The Game's difficulty is a joke

[Akaneko]

I remember playing VII when i was 10-11 years old when it came out , back then i saw the difficulty as fair "even though i was a retard it was just fair" ..

played it again 6 days ago , i 2 shotted sephiroth 1st try
my average party level is 60
I didnt have KoTR and i didnt use omnislash < didnt even have a chance to use limits
i didnt have w-summon nor master materias
the only special materia i had was "quadra magic" which i linked with zero bahamut
i only healed once or twice , regen was enough

i was just spamming summons ,Cloud's "double cuts", enemy skill"shadow flare" and thats it he died ..


Im not saying im pro or something , im saying even if i give the game to a retarded monkey he willl finish it

was my game bugged ?, i downloaded a patched pc version

if it IS that easy really , what a shame , The story and the battle system "materia" was the best in the series .. difficulty has ruined it

[Hollycat]

Try Emerald

[Jessweeee♪]

I think there are certain things that make the fight more difficult. The first time I beat Sephiroth it was a total cakewalk. Then my little brother came in, got mad at me for some reason, and shut off the PS2 before I could see the ending. I loaded up the game again, and he was a kajillion times harder. I had the same party members and the same materia! I'm not sure what happened, but it was a very significant difference.

[Hollycat]

The big difference happens if you let him use his guard thing.

I usually just rid him of his guard and summon kotr.

game over.


One time I went through the game without summons, that made a big difference.

If you want the game to be at different difficulties use the following:

kindergarten:
use everything

easy:
don't use any bonus stat items or alternatively don't use items during battle

medium:
don't use enemy skill or summons

hard: don't use any stat boosting materia or items, and don't use summons or enemy skill

extreme: same as above, but don't use any materia more than once in battle

devastating: same as above, but no item usage during battle and no healing during battle

Insane: same as above, but you must not use any character other than cloud unless required, and then you may only use one character

Imbossibru: no materia

Demons souls (insert difficulty here): use any of the rules above, but if you die, you must start the disk over.

chuck norris: Play and beat the game without using any items, materia, limits, or the attack command, and every time you get hit you have to start the game over

[VeloZer0]

...., i 2 shotted sephiroth 1st try...

....i was just spamming summons ,Cloud's "double cuts", enemy skill"shadow flare" and thats it he died ..

???? Two shotted implies finishing him in two moves.


I think there are certain things that make the fight more difficult.

+30,000 Max HP, 2 Att, 20 Def, 5 MAt, 16 MDf per character at L99 (including not ones in the fight)
+80,000 Max HP if you cast Knights of Round on Jenova*SYNTHESIS
For each time you killed Bizarro Sephiroth's head, Safer Sephiroth's HP will be 100 lower than his Max HP, for a maximum of 24900 lower.
At maximum power, Safer*Sephiroth will have: 400,000 Max HP, 246 Att, 260 Def, 140 MAt, 308 MDf. (As compared to 80,000 he has normaly)

I find the game is a lot more balanced if you take enemy skills and ultimate weapons out of it. Which is interesting because without a guide you probably wouldn't be able to use either of those two things all that effectively anyways.

[Sylvie]

One significant E.Skill to make sure that you ditch if you want a tiny difficulty boost is Big Guard. My first play-through of this game remained ignorant of it, and being in elementary school, the game was fun and I had some trouble in certain parts. Staying away from E.Skills entirely should boost the difficulty even further. Also, force yourself to attain the secret characters (Vincent and Yuffie) at the moment you are able to do so. The boss before getting Vincent is pretty difficult at that point of the game. And while getting Yuffie isn't much of a challenge, her side-quest in Wutai is some kind of ordeal if you're at a low enough level. It made me want to kill myself when I was younger and I was stuck in the middle of it.

Don't get Final Attack materia. Don't get Knights of the Round. Don't utilize any intelligent materia pairings. It's a real fucking shame that the minute you begin to get intelligent with this game, you've pretty much gimped the whole challenge and the only thrill is invoked from watching your party perform more actions in one turn than they are supposed to.

I do believe there is a hack for the PC version of the game that makes it significantly harder, but I could be mistaken. Look around. I've never used it.

[VeloZer0]

This isn't exactly an isolated problem to FF games. Take a look at your favorite platformer, you probably had quite a bit of difficulty getting through the first time. But now the game is a cakewalk to you.

[The Man]

The Game is absurdly difficult. I just lost again thanks to this freaking thread.

