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On 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board, a thread heated up over which is best for RPGs and manga: a final boss who’s “there from the very start,” one “whose true identity is revealed midway through,” or one who “shows up abruptly right at the very end.” Posters traded opinions citing specific titles like Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy VI, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Dragon Quest. The “revealed midway” pattern won the most support as the “safe bet,” while plenty of voices also praised the structure where an enemy commander visible from early on simply turns out to be the true final boss. On the topic of an ally character secretly being the final boss, names likely to spark debate came up too — like Rinoa (FF8).
What people said
That's exactly how Lost Odyssey did it
Kefka and Kalra are good examples of that working well
If the apparent root cause just stays the final boss, it might actually feel refreshingly novel
If Masa from Higanjima (a horror manga about a vampire-infested island) turned out NOT to be the final boss, the whole series' reputation would flip overnight
Yeah, like having the current apparent-final-boss casually mention there's someone above him
Don't a lot of recent works just show the final boss early on?
Even Joka (Hoshin Engi's true final boss) had a bit of foreshadowing, at least
Pepsiman lmaooo
Danganronpa V3, maybe
That's the avatar of destruction summoned by the demon nobles
That's just getting cancelled, isn't it!
In a way, Hajime no Ippo counts as that too
El Shaddai, maybe?
Revealed midway: Yoshikage Kira
Shows up at the very end: Wonder of U
People often say it's a shame the JoJolion villain wasn't brought in from partway through instead
Well, Live A Live and NieR count too
Utawarerumono, maybe?
Depending on the route, GTA V too
"We stopped it!" doesn't exactly make for dramatic tension…
Well, if you actually stopped it, the story would just end…
Occasionally you get "we stopped the FULL revival — if it had completed, we'd have been finished," and I love that one
Hey, don't trash-talk Persona
Just once I'd like it to be everyone's goodwill gathering together instead
Utawarerumono
This'll start a flame war, but — Rinoa (FF8)
It felt more like an exhibition match, but Naruto's final fight was against Sasuke too
As long as you can tolerate the "gets hit with poison bugs and takes a hole clean through him every time but somehow survives" routine, it's fine, right?
Just who is this "Naraku" guy anyway? (a nod to Inuyasha's villain, infamous for endlessly fleeing and regenerating)
Baikinman, Bowser, Dr. Wily — those are all perfectly good examples
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The timing of a final boss’s reveal is a classic fork in narrative construction, generally splitting into two types: the “plain sight” pattern, where the mastermind visible from early on simply turns out to be the true enemy, and the “twist” pattern, where an unexpected entity appears at the end. Though it wasn’t raised in the thread, the twist pattern risks feeling like a “bolted-on villain” if the foreshadowing isn’t handled carefully, while the plain-sight pattern carries the mirror-image weakness of struggling to sustain tension through to the finale if the early impression is too weak. The “revealed midway” pattern earned praise as the “safe bet” likely because it’s easier to balance the amount of foreshadowing against the impact of the reveal. The titles cited — Lost Odyssey, FF6, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and others — are mostly works that have been out or running for a long time, and the relative lack of references to recent titles suggests this classification itself may be a somewhat dated framework.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Final boss: “there from the start,” “revealed midway,” or “shows up at the very end” — so which one’s actually correct?.”
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