7 Bosses You Can Only Beat by NOT Fighting Them

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

In the original Prince of Persia (1989), you have a boss fight against your mirror self before Jaffar. It mirrors your every moves. If you fight it, your attacks actually hurt you. The only way to beat it is by sheating your sword, which he will also do.

[@Venture1880]

Always immediately think about this one every time someone talks about "bosses you beat by not fighting"

[@miciso666]

Yeah fighting it kills you even. 😅

[@MattiaBulgarelli]

​@secondchance6603: definitely an homage to Prince of Persia, esp. considering that the first Tomb Raider had more than a few mechanics that were "Prince of Persia in 3D". And yes, I was surprised not to see the OG boss-not-fought in the list.

[@marccendros3605]

The first example I thought of as I read the title of the video.

[@brandonhayes5460]

Indeed 👍 I think we can all agree that we all spend hours playing that game

[@JoeJaJoeJoe]

In Sonic and Knuckles, the boss of Sandopolis Act 1 is an invincible stone golem. To defeat it, you just walk to the left side of the screen and wait for the golem to jump in quicksand while trying to attack you

[@alexbruce9499]

You can also beat it by attacking it though. You can't directly damage it, but hitting it in the head knocks it back so you can do that to force it into the quicksand.

[@zackspiker_]

The fake animal capsule can also only be hurt by itself.

[@FourthIdentity-gu2zk]

I didn't know he would jump in the sand, I always knocked him in lmao. I played that game when I was FIVE and I never knew that lol. Amazing, thank you

[@videogamefan101]

​@@zackspiker_ I personally wouldn't count that one. You still do SOMETHING during the fight, which is to coax it to strike its own head, then jump out of the way before you're hit.

[@GameHunterMaster]

Funny thing is in Dead Rising 2, after Bibi does her stage dive, she snaps out of her crazy mindset and realizes that she just fell into a pack of Zombies. You have the option of saving her and recruiting her as a normal survivor.

[@sairus3239]

And you need to do so if you're aiming for the "saved everyone" achievement

[@docette2015]

I love how the boss fight in The Darkness is all about originally giving up all your Darkness stuff -- only to get it back again by giving the Darkness a big hug as it protests loudly despite HAVING JUST TOLD YOU TO SURRENDER TO IT. Like, Darkness. Make up your mind.

[@Feasco]

the Darkness is tsundere

[@averynaiveoddish7052]

toxic relationship you threaten it by showing how easy it is to leave it

[@rickimaru915]

Boss fight is a bit of a stretch, but in The Witcher 3 there’s a side quest where Geralt is hired to get rid of a ghost from an arena. The ghost challenges anyone who enters the arena, but is useless at fighting so is beaten by anyone and everyone he challenges. To complete the quest you have to let the ghost win a fight against you, thus breaking the curse and letting him pass on to the other side

[@mitiamed]

came here to say this, glad I used ctrl+F

[@GrimmBones]

Oh shit, I remember that. Fuckin' loved it.

[@aaronimp4966]

That's... really wholesome.

[@averagebloodborneenjoyer]

I remember a parody boss fight in No more heroes 3. In that fight you had a menu with different options like in JRPG, but you couldn't do a real damage to the boss. So to win the fight you actually had to ATTACK THE MENUS!

[@AlriikLives]

Travis isn't a JRPG guy, what can I say?

[@KamiRecca]

I remember playing The Darkness with a friend, and at that part one of us was freaking out, the other was yelling HUG HIM! HUG HIIM!!!! And then the character hugged him and we both uncontrollaby went YEEEEEEES!!!!!

[@arashink]

14:21 Seeing the "skip" prompt makes me want a game where a boss is only beatable by skipping their cutscene. Or scenes. Maybe a 4th wall break like, "Hey! I'm not done monologuing!"

[@Ahrpigi]

Preventing a boss from powering up by skipping their transformation cutscene would be pretty funny

[@KaitouKaiju]

​@@AhrpigiThe piranha plant in Yoshis island

[@azuredragoon2054]

Something for The Stanley Parable. "How to beat the Narrator".

[@aerthreepwood8021]

Henry Stickmin has something sort of like that with the recursive KZbinr bit

[@MCDexpo]

They sorta did that in the South Park game, The Stick of Truth/The Fractured but Hole It was just the opening narration where if you tried to skip it, Cartman more or less tells ya "no, you'll want to watch this, it's important", and then progressively get angrier and angrier until he finally boots you to the start screen

[@lahaime1657]

If you count optional bosses, Final Fantasy 5 had Gogo the Mime as one of these. If you stand still and do nothing, you win after a few minutes. Attack him, and he spams the deadliest spells in the game. Almost impossible to survive the onslaught

[@DFloyd84]

And since Gogo is at the bottom of a submerged tower where you're on a time limit, the idea that you shouldn't use any commands in the fight (i.e. waste your time) seems counterintuitive.

[@Maleketh42]

He does actually give away the trick himself: "Could you imitate me, you'd certainly win!"

[@Geheimnis-c2e]

technically its possible to fight him the normal way but you need a dual wielding freelancer with rapidfire and flare spellblade and two of the strongest swords in the game, discounting the chicken knife.

