History AwesomeBosses / FinalFantasy

** Last, but absolutely not least, is [[spoiler:[=9S=], who appears to be in the throes of madness from the insane climax of ''Automata'', fighting you with hacked Machine Lifeforms and throwing everything he's got at you, up to and including ''[[NukeEm goddamn ballistic missiles]]'']]. All the while, the fight is accompanied by an epic, yet hauntingly beautiful, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVAgd9dbYIs battle theme]] that combines the ''Final Fantasy'' prelude with "Weight of the World" from ''Automata''.

One of many reasons for the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series' enduring popularity is its awesome boss fights. Here are some of the more memorable ones.

* The boss of the level 70 Blue Mage questline [[spoiler:Gogo the Mimic]], opens starts the fight by copying and chaining together the abilities of most of the previous bosses in the Masked Carnivale in deadly ways such as casting Ultros' Imp Spell with the incurable Doom spell. However, once the fight reaches it's second phase, [[spoiler:Gogo]] stops playing around copying attacks from raid bosses like Exdeath while hitting the player with hard hitting debuffs that will kill them instantly if they're not careful. Blue Mages will need to make use of a wide variety of defensive abilities just to survive some of his attacks including a few that must be shielded with Diamondback. In the end [[spoiler:Gogo]] ends up becomming a really efficient FinalExamBoss not just for his particular questline or the Carnivale, but for the Blue Mage job as a whole.

** The Serial-Jointed Command Model is first, and it is a tricky one, utilizing a variety of projectile attacks and gargantuan arm swings to wear the heroes down.

** Last, but absolutely not least, is [[spoiler:[=9S=], who appears to be in the throes of madness from the insane climax of ''Automata'', fighting you with hacked Machine Lifeforms and throwing everything he's got at you, up to and including ''[[NukeEm goddamn ballistic missiles]]''. All the while, the fight is accompanied by an epic, yet hauntingly beautiful, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVAgd9dbYIs battle theme]] that combines the ''Final Fantasy'' prelude with "Weight of the World" from ''Automata''.]]

* The final boss of Patch 5.3's story is [[spoiler: Elidibus as the Warrior of Light. Not you, but the goddamn original Yoshitaka Amano designed [[VideoGame/FinalFantasy1 Warrior of Light]][[! He brings everything to the table to destroy you, the Warrior of Darkness, once and for all while "[[AwesomeMusic To the Edge]]" plays as a TriumphantReprise to Shadowbringers' main theme. At the 45% mark, he sends the party to the void where everyone has to PressXToNotDie and break out of their chains to get back to the fight. Just as he thinks it's over, the party is not only summoned back, but endorsed by what is essentially the ghost of Emet-Selch! WoL!Elidibus busts out a LEVEL 4 LIMIT BREAK![[note]]Players can only go to Level 3 at most[[/note]] and continues to send everything at you from the souls of heroes and even weaponizing limit breaks from melee and ranged classes until he finally goes down!

* The final boss of Patch 5.3's story is [[spoiler: Elidibus as the Warrior of Light. Not you, but the goddamn original Yoshitaka Amano designed [[VideoGame/FinalFantasy1 Warrior of Light]]! He brings everything to the table to destroy you, the Warrior of Darkness, once and for all while "[[AwesomeMusic To the Edge]]" plays as a TriumphantReprise to Shadowbringers' main theme. At the 45% mark, he sends the party to the void where everyone has to PressXToNotDie and break out of their chains to get back to the fight. Just as he thinks it's over, the party is not only summoned back, but endorsed by what is essentially the ghost of Emet-Selch! WoL!Elidibus busts out a LEVEL 4 LIMIT BREAK![[note]]Players can only go to Level 3 at most[[/note]] and continues to send everything at you from the souls of heroes and even weaponizing limit breaks from melee and ranged classes until he finally goes down!]]

One of many reasons for the [[RunningGag brain-burstingly]] popular ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series' enduring popularity is its awesome boss fights. Here are some of the more memorable ones.

