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Opening Boss Battle

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In most video games the player will often fight first against weak, easy to beat enemies, which will be followed up by slightly stronger enemies until they make their way to the first boss encounter, who is usually a Warm-Up Boss.

Then there are other games that drop you into a Boss Battle right from the very beginning.

While not always, this boss will more than likely be the game's Big Bad, and usually also the Final Boss. If it can be beaten, either then the boss will be in its weakest form, or the player is in the A Taste of Power segment and soon will be depowered. Otherwise, it will be a Hopeless Boss Fight. If it's not the Big Bad, then it will likely be a Starter Villain.

Now, for the trope to count, the boss must the very first fight of the game. If there's maybe one or two mooks, then it's a Downplayed version of the trope. If the entirety of the game is nothing but bosses, you're staring at a Boss Game.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action 

    Action-Adventure 
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: The game opens where the previous game ended: Richter climbing the stairs to the throne room ready to face off against Dracula. Since it's a Foregone Conclusion that Richter defeats Dracula, it's rigged so that if you are about to die, Maria will appear and give a major power boost to make Richter invincible.
  • The first mission of Devil May Cry 4, titled "Birds of a Feather", has its new main character Nero fighting Dante (the main protagonist of the previous games) in a boss battle. The first few phases of the fight serve as tutorial segments which teach the player how to use Nero's basic controls and abilities. But should the player disable the Tutorials in the options menu, this mission would immediately start with the last phase of the fight; the actual boss battle.
  • In Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order once Cal Kestis is outed as a Jedi, he'll have his first fight against the Second Sister, the game's Big Bad. You'll only have to last a few minutes against her until somebody comes to rescue you.
  • God of War:
    • God of War begins with Kratos fighting the Hydra. Funnily enough, the other two bosses aren't fought until the very end of the game.
    • Like its predecessor, God of War II also begins with Kratos fighting a boss, this time the animated Colossus of Rhodes, with mook fights sprinkled between the boss phases.
  • No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: The game begins right before Travis fights Skelter Helter into a boss battle, without any preceding hack-and-slash level gameplay. Skelter is ranked 51st in the UAA, so his defeat puts Travis back into the assassin rankings. He's also surprisingly difficult, especially on Bitter.
  • Star Fox Adventures: The game begins as Krystal, who is traveling across the skies with her CloudRunner companion, is ambushed by the hovering galleom of General Scales, who then proceeds to attack her by having the galleom shoot fire projectiles as well as maneuver it so its propeller hit her. Krystal has to disable the projectile cannons and the propeller with the help of the CloudRunner's spit fireballs to win the battle and infiltrate the galleom.
  • In Super Metroid, after descending into the Ceres Space Station, the very first enemy the player faces is Samus' Arch-Enemy, Ridley. He's however there to steal the Baby Metroid rather than pick a fight, so after a certain amount of damage is dealt to either the player or himself (more likely the player), he'll fly off with the Baby. This also triggers a Self-Destruct Sequence, forcing the player to escape and pursue Ridley to Planet Zebes.

     Fighting Games 
  • The first fight in the Dark Tournament mode of Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is against Younger Toguro. He starts the fight at full strength, and you can't use any spirit energy moves against him. He is incredibly tough, and a Hopeless Boss Fight. It is possible to beat him though, but whether you somehow beat him or lose to him as you're supposed to, the outcome doesn't change, except a message saying you're good but you still need training if you win.
  • Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series:
    • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 begins with a flashback sequence where you have to fight not one but two bosses back to back from the get go: The Masked Man with the Fourth Hokage and the Nine Tails with the Third Hokage.
    • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 follows on its predecessor by also making you fight two boss fights in a row for its first battle in a flashback sequence, the first being Madara Uchiha with you as the First Hokage, and the second being the Nine Tails clad in Susanoo armor with you as Hashirama's Wood Golem.

     First-Person Shooter 
  • Downplayed in Duke Nukem Forever: The very first fight, has you facing the Cycloid Emperor from Duke Nukem 3D armed with nothing but a Devastator, alone, in a stadium. It turns out that was a game that Duke was playing while a pair of twins was giving him a blowjob.

     Light Gun Games 
  • Jurassic Park (Arcade) opens with you battling the T-Rex as soon as you enter Jurassic Park, and you'll need to target it's mouth until you managed to drive the T-Rex away. You then lose it in the plains, crashes into a herd of Gallimimus, and the mook-level dinosaurs starts showing up.

