It’s hard to talk about legendary gaming franchises that have been running for ages without mentioning the JRPG stalwart that is Final Fantasy. Square was on its last legs when the first Final Fantasy game was released in 1987, and the runaway success of this title pretty much cemented the company’s reputation as one of the biggest players in the gaming industry — a tagline that is still relevant to this day.
A large part of what makes Final Fantasy such a popular name is definitely its boss battles, which can feel truly epic in every sense of the word at times. While there are some bosses that feel like nothing more than just excuses that are meant to extend the runtime of a game, it’s the important story-heavy encounters that truly personify everything great in Final Fantasy boss battles. From the music to the challenge of the battles itself — there’s no end to the sheer number of elements that the series nails in making these boss fights feel as amazing as can be.
Keeping this in mind, here are five amazing boss fights in Final Fantasy, coupled with five horrid ones that absolutely pale in comparison.
10 AMAZING: Seymour Omnis (FFX)
The final encounter against Seymour in Final Fantasy X is easily the most memorable of the lot, and anyone who’s played the game can attest to this fact.
The gimmick in this battle is quite entertaining, the fight itself can be quite challenging, and the music is the crowning jewel of this memorable encounter.
However, Final Fantasy X wouldn’t be able to maintain this moment throughout the final stretch of the game…
9 WORST: Yu Yevon (FFX)
Throughout the entire game, Yu Yevon is built up as this massive larger-than-life entity that is behind all the catastrophes that have been raging all over the world. So, it only goes without saying that fighting this creature should’ve definitely been the highlight of the game.
Instead, what ends up happening is that party automatically gets a Reraise for the entire duration of the fight, while the entire party slowly whittles down Yu Yevon’s health as the summons make a bizarre appearance throughout this ordeal.
It’s easily one of the most boring moments in the entire game and serves as a rather unsatisfactory way to end the proceedings of one of the best Final Fantasy titles.
8 AMAZING: Gilgamesh (FFV)
Gilgamesh is one of the most iconic recurring characters in the Final Fantasy series, and this is mainly because of the strong debut that he had in Final Fantasy V.
While the party encounters Gilgamesh several times over the course of the games, our vote goes to the fight that happens right after the battle at the big bridge, which easily has one of the best Final Fantasy soundtracks of all time.
7 WORST: Barthandelus (FFXIII)
Final Fantasy XIII is reviled by the fan base for a number of reasons, and the second encounter certainly doesn’t do the game any favors when it comes to winning fans over.
Nothing about this encounter is fun, with Barthandelus being a huge HP sponge that can randomly cast Doom in the middle of the battle and pretty much ensure that the player fails this encounter altogether.
Relying on RNG to defeat a boss is never a good idea in the slightest.
6 AMAZING: Kefka (FFVI)
There are many reasons why people consider Final Fantasy VI to be the unsung hero of the franchise, with its antagonist perhaps being the best selling point of this title.
Kefka is easily one of the greatest video game antagonists of all time, and fighting this anarchist at the end of the game is one of the most memorable moments in gaming. The music of Dancing Mad coupled with the allegories as the player fights a bunch of angels before ascending to the heavens to fight Kefka is one of the most memorable gaming moments of all time.
5 WORST: Yiazmat (FFXII)
Final Fantasy XII‘s hunts hide its biggest challenges, and most of them are quite entertaining to accomplish. The fight with Gilgamesh is especially a major standout in this regard.
However, the game definitely goes overboard during the Yiazmat hunt, which is nothing more than a massive battle of attrition. The fact that Yiazmat has more than 50 million HP is what makes him such a boring fight, and players need to spend hours before they can take this superboss down.
4 AMAZING: Ultimecia (FFVIII)
Final Fantasy VIII might not have the greatest story or the most riveting antagonist, but the final fight against Ultimecia is truly one of the best endgame boss rushes in video game history.
After fighting Ultimecia’s base form, she summons the GF Griever. Defeating this GF leads to Ultimecia fusing with Griever to create an absolute abomination of a third phase. Finally, after defeating this fused monstrosity, Ultimecia reveals her final form, which makes for a spectacular final fight.
The fact that the music never lets up and constantly escalates in sheer epicness leads to this fight being rightfully labeled as perhaps the greatest final boss rush in Final Fantasy history.
3 WORST: Leviathan (FFXV)
Final Fantasy XV‘s combat is anything but difficult, with Noctis and his friends staying alive as long as they have a good stock of curatives. So, by extension, most boss fights are completely forgettable and boring.
However, what makes the battle with Leviathan even worse is the fact that the game implements a half-baked combat mechanic out of nowhere, where Noctis just flies around the map and throws weapons on Leviathan with no semblance of a challenge whatsoever.
In fact, most players won’t even have to do anything aside from holding down the attack button and moving Noctis around, which feels ridiculously janky and nothing close to fun.
2 AMAZING: Safer Sephiroth (FFVII)
Final Fantasy VII has one of the best antagonists of all time, and it would only make sense to cap off the final encounter with Sephiroth in the most memorable manner possible.
This is exactly the case with Safer Sephiroth, who is easily one of the most challenging bosses in the entire game. His Supernova attack is also a blast to witness… even though it might not have the potential to kill the party at all.
Of course, it would be impossible to talk up this fight without mentioning One-Winged Angel, which might just be the best piece of music to ever originate from Nobuo Uematsu’s genius.
1 WORST: Necron (FFIX)
Final Fantasy IX is a stellar game with a ton of memorable moments, and it’s easy to see why most people rate this title so highly.
It’s this reputation that makes the final fight with Necron such a letdown. Ending the game with Kuja’s boss fight would’ve been acceptable, but Final Fantasy IX just had to force in an “epic” boss fight by introducing a character at the very end of the game that is apparently the most powerful entity in the universe.
However, this ends up feeling totally against whatever Final Fantasy IX was building up, leading to this encounter being an absolute chore to get through.
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