted.
  • A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: In order to fight Raccoon, you have to enter Ubiquity's computer system.
  • Bayonetta sets the stage by having you fight the literal creator, Jubileus. New dimensions are created per phase of the battle.
  • Brave Hero Yuusha: In order to fight the Puppeteer, you have to take a portal to enter his Sky Fortress.
  • Bravely Default, Bravely Second and Bravely Default II do this with Ouroboros, Providence and The Night's Nexus in the Infernal Realm, Celestial Realm and Isle of Darkness respectively.
  • Some Castlevania games take the protagonist into an alternate dimension to face off against the True Final Boss:
  • The Final Boss of Chrono Trigger, Lavos, is fought inside his first form's shell. His final form, however, is fought as both he and the party are thrown across corridors of time, with various eras flashing by at high-speed.
  • The final boss of the sequel, Chrono Cross, complements the concept by luring you into the darkness beyond time, where timelines discarded or destroyed by temporal paradoxes end up. Chrono Cross' final boss takes you outside of the boundaries of time, space, and dimension, and can be compared to where the title ship went in Event Horizon; you're nowhere at all, not even in the scope of alternate dimensions. It's an impossible-to-define area, because it isn't technically existent nor nonexistent. You're beyond the capacities of known concepts of reality, and not even in an alternate dimension so much as what could be compared to the necessary imaginary and impossible number in some types of advanced mathematics.
  • Dice and the Tower of the Reanimator: Glorious Princess: In the good ending path, the Reanimator will transport everyone to a dimension full of evil spirits. The dimension also includes a platform made of volcano interior tiles.
  • Happens a few times in the Dishonored series:
    • The final mission in the first game's second DLC, The Brigmore Witches, requires Daud to follow Delilah through a painting that leads to the Void. It's not a new dimension, per se - you've already been there multiple times by that point, if you play the main game and the preceding DLC first - but it's a different one than the rest of the game and therefore counts.
    • The final mission in the sequel likewise has Emily/Corvo chase Delilah into a different painting than in The Brigmore Witches that similarly leads into the Void.
  • Dynamite Headdy has a battle on an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield.
  • In order to fight Giygas in EarthBound (1994), you have to hop in the Phase Distorter and travel possibly thousands of years into Earth's past. Also, once released from the Devil Machine, it's suggested that he's so large and distorted that he is an Eldritch Location dimension in and of himself.
  • In Elden Ring after defeating the seemingly-final boss Radagon, the Elden Beast, the divine incarnation of Order, appears from his corpse and warps the player character and itself into a pocket dimension: an endless plane of walkable water, with countless golden Erdtrees shining in the distance and a perennial golden sunset. Then, the true final battle begins.
  • The "Knights Of The Nine" quest line of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, has you fight the immortal Big Bad's spirit in another plane of existence to destroy him for good.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
    • The final boss battle takes place in the Nordic afterlife of Sovngarde.
    • The final battle against Miraak in Dragonborn takes place in Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha. The final quest is even called "At the Summit of Apocrypha".
  • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: The Big Bad Dark Force is fought on board his mothership in orbit over the Earth. The True Final Boss, the Dark Power residing in and manipulating him, escapes into a pocket dimension to grow in power, and must be defeated there once and for all to reach True Ending. Cue purple rocks floating against a stars- and planet-filled backdrop.
  • The Final Fantasy series is fond of this trope.
    • In the "Dawn of Souls" remake of Final Fantasy, once the party encounters Chaos, they are spontaneously whisked away into a psychedelic warp zone. In both the original and the remake, the entire final dungeon is The Temple of Fiends/Chaos Shrine 2000 years in the past.
    • Final Fantasy IV features a final battle against The Man Behind the Man Zeromus in a battlefield of rushing waves of stars, despite the party standing on a crystal platform moments before, and even a Cutscene Boss taken out in this way on the crystal platform itself. The starfield even factors into the battle - when Zeromus uses its most powerful attack, Big Bang, the stars reverse direction temporarily. After the battle is over, the party promptly returns to the platform with no explanation as to what that sea of stars was.
    • Final Fantasy V does it by unleashing the Void, and Neo Exdeath along with it.
    • Final Fantasy VII goes from the core of the planet to a sky. The way the Lifestream works, it could be either. A Battle in the Center of the Mind comes after this.
