History TheUnfought / VideoGames

** The player never fights Alphys in any route, and as such she is the only major monster in the game who cannot be directly killed. She is implied to have died in one of the less happy endings, possibly having been DrivenToSuicide by several others' deaths at the player's hands.

** Parodied in in the first game, where Letz Shake, the 5th-ranked assassin, is [[spoiler:[[BaitAndSwitchBoss killed right before the boss fight would start]], causing Travis to complain about being cheated out of a fight. Happens again with the 1st ranked assassin]].

* ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark2008'' builds up to a climactic showdown between Edward Carnby and Lucifer... and just when it looks like the two are about to throw down, the game ends with a GainaxEnding.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', President John Henry Eden is never actually fought in the game [[spoiler:...which has partially to do with the fact that he turns out to be a giant supercomputer. You can speech-challenge him, though, and lead him to self-destruct if your speech skills are good enough.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has Father([[spoiler:aka Shaun your son.]]) in the main questline depending on weather side against him, you end up storming the Institutes underground base, and when you find him again you only talk to him one last time. Justified in he is an old man on his last legs, and has no combat ability.

** Inverted along with an inverted BaitAndSwitchBoss in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyX''. [[spoiler:Yu Yevon]] is the creator of Sin and the cause of Spira's "cycle of death" for a thousand years. But it's the Yevon Maester Seymour who is the party's personal BigBad, and your obligatory battle with [[spoiler:[[ZeroEffortBoss Yu Yevon]]]] is a fight you can't lose.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'':

** The ultimate BigBad of the Myreque quest series [[spoiler:Vanescula Drakan]] is never directly fought (At one point you even temporarily ''play'' as them) instead their living seige weapon, The monstrous [[FeralVampires Wyrd]] becomes the FinalBoss for the series. When you confront the villain for the last time the player [[spoiler:opts to spare Vanescula to create a lasting peace in [[{{Uberwald}} Morytania]]]].

* In ''Videogame/ShiningForceIII'', you never get to fight a great number of bosses, at least outside Japan. Due to the fact the game was split into three different games and only the first one was globally released, there are great scores of bad guys, monsters, and machines that are introduced and never seen by the main characters, let alone fought.

* You never get to fight Elise in ''Videogame/ShiningTheHolyArk'', despite the fact she bathes in the blood of children to retain her beauty. You only get to fight her sister and the half-vandal Panzer. Perhaps it because was she was a powerful Vandal and to retain the fear of vandals for the sequel ''Videogame/ShiningForceIII''. You never get to fight Galm, either.

* ''Videogame/StayTooned'' features a spoof of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' in one of the rooms. The moment you enter said room, Killtron is introduced in a cutscene and he takes the role of the announcer. However, after defeating all your opponents in the Kartoon Kombat game, Killtron just... tells you he's not a fighter, but a dancer, does the sombrero dance and blows himself up.

* ''Videogame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2013'' Karai shows up in the penultimate level and sends mooks out to fight the Turtles. Just when it seems like you're going to fight her at the end of the level...she leaves, and is never seen in the game again.

* The eponymous Hisoutensoku of the expansion to the second ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Touhou Project]]'' fighter ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' is never encountered or fought by the three interested in its shadow. Instead, Cirno fights Alice and a giant Shanghai doll, Sanae fights Suwako [[spoiler:who ''was'' responsible for the event]], and Meiling [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment hallucinates]] about a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere big freaking catfish]].

** Ganondorf is presented as a major villain in The Subspace Emissary, but the closest you ever come to fighting him is [[spoiler:a cutscene where the heroes attack the Halberd with their various spaceships, after which Ganondorf is double-crossed by Tabuu.]] A little weird, as this is a game where Ganondorf is a fully playable character. You later fight a dark copy of him in The Great Maze, but that's because Tabuu created a dark copy of each of the 31 characters that have appeared by that point, so it doesn't count.[[spoiler: This might be the reason why he has ''several'' boss fights in ''Ultimate'', as a way to rectify his lack of Boss Battle in ''Brawl''.]]

* The Dark Queen appears but remains unfought in the UsefulNotes/GameBoy and arcade ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' games, both of which have Robo-Manus as the FinalBoss. Also, though Silas Volkmire is the namesake of a stage in the original NES game, the only time players get to confront him directly is at the end of ''Battlemaniacs'' (and it's little more than a QuickTimeEvent).

** Zexion was never battled in the original UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]''; he's finished off in a cutscene. {{Averted|Trope}} in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 remake and its UpdatedRerelease in ''1.5 HD Final [=ReMIX=]'', where he has a normal boss fight when Riku encounters him at Destiny Islands.

* In ''Creator/{{Sunsoft}}'''s ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' LicensedGame for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, Mr. Mxyzptlk launches attacks on Superman in several stages, and Superman never gets a chance to retaliate. This example is justified if you know anything about Mxy, though- he's an extremely powerful RealityWarper, so fighting him psychically would probably not end well.

* Shere Khan plays this straight in both the [[VideoGame/TaleSpinCapcom NES]] and [[VideoGame/TaleSpinSega Genesis]] versions of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Talespin}}'' video game. He appears in both games, but only through cutscenes. He can be fought in the less well-known UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 game.

*** The Monarch of the Okinawa Jail is never met in person, having killed himself prior to the game's events. Unlike Palaces, Jails do not disappear with if the Monarch dies or has their heart stolen.

*** Also, Tseng, leader of the [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Turks]], never actually battles the party; it's always some combination of Rude, Reno, and Elena (who can also become TheUnfought if you decide not to fight the last Turk encounter). In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRebirth'', however, not only is Elena a recurring manditory boss, but Tseng is also fought in one of the game's penultimate boss encounters.

