Most Notoriously Difficult JRPG Bosses 

CrackedCode fucking RIP

I have no idea if he was hating on Persona or what. But that was terribly investigated. It tooked me at least 5 complete days to finish ONE play through. And I don't even want to talk about my second play through, nobody saw me for a month

Not a great list. Luca Blight is NOT the end game boss of Suikoden 2 either. He's about midway, and the sudden spike in difficulty is what makes him memorable. By all means he SHOULD have been the first form of a final boss, and most players first run through got ruined by him. Brutally.

It's weird, I also remember him as the last boss. Probably because he was an asshole, and everything after him was a cakewalk. I also remember something about that fight that had to do with 108 stars and getting Tir and Gremio.

70h divided by 24 = 2,92 days. So 3 days isnt that much off tbh.

Just knowing the music is the normal battle theme of SMT nocturne is enough

OH SHIT

yeah, normal battle which can occasionally kill you. lol

jaime ruiz basically

Not the same series but both games are IP-s of Atlus so they were like why not

KAITO exactly why I'm here

I was about to type this. I still need to play the game though....

demi-fiend is simultaneously my favorite and most hated protag in the franchise.

I like his design too cool and memorable.

i came here because of the demi-fiend. and when i read the titles i know demi-fiend in DDS will be here before i saw the thumbnail. lol

They go above an beyond many gaming series JRPG and otherwise i terms of difficulty. Lets just be glad he never became a guest boss in any Dark Souls games lol

***** And this video illustrates my problem with the difficulty in Atlus RPGs; they turn what should be a strategy challenge or a puzzle into rote memorization. They're the JRPG boss battle equivalent of a IWBTG level.

I mean have you SEEN strange journey? ;-; it broke me

Reminds me, i still need to complete the Naoya route of Devil Survivor Overclocked... and find my 3ds XD

Atlus helped Publish Demon Souls :^)

He's the player, you're just a random encounter.

casshern173 one playthrough took me 70.

Over 100+ wtf

if you maxed all SL already etc. not really. You can basically skip the whole game

Only if you are maxing everything and don't know what enemies are weak to what. If you are already maxed from one playthrough or don't care much about certain aspects it is easy enough to beat in 16 hours as a maximum.

Yeah especially when I'm slow as fuck at everything in jrpgs, I have 50 hours in Fire Emblem Three Houses and my friends have less than me and they're all ahead of me. Lmao.

You won't believe how much I lucked out on Matador, when I reached second phase I buffed myself hoping to make him waste a turn removing the buff and this was after he used his signature move. Then he charged and I prayed and he buff wiped on his second press turn and I crit him and killed him. It was like, me and that black forneus wannabe left, he wiped my entire team beforehand

Firion316 matador is simply a boss that was designed to break you out of bad JRPG habits of using beatdown manuvers of attack and heal tank

Firion316 I'm suprise the eathirial queen from. star ocean 1 2 or 3 and radiata story's ain't on hear she got between 4 million to 10 mil hp. I know she has 10 and a half hp in radiata story since I remember fighting her for over 3 hours and run in through 99 revives and 99 high potions and the lesser potions to a point I fought her by myself for over 30 min lol

You got to look at the following factors: -How difficult it is to "cheese the boss" -Does it legitimately exploit gameplay mechanics -Does it watch for any attempts to completely migitate a certain aspect of the boss and counter it painfully? Demi Fiend and Elizabeth fits because while they are difficult they also punish players for trying to immunity cheese the game.

MrAsaqe I found Satan from Digital Devil Saga 2 and Lucifer from Devil Survivor harder than Elisabeth

With the Power of Love,Friendship, and Potato more bs than hard

I think Elizabeth is harder than him

@@shura7644 as long as you know her battle pattern it's not a big deal to beat her

@@shura7644 really? The hardest thing about Elizabeth is just the preparation while in the demi fiend even after you properly prepare. You need to pray to rngesus

@@shura7644 anyone who say elizabeth is harder than demifiend hasn't actually fight demifiend themselves. Even in the easiest setting, your party can die turn 1

Now do it at level 1 and wait for the phone calls.

All these bosses are hard, but I feel that Lingering Will is the only FUN one. Super enjoyable boss, also gratz!

Goodluck beating him on Lv1 Critical and No Equipment.

Gomer Kaine and i thought vanitas remnant was hard

vanitas remnant is WAY harder tf are you talkin about lol once you figure out what skills are needed you can cheese tf out of lingering will to the point of just using him for grinding synthesis materials lol

Mike Custer It's certainly the hardest JRPG franchise, at least.

