r/TopCharacterTropes • u/fly_line22 • 10h ago
Powers [Cool gameplay trope] "So that's what that feels like."
Essentially, when the boss is given similar, or the exact same, abilities as the player.
Slide 1: The SA-X in Metroid Fusion
Now, Samus is well known for being an ustoppable badass. But at the start of Fusion, she nearly dies as a result of her X-Parasite infection, and had to have portions of her armor removed and sent to the BSL station for study. But the parasites within the armor actually start mimicking Samus and breach its containment, kickstarting a massive outbreak. A good portion of the horror with the SA-X is the fact that it's mimicking Samus at full strength, while Samus herself is in no condition to actually fight it. So, it's essentially showing you what Samus is like from the perspective of her enemies, especially since Samus has become part Metroid herself.
Slide 2: Ganondorf in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I know Dark Link would probably be the more obvious answer here, but this is my opinion. Upon getting to Ganondorf, you realize that he fights quite similarly to Link himself. For one, he uses all 4 of the same weapon types (one handed swords, spears, giant 2 handed weapons, bows) as Link throughout the battle. He even does his own versions of the spin attack and sword beam. Likewise, throughout the Wild-era games, Link can do perfect dodges to slow down time and open the enemy for a flurry rush. And wouldn't you know, Ganondorf can also do a perfect dodge, even getting the same slowdown effect as he does so. Finally, throughout ToTK, Link can summon the ghostly apparitions of the other Sages to help him in battle. In the second phase of the fight, Phantom Ganon fills the same role for Ganondorf himself.
Slide 3: Shizuka and Apollo in Crosscode
Crosscode is a really charming game set inside an in-universe MMORPG. The main character Lea belong to the Spheromancer class. Throughout the game, you meet Apollo and Shizuka, who are also Spheromancers. And sure enough, when you battle them, they have access to all the abilities Lea herself does. You can even learn how to do some really high-effort comboes just by watching the two of them.
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u/RoadsidePicnik 10h ago
The Last of Us, Part II. The Theater.
It's not so fun when Ellie's pulling her feral sneaking shit on you.
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u/Stkrdknmibalz69 9h ago
My wife was commenting on how many times I died and how long it took me to beat that part 😭
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u/tom-cash2002 9h ago
Mr. Shakedown (Yakuza 0)
Mr. Shakedown is to you what you are to the other random NPCs who pick fights with you on the street. He’s barely damaged by your attacks, hits like a truck (and can hit you on the ground), has super armor most of the time, and he takes all your money if he beats you. Sure, you CAN beat him, but he never loses any of the things that make him a major threat.
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u/Alpha_benson 7h ago
Me and my friends would take turns hunting him down and beating his ass to Kickstart our business in Yakuza 0
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u/IMPOSTER1491625 7h ago
Except once you unlock the slime and zap guns
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u/Alpha_benson 4h ago
The what?
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u/ZerothMask 3h ago
Slime and Zap Guns. They're shotguns you can buy in Dragon & Tiger. They have additional affects of making enemies slip or electrocuting respectively. However, because Mr. Shakedown is basically a boss, he's not affected by them. But the damage he receives is still the same. So go to Rush, Kiryu's most agile and evasive style, equip any of your guns, and just shoot and run.
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u/Cyanna 5h ago
(Joining the Yakuza table)
It’s not quite the same thing because you need to play two games in order to get the full effect:
But fighting Majima in Yakuza Kiwami after controlling him in Yakuza 0 is this taken to an almost literal degree since he kept a lot of the 0 moveset. Including some moves that made common fights easier to cheese like the dance blender and the stunlock bat nunchuck.
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u/ZerothMask 3h ago
Until you get yourself properly upgraded and suddenly, Mr. Shakedown goes from a looming threat that you have to treat cautiously, to a walking piggy bank because you realize how telegraphed his moves are.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 10h ago
fusion makes you realize samus is waaaay more terrifying than any boss in the series once you're on the receiving end of that ice beam. you finally get what it feels like to be a regular corridor mob getting deleted in two seconds flat.
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u/fly_line22 9h ago
Yep. Fusion and the Pirate Logs in Prime did wonders at showing off how genuinely scary Samus can be if you're her enemy.
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u/LesserValkyrie 9h ago
One woman army lol
You send her your strongest soldier with the most high end destruction laser beam and your strongest monster that can turn invisible and you learn 2 hours later that she is coming to you and she is geared wth that destruction laser beam and she is invisible too
I fucking love her.
