Post Final Boss

The Post Final Boss is an easy to effortless boss you fight to clean up the plot after you fight the real Final Boss. They're more common in RPGs than other types of games mainly because RPGs pay more attention to the plot than other types of games, but they can also be found in nearly any game that has a plot. Handled well, it can be very cathartic, especially if it's comes quickly after the That One Boss, with no Save Point or After Boss Recovery.

Note that this is not always synonymous with Anticlimax Boss; a climax is the "highest tension" part of a story or conflict, and everything after that is falling action after the rising action peaks. This would be a brief spike in the action before all conflicts are resolved and everything is summed up.

As this is an Ending Trope, there will be Spoilers. You have been warned.

Examples of Post Final Boss include:

• This trope may best be illustrated by the fistfight in Metal Gear Solid. Snake has just destroyed his biggest, toughest enemy, a rampaging giant robot, and after returning to consciousness, he fights Liquid bare-knuckled and shirtless on the remains of the robot. Although unlike most examples of this trope, Liquid is a legitimate threat and can be a challenging fight; in fact, he can be tougher than Metal Gear Rex was.
• Possibly the earliest known example: In the original NES Bionic Commando, after killing Hitler, you must escape the base. As you climb out of the soon to explode base, you face one last enemy standing in the way of your escape.
• Well after beating the Elder Princess Shroob in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, she possesses Bowser in a last ditch attempt to kill the Mario Bros. and their younger counterparts back in the present time. Even though you can only damage her spirit by reflecting the fireball attacks back at Bowser (the ones Bowser charges and fires, counter with hammer), or dodging them outright (the ones you can jump over), this battle is the easiest of the game.
• After you fight Braska's Final Aeon in Final Fantasy X, you meet Yu Yevon in a fight that is mechanically impossible to lose.
  • It is possible, but the boss itself actually cannot defeat you. In order to "achieve" a Game Over in that battle, you need to bring Stonetouch weapons and attack your own characters, petrifying and shattering them.
• In Final Fantasy VII, after defeating the trope-naming One-Winged Angel form of Sephiroth, Cloud's mind is invaded by Sephiroth's consciousness in a last-ditch effort on the villain's part. During the fight's intro, Cloud's Limit Break meter fills up, prompting the player to use Omnislash on Sephiroth. And even if the player stands there and does nothing, Sephiroth hits Cloud with a gravity-based move, which Cloud counters, making the player win the fight anyways.
• Shadow of the Colossus: The Hopeless Boss Fight against the three knights after you've beaten the final Colossus. The kicker? YOU are the Colossus.
• Geldoblame in Baten Kaitos. Despite its mountain of hit points, it barely hits at all, has no defensive capacities, and gets one-shotted by a Spirit Attack. That being said, it has a kickass battle theme that's only heard here.
• Nyx in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.
• Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings has one of these.
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has Roxas fight Riku in The World That Never Was after finishing off the Sequential Boss, Xion. It's not a particularly easy fight, but definitely not final boss material.
• At the end of Live a Live, after a long and difficult battle against the Demon Lord Odio, you either fight Odio's "true form" (a weak human fighter who dies in a few hits), or spare Odio and end up fighting all the game's previous major bosses from the previous chapters (who have not leveled up in the interrim and thus pose only a very minor threat).
• At the end of the Alien campaign in Aliens vs. Predator 2, after a difficult battle against 2 Predators, the game ends with you fighting Dr. Eisenberg, a human with a shotgun who goes down after one hit.
• Seen in the PC version of Far Cry. In the final level you fight (in order) the mutated, superpowered Big Bad, then go through That One Level fighting several Giant Mooks with rocket launchers and Demonic Spider snipers, then have to fight through a final gauntlet of Elite Mooks, before you finally come to the final villain; a weak scientist armed with a submachine gun who goes down in one bullet.
• Jowy in two of Suikoden II's endings.
• Lucien in Fable II with the Giant Shard serving as the actual final boss.
• In Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World, after defeating Richter, you fight a Hopeless Boss Fight against Lloyd and Marta, followed by a Duel Boss against Ratatosk, which you don't even have to win.
  • If you win that Hopeless Boss Fight, you get the game's absolute worst ending for your trouble.
• In Xenosaga II, after a difficult two round fight against the Patriarch, Jr. fights Albedo in a battle he can't lose.
• The very last level of Tomb Raider 2.
• Metroid Fusion has the Omega Metroid, which is basically a last challenge while being timed. He can be tricky, but his attacks are easy to avoid and you should have plenty of time to win. The SA-X is the true final boss really.
  • The same goes for Dark Samus attacking you one last time in Metroid Prime 2, during the countdown escape. Emperor Ing is the real final boss.
  • MB is another example, from Other M - the Metroid Queen is the main final boss, the last part is just a first person thing and you just have to aim for the enemy (MB) in order for a cutscene to play. It only resembles a challenge due to being backed up by four unique Elite Mooks (Desbrachian supersoldiers) who can still be knocked out of the way easily once you figure out the proper trick to them. However, there is a Playable Epilogue afterwards...
• At the end of the final Borderlands DLC (which is also the end of the Borderlands story proper), you fight a humongous Claptrap robot-fortress. After you blow that up, the 3-foot-tall Claptrap robot himself jumps out to fight you. He's pretty nimble and has a fairly damaging close-range hadoken move, but otherwise has relatively low health and damage output and is a pretty easy fight compared to the usual major boss battles in the game.
