This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
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Old Discussion
Andrew Leprich: Would
Master Li in
Jade Empire count? I beat him in literally six seconds, because I used the spell that transforms you into an enormous, hulking brown soldier statue and killed him in three or four hits. After taking on
Death's Hand, which I found to be a reasonably challenging fight, I was very disappointed that the final boss was so anticlimactic. I don't know if that's just me, because I may be in a minority of people who acquired and leveled up that transformation spell (I imagine this battle would be considerably tougher without it), so I'm hesitant to add it.
Jefepato: Andrew, not everyone found that fight so easy. (My roommate did the same thing, but as he didn't have that style leveled up, it took quite some time and a couple tries.) I don't think it really counts, not compared to some of the fights on this list.
Madacaek: Crap, wait. Is this specifically for final bosses? I don't see why it should be, but I added Bob the Killer Goldfish... you can remove him if he doesn't fit.
Cosmetor: I think this trope should be limited to deliberate examples, not counting editors bragging about their uber gaming skills.
Travis Wells: About the FF 7 example, I think the game automatically equips counter-attack for you on that final battle if you don't have it. (So there is no way to lose that battle). I'm not certain though, so I don't want to just change the entry. Can anyone else confirm?
Cosmetor: I'm not sure that's exactly what it does, but I can confirm that you automatically counter if he hits you, whether you equipped the appropriate materia or not.
Tanto: Took out Majora — the Fierce Deity's Mask is an
Game-Breaker, and Majora is decently challenging without it, so it doesn't really count. This trope seems like it should be about a lack of challenge as an inherent quality of the boss, not a boss that's not challenging if you've got X.
Tanto: So, um, why were the
Castlevania and
Earthbound examples taken out?
Cosmetor: Because the first was someone bragging, and the second was a very climactic Puzzle Boss.
Seven Seals: Anyone with me when I think
Half-Life 2 deserves a mention? I mean, come on, the final boss is a
portal. That you shoot. Until it's dismantled. Yeah, there are also two gunships slowing you down, but by that time in the game they're speedbumps. Valve was so obviously going for a sequel hook that they forgot to make the ending interesting from a gameplay point of view (story-wise, it's perfect). The last stretch of the game is basically a cakewalk — an incredibly fun cakewalk, but still.
Mister Six: But it's not intentionally easy... (and the ending sucked. Boy, that game was overrated).
Seven Seals: Well, the intent is a problem, that's why I asked here. It was ridiculously easy to me, but I'm not sure if the creators intended for it to be challenging. I am no FPS god, but this is clearly the easiest section of the level. I mean, taking on a strider at point-blank range (which you have to do a bit before) is harder than this, even with the SGG.
The ending only sucked if you were hoping for an ending. They should have called it "Episode Zero" to make this more clear. It cuts the story off at the big explosion. That's the most daring "to be continued" I've ever seen, and I like it.
Meta4: The non-videogame examples have been moved over to The Man Behind the Curtain.
Cosmetor: I removed the below example, because it's actually just an example of a boss being broken by a Game-Breaker.
- The final boss of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy can be plenty tough if you use your bombs and arrows on its eye, but if you've managed to trade in your Shovel for the Boomerang earlier in the game, using it on the eye will take him out in only one hit.
MrDrak: Would Letz Shake from
No More Heroes count? You have to chase him down unnecessarily long hallway and sit though his start up sequence and after all that Sir Henry Mother Fucker kills him in five seconds. The reason I'm asking is because you don't actually fight him, Henry kills him in a cutscene.
Arutema: That would be a Bait-and-Switch Boss, which isn't quite the same thing as an Anticlimax Boss.
Uknown Troper: Removed Mithos. Yeah, he's no
Abyssion and his
One-Winged Angel form *could* possibly be fiercer, but both his first and second forms aren't pushovers at all.
Kerrah: Can anyone tell me why my example (the one about
Return to Castle Wolfenstein) was removed? The boss in question
is probably the easiest FPS boss I've ever seen.
edit five minutes later: Deliberate cases, eh? Do we have a "Ridiculously Easy Boss" trope then?