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u/ABigCoffee 3h ago
Rookie mistake. The only way to beat her is to literally gang up on her. All of those bosses guarding an area? Dogshit idea. Swarm her with everyone.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
And the Prime logs do it in text, which somehow makes it worse: reading a terrified grunt's report about seeing a single bounty hunter wipe out their whole outpost in minutes. Really sells the legend.
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u/TheHeroHartmut 8h ago
And then the revelation near the end of the game that there are more SA-X clones running around the space station.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
Yeah, that's the part where it goes from "oh shit one of them is loose" to "oh fuck they're replicating". The dread shifts from a personal threat to a systemic one.
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u/Dirty-Glasses 2h ago
Do we know that for sure, though? We never actually see them.
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u/Oddsbod 1h ago
Adam reveals he's detected at least 10 separate SA-X on the station after you discover the Metroid breeding lab, and there's no reason for him to lie at that point. And we know for sure there's at least some multiples, since the SA-X who destroys the restricted sector lab blows up along with it, but you still duel a different SA-X in the following boss fight.
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u/thatdude658 8h ago
I especially enjoy the parts where you encounter the SA-X earlier on and you actually have to fun for your life.
The part where you drop down after turning on reactor power and then have to run while hitting switches? While the SA-X is barreling behind you blasting ice beams and jumping with deadly screw attacks? Yeah that's intense.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
That reactor chase is still the most scared I've ever been in a 2D game. The fact you can hear the screw attack coming from offscreen before it lands on you is just perfect.
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u/solanumjunkie 7h ago
I always liked the touch that, since she’s now part Metroid, the SA-X deals with Samus like she would a real one; freeze with Ice Beam, delete with Missiles.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
Right, they nailed the reversal by making the SA-X act like Samus facing a metroid: freeze first, then missiles. That extra layer of "oh, now I'm the metroid" sells the whole nightmare.
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9h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Bonaduce80 9h ago
The scene where you are cowering in a corner hiding and hoping not to get caught by SA-X is nothing short of survival horror.
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u/Wasphammer 8h ago
Post-Yakuza SA-X chase gave me so much trouble the first time I played it because it's the only SA-X chase that goes through multiple rooms.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
Exactly, and it's that exact power dynamic that makes the SA-X sections so memorable, you're not just weaker, you're prey.
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u/Lom1111234 8h ago
Bot
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u/NikTheGrass 5h ago
Reddit is fucked if you are being downvoted for calling the bot out. Account is 10 days old and just rephrased the post...
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
Bot? Yeah, I guess 'fusion' autocorrected weirdly there. I meant the SA-X sequence, not the game itself.
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u/LetsThrow69 6h ago
Bot.
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u/Active-Plastic-4281 1h ago
lol yeah, it's weird how the 'bot' comment always shows up when you talk about a game mechanic actually working as intended.
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u/BitComprehensive3667 9h ago
The 2nd Dante Boss Fight in Devil May Cry 4.
The 1st fight with Dante is basically a glorified tutorial, but the 2nd fight, especially on the higher difficulties Son of Sparda and Dante Must Die, can be brutal. Not only will Dante switch between his various styles but also the different weapons he can use in the game (even though canonically, he shouldn't have some of those weapons at that point in the game's story).
Dante is not to be underestimated, as he has a counter for almost everything in Nero's moveset and if you aren't careful, he WILL slaughter you. This fight puts into perspective how terrifying Dante is and how helpless the demons he slaughters en masse must feel. This is why he has earned the title of the Legendary Devil Hunter
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u/sebasRez 8h ago
By far the best fight compared to many games. I was sweating!!
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u/BitComprehensive3667 7h ago
Same, as a kid playing DMC4 for the first time, this fight was a major roadblock on DMD. Took me nearly and entire week's worth of attempts before I barely won.
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u/VitinNunes 9h ago
Dark Pit- Kid Icarus uprising
During his level he will fight you a couple of times using different weapons, giving Pit a taste of his own medicine.
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u/Feisty-Promotion-312 8h ago
Especially when you get to the boss fight with him and he starts using the same special attack you can use in air battles and it just nukes your health bar if you stay on the platform
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u/tom-cash2002 8h ago
Dude, fuck the mission where you have to play on 7.5 or higher and not switch platforms in the fight. If the brief invincibility power didn’t exist, I’m pretty sure I never would’ve done that one.
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u/Feisty-Promotion-312 8h ago
I'll always maintain that that fight with Dark Pit is one of the toughest in the game (moreso than the one in Chapter 13). You're basically forced into a game of Light v. Dark where the other player gets the Daybreak every 30 seconds
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u/Other_Cobbler_2691 8h ago
Red in Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. You spent the first game being a quiet Wunderkid that goes around the region shutting down the most powerfull organisation while it was the most powerful.