*** Also, Tseng, leader of the [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Turks]], never actually battles the party; it's always some combination of Rude, Reno, and Elena (who can also become TheUnfought if you decide not to fight the last Turk encounter).
*** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRebirth'', however, not only is Elena a recurring manditory boss, but Tseng is also fought in one of the game's penultimate boss encounters.

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'': Ageha, TheDragon of Hikari's story, is never fought. Rai Mei gets the honor of fighting him while Hikari goes to confront Mugen -- he survives this, but [[spoiler:is ultimately killed by [[GreaterScopeVillain Oboro]].]]

* ‘’ VideoGame/LegoBatman'': You never get to fight Bane even though you see him in Penguin’s intro cutscene- it’s revealed during the villain story that he knocked himself out and was arrested. Downplayed with Scarecrow- you shoot down his plane, but never fight him in person, as he is also arrested during the villain story. Averted in the DS port where you get to fight them both.

** Of the Four Kings of Omi from ''VideoGame/Yakuza2'', Ryuji Goda is the only one Kiryu ever fights. Toranosuke Sengoku makes Kiryu fight his pet tigers instead and then [[spoiler:is killed by Ryuji]]; Jin Goda [[spoiler:is shot dead by [[TheChessmaster Takashima]]]]; and Ryo Takashima [[spoiler:also gets killed by Ryuji in retaliation for killing Jin]].

* ''VideoGame/LikeADragonIshin'': Ryoma is about to fight [[spoiler:Matsubara Chuji]] after he is exposed as TheMole to prove he deserves a spot as a Shinsengumi captain. However, Inoue Genzaburo instead kills him [[spoiler:before Chuji can reveal Ryoma's real identity]].

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** Happened again in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' with [[spoiler:[[EvilIsSexy Jihl]]]], who was even [[NeverTrustATrailer featured in the trailer]], but ends up appearing in a stupefying total of 4 scenes (if even that many), during the last of which [[spoiler:she is blasted in the back by the [[BaitAndSwitchBoss REAL boss]] as she confronts the heroes]]. They are now fightable in DLC for ''XIII-2'', however.

** In ''Contra: Hard Corps'', one of the four main story paths ends with an outbreak of alien organic matter, providing a distraction for the main antagonist, Colonel Bahamut, to escape to fight another day.
** Chief Salamander in ''Contra [=ReBirth=]''. {{Justified|Trope}} for plot twisting reasons.
** In ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'', [[spoiler:the Triumvirate is a subversion once they got overwhelmed with [[ArtifactOfDoom the Relic of Moirai]], becoming OneWingedAngel TrueFinalBoss]].

** Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''. Travis never actually fights [[spoiler:any of the 22nd through 11th ranked assassins]]... since they're killed by [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr. Letz Shake]], settling a proper battle against him. Then later on, [[spoiler:Henry]] kills the 6th and 5th ranked assassins for Travis as payback for [[spoiler:Travis saving his life]]. He even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this trope in an answering-machine message, telling Travis (and the player) not to complain about missing out on those boss fights, and offering polaroids "so you can imagine what it might have been like".

** In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', you never really fight Andrew Ryan. [[spoiler:He basically commits suicide using your mental conditioning to bash his brain in a cutscene.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', Commandant Steele and the Crimson Lance are the main antagonists for most of the game; however, upon reaching the Vault, [[spoiler:you don't get to fight Steele because she is impaled by an EldritchAbomination named The Destroyer, that is, quite in fact, a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere]]. However, [[spoiler:she returns in ''Claptrap's Robot Revolution'', having been rebuilt as "Steele-Trap" and as an actual boss.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'':

* ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}''
** In ''VideoGame/ContraHardCorps'', one of the four main story paths ends with an outbreak of alien organic matter, providing a distraction for the main antagonist, Colonel Bahamut, to escape to fight another day.
** Chief Salamander in ''VideoGame/ContraReBirth''. {{Justified|Trope}} for plot twisting reasons.
** In ''VideoGame/ContraShatteredSoldier'', [[spoiler:the Triumvirate is a subversion once they got overwhelmed with [[ArtifactOfDoom The Relic of Moirai]], becoming OneWingedAngel TrueFinalBoss]].
* In ''Videogame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'', Uka Uka is introduced as the man behind the man, an extremely powerful mask that was sealed away for thousands of years. You never really fight him; all he does is act as an obstacle during the final boss battle. This isn't so bad (a mask is kind of hard to make into a full boss), but it gets really annoying in ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootTheWrathOfCortex'' where there was a perfect opportunity to fight him. In that game, every boss is Crunch absorbing the powers of an elemental mask. There are four elemental masks, five bosses, you'd expect the final boss to be the recurring boss using Uka Uka's power, right? Nope. Instead, he just uses the other four masks at once, and Uka Uka does absolutely nothing during the fight except pull Cortex back to safety after you attack him. It took until ''VideoGame/CrashTwinsanity'' for a proper battle with Uka Uka, but by that time, he's no longer the main villain.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Warlords of Draenor'' the promotional materials and plot positioned Grom Hellscream as the antagonist of the expansion. Instead his position was usurped by Gul'dan and Grom ended up working alongside the Horde and Alliance againt the Burning Legion. And Gul'dan wasn't fought in this expansion either, instead going off to start the plot of the next one.

** [[spoiler:Don Weaso, the chief member of the weasel mafia,]] flees after seeing the Xenomorph that came out of [[spoiler:the Panther King]] and, presumably, escapes with his haul of money, never to be seen again. Also an example of KarmaHoudini, as this means he gets no comeuppance for [[spoiler:killing Berri]].