Sean Tucker: Wrong Ghostbusters game. The "CONGLATURATION" bit is from the original, not Ghostbusters 2. The actual example is correct, though.
Ninjacrat:
what the fuck is wrong with you?
Kizor: Dude. Chill.
Ninjacrat: The ironic thing is I was just talking about how polite I am in another thread. :| It's just amused dismay at someone going such lengths to natter.
Kizor: I removed the note about the final battle of
Final Fantasy Six. It's easy to a good player, but it's still an enormous twenty-minute affair that involves up to twelve characters and the most epic faux-organ music ever made for the SNES. Most of the article is about things like unarmed, defenseless bosses that go down in one shot. In one case, the player doesn't even realize that there is a fight going on until he wins.
Not Pigeon: Changed the
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann header quote source. "Libera Me From Hell" is a remix of a different song. I'm not too certain about the translation because I've seen a couple different ways of phrasing it, but it works.
Danel: I've heavily edited this to remove a lot of boasting about elite game skills and things which seem to be entirely different tropes.
It occurs to me that there are a few other ideas relevant to this, but i can't quite think of how to put them in... the first is that in some cases this is because the structure of the game doesn't lend itself to a conventional boss fight at all, and so the real final challenge is the level immediately prior to this - a particularly hard platform section or whatever.
Another is how it's in some ways related or not to
One-Winged Angel - the only way that the
Big Bad could be a plausible threat would be for him to go all mutatey at the last minute, and in some cases that would be a real
mood breaker. A specific example I'm thinking of here is Fable 2; it wouldn't be that hard for Lord Lucien to announce that now he'll draw upon the power of the Spire to crush you once and for all! before transforming into some kind of
Snake Bear Dragon hybrid... but given the way he just calmly announced how he
had murdered your family and then shot your dog, such would be something of a mood breaker. In any case, it's also an example of what i said before, since the real final boss is the massive battle against the Great Shard, which is plenty epic enough.
Icalasari: >.> It would be nice if there was something to tell me whether most recent posts go at the top or bottom... Oh well. Anyways, would Pokemon Colosseum count? It was pretty unexpected, and, if I remember correctly, you get healed AND he is easier than the previous boss, even if you weren't healed. Not much easier, but combined with his appearance (and the fact that, if you left a slot open in your party, the Shadow Metagross actually has an advantage against the Shadow Tyranitar), well, I feel it deserves a spot here
Spritz: I got rid of the following Mega Man Zero 3 example because it didn't make a lot of sense and there were indented replies saying so:
- Omega in the third game is the same way. Key problem? His AI is Ax Crazy to a fault. His attacks are so predictable (you can hear them coming a mile away) that this troper has managed to kill him blind folded.
Omega's final form is easily the fastest boss in the game, has a greater variety of moves than any boss in the game and is unambiguously the most unpredictable in the game. His first form is very slow and predictable (but with no axe crazy AI to speak of), however since it still has a lot of health, does a lot of damage and is the first form of three I don't think it qualifies for the trope.
Wild Knight: A thought: is there a specific reason the trope has to refer to final bosses? I mean, take Climax Boss; the description of that is a climactic boss fight in the plot that's specifically not the final confrontation. So if the game built up to a Climax Boss fight, but then subverted it by making the boss incredibly easy, wouldn't that be an Anticlimax Boss?
Cambdoranononononono: Reading over the Sonic examples, it seems like people are adding bosses whenever the bosses aren't as difficult as the editor had hoped/expected. My sense of this trope is that it's about bosses that are intentionally made very easy for one reason or another. Is that accurate? If so, I'd say basically every example ought to get thrown out.
I don't know whether I didn't notice this or if it was added later, but the bold section distinguishing this from a Breather Boss confirms what I thought.
Unless the Metal Gear Solid 4 thing was meant to be sarcasm, I don't see that it fits. I'm removing the Sonic boss again. In spite of the title, this trope is not specifically about how climactic people felt is was or could have been. It's about (final?) bosses that are intentionally designed to be easy.