[@CD-Gaming]

Not unlike the Fire Dragon in Final Fantasy VI Advance's Dragon's Den then! He starts the fight by pumping his power to maximun and then proceeds to pummel you with super powerful Fire Elemental Spells before dying of exhaustion as that power uses up all of his HP! Only, not doing anything at all won't work, you might want to consider Casting Auto-Life as he Casts Ultima upon death, same as Magi Master on Cefca's Tower, even if you get him in Berserk at the start of the fight!

[@cowboyotis]

Can't believe Andy didn't shoehorn in LeChuck from MI4 - you must engage him in Monkey Kombat while he is a giant statue (long story) but he regenerates health faster than you can damage him, so you must mirror his stances to fustigate him into giving up.

[@sakura368]

lechuck from who?

[@spoonimefan]

​@@sakura368: from one of the "Monkey Island" series of adventure games.

[@Nutsaur]

Mission Impossible 4

[@paladinpirate3319]

It was Monkey Island 4, you win by tying a few times until LeChuck smooshes the guy controlling him

[@TransmitHim]

Kyle Katarn at the end of Jedi Knight 2 is like this. I felt incredibly smug, as a someone who cares nothing about Star Wars, correctly guessing this when my SW-loving older brother who couldn't beat him.

[@michaelandreipalon359]

End of the Mysteries of the Sith expansion, more like, but yeah.

[@TransmitHim]

@@michaelandreipalon359 Hey man, it's all a War in the Stars, it's all good.

[@redshirtpunk8592]

MotS Kyle fight was the very first thing I thought of when I saw the name of this vid. Knew someone had to have mentioned it.

[@mjckeaton6709]

@@redshirtpunk8592 Same thoughts here

[@RandoChrisYT]

Korsica in Hi-Fi Rush is never attacked by Chai over the course of the fight. You simply exhaust her by parrying and dodging her attacks. Though the fight is double brilliant as there's a reason narratively why you don't try to hurt her. But then she ends up joining your team as an assist. So you'd think the encounter was only structured to focus entirely on defense for the sake of the story...until you realize it's also to avoid having Korsica beat herself up when replaying her level.

[@glassphoenix9095]

on a similar but different wavelength, the first z-shielded enemy you fight is a scripted failure, but fighting it and winning with the power of ng+ will make your allies remark on how youve broken the script...then they just roll it back and activate the normal failure cutscene lmfao

[@thestrugglesoflife5516]

@@RandoChrisYT I also mention the Korsica fight in a comment here! I love how narratively intricate Hi-Fi Rush is man. Like you can tell the amount of love the developers put into the game just by seeing the little world notes or varying character interactions. We need more games like it imo😌

[@paperip1996]

The Shirley fight in Legend of Dragoon. Screen wipes into a battle scene, the intense boss fight music starts up, and she starts pelting you with attacks. But the only way to win is to answer her questions correctly - get one wrong, or inflict her with too much damage, and you have to start over.

[@SaferSephiroth19]

My old heart feels so warm hearing this. The Shirley fight took so long to figure out when I was 13!

[@davidwitte8076]

Escape from Monkey Island - Monkey Kombat! The final boss requires you to realize if you keep copying your foe (instead of using the 'attack' stand that actually works), your foe gets frustrated and slaps the top of their head. Not usually an issue until your fighting a giant LeChuck with the main villain standing on his head, just like Tommy and his dragon zord. While in this version you are doing 'kombat', you aren't trying to hit them, just play a giant version of "stop hitting yourself".

[@frodobaggins7710]

The K. Round boss fight in Deltarune chapter 1 follows this logic. Whenever it loses a certain amount of health, it will heal itself almost fully. The only way to win is to compliment it, which causes the crown it's wearing to fall off its head and therefore end the fight

[@kyuubinaruto17]

Isn't that the boss fight where you have to throw Ralsei at it?

[@jazapura9522]

​@@kyuubinaruto17 No, that's the rematch.

[@ryanclemons1]

I wonder if deltarune will ever come out....

[@Manavine]

Undertale/Deltarune doesn't count And besides, that mechanic is literally only there to force in Susie having to acknowledge violence isn't always the answer.

[@sinteleon]

Which is the entire point of half the bosses in this list. ​@@Manavine

[@Thommy2n]

Ubisoft really does seem to like the "fighting the baddie means they win" trope. Remember 'Prince of Persia: The two thrones'? The prince's evil half pulls him into a twist obstacle course mind palace. And when you face him in an arena, slashing at Smoke Monster Evil Prince only multiplies him. Solution, walk toward the light and leave him very dissapointed.

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

In the second Silent Hill game, the easiest way to defeat Pyramid Head is to just not attack as he can't be killed and let the fight end automatically after a few minutes have passed.

[@hrgaming4plebs570]

same thing with the last boss of first SIlent Hill. Just spend all ammo before the fight and it dies automatically, probably a measure not to soft lock the game.

[@Aristaios]

@@hrgaming4plebs570 wish i could of known that years ago

[@noob1n8or]

Attacking Pyramid Head actually reduces the time it takes for the fight to end though.

