You forgot to mention that Jecht represented something new in terms of the final boss’ relationship to the party. Whereas the final bosses in the previous nine mainline games were clear villains, Jecht was actually a fallen hero who actually underwent a sort of redemption through the fight against him, and he and Tidus actually reconciled afterward.
everyone always mentions Supernova does massive damage, no one mentions that it does _proportional_ damage, and cannot kill the party. Also, saying "Jecht wasn't much of a surprise" is a huge understatement, he's the antagonist who'd been set up for longer than Seymour or even Sin!
@@joshshrum2764 the status effects are genuinely the most dangerous parts of that fight, not because they're particularly scary, but because everything else he does just isn't
From a narrative impact, Kefka is still my favorite final boss. As outlined here, a lot of RPG final bosses tend to fall into two camps: either they're fairly evident (maybe in hindsight) not long after you meet them, or the come at the 11th hour out of the blooty-hoo nowhere. And then there's Kefka.When he's introduced you might be thinking he's the comic relief villain. He does terrible and usually underhanded things (like Doma) but you kick his butt in direct combat several times. Most of his own troops think he's just a nutcase. Whenever he shows up you roll your eyes and think "Ugg...this jack@ss again..." But as you near the midpoint of the game he starts having more successes, and eventually, he's the only one laughing. He isn't a god, dark wizard, or some ancient evil. He's only a man, but one that's incapable of being reasoned with and yet he obtains the greatest power on the planet. He brings the whole world to ruin and comes within an inch of destroying it completely. Defeating a lot of FF final bosses is a requirement. In Kefka's case, it's a pleasure.
Play ff brave Exvius if you want a tougher go around . He's a challenge boss and pulls the same shit. Starts with fallen 1 and then a fire attack your team need 100resist to live through. What a chache
_Defeating a lot of FF final bosses is a requirement. In Kefka's case, it's a pleasure_ Well said. FFVI is definitely a title on its own before the series went 3D. A Final Fantasy where the antagonist, a man twisted by magic, broke the world in two and the protagonists actually _failed._ Defeating Kefka was an entirely different experience, having experienced the loss, picked up the pieces and grinding and eventually taking down a god after that loss.
Kefka didn't win though. The greatest villain in a final fantasy game will always be Delita Heiral. You played as him, he was your friend yet out of all the enemies in tactics, he was the most dangerous of all. He killed his own Queen, someone he fought for and vowed to protect. He was the only villain that succeeded. The heroes all died while the villain survives. Throughout the game he murders people, evil and innocent. Kefka's character is shallow, he makes no sense. He is a bad character. Super boring too.
As much as everybody loves FF7 and your various encounters with sephiroth, I still love kefka and his funny but evil antics even more bc FF6 is my all time favorite FF game.
Imo, Kefka is the best game villain in of all time followed by sephiroth, there's just something about crazy characters like Kefka and joker that I just love
FFX's final battles are my favorites, no contest, of course Braska's Final Aeon it's the only one that offers a challenge, but fighting him and then the aeons it's so emotional, and ending everything kicking Yu Yevon's ass into oblivion makes me so happy to replay that game every time
Hey, In case you're watching the comments before it plays, there's *flashing colored lights* starting at 7:50 until 7:58, I was watching this and noticed, just in case someone needs the warning.. Take care everyone, and enjoy the video!
Oh man, the Sephiroth fight was INSANE when I first played through FF7...! Even after multiple playthroughs, the design of Bizarro and Safer Sephiroth was just SO creepy to me. I'd never played through a JRPG before that, too, and so I had no idea what I was in for! Still remember, 20+ years later, how thrilling to finally, FINALLY win that first time! Can't wait for part two of this! I'm eager to see what you all have to say about 14, naturally!
As a person who knew the FF7 cast and only some minor details about the game going it I was caught off guard by how Sephiroth was actually handled. Most video games I had played to that day had antagonist that had more physical presence or were replaced by a bigget theat towars the climax of the story. Sephiroth is present in an entirely different manner. His influence is seen in several very dramatic set pieces or story dumps. While this wasn't the first villain to technically be present thought your journey it was my first experience with a story like that which is why it is my favorite of the listed.
Kefka was funny. He seemed like a joke villain for a while so it was a twist to have him end up the main bad guy. They did him well - unlike Sephiroth who is built up as a threat, only to have all sense of threat taken from him after cloud just tosses him away before the events of the game even begin. So Sephiroth just seems like an embarrassed idiot the rest of the game. Tldr: Kefka starts as a joke ends up a threat, Sephiroth starts as a threat and ends up a joke.
It was an amazing story with well thought out characters that make you emotionally attached to them. Not many games can do that. They also did such a good job with the back and forth on the different story lines throughout. Way ahead of its time narratively.
FFXIV's base game final boss, if you're not counting the patches up to Heavensward, I'm actually hyped af for. Legitimately. Hoping the one-on-one revamped fight gets some discussion once you get there!
It's interesting to see how many of these concepts also made it into the first Kingdom Hearts. Ansem wasn't present throughout most of the story, although was foreshadowed a few times. Then, after you defeat Maleficent, the person who was built up as the main antagonist throughout the game, he finally reveals himself and you fight his first form as he's possessing Riku. Then there's actually quite a bit of game left before you see him again, which is probably the biggest departure from the bosses mentioned in this video. It's almost like a middle ground between the ones who you encounter/fight multiple times throughout the story and the ones who just show up out of nowhere at the very end. Then you fight his humanoid form twice (with another Darkside Heartless fight thrown in there for some reason) before he transforms into his otherworldly final form. Cool stuff!