[TrollHunter]

This isn't exactly an isolated problem to FF games. Take a look at your favorite platformer, you probably had quite a bit of difficulty getting through the first time. But now the game is a cakewalk to you.

-puts in jak and daxter 1-
Nope, the ice level still frickin' destroys me.

[Skyblade]

Does the level 99 character boost Sephiroth get include if you get Aeris to 99?

[Bolivar]

I think the difficulty is meant to stem from the status ailments he puts on your party, but again, intelligent playing using Ribbons negates that. It's FF, you're supposed to be rewarded for understanding of the system and exploiting its more powerful aspects. I guess he could have more HP but do you really want to sit through all those super novas???

[Mirage]

Games that require strategies and tactics always get easier with time. It's because you're getting older, smarter and more experienced, while the AI doesn't change.

[Bubba]

chuck norris: Play and beat the game without using any items, materia, limits, or the attack command, and every time you get hit you have to start the game over

... also, you can only touch the joypad with your nose, tongue, penis or nipple.

[Hollycat]

chuck norris: Play and beat the game without using any items, materia, limits, or the attack command, and every time you get hit you have to start the game over

... also, you can only touch the joypad with your nose, tongue, penis or nipple.

wrong, you can only use your beard fist.

[Bubba]

chuck norris: Play and beat the game without using any items, materia, limits, or the attack command, and every time you get hit you have to start the game over

... also, you can only touch the joypad with your nose, tongue, penis or nipple.

wrong, you can only use your beard fist.

That surely puts all children under 15 (and most women) at an immediate disadvantage. Can a false beard be used in this circumstance?

EDIT: I just noticed you actually put "Beard Fist" which sounds quite scary and would probably alienate the majority of the human race...

[Hollycat]

only chuck norris can beat chuck norris mode

[Sylvie]

Secret Character: Bruce Lee

How to unlock: Enter the dragon and enjoy yourself tonight.

[Rostum]

Yay Chuck Norris jokes, that isn't old.

[Sephiroth]

Fight 400000 Hit Points Sephiroth without Ribbons, White Capes, et cetera and you will see. And of course without Materia if you don't mind. You will need 45 minutes for the battle cause the heroes will fully heal Sephiroth all the time.

[Mirage]

But that's like saying "walking to the store is hard, if you just chop off your legs and arms, and don't use an electric wheelchair, and also do it in winter when the roads are full of ice".

[Sylvie]

Some humans aren't so thrilled with how easy life is to navigate. If I wanted a serious challenge, I'd run myself through the amputation and barrel roll to the store. And I'm sure that they'd be impressed once I arrived.

[Sephiroth]

But that's like saying "walking to the store is hard, if you just chop off your legs and arms, and don't use an electric wheelchair, and also do it in winter when the roads are full of ice".

No it is not because Ribbons make the last battles so easy. But the storyline does not expect you to visit all Temple rooms, the secret room in the Cliff and the pockets of Master Tonberrys. The Materia thing I said was just an extra advice to make things harder.

[Mirage]

You normally come across one ribbon without specifically looking for them, and a white cape or two isn't hard to find either (they can be bought in stores). If you missed the ribbons, there's still a chance you managed to pick up added effect and hades, which allows for another party member to be immune to lots of stuff. Even if you didn't go down to the downed gelnika, you can still get a party member relatively safe by giving them white cape and an added effect+mystify materia combo.

Sephiroth isn't hard even if you rush through the game, when you know what he's gonna throw at you. It's like they say, knowing is half the battle :p.

I still don't see anything wrong with my analogy. The game gives you tools to win battles, these tools are armor, weapons, materia and accessories. Modern technology gives paraplegic people tools to move around in the modern world. Not using the tools the game more or less throws at you is just like refusing to use a wheelchair when you can't walk.

[Sephiroth]

You normally come across one ribbon without specifically looking for them

No, you do not. I have posted the locations and possibilities here (except the Battle Square Special Round since the chance is not that high that people do that on their first try before finishing the story since story is more important and interesting when having your first experience). The Temple of the Ancients clock treasures are completely optional. There are three important ways and nine irrelevant ones. The irrelevant ones are to show you "Oh, dead end" and "Oh, cool, a reward". No one expects you to visit all twelve rooms (actually eleven since you have a start point, of course). You are rewarded for your curiosity/try to find the right way. It is not thought to seek for a special item you don't even know where to find (after 14 years people do know, of course).

And even one Ribbon is not helpful enough against Sephiroth. Neither the White Cape which is only useful against "Pale Horse". You can fight Sephiroth without Ribbons on an average end of story-level and you will see that he is way harder than what you expect.

