History Main / HeadsIWinTailsYouLose

** Made all the more {{JustForFun/egregious}} in that you're explicitly stated to be stalling for time so Dr. Goodall can get the anti-clone gun working. She gets it working, wiping them all out, which immediately depletes the battery to zip. Then Queentia/[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Queen Tia]] summons even more of them, leading to them breaking in.

* In the DualScreen version of ''VideoGame/KungFuPanda2''...

** A straighter example is a mandatory battle against a Komodo dragon. After you beat him, [[spoiler: he reveals that he was just guarding you from getting to his leader so that said leader could ravage Gongmen without the Furious Five and Po on his tail. Then you return, only to find the pathway to Gongmen blocked.]] All the more frustrating, even if you take him down [[BFG with any of the special moves from the sidequests]], this will not stop [[spoiler: [[TheJuggernaut The Juggernaut]] he works for.]]

** A straighter example is a mandatory battle against a Komodo dragon. After you beat him, [[spoiler: he reveals that he was just guarding you from getting to his leader so that said leader could ravage Gongmen without the Furious Five and Po on his tail. Then you return, only to find the pathway to Gongmen blocked.]] All the more frustrating, even if you take him down [[with any of the special moves from the sidequests]], this will not stop [[spoiler: [[TheJuggernaut The Juggernaut]] he works for.]]

* Happens annoyingly often in ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}} Heroes: Legendary Star Medal''. You fight through a swarm of {{giant mook}}s, you get overwhelmed by a ''bigger'' swarm. You beat Boxmaren, it regenerates and multiplies endlessly until [[BigDamnHeroes Pango shows up]] and destroys the computer controlling it. Defeat [[MonsterClown Joka]], he goes OneWingedAngel and whomps you so badly you ''don't even get a cutscene'' of him actually doing it, just a bit of dialogue stating you lost.

* Severely overused in ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos Origins''. This happens so often that it actually drives the main character into a HeroicBSOD over his constant losses when anything other than his own life is actually at stake. The fights usually end with an unavoidable attack from the boss, then a villain coming out of nowhere to blast the boss into pieces and gloat at you (''especially'' egregious in the Lava Caves; how the hell did Valara get that mecha in there without anyone noticing?!). Just to make it more infuriating, some of those bosses are ''tough''. It's done in the first game as well, although not quite as much. It still gets irritating when you're beating a boss into the ground, and then the next minute your characters are flipping out about 'how tough this thing is'.

*** Kuja's case is actually him using an attack that just automatically kills the entire party.

* The ''VideoGame/GloryOfHeracles'''s Nintendo DS installment actually lets ''the player'' pull this in each and every battle. Since all the protagonists are immortal, losing a fight against regular monsters just has them play dead and continue the journey once the monsters are out of sight. Losing against a boss has them just get back up for round two.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky loves'' this trope, particularly the variant where after you beat the bosses, they insult you and force you into letting them do what they want anyway. [[spoiler:The black soldiers]] in FC, [[spoiler:the Jaegers (actually Kurt and his gang in disguise)]] in SC...
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'', lose the final battle of the game and it's game over, of course. Win the final battle, [[spoiler:against Crow and his Ordine and he just gets back up, informs Rean that he's been operating a Divine Knight for three years, compared with Rean who just started, and crushes him good, forcing the ending of the game in which Rean has to flee in order to live for ''The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II''.]]
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel 2'' [[ExaggeratedTrope uses this trope so frequently]] that it would actually be easier to list the boss fights that ''don't'' end with the main characters getting bailed out by someone more powerful.

* In ''VideoGame/LostJudgment'', the first boss fight against [[spoiler:Kazuki Soma]] is an example of this. After you beat the fight, you transition to a cutscene where Yagami lays some more attacks on the guy, before he immediately ends the battle by delivering a brutal roundhouse kick that temporarily paralyzes Yagami, who only survived afterwards due to outside intervention. It's also a solid example of TheWorfEffect and the only time where Yagami lost a fair one-on-one fight in his games; for example, in the previous game, [[spoiler:during Yagami's first fight against Kuroiwa (who later acts as the final boss), Yagami was shown to have the upper-hand in the post-fight cutscene and Kuroiwa needed to draw a gun to regain it]], whereas this boss wasn't even using their signature weapon to deliver that devastating kick.

** The first game of the series has the battles against Leon in Traverse Town. If you win, you get an "Exhausted Sora" cutscene that has Sora passing out (and Yuffie teasing Leon for losing his touch); if you losesimply lose in the cutscene as well. Lose/lose situation, in other words. You still get an Exp prize for successfully defeating Leon, as well as an extra reward later on, so it isn't that bad.

