The seven most difficult boss battles in the Final Fantasy series

It's probably about time I got back to contributing to TLS Thanks to Clement Rage for inspiring me to choose this subject.

If you're new to TLS: Every now and then I ask the forum community to help put together a list of the top seven something in the Final Fantasy series. Some of the topics are restricted to Final Fantasy VII only, to reflect the nature of our site, but others are series-wide. Once everyone has made their nominations, I turn it into a front page article. So far, we've done the seven best lines of dialogue in Final Fantasy VII and the seven best FMVs in the Final Fantasy series.

This time I want you to tell me: Which bosses have given you the most trouble in Final Fantasy games?

I'm interested in the bosses that you found difficult on your first playthrough as well as those who present a challenge every time. Take Gi Nattak in Final Fantasy VII, for example: if you know he can be killed with an X-Potion or an Elixir, then he's obviously a piece of cake, but if you don't know that - and why would you, on your first attempt - and try to fight him "conventionally" he can actually put up quite a fight. I wouldn't be against including him on the list with a disclaimer.

I'm not going to consider superbosses, but optional bosses that form part of the main story or will be fought by most players in a regular playthrough (e.g. Elder Wyrm in XII) are eligible.

In a slight change from the previous articles in this series, you can make as many nominations as you wish. I'm not going to use the number of nominations as the sole criterion for inclusion on the final list, because that would lead to a list that is very skewed towards the latter half of the series. Instead, I hope you'll try to explain what makes your chosen bosses so difficult, which will also give me some good quotes to use in the article

There will be plenty of time to make nominations - I'm not going to set a deadline yet - so feel free to post only a few, debate them with others, and then add to them or edit them later on.

I remember Yunalesca giving me particular trouble in FFX but it honestly doesn't compare to some of the battles in FFIV and FFV. Unfortunately I don't remember most of their names. I'll have to consult a walkthrough.

Flint, kudos for the mention of how Elder Wyrm is actually an optional bossfight


These are a few I struggled with:

Cid Raines, XIII
If you know how to debuff him, he's not too hard. But I've heard a lot of people almost stopping to play the game when they reached Cid; he can be pretty hard.

Judges on Leviathan, XII
I don't know what it is with this battle, but I NEVER get it on the first try. You're supposed to ignore the soldiers, but they can do pretty decent damage. For my F&B pt the key was to use Blind and Slow, which made a major difference.

Odin, Shiva, Hecatoncheir, XIII
Not technically boss fights, but I had problems with these. Particularly Odin can be a major bitch.


Regarding the first Demon Wall, it's quite easy if you use Quickenings and Holy Motes:

There's a few other effective methods as well (Cherry Staff/Aero/Reflect), Crit+Berserk, etc.

At the moment, IV's Evil Wall comes to mind along with Velius from Tactics and Gi Nattak (didn't know about the cheap method the first time).

Also Adel (VIII), the Elder Wyrm (XII) and Cid Raines (XIII).

Odin, Alexander, Proud Clod's second battle from XIII. Demon Wall from IV. Safer Sephiroth.

Demon Wall from IV. I had a discussion once where someone claimed that it wasn't that hard, but I had to overlevel to be able to beat him. It was suggested that the battle speed setting may have something to do with it. I always play on max battle speed, so I figure that's why I might have found it hard.

In FFX people cite Yunalesca (although with Bahamut I didn't think I find it that difficult) and Seymour Flux. I suppose I must have overlevelled. My biggest challenge was Evrae. I think I didn't have apt protection against Poison the first time and for the multiple times I failed after. Eventually I tried to build equipment that protected against Poision, and I didn't have much items to work with and I got a couple Poison Wards[?]. As I was dying I chose random items in Rikku's Mix and lucked out with Trio of 9999 [I think that's its name] as I was about to die. Clearly it had <9999 HP because it died in the next attack.

Eidolon battles in XIII were annoying, but I figure once you find a trick it's easy. Don't remember much else though, except the last boss one-shotting me with Death and some annoying enemies. I do recall difficulty with Cid Raines though, because I remember being given the option to reconfigure my Paradigms after failing.

Gi Nattak is really hard if its your first time and you don't know about the undead thing. I remember not knowing how to level or anything and starting the game from scratch when I was really young because I just couldn't beat him. He's not one of my nominations though, so don't count that.