The only issue I have with Sephiroth’s supernova move is: if he can summon an interstellar meteor that blows up the sun, then why did he need the black materia?
i think it's because the meteor can only "wound" the planet so as it can use the lifestream to heal itself and he can absorb it so as to control the planet and use it as a spaceship to find a healthier planet. Supernova literally just destroy everything... but then again, if it was supposed to destryo everything, then how the heck will the party survive. such a conundrum haha
@@BCOG1691 I've always considered Sephiroth's supernova to be more like a metaphor of how powerful his ultimate attack is. Just like how Bahamut and Titan can rip apart the landscape, but it doesn't really affect the area you're exploring. Plus it wouldn't be practical. Not to mention that Jenova can cause illusions, and Sephiroth may have gained some or all of Jenova's power. That could always be used as a convenient excuse haha. I'm glad they went all out with Sephiroth's supernova animation. It looks cool as hell.
Nice job on this. Also, I know you guys use FF wiki a lot for these videos and I have to thank you guys for not using any of those unofficial titles originally on their final boss page, especially after I went through the trouble just this morning to remove them to match official materials.
It can't be understated how amazing that last Cloud/Sephiroth fight was back in 1997. FF7 isn't even my favorite FF, but that fight is unquestionably the coolest part of the entire series.
A little aside at 17:00 where you stated that you cannot lose during the final final battle in FFVII - It is possible to lose the final battle with the seemingly "scripted" instance with a bare-chested Sephiroth. Using a gameshark, a cheat can be activated that has Cloud's ATB gauge filled instantly at the start of every battle. In this instance you can choose attack as your Limit gauge fills. Even though the FFWiki states that in this fight that ole' Sephy boy has 1 HP, using a gameshark as I did, after Cloud executing a standard attack, Sephibad counter-attacked me and killed me aaaaaaaaaaaand GAME OVER. So it is possible to lose that battle.
Final Fantasy VI was when the franchise really started to develop the final boss around the game's main themes. That, rather than simply being a test for the player's skill with the game's mechanics and ultimately becoming necessary to defeat to save the world, the final bosses became more abstract representations of what the characters were struggling with and would need to be defeated to display the party's growth through their adventures. While I think the best of FF's bosses are in FFXIV, for the era discussed in the video I think FFX did it quite well. Yu Yevon/Jecht/Sin all represented this meaningless spiral of death and turmoil that metastasized in Spira over generations, one that affected everything about Spira and the lives of the main characters especially... and it's this cold mechanical process devoid of either malice or reason. The result of one man's choice made in the distant past for reasons that are truly irrelevant at this point crippling the world in unending despair, a despair fed upon by those in power to retain their position and that even the main character's party is ultimately intended to be merely another cog in continuation rather than as a genuine solution to it. Simply put, Sin is a great final boss not because of what it does in an of itself, but for the way the people of Spira came to accept it and even justified its existence morally
This was amazing, I loved the video! Can't wait for the next installment. I understand a lot of work goes into these videos, especially the longer videos. But if I could provide one piece of feedback (for whatever that may be worth), it seemed like a lot of these bosses were covered very quickly. Like not much was touched on. I'd like to see more information about them like their inspirations, mechanics, lore implication, whatever. But anyway, this was among my favorites so far. Great work as usual!!
I think there were about five phases of that whole final boss gauntlet. Busty Ultemecia(your favourite), then Griever, Griever and Ultemecia junctioned, the second form of Ultemecia with Griever, and then the ultimate form of Ultemecia.
Hot and powerful sure, but her personality is basically "hahaha I'm evil. Going to destroy everything now" absolutely ZERO depth. A big threat and good boss battle but as an interesting character personalitywise, nope
Although there was a significant tip-of-the-hat to Kefka, I still feel like there was a lot missed in terms of how unique his development was. Yes, it is hard to do some of that AND keep the video relatively spoiler free, but I still think it could have been mentioned how he supplanted the previous main antagonist in some very surprising ways. And, he did it for extremely unorthodox reasons. Putting aside the differences in personality between the US and JP versions, he was still just plain old NUTS. He didn't have some grand plan for WHY he wanted destruction; he just figured it would be fun. Sure, he had a big monologue about how pointless life and everything were at the end, but prior to that, he just flipped a shit and just started tearing things up. Easily the most unique final boss on this list (thus far). I love the story between Sephiroth and Cloud, but his architype is very played out. Nothing holds a candle to Kefka's raw MADNESS.
One villain/ antagonist that not many know but is clearly the best: Emet-Selch. Not only his motives are kinda justified but it makes you question if YOU are the villain. I also like the Emperor from fF2 because he achieved(kinda) his objective, to rule all of existence.
The statue of the gods would of been a PERFECT Fal'cie type of boss. Kinda wished it was like that in ff14 instead of fighting kefka with it while it stood there attacking you while you slap kefka. lol
Looking at the final boss of Dirge of Cerberus, I see a lot of Nier Automata in it. So even though it was not one of the best games, it seems to have an influence later.
So when you said Mateus' Starfall attack is actually less powerful than the Ultima spell available to the player, shouldn't it be noted that Ultima was bugged in the initial release? Conceptually I like that Ultima is theoretically more powerful than Starfall, fitting the way it was described and the image Dissidia gave of Firion as Jack of all trades. One who is proficient in all arts, defeating someone with supreme skill at only one
Can’t believe Chaos himself have more appearances as the final boss throughout the FF series. Especially in FF1, FF1 Remake Dissidia FF, Dissidia FF 012 (if you count the 000 scenario story) and FF Strangers Of Paradise.