     Platform 
  • Banjo-Tooie: After the game's opening cutscene (which shows Gruntilda returning and murdering Bottles) ends, Banjo and Kazooie leave Spiral Mountain through the cave from whence the witch's sisters came, and once there Klungo challenges them in a Mini-Boss battle.
  • Demon's Crest starts Firebrand off in a coliseum fighting a large zombie dragon named Somulo (all but said to be the undead form of the Demon Dragon who Firebrand killed in the intro). It's the easiest of the game's bosses, but comes early enough to be a surprise for newcomers without knowledge of the controls.
  • The first battle in Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16-Bit is the Egg Robo. Also counts for A Taste of Power, since this is the only time other than the True Final Boss where you can use Super Sonic.
  • Blasphemous: The game starts off in a fairly lonely area, with no NPCs or enemies, but at the very end of the area, you're greeted by a masked giant holding a candelabra named The Warden of the Silent Sorrow, who you then fight against.
  • Sonic Adventure begins with Sonic being the only character you can play as, and instead of being dropped in the HUB at the beginning, your first taste of gameplay with him involves you fighting Chaos 0, Chaos' weakest form.

     Role-Playing Games 
  • Bravely Second has the first scene in the game be a Hopeless Boss Fight with the game's Big Bad, Kaiser Oblivion. Downplayed as the player doesn't get any input during this fight, the party fights using scripted moves that he No Sells, ending in a total Curb-Stomp Battle in Kaiser Oblivion's favor (complete with a "your party has fallen" Game Over message). He absconds with Agnès in tow after the fight has concluded. The player then gains control of Yew once he regains consciousness. Much later, after the game's fourth Chapter, time has been frozen, and Yew asks the player to go back to the beginning. He means this quite literally, as the player gains access to a New Game Plus option on the main menu. Using this will bring them back to the very first fight with Kaiser Oblivion, except this time, the player can control Yew and access the Bravely Second skill (indicated by the hourglass icon). Once this is activated, the player's party from the future is brought to the battle with Kaiser Oblivion, unlocks the game's fifth Chapter, allowing the Kaiser to be defeated right then and there before he can enact his plan.
  • Bakugan: Defenders of the Core has the player's first Brawl be against Dan using Maxus Dragonoid
  • The very first encounter in Deltarune is against Lancer, a Mini-Boss. The fight even takes place before the tutorial battle!
  • Final Fantasy II opens with a Hopeless Boss Fight in which your party is massacred by Imperial soldiers. Three of them are rescued and recruited into La Résistance, and the fate of the fourth is a significant subplot.
  • The first encounter in Golden Sun is against Saturos and Menardi, the game's main villains, who will oneshot your party. Downplayed in that there are a couple preplaced mook encounters before you face them.
  • Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]: After the intro cutscenes, the player takes control of Sora and is immediately thrown into a boss battle against Ursula.
  • Arc Rise Fantasia opens to a routine hunt of Feldragons headed up by Captain L'Arc Bright Lagoon and a few Faceless Mooks
  • Monster Hunter 4: As soon as the game begins, the player's Hunter character is aboard the Arluq in the Great Desert, and then a gigantic Elder Dragon (Dah'ren Mohran) approaches to attack it. The hunter has to employ the equipped weapons of the Arluq to attack the Elder Dragon as it approaches in order to repel it.
  • Played for Laughs in Mother 3 where near the start of the game Lucas and Claus get ambushed by a literal Mole Cricket. A comically easy boss that's near impossible to lose against. Later in the game you have a Lighthearted Rematch with the mole cricket which leads to an even larger Curb-Stomp Battle!
  • The very first encounter in Parasite Eve is against the titular Eve in her weakest form.
  • The first fight in OMORI is against the local bully Boss. It basicaly serves to showcase the basic combat system, and you can beat him using nothing but normal attacks.
  • It's common for Pokémon games to have your very first battle be against your rival, who is always a Recurring Boss:
    • In Pokémon Red and Blue once you and Blue got your first Pokemon from Prof. Oak, Blue will challenge you to a Pokemon battle.
    • In Pokémon Black and White, you have to fight both Bianca and Cheren, your two rivals, right after choosing your starter Pokemon.
    • And again in Pokemon Xand Y, where you fight against Shauna, your secondary rival, after getting your starter in Aquacorde Town.
  • The Super Mario Bros. RPGs:

    Shoot 'em Ups 
  • The first encounter in Chicken Invaders 3 has you fight a giant chicken boss. Thankfully, you're given A Taste of Power to help defeat it in a reasonable amount of time, and it only fires a small number of projectiles.

     Turn-Based Strategy 
  • The first battle of Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is against Klesta, a Crushatrice Recurring Boss you'll be fighting many times in the future.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening opens with a short level where Chrom and Robin fight and defeat one of the last bosses of the game, Validar, two on one, before Robin backstabs and kills Chrom. While this appears to be a premonition of things to come, it is later revealed that this scene had occurred in a Bad Future where Robin was possessed by the Big Bad Grima, prompting Chrom's daughter to go back in time and creating the current timeline of the game.

    Wide Open Sandbox 

    Other 
  • The very first level of the Berserk Studios Flash game Delivery Man pits the player against the first of two separate fights against Bob, the game's first boss. Downplayed in that the boss fight happens at the end of the level after a couple waves of regular Mooks.

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