Flunky Boss: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

* Queen Gohma in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' summons its babies (although it's so easy you usually kill it before it even gets to do it), and Odolwa in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' summons hordes of moths.

* ''[[Bubble Bobble|Bubble Symphony]]'' has a giant [[Space Invaders]], who has updated sprite versions of the invaders as well as the UFO. The UFO also has eyes on its top.

* ''[[Star Wars: The Force Unleashed]]'' has a fair few, but while the henchmen can be annoying, they are actually helpful, as the player regains health from killing enemies. Bosses who fight alone are considerably harder, due to there being no way to regain health during the battle.

* Many, many boss battles in ''[[Cave Story]]'' are of this type. The battle with the Undead Core actually has ''two'' levels of this, as one of the flunkies is itself a [[Mook Maker]].

** This is because the gameplay mechanics are made such that any boss battle which does not involve either enemies who drop powerups or bullets which are treated as enemies and drop powerups would be terribly unforgiving, weakening your weapons after you take a few hits. While quite a few bosses don't do this, they're generally easy ones, with the notable exception of [[Big Bad|the Doctor]].

* In ''[[Overlord]]'': Oberon, Sir William, Khan, {{spoiler|the Wizard}}, and {{spoiler|the Forgotten God}}. Other than the fact that you [[Player Character|play as him]], the [[Evil Overlord|titular Overlord]] fits the qualifications as well.

* Bad Girl in [[No More Heroes]] has an [[That One Attack|annoying habit]] of batting her gimp minions at you.

* Most of the bosses in [[Transformers: War for Cybertron]] do this. The most notable is the boss fight against Soundwave in the Autobot campaign. He hides behind an energy shield while activating automated turrets and then sending out one of his familiar minions (Frenzy, Rumble, and Laserbeak) to attack you. Taking out the minions is the key to beating him, as the only time he leaves the safety of his energy shield is to retrieve the body of a fallen minion.

*** Her boss, Gecko Moria, also qualifies. After losing his entire crew in battle, he decides [[Zombie Apocalypse|to create a new, unkillable, crew,]] and rely solely on their power. It's not until his [[Villainous Breakdown]] that he does any fighting himself.

** After the [[Time Skip]], {{spoiler|Demalo Black's plan to take on the New World hinged on his becoming this. He tricked several pirate crews several times stronger than himself into becoming his followers by making them believe that he was Luffy, intending to use them to take out any threats that Luffy's reputation didn't scare away first.}}

** He's not the only one, though; there's Masakado the samurai, second boss of the game. On difficulties above normal ''every'' boss has flunkies that drop by at every 25% of the life bar you knock off them.

* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''. Pretty much all of 'em except [[Advancing Boss of Doom|Killer]] [[Marathon Boss|Croc]].

 

== [[Beat'Em Up]] ==

 

== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==

* A ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy]]'' boss is accompanied by two enemies who recharge him once you do a certain amount of damage. They also have fully-decked out force powers and will use them on you, making them nigh-impossible to kill while the main boss is mobile. Doesn't help that the boss is ''very'' mobile and free to carve you up while you go after the flunkies. The only way to win is to attack him until the flunkies heal him, then kill them, which takes at least three consecutive defeats.

* Several bosses in the ''[[Metroid]] Prime'' games. For example the Omega Pirate would summon a group of Space Pirates to defend himself when he repaired his armour, and Metroid Prime's core would spawn two metroids of varying types whenver it generated a new pool of Phazon.

* All the bosses in ''[[Battle City|Tank Force]]'' except the final boss have normal enemies fighting alongside it. These enemies must also be defeated to win the round.

 

* ''[[City of Villains]]'' lets you assume the role of one of these with the "Mastermind" player class.

** And in both that and ''[[City of Heroes]]'', the hardest foes are rarely found without at least a few Mooks on hand.

** In the first phase of the fight against Yogg Saron, an Old God imprisoned by the Titans in Ulduar, it takes the form of a friendly female NPC while a string of enemies start to appear. Each enemy causes heavy damage over a wide area when it dies, and the only way to reach the second phase of the fight is to have the enemies close enough to the disguised Old God when they die that they hurt her as well.

** Lady Deathwhisper starts the fight by putting up an impenetrable mana shield and summons cultists from alternate sides of the room. Players must divide their time between killing her allies and attacking her to drain her mana until she runs out and the shield drops, at which point she stops calling them.