[@EpsilonBlue-c7b]

I remember many years ago my Uncle was trying to beat the mirror copy in Prince of Persia (original). I thought that if he copies any move you make, why not put your sword away and maybe he would stop trying to kill you, and it worked! 🤔 The moral of the story is, you should always ask a 10 year old for help beating video games. 😊

[@chriskuta6178]

Doesn't just copy you, learned the hard way that if you successfully make a hit, you lose health. Also learned the hard way that if you're too quick and start running towards mirror Prince after sheathing your sword before he's fully sheathed his, he will attack you and it's a one shot death.

[@AmeenaWordweaver]

Ahh I was gonna mention this one myself. Yeah, it's a mirror image of you so copies your every move, meaning that attacking him causes him to attack you at the exact same time so you'll just end up killing yourself. This one might even be the Trope Namer for "Sheathe Your Sword", but if not then it's very much an example of such.

[@mar_speedman]

Cool! I'll make sure to do that while playing Dead Space remake :D

[@DodderingOldMan]

Heh, this is the one I was gonna mention too, definitely the first example of this trope I came across, and surely one of the earliest examples in gaming. I would have been around 10 too when I figured out you needed to put your sword away, I can genuinely still remember how smart I felt at the time.

[@AmeenaWordweaver]

@@DodderingOldManI remember playing it and also watching my dad play (I would've been around 6-8 or so at the time, most likely), and I can remember the sword-sheathing and then running into the reflection and I think the screen flashes and it disappears as you merge back together.

[@Zakkleberg]

I've actually beaten the first Baldur's Gate a couple of times, but I never got around to finishing Baldur's Gate 2. I barely rembered this boss from the name, but seeing the encounter brings it back. Imagine playing this in 2000, when it came out. If you were stuck on this boss, it's off to GameFAQs for an enormous text based walkthrough (the game is a very long one) and then hope that the author puts codes in the table of contents for you to Ctrl+F to find the general area that the boss explanation would be. Ah, nostalgia

[@armelior4610]

Well this one at least is pretty easy to guess. Now "how the hell do I avoid getting my brain eaten by illithids ?" the 1st time you get in the underdark on the other hand...

[@tbw223]

I used to have Dan Simpson's massive FAQ bookmarked when playing BG2. 🤣

[@Zakkleberg]

@@tbw223 aw man! He had the most in depth guides for those!

[@kaltaron1284]

@@armelior4610 The answer to the Illithids was pretty much save scumming IIRC. Or getting a certain item elsewhere before going there.

[@jamall7003]

Ahhh game faq ☺️😌

[@alexstockwell4349]

Technically this is more "Hard Bosses You Can Cheese Easily", but I think it counts here, too: The final boss, Fat Cat Robot, from Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 2 for NES. You're supposed to throw the time bombs it drops, which is extremely difficult, because they bounce off harmlessly, unless you time it just right so they explode the nano-second they touch him. However, most of the time, he just lands on top of them, thus damaging him anyway if you just leave them there, and focus on dodging his projectiles.

[@SilverFoxR]

How about the twin zombie bosses in Stage 5 (Lake) area of the NES game Monster Party? Upon entering the room, the bosses state "Watch My Dance". Normally, the thing bosses say before their fights start either are random banter or give hints and in this case, this hint is crucial to this encounter. If you hit the dancing zombies at any point during their performance, they will (unknowningly to you) start over. They also have unlimited health. What you are supposed to do is exactly what they said and watch them dance, or at the very least *not* attack them. Allow them to dance without dealing damage to them at all and eventually, they will collapse and you can continue with this zany monster game.

[@AzureKyle]

Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. The final boss of the game can only be beaten by shutting off your lightsaber, which leads to a cutscene

[@SymbioteMullet]

Came here to say this

[@toxictom9029]

My first thought :-)

[@Audhluma]

Love that The Darkness is voiced by Faith no More / Mr. Bungle vocalist, Mike Patton. Those voice comes to him pretty naturally!

[@sadcyclops8909]

in the gameboy game kid dracula the boss of the first level is the kid of the grim reaper. once youve beaten it, it cries, runs away and gets his dad to kill you. if you manage to defeat him as well, he also go and gets his father, needless to say a very very old reaper. if i remember correctly, he is invincible, but after evading him for a bit he faints of exhaustion

[@PhoenixNorthstar]

Gebel from Bloodstained:Ritual of the Night. He's set up as the final boss but you can reach him at about 50% completion. You can kill him, but doing so gets you a bad ending. What you are supposed to do is explore the rest of the castle which leads to a rematch with rival demon hunter Zengetsu. Defeating him causes him to give you his katana "moonkiller" and the information that Gebel's moon demon familiar is actually controlling him. Go back to Gebel and instead avoid his attacks and the moon in the background of the boss arena will turn red, signifying that the demon is watching through the moon. Attack the moon with the katana and the demon will kill Gebel and flee, unlocking the final two area's of the game and giving you access to the real final bosses.

[@FelisImpurrator]

It's an intentional throwback to Symphony of the Night too, where Richter Belmont and Shaft work the exact same way.

[@PhoenixNorthstar]

@FelisImpurrator yep, which makes sense since Koji "IGA" Igarashi is the Creator of Bloodstained and was the Writer and Director of Symphony of the Night as well as the Lead Producer of the Castlevania series. He left Konami to create the Bloodstained series as a spiritual successor to Castlevania after Konami basically shelved the series because they didn't think modern audiences would be interested in the Metroidvania style of gameplay.