One of many reasons for the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series' enduring popularity is its awesome boss fights. Here are some of the more memorable ones.

* Omega. ''V'' did it first. ''V'' did it best. Omega can arbitrarily remove your members from combat, has fast, powerful attacks, sterling defense, and is all around a tremendously difficult boss without serious levelling and very careful preparation- preparation most likely got off the Internet, so spare a thought for the poor players back in the '90's who learned the hard way by getting ground into paste a few times. Here's the kicker, though: the Bestiary lists Omega as ''Level 119,'' making him the only boss in the entire series to simply ''ignore'' the arbitrary level cap by force of his own [[MemeticMutation sheer]] badness. In the ''Advance'' version, [[spoiler: it's revealed in one of the bonus dungeons that you fought only ''one'' of ''many'' Omegas, as there is a level filled with them! The kicker is that the level in question contains an upgraded [[UpToEleven Omega MKII]].]]

* In a crossover with ''Final Fantasy Tactics'', one of the bosses on that list comes back, bigger and badder: Argath. In full Lucavi form, Argath is the final boss of the Royal City of Rabanastre. Not only is he massively entertaining to fight, he introduces new InterfaceScrew mechanics never before seen in ''XIV'', and is ChewingTheScenery through the whole fight. All this accompanied by remastered music from ''Tactics'' (specifically,
[[ClimaxBoss Ultima's Transformation]]).
* The boss of The Twinning can be thought of as a meta-sequel to the Alexander Prime fight: [[spoiler:Not only is it the Garlond Ironworks' take on Alexander Prime itself, but it incorporates many of the mechanics from that fight with a twist: time stops for ''its'' attacks. To top it off, the music you fight to it is The Primals' rendition of Locus]]

* In a crossover with ''Final Fantasy Tactics'', one of the bosses on that list comes back, bigger and badder: Argath. In full Lucavi form, Argath is the final boss of the Royal City of Rabanastre. Not only is he massively entertaining to fight, he introduces new InterfaceScrew mechanics never before seen in ''XIV'', and is ChewingTheScenery through the whole fight. All this accompanied by remastered music from ''Tactics'' (specifically, [[ClimaxBoss Ultima's Transformation]]).

** Gaff Gafgarion runs away when defeated, has the Dark Sword ability so he takes little damage if you're underleveled, and your last battle is practically one-on-one. Boy, that's one nice arse to kick.

* X-ATM092, which relentlessly chases you through a war-zone and is nearly impossible to defeat without serious level-grinding (it's eventually finished off via badass cutscene).

* Let's just get this out of the way first: the simple fact that level is not an issue even to an inexperienced player, as long as you pay attention to the tutorial sessions, means that anything is awesome even if you're horrendously underlevelled if you can land a Breaksight hit - and the fights that ''require'' Breaksight hits are awesome in their own right:
** Shinryu Celestia, the Cie'th-esque dragon that the Azure Dragon l'Cie Celestia becomes, is as horrendously overpowered as the name Shinryu deserves, and she's flying around a ''frozen cloud'' in dark skies to the point that you will only [[SeeTheLightsOfTheirEyes see the lights of her eyes]] until she tries to eat you - and she ''will'' outright swallow you whole. [[spoiler:If you fail to Breaksight her enough times before all ten of your selected Classmates Zero are down, Arecia calls in ''Bahamut ZERO'', providing the Bahamut-versus-Shinryu fight that everyone has been waiting for. The finisher is a ''thunder of Bahamut dragons'' bombarding Celestia with so many Mega Flares that only six-to-nine hits register and they ''all break the damage cap''.]]