Mainly op persona. Yes

how is smt the hardest jrpg franchise? Are you dense? Any SaGa game has harder bosses.

of course Stephen shits on all of them

Satan it's just puzzle boss and you can spare some sacrifice items and do some side quests to have a good armor and accessories to fight Mem Aleph unlike Demi Fiend who actually need some luck do defeat.

JC Little I know I’m 9 months late but really? Some luck to beat demi fiend. You gotta god pray for your luck he doesn’t put your ass in sleep and use Gaea rage and the way he manipulates you and you manipulate him back

JAVELIN RAIN

The Fiend has returned and has become even harder to beat

MrEvilbyte yes i was hoping someone would bring him up

MrEvilbyte Damn right. Didn't he have an even stonger prinny mode?

Actually any of the endgame bosses from any Disgaea is ridiculous. At 140 hours in I think I had Laharl at level 1200 or so. I can't even imagine how much time it would have taken to reach level cap and even THINK about trying to fight those bosses lol

disgaea games grinding in the post game is all finding out ways to break it. ive done D4 end game in like less then 80 hours for example with some half decently thought out planning. instead of focusing on just leveling up focus on thing like statisticians which multiple EXP gains level up OP items to level up even level 1 characters post reincarnations for example and suddenly your leveling up to 9999 in like a few fights lol.

K Street it’s starting to mirrow the west in some jrpgs....

Thankfully, you can go to the save crystal, save and then resume the fight from where you left it! :)

The even better thing about this is that both FFXI and FFXIV had similar HNM bosses of this caliber until a Linkshell had members get physically ill on a 24hr run at Pandemonium Warden. SE had to change stats and impose a two hour despawn timer on their MMO bosses because of the widespread news this generated. Was 24 hours and still not completed over kill for 36 people? Sure. Is an enemy so hyped actually being *that* fierce a contender an awesome experience? You better believe it.

There is a catch though. You have to run back to it before it adds all its buffs else it heals over the break damage cap. I tend to try get it to start channel a move and run back to crystal and save between 2 files just in case I don't make it back.

you can beat him within 3 hrs though

I have beaten him twice, once on the IZJS version when the job system was japanese exclusive and once on the Zodiac age. It took me 1-2 hours both times. Have a ninja with yagyu darkblade+genji glove+berzerk+bravery and look at him do 10k+ 5 combo attacks constantly (also have a guy with decoy and reverse and take control of the healer to manually heal someone with curaga if needed because the reverse will make curajas kill the guy with the decoy).

Looking back, Sephiroth is a total wuss compared to the bosses the games would later add. I got to the point where leveling was taking too long, so I'd go back to the colosseum & beat Sephiroth multiple times in one sitting to get XP. His Sin Harvest is easy to prevent with superglide & strike raid. You should only have Elixirs & or Ethers on you + you can guard his regular attacks if you time it just as he disappears. Unlike conventional enemies, my advice for anyone having trouble against Sephiroth in either KH, to simply unequip your combo pluses & go into the fight with at most, only a four hit combo. As I'm sure many are aware, all the damage is in your combo ender. Sure there are weapons & abilities that boost the finishing hit based on the number of hits...but Sephiroth escapes from lengthy combos via teleport. You wanna maximize your damage during the short time he lets you hit him. As for game specifics, Meteor isn't too hard to deal with. Enough defense & awareness makes it the least of your worries. Just glide in circles at the peak of your jump height, possibly with Aeroga on for good measure. For KH2, it becomes sort of laughable when you apply Reflect magic. His dark orbs that appear around Sora? Reflect those when they close in. Time it right & he'll teleport into the reflected explosion, doing solid damage and allowing you to land more hits. Strike Raid should be your main attack ability in both games, for the easy ranged hits it gives. The invincibility it offers is awesome in KH1 when he uses flame pillars or later in the fight when his attacks become unpredictable. In closing: Dodge Roll, Super Glide & Aerial Recovery are your friends. Trust them & it's a cakewalk. He is a lot of fun to fight though. Nobody else really has that atmosphere in their fights. (Seriously though, use Reflect)

Probably from the PS3 HD remaster.

that boss only appears in that version right? played the game a lot with my old PS2 and never found him.

on ps2 that boss was only in final mix, which was then exclusive to japan.

Zelkiiro ps3 remasters still were locked at 30fps

fr tho

Noobie2k7 Yup. You still got the Beast Rune and the final battle duel Jhowy. But Luca is a beast.

Because he so thoroughly destroyed peace in the region that even his death couldn't restore it; thus he mocks you with his final breath at your notion that fighting him will end the war. That the war still rages on after him is a testament to the destruction he wrought.