    • Final Fantasy VIII's final battle against Ultimecia starts out fairly normal, taking place in her throne room. Over time, the arena becomes more and more chaotic, until the party is whisked away into a dimension devoid of light and substance, the effect of Time Compression.
    • Final Fantasy IX has the infamous fight against Necron, which apparently takes place in the afterlife.
    • In Final Fantasy X, the final dungeon takes place in a series of pocket dimensions within a giant flying whale monster, with the last two containing the Final Boss and Post Final Bosses respectively.
    • Several bosses in Final Fantasy XI take place in different dimensions. Hell, XI was all about different dimensions and entire expansions occurred in them.note  Eald'Narche, the final boss of the first expansion (and returns following the 2nd), is fought in the Celestial Nexus, an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield. Promathia, the final boss of the 2nd expansion, is fought in the even more amazing Empyreal Paradox, a battlefield in space looking down at Vana'diel.
      Official description of the Empyreal Paradox: Beyond comprehension, beyond explanation and far beyond Vana'diel, the Empyreal Paradox is a realm that defies belief...
    • Inverted in Final Fantasy XIII. The final dungeon is a bizarre pocket dimension full of enormous machines, patterns of pink lights and floating platforms, but you return to the real world for the Boss Battle.
    • The last few parts of Final Fantasy XIII-2's amazingly long Final Boss sequence are in Valhalla.
    • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII has the final battle set in Cosmogenesis, a bizarre dimension home to the gods.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has several examples from the raids and main story quests:
      • A Realm Reborn: In an homage to Final Fantasy III, the World Of Darkness raid has the players venture into the titular alternate dimension in order to defeat the Cloud of Darkness, the Big Bad of the Crystal Tower storyline. Additionally, Bahamut Prime—the final boss of the Binding Coil of Bahamut raids—is fought in a pocket dimension within Bahamut's core.
      • Heavensward: The final boss of the main storyline, King Thordan, pulls the party into an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield when he starts charging up his Signature Attack Ultimate End. This alternate reality “shatters” after he finishes casting his attack, bringing him and the party back to the real world. The Alexander raids also take a page from ARR's Bahamut storyline and have you fight Alexander Prime in a pocket dimension within Alexander's core.
      • Stormblood: Midway through the final boss fight, Shinryu will smash through the platform the party was standing on and carry them up into the sky, bringing them to another dimension filled with iridescent clouds, crystal mountains, and a random platform floating in the void. Unlike most examples, the transition is an attack that can kill players if they fail a Quick Time Event. The final boss even discusses this trope before doing it:
      Zenos possessing Shinryu: The heavens are too small a field for our dance. Let us transcend this mortal coil!
      • Also from Stormblood is the raid series featuring Omega. Each battle throughout the raid takes place in their own pocket dimensions (Deltascape, Sigmascape, and Alphascape), with the final Alphascape battle taking place in an arena that resembles a platform floating in space as Omega crosses the Bishōnen Line.
      • Shadowbringers has Emet-Selch take the battle that takes place during the destruction of his homeworld that was shattered into 14 shards, one of them being the Source, the main world that players have played on for years, and the First, the shard that the expansion takes place in. He unleashes his true name of Hades as the Warrior of Darkness and 7 others from across time and space come to fight against one of the strongest Ascians to date in the series.
      • Endwalker puts the final boss of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark Myth Arc, The Endsinger, in Ultima Thule, which lies at the edge of the universe where Dynamis has dominance over aether. Though defeating her saves the world, the expansion throws a double-whammy with one final duel against Zenos at an otherwise empty plane of existence.
  • Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure sends you into the interdimensional portal that is "Great Fang" to face off against Tokaron, the legendary dragon reawakened.
  • At the end of Half-Life, the game's Silent Protagonist is transported to the home dimension of the various alien creatures he's been fighting for the past day or so, Xen.
  • Jet Set Radio possibly does this in the final "battle" against Goji Rokkaku. The game hints at this by adding glowing blue lights to the skybox and showing an odd death animation for Goji- who appears to fall upwards into the air after his defeat.
    • However, the game's sequel, Jet Set Radio Future definitely uses this trope for its version of the battle against Gouji- it takes place on a strange, haphazard construction set without a visible floor and a very seizure-inducing background.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the final battle indeed takes place in Another Dimension. In fact, it's actually the name of the final level!