[@azuredragoon2054]

I've only ever had the moon turn red when I've beaten Gebel to within 10% of his maximum life (and with my stats where they were, that was difficult). That "waiting" method might have been patched in.

[@Geheimnis-c2e]

Its been a while since I've played Bloodstained but I remember you don't just need to attack the moon. You have to do a special attack with the Zangetsuto for it to take effectm

[@FelisImpurrator]

@Geheimnis-c2e last I tried I just hit it normally.

[@ericb3157]

something about that part with "Bibi" reminded me of a crazy scene in "Arkham Knight", where Batman stands there as a "singer possessed by Joker" sings a song, while you control Robin, as he sneaks around and disarms a bunch of bombs.

[@WolfyFancyLads]

I mean, Prince Of Persia Two Thrones literally ends with a boss like this. Strike the dark Prince and he multiplies, meaning you quickly get overran and pin cushioned. Or, better idea, just leg it to the shiny staircase nearby. I'm not even kidding, you just run forward and that's it, there's no tricks or traps, you just go forward and he dies. It's actually kinda comical given he's an edgelord all game (though not as bad as Warrior Within Prince.)

[@kalef2]

This was the one I thought of. It was honestly a little disappointing, cause it did take me a few rounds of fighting to realize what was going on and after I finished the game I went back to see what would happen if I kept fighting and...nothing. No bad end that I could find, just endless blank rooms and boss clones until you finally turn around and leave. They don't even get harder to fight until you're overwhelmed.

[@wolftickets1969]

Also a call back to the original Prince of Persia, where the only way to defeat the reflection was to put your sword away and re-merge with it.

[@barekbennett2772]

It is a travesty to not include Hellblade on this list. You fight Hela, the goddess of death herself and unending waves of enemies to rescue your dead husband all while one of the best music compositions I've ever head plays in the background. Only to find out that you can't win and have to accept his death.

[@chillout1984]

That's alsdo the first game I thought of when I started this video.

[@ramrodbldm9876]

That walking simulator doesn't even deserve a mention. Only ppl that like that game are mental cases and that's a fact.

[@ramrodbldm9876]

@@chillout1984 also*

[@fredthemithrilogre]

Nobody mentioned Suikoden 1 & 2 yet? You have to defend yourself to save the attackers' life! That's good storytelling right there

[@Divinevert]

You can only get the best ending in Suikoden 2 by refusing to fight your friend.

[@lissas4152]

A couple of the games also require you to run away from a siege if you want the best ending. Because it's an automatic loss (death) of a character for anyone left behind...

[@Batcat-en6oe]

Honorable mention would be Pagan Min from Far Cry 4. Granted he’s not much of a boss fight when you do eventually take him on, but still you face his army. During the dinner scene in the intro, if you choose to stay for the dinner rather than try to escape, Min lets Ajay spread his mother’s ashes.

[@ILuvKonata]

Yup. Honestly the best ending of the game, as every other faction is like "Sure, we'll help you, but only after wer exploit yourt help to single-handedly do our bidding ina war" and Pagan Min's just like "Yeah, let's get this done for you, then we'll have fun" and I'm so sad there's not like, a game after that ending.

[@Batcat-en6oe]

@ I didn’t like how Far Cry 4 handle the endings involving the Golden Path as it seems like your actions as noble/good and justified as it maybe that be it feels like you accomplish nothing other than perhaps making things much worse. Ajay even has little to say or little choice to make peace with the Golden Path leaders. Great commentary from a visual story standpoint, but not really from a gaming standpoint. I very often strives to have the best good ending in story campaign, but, yes, waiting for Pagan Min to come back to dinner is better than the other options. It’s because of 4 I waited to see what Far Cry 5 was like and much like 4 it didn’t matter what I did.

[@ILuvKonata]

@@Batcat-en6oe The Pagan Min ending was even the first ending I got and was super surprised that it ended the game. I did it on stream even. I'd only played Far Cry 3, so I thought it was like, just setting up your path much earlier for the "Side with this person or the other people" stuff.

[@Danceofmasks]

This is only tangentally relevant, seeing as it's a pen and paper story ... Back in the official RPGA days in 3.5e D&D, an official module had an Iron Golem in it that was not meant to be fought. I polymorphed a few party members into Rust Monsters, asked them to get ready to swing at it, and brought them right in with Dimension Door. It failed one of the saving throws. Sometimes, not being "supposed to" defeat an enemy in a video game is just stifling player creativity.

[@deadersurvival4716]

And other times, like you proved, making your players figure out how to let it beat itself inspires creativity.

[@kaltaron1284]

There's an adage in TTRPGs: "If it has stats, you can kill it." Some games have entities that are beyond that.

[@waveeyes]

If fights where you heal the boss counts WoW has 2 solid examples: Valithria Dreamwalker from Icecrown Citadel back in Wrath, and Avatar of Sethralis from Temple of Sethralis in BfA. There is also technically Sun King's Slavation/Kael'thas in Shadowlands, but that fight also involves beating up the manifestation of his pride so I'm not counting it. Instead these fights revolve around you healing the boss in question while the damage dealers and tanks take care of the adds spawning in to try and stop you.

