Penultimate Bosses

[sagacious]

Penultimate- Second to-last

Is is just me, Or is the second-to-last Boss almost always (or at least frequently) more difficult than the True final boss? have any theories as to why this is?

If you doubt me: here are a few examples:
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Ganondorf seemed to be tougher to beat that his Ganon form.
LoZ: Windwaker: Puppet Gannon! SO TOUGH!
Fable 2: Great shard was awesome, but lucien went down with one shot.
Halo 3: not really a boss, but the Penultimate level (Cortana) was much tougher than the final level.

Feel free to post more examples, or disagree with me.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Chrono Trigger's Lavos and Magus are some examples. That is until you find the hidden boss The Dream Devourer.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Nope. Ratchet and Clank's final boss is harder than the penultimate one. I'm playing it right now, so that's why I used it as an example.

But MGS2's penultimate boss was to me tougher than the final one.

And has anyone played Ninety-Nine Nights? Mediocre game, but cheezuz the final boss is made of steel and death. Could never beat it.

 

[ShakesZX]

It does seem that many final bosses are easier to finish than the one preceding them, but i think part of that is that a lot of these bosses are just different parts of the same boss. I personally count both Puppet Ganon and Ganon as a single boss in LOZ: The Wind Waker. Also, many of these boss battles come right after the other in many games, so your reflexes and instincts are primed more for the final attle which might also make it seem easier.