Bonus Dungeon: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Look, it's the extra dungeon for after you beat the game. Good luck!"''|'''Alice Margatroid''', ''[[Touhou Project|Subterranean Animism]]''}}

 

 

The [[Bonus Dungeon]] will be bigger, badder, and with more levels than the other stages in the game. It will be filled with new monsters. Sometimes game designers cut corners by making the monsters simple [[Palette Swap|recolors]] of common monsters, but with [[Underground Monkey|higher stats]].

** There's an extra dungeon in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' in the ported GBA version. Players can't access the dungeon until they completed the multiplayer Four Swords game. Inside the dungeon is 4 areas with very tough puzzles and color swaps of some of the bosses Link fought previously, along with new behavior patterns. Beating all 4 bosses opened the way to fighting 4 clones of Link from the Four Sword, each Link bearing a different color and abilities that mirror Link's. Beating these bosses only got you statistics of your game data, so it's nothing but bragging rights.

** The [[Updated Rerelease]] of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'' had the Color Dungeon, which was only accessable by playing the game on a Game Boy Color. It included color-based puzzles, such as colored switches and enemies that were only distinguishable by their tunics having to be beat in a certain order. For winning, you got either a Red or Blue Tunic, which put you permanently under the effect of a Piece of Power (increased speed and attacks send enemies flying and do double damage) or a Guardian Acorn (double defense), respectively.

** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'' had the Gerudo's challenge, out in their outpost, which consisted of solving puzzles in different rooms to collect keys. They keys were used in a maze to get the Ice Arrows. While rumors suggested that the cave could be made [[Unwinnable]], the Fortress is ''always'' solvable.

* ''[[Okami]]'' features a particularly evil example. In different areas of the overworld there are 3 caves that are home to (slightly) upgraded versions of a previous giant demon spider boss. Defeating them earns a reward, but you can then return to the same cave later to find a demon gate eerily sitting there. Going through forces you to battle wave after wave of superpowered regular enemies. Even the lowliest of [[Mooks]] can waste you with a couple of hits in these battles (oh yeah, you have to go through 10 of them to get the reward) and have HP that would make some of the late-game bosses jealous. These battles could be considered a refreshing change of pace compared to the general easiness of Okami if not for their sheer sadism.

* The Ancient Cave in the ''[[Lufia]]'' series has gone from 12 levels, to 100 levels, to 200 throughout the various games on SNES and Gameboy.

* Very common with ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games, especially in [[Updated Rerelease|Updated Rereleases]] and Remakes

** Fanatics' Tower in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''.

*** Also the Dragon's Den in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]] Advance'', which is much more hardcore than the Fanatic's Tower, and has a ''MUCH'' harder [[Bonus Boss]].

*** The DS version lost this ability due to [[Suddenly Voiced]] cutscenes, and removed both dungeons. It compensated for this by adding a pair of utterly horrifying [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]], Geryon and Proto-Babil, and [[Nintendo Hard|cranking the difficulty of the game]] [[Up to Eleven]].

*** ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'' has one at the end of each character's individual chapter, usually given by the [[Moon Rabbit]] Challengingway. Golbez gets ''two.''

* The Abyss in ''[[Wild Arms 1]]'', ''[[Wild Arms 3|3]]'', and ''Alter Code F''. It was smaller in the first game, but all later incarnations had it at 100 levels deep. It exists in 5 as well, along with three other [[Bonus Dungeons]], but it's much smaller.

* The Chicken Level in ''[[Dungeon Siege]]''. Hidden behind a series of riddles and item-gathering quests, this was populated with... well, killer chickens with an extraordinary number of hit points. The level was filled with large amounts of fabulous treasure and hard-to-find items for anyone brave and strong enough to defeat the fowl beasts (pun intended).

* The Chrysler Building in ''[[Parasite Eve]]''.

* The Moria Gallery from ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]''. The later remakes expanded it with even more floors.