* Definitely Bizarro Sephiroth as well, notable because it is the very first time in the game you actually get to fight Sephiroth in a genuine boss battle, and right after a truly rousing speech by Cloud, nonetheless. The [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic awesome]] boss music counts as well. To make it even better, you get to fight him with your entire team (assuming you fulfill a few, fairly easy conditions prior), making the battle even more exciting.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krt76beip4g airship boss battle]] definitely deserves a spot. It's just Lightning, Hope, and Fang (no HumongousMecha or {{BFG}}) versus a warship! Back the battle with [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic kickass Eidolons]] and you're in for a good time. [[FridgeBrilliance And when you think about it]], this game turned the airship from "ally" to adversary, much like ''XII'' did with the Cid of Ivalice.

* Definitely Bizarro Sephiroth as well, notable because it is the very first time in the game you actually get to fight Sephiroth in a genuine boss battle, and right after a truly rousing speech by Cloud, nonetheless. The [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic awesome]] boss music counts as well.

-->'''Gilgamesh:''' Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men! For Gilgamesh... it is morphing time!

-->'''Gilgamesh:''' Hah! If I'd just left you in the lurch, I'd look like a jerk for all of history!
-->'''Gilgamesh:''' Oh really? Just try it, Baldy! You cannot even hold a birthday candle to the blazing flame of my winning spirit!

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', you finally get to fight Trance Kuja, who's ridiculously easy, but nevertheless beats you with Ultima. The player is lead into a state of [=WTF=], and then suddenly the characters ''wake up in the afterworld and challenge what can only be some kind of god of death into a battle''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j17e1ExDDus The music]] alone makes the battle so awesome you're probably crying tears of joy, and in addition, the boss is happily challenging if you haven't partaken any significant LevelGrinding.
** On the other hand, the fact that the boss [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere comes out of absolutely nowhere in the story]] has made plenty of people pissed off. Even Zidane sounded annoyed at the development.

** The BossRush at the end of Disc 3 in general. It starts with a Silver Dragon, then is followed by Garland, TheManBehindTheMan who's (partly) responsible for most of the game's troubles. Then comes the aforementioned fight against Normal Kuja, right after he successfully overthrew Garland.

** Normal Kuja as well. He's been built up as quite a villain for two whole discs, and now you finally get to do what you've been waiting to do for a LONG time now. There's no special boss music or anything, just the regular one--but arguably that makes it even cooler.

* [[BigBad Ardyn Izunia]] (or [[MagnificentBastard Ardyn Lucis Caelum]], if you prefer) is a DuelBoss that mimics most of Noctis’ abilities, including weapon summoning, warping and magic. Now you know how your enemies felt. You need to be clever here. Ardyn doesn’t leave himself open for long so you need to make good use of evasive and hit and run tactics, paying attention to when he’s using magic and when to use Warp Strikes to interrupt his own warping attacks. Eventually, he wants to see your full power. So, bringing back the EleventhHourSuperpower from the Leviathan fight, Noctis and Ardyn use their Armigers to fly through the city, replete with VisualEffectsOfAwesome (props to the visual wizards at SE for pulling that one off) and lay into each other with all they have. Eventually, both hurt and tired, they resort to a “war of attrition”, limping towards each other and swinging their swords, culminating in Noctis hitting with each Royal Arm in succession to finally end the fight. While a little more understated than some other fights in the game, especially at the end, it’s a very appropriate FinalBoss and, shockingly, Ardyn doesn’t go OneWingedAngel! He didn’t need to be any more of a badass.

* And ''Lightning Returns'' tops everything with its final battle [[spoiler: against GOD ALMIGHTY!]] With some of the [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome best visuals ever seen in the entire franchise.]] One word: '''[[SerialEscalation Hypernova.]]'''

* Titan, the first of the [[PhysicalGod Six]], is a gigantic rock god that provides a fantastic introduction to these beings. Being something of an AdvancingBossOfDoom at first, Noctis goes full MetalGearRisingRevengeance by blocking his stomps and slams. Getting to the fight proper, Titan, having to keep Meteor on his back the whole time a la Atlas, is a swift and powerful foe with just one arm. Eventually, Imperial Magitek Troopers start joining the fray, making the whole thing close to TheWarSequence. A magnificent set piece, you eventually beat Titan by stunning his arm so your TrueCompanions can freeze said arm and Noctis can smash it. Which is damn satisfying, we should add.