As you take up Gold's mantle, you go throughout the regions, battling the remnants of Red's crussade, even battling his rival with a few mentions of the previous wunderkid.
You become the champion of Johto, go through Kanto, become the champion again.
You climb Mt.Silver, where you meet your predecessor who says nothing and hits you with a team of pokemon who are, if you didn't grind for this battle, at least 20 levels higher than your own.
For a series of games which aren't that hard, it was a real spout of tonal whiplash to fight a better version of yourself.
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u/NanaDTio 7h ago
After all the introductions from other characters, I remember it being such a cool difference when Red just doesn’t say anything
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u/Brawlerz16 4h ago
It’s funny because it stays true to the character you were in the last game. Your character technically never said anything. So it’s only fitting that when facing “yourself” that nothing is said either
But I still think challenging yourself from the last game is THE peak of Pokemon and is a feature that should have been apart of every game
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u/Adaphion 4h ago
Especially since Gold/Silver, and HeartGold/SoulSilver have HORRENDOUS level curves. Lance, the Champion, barely has level 50 pokemon (most other Champions have 'mons close to 60). And wild pokemon are ridiculously weak so it's a massive pain in the ass to grind. The strongest wild pokemon in the game, before you fight Red in Mt. Silver, are also barely level 50, even after you've gone through a whole second region and 8 more gyms.
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u/Dirty-Glasses 2h ago
God, the Johto games were so poorly designed.
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u/Adaphion 2h ago
I'm still like, 90% sure that the remakes just have a coat of paint on them.
You know how the gen 1 and 2 games have all those "checkpoint" style gates between almost every city? It's because of loading zones and such, right?
Well, if you use noclip cheats in HGSS and bypass those gates, areas won't properly load, as if they used the EXACT same coding for world loading as the gen 1 and 2 games did instead of actually improving this aspect of them.
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u/saltydoesreddit 4h ago
I like to use a romhacking program to give Red my exact same team from my FireRed playthrough just for that extra bit of continuity and to learn just how powerful my team was.
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u/doctor_vine23 8h ago
I heard that that boss is impossible to beat or smth, is that true?
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u/Other_Cobbler_2691 8h ago
Nope, very beatable even with the level gap. His team isn't all that good and it's a pokemon game. If you know what you are doing, you'll beat him. The tonal whiplash, set up, and sheer menacing aura left a lasting impact on me
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u/Electrical_mammoth2 6h ago
Not impossible, but very difficult. Red's team is not only the highest leveled NPC team in the series (his level 88 Pikachu ties with BDSP Cynthia's garchomp on your second rematch) but is very diverse in composition, with moves to handle every type you might have.
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u/BaconRapscallion 9h ago
The entirety of Super Mario Odyssey, including when he possessed Bowser towards the end of the game
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u/Icy-Temperature2816 9h ago
King Dedede doing the inhale in the Kirby series. More applies to the first game, Kirby’s Dreamland, considering that copy abilities didn’t exist yet, so that was how the player attacked.
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u/DateNightThrowRA 4h ago
Yeah, one of the OGs, how could I forget!
Dedede was “humiliated” in the first game, so he trained and trained to gain the same ability to inhale and exhale to a lethal degree, as well as inflate and fly, like Kirby could. Upon their rematch, he showed the results of his training, which were more than a match for the pink puffball.
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u/DanGimeno 10h ago edited 9h ago
That line is exactly what Mercy (Overwatch) says when she gets amped by a second Mercy
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u/SmartAlec105 8h ago
In Sekiro, you're an ninja and the combat is all about giving the correct response to enemy attacks so that you can keep up the momentum against them to break their posture and deal a death blow which wipes out their HP bar. Regular attacks you deflect (or block if your timing isn't as good), sweeps you jump over, grabs have to be dodged, and thrusts can be deflected. Fairly early on, you can unlock the Mikiri Counter which is another way to respond to thrust attacks by dodging into them which makes you stomp on the opponent's blade which deals a lot of posture damage.
Eventually, you end up fighting your adoptive father who trained you. If you try thrust attacks on him, he will Mikiri Counter you which will typically break your posture and he will then perform a deathblow against you.
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u/Dank-as-fuck 7h ago
Some of his moves are also copys of your special moves. Like his thurst attack for example. Sekiro does this with a few enemys, like the ashina cross skill for ashina elites, ichimonji for isshin and that palm punch skill that the monks use
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u/Painchaud213 9h ago
Mythic enemies, from Pathfinder : Wrath of the Righteous.
You yourself have gained mythic powers and are slowly turning into a being of semi-godlike powers.