• This is seen in the post-credits sequence in Lands of Lore III. After defeating Jakel and saving the Lands from destruction, your character has one last fight with Evil Chancellor Lord Geron after you catch him trying to flee with the crown jewels. This is pretty well justified and a decent way to end the series, given that long-time fans have been waiting 3 games for the chance to shank that condescending, Obviously Evil Devil in Plain Sight asshat.
• Operation C, the Contra game for the original Game Boy, has you fight a giant robot guardian before confronting the alien leader. The alien leader itself is just a giant Brain In a Jar with no form of defense whatsoever.
• Killer7 ends this way. After a Mind Screw battle against the School Principal, the last level has you basically walk into a house, chase a man in a gimp suit, and shoot him to death. Apparently he was the main villain. It's never really explained clearly.
  • The man in the gimp suit is Kun Lan, dressed as Iwazaru. Or possibly WAS Iwazaru all along. ...yeah.
• It could be argued that Gary is this in Bully, with the clique leader Boss Rush being the Final Boss stage. The fight against Gary consists largely of taunts and arguments, before an easy fight which ends with Gary being expelled. Really, the fight is only there to get back at Gary for the events of the rest of the game, but the earlier Boss Rush provided much more of a challenge.
• In Manhunt, after a tense cat-and-mouse battle against the monsterous, completely insane Piggsy, the Director himself is an overweight schmuck who takes a few potshots at you with a pistol as you chase him around and finally eviserate him with a chainsaw.
• Non-videogame example here: In Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, after defeating Big Bad Gideon, Scott suddenly finds himself face-to-face with Nega Scott (who is defeated simply by not fighting him).
• In Fallout: New Vegas, if the players take the House or Independent ending, they'll have to deal with General Oliver after dealing with Legate Lanius. Oliver himself is relatively weak, but is accompanied by NCR Veteran Rangers wielding Brush Guns (one of the best rifles of the game). Like Lanius however, the player can choose to talk him into simply leaving. If not, you'll at least have your own Elite Mecha-Mooks to back you up and chances are you'll be enough of a One-Man Army at that point to take every one of them down yourself.
• In the endings of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines where you gun for him, LaCroix turns out to be an example of this after you've disposed of The Sheriff as the Final Boss. Whatever way it goes down, he's defeated with some dialogue and a cutscene.
• The Meteor Parasite in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Before you can deliver the final blow, you get whisked away to the Final Boss. After beating the last boss, you get transported back to the parasite, who is still in critical condition, being at 1 HP and unable to fight back at all. All it takes is a single attack to finish it off.
• The final boss of Xenogears, Urobolus, is extremely easy. Of course, having just defeated God (or, rather, a somewhat mechanical creature that is sort of God but not really...don't ask...), anything would be easy.
• The PlayStation 3 version of Eternal Sonata turns Frederic into this by upgrading the previous battle from a rather easy battle against something close to a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere in the Xbox360 version to a much harder fight to the death with the Evil Overlord. If you managed to beat him, the Post Final Boss should be a walk in the park for you.
• The fight against the Time Devourer (the dragon one) from Chrono Cross is an epic Final Boss fight, spanning several locales and stages, and packing a lot of hard-hitting attacks and Elements. Afterwards there's the fight against the other Time Devourer (the Lavos one), who doesn't hit nearly as hard, and who is defeated by playing a song.
• In the console version of Daikatana, Kage Mishima appears as a strong Duel Boss. In the portable version he has two forms and can do a lot of damage to Hiro. After the fight, Mikiko betrays Hiro and can be defeated in a couple of seconds on both versions.
• After a tough battle with Dr. Wily's machine in Mega Man 2, you go through a stage with no obstacles except dripping lava. Then, you see him turn into an alien. That would be pretty imposing, if it didn't use a simple figure 8 flight pattern and single shots (although it's immune to everything except Bubble Lead). Granted, it's justified as it's actually a hologram projector, so it's not like Wily had anything else left.
• This is seen in Silent Hill: Downpour. After defeating the giant "Wheelman" monster as the final boss, the game ends with Anne appearing and trying to murder you. She's a puny human armed with a pistol, while you're suddenly playing as The Bogeyman (who's at the same level of toughness as Pyramid Head was). Surprisingly, Anne still manages to put up a half-decent fight, although she has pretty much zero chance of actually killing you.
• Wizard 101 has a double version of this trope for the world of Avalon. In the second to last dungeon the player fights the insanely powerful Young Morganthe and the fight is then followed by the much easier fight with Sir Malory. The final dungeon is also easy compared to the second to last (although Pendragon is tough without any healing spells) and there is even a fairly easy Dual Boss after him.
• The parodic video game of The Great Gatsby seems to pay tribute to this, with a final boss rumble against the Black Sox (though it's not quite as memorable as fighting the T.J. Eckelburg sign), then a quiet run with a small handful of token bad guys down the dock where the green light is waiting. Jumping to reach it causes Nick to pause right before reaching it, and after a short melody indicating that's the end of the level, the ending plays out.