Which Final Fantasy Boss was the hardest (non-optional) up through 13

[dunit697]

Mine was that lightening bird from ffIII,

[Jessweeee♪]

I had the hardest time with Yunalesca, and I always do if I don't grind before hand. It's so bad I even resort to throwing gil.

[Remon]

Yunalesca for me too. I just couldn't do anything about her zombiefying attacks and the kill everyone attack

[Elskidor]

Been awhile since replayed em all, but out of the ones I've played this year I think Yunalesca takes the win. Chick had some mad skills, and what a LONG friggin battle! I always train my characters up like crazy and still she gave me a good 30 minute sweat.

[Evastio]

Mine was that lightening bird from ffIII,

You mean Garuda?

Heh, I have to agree. That was the first time I had to completely class change my team to beat a boss. Even with the all dragoon strategy, he took multiple tries for me to beat him.

Well, there were times in FFV where I went "all summoner" on bosses, but that was mostly for convenience and overkill purposes. And it got too easy when I used strategies like that.

[VeloZer0]

My second playthrough of FF3 I thought I was hot stuff and I tried to beat Garuda without a dragoon in the party. Owned. If you don't use a dragoon the fight is borderline impossible. (Certainly well above the difficulty curve of any other FF boss I can think of)

I don't remember Yunalesca to be all that hard. I had some difficulty, but that was only because at the end of stage 1 I let my HP run down and kept doing damage because I didn't know there was another stage. I still managed to recover and win, but it was the most trouble I had in FF10. Though it was just on par with the average boss difficulty in an NES title.

[Wolfen]

I really hate the Demon Wall in FF4 and FF7.

[Jiro]

Materia Keeper kicked my ass a bit before I understood what I was doing. Seymour's final battle and the one on Gagazet give me a whole lot of trouble too, even when I prepare for them. Bastard Seymour

[Shaibana]

from what ive played i think
Sephiroth in Crisis core.. bcaus first u have to defeat him while he gets back-up from those 4 cristals... and after that u gotta keep him on distance..
rllz got stuck there for a while

[Elpizo]

Hmm... Cloud of Darkness in FF III on the NES without sages and ninjas is one hell of a fight, a race against time. Don't try it below lv 60, it won't work. Garuda on my first playthrough was hell, too, especially since I sold all dragoon equipment you find in that tower. :riiight:

I think III NES is the hardest FF game where the challenge is fair. Not like I, which is frustrating, or II, which is even more so. IV's not very fair either, since all you can do if stuck is grind. And from V on, FF wasn't very hard anymore. In III, you could at least try different class combinations, which often worked wonders.

[Depression Moon]

Probably Gagazet Seymour and the Goddess Statue in VI.

Yunalesca was only hard for me on my 1st playthrough. On my second playthrough I knew what to do. Try and keep at least one ally zombified before her third form.

[Hollycat]

minerva from crisis core.

Shibana....
I have no words for you....
*writes shibana on wall of shame*

nobody who has played crisis core should ever say anything but minerva, she has:
ONE HUNDRED MILLION HP!!!!!
and an updated version with hard mode:
TWO HUNDRED MILLION HP!!!!!
your max damage ever is 99,999, and she has an attack that peirces pheonix down and does an average of 80,000 damage, your max hp is 99,999, and thats if you have 2 materia out of 6 completely devoted to hp, which only leaves you 4, two of which must be used for defense and magic defense, and one which must be costly puch or you can only deal up to 32,000 damage a second.
you must have a steal materia the first time even if you die, and you have to have ribbon

EDIT: sorry I just saw the non optional boss part, but you are still on the wall.

hardest non optional boss has to be......
that beast that guards the entrance to the rift and spams huge damage hit all attacks.
or the magic keeper in 6

[Vermachtnis]

I'm gonna say that robot at the foot of Gagezet in X and also Gagezet Seymore too. And 128 in VI isn't fun either. But that might be because of the wave after wave after wave of enemies right before that too.

[Project G]

Demon Wall, Materia Keeper, Carry Armour from FFVII

1st playthrough of IX Taharka was a bitch, I sold all of my weapons not realising I would need them in Ipsens Castle

[Wolf Kanno]

Difficulty is hard to pin on FF bosses, as long as you know either a) what to expect, or b) the special "trick" to beating them most of them are pretty damn easy. I never had issues with most of the bosses mentioned so far with the exception of Garuda but he's a "trick" boss and once you get a full dragoon party he goes down pretty easy. Also, Yunalesca goes down pretty quickly if you walk into the fight with a full party (Aeons included) with full Overdrives.

The other boss that was mentioned that I feel is justified is Cloud of Darkness cause it's a bitch to kill if you are not leveled high enough and brought the wrong classes, notice I said and... Zeromus in the original FFIV is also a rightful pain in the ass cause even though there is a trick to beating him, that's only half the battle and he is a cakewalk in any version that isn't FFIVJ or the Chronicles version.