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Barry: "[Lucia] knew when [the Tyrant] was nearby!" Leon: Barry, they’re always nearby. You got lucky when you only had to fight yours TWICE. Did you hear about Jill’s? She lost count, Barry. She. Lost. Count."
The non-comic relief version of the Goldfish Poop Gang. A boss-type monster who you have to face several times over the course of the game, typically not sequentially.
Though, unlike the Goldfish Poop Gang, he is an actual threat each time.
Generally comes in one of three variants:
- The boss flees when sufficiently damaged, only to come back later
- The boss is actually unbeatable in his first appearances, and the players must either flee or survive his attacks until he leaves of his own accord
- The player(s) actually defeat the boss, only for him to be resurrected later on by some means, often with new abilities (see Sequential Boss)
From a mechanical standpoint, the last of these is not much different from facing distinct bosses, but it may go some way toward refining the scope of the story.
In the first two forms, the same tricks will usually work to defeat the boss each time — though frequently, the player will not be able to execute the required trick in the early appearances. Alternatively, the boss may announce during a later confrontation that he has gained an immunity to whatever beat him last time.
In the third form, the boss will typically have radically different powers, weaknesses, and appearance each time he turns up, though, at least in the cleverer games, there will be some similarity in his strategy each time.
Sometimes the first or third version will be the final boss, in their most powerful form. Sometimes, the first couple appearances will be part of the main storyline of the game, but to fight them after that you'll have to seek them out as a Bonus Boss.
In action games, they often take the form of an Implacable Man. He may end up suffering a Rasputinian Death.
Examples:
- Seymour from Final Fantasy X is of the third variety.
- FFX also features the second variety in an optional boss fight (for the second optional summon), although the fight mechanics are completely different.
- Beatrix in Final Fantasy IX is of the first variety.
- Weigraf in Final Fantasy Tactics is both the first and third types: the first time you fight him, he runs away; the second time, you mortally wound him and he makes a Deal With The Devil to keep on living; the third time, he's been completly taken over by the demon and the first part of the battle is a Duel Boss in which you have to defeat his human form before he drops his disguise.
- Llednar Twem from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is of the second variety.
- The Rival in the Pokemon games.
- Including the leader of the gang in each of the Pokemon games and a few protege trainers.
- SA-X from Metroid Fusion is the second variety. Some encounters are avoidable entirely as long Samus doesn't expose herself, the later ones always force you to run away. It can be stunned with Ice Missiles, but only briefly.
- Break Man who is actually Protoman in Mega Man 3 is a type 1.
- Later, the Four Guardians from Mega Man Zero, also Type 1. Three of them are fought four times (the last time would be in their One Winged Angel forms), while the fourth Guardian wasn't alive long enough to be seen with a OWA, and the third time he's fought, it was only as a Bonus Boss.
- The Dhaka in Prince Of Persia: The Warrior Within is type 2, the only option is escape until the very end.
- Montross from Star Wars Bounty Hunter.
- Bowser Junior, in New Super Mario Bros, is the first type, while his papa is the third type.
- Bowser himself is a recurring bad guy in many Mario games. You fight him three times in Super Mario 64.
- Nearly every boss in Super Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy appeared at least twice. And there's Topmaniac from the latter, who appeared FOUR times for no real reason (two normal battles, one daredevil run and one speedrun).
- Yggdrasil from Tales of Symphonia encompasses all of these elements. He's unbeatable in his first appearance, leaves during his second, and transforms during his final appearance.
- He actually is beatable in his second fight, but you have to be max lvl and do it really fast.
- You must also fight Kratos thrice and Yuan twice, who either don't care if they win or lose or just plain won't stay defeated.
- No, Yuan is only faced once—it's his partner, Botta, who is faced twice. As is Pronyma. And also Sheena. The Sword Dancer is faced three times, but he's an Optional Boss.
- The sequel has Alice and Decus, each who are fought first individually, then later act as one of the penultimate bosses as a Dual Boss.