[@mitchells2003]

A lot of the undead bosses in the Final Fantasy series suffer damage from healing items and spells. Technically not attacking.

[@snbalmung]

The difference is that, in WoW, those fights are to protect the boss. The point is to get their hp to 100%. While the boss that's mentioned here one is only vulnerable to healing spells. Healing is how you harm it and trying to harm it only heals it. The point is still to get hp to 0.

[@enavy04]

You know you can save BiBi Love, right? After she stage dives, you have a few seconds to fight off the zombies that attack her. She then joins your survivors group. You can also save the tiger by feeding it meat a few times. It'll eventually turn on it's handler and join you.

[@mar_speedman]

Yeah, but why would you save her, though? She sounds too far gone. Tiger, totally worth saving though

[@Irisverse]

@@mar_speedman I can think of 2 reasons...

[@mar_speedman]

@@Irisverse I can't. I don't think your 2 reasons are quite that compelling :P

[@deadersurvival4716]

@@Irisverse The gooner bait fails for the rest of us that use our primary brain, rather than the one with no actual matter.

[@azuredragoon2054]

@@Irisverse Maybe if she didn't look older than everyone else there (including the zombies) that might be a good reason.

[@jarrakul]

That Baldur's Gate 2 example healed /me/. When the video started I immediately thought of that exact one, and when I saw it on the spoilers list, I got very excited.

[@CarbonFiberSwan]

Legend of Dragoon is an honorable mention. When you battle the light Dragoon (Shirley), you can’t beat her by attacking. You have to keep using defensive moves until she asks you questions, and if you answer any of the questions wrong you have to start over.

[@Evertide05]

The great thing about the Robotnik entry is that hRobotnik wouldn't even have to just hang out forever for Sonic to die. 10-minute time limit, after all.

[@colinpartridge4015]

In Phantasy Star IV, there is an optional boss that "defeating" teaches the main character the technique powerful Megid. He will ask if you can control the power (or something like that), and if you select Yes, you will have to fight him where he uses Megid on you every round. You will die. Select No, and he gives you the ability without fighting him.

[@Yoxiv]

The Sorrow in MGS3 is exactly that. He doesn't have a health bar, and you don't even have most of your gear during the battle. Instead, you have to either wade through the water following his floating form, or just use the cyanide tablet hidden in Snake's tooth to "off" himself and reawaken in the real world.

[@edwardgrimes7535]

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard there is a boss, the spirit of despair undying, who manifests on a battlefield because of the grief of people who lost loved ones in the battle. You can actually beat them, but they will just keep coming back. If you complete all the Grey Warden faction quests in the Hossberg Wetlands region, the blight that infests the area will begin to recede, allowing plants to grow again. You can gain access to three hidden alcoves, pick a blue flower at each, and then lay the flowers at the spirit’s feet, symbolizing life coming back from destruction. The spirit transforms from despair undying to hope unyielding and thanks you. You also get a trophy.

[@nivekwons7545]

I was wondering what picking that flower was for. Thanks!

[@edwardgrimes7535]

@ No problem!

[@moralityisnotsubjective5]

The true despair undying is playing Dragon Age: Veilguard.

[@evanovichtuffins2018]

In Mysteries of The Sith you have to turn off your lightsaber and refuse to fight evil Kyle Katarn

[@DJAB87]

The flesh doppelganger from Tomb Raider 1 and Anniversary comes to mind for me. Attacking it hurts you since the clone is literally mirroring Lara's every move. But by turning a handle to open a container full of lava, Lara is able to trick the doppelganger into killing itself.

[@fenrirson]

In Escape From Monkey Island (a 3d adventure puzzle game), near the end of the game you have to master an activity known as Monkey Combat, which is basically Rock Paper Scissors with extra options and you have to input button combinations (that you don't know and have to figure out and memorize yourself) to switch between options and have to reduce your opponents health to 0, and when you reach the end of the game you challenge the main antagonist to Monkey Combat, and instead of reducing your opponent to 0 (normal combat only results in healing on both sides and can theoretically last forever) you have to end your turn in a Draw 3 times to win.

[@RayAP17]

An OxBox video on a Saturday is like getting Christmas presents on Dec 29th

[@msthecommentator2863]

1:14 NGL when I heard "AC Valhalla" my first thought was "When did Animal Crossing get a Valhalla DLC?"

[@stephaniesimpson-white3293]

Kapp'n has a Viking ship now. 😂

[@restcure]

I shall now throw *my* voice into the collective roar: 3:08 "get your AKE kicked!"

[@seranafey]

Not sure if it really counts as a win, but Darth Vader in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. He automatically blocks every attack and you end up running away from him in the second half. Not sure if it even counts as not fighting or not, since you try, but I say that him successfully not being harmed by you at all the entire time could count on technicality... lol

[@ghostyuki-kfpinquisitor1038]

The "fight" against Shirley comes to mind in Legend of Dragoon. Just have to stop attacking and let her do her thing to progress

[@Spootington]

I am endinessly glad someone other than me mentioned that!