** All of the bosses in the God Wars Dungeon have bodyguards that will violently defend their generals.

** Some quests have bosses that does this, brought in mind is the Bandos Avatar from The Chosen Commander, who makes the statues in the throne room live when you try to get back the parts of Zanik's Crossbow back, which is the only weapon thay can truly kill him.

* Every single boss in ''[[Gaia Online|zOMG!]]'' except General Dreedle. Most of the time, these Mooks respawn infinitely. In one case, defeating one will make an even stronger one appear and explode right next to you. Fun times.

 

== [[Platform Game]] ==

* The final boss of ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak II]]'', which features the metalhead king and his underlings.

* The final fight with the vizier in ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Sands of Time''. The vizier sends out several clones to fight in his stead. His actual body is pretty frail, dying within 2 sword strikes.

* One of the bonus challenges for Tesrat the Hedgeroid in ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' is to deliver her the finishing blow by knocking one of her rat minions into her.

 

== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==

* Nearly every boss in the ''[[Dawn of War]] II'' campaigns, with more difficult bosses spawning larger numbers and more powerful types of flunkies. Indeed, the main reason The Avatar and Bonesmasha are [[That One Boss|so frustrating]] is their tendency to summon ''bloody hordes'' of flunkies that include plenty of vehicles and elite soldiers.

 

== [[Roguelike]] ==

* In ''[[Angband]]'', several of the uniques can summon monsters, and this can quickly get out of hand unless you make an anti-summoning corrior. Morgoth can even summon other uniques you haven't killed yet.

 

* There are many, many instances of this in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. For example, Hidon in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' and the battle with Sin immediately after you [[Get on the Boat]] in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''.

** A LOT of bosses in ''VI'' do this. The Marshall miniboss you fight to save Terra VERY early in the game has two Lobos with him, Vargas has two bears who you have to kill before you fight him directly, The boss of Zozo will occasionally summon four or five Iron Fists. And don't forget the MOTHER of all flunky bosses that makes a great deal of ''[[Final Fantasy VI|FFVI]]'' players wanna kill themselves: Wrexsoul.

** '''Every single boss''' in ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles]]'' have two mooks fighting alongside them. These respawn all the time, and give no supplies whatsoever. They serve only to distract you from the main boss. Worse, the final boss have the hardest enemies in the game as its minions, and they instantly respawn if you kill both. Add to that two hits will kill you no matter unless you're seriously leveled, and you have yourself a fun battle. Infinite full-heal Cure spells is the only thing that keeps this boss from being [[Nintendo Hard]].

*** To be fair, the respawn rate on the minions is NOT instantaneous, just exceptionally fast unless you kill them shortly after respawn, causing the AI to usually wait anywhere from one to several attacks before respawning the mooks.

** A small list of bosses from ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' that like having buddies: Jailer of Justice, Vrtra, Jailer of Love, [[Nigh Invulnerable|Absolute Virtue]], Pandemonium Warden... there's also [http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pulling_the_Strings one fight] where it's actually ''recommended'' to only kill the flunky, as fighting the boss will probably get you killed.

** It would probably be easier to list the bosses, [[Bonus Boss]] or otherwise, that ''didn't'' have mook minions in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]''. Notable examples include Adrammelech and Zeromus, both of whom come equipped with almost-infinitely spawning (that's ''spawning,'' not respawning; ignoring them may lead to over a dozen on the battlefield at any given time), status-effect-spewing undead that can easily overwhelm the player, and Zalera, who has the gall to be ''invincible'' so long as his minions are on the field (oh, and that fight has a time limit on it as well).

*** The fight gets easier once you have gotten the Exodus or Mateus summon. A group of four carbuncles on Mateus or Exodus can hold back HORDES of zombies, leaving the greater bulk of your party to attack Zalera. (if you invested in some Cu Chulains, then this battle will be cake, even more so if you have Basch and Vaan unleash all their skills at once on Zalera at the same time.)

*** This becomes HORRIBLY easy if you actually wasted the time to get Bahamut first because Bahamut by himself is already capable of mowing down hordes of Zombies on end without a care in the world especially since every blast of Mega flare means disable. A horde of zombies is not very scary if they can't attack at all.

** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' had the Dragon Pod with its Dragon Flowers. All the Dragon Pod will do is summon Dragon Flowers, which will use status effect-laden physical attacks. The battles becomes much easier once you get the summon Golem, found in the same dungeon.

** The segment where you had to fight the Guado and [[Final Fantasy X|Seymour]], especially since they gave him buffs when they died (usually via [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|Valefor's Overdrive]]). The boss immediately following (with the stupid giant and two Guado) was nearly as frustrating solely if you're out of the aeons' Overdrives.

** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has two bosses that will revive their baddies. Attacking them will be a waste of time.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has two bosses (the final boss in Palum Polum and {{spoiler|Barthandelus}} where you're basically forced to kill the minions (you can kill them regularly, but they are nearly invulnerable and you face 5 enemies hitting you hard, making it very complicated)

* ''[[Super Mario RPG]]: Legend of the Seven Stars'' loves these. Mack, Punchinello, Booster, Jonathan Jones (who converts to a [[Duel Boss]], challenging Mario to a one-on-one fight, when his flunkies are dead), Belome II, Megasmilax, Czar Dragon, Exor, and Smithy himself.

*** Interestingly, hitting the beans to spawn the mooks is good for mid-boss grinding, as the mooks award the normal amount of experience and money as they would outside the boss battle.

** Shows up in ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'', where most of the (main) bosses after Tubba Blubba are Flunky Bosses who are significantly more deadly if the player ''doesn't'' kill the mooks first, making area-of-effect attacks important. Most noteworthy of all would have to be [[That One Boss|Huff N. Puff]], who spawns small cloudlike creatures every time he is attacked based on how much health the attack cost him - more damage, more mooks. These mooks, if not immediately dispatched, will either attack Mario on their own, combine with any one of Huff N. Puff's special abilities to make them stronger, or simply be sucked up by the boss himself, replenishing his health.

*** The Crystal King summons three Crystal Bits, who don't themselves attack but are used by Crystal King as ammo for his attack. Attacking them lowers the damage he can inflict but prevents you from damaging the King, so you have to ignore them if you want to win. Multi-hitting attacks like Multibounce, Shooting Star items and Star Power works, but you probably want to save them for when the Crystal King starts creating duplicates of himself.

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' also has quite a few. The Guardian, Giga Gaias, most of Lavos's forms.

** The very last form of Lavos comes with two "bit" flunkies. {{spoiler|It turns out that one of the bits is actually the true boss, making this trope played with...}}

* ''[[Etrian Odyssey]] 2'''s first stratum boss is the Chimera, aptly subtitled "Lord of the Beasts". After a few turns, a massive flock of Slaveimps come to his cause, either casting Heal or Aura (an attack-up spell) on their master. If the Chimera dies, one still has to knock out any Slaveimps that made it into battle, but if there are any still trying to reach the battle, they disappear if the battle ends without them.

* The second ''[[Golden Sun]]'' game has a few of these; Briggs, Moapa, and the Star Magician come to mind (who are accompanied by Sea Fighters, Knights, and "Ball monster" minions, respectively).

* ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' series has a couple of these: The solution is elegant in its simplicity. Fireball.

** Charm spells can be fun as well.

* A memorable encounter in ''[[Jade Empire]]'' saw the party's [[Boisterous Bruiser]] up against a massive Jade Golem and a never-ending wave of Mooks. It is entirely possible to spend all day slaughtering more soldiers than the game's army could technically ''support,'' even have the golem help out in this task, but you can't progress until you hack the golem down to size. Hilariously [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when, after killing a certain ridiculously high amount of enemies, a narrator who's been describing your prowess based on how many mooks you've slaughtered gets fed up and [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|breaks the fourth wall]], yelling at you to "just kill the damn golem, already!"

* The Orb Of Undead from [[Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance|Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance]], the only "attack" it has is to summon an army of skeletons and fly out of the players reach, but once you kill all of it's minions it will come back down to resummon it's army.

** The Space Magic: Vortex makes the battle easier since it will negate Revolution 9, but it is much easier if you have Purple Eyes' equipped (negate Gazes) or have Mecs, and leave the Charm Gaze Monster alive, it will keep wasting turns using Gaze attacks meaning the only thing you have to worry about is Master Ring's Oscillation attack.

