One-Winged Angel/Video Games: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* Used in an interesting way in ''[[Temple of Elemental Evil]].'' Towards the end of the game, your party can encounter a human adventurer deep inside one of the Elemental Planes. She explains that she came down there with her party, but they were killed and she barely escaped. She asks to go with you, and if allowed you'll find she's a decent-ish sorceress. But if in dialogue your characters detect something amiss, they can confront her about it. At this point she reveals that she's actually a half-succubus, and wants to come along with the party because she's ''bored.'' If you let her, she'll drop the pretense and switch back into her true form, making her a much more powerful companion.

* [[Dracula]] fills this role to the letter in almost every ''[[Castlevania]]'' game. In this series, he's more of an ultimate evil rather than just some vampire. See the quote at the top of the page.

*** The Symphony of the Night version is actually Dracula in his throne still, but the throne itself transforms. Lazy bastard.

*** Also, upon closer observation, the HoD incarnation seems to be a giant amalgamation of Dracula's relics. The beating heart and the single eye that tracks you, and so on - all 6 relics are in there somewhere.

** In ''[[Portrait of Ruin]]'', Dracula fights you {{spoiler|with Death at first, then after beating on one of them for a while, he uses Soul Steal on Death himself, absorbing him and turning into a giant demon}}.

** In ''[[Order of Ecclesia]]'', {{spoiler|this is notably avoided for the first time in decades, as the entirety of the final battle against Dracula is fought against the dashingly-handsome vampire we've known for so long. this may have been from the fact that the player is holding half of Dracula's power in the form of Dominus, which must be used to end the battle, but not before beating on Dracula for a good long time.}}

*** And {{spoiler|Meredith's [[Artifact of Doom]] turns her into a floating [[Power Glows|glowing]] [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red-eyed]] mutant thing. In the end, though, she gets [[Taken for Granite|turned into a statue]]}}.

* Virtually ''every'' human or humanoid boss in ''[[Breath of Fire III]]'' did this. [[The Mafia|Mikba]], [[Recurring Boss|Balio and Sunder]], [[Mad Scientist|the Professor]], {{spoiler|[[Tragic Monster|Teepo]]}}, [[Petting Zoo People|Rei]] - even the main character, Ryu. Just to hit the nail in further, when Balio and Sunder combined to form Stallion ''and'' when Mikba assumed his true form, they each said, "No one has seen us/me in this form and lived!" But considering this game's great love of [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|random bosses]], its not surprising that every boss trope in the book was visited a few times. The rest of the the BoF games are just as full of transforming bosses.

* In the original ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' series, the final villains (Jacquio, the Demon, some stupid scientist) all go through transformation sequences as Ryu defeats their forms successively.

* In ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' for the Xbox and its [[Updated Rerelease|Updated Rereleases]], humanoid Fiend Alma turns into a scorpion-like thing once her power gets Awakened. After Doku sheds his corporeal shell, he loses his legs to float and gains a nodachi worthy of the One Winged Angel himself. The Vigoorian Emperor goes from a vaguely angelic statue to a bony creature made of skulls. Admittedly, the first two don't occur immediately after they get defeated the first time, but still...

** Somewhat subverted because most everyone thinks that Alma's first form is harder.

** General Onox of ''Oracle Of Seasons'', on the other hand, plays it straight by revealing his true form to be a giant skeletal dragon.

*** Played straighter with Ghirahim, who turns into a [[Chrome Champion]] for his final battle. This is alluded to in the game when Fi mentions that his muscle mass went up by 90 percent in that form.

* ''[[Oracle of Tao]]'' (No relation to the above two from Zelda) '''loves''' this trope. Not only does one of the middle game bosses [[Clipped Winged Angel|do this]], but the final boss of the game does it ''twice'' once during the normal conditions (two forms, unless you also count the one he abandons before the battle even starts), and again if you qualify for the [[Playable Epilogue]] (3 more). To say nothing of enemies that cheat the HP limit by having multiple attack patterns with the same form (one of those you have to kill nine times).

** Or, as one youtube video puts it, he turns into the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

* The "Devil Trigger" power of various ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' playable characters involves them turning into an uglier demonic form. This overlaps with [[Super Mode]] and [[Limit Break]]. More straightforwardly, bonus points to {{spoiler|Credo}} for turning into a one-winged "angel".) {{spoiler|Arkham}} of the third game goes from an already unpleasant humanoid demon form to an even worse blob form.

** His in game profile states that his blob form is a reflection of his inner evil.

** Following a botched attempt to mind control the main protagonist, Black Doom, the main [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', transforms into Devil Doom, which was a giant 2-headed dragon-like alien that melded itself into the Black Comet.

** The main antagonist of ''[[Sonic and The Secret Rings]]'', the Erazor Djinn, suffers a surprisingly ''unintentional'' version of this, turning into an ugly "incomplete monster" called Alf Layla wa-Layla after absorbing the [[Green Rocks|World Rings]] following [[Taking the Bullet|a botched sacrifice.]]