But as the game goes on, you start facing ‘’Mythic enemies’’. Those demons were grafted with crystals giving them powers similar to yours. They are tougher, hit harder, can use mythic powers, and if you manage to kill them, they will resurrect, requiring you to kill them a second time (just like you).
They are strong enemies, of all the people in your party, you are the one best equipped to deal with them.
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u/kriosken12 8h ago
Best example is playful Playful Darkness. A random-ass enemy you can find by accident in an alley who can wipe out your entire party in three turns. Mf gave the entire community PTSD.
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u/VelociraptorPirate 7h ago
I like to think the big red guy with the lightning whip is on the side of the hot lady heroes. It works with the perspective anyway
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u/Trityler 7h ago
"So, who gets to go first? How about...... me."
Royce Bracket - Transistor
Both brilliant and neurodivergent, Royce was largely responsible for Cloudbank's rapid advancement, allowing massive public works to be constructed and replaced with just the vote of the public and the flick of a switch. But he soon realized that unrestrained whimsical creativity by popular vote was leading to the loss of any degree of permanence and creating a whole new form of cultural stagnation.
Royce then helps form The Camerata, a secret society with the goal of digitally preserving cultural achievements (along with people who achieved them), before they would become "last season". From there, The Camerata planned to guide the city's development as they wished from behind the scenes, giving the people "what they didn't know they wanted" instead of permitting them to continue to express their own fickle desires through voting.
In the last act of the game, Red forms an uneasy truce with Royce, who is now the last surviving member of The Camerata. Although they successfully regain control of The Process that was responsible for both the construction and destruction of Cloudbank, they now both find themselves trapped in the digital world of the Transistor, and it is only possible for one of them to return.
When playing the game, Red can use the Transistor to stop time and plan out the execution of multiple attack functions, allowing her to be more precise with her attacks and dish out large amounts of damage in a second. But Royce has a better understanding of the Transistor than anyone, and once trapped inside it, he gains access to those same abilities and uses them against Red. However, he also has the same weaknesses. To defeat Royce, you must force him to overload his copy of the Transistor, gradually limiting the number of functions he can use until he can no longer fight back.
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u/AmazingPuddle 9h ago
FFXIV Endwalker : you are the Warrior of Light, probably the most powerful character or human in the universe. You have traveled across continents and dimensions. But suddenly, while in the country of Garlemald, your forever enemy, your soul is placed in the body of a common garlean soldier facing the apocalypse, one of those you fought and killed by thousands, facing beasts you fight with relative ease and getting absolutly destroyed. You struggle, you get hurt and nearly die but find the will and strength to get out of it alive and confront the culprit. But for those moments, you are insanely weak and taking the place of the common folks, or even worse the enemies low rank, nearly garbage, soldiers. And it's horrible.
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u/Kami_Kazeyo_137 8h ago edited 2h ago
Roxas vs Riku (Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days)
This entire sequence was teased back in KH1 as the secret ending, and then we get another tease of it in KH2 as a cutscene to give it more context. The fans really want this entire sequence to be playable, and once KH358/2 days, it is the most hype and second most emotional. One of the hypest moments is Roxas dual wielding both Oathkeeper and Oblivion but now as a playable character. The devs adjusted his damage so he can one shot neo shadows like the secret ending cuz they knew he was garbage in mission mode lmao. Everybody was jumping on their seats for dual wielding Roxas, especially when he's a boss exclusive to KH2FM before this game
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u/10024618 7h ago
Not a boss but a regular enemy. In Ape Escape 3 your monkey net can get knocked out of your hands when you take damage. If a monkey manages to grab it they'll give you a taste of your own medicine and try to capture with it, functionally serving as a game over if they succeed.
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u/Outrageous-Bite-8922 3h ago
I wish we could have a port of this on PS5 every single day. Incredible game.
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u/Even-End1260 6h ago
In The World Ends With You on the DS version, the combat system uses both screens : you're controlling the lead character Neku by using the touch screen, and you're also playing Neku's current Partner on the top screen by using the face buttons. Having both of your characters in sync is heavily rewarded, with the Pass Puck Rally (basically sending a buff back and forth between your characters for escalating damages) and eventually Fusion Attacks, a full-screens super move that heavily damages every enemy, à la Persona All-Out Attack.
Among the antagonists are two Reapers, Kariya and Uzuki. They spend a lot of time fucking with you during the game and, to be fair, it is their actual job. There are points where they are allowed to attack you directly, but it's usually a standard boss fight and you're facing only one of them.
Until the third act, that is.
