Multi Stage Battle

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A location change during a Boss Battle, ranging from two to three areas in total, adding for nice variation in a brawl. This can occur for several different reasons:

  1. The fighters themselves end up dragging their brawl further into the area they're already in, with the main location being the same, but in a different scenario.
  2. The fighters might cause enough damage to the area that they end up literally breaking down onto another place, floor or level.
  3. Something happens that suddenly separates the opponents and prompt the two to find each other in a different area.
  4. One fighter runs away and is encountered in another area later on.
  5. One fighter chases down the other and resumes the brawl in a separate location from where the chase started.
  6. Finally, the fight itself is interrupted by something (usually an explosion or Collapsing Lair effect of sorts), and the combatants are forced to hold off their brawl and escape to another area, only to continue clawing out each others' throats almost immediately thereafter.
Examples of Multi Stage Battle include:


Film

  • Star Wars loves this.
    • Episode I had a textbook type one between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul.
    • Episode III went for type four in the first half, then switched to style one, when Obi-Wan fought General Grievous off in a saber duel back at the Separatist lair, then chased him down throughout Utapau's cities, and finally shot him to death in a landing pad.
      • Stage One was used again for the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan.
    • Episode V had Luke Skywalker fight Darth Vader in various parts of Cloud City, primarily because of types three and five.

Literature

  • The first nine books of The Wheel of Time all end with a battle, and most of them are this trope:
    • "The Eye of the World": Rand more-or-less accidentally Travels from one fight to another.
    • "The Great Hunt": The manysided battle of Falme rages back and forth all over the town.
    • "The Dragon Reborn": Rand chases Ishamael through the Stone of Tear.
    • "The Shadow Rising": Rand chases Asmodean through Rhuidean.
    • "The Fires of Heaven": Rand chases Rahvin through the Royal Palace in Caemlyn.
    • "Lord of Chaos": Aversion. The Battle of Dumai's Wells start out at the wells and stays there.
    • "A Crown of Swords": Rand chases Sammael through Illian and Shadar Logoth.
    • "The Path of Daggers": Rand and the renegade Asha'man chase each other through the Sun Palace in Cairhien.
    • "Winter's Heart": Rand's allies and enemies sneak around trying to ambush each other in the forests around Shadar Logoth.

Video Games

  • God of War II followed the third style, with Kratos' fight against the Colossus of Rhodes, while God of War III had Kratos versus Zeus in a merge of the third and fifth styles.
  • Sly Cooper 3 went with style one when Sly first fights General Tsao on top of a forest of vines, then on the ground level of said forest. Same game, but with the Mask of Dark Earth in style four, first in a bar as a coyote, then as Carmelita in a mountain-like dune.
  • Aquaria gets this with the final boss, which goes from a shrine to a dark pit to a circular room (with a creepy infant doll in the center), to a freaking huge, open area containing a colossus.
  • The Egg Dragoon fight in Sonic Unleashed is a variation of type two, with Eggman destroying the platform you're standing on twice during the fight.
  • The first two thirds of the final battle against Bowser at the end of Super Mario Galaxy both take place on two individual planets, but the third and final stage takes place inside a Sun!
    • The first phase of Super Mario Galaxy 2's final battle plays out just like the other Bowser battles, even relinquishing the Grand Star at the end... but it's a trap, and Bowser eats the Grand Star, grows gigantic once again, and initiates the final phase inside a black hole!
  • Each time Thugly in Donkey Kong Country Returns Turns Red, he smashes the floor of the arena, sending the battle down to a lower level, though the change in terrain has no tactical effect on the battle in progress.
  • Goriath did this in Kirby's Return to Dream Land by smashing the snowy floor after you hit him enough. It turns from snow to icy to both etc.
  • The Legend of Zelda series has this with Ocarina of Time (the final battle with Ganondorf) and Twilight Princess (battle with Zant).
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising, with the battles versus Dark Pit, Medusa, and Hades.
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