Super Bosses: Memories and Frustrations

[CJC]

As some of you may know from the 'What are you playing' thread, I've been visiting the Paper Mario Series, and I am currently playing The Thousand Year Door. The other day I spent two hours descending the Pit of 100 Trials, only to reach an optional boss loaded with high power and HP (and myself with not a single item to spare!). Needless to say, he stomped me and my two hours of effort were wasted.


I thought this would be a good opportunity to discuss optional super bosses from games past, your frustrations and memories with them, and maybe even strategies you used to thwomp them. As for my current boss-o-frustration, I plan to load up on items, reach max level, and then have at him a second time with full force.

[erm2003]

I can name two from my earlier gaming days that frustrated me at first but eventually I was able to pull it off.

First up was Illusion of Gaia. This was seriously one of my favorite SNES games until I discovered Chrono Trigger. Anyway, the optional boss you can fight is Gem if you collect all 50 red jewels in the game. He's pretty hard, fires a lot of projectiles, and you have to fight him as Will only. It took me a while to get a rhythm down and defeat him. What sucks is you can quickly lose your health and use up all your herbs. You then still have to complete the main quest which has the repeat of each boss battle as well as the final boss yet to come directly after Gem if you opt to complete the side quest.

My other favorite one was from Super Mario RPG. Culex. First time he kicked my ass. I had to come back later in the game and outlast his MP to finally take him out. It's something I always do if I play through the game. It's hard to pass up the experience you can get from that battle and honestly it's just a fun challenge.

[King Aquamentus]

not a super boss perse, but their existence in RPGs (especially the likes of Final Fantasy) gave me a hilarious (but impossible to practice in the game world) idea for how one would save the world. rather than directly attack the main villain at the end of the game, simply get the optional boss to chase you to him, and let them duke it out. whoever is left standing and weakened, that's what you fight.

[mrz84]

Most of the monsters the Arena Guy in Final Fantasy X puts out, especially the one you can only fight with the characters that can go underwater. Tidus was prepared for anything, but Wakka and Rikku were not and I was quickly curbstomped but him. There were a few that were tamer than I thought, but then again I was OP with a party of Auron, Tidus, and Yuna for most of the Arena fights. Still haven't finished it and the last dungeon of the game. Probably should...

Also, the fight with Culex was tough unless you came back to it when the XP didn't matter anymore. I used Peach and Geno in my party. Peach for obvious reasons and Geno for buffing my party with Geno Boost and his hard to time, but OP if you can Geno Whirl.

Also, Omega Weapon in FF V. I was underleveled when I first bumped into him and was just horribly raped.

[NewJourneysFire]

Watch this video, these guys literally haunted my childhood for years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsR2ujP0n-o

The reason I put this in optional is because you can only fight them all in Hard Difficulty.

[CJC]

I can name two from my earlier gaming days that frustrated me at first but eventually I was able to pull it off.

First up was Illusion of Gaia. This was seriously one of my favorite SNES games until I discovered Chrono Trigger. Anyway, the optional boss you can fight is Gem if you collect all 50 red jewels in the game. He's pretty hard, fires a lot of projectiles, and you have to fight him as Will only. It took me a while to get a rhythm down and defeat him. What sucks is you can quickly lose your health and use up all your herbs. You then still have to complete the main quest which has the repeat of each boss battle as well as the final boss yet to come directly after Gem if you opt to complete the side quest.

Yeah, the Jeweler Gem definitely counts as a highly optional boss, especially because one small misstep can cause you to miss him, with no option but to start the game over. He's also at the end of a dungeon with some pretty annoying enemies, so you're usually weak when you fight him.

I made it to him once, but couldn't beat him. A strategy guide recommended using Tornado Dash as both a weapon and a shield, charging it immediately after it ends and then starting up again. Still, even with that, the guy has 40 hp... it'd take forever.


The last boss rush was sort of a pain, too, because you don't get refreshed between fights and some of them present you with no advantage (or in certain cases, a disadvantage, such as the Entombed Queen who I would prefer to fight with Freedan, not Shadow).

I had a few problems with the game in general, including its cheesy ending and the limited usage of Shadow (who needed a more interesting name, too). I'd list my wishlist of adjustments here, but that's really a discussion for a different thread (and with the 'Bury this Forum' game running, a new thread is a necessity).

My other favorite one was from Super Mario RPG. Culex. First time he kicked my ass. I had to come back later in the game and outlast his MP to finally take him out. It's something I always do if I play through the game. It's hard to pass up the experience you can get from that battle and honestly it's just a fun challenge.

Mario with Lazy Paratroopa Shells, both weapon and shirt. And a lot of time to waste.
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not a super boss perse, but their existence in RPGs (especially the likes of Final Fantasy) gave me a hilarious (but impossible to practice in the game world) idea for how one would save the world. rather than directly attack the main villain at the end of the game, simply get the optional boss to chase you to him, and let them duke it out. whoever is left standing and weakened, that's what you fight.