Then the both of them are actually coming at you as a duo, with a somewhat similar fighting style than you - Kariya will face Neku on the touch screen, and Uzuki will attack your partner Beat on the top screen.
And yes, they can ALSO use the Pass Puck Rally and the Fusion Attack against you. Letting them build up a 5x rally is a surefire way to get your shit pushed in.
Turns out seeing an anime pop-up followed by massive damage is a lot less funny when YOU're the one getting pummeled.
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u/Taluca_me 6h ago
The Great Sage's Broken Shell from Black Myth: Wukong
Basically, after you acquire all the relics that will surely bring Sun Wukong back to life, the last thing to do is go into the dormant mind of Wukong himself and face the final boss. First as a Stone Monkey and then Phase 3 and 4 has him becoming into the boss in the picture. Now, instead of just a cool final boss... you are fighting YOURSELF. All the combos and attacks you used on other enemies, the Broken Shell uses it on you. Such as freezing you in place... and then taking your healing gourd to drink it himself (if you try to heal). He also dodges. He also can use heavy attacks. He can turn himself into stone as a way to parry. He literally has our entire moveset and he gives us, The Destined One, a taste of our own medicine.
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u/Cha0sSpiral 25m ago
It really feels like hes such an adaptive boss meant to really push you. I think hes my favorite boss of all time
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u/strahinjag 9h ago
Great Shinobi Owl in Sekiro. He's Wolf's adopted father and mentor so he can use a lot of the same Shinobi tactics as you like Firecrackers, Shurikens and Mikiri counter.
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u/doctor_vine23 8h ago edited 8h ago
The last sinner from hollow knight: silksong
She can use bind to heal like hornet and you can interrupt it for the same level of satisfaction.
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u/Minimum_Chip3157 5h ago
And it's the same lenght as Hornet's bind so it's very fair, one of the only time when a boss who can heal feels verh well designed. She also uses silk skills as a weaver who can produce her own silk, unlike Widow.
Lastly, it's First Sinner lol
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u/black_stallion1031 6h ago
In persons 5 Royal, you have the opportunity to fight the twins in NG+ and if you reach a point where your whole party gets knocked down due to weaknesses or critical hits THEY hit YOU with an all out attack which is usually only for the protagonist or the party to do
This also happens with Lavenza if you fail to meet the conditions for her phases, but she just decides to ruin your life
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u/FrenchTantan 4h ago
Not a boss, but the first time a trainer switched Pokémon on me in a battle I was like "wait, that's illegal"
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u/poppliolover2000 4h ago
I was playing a Rom Hack recently and a trainer knocked out my Pokemon and then swapped out there's the same turn I threw in my new pokemon. It was crazy and I shocked, made the battles a lot more interesting.
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u/_MineCad_ 7h ago
Petroch, the false moon (Another Crab's Treasure)
Another Crab's Treasure is an indie souls-like set in an underwater environment. While many enemies you face are crabs, hermit crabs for most of the game are limited to NPCs and the player character. This changes when you meet Petroch, a mandatory boss who not only is anatomically accurate contrary to the stylized cartoonish designs of most other animals, but can also block and parry just like the player character
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u/Alternative-Put-2962 7h ago
Another's crab treasure is such a peak game. It deserves much more recognition
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u/Aromatic-Cricket5681 5h ago
I do wanna say for clarity to anyone who sees this, Petroch isnt the only hostile hermit crab, theres actually 1 hermit crab enemy type (from what ive seen, ive only truly started playing recently), tho are extremely rare, but can be found in most areas under a seemingly normal shell (as in one you could normally wear). I believe they can atleast block aswell, but i may be wrong.
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u/Aromatic-Cricket5681 5h ago
Rare as in 1 per area, well presumably, ive only encountered the one in the jungle area and the area after that, i may be just outright wrong bout them being everywhere, so maybe they are much rarer.
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u/Repocket_Pocket 10h ago
Jakob from Dusk
V2 from ULTRAKILL
Other Dude from Postal Brain Damaged.
Thinking about it, retro boomer shooters love creating bosses that are just mirror matches.
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u/therealchadius 9h ago
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has one segment where you're in an asylum, trying to bait out Batman. It turns the Arkham Predator missions on its head, so now you have to rescue your teammates from Batman's ambushes.
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u/GlitteringPositive 9h ago
Owl uses some shinobi tools (shuriken, poison, feather teleportation, and firecrackers) against you and can even Mikiri counter your thrust attacks, which kills you like the deathblow mechanic.