* ''[[Romancing SaGa]]'' [[That One Boss]] Ewei definitely fits this trope, and maybe a few others. Here's why: He has 2 beastmen of 3 different varieties that assist him in battle, and respawn the second turn after they are defeated, they act as a shield for Ewei, and to add insult to injury he uses A powerful Terrology Spell to negate most of the damage dealt to him and 2 types of Attack all spells that can prevent using magic or attacking normally, in addition he can heal himself. The only possible way to defeat him is to have an Archer know Rain of Arrows or a Hand Axe user use Rolling Slash to injure both Ewei and his beastmen and have one character equipped with the Amethyst (Negates his Demonology spells) in addition to the Opal (Negates Terrology Spells).

** Also the beastmen can use a technique that can knock your characters unconscious

** There's also Evil {{spoiler|Jessica}}, who constantly summons Shadows to help her out. She can call 3 at a time (and up to 6 total), they're resistant to a lot of attacks, and they've got a fairly powerful ice breath attack that really starts to add up when multiple Shadows use it in a single round. Have fun.

*** The shadows aren't really strong, it's more the sheer number of them. They usually can't deal more than 15 damage per turn to a properly leveled party, and the healing abilities more than cover it. Basically, depending on levels, the flunkies are more likely to be on the level of [[Goddamned Bats]] than [[Demonic Spiders]].

** Lampshaded in ''[[Kid Radd]]'' when Radd, G.I. Guy and I.B. encounters three bunnies in "Mofo". They can only take out two each round (I.B. is a non-combatant) and the third always summon two more, so the fight goes on interminably... until G.I. Guy uses his scary powers to break the loop.

*** Some RPGs differentiate between 'Summons', 'Flunkies', and 'Reinforcements'. Summons can be performed by some normal enemies, usually by gimmick enemies where the gimmick is summoning. Flunkies are this trope. Reinforcements are used by certain bosses and show up at a certain amount of health.

** Also played straight with {{spoiler|Real Tri-Edge}} who summons a different combination of three orbs at regular intervals. The orbs either, 1) Shoot light beams at you, 2) Make the boss invulnerable until you destroy it or 3) Heals him. Extra fun when he summons a combo with 2-3-3.

* Several bosses (and even some [[Demonic Spider|not-quite-bosses]]) in the ''[[Geneforge]]'' series continually make new creations until either they or you die. Unlike most examples, these creations generally [[No Ontological Inertia|stick around]] even after said flunky boss dies.

* Just about every one of the Desian Grand Cardinals from ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]''. Magnius just has some generic Desians, Kvar has the Energy Stones, Forcystus has the Exbones, and the second battle with Pronyma features the Idun. Also the Ktugach with its Ktugachlings, the Adulocia with its Amphitra, the Toize Valley Mine Defense System with its Orbits, and the Gatekeeper with Angel Swordians.

* A lot of bosses in ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' come with several mooks ([[Actually Four Mooks|out of nowhere]]) to aid them. Some of the bosses (such as Dhaos in the past) may even be helpless while their minions are still alive.

* The Hanged Man in ''[[Persona 3]]'' spends half its attacks summoning minions. This can become very annoying, since the very existence of some of these minions will make the boss float above the battlefield, unable to be attacked.

** Almost every boss in ''[[Expansion Pack|The Answer]]'' comes with a few minions. Usually you'll have to abuse the combat system to stop them from ever attacking if you don't want to [[Nintendo Hard|die horribly]].

* ''Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus'' has an odd variation: The archer boss on the first visit to the ''[[Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu]]'' world will start sending out [[I Know Madden Kombat|soccer players]] when low on health. However, these versions are effectively invincible but they only perform their rushing attack 'till they run off-screen. And she sends out waves of them,giving the impression of a stampede. <s>No wonder why [[Shakugan no Shana|Shana]] is flat-chested.</s>

* Rather common in ''[[Mana Khemia]]''. Plenty of optional bosses do this, as well as the first boss and the final boss.

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]] Mask Of The Betrayer'' has two. The first is against Okku and his spirit army. Since Okku is a god, his worshippers grant him oodles of HP and immunity to weapons until they die. After enough are down, he's killable, and he drops to far below his max HP by the time all of them are dead. In the second one, the boss is a Genus Loci, which consists of five trees that do nothing but spam summoned allies until they are destroyed. However, in both cases AoE blasting will handle them pretty easily.

