History Main / NoFinalBossForYou

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': If you beat the {{superboss}} Nokturnus in less than 20 turns, he's so impressed by your strength that he goes and curb-stomps the FinalBoss for you. You almost feel sorry for the poor bastard watching his every attack fail. While being strong enough to do this means beating the boss is relatively easy, the ending doesn't play out any differently if you beat Mortamor in 10 or 50 turns.

* An inversion in ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': The FinalBoss awaits you outside the Temple of Styx and is usually your last obstacle for Zagreus to defeat before he succeeds in (temporarily) escaping the underworld. After enough successful escapes, the final boss will let Zagreus through to the surface without a fight just once in recognition of all his efforts.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': If you beat the BonusBoss Nokturnus in less than 20 turns, he's so impressed by your strength that he goes and curb-stomps the FinalBoss for you. You almost feel sorry for the poor bastard watching his every attack fail. While being strong enough to do this means beating the boss is relatively easy, the ending doesn't play out any differently if you beat Mortamor in 10 or 50 turns.

* This happens in ''several'' of the free-roaming ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games with MultipleEndings -- most notoriously ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'', in which the trigger to achieve or evade the bad ending [[note]]make that bad ending'''s''' in ''Symphony'''s case[[/note]] occurs roughly ''halfway through the game'', and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'', in which being able to bypass the first bad ending depends on [[RandomNumberGod being able to acquire]] and correctly use some [[RandomlyDrops specific Souls]] (with the added caveat of having to [[MoonLogicPuzzle figure out what Souls you need and how to use them]] in the former, and fight an additional boss in the latter).

* {{Downplayed|Trope}} with ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers''. Right after you fight [[spoiler:the Supreme Titan]], you are taken directly to the FinalBoss. If you're on Easy or Normal Difficulty, the game will skip directly to the PressXToNotDie Events. If you're playing on Hard Mode, however, you're allowed to fight the FinalBoss though you can skip to the [=QTEs=] by switching Difficulty while fighting the FinalBoss.

* ''Videogame/{{Oddworld}}'' does this sometimes. Both ''Munch Oddysee'' and ''Oddworld Soulstorm'' end early if you have bad Quarma, ie. you didn't save enough of whatever you're supposed to be saving.
* The [[VideoGame/{{Hercules}} video game]] based on Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', when played on easy mode, stops at Mt. Olympus, with setting free Zeus and a message to play on a higher setting in order to see the rest of it, with Herc's last run through the underworld and a final boss fight against Hades before the actual ending.

** Dying in Real Battle phase 1 results in a bad ending when you complete the next stage, which tells you that you arrived too late to destroy the stolen nuclear bomber and ends with the sound of a city being nuked to pieces.

** While you are still given ''a'' final boss, the Chaos route of ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' doesn't allow you to face the super-tough final boss of the other two routes, Mem Aleph, [[spoiler:because on this route you decided to ''ally'' with her]]. Instead, you're given a match with Zelenin. Said fight is as easy as, if not easier than, the fight with her in the final chapter on the Neutral Route -- in which she's the ''first'' of the many bosses you'll face in the chapter.

* The [[VideoGame/{{Hercules}} video game]] based on Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', when played on easy mode, stops at Mt. Olympus, with setting free Zeus and a message to play on a higher setting in order to see the rest of it, with Herc's last run through the underworld and a final boss fight against Hades before the actual ending.

* The video game based on ''VideoGame/{{Hercules}}'', when played on easy mode, stops at Mt. Olympus, with setting free Zeus and a message to play on a higher setting in order to see the rest of it, with Herc's last run through the underworld and a final boss fight against Hades before the actual ending.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TouhouHisoutensoku Hisoutensoku]]'', both Sanae and Cirno fail to fight against the strange giant they were chasing about. Sanae ended up sparring with [[spoiler:one of her shrine's goddesses]], and Cirno ended up fighting [[spoiler:Alice's Goliath Doll experiment]]. Fun fact: [[spoiler:they were chasing after a hot-air balloon]]. Meiling's case is arguable, since [[spoiler:it was just a dream fueled by a tengu manga after all]].

* If you play ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' in Easy Mode, the game abruply skips to the credits after the fight with Sigma, with a teaser of the true villain after the credits roll.

* If you play ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' in Easy Mode, the game abruply skips to the credits after the fight with Sigma, with a teaser of the true villain after the credits roll.

* ''Videogame/Oddworld'' does this sometimes. Both ''Munch Oddysee'' and ''Oddworld Soulstorm'' end early if you have bad Quarma, ie. you didn't save enough of whatever you're supposed to be saving.

[[folder:Eastern RPG]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': While not mandatory, you can unlock a special ending by beating the BonusBoss Nokturnus in less than 30 turns. If you do, he grants you a wish, which you use by asking him to defeat the game's BigBad. Nokturnus easily curb-stomps him, without taking any damage at all, and ignores the BigBad's pleas for mercy. Of course, if you're strong enough to take out the BonusBoss, the final boss isn't exactly difficult to beat either, but you don't get to hear the bastard whimper.
[[/folder]]

* If you used any continues in ''VideoGame/XenoCrisis'', the game ends on the room right before the final boss. [[spoiler:The "elixirs" (Continues) were created by the BigBad and it lets him shut down the soldiers' nervous system on command.]]

* In ''VideoGame/VanguardBandits'', [[YouLoseAtZeroTrust if your party's morale is low enough]] on the Kingdom Branch, you'll be sent to the Bad Ending and won't fight the normal final boss. This is because, without Bastion's friends having the will to back him up, [[spoiler:Faulkner blasts him with Zulwarn's brainwashing wave, turning Bastion against his allies. The final battle becomes you cutting down your former allies.]]

* Playing as Almond in ''VideoGame/NoituLove 2'' locks you out of either FinalBoss fights with [[spoiler:Tango and Waltz]], instead stopping after the boss of stage 5.
* If you use any continues in ''VideoGame/XenoCrisis'', you don't get to fight the final boss. [[spoiler:The "elixirs" (Continues) were created by the BigBad and it lets him shut down the soldiers' nervous system on command.]]

* ''VideoGame/CrimzonClover''[='=]s FinalBoss, Crimson Heart, requires a no-continue clear up to the final stage's second boss, Gorgoneion. Failing to meet this condition results in a screen encouraging you to do so next time and a GameOver.