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u/Lappely- 9h ago
In Limbus Company, you find yourself on the receiving end of the extremely powerful combo move known as Furioso, from someone who is literally LARPing as the protagonist of the previous game in the series
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u/FinishImpressive4043 8h ago
a more recent example would be having to fight buffet after having such an amazing time with a bleed team in part 2
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u/Far-Possible-1528 7h ago
There’s something so satisfying about a character copying a move you thought only you could pull off, then absolutely destroying you with it. Getting hit by Furioso when you know exactly how devastating it is makes it even worse.
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u/FailURGamer24 7h ago
V2 from ultrakill. It's the exact same as you, but has a lot more health as a tradeoff for not being able to heal.
For most the game the easiest way to get chip damage in is by tossing coins and shooting them for an auto-aim ricochet shot.
V2 does the same to you. If you don't shoot your own coins fast enough he'll even shoot your coins to hit you too
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u/CommunicationNo8635 5h ago
I like the fact that he gets angry with greed when you hit him with the red arm, and by the way, you can also shoot his coins so they bounce.
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u/Over_Yogurtcloset820 9h ago
In Ultrakill there's a gun that allow you to toss coins that, when hit with a bullet, will ricochet towards the nearest enemy, being essentially auto-aim.
In one of the boss level, you fight V2(you are V1) for the 2nd times and she pull your coin trick against you. She will toss and shoot her own coin and if you don't shoot yours fast enough, she will shoot it for you.
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u/lyapelmen 9h ago
i like how v2 is the one of few bosses that taught me how to properly utilize my arsenal
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u/Outrageous-Bite-8922 3h ago
Crosscode mentioned is so dope.
https://giphy.com/gifs/RlyDyVHP0okXExNUTs
Sasaki Ganryu from Onimusha is both historically and in-game Miyamoto Musashi's eternal rival. He has the same gauntlet that you do, has returned from the dead just like you have, and can use all of the same moves you can. The only difference is that he is willing to take innocent lives to feed his gauntlet in his quest for power and you are not. In another world, you could've been the same person.
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u/zLightningz 9h ago
CROSSCODE MENTIONED HI LEA
also I’m surprised you didn’t put Lily there. I know she’s postgame only but since she’s a Hexacast, she primarily uses ranged attacks you don’t have access to and she’s kinda just designed to piss you off.
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u/HunnyBonny2 6h ago
Kinda counts but Eigong from Nine Sols able to use the talisman attack on you during the final battle
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u/PublicCalligrapher29 9h ago
Holy shit crosscode mention
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u/GOTH_AND_ALT_SIMP 6h ago
Croascode was so good! This is making me want to go back and play it again, had a ton of fun with that game. I didn't expect to see it mentioned either lol
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u/Chacronge 8h ago
At the end of Shadow of the Colossus, you get a sequence where after killing all the bosses, the spooky voice of the gods(?) that you've been bargaining with to revive the girl Momo takes over and distorts your body, and you get to play as a large abomination resembling a Colossus for a bit. It gives you a heavy slow moveset to fight the guys that you saw coming after you in a cutsene earlier in the game before dying yourself
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u/Haisiax 8h ago
In DOOM Eternal, you are constantly barreling recklessly towards demons at high speed in your mad quest to reunite them with 6 feet of dirt. Some demons will charge you the same way but none do so with the same speed and ferocity as the Marauder. Much like the slayer, he is swift, aggressive and a huge pain in the ass. His presence demands your attention and he gives the player a taste of what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the DOOM Slayer’s wrath.
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u/old_homecoming_dress 4h ago
the totk Ganondorf fight really fixed all of the issues with the calamity ganon fight from botw. i felt that calamity Ganon got easily overshadowed by thunderblight, but Ganondorf is worse because he can reduce your max hp and requires two consecutive flurry rushes to hit. it made a lot more sense why the zonai era lost to him in his entire lead-up section.
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u/Zombieslayer854 10h ago
The SA-X intro feels just as creepy, if not more or less so than the monster itself
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u/Demented_N 7h ago
In Transistor, the titular weapon of the game allows you to take a Turn- essentially, you stop time and plan out a series of actions before rapidly executing them.
To make a long story short, the final boss gets a Transistor too, even though that should be impossible.
And he starts the fight by taking his own Turn before you can even move.
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u/theonetheyforgotabou 6h ago
Why this sub always consistently have people post the same things almost verbatim.
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u/IllegalBeagleLeague 4h ago
FFXV - Specifically, the so-called “Friendly Match” of the Episode Ignis DLC.
