Degraded Boss: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The boss in a video game, or on rare occasion VG series, who, after you defeat him/her/it, returns multiple times - but not as a boss, but as a [[Giant Mook|regular enemy]] (sometimes more than one appearing at once). Sometimes, the boss you fought is the "strongest" of the monsters; sometimes you've attained a new weapon which is [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|particularly effective against that boss]], or just leveled up enough that you're able to take on [[Dual Boss|several at a time]]. In some games, later enemies will be [[Palette Swap|palette-swapped]] versions of the boss' sprite/model, and may actually be ''stronger'' than the original Boss form. This tends to be puzzling when the first one you face is said to be their ruler. Logic suggests that [[Authority Equals Asskicking|they should be the strongest of the lot]], but when you face their higher-levelled brethren later on, [[Fridge Logic|one wonders]] why ''they'' aren't in charge.

* '''Type B:'''The ones who appear after killing the first one, aren't weaker at all. [[Underground Monkey|Sometimes even stronger]]. Although by then you're usually more powerful and well-equipped to deal with them more easily. A common version of this is for the first Boss of the game to reappear as a [[Giant Mook]] throughout the rest of the game.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Game Examples ==

=== [[Action Adventure]] ===

** Multi-game example: Dark Link has taken many different roles, including, but not limited to, [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|surprise final boss]] in ''[[Zelda II: The Adventure of Link|Adventure of Link]]'', mini-boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'', merely appearing in a cut scene in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', several easily defeated [[Mooks]] created by a boss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages|Oracle of Ages]]'', [[The Dragon]] of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures|The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventures]]'', and [[Bonus Boss]] in ''Spirit Tracks''.

** Two of the mini-bosses in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks]]'' actually appear again as regular enemies ''within their own dungeons'' (specifically, they're Snapper, the whip-wielding guy from the Ocean Temple, and Heatoise, the giant tortoise from the Fire Temple). In both cases, the dungeon item you get from the first battle makes the later ones much easier.

* Happens twice in ''Onimusha''. Reynaldo, who is set up as a mini-boss but is quickly revealed to be a really tough (and regenerating/self-duplicating) mook. Then there's Volchiman, who you must first fight as ninja girl Kaede, who is significantly weaker than main character Samonosuke; later on you may encounter two Volchiman at once. However, there's also Marcellus, whose prototype you face first. The real deal is a much, much more difficult opponent - probably more so than final boss Fortinbras.

* Almost every single miniboss in ''[[Killer7]]'' becomes this, since the miniboss battles are meant to introduce a new type of Heaven Smile for the next chapter.

* The climax of ''[[Half Life]] 2: Episode Two'' pits you against a small army of biomechanical tripods known as "Striders", several of which made your life a living hell in a certain battle in the original ''Half-Life 2'', and one of which was the ''actual'' boss of ''Half-Life 2: Episode One''. Oh, and this time they have Hunter support. This battle would be quite a bit harder if you didn't have {{spoiler|a car and a weapon that could [[One-Hit Kill]] them.}} Their machine guns receive a significant downgrade from the near-instakill they were in earlier installments.

** For that matter, the Hunters were introduced with one {{spoiler|nearly killing Alyx}}, and two or three of them was a boss battle early in the Episode. Two or three of them escort ''every Strider''. Fortunately, you have [[Car Fu|a weapon]] that can [[One-Hit Kill]] ''them'', too.

* The Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind boss monsters of the first ''[[Doom]]'' game return in the sequels as regular level monsters (though they're just as tough as they were as bosses), while the final bosses are upgraded to multiple-stories-high monster-spawning buildings. ''Doom 3'' then ''promoted'' the Cyberdemon back to boss status.

** And in the original ''[[Doom]]'', the bosses of the shareware version (the Barons of Hell) become more common in the retail installments. Again, they're just as tough as they were as bosses, though the energy weapons (the plasma gun and the [[BFG]]) that you acquire later on make quick work of them.

* The final stage in ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: the 2nd Runner'' throws endless copies of Nephtis, the game's second boss at you, which you can cut down by the dozen with near impunity. Playing through the [[New Game+]] with the [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]] you get at the beginning of that stage will confirm that they haven't been made weaker than the original.

 

* The MMORPG ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and its Villain counterpart do this as well in a few cases. Some specific missions have Boss or Elite Boss versions of enemies that are normally only minion or lieutenants normally, while in other cases Bosses are eventually downgraded to lower status. Villains can run into this as early as level 5 and the Lt. Blechley enemy, an Elite Boss version of the normally lieutenant-powered Council Vampyri. Heroes encounter this as well, although the most notable case doesn't come into play until level 45, where the dangerous Malta Gunslingers begin to regularly apply as lieutenants instead of their previous Boss counterparts. Justified as heroes don't even start to encounter the Vampyri until level 20, while villains encounter Lt. Blechley before level 10. At that stage in the game, he would be tough for a hero as well.

