Superbosses

I admit that I wavered a bit on my Final Fantasy goals. My brother's staying with me for a while and we decided to bust out some old Sega Genesis games from our childhood. Toejam and Earl may sound like the worst duo ever but to us, it brings back waves of nostalgia. That and some quality time with the Starbound beta (13 hours to be precise) have left me rejuvenated and ready to continue my voyage through Final Fantasy V.

I like to think that schoolyard rumor-mongering about games still goes on today like it did before but I know the internet has quelled a lot of that discussion and debate. Still, many of you have probably heard about the horrors of Final Fantasy bosses like the Emerald and Ruby Weapons of Final Fantasy VII or Vercingetorix from Final Fantasy XIII. These post-game bosses are known for being the greatest challenges these games have to offer. They are almost always significantly harder than the final boss of the game and usually require close to, if not completely, max levels for all party members to even challenge properly but they also can drop significant rewards.

Technically speaking, Final Fantasy V was the first in the series to feature a real Superboss but there were similar encounters in a couple of the earlier games. I have to admit, going forward, that I never fought these creatures and thus, do not have screenshots of these encounters. I have fought a few tough fights in V so far but since I'm still working through the game, I haven't fought a proper superboss yet. Here are the encounters from the earlier titles:

Final Fantasy

When the picture gets bigger, he almost looks intimidating!

Ooooh yeah. Enjoy that 8-bit sexiness. This guy is the Warmech and is the closest thing Final Fantasy has to a superboss.  This guy is a rare encounter that only happens on the bridge to fighting Tiamat, the last of the four fiends. According to the Final Fantasy Wiki, this foe is "extremely powerful, rivaling Chaos himself in some versions of the game..." Although this guy apparently only "rivals" the final boss, you have to fight him a whole dungeon earlier, making him a likely candidate for the hardest battle in the game. The remakes even make him stronger, adding constant regeneration to his health.

Final Fantasy II

Watch how you hold that sword, mister.

Another rare encounter rather than a traditional superboss, this guy is known as the Iron Giant. That may sound familiar which is probably because he's shown up in other Final Fantasy games as well! In fact, he shows up in II, III and IV as well as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Final Fantasy Dimensions. In III and IV though, he's only in the remakes of the game, not the originals. This guy's HP actually isn't that high but his defense is insane, meaning that it's very difficult to do any real damage to him. Still, if you can defeat him repeatedly, you have a chance to get the full Genji armor set and multiples of the XCalibur.

As we get further into the games, I'll post more on the superbosses and see if I can't add a few stories of my own to the mix. Since I am going for completion of the games on a timetable, I may not have the time to devote to grinding up to fighting these guys but I'll see what I can do.

Game on!