Marathon Boss: Difference between revisions

*** For that matter, every boss except Archimonde in Mount Hyjal, because you needed to kill eight waves of mooks before the boss even showed up. Fighting Illidan in Black Temple also takes around 15 minutes, when other bosses in the Black Temple take around three minutes each.

**** ALL of the Caverns of Time instances really, especially Dark Portal, you have little time to rest in between waves of miniboss / [[Giant Mook|Giant Mooks]].

** The difference between the real bosses and the smaller "Area Bosses" in ''[[Maple Story]]'' is that the real bosses take upwards of two hours to kill ''with a full party of overleveled characters'' while the Area Bosses go down in less than two or three minutes if they don't kill you first.

** This is actually a built in mechanic for the ''Player Owned'' Station's in [[Eve Online]]. Which have incredibly staggering amounts of hitpoints, the larger stations tended to have so much, that they required dedicated ships whose sole purpose was to function as siege tanks against these shields, whom deployed specialized heavy caliber weapons that could only be realistically used against these shields, with a unique module that assisted in doing so. And it still took ''hours'' if not more then a day, ''with multiple units'', just to collapse these shields. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in the fact that this was to allow the owners of the station time to mount a counterattack before the station could be taken down.

* Fighting the more powerful dragons in [[The Last Remnant]] with an extremely underpowered team can take over 40 minutes. This is more due to being able to defeat strong bosses with a weak team with good tactics (heal spamming), than the boss itself having high hp. (Basically, the dragons will take out around half your team each hit, meaning each party member spents 99% of their time either dead or reviving other party members, and 1% of their time actually attacking the dragon, for a pitiful amount of scratch damage.)

* If you're playing cautious with your Pikmin, the final boss of ''[[Pikmin]] 2'' can go on for somewhere around 45 minutes.

* ''[[Persona 3]]'':

** The [[Final Boss]] is the [[Sequential Boss|"lots of smaller fights in a row"]] variant. Unless you're insane enough to [[Level Grinding|build everyone to Level 99]], in which case... fifteen minutes. Less if you have Armageddon.

** [[Final Boss|Ultimecia]] . There are two abilities that can break the standard cap of 9999 damage, and both are fairly hard to get, so you'll probably be damaging at or below that cap with every attack. The "Regen" spell heals you by a small amount every once in a while, apparently a set fraction of your maximum health. When you cast Regen on yourself with a maximum health of 9999 HP, that being another cap, the healing is still in the double digits. If Ultimecia's second form casts Regen, it'll heal itself in the high quadruple digits. Ultimecia has four forms. Have "fun."

* In ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'', the optional [[Marathon Boss]] was Ozma because the Ozma challenge was a [[Guide Dang It]], [[That One Boss]] [[Bonus Boss]] [[Luck-Based Mission]], in which you would spend more time healing, reviving and waiting to counter its attacks than actually dealing much damage. With a mere 65000 HP, Ozma can be taken down with less than nine hits, but that's before he casts [[Standard Status Effects|Curse]], followed by [[Total Party Kill|Meteor]].

** Nemesis, the ultimate [[Monster Arena]] opponent, has 10 million HP. Many of the other creations may count too, depending on your level.

** Many of the Dark Aeons and the mother of all [[Bonus Boss|bonus bosses]], Penance, from ''[[Final Fantasy X]] International''. The weakest of the Dark Aeons has around 1 million HP. Dark Anima has 8 million HP (the highest of the Dark Aeons). Penance tops that with ''12 million HP''. And unlike some of the marathon bosses, all of them are '''hard'''. This Youtube video of the Penance fight: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVYjVrEgCkA just under 49 Minutes.]

** Angra Mainyu.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'':

** Yiazmat, the ultimate [[Bonus Boss]] shown in the picture above, regularly takes players as much as 12 hours to kill, thanks to its astronomical 50 million HP. You're allowed to leave and come back, though. The [[Updated Rerelease|International]] [[No Export for You|version]] nerfs him a bit by making him vulnerable to the four "Break" abilities, allowing you to greatly reduce his stats. Combine that with the fact that the damage cap is removed (so you can do more than 9999 damage per attack) and he goes down much easier. The real kicker? Near the end of the fight, Yiazmat pulls off a little trick that, if not caught and stopped, '''''heals him back to full health'''''.

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'':

** For main game bosses, it's {{spoiler|Barthandelus}}. The first two fights with him can easily take up to 20 minutes because of his [[Fake Difficulty|ridiculously high HP]]. He actually [[Villain Forgot to Level Grind|goes down fast]] in his final incarnation, but that's only [[Sequential Boss|the beginning]].

