"Wake-Up Call" Boss: Difference between revisions

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* Bahamut, in ''[[Lord of Arcana]]''. As the third boss he is much more difficult then both the previous and next boss. Not only does he have a [[One-Hit Kill|one hit kill]] attack (notably, the at this point infamous "[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Mega Flare]]") when you first face him, if you have not learnt how to dodge and block well, you will die. Coupled with the fact that he has much higher health then any boss so far, the outcome of the battle depends on the idea that you know how to weaken him to stop some attacks and that you know how to heal yourself at the right time.

** Notably, unlike the last two bosses in which the game outright tells you that they have destructible parts, Bahamut's hint can essentially be summed up as "Megaflare hits the center of the stage". The game also does nothing to inform you that Bahamut's wings are destructible, but most players might be able to guess that. His tail, on the other hand, is not so obvious, taking significantly less damage then the rest of him and almost encouraging you to avoid it. Bahamut is also the first boss in which player's might find that, to their horror, enemy bosses can, and will, flee the battle if it goes bad for them. Most players don't have the resources to even attempt to fight Bahamut again, and the mission does not end once Bahamut has fled. Instead, he appears somewhere else on the map. Most players will probably restart their PSP's and try again later to avoid losing all their healing items.

*** And to further compound problems, unlike the last two bosses who were quite effectively crippled when their destructible parts were destroyed, Bahamut goes on to prove that [[I Am Not Left Handed|he can continue to fight without half of his tail and shredded wings]] with no real loss in fighting prowess.

*** And to further compound problems, unlike the last two bosses who were quite effectively crippled when their destructible parts were destroyed, Bahamut goes on to prove that [[I Am Not Left-Handed|he can continue to fight without half of his tail and shredded wings]] with no real loss in fighting prowess.

* ''[[Touhou]]'' usually does this for stage 4 bosses, but special mention goes to Parsee Mizuhashi, the second boss of ''Subterranean Animism'', who very quickly establishes that the bosses in this game are significantly harder than usual. Parsee has both shots that chase you around the playing field and a doppelganger attack; tactics normally reserved for late-game bosses. And the game's bosses do not get any easier from here...

* Good old Sakit from [[La Mulana]] definitely counts. He's the boss of the Mausoleum of the Giants, and he's here to tell you that bosses aren't going to go down as easily as Amphisbaena did. He's only vulnerable to attack after using his [[Rocket Punch]] attack, he's immune to all subweapons, and his main attack fires large magic projectiles that deal way too much damage to your pitiful HP. For a veteran, it's child's play to skip around Sakit, but new players are likely to run straight into him.

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== Rhythm Game ==

* in ''[[Guitar Hero]] III'' Tom Morello serves as a wake-up call boss, and not in a good way. He demonstrates how boss battles in this game will be [[Luck Based Mission|determined by random chance]]. Surprisingly, though, he is actually easier to defeat on higher difficulties, seeing as in Easy and Medium mode the notes are simply stretched too far and few in between for players to be able to do significant damage by making him miss these notes.

* in ''[[Guitar Hero]] III'' Tom Morello serves as a wake-up call boss, and not in a good way. He demonstrates how boss battles in this game will be [[Luck-Based Mission|determined by random chance]]. Surprisingly, though, he is actually easier to defeat on higher difficulties, seeing as in Easy and Medium mode the notes are simply stretched too far and few in between for players to be able to do significant damage by making him miss these notes.

** In fact, the boss battles are tough enough that if you lose enough times in a row, you can skip them (except for the [[Final Boss]]; for him you're going to need some luck and a whole lot of skill... or just ridiculous amounts of skill).

* In ''[[DJMAX]] Technika'''s Popular Mode, each stage has a different songlist, with the minimum song difficulty getting higher with each of the three stages. If you're new to the game, you'll most likely pick "Jupiter Driving" as your stage 3 song. It's a level-4 song, is the easiest stage 3 song, and teaches you to handle patterns in which the timing line moves at double speed.

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** There's an earlier Wake Up Call Battle, though it's more for the naive or the reckless: Algus (Argath in the remake)'s rescue. If you choose to save him, he becomes almost suicidally reckless, and if he falls it's game over. The best option here if to callously disregard Argath's situation and choose to kill all the enemies, at which point he becomes almost ridiculously cautious, running from battles as much as possible, but making you a jerkass in the process.

** FFT has a nice few of these. If you're underleveled and don't know what you're doing - (e.g. just rushing through the required battles with the starting classes or without any good abilities) you can easily get killed during your first battle at Dorter. Knights coming at you from the front, with Black Mages backing them up and firing AoE spells at your party, while a pair of Archers are stationed up at the top of a building that's several stories high and takes about three turns to climb. And your party is at the bottom, just at the edge of their attack range - which means your ''[[Squishy Wizard]]'' (if you brought one) can be on the ground very quickly if you deployed him/her in the wrong place.

* ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]'' has Sinspawn Gui. It's fitting: since Operation Mi'hen was something of a [[Wham Episode]] for the game, the gameplay follows suit with a boss that makes the player realize for the first time how much consideration you must give to the CTB system in your tactics. If you just spam your overdrives, you let Gui get more turns to abuse your team with poison. You have to be careful about who's using their turn for what and against which part of its body.

* ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]'' has Sinspawn Gui. It's fitting: since Operation Mi'hen was something of a [[Wham! Episode]] for the game, the gameplay follows suit with a boss that makes the player realize for the first time how much consideration you must give to the CTB system in your tactics. If you just spam your overdrives, you let Gui get more turns to abuse your team with poison. You have to be careful about who's using their turn for what and against which part of its body.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]''

** Aster Protoflorian exists to make sure that the player ''gets'' the new battle system, EVERY. SINGLE. FACET OF IT. Don't bother or know how to take advantage of elemental weaknesses? You die. Don't optimize class roles to boost chain bonuses? You die. Don't know how to switch classes on the fly for sticky situations? You die. Don't believe that buffs are necessary? You '''''DIE'''''. This boss is so unforgiving while enforcing the nuances of XIII's battle system that to some players it approaches [[That One Boss]] territory.

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* ''[[Persona 4]]'' has Shadow Yukiko at the end of the first dungeon. The game makes it hard enough to keep up with her damage output, especially her multi-target fire attack (to which one of your characters is guaranteed to be weak) on her own. You can make her [[Flunky Boss|minion]] skip half of its turns if you have a good understanding of the battle system, but if you don't, between its damage, buffs, healing, and status ailments... good luck.

* In Choral Castle, Arietta the Wild and her friends from ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''. As most Tales games go, team boss fights are difficult, and as the first one in Abyss, she surely gave a wake up. While her Liger and Birdie (name escapes me) pummel you, Gloomietta buffs up their attack and defense along with nasty dark and light spells. As a pain as it was, it does teach you the wonders of Free-Run.

** For those playing [[Harder Than Hard|Unknown difficulty]], the Rhinossus counts. It is the very first enemy of the game, which players can easily beat on their first playthrough...but on Unknown, it can take upwards of '''10 minutes''' for the party to beat it to death, and that's assuming [[New Game ~~Plus~~]] benefits. This establishes very quickly just [[Harder Than Hard|what kind of difficulty Unknown is]].

** For those playing [[Harder Than Hard|Unknown difficulty]], the Rhinossus counts. It is the very first enemy of the game, which players can easily beat on their first playthrough...but on Unknown, it can take upwards of '''10 minutes''' for the party to beat it to death, and that's assuming [[New Game+]] benefits. This establishes very quickly just [[Harder Than Hard|what kind of difficulty Unknown is]].

* The ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' fandom has nicknamed Gattuso, a large wolf and the third boss of the game, the "noob killer." It attacks quickly and ruthlessly, tosses the party around the battlefield like rag dolls, can poison with one of its attacks, and can charge from one end of the field to the other in two seconds flat. To add insult to injury, this was the boss of the 360 version's demo, meaning its brutality was several people's first experience with the game. Also, right after the battle, [[Adorably Precocious Child]] Karol goes "What the heck? It barely put up a fight!", infuriating many new players.

** Zagi can also be this on Very Hard and Unknown. This gives you a taste of what the harder bosses in the game are like. It's ridiculous to level up in the castle without using equipment from the last game you played, meaning that you will most likely not gain very many levels, if any, before the boss battle. For a first boss, Zagi is tough, being fast, with annoying artes, and with Yuri being alone... until miss Princess steps in to help. She can heal, but, her AI is infuriating for most players, with her tendency to run up and attack, only healing when someone is about to die if they take one more hit. In higher difficulties, her running up to attack = instant death to the Princess. She's also slow as hell, so don't expect her to be able to get away from Zagi if he chases her. This battle teaches you how to "hit and run", and use Free Run though.

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* The Capra Demon in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' is the first taste of just how ''unforgiving'' the game is to the player.

* In the Dark Spire, most of the early bosses range from only a bit harder than normal fights to actually easier than normal fights. Then you hit the first boss with a breath weapon. It can nearly OHKO your party. Then the second one CAN OHKO most of your party and the third can OHKO all of it. All of these are designed to teach you the importance of the Cast Quickly command. If you don't use it, you will die.

* ''[[Monster Girl Quest (Video Game)|Monster Girl Quest]]'' has the Queen Harpy. Up until now, you could get by with "attack-heal" strategy. The Queen Harpy shows you that attacking without paying attention will get you [[Curb Stomp Battle|stomped flat]] from that point on by having an [[One Hit KO|insta-death]] [[Counter Attack]]. It drives home that you need to watch what the enemy is doing instead of [[Attack Attack Attack|attacking continuously]].

* ''[[Monster Girl Quest (Video Game)|Monster Girl Quest]]'' has the Queen Harpy. Up until now, you could get by with "attack-heal" strategy. The Queen Harpy shows you that attacking without paying attention will get you [[Curb Stomp Battle|stomped flat]] from that point on by having an [[One Hit KO|insta-death]] [[Counter Attack]]. It drives home that you need to watch what the enemy is doing instead of [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|attacking continuously]].

* ''[[Magical Vacation|Magical Starsign]]'' has the first encounter with Master Chard. It's a long fight, so you'll have to get used to party members gaining and losing advantage based on the planet orbits and day/night cycle; next, he has a devastating all-party hit which is telegraphed several turns in advance, teaching you how to prepare for and recover from battle-defining boss abilities; and his HP pool is so massive that you are almost guaranteed to run out of MP, forcing the player to appreciate strategic item use, which is a must when it comes to surviving difficult encounters in this game.

* [[Hercules (Disney)|Cerberus]] from [[Kingdom Hearts]]. The bosses before him are either simple enough, or difficult, but [[Heads I Win, Tails You Lose|not necessary to win.]] Cerberus marks the point where bosses stop going easy on the player, sporting nasty attacks (particularly snapping at an attacking player), and more HP then anything else at that point. It's especially nasty if the player follows the difficulty levels of the worlds, since he or she won't have the Cure spell at this point.

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[[Category:Bleach the 3rd Phantom]]

[[Category:Wake Up Call Boss]]

[[Category:Trope]]