These Are The Most Brutal Bosses In Final Fantasy History
The upcoming Final Fantasy 16 may have a lot of cool lore for fans to delve into, but many players may be wondering what the popular franchise will have in store when it comes to the game's biggest battles. The Final Fantasy franchise is notorious for its incredibly difficult boss fights. Fans of the games will relate to the frustration of seeing a "Game Over" screen again and again as they try to take down these formidable foes. With each attempt, players may form a new strategy, search for help in online forums, or eventually rage quit and throw the controller across the room.
The average time it takes to defeat these bosses can be ten or fifteen minutes — or, in some cases, up to an hour — so it takes a massive amount of focus and patience on the player's part. Some of them are mandatory battles, but others are optional, so only die hard completionists (or masochists) will seek out these baddies to reap the rewards, even if it's only for bragging rights.
Here are just a few of the toughest bosses in the Final Fantasy series that have given fans a serious run for their money.
Penance
Penance is an optional boss in the remastered Final Fantasy 10, and is accessible after defeating all of the Dark Aeons. It boasts 12 million HP, absorbs all elemental magic, and has incredibly high defense stats, making it impossible to kill unless the player character has maxed all of their own stats and abilities.
The superboss's left and right arms each have their own HP gauge and must be attacked separately. In the battle's first stage, Penance accosts the party with its brutal physical attack, Obliteration — this will also cast Slow on all the members of the group. The boss then follows up with Immolation, which attacks only one character, but decimates their MP and inflicts both Armor and Mental Break, weakening the fighter's defenses.
If the player fails to dispose of the right and left arms ASAP, Penance will execute its most powerful attack: Judgement Day. This move will eradicate the entire party's HP and MP in one fell swoop, so Tidus and his pals' only hope is to have Auto-Life equipped, as well as Auto-Haste, Auto-Potion, and Auto-Protect.
Omega Weapon
Although Final Fantasy 8 has a number of intimidating bosses, Omega Weapon stands out from the crowd due to its sheer overwhelming strength and size. Appropriately placed toward the end of the game, Omega Weapon is an optional boss that can be found in Ultimecia's Castle. Omega has over a million HP, absorbs all elemental attacks, and executes a strong assault against the party.
Omega Weapon has a number of brutal moves at its command, including Lv5 Death, Gravija, and Ultima, some of the most powerful magic abilities in Final Fantasy 8. It also casts Light Pillar, which deals 9,999 damage to its target. The boss's Meteor attack will decimate the party's HP, and if they don't heal quickly enough, Omega can finish them off with its powerful Megiddo Flame, dealing nearly 10,000 HP damage.
The good news is that Omega Weapon attacks in a pattern, so the player can act accordingly by healing and beefing up their defenses in between turns.
Ruby Weapon
If anyone walks into a battle with Ruby Weapon unprepared, they are in for a rude awakening. This optional Final Fantasy 7 boss has some tough defenses, not to mention it starts the fight with a back attack that prevents any chance of escape. Not only that, but Ruby Weapon is actually invincible until it unleashes its tentacles, and even then it will wait to do so until only one party member is left standing.
The tentacles inflict Gravity damage and status ailments, and while they can't kill the party members, they can really hinder their progress by taking out 75% of their HP. The creature's Ruby Flame and Ruby Ray are both powerful attacks that inflict fire damage and confusion on the party, but they are almost nothing compared to the boss's Whirlsand ability, which will completely eject a fighter from battle. The player's best chance is to begin the encounter with only one fighter standing, and then paralyze the monster as soon as possible in order to get some strong hits in.
Emerald Weapon
If Final Fantasy 7 players thought Ruby Weapon was tough, then going up against its sibling was a veritable nightmare. Emerald Weapon can be found underwater using a submarine, and is nearly impossible to beat within the 20-minute time limit, so it is imperative that the player has an Underwater Materia equipped.
Ironically, the more Materia the characters have equipped, the more likely they are to fail. This is thanks to Emerald Weapon's Aire Tam Storm ability, which deals damage based on the number of Materia equipped multiplied by 1,111.
The boss's eyes have separate HP bars from its main body, and should be eliminated before attacking Emerald Weapon itself. Otherwise, the boss will use Revenge Stamp to counter any physical attack and cause some serious damage. The boss's Emerald Shoot and Emerald Beam are its trademark abilities, and both can cause severe loss of HP as well as cancel out any helpful status guards.
Players will want to make certain that Cloud and his friends are prepared before doing any deep sea diving in the Emerald Weapon's territory.