History Main / HeadsIWinTailsYouLose

** Later, Ichiban faces off against [[spoiler: Kazuma Kiryu himself]]. On top of being ThatOneBoss, the following cutscene implies that [[spoiler: the whole boss fight was in Ichiban's head, and Kiryu just decked him with a MegatonPunch without exerting too much effort on his part.]] Even if not, it's still made clear that Kiryu hardly broke a sweat fighting Ichiban and co.

A type of StoryOverwrite and subtrope of TheBattleDidntCount. May overlap with CutsceneIncompetence and YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle. [[TropeNamer Item #35]] in Website/TheGrandListOfConsoleRPGCliches. Also may be considered a subtrope of FissionMailed. Compare MortonsFork. May be the result of a SadisticChoice, no matter what is chosen.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'', regardless of whether you defeat or lose to Grovyle at Crystal Lake, the following cutscene has him [[CutscenePowerToTheMax knock out your entire party with a single attack]], leaving you powerless to keep him from [[spoiler:trying to steal the Time Gear]].

* Vergil in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' after the first boss fight with him. Doesn't matter if you were hardcore enough to NoDamageRun over him - he still stomps on Dante afterward. It's not quite as annoying as it might be, though, because you saw part of the fight in the opening cutscene and thus see it coming. Dante is like this in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'' for the last battle against him. Subverted in ''Videogame/DevilMayCry5'', which starts with a HopelessBossFight you're intended to lose that if you manage to beat [[spoiler:Urizen is treated as beaten for good and the game congratulates you for stopping things before events got really bad]].

** The fight against [[spoiler: Majima and Saejima]]. After the fight, Ichiban and his friends are all winded and beat up while their opponents look none the worse for wear (heck, [[spoiler: Majima]] even says he's having a blast). They're about to take the kid's gloves off and fight seriously when [[spoiler: Arakawa]] enters and tells [[spoiler: Majima and Saejima]] that Ichiban is on their side.
** Later, Ichiban faces off against [[spoiler: Kazuma Kiryu himself]]. On top of being ThatOneBoss, the following cutscene implies that [[spoiler: the whole boss fight was in Ichiban's head, and Kiryu just decked him with a MegatonPunch without exerting too much effort on his part.]]

* Many bosses in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' have attacks that trigger an instant loss for the party at a certain health threshold segueing into a cutscene to show how powerful they are, but you still have to be strong enough to defeat them anyway, as losing the fight before reaching this threshold results in being sent back to the last checkpoint just as if you lost any other battle.

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' during the arc that covers the events from part 3. Sindel is revived and empowered by Shao Kahn and sent to kill the heroes. She pretty much massacres them until Nightwolf is the only one left to take her own. Losing means having to redo the fight, win it, even if you've kick her ass to kingdom come and back again...and Sindel still proves too powerful forcing Nightwolf to preform a HeroicSacrifice just to kill her.

** In the Rise of A Ninja and The Broken Bond games the player is also forced to follow the storyline of the anime regardless of their actual performance in the game which leads to losses you can't avoid. It can be annoying to get trash-talked by your opponent in an animated cutscene after stomping them into the ground and this can cause some plot holes like Sasuke's fight with the Sound Four as they try to tempt him with power by calling him weak... even if you don't resort to using the Cursed Seal (Rage Mode) to beat them. To be fair there is no way Naruto or the other Konoha genin could win against opponents like Itachi or Orochimaru in Part 1 and in some fights in The Broken Bond your real objective is not to win but to survive or use a specific move to beat your opponent.

* In ''[[VideoGame/DragonballZTheLegacyOfGoku Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II]]'', there's a boss fight against Android 18. Lose, and it's game over. Attack her until she's about half health, and she'll fire a ki blast to instantly knock out your character before the story continues.
** This happens a lot in Legacy of Goku II. During Vegeta's fight against Imperfect Cell, you fight him until his health runs low, and then it'll go to the cut scene of him absorbing 18 and becoming Perfect and defeating Vegeta in a few hits. During Goku's fight against Cell, you get his health low and then Goku surrenders.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou''; a wall-guarding Reaper during Week 2 challenges Neku to a game of [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer Tin Pin Slammer]]. Win, and the Reaper lets him through as promised, as well as relinquishing [[DifficultButAwesome Tin Pin Thrift]]. Lose... and the Reaper lets him through anyways, because [[ThrowTheDogABone he's ecstatic about finally getting a Tin Pin win]]. [[spoiler:One of the conditions for unlocking the Secret Reports post-game requires you to lose to him, and offers swag to compensate.]]