  • The Legend of Dragoon has one of the most fantastic examples of this throughout all RPGs, as the final battle with Melbu Frahma takes place through the course of an entire world's creation, lifetime, and destruction. You go from Amazing Technicolor Battlefield to the chaotic upheaval of a world being born, to new life flourishing across it. You see the entirety of history come to pass through archaically-styled still images, ending with a prominent image of Death. And the grand finale of the fight takes place atop a ground composed of the corpses of everything that had lived on that world.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The Final Boss battle against the eponymous mask takes place in a multi-colored alternate dimension within the Moon. It has a haunted, hazy atmosphere introduced with a strong motion blur effect.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Inverted when, after going through the second-to-last dungeon in an alternate dimension, during the boss battle Zant actually transports you to places in Hyrule visited previously during the game.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: In order to track down Malladus and Cole, you need to use the Compass of Light to follow them into the Dark Realm, a dimension of evil that they fled to immediately after Malladus' resurrection.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: In the final battle, Link enters a portal in The Sealed Grounds to the dimension where The Imprisoned was... well, imprisoned, to fight Demise.
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: Neither a final boss nor a superboss, nor a unique dimension, but Zaganaga deserves a mention: its dungeon is in Hyrule, but the boss itself is in Lorule.
  • Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order has the final battle take place in the Heart of Infinity, the birthplace of the Infinity Stones and the center of the known universe.
  • The confrontation with LeChuck in the Amusement Park of Doom at the end of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge may or may not take place within the game universe, depending on who you ask.
  • The Persona series likes this in general, with an emphasis on a manifestation of the collective unconscious. This is a series where Jung Was Right, after all.
    • The True Final Boss of Persona is fought in the collective unconscious.
    • In Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, the final dungeon is the Monado Mandala, part of the collective unconscious. In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the prequel, the final dungeon is Xibalba, a spaceship the Mayans built. Which also turns out to have been a passage into the collective unconscious, which is hinted at then explicitly stated given the final boss room looks a lot like the "chamber" in a dream where Philemon greeted you near the beginning of the game.
    • In Persona 3 you are drawn up to the full moon which has transformed into Nyx's body during the Dark Hour.
    • Persona 4 keeps its boss fights in the same alternate dimension half the game has taken place in all along, though... which is also an aspect of the collective unconscious.
    • Finally (for now), Persona 5 has half of the game taking place in its own version of the collective unconscious, Mementos, with the first phase of the True Final Boss being fought at its deepest point. The next two parts of the final boss take place in yet another new dimension, Qliphoth World, which is created by said boss by merging the aforementioned Mementos with the real world.
  • Petz: Catz - Dogz 2: Your player character, alongside wizard brothers Bartholomew and Theophilus, have to fight against the Chaotic Dragon and the main villain Ivlet inside the Dimensional Rift.
  • Given how the game's plot involves dimension hopping between levels, Nuclear Throne's final bosses are technically fought in a different dimension each time. However, the most prominent ones are the Nuclear Throne's second form, which is accessed by meeting the conditions for a game loop and is fought within a giant dimensional portal, and the Captain of the Interdimensional Police Department who can be fought in an alternate timeline where the nuclear apocalypse didn't occur.
  • The final battle with Cyrus in Pokémon Platinum Version and the subsequent battle against Giratina both take place in the Distortion World; Giratina even enters from the top of scene as opposed to the side once the battle starts, and it gets no floor tile underneath it.
  • Happens a couple of times in the Ratchet & Clank series, usually thanks to the Dimensionator:
    • In Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Emperor Tachyon gets sucked into a wormhole made by the broken Dimensionator and drags Ratchet and Clank into it. While this is mid boss-fight, this is where the fight begins in earnest with a much expanded moveset.
    • In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Emperor Nefarious uses the Dimensionator to begin his invasion of Ratchet's dimension. Since it's in Megalopolis, it's also a case of Where It All Began.
  • A couple quest bosses in Runescape have you follow them into their own dimension to fight them.
    • End battle from Recipe For Disaster: the Culinaromancer, once you've gone and saved all the people he wanted to kill, you have to follow him and kill him and his tasty baked minions.
    • The Spirit Beast from Summer's End is only defeatable by going into the Spirit Realm.
