... If you know how.
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00:00It either takes a great deal of skill or a good grasp on an exploit or two, but some of the
00:05scripted losses in games can actually be prevented. Not only that, the game will sometimes take note
00:11of your unexpected victory and reward you for it, with a secret in the form of an alternative ending
00:16or a special complimentary item. Don't let the hopelessness of the following fights discourage
00:21you. There's actually a way to win them. I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 unwinnable
00:26video game fights, you can actually win. Number 10, Genichiro Ashina, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice.
00:34Genichiro Ashina is Sekiro's greatest swordsman and your character's main rival, who you fight
00:40multiple times throughout the game. Your first fight against Genichiro in the intro is what sets
00:45off Sekiro's story, as this is when Genichiro cuts off your hand and kidnaps the prince you've sworn
00:51to protect. The fight is incredibly difficult, which is why the developers expect you to lose it
00:57and build the plot around your defeat. This said, from a gameplay perspective, the duel can actually
01:02be won. It isn't scripted and works like a regular boss fight, so if you're skilled enough to go up
01:09against Genichiro without any items or upgrades, Ashina's general can be brought to his knees.
01:14Unfortunately, this doesn't alter the course of the story in any way. When Genichiro is defeated,
01:19the game fades to black and triggers a cutscene where a hidden ninja slices your hand off anyway,
01:25altering Genichiro's dialogue ever so slightly. Well, no one said your efforts and skills were
01:30going to be appreciated. We aren't talking about a From Software game after all, and those aren't
01:35really known for treating their player base fairly. Number 9, Shinra Army, Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core.
01:42Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core is the prequel to Final Fantasy VII, which casts some light on the incident
01:49at Nibelheim, and the tragic fate of Cloud's friend and role model, Zack Fair. In the game,
01:54you play as Zack, experiencing his life from his humble beginnings all the way to his downfall,
01:59where you're pitted against a battalion of Shinra troops and doomed to a certain death.
02:05The fight is meant to be unwinnable, since it's a turning point in Final Fantasy VII's story.
02:10The sheer volume of soldiers combined with their attacks can bring Zack down in just a few turns,
02:15except if he comes prepared. With enough grinding and stacking up on healing, it's possible to keep
02:22Zack alive and give him a fair chance at taking on the army of soldiers. Not only that, you can also
02:27wipe out all 1,000 of them, technically winning the encounter. Technically, we gotta say technically,
02:35because the following cutscene will still show Zack falling to the ground and dying. Well, it seems no
02:40matter how skilled you are, you can never win against scripted cutscenes.
02:44Number 8. Commander Zulk, Baldur's Gate III. Baldur's Gate III starts the player off already in
02:50the deep waters of Dungeons & Dragons craziness, with a tutorial set inside a Mind Flayer ship,
02:57which is flying across one of the circles of the Nine Hells. In the final sequence of the tutorial,
03:02the Hell's Devil forces flood the ship's helm, and you need to activate its engine within a time
03:07limit, with only one not-so-friendly Mind Flayer who's helping you hold off the enemies.
03:13The Devil's Commander Zulk is the strongest opponent you face in this section. He's capable
03:18of striking down any member of your team in just one turn, which is why the game expects you to run
03:23away from him, as the Mind Flayer distracts him. However, Zulk can actually be defeated. Takes a lot
03:29of random luck and heavy reliance on the Mind Flayer's stun ability, but it's doable within the time
03:34limit, and you even get a powerful sword as a reward for it. Just be mindful that killing Zulk
03:39will make the Mind Flayer immediately turn on you, and then there's also the remaining army of devils
03:44who probably won't let you enjoy your new shining weapon for too long. Ah well, you win some,
03:50you lose some, and if you win this, enjoy your sword.
03:53Number 7. Lavos, Chrono Trigger. Lavos is the main antagonist of Chrono Trigger,
03:58as well as its first and final boss. Your initial fight with him is supposed to be unwinnable,
04:04as you're essentially going up against the most powerful creature in the game with nothing but
04:08your base level equipment and abilities. The loss then forces your party to travel back in time to
04:14find a way to stop Lavos from destroying the world, putting the rest of the game's storyline
04:18into motion. Well, that's the standard playthrough of Chrono Trigger anyway. An experienced player
04:24knows how to defeat Lavos and Trigger a completely different outcome. There are two ways of killing
04:29Lavos early without involving cheating. One is to beat him in Chrono Trigger's New Game Plus
04:34mode, and the other is to use a series of in-game exploits to lower the chance of Lavos hitting you
04:39and give you just enough time to deliver the killing blow, which may or may not be cheating
04:44depending on how you see exploits. Once you do so, you get a secret ending where the developers of
04:49the game personally congratulate you on achieving the impossible. A bit cheeky considering they were
04:54clearly prepared for this impossible eventuality. Number six, Dallas the Hammer, Divinity Original
05:00Sin 2. Dallas the Hammer is a powerful magister from Divinity Original Sin 2 who's secretly an
05:07undead imposter, using her likeness to enact their plan of ridding the world of magic. The player can
05:13stumble upon this faux Dallas early in the game inside a location called Fort Joy. Even if you know
05:18her secret identity, you can't really pick a fight with her at this stage. She's surrounded by loyal
05:23guards and wields almost godlike powers, making it impossible to defeat her. Well, that is unless
05:29you use exploits. A common tactic for defeating the fake Dallas early on is using a stack of explosive
05:35death fog barrels which you can loot from the ship level preceding Fort Joy. All you need is a character
05:41with high enough level strength or telekinesis to carry the barrels and a quick use of a wall clipping
05:46glitch in order to reach the location where they're stashed. After procuring the barrels and speaking
05:51with Dallas, you place a barrel or two around her character and then blow him up for an instant
05:57wind that forces her to retreat. Ah, explosives. The most powerful magic of every fantasy setting.
06:03Number five, Overboss Coulter, Fallout 4. The Nuka World DLC for Fallout 4 begins with the
06:09sole survivor getting trapped inside a deadly gauntlet and then fighting a raider boss Coulter,
06:15or if you'd rather I not use my Australian accent, Coulter, who uses a special electrified power armor
06:22making him impervious to all damage. The way the game wants you to defeat Coulter, yes I've gone back,
06:27is by using a thirst zapper squirt gun that one of his lackeys left in the room leading to the jewel
06:33arena. The water breaks Coulter's electric defenses, stunning him and allowing you to deal damage.
06:38However, as it turns out, Coulter's invincibility isn't all it's cracked up to be. Though the game wants you to
06:44believe Coulter can't be defeated without the water gun, his armor has a secret threshold of damage it
06:49can withstand. If you have a weapon that can deal a lot of damage really fast, Coulter can be wounded
06:54even in his invincible stage. Of course, defeating him like this is an exploit, so you don't get
06:59anything extra from going the extra mile and never touching your free wind squirt gun, other than the
07:04satisfaction of breaking the game, which let's face it, is pretty good. Number four, Surviving the
07:09Sacrifice, Left 4 Dead. The Sacrifice DLC for the original Left 4 Dead includes a special mission
07:16that serves as the canonical ending to the game. In the mission, your group makes a final run towards
07:21the sailboat, which will allow them to flee to safety. As you cross the bridge leading to the
07:26boat, a humongous horde of zombies descends upon you, and one of your teammates is forced to sacrifice
07:31themselves by staying behind and raising the bridge, therefore cutting away the horde from the
07:37other survivors. The sacrifice is unique in that it's the only mission in the game that requires
07:42one player to die in order to complete it, although if we're being honest, the fight against the army
07:46of zombies isn't really so doomed. The more skilled players can technically fend off the encroaching
07:52horde and, if they're fast enough, make it past the bridge before their only path of escape is closed
07:58off. The last stand against the zombies is stacked against you, but it's not impossible. In fact,
08:03if you manage to flee while playing as Bill, who canonically makes the sacrifice, you get a special
08:08achievement called Defying Fate. Because who needs canon when you've got skills?
08:14Number 3. Sir Cothran – Dragon Age Origins
08:17Dragon Age Origins is a brutal game where each encounter feels like a matter of life and death.
08:22Most boss fights in Origins can be classified as hard, but the one that even the developers would
08:27consider unwinnable is the encounter with Sir Cothran inside the Denerim Palace. Cothran appears
08:33right at the end of your rescue of Queen Enora, where she tries to arrest you for your crimes.
08:38She's accompanied by a squad of fully armored guards that surround your party,
08:42ensuring any fight that might occur will not end in your favor.
08:46The situation demands that you surrender to Cothran and let her deliver you to Fort Drakon,
08:51prompting yet another rescue mission where you become the proverbial damsel in distress.
08:56However, if you don't feel like getting unjustly imprisoned,
08:59you can try to fight your way out. The battle with Cothran and her knights is one of the toughest
09:04encounters in the whole game, but it is doable with the proper crowd control and healing abilities.
09:09Beating Cothran allows you to skip the prison escape sequence entirely. Unfortunately though,
09:14it also means missing out on all the amazing banter between your companions as they work together to
09:19break you out.
09:20Number 2. Grafted Scion – Elden Ring
09:23From Software Games have a history of impossibly hard tutorial bosses that teach you the important
09:29lesson of death and suffering. Dark Souls has the Asylum Demon, while Sekiro puts you against the
09:35previously mentioned Genichiro. Elden Ring is no different in this regard, featuring a tutorial
09:40boss in the form of a horribly contorted heap of dead bodies known as the Grafted Scion. The boss can
09:47be encountered only once per playthrough, as dying to it progresses the game to the next stage,
09:51so you just get one shot at defeating it. Combine this with the fact that Scion's moves are
09:56ridiculously nimble and hard to predict, and it becomes obvious why it's impossible to kill him
10:01when you're just starting your game. However, you might have a chance to do it on your next playthrough,
10:06but don't get your hopes up about being rewarded for it.
10:09The only loot you get from the Scion is a set of mediocre blades, and to make your victory feel all
10:14the more bitter, the only way to leave the arena after killing it is to jump off a cliff and die.
10:19Well, leave it to From Software to make you feel miserable, even when you win.
10:241. Urizen – Devil May Cry 5
10:27Urizen from Devil May Cry 5 is a reoccurring boss that the player fights during multiple points in
10:33the game, including its intro sequence. Since in the beginning you don't have most of your
10:37equipment and abilities, the first fight with Urizen is a brutal slaughter that the developers
10:42clearly expect you to lose, therefore setting off the main story of the game. That said,
10:47Urizen from the intro isn't indestructible. Just like any of his other iterations,
10:52he can be killed, although it takes an immense amount of skill and almost just as much time.
10:58Not to mention perfect execution, as your defeat is technically scripted,
11:02and dying to its attacks will immediately progress the game forward instead of giving
11:06you a retry. Speaking of progressing the story, because your defeat is what begins it,
11:10if you manage to defeat Urizen in the intro, the game will have no reason to continue and you'll
11:16get a special secret ending that immediately cuts to credits. You'll also unlock a new difficulty
11:22mode, as taking down Urizen so early is a clear sign that regular difficulty settings are not for you.