When did this "tradition" start?

[MJN SEIFER]

Having at least one hidden enemy that is really powerful (e.g. the Weapons in FFVII)?

Note: I don't really include Warman or whatever because I think that's just a really powerful random enemy.

[Flying Mullet]

I think the optional summons, like Bahamut and Leviathan, in Final Fantasy III were the first optional/hidden bosses.

[Wolf Kanno]

I count Warmech since you would have to be incredibly lucky (or unlucky) to run into him.

I've always had a hard time counting summons as optional bosses cause I never really saw there being a choice. I "gotta catch em all" or something like that.

The Guardians in the final dungeon of FFIV also fall into this category.

I guess I would say Omega and Shin-Ryu from V to be honest. Especially since beating Omega really doesn't net you anything worthwhile outside of bragging rights.

VI also has this issue where the dragons are optional but really the Brontosaur in Dragon's forest is a much greater challenge to beat than most of the games enemies. So I always felt Brontosaur was more of VI's version of Omega or the Weapons.

[RedPouch]

VI also has this issue where the dragons are optional but really the Brontosaur in Dragon's forest is a much greater challenge to beat than most of the games enemies. So I always felt Brontosaur was more of VI's version of Omega or the Weapons.

That thing is the only powerful enemy in the game. I remember during my first time ever playing FF VI, I was leveling in that dragon-head forest thing [or whatever it's called] for a long time with Gau, then that thing suddenly appeared, used Ultima and killed my poor Gau. I was totally unprepared for it, so I felt pretty "wtf?". I soon got my revenge though.

That was the monster that dropped the Economizer I believe?

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

FFI and FFII had Death Machine and the Iron Giant, respectively. Even though they're not "true" bosses, the super-bosses of FFIII and onward were clearly inspired by them.

[Vermachtnis]

They should hide more super bosses as random encounters. Just to keep us on our toes the percentage goes up the closer we get to the boss room. Although depending on where the last save point was, that could just piss people off. I remember being just a few steps away from Tiamat when I first encountered Warmech. Figured I'd power through it and was staring at the introduction just a few minutes later. More people should share that feeling of despair.

[theundeadhero]

I agree that FFII had several optional bosses you had to beat in order to get fantastic items from treasure chests. They are strong, there's no need to kill them and most of the optional bosses in later games offer the same beat the strong monster to get the strong item. The difference being in FFII they were all monster-in-a-box monsters.

[RedPouch]

I agree that FFII had several optional bosses you had to beat in order to get fantastic items from treasure chests. They are strong, there's no need to kill them and most of the optional bosses in later games offer the same beat the strong monster to get the strong item. The difference being in FFII they were all monster-in-a-box monsters.

I actually felt that all of the bosses in FF II were severely lacking power [at least in the GBA version of the game]. Even at the final dungeon, all of the "optional bosses" [including Astoroth] were pretty weak. I didn't even do heavy training to increase max HP/MP/weapon skills or anything like that either. I just sorta played through casually and let the stats take care of themselves.

On that note, it also seems that FFI for the GBA was leagues easier than FFI for the NES. Was this intentional or an oversight? Without even trying, I ended up on level 50 by the time I got to Chaos. I remember when I played the same way on the NES version, I was approximately 35-ish when I got to Chaos.

[sdm42393]

The difference being in FFII they were all monster-in-a-box monsters.

That is probably the only aspect of the game I can complain about. Towards the end of the game, Monster-In-A-Box was getting quite old.

[theundeadhero]

The GBA FFII was so easy compared to the NES or PS version it's sad.

[RedPouch]

The GBA FFII was so easy compared to the NES or PS version it's sad.

That might be why I found it so easy. FFI for the GBA was also ridiculously easy compared to the NES version.

[Elpizo]

I would say that optional superbosses like we know them now started with V, with Omega and Shinryu. But optional, stong enemies and/or bosses started way back with I and Warmech.