[@ryanwillingham]

FLASHING LIGHTS WARNINGS: 1. in the intro to the baldur's gate 2 section. clip starts flashing immediately upon starting at 5:39 and ends around 6:03 2. throughout the darkness section. first flashing lights appear in the 15:22 clip and continue intermittently until around 16:36 i'm not photosensitive but these two parts were suuuuper egregious to me and, imo, definitely needed a warning baked into the video

[@ghw1985]

The Legend of Dragoon, Shirley you just block and she asks questions to know if you are a good person

[@Geheimnis-c2e]

imagine finally getting out of your deadend job for a better one and suddenly a bootlicker version of you comes out of a mirror and fights you while reminding you to go to work during the holidays terrifying.

[@shaden.l.m.9506]

In Undertale, you can notoriously spare or kill just about every monster you come across (outside of Shop keepers, and So Sorry on a Genocide Run) but there are a chuck on bosses/monster you can't kill: Those in the True Lab, and the true final boss. The only way to win is appealing to who they were- One notable exception is Lemon bread, (the Amalgamation that's disguised as a Save point), while you can spare them like normal, the fight is technically optional. If you do the Frisk wall dance around them, they won't fight you.

[@Kowery105]

The wall Lemonbread skip glitch is only for Nintendo Switch , I think

[@shaden.l.m.9506]

@Kowery105 Huh, TIL. Not exactly like I have another version of Undertale to test that

[@Leith_Crowther]

Yeah, but Undertale is such low hanging fruit that they’d have to dig around the trees roots in order to include it for yet another video.

[@Mystwarrior1]

Final fantasy 5 Famed Mimic Gogo at the bottom of the sunken tower in world 3. The boss guarding the Mime Job. Also does Giygas count? U start fighting but to finish it u have to Pray instead.

[@alanbauer4868]

I can think of two additional bosses that can only be beaten through nonviolence. 1. In A plague Tale: Requiem, near the end during a dream sequence it requires you to stop struggling against the monsters and accept the outcome. 2. FFV has Gogo, the Mime, who will murder you if you attack him and the only way to win is to do nothing.

[@KingdomKey-ik4xk]

Come to think of it... for the Root Pack, you'll technically be one soul short because you didn't kill Ollie during his phase of the Root Pack fight. But finishing the fight gets you the soul contract anyway, for some reason. Guess the Devil doesn't care how you get the contracts, as long as you get them one way or another, so *shrug*

[@tomodaphne]

The game never says you have to kill the bosses to get their souls. I always interpreted it as having to knock them out so that you can find their contracts, which are representative of their souls, because they won’t give up their souls without a fight.

[@ka-mai]

The substitute radish?

[@Darchias]

Yeah pretty sure the radish contract replaces Ollie's.

[@hyrulianguardlyfe3952]

i saw the title of this and im like they better include Cecil from FF IV, if they dont we will all riot..hes the most iconic and most notable "do nothing" boss battle.

[@EthanQix]

The Prince's shadow in the original Prince of Persia. Every damage you cause to it is reflected onto you, and it can damage you without damaging itself. However, it has only as much HP as you had back when it split from you a few levels before, so you are likely to have more max HP than it does. As long as you don't get hit, you will mathematically end up at a positive HP total when his reaches zero, right? Nope! If you kill it, you die as well. The only winning move is to sheathe your sword, which in any other fight would get you killed.

[@ericb3157]

i once knocked him off the platform, but when he finally hit something down below, we both died.

[@malcolmdarke5299]

...your shadow in The Kingdom of Loathing. You beat it, not by fighting it in the standard "use attacks and damaging skills" way, but by healing yourself.

[@randelacross9025]

That "fight" in FF4 took me forever to figure out when I was a kid back when it was called 2 on the snes

[@Xindiel]

The firs of these type of bosses i remember facing was in the OG prince of persia, when you face of against the mirror you attacking him hurts you, the only way to win is to sheathe your sword and run into him

[@Marc_Araujo]

That's "Cecil F'n Harvey" to you!

[@Orange.cats.r.cutest]

Lets not forget The Trickster from Thief, Karras from Thief The Metal Age and the Hag from Thief Deadly Shadows. Lets give Garrett some love for not fighting

[@Chris_Sizemore]

Remember the Ultima series of games? Did you known there was a secret boss in all of those games? Lord Brittish. Yeah, I know! Anyways the only way to beat him was to avoid doing any sort of damage to him. If you did, Lord Brittish would launch an obscenely deadly attack at you. It was almost like you weren't suppose to fight him! Like Lord Brittish was some sort of self-insert character created by the devs. Anyways the real way to beat Lord Brittish was to go around him and loot his treasury. Take that Lord Brittish!

[@KayveePlays]

If I'm honest I'd still count Lucien on Fable 2. Mostly because it's not even a fight and when you get to the room you can leave your game running have something to eat and when you get back you'll be on the screen to choose a wish.

[@hatmanza]

No Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith? When Mara Jade finally faces Kyle Kattarn, not only must you NOT approach him, doing so drops you through the floor and you die, instead you need to walk sideways or backwards into the seeming abyss. This causes the arena to actually appear. Nothing you can throw at Kyle does anything. Any weapon other than your lightsaber gets force yanked out of your hands. So saber battle as befits star wars right? Nope. Instead, you need to activate your fists. This qualifies as putting away your saber. This immediately triggers the final cutscene of the game.