- Tales of Vesperia features Zagi, who uses the first and third forms. You fight Zagi a total of five times throughout the game. (Six if you include the "Sidequest dungeon") And no matter how many times he's tossed off a boat or had his arm blown up, he just does not back down.
- Don't for get Van from Tales Of The Abyss. Even though you defeat him in battle two-thirds into the game, he comes back as the final boss.
- Liquid Snake in the original Metal Gear Solid and Sons of Liberty serves as a mix of the second and third varieties. He is defeated in a Hind D, Metal Gear Rex, fistfight and Jeep before finally succumbing to FOXDIE, and in Sons of Liberty, he is reincarnated as Revolver Ocelot's new arm.
- In addition to Liquid, the player must fight against Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven twice in the original MGS. A more subtle example is Revolver Ocelot - he flees after the fight and later returns to tortures Snake.
- Metal Gear Solid 2 also has Vamp. Who comes back from a cutscene death, his Harrier being shot down, a firefight, and a sniper duel in that order.
- ShellShock from Ratchet: Deadlocked is a type 1, requiring you to face him almost five times in the same level before he finally succumbs to you.
- Hades from Kingdom Hearts II is a type 2. When you first meet him, he is impervious to your attacks and you're forced to flee while he hurls fireballs at you.
- In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, numerous members of Organization XIII are fought numerous times. At least in Sora mode - You fight Vexen a third time in Riku mode, and Zexion and Lexaeus are fought only once.
- In Resident Evil 2, William Birkin (aka "G") is a type 3 who transforms from a simple overdeveloped humanoid in his first form to a hulking, deformed monster in his last form.
- In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, you have the option of fighting or running from the titular Nemesis. If you defeat him in one of the various optional ways, you can acquire two useful weapons, but running doesn't cost anything if you're fast enough. You only have to actually fight him near the end of the game, since he's also the Final Boss.
- High Max of Mega Man X 6 is type 2 and requires two particular attacks in order to defeat him in the intro stage. (Unfortunately, you're also able to encounter him later without having acquired the requisite attacks, leading to a Hopeless Boss Fight that merely ends in a game over.)
- In X5 there's Dynamo, a bounty hunter who is hired to stall the heroes as they try to prevent the Eurasia Colony from falling onto Earth. He teleports out when his health bar runs out, only to reappear a while later until he flees for good. He's also in X6, but only as an optional boss.
- And of course there's the infamous Vile, starting off as unbeatable in his first introduction in X1, only to be defeated in the Big Bad's final fortress. He shows up in future games after being resurrected, both in X3 and X8, fuelled by his hatred of the Hunters and X in particular.
- Silent Hill 's most famous monster, Pyramid Head, must be fought several times. The first time, he will leave after either A) a predetermined number of bullets are unloaded into him, or B) a predetermined time limit runs out. The second time, you must escape him by running down a very long hallway, and you can slow him with bullets but not kill him. The third time you see him, you just have to run around him in a giant maze. And, as the ultimate slap-in-the-face, in your final battle with him (and this time, he brings a friend) he kills "himself" before you get to finish the job.
- In City Of Heroes, one plot arc has you fighting the Envoy of Shadows (a powerful demon) multiple times. Even if you defeat him, he's still around after the mission. It's explained in-game that in order to send him packing for good, you have to learn his true name; after you manage that, his final Climax Boss defeat signals the end of the arc.
- Also, over the course of the late game story arcs, you fight Nemesis several times. Curiously, most of the time your contacts act like you've actually killed him (despite the game being Never Say Die the rest of the time), but they always leave the bit of doubt that it really was Nemesis you killed. (And then there's the possibility that it really is Nemesis EVERY time, but his consciousness is spread out over many different bodies. Given that he at one point plans to take over the minds of the entire Rikti race, that's not as crazy as it sounds.)
- In Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, Giacomo and his crew appear several times as bosses, even forcing two difficult fights subsequentially (to the annoyance of many games). They've even got their own theme music, "Chaotic Dance."
- Giacomo also appears several times in Origins (complete with a remixed "Chaotic Dance"), though he's rather less threatening and stops showing up near the end of Disc 1.