* Possibly in ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' after the [[ThatOneBoss Core]]. The Doctor and Misery arrive, teleport the dying Core out, and leave player and Curly Brace behind. [[spoiler:Then, the room floods and player seemingly drowns, until Curly sacrifices herself to save him. (unless, of course, you have a certain item)]]

* ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'': [[spoiler:The final boss, Raven Beak, acts like this. You go through a grueling, fast-paced battle during which you even rip his wings off, but right when Samus goes for the finishing blow in a cutscene, Raven Beak decides to stop toying around and almost instantly has Samus helpless in his grip, choking her out. Fortunately, her Metroid powers fully awaken right at that moment, which allows her to finally kill him.]]

** The first game of the series has the battle against Leon in Traverse Town. If you win, you still receive that "Exhausted Sora" cutscene, but if you lose, well, then you just simply lose in the cutscene as well. Lose/lose situation, in other words. You get an extra reward later if you beat Leon and Yuffie will tease Leon for losing his touch before Sora collapses, so it isn't that bad.
*** The same applies for Cloud later in the Olympus Colosseum.
*** Darkside in the prologue and Sabor in the Deep Jungle also inflict this in the first game.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' video game you must defeat the second [=OmniDroid=] (which Mr. Incredible never really managed to fight in the film), but immediately afterwards you are treated by a clip from the film showing Syndrome arriving and chasing Incredible down a waterfall.

* In ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' during the arc that covers the events from part 3. Sindel is revived and empowered with Shang Tsung's soul 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' has this as, of all things, [[spoiler:''the expected FinalBoss battle''. (The true FinalBoss battle, however, is thankfully a scripted ForegoneVictory instead.)]] Somewhat justified in that they've been hammering into your head that you cannot win against this, the only thing you're doing is dying with dignity.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' gives us Shadow [[spoiler:Rise]]. If you die against her, it's a Game Over, if you lower her health enough she will perform an EnemyScan on your party and you will no longer be able to hit her at all. And it is still Game Over if she kills you after this happens, you must hold off against her until the cutscene three rounds later.
* 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]].

* The DS remake of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' does this with the [[BonusBoss Dream Devourer]]. Lose and it's game over, win and the Dream Devourer just knocks you out anyway and you only survive because Schala manages to regain control temporarily and warps you out.

** Back in ''Ultimate Tenkaichi's'' "Hero Mode" (Basically a Create-A-Player GaidenGame): After defeating Omega Shenron, no matter how badly you beat him and no matter how high your stats are, he'll strip you of the Dragonballs you've gathered, re-scatter them, then vanish, forcing you re-find the Dragon Balls and re-fight most of the missions. Witness Creator/{{Lanipator}}'s {{Angrish}} filled reaction to this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rYuavwK20 here.]]

** 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.

** Back in ''Ultimate Tenkaichi's'' "Hero Mode" (Basically a Create-A-Player GaidenGame): After defeating Omega Shenron, no matter how badly you beat him and no matter how high your stats are, he'll strip you of the Dragonballs you've gathered, re-scatter them, then vanish, forcing you re-find the Dragonballs and re-fight most of the missions. Witness Creator/{{Lanipator}}'s {{Angrish}} filled reaction to this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rYuavwK20 here.]]

** There was a UsefulNotes/GameBoy ''Dragon Ball'' game in which you (as Goku) have a boss fight against Tao Paï Paï in the forest. He's a difficult boss, but nothing that a skilled player can't handle without too much trouble. Lose and the story continues. Take his life bar to zero, and Goku freezes and the boss (who isn't beaten for some reason) will hit you until you die.

** Sonic's fight against Silver in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. Silver will always win in the end. It doesn't feel any better that the boss fight against Silver is notoriously hard, more because of [[FakeDifficulty bad programming than proper difficulty]].

** ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai'' isn't immune to this, either. Both Android 18 and Perfect Cell pass off their ass-kickings at Vegeta's hands in actual gameplay as just fooling around in the cutscenes afterwards, and then trounce him. Goku's battle against Freeza is a slightly less offensive case, since Freeza will at least concede that Goku's getting on his nerves in the cutscene; still, Goku will be in much worse shape in said cutscene than he probably was at the end of the in-game fight, and will have to resort to a Spirit Bomb.

* ''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.

** In the Terran Campaign of Starcraft 2 you have to make a hopeless LastStand against endless hordes of enemies in the vision of BadFuture. Eventually all your forces will be eliminated, but you are still obliged to kill a certain number of enemies to... make the ancestors proud, maybe.

* The fight against Moloch in ''VideoGame/{{Outriders}}''. After shooting him for a bit, he engages in a BeamOfWar, which you lose.