If you missed the last 4 bosses, shame on you. I'm not even going to link it for you it's so shameful. Anyways, number one is coming right up since everyone is apparently done with the other blog. One last warning, if I think you didn't read all of this, don't even comment. It's better that way. Seriously. Otherwise, you'll just annoy me and I won't count it as you actually making a comment. This boss fight clearly didn't have to be entirely original, or even be the most engaging battle ever, BUT, there is one thing gamers can't control, and that is simply their emotions when fighting bosses, and by far, THIS boss tops all of them. The moment you see the game's title and you don't want any spoilers on it, avoid it because the battle and part of the ending of the game WILL be spoiled for you.

"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate. Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope. Yes. The arcana is the means by which all is revealed..."

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: FES~ Nyx's Avatar

The first and only JRPG to make it to the list. And with good reason. Any reasonable and self respecting Persona 3 survivor (yes, survivor) that played this game without a use of a guide or forewarning...and actually made it to Nyx's Avatar did NOT survive the first time around. Those that want to "claim" they did can either feel happy up there all alone in that or they're some childish liars. The Representative of Nyx is practically your bragging rights to the genre these days. Without having beaten him, crying about other final bosses this gen or last seem pretty insignificant. And here's why:

You spend about 70 hours getting to the top of Tartarus. Around 40-50 in training, and 20 in storyline. With that many hours of training, you can bet that your level is higher than normal JRPGs before you enter into a final boss fight. I was level 65 or so when I came to fight Nyx that day. It was a Full Moon. I was full of confidence because every boss before him...sucked. And every Full Moon boss sucks pretty much in Persona 3, right? That's what I told myself while I tried to control my heart/exitement from actually reaching the very peak of the 264 floors known as Tartarus. Our Death Angel came down and basically beat it down my throat that there was no way we could beat him because he was death itself. Just by listening to him, you knew he wasn't going to destroy the world out of malice or anything. He was just trying to do his job as the Harbinger of Nyx (Death). With one semi-final warning to step down and accept death, Nyx's avatar braces himself for combat and we're off into the final battle of Persona 3.

Okay, easy enough so far. One of the best final boss songs to die to started up and the final boss wasn't attacking. I figured Persona 3 had finally gone easy on me. In fact, the boss didn't attack at all...no matter how many turns passed. He would only smile arrogantly. And it about a few moves, his HP was taken down. Anyone could tell he wasn't done. He then starts to actually give a short life lesson. About 10 seconds long, but the best 10 seconds a short lesson I could ever receive from a game. From there, he does something odd. He "switches Arcana" and all the sudden he gains the ability to both attack AND attack twice in one turn. And of course the Arcana switch gives him full HP. Not too bad, he's hurting baby damage to my party, so who cares? We took that bar of HP out and that was that. His 2nd life was gone. He changes Arcana again. Okay, I can expect that. It was too easy.

He can still attack twice and now he hurts a bit more. Kills a party member or two every once in a while. Got it. Still kicked his HP down after a few turns. He changes Arcana again. Okay, now I'm starting to question if his 4th form was the final one. Not only was he doing enough damage to take us down if we wern't careful, but he was still getting 2 attacks per turn. (Bare in mind that if the Main character dies, it is game over.) I was still smiling arrogantly at the battle, thinking this Final Boss was a complete let down...expecting him to officially drop at any time...

4th Arcana is taken down...

5th Arcana is taken down...

6th Arcana is taken down...

At this point, I'm worried that Nyx is screwing with me and when exactly his HP will stay at 0. I took him out 6 times and he keeps acting like we're doing absolutely nothing to his true HP because he surely doesn't make the players feel better by at least acting dead. He stays standing and barely flinching as you give it your all. I'm also worried that I'm doing something wrong...or the hard way...like there's an easy way to beat him. (Zombie meet Phoenix down) Luckily, that wasn't the case. Nyx began using status effects and even death attacks at this point and God forbid you didn't pack some sort of immunity to death...you'd die and it was all game over. And no one wants to die to Nyx after fighting him for half an hour, trying to knock his forms down. I had Throne, so I was immune to death attacks anyways. Heh.

7th Arcana is taken down...

8th Arcana is taken down...

Symphony is taken down....

See, on his 9th form, he not only has an obvious attack/defense raise, but everyone who knows Persona 3 knows that sometimes crap happens. For example, when fighting him the first time, he raised everyone's critical rate up and slashed me specifically. I fell down, so that gave him a bloody 3rd turn based on Persona 3's battle system. 3 turns with Nyx is NOT something you want to have at this point. And you know what? That third turn killed my main character with Nyx's lovable Almighty attack. Which is annoying. That attack is so far off from Almighty and to die to it is pathetic.

Several days of gamer frustrations pass...