* Chaos is one awesome final boss. Besides the fact you're facing the BigBad of the original game and the implied BiggerBad of the ''entire series'', you face him [[RuleOfThree three times]], and each round he gets more berserk and powerful. And then you hear him call out "[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Shiver]], [[LimitBreak at the power]] [[OneWingedAngel of a god]]!" If there was an Awesome Moment trope for simple ''attacks'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjSZH4Osb9U Utter Chaos]] would be an entry.

* Most of the [[SealedEvilInACan Esper]] battles, with the most triumphant being Chaos; when you enter his arena, he closes the doors behind you telekinetically by slowly pushing his hands together. It's one thing to make a grand entrance, but when you're not even the one coming in? Also, and [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame your yardage may drift]], but Yiazmat; if you have your gambits set just right, just watching your characters beat up on a holy dragon god who's so massive he could swallow them all whole at once is just so satisfying.

* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, in general, deserves a nod because, any time you beat a boss in any game in the series, you get the same tune. Which seems like musical recycling at first, but after playing the games for a while, the victory theme takes on a whole new meaning. As Drew of Nintendo Power once said, "That simple melody may not seem like much, but its forever associated in my mind with some of the best moments of my gaming career. And you can't beat that."

* The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series in general deserves a nod because, any time you beat a boss in any game in the series, you get the same tune. Which seems like musical recycling at first, but after playing the games for a while, the victory theme takes on a whole new meaning. As Drew of Nintendo Power once said, "That simple melody may not seem like much, but its forever associated in my mind with some of the best moments of my gaming career. And you can't beat that."

* Exdeath really is an amazing final boss, and a hell of an underrated big bad. Without going into detail, Exdeath was a sorcerous entity that coalesced and gained from every unspeakable evil ever to be sealed away in a certain holy ground over the eons, given flesh by its own force of will. To put things in perspective, Sephiroth attempted to destroy the world after becoming godlike. Kefka tried the same, and succeeded. In broad strokes, Exdeath destroyed ''two'' worlds, then yanked every civilized nation on them into Hell - as part of his ''plan'' to gain ultimate power. And when you meet him for the final time, he easily shoulders into position as the last final boss in the series that lived up to his own hype when the chips were down, as anyone that managed to survive Grand Cross can attest.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' had lots of fun boss fights, but Ultima Weapon (Atma Weapon in North America) was the coolest. It looks badass, has awesome, fitting music playing, one of the coolest boss quotes ever "[[BadassBoast My name is Ultima, I am power both ancient and unrivaled... I do not bleed, for I am but strength given form... Feeble creatures of flesh, your time is nigh!]]" Apart from that, it has a wide variety of attacks, the battle is hard, yet not frustrating or cheap, and the player can use a wide variety of strategies or builds. Its also very satisfying when beaten.

* If you want to talk of the remake, two words: [[BonusBoss Kaiser Dragon]]. He comes at the end of a long, deep, and difficult BonusDungeon, after you kill souped-up versions of the Eight Dragons. Then you fight him amidst a ''field of flames'', while [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Battle to the Death]], the secondary boss theme, plays. And you can pull out all the stops to fight him and it still feels like a struggle, and it feels so satisfying when you win. Multiple phases, massive health, all of the best attacks in the game. He's basically everything that makes Ultima Weapon cool, and then cranked up to 11. Kaiser Dragon is boss all other bosses aspire to be. Oh! he also has an awesome pre-battle quote.
--> "Humans and your insatiable greed. Your lust for power leads always to a lust for blood. This is a sanctuary for wayward souls... What business have you filthy creatures here? You slaughter my bretheren, and befoul their rest with the profanity of your continued existance... In the name of all dragonkind, I will give you the death you desire... I am the dealer of destruction... I am the font from which fear flows... I am Kaiser, and your time is at an end."