Wild Knight: Noted, then, I won't try to put it back. I submit that the trope's title is a bit misleading in that case, though.
Trigger Loaded: Currently beginning resorting and reconstruction of the trope, as decided by the Page Crowner and discussion. The majority vote is that an Anticlimax Boss should be about Bosses that get buildup and are plot-critical, but are underwhelming and are defeated quickly, as a contrast to Climax Boss. Soon I intend to make another trope for the original idea behind Anticlimax Boss. Probably Zero-Effort Boss.
Anyways, for reference, here's the old intro to the page:
Old intro
And for those of you who weren't annoyed by having the Awesome Boss Fight Rug pulled out from under you... I'll find a way to get you one day. Oh, yes. One day. —
Brian Clevinger, author of
8-Bit Theater
The Goddamned Bats? Dead in a heap along with the Demonic Spiders. The Faceless Goons? Shot to pieces. The Giant Mooks? Not so big now. The mecha-chimps? Nothing but scrap metal. The Quirky Miniboss Squad? Dismembered. The Dragon? Decapitated. The Boss in Mook Clothing? Reduced to the clothing.
Behind you is a trail of blood and tears. Ahead of you is the one enemy that you have yet to formally introduce to his own innards: the Final Boss. The force of Ultimate Evil that destroyed your village, murdered your parents, kidnapped your childhood sweetheart, enslaved Venezuela, blackmailed the U.S. President, and once stole a nun's donut. You've got five rockets left, two grenades, a katana, 300 rounds for your minigun, and about a hundred thousand rounds for your magnum. You push open the blood-red doors and see...
... a little fat guy with no clothes and a target painted on his forehead?
The Anticlimax Boss is pretty much what you'd expect: a boss who's not only easier to beat than any other boss in the game, he's probably easier to beat than most of the ordinary baddies. Sometimes it's done as a joke, sometimes it's done as a way to give the player an easy ride after a tough Sub-Boss (in which case the idea could be that the *real* boss is the guy before him and the fight with him can be seen as just part of the ending of that particular story thread;) sometimes it's just done to subvert expectations. Whatever the reason, the Anticlimax Boss is incredibly easy to beat.
If said boss is the final boss, this is the Video Game-specific version of The Man Behind the Curtain, and the obvious inversion of Authority Equals Asskicking. Obviously, this trope is the opposite of the Climax Boss. Also contrast the Almighty Janitor, where said un-intimidating "little fat guy with no clothes and a target painted on his forehead" has the power to kick your ass, naked though he may be.
Distinct from a Bait-and-Switch Boss, which is when one boss fight is setup, but a different one is delivered. Super-Trope to Clipped-Wing Angel.
Not to be confused with the Breather Boss, who is only unintentionally pathetic in this kind of way without being deliberately designed to be so by the game's designers.
Currently sorting through all the entries. Though deleted, I'm going to save them and resort them to more fitting entries as time permits.
Trigger Loaded: First batch of example edits:
- Bob the Goldfish in the first two Earthworm Jim games. In the first one after reaching him you simply knock his fishbowl off its pedestal and he flops around. In the second, Jim eats him.
No story buildup, and going to move this example to Zero-Effort Boss
- Arguably, the NES Bionic Commando had one of these too. After defeating the giant war machine Albatross, in the next sequence you fall down a shaft and have to fire ONE rocket into the cockpit of a helicopter to destroy it. The timing is the whole challenge; if you don't time the rocket exactly, the helicopter automatically guns you down.
Not really Anticlimactic. You fought the boss challenge, and there is a challenge in taking out the boss, as mentioned. A good example, but I'm not sure for what...
(Saint's Row 2)
- They make up for it with the secret bonus final mission. Which plays to the game's engine by setting you up against vast numbers of body-armor-wearing secret police, rather than a single opponent
Bonus Missions don't need to be mentioned.