* The [[True Final Boss]] of ''[[No More Heroes]]'', {{spoiler|Henry}}, on [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels|Bitter difficulty]], can take nearly a ''thousand'' hits before dying. You generally can do less than ''ten'' hits off a ''dark step'' (the timing for which is tighter in this fight than in any other in the game). Trying to exploit his normal openings will land you ''maybe'' three hits at a time, and a high chance of getting countered by something nasty.

* The [[Bonus Boss]] in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' that is required for the [[Good Ending]] is a real grind. It's not particularly challenging, as its attacks don't vary much, but the fact that you have to fight it with only one character, who takes all the damage and has to do all his own healing, can make the fight last half an hour or more.

** "Freebird", the [[Final Boss]] of GH2, and "Through The Fire and Flames", the [[Bonus Boss]] of GH3. Also, the final battle with the Devil in that game.

** And speaking of ''[[Rock Band]]'', the Endless Setlist challenges in the numbered titles are ''guaranteed'' to take over an hour. Subverted slightly in that you can pause in the middle of any song... unless, of course, you want that Steel Bladder achievement, in which case you have to never pause the game and never fail a song during the ''entire setlist''.

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' has this in some of the expansion packs, although with new high level creatures rather than bosses. There are now ghouls that can take several dozen shots to the head from the strongest weapons in the game and not flinch.

* In ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'', [[Valkyrie Profile|Freya]] becomes an [[Bonus Boss|optional boss]] you can fight after completing the main game. She has 20 million HP (and that's just on easy mode!) and her attacks, namely [[One-Hit Kill|Ether]] [[That One Attack|Strike]], can kill even the highest leveled characters in one or two hits. To even have a tiny hope of winning, your team must be maxed out to [[Level Grinding|level 255]] and be equipped with the strongest weapons and accessories that can be found in the game. You must also have a whole inventory's worth of bombs, so that you can hopefully interrupt her attacks by blowing her up.

* Amaltea, the Guild Quest Bonus Boss from ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'': High HP, multiple layers of defense against magic, physical, and Excels(single, Trinity Acts, and Excel Trinities).

* Luca Blight, from ''[[Suikoden II]]''. You have three fights in a row against him (each time with 6 different characters), in which he may or may not kick everyone's behinds before proceeding to the next one. Each one of these fights take around 15 minutes, and after all that you get to run after a fleeing Blight, fight a few mooks, and finally you kill him... after a one on one duel in which he may OHKO you if you pick a single command wrong. You can't save between fights either.

* Spoofed in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', where the final battle actually doesn't take all that long, but the dialogue at the start of the third form claims it is:

{{quote|"Dang it!" you shout. "How many times do I have to kill you? This battle has taken over a half an hour and there's no save point!"}}

** Spoofed again with Ed the Undying, whom you have to fight seven times, dismembering him into progressively smaller collections of limbs (and halving his maximum hit points each time). {{spoiler|You eventually sweep his remains into the corner while he's still taunting you.}}

** Darm in ''II'' is also a really long boss fight, even with your EXP maxed out. Then there's his [[Teleport Spam|teleport spamming]] and the constant rain of fireballs you must dodge.

** Arem, the [[Big Bad]] of ''Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys'', takes it [[Up to Eleven]]. He has three lifebars(the last form fortunately is a [[Clipped-Wing Angel]]), a laundry list of powerful attacks, is hard to hit, your attacks only do miniscule damage even with max EXP, and he can regenerate his HP.

** Previously, many of the bosses in ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' were quite time-consuming, because they had [[Damage Sponge Boss|such a large amount of HP]] compared to the player's output. [[Egg Emperor]] took this to the point of being the [[Goddamned Boss]].

* Hot Limit and other "long version" songs in ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]: 5th Mix''.

* The [[Big Bad]] Primagen in ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]] 2: Seeds of Evil'' already has a ton of HP, and also has an annoying regeneration ability that can draw out the fight even longer.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'' has Marluxia, the final boss. Most bosses have two, maybe three health bars. He has ''four''. Not only that, but you can't actually damage him normally unless you go through his entire attack pattern. And when you do reach that point, you only have a few seconds since wind is blowing you off. Thankfully he's also open to attack every now and then, but it's unlikely you'll have strong enough cards to really exploit it until after you beat him.

