Most Difficult FF boss.

[Atmos Duality]

I tried almost exactly this and still got my ass handed to me. Every time Celia and Lede just kill Rafa. And when they don't, after a few turns Elmdore just says fuck it and does it himself.

Oh, you mean the FIRST battle with the Broken Trio.
Don't bother stealing anything. Both Assassins have innate Maintenance, I believe and Elmdore's equipment is all store-bought for that fight anyway.

Keeping stupid ol' Rafa from dying is far more important.

I was only able to beat Necron with a specific party set-up, and I hated that. I had to use Steiner, Eiko and Garnet and just double-heal and use uh.. Shock, I think? Whatever one of Steiner's moves does 9,999. I thought that was lousy...

Nearly everyone has a way to contribute to killing Necron in FF9.
Eiko has Holy, Garnet (if you gathered enough respective gems) always has Bahamut, Vivi has Flare, Steiner has Shock, but equally good (and more MP efficient) is Freya with Dragon's Crest.
Amarant gets by on supporting your team and attacking in between, though I admit that I didn't use him much. Same with Quina.

16 MP. Max damage. All day, every day. No Trance Required.
You just have to kill dragons to power it up, and lo' and behold, there are really easy enemies to kill that qualify.

If you're speed-running FF9 (For Excalibur 2, or for kicks) Steiner (and later, Freya with Dragon-Whisker) are the most efficient options for non-elemental damage. They just hit really damn hard.

 

[mikey7339]

I tried almost exactly this and still got my ass handed to me. Every time Celia and Lede just kill Rafa. And when they don't, after a few turns Elmdore just says fuck it and does it himself.

Oh, you mean the FIRST battle with the Broken Trio.
Don't bother stealing anything. Both Assassins have innate Maintenance, I believe and Elmdore's equipment is all store-bought for that fight anyway.

Keeping stupid ol' Rafa from dying is far more important.

I had always heard that was the only time and place you could nip the Genji Gear and Masamune from him. Both of those definately aren't found in the stores (I'm playing the original PS1 version, well the one released for the PSN now).

 

[Atmos Duality]

I had always heard that was the only time and place you could nip the Genji Gear and Masamune from him. Both of those definately aren't found in the stores (I'm playing the original PS1 version, well the one released for the PSN now).

You heard wrong then.
For the first fight (where you save Rafa), Elmdore always has a Muramasa equipped (Two-Hands-style), a Black Hood, a Black Robe, and an N-Kai Armlet.

The SECOND fight inside his own Limberry Castle, is where he's loaded out in full Genji gear + Masamune. (In addition, he has Blade Grasp instead of Hamedo, Blood Suck as his secondary ability. Oh, and Teleport 2 instead of Ignore Height. Total bullshit.)

 

[mikey7339]

I had always heard that was the only time and place you could nip the Genji Gear and Masamune from him. Both of those definately aren't found in the stores (I'm playing the original PS1 version, well the one released for the PSN now).

You heard wrong then.
For the first fight (where you save Rafa), Elmdore always has a Muramasa equipped (Two-Hands-style), a Black Hood, a Black Robe, and an N-Kai Armlet.

The SECOND fight inside his own Limberry Castle, is where he's loaded out in full Genji gear + Masamune. (In addition, he has Blade Grasp instead of Hamedo, Blood Suck as his secondary ability. Oh, and Teleport 2 instead of Ignore Height. Total bullshit.)

Thank you kind sir. I modified your setup a bit but I managed to mug all his equipment, first try. I made a lucky mistake and didn't make 1 person immune to bloodsuck. Beowulf was always one turn next and just kept chucking remedies at them so it kept Elmdore busy and never caused any trouble.

Spoiler: The Masamune

Spoiler: And the Genji Armor

I just wish the Masamune didn't have a huge chance to break if you use its drawout ability.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

The third battle with Seymour on Mount Gagazet in Final Fantasy X. I wasn't a big fan of Tidus, so I neglected his speed and White Magic abilities, making this battle extremely hard. I literally ran into a brick wall; he could easily defeat me in 2 to 3 turns with his Zombie-afflicting staff and casting Life combo. I had to run up and down that Mountain, grinding like crazy, modifying and upgrading my equipment to negate the Zombie effect and give my characters more power to defeat him quickly. By the time I was able to defeat him, none of the bosses that came after Seymour could stand a chance against me (once I learned their attack patterns, of course).

 

[GundamSentinel]

Yiazmat wasn't that bad, to be honest. You can kill him in under two hours without even touching the controller. Gambits FTW! It's just that he has 50 million HP, but nothing more really.

For me, the Elder Wyrm from FFXII was the toughest boss I've beaten. It isn't at all powerful compared to the later bosses, but it was such a jump up in difficulty from the previous areas that it completely caught me off guard. And loads of nasty status effects *shudder*.

Of the bosses I just haven't managed to beat yet, FFXIII's Vercingetorix is really the most annoying. Healing itself, insane area effect damage and the ability to just end the fight by casting Death when it takes too long.