* Diamond WEAPON. There's a lot at stake with this battle and the boss looks cool to boot. An awesome cutscene follows it too.
* The optional boss fight with Lost Number in Shinra Mansion qualifies, if only because the player is still giddy with success at finally having [[SolveTheSoupCans gotten that damn safe open,]] as well as taking another step along the road to acquiring [[EnsembleDarkhorse Vincent]].

* Both battles with [[DiscOneFinalBoss Edea]], particularly the second one at her homebase in Galbadia Garden.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', you finally get to fight Trance Kuja, who's ridiculously easy, but nevertheless beats you with Ultima. The player is lead into a state of [=WTF=], and then suddenly the characters ''wake up in the afterworld and challenge what can only be some kind of god of death into a battle''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j17e1ExDDus The music]] alone makes the battle so awesome you're probably crying tears of joy, and in addition the boss is happily challenging if you haven't partaken any significant LevelGrinding.

** And if you've been killing time in the Monster Arena (and have weapons with Break Damage Limit), it's completely possible to oneshot him.

* The battle against Evrae in the skies above Bevelle. The fight takes place atop your newly acquired airship, and in order to interrupt Yuna's wedding you need to kill the airborne dragon-like guardian of the city. What makes it so cool is the trigger command, which has Tidus or Rikku yell at Cid (the airship's pilot) to either pull away from the boss's airspace or close in accompanied by a great animation each time. You have to back out when Evrae gets ready to use [[ThatOneAttack Poison Breath]], and only Wakka or Lulu (who's not too good due to halved magic damage) can hit him, but if you stay back long enough for Cid's turn to come around again, ''he fires a goddamn MacrossMissileMassacre at the thing.'' And as your reward for bringing it down, you're treated to one of the best [=FMVs=] in the game.

* After a couple minor cameos in ''VIII'' and ''IX'', this is the game that solidified Gilgamesh's popularity in the fandom thanks to the glorious boss battles with him. First, he gets a remix of "Clash on the Big Bridge", one of the few bosses in the entire game to get his own personal battle theme. Second, he's voiced by Creator/JohnDimaggio, who brings his LargeHam tendencies to life like never before. Third, he ups the ante from wielding famous weapons in his past appearances, by wielding (counterfeit copies of) the iconic weapons of past ''Final Fantasy'' protagonists, namely the Buster Sword, the Revolver, the Oricalcum, and the Brotherhood, as well as the Zantetsuken, the Tournesol, and the Wyrmhero Blade of ''Dragon Quest''. Finally, both fights with him are genuinely challenging even into the late game. This all adds up to a perfect storm of an epic boss fight.

* Barthandelus, [[spoiler:Galenth Dysley's real form]]. The scene starts out with Jihl, the {{Jerkass}} who [[TheComputerShallTauntYou taunted and tortured Sahz with his feelings for his son]], stepping up to protect Galenth Dysley. Time to get that bitch back! But before the party lays the smackdown her, she is dismissed [[spoiler:with magic to back of the head, fired by Dysley. He then starts to float in the air, murdering everybody that isn't your team. After some dialogue, he merges with the mysterious white owl that has been following you around, going OneWingedAngel as "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usf3-SD4XyQ Fighting Fate]] begins.]] He delivers an IAmTheNoun declaration and a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and promptly destroys any unprepared team. And then you get the second fight in Oerba, which is also awesome.

* The final boss of Heavensward's main story quest [[spoiler: King Thordan and his Twelve Knights is essentially the Knights of the Round Summon from ''Final Fantasy VII'' turned into a Primal Trial. This is also marks the second appearance of the Knights of the Round in the main line ''Final Fantasy'' games. It gets insane when Thordan activates Ultimate End, which is pretty much an endurance attack where the party has to last several minutes of the Knights unleashing their strongest attacks in an AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield, culminating in Thordan and his knights combining their powers for one attack. And if you survive it? Thordan is left with a permanent crippling debuff]].
* Brute Justice in the 8th floor of Alexander. It's praised for being a fun challenge, intentionally campy in concept (in the best way possible), and just an all around awesome battle and a massive improvement from the bosses from the Gordias segment of the Alexander raids.

