How powerful should final bosses be?

[Reine]

Ive noticed that a lot of FFs, final bosses are weak. For example: FF6, 8 and 10 are ridicoulous. Sephiroth is easy and hard at the same time, because of Supernova. Cloud was confused, and did a quadruple cut on my party = Death. Necron is hard, as his grand cross and Neutron Ring were powerful, not to mention his speed!

I reckon final bosses should be VERY powerful, but not invincible. I also think there should be secret bosses in all the FFs that are designed for the ultimate challenge. (Ruby/Emerald/Omega Weapons, Ozma, Shinryuu, Penance and FF5 Omega for instance.)

What do you think?

[crono_logical]

I think most of them are fine as they are, if you're really playing the game for a challenge, that's what the sidequets and extra bosses are for - the normal boss is for the less enthusiastic player who might only play 2-3 hours a day so can take months to finish a game, and will want to finish it with some but not over the top challenge.


And please don't post random attachments, waste of server space - plus you can't remote link them anyway

[m4tt]

Well I think the final boss should be more powerful then any random hidden boss. Normally this is the guy who is trying to destroy the world. Why isn't the hidden boss doing the same? Ozma would woop on Necron in FF9, Nemesis or Penace could eat [spoilers]Jecht[/spoilers] from FFX for a mid-day snack.

[the blitzer]

FF10 is the only one with a really easy final boss. But the guy before him is extremely hard so it makes up for it by having a weak last boss.

They are all fine as they are.

[Flying Mullet]

Originally posted by Gau
Well I think the final boss should be more powerful then any random hidden boss. Normally this is the guy who is trying to destroy the world. Why isn't the hidden boss doing the same? Ozma would woop on Necron in FF9, Nemesis or Penace could eat [spoilers]Jecht[/spoilers] from FFX for a mid-day snack.

In FFX you can't fight Nemesis or Penance until you capture the monsters so that the arena manager can breed it, so they don't even exist half the time.

Although that would be the ultimate ending to FFX. You're fighting the final boss, and all of a sudden Penance comes out of nowhere and eats the final boss in one bite, kinda like that pig looking guy gets eaten in the Rancor pit in Return of the Jedi. Then you would have a real challenge on your hands, since you did all of the side quests and everything.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Ideally, the final boss should be either a little weaker or a little stronger than the mean optional boss, like Smithy and Culex in Super Mario RPG or Evilmin and Del Snizz in Sick Irony.

[Strider]

I've always thought that beating Kefka in FFVI was a lot easier than beating the enemies that enable you to work your way up to him. Ideally, I'd like my final boss to be pretty tough.

[Pancaek]

I like final bosses to be challenging, but not so challenging that you can't beat them unless you've leveled up a ton and gotten all the best equipment and whatnot. After I've gone through 40 hours of other challenging stuff, I just like to be over and done with the game.

[Mo-Nercy]

Originally posted by the blitzer
FF10 is the only one with a really easy final boss. But the guy before him is extremely hard so it makes up for it by having a weak last boss.

Contains name of not-so final boss in FFX:
(SPOILER)Jecht was pretty easy actually, only 'hard' if you compare him with the final boss. As long as you have Stone Ward or Stone Proof, you should be okay, pick the right time to talk with Tidus and ignore the Pagodas (or kill them both, if you want)

[TidaRalique]

I want the final boss to be so difficult I will feel beautiful after I beat him/her after she kicked my ass royally.

[the blitzer]

Originally posted by Al Bhed³
Contains name of not-so final boss in FFX:
(SPOILER)Jecht was pretty easy actually, only 'hard' if you compare him with the final boss. As long as you have Stone Ward or Stone Proof, you should be okay, pick the right time to talk with Tidus and ignore the Pagodas (or kill them both, if you want)

Rember the Pargodases keep healing him and if you deafet them they come back with more health. You need Anima and the Magus sisiters Overdrives to beat him.

Oh and by the way FF6s last boss isn't easy. He is very hard.

[Zenshen]

I have mixed opinions on this.....

I think that not every player of FF is hardcore. Some people like to play it like a walk down the park. In that case, I think that having a fairly easy final boss works.

For more hardcore FF gamers (like me), I'd love my final boss to kick some serious ass. Penance for a final boss on FFX would be awesome, since it would encourage me to spend time level building and such.

I think what would be better was if FF games in the future had a difficulty setting. Most games have one, why not FF? If you've gone through the game quickly on Easy, you could then have the option to pump up the difficulty level for more die-hard FF gamers.

[Rude]

I concur with Zenshen. Most FF's have a tendency to be slightly on the easy side for me at least. But I also understand that for some players it can be harder and for hardcore players they are easier. That's why I think there needs to be a difficulty setting also. For example, if FF4 easy type and hard type were rolled up into one game and you could choose from playing either of them by changing the difficulty setting, then you have it .

As for the final boss. I prefer something that I at least lose to the very first time I fight it. Remarkably, the only boss that I've beaten on my first attempt was FF1's final boss. Every other final boss that I've played I've lost to at least once.

[Leigha]

umm.... like a lot of you have said. the final bosses should be indeed difficult, but not so difficult so that it would be IMPOSSIBLE or nearly there to defeat if you aren't leveled up as far as you could possible be with the final weapons and such... i think that they SHOULD be a bit of a challenge, but the games should at least provide a few sidequests with plenty of exceedingly difficult bosses. you know??

[PhoenixAsh]

The games are pretty much perfect as they are IMO. If you don't know the game, or have only levelled up a little the final boss should kill you once or twice. Extra's should be left for the hardcore players.

The logic of the most powerful enemy must be the final boss is beyond me. Does that mean that once the heroes realise they were more powerful than whatever they killed they then have a natural instinct to destroy the world?
Enemies have their own agendas, and with the exception of forcing hardcore players to work and everyone else to give up, there's no real sense in the last boss being the hardest.

Plus it makes the ending harder to get over if that really is it, there's nothing left to do on something you just devoted fifty hours to.