Summary
RPGs can take a long time to complete, and that has remained true in theFinal Fantasyseries for quite some time. From the main story to side quests, some entries can easily take forty or more hours to complete. That makes getting to the final boss all the more satisfying, in some cases more than others.
The bosses that come out of nowhere, like Necron inFinal Fantasy 9, provide no closure at the end of the long journey. They don’t count here, but these highlighted bosses hounded players for hours in their games, giving them more of a reason to save the day.TheseFinal Fantasybosses earned the right to be the feature performers in a boss fight, and it makes them all the more satisfying to defeat.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Originwas a collaboration with Koei Tecmo to createa Soulslike gamebased on the firstFinal Fantasy. Jack is the main character, leading the Warriors of Light to defeat Chaos, which he mentions in seemingly every other sentence. Players can tackle missions with two other friends online; otherwise, they will be accompanied by AI companions in single-player.
That is, except for the final chapter of the game, as players have to explore the Chaos Shrine with Jack all on their own, Awaiting him isDarkness Manifest, the embodiment that grew and poisoned Chaos. Players will feel a sense of accomplishment not just by defeating Darkness Manifest by themselves, but by completing the whole dungeon alone.
Final Fantasy Tactics’main plot revolves arounda secret order of knights in Ivalicecollecting stones assigned to the Zodiac. Their goal, besides gaining supernatural power and starting wars, is to revive Saint Ajora. This all comes to a head when Alma, Ramza’s (the main character) sister, gets kidnapped.
They use her as a vessel to bring Saint Ajora back, which then becomes a demonic angel namedUltima. Thankfully, Alma does not die from this possession, which makes rescuing her through Ultima’s defeat even sweeter. If not, this would have made for a dark ending to the game.
Kefkadoes not begin asFinal Fantasy 6’smain villainuntil he betrays the Emperor halfway through the game. It’s at this point that Kefka also destroys the planet, thus leading to a post-apocalypse known as the World of Ruin. The hero party is scattered to the winds, and the world turns a putrid orange.
That’s reason enough to want to kick the pants off of this clownish wannabe. The final battle has players begin by fighting the Statue of the Gods, which is a literal vertical scrolling boss of Kefka entities entangled in an Akira-like mass of body horror. At the top is the angelic form of Kefka, waiting to be pounded into the dirt. It doesn’t bring the world back to normal, but it still feels good to bring this clown down.
Final Fantasy 10takes place in a world called Spira, where every hundred years, a whale-like entity called Sin returns to wreak havoc. Summoners must then go on a pilgrimage to appease Sin in a sacrificial battle, and that’swhere Yuna, another Summoner, comes into play. However, Tidus, as an outsider, does not want to give her up, so they devise a plan to destroy this endless cycle once and for all.
The party literally has to fight god inYu Yevonin several forms aboard the vessel of Sin. Also, Tidus is haunted by his father Jecht throughout the game, as he wasn’t raised well. The twist is that the Summoner before Yuna, her father Braska, turned Jecht into Sin. It’s a bit hard to explain, but the party overall feels great about defeating the god and saving Spira, and Tidus gets the satisfaction in being able to confront his father’s godly form to boot.
Sephirothis the main antagonist ofFinal Fantasy 7, but he doesn’t truly manifest until late in the game. Sephiroth was the child of an experiment using an alien named Jenova, and this revelation drove him mad. He believed himself to be the “chosen one” to rule the planet, which is why he sees humans as nothing more than ants.
Players have to face him in two phases: Bizarro-Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth. After these two brutal matches, Cloud then goes through the Lifestream to face Sephiroth as a man, albeit one who has tragically lost his shirt. This match is impossible to lose, but it’s awesome to see Sephiroth’s smirk literally disappear as Cloud cuts him down to size, which is a priceless moment every time.
Final Fantasy 16’sfinal battle is against anotherUltima,but this one is an alien who came to the planet for reasons that are still unclear to fans. It’s safe to say, he manipulated nations into war with each other, bestowing them with power behind the scenes. This final confrontation is a marathon, and once players finish, they will be left wanting a medal. It begins with Ultima Prime, who looks like a blackened version of Ifrit.
The real Ifrit, along with Phoenix and Bahamut, fight together in a giant kaiju-like battle to bring it down. After that, Clive reverts from Ifrit to fight Ultima in a human-like form. Then, Ultima Risen is born, and players take control of Ifrit Risen. Finally, players have to face Ultimalius as Clive again, and there areno breaksin-between these fights. To this day, it is the ultimate finale to aFinal Fantasygame, and it can take a lot out of players since it is all action-based.
