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man i love how the community can in a way love Strangers of Paradise despite its flaws i wished some of the other more modern FF games had this treatment too fans mostly just bitch about their flaws endlessly without ever looking at the fun or good parts they bring with them
Worth noting - Necron didn't seek to destroy existence out of malice, but in mercy. He viewed the actions of Kuja as distilled despair, and decided to ease the suffering of all life.
I know that people roll their eyes a bit with how much acclaim FF7 has received, but that transition from 2D to 3D was a HUGE deal. If you were used to 32-bit pixelation and chiptunes, the whirl of the clouds as One Winged Angel started playing and Sephiroth unfurled his wings was nothing short of epic. Gushing aside, I think that the Undying is severely underrated, if for no other reason than the transformation cutscene...and the way he exploded at the end.
We all love the additional phases. That’s what we want a final boss to be. An absolute slog. A sense of accomplishment when it’s finally over. Everytime you think it is over, the boss transforms or a new enemy is summoned. Give us more 1 hour final fights!!!
Take a gander at Xenoblade 3’s final boss for a great example of this. It has (depending on your definition of phases) 7-12 different phases and takes over an hour to beat. It’s a true challenge too. Lots of unique mechanics and the last part is a genuine beast that will smack your ass down if you aren’t prepared.
I want to add a little to Kefka from FF6. The Emperor in the first half is a red herring. The whole game is to defeat the Emperor and it's assumed that he would be the final boss, unless you already knew that Kefka was the final boss. Only for Kefka to surprise everyone by killing the Emperor and turning himself into god and remaking the world.
I don't think so. Kefka has a unique encounter theme that is used in both battle and Boss themes. So finding out Kefka is the true villain is not that difficult.
@@groudonvert7286 Having a unique boss battle theme was a common thing back then in the SNES era. FF4 had Golbez unique theme and he wasn't the final boss. Chrono Trigger had many unique boss themes and they weren't even the final boss (Magus is a perfect example).
@@groudonvert7286 I think you are partially right. I dont remember being surprised Kefka became the real threat, not like I was when Sephiroth brought death from above on Aeris, or when Garland became Chaos tho I was like 8 so its possible my deductive reasoning wasnt really that developed.
It's not Kefka or the emperor it's the Idealism the Empire, Vector and all its subjects who are blinded by that nothing will ever be enough, the Empire had gotten its Start after the War of the Magi as they had seen first hand the power that the espers could unleash when challenged and started seizing it for themselves creating the Very Magi who the War is Named After as they started the Process of Embueing humans with the power of espers following 1000 years of endless war and near total decimation of both the races and with the human hosts able to reproduce much faster they chose Defeat fornthe sake of all living things. The espers sealed themselves away with the warring triad after seeing the unsationable lust for power the Forces now Calling themselves the Empire Started Hunting down the Very Magi they helped create during the war to aquire their power as Espers were long since Gone. The real evil of the empire was the complacency of the entirety of all the Emperial Sympathizers and their part in the eradicating of the Magi Humans until they caught them all at the start of the Gestahlian empire building Vector and within the decade Emporor Doggo was born while his father started the beginning of Magitek and Magi they could control through the slave crowns. Kefka was created by Gestahls father to be a brother a protector but his Insanity brought on by the process and crowns not being invented yet Kefka was considered a failure and harmless as he was only capable as a court jester in the royal eyes. That's why another magitek soldier wasn't made for another few decades and only after Cid took over the process and facility. Refining the process about 12 year before we enter the story. There. Now you have it
One note about the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker final boss; it was incredibly inpactful as it marked the ending of the story told since 1.0 of the game. All the previous expansion, while having their own stories, told the story of the Ascians and the Ancients. The Endsinger was the culmination of this story which spanned over a decade of content. Its theme is even a mix of the Final Boss themes from the previous expansions (and base game.)
