Ozma's that hard?

[kain_ex]

People seen to have difficulties at this enemy. However, I haven't fought him (her?) yet, so I can't say if it's hard. But it's the next thing I'm gonna do, so... any advice?

[Chris]

No he is not that hard, read this if you're going up against him:

Battle Preperation

You'll want to have as much auto regenerative ability stones equipped to your characters as possible. Auto-Life, Auto-Potion and Auto-Regen are must haves. HP increasing stones, such as HP+20% are also helpful. The strongest weapons and armor you have will need to be equipped. Equipping the add-on Pumice Piece to your party members is extremely important to protect against Shadow.

Ozma will attempt to silence your magic casters, so make sure they all have the Loudmouth stone equipped. He'll also try to inflict status damages as well, so equipping stones such as Antibody and Clear Headed are recommended.

It's also recommended you work your ideal attack party for this fight up close to their Trance modes, to take advantage of their skills.

Battle Engagement

Luck is a major factor in winning this battle. Although your characters may strike for powerful damage against what seems to be a small number of total hit points, Ozma will unleash a horde of attacks to eliminate you. The key is to keep on top of his attacks immediately after he inflicts them upon you. If any party member has at least half their HP, you can be sure they'll be the first the go down. Double magic attacks are extremely helpful and keeping your party fully healed at all times is necessary. Make sure you heal constantly with magic, skills, Eidolions, and items. This is the toughest battle in the game, so when it comes to using your items and skills, you definately want to splurge. If you have any Dark Matter in stock, use it as much as possible. It will deal a full 9999 damage.

[Xurts]

When I fought him my party was Zidane, Quina, Freya, and Eiko. Zidane was easily the weakest character since he didn't have any attacks that did a sure 9,999 like everyone else. So I had to have him one hit away from Trance so he wouldn't drag my party down.

Quina comes in highly useful in this battle because she has so many great Blu Magics. If you use her, then Angel's Snack, Mighty Guard, and Frog Drop are lifesavers and make this battle much easier. Especially if Ozma uses Curse. You should definately have characters that do 9,999 too, like Freya and/or Steiner.

Anything else that I add will just be repeating what Chris posted in the quotes.

[farplaner]

As a rule, I always steal as much as possible with Zidane from the beginning of the game. Each successful steal increases the damage done by thievery (gamefaqs can give you the formula). By the time you get to Ozma it should be no problem to have max damage with Zidane.

As Chris quoted, even with the best of everything there is still a little luck involved to survive Ozma.

[Xurts]

As a rule, I always steal as much as possible with Zidane from the beginning of the game. Each successful steal increases the damage done by thievery (gamefaqs can give you the formula). By the time you get to Ozma it should be no problem to have max damage with Zidane.

As Chris quoted, even with the best of everything there is still a little luck involved to survive Ozma.

The formula for Thievery is [Speed/2 * # of Successful steals], thanks to Shotgunnova.

The only times I ever stole was during boss battles, so my Zidane's Thievery only does like 1,100. Even if I did have enough time to spend hours on end stealing, it would just be too boring and dull.

[Zeromus_X]

You should also input your commands as its attack animations are going through. (Because it always gets a turn when you input a command, this will help against that.)

[Sefie1999AD]

Ozma's difficulty in a way that he usually starts the battle by casting Meteor, which usually kills almost everyone, unless they have Auto-Life. If that happens, I'd suggest resetting. Another dangerous attack he uses is Curse. It does a lot of damage and gives you many status ailments. Be sure you're protected against those. Ozma is also fast, I'd suggest casting Haste on everyone (I'm not sure if there was an ability called Auto-Haste, use that if you have it), and everyone should have Auto-Regen and Auto-Potion too. Make sure you're protected against Doomsday, even better if you can absorb it, so Ozma will just waste a turn healing your characters and possibly hurting himself. Have Eiko or Dagger heal.