I'm a little leery of the Gamebook example, as it doesn't quite feel like an Anticlimax Boss if it's that epic. Similarly, I only got as far as the Action Adventure games. Anybody who wishes to purge any examples you don't feel fit the spirit of the trope, please do. Or especially check all inbound links.
I'm of the opinion that some "final" bosses aren't really intended as the climax of the game but as the "falling action" part of the story. For example, Vogel in Saint's Row 2, Colonel Autumn of Fallout 3, or the final boss of Manhunt. These all happen after the point where you've already won the game. They exist mostly to wrap up the story and give the player the satisfaction of finishing it himself, rather than watching a cutscene. On the other hand, a final boss fight like the one in the original Diablo, IS anticlimactic. Diablo can be taken down on Hell difficulty by a level 30 character if the player knows what he's doing.
Trigger Loaded: After a whole lot of procrastination, I've finally finished what I've been meaning to do for a long while (As discussed in this thread and a crowner]] and purged many examples. Well, not 'purged.' Several that I cut are actually going into new tropes I'll design this weekend, (Jan. 9-10, 2010) barring any problems. Many entries fit better under two other tropes, tentatively named Zero-Effort Boss and Cutscene Boss. (Probably going to run the second through YKTTW) Several fit with Breather Boss, as they weren't plot critical. There were a few I cut for other reasons, listed and described below:
Bad entries
- The Tarrasque in Dungeons And Dragons is hyped to be the biggest, baddest, toughest monster in the game. Too bad that for its 3rd edition incarnation, (And others) it moves slow, can't fly, and has no ranged attacks. Meaning anything that does can poke it to death without harm. The most laughable design choice is that over half its feats are some of the worst feats in the game.
I was probably unfair to this one, but it's hard to say it qualifies, as it's not necessarily a "plot-critical boss" given that the DM can give it whatever relevance he wishes in a D&D game. Still, something that big was intended to be an important encounter, not just a really bad roll on a random table. Unless you have a really mean DM.
- Gunstar Heroes has two — there's Melon Bread, which can safely be taken out well before he fires his single shot, and the Final Great Soldier, which simply dances at you (though to be fair he gets taken out by one of the bosses as he takes the stage).
Melon Bread is a Breather Boss. Final Great Soldier would be more a Bait-and-Switch Boss
- The final boss of Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith cannot be killed in any way. The only way to win the game is to surrender, at which point he realizes he cannot bring himself to kill you.
- This Troper remembers simply knocking the guy out with a punch and carrying him outside the temple's influence.
Do Puzzle Bosses really constitute an Anticlimax Boss? Several bosses don't really seem 'anticlimactic' if you kill them through unorthodox, or puzzle-based means.
- Lucifer from Painkiller seems invincible at first... at least until you figure out that he's a Puzzle Boss and find the method. After which, he dies with great ease.
See above.
Dead link.
- The Musha Gundam in Dynasty Warriors Gundam is the big bad and usually the final boss in Original Mode. However, not only is this not true in Heero/Jerid/Master Asia's Original mode, but you face him in the first stage!
... What? I don't get what this is saying.
- Mech Warrior is generally a realistic mech game, ending the fight with a simple Ace Custom of a battlemech at the end of your trials. Then came Mech Assault and its super bosses in Lone Wolf and Phantom War. One is an incomplete Atlas with Precursor Technology and the other is an Awesome with several rods stuck on it, followed by an Elemental armed with a Laser Blade and Kill Sat. People preferred the Mechwarrior games...
- Oh and you fought them in the freaking powersuit, this was an annoyance, after walking around smashing stuff with your assault mech, you are forced to fight him in the power armor
The first says the game features Anticlimax Bosses as habit... but that doesn't really fit the spirit of the article. Maybe Boss Dissonance. Or, as several entries state, Tough Stage Easy Boss. Maybe a third subtrope?
- The "Computer Virus" boss in Kirby Super Star is a spoof of turn-based RP Gs. If you hold the block button on your "turn", you'll win without taking any damage, and get silly victory messages.
No you don't. Some of the bosses' attacks will still hurt you in block mode. As well, this would fit better in Breather Boss.