** In ''[[Sonic and The Black Knight]]'', there's {{spoiler|Merlina}}, the Dark Queen. Throughout the course of the game, she goes from a harmless cute wizard to a scary evil sorceress to a giant armored knight with four arms, two of which are armed with building-sized swords.

** ''Brawl'' actually has this as Bowser's Final Smash, Gigabowser; Ganondorf gets a similar transformation, based off his ''Twilight Princess'' beast form. Mr. Game & Watch's Final Smash has him transform... into an octopus.

** In the ''Subspace Emissary'' in ''Brawl'', {{spoiler|Tabuu, the [[Man Behind the Man]] (behind the other men)}}, transforms into a winged version of himself that can {{spoiler|transform the heroes back into trophies}}. But then {{spoiler|Sonic}} comes and damages both of his wings, thus weaking his power to just an instant KO.

** Although he doesn't refer to it as his "true form", Fox does.

*** And the Phantron, which morphs into a jumping frog-like mecha for its second form, with a [[Scare Chord]] during the transformation.

** The final boss of the main story of ''[[Tales of Legendia]]'' starts off looking human, but transforms after he absorbs the power of the Nerifes and becomes its physical avatar, which looks like a blueish humanoid robot.

** Mathias from ''[[Tales of Innocence]]'' ditches her human form immediately, changing into a freakish centaur-like form that has her torso situated on the body of Asura in place of his head. In the remake, she takes on a human form after that, then becomes a near perfect copy of Asura for her final form.

* All of the characters in the "[[Bloody Roar]]" series are capable of switching between normal human form and superpowered creature forms AND a glowing 'hyper' version of the beast form, but in "Bloody Roar: Primal Fury", the hyper-beast form of the true final boss, Uranus, is identical to her human form. Her beast form is a chimera, which is interpreted as blue and scaly with red lines, covered in spikes, and kind of bull-like, so yeah, it's a monster.

** One character in Primal Fury's normal beast form...is a little, unimposing penguin. His hyper form is a ''seven foot tall phoenix-man'' perfectly capable of annihilating your world ten times over.

** In her beast form as a bat Jenny looks extremely hot.

** ''Zero'' is pretty fond of this as well. Not only the various final bosses transform at least once, also the [[Four Is Death|four elemental masters]] transform.

** While certainly not monstrous or one-winged, in X8 the [[True Final Boss]] {{spoiler|Lumine}} not only {{spoiler|triggers an angelic battlefield platform}}, but also {{spoiler|grows six wing-like mechanical limbs from his back, now has bright red, slitted eyes, thin, long, and pointed fingers, and has a red crystal produting almost a foot out of his chest.}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', when you confront Saren for the last time {{spoiler|in the ruined Citadel control room}}, he is initially in his (admittedly rather warped) normal form. However, {{spoiler|after he is defeated or convinced to commit suicide (it depends on your dialog choices beforehand), the [[Cosmic Horror|Reaper]] Sovereign uses its power to transform him into a large, spindly biomechanical monstrosity with exposed ribs and movements very similar to the earlier geth hopper enemy types, albeit far more dangerous. Whereas Saren's first form is a humanoid character not unlike your party members, his second is a highly mobile quadruped that vaguely resembles a metallic, skeletal lion. Only with [[Body Horror|the top half of his face still attached]].}}

** {{spoiler|The initial design for the game, however, had this in mind. The art book for the game has concept art for the Illusive Man's massive, grotesque final boss form. Ultimately, it was decided this trope had no place in overall design because it goes against the Illusive Man's character as [[The Chessmaster]] [[Magnificent Bastard]], thus leaving the game without a final boss.}}

* [[Arcanum]]'s final boss, if engaged in combat, transforms into a massive bone snake-dragon..thing. Although in this case, he started out as a cloaked figure (so the transformation didn't really make him more [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|'morally OK' to kill]]) and the dragon isn't really very good at fighting, so I guess he just thought it [[Rule of Cool|looked cool]].

** He was supposed to be a lot tougher, but Troika accidentally flagged him as humanoid. Humanoids are hard-coded to deal no more than 10 points of damage in unarmed combat. Unofficial patch fixes it.

** You can recover people from Imprisonment with a Freedom spell. It's just that there are very few of these available.

*** And his son Draconis. [[That One Boss|Who is not]].

* Parodied with particular glee in ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'', where the [[Big Bad|Naughty Sorceress]] reveals her supposedly true form. After you beat her in her hideous true form, she then assumes her ''actual'' true form: {{spoiler|a sausage. Then again, she is an evil sausage brimming with dark magic.}} Your character then loudly proclaims, "How many times do I have to kill you? This battle has taken over a half an hour and there's no save point!" (Said {{spoiler|sausage}} is a [[Clipped-Wing Angel]], as you jst have to have the {{spoiler|Wand of Nagamar in your inventory}} to beat it.

*** In Ed's case, though, it's not so much transforming as it is [[Only a Flesh Wound|coming back with progressively more body parts hacked off]]. He's undying, you see...

