History Main / GetBackHereBoss

* Most "[[LongRangeFighter zoner]]" characters such as ''VideoGame/StreetFighter''[='s=] Dhalsim or ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''[='s=] Axl qualify as this, having many long-range attacks that can keep an opponent at bay. Special mention should go to [[SNKBoss Nu-13]] from ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' who has a meterless multi-hit projectile combo that hits from 3/4 of the screen away, plus gravity wells that drastically reduce the opponent's movement speed and a 30-hit projectile super that inflicts a lot of block-stun. She was so overpowered in the first game, ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger Calamity Trigger]]'', that the developers removed her from the next game, killed her in the story, and replaced her with a new character that looked identical, but had a different name (Lambda-11) and move-set. She later returned, but was heavily de-powered on her reappearance.

* Most "[[LongRangeFighter zoner]]" characters such as ''VideoGame/StreetFighter''[='s=] Dhalsim or ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear''[='s=] Axl qualify as this, having many long-range attacks that can keep an opponent at bay. Special mention should go to [[SNKBoss Nu-13]] from ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' who has a meterless multi-hit projectile combo that hits from 3/4 of the screen away, plus gravity wells that drastically reduce the opponent's movement speed and a 30-hit projectile super that inflicts a lot of block-stun. She was so overpowered in the first game, [[VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger Calamity Trigger]], that the developers removed her from the next game, killed her in the story, and replaced her with a new character that looked identical, but had a different name (Lambda-11) and move-set. She later returned, but was heavily de-powered on her reappearance.

* Lots of missions in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series involve chases in cars/bikes/anything else, with you having to tailgate your target until he's dead.
** A notable one in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Liberty City Stories]]'' had you chasing a FatBastard in a meatpacking plant. You are restricted to using an [[AnAxToGrind ax]] and the only way to successfully strike him is to sneak up from behind. If you strike him or are seen he runs to a new hiding spot and is way faster than you.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', the Enderdragon flies away from you as soon as you LOOK at it. Good luck trying to shoot it with arrows...
** Although most speedrunners agree that the best strategy against Jean? is to [[LethalJokeItem explode ''beds'' in her face]] anyway.

* The second half of the [[EldritchAbomination Waterwraith]] battle in ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin 2}}'' has it trying to run away from you... and running out of breath after a while. This results in a ''VERY'' satisfying retribution for [[ImplacableMan everything]] [[HopelessBossFight it]] [[RocksFallEveryoneDies put]] [[TimedMission you through]].

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has Volvagia, who pops out of his lava pit to attack. He's actually a [[SpellMyNameWithAnS differently-translated]] version of old-school villain Barba (it all comes from バルバジア, ''barubajia''), with a similar MO.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider'': Pierre [=DuPont=] periodically pops up in every Greece level to take potshots at Lara. No matter how many bullets you plug into him, he'll run away the moment he takes enough damage and instantly vanishes once he gets behind cover. To rub salt in the wound, he finds the MacGuffin at the final Greece level ahead of you, but the good news is your last encounter with him here is the one where you can finally kill him. The ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary'' remake changes things up by having Pierre taunt Lara off screen to confuse her and the final encounter with him is in a QuickTimeEvent.