So I have always interpreted both FF3’s Cloud of Darkness and FF9’s Necron as the penultimate “natural consequence” of the main antagonist’s actions and beliefs. With Sin being a reversal of this well established trope, Sin/Yu Yevon were the consequences we saw coming all along, but Jecht was treated like the final boss fight (statwise and difficulty wise) while sending off your Aeons was a winding down of difficulty (still hard) and Yu Yevon himself being a scripted battle you could not lose (like with Sephiroth vs Cloud). Yu Yevon might have been the last boss, but Jecht was the final boss and your own aeons were a flavorful boss rush put in between the two. Edit. Fighting Yu Yevon and your aeons was a consequence of the player’s actions and were not treated as a “final boss,” but rather a “boss rush.” While FF3 and FF9’s final bosses were the consequence of the main antagonist’s actions and were treated as the final boss
Though 11 is my favorite overall, out of what you covered it's Kefka. Everything about that fight was perfect, and there was also a nasty little detail you didn't mention - if you failed to revive any fallen party members in time they would actually die off and not be seen in the ending. Raogrim's story is actually pretty good too, and gets expanded upon in the Wings of the Goddess expansion. He was basically murdered by his best friend who was jealous over Cornelia, and then revived and given immense power by Odin who is arguably the big bad of FFXI overall (not counting the Cloud of Darkness)
I believe you are thinking of final fantasy 5 where the party members who are not revived before killing the boss stay dead, but then come back to life afterwards at the end credits.
@@604Nice Nope, during the fight with the 3 Gods as it transitions between them on the way up to Kefka if you leave anyone dead for too long or move on to the next boss without reviving them they are just gone for good
@@Malacite I don't see any record of that happening anywhere on the internet, and I've been searching for like half an hour now. I'd really like to know if this is true, but can't find any sources. Can you source me a video or website where it shows this happening. Genuinely interested.
@@604Nice It's possible that I am misremembering, but I distinctly recall the last time I played through it on GBA I ended up losing Locke and a few others in the end
@@Malacite They do get removed from the fight if you beat X God before reviving them, but I am pretty sure they still showed up in the ending cutscenes. Mind you, I am going by a 15 year old memory at this point.
The fight against yu yevon didn't really feel like you couldn't lose, my friend... the healing from those pagodas or whatever they're called, was absolutely bonkers. It wasn't until i realized it was susceptible to the zombie status, that this fight became super easy. The moment it was zombified, the suppoet pillars actually killed him instead of healing, making it indeed super easy.
I really hope for XIV, instead of just doing the base game, they go all the way through to Endwalker’s final boss. It’s so intense plot wise that it makes all the other final bosses in XIV feel like chapter bosses.
Uk, 14 is gonna be a weird one on this list. Nael is indeed the final boss of 1.0, and ARR, or 2.0 and is now considered the base game, has ultima weapon; but they dont feel like final bosses. None of the expansion final trials feel like a final boss save the EW boss who while only does show in the final expansion; their story can be seen retroactively through out the whole game, yes, its a retcon cause the whole plotline wasnt a thing back in 2.0, but it doesnt change the fact every expansion’s story has to do with that final trial.
my first time fighting zeromus was... underwheming, but i suppose i was 20 levels above what i was suppose to be so yeah ( around 50 Prob ) thanks for the video
wait I have a theory!!! Wasn't in final fantasy III, the heroes where in the light realm and they battled the Cloud of Darkness. I've always wondered since they have the concept of Warriors of Light and Warriors of Darkness, what if there is a Cloud of light. now, hear me out. what is the goal of the cloud of darkness? To cause a flood of darkness to reduce the world to nothingness, right? Now, in Final fantasy IX, Necron suddenly showed up as the final boss because of Kuja. and what was his goal? To reduce everything to nothingness as well. in final fantasy III, the final battle takes place at the Crystal Tower. in final fantasy IX, the final battle against kuja took place at the Crystal World. what if these two locations are connected? And Zidane's realm is actually part of the dark realm. once they defeated the main antagonist per se: Xander for ff3; and Kuja for ff9, the real final and mf suprise final boss finally comes out: Cloud of Darkness for ff3; and Necron for ff9. In both situation, the final party will be healed/revived to finally beat their respective final boss? Thus, I assume that Necron is the Cloud of Light that balances Cloud of Darkness. Just a thought tho. please be kind. haha
All final bosses have been so hard. Theres a reason the called final bosses... then we got kefka. What we all thought a final boss should be... then we got sephiroth.
In my opinion, the best final boss in the series (through 10, I stopped after) is Kefka. The gimmick, the music, the attacks....just amazing. My personal favorite is Zeromus from 4. Nostalgia does play a part in it, as it was the first rpg I ever beat, but I love the background, the music, and the big bang attack just looks so cool when the background reverses.
I barely remember the FFCC final boss. All I do remember, now, is that I finally got there during a play through with a friend (who wasn’t as deviated a fan as me, but did enjoy the games) and that whatever that final boss was, it left us both feeling very underwhelmed. In that aspect, I think FFCC suffered from having such a condensed narrative. I do still think fondly of the game, though, because of it being a FF where the party of protagonists were each controlled by an individual person. I think it makes coordinating attacks and solving the challenges of a boss fight much more fun.
FFX's Yu Yevon was easy fight, if you use the Zombie status effect on it and show it cure itself to death. Which make me happy and angry with simple (cheesing) method.🤭🤨
Chaos has 2,000 HP in the original NES version, later re-releases increase that to 20,000. And even if numbers are bigger in general for the re-releases that's still a massive increase.
16:00 it's worth pointing out that "bizarro sephiroth" is a mistranslation, which happened because the katakana of his name sounds like "reverse" as well as "rebirth". likewise, "safer sephiroth" is more accurately translated as "sepher sephiroth"
Could you elaborate on Yu Yevon being a surprise final boss? Your party states their plan to defeat him within Sin in the third act after abandoning the plan for the final aeon.
While I understand the decision to limit the mmo’s to the base games final bosses, when it comes to the story, I feel it makes more sense to talk about the current most recent expansion rather than what is essentially a pretty early midpoint of the story
I thought I should point out that Almagest & Grand Cross introduced in Final Fantasy V also continue the cosmic theme of final boss attacks such as Big Bang, Black Hole & Supernova. Almagest derives it's name from an influential 2nd-century book of astronomy written by the Greek philosopher, Claudius Ptolemy. In fact, Supernova in Final Fantasy VII features a diagram of the Ptolemy's planetary model described in the book during the beginning of the attack's animation. Meanwhile, Grand Cross, derives it's name from an astrological event in which four planets' orbit are aligned in a cross-shaped formation.
I haven't played a lot of FF games, but the final bosses that were the best to me were sephiroth from FF7 and Jecht/Yu Yevon core from FF10 Also, you don't have to give spoiler warnings. If someone cannot come to the logical conclusion that this video will contain spoilers, based on the title alone, then that's their problem.
With all the footage featured from HCBailly, one would think that the section covering FFIV would have utilized his material. It IS his favorite game, and he's LPed it several times, including the PSP and DS versions.
I don't like Kefka, both as a character and as an antagonist, but as a boss he's 0K. The only bad part is when he does instakill bs. However, Dancing Mad may be the greatest track in all FF
It’s a shame you’ll only be covering XIV: ARR from the looks of thing, I think endwalkers final boss would be a more interesting topic, considering it’s the proper ‘finale’ to a story a decade in the making. It will be interesting seeing how you choose to cover ARR’s final boss though as it no longer exists in its original form, As it has been split, rebalanced and redesigned for 4 players instead of 8, and then further phases that were previously at the end of that with the group of 8, are now a solo duty that a number of players who previously beat the fight, have likely still not experienced.
I know you're still doing evolution videos especially with this task of final bosses....though i'm curious would Garland Mr 'He who knocks down' get a evolution or origin video. Once last dlc of SOP comes out course?
I wouldn't say shadow lord was an end boss. He was more a mid way boss. He was the weaker version of dynamics lord and was not a hard fight. A more true end boss would be the rank 9-2 bosses which if not prepared would destroy you.
![The Evolution of Final Bosses [PART 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MyYQxBE_c6Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Evolution of Final Bosses [PART 2]](/img/tr.png)
![The Evolution of Superbosses [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nx68u7QqOSg/mqdefault.jpg)
You forgot to mention that Jecht represented something new in terms of the final boss’ relationship to the party. Whereas the final bosses in the previous nine mainline games were clear villains, Jecht was actually a fallen hero who actually underwent a sort of redemption through the fight against him, and he and Tidus actually reconciled afterward.
I mean, Kefka is the gold standard of final bosses, so that’s obviously the winner
And Emperor in FF2
everyone always mentions Supernova does massive damage, no one mentions that it does _proportional_ damage, and cannot kill the party.
Also, saying "Jecht wasn't much of a surprise" is a huge understatement, he's the antagonist who'd been set up for longer than Seymour or even Sin!
Well unless you get confused, and kill a party member, but it’s basically just a genjutsu lol Septhiroth, just goes Itachi mode.
@@joshshrum2764 the status effects are genuinely the most dangerous parts of that fight, not because they're particularly scary, but because everything else he does just isn't
From a narrative impact, Kefka is still my favorite final boss. As outlined here, a lot of RPG final bosses tend to fall into two camps: either they're fairly evident (maybe in hindsight) not long after you meet them, or the come at the 11th hour out of the blooty-hoo nowhere.
And then there's Kefka.When he's introduced you might be thinking he's the comic relief villain. He does terrible and usually underhanded things (like Doma) but you kick his butt in direct combat several times. Most of his own troops think he's just a nutcase. Whenever he shows up you roll your eyes and think "Ugg...this jack@ss again..."
But as you near the midpoint of the game he starts having more successes, and eventually, he's the only one laughing. He isn't a god, dark wizard, or some ancient evil. He's only a man, but one that's incapable of being reasoned with and yet he obtains the greatest power on the planet. He brings the whole world to ruin and comes within an inch of destroying it completely. Defeating a lot of FF final bosses is a requirement. In Kefka's case, it's a pleasure.
Kefka is an underrated villain.
@Dawn Razor That would be Sephiroth
Play ff brave Exvius if you want a tougher go around .
He's a challenge boss and pulls the same shit.
Starts with fallen 1 and then a fire attack your team need 100resist to live through.
What a chache
_Defeating a lot of FF final bosses is a requirement. In Kefka's case, it's a pleasure_
Well said. FFVI is definitely a title on its own before the series went 3D. A Final Fantasy where the antagonist, a man twisted by magic, broke the world in two and the protagonists actually _failed._ Defeating Kefka was an entirely different experience, having experienced the loss, picked up the pieces and grinding and eventually taking down a god after that loss.
Kefka didn't win though. The greatest villain in a final fantasy game will always be Delita Heiral. You played as him, he was your friend yet out of all the enemies in tactics, he was the most dangerous of all.
He killed his own Queen, someone he fought for and vowed to protect. He was the only villain that succeeded. The heroes all died while the villain survives. Throughout the game he murders people, evil and innocent.
Kefka's character is shallow, he makes no sense. He is a bad character. Super boring too.
As much as everybody loves FF7 and your various encounters with sephiroth, I still love kefka and his funny but evil antics even more bc FF6 is my all time favorite FF game.
Kefka is one of the only bosses who technically wins. He got what he wanted, he destroyed the world that was.
FF3/6 is and always will be my fav
I still hear his laughter in my head to this day. LOL
@@bobbyrabii6119 almost every main ff villain wins in some form. kefka is not the exeption.
Imo, Kefka is the best game villain in of all time followed by sephiroth, there's just something about crazy characters like Kefka and joker that I just love
@@CosilHeiir he is the best to you.
there is no objective best villain or main character.
FFX's final battles are my favorites, no contest, of course Braska's Final Aeon it's the only one that offers a challenge, but fighting him and then the aeons it's so emotional, and ending everything kicking Yu Yevon's ass into oblivion makes me so happy to replay that game every time
Hey, In case you're watching the comments before it plays, there's *flashing colored lights* starting at 7:50 until 7:58, I was watching this and noticed, just in case someone needs the warning..
Take care everyone, and enjoy the video!
Just remembering the final battles in FFX makes me cry. Such an amazing fight and amazing game.
That final cutscene with Titus and Jecht high fiving always gets me
Such a good game
Ikr
Oh man, the Sephiroth fight was INSANE when I first played through FF7...! Even after multiple playthroughs, the design of Bizarro and Safer Sephiroth was just SO creepy to me. I'd never played through a JRPG before that, too, and so I had no idea what I was in for! Still remember, 20+ years later, how thrilling to finally, FINALLY win that first time!
Can't wait for part two of this! I'm eager to see what you all have to say about 14, naturally!
Sephiroth fight is much better in ff7 remake
Hmm a favorite final boss, probably Kefka although that may be because I like the music playing mad you fight up the tower.
As a person who knew the FF7 cast and only some minor details about the game going it I was caught off guard by how Sephiroth was actually handled. Most video games I had played to that day had antagonist that had more physical presence or were replaced by a bigget theat towars the climax of the story.
Sephiroth is present in an entirely different manner. His influence is seen in several very dramatic set pieces or story dumps.
While this wasn't the first villain to technically be present thought your journey it was my first experience with a story like that which is why it is my favorite of the listed.
Chaos is my all time fave, because i love how he was redone in Dissidia Duodecim.
Ff6 was my first, and my favorite. The buildup of hating Kefka, to finally facing him as a god, was beauteous
Kefka was funny. He seemed like a joke villain for a while so it was a twist to have him end up the main bad guy. They did him well - unlike Sephiroth who is built up as a threat, only to have all sense of threat taken from him after cloud just tosses him away before the events of the game even begin. So Sephiroth just seems like an embarrassed idiot the rest of the game.
Tldr: Kefka starts as a joke ends up a threat, Sephiroth starts as a threat and ends up a joke.
It was an amazing story with well thought out characters that make you emotionally attached to them. Not many games can do that. They also did such a good job with the back and forth on the different story lines throughout. Way ahead of its time narratively.
Mini series on final bosses in granular style?? Automatic like. 👍
FFXIV's base game final boss, if you're not counting the patches up to Heavensward, I'm actually hyped af for. Legitimately. Hoping the one-on-one revamped fight gets some discussion once you get there!
It's interesting to see how many of these concepts also made it into the first Kingdom Hearts. Ansem wasn't present throughout most of the story, although was foreshadowed a few times. Then, after you defeat Maleficent, the person who was built up as the main antagonist throughout the game, he finally reveals himself and you fight his first form as he's possessing Riku. Then there's actually quite a bit of game left before you see him again, which is probably the biggest departure from the bosses mentioned in this video. It's almost like a middle ground between the ones who you encounter/fight multiple times throughout the story and the ones who just show up out of nowhere at the very end. Then you fight his humanoid form twice (with another Darkside Heartless fight thrown in there for some reason) before he transforms into his otherworldly final form. Cool stuff!
The only issue I have with Sephiroth’s supernova move is: if he can summon an interstellar meteor that blows up the sun, then why did he need the black materia?
i think it's because the meteor can only "wound" the planet so as it can use the lifestream to heal itself and he can absorb it so as to control the planet and use it as a spaceship to find a healthier planet.
Supernova literally just destroy everything... but then again, if it was supposed to destryo everything, then how the heck will the party survive. such a conundrum haha
@@BCOG1691 I've always considered Sephiroth's supernova to be more like a metaphor of how powerful his ultimate attack is. Just like how Bahamut and Titan can rip apart the landscape, but it doesn't really affect the area you're exploring. Plus it wouldn't be practical. Not to mention that Jenova can cause illusions, and Sephiroth may have gained some or all of Jenova's power. That could always be used as a convenient excuse haha.
I'm glad they went all out with Sephiroth's supernova animation. It looks cool as hell.
@@drumjod Or… Supernova is like a FF7 Summon… even the effect at the beginning of the animation is the same as the summons when called upon.
@@keeganguyer5237 Or, most likely of all, its simply nonsense game mechanics and can be safely dismissed as much.
lol Exdeath as a "treequel". I recognized it, loved it and will give big credit.
amazing video as always
i wanted to ask if you could make a video on FF's armors since we've seen on weapons and acessories so far, but not them
Nice job on this. Also, I know you guys use FF wiki a lot for these videos and I have to thank you guys for not using any of those unofficial titles originally on their final boss page, especially after I went through the trouble just this morning to remove them to match official materials.
It can't be understated how amazing that last Cloud/Sephiroth fight was back in 1997. FF7 isn't even my favorite FF, but that fight is unquestionably the coolest part of the entire series.
In another 5 years, let’s hope they stick the landing with remake 3
Nah not even close... For its time yes it was memorable but there's been so much better since then.
Except it's not
Yeah-I remember how amazed I was back in ‘97 when I first beat that game. Agree!!
@@Malacite my man literally did say “back in 97” 😂
A little aside at 17:00 where you stated that you cannot lose during the final final battle in FFVII - It is possible to lose the final battle with the seemingly "scripted" instance with a bare-chested Sephiroth. Using a gameshark, a cheat can be activated that has Cloud's ATB gauge filled instantly at the start of every battle. In this instance you can choose attack as your Limit gauge fills. Even though the FFWiki states that in this fight that ole' Sephy boy has 1 HP, using a gameshark as I did, after Cloud executing a standard attack, Sephibad counter-attacked me and killed me aaaaaaaaaaaand GAME OVER. So it is possible to lose that battle.
Great compilation video! Thanks for making this one and I’m looking forward to your next video! Thanks as always guys.
Explain Final Fantasy VIII's final bosses:
*Beat encounter*
Square: "Fuck you, we ain't done yet! Play the next epic song!"
Tbh after replaying Ff1 Chaos' theme and the fight are both bangers and is very underappreciated
Necron is one of my favorite final bosses
I love your script writing skills really entertaining
Final Fantasy VI was when the franchise really started to develop the final boss around the game's main themes. That, rather than simply being a test for the player's skill with the game's mechanics and ultimately becoming necessary to defeat to save the world, the final bosses became more abstract representations of what the characters were struggling with and would need to be defeated to display the party's growth through their adventures. While I think the best of FF's bosses are in FFXIV, for the era discussed in the video I think FFX did it quite well.
Yu Yevon/Jecht/Sin all represented this meaningless spiral of death and turmoil that metastasized in Spira over generations, one that affected everything about Spira and the lives of the main characters especially... and it's this cold mechanical process devoid of either malice or reason. The result of one man's choice made in the distant past for reasons that are truly irrelevant at this point crippling the world in unending despair, a despair fed upon by those in power to retain their position and that even the main character's party is ultimately intended to be merely another cog in continuation rather than as a genuine solution to it.
Simply put, Sin is a great final boss not because of what it does in an of itself, but for the way the people of Spira came to accept it and even justified its existence morally
Since when has FF been about skill? Like most turn based games, it's about rng. Sure some bosses may have specific counters but that still isn't skill
This was amazing, I loved the video! Can't wait for the next installment. I understand a lot of work goes into these videos, especially the longer videos. But if I could provide one piece of feedback (for whatever that may be worth), it seemed like a lot of these bosses were covered very quickly. Like not much was touched on. I'd like to see more information about them like their inspirations, mechanics, lore implication, whatever. But anyway, this was among my favorites so far. Great work as usual!!
FF8 last fight is underrated. Ultimecia was designed insanely well. And she was so powerful lore wise. Also, she looked good 😜
I think there were about five phases of that whole final boss gauntlet. Busty Ultemecia(your favourite), then Griever, Griever and Ultemecia junctioned, the second form of Ultemecia with Griever, and then the ultimate form of Ultemecia.
Easily my fav final boss in the series
Hot and powerful sure, but her personality is basically "hahaha I'm evil. Going to destroy everything now" absolutely ZERO depth. A big threat and good boss battle but as an interesting character personalitywise, nope
Agreed, except Ultimecia is just a genderswapped Exdeath but with an obsession of time compression instead of the void.
@@Vaquix000 you can blame the shitty translation for that though
Thanks so much for your work ❤️ Really enjoy every single video of yours!
i love devil may cry bosses especially facing off against vergil in dmc 3,5 he almost feels like a sephiroth with their composed menace
Although there was a significant tip-of-the-hat to Kefka, I still feel like there was a lot missed in terms of how unique his development was. Yes, it is hard to do some of that AND keep the video relatively spoiler free, but I still think it could have been mentioned how he supplanted the previous main antagonist in some very surprising ways. And, he did it for extremely unorthodox reasons. Putting aside the differences in personality between the US and JP versions, he was still just plain old NUTS. He didn't have some grand plan for WHY he wanted destruction; he just figured it would be fun. Sure, he had a big monologue about how pointless life and everything were at the end, but prior to that, he just flipped a shit and just started tearing things up.
Easily the most unique final boss on this list (thus far). I love the story between Sephiroth and Cloud, but his architype is very played out. Nothing holds a candle to Kefka's raw MADNESS.
One villain/ antagonist that not many know but is clearly the best: Emet-Selch.
Not only his motives are kinda justified but it makes you question if YOU are the villain.
I also like the Emperor from fF2 because he achieved(kinda) his objective, to rule all of existence.
The statue of the gods would of been a PERFECT Fal'cie type of boss. Kinda wished it was like that in ff14 instead of fighting kefka with it while it stood there attacking you while you slap kefka. lol
Looking at the final boss of Dirge of Cerberus, I see a lot of Nier Automata in it.
So even though it was not one of the best games, it seems to have an influence later.
i really love Ultimecia's design tho despite being more bias to Final Fantasy IX
Every upload you've put up has been great, I never miss one! Awesome content
So when you said Mateus' Starfall attack is actually less powerful than the Ultima spell available to the player, shouldn't it be noted that Ultima was bugged in the initial release? Conceptually I like that Ultima is theoretically more powerful than Starfall, fitting the way it was described and the image Dissidia gave of Firion as Jack of all trades. One who is proficient in all arts, defeating someone with supreme skill at only one
"Has more hp than any other enemy" take a shot everytime he says that
Best Final boss is Sir Jecht on FF10 . Just looking at the art vs his normal body is just amazing how artistic they went with him.
I've been here with you from the VERY BEGINNING and I'm very happy and proud of both you wonderful people😊 SUBSCRIBE AND GET THOSE LIKES UP PEOPLE!!😄
FF villains are so great that they can carry games on their own now. I can't wait to see The Emperor in the last Stranger of Paradise dlc.
Ultemecia! That encounter with Griefer hit a different way because of Squalls beloved necklace. And it’s difficulty is something to be recognized.