I'm kind of salty that they're continuing on after Endwalker, tbh. Should have gone for a FF14-2 or some other kind of stand alone new installment. Make it so you can import microtransactions from the first game to be fair to the player base, use the opportunity to clean up and modernize the engine a bit.
@@ASNS117Zero That's a lot of work and the subscribers are already on XIV. While that could have been nice and I'm sure YoshiP would have liked to get rid of job crystals and such from a business perspective that was never going to happen.
Every moment a final boss is defeated in their final form in almost every Final Fantasy, the moment feels very bittersweet as an array of emotions go flowing through you, joy, excitement, sorrow and relief.
Yeah you can do it, but it's generally not worth it and weaker than hers (Yes it is stronger than Ultima, but the turns to draw it really hurt the damage... Rhinoa's LB can cast it though, if she has it of course)
Yeah, if you play right (or wrong) you’ll have more than enough ways to beat her easily by the time you get to the end. It’s really more of a novelty than anything
Turn-based bossfights just hit different, man. Knowing the enemy will most likely wreck you a little after your turn is completed makes it way more engaging
Found the ATB system way more thrilling than the few turn based iterations, FF has to offer (namely I, II, III and X with the latter being the least demanding FF game in existence).
I think this is a lovely video, BUT if you're going to include the bosses from XIV's expansions, you guys should really also include the bosses from XI's expansions as well.
I don't want my comment to come off as ungrateful, as I know a video like this is a massive undertaking, but I feel it would be better to only do the base game of XIV (1.0 and ARR) than to do all of it and then ignore the rest of XI's final bosses. Just feels awkward if even the final bosses of XIV patches are included and final boss of full fledged XI expansions were left out. Again, I know the video is a massive undertaking, but it feels kinda weird to me.
@@gregtroyan I agree, the video is very good, but it feels inconsistent to neglect XI, which happens a lot in the fandom in general. Plenty of good final bosses there, like Promathia and Lilith.
Also FFIV, The After Years sounds like something similar? I'm not really sure, but it's pretty much continued from the OG FFIV, and it is its own game with its own stories (like DFF012, I suppose you could say?) and has a final boss: Ironically also known as The Creator. This guy's also a multi stage boss, maybe 3 stages worth? I never beat him because my team stunk. :P But I agree, to either keep just the base games OR add expansions, etc. Especially since there is another final boss in DFF012 (Feral Chaos), but he's a hidden boss and optional - You have to fight him and win to unlock him and his battle theme, though. He's fun to play as, tbh, but a huge struggle due to his abilities and the cost to learn each one (pretty much double of a normal playable character). Should add that I've honestly no idea what would count in this type of vid, so I could be wrong about TFY being included.
22:02 - Necron's HP (54,100) is actually the second lowest of Disc 4 bosses. His defense, though, is higher in addition to him constantly using Protect and Shell. Consequently, he only seemed to have the highest HP.
Have you guys ever noticed that the original Ultimecia hangs from below the Sorceress in the final battle below her dress? You can even see it in the character artwork done by the Squaresoft artists. Pretty cool...and pretty creepy!
@@groudonvert7286 That theory is just as bonkers as the whole "Squall died after fighting Edea in Galbadia and everything afterwards is a fever dream / the limbo" imho.
Bit sad that you didn't do XI's expansions like you did for XIV. Eald'narche, Promathia, Lilith Ascendant and, of course, Shantotto could've been mentioned.
include Cloud of Darkness final boss from The Vana'diel of Rhapsody but there call The Voracious Resurgence I feel mifght be final boss is terrestrial avatar Chaos or Maelstrom Mage, Garazu-Horeizu
I was excited by Super Mario RPG, but then I found out about the Star Ocean remake and I was like “OMG!”. The updates they have included are fantastic and gives it such a modern take but still feels like it possesses the spirit of the original.
Idk that I'd call Seat of Sacrifice mechanically derivative. It's pretty widely regarded as one of the best trials, and one of the most mechanically diverse EX trials for its difficulty and it mixing up attack patterns
For FFXI the base scenario it was the shadow lord, then for Rise of the zilart it was Ealdarnache, for Chains of Promathia, was Promathia, for the Treasures of Aht Urgan it was Alexander with Rauban, for the Wings of the Goddess it was Lilith, for the Adoulin it was Hades, for Rhapsody of Vanadiel it was Clod of Darkness, and for the Voracious Resurgence it was Chaos with the Voracious Beast
You forgot to mention that you fight the battle with the Endsinger on the back of the final boss of stormblood after having been given a chance to reunite with your companions thanks for the final boss of shadowbringers, and you didn't even mention the music! The second phase theme contains an epic downtempo version of the makers ruin which is the defacto leitmotif of the warrior of light
@@Ahrpigi If it helps sweeten the deal, alongside it's own original plot being good there is a lot of little things from other Final Fantasy games blended into the world making it also a love letter to the series as a whole. Like you might have noticed with the King Thordan fight they talked about, that was literally a Knights of the Round reference snuck into the plot through a boss fight.
@@shadenox8164 I did actually start the trial last month! There's a lot to love! ...unfortunately, ARR is still a hell of a grind to get through, and I ended up quitting after I was almost level 40 with my MSQ trapped at 24. Maybe one day.
What an incredible list. I was expecting just the final bosses of main numbered games, but when I checked the chapters--this is one BIG historical video.
The prayer of hope in XIV goes even deeper, as it was the Scions praying for Louisoux that empowered him so that he could use his sacrifice to defeat Bahamut averting an even worse cataclysm than what was suffered already, an event which marked the end of 1.0 and the beginning of ARR so it was fitting that this prayer was also what gave the Warrior of Light the strength to finish the storyline that's been running since the beginning of ARR.
"For the MMO's we're only doing the base game." _Proceeds to do every XIV expansion and final boss for the patches._ I mean, look, I get it. XI's time has passed and it would be a lot of work to do two MMO's for a list like this but maybe state that more clearly at the outset.
Editor-man here! This is an artifact of the super-cut: originally, we were not going to go past 1.0 and 2.0 for XIV, but the demand for a XIV-specific video was so large that we made it, then rolled everything together: that comment at the beginning of the video is an artifact of the old plan. - Vlad :)
I think the most unique thing with X was that it ended with a “puzzle boss”. If you were totally unprepared, there is no way to win… or lose. But rather than a culmination of what you’d learned through out the game, you only had to know a couple of concepts or at least, try them out.
The Endsinger fight was probably the most memorable final boss to any FF game I've played, with incredibly crafted music by Masayoshi Soken and incredibly subtle hints to what's happening both in-game with the boss' move set and music itself, ie. the final day is for a lack of better words, a throwback to your adventure till that point, including music from A Realm Reborn, Heavensword, Stormblood and Shadowbringer, culminating into the track that plays after the fake out Oblivion, "With Hearts Aligned", which to most players is considered as "The Warrior Of Light's Boss theme" - a truly incredible boss narrative both in-game and music wise.
I'm a tiny bit conflicted about the way this video is structured. I love this idea and what it does altogether, it's very interesting and informative to get a "tour" throughout the (mostly) complete history of a series of games I have loved ever since I was old enough to comprehend what a video game is but never experienced from the very beginning. Not only the transformation these final bosses went through in terms of gameplay but also how they changed narratively. It's cool to see it done like this! That being said, though, I feel like for a runtime of one and a half hours, there's a surprising amount of semi-pointless redundant repetition here. At *some* points it feels like someone noticed certain similarities shared between some / most final bosses and made it their mission to point them out in video form... but instead of just clearly and concisely pointing it out in the beginning, saying "These bosses fit those descriptors, others don't but overall it's a recurring theme so feel free to look out for that while we explore them one by one", we get this weirdly checklist-style redundant structure of pointing it out for every single boss individually. Maybe it's a minor nitpick but it feels very off when it happens this frequently, to me at least. Feels like we're missing out on more relevant trivia / information in favour of constant "Boss 1 turns into an otherworldly being after undergoing a massive physical transformation. They have powerful unique attacks." "Boss 2 undergoes a massive physical transformation that does make him look otherworldly in nature and their attacks are powerful, with one of theim being unique. Also this time, the final boss comes is not the central antagonist." "Boss 3 can not be described as otherworldly and they hit our heroes with attacks that are more powerful than attacks of other enemies in the game. Like with Boss 2, they are not the central antagonist for most of the game." "Boss 4's transformation can indeed be described as massive and is physical in nature. Their appearance is that of something otherworldly. This time a round, they're the central antagonist and their attacks are powerful."
Something I just realized with Chaos Elgo in FF Dimensions: it shares the trait of mid-battle transformation/moveset changes with another Square Enix final boss, being none other than King Smithy from Super Mario RPG.
Great Video. But its strange that you mention every Final Boss from FF14 Expansions but only one Boss of FFXI. Since that games has so many final bosses too.
Editor-man here! Totally understand. When we started this mini-series, we were only going to do the 1.0 and 2.0 bosses, but the demand for a complete video for just 14 was huge, so we made it afterwards and rolled it into this giant supercut with part 1 and 2 as well. That is probably why it feels a bit unbalanced! :) - Vlad
@@vladimirmlotschek3265 That’s well and good, but why did you not give the actual final boss of Endwalker 6.0? Zenos comes after Endsinger just as Lahabrea comes after Ultima Weapon. Seems they should be treated the same.
@xbon1 Well first, you are wrong. Plain and simple. But more importantly this isn't a tier list regarding every game and deciding which is better. This is a list that is meant to showcase the final bosses of every game. The fact that the XI final bosses were not shown other than the base games final boss is both disingenuous to the video and lazy.
This was a great video. I would really like to see a part 2 covering the rest of the final bosses in final fantasy games that weren't in this one like thearythm, opera omnia, "all the bravest", X-2 final mission, etc. Maybe even include the final boss encounters in the final fantasy animes.
I think it's all fine and dandy to cover final bosses from a mechanical perspective, but I think it's also important to remember the drama going into it. In quite a few cases there wasn't any, because the final boss just wasn't present or generally even known about until the boss appeared. With Ardyn there was a very real human drama there, a scorned and betrayed (some would say rightful) king and in his mind and many others a healer, locked away for 2000 years with nothing but his memory of events and his "betrayal" alive in his mind, not only this all that daemonic energy coursing through him, it's enough to drive a person mad. Then who should find him but the twisted Verstael, who really only saw him as an experiment well that does something to a mind, something in Ardyn snapped, of course we really only got a more complete picture with the release of episode Ardyn, but being the most senior member of the Lucis Caelum family (quite literally I think he is his great x 150? uncle) and his misshapen view of the events and such that led to his incarceration and the death of his beloved, wants revenge on the line of Lucis that ended up being, and not his line which he felt he should have been. Then you have the hanging of all the people that stood in his way of attaining the power of kings, most of which were loved by Noctis, in effigy, nearly killing Noct's best friends, his brothers, and even the drama throughout the fight showing that Ardyn and Noct were really 2 sides of the same coin, but with one key difference Noct was the king of light sent to cleanse the star of darkness and Ardyn was that self-same darkness personified. That's why to this day Ardyn is my favourite boss, it is by no means a hard boss or anything but the story that gets told it is storytelling at it's finest. At least IMO.
Thank you so much for your experience and summary on the many myriads of all the FINAL FANTASY BOSSES" and among some" The stuff of legends❤ It Is amazing how much the series has evolved into the Mega Millions Franchise that it is today❤ Please keep up the awesome work because we support you all the way! 🎉😂
One thing about The Dark King in Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was his true form was hinted at in his boss room. Felt bad for my cousin though. He was doing great against the Dark King until he showed his true form and my cousin's arachnophobia kicked in.
It kind of always amazes me that the fundamental big pillar themes of Final Fantasy (at least across the single-player games as I've not played the MMOs) manage to stay the same despite being different narratives sometimes with entirely different writers and directors, and it's basically an anti-Nihilist (or at least a post-Nihilist/Enlightened Nihilist stance if you're an Orthodox Nihilist) stance that values the universe and life even if it has no meaning. The villains are aways foils to that idea. Chaos thinks that chaos is the natural order. Emperor seeks immortality Xande and Kuja both rail at the concept of having to die, thinking it was bestowed upon them as an unfair end. Kefka is just a malignant nihilist. Seymour is a negative utilitarian (ie no one can suffer if everyone is dead). Sephiroth sees life as nothing more than undeserving of its place when it should serve his mother and himself. Ultimecia sees life as a curse that has tormented her and her kind and she actually only seeks to escape it, but that goal has taken on destructive cosmically nihilistic elements I could go on.
You can make a case for Feral Chaos being the true Duodecim final boss, as Confessions is the last story chapter there, instead of the twelfth cycle. Then he ticks a lot of boxes.
Enjoyable video, although you did skip over the final bosses of FF11 expansions. If anyone reading this is curious about them, Rise of the Zilart - Eald'narche Chains of Promathia - Promathia (These two expansions had an epilogue fight as well that tied up the story of the two expansions) Treasures of Aht Urhgan - Alexander Wings of the Goddess - Lilith Seekers of Adoulin - Hades Rhapsodies of Vana’diel - Cloud of Darkness There were also mini-expansions that included their own final bosses. The first three, A Crystalline Prophecy was a battle against an entity referred to as Seed Crystal. A Moogle Kupo d’Etat was against a moogle mafia boss (I’m not joking) named Riko Kupenreich. A Shantotto Ascension was a two-boss fight against a alternative reality Shantottos. Finally, the Abyssea add-on packs culminated into a boss fight against Shinryu. There are also stories tied to endgame content within Final Fantasy XI that feature final bosses of their own, but since these endgame events can be considered “optional” in terms to the story of each expansion, it could be argued that they are more akin to optional (or in some cases super) bosses.
tbh the last final boss of dissdia could also be the soilders, which was not also heartbreaking af but is kinda unique. im not sure but i guess its the only ff game where your last enemies are ur former allies
Chaos, Mateus, Famfrit, Zeromus, and Exodus are based on the final bosses of FF1-5. Mateus is Emperor Palamecia's given name in the original novelization, Famfrit's title is "The Dark Cloud,' and Exodus is an alternate translation of Exdeath.
@@SuzakuX Also also, Ultima the High Seraph (another Esper) has been namedropped at least once in FFXIV recently, hopefully teasing a future appearance there like with Yiazmat. And if that wasn't enough, famous FFXIV names like Fandaniel, Lahabrea and Emet-Selch are all mentioned in FFXII's bestiary, although whether that was their first namedrop in the series I'm unsure of. Regardless, there's clearly alot of respect for FFXII among the XIV development team.
@@SuzakuXFamfrit is actually called Darkening Cloud, but yes you are right. The name Mateus never appeared in the FF2 PR but Stranger of Paradise uses it. And I actually learned about Exodus being an Exdeath reference just months ago.
And we've now seen a new incarnation of Zeromus return as the final boss of patch 6.5. probably one of the most frantic trials I've done, especially getting to the final phase which is literally a soft enrage that WILL wipe you if you can't kill Zeromus fast enough.
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius - War of The Visions might be worth mentioning since it has adopted the FFT systems and even doing a collab with FFT units as its first main appeal.
Around the 1:20:00 mark, reminded me of the hardest ending to get in Drakengard 3, Queen Beast vibes! Parts of that you had to get exactly right, or, you're screwed! That ending kicked off one of the coolest franchises, EVER! Funny thing is, at first, wasn't taken seriously or even canon, until it BLEW UP in popularity! The Endsinger part of the vid, reminded me of that!
Great video, but I must disagree with the original Final Fantasy on the nes. While not everyone encountered it, the War Mech had much more health than Chaos. Doom having more than Kefka wasn't the first time :)
I think you forgot the Creator from Final Fantasy 4 the After Days. Technically there’s also Rydia? from the Interlude but idk if she counts. The Creator definitely does though.
Celes from ff6 - with the enhancer, aegis shield and the Minerva, she's pretty much unhittable. Paired with a ribbon, she's untouchable. Some of those are late game gets, but a character that can't be hit or scratched is pretty broken
Okay some notes on 14’s bosses, specifically Elidibus: Ardbert was not absorbed to be a power up; Elidibus puppeted his corpse because without a physical body to inhabit, Elidibus like Emet Selch and Lahabrea were wholly incorporeal and intangible. What Elidibus _did_ absorb was several souls of Warriors of Light into himself, along with being fueled by the hopes and prayers of many people to take on the form of the original Warrior of Light. Furthermore, his ultimate move is a direct reference to Dissidia, a Limit Break 4 exclusive to him dubbed “Ultimate Crossover.” Another interesting note about that fight is that beyond simply using Radiant versions of some player Limit Breaks (melee’s LB1 Braver, ranged physical’s LB2 Desperado, and Black Mage’s LB3 Meteor), at certain points during the fight, Elidibus could make himself _invulnerable_ to the player’s own Limit Breaks, forcing the party to adapt accordingly. While he was perhaps not the most original fight in FF or in XIV, the boy is far from derivative.
1:15:35 This isn't true. The QTE in the Hades fight is like Shinryu's, anyone who fails the QTE dies, but everyone who passes lives. It's only 5.3, the Seat of Sacrifice trial, where any one player failing the QTE is an instant full party wipe.
saying the endsinger’s method was singing (in a weirdly dismissive tone??), while accurate, is doing it a disservice. It feels like saying Sephiroth’s plan was just to hurl a big rock at everyone
Should have mentioned that ff12's final boss, The Undying had no visible HP bar. Something everything else had. Which combined with the name left people confused when playing the game blind.
Yeah i got everything across multiple playthroughs on ps1 the land near mideel village i mastered most of my materia across two to three days doing the same thing
The Best of the Best Final Fantasy Bosses Throughout the Years I Absolutely Love, Respect and Appreciate are: 1. Garland (FF1) 2. Emperor Mateus (FF2) 3. Cloud of Darkness (FF3) 4. Golbez (FF4) 5. Exdeath (FF5) 6. Kefka Palazzo (FF6) 7. Sephiroth (FF7 franchise) 8. Ultimecia (FF8) 9. Kuja (FF9) 10. Jecht (FF10) 11. Kam'lanaut (FF11) 12. Judge Gabranth (FF12) 13. Caius Ballad (FF13 franchise) 14. Zenos yae Galvus (FF14 franchise) 15. Ardyn Izunia (FF15) These are the Best of the Best Final Fantasy Bosses from the Final Fantasy franchise I Absolutely Love, Respect and Appreciate.
@@MelaniAlarcon Emet Selch I agree, but Elidibus wasn’t well written. Yeah, the game makes you feel sorry for him being alone and childlike, but his story and motivations aren’t really fleshed out well.
@@MelaniAlarcon Serious thought exercise: would ES be as awesome an antagonist if he dies as Hades and that’s it? I love his character, but learning of his past and gaining his respect once he knows the full truth adds so much emotional depth.
He was still really good, and I like how most of XV turned out by the end. But, it's still a miracle we got a good game out of it at all due to the absolute development hell it underwent. Very few games go through ten years of the cycle and come out even mediocre. For XV to be as enjoyable as it is is quite a feat. Anyway, Ardyn still makes my top five list of villains in the franchise. Partially due to Darren de Paul, another part due to his writing, and because he is one of two FF villains to get everything he wanted. He's just a really enjoyable package.