- Catwoman in "Lego Batman: The Video Game" is a Type 1 recurring boss. She appears several times in one level, and each time you more or less only have to hit her once. Harley Quinn is something of a subversion, in that she's actually a Recurring Miniboss.
- In Baten Kaitos Origins, the heroes have to face one boss, the Lord of the Lava Caves, three times in about ten minutes of game. Notable because the (otherwise serious) heroes hang lampshades all over the encounter, complaining bitterly about how difficult the boss is and how annoying the repetitive fights are, and even stomping spitefully on his corpse when he goes down for good.
- Jr. Koopa appears multiple times in Paper Mario. He's actually a fairly difficult and ingenious foe, adjusting his weaknesses with each encounter, but Mario and his companions don't take him seriously at all, and he's often the butt of jokes. In the final dungeon, he actually prevents another boss (The Koopa Bros.) from recurring in order to get in another shot at you.
- King Bulblin from The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. You have at least four encounters with the hulking brute throughout the game. After he is beaten the final time, he decides that he admires anyone tough enough to defeat him so consistently, and he simply hands you a key and walks off.
- In Link's Awakening, A Stalfos miniboss in the Catfish's Maw dungeon is the first variety. After you've defeated him once, he seems to become terrified of you, despite popping up to fight you again and again. At one point he steals the dungeon treasure from its chest and leaves a note in its place. You have to kill him to get it.
- In most 2-D Sonic The Hedgehog games, Doctor Robotnik/Eggman is an extreme example of this. Not only is he a boss in every game, but the boss of almost every level therein; other bosses are the exception rather than the rule. As for type, he's a mixture of versions 1 and 3: he runs away after his vehicle is destroyed, and has a new one ready by the next encounter.
- Desann, the Big Bad of Jedi Oucast, is the second variety. His Dragon, Tavion, returns for the sequel, Jedi Academy, as the Big Bad, proving to have been of the first variety. She is now much stronger, and when you think she's done for, you find she's got the tendencies of the third variety.
- And she now has a Dragon of her own, who is the second type.
- Balrog in Cave Story, of the first type. He's mainly a comic relief character, but he is a challenge in battle. Well, except compared to every single other boss.
- Worth noting is that three of the first four boss fights are against Balrog.
- Every boss in the original Devil May Cry is of the first variety, fought exactly three times. Most bosses are the first type, except for the final boss, who is the third type (and his fights are one after the other). The Evil Counterpart Nelo Angelo's fights are spaced out evenly along the plot, while the other three bosses each have their three fights in relatively short (though not immediate) succession. In addition, Nightmare has an attack which forces you to fight weaker versions of killed bosses, allowing them to recur more than three times. Devil May Cry 3 also has Vergil and Jester, who you fight three times each.
- Big John, the T. rex-looking first boss from Viewtiful Joe 2 comes back at least twice as a Sub Boss. And wears a Paper Thin Disguise as "Big Lee", who spends the better part of a minute denying he's really Big John before proving a Bait And Switch Boss.
- One of the bosses on Ellen's path in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is a recurring vision of her "stalker". He attacks several times, becoming more and more damaged and bandaged up each time.
- Ridley serves in this capacity for the Metroid series as a whole. He's made in appearance near the end of almost every game in the franchise, and has even shown up twice in two of them.
- The only games Ridley doesn't show up in some form are Metroid 2, Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime Hunters. The only enemies/bosses to appear in more games are the eponymous Metroids. Strangely enough, if you count cameo appearances the only non-metroid enemies that give Ridley a run for his money are Sidehoppers, which are fairly minor enemies and can be hradly considered to be iconic or anything (they appear as enemies in 4 games and have cameos in 2 others, while Ridley appears in 7 games in total).
- You must fight Ridley 3 times in Metroid Prime 3: Once in ball form, once again while falling down a shaft, and finally when attacking the third seed. The last fight is type 3, as he's pumped up on Phazon.
- The eponymous monster of the Metroid Prime series shows up as a final boss in all three games, most often in its "Dark Samus" form. In Echoes, you fight Dark Samus a total of three times.