Can’t believe Chaos himself have more appearances as the final boss throughout the FF series. Especially in FF1, FF1 Remake Dissidia FF, Dissidia FF 012 (if you count the 000 scenario story) and FF Strangers Of Paradise.
So I have always interpreted both FF3’s Cloud of Darkness and FF9’s Necron as the penultimate “natural consequence” of the main antagonist’s actions and beliefs. With Sin being a reversal of this well established trope, Sin/Yu Yevon were the consequences we saw coming all along, but Jecht was treated like the final boss fight (statwise and difficulty wise) while sending off your Aeons was a winding down of difficulty (still hard) and Yu Yevon himself being a scripted battle you could not lose (like with Sephiroth vs Cloud). Yu Yevon might have been the last boss, but Jecht was the final boss and your own aeons were a flavorful boss rush put in between the two.
Edit. Fighting Yu Yevon and your aeons was a consequence of the player’s actions and were not treated as a “final boss,” but rather a “boss rush.” While FF3 and FF9’s final bosses were the consequence of the main antagonist’s actions and were treated as the final boss
Wait. Final Fantasy 6 is where the Sonic.exe laugh came from?! Oh my god!
Well yeah, Kefka's laugh has been the most overused sound effect in spooky videos and fangames since the early 2000s...
*Seraph* Sephiroth x9 actaily you can lose if you try to run the battle soft locks you into getting hit in the back by Masamune till you die lol x2
I believe Zirconiade is pronounced Zur-kony-ad, as opposed to Zur-con-aide. Great video nonetheless!
Great video as always!
I like your thumbnail for this video. Is it the artwork from Mobius Final Fantasy for "Ultimate Hero Sephiroth"?
Though 11 is my favorite overall, out of what you covered it's Kefka. Everything about that fight was perfect, and there was also a nasty little detail you didn't mention - if you failed to revive any fallen party members in time they would actually die off and not be seen in the ending.
Raogrim's story is actually pretty good too, and gets expanded upon in the Wings of the Goddess expansion.
He was basically murdered by his best friend who was jealous over Cornelia, and then revived and given immense power by Odin who is arguably the big bad of FFXI overall (not counting the Cloud of Darkness)
I believe you are thinking of final fantasy 5 where the party members who are not revived before killing the boss stay dead, but then come back to life afterwards at the end credits.
@@604Nice Nope, during the fight with the 3 Gods as it transitions between them on the way up to Kefka if you leave anyone dead for too long or move on to the next boss without reviving them they are just gone for good
@@Malacite I don't see any record of that happening anywhere on the internet, and I've been searching for like half an hour now. I'd really like to know if this is true, but can't find any sources. Can you source me a video or website where it shows this happening. Genuinely interested.
@@604Nice It's possible that I am misremembering, but I distinctly recall the last time I played through it on GBA I ended up losing Locke and a few others in the end
@@Malacite They do get removed from the fight if you beat X God before reviving them, but I am pretty sure they still showed up in the ending cutscenes. Mind you, I am going by a 15 year old memory at this point.
The fight against yu yevon didn't really feel like you couldn't lose, my friend... the healing from those pagodas or whatever they're called, was absolutely bonkers. It wasn't until i realized it was susceptible to the zombie status, that this fight became super easy. The moment it was zombified, the suppoet pillars actually killed him instead of healing, making it indeed super easy.
I still remember playing ffvii for the first time (it came out on my 6th birthday in NA) and freaking OUT about safer sephiroth. So cool.
I really hope for XIV, instead of just doing the base game, they go all the way through to Endwalker’s final boss. It’s so intense plot wise that it makes all the other final bosses in XIV feel like chapter bosses.
Great content! Enjoyed this!
Uk, 14 is gonna be a weird one on this list. Nael is indeed the final boss of 1.0, and ARR, or 2.0 and is now considered the base game, has ultima weapon; but they dont feel like final bosses. None of the expansion final trials feel like a final boss save the EW boss who while only does show in the final expansion; their story can be seen retroactively through out the whole game, yes, its a retcon cause the whole plotline wasnt a thing back in 2.0, but it doesnt change the fact every expansion’s story has to do with that final trial.
Me, about 5 mins into this video, realizing you're gonna do this for every game: "Oh I can't wait to see what the explanation is for FFIX"
Man you know I've never played a final fantasy released in ep 2
Final fantasy 6 7 and 10-1 are some of the greatest games ever created next to the original resident evil trilogy and resident evil 4.
my first time fighting zeromus was... underwheming, but i suppose i was 20 levels above what i was suppose to be so yeah ( around 50 Prob )
thanks for the video
Can’t wait 😊this was awesome
wait I have a theory!!!
Wasn't in final fantasy III, the heroes where in the light realm and they battled the Cloud of Darkness. I've always wondered since they have the concept of Warriors of Light and Warriors of Darkness, what if there is a Cloud of light.
now, hear me out. what is the goal of the cloud of darkness? To cause a flood of darkness to reduce the world to nothingness, right? Now, in Final fantasy IX, Necron suddenly showed up as the final boss because of Kuja. and what was his goal? To reduce everything to nothingness as well.
in final fantasy III, the final battle takes place at the Crystal Tower. in final fantasy IX, the final battle against kuja took place at the Crystal World. what if these two locations are connected? And Zidane's realm is actually part of the dark realm. once they defeated the main antagonist per se: Xander for ff3; and Kuja for ff9, the real final and mf suprise final boss finally comes out: Cloud of Darkness for ff3; and Necron for ff9. In both situation, the final party will be healed/revived to finally beat their respective final boss?
Thus, I assume that Necron is the Cloud of Light that balances Cloud of Darkness.