You have got the point - he is not that hard once you know what his moves are. But on your first try you do not know. As well as the locations of the treasures. Of course you can use your "tools" like you call them but we are talking about a normal first try to end the story without any experience about where some things are and that Super Nova causes gravity-based damage 1/16 which can be reduces by "MBarrier", "Confu", "Slow" and "Silence", that his "Attack" causes "Sadness", "Dark" and "Paralyze", his "Pale Horse" "Frog" and "Mini", et cetera. And Sephiroth is fairly strong as long as you are not overpowered. His "Attack", his "Break" and his "Shadow Flare" are very strong, he casts "Wall" to protect himself, "De-Spells" you from time to time, et cetera. Kefka's last form is pretty easy - even though he is a bit harder without Offering and Gem Box without any doubt, the problem is he has less Hit Points - but Sephiroth is okay. Not really such a big problem as Final Ultimecia, Zeromus and Neo X-Death don't even need to be mentioned, but still okay.

[Mirage]

I know where the ribbons are, and I know they aren't directly in your path to sephiroth if you know exactly which path to take the first time you play the game. That's why I said you "normally come across one of them", as in, if you have no idea where the ribbons are, as well as no idea exactly which path to take to get out of a dungeon, *chances are high* that you will bump into one of the three ribbons and/or added effect materia, and chances are also high that you have bought at least one white cape thorough the game. Even if you didn't, you get one from a mandatory boss fight. Therefore, you are *likely* to have enough tools to efficiently take down sephiroth when you *know* what he's gonna throw at you.

Now, my point is that Akaneko found Sephiroth to be much easier this time than when he was 11 years old because he (or she) now is much smarter, and therefore able to analyze sephiroth's attack patterns much easier and faster, has a firmer understanding on how to use the tools he or she has found over the course of the game, and has more experience in fighting RPG bosses in general (RPG bosses aren't always 100% different). This is what made the sephiroth fight easier this time around, not his (or hers) equipment, materia, or levels. This is especially true because the statistics that were posted in the first post are actually very average and it is evident that the player didn't do a lot of exploring or minigames.

tl;dr: as i said earlier, games are easier these days because you're smarter. It was the same way when we were young. I often ran into instances where older people complained that the games I thought were hard (or fairly difficult) actually were too easy.

[comma]

Like most random-encounter RPGs, the game's difficulty depends solely on how much time you want to invest in leveling up. So really, you make the game as easy or hard as you want by how you play it.

[VeloZer0]

I think it is assumed that most people will fight just about all fights they encounter and add maybe a small modicum of leveling.

[Sephiroth]

Now, my point is that Akaneko found Sephiroth to be much easier this time than when he was 11 years old because he (or she) now is much smarter, and therefore able to analyze sephiroth's attack patterns much easier and faster, has a firmer understanding on how to use the tools he or she has found over the course of the game, and has more experience in fighting RPG bosses in general (RPG bosses aren't always 100% different). This is what made the sephiroth fight easier this time around, not his (or hers) equipment, materia, or levels. This is especially true because the statistics that were posted in the first post are actually very average and it is evident that the player didn't do a lot of exploring or minigames.


I know what he wrote but we have to think about it when we face him the first time and not when we have fought him 43 times and know all of his moves. That's not what makes a boss hard. You always need to take a look at him when you face him the first time. That is important. That he is easier like al bosses generally are with experience is something both of us agree since it is completely logical.

I guess we should stop here. We don't get anything from this since both of us know these things.

[Rostum]

Of course I found it difficult when I played it as an 11-year-old. I rushed through the game, not doing sidequests and trying to avoid as many random encounters as possible.

I played it again last year, and it was very easy because I had the patience to level grind at certain parts of the game, also managing to do all the sidequests.

I don't think this is the fault of the game, it should and did feel rewarding in both scenarios for me.

[Kenshin IV]

Yes, yes it is. It's by far the easiest game in the franchise and one of the easier RPG's ever made. That has always been Final Fantasy VII's biggest flaw. Thankfully, the superbly written narrative more than makes up for it. That game is played far more for its story than its gameplay (though, there are a lot of qualities in the game itself).

[edczxcvbnm]

The only way I beat Sephiroth on a stupidity run was through the use of W-Item. I was fighting him at a whopping level 45 and I think all of the characters beside cloud still had a level 1 limit break. I am pretty sure Cloud was only at level 2 but he might have still been at level one. I forgot to equip the one ribbon I had but I did have some stuff to help prevent a total raping. In the end it was a war of attrition as Sephiroth proceeded to blow up the universe an insane number of times. I eventually got into a groove when he ran out of MP and couldn't do anything.