* Happens a lot in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'', with nearly every single boss you fight at the start of the game. Type B.

** The Stone Golem and Werewolf have also bounced between Mook and Boss status from game to game.

** ''Portrait of Ruin'' also uses a lot of degraded bosses. Many of the bosses from ''Rondo of Blood'' (Including Minotaur, Wyvern, Dogether, and Camilla's assistant Laura the catgirl) appear as normal enemies, as well as the aforementioned Slogra and Gaibon. However, the Werewolf and The Creature are back to being bosses again - but 2 of The Creature appear in the Nest Of Evil. And you better believe they're not degraded whatsoever despite not being the floor boss(es).

** The Giant Armor in Harmony of Dissonance appears as an enemy later on.

** Many of the early bosses from ''Lords of Shadow'' show up as [[Palette Swap]]ped recurring mooks by Chapter 2. The first boss shows up as a [[Boss in Mook Clothing]] as early as the second level.

* In ''[[Magic Sword]]'', the first dragon boss is reused as a [[Palette Swap]] [[Giant Mook]] midway through the game.

* In ''[[Mega Man X]] 8'', various enemy reploids in the final stage use copy chips to turn into duplicates of Sigma, the heroes' recurring nemesis (and final boss of the first seven games). Fortunately, they only have access to Sigma's original body, not any of the nightmarish battle forms he loves to inflict on the player.

** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network|Battle Network]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Star Force|Star Force]]'' games have Type B. After defeating a boss, they'll have a ghost version hiding on a specific tile somewhere in the Cyberworld / on the Wave Roads, usually in a dead end or a corner of a wide platform. Step there and a stronger version of the boss will appear to fight you. After you defeat it, an even stronger version becomes a rare random encounter, usually in the same area.

* Fire Leo, [[That One Boss]] for many players of ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'', reappears in the next chapter as a normal enemy called Metal Leo with severely reduced health and no fire attacks, thankfully.

* The regular assassins in ''[[Iji]]'' appear after you fight Asha. Their tactics are less showy and give more time between attacks but also gain an attack that Asha couldn't perform because he only has one arm. In fact, nearly every boss enemy or notable character is just a normal enemy with some backstory and an optional supermove (and more health).

* The Knight in ''[[Wonder Boy in Monster Land]]'', in addition to having several [[Palette Swap|palette swaps]], also appears as a recurring enemy late in the game.

* ''Midnight Wanderers'', one of the three games forming ''[[Three Wonders]]''', has the flamethrower from the Terror Twins (Stage 2 Boss) and Dumpty (Stage 3 [[Mini Boss]]) reappear later as minor [[Mooks]].

* In ''[[The Caverns of Hammerfest]]'', every single 'boss', with an exception of the Final Boss, are rather introductions to more powerful enemies you will find in the next levels.

* The Daemon mini-bosses in the SNES and Genesis game ''Warlock'' appear as regular enemies two levels after they're introduced. The player hasn't gained anymore power, and they have the same amount of health, these are still pretty much ''[[Demonic Spiders]]''. The only difference is that they are now skippable. The fact that this stage is ''[[That One Level]]'' doesn't help matters.

 

=== [[Rail Shooter]] ===

 

=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===

 

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series does this many times, in many ways.

** The Vampire is a boss early on in ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'', you get attacked by swarms of them later in the game.

** The [[Bonus Dungeon]] in ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' has a lot of these. In the 100-floor dungeon, you encounter bosses on every 20th floor, and after beating the 80th floor boss, all the level bosses you've beaten thus far will start showing up as normal enemies beyond the 81st floor. Considering how incredibly powerful they are (the last two have over '''10 times''' the HP of the final boss!), it's generally a VERY good idea to run if you run into them, as they're NOT worth the effort to beat a second time.

*** Some bosses from earlier in the game also show up later. If you revisit the Floating Ruins in later chapters, you will occasionally encounter Boris, the boss from the first mission there. He has exactly the same stats as last time, therefore making him much easier to defeat.

*** ''X-2'' also has bosses from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' return as regular encounters. Because the mechanics of the games are so different, they can't be defined as Type A or B.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has several enemies that count in this category, such as various Behemoths and Wyverns. Of particular note is the Juggurnaut, a giant mechanical monstrosity that can and will tear your team to shreds should you stumble into it early in the Pulsian underground. However, when they appear later, your party will be strong enough to turn them into scrap metal in about a minute.

* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' featured bosses that often become normal mooks with varied stat decreases. The Harpy and Lich both appear as mooks a few ''rooms'' following their boss arenas, though, unlike other examples in the same game, has their stats decreased.

* Many, many bosses in the original ''[[Lufia]]''. With the exception of the Sinistrals, you don't fight an actual unique boss until around the halfway point of the game.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei II]]'' features an example of this that's notable for the rare case of having obvious justification. The enemy Betelgeuse first appears as a boss... and a giant monster. Later, you encounter him as a normal enemy, but in this form, he's human-sized and humanoid.

** Any ''[[Mega Ten]]'' game with the recruitable demon mechanic will allow you to recruit, fuse, or otherwise obtain many of the bosses you fight after beating them at least once.

* In ''[[Dragon Quest I]]'', you must rescue the princess from the Dragon early on. Later, dragons are all over the place. The Axe Knight also first appears as a boss guarding Erdrick's Armor, then as a recurring enemy in the [[Final Dungeon]].

* In ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games, on the final stage you'll usually not only have the [[Final Boss]] to deal with, but around two dozen variants on previous original bosses, usually mass-produced models of [[Super Prototype]] mechs the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] used. In some of the more [[Nintendo Hard|challenging]] ones they're just as strong as the originals.

* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' there are also various lower-level Noise (examples including the lowest form of wolf, shark, and rhino), which when you encounter them for the first time, they're treated as a boss. Later in the game however, they're just another type of Noise to defeat - sorry, ''[[Deadly Euphemism|erase]]''.

* The Giant Snake, a difficult [[Action Commands]] boss from the first ''[[Dark Cloud]]'', appears as a regular (albeit hard) foe in ''[[Dark Cloud]] 2'''s second area. The level where it first appears in is even named after it.

** Then again, both it and several other minor enemies received a [[Mook Promotion]] as guardians of the Crystals needed to activate Kazarov Stonehenge in Chapter 6.

* The Tyrannosaurus Rex looking Dinosaur from ''[[Dragonball Z]]: The Legacy of Goku'' that were immune to Kamehameha. Originally beating the first one took half of this player's Gameboy battery power, it took so long. After the first one, more Trex look alikes show up in later levels of the game, each time easier to kill as Goku gets stronger until he's too fast and strong for the dinos to even be worth the time.

* ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' does this a lot with war bosses, which in many cases end up in random encounter lists. This gets lampshaded in one quest where you have to fight Drakath the Undead Dragon, who it's likely the player has run up against at least 3 or 4 times before, and their character wonders, "Who keeps reanimating that dragon?"

** The [[Dynamic Difficulty]] of the game scales all monsters to the [[Player Character]]'s level, with Normal enemies being slighly weaker than the PC; Lieutenants, slighly stronger; and Bosses, about as strong as your entire party combined (don't ask about [[That One Boss|Elite Bosses]]). Said first Ogre you encounter (at level 4-5) is a Boss, yet all subsequent Ogres are Lieutenants, so they are simultaneously stronger that the first one and weaker than yourself during all subsequent encounters.

** Same thing happens in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'': an ogre is the very first boss you fight in the game (twice), and even Flemeth comments on how impressive it is to beat one. The next ones you meet in the end of Act I are considerably less difficult. By Act III, Hawke and Companions will crunch them for breakfast.

* ''[[Crisis Core]]: [[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is full of these. Sometimes they're storyline bosses, sometimes they're mission-ending uniques.

* In ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'', the executioner you face fairly early in the game appears reskinned as a mook in one of the climactic sequences. The original inspired nightmares, his green-painted cousins are easy meat, probably because you gained about 30 levels and now have access to Fina's wide range of healing powers.

* The Great Jaggi is your first large Monster Hunt in ''[[Monster Hunter]] Tri''. The first time you encounter one wandering about Moga Woods (usually the very next day) is probably a bit of an [[Oh Crap]] moment. By the time you fight the Royal Ludroth, you're taking them on two at a time, and they're barely worth hunting anymore. Note that at this point, you're ''still'' fighting the weakest monsters in the game.

* ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' makes recurrent use of the trope in their early entries:

** ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'' makes the same reuse of boss sprites, though it doesn't limit itself with minor bosses, as guys like Shupkay, M.C. Tusk (end-of-arc bosses) and ''[[The Rival|Ray]]'' are among the degraded lot.

* Halfway through the first disc of ''[[The Legend of Dragoon]]'' you face a "Sandora Elite", an assassin who fights with kunai, earth-based ninjutsu and two [[Doppleganger Attack|ninja clones]] at his side. They become standard enemies in the [[Disc One Final Dungeon]], minus the dopplegangers.