* Ifrit is a glorious ClimaxBoss. With greater agility than you might expect, he is a graceful, beautiful fire demon. When you deplete his health, Bahamut comes in and attacks. Ifrit dodges everything, but is opened up to an attack from Noctis that breaks a horn. He keeps going for Round 2 though! Stronger, faster, and with an occasional immunity to damage, you need to be skilled and strategic to beat him again. Oh, and you can counter a big jump attack from him and slam him into the ground. He is finally finished off when Shiva freezes him with Diamond Dust and shatters him with a kiss. Yes. Two Summons were needed to beat him. Making this even better, if you pay attention to the Mythology, Ifrit is the GreaterScopeVillain of the game, originally responsible for the [[TheCorruption Starscourge]], making the fate of the [[AdaptationalVillainy least likable incarnation]] of Ifrit very cathartic.
* [[BigBad Ardyn Izunia]] (or [[MagnificentBastard Ardyn Lucis Caelum]], if you prefer) is a DuelBoss that mimics most of Noctis’ abilities, including weapon summoning, warping and magic. Now you know how your enemies felt. You need to be clever here. Ardyn doesn’t leave himself open for long so you need to make good use of evasive and hit and run tactics, paying attention to when he’s using magic and when to use Warp Strikes to interrupt his own warping attacks. Eventually, he wants to see your full power. So, bringing back the EleventhHourSuperpower from the Leviathan fight, Noctis and Ardyn use their Armigers to fly though the city, replete with VisualEffectsOfAwesome (props to the visual wizards at SE for pulling that one off) and lay into each other with all they have. Eventually, both hurt and tired, they resort to a “war of attrition”, limping towards each other and swinging their swords, culminating in Noctis hitting with each Royal Arm in succession to finally end the fight. While a little more understated than some other fights in the game, especially at the end, it’s a very appropriate FinalBoss and, shockingly, Ardyn doesn’t go OneWingedAngel! He didn’t need to be any more of a badass.

** Argath/Algus, because there is nothing more satisfying then finally getting to kill that smug, arrogant, bigoted bastard. This is made even better in the [[VideogameRemake PSP remake]], where he comes back as a zombie, and you get to kill him again.

* In ''Tactics Advance 2'', the final boss is a daring fight in which you're fighting '''on''' the boss itself. It's a nice mutli-part boss without being too frustrating or counter-intuitive, and it has many powerful attacks without any that would annihilate your party like the previous game's final boss did.

* Also in the prequel, the final boss of Light To All. After individual tales where four of your five current party members have fought a Warrior of Chaos as the final boss, you get to the party's destination and find the four enemies waiting for you with Garland, and fight a series of battles as each party member takes on their designated villain again, culminating with Lightning facing off against Garland. While the difficulty of the fights are likely not that great, they are nonetheless epic.

* As the boss fight that is in many ways the capstone to 1.0, The Final Coil of Bahamut - Turn 4[[note]]|Most often referred to as "turn 13" by the players, due to UnusualChapterNumbers.[[/note]] more than delivers in this department. Beating up the primal who was directly responsible for [[ColonyDrop Dalamud's fall]] and all the destruction that followed would be satisfactory enough. Doing so in an AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield while the main 1.0 theme, ''Answers'', plays in the background makes it excellent. Having that theme sync up so that it reaches crescendo right when Bahamut uses [[BeamSpam Teraflare]]? Fuck. Yes.

[[AC: ChocobosDungeon]]
* The Boss battles in ''Final Fantasy Fables: ChocobosDungeon'' are amazingly well done, especially when you consider that Chocobo's Dungeon is a Roguelike and boss battles in those kinds of games tend to be back and forth hitting each other. The four Guardian bosses either fly around randomly or use knock-back attacks and often have very flashy charge-up attacks, something that most regular enemies use. Oh, and the music helps too.