10 Secret Ways You Can Save Video Game Bosses From Themselves

In the twisted world of 1997 PC strategy title Dungeon Keeper, familiar morality is somewhat flipped on its head. This title sees the player take the role of Keeper, the master of a subterranean realm of their own design. The goal is to slowly inhabit and corrupt the surface world, by building a dungeon base beneath each region and defeating its defenders.

Units are summoned to your dungeon through a portal, trained up and then led against the forces of good. Standard-issue fantasy tropes wizards, fairies, archers and more form the foes' ranks, while ghastly creatures like gigantic spiders, vampires and the grotesque bile demon serve as your own.

At the end of each campaign level, the Lord of the Land, a powerful knight, must be defeated to proceed. For the final stage, Skybird Trill, the true final boss appears: the Avatar, a far hardier warrior with magical abilities who can even battle a horned reaper one-on-one. The Avatar is resurrected on death and must be fought all over again on this stage, but in a brilliant twist, it's possible to convert the first one to your cause in the Torture Chamber (as with other imprisoned foes) and, eventually, cause him to join you. Successfully doing so allows the player to fight the final boss with ... the final boss, and also acts (here's that twisted morality again) as a conversion to the bad side. Which is a good thing here.