** Parodied with the Fallen Archfiends, a minor enemy in the Gate to Hey Deze. One of their "failed" attacks... well, a summary just wouldn't do it justice:

*** It's played oddly straight with their critical hit attack, though.

** Played straight with the final, demon form of your Nemesis. As opposed to other examples of this trope, however, if you beat the first phase but lose to the demon phase, you can buff and heal yourself, change your equipment, even adventure elsewhere, and when you attempt the fight a second time you don't have to fight the first form again.

** A lot of the bossess from the ''Crash Bandicoot'' games are mutated Australian animals, one being Koala Kong who is a mutated koala and very similar to the Hulk.

* The [[Disc One Final Boss]] in ''Adventures of Rad Gravity'', Agathos, is a human mutated into a giant living brain.

** Garland in ''Wanderers'' and ''Oath'' does this, as well as becoming [[Large and In Charge]].

** In ''Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys'', the [[Big Bad]] Arem transforms into a gigantic humanoid blob, after you defeat his normal and [[Super Mode]] forms. Actually more of a [[Clipped-Wing Angel]].

* The end boss of ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' had four different forms, each one [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|symbolizing]] one of the seven days of the creation of the world. None of them actually looked like anything in particular.

** Also counted as a [[Marathon Boss]], since depending on the equipment could take upwards of 4 or more hours (it helps to have a magic regeneration ring and have the white dragon in play, but still...)

** The initial Giygas fits the bill as more alien like, seen in preceding game ''Mother'' as a more humanoid alien with vaguely lengthy appendages (who looks suspiciously almost exactly like Mewtwo), within a chamber attached to a huge machine. The previous information continues to apply.

* All three of the major bosses in ''[[God Hand]]'' fall into this, since they generally appear humanoid but are actually extremely powerful demons. Fat, cigar-smoking, and inexplicably Mexican Elvis turns into a {{spoiler|20 ft tall gray giant with huge mouths for hands, another huge mouth and eyes on his stomach, and a very small featureless head.}}, Succubus Shannon is actually {{spoiler|Her own upper body with the lower body of a demonic cat thing and a giant eye on her face.}}, and Bezel, who in human form looks like a guy in a suit with gray hair and skin and long pointed ears, but in demon form is {{spoiler|First a worm with a fly-like upper body and blade-limbs, [[Sequential Boss|then]] a huge fly with blade limbs. Both forms have Bezel's face on their back.}}

* The ''[[Tekken]]'' series has such boss characters as Ogre's transformed state True Ogre (which resembles Beast from ''Disney's Beauty And The Beast'' but with a snake for a left arm). In 'The Devil Within' subgame from Tekken 5 Ogre goes through even more transforming states. While you don't fight them always (never Jinpachi, sometimes Jin) in their normal forms prior to their transformed forms, Devil Jin and Jinpachi from ''Tekken 5'' are transformed characters. They are for most characters the second last and final bosses. In both cases, they are infected with the Devil Gene, so if the Devil Gene is seen as the enemy, it is incarnating within two separate people. If Devil Jin defeats Jinpachi, he absorbs his power and transforms further, though he is not someone who can be played or fought.

* The boss of ''[[Monster Madness]]: Battle For Surburbia'' is Mr Huggles, a parody of Barney the dinosaur. At first, he attacks by singing and hugging. After you fight him his suit comes over revealing his hideous true form, a slimy Jabba The Hutt-like creature.

* ''[[Primal]]'' has a main character who can turn into different monster forms.

** Interestingly enough, quite a few of the main characters can as well the list includes: Yuri, Kurando, Shaina and {{spoiler|Johnny}}. The most literal version though is Yuri's Seraphic Radiance fusion.

* In the ''[[Gungrave]]'' series, many bosses become like this due to the series' [[Psycho Serum]] / [[Phlebotinum]] / [[Green Rocks|green rock]], the Seed drug. All of the "Big Four" bosses Grave fights usually morph to a mutated "overkill form" in the second round or as soon as he encounters them. Oddly enough, the final boss of the second game doesn't transform, he just gets some new attacks during the second phase of the fight.

* In ''[[Diablo]]'', the Dark Wanderer character (Diablo in the Diablo 1 Warrior's body) slowly transforms into Diablo starting from the beginning, up until just before Act 3 is completed. Similarly, Baal, having taken over Tal Rasha's body in a similar way, slowly transforms him beginning with his release prior to the completion of Act 2, until the final form seen in the opening movie (and final battle) of the Lord of Destruction expansion pack. King Leoric, the Skeleton King, also underwent a similar transformation, though he was able to resist full possession by Diablo. The Warrior's use of the soulstone may have made him more vulnerable to this though. Prince Albrecht succumbed immediately though, similar to how Griswold instantly became a zombie.

** King Leoric was able to resist because at the time Diablo had just reawakened in the Soulstone. Prince Albrecht could not resist because as an infant he had little if any willpower to resist. The Warrior fell relatively easy because most the deeds Diablo caused Tristan were perpetrated to strengthen Diablo as well as perpetuate a [[Xanatos Gambit]] to attract a hero powerful enough to kill him in Prince Albrecht's altered form and who would think that they were able to imprison Diablo in there mind, body and soul. Diablo by this time became powerful enough to gradually takeover the Warrior's body gaining a much more powerful host.