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', after defeating [[spoiler:Team Flare's boss, Lysandre]] and his evil scientist Xerosic, they promise not to activate the ultimate weapon if you pick the right button to shut it down. However even if the you press the right button, [[ButThouMust Xerosic will activate it anyway and making your choice entirely meaningless]].
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'', it's entirely possible to slaughter Hubert in what's supposed to be a HopelessBossFight against him (easiest by exploiting a glitch). It's not really worth bothering with- [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard He'll keep fighting at 0 HP until he kills you]].
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'', the final boss will end the battle the first time his HP is reduced to zero by immediately hitting Ludger with his [[LimitBreak Mystic Arte]].
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' features a BossBonanza against three enemies in the Tower of Salvation that ultimately ends like this. While the first fight has to be won, the middle one is against [[spoiler: Kratos after revealing himself as TheMole]]. The fight itself is ultimately inconsequential, as the game continues whether you win or lose, and the only things you get if you win is a slightly different cutscene and some XP and loot rewards before the BigBad arrives in a HopelessBossFight that either ends in him mopping the floor with you, or just ending abruptly if the fight goes on for too long or his HP goes down by a certain amount, and ''then'' he wipes the floor with you in a cutscene.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' has this occur in Rashid’s story in his battle against Ryu. Losing means having to restart the battle, while winning the battle has Rashid comment on Ryu as he struggles to rise...but in a last ditch effort, he proceeds to use the Shoryuken on Rashid, taking him down in a matter of seconds.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 7'' has this in the final boss battle of the story mode [[spoiler:against Kazuya as Heihachi. Losing means starting the battle over. After winning, however, Heihachi dies by Kazuya's hand.]]

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' has this happen at least once in every game. In ''Call of Duty 4'', after rescuing a downed helicopter pilot, [[spoiler:the entire city you're in is struck by a nuclear blast, killing everyone else in your chopper and presumably all the other US forces still in the city]]. ''Modern Warfare 2'' has this happen more than once, most notably [[spoiler:reaching extraction at Makarov's safehouse after clipping a mortar blast, only for [[CavalryBetrayal General Shepherd to betray you and your surviving teammates]]]]. ''Modern Warfare 3'' has this when playing as the FSO agent Harkov, where at the end of his level you get the President to an evac chopper [[spoiler:only for Makarov to show up within and kidnap the President.]] That said, in Spec Ops, there's a mission that starts immediately after this where a wounded FSO agent gets up and saves the President's daughter, Alena. ''That'' said, the next time you hear from Alena is when she's frantically calling for help because everyone in her security detail (including the agent that saved her in Spec Ops) is dead.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' during Sky Chase Act 1.
** Though to be honest, it's more of a bonus minigame than a boss fight, as it's literally possible to complete it without even touching the controller. Act 2, while ending with a proper boss fight, is not an example of this trope, although [[spoiler:the plane still crashes]].
* Sonic's fight against Silver in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. It doesn't help that the boss is notoriously hard, more because of [[FakeDifficulty bad programming than proper difficulty]].
* The [[FanSequel fan prequel]] ''Videogame/SonicBeforeTheSequel'' is about [[DoomedByCanon Sonic trying to stop the launch of the Death Egg before ''Sonic 2'']]. [[ForegoneConclusion Therefore, even in the good ending, once Sonic defeats the final boss he just gets blasted out of the sky anyway]] and falls on [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Emerald Hill.]]
* In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', Sonic takes on Infinite about one-third through the game. When you have Sonic defeat Infinite, the cutscene that follows has Infinite pull out another move with his Phantom Ruby that leaves Sonic lying injured on the ground anyway.

* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': Fittingly for a video game-themed series, Parado uses this trope in [[spoiler: episode 29.]] To elaborate: [[spoiler: In the episode, he explains to Emu that he is Emu’s Bugster and forces Emu to fight him. Emu, wanting to defeat Parado but not killing him, decides to reprogram Parado in order to hopefully redeem him the way he did for Poppy in the earlier episode, and seemingly has won against Parado. However, Parado reveals that that was ''exactly'' what he wanted all along: being a Bugster doesn’t allow him to level up using a Gamer Driver made for humans, but Emu reprogramming him and fusing some of his human DNA into Parado has enabled him to use the Gamer Driver and levels up to Level 99, which he then uses to give the Doctor Riders a CurbStompBattle and walks away [[DemonicPossession with]] [[GrandTheftMe Emu’s body]] when he’s done.]]

