History ThatOneBoss / DevilMayCry

** The first battle against Vergil is tough due to the lack of Devil Trigger, coupled with Vergil's insane speed and his signature Judgment Cut, orbs of space that can cut you up regardless of your distance.
** The second battle against Vergil is ''a lot'' harder, because he will start using [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] whenever he can, which increases his attack, defense, speed ''and'' heals him continuously for the duration, just like yours. To make matters worse, he also uses the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves, which, while somewhat slow, is used in conjunction with his teleportation abilities to deal large amounts of damage.

** The aptly named Nightmare, an amorphous blob that you can't even damage unless you hit the blue crystals scattered around its stage, which will solidify it and allow it to be damaged. It will also attack you with rapid fire projectiles regardless of what state he is in, which makes him difficult to counter. To make matters worse, in his blob form it is also capable of swallowing you whole to send you into another dimension; where you fight [[DegradedBoss degraded versions]] of any of the previous bosses (Phantom, Griffon, or even Nelo Angelo). This process will take a large chunk off your health ''and'' Devil Trigger bar, and if you allow it to happen more than once, Nightmare might even ''enter Devil Trigger'' to increase its strength and regenerate for a short while. On the other hand, breaking out of the dimension does give a lot to your Devil Trigger bar and deal a large chunk of damage to the boss. And just to make it all the more tedious, you encounter this boss three times across the game, all toward the endgame.
** Nelo Angelo ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Vergil]]) is already a WakeUpCallBoss when you meet him and the second time you face him is no pushover, but his final fight is a pain. Not only he grows to about 1.5 times his normal size, his moveset (which mirrors yours, plus some) becomes stronger and faster. And if that isn't enough, he sometimes teleports outside of your reach and attacks you with Summoned Swords, which can rain down DeathFromAbove on you or attack you like a ReverseShrapnel from an angle. He can also summon it to spin around him to serve as a makeshift defense against your guns ''and'' damage you continuously until the swords break if you are too close to him. Have fun, Dante certainly doesn't after [[spoiler:finding out Nelo's true identity]].

** [[HornyDevils Nevan]], which is annoyingly persistent. She has electrical attacks that cause huge amounts of damage if not avoided, an attack that drains a massive amount of your health to regenerate hers, and has a regenerating bat shield, which absorbs damage separately from her health bar, meaning she can only be damaged for a certain amount of time before the shields regenerate.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'', however, ThatOneBoss is clearly and easily identified. In keeping with the BishonenLine, the rematch with Dante is way, ''way'' harder than any of the other bosses. All the other bosses have a pattern. Dante's pattern is to [[PerfectPlayAI wait until you attempt an attack, then dodge with computerized precision and counter with an impossible-to-avoid attack]]. Don't even get started on what he does on higher difficulties. You can't even effectively use ranged attacks because he will ''deflect your bullets by shooting them out of the air.'' It was cool when he did it in the tutorial level, but as a real boss... ugh.
** And in an interesting twist, just as you keep all unlockables on harder unlocked difficulties, so does Dante. On unlockable difficulties, he adds weapons to his move-set that he chronologically gets later on in the story. So he's NG+ just like you.
** To its credit, though, this fight can look amazing if you get the hang of it. Nothing says "''Devil May Cry''" like fighting the man who made stylish combat what it is with your own equally stylish attacks. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azLT90VUTJY This combo video on Youtube actually ends this battle with both Nero and Dante falling at the exact same moment.]]

** All three of Vergil's fights are absolutely brutal, and they only rank up in difficulty over time.
*** The first one is tough due to the lack of Devil Trigger, coupled with Vergil's insane speed with his katana Yamato and his signature Judgment Cut, orbs of space that can cut you up regardless of your distance.
*** The second one is ''a lot'' harder, because he will start using [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] whenever he can, which increases his attack, defense, speed ''and'' heals him continuously for the duration, just like yours. To make matters worse, he also uses the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves, which, while somewhat slow, is used in conjunction with his teleportation abilities to deal large amounts of damage, in addition to his Yamato (which he will start using when his health is reduced to half).
*** The third and final one is nightmarish; Vergil drops the Beowulf in favor of the Force Edge, a broad sword, which he can either use as a homing boomerang to hit you from a distance or as a way to extend his already extremely damaging sword combos. His Devil Trigger duration becomes ''even longer'' and allows him to perform LimitBreak attacks (which either spams Judgment Cuts on the entire map or has him chasing you around by dropping from above and smashing your skull with his sword, before teleporting back to the air to repeat the process), and ''regenerating all the while''. In other words, he ''will'' obliterate you if you're not extremely careful and precise, as even one small slip on your part will allow him to combo you and deal massive damage. Similarly, you have to deal as much damage as you can with precision, as he will eventually heal from all your attacks if you are not consistent.
*** Oh, in DMD mode, all three fights will be ''even worse'' thanks to his use of Summoned Swords, similar to albeit not as heavily used as Nelo Angelo's back in the first game.

