No matter how I try to dodge all his tornadoes, he just kills me again.
And even though I can get behind him
It's no use, I try to fight, but I get blown away in the end.
I shoot as fast as I can,
But when I had to go against Air Man's tornado I was helpless again
I'll try again, of course, but this is my plan:
I'll keep my E-Tank saved in reserve just as long as I can!
That One Boss is, well, that one boss that falls victim to poor playtesting or was thrown in by especially cruel developers. You're leveling up normally, plowing through every battle, until you reach this particular battle and suddenly meet a nasty road block. Eventually, you Rage Quit, or you go on the Internet looking for assistance. In the event that you stop by the game's message board, lo and behold, everyone else is having the exact same problem, with entire topics asking "how do I beat That One Boss?". Walkthroughs usually list the worst offenders as "the hardest boss in the game", and eventually, such a beast receives a reputation for being just that freaking hard. In-universe lampshades of this trope would often have the boss claim to be Defiant to the End. A few of them may be awesome, but that still doesn't mean you won't be chewing on the controller in frustration despite it.
They are sometimes called the "brick wall boss", for obvious reasons.
NOTES:
- Final Bosses and Wake-Up Call Bosses cannot be That One Boss without being overly hard by their standards.
- Superbosses are completely banned from being That One Boss, because they are intentionally overpowered, so it would be redundant to list them, and far from mandatory to fight. The reason a Superboss can't be judged by its own standards like a final boss can is because there aren't standards for it.
- A Goddamned Boss is annoying, but is otherwise not considered difficult enough to qualify as That One Boss.
- An Early-Bird Boss will almost always qualify as That One Boss as well, but for reasons of the player's weakness rather than the boss's strength, so they should go on that page.
- Please do not simply list "every boss in game x". If every boss in the game is difficult, you are either looking at Easy Levels, Hard Bosses or Nintendo Hard.
- If the boss is almost nigh impossible to be defeated due to breaking from a mold of Competitive Balancenote , that will be an SNK Boss instead.
Because there are so many examples of this trope, they have been categorized by genre for your viewing convenience.
Compare with the non-video game equivalent of this trope, Invincible Villain. See also That One Level. Or it's direct inversion, Breather Boss.
Example subpages:
- Atlus (No, this isn't a genre, but a company. Yes, this one company made so many games with disproportionately hard bosses that it needs its own subpage!)
- Action
- The Binding of Isaac
- Boktai
- Bomberman
- Castlevania
- Crash Bandicoot
- Cuphead
- Dead Rising
- Devil May Cry
- Donkey Kong
- Furi
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Kirby
- The Legend of Zelda
- Mega Man
- Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch
- Metroid
- No More Heroes
- Rosenkreuzstilette
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Super Mario Bros.
- Wario Land
- Beat 'em Up
- Card Battle Game
- Driving
- Fighting
- First-Person Shooter
- Real-Time Strategy
- Rhythm Game
- RPG
- Baldur's Gate III
- Bloodborne
- Darkest Dungeon
- Dark Souls
- Dragalia Lost
- Dragon Quest
- Elden Ring
- Epic Battle Fantasy
- Final Fantasy
- Genshin Impact
- Guild Wars 2
- Inazuma Eleven
- Kingdom Hearts
- Legend of Legaia
- LISA
- Monster Hunter
- Pokémon
- Pokémon Reborn
- Pokémon Rejuvenation
- RuneScape
- Tales Series
- Trails Series
- The Witcher
- World of Warcraft
- Ys
- Shoot 'em Ups
- Stealth-Based Game
- Survival Horror
- Tabletop Games
- Turn-Based Strategy
- Miscellaneous Games
