Most Difficult FF boss.

[cmerc]

I always found the Mandragoras in the Sochen Cave Palace of FF XII to be one of the hardest, if not hardest story fights in any FF. I've gone through the game about 3 times I believe and always vow to beat that fight without over-levelling or resorting to Quickenings but I've never been able to pull this off...the fight is just too annoying.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Ugh, the Velius was a total bastard until I realized a way I could return the favor and utterly destroy him. What I did (and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the normal strategy) was just run around the room before he transfromed using Accumulate and whatever the speed boosting move was and used Chakra to heal myself. When I finally killed Wiegraf I had enough speed to pull off 4 attacks on Velius in a row.

Ahh. Snowball-Yell Ramza. It's great for insta-winning most battles, but it comes at a price...it raises Ramza's level, which in turn makes future random encounters much more difficult.

 

[InsipidMadness]

Discounting ultimate/uber fights like WEAPONS and such, I assume? Lost Number from FF7 is pretty tricky if you aren't ahead of the level curve when you first meet him. As is the book monster in Lindblum Library in FF9 (provided you fight him on Disk 2, when you are there the first time).

The forest dragon, the one that gave you all those nasty status effects, from FFXII was pretty bad too.

Really surprised someone else said Lost Number. I think this thread more has to do with what you weren't prepared for. Sure, if you find a suitable farming spot, almost none of the FFs can be hard. But when you don't know better and are just chasing the story, bump into an optional boss that makes you literally put the game down for a year, just to come back and beat it by luck. To me, that was hard. (This was when I was young mind you). Anyone with a head on their shoulders can stroll through an FF game, which is why I love them. Try speed running those games though. Only killing what you encounter, bosses, and 100% completion; good luck!

OT: My previous mention of Lost Number, and Godo. Godo being Yuffie's dad that you have to beat on the final floor of the pagoda to get her Ult. Seeing as how I never had her in my party and attempted that as soon as I got the Tiny Bronco. That one sucked.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

If bonus bosses count, the Emerald Weapon was the hardest for me in that even after max levelling Materia to prepare it took me months of trying to win (this was before there were any online guides published or anything, and the strategy guide my cousin had was laughably inaccurate in everything from attacks to stats).

Even spamming double-mimicked Knights of the Round you are not safe from the timer, and that's a risky strategy anyway due to how counter stomp-happy he is. I swear on my FF game collection that my disc's version of Emerald has well over the million HP that he is supposed to have... but he did eventually go down.

Story bosses only, probably Seymour Flux. Most people know why.

 

[RJ 17]

Really the difficulty of any FF boss all depends on how prepared you are for said boss. If you've got the right spells and equipment, you should do fine. Level-grind far more than you probably should have, and it'll be a cake-walk. Go in unprepared/under leveled, and you're in for a rough match.

That said, however, pound for pound I'd have to say the hardest FF boss-fight is the first time you fight Wiegraf at the end of Chapter 3 in FFT. Starts out 1v1, Ramza vs Wiegraf. That alone makes it very hard considering he's guarenteed to hit you, has super sword attacks, and has a very high chance of blocking any attack except from directly behind. Then he morphs into his Zodiac Monster and summons up a bunch of demons. The demons alone are a pain in the ass, but the spells that Wiegraf starts slinging at you are absolute killers.

 

[Trivun]

I'd say Gigantuar from FF XIII. At least with every other boss I've lost to, I've been able to hold out for a few turns, but with Gigantuar every time I face him I die instantly unless I have the Sentinel as my player character, and if I do then I'm screwed unless I use another Sentinel in parallel to draw the attacks away. Even then I can't do a thing without Instant Random Stagger, which has a 0.5% chance of success each attack. Basically, it's almost impossible to survive the first round, then if I do survive it's near impossible to reach a point where I can do reasonable damage to him...

 

[Zantos]

Necron was fine providing you made yourself immune to all effects ever. Dark aeons in FFX are also a good shout, though once you have Yojimbo (?, it's been a while, the guy with the sword) and a fuckton of gil they seem slightly easier. But honestly, Ozma. Fuck that guy. Well, planet ball thing.