* Happens In [[Diablo III]] during the final fight in Act II, when Belial transforms into a larger version of himself when his health reached 10%.

** In ''Klonoa Heroes: Legendary Star Medal'', he has a different 2nd form: "Flower Joka", which is his normal self, except flower-shaped instead of spherical. Again, he shifts between this and his normal form during the fight, this time at will; luckily, his Flower Joka form can be damaged as normal.

** ''Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil'' features a variation: {{spoiler|Leorina, thought by the heroes to be the [[Big Bad]], is ''forced'' to go [[One-Winged Angel]] by the real [[Big Bad]], the King of Sorrow. She's not the [[Final Boss]], either. Surprisingly, the King of Sorrow does not go [[One-Winged Angel]] during his boss fight, instead preferring to attack you from within a weird orb thing.}}

*** {{spoiler|Oh, and she turns into a giant robotic chicken. [[Widget Series|Doesn't that just prove these games are Japanese?]]}}

** In the first instance, Agent Oranchov shoots some drums of Alien spores to mutate himself.

** in the second instance, at the end of the game, {{spoiler|Milenkov reveals his true form, a heavily-armored Blisk}}.

** Krauser goes "One-Clawed Angel".

** ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' continues the tradition in grand style. An interesting example is where this is ''forced by the hero'' with {{spoiler|Albert Wesker}}. Realizing that the [[Bishonen Line]] has made him [[Nigh Invulnerable]], Chris injects him with [[The Virus]], and he ends up having to mutate into a perfectly killable monster to fight it off (yes, even his ''biggest mistake'' [[Magnificent Bastard|wasn't his own fault]]).

*** And Excella herself, who becomes [[The Worm That Walks]], similar to Marcus.

** Every final boss in Darkside Chronicles.

** In ''[[Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles]]'', there was Segei Vladimir, who went from a scary and intimidating [[Renegade Russian]] to a horrific-looking Tyrant after losing control of the T-Virus.

** Special mention has to go to Morpheus Duvall of [[Resident Evil Dead Aim]]. A Sephiroth pretty boy who is obsessed with beauty turns himself into a transgender electrical Tyrant, and then mutates into an absolutely enormous green blob with large claws, rib cage halves sticking out of its back and a malformed head popping in and out of its torso as it drags itself along at a lumbering pace.

* ''[[Baten Kaitos]]'' has several examples. In the first game there's Geldoblame, Fadroh, and the final boss Malpercio (who started out as a giant monster to begin with). The second game has all of Malpercio's Afterlings. The oddest example would be one from the first game, in that {{spoiler|after Kalas's [[Face Heel Turn]], he grows a second wing, as he only had one wing to begin with and had to make due with a mechanical prosthetic for the other. So... he goes from being a One-Winged Hero to a Two-Winged Villain.}}

** Fadroh transforms into a huge, vaguely jester-looking giant monster with a crotch-mounted eye. His main special attack consists of leaning back and firing [[Eye Beams]] from his pelvis.

* [[Kirby]] has faced a fair few of these. In Kirby Super Star there's {{spoiler|Marx}}, and Kirby 64 has both Possessed King Dedede and the final form of Dark Matter, sorta. And there's even a regular enemy, Scarfy, that pulls this rather terrifyingly.

** ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'' manages to one-up on {{spoiler|Marx in "The TRUE Arena" -- if you get to the final battle, you will see a movie where Marx brings back his soul by absorbing Nova's power. You will then fight Marx Soul, which is a more powerful and freakier incarnation of Marx that has an ''absolutely terrifying'' death scream.}}

* Several bosses in the ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' series: in II, Bartoli turns into a dragon, in III, Dr. Willard is mutated into a grotesque human/spider hybrid creature, and in Angel Of Darkness, Boaz is shoved into a pod of some sort and mutated into a giant [[That One Boss|slime-spitting cockroach-like creature]] (then turns into a skeletal [[Clipped-Wing Angel]]). Honourary mention goes to Natla from the original game, who fixes herself up as a two-winged version for the final showdown.

* In ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'', Maria transforms into a gray-skinned tentacled levitating upside-down-in-a-cage abomination for the final battle.

* Parodied hard in the Sega CD adaptation of [[Space Adventure Cobra]]. When a rather fragile sentient plant is confronted, it proceeds to laugh mockingly at Cobra before turning into a gigantic demon. Its speech is cut short at "My name is..." when Cobra blasts it, splattering it all over the room. Afterwards he notes "Next time I'll just whack it upside the head with a newspaper."

* ''Revelations: Persona'' does this to its [[Big Bad]], Guido, when you defeat him. The associated dialogue is just too ridiculous, funny and [[Macekre|Macekred]] to not include:

Guido: Now I'm Super Guido! }}

** From ''[[Persona 3]]'', {{spoiler|the Appraiser of Death}} first shows up in human form ( {{spoiler|two of them, in fact}}.) When it is time to make a choice concerning the fate of the world, he claims that he will soon turn "into something unrecognizable" --sure enough, during the Dark Hour of the Promised Day, {{spoiler|he becomes Nyx Avatar, the Shadow of the [[Tarot Motifs|Death Arcana]] with four midnight-black wings and a grinning white mask}}.