The 4 Crystals from FFV. Holy shit, thats a hard boss. I think I can honestly say the hardest non optional/ non final boss in all Final Fantasy. I played FFV for the first time when I was "hardened" to FF, and they killed me about 5 times before I actually succeeded in beating them. And I had grinded and levelled all the right classes. I had no problem with any other boss in the game. They're just solid.

It's hard to say anything from VII is difficult now, but if there's any boss that's a huge challenge your first time round, it's Demon's Gate. The sad thing is, the hardest boss from VII mantle would probably go to Jenova-LIFE if there wasn't a water ring right before it to make the battle completely impossible to lose.

Adel from VIII was tough my first time round too. I also had problems with BO219H, but I suspect that's because I sent all my shit party members to the missile base. And by shit I mean I was too dumb to properly understand how the junction system worked when I was 9 years old.

IX - Probably the Iifa Tree if you cast fire on it and don't know its undead. Those flaming leaves will kill you. Hard.

X - Yeah gonna say Yunalesca. Megadeath anyone?

Yunalesca. I never got past her. I got so discouraged when we were like inches from victory and then she did something to us that I can't remember but was totally foul and offside and unsporting and we all died and I thought screw it, I don't even like this game that much.

Optional Demon Wall in Raithwall's tomb in FFXII. It's the Wall of Shame as far as I'm concerned.

Ruby Weapon, but TBH I wasn't really trying.

It's hard to say anything from VII is difficult now, but if there's any boss that's a huge challenge your first time round, it's Demon's Gate. The sad thing is, the hardest boss from VII mantle would probably go to Jenova-LIFE if there wasn't a water ring right before it to make the battle completely impossible to lose.

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You just said everything on my mind about VII. VII is kind of ridiculously easy, and I've played it so many times I don't remember which ones were difficult first time around. Demon Wall/Gate definitely- I still remember losing to him after all those years. Vincent and Yuffie's sidequest bosses were annoying the first time around (the boss that did Aero 3 and Lost Numbers), especially without any materia. Speaking of Jenova, I remember watching someone streaming FFVII with a blind playthrough and having serious problems with Jenova Life and everyone screaming at him to use the water ring. Good times. Too much knowledge about a videogame could easily make a game boring as much as making it fun I guess.

Running down the list.... VI I was was hideously over-leveled so I can't remember anything being hard. VIII I don't remember anything that gave me trouble that wasn't an optional super boss. Well, Ultimacea actually, but it's a gamble, I had an unlucky playthrough where she blew away all the really important junctioned magic away. Nothing really in X or XII really stood out to me except for some really interesting hunts. IX... nothing really.

I had a hell of a time with IV. Even with me overleveling that game's difficulty is high, easily the hardest FF in my opinion. I can't even remember which specific bosses I had difficulty with.

XIII, Cid Raines is a bitch. Lots of the Eidolon battles too, especially for the first timers. As an example, Odin is actually really easy to fight, but you need to have a decent mastery of efficiency to understand which you probably don't at that point. To make matters worst, you are fighting with Lightning and Hope- which compensate for having good damage for low hp... but Odin hits really hard and damage actually does almost nothing in this fight- it's all how to effectively use your roles. And it's the first summon battle that you actually fight (rather than STEELGUARD) so... yeah. You are going to have a huge problem the first time with this guy.

Hollander. By far Crisis Core's baddest mofo in gameplay.

guard scorpion and its misleading in-battle dialogue

FF1-Does Warmech count? You MIGHT encounter him (I did) in the Flying Fortress right before you face off with Tiamat. You could also count Astos as he's a bitch to deal with because of his insta-kill spells.

FF4-Most of that game was pretty tough, tbh. Evil wall? Definitely. But I also found Zeromus downright nasty. His Big Bang attack always knocked Rydia down. And his ridiculously high magical defense meant only Cecil and Kain did much damage (so losing Rydia often wasn't THAT big of a deal...)

FF6-Um, nothing? Nothing but the optional bosses ever gave me much trouble.

FF7-What is it with walls being so horrible? Yeah, the Demon Wall make kindling of me a few times. Beyond that, meh.

FF9-Like FF6, nadda.

FF10-Seymour Flux and Yunalesca were both brutalzing to me. One of Seymour's attacks (can't remember which) would decimate my entire team except for Auron. Having to play around Yunalesca's zombie and death spells was no picnic either.

FFCC-(Crisis Core) Sephiroth on the platform. I never beat him. He always wiped the floor with me when he got close enough to knock me off. Bugger.