 

[scorptatious]

Yeah, Sephiroth wasn't too difficult. Although I did find him rather challenging when I fought him using only one Enemy Skill Materia.

I agree about Necron though. I had a really hard time fighting him my first time. His grand cross attack is capable of really screwing you over even if you have all your status ailment protection abilities on. Thankfully though, Quina's auto-life and Angel's Snack can really help in that instance. As does Amarant's aura.

Probably some of the more difficult bosses I've faced in a FF game would be in FFIV DS. The bosses in those games hit like trucks.

 

[crono738]

Discounting ultimate/uber fights like WEAPONS and such, I assume? Lost Number from FF7 is pretty tricky if you aren't ahead of the level curve when you first meet him. As is the book monster in Lindblum Library in FF9 (provided you fight him on Disk 2, when you are there the first time).

The forest dragon, the one that gave you all those nasty status effects, from FFXII was pretty bad too.

How fitting. I beat Lost Number on my No-Death, Role-Variant playthrough of FF7 last Thursday.
The cheating bastard one-shotted Barret in the back row from full health with Barrier up (his super attack crit'd, naturally), forcing a restart of that fight.


Shows me for playing Active instead of Wait...

Overall...ignoring Super Secret Bosses where the objective is just to break out overpowered combos until either they, or you fall over and End Bosses (similar, but to a lesser degree):

Velius/Wiegraf in Chapter 3, or Marquis Elmdore (both from FFT.)
Those are both mandatory Story-Bosses, and they are complete assholes the first time you face them.
Seriously. Having Draw Out with high damage, Blood Suck, Teleport 2, and obscene evasion is bad enough, but then giving him Celia and Lede ("Reddy"..whatever) as backup pushed Elmdore over the top.
(of course, you get the solution in El Cid...unless your forgot to equip 108 Beads on him and he gets Blood Sucked on the first turn, then it turns into the Vampire Batman affair, which is to say "YOU BE FUCKED, SON")

Wiegraf is just a regular asshole with cheese attacks and stupidly long range for them, but easily done in by rapid/mass damage combos. The fact his is a two-part battle that requires real planning to succeed at both puts him above just about every other boss but Elmdore.

This. Jesus Christ this. I made the mistake of saving right before the 1v1 fight with Wiegraf, so I had the pleasure of starting from scratch due to a lack of certain items and job specific abilities. Took awhile for me to go back to that game. The third Seymour fight in FFX was a pain in the ass too, since my party was pretty under-leveled thanks to my abuse of the flee ability.

 

[LilithSlave]

Ah, lost number. Definitely out of place in terms of difficulty from the rest of the game.

For the level you're typically supposed to be at, the foe is rather annoying/challenging. I don't know if I'd call it challenging, just a terrible roadblock for getting through the old Nibelheim mansion.

It's definitely one of the moments in RPGs that make you go, "wait, were things supposed to suddenly get hard?" but is just a random variety in the bestiary.

A similar situation obviously happening in many games, like Earthbound. Remember getting from the Tenda village to the lost underworld? Sure, you're very late and toward the end of the game, but the foes there are easily the strongest in the entire game. You would think the foes after it would be harder, but they're not. Sure, there are plenty of fobbies down there. But everyone else is a pain, especially the Uncontrollable Sphere. If I recall correctly.

Well, maybe not the worst in the game. But they're pretty crazy in comparison to the things you fought in the past.

Or perhaps my mind is gone.

 

[Fappy]

Did anyone ever beat Spekkio's final form in Chrono Trigger? Apparently when the player is Level ** he assumes his final form: a red Nu. I never leveled my characters that high so I was never able to try it.

Hardest FF fight I beat was probably Emerald Weapon, but I don't know if using the "7777" method counts >.>

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

That said the one i remember having the most trouble with is Demon Wall in VII. I remember that thing taking me forever to beat.

I'm sure it's old news now, but:

Spoiler

Just throw a Megalixir at the Demon Wall for an insta-kill. Because he's classified as an undead, it'll one shot him.