** In ''[[Persona 2]]'': Innocent Sin Nyarlathotep first fights the party as Hitler, then transforms into a monstrosity that's way too hard considering he's just screwing with the party by that point. Later in Eternal Punishment he gets slightly more serious, fighting in his default form of the Moon Howler and once you beat on that enough...

** He turns into a tentacle monster instead of an angel. Considering the Tabletop RPG above and that he was behind Guido's transformation before being [[Macekre|Macekred]] out, it becomes obvious that the Crawling Chaos just can't stay away from this trope.

** [[Persona 4]] ''loves'' this trope. The first time is just before the fight with {{spoiler|Nametame, who is possessed by Kunino-sagiri and turns into him}}. Then, the real killer does it, transforming into {{spoiler|Ameno-sagiri, God Of Fog}}. If you get the True Ending, {{spoiler|Izanami}} does it ''twice'', first becoming her Goddess form, and then turning into {{spoiler|Izanami-no-Okami when you use the Orb of Sight}}. On top of that, everyone's Shadow (arguably) does this. There are eight major Shadows... so Persona 4 does this ''twelve times'' in total.

** This is later played straight with the ''actual'' [[Final Boss]], {{spoiler|Dimentio}}, when he merges with the Chaos Heart and {{spoiler|''Luigi'', believe it or not}} to form a giant, harlequin monstrosity.

* The ''[[Don Pachi]]'' series has the [[Perfect Run Final Boss]] Hibachi, which starts off as a giant bee. When destroyed, it turns into a much smaller bee with an aura. And then it proceeds to [[That One Boss|obliterate you 6 ways from Monday]] with a [[Bullet Hell|Category 5 storm of bullets]].

* Even a vertical shoot'em'up with space fighters can have this. In the final level of ''[[Tyrian]]'' Vykromod, the alien assassin who's been stalking the player for some time, seems to turn into a giant floating face - a pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth

** Sort of a [[Narm]] [[Body Horror]] moment, played for fun. Vykromod certainly isn't pleased with the process, or the result.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has several bosses that transform during battles; Illidan Stormrage shifts into and out of his fully demonic Metamorphosis form (as opposed to his normal half-night elf, half demon form); similarily Leotheras the Blind shifts between being a Blood Elf and a Demon (until eventually splititng into two separate forms); similarily several dragon bosses who start out in humanoid forms. Saidan Dathoran/Balnazaar and {{spoiler|Baeren Westwind/Mal'ganis}} revert to their true demon forms mindway through battle, being previously disguised as humans.

** Demonology Warlocks can learn the "Demon form" talent that transforms them into a demon for a short period, buffing their armour and spellcasting.

** A few other bosses go through consecutive transformations throughout the fight. Thus, [[Eldritch Abomination]] C'thun starts out as a giant eye, before turning into a huge bloated body with a lot of teeth and eyes. Even more proeminent with Yogg'saron, whose first form is humanoid, and second form is... well... his title is "The Beast of a Thousand Maws" and it fits him to a T.

*** Putricide is very much a parody of this trope. During his two transformations (it's a three-phase fight) he stuns the raid with "Tear Gas," runs to his lab bench, grabs a potion and declares "Hmm... I don't feel a thing. Whaaa?? Where'd ''those'' come from?" first, and "Tastes like... Cherry! Oh my! Excuse me!" the second time.

*** Also during the fight one of the raiders has to do this and become a Mutated Abomination and eat the ooze around the room that the Professor throws around and forms puddles.

** The trash (ladies of the night) before the Maiden of Virtue (see the irony?) transform into their true form (sucubbus or undead) when they hit half health.

** In the Dragon Soul, the final raid of ''Cataclysm'', Deathwing undergoes a transformation between his first and second encounter. At the end of the first, he crashes into the Maelstrom, and at the start of the second emerges from it as a hideous monstrosity, complete with molten tentacles and appendages clinging to the platforms and attacking the players.

* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', after defeating Saturos and Menardi, they transform into the two-headed Fusion Dragon.

** The sequel has {{spoiler|Agatio and Karst being turned into a pair of dragons, and the final boss is also a dragon made out of people, just not evil dudes going [[One-Winged Angel]]}}. And now Golden Sun Dark Dawn has {{spoiler|the new villainous pair being absorbed into a dark beast thing while trying to power up the morphed Volechek}}

* Several overlords in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' ''start'' in [[One-Winged Angel]] mode, instead crossing the [[Bishonen Line]] when they go all out... The exception to this amongst those with 'true' forms is the otherwise humanoid [[Joke Character|King Drake the Third]], whose 'true' form is... Um... Unusual, to say the least.

