10 Video Game Tricks Players Fall For EVERY Time

Another way in which players are routinely misled by video game boss fights is by expecting them to be one-and-done duels.

Granted, there are occasions when the hero squares off against a foe, beats them, and never has to deal with them again. What’s far more likely, however, is that the skirmish will extend into a multipart brawl that sees the enemy going through multiple transformations within a single bout or appearing numerous times before the credits roll.

Survival horror and RPG franchises such as Resident Evil and Final Fantasy, respectively, are known for fooling players into thinking that they’ve defeated a major adversary, only to discover that the seemingly vanquished villain evolves into an intimidating and challenging new phase. Alternatively, said villain might play dead or disappear and then return several minutes or hours later.

There are tons of other video game properties that deceive players with similar ploys, be they older classics such as Super Metroid, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Psychonauts or newer masterpieces such as Lies of P, Cuphead, and 2018’s God of War.

Considering that this kind of thing has been happening since at least the 1980s (with the original Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Dragon Quest, and Castlevania), it’s a shame that so many gamers continue to preemptively breathe sighs of relief after they’ve initially bested a big baddie.