* Several times in ''Pokémon Mystery Dungeon'', but notably the fights versus {{spoiler|Regigigas}} and {{spoiler|Darkrai}}.

* Soma in [[Eien no Aselia]] has no fighting ability since he's just a normal human. He lets his brainwashed minions do all his fighting for him. And when they go down...

* The boss of the Queen Fury/Ghost Ship section in [[The Legend of Dragoon]] is actually a group of [[Respawning Enemies]]. Four Ghost Knights, accompanied by a stronger Commander, attack you. Killing one, including the Commander, simply 'downs' it for 1-3 turns, after which they stand back up at full health. If you are unlucky they may even rise back up before you even get your next action. The only way to win is to down all 5 enemies at the same time, which is easier said than done in a game where the only multi-hitting attacks you have are limited items and, at that point in the game, very few Dragoon Spells, only one of which is actually powerful enough to take them all out at moderate health, besides the Commander. May very well become [[That One Boss]] if you aren't prepared for it.

 

== [[Sports Game]] ==

 

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

* Nearly every stage 5 boss in the Windows ''[[Touhou]]'' games seems to have a gimmick: [[Bullet Time]], repositioning bullets, etc. For ''Subterranean Animism'', this trope seems to be Rin Kaenbyou's gimmick, as she is accompanied by various minor enemies for many of her spellcards, the worst being those creepy zombie fairies that burst into a shower of bullets when destroyed, only to revive again within seconds.

* The Cave Ceiling boss in the horizontal scrolling [[Shoot'Em Up]] ''[[Area 88|U.N. Squadron]]'' (SNES version). It's this large moving machine on the ceiling whose [[Attack Its Weak Point|weak point]] can only be attacked from below, and its downward flamethrower attacks shouldn't pose much trouble. The problem? There's a conveyor belt on the floor where homing missile launchers AND upward-firing flamethrowers will come in from both sides, making your life a ''[[Nintendo Hard|living hell]]''. Unsurprisingly, its [[That One Boss]].

* The jet bomber boss in the ''[[Raiden]]'' series sends waves of mini-jets after you, and the [[Base on Wheels|mobile fortress]] boss in the second game can spawn turrets.

 

== [[Stealth Based Game]] ==

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'': Most bosses (targets) have guards with them, although in many cases they can be bypassed through smart stealth/surprise. Played completely straight with {{spoiler|Al-Mualim}} and his [[Ancient Astronaut]] [[Phlebotinum]] which allows him to teleport and summon ghostly versions of himself and your other targets... or are they? The sequel inverts this with Ezio uses the same (or a similar) piece of [[Phlebotinum]] against the ''Pope'' and the [[Magic Staff|Papal Staff]]. ''Brotherhood'' uses this too with the final battle with {{spoiler|Cesare Borgia}}, where mooks will appear to aid {{spoiler|Cesare}} in every phase... for all the good that does, as he's immune to counter kills or kill streak executions unlike {{spoiler|[[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Il Carnefice]]}}. (In contrast, [[Praetorian Guard|Papal]] [[Elite Mook|Guards]] are immune to counter kills but ''not'' kill streaks, which actually makes them more survivable on their own.)

** In [[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]] when you fight Armored Vehicles, Tanks and Choppers they are helped by Escorts. Also the Chrysalis and it's Kidnappers.

 

** There are various Mooks conveniently loitering along the path of your pursuit of Vinnie Cognitti, who function in much the same way. (The level where you take on B.B. is similar, but he barely counts as a boss seeing as this is the level when you get the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Jackhammer]].)

** Jack Lupino has two henchmen flanking him when he deigns to join the fray... after about two ''dozen'' others have been whaling on you from two sides when you have no proper cover; it's actually a bit of a relief when he shows up, even if he is [[Made of Iron]] and [[Justified Trope|tripping out on V.]]

* Every [[Boss Battle]] in ''[[Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard]]'' includes flunkies, except the ones that are [[Quick Time Event|Quicktime Events]].

* Stay Puff in [[Ghostbusters]] The game.

** Alden has his scrab crabs, though these are most likely an extension of his own powers

** Tessler has his giant electric clones, again by his own powers.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Boss Battle]]