DFF-(Dissidia) Not sure if this counts (guess it does) but Chaos took me quite a number of tries to defeat. At one point I nearly had him dead when he hit me for a fucked amount of brave points and then used that to slaughter me. I screamed in outrage so loud that I woke my family up! LOL

More is forthcoming, should I remember, anyways.

Agreed with Demon Wall (FFIV), Zeromus, and Seymour Flux.

I think Adamant Tortoise may have been one of the ones I had trouble with in FFV. To people who have played the game more recently than I have, does that sound right? I think Atomos was even worse.

Then of course there are optional battles that are difficult. Some of the summons in FFIV are super hard and I'm pretty sure FFV's could be really difficult as well.

The only one I can remember right now is the dude atop the Cult's Tower in VI. Jesus, took me enough of re-climbing the tower to realize that you need to cast Life 3 in order to survive

Strangelove said:

guard scorpion and its misleading in-battle dialogue

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"Attack while its tail's up, Cloud! "
"... "

Surprised this wasn't lampshaded in the Abridged Series.

Hollander. By far Crisis Core's baddest mofo in gameplay.

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Hollander was damn annoying. His babbling makes it all the worse. I played CC on normal, the game wasn't really challenging on that difficulty setting, and hard was too hard, imho.

Yeah... Adel with junctioned Rinoa was a pain... especially as Rinoa was one of my main party members...

And the optional boss of FF9... and that was with me doing the side-quest to make him not absorb shadow damage...

FFVII: Materia Keeper and Rapps. More so Rapps.

Nothing comes to mind in other games, not because I didn't find them difficult, they just don't have a place in my memories =p. In my old age, I also don't have the patience to work out the strategy. If something pisses me off, I... I... look for a guide online. For shame.

VII: Carry Armour (plus arms), Materia Keeper, OWA Sephiroth

VIII: Raijin/Fujin (In Balamb), Adel

IX: Gizamaluke

X: Yunalesca, Jecht.

XII: Those 5 onion things in the Sochen Cave Palace, Mateus.

XIII: Eidolons.

There are a bunch more, I wasn't a great gamer on my first playthrough and I don't like grinding, but these are the standouts.

Clement Rage said:

XII: Those 5 onion things in the Sochen Cave Palace, Mateus.

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Ugh gawd yes, those. The Mandragoras. I had such problems with them during my first playthrough, I hated them so much. The second time I played the game I made sure I was super prepared for them; gathered them and showered them with Quickenings, which took the first 2-3 out pretty fast. The rest is easy once you've reduced their numbers. I would mention them, except they're optional.

Are they really optional? How can you avoid fighting them?

Flintlock said:

Are they really optional? How can you avoid fighting them?

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It's an unofficial hunt - I thought you didn't have to take it...? I might be wrong though.

That one boss from XI they deliberately made nigh-impossible to defeat.

Fangu said:

It's an unofficial hunt - I thought you didn't have to take it...? I might be wrong though.

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I'm not 100% sure either, but I think they appear in the Sochen Cave Palace whether or not you read the unofficial hunt petition beforehand.

Holy shitsnacks, Fangu doesn't know something about FFXII for sure? Worldview shattered.

Though I'm not sure either. I think Flint is right, but I have no way to confirm.

EDIT: Nvm, FF Wiki says you have to accept the hunt to advance the story because the petitioner gives you the key to the Sochen Cave Palace. The little fuckers count.

Martha Jones said:

EDIT: Nvm, FF Wiki says you have to accept the hunt to advance the story because the petitioner gives you the key to the Sochen Cave Palace. The little fuckers count.

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So... we were both wrong!

I'd rank them as one of the hardest bosses in FFXII, definitely. That game doesn't have that many downright hard bosses, though; it delivers its difficulty in other ways. Or maybe it's because the rest of the game is challenging that the bosses don't feel so hard in comparison. The one I most struggled with was Garuda, because there was no way I was going to find out about the Eksir Berries without a guide.

The hardest bosses that I could think of:

IV Dr. Lugae. I have been stuck on that fight for so long now it's not funny. God damn that reverse. I know how it should be beaten (I looked it up in a guide) but it just doesn't happen.

X Evrae and Seymour Flux. Those are the bosses that (I have to admit) I didn't beat myself (thanks to Flint for beating them for me ). I don't really remember why they were so hard. For some reason I just couldn't do it. I remember having troubles with Jecht too.

I would also nominate Hades from IX but that fight is optional so it doesn't count.

I'll post again if I can think of other bosses that I've had difficulties with. I don't really remember there being other than those three really.