- Crunch Bandicoot from Crash Bandicoot: Wrath Of Cortex is of the third variety, showing up about five time including the final stage.
- You fight each of the god-generals in Tales Of The Abyss at least thrice; either alone or as part of a joint attack by several generals.
- Reala from NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams does this as the first variety.
- Pretty much every boss apart from the final bosses in the Super Robot Wars Original Generation is an example of type 1, though you can shoot them down before they retreat if you reduce their hit points to just above the point where they'd retreat, then use a really powerful attack.
- The Empress Bulbax in Pikmin 2. She's generally the first boss you'll fight at the start of the game; she reappears much later in two other holes. In your second and third encounters with her, she becomes a Flunky Boss capable of summoning the fragile-but-deadly (to your Pikmin, that is) Bulbax Larvae. While her "main" attack (rolling) remains the same, the addition of Mooks makes you change your strategy.
- The DomZ Serpent in Beyond Good And Evil. While the method of beating it remains the same each time, its movement pattern changes each time to reflect the mobilty of your overworld vehicle. It's also one of the animals you need to photograph, but if you don't nab it in a fight, it isn't Lost Forever—the skeletal remains of one serpent are found in a cave, and you can photograph them.
- In the Roguelike game NetHack, once you Either kill the Wizard of Yendor or perform the Invocation Ritual, the Wizard of Yendor will, even if you kill him, every number of turns, be able to resurruct, and is guaranteed to reappear on the Plane of Earth.
- Belome in Super Mario RPG.
- Croco in the same game as well. Type 1.
- Every. Single. Boss. in Namco x Capcom falls under the first type until their final death. Well, except for Druaga, Zouna, Grand Master Meio and the final boss (who resurrects the first two in the Boss Rush final stage.).
- Big Core in Gradius. It's the boss of Stages 1-4 in the original, and comes back every now and then in subsequent installments for Boss Rushes. By Gradius V, it's become nothing more than a medium-sized regular enemy.
- The Gradius series in general seems to thrive off the Recurring Boss concept, as many come back in theme if not outright in a Boss Rush of subsequent games. The original Big Core is still the Recurring Boss champion, rivaled only by Tetran from Salamander.
- Anna and Gunther in Deus Ex are both Type II, with a few interesting twists. Anna's a Recurring Boss if you run away from her first boss fight, battling her for real later on. However, the fight's not really hopeless: You can stand your ground and kill Anna, and you never have to fight her again. There's also an earlier scene in which her usual NPC invulnerability is rescinded, though that's really only a boss fight if you opt to kill her while her guard is down. Note that Anna is a Skippable Boss all three times: You can simply not attack her the first time, you might get captured before the second (though there's no reason to do so intentionally), and you can learn a passcode that kills her instantly before the third.
- Like Anna, Gunther can be a Recurring Boss. Like Anna's, Gunther's fights are skippable. Unlike Anna, Gunther really is a Hopeless Boss Fight in the first encounter: You either surrender in dialogue or get captured when he kicks the stuffing out of you. You can still use the "kill phrase" trick in the second if you make the right choices in game, though.
- Many of the bosses in Donkey Kong 64 were the third kind, where they were fought at least twice, and returned as a more powerful version.
- All but one of the R-Type games has included Dobkeratops as a boss. Gomander and its invincible Outslays make frequent appearances as well, as does Gaines, the human-shaped robot with a BFG who seems to exist to get killed halfway through the first stage.
- Tablet of Graffiti Kingdom; he turns up in the middle of every other stage until he kills his father and becomes the final boss.
- God Hand makes heavy use of Types 1 and 3, as almost every boss in the game is fought at least twice. Of the four main villains, one is fought three times (becoming a type 3 in the last fight), one is fought twice (also becoming a type 3 in the last fight), one is first fought as a type 1 then is fought again fully later, and the final one is technically a type 3 but his normal form isn't fought. The game also features arena challenges, many of whom involve fighting bosses from the main story. (Including yourself)
- Orochi from Okami qualifies as a Type 3 - kinda. You fight him three times, first time in the present, second time in the past, and the third and final time in the Ark of Yamato. Now technically, Orochi's first and third battles are him being a Type 3 due to the fact that they are (chronologically) after Orochi's first defeat (his second battle - in the past).