Did I have Buhamut Zero? Yes but no one had enough MP to use it. I only used low level summons because they didn't cost much MP and that was early on in the game. Eventually their negative stat influence forced me to go with the only summon that mattered...Choco-mog! It would sometimes freeze enemies briefly and it does actually work on Sephiroth.

Screw Cloud's Level 2 limits. Those suck! Stick with Cross Slash as it sometimes freezes enemies as well. Plus level one limits happen every hit near the end of the game.

Overall this game is very easy. If you want a challenge just do a low level run. It makes a huge difference because you are not going to be leveling up Materia or limits due to lack of fighting in random battles. Hell you can ALMOST easily get through disk 1 fighting only bosses (only the Demon Wall takes effort because you can't beat him without grind stealing left arms from bombs on the bridge to Barretts hometown shit hole...screw that).

My lowest whatever try was level 38 I believe. The trick is to defeating the Jenova Synthesis in a certain way so you gain no experience. Kill it and bam! 5 levels :P

I do it because I find it still easy and somewhat challenging =D

[Mirage]

Yes, yes it is. It's by far the easiest game in the franchise and one of the easier RPG's ever made. That has always been Final Fantasy VII's biggest flaw. Thankfully, the superbly written narrative more than makes up for it. That game is played far more for its story than its gameplay (though, there are a lot of qualities in the game itself).

I disagree. It is not "by far" the easiest game. For an adult person who is used to RPGs, particularly JRPGs, I would say that all final fantasy games between (and including) 6 and 13 are relatively easy (excluding 11, that game can be pretty rough at times). While some of them have a bit of difficulty in the endgame, none of them are more than averagely difficult at most.

[Rostum]

Yes, yes it is.

Consider the demographic and the time it was released.

[Kenshin IV]

...You mean, the same demographic as every other Final Fantasy? As for time it was released, uh, I guess it was at the turning point of hard games into easy ones... Maybe?

I'm really not sure why either of those are relevant.

[VeloZer0]

The demographic of people who were new to RPGs.

[Kenshin IV]

I don't agree with that at all. The game was not made for that purpose -- if it was, they would not have started people out with a complicated system like the Materia system. No, I think people are too caught up now with how successful it has become, and have taken that to mean Square knew it was going to be that big of a hit over on our shore. They tried that with Mystic Quest and failed miserably -- the reason Seven got the attention it did was because of Sony's marketing.

Unfortunately, there really is no excuse for the game being as easy as it is, but that's okay -- everything has its flaws, and Seven has plenty to make up for its flaws.

[Mirage]

Materia isn't all that complicated. It's pretty easy to understand "to use fire magic, equip fire orb". Sure, there are many aspects with the materia system that a newbie might overlook, but they'll still be able to utilize a fair bit of it, and definitely enough to be able to complete the game.

Junctioning in FF8 is the same way. If you're a newbie, just press "auto" and you'll get through the game. Other than that, FF8 is also a relatively easy game, and I think someone can't really have played FF8 if they think FF7 is far easier.

[Kenshin IV]

For someone who's never touched an RPG before in their life, the concept of linking Materia and leveling it by a completely different experience system than what levels up your party members is not something one is going to grasp right off the bat. I know as an experienced RPG player it's tough to look at it from the perspective of a newbie, but they have to get used to everything from turn based battle, to inventory, to commands, and then to put a system like Materia on top of it is not easy to grasp all at once. That's why Mystic Quest was basic beyond basic.

The same goes doubly for the Junction system, which is beyond complicated to the point of being convoluted for a new comer. You're right, Eight isn't difficult either, but by that token neither is Six, Nine, Ten, or really any game past Final Fantasy V (which just so happened to be the end of the Sakaguchi era).

RPG's in general are difficult to make challenging, because as long as you level properly you're always going to be in good shape. Some just require you to grind more, and Final Fantasy VII is certainly not one of those games. It's also a game you can get by just holding down the attack command -- which diminishes the strategy aspect of combat. Believe me, no one defends Seven against it's unfair detractors more than me, but this is one area where there's a legit gripe (again, it's not the only game in the franchise to suffer from this, though).