- Compared to the other bosses in Mega Man Zero 2, Elipzo is a wuss. Too bad Capcom forgot to reduce the damage done by charged attacks while in defense form (normal attacks are weakened).
- This troper, when fighting Elpizo multiple times in a row just for the fun of it, found that the number of attempts it takes to defeat his first form (the one with a "defense mode") varies widely. I suspect that this has something to do with how often you manage to dodge the attack that drains your health while replenishing his own.
Debated entry, so I can't tell if it counts or not.
- The final boss of Mega Man 3 is a huge-ass robot named Gamma who bombards you with energy and punches you with giant, spiky fists. If you use Top Spin (a pitifully weak move wherein Megaman leaps into the air and spins about) on him, he dies in one hit. Admittedly, this probably wasn't supposed to happen, but it's still an anticlimax.
- The Search Snake works as well, but it takes multiple hits to beat Gamma.
Closer to
Revive Kills Zombie. Don't think it counts.
- The
Adolf Hitler Master D battle in the NES Bionic Commando is a single shot to the cockpit of his escaping helicopter. However, it takes good timing to do it while you fall. And if you miss, the copter's guns kill you instantly.
See above comments on Puzzle Boss style boss battles that are still challenging, but more of the 'one-shot' variety. They aren't really 'anticlimactic.'
- Shrowser in Mario And Luigi: Partners in Time doesn't even need to be attacked. All you have to do is dodge all of his... her... attacks and you win.
Still a challenge to dodge them all, especially as you don't get an opportunity to counterattack, or even use healing items.
- At the end of Fable II, Lord Lucien places you into a dream of a happy childhood — but once you escape he can be killed with a single shot, since he's no more than an unarmed old man going into a Motive Rant. If you wait him out, Reaver will kill him instead.
- The way you worded that implies that he intentionally put you in the dream. He didn't. He thought you were dead. He is also an interesting sort of boss in that he is much more powerful than any of you thanks to the Spire but you have the plot-required weapon to defeat him. Without it he would be invincible and able to defeat you by saying the word "sleep".
So, does it count or not? I don't know, the natter confuses me.
(Planescape: Torment)
- Although it is more extortion, since you need to have the Blade of the Immortal with you and are threatening you kill yourself, and therefore him as well, if he doesn't merge back with you.
- There are additional ways to convince him to surrender, if you have the nigh-godlike stats for it. A 24 Charisma or a 24 Wisdom, or a knowledge of your true name, and he'll likewise give in... though of these, the only one that doesn't amount to extortion of one sort or another is the charismatic path, so eh.
- Also subverted with Ravel Puzzlewell, who appeared to be a case of Talking the Monster to Death until she showed her haggish side, which turned out to be a suicidal gambit and therefore unavoidable.
Blasted the natter and made the entry more concise.
- (Fallout 3) Mothership Zeta's Alien Captain goes down in one shot; he doesn't even have an energy shield like most of the spacemen you've killed.
- The Boss Fight for "Mothership Zeta" is supposed to be the climactic battle against the enemy spaceship while trying to fend off hordes of the aliens on your ship. Killing the captain is just necessary to gain control of the ship.
So, is the commander built up as a boss at all? And is there a battle after him which would be the boss battle?
- The Final Boss of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness can be beaten by catching HIS WHOLE TEAM. Good luck catching Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres in one go, though.
- That's not exactly anti-climactic, considering how significantly harder it is to catch a Pokemon than to simply defeat it!
Debated entry.
- The final boss of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2 Darth Traya, aka Kreia is incredibly easy. While it's very possible to lose, an easy way to beat the final boss is to Glitch the lightsabers so they get stuck behind walls and then beat up Darth Traya since either of their deaths end the battle.
Glitches don't count.
- Most of the Final Bosses of the Silent Scope games don't attack, but you must kill them with a headshot, and you only have one bullet. =Bad example=
Like above, it's not anticlimactic, it takes a single, tense action to win.
As mentioned, entries I removed that aren't listed above will be moved to other tropes.