* In [[Soul Calibur]] 3 Nightmare pulls this off {{spoiler|at the end of his story, an imput from the player turns him into Night Terror, a glow-y Nightmare with wings (and the true final fight of the game).}}

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has Romulus, who, after you beat him with only moderate difficulty in the third mission of his arc, {{spoiler|merges with a Nictus in the fourth}}. His new self was one of the most challenging fights in the game at the time, and now can wipe a unprepared team.

** Incarnate Content doesn't use this trope as often as you would think, but it does have several notable examples. The first is during the Minds of Mayhem Trial, where you fight Mother Mayhem in ''three different'' bodies before facing her true form, a humanoid psychic projection formed from dying neurons that seems to be falling apart.

*** Finally, [[Big Bad]] Tyrant skips the formalities and {{spoiler|nukes his own city before absorbing the souls of it's dead}} to become a 30 foot tall (but otherwise identical) version of himself.

* ''[[Panzer Dragoon]] Saga''. In a single, long, psychedelic battle you first fight {{spoiler|the five extreme forms of your own dragon}}, then Sestren - the final final boss, who changes into an even more horrible form.

* In ''[[Blue Dragon]]'', [[Big Bad]] Nene {{spoiler|merges with a giant eternal engine to supply himself with infinite magic power}} for the climactic showdown. And {{spoiler|the REAL final boss, Destroy. When Deathroy (the little guy by Nene's side for the whole game) swallows Nene's soul, he reveals his true form as the monster that previously ended the world.}}

* The final boss of ''[[Vandal Hearts]] 2'' has two [[One-Winged Angel]] forms; you fight his human form earlier in the game.

* Nero Chaos in [[Tsukihime]] when he finally realizes that he is getting his ass kicked but refuses to run away eventually joins all the chaos left in his body into its ultimate destructive form, which isn't very well described except that it looks 'efficient.' The motion blurred picture given looks something like a [[World of Warcraft|worgen.]]

** To be fair to the guy, this wasn't his original plan: {{spoiler|he actually wanted to force such a monstrous transformation upon Batman, then uses the drug on himself in an attempt to overcome Batman's [[Heroic Willpower]] to resist it.}}

* ''[[Luminous Arc]]'': the last boss turns into a beautiful white feathered serpent with lots of angel wings for its final form. The second game, ''[[Luminous Arc 2]]'': does a similar thing as well except it resembles a fiery phoenix/giant plant.

** You fight Balrog on [[Recurring Boss|four separate occasions]]; on the third, he's transformed against his will into a giant frog.

** In the fight against the Doctor, he starts off looking like himself. Upon defeat, he [[Power Incontinence|loses control of the]] [[Psycho Serum|Red Crystal]] and transforms into a muscular berserker. After this, he dissolves into a red mist, which transforms Misery (whom you fought right before the Doctor) into a monster and forces her to fight as his [[Flunky Boss|flunky]], ''and'' he possesses the Core (which you also fought earlier in the game). So the final round of the Doctor's fight is against One Winged Angel versions of ''three'' prior bosses. And Sue.

** The [[True Final Boss]] starts off as a humanoid, then transforms into a giant, freakishly-smiling head. When you beat that, the head grows eight more eyes. When you beat ''that'', his shell partially crumbles and you can see moaning faces within.

*** Also lampshaded in the story, whereupon defeating [[President Evil|President Hugo]], Valvatorez warns the party that they're not done yet, as Hugo has "three levels of transformations, with additional power multipliers every time!" {{spoiler|And then when everybody's gotten themselves warmed up to fight those three other forms, [[Subverted Trope|Hugo just throws in the towel and admits that the his power has dwindled enough that he can no longer transform]]. Valvatorez does not find this anticlimax amusing.}}

* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' has several, such as the R-Gun and Dark Brain.

** Portable has Helga, {{spoiler|Vivienne}} and Dark Falz AGAIN.

** And finally Zero has {{spoiler|Mother Trinity, who turns out to have been hosting Dark Falz.}}

* ''[[Dawn of War]]'' has a few of these: Chaos Champions and Heroes can function as the host of the Blood Thirster, a Greater Daemon of Khorne, the Necron Lord can transform into the [[Grim Reaper|Nightbringer]] or the Deceiver and an Eldar is sacrificed to bring about the [[Physical God|Avatar of Khaine]], though the latter isn't a game mechanic and the Avatar is produced like any other unit. It is shown in a cutscene though, {{spoiler|They summon Khaine from a Dark Reaper aspect warrior, to fight against the Blood Ravens in the last mission against the Eldar}}

** And there's the chaos sorcerer Sindri Myr who does this during the intro for the final mission, screaming "bear witness to my ascension" while {{spoiler|tapping into the power of the Maledictum in order to become a daemon prince. It doesn't help though; the Blood Ravens still kill him}}

** A rare case where the user is on your side occurs near the end of ''[[Dawn Of War 2]]: Retribution'', where during the Eldar campaign a dying Howling Banshee offers herself to the heroes to awaken an Avatar.

* Possibly spoofed in the game ''[[The Dark Spire]]'' where you encounter a "One Winged Angel" in a circus exhibit.