[Mirage]

Not to brag, but the first time I played FF7 was at a friends house, and at the time, I had only played one single RPG in my life and that was FF5 (and back then I hadn't even completed it). Without a tutorial, just the (inrestrospect very incomplete) oral explanation from my friend who was stuck on the turks in the midgar underground. I looked at the materia and his equipment for a little while and reorganized some stuff, then beat the boss on my second try after that. Took me perhaps 30-60 minutes.

Maybe I'm just good at logic, but I never had any real problems understanding the materia system. I would rate the junction system in FF8 as a much more complex system to get into, and I must admit that for half of my first playthrough, i just auto-junctioned with attack stats.

[Kenshin IV]

It's entirely possible, of course, for someone to just be able and pick up and play these games, but getting back to what was said before, there is no way Seven was made with a new audience in mind. Even besides the way the game was made, it just would make no sense for a company to put that much money into a game and alienate their established fanbase (in this case, Japan) by trying to push it for an American audience, especially after they tried that with a spin-off game and failed. There was no guarantee they'd succeed, and if I remember right Seven had something like a 50 million dollar budget.

Now, of course they marketed the game differently here in America to try and push sales over here (even going so far as to keep it Final Fantasy "VII" as opposed to "IV"). I mean, they tried that once more with Dragon Quest VIII, and while it succeed to a point, Dragon Quest does not enjoy anywhere near the same success that Final Fantasy did after Seven.

[VeloZer0]

But that assumes FF7 was a radical departure in difficulty from previous installments. IMO it is about as difficult as FF6. Furthermore I think every FF since FF3 has been easier than it's predecessor, and even if you can't get behind that I think we can agree there is a trend-line from FF3 -> FF6 of the games getting easier.

[Bolivar]

No, I think people are too caught up now with how successful it has become, and have taken that to mean Square knew it was going to be that big of a hit over on our shore. They tried that with Mystic Quest and failed miserably -- the reason Seven got the attention it did was because of Sony's marketing.

If you look at developer interviews, especially at the time, those guys knew how special what they were working on was and how there wasn't anything else like it at the time. This wasn't Mystic Quest. RPGs may not have been popular in America at the time (they were) but I think they had an idea that once people saw the visuals and heard the music, it wasn't going to matter where they were from anymore. Plus anime was creating a huge demographic ready for this at the time.

But I agree with your point, and I think even Mirage will concede that (discounting EoFFers), the average American video game player who had not played RPGs, having item, armor, weapon, limit breaks, and a materia system (especially in 1997) were probably not easy to grasp at once. I know a lot of people who reminisce on playing VII at the time and say it was a hard game. I had played RPGs before, so it wasn't too difficult but at the age of 10 I still didn't have the advanced grasp on it I do today.


Not to brag, but the first time I played FF7 was at a friends house, and at the time, I had only played one single RPG in my life and that was FF5

How old were you/when was this? Because I don't think the FFV fanslation was even completed when VII was released and even if it was, what the hell were you doing playing FFV???

Anyway, I don't think VII is the easiest, at least undisputably. Most here will agree that FFVIII is far easier to break to an almost embarassing level. And FFVI becomes broken the moment you get Edgar, about an hour and a half into the game. There are some areas and bosses where you're challenged on your knowledge of the system, but FFVII has a few of those moments as well. FFX similarly has a few bosses that are a pain, but the ability to swap members in and out made the battles a Xenogears-esque series of one-hit kills. FFVII's problem is that the enemies don't scale well with the party's progression and abilities. If you just play through the story, you've probably already far outgrown them by the end of Disc 1. On my last playthrough, I ran from every random encounter in Mako Reactor 1, except maybe that machine, in order to get the better weapon for Barrett early on. It may not sound like much, but I found the difficulty far better balanced for the rest of the game.

Anyway, I think the real challenge from RPGs comes from how quickly you can beat the game. You can take the easy route by grinding or teleporting out of dungeons to find inns, but the real test is how do you conserve your resources to make it through everything straight through on your first time. The objective for developers is if they can make the game just challenging enough to make you think you can do it, but it's a risk. I think that's why Dragon Quest V is my favorite 2D RPG of all time.

[Jiro]

Could've been playing FFV from the anthology version. I don't know how old Mirage is/when he was born but the scenario isn't impossible. Also he might be able to read japanese, who knows.

[Mirage]

Not to brag, but the first time I played FF7 was at a friends house, and at the time, I had only played one single RPG in my life and that was FF5

How old were you/when was this? Because I don't think the FFV fanslation was even completed when VII was released and even if it was, what the hell were you doing playing FFV???
It wasn't on day 1, that's for sure. It was probably in 1999 or 2000, meaning I was somewhere around 14-15 years old.. And why wouldn't I play FFV? It's a fantastic game, and at the time, I didn't have a PS1 or any other consoles, so all I had was emulation on my PC.

