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{{quote|"How many players are with us today?"
''Player chooses "1"''
"Well then, Congratulations on winning this game."|''[[You Don't Know Jack]] 4: The Ride'' (A (usually) multiplayer trivia game)}}
|''[[You Don't Know Jack]] 4: The Ride'' (A (usually) multiplayer trivia game)}}
 
We've all been in the situation where, try as we might, a certain part of a game [[Nintendo Hard|seems]] -- [[Unwinnable|or is]] -- impossible—impossible to get past, or [[Hopeless Boss Fight|supposed to be so.]]
 
Then, you have those points where you might as well just put down the controller, because you're going to win anyway. These points are the [['''Foregone Victory]]'''. While this usually applies to a [[Zero Effort Boss]], the [['''Foregone Victory]]''' can also apply to a particular level, puzzle, or what have you.
 
When a boss battle is a [['''Foregone Victory]]''', it is often a [[Anticlimax Boss]] -- but—but not always; essentially, the [['''Foregone Victory]]''' is to the [[Hopeless Boss Fight]] as the [[Anticlimax Boss]] is to [[That One Boss]].
{{examples}}▼
 
▲{{examples}}
* In ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]''/''Emerald'', you cannot lose against Zigzagoon/Poochyenna when saving the life of the Professor at the beginning. Even if you just use the Buff/Debuff move against them over and over... it will flee, like a scared Latios.
** Also played with in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'': you can actually faint Reshiram/Zekrom, but the dragons just get back up and fight you again until you catch them. [[Anti-Grinding|And you don't get any XP.]]
* In ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', when you fight {{spoiler|Exdeath as Galuf alone}}, you can't lose -- evenlose—even if your HP goes to 0, which it's pretty much guaranteed to do, nothing happens. {{spoiler|Galuf dies after the battle either way, though.}} This is one of those rare examples where the battle is a [['''Foregone Victory]]''' but is nowhere near being an [[Anticlimax Boss]].
** In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', you can't lose the final one-on-one duel between {{spoiler|Cloud and Sephiroth}}. Either you hit him with Omnislash, or you automatically counter one of his attacks with a standard strike, which is enough to finish the battle.
*** During the flashback scene from five years ago, Cloud is at level 1 and dies easily, but he is partnered up with Sephiroth, who is CPU-controlled, doesn't take any damage, and uses very powerful spells. Any battle that you get drawn into during this flashback is un-losable.
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** The first fight in [[Final Fantasy Tactics]] has you controlling the main character and the computer controlling the rest of your party. Two of them are insanely powerful so they will win the fight without your help (or even if you try to kill them). However, it is possible to lose this fight on purpose. If you happen to start with Weapon Break (and are lucky enough that it actually hits) you can cripple those powerful characters and give the enemies a chance to defeat you.
* All of ''[[Wario Land]] 3'' {{spoiler|except the final boss}} is impossible to die, all damage simply knocks you back to a different part of the level. It doesn't matter how often Wario gets hit, he just bounces back.
** It's the same idea with ''Wario Land 2'', but he does lose coins when he gets hit in that game, so that probably counts as "losing" (or rather, winning less), because Wario is greedy by nature. It's impossible to get a Game Over in this game, however.
* In ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night|Symphony of The Night]]'', the Richter vs. [[Dracula]] fight is a [['''Foregone Victory]]''' (the easily-obtained Holy Water item crash kills him in 3 uses, and even if you suck badly enough to get your lifebar completely depleted, Maria runs in and casts a spell on you that makes you invincible for the rest of the battle), but the specifics do affect the stats of the main character Alucard.
* Most ''[[Lucas ArtsLucasArts]]'' adventure games apply this trope all the way through. ''[[Full Throttle]]'' even says in the manual that it's "lame to get beaten and thrown into a dumpster every time you made a mistake".
** Made almost too evident in the "boss fight" at the end of ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'', where both the hero and the villain regenerate health far too quickly for either one to be able to win. Not unwinnable, though. There's a trick to it. As always.
* In ''[[EarthboundEarthBound]]'', the battle against Starman Jr. is practically unlosable. The only way to lose involves leveling up to around four times the normal level for that area so you can mess up the automatic shielding.
** And of course, when your party is stronger than the map enemies by a certain amount, they'll automatically win any battle they get into. Literally.
* Krystal's "battle" against the galleon right after the first [[Cutscene]] in ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'' is unlosable; any hits you take simply result in screeching by the CloudRunner. No health is lost. (There's no health meter until you're actually on board, as a matter of fact.) You do, however, have to attack.