** ''Kingdom Hearts: [[Birth By Sleep]] [[Updated Rerelease|Final Mix]]'' has No Heart. Like most [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]] in the series, he attacks almost constantly. On top of this he has 9 Health bars and excellent defense (Roughly 1800 HP and the most a player can ever do is 10-15 with maxed level and equipment). This amounts to 20-40 minutes of battling, monstrous compared to the 2-5 minutes typical of the series.

** The series' other [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]] are just as bad. From [[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|Kingdom Hearts]], we have the Ice Titan and [[Final Fantasy VII|Sephiroth]]. The Ice Titan is a pain because the primary way to damage it is to deflect one of its attacks back at it, which as the fight goes on, it will do less and less, and often whilst you are in no position to be able to deflect. Sephiroth is easier to damage, but has a ridiculously large shield to whittle down before his health bar even begins to deplete, and has attacks which will almost kill you, even at full health. [[Kingdom Hearts II]] has Sephiroth again, who has 15 health bars (the final boss has at most 7/8) and loves to do back-to-back "Sin Heartless Angel" and "Teleport Flash" before you can heal. Hope you kept those Elixers!

* The boss of the Rubina level in [[Hydorah]] doesn't actually have much health, however there are two rotating rings of shields which make hitting it really difficult. Plus your weapons are almost certainly at the lowest level when you face it, given [[Continuing Is Painful]] and the [[Nintendo Hard|difficulty]] of the preceding level. Expect to hear the music loop multiple times during the fight.

** Unless you use the Wave, in which case [[Curb Stomp Battle|you can defeat it in seconds]]. Unfortunately, you can't get the Wave until much later in the game, so it doesn't help unless you deliberately skip Rubina and come back to it later.

* ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'' has a few, mostly ship battles like; Georgio, the Hydra and of course Zelos(hell all of the gigas count really). But it also has a tortoise boss battle where the boss can put up a shield to prevent you causing any damage and it will heal itself. It'll do this around every four turns so you better hope you can cause enough damage to keep up with it.

* Bosses in ''[[The Legend of Dragoon]]'' are all like this due simply to the mechanics of the game. If you haven't played it, magic is outrageously rare and is pretty much for use on bosses only. Only two characters have healing magic at all<ref>Shana, [[Jonas Quinn|Miranda]], and Meru, but Shana and [[Miranda]] are ''so'' much better at it than Meru and Boss battles with Shana and Miranda take ''forever''</ref>, and the item limit is quite low. The way you heal is that every time you defend, you heal 10% of your maximum health. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it definitely adds length to every boss fight.

* Bosses in the arcade version of ''[[Double Dragon]] II'' are in general much tougher than the first game, but Abore, the Andre The Giant [[Ersatz]] in Mission 2 , takes the cake. It doesn't help that you fight two of him in the final stage.

* {{spoiler|Lord Burroughs}} from ''[[Clock Tower (series)|Clock Tower]] 3''. First of all, he has two health bars while the other bosses only have one. Each health bar takes twice the damage of a normal boss. He has two main attacks; a tether ball projectile similar to yours, and a pool of red slime that traps the player for a few seconds, leaving them open to projectiles. He does have a sword, though he only uses it at close range. What makes this boss a pain in the ass is that when he tethers you with three balls, he does an instant-kill attack. These can be dodged by crouching, but using this strategy drags on the fight for more than half an hour.

* The Arishok in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' has an extra long health bar, high defense, [[It Got Worse|and also uses health potions]]. On top of that, his swings are very hard hitting, enough to knock you down each time unless you have high fortitude or are immune to knockdown. And he can get you into an infinite knockdown chain, meaning you're potentially done if he hits you even once. Have fun.

** However, this is only if you duel him. He's way easier if you opt to face him along with his goons, because at least then you have a party helping you.

* The final boss battle in ''[[Child of Eden]]'' has about five forms and can take over 10 minutes to complete; witness it in all its glory [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDdVD7K1Y9U&feature=relmfu here].

* The final boss of ''[[Dawn of War]] 2: Chaos Rising'' has 3 million HP and can regenerate about 200 000 at a time. Your units can deal 1000-2000 damage at best. Kind of justified, since he's a [[Eldrith Abomination|Greater Daemon of Nurgle]], and those are said to be able to destroy whole planets alone.

* The final fight against the Thugs 4 Less leader in ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]''. Mostly because you'll be sat in a turret, constantly trying to shoot away his bombs, rather than actually just shooting him. Even the developers admit he simply has way too many hit points.