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alt title(s): Sub Boss; Mid Boss A Mini Boss, Sub Boss or Mid Boss is a distinct, generally unique, stronger-than-average monster that you encounter usually halfway to two-thirds through the level/dungeon/etc. It is noteworthy because it's tougher than any ordinary enemy (and isn't encountered under normal conditions like a Giant Mook), yet it still isn't as strong as the actual boss that awaits you at the end. In story terms, the Mini Boss is often The Dragon to the level boss.
Recurring antagonists, such as the Goldfish Poop Gang and the Quirky Miniboss Squad, are often mini-bosses.
If there is one, the reward for defeating the Mini Boss is usually a map of the level, the featured item or weapon of the dungeon (as in the case of The Legend Of Zelda games), or a Plot Coupon, such as the Boss Key.
May return as a regular enemy later in the game. Of course, normal bosses may become sub-bosses later as well.
Examples:
- The Legend Of Zelda games from Link's Awakening onward have at least one per dungeon.
- Ratchet And Clank.
- The Final Fantasy games have some.
- Kingdom Hearts has a few. The Shadow Sora miniboss fight in the Neverland level is infamous for being much, MUCH harder than the final boss for the level (Captain Hook).
- This could be a affectional Shout Out to the Dark Link Minibos in the water temple of The Legend Of Zelda, who is well known for the same reason.
- God Of War had a couple.
- Street Fighter Alpha 3 had you fight a character relevant to your own character's story halfway through the game; this has shown up in other fighting games and are often referred to as "story battles".
- This returns in Street Fighter IV, happening just before the final battle in each character's story mode.
- God Hand loves these; every stage has at least one, and most have two or better.
- SaGa Frontier has quite a few.
- In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Recurring Boss Vyers, known to himself as "The Dark Adonis", gets stuck with the nickname "Mid-Boss", although in fact he usually does appear as the final boss of a stage.
- Almost everyone in Disgaea is genre-savvy, so Laharl was likely referring to Vyers' lack of story-importance by naming him "Mid-Boss". Irony...
- Slightly subverted in Legend of Dragoon, in that the sub bosses are often as powerful, if not more than the normal bosses.
- The two bosses you fight in the volcano during disc one come to mind: Virage and the Flame Bird. The Virage is fought part-way through the level, and serves to prove why they were so feared in ages past. Then you fight the Flame Bird (which most people had forgotten about, after the trauma of the Virage battle), and it turns out to have twice as much HP, but only half the fight.
- Mega Man games. The Mega Man Zero series has them as a mainstay of each level.
- Subverted in one stage of Mega Man ZX Advent, when the main boss is at the beginning of one level and the midboss of that level is at the end.
- The Scrappy Level of Final Fantasy IV, the Sealed Cave, is in large part that way due to the Trapdoor minibosses. Yes, plural - almost every door is a Trapdoor.
- Kirby Superstar had a bunch of recurring ones. In the Boss Rush mode, they appear again in groups to make up for the lack of power compared to a normal boss. Some of them provide hard to come by abilities such as Cook.
- The series as a whole also has Kracko Jr., which is an easier version of Kracko, a boss (and is usually fought in the same level).
- The Darius series has Sub Bosses as tradition. Particularly notable are the Sub Bosses of Darius Gaiden; each sub-boss has a spherical orb, usually on the top of it; if you destroy just that part, you can collect the orb, causing the sub-boss to pull a Heel Face Turn and fight for you! Though, it slowly explodes over time and eventually dies. For those who play this game for score, clearing the game nets a huge bonus for each sub-boss captured.
- In G-Darius, your ship has the ability to capture all regular enemies enemies and make them fight for you, including Mini Bosses, although the difference this time around is that you need to first shoot off the gold-colored shielding with normal shots before they can be captured. Once captured, they stick around until they take too much hits from the other enemies, and each one has a special attack they used against you, useable by inputting a set of joystick motions, much like in fighting games. And yes, like in the previous game, keeping them alive until to the end of the stage is worth a large score bonus, although they can be utilized to cause a long-lasting Smart Bomb explosion or a stronger-than-normal Wave Motion Gun blast.
- Star Fox 64 and Assault sometimes have a stronger enemy appear about halfway through the level, although you don't have to defeat them to progress. A straight example would be either Star Wolf or the Grunner on either Venom Route. Command also has some minibosses guarding motherships in the harder levels.
- The Ace Combat games usually have this in the form of either one-time-appearance enemies (such as post-mission update enemies) or the antagonist ace squadrons, such as Yellow Squadron and Strigon Team; the former becomes a Degraded Boss by 04's final mission though.
- The Touhou series tends to have about one sub boss per level. In some interesting cases, the sub boss is often the same person as the actual boss for the level. In a specific case, you fight one character -thrice-: twice in her stage, and once as a sub boss in the next stage.
- At least two characters act this way, Sakuya from the sixth game and Youmu from the seventh.
- And then there's Orin of Subterranean Animism, whom you fight a total of five times: four times as a mid-boss across three different stages, and once as the actual boss of stage 5.
- Metroid games often have minibosses that tend to be weaker than actual bosses. In Super Metroid and Metroid Zero Mission all bosses other than final ones and the ones you need to kill to open a way to the final boss are considered minibosses. In Metroid Prime minibosses and actual bosses are easily distinquished: minibosses don't have a health bar and tend to become recurring enemies later on. In Prime 2 there is no clear distinction as all bosses have a healthbar, but the Energy Controller guardians are often cnsidered to be main bosses and the item guardians minibosses (altho in this case some of the most annoying fights are item guardians). Prime 3 has several minibosses that you fight about halfway through the zones.
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles features two levels (Acts) per thematic area (Zone). In earlier games, there would only be a boss at the end of the second Act, but in S3&K, there is also a sub-boss at the end of each first act. They are distinct from other bosses, in that they are autonomous, not controlled by Eggman/Eggrobo.
- La-Mulana has a great variety of minibosses scattered throughout the ruins. The Dimensional Corridor is packed with them, with 11 different minibosses to defeat before the area's Boss Battle.
- Beginning in Wild Arms 3, the Wild Arms series began having Mini Bosses literally pop out of nowhere - the party will be shown walking around an empty corridor, one person says "Something's coming!" (or words to that effect), and boom, you're fighting a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere.
- Super Mario Bros examples: Birdo in Super Mario Bros. 2, Boom-Boom in Super Mario Bros. 3, Reznor in Super Mario World.
- In Persona4, several dungeons have Mini-Boss shadows around half-way through them, which also double as a case of Boss In Mook Clothing
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