    • In both Lunar Diplomacy and Dream Mentor you have to go to the Dream World to do the battles, though this is mostly for Dream Mentor as the battle Lunar Diplomacy is really very easy.
    • The final Elder God/Elder God Wars quest involves a confrontation with Seren, who seeks to hatch the eggs of the Elder Gods in Iaia, the planet of the Ilujanka as your allies help the Ilujanka evacuate their home planet as you fight her to stall for time.
  • The Final Boss battle in Siren 1 takes place in another dimension, and it fits this trope, but it's hardly an example of Amazing Technicolor Battlefield.
    • Its PS3 remake, on the other hand is borderline seizure-inducing, with a bright, repeating kaleidoscope pattern.
  • Some Sonic games do this.
    • Doomsday Zone from Sonic & Knuckles is set in outer space. While not technically another dimension, the battlefield and the battle itself are completely unique.
    • Sonic Rush's final boss takes place in a rift created by Sonic and Blaze's dimensions starting to fuse.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006): Solaris is fought in a time and space fabric-deprived area, if that makes any sense.
    • Both of the final bosses of the Sonic Storybook Series, Alf Layla wa-Layla and the Dark Queen are fought in bleak dimensions as their respective storybooks are starting to be destroyed or stay static.
    • Sonic Generations plays this straight-up: the Time Eater is fought in some kind of trippy interdimensional passageway filled with clocks, and in the console/PC versions, fragments of the game's various levels.
    • Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces have final bosses taking place in similar void dimensions created by the Phantom Ruby.
  • The Soul Series:
    • The first three games share the same final boss, Inferno (or SoulEdge in the first game), who is fought in Astral Chaos, the dimension inside Soul Edge, though the first game's final stage technically takes place in Valencia, albeit one that has been merged with Astral Chaos.
    • Abyss, the default final boss of Soulcalibur III, is fought in a hellish version of the Lost Cathedral. Astral Chaos also appears as the venue for the True Final Boss, Night Terror.
    • Soulcalibur V features not only one but two instances of this. Pyrrha Omega is fought in an Astral Chaos-ruined Denevér Castle, but the actual final boss, Elysium, is fought in Utopia of the Blessed, the heavenly realm inside Soul Calibur.
  • Super Mario Bros. loves this.
  • The Superboss Culex in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is fought inside an alternate dimension that appears to be somewhere in the Final Fantasy universe, probably near the Final Fantasy IV reality/world/whatever, judging by the music.
    • The final dungeon and boss also reside in an alternate dimension: Smithy's home dimension, in fact.
  • Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier has its final battle in the Einst dimension. It also has the final battle between the Namco characters Reiji and Xiaomu and their foe, Saya, which, while not the final boss of the game, counts because the game's dimension is an alternate dimension for them. Ironically, the page quote is for the latter, not the former.
    • And the former is a Call-Back to the final battle of its predecessor Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2, which also takes place in the Einst dimension. This is because the final area in OG Saga is the corpse of the final boss of Original Generation 2. Of course, the True Final Boss takes place back in normal space.
    • In OG Gaiden, after defeating Dark Brain, you're taken to another dimension to fight the True Final Boss, which is... Shu Shirakawa & his Neo Granzon.
    • The same happens in 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation with the True Final Boss Euzeth Gozzo. The protagonists remark how similiar the space is, where they fought Shu.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • In Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode, the final boss fight with Tabuu is fought in the realm of Subspace.
    • Any of the Super Smash Bros series, actually - the fight with Master Hand (or Crazy Hand) takes place in some sort of other-dimension (this is, of course, before Subspace Emissary came up).
    • The Wii U / 3DS iterations of the game take it a step further, with the background of the final bosses in Classic Mode changing when Master Core enters the fray.
  • In Ultima I, you use a time machine to travel to the past and fight Mondain before he finishes creating the Gem of Immortality (which would make him unbeatable).
  • Wario Land: Shake It! After you beat the boss' first form, he transports you to a battlefield in the clouds.
  • Wild ARMs 2 has the final battle and final dungeon take place in the area where an alternate universe has started to encroach on the current one — the final boss is this alternate universe.