- The Spider Queen also qualifies as a quasi-type 3, though her subsequent appearances are all (with the exception of the on in the Ark of Yamato) hidden down holes, making them completely optional. Each time she's a little stronger and more likely to jump about, breaking your vines and flowers.
- The Wild ARMs games use this constantly, with the third game being the worst contender (practically every significant boss is fought at least three times). The fourth game is the only one that avoided this trope, by giving the main antagonists so many members you only need to fight each of them once; on the other hand, this made most of them immediately forgettable.
- Fassad/Yokuba in Mother 3. He crosses paths with you about four times, though you only fight him twice.
- Jin and Takaya, of Persona 3, after the fight against them before fighting the Hanged Man, proceed to jump off a bridge. They come back. It's never quite elaborated on if this is Type 1 or Type 3 of this trope.
- Darth Sion is fought once as a Hopeless Boss Battle before you have to defeat him numerous times before he dies finally.
- Saturos and Menardi in Golden Sun. First it is a Hopeless Boss Battle, then you fight just a weakned Saturos on the Mercury lighthouse, then fight them both before they become a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere.
- Bosch in Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Including his dragonized form, he is fought at least three times.
- Gharnef in Fire Emblem is present on the stage once and you must simply survive him because it is a Hopeless Boss Fight without Starlight. The second time, you can fight him for real after finding the real Gharnef amongst the Doppelgangers.
- And in fact he can be skipped. In the original Fire Emblem, this can result in the game becoming Unwinnable but in the remake, if you skipped it and don't have Tiki, then Nagi will join the party.
- Unknown Rival
Vyers, the Dark Adonis Mid-Boss from the first Disgaea is fought a total of five times. Though he's treated like a Goldfish Poop Gang in-story, he's actually a legitimate threat every time.
- Disgaea 2 has Axel, the Dark Hero. He is not, as his name may imply, a vicious murdering bastard, but a former rock star. Mid-Boss also makes an amusing optional cameo.
- The Contra series tends to recycle the same final bosses from the first two arcade and NES games. In fact, its easier to count the Contra games that don't feature a variation of "Gomera Mosking" (the giant alien heart from the first Contra) and "Gaba" (aka "Jagger Froid", the final boss from the arcade version of Super Contra) as bosses, which would only leave you with Operation C, Contra: Hard Corps, and the two Appaloosa games.
- Breath Of Fire III had the "Horse Brothers" Balio and Sunder, a Dual Boss who are both the first and second kind: the first battle against them is unwinnable, the second can be won (but can also be lost without getting a Game Over) and it's in the third battle where you finally get rid of them for good.
- Atelier Iris 2 The Azoth Of Destiny has Chaos, The Rival with the twin to Felt's sword.
- Despite being optional, Punis Taro, Jiro and Kichi in almost every Atelier Series game are of the third variety.
- Carlito in Dead Rising in so much as, if you want the good ending, you have to fight him three times.
- Ryu's Doppelganger from Ninja Gaiden III for the NES is fought twice. Once at the end of Act V and again in Act VI.
- Both Bola and Claymore from Megaman Legends 2; you have to face each boss pirate twice throughout the game.
- Asha returns twice in Iji after you first encounter him; the second time you cross paths he teleports away without attacking you, but the last time he fights to the death. If you were hoping to nuke him again, too bad, he's now fast enough to dodge it.
- Weasleby in Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure. He even has two different battle themes.
- Battle Garegga has Nose Lavaggin (Stage 1 boss) and Mad Ball (Stage 2 boss) appear again in Stage 5. And then the endboss of Stage 5, Black Heart, makes a second appearance in Stage 7. And in the Spiritual Successor, Armed Police Batrider, Black Heart not only appears in its original form, but also a second time within that game in its mk. II form!
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