I was listening to a favorite podcast today, and they were talking about RPG final bosses and how so many of them are just plain over the top, multi-part, extravaganza's. Sometimes they are done perfect, but a lot of times the final battle in an RPG can drag on and almost break the pacing of a game, especially if you fail the first time and have to go again.

So what are some of your favorite and least favorite final boss battles in an RPG? What do you think devs could do to improve or create a better boss battle?

My favorite will always have to be Kefka in FF3/6 largely due to the, at the time, revolutionary way of letting you continue to use almost every character in your roster, instead of limiting you to just one team. Very cool and kept the battle epic and always changing.

A least favorite that I can remember is Richter from Tale of Symphonia:DotNW. He's just a character we've seen throughout the game, just overpowered and with way too much HP. Not a horrible thing, but a pretty anticlimactic and un-epic battle to end 2 games worth of awesomeness. I was dissapointed.

See i felt Mithos himself in Symphonia one was rather anticlimactic. I struggled more with the final fight against Kratos and several other bosses more than Mithos (though i suppose i went out of my way to get all the Devils Arms, so i had more power than you were supposed to)

Ashera in Fire Emblem 10 (if SRPGs count) was a perfect capper

I thought about Mithos too, he suffers from much of the same problems as Richter. But Richter you had seen in action the entire game, and he didn't bring anything really new to his final battle. I remember the optional boss Abyssion being the guy I had the most difficulty with in the first one.

Which Fire Emblem is 10? There are so damn many of them!

Here's my pick

Top Best:

• Gannon. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 
• Smithy: Super Mario RPG. Awesome final boss.
• Ultimecia: FFVIII. (I don't like the game much but the final fight was amazing)
• Dark Gaia: Terranigma.
• The four synistrals as one: Lufia and the Fortress of Doom

Gygas eh? I was trying to decide how I felt about that battle. On one hand it's more of a interactive scene than a battle, but it's so damn original and weird I couldn't put it on my worst list.

The final boss in the first pokemon games were pretty epic, because after like i think it was 4 hard boss battles with no way to recover or get supplies must go on and defeat the hardest of them all, was great. 

I understand, I put it on my worst because it's not a fight, and I love to have an epic battle with the final boss. But I agree that it was weird looking at the screen while being with Gygas.

Hmm I would have to go with Zelos from Skies of Arcadia and if I had to choose one stage of the battle I'll say the ship battle. What it had going for it was Great Music, using the ship battle style which puts much more strategy since you must input your four moves each round before the actions begin, each tile showing a possiblity of a super attack to be pulled off. Along with trying to out smart the boss before hand you have to choose your crew, there are two crew for each possible job each having their own affects on how the ship does both attacking, defense, healing and more. And overall I just loved the over the top merciless the boss gives you leaving you with very little room for error. 

SEPHIROTH !!!!!

It's already been mentioned, but nothing beats Kefka IMO, he's the best villian and the final battle lived up to his reputation.

Chrono Trigger had a very good final boss as well, awesome looks, kick arse music, epic attacks and multiple forms.

Secret of Mana was pretty good as well, but I far prefered the penultimate boss, with his awesome music