[@teamalice115]

In many of the disgaea series, there are bosses that on a second or third play through you’re supposed to be able to beat but on your first play through you have to lose to because otherwise you can’t advance the story. I don’t know. I would technically count that you have to fight them to win because you can try to fight them and just horribly lose but if you beat them, you get a special game over every time.

[@Squishenstein]

14:05 the baseball bat full of nails is indeed "wood"

[@runningthemeta5570]

Empathetic Manifestation is only making me think of the “Emptiness Machine” by Linkin Park and I have no idea why.

[@WIMMine]

Timing the "The Darkness" title card for The Darkness when the character says "The Darkness" is just *chef's kiss*

[@BJGvideos]

The first one that came to mind for me was Gogo from Final Fantasy 5. Also, verse battles were apparently a thing Vikings did.

[@ericb3157]

i just remembered, there's a scene in one of the "monkey island" games where you get into an "insult duel".

[@DJAB87]

I remember there being a kind of insult battle in Sly 3 as well.

[@thestrugglesoflife5516]

I'd Say HiFi Rush should be on here. The fight with Korsica just has you evading her attacks while trying to convince her why she shouldn't skewer you😅. I love this game so PLEASE included this in the Commenter’s edition🙏🙏

[@ThomK-TBF-IRL]

If you wanna talk about bosses in classic Sonic games you beat by not fighting them, how about that one that's just a head with a set of pincers sticking out of the ground at the bottom of a hill? You face this foe after ol' Robotnik plucks you from the certain doom of taking a bath in a pool of lava... (Again with the lava, what the heck?) ...and deposits you on said hill. Then balls are sent bouncing down the hill you're on. Avoid the balls and they hit pincer-head. Repeat until pincer-head is dead. Do you want Sonic dead or not, Robotnik?

[@xxFatalxSins]

What about The Twins in NieR:Automata? You basically go around the arena dodging every attack and refusing to fight them until they eventually start bickering and fighting over whether or not to kill you.

[@l0stndamned]

The mirror/dark prince in Prince of Persia is defeated by not fighting, same goes for Virgo in Doom and Destiny.

[@ruddendave]

'A large emotionally unstable onion' - can relate.

[@VegaTomoshibi]

The FF4 example technically isn't correct. It's not that he's immortal, he just has obscenely high health that loses big chunks when he uses his Darkness skill; technically hitting him will make him die faster if anything, but not by much. The real reason you're advised to defend is to make it so you’re more likely to survive his attacks, but healing occasionally will literally do the same thing

[@JeedyJay]

Although self-damage is how the Darkness skill works for the player, the mirror dark knight doesn't actually damage itself to death - you're just coded to win if you don't attack for long enough. You definitely still can beat it in the conventional way, though, and it's pretty easy if you've got a bunch of Potion2s.

[@lethalgeek]

There's a script in the fight that if you get hit by three Darkness attacks without doing damage yourself then the boss "self destructs". This is way more apparent if you play the randomized version where the boss shows up with way too much HP to try to chew through. Also Darkness will eat you alive with other boss stats.

[@andyq524]

Show Robotnik the proper respect. His machines are destroyed in 8 hits, not 5.😂😂😂

[@superchicken9033]

oh dang ff4 reference! I grew up with in the late 16 bit early 3d era particularly snes and ps1. FF4 is the reason I am a gamer!

[@RedSpade37]

Cecil defeating his inner darkness is the gold-standard for this trope, I feel.

[@theassening4563]

2 ½ cups warm water(600 mL) 1 teaspoon sugar 2 teaspoons active dry yeast 7 cups all-purpose flour(875 g), plus more for dusting 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt ¼ cup semolina flour(30 g)

[@hylianxbox6586]

I honestly love the "boss fight" with Odin and how you need to just unequip your weapon to beat it Assassin's creed valhalla is such a fantastic game and didn't get the love it deserved

[@ka-mai]

Yes! Loved this fight and loved the game as a whole.

[@shootdacheese9342]

Not to mention the score and cutscene after. Man it's a long game but I appreciate Eivor's journey

[@Hellwyck]

"...as long as you resolve things peacefully with the onion" is not a phrase I thought I'd ever hear on OxBox but there y'go...

[@danielhaire6677]

Alpha Protocol. A few of the boss fights you can talk down if your influence with the individual or their faction, or your stats are good enough. Doing so can change the endgame as you can have backup storming your former agency.

[@iwanttobelieve9496]

Aging myself here, but in Monster Party for the original NES, there's a bit where you come across some dancing zombies, and the only way to "beat" them is to sit there motionless and enjoy the incredibly catchy music until they dance themselves to dust. Attacking them at all just makes them respawn and start all over again.

[@SirRavix]

Man, I enjoyed playing through The Darkness games. I had so much fun with both of them.

[@platformingames2967]

Where is Jean bison form sly cooper 2 that’s one of the most creative boss where you fight him by luring him into traps

[@blindthrall]

Thought that said 7 bosses you can only beat by not farting. Now that's a gold trophy right there.

[@grigoryrechistov3040]

The original Prince of Persia, the shadow is defeated by sheathing the blade.