Throughout the game, Noctis and the bros face everything from daemons, to super soldiers, to giant tanks and suits of armor, to world-shattering gods. The reason they come out on top is because Noctis happens to come from a royal line that arms him with ass-kicking powers. Namely, he can pull from a dimensional pocket of 13 enchanted weapons, teleport to those weapons freely and at will, throw grenade-like magic spells, and utilize summons so massive they change the landscape of the continent. On top of that, he has a super mode, Armiger Unleashed, which allows him to fly around at will and unleash a stream of weapons that would make a Kingdom Hearts attack look boring and everyday. You can technically play as one of Noctis’ four bros, who have awesome skills, but they’re much less broken and more like skilled, but very human, warriors.
Using all these skills, you can kind of steamroll through most of FFXV. It’s not the hardest game in the world. Especially with unlimited items that have no cooldowns.
Until the freaking friendly match. In the friendly match, you get to learn what the enemies felt like, because you are Ignis - Noctis’ guardian, caretaker, and chef. You fight with knives and magic and you get a grappling hook.
And you are facing him, the prince himself, Noctis. While he teleports around you, wails on you with 13 different weapons, spams the ever loving shit out of you, and uses magic freely and at will, abuses invincibility frames, plays just outside of your reach, and uses the environment against you. He also just goes invincible randomly at will. The fight is also a drawn out slug fest that usually takes around 13 - 15 minutes at the least.
The only reward is a trophy. But to get it you have to earn the top ranking - that means having to care about score AND time, since if you pass the 15 minute mark, you’re likely starting the whole goddamn fight from scratch and trying to do better the next time. No other game has reminded me how much unfair bullshit the player is given access to, until it was turned right back around at me. Friendly match, my ass.
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u/Metalblaster_mk2 2h ago
Genuinely I did NOT like Metroid Fusion, but every single second the SA-X was on screen from its first appearance to its last made it worth it. Seriously that mf genuinely made me scream a couple times
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u/5aximus 9h ago
🦀 CROSSCODE MENTIONED 🦀 Lea! Hi!
Indie metroidvania Vision Soft Reset has you playing as an alien that can perceive and manipulate her position in the space-time continuum - the game's fast travel mechanic is actually you jumping to a different timeline, and you can spend a resource to rewind time by a few seconds to, for example, make it so an attack you got hit by doesn't hit you
The final boss is another member of the same species, and can use that same time rewinding power. It's very jarring to fight an enemy that can simply Nope! out of taking damage the way you can, and you can only properly hurt them by waiting for them to use up all of said resource.
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u/plogan56 8h ago
Fighting gideon ofnir in elden ring, he uses a variety of spells and incantations that buff him and make getting close to attack tricky for new time players
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u/Xaero_Hour 5h ago
Does he? I got so excited when his health bar showed up, I killed him before his opening dialog finished.
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u/Lt_Lysol 5h ago
I'm mad he monologues before attacking. Depending on the bosses you've beat he can be a pain. If you've beat Melania he knows her Scarlet Aeonia spell, beat Rykard he learns Rykards Rancor and Beating Mohg he leans Bloodboon. He's a great concept and fun fight....if he didn't do that villain thing and talk too much.
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u/RedNoodleHouse 7h ago edited 7h ago
In Transistor, a core part of the gameplay is being able to stop time and pre-plan a number of actions you'll do, then starting time again and automatically doing that sequence of actions in a Turn.
At the end of the game, Royce, who has been speaking to you throughout the game, reveals he has the same magitech sword you do and opens his fight by doing the same time stop you've been doing to other people the whole game, and you can only watch as he prepares to pile on a shit ton of damage onto you.
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u/Romaherot 5h ago edited 5h ago
"A hive lieutenant uses the light!"
Destiny 2 - Lightbearer hive
The players are guardians: humans blessed by the Traveler through small drones called ghosts, giving them elemental powers and the ability to revive.
In Witch queen, some of the hive, a faction opposed to the Traveler gets chosen too, granting some of them access to the same class abilities, same grenades, similar supers, and unlike a previous enemy lightbearer, the ability to revive, forcing you to crush their ghost to properly finish them.
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u/TempTopBlaster 5h ago
The megaman series has some moments like this in X2, X5, X6. Also in Megaman Zero you fight both "X" and "tecnicaly Zero, but not really"
Also, the music from the fights are amazing, X versus Zero always slaps hard and cannonball always kicks you into high gear
Also, love crosscode getting some recognition
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u/Lower-Draw8560 6h ago
Dark Souls 3 final boss is supposed to be the amalgamation of all Dark souls 1 and 2 players,and so he is the equivalent of max level player.
He will swap between different builds, going from a classic warrior, to a mage, to a paladin,to a pyromancer and a rogue.
In this last one he can also parry,as well as dodge-roll like the player.