* The [[ThatOneBoss infamous]] Water Dragons from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'', who emerge from [[BottomlessPit instant-death]] [[SuperDrowningSkills water]] to immediately breathe fire that [[{{Knockback}} knocks you off]] of one of three small platforms [[OneHitKO to your doom]], and then dive back in without giving you any fair chance to hit them once you're through cowering from their attack. What makes it worse is that they have almost no pattern whatsoever, meaning you can't predict where they'll appear of which direction they'll be facing, so you can't try and outsmart them and attack from behind. Your only chance is to walk to the opposite edge of the center platform, hoping that the [[AttackItsWeakPoint dragon head]] will either be high enough to hit with the Axe or that your whip will be timed just right as it drops back down to make contact with it. And you have to be as careful as possible because, thanks to the aforementioned MalevolentArchitecture if you screw up even once you have to do this ALL. THE FUCK. OVER AGAIN.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has Volvagia, who pops out of his lava pit to attack. He's actually a [[SpellMyNameWithAnS differently-translated]] version of old-school villain Barba (it all comes from バルバジア, ''barubajia''), with a similar MO.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' has Wizzrobe, a normal enemy in other games but a miniboss here, who also does the whack-a-mole method, as it fires, disappears, and appears elsewhere to fire again. (They do that in all games, but in this one, there are several specific points where he can appear. You have to spot him, avoid his blast and hit him before he can disappear again, or [[QuickDraw be quicker at shooting him]] and cancel his attack entirely as he disappears. Like any good Zelda villain, hit him enough times and he TurnsRed before you can actually kill him.)
*** He returns with a similar MO in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'', but one kind in particular likes to [[FlunkyBoss summon hordes of other monsters to fight you at the same time]]. Often, they will be monsters that require a lot of attention if you don't want to get wasted by them, including Moblins and DARKNUTS. And in one case, ''other Wizzrobes'', with summons of their own.
** Not to mention Majora itself, who in the second phase of the boss fight spends more time dancing away from you than fighting.
** Goht is a mechanical bull who runs in a circular track and fires back at you, never stopping. Then he resorts to rocks, and ''bombs.'' The way to defeat him is chasing him as Goron Link and bumping into his legs to make him trip. (You could also shoot Fire Arrows at his forehead, but the former method is more fun.)
** And of course, there's Stallord from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', who, after seemingly defeating it in a normal type battle, has its head come alive and fly around the area shooting fireballs, requiring you to chase after it with the Spinner.
*** Then there's the GiantSpider boss Armogohma in ''Twilight Princess'', whose ClippedWingAngel form will run randomly around the boss room faster than Link. Easiest way to finish it off? Stick a bomb arrow in its ass.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'' has a couple. There's the miniboss Master Stalfos in Catfish's Maw, whom you have to chase to four separate rooms before finally defeating him; the Slime Eel, the main boss of the same dungeon, does the whack-a-mole approach where it occasionally pops its head out of holes in the walls and has to be pulled with the hookshot to expose its weakpoint. Also, the Grim Creeper in Eagles' Tower; after you defeat his bats, he runs to the top of the tower, where you have to fight him (on an eagle) as the main boss.

* Million Gunman of ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' has Type 2 as his main gimmick. Add his unblockable ricochet attack that can hit you from ''any'' position, the sudden PlatformHell level with not-so-friendly jump physics, and his extremely annoying BossBanter, and you have the ThatOneBoss of the game.
** And also Margaret, who is type one. Luckily, she's not that hard to beat, and even engages in melee when Travis is close enough.
** Letz Shake as well, mixed with CorridorCubbyholeRun where you must stand in particular parts of the ground to avoid his earthquakes.

* ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' has several examples. There's Hideaki, who just won't stop running away and who most objectives involve pursuing; Tsuruhime, who "jumps" all the way back to the beginning of the stage (luckily, this can be avoided if you kill all the soldiers quickly enough); and Yoshihiro, who disappears before you can defeat him and will only come out once you've taken all his bases.
** Haruhisa is the most pronounced example: he not only runs, he ''hides'' under the dunes of his desert level, with a sandstorm obscuring his whereabouts on the minimap unless you capture a base he happens to be close to. If you find him, you get to fight him for a minute or two, after which he'll call up a sandstorm again and retreat to an area still under his control. If you capture all of his bases without defeating him, he retreats to a cave in the middle of the stage.

* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', some missions require you to arrest all enemies on the map. This is a problem when facing the Casters for the Circle of Thorns, who will run after you give them a good whack, requiring you to chase them through what is basically a maze, and you will probably run into a SECOND group of enemies while chasing the one survivor from the first. This is even more irritating when facing the Cabal, who do the same thing but can fly, allowing them to run to high places very quickly. Attempting to ignore these enemies only means they will find you later on, usually as you're down to half health after moving on to the next mob. Finally, in [=PvP=] battles, players who can fly do this to those who can't, allowing them to heal and sneer at the grounded player. This is where the power Gravity Control comes in handy...

* Invoked by ''players'' in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' in order to deal with some of the more monstrously powerful Notorious Monsters in that game. The original strategy to fight [[BonusBoss Kirin]] was a perfect example. In order to keep Kirin from ''really'' unloading on them with his most powerful attacks, the main tank would run their ass in circles around the area Kirin was fought, while debuffers would keep Gravity on Kirin to slow his movement speed. Square Enix started developing [=NMs=] with "Draw-In" that would, er, [[ShapedLikeItself draw in]] potentially everyone on the hate list, if the player on the top of the hate list got too far away, in order to make players vary their strategies.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a few of these, pretty much any of the multi-stage bosses. A good example would be Razorscale from the Siege of Ulduar; before you can even fight her, you have to construct turrets to pull her down to the ground, and after a few seconds, she'll break the chains and fly again, forcing you to start all over.

* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'':
** Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked'' plays it straight with Shellshock, who you fight on Kronos. Every time his health gets dangerously low, he flies away. While your missions on this planet consist of opening an arena and then returning to it, he fights you twice outside of the arena, and then four more times inside of it in the final mission.

*** The [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit 8-bit version of]] ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' has the Bridge Zone boss, which pops out of water (your only chance to hit him), but he fires bullets at you. You could get him a few times before he goes under again, though.

*** More specifically, the Rival bosses are all races on the 3DS version. The HD versions ''are'' actual battles, and the Shadow battle... um... can we just call it [[BestBossEver awesome]]?

** In the Lethal Highway stage of ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', the Hero Mission requires Shadow to destroy the enemy spacecraft, which flees from him continually, and is hard to hurt. This is one case of this Trope where it might truly escape, and if that happens, your only option (other than restarting the game) is to switch to the Dark Mission.

** ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' is also rife with Get Back Here Enemies, if you're going for 100% completion or if you're in the [[BonusLevel secret bonus level]]. Even worse, they mercilessly taunt you.

** While not strictly a "boss" unit, fighting Missile Cavalry can have this effect. They are the fastest-moving units in the game, and the AI is pretty much scripted to run away whenever any opponent comes close. Even if you have Light Cavalry, it's unlikely that you'll be able to catch them. Fortunately they are large targets and so are somewhat vulnerable to foot archers, but many Missile Cavalry can also form a "shooting circle" and minimize their casualties to incoming fire. This ''would'' be a case of ChasingYourTail if it wasn't for their ability to ''fire at you'' AND ''run away'' at the same time. The best way to defeat them is to use the arbitrary "map borders" to trap them in a corner, provided you have enough units to actually trap them all.

* ''[[VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey Etrian Odyssey III]]'''s first stratum boss, Narmer, will flee after losing half its health. Your party will need to use various passages around the area in order to bring it to bay.

** The ''VideoGame/SlashEmExtended'' fork gives some bosses like Vlad the Impaler a supply of scrolls that allow them to teleport to a random dungeon level. If they use it, the player may have to search the entire dungeon if they want to kill the boss.

* Gin Ichimaru in the Bleach Tower in ''VideoGame/BleachTheThirdPhantom''. He gathers his spiritual pressure to increase his strength, and then runs away. He has Five mobility,which for most characters,is the highest they can go. Not to mention his absurdly high evasion,and the fact he has a Menos Grande guarding the entrance. That,and it takes two turns to even get to where he is with characters that have the same mobility. To add further insult, you have to beat him in five turns. Have fun.

** The hallway does actually have an end, which will let you pummel Gwyndolin into oblivion should you reach it, but because of the damage going out from both ends, you'll never be able to do this by accident.

** Doom Gaze[=/=]Deathgaze from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' does this. If you don't deal enough damage to kill him the first time you fight him, he'll eventually escape from battle and you'll have to find him again. Luckily, he keeps all the damage from previous fights. But don't even '''think''' about using [[GameBreaker Vanish/X-Zone]] on him, either -- if you do, the script which gives you the Magicite [[PermanentlyMissableContent doesn't activate]].
*** He repeats this behaviour in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'', similarly giving you access to a powerful ability when defeated.

* ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan'' abuses this trope. Both as Spider-Man and Venom, you will almost always have to chase the enemy across UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity before finally fighting him/her, either because you have to catch up with the boss (Rhino), because the boss is escaping (Venom), or because the boss wants you to chase him (Electro and Beetle).

* The Ceramic Smile in ''VideoGame/{{Killer 7}}'' screams and runs if you face it. Its weak spot, its heart, is only vulnerable from the front. You have to keep your back turned, then flip around at the last second and shoot it in the heart.
** Alternatively, you just turn around and quietly wait there with your gun out. The battle arena is circular, and the Ceramic Smile is an idiot, so it'll just come back 'round to you and skid to a halt while you shoot its weak point.
* There are two notable bosses in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''. The first, Bishop Vick, has Celerity and will zip around the room at ridiculous speed while blasting you with a shotgun. The second, Andrei the Tzimisce, teleports away every time you land a solid strike. In both cases, the environments are closed-off and have sparse cover, so you can theoretically stay in one place, follow them around the room, and attack at range... but both have minions (zombies in the first case, fleshcrafted monsters in the second) that will latch onto you, dealing damage and screwing your aim unless you keep moving.
** Bach, who warps across a relatively large room (considering previous examples) and shoots the player from large distances with a sniper rifle. Considering that he warps after even the slightest damage, it can get annoying indeed.