+DarrylCross Correct, but again, he is not the final required boss of Suikoden II

Kent Brockman Ruby and Emeral weapon FfVII? they can easily defeated with lucky 7 strategy

Random Dude Very true, but without that stratagem they're very hard. (Besides that's cheating, :). )

Kent Brockman hey as long as it works mate ;)

The End > Omega Weapon. Selphie > all.

Kent Brockman fights are not that difficult when prepared, other battles mentioned in video are legitimately controller breaking

Satan from dds 2

I thought final Songi was harder, but the bonus boss was just evil. The final boss just had his massive HP pool. A half hour HP pool...that you had to beat multiple times to see all the endings.

Yeah. It's ridiculous. Im pretty sure my level is high enough to make the story last boss a breeze. But the real last boss can freaking 1 shot me. I remembered when i was 9, i saved inside the dungeon of the real final boss without other save points. I was stranded without a way to grind. I played it again 2 years ago on virtual console and finally managed to finish the game. The feeling is so great like a childhood fear finally being released from myself.

+Genrey Lino Gonzales if I remember correctly the hardest boss on that game is lapis

Wait, Legend of Legaia is on Virtual Console? that would explain why the game isn't on PSN like I've been hoping.

lapis is the hardest boss

+Karsten Ngai-Natsuhara (Videogamer80) Phantera cantus way more difficult lol

+Karsten Ngai-Natsuhara (Videogamer80) Sho was a pain on normal and its entirely because I used shockwave type pins. I didn't know that 'physical' pins triggered his teleport. But other than that, yea he was mostly just an annoyance. However, Ultimate Mode was still a fair bit of fun in how challenging it could be. Kitaniji was especially annoying on Ultimate.

+Ervan Andreas Especially if you're playing it for the first time

Hanekoma wasn't actually a breeze.

Karsten Ngai-Natsuhara I didn't have much trouble with him even on ultimate but I actually had to look up a walkthrough for ironface. How in the hell was I supposed to know to lure specific enemies to a certain area without killing them, or to step on her shadow to damage her for one phase because she stole my attacks? and I was stuck with my least favorite partner to use. As someone who is bad at riddles and noobish at puzzles, it took more tries to kill her than the friggin super boss.

Just attack him as fast as you can and wait to him to counter before hit 10k and armageddon bam easy

You can't one-shot her with Armaggeddon? How's that possible?

@@hiddenkalpa Her HP is 20000, Armageddon only does 9999 damage. Go figure.

Especially when your party is level 50. Most epic boss fight I've ever played.

problem with that game is destruction field exists.

Pfft! Yeah right. Try Spiral Draco from the PS3 version. A nine headed monstrosity that revives each head as they are being killed. I have platinumed the game, but only by cheesing him on easy. It is my goal to beat him on normal some day.

What about Berseria on Chaos first play through? That shit is impossible!

Let's not forget the Cameo battles >.

+MrDyl666 I remember when I first fight Sephiroth in KH 2, I just sat there in awe.

+MrDyl666 And I've managed to beat them all on Critical, my biggest achievement in gaming ^^......okay who am I kidding, biggest achievement in my whole life -.-

Took me about three hours to beat the lingering will... RIP

Honestly I am kind of proud that it toke me just 30 tries (and a long time of preparation) to beat Lingering will on critical.

yeah but lingering will takes the cake as the hardest boss in all the kh games because hes tough and has probably one of the best AI's when it comes to boss fights. hes incredibly fun to fight

That's not difficult just tedious

every time you spawn a damn character, it gets damaged too... so yeah... :/ need to grind some more.

+Warlord X I'm surprised too. The amount of prep work is ridiculous and it's still not even a guarantee that you'll win without coming up with a specific strategy in mind. Anyone who does this going blind is just asking to get their butt handed to them on a sardine platter

+rapsody230 Because you will become exhausted from the amount of time it takes to beat said boss, meaning that you become more likely to make fatal mistakes the longer the fight goes on.

If you mean Yiazmat, it's not just long. It's a hard fight that is an endurance challenge on top of that.

though you could literally chip away at his hp, run to the save point, save, reset the game and his hp will be where you had him last the next time you play the game.

Unless you took too much time getting out of the arena, in which case he heals to full.

Bigge1724 I literally fight Yiazmat while watching a movie (I let the gambit system do the work) , I just check from time to time to see how things are going.

+Lorenzo Innocente I can vouch for the demi-fiend...you play as him in shin megami tensei nocturne. If he wanted he could make that fight harder too since he could summon 3 demons at once.

+sam fisher The best part about that boss fight was the theme that plays. To your party, he's the most brutal, relentless, and trying encounter in the game. To him? Your party is nothing but a standard enemy encounter, and the regular battle theme from Nocturne that plays is testament to that.