I tried again. Died at Nyx's 6th form this time. Annoying. Tried another day after leveling up 2 or 3 times. (In this game, one level up makes all the difference.) And finally, the 9th Arcana is taken down...

By now, I'm realizing that my HP/SP/Items are taking real hits to this boss whose stats just keep on growing every time his gets his HP back. If Nyx didn't leave his HP at 0 soon, I was going to die of natural causes. His other forms I had just BARELY lived through...truly...barely.

10th Arcana is taken down...

11th Arcana is taken down...

12th Arcana is taken down...

And then it came, Nyx finally said something different. Unlucky number XIII revealed his final Arcana. Or in easier terms, Death. His 13th form. That's right, he has a total 13 bars of HP to take down from start of the battle to the end. That can be argued as 13 boss fights without stopping to heal or anything! I was finally happy though. That after about an hour, he reveals his true Arcana and I can actually end this battle. With my confidence that this battle DOES have an ending, I offhandedly did the first strike...and to my horror... his HP didn't even really flinch! Not only did his HP feel like it was tripled from his 12th form, but his defense had to have almost tripled as well. Everything we hit him with hurt 1/3 of our usual damage and Nyx surely wasn't taking it easy with his final Arcana. Bringing his HP down even 1/10th of the way was a boss fight in itself. However, when his HP reaches around 85%, I guess he takes that as a slight threat and decides to introduce the players to a brand new attack. Moonless Gown is what it was called. Basically, if you try to do the slightest physical/magic attack in any sort of variation, 500 of your HP was going down via amplified reflected attack. And of course Nyx didn't feel a single bit of pain. Even at level 99, you're sure to die if you attack him twice, so you can imagine what that would do to a party at a much lower level. There's no way to dispel the attack, you only have to endure it while he attacks you until he lifts the Moonlight Gown on his 3rd turn. (6 attacks.) However, my party were set to go AFTER Nyx used Moonless Gown...so all 3/4 party members dropped dead. And how many important fights have YOU won with one member surviving that was dependant on the other players? That's right, I lost to then and there and refused to touch the game in days. I believe it was even two weeks. That's far more difficulty than I was ever used to in my JRPGs.

Eventually, I tried again after leveling up a bit. I made it to the 13th form easier...sort of, and even survived his frequent Moonless Gown attacks. We took him down to his 30% HP range and I was feeling confident again. After all, how many final bosses had a secret move on top of a secret move, right? Right?!!! And then he used it...the infamous Night Queen!

"Let us finish this! It is the path of your choosing!"

He finally seemed to be getting annoyed at standing around taking 13 rounds of beatdowns. So he handled me...and handled me well. Night Queen will either kill your party or at least make your party just about dead. But of course that couldn't be it. He inflicts status ailments on your party...and quite naturally, one of the status ailments can make you heal your enemies. One of my party members became inflicted with THAT specific ailment and cured Nyx 100% of his health. (6000 HP) Now if I'm only doing 50-100 damage and fighting nearly on empty, and I cure Nyx 100%???? You can bet that I simply gave up. I stared at the screen in pure disbelief and knew that my little Throne and Surt couldn't take on Nyx at our state. We had no items and our SP was about out. We lost. And with nothing to show for it. I had everyone attack Nyx until we died. There was truly nothing I could do at that point after fighting the beast for an hour.

A few more days pass and for some reason, the music of the boss fight compelled me to turn the darn PS3 on and try it again. This time I beat him...only because he didn't charm anyone this time. At level 77, we scrapped by and took the fool down! The moment he finally kneeled down and made a humble grunt of defeat, that was the closest I was ever was to screaming out in sheer victory. Humor enough, after the battle, Nyx's Avatar got back up. He might as well just have dusted himself off as if everything we did was nothing short of throwing dust on him. The anime scenes that followed after... cleanly represented the hardships and determination I felt during my 77 hours of play (yep). Heh, they represented the hardships and trials of the Nyx Avatar battle alone! It's worth a look for those who have no interest in the game because it had the nerves to be on a PS2.Whoever used that cheap Armegeddon move to take down Nyx is being cheap and cheating themselves out of a great experience, by the way.

Never before has a boss presented me with a challenge that frustrated me to the point where beating it will prove to myself that I can beat him as well as feel a true sense of accomplishment. Those that don't agree with number one, please bare with me and understand that Nyx is the only boss that actually put up such a fight. It's a true pity that on the 2nd playthrough, they didn't up Nyx's difficulty. I would love to have that sort of challenge again sometime in my gaming life, and let me tell you, regardless of how unique the other fights were in comparison, accomplishment that high is something none of the games can accomplish gameplay wise to me. Nyx and Persona 3, congrats on making it to number one! Nyx, congrats on having perhaps the biggest sword in gaming! And there's my top 5 Boss Fights everyone! :D