There are several candidates that can be mentioned when one talks about some of the greatest games in the Final Fantasy series. Keeping this in mind, it must be said that one such title that helped solidify the franchise’s debut on the PlayStation 2 in a resounding fashion is none other than Final Fantasy X, a game that is considered by many to be one of the best JRPGs on the PS2.
There are several reasons why Final Fantasy X was such a massive hit — the story is excellent, the characters are memorable, the setting is enrapturing, and the combat is brilliant. In fact, it’s the depth and versatility of the combat that allowed Squaresoft to go completely bonkers and include some insanely powerful creatures in the game that could wipe out an unprepared party in just one shot. Most of these creatures were locked in the Monster Arena, making the task of unlocking their battle a challenge in itself.
Let’s take a look at ten of the hardest creatures that can be fought in Final Fantasy X.
10 Jumbo Flan/Nega Elemental
Both these monsters can be unlocked in the Monster Arena after capturing each member of the species Flan and Elemental. The reason why they’re bundled together in one entry is that their strategies are mostly identical, forcing the player to follow a specific set of moves that are common for both enemies.
That being said, the Jumbo Flan and Nega Elemental pale in comparison to some of the other monsters on this list, all of which are Original Creations… save one.
9 Earth Eater
The Earth Eater is the weakest Original Creation on this list, but that doesn’t mean that this fiend should be taken lightly — a slight misstep during battle will pretty much ensure the player’s doom, after all.
The player party needs to attack Earth Eater as quickly as possible so that he can be flipped over and put in a vulnerable state, following which a number of Quick Hits should be chained in quick succession to guarantee victory.
8 Greater Sphere
Similar to the Spherimorph boss fight, the Greater Sphere will constantly change his elemental weakness over the course of battle.
This forces the player to use hard-hitting Overdrives to deal damage in battle, but there’s a catch here as well — Greater Sphere counters all Overdrives with Hydraulic Press, a move that deals damage equivalent to 15/16th of a person’s maximum HP.
This fight may be annoying to deal with, which makes the act of dealing with this threat that much more enjoyable.
7 Catastrophe
Catastrophe is another annoying enemy that initially starts out battle in his shell. Take him out of this phase as soon as possible so that he starts following a linear attack pattern.
Two of his attacks that always come in succession are Demi and Hundred Thorns. Make sure the party has Auto-Life or something along the same lines set in place once Demi is cast since his Hundred Thorns attack is guaranteed to take out the entire group otherwise.
6 Th’uban
Th’uban can be quite a challenging fight, namely because his counters can hit for massive damage and send the entire party to an early grave.
This pretty much forces the player to play it smart and not launch any attacks until their Overdrives are charged up, since that is when their attacks will actually hit for massive damage.
This fight is a test of patience, and besting Th’uban will prove to be the ultimate reward for all the player’s efforts.
5 Neslug
For the most part, Neslug can prove to be a fairly by-the-numbers foe (especially given the other fights that the player has gone through till now) but it’s after half his HP is gone that things can get tricky.
In this phase, Neslug will hide in his shell to recover health, while also becoming immune to Physical damage. However, there’s an easy solution to this — the player just needs to use Overdrives to deal damage instead, since these moves are not counted as Physical damage by the game!
4 Ultima Buster
Ultima Buster can either be a really easy fight… or a really hard one, depending on how long the player takes to defeat him.
Ideally, the player should cast Ultima as many times as possible until the head and arms of Ultima Buster are taken out. Following this, a slew of Quick Hits and Overdrives — coupled with the Haste status effect — will ensure that Ultima Buster will barely get a single turn to show off its offense.
Of course, if the fight takes too long… then Ultima Buster will cast Contamination, causing no end of problems for the player.
3 Shinryu
Shinryu is an extremely annoying boss fight, mainly because he will always use Eraser to petrify and shatter two members of the party, pretty much forcing the player to fight this enemy solo.
The main attacker in the party — which has to be either Tidus or Wakka to make the length of this battle bearable — should use their Overdrive every single time they can to deal massive damage before guarding to prevent themselves from getting one-shot.
This fight can take some time… but with some patience, Shinryu will finally be down for the count.
2 Nemesis
Nemesis is easily the most nerve-wracking enemy to fight in the entire game, simply because even the most ironclad of strategies can be completely nullified with either Ultra Spark or — his most powerful move — Armageddon.
Rikku is pretty much mandatory in this fight — her Hyper Might G is a must to ensure that the party survives most of Nemesis’ attacks since the vast majority of them can easily one-shot the player.
1 Magic Urn
However, while all the enemies on this list can be defeated through normal means, there’s only one enemy in the entire game who can’t be defeated by conventional means — the Magic Urn!
Normally, these enemies offer up a minigame of sorts that needs to be completed in order to get items. Attacking them is fairly useless since they’ll just self-destruct, so the only viable way to defeat them is by using Yojimbo’s Zanmato or casting Doom.
The worst part is that defeating the Magic Urn through these means will earn the party a grand total of absolutely nothing, making this entire ordeal completely worthless in the long run.
NEXT: The 5 Best Endings To Final Fantasy Games (& The 5 Worst)
