Follow TV Tropes

Following

Playing With / Boss-Arena Idiocy

Go To

Basic Trope: A boss that would be invulnerable if not for the conveniently placed weakness in the room.

  • Straight: General Drake fights the heroes in a room filled with Spikes of Doom. These spikes are the only way to hurt him, as he’s otherwise invincible.
  • Exaggerated: The fight ends the second you touch the conveniently-placed switch that throws General Drake into the lava.
  • Downplayed: Drake can be hurt normally, but the spikes do a lot more damage.
  • Justified:
  • Inverted: There are many healing wells in the arena that General Drake uses to heal himself up: they need to be destroyed in order for you to win.
  • Subverted:
    • Drake is thrown onto the spikes… and they break under his weight, leading him to laugh at the player.
    • During the battle, Hiro is just as vulnerable to being thrown onto the spikes as Drake is.
  • Double Subverted: However, while he’s distracted laughing, you can press a button that zaps him: his real weakness.
  • Parodied: Drake’s weakness is located behind a glass panel labeled "In Case of Boss Fight, Break Glass.”
  • Zig Zagged:
  • Averted: All bosses are fought in an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield, so there’s nothing to exploit against them.
  • Enforced: It’s a Shout-Out to the Super-Mario bros example, complete with the bridge over molten lava and the axe to trigger it.
  • Lampshaded:
    • “You have no chance! I am impervious to everything, except for conveniently placed spikes!”
    • “Why do I even have that lever?”
  • Invoked:
    • The Elder designed the arena that Drake is being fought in, and decide to stack the odds in the player’s favour.
    • Drake stacks the area with his various weaknesses, feeling he’s so powerful that it doesn’t matter.
  • Exploited: Hiro uses the spikes to destroy Drake. No surprise there.
  • Defied:
    • Hiro refuses to fight Drake using the spikes, feeling it’s dishonorable.
    • Late in the game, you have a boss rematch, except the new arena doesn’t have the weakness, making Drake truly invulnerable.
  • Discussed: “He’s probably put something in the room I can use to beat him. He’s nice like that.”
  • Conversed: “Why do bosses love to fight in rooms that contain their own demise?”
  • Played For Laughs: Drake, a massively burly Top-Heavy Guy, squeals like a schoolgirl and leaps up comically holding his ass each time you push him onto the spikes.
  • Played For Drama: Drake is instantly killed by the spikes, and Hiro, a Technical Pacifist, is horrified that this happened.
  • Intended Audience Reaction: The main theme of the game is that “The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” Thus, every boss designed their own arenas, and each one is defeated by this trope, in order to provide the theme.

Here! Use this conveniently-placed link back to the main page to defeat the boss!

Top