Just a thought tho. please be kind. haha
It's been over a year can you finish the history of Square video? People talking about Xenogears is what keeps me alive pls help
All final bosses have been so hard. Theres a reason the called final bosses... then we got kefka. What we all thought a final boss should be... then we got sephiroth.
Would you ever be willing to revise thumbnail for zeromus/ edea/final aeon you think?
If not no worries I appreciate your efforts regardless
In my opinion, the best final boss in the series (through 10, I stopped after) is Kefka. The gimmick, the music, the attacks....just amazing. My personal favorite is Zeromus from 4. Nostalgia does play a part in it, as it was the first rpg I ever beat, but I love the background, the music, and the big bang attack just looks so cool when the background reverses.
Since i think the most recent final fantasy game is Strangers of paradise itll be funny based off the final boss of that game
I barely remember the FFCC final boss. All I do remember, now, is that I finally got there during a play through with a friend (who wasn’t as deviated a fan as me, but did enjoy the games) and that whatever that final boss was, it left us both feeling very underwhelmed. In that aspect, I think FFCC suffered from having such a condensed narrative. I do still think fondly of the game, though, because of it being a FF where the party of protagonists were each controlled by an individual person. I think it makes coordinating attacks and solving the challenges of a boss fight much more fun.
Sephiroth was an amazing boss. Great music and story relevance. Just wish ff final bosses were harder. They should scale with your level
Maybe as an option for those who want it, but never should be set or standard. Level scaling bad.
FFX's Yu Yevon was easy fight, if you use the Zombie status effect on it and show it cure itself to death. Which make me happy and angry with simple (cheesing) method.🤭🤨
Chaos only has 2,000 hp? That can't be right.
It is, it's just the fact that it can heal itself that makes that boss literally impossible to beat if you don't deal more damage than it can heal...
Chaos has 2,000 HP in the original NES version, later re-releases increase that to 20,000. And even if numbers are bigger in general for the re-releases that's still a massive increase.
16:00 it's worth pointing out that "bizarro sephiroth" is a mistranslation, which happened because the katakana of his name sounds like "reverse" as well as "rebirth". likewise, "safer sephiroth" is more accurately translated as "sepher sephiroth"
The last minute final boss switch is such bad writing.
How about music accompanied with the final boss? Dancing Mad doesn't get enough love, it's always in an angels shadow ;) ;)
Only including final bosses from a base game was a mistake for the MMOs imo. The story is continuous and should be represented as such.
Could you elaborate on Yu Yevon being a surprise final boss? Your party states their plan to defeat him within Sin in the third act after abandoning the plan for the final aeon.
While I understand the decision to limit the mmo’s to the base games final bosses, when it comes to the story, I feel it makes more sense to talk about the current most recent expansion rather than what is essentially a pretty early midpoint of the story
I like ff8 final boss. I was shocked when her gf came out. The first ff I ever beat
kefka best boss.
He seems to have ignored Warmech in FFI. Chaos was a pushover comparatively.
I thought I should point out that Almagest & Grand Cross introduced in Final Fantasy V also continue the cosmic theme of final boss attacks such as Big Bang, Black Hole & Supernova.
Almagest derives it's name from an influential 2nd-century book of astronomy written by the Greek philosopher, Claudius Ptolemy. In fact, Supernova in Final Fantasy VII features a diagram of the Ptolemy's planetary model described in the book during the beginning of the attack's animation.
Meanwhile, Grand Cross, derives it's name from an astrological event in which four planets' orbit are aligned in a cross-shaped formation.
I wish you had focus on the original versions of the first FF instead of the upgraded remakes
Wasn't Necron the "Underlying Mechanism" of the Iifa tree?
I haven't played a lot of FF games, but the final bosses that were the best to me were sephiroth from FF7 and Jecht/Yu Yevon core from FF10
Also, you don't have to give spoiler warnings. If someone cannot come to the logical conclusion that this video will contain spoilers, based on the title alone, then that's their problem.
Sephiroth is my all time favorite boss and character.
Having each mmo expansion final boss tackled in the next video wold be cool, there are not too much expansions to talk about i think
With all the footage featured from HCBailly, one would think that the section covering FFIV would have utilized his material. It IS his favorite game, and he's LPed it several times, including the PSP and DS versions.
What kind of changes do you think would be made with a Final Fantasy X Remake?
I am triggerd how Ultimecia is pronounced, Its Ult e me sha
I don't like Kefka, both as a character and as an antagonist, but as a boss he's 0K. The only bad part is when he does instakill bs. However, Dancing Mad may be the greatest track in all FF
It’s a shame you’ll only be covering XIV: ARR from the looks of thing, I think endwalkers final boss would be a more interesting topic, considering it’s the proper ‘finale’ to a story a decade in the making.
It will be interesting seeing how you choose to cover ARR’s final boss though as it no longer exists in its original form, As it has been split, rebalanced and redesigned for 4 players instead of 8, and then further phases that were previously at the end of that with the group of 8, are now a solo duty that a number of players who previously beat the fight, have likely still not experienced.
I know you're still doing evolution videos especially with this task of final bosses....though i'm curious would Garland Mr 'He who knocks down' get a evolution or origin video. Once last dlc of SOP comes out course?
21:37 Wait, did Yoda in The Phantom Menace steal that line from FFIX?
Kefka will always be my favorite 😍
How I hated the random party againts "Ulti MEH cia" 🤣
Tactics and 8 have my favorite. Like, the ending journey and the ending battles were so good. I've never played 5 tho......
That is the most feminine-looking Sephiroth ever in the thumbnail.
I wouldn't say shadow lord was an end boss.
He was more a mid way boss.
He was the weaker version of dynamics lord and was not a hard fight.
A more true end boss would be the rank 9-2 bosses which if not prepared would destroy you.
Griever was a new take as you could rename it at the beginning of the game.