So yeah.

I haven't done all the hunts in XII or XIII, so I can't really comment on those. I ran into a couple of bosses in XIII that needed a couple of goes though. Generally because I went into the fight with the wrong characters / paradigms and didn't know the strat for them yet. Once you know roughly what you're up against, the going gets easier. But actually, I kind of like the fact that they're not all pushovers and take a bit of thinking.

Ultimecia in VIII was pretty badass, if memory serves me right. Again, that's not one to walk into unprepared...

Dark aeons in X were a PITA as well. And that cave thing (can't remember the damn name) where there were no save points and it felt like everything could kill you just by looking at you. That.

Emerald Weapon I didn't have too much of a problem with, once I got the Underwater Materia and worked out the trick with Aire Tam Storm. Ruby was the bugger in VII, I found. There was a trick to Lost Number as well:

Spoiler

Half of him is vulnerable to magic damage and half to physical. Depending on what you use to beat him down, one half will die off partway through and you're left to deal with the other. One of those halves is a lot easier to deal with than the other, though I'm buggered if I can remember which one, right now. And using Aeris's Seal Evil limit on him worked wonders. Yes, I have played this game entirely too much.

 

[mikey7339]

Velius/Wiegraf in Chapter 3, or Marquis Elmdore (both from FFT.)

There is a special place in Final Fantasy hell for those two. And yes, special bosses aside this should win the thread. It is almost impossible to beat the initial duel between Weigraf and Ramza without resorting to cheap tactics like running around and buffing yourself up until you are 10X faster and stronger than him.

The Marquis wouldn't be so bad if Rafa would stay the hell back and not get herself killed after her first turn. But I guess that's why she's named Rafa, the opposite of Afar.

EDIT: Ever try stealing the Marquis Genji gear and his Masamune, which your ONLY chance to get any of those is during that fight on the roof? That is completely, utterly, infuriatingly impossible. I spent two days preparing all my characters per a walk-through specifically designed to steal his gear during that fight. Then spent another afternoon making attempt after attempt after attempt to just get through everyone's first 2 turns. I had to concede that it was not going to happen and just move on...which STILL took another hour worth of attempts just to do that.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Velius/Wiegraf in Chapter 3, or Marquis Elmdore (both from FFT.)

There is a special place in Final Fantasy hell for those two. And yes, special bosses aside this should win the thread. It is almost impossible to beat the initial duel between Weigraf and Ramza without resorting to cheap tactics like running around and buffing yourself up until you are 10X faster and stronger than him.

The Marquis wouldn't be so bad if Rafa would stay the hell back and not get herself killed after her first turn. But I guess that's why she's named Rafa, the opposite of Afar.

There is a VERY special place in Hell for them. And I'll show everyone the roadmap.

Spoiler: Why these guys are assholes, and how to murder them

For Wiegraf, there are a few ways to deal with him. There's brute-force Yell-Accumulate Stacking, Rubber Shoes+Float Boots to trick his AI into spamming a rather worthless attack, Auto-Potion +Hi Potions or better, and Concentrate+PA stacking (usually on a Ninja).

...And most of those won't work without having specific items or abilities. Oops.

Save Rafa is 100X worse, because it's entirely possible for her to die before you ever get a turn. Elmdore will Muramasa her on turn 1 most of the time, but he SOMETIMES opts for the more violent option in just cutting her down with his Two-Hands Katana.
Celia and Lede are not only broke in half in terms of abilities, but they also flat out CHEAT. Both have Hairbands (head items) equipped as ACCESSORIES. Don't bother with disables; just stick to pure Murder.

Oh, and Elmdore has Hamedo and a very high Brave stat. Don't try that Ninja Shit on him (as you might have done Wiegraf) unless you're feeling DAMN lucky. Target one of the assassins instead, if you can.

And that banks on having a character immune to: Stop, Charm, Instant Death, Petrify AND being able to hit them due to their high Class-Evade. If you have a slow team, you need to get lucky, and have one of the scary bitches start charging Ultima (on Rafa, natch), then you can murder/cripple her easily (no evade, 1.5x damage).