That would be amazing. Most superbosses are holed up in secret dungeons, though, so it might be more reasonable to lure the story villain to the superboss, possibly under the pretense of defeating the greater threat. Wouldn't be very heroic for the protagonist, though.

Most of the monsters the Arena Guy in Final Fantasy X puts out, especially the one you can only fight with the characters that can go underwater. Tidus was prepared for anything, but Wakka and Rikku were not and I was quickly curbstomped but him. There were a few that were tamer than I thought, but then again I was OP with a party of Auron, Tidus, and Yuna for most of the Arena fights. Still haven't finished it and the last dungeon of the game. Probably should...

Remember, petrify underwater counts as both a sneeze and doom. Terrible, I hated underwater fights.
I didn't play X intensely enough to put up a fight against any of the arena monsters, though. They all trounced me.

Also, the fight with Culex was tough unless you came back to it when the XP didn't matter anymore. I used Peach and Geno in my party. Peach for obvious reasons and Geno for buffing my party with Geno Boost and his hard to time, but OP if you can Geno Whirl.

It was all Mario for me. Peach and Bowser were dead within the first few turns.

Also, Omega Weapon in FF V. I was underleveled when I first bumped into him and was just horribly raped.

Omega Weapon stomped me, mainly because he nullified my strategy of throw magic shuriken, mimic, mimic, mimic...
The other optional boss, however, was pretty easy with the coral rings.
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Watch this video, these guys literally haunted my childhood for years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsR2ujP0n-o

The reason I put this in optional is because you can only fight them all in Hard Difficulty.

That... was... horrifying. And even with the player's talent, they still killed him like... seven times. Definitely superboss material, from back when games didn't hold our hands.

[erm2003]

A strategy guide recommended using Tornado Dash as both a weapon and a shield, charging it immediately after it ends and then starting up again. Still, even with that, the guy has 40 hp... it'd take forever.

If I remember correctly, what worked well for me was using the slide back and forth to do damage. If you time it right, you can avoid taking damage from the projectiles while sliding. After a bit I was able to get into a good rhythm and finish him off.

The last boss rush was sort of a pain, too, because you don't get refreshed between fights and some of them present you with no advantage (or in certain cases, a disadvantage, such as the Entombed Queen who I would prefer to fight with Freedan, not Shadow).

Totally agree here. I wish they gave a choice in the end. Go ahead, start that thread. I would love a discussion on this game. I haven't played it through in years. My actual cartridge is broken so that's a real bummer. My only option is to emulate it unless they finally release it as a VC game.

Mario with Lazy Paratroopa Shells, both weapon and shirt. And a lot of time to waste.

I would have Mario with the Lazy Shell, but I would put the shirt on Peach. It was great to have her taking minimal damage as the healer and reviver. Bowser would be my third just because he is quite powerful. This is the only battle I use Rock Candy for so I use up what I have which is quite effective and then I can wrap up the rest of the battle without too much trouble at that point.

[mrz84]

That would be amazing. Most superbosses are holed up in secret dungeons, though, so it might be more reasonable to lure the story villain to the superboss, possibly under the pretense of defeating the greater threat. Wouldn't be very heroic for the protagonist, though.

I remember that they do something similar with Dragon Quest 6's super boss, but only if you beat him within a certain number of turns. He then warps you all to the final boss and proceeds to own his ass. After that he leaves and you get a somewhat different yet oddly satisfying ending.

[Ventus]

Hmm... Let me think, I remember back when the ps2 was still alive I was playing Star Ocean: Till the end of time.
I was going through that huge bonus dungeon, I reached the end of it and started fighting the Ethereal Queen... Damn that bitch killed me so many times.

I was at level 180 and she was just whooping me so hard, finally the last time I was fighting her with the party of Fayt LV-180, Cliff LV-169, Sophia LV-156.
So I started wailing on her after about 20 so minutes of fighting I managed to get her HP down quite a bit.

But after awhile of fighting I wasn't paying attention because I was kicking ass. then she done a move that hit us all and I almost died... Wiped out Fayt and Cliff.
So I switched over to Sophia and to find out I was out of MP and items D:

So I said hell with it and beat the crap out of the Ethereal Queen dealing about 10000 DMG a hit.
After 4 minutes of fighting I managed to kill the Ethereal Queen with just Sophia.

Holy shit was the only thing I said after I beat her.

That was one amazing super boss.

[Brasel]

I'm procrastinating writing a report here, so this will be brief.

I beat Emerald Weapon for the first time last year. I was really happy when I finally beat him. This was kind of funny, because I actually had no trouble beating Omega Weapon in FF VIII the first time I played the game, and if I remember correctly, he's harder.

Culex was cool. I loved that they used the FF IV boss theme for his fight.