10 Video Game Boss Transformations You Didn't See Coming
3. Ancient Wu - True Crime: Streets Of LA
Though dismissed by many as an ersatz Grand Theft Auto knock-off at the time of its release, True Crime: Streets of LA is generally held to be one of the better sandbox actioners of its era.
This may be either because or in spite of how incredibly and unexpectedly weird it gets after a few hours, with pretty typical Triad-centric crime shenanigans abruptly morphing into outright supernatural insanity totally out of nowhere.
In the chapter "House of Wu," players come face-to-face with Ancient Wu, the mythical creator of the Chinese Triad said to be hundreds of years old - and, apparently, a freakin' dragon.
After battling your way through a chapter that unexpectedly hurls zombies and demonic entities in the player's path, Wu disappears and the player is suddenly attacked by a dragon.
It's not 100% clear whether the dragon is literally Wu himself or simply one of his pets, but either way, nobody expected to fight a flaming dragon boss in a game that was, for most of its play time, a comparatively grounded crime-actioner.