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{{trope}}
You've decided to play through a game series you like. After the third game, you start to notice a pattern: Some of these guys look or act similar to a boss from the last few games. You have discovered the '''Recurring Boss Template'''.
This is when a game series seems to reuse a boss in some way, but with something changed, often repeatedly throughout the series. It may have more attacks than the last time, or it may look different, but at the core it's still the same [[Cosmic Horror]] you faced two games ago.
Similar to, but not to be confused with [[Recurring Boss]], which is simply one character, machine, creature, or species of creature that gets the boss spot more than one time.
{{examples}}
* The ''[[Kirby]]'' series seems to love using either limbless cyclopean [[Eldritch Abomination
** ''[[Super Smash Bros
* ''[[House of the Dead]]'' commonly uses a [[Final Boss]] that takes a humanoid form, and floats around throwing energy at you, often named after [[Tarot Motifs|the most sinister sounding tarot cards]].
** Except for 4 which is a giant ice insect that has its lower body underground. This one is named after The World... yeah, [[It Makes Sense in Context|It Makes (Some) Sense In Context]].
** They dropped the [[Tarot Motifs]] entirely for [[The House Of The Dead Overkill]] (which is really, really disappointing.) So, the final boss of that game is simply named "Mother"... which is pretty fitting, in an extremely [[Body Horror|creepy]], [[Vasquez Always Dies|misogynistic]], [[Freud Was Right|Freudian]], and just overall [[Squick]]-laden way.
* The ''Mario And Luigi'' series for the Nintendo handhelds take pride in using ghostly, (most of the time) purple final bosses. {{spoiler|And Bowser getting possessed/mind controlled/fused with/whatever else by the Big Bad.}}
** The Koopalings in ''[[New Super Mario Bros
** Every time you fight Bowser in the ''[[New Super Mario Bros
** Bowser also has a habit of fighting Mario in arenas with fragile floors that he can be tricked into breaking. First seen in ''[[
* Oh, ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'', where would you be without that boss that you [[Playing Tennis With the Boss|play tennis with]]?
** Or for that matter, the [[Go for
** Or the ones that [[Feed It a Bomb|you kill by throwing bombs into their mouths]]?
* ''[[Gradius]]'' games tend to involve [[Recurring Boss
** Also: Shoot the Core!
* And let's not forget how similar those bosses at the start of ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', and ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' were. You know, the ones where you have to refrain from attacking halfway through the battle?
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** Final Fantasy is really the king of this trope, from the Demon Wall to Bahamut to those giant eye-balls with bat-wings, pretty much every game will have at least a handful of bosses that are (at the very least) homages to recurring types or specific enemies of previous games.
** IV, V and VI all have bosses who rely heavily on Quake and may have abiltiies to remove Float (The White Dragon, Catastrophe and the Dirt Dragon, respectively).
* ''[[Mega Man (
** ''[[
** ''[[
** There's quite a variety of Devils to be seen throughout the entire series. Whether they're Yellow, Green, Black, or Rainbow, they are all able to split themselves into globs to launch at you and form into various weapons. They also tend to be [[That One Boss]]; the exception is in ''[[
* ''[[Metroid]]'' games have a few examples of this. For example, the final bosses of ''Metroid Fusion'' and ''Metroid Zero Mission'' have a eary similar attack pattern (walk slowly forwards, stop, swing their claws in a huge arc) and weak spot (in the chest), although the one in ''Zero Mission'' spices things up a bit by also firing missiles and lasers.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' games are guaranteed to end with a melee battle. You can ''try'' to shoot The Boss in MGS3, but she'll deflect your bullets, strip you of your gun (surprise!) and force you into CQC.
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*** '''If''' you were lucky enough to find the Snow Camo [[Guide Dang It|without a guide]] on your first playthrough.
** C4 and land mines are also a valid option
** Or you could just use a machine gun.
* Its not just the final melee battles(Liquid Snake\Solidus Snake\The Boss\Liquid Ocelot), [[Metal Gear Solid]] has this with every boss battle in the series in a same yet different way. There is almost always the following;
** Battle against a giant robot that must be taken down with missles(Metal Gear Rex\Metal Gear Rays\The Shagohad\Metal Gear Ray)
** Battle where you use a sniper rifle(Sniper Wolf\Vamp\The End\Crying Wolf)
** Battle against someone in a maze like area(Vulcan Raven\Fatman\The Fury\Raging Raven)
** Battle against an opponent who can hide from you and attacks from above(Gray Fox\Vamp\The Fear\Laughing Octopus)
* The first boss battle in a ''[[Raiden]]'' game is usually against a duo of machine, with one appearing slightly before the other.
* Several boss's gimmick(s) have actually been reused in different expansion packs in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. Such as, for example:
** Mind control. Mostly used by Jammal'an and first by Arugal.
** Gruul petrifies the party and shatters them if they're too close. Later in Wrath, another boss does the same thing. In Cataclysm, Ozruk does the same thing ''again''.
** Brutallus and Argaloth share the same model and a very similar Meteor Slash mechanic (an attack that must be absorbed by several people stacking up to split the damage, then switching off after a while), albeit with Argaloth being a considerably simpler fight.
** Sapphiron's ice bomb mechanic and the required LOS cover is reused in the Sindragosa encounter. The two also happen to be reanimated blue dragons.
* [[Kingdom Hearts]] has several of these, most notably the giant "leader" boss who summons lesser foes from the ground and the "armor" boss who's made up of mechanized limbs that attack both together and separately.
* ''[[
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' has several:
** First off, Dracula himself. Aside from his varied [[One-Winged Angel]] forms, his first form ''always'' uses [[Teleport Spam]] while throwing fireballs.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Boss Battle]]
[[Category:
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