** Bolverk. Not only is he fast, but he also hits hard, and his wolves Freki and Geri are both very hard to hit. Oh, and he can also block bullets, just in case you thought you can just shoot him to death, like you can with most bosses in this game. Thankfully Lucia never fights him outside of Secret Rooms.
** Tateobesu is [[BreatherBoss fairly easy]] on lower difficulties, but he is a nightmare on Lucia Must Die. The reason? The boss spends the ''entire'' fight invisible, which means [[InterfaceScrew no lock-on]]. [[UnderwaterBossBattle During an underwater battle]]. Your best bet is to spam Cranky Bombs, and pray it swims into them. This boss holds the award of being the only boss that is actually harder to beat with Trish than it is with Lucia.
** Trismagia. First of all, melee weapons are completely useless in this fight - you better have high level guns to win. Then he splits into three heads, of which only one is vulnerable, and even then it only takes half damage. Secondly, the boss periodically throws ice pillars, which screw with lock-on, which can cause you to lose sight of which head is vulnerable. The only times the boss combines is when he is about to perform his ultimate attack, which covers pretty much the entirety of the small platform Dante/Lucia are confined to. And if you deplete his health when the heads are split? [[TakingYouWithMe He still does the ultimate attack]], [[KaizoTrap and the battle doesn't end until it's finished]].
*** It gets even worse in the Must Die difficulties, though. If you thought this fight was annoying on Hard mode, get ready to do nothing but dodge your way out of fireballs, lightning spheres, ice chunks and so much more as Trismagia will attack you '''relentlessly''' without much breathing room to do anything. The only "good" news you get is that it doesn't go into Devil Trigger mode like most other bosses in this mode.

** And that isn't even the hardest fight. Mundus is a whole new league of difficulty; you fight him in a gruelling three-phase battle, the first of which will force you to fly across the sky of an alternate dimension he summons, firing projectiles against the demon god while avoiding his plethora of attacks, including laser blasts, lightning and explosions. Even after forcing him back to the ground for the second phase [[spoiler:and with the help of the Sparda Devil Trigger]], his slow but powerful attacks will wreck you if you don't avoid it. Fortunately, the third phase is you against his ClippedWingAngel form, which is a lot easier.

* The first ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' offers a few headaches that ''will'' lay demonic beatdowns on your ass, especially in [[HarderThanHard Dante Must Die]] mode.

** The release of the Special Edition brings us none other than [[spoiler: Dante himself]] who is so ridiculously powerful missions 19 '''''and''''' 20 are treated as a single fight with him. And boy he's gonna make you earn that win. [[spoiler: He has full access to all his weapons and styles which he will happily use on the player, his Royalguard in particular, ''can now be used on your projectiles''.]] So if your dodging is not impeccable, be prepared to lose a huge chunk of life from what you though was a safe distance. On top of that [[spoiler: He gains [[ImmuneToFlinching super armor on many of his moves]], allowing him to ignore your attacks and unleash his more powerful techniques with impunity.]] And to top it all off [[spoiler: during the second round he can shift into Sin Devil Trigger instantly, with every single devastating move it grants at his disposal, to the point '''''some of them are nerfed to give the player a fighting chance.''''']] Needless to say, this is not a fight for the unprepared.

*** The second one is ''a lot'' harder, because he will start using [[SuperMode Devil Trigger]] whenever he can, which increases his attack, defense, speed ''and'' heals him continuously for the duration, just like yours. To make matters worse, he also uses the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves, which, while slow, is used in conjuction with his teleportation abilities to deal ''massive'' damage, in addition to his Yamato (which he will start using when his health is reduced to half).

* While ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 2'' is in general not so hard, some of the boss fights on [[HarderThanHard Dante/Lucia Must Die]] can be very difficult.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 3'' has several, befitting the NintendoHard difficulty of the game.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'', however, ThatOneBoss is clearly and easily identified. In keeping with the BishonenLine, the rematch with Dante is way, ''way'' harder than any of the other bosses. All the other bosses have a pattern. Dante's pattern is to [[PerfectPlayAI wait until you attempt an attack, then dodge with computerized precision and counter with an impossible-to-avoid attack]]. Don't even get started on what he does on higher difficulties. You can't even effectively use ranged attacks because he will ''deflect your bullets by shooting them out of the air.'' It was cool when he did it in the tutorial level, but as a real boss... ugh.

** King Cerberus, true to his name, plays like the ''DMC3'' boss on steroids. This time, the three-headed hound is much more mobile, lunging at the player with fury and not letting them take a break from the pummelling. Also this time the boss has access to three elements, FireIceLightning, with three separate behaviors: the fire head likes to get close and personal, swiping with his claws and summoning geysers from the ground, the ice head likes to drop icicles from above that can easily bring down an inattentive player and breathes freezing waves from its mouth while the lightning head is a LongRangeFighter, pelting the player with projectiles and ground waves. Also, be wary of being to close to the boss while he changes elements, or otherwise you'll be blown away by a powerful explosion.