* At least in the Super Famicom game, ''[[Dragonball Z]]: Legend of the Super Saiyan'', there are random encounter enemies late in the game that are palette swaps of Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, and the Ginyu Force that are weaker or stronger than you originally fought as bosses.

 

=== [[Shoot'Em Up]] ===

** Another level boss Gaw appeared in ''Life Force'' at the end of Stage 5. It appeared in ''Gradius II'''s [[Boss Rush]] before becoming a pre-stage enemy for the bio levels in ''Gaiden'' and ''V''.

** The giant worm that was the first boss of ''Gaiden'' appears as an enemy in ''V'''s bio stage.

* The first boss of ''[[Ray Storm]]'' returns as a [[Mini Boss]] in the Judgement and Emotion stages of ''[[Ray Crisis]]''.

* Yuyuko, final boss of ''[[Touhou Project|Perfect Cherry Blossom]]'', {{spoiler|is the Stage 1 boss of ''Ten Desires''. Justified in that she's [[Willfully Weak]]; she just wants to get in some practice with you before you go on the investigation.}}

** Generally speaking, if a characters recurs they'll be showing up a midboss the second time. Though this can be a promotion if they went from a boss of an early stage to an EX midboss.

* In ''[[Raiden]] IV'', the twin [[Spider Tank|spider tanks]] from ''Raiden II'' return in smaller form in Stage 4, but then they are re-promoted to bosses in that same stage. The series' recurring jet boss, Ichneumon, becomes a regular enemy in Stages 5 and 6 of the Xbox 360 version.

** Similarly, in the third game, the Missionary, which you first fight as a boss after one of them kills Harry, becomes a recurring mook in the cult's church near the end of the game.

** In ''Origins'', Caliban, the boss of the theater, becomes a mook in the outdoor segment almost immediately after you beat the boss version. Along with the giant versions of the dogs, these act as a very, ''very'' unsubtle hint that you should probably just be running from enemies on the streets now instead of wasting ammunition and [[Breakable Weapons]] fighting them.

** It kind of helps the 3rd time that you can {{spoiler|activate a lava pit and eliminate one of them quickly. In true RE tradition, [[Convection, Schmonvection]] applies.}}

* The [http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Tripod Tripod] from ''[[Dead Space 2]]'' may be a challenge when you first fight it but it has to attack in increasing numbers to be a threat latter on. One actually runs away from its own boss fight.

 

 

=== [[Turn-Based Strategy]] ===

* ''[[Shining Force]]'' used this often, with several bosses on stages being a Minotaur, a Golem, a Witch creature, a Black Knight, etc., all of whom would appear frequently as simple mooks in later missions, once the team got stronger.

** ''[[Shining in the Darkness]]'' had the Kaiserkrab, the insanely hard-to-beat first boss. When it reappears as a mook, it's just as powerful but easier to beat, since you have two extra teammates by then.

* The special zombies in ''[[Dead Island]]'' show up initially as bosses, complete with cut scenes showing shocked protagonist reactions. After couple of areas have been passed, they show up mixed in with regular zombies, as strong as they were before (stronger, in fact, as they level with the players). As they tend to have elements of a [[Puzzle Boss]] about them (disable the arms first, use ranged weapons, only attack from behind etc) it's usually best to mop up the mook before attempting to take them down.

 

=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===

* After facing Ranba Ral (Gouf) and the Black Tri-Stars (Dom) in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', the Mobile Suits used by them are soon adopted as Mass-production units by Zeon Mooks.

** Similarly, in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', The Earth Alliance's powerful Mobile Armors such as the Zamzah-Zah and Destroy Gundam appear in greater numbers later in the series (and are usually killed ''much'' easier than the first one they faced).

*** The Destroy Gundam is most notorious in that when the emotionally-unbalanced Stella piloted the beast, it absolutely devastated Berlin and even when stopped, the machine was still largely intact. When they start mass producing it, they drop like flies. Granted, ZAFT did introduce new prototype suits, but you'd think they'd at least be able to match the original's damage.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' looks like it may have these, since {{spoiler|Orochimaru!Kabuto did the whole "imperfect resurrection" thing on Itachi, Kakuzu, Deidara, Sasori, and Nagato}}.

** {{spoiler|In the end, it was a subversion, since Orochimaru!Kabuto revived many more legendary shinobi, and while we finally how badass the other shinobi from the past were, none of the aforementioned five had had degraded in any way. If anything, at least ''two'' of them were shown to be even ''stronger'' after their resurrection}}.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Boss Battle]]

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]