    • Or rather, the boss that resolves the main plot. Shortly afterwards, you're abruptly thrust into a one-on-one fight with the real final boss Lord Blazer, which takes place either inside the protagonist's soul or on the edge of the Event Horizon. It's not entirely clear which, if not both. Bonus points for being taken out of one alternate universe to a seperate plane of existence.
  • Wild ARMs 3 does something similar to its predecessor. The Very Definitely Final Dungeon takes place in a different dimension, but after that there is a short period where you go back to the real world. Then, when you find the Big Bad, they thrust you back into that different dimension for the boss fight. She's not the true final boss, but immediately after the fight against her you get thrown into a fight with Nega Filgaia, which is.
  • The Superboss at the end of The World Ends with You is one, in Another Day. This is a Double Subversion: Another Day is a relatively normal Alternate Universe, but the fight takes place in Pork City, an amazing monochrome battlefield.
  • World of Warcraft has several:
    • Karazhan looks like a typical haunted tower filled with countless undead and Alien Geometries, but reaching the upper limits reveals that the player(s) have already passed from the normal world into what appears to be an extension of the Twisting Nether, as evidenced by the Alien Sky that appears when fighting Prince Malchezaar, the dungeon's final boss.
    • The insane blue dragon Malygos is found in the Eye of Eternity, his private pocket dimension which is comprised of platforms floating in a starry void.
    • Many of the Cavern of Time instances may or may not qualify due to the nature of the location, but one stands out: the End Time heroic dungeon transports the player into a possible Bad Future for Azeroth, one in which the entire world is utterly devastated and all its greatest heroes have fallen prey to the Old Gods thanks to Deathwing's victory, and in which the players must face and defeat Murozond, the Bronze Dragonflight leader turned evil.
    • The Sha of Fear, the final boss of the initial 3 raids of Mists of Pandaria, is normally fought in the Terrace of Endless Spring, where the light from the Terrace helps protect the players from the Sha's attacks, but in Heroic, he pulls the players into the Dread Wastes, a grey void in which the light wanes and the players must pass the light between themselves and keep it from being snuffed out by the Sha.
    • Garrosh in Siege of Orgrimmar periodically drags players into dimensions formed from his visions of domination. The special Mythic-only phase at the end sees players fighting him in a vision of the future he desires: Stormwind razed to the ground and all of his enemies slaughtered and on display.
    • Yalnu in Warlord of Draenor is the final boss of the Everbloom and puts a twist on the trope. After spending the majority of the instance on Draenor, it concludes... on Azeroth, overlooking Stormwind city.
    • Ner'zhul in Shadowmoon Burial Grounds drags players into the void for the final battle of the instance. He's fought on a platform of rock slabs suspended in a vast abyss of purple-black energy.
    • Archimonde plays with this trope, banishing players to the Twisting Nether for a brief period during the early stages. However, on Mythic difficulty the final phase of the fight has the entire raid transported into the Nether to finish him off.
    • Kil'jaeden pulls a double version of this trope. He attempts to flee to his ship in the Twisting Nether which is where you fight him. At the end of the fight the ship emerges in orbit of Argus deep within the Twisting Nether.
  • In XCOM Apocalypse, the grand finale of the Gollup based iteration of the series, the Aliens come not from another world, but Another Dimension. Defeating them entails figuring out how to enter their dimension and wrecking all of their buildings, with the final mission focusing on destroying the building that lets them open gates to our world.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 1 Zanza is fought in a dimension called "Memory Space", which is essentially a projection of our very own Solar System, created from the boss' memories from before he became a god. The boss battle itself takes place in a location called "Sentient Genesis": a constantly-changing void of space-time, and the seat of the boss' power and influence.
  • A rather weird example occurs in Xenosaga Episode 1, where the space station you're on inexplicably switches to a cloudy battlefield against the final boss.
  • In Baldur's Gate II, you fight the final boss in hell. Which, yes, is another dimension.
    • And in the expansion you have the final showdown in Bhaal's old divine realm, the titular Throne of Bhaal. Which is also in hell, but looks very different from the one in the main game (gods can customize their divine realms, which Bhaal did and Amelyssan does).
  • Bujingai has the final boss Rei creating a new space and planet (which he later bisects) in order to create a proper battlefield.
  • The True Final Boss of Contra: Shattered Soldier is fought in a literal alien dimension accessed via the Relic of Moirai.