** Its sequel has two of them, one of which requires you to be on a second playthrough. Bonus doesn't begin to describe it.

* ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'s'' Memory Dungeon. The graphics are blurry, [[Real Is Brown|it's brown]], and all the sound effects sound far away, like you're hearing them on a camcorder recording the actual video game. In here, you fight the party's memories, and with that, every enemy they've faced in the game. This makes for some weird situations, like [[Stone Wall]] [[White Mage]] vs. {{spoiler|[[Brainwashed and Crazy]] [[White Mage]]}} and [[Grumpy Old Man]] vs. {{spoiler|the other half of his [[Split Personality]].}} Strangely, for a game whose characters lampshade many things such as [[Crack Pairing|CrackPairings]] and [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]], this wasn't remarked about at all.

** The [[PlayStation 3]] [[Updated Rerelease]] ups the ante with the Garden of Izayoi, an [[Marathon Level|incredibly long]] dungeon with the gimmick of progressing through the floors by way of actual combat; once you defeat a group of enemies, paths on the battlefield open up for you to traverse to another battlefield with more enemies, and you make your way through several floors of mazes. There are plenty of new [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]], including a horrific "monster" called {{spoiler|the Spiral Draco, the King of the Entelexeia}}, which appears to have taken the title of "most difficult boss in the [[Tales (series)]]."

** ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'s'' [[Bonus Dungeon]] gives us the Hero's backstory.

** The PSX/DS remake of ''[[Dragon Quest IV]]'' includes a bonus dungeon which expands on the story, even allowing you to redeem the [[Man Behind the Man|(apparent)]] [[Big Bad]], and the former final boss!

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]: [[Expansion Pack|Tales of the Sword Coast]]'' contains Durlag's Tower, a looming castle crammed full of thoroughly unpleasant enemies - and [[Ludicrous Gibs|very large traps]].

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II: [[Expansion Pack|Throne of Bhaal]]'' gives us Watcher's Keep, a five-story dungeon (plus one extra for the boss fight) featuring some of the most complex puzzles and challenging fights in the game, eventually climaxing in a fight with {{spoiler|Demogorgon}}, who is not only, as a good [[Bonus Boss]] should be, the most poweful enemy in the game, but {{spoiler|the most powerful being in the entire [[Forgotten Realms|setting]]!}}

* The [[Updated Rerelease]] of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' adds Dimensional Vortexes unlocked after the final boss, as well as [[That One Sidequest|the Lost Sanctum]].

** Even the original SNES version of the game had the Black Omen, an optional dungeon (although necessary to access [[New Game+]]) that can, through the magic of [[Time Travel]], be cleared three times for maximum loot.

* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' loves these. Of particular note is Purity Forest from the original pair of games. You can only bring one Pokémon in, which is brought down to level one. Also, all your items and money not in storage are destroyed. Good luck.

** Similar to Purity Forest is Zero Isle in the second pair, which is divided up into four parts. Zero Isle North simply doesn't give you any EXP, but South, East, and West drop you down to level one at the start, you can't bring items to Zero Isle South or West and can only bring 16 items to Zero Isle East, and Zero Isle West also limits you to just the one Pokemon!

* The Server Room in ''[[Opoona]].'' It opens up about midway through the game, but actually ''challenging'' it at such a point is not especially advisable. In addition to containing [[Mooks]] that are extremely fast, can heal themselves, and prevent you from using your Force (magic), the battle stages are full of bombs, which prevent you from using just about any hit-all abilities lest they explode. (And if they do so, they'll knock off about 100 HP--about three or four is enough for a [[Total Party Kill]].) And if ''that'' doesn't kill you, the room is also home to Salamanders, one of the game's most brutal [[Boss in Mook Clothing]] monsters. However, you can leae at any time to save and heal without losing your progress.

* The [[Fallout: New Vegas]] DLC ''Lonesome Road'' adds the Long 15 and Dry Wells maps, which you may or may not have {{spoiler|nuked}} previous to their unlocking.

 

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