If you want to deal physical attacks, do the quest of friendly monsters. I'd suggest fighting a lot of Dragons so Freya can use her Dragon Crest. It does 9999 damage even when she's under Mini status (Steiner's Climhazzard and Shock won't do 9999 when he's under Mini status). If you want to take a chance, you can have Vivi in your party and have him use Doomsday magic in Trance. Hopefully it will hurt Ozma and heal you, or you're in trouble. I never bothered stealing much with Zidane, so he's not that useful in the battle. I think I had him use a Dark Matter against Ozma, though, it does 9999 damage. Quina's Angel Snack is good, but I think Quina's too slow so I don't use him/her much. If you want, you can take Amarant to the battle when he's close to Trance, so when Ozma uses Curse, Amarant goes into Trance and gets the abilities to heal everyone, restore everyone's status etc.

Good luck. If there's two battles in the game where you'll need it, this is one of them (the other is the final battle since if Grand Cross does Death to 3 characters and Doom to 1, you're done for, and something like that has happened to me, like, twice).

[J.Raven]

For me I just went with brute force and levelled to 99, then change to Dark or Ninja gear to absorb the deadly stuff that Ozma threw at my party. Characters used were those which I had already intended to beat the final boss, namely Zidane, Steiner, Freija, and Garnet.

[Cid Vicious]

The best way to beat him is to keep attacking, dont heal. Buy some Dark Matter if you need too, and throw them at him. He only has a low HP so he'll be gone in 4-6 turns.

[Sefie1999AD]

The best way to beat him is to keep attacking, dont heal. Buy some Dark Matter if you need too, and throw them at him. He only has a low HP so he'll be gone in 4-6 turns.

Huh? Can you buy Dark Matter somewhere?

[Dell]

You can't buy Dark Matter but bid.
Attacking is not good either, since he hs nasty magic which can kill your party. Have Shadow Absorbing Armor for your party

I usually go with Zidane, Vivi, Eiko and Steiner. Zidane is my item user because he can't do anything, his thief skill aren't useful here so I think he sucks in this battle, shame you can't remove him. Just have him use Remedy, Elixir, Hi-Potion etc or you may want to attack with him.

Steiner Shock is a guaranteed 9999 damage so I use him and kick Ozma. Plus, Steiner's HP is high, just lacks of Magic Defense.

Vivi is not useful either but:
Return Magic
Double Black Magic

This will give you ultimate healing, whenever Ozma use Doomsday to you, it'll heal you, then Vivi will counter Doomsday with another Doomsday, it'll heal you. Perfect!

I just have Eiko in the party for safe play, Summoner aren't useful here so Garnet is useless in this battle, plus Eiko's White Magic is better than Garnet's. Full-Life, Curaga, Holy, that saves the day. Plus Double White Magic and Phoenix are extremely useful. The same goes for Auto-Phoenix.

[TheSpoonyBard]

Zidane is my item user because he can't do anything, his thief skill aren't useful here so I think he sucks in this battle

Thievery for 9,999 damage?

Steiner Shock is a guaranteed 9999 damage

Only if Steiner's normal attack deals 3,333 or more.

I'd use Zidane for Thievery, Freya for Dragon Crest, Quina for Frog Drop/Angel Snack and Eiko for Auto-Phoenix (99/256 chance, if I remember correctly) and throwing Dark Matters. You just need to hope Ozma doesn't use both Meteor and Curse in succession.

Completing the Friendly Creatures sidequest will make the battle much easier as well, as Ozma will become weak to Shadow instead of absorbing it, and can be hit with physical attacks (not that you should be using them, but it's useful if you have Counter, Eye 4 Eye and Bird Killer equipped).

[KoShiatar]

The best way to beat him is to keep attacking, dont heal. Buy some Dark Matter if you need too, and throw them at him. He only has a low HP so he'll be gone in 4-6 turns.

Low HP? Ozma? Are you sure we're talking about the same boss?

[TheSpoonyBard]

Ozma, Quale and the Friendly Yan have 65,535 HP, the highest in the game. This is very low compared to the HP of bosses in other second-gen FF games (e.g. Emerald WEAPON, 1,000,000, FFVII and Penance, 12,000,000, FFX).

[Dell]

Thievery for 9,999 damage?

Yeah, there are some people who can't be bothered to steal like me.

At that time, Steiner should have done good damage.