* In most every [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] game that came out after ''Secret of the Ooze'', Shredder would turn into Super Shredder. In the SNES version ''Turtles in Time'' he would do this without you even fighting him as normal Shredder.

* In ''[[Overlord]] 2'' the final boss encounter is {{spoiler|the Great Devourer. The Emperor, having gathered magic from across his kingdom, submerges himself in it and is transformed into a massive, glowing, zombie-spewing larva}}. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD9ozfDzRsM&feature=related Link].

* Oogie in ''[[Nightmare Before Christmas Oogies Revenge|Oogie's Revenge]]'' turn into a giant monster after merging himself with mountons of bugs and trash.

** 4. The fourth game shows the metal form heavily damaged with wires coming out.

** 5. As a sort of [[Bishonen Line]] effect, the fifth game gives it a giant ''purple'' form.

* In ''[[Body Harvest]]'', the war with the aliens seems to be effectively over as Adam derails their last desperate plan and kills their leader, the colony [[Hive Mind]]. [[Evil Twin|The Man In The Black Suit]] who's been menacing you throughout the entire course of the game then shows up and glibly informs you that upon the Hivemind's death [[Dragon Ascendant|he inherited all its powers]], promptly transforming into the alien behemoth Tomegatherion, the [[True Final Boss]].

* ''[[Rise of the Kasai]]'' features four bosses(two are fought at the same time) who transform before the battle even begins because...who can blame them? The heroes just infiltratied their impenatrable fortresses and slaughtered their mook armies. Three transform into dragons, and the final one {{spoiler|transforms into a hideous spider like monster with the animated corpses of its mooks fused to its legs}} still lashing out at the heroes.

* Mr. Big of [[NARC|N.A.R.C.]] fame is a fat man in a wheelchair who fires rockets while dozens of his henchmen dogpile you. After he is killed he comes back as a giant head on a floating platform whos flesh gets blown off to reveal a gaint metal skull.

** Later on, it turns out that every single one of the Nebulox has a One Winged Angel form, as well as {{spoiler|you.}} This makes for one of the most entertaining levels in the game, along with one of the most challenging bosses.

* The final boss of ''Super [[Adventure Island]]'' transforms into a freaky {{spoiler|pig-elephant-gargoyle creature}} after becoming a normal angel as you kill its normal form.

** The final boss of ''[[Adventure Island]] II'' is a larva that forms into a giant fly once destroyed. [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Yes.]]

* Mem Aleph, the [[Multiple Endings|Normal and Law path]] final boss of [[Strange Journey]], turns into a fetal being in a technicolor force field after you defeat her normal-looking form. This trick has been pulled in other games, notably ''[[Okami]]'', but Mem Aleph's "empty" form makes up for it by being one of the hardest RPG bosses in existence.

** It's not just her, either. The first four bosses come back in bigger, more powerful shapes in Fornax (their power is fully unhindered there); [[Blood Knight|Morax]] evolves into Moloch, [[Mad Scientist|Mitra]] evolves into Mithras, [[Big Eater|Horkos]] evolves into Orcus, and [[Social Darwinist|Asura]] evolves into Asherah. Jimenez and Zelenin also enter their respective [[One-Winged Angel]] shapes as Awake and Soil Forms for Jimenez and Judge and Pillar Forms for Zelenin.

* The arcade game installment of the ''[[Cadillacs and Dinosaurs]]'' franchise: stage boss Morgan (a hunchback with a sub-machine gun) transforms into Morgue (a pachycephalosaurus knock-off) when defeated. Final boss Dr. Fessenden does this twice: first into a Morgue-alike, then into a two headed <s> tyrannosaurus</s> shivat with Fessenden growing out of its belly.

* The eponymous final boss from arcade game ''Wardner'' takes a few licks in his evil wizard form, then transforms into a giant brown demon and starts spitting out a [[Bullet Hell|continuous maze of descending fireballs]].

* Subverted in the ''[[Sam and Max]]'' episode "What's New Beelzebub?" with {{spoiler|The Soda Poppers}}. Their "demon forms" are just different outfits, two of which differed only in color.

* Purge from [[Space Channel 5]] Part 2 doesn't transform into a One Winged Angel, but rather he MAKES it himself. He places his human body into a Giant P, and allows himself to become Purge the Great: [http://i51.tinypic.com/6899i9.jpg A giant holographic being with blue gloves and goggles.] He then [[Nintendo Hard|starts firing electric shots at you, and you have to dodge them to survive.]] All to incredibly awesome music.

* [[.hack GU]]: Azure Kite reveals a form called the "Azure Flame God" after the player defeats him in the first volume. The true Tri-Edge, fought at the end of volume 2, also has a transformation of this kind. Finally, in volume 3, {{spoiler|Sakaki}} also brings one out. Interestingly, most of the heroes in the games (including the protagonist) have [[One-Winged Angel]] forms alternately called "Avatars" or "Epitaphs", which they use to combat AIDA, as well as the various aforementioned transformations. These Epitaphs are... [[Super-Powered Evil Side|not the safest of powers to use.]]