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u/Smurfy0730 5h ago edited 5h ago
Re: Crosscode
Base game Apollo is basically a lesson in parrying. He finally catches on in duel 3 a little if you start using Guard Arts he will react, but there are still nasty parry windows you can use against him.
Shizuka however, has barely taught me anything because now you can status pile on her and play defensive and watch her health just drop (Burn and Jolt, Jolt can even with enough bonuses can stunlock her out of the combat arts) while you chill her to slow her down physically so you can react better and apply a Mark from Wave to just plink down with opportunity shots/heal better with Wave mid duel - and/or just grind for the late game as you should be doing before going against her and be more than prepared for her.
Just, she really doesn't like losing and I think Round 5 of the no loss streak she starts trying to Ether Snipe copium on you, and that's where you can run into trouble if you let her maximize that silly attack that the Radical Fish devs have tried to nerf several times with marginal success.
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u/NikTheGrass 5h ago
Mewgenics — Before fighting us directly, the final boss summons copies of your cats with the same abilities and equipment.
Baldurs Gate 3 — One of the Shar's trials is a battle with shadow copies of your characters
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u/JakSandrow 41m ago
Transistor. Spoilers for the ending.
As Red, you fight your way to the very tip of the enemy forces, fighting against Joyce. There's nothing else in the world, pretty much. Just the echoes of a dying, bland, immortal white space. You've been a one-woman army against the entirety of the enemy, and now you go up against their leader, who has ensconced himself against the rot. Oh, and turns out your omnipotent tool has a double - and Joyce wields it, going first.
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u/nyco_bit 7h ago
Evil Marines. They are from a Doom 2 mod called Scythe 2. An enemy who moves incredibly fast, does ridiculous burst damage and is hard to hit. Basically what you look like for the average demon.
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u/Venkman95 7h ago
In The Mummy: Demastered if your agent dies, you respawn as a new agent and have to fight the zombified version of your previous agent with all the weapons and abilities you've metroidvaniaed up to this point
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u/FedoraTheMike 6h ago
That Ganondorf fight rocked, but man it would've made a generational Dark Link fight.
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u/fervent_light 6h ago
Insomniac's Spider-Man 2: Miles fights with Peter Parker, who is under the influence of the Symbiote
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u/CoPacheA 4h ago edited 4h ago
The final battle of Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion is a memory of a fight against the protagonist of the first Splatoon, in which, while you only have basic weaponry, she has probably the best secondary weapon in the game and the ability to literally spam her ult
Edit: I forgot to mention that Kalamari Inkantation plays in the background, the song that plays during all the final boss battles in the main splatoon storylines and serves to motivate the player. Well, now we know what it feels like not to be the one the song is being played for.
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u/ViorbyX 4h ago
V2 is a complete machine of the V-series, unlike V1, the protagonist of ULTRAKILL. She uses almost every weapon V1 uses showing you how annoying you are. Of course, V2 gets defeated by your sick combos and parrying since she doesn't even use her arms. At least, it's a glimpse of your capabilities. (Yes, I wasn't the first to mention her here)
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u/nexus11355 3h ago
Ultrakill, V2.
It moves like you, it has the same weapons, in the second fight it even can shoot your coins and toss its own.
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u/AnimeMan1993 11m ago
The X vs Zero fight from Megaman X5
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u/AnimeMan1993 10m ago
I feel this trope applies here since both are playable and you end up on the receiving end of the same abilities they use that you can as well when playing either of them.
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u/rasfelion 7h ago
Skyrim actually pulls this on the player a few times. Notably when encountering high level Draugr Lords, they'll have access to the same shouts the player has, including basic fire and frost breath, disarm which is a massive pain in the ass to get hit by, and varying strengths of Unrelenting Force, the first shout unlocked in the game. At lower levels it'll just stagger you, at higher levels you'll be flung across the dungeon like a ragdoll while the Draugr Lord still attacks you.
Other instances would be Karliah during the Thieves Guild questline nailing the player with an arrow in stealth, the Ebony Warrior having several perks the player would normally have (including a reflect damage skill from the heavy armor tree), and Miraak having the same abilities as the player character as Dragon born.
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u/A_Human_Being_BLEEEH 6h ago
during his boss fight in Chapter 5, Flowery (Deltarune) not only gathers his recruits from throughout the chapter, but also raises your Mercy bar briefly. granted these are more metanarrative and don't actually affect the gameplay but it drives in the point that he is very much the hero of his own story
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u/Fish_N_Chipp 9h ago
Penguin in the Batman: Telltale series using Batman’s tech to fight him
“So this is how you feel when you put on that suit. I like it”