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* {{spoiler|The final battle against Izanami}} in ''[[Persona 4]]'' is similar. After you beat the boss twice, you find out [[The Battle Didn't Count]] either time, and then have a scripted second rematch always ending with a similar [[Combined Energy Attack]]. {{spoiler|The Main Character doesn't die this time, though.}}
* The Ember trial in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' sounds like a tough test in which you literally have to fight for your life with your social skills. But whether or not you win the trial (you get a [[Bragging Rights Reward]] if you do), the end result is the same: a [[Duel Boss]] fight.
* {{spoiler|The duel between Blue and Rouge}} in ''[[SagaSaGa Frontier]]''. It isn't unlosable, but if you do lose, you get to play the remainder of the quest as the boss instead {{spoiler|because the actual purpose of the duel is to unite Blue and Rouge into one person. Said person has the winner's name and body, but the same personality regardless}}.
* In the [[Boss Rush|Arena]] on ''[[Kirby]] Super Star'', one of the fights is about as close as you can get to a [['''Foregone Victory]]''' while still having the potential to lose. Waddle Dee can't move and has no attacks -- butattacks—but you could still lose if you tried hard enough, because he does still deal [[Collision Damage]].
** Mind [[Subverted Trope|enemies also take collision damage]], so just running into him will still be a victory unless you are weak from a previous fight.
** In ''[[Kirby's Epic Yarn]]'', all of the boss battles are effectively [[Foregone Victoty|Foregone Victories]], as Kirby cannot die in the game. However, the challenge comes in collecting--andcollecting—and retaining--enoughretaining—enough beads to get higher rewards when the battle ends. Getting hit causes Kirby to drop quite a few of his beads, and if not picked up, they disappear after a while.
* In ''[[Legacy of Kain]]: Soul Reaver 2'', your character Raziel travels back in time to fight the final bosses. This results in a [[Stable Time Loop]], making Raziel invincible, {{spoiler|as the bosses have to die in order for Raziel to have begun existence in the first place.}} Long story short, it is literally impossible to lose the final boss fights.
** Which is good, because they're far and away better fighters than anything you've faced throughout the rest of the game, and would easily kill you if you weren't invulnerable.
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* ''All'' of ''[[Big Rigs Over the Road Racing]]'', because the other trailer ''doesn't move''. Unless you have the patch, where it stops, ''just short'' of the finish line.
** In addition to that, if you push the opposing truck across the finish line by ramming it from behind, the game doesn't acknowledge it and you still win.
* In ''[[BioshockBioShock (series)]]'', up until the final battle against {{spoiler|Atlas/Fontaine}}, dying causes you to be immediately resurrected in the nearest Vita-Chamber with roughly 50% Life and Eve. Thus, if you repeat the cycle of banging a Big Daddy with your pipe wrench, dying, and being resurrected enough times, you ''will'' eventually win. That said, an option to turn all Vita-Chambers off was added in a patch about six months after the game was released.
* In ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'', after defeating the Crimson Dragon for the first time, Mega Man Geo-Omega goes [[One-Winged Angel]] and becomes unbeatable; he still loses HP, but it can't be reduced to less than one. ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' essentially ends with Mega Man Geo-Omega using the two Boss techniques used against him the most against the final boss.
* The first stage of "Hero 30" mode in ''[[Half Minute Hero]]'' does this...to a point. If you run out of time, the Time Goddess will revive you and encourage you to keep going (in fact, you [[Thanatos Gambit|need to do this at least once]] to advance the story). However, if you let time run out more than three times in that particular stage, you'll still receive a [[Game Over]].
* If you ignore ''[[Barneys Hide And Seek]]'' for the [[Sega Genesis]], the game will play --andplay—and eventually complete-- itselfcomplete—itself.
* ''[[Penny Arcade Adventures]]'' episode 2 featured Charles, the ''Sissy Boss Fight.'' Despite his 10000  hp, he goes down in three hits and is utterly incapable of doing any damage whatsoever. Played for laughs since this fight is basically a distraction while Tycho is ransacking the office next door.
* There is a boss in the fifth level of ''[[Bloody Wolf]]'' that you have to fight with a knife. You fight him again in the eighth level, only this time you can use your gun. He goes down with one hit.
* You can't die in the [[Fake Action Prologue]] of ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', which takes place before Varric narrates the real story. It serves to show Varric is an [[Unreliable Narrator]].
* Beating GLaDOS in ''[[Portal 2]]'' is this, and also a [[Zero Effort Boss]]. Of course, anyone who's [[Interface Spoiler|read the chapter list]], or even the achievements, knows that this isn't anywhere near the end of the game.
* At one point in episode 14 of ''[[KnightsKnight's Contract]]'' where you are separated from Minukelsus and searching for him, its impossible to gameover since Heinrich is immortal and no partner required for him to protect.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]
[[Category:Foregone Victory{{PAGENAME}}]]
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