[@blackrogueheart]

The final boss of Death Stranding has this; after battling your way into the Beach to face her, she offers you the chance to kill her, even gives you the gun to do it with, and tells you to stop her from ending humanity. Except if you actually try to kill her, the bullets just bounce off, and the world ends. Likewise, if you let the timer run out, the world ends. You have to not shoot her, and step towards her and choose to "embrace" her instead, which nets you another lengthy cutscene, but also the proper ending of the game.

[@asherandai1000]

Empathic manifestation can actually be killed with regular attacks. It’s just incredibly difficult. Basically they gave it some stats, I think it had something like 400 hp, and threw on an overturned regeneration to it. It basically regenerates full hp every half second (12 times per round). But, if you get lucky with your attacks all striking within half a second before it regenerates, get a couple of crits, and have a party of high single burst damage potential… you can kill it!

[@kurosakikun96]

Final Fantasy has a few bosses like these, my favourite being the Mimic Gogo fight from FF5, who mimics whatever the party does, only significantly stronger, yet if you go a minute without doing anything, he commends your ability to "mimic him" by not moving, and grants you the Mimic job for the party as a reward

[@Dark_Mishra]

Metalhead from Spyro should qualify for this list as well. You can’t directly damage the robot because it’s invincible, so instead Spyro has to destroy the electrical pylon situated around the arena - without getting electrocuted or hit by minions that Metalhead can throw at you. Knock down all the pylons and he retreats to a second arena. Repeat the process and then Metalhead just shuts down on its own. You can even get Metalhead to help destroy himself because when he throws his minions at you, they’ll also destroy any pylons in their path.

[@SilverGreyscale]

Technically the Dark Knight in FF 4 ain't immortal, he has a lot of health, it is possible to kill him, but it's easier to just defend and heal

[@dawsonbusenbark3945]

TIL 🤯 is there any different dialogue for killing him? Or does it just continue as though you stood down?

[@kujatribal]

I could've sworn attacking the Dark Knight in FFIV does make the fight end quicker. Sure, you don't deal as much damage as his Darkness ability takes from him, but you still help a little. Might save a turn or two. With space to heal in the middle. However, a boss that I've heard there's a strategy for defeating it by attacking it but it complicates things a lot and so it's much better and quicker for you to just not do anything is Gogo in FFV, the master of mimicry. And uhm... Evrae Altana, from FFX. 2-3 Phoenix Downs and it dies, probably doesn't even get to attack you at all.

[@snbalmung]

He does have a health pool that can be depleted, but the script that has him "give up" if he uses a few darkness commands consecutively without taking damage is much easier to trigger. He doesn't actually consume his hp to use darkness like the player version.

[@sotnosen95]

The Embodiment of Harmony from Corruption of Laetitia is a similar deal to Cecil. If you keep attacking her, she'll scold you for being too bloodthirsty and eventually knock you out. To win, you need to just keep guarding and healing yourself until she decides that you've passed her test, at which point she'll let you pass without a fight.

[@hashimashadoo]

My first experience with this kind of mechanic was in Star Wars: Mysteries of the Sith, the expansion pack for Jedi Knight, where you play as Mara Jade and have to appeal to your teacher (the protagonist of Jedi Knight) to not cut your head off when he falls to the Dark Side.

[@Stratelier]

Infamous example: in Apogee's "Rise of the Triad", when you finally encounter the Big Bad "El Oscuro", he's immune to every weapon in your arsenal (and will even counter them with similar attacks). In a 1990s Doomlike where your goal is usually to shoot anything that moves until it doesn't. Instead, you are meant to wait out his attacks until he retreats towards the _actual_ final level, where you can actually fight him properly.. There's another example from Final Fantasy as well: When nearing the endgame of Final Fantasy 5, there is an underwater tower you can explore, with secret character Gogo at the bottom. His class is the "Mimic", and he will counter physical attacks with physical attacks, and magic with (his) magic.. To defeat him and acquire the class for yourself, you must mimic hims actions, or lack thereof, until he congratulates you for winning this little mimic-off. (If you persist on attacking him conventionally, eventually he will declare you unworthy and obliterate your team fairly quickly)

[@junemageettv]

FFXIV has a boss like this! In the dungeon Bardam's Mettle that you run during the Stormblood MSQ, the second boss can't be attacked. You gotta do its puzzles and have at least one party member pass each trial so the golem blocking your way will judge you worthy and let you pass.

[@ZevVeli]

In The Legend of Dragoon one of the first disk bosses is a ghost named Shirley. If you attack her she will immediately launch a vampiric attack that will harm you for the amount of health you just dealt to her and heal herself. The only way to beat her is to repeatedly guard, and then correctly answer the questions that she poses to you while transforming into your various loved ones to see if you are worthy of the magical macguffin you need to save your surrogate sister/childhood friend from the poison of a giant preying mantis dragon.

[@Spencerdoken]

Wow, you didn't need to emotionally devastate me with that bit of hedgehog/bonfire trivia 😢

[@leilaliebel8767]

I figured when final fantasy was mentioned, it would be the boss GoGo who copies every attack you do, so the way to win the fight is to just stare at him until he's unsure who exactly is copying who. They also brought him back in the mmo XIV as a boss in the Blue Mage side content.