** Many regular enemies in the game do this too. It's not rare for a common enemy to freak out, run away, and go leaping and bounding over buildings to get away from a player. Most of the time, this is suicidal, since they're likely to run into cops, Longbow patrols, [[OneHitKill Police Drones]], or [[BolivianArmyEnding the huge mass of superheroes gathered in Atlas Park.]] That's not even counting the thugs who [[WhatAnIdiot leap off of skyscrapers]] [[TooDumbToLive to get away]]... [[DontExplainTheJoke without any sort of powers that could allow them to prevent or at least mitigate]] [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou the massive damage they'd inevitably sustain upon impact with the ground...]]

* ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' has Eddie Gnucci, who's constantly running around a maze as other enemies constantly spawn. If you track him down, you can get a few shots in before he runs off, and it's very easy to lose him.

* The Shrewd Possessor from ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' is like this, and the BossBattle is very unlike any other in the game (it's sort of like a cross between a bobsled and a shooting gallery). After it takes the form of what resembles a large, monstrous face made of ice (more or less) Luigi has to chase it down a mine shaft in a motorized sled and lob bombs at it to break off its armor, at which point it makes a single attack. If Luigi manages to hit it with one more bomb in its mouth when it tries, the chase ends for the moment, and Luigi is able to use the Poltergust 5000 on the Shrewd Possessor. (The whole process has to be done three times to defeat the creature.) The Health Bar is still in use here, but the greater danger is the sled's engine overheating (which happens if the gauge goes too high, and taking too long or failing to dodge that one attack causes it to go higher).

* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}} and the Pirate's Curse'':

* [[TheGeneralissimo General]] [[TheCaligula Mikiel]] from ''VideoGame/Strider2014'' will attack Hiryu from afar, and dash away as soon as he's approached, forcing the player to chase him throughout three rooms before he hops into his HoverTank and begins the actual boss fight.
* Pierre [=DuPont=] in ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' periodically pops up in every Greece level to take potshots at Lara. No matter how many bullets you plug into him, he'll run away the moment he takes enough damage and instantly vanishes once he gets behind cover. To rub salt in the wound, he finds the MacGuffin at the final Greece level ahead of you, but the good news is your last encounter with him here is the one where you can finally kill him. The ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary'' remake changes things up by having Pierre taunt Lara off screen to confuse her and the final encounter with him is in a QuickTimeEvent.
* The Druid Sorcerer from ''VideoGame/XenaWarriorPrincess'', which attacks Xena in the last level in Tir'Na. After a lengthy boss fight which sees the sorceror's health reduced to a single point, he then flees into a crypt, which closes behind him. Xena will need to find a way to enter the crypt and fight the Sorceror, who then positions himself in an altar in the center, and sics thunderbolts at Xena all over the place. Xena will then need to hit the symbols below the altar to finish off the Sorceror.

* All enemies marked as "Ranger" in ''Divinity 2'' will always flee when in range of your Melee, which makes them rather ''DemonicSpiders'' when they can [[StandardStatusEffect stun and poison]] you while fleeing, although that's only when they are surrounded by other allies who are more than willing to get in your face with stronger attacks and block your pursuit.

** The Char Clawbster, Holey Moley, and Spellican in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. The first likes to retreat to the opposite end of its very long battlefield periodically, or worse, to the ''ceiling'' on the opposite side of the battlefield. The second pops out of random parts of an enormous room (including the walls and ceiling) and has a very bad habit of retreating the moment you get in range to attack it. The third abuses TeleportSpam and gives you very little time to attack before it moves [[GuideDangIt (Though you can buy more time by using Zero Gravity on it)]].

* ''VideoGame/NewPokemonSnap'' has some. Steelix and Volcarona in the illumina spots move around, go in and out of holes, and go through various chambers and have to be hit with fluff fruit to get their shields down so you can orb them into the illumina state. The final boss, Xerneas, is the same way. Mew is also one as an EasterEgg/CallBack from original ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap.