There are many reoccurring themes and tropes of video
game stories that tend to crop up again and again, and among these is the
popular convention of the supposed-to-lose fight. This is the tradition of a
game giving you a fight or challenge, usually early on in the game, which is
literally impossible to succeed in, and incorporates failure in to the actual
plot of the game. This can take the form of losing in a cutscene or literally
making an impossible segment of play. They’re most common in RPGs, due to their
emphasis on story, setting up villains, and growing stronger over the course of
the game.
Now how useful these encounters can be is up for
debate, but there’s no denying that how effective they are varies. I’d like to
go over several examples of this subject and examine which are better or worse
and why; because depending on how they’re used they can be either a good
narrative device or absolutely infuriating.