[Rostum]

Just for the record, I first played FFVII when I was around 10-11 years old, and there had been nothing like it at all released in Australia before then. I managed to pick up the materia system easily enough for someone who was very young and had never played an RPG before.

I refuse to believe Kenshin knows what the developers had in mind when creating the game. However, all signs seem to point to them openingly marketing it to a wider demographic of players throughout more regions of the world. Though I can't say for sure since I came back to the previous Final Fantasies at a much older age, but I'd agree they got easier. Not to say that's a bad thing, at least for my first play through of VII it certainly wasn't.

[Bubba]

I'll be honest. Final Fantasy 7 was my first proper RPG and I did struggle with the materia system on my first playthrough. I understood the concept, materia such as 'Fire', 'Restore' and linking them to 'All' was pretty easy to work out. I just struggled with finding effective combination such as utilizing 'Elemental' and 'Added-Effect'.

Also, there were a few boss fights that I was ill-equipped for. This was due to me not knowing their weakness or the fight just taking me totally by surprise. There were a few points where I really struggled on that first playthrough. Bosses like Lost Number, Demon Wall and Rapps (OK, materia not an issue for that one but still hard first time round).

As previously said, after two or three playthroughs you know exactly what you're doing, what materia bosses are susceptible to and how to beat the game comfortably. Maybe if you're on a first playthrough now it would appear easy as gaming has moved on quite a lot in the last 15 years.

But for a 14-year-old, RPG newbie back in 1997. I would say there was plenty of challenge in the game for me.

[Mirage]

Lost Number's always been a rough fight for the level you're normally at when you first get to Nibelheim. It was the first boss that gave me a game over on my most recent (current) playthrough, actually. I must have forgotten just how hard it was able to hit.

[Bolivar]

The marketing definitely was pretty huge for FFVII. I remember it being on TV commercials around my favorite shows and in all the comic books I was reading. But I remember FFVI having those, too. I guess VII was more prevalent. Plus they had the console manufacturer behind them 110%.


It wasn't on day 1, that's for sure. It was probably in 1999 or 2000, meaning I was somewhere around 14-15 years old.. And why wouldn't I play FFV? It's a fantastic game, and at the time, I didn't have a PS1 or any other consoles, so all I had was emulation on my PC.

1999 = You're not a real fan. Kidding! And FFV is definitely a good emulation choice.

[Mirage]

At the time, we hadn't figured out that we could store our ROMs in different folders to get more save slots, so my brother and I played separate games because there were so few save slots for each game. I played FF5, he played FF6. Of course, we eventually got smarter.

[Cloudane]

'tis as difficult as you make it

I remember the first playthrough, getting absolutely brick-walled by that machine the turks throw at you in the submarine mission. The one that picks you up in its arms and tosses you around. It took me weeks to pass that... (I think in the end I gave up and loaded an earlier game, levelled up moar and had to go through the whole underwater reactor section again)

But when you've played it a number of times probably greater than the number of years the game has been in existence, you end up knowing all the good strategies and generally being better at the genre's battle style as a whole.

Using that dock machine thing as an example boss, at that point either you could have whizzed through the game and not really know what you're doing and REALLY struggle

Or you could know about Big Guard and everything and find it medium-to-challenging

Or it could be your first boss since getting Omnislash and/or KoTR (ISTR you can first get one or both of them just before this) and you completely and totally break the game and finish this boss in 10 seconds flat without losing even 20% of your health.

Same with Sephiroth really. Early playthroughs, he took me SO many retries (oh the frustration of getting to the one winged angel form, getting Supernova'd and some other cheap followup attack and having to go through the WHOLE final battle descent and sequence again)
Nowadays by the time I say "f--- it, I've done everything, time to finish the game" I can take him down just by standing there. Literally. A quick counter-attack or two while I laugh at being tickled by hit and it's all over.

[Mercen-X]

only chuck norris can beat chuck norris mode

I demand to see Chuck Norris beat Chuck Norris mode... aaaannndd NOW!

[Hollycat]

only chuck norris and I can see the following screenshot of chuck winning at level 0.

[Mercen-X]

Here, on this day, and by witness of those few paying attention to this thread, to commemorate the memory of a memorable mutant, I do solemnly bequeath unto you the utmost outrageous title no one would ever admit they want: I hereby crown you "King and High Emperor of Nothing"