Heh and Like I said he was one of those players doing a challenge since he didn't summon 3 demons XD

Jerails Demi-Fiend was sandbagging real hard. If he really did care he would’ve brought his endgame demons like Metatron, Lilith, Raidou and his high level skills like Deadly Fury and of course, Freikugel.

hell, demi fiend's gaea rage does like over 10k damage... in a game where you max out at 999 health.

I think this guy is the main reason I hate math

All smt protagonists had stylish suits and cool gear while demi fiend is running around shirtless in basically hell.

@@uberlephrad8218 To be fair, he had to be shirtless. How else could he show off those badass markings?

Christ! Can ya still even access the fight nowadays?

or the pre near wardden in FF online

Yes Ur is still accessible though they had reset him to initial values at some point.

AnImperfectSoul THIS. Saw many a failed attempt with a fully maxed party before catching a lucky win.

AnImperfectSoul yup, definitely the hardest here

All star ocean games have a few moments where you're best off breaking the cartridge/disc and going outside to forget about the damned series :(.

Limitless Indalecio surely hardest in PSX generation

+Neo noah Without a guide? without the ultimate weapons? without a ridiculous grinding?

nope, the game literaly beated he for me. .-.

why do you lie? is anyone giving you some money for this? if so i'm interested.

dude for real, the only boss that was realy hard to kill was that robot on the fu* crystal.

I think they should have used Penance for that spot.

+ZoruaZorroark I never made it to the end game in FFXII. The hardest boss I beat was either Zodiark or Hellwyrm, but if that happened to me after getting Yiazmat down to 1 or 2 bars I would lose my shit.

+U Wot M8 If it was drak souls that would be possible but not in these retarded games.

+U Wot M8 without leveling up on the first try

Aleth >On NG +99

Biplav Shrestha Lol exactly what I was trying to reference

For real. One of the best obscure games out there!

Yes! Even 2nd installment (on PS2) wasn't bad.

^ I totally agree. It was fun!

I wish someone would pick up the game for current gen.

Average Joe Person As someone who isn’t great at video games and is about to start this series, fuck.

Actually, it's 50 millions HP, each bar has 1 million hp, but the advantage is you can go out to save and its hp don't go back to normal.

than was actually just a misclick.on my part, i did mean to say 50 million, but the thing about being able to leave in the middle of the boss fight is that if you're gone to long he regenerate hp....Marilu Berto

It's 50,112,254 HP and funny fact he's at level 77

I don't mind the HP, but screw the instant death BS. I kept having really bad RNG when fighting him after his HP dropped around half way.

lol i'm stuck on him he literally won't let me have a turn.

Argonisgema Is that the same Demi Fiend from Nocturne?

Jake Theberge yep

@Jake Theberge yep

+sokumo tanaka For hell sure!

+sokumo tanaka A-tur was actually more difficult IMO.

+sokumo tanaka too bad that Rider isn't a boss fight..

+Daeven Ville I know right I was waiting for The Tyrant Overlord Baal to hit this list, but I imagine if GamesRadar picked every JRPG superboss then this video would be a few hours if not days long.. Yiazmat though....(shudders)

I expected to see that too, it takes fuuuu king days for me to finally beat their stupid shiet.

+Daeven Ville Grind enough and every disgaea boss is a joke, unless you mean from number 5 as I don't own that yet but shouldn't change the formula.

+SoSo-Loco I'm kinda sad they picked FFXII International vs FFXII. International makes the fight easier.

+AzzurrrroAqua Well, he is optional...

+AzzurrrroAqua You actually don´t have to sit through that,you can leave,go save,turn the ps2 off,and then just come back later to continue.You just shouldn´t take too much time going to the savepoint and coming back to him,because THEN he starts to regenerate his health. That being said,ffxii can truly require some ungodly amount of grinding due to it´s difficulty spikes.

Zecendia My best friend spent a week hitting Yiazmat for a bit every day. As you said, you don't need to do it in one sitting.

+Zecendia you don't even have to do that, you just set up your gambits properly and you go watch a movie... or two. That game masturbates, all you do is walk in between fights.

ma3lstr0m5t0rm That would imply that I DO set up gambits. Which I don´t. Because I´m lazy. (I have yet to actually get around to fighting that HP nightmare,so the only 2 gambits i use atm are attacking and healing at a certain hp percentage)

I found him fairly easy.

I think they just went for special end-game optional bosses. Watch out for the red carpet.

causeofcurse The fucking cape Still having trouble getting past the assholes And so... I grind, therefore... I am

@Hope Bagel Like Mot

+sora3823 ethereal queen is not hard in valkyrie profile