* The final boss of ''[[Odium]]'', {{spoiler|Vasili Dobrovsky}}, bursts into the room as a human, provides some exposition while announcing that he's the only man immune to the [[Viral Transformation]] that turned everybody into monsters, and when he's outed as [[The Dragon]], he proceeds to turn into a giant monster anyway.

* Happens to the ''T-1000'' at the end of the SNES version of ''[[Terminator]] 2: Judgement Day''. After a [[Ring Out Boss]] fight where you shoot it to knock it into the steel vat like in the movie, the T-1000 emerges from the vat as a giant man-shaped blob that spits molten steel at you.

* The [[Scott Pilgrim]] Game parodies this in Gideon's first boss fight. His main mode of attacking is transforming into a statue of an actual One-Winged Angel.

* In ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]'', Graf Michael Sepperin assumes his demon form once he [[Turns Red]]. Also, in the final battle, {{spoiler|Iris' One-Winged Angel form is that of her own humble self with three pairs of golden seraph wings}}.

* In [[Jak and Daxter|Jak II]] there's a twist at the end where {{spoiler|Kor (spoiler filler)}} transforms into the Metal Head Leader, a house-sized monster that can fly and shoot lasers out of its mouth.

* In [[Girls Love]] [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Aoi Shiro]]'', the [[Big Bad]] [[Evil Sorcerer|Ba Rouryuu]] melds himself with the chaos-stuff for the [[Final Battle]] inside the titular Blue Castle.

* In ''[[Albion]]'', the Cuain, leader of the Kenget Kamulos, [[Authority Equals Asskicking|gets this as a perk with the job]]. He can turn into the avatar of Kamulos, the god of war. You fight the current Cuain and it's one of the very few real boss fights in the game.

** Inverted in the case of the Beast: he spends most of the game as a rampaging lava-skinned monster, laying waste to cities and showing no desire to communicate... up until the climax, when he transforms into a relatively ordinary-looking human to explain a few things to Cole.

* In the Wii shooter [[Conduit 2]], John Adams (yes, THAT John Adams) infiltrates Atlantis, bringing several of his Trust soldiers in to fight you while he tries to snipe you from far away. After you damage him enough, you knock him back through a portal and end up in Agartha, the center of the Earth. There, Adams is no longer a chubby old man, but a giant, armored and horned alien. He laughs and comments on how it had been a while since he had been in his "true" form.

* In the Wii version of ''[[A Boy and His Blob]],'' the Emperor of Bloblonia begins as a single blobby mass on a giant throne who goes down in a single hit. [[spoiler: He then flees back to [[Where It All Began]], and his form as the [[True Final Boss]] is an immense, be-tentacled writhing black beast that can only be defeated with the power of [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha|Mecha-Blob.]]

* Doctor Tongue in ''[[Zombies Ate My Neighbors]]'' quaffs his mad scientist potions and becomes, first, a giant spider, then a giant floating head of himself - that fires tongues!

* The final boss in 'Readytorumbleround2' is a hulked-out version of Michael Buffer.

* In ''[[Beatmania]] IIDX 19'', STN (representing [[Unstoppable Rage|Wrath]] of the [[Seven Deadly Sins]]) starts off as a mech soldier. Once you defeat him and get the Demon Feathers from him, [[Green-Eyed Monster|Levaslater]] and [[Pride|Rche]], you unlock Neulakyussra, who represents the apocalypse. In its video, you see STN's armor crumble to reveal a [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|white-haired man]] who then becomes a four-armed, three-headed being with the crests of the seven sins on each arm and head.

* In the [[Tower Defense]] game ''Kingdom Rush'', the [[Final Boss]] will turn into a huge firebreathing demon after he is "slain".

* A rare heroic example with the Title Character of ''[[Asura's Wrath]]''. he starts out with Two arms and can gain up to a maximum of Six arms, which is more of a [[Super Mode]] for him than anything else. The real example is the form after this one. {{spoiler|[http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/4/3/9/6/1/5/BCGame_2012_01_13_14_44_26_06.jpg.jpg/EG11/resize/1260x-1 His 4 extra arms are giantic and he looks more inhuman than ever].}}

* The classic arcade game ''[[Smash TV]]'' features a difficult boss named Scarface: an enormous green, well, ''face'' who spits swarms of bullets and ricocheting mines at you. You'll spend five to ten minutes (and about that many lives) grossly disfiguring him with ammunition until he finally dies and explodes, only for {{spoiler|his skull to scream "NO WAY!" and blast you with death beams from his eye sockets.}}

* In ''[[Solatorobo]]'', when you come to finally fight against Bruno, who up until then had been a regular-looking Caninu, he's been transformed into a hulking monster {{spoiler|by Lares}}. Although Bruno does state that it's his true form, it's debatable whether this is true, or if {{spoiler|Lares}} is simply using him as a puppet.

* Arfoire from ''[[Hyperdimension Neptunia]].'' Her final form? A dragon. It seems rather typical, but the game was also made to make fun of all video games.