Boss Tease

When your first opponent of the game ends up being the last. These epilogue battles often feature the following characteristics:

• The inability to fully "lose".
• The game trying to play off this enemy as a regular joe, even though players have likely seen trailers/previews/wikis proving it is indeed the Final Boss.
• Botton mashing, as you have all your powers without any tutorial.
• The fight ending just moments away from your finishing move. You're lead to believe you will win.
• The enemy taking away your best weapons and skills.
• The enemy introducing you to the henchmen you'll have to beat to be worthy of seeing them again.
• The enemy claiming they were going to win and let you live.
• The enemy easily running away, flying away, teleporting, etc. in dramatic fashion, leaving you wondering why they didn't do such all along, or again when you meet them at the end of the game.

Closely related to the Abilitease concept, this preview boss battle is typically the excuse for losing all your powers and needing to plow your way through lesser villains to regain them.

In such games, the player may feel extremely cheated, because seemingly you had the chance to destroy that pathetic boss from the get-go. The Boss will retreat at the absolute last moment from their demise, perhaps taunting that you're being let off easy, or ordering the henchman after you because you're not a worthy opponent. And strangely, once the player reaches the end of the game, and surpassed all of the Hero's original abilities, weapons, and power... this will be a much more balanced fight, as if the Boss had been equally grinding their way to a rematch all along.

In some cases, the Boss character's new secret weapon is the ability, magical power, or even Racecar stolen directly from the player in the early stages.