History Main / PreFinalBoss

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediAcademy'' has you fight BigBad Tavion just before the game's actual final boss, Sith Lord Marka Ragnos on the Light Side path or Kyle Katarn on the Dark Side path.

** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'': At the end of the Great Palace, you must fight a red (or blue, when its weakness is discovered) bird named ThunderBird before the final battle with [[MirrorBoss Link's Shadow]].

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', the AI duplicate of the game's Professor forced by their programing to fight to keep the time machine on, faces the player with a team full of Paradox Pokemon in what seems like the final boss before it's revealed there's another level of security that hijacks the professor, locks all Poké Balls not registered to the professor and sics an agressive member of the version mascot species on the player and friends. This leads to the true final boss being a semi-scripted DuelBoss between the player's Koraidon/Miraidon and their former tormenter.

** The second, third, fifth, sixth, and the second ''Tag Tournament'' games all feature a fixed boss character fought just before the final boss. The second has Kazuya (or Heihachi if you play as Kazuya himself, or Jun if you play as Devil), the third has Heihachi (or Jin if you play as Heihachi), the fifth has Devil Jin, the sixth has NANCY-[=MI847J=] ([[OptionalBoss who doesn't have to be beaten to advance]]), followed by Jin, and the second ''Tag Tournament'' has Jinpachi/Heihachi, followed by a solo round against Ogre.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', the AI duplicate of the game's Professor forced by their programing to fight to keep the time machine on, faces the player with a team full of Paradox Pokemon in what seems like the final boss before it's revealed there's another level of security that hijacks the professor, locks all Pokeballs not registered to the professor and sics an agressive member of the version mascot species on the player and friends. This leads to the true final boss being a semi-scripted DuelBoss between the player's Koraidon/Miraidon and their former tormenter.

[[folder:Shoot Em Up]]

** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'': At the end of the Great Palace, you must fight a red (or blue, when its weakness is discovered) bird named ThunderBird before the final battle with [[MirrorBoss Dark Link]].

* ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesShreddersRevenge'': [[RuleOfThree Yet again]], the penultimate boss is Krang piloting the Statue of Tyranny, followed by one last fight against Super Shredder.

* VideoGame/JimmyAndThePulsatingMass: Just before fighting the [[spoiler:titular antagonist]], you are pitted against [[spoiler:Possessed Buck]], who is absolutely ''brutal,'' combining the major strengths of most major bosses fought previously in order to pulp you into paste with hard-hitting attacks while he takes off into the air to ignore your melee strikes. [[spoiler:The Pulsating Mass]] itself isn't much of a challenge by comparison, even though you go up against it [[spoiler:with only two party members.]]

Another variant is for the penultimate boss of the game to be followed up by a [[PostFinalLevel final level that contains nothing except for the last boss.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': Just before the party fights Sephiroth, they encounter and fight Jenova one last time in the form of Jenova-SYNTHESIS.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'': Young Xehanort is the ClimaxBoss with the TrueFinalBoss being the Ventus Nightmare; but the two-stage boss fight with Ansem in Riku’s story is the last boss before Young Xehanort. It all depends on whether the player regards Xehanort or the Nightmare as the final boss given how easy the latter is compared to the former.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': Young Xehanort is the ClimaxBoss of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' and is immediately followed up by Ventus Armored Nightmare, the final opponent of the game. However, since the latter is [[PostFinalBoss significantly easier]], it all depends on whether the player regards Xehanort or the Nightmare as the final boss.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI Kingdom Hearts]]'': [[{{Satan}} Chernabog]], the infamous king of Disney NightmareFuel from the ''Music/NightOnBaldMountain'' segment in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', is the last boss the player is required to beat before advancing to the FinalBoss Ansem. He was actually going to be the FinalBoss himself before the story was reworked to have OriginalGeneration villain Ansem as the true villain of the game.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': If you don’t count the one-on-one duel with Xemnas that is the last fight before the PointOfNoReturn to the final boss fights with him, then the Organization’s [[TheDragon second-in-command]] Saïx is this. His boss fight is also punctuated by TheReveal of Roxas and Sora’s actual connection and how Riku was able to capture him and take on his current appearance.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'': Canonically, the optional SuperBoss Mysterious Figure (later revealed to be Young Xehanort) is the last boss encountered by the heroes before they set off to the Keyblade Graveyard for the endgame. For Terra proper, it’s Master Eraqus due to Xehanort’s manipulations; for Ventus, it’s Captain Hook, who is the last boss the player will fight before the final fights; and for Aqua, it’s Braig, who appears on Xehanort’s orders to buy him some time, before Ventus-Vanitas serves as the final boss of Aqua’s story. Then this gets Subverted since the Final Episode is the true end of ''Birth by Sleep'' with the TrueFinalBoss in Terra-Xehanort, making Ventus-Vanitas this for the game as a whole if the player is playing in the recommended order of Aqua being last.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'': Young Xehanort is the ClimaxBoss with the TrueFinalBoss being the Ventus Nightmare; but the two-stage boss fight with Ansem in Riku’s story is the last boss before Young Xehanort. It all depends on whether the player regards Xehanort or the Nightmare as the final boss given how easy the latter is compared to the former.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'': The penultimate boss fight is against Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort, the three sub-commanders of the Organization who are all world-ending threats in their own right, but now serving as CoDragons to their leader and originator, Master Xehanort, who serves as the FinalBoss. This is done to give Sora and Riku closure with their most personal enemies to date before they move on to the final battle the series has been building to since the beginning, and to show how much more powerful the heroes have become that they can face three former Final Bosses at once and still triumph.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIIIReMind'': Yozora is the TrueFinalBoss of the DLC, but to get to him, the player has to complete the Limit Cut containing the data fights with the Organization. Of these, Master Xehanort and Xion’s battles only open after the other eleven have been cleared; meaning that one of these two will serve as the PenultimateBoss of the DLC before Yozora depending on who the player picks.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'': After Bellum's initial defeat in its true form, the demonic squid entity proceeds to possess the Ghost Ship. Immediately after Link and Linebeck defeats the ship, Bellum possess Linebeck himself as the FinalBoss.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'': After Bellum's initial defeat in its true form, the demonic squid entity proceeds to possess the Ghost Ship. Immediately after Link and Linebeck defeats the ship, Bellum possess Linebeck himself as the TrueFinalBoss.

