Flunky Boss: Difference between revisions

* ''[[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]].

* The [[Warmup Boss]], first real boss, and final boss of ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' are all Flunky Bosses. For the first two bosses, the flunkies essentially serve to give you something to do while the boss readies its attack—they consist mostly of harmless, low-power [[Mooks]]. In the final boss, you get hit with multi-stage, [[Shapeshifter Guilt Trip|guilt-tripping]] baddies that do manage to pose a serious threat, and must be utilized to both attack the boss and to advance the fight in general.

* 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.

* Natia in ''[[Bomberman|Bomberman Hero]]'' falls somewhere between this and [[Dual Boss]]—or more likely, combines the two. The first time you face her, she's accompanied by Cronus, who seems to be on equal footing with her, but must be defeated before you can damage her (although she'll float around and be a nuisance during the Cronus battle unless you hit her platform with a few bombs, fitting this trope. The second time, she again has an equal in the form of a second Natia, but the trope applies in full force as an endless supply of miniature Cronuses will fall from the ceiling and try to interfere with your battle.

** 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]] ==

** 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]] ==

* 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.

* 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.

* ''[[Star Ocean: The Last Hope]]'' has Tamiel, Armaros Manifest, and Kokabiel. All of them summon new minions on a regular basis, but the latter of the three is particularly notable for having literally ''dozens'' of extremely low HP minions that make keeping the actual boss targeted a pain, on top of swarming you to the point where you where you can barely even move if they aren't wiped out by some manner of area attack quickly ([[Invincible Minor Minion|Some of them are invincible]], though). The boss is also only vulnerable while creating a new batch of minions.

** 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.

* ''[[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]] ==

** 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.

 

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[[Category:Boss Battle]]