* Harry's battle with the dementors after leaving the Whomping Willow in the [[VideoGame/HarryPotter video game version]] of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. Same goes for the video game version of ''Literature/{{Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix}}'' with the battle between Harry/Sirius and Lucius/Bellatrix.

[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain ....But suppose you toss the coin enough times....suppose one day, it]] [[HeadsTailsEdge lands on its edge.]]

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%% Another note: This is not a Stock Phrase. Please refrain from adding examples that are simply people reciting the trope title that have nothing to do with
%% Boss Battles.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' episode "Which Witch is Witch," Shaggy does this with Scooby over who will look inside a creepy old shack. The coin flip comes up tails.

* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'': [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation The Kobayashi Maru simulation]] examines how a Starfleet cadet handles a "Heads, I Win. Tails, You Lose." scenario. Since the simulation ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption must]]'' [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption end in failure for the cadet]], [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the AI will do whatever it takes to ensure that the cadet suffers a horrendous defeat]], whether they decide to save the eponymous ship or not.

* Happens in VideoGame/SonicAdventure during Sky Chase Act 1.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' pulls this one several times. The first occurs inside the first sequence involving Lunatic Pandora, where after fighting waves of enemy {{Mooks}}, the last one brings two party members down to 1HP immediately if they are not already KO'd to facilitate a plot point. Another occurs when you fight against Edea in Disc 1, which, depending on how much magic you've stocked up, is either a fair challenge to stay alive or a pushover. However, the fight against Edea ends with her using [[spoiler:what later turns out to be her LimitBreak]], so it actually makes sense that she could oneshot Squall with it.

* This happens a lot in ''VideoGame/FairyFencerF'', where regardless of how well you're doing against a boss, the characters then proclaim the boss is too strong.

* ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' does this during a stage that takes place in the tournament finals. If you don't get in first place, you fail the level. If you;re about to cross the finish line while in first, a cutscene will occur where Wave blows up Sonic's Extreme Gear allowing Jet to win.

** The original ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' is just as guilty, despite the effort it goes to trying to hide it. Many bosses have attacks that trigger an instant loss for the party at a certain health threshold segueing into a cutscene to show how powerful they are, but you still have to be strong enough to defeat them anyway, as losing the fight before reaching this threshold results in being sent back to the last checkpoint just as if you lost any other battle.

* From the ProfessionalWrestling series ''Fanfic/TheJWL'': Invoked with ButThouMust. On [[http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/jasonsite/jwl24.html Episode 24]], Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} called out Wrestling/{{Chyna}} to accept her challenge for a match at ''[[http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/jasonsite/jwlwm1.html JWL [=WrestleMania=] I]]''. When Chyna said that she had nothing to gain from the match, Jackie [[SadisticChoice threatened to tell everyone]] that she, Chyna, was a coward and that she, Chyna, didn't have the guts to face her. Jackie then raised the stakes, challenging Chyna to a [[LoserLeavesTown Loser-Leaves-The-JWL]] match. Chyna admitted that it would feel good to send Jackie out of The JWL and accepted the challenge.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho''. La Chilindrina comes up with a little coin toss to con Quico out of three pesos he has, by setting up the following rules:
-->'''Chilindrina''': If it's heads, I win and you lose. If it's tails, El Chavo wins and you lose.
-->'''Quico''': No wait! That's not fair! Then when do ''I'' win?
-->'''Chilindrina''': Well, [[InsaneTrollLogic when it comes backwards.]]
-->'''Quico''': Ah well, that makes sense.

* Spoken verbatim in ''Literature/BudNotBuddy'' when Bud enters into a coin toss with his friend Bugs. Bud doesn't catch the trick and agrees to the terms of the toss, and unsurprisingly winds up losing.

* In the first of the ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer RedAlert]]'' series one Soviet mission was to capture a Chronosphere. If you approach it before destroying radars (as warned), it explodes and you lose. If after, it still explodes, but you win the mission. The generals in the briefing room shift blame from you to the intelligence, and your last chance for victory is a full assault on London.

If you win, the boss reveals that [[IAmNotLeftHanded he's not left-handed]] and proceeds to hand you your ass anyway [[CutscenePowerToTheMax during the following cutscene]]. So it is a plot point ''and'' a legitimate boss battle at the same time! (Note, however, that this ''still'' annoys some people who find it [[GameplayAndStorySegregation immersion-breaking]], especially if the boss is not nearly as hard as the game makes them out to be.)