  • Freedom Force, where the Timemaster rips the heroes out of the time continuum.
  • Lost Planet: While the rest of the game has you on the grounds of the planet, the final level of the first game suddenly adds a new dimension (literally in a way, as this is the only time vertical movement isn't limited by fuel from your VS) as it takes place alongside a space elevator.
  • Neverwinter Nights has you follow the final boss into a pocket dimension where her race has been hiding since the fall of their Empire. There's a bit of running round and slayage to do before you fight her, but only as a prelude...
  • The final boss of Radiant Silvergun is fought in 100,000 BC.
  • Ratchet & Clank:
  • In Robopon 2, the final battles take place in an unexplained, creepy location called the Robopon Graveyard. All you know is this is where the souls of Robopon go when they're scrapped, and the graveyard is totally filled.
  • Pretty much all of the Silent Hill games do this.
    • And Night Terror in 3. You fight inside Soul Edge itself.
  • For some reason, the totally inexplicable final boss of Super Adventure Island 2 is some kind of one-eyed giant scorpion which you fight somewhere in space.
  • Zig Zagged in Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz, although there are no boss battles, the dreaded Master Stages take place in a time paradox.
  • Sweet Home (1989) never actually states what the final region where you fight Mamiya is, but it isn't the rest of the mansion.
  • In The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: The boss fight against Cynder takes place in a convergence of the planes.
  • Devil May Cry: For the first phase of the Final Boss fight, Mundus takes Dante to a space-like void, then they fight airborne in a dark, stormy sky. The next phase takes place in a hellish landscape. The setting change is only temporary though, as Dante and Mundus return to Mallet Island after those fights.
  • Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object has you fighting Byakuren in Hokkai, where she is sealed. Technically you got there in the previous stage, but close enough.
  • Since SuperNOVA, DanceDanceRevolution has had Amazing Technicolor Dance Stages. X2 uses a special abstract pink colored stage for its True Final Boss Valkyrie Dimension. And in fact, this is the first time this has been done.
  • In Robo Aleste, most bosses are fought in relatively ordinary sci-fi environments. Karyu and the Iron Warrior, the two last bosses, though? Trippy background time!
  • R-Type does this a lot: the final level of each game invariably takes place in the Bydo home dimension. R-Type Final also had a second alternate dimension made of Tron Lines, and one of the possible final levels taking place as your ship time-travels 400 years into the future to stop humanity from ever creating the Bydo in the first place.
  • In Sword of Mana, Julius transports the hero and heroine into an alternate dimension with him after beefing himself up on Mana power.
  • Minecraft's final boss requires you to reach the dimension fittingly called "The End".
  • The final boss in Rune Factory Frontier is hidden in a seperate dimension called the Era of Disconnect so that it can't consume energy in the regular world.
  • In Super Fantasy Zone, the typical bright environment goes away after the Boss Rush, and the final battle is fought in the Shadow World.
  • Magisphere in Sa Ga Frontier is a higher dimension designed explicitly for boss battles. In Red's game, many of the bosses are fought there (and it triples the power of BlackX enemies), while in Blue's game, Magisphere is reserved for the climactic duel between Blue and Rouge.
  • In the doujin game Crescent Pale Mist, Narju Ar Larwin takes Yunou into an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield and she she's not the game's final boss.
  • In Cthulhu Saves the World, the battle against Azathoth takes place "Beyond Angled Space."
  • For the final battle of Perfect Dark Zero, Zhang Li uses his newly acquired godlike powers to levitate the coliseum into the sky, where you fight him.
  • Crash Twinsanity has the heroic crew use the Psychetron to enter the Tenth Dimension, where the Evil Twins are vulnerable at last. They're the final boss.
  • The secret Final Boss of Star Fox dwells in a stage called Out of This Dimension. In Star Fox Zero, the final confrontation with Andross is in another dimension composed of energy tunnels and Tetris-like glass blocks.
  • In Saints Row: The Third, the final boss of the Save Shaundi ending takes place on Mars (except not really, it's actually a film set for an in-universe B-Movie called "Gangstas in Space").
  • Panzer Dragoon Saga's final boss Sestren is fought in a psychedelic dimension also called Sestren, that links together all the environment-controlling Towers in the world. It's implied that this dimension may actually be virtual, and Sestren a computer intelligence.
  • Double Dragon:
  • Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere's final battle between Nemo and Dision (or an ill-explained rogue AI in the plot-gutted export version) takes place in a not-very-attractive Amazing Technicolour Battlefield. In the original version it's explained as the player and Dision cutting off visual and audio feed to the outside world and fighting each other in the eponymous Electrosphere; in the export version, it's apparently that rogue AI trying to hack your plane.
  • Antichamber: Once you catch the black block, you're transported to an endless void with floating platforms.
  • In G-Darius, the "Genesis" stage suggests travelling back to before the Big Bang or something equally bizarre.
  • In Grandia II, the final battle against Pope Innocent us takes place inside his mind, and even features a marathon against all the other Valmar parts you beat previously before you take him on in a two part battle.
  • The final showdown with Meden Traore in Project × Zone.
  • Stages 15 to 18 of MonsterBag, including the final boss, take place on an alien world that the protagonists are warped to.
  • In Descent: Freespace, the final battle against the Lucifer occurs in subspace.
  • In the third Splatterhouse game, the final battle sees protagonist Rick fighting against The Terror Mask in some strange dimension consisting of a stone slab floating in a dark void. It's implied this is actually Rick's mind
  • Happens frequently in the Diablo series of video games.
    • In Diablo II, the final battle with Diablo takes place in the Burning Hells.
    • Happens three different times in Diablo III. First, the player chases Diablo to the Heaven High Heavens to defeat him. Then, during the actual final battle, Diablo temporarily brings the player to the shadowy Realm of Terror for a portion of the fight. Finally, the Reaper of Souls expansion sees the player traveling to the dimension of Pandemonium to take on Angel of Death Malthiel.
  • The true ending of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory have the protagonist group finally return back to their's original dimension to fight the final boss.
  • At the end of The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy, Fred fights Dr. Butler in his home time period of the 30th Century, instead of Bedrock.
  • Giga Wing's Final Boss, encountered in Stage 6, is fought in an otherworldly realm of sorts that you're taken to after destroying the Stage 5 boss. Subverted, in that Stage 7, unlocked by clearing the first six stages with no continues and where the True Final Boss is fought, takes place over a normal-looking city.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV features demon Domains, pocket dimension labyrinths full of demons with the demon that made the Domain hiding within. Both Final Bosses hide within massive, unique Domains: Merkabah resides in the heavenly Purgatorium while Lucifer awaits within the grandiose Lucifer's Palace.
  • A Hat in Time's final boss (and the level before it) is set in a Bad Future where Mustache Girl passes her slightly barbaric judgment on your former enemies. The final boss also sends Hat Kid and her allies into the fabric of time to fight them.
  • Might and Magic VIII sends you to another dimension for the final confrontation, the Plane between Planes and subverts this trope once you actually reach the antagonist of the game. While the creatures there are lethal, there is no Final Boss; you answer a series of riddlesnote  and get a key to unlock four 'eggs' placed in the dimension.
  • Mega Man:
  • Ghostbusters: The Video Game is pretty good about not doing this, and justifying when it does. In the case of the Collector, they're caught "between" the dimensions because the Collector is holding them in his world. In the case of Ivo Shandor, they tried to end him in their own dimension, but he pulled them through into his.
  • In story mode in sega version of Lord Monarch final battle takes in wasteland, where Alfred must restore keystones to prevent Gessyu from awakening the demon.
  • Rigid Force Alpha/Redux's Final Dungeon and Final Boss battle are set in a cyber-eldritch dimension reminiscent of the interior of V'Ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

    Visual Novels 
  • Fate/stay night: In a heroic and justified twist, Emiya Shirou weaponizes this trope in his final battle against Gilgamesh during the Unlimited Blade Works route by materializing his inner being into the real world as a barren, twilit pocket dimension filled with countless weapons. Cue dueling Storm of Blades.
  • Silver Crisis: The final chapter starts with the titular Silver bringing all the remaining heroes to a shadowy new dimension, where he summons a bunch of evil clones for them to fight. He takes Lucario to fight him in a completely different area as well, which he explains is the rift between dimensions. Once Lucario stabs Silver with his weakness, the Silver Arrow, it causes him to be weakened enough to bring the other heroes back to his base, while Lucario and Silver's battle takes place in the rift.

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