The easy solution?
Female Ninja with equipment that blocks Death, Stop, and Petrify; and preferably either Concentrate or Attack Up. Put Ramza in the middle of your starting formation since the game will cheat him into a different position anyway due to Cutscene Magic. If he has 4-5 Move, he can attack any of the three enemies easily, though again, pick an Assassin; they don't have Hamedo and a powerful Katana.

Alternatively, Agrias as a Geomancer (her best class for damage until the very end of the game) with Attack Up and Lighting Stab works. She gets around the evasion and Hamedo too so she can safely go to work on Elmdore.

 

[mikey7339]

There is a VERY special place in Hell for them. And I'll show everyone the roadmap.

Spoiler: Why these guys are assholes, and how to murder them

For Wiegraf, there are a few ways to deal with him. There's brute-force Yell-Accumulate Stacking, Rubber Shoes+Float Boots to trick his AI into spamming a rather worthless attack, Auto-Potion +Hi Potions or better, and Concentrate+PA stacking (usually on a Ninja).

...And most of those won't work without having specific items or abilities. Oops.

Save Rafa is 100X worse, because it's entirely possible for her to die before you ever get a turn. Elmdore will Muramasa her on turn 1 most of the time, but he SOMETIMES opts for the more violent option in just cutting her down with his Two-Hands Katana.
Celia and Lede are not only broke in half in terms of abilities, but they also flat out CHEAT. Both have Hairbands (head items) equipped as ACCESSORIES. Don't bother with disables; just stick to pure Murder.

Oh, and Elmdore has Hamedo and a very high Brave stat. Don't try that Ninja Shit on him (as you might have done Wiegraf) unless you're feeling DAMN lucky. Target one of the assassins instead, if you can.

And that banks on having a character immune to: Stop, Charm, Instant Death, Petrify AND being able to hit them due to their high Class-Evade. If you have a slow team, you need to get lucky, and have one of the scary bitches start charging Ultima (on Rafa, natch), then you can murder/cripple her easily (no evade, 1.5x damage).

The easy solution?
Female Ninja with equipment that blocks Death, Stop, and Petrify; and preferably either Concentrate or Attack Up. Put Ramza in the middle of your starting formation since the game will cheat him into a different position anyway due to Cutscene Magic. If he has 4-5 Move, he can attack any of the three enemies easily, though again, pick an Assassin; they don't have Hamedo and a powerful Katana.

Alternatively, Agrias as a Geomancer (her best class for damage until the very end of the game) with Attack Up and Lighting Stab works. She gets around the evasion and Hamedo too so she can safely go to work on Elmdore.

Do ya got a roadmap where you take a small detour to steal all of Elmdore's shit before dropping him off in hell?

 

[go-10]

for me it was Yiazmat it took forever with a maxed out party and the field around him was full of traps it was just horrible

another one would be ??? I forgot his name but his in the underwater secret dungeon in FF III for the DS, I never really beat him cuz he was WAY too strong and I didn't feel like grinding my Onion Knights to lvl 99

 

[PotluckBrigand]

I was only able to beat Necron with a specific party set-up, and I hated that. I had to use Steiner, Eiko and Garnet and just double-heal and use uh.. Shock, I think? Whatever one of Steiner's moves does 9,999. I thought that was lousy...

I'm one of the few people that actually prefers the class-oriented Final Fantasies to the story-oriented ones. I love the freedom of character growth in 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, Tactics, etc. The stories in the others are awesome, but I hate it when my characters are locked into job roles, making them effectively useless in certain situations (unless super leveled-up and sometimes never at all).

EDIT: Haha... sorry I posted a boss from a different game. Didn't see the "FF" in the topic title... guess that's why everyone is posted only FF bosses, huh?

I guess I'd say ANY of the monster collection bosses from FFX, honestly. I don't think I ever beat any of them, but I never took the time to really max out my team. I got stuck on a couple of the ultimate weapons and gave up (I got 0:00.04 seconds on the chocobo thing and got so mad I had to take a break from the game for like a week and never went back to the chocobos.)