* ''VideoGame/GalGuardiansDemonPurge'' has a rematch against regular Korone as the final stage of the castle, followed by a short platforming section in a dimensional rift before challenging the actual final boss Adult Kurone, the first phase of which is actually against one of her minions.

* Level 6 of ''VideoGame/AlphaMission II'' has the player fight a giant warship made up of parts and weapons from all other bosses fought until that point, after which the player is transported to a BossOnlyLevel against BigBad Fulvar.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'': The final dungeon has Link defeating a Patra MiniBoss right before taking on Ganon himself (and unlike the Patra he finds earlier in the dungeon, this one makes the orbit of the surrounding minions shift gradually, making it tricker to approach safely).

*** The Dededetour Extra Mode has ''Sectonia herself'' as one of the two PreFinalBoss, alongside Shadow Dedede (who emerges from the Dimension Mirror after it makes its unexpected appearance). After Dedede defeats his dark counterpart, he enters the Mirror World and faces off the [[GreaterScopeVillain true mastermind]] of the game: Dark Meta Knight.

*** In The Subspace Emissary, the player has to defeat false versions of the entire Brawl roster (sans Sonic, Jigglypuff, Toon Link, and Wolf O'Donell) ''and'' all of the previous Subspace bosses before facing off against Tabuu.

*** Similar to Brawl, Event Match has a face-off against Bowser, Ganondorf, and King Dedede (the {{Big Bad}}s of their respective franchises) as the penultimate event before facing off against Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, and Mega Man (the mascot of their respective companies) in the final.
** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'':
*** This happens at the end of certain character routes in Classic Mode. Mega Man faces Dr. Mario and then Mewtwo one right after the other. Pikachu and the Pokémon Trainer battle Mewtwo as well, but it is followed by Master Hand. And Hero faces Robin and then a giant Charizard immediately after.
*** If you manage to save both Master Hand and Crazy Hand from Galeem's and Dharkson's control respectively, a fight against the shadow fighters where you get to ''control Master Hand'' occurs, just right before you can fight Galeem and Dharkon for the FinalBattle.

** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros64'': The Fighting Polygon team are fought collectively on Battlefield before facing off Master Hand on Final Destination.
** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'': The fight against Giant Bowser/Giga Bowser on Final Destination is preceded by a face-off against Metal Mario (and Metal Luigi if you unlock his non-metallic counterpart) on Battlefield.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'': This happens at the end of certain character routes in Classic Mode. Mega Man faces Dr. Mario and then Mewtwo one right after the other. Pikachu and the Pokémon Trainer battle Mewtwo as well, but it is followed by Master Hand. And Hero faces Robin and then a giant Charizard immediately after.

** In ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'', right before the final confrontation with Magolor in Another Dimension, he summons his personal spaceship, Lor Starcutter, to fight the heroes riding Landia in the UnexpectedShmupLevel.