Prepare to see this. A lot.
For all it's humor, this game is by no means afraid to throw some ball-bustingly difficult boss fights at the player. This trope becomes ESPECIALLY prevalent during the third story arc.Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
- The Deep Crow (pictured above) is the first required boss that will more than likely give players a lot of trouble. It's a grade-A Glass Cannon, with enough power to all but One-Hit Kill even your bulkiest party members, and the Agility to out-speed them without much effort. Making matters worse is that it can submerge itself in order to heal for a couple turns, which can prolong things if you aren't careful. This fight is hard enough that grinding a good amount is basically required in order to reasonably stand a chance.
- King Steve, fought at the end of the first story arc, more than earns his title thanks to his Lightning Bruiser stats, hard-hitting moves and ability to reflect all magic back at the attacker. To top it off, he can crit, which makes bringing in people like Emma a risky prospect.
- The White Whale fought around halfway or so into the second story arc, thanks to it's Swallow move and high stats. It's also big on infecting the party with an assortment of status ailments that will make fighting it a huge pain, if you don't have the items to address said ailments.
- The fight against Dead Anebriate, Palmer & Steve is probably the hardest fight in the game up to that point, due the presence of Dead Steve (who has all but one or two of the skills of his living counterpart) alone. Without high enough levels, you're all but forced to fight these three in a strict order in order to get through the fight at all properly; this order usually starts with Dead Anebriate, due to his ability to heal himself and the other two bosses.
- Theodore has FRIGHTENINGLY high Attack and Spirit, effectively two One-Hit Kill moves, and frequently saps a huge chunk out of pretty much anyone's MP, forcing you to use a lot of MP recovery items. The fact that Dirty Fighting (a whole party blinding move) tends to precede one of the above moves only makes things that much hairier. The game has you save right before this fight for a VERY good reason.
- The Warden & Jailer fight that occurs relatively early into the third story arc is generally considered one of the hardest fights in the game. They're the epitomes of Mighty Glaciers, with lots of HP and power to compensate for their low Agility scores. The Warden can not only lower someone's Defense and Agility at will, but he can reflect physical attacks and dish out loads of damage with Wrangling Man. The Jailer can patch up both himself and his partner, dish out considerable thunder damage to the entire party, and paralyze someone with a powerful thunder spell. To top it all off, now and again, they release a cage that completely disables a party member until it's destroyed. This fight is specifically designed to punish players that have poorly optimized their party and made little effort to prepare for late-game battles, and it shows. Their difficulty is comparable to Theodore, the boss of the second arc who broke out of prison easily, which is a hint that the latter was pulling his punches against the party.
- ????/Albert, fought at the end of the save temple. He's got all of his old moves, with the power to make them hurt like hell. His Agility will grow higher and higher as the battle goes on, as well, to the point where you have no chance whatsoever of keeping up with him unless you have Karla around to Shield Bonk the speed out of him. Even if you DO have her around, Albert is incredibly difficult to beat, and will more than likely take you several tries, especially if you don't have a game-plan for him. The fact that the fight with him takes place at the end of the story's most difficult dungeon is the icing on the cake.
- Bebop, fought soon after Albert. You fight the former alone with the latter; you're forced to use Soul Bandit until he tires himself out. This can be VERY tough, considering that Albert is a Fragile Speedster and Bebop has the bulk, power and speed to last a while and easily keep up with Albert himself. You're screwed if you don't carefully think about what moves to use on him.
