The original Final Fantasy VII is considered one of the greatest video games of all time, but hard? While the game does have a reasonably engaging difficulty curve, FFVII allows the player to get away with quite a bit. An emphasis on customization through Materia and a strong party all around results in most of Final Fantasy VII offering some weak boss fights.
While Final Fantasy VII’s boss fights might fall on the easy for the franchise, there are a key few bosses in FFVII that really test what the player is capable of. Beyond the RPG’s infamous superbosses, Final Fantasy VII makes sure to challenge players enough times before their journey comes to an end.
10 Hardest: Carry Amor
Fought in the Underwater Junon Reactor nearing the end of Disc 2, but this point in the game, the party should be strong enough to take on just about anything. Any players who have gone out of their way to do side content are more or less guaranteed to be overleveled by now. All the same, Carry Armor puts up a surprising late game fight.
Although weak to Bolt, Carry Armor can immobilize two members of the party outright, all while actively damaging said characters to death until the player can disable Carry Armor’s arms. This is a fight that can turn sour fast if the player is caught off guard.
9 Easiest: Palmer
To the original Final Fantasy VII’s credit, the Shinra executives aren’t exactly built up as major villains. Shinra as an organization is, as far President Shinra and Rufus, but the rest of the lot are more or less minor villains, Palmer especially. Where Heidegger and Scarlett at least get to actively antagonize the party, and Reeve is part of the party, Palmer is just kind of there.
His one fight in Rocket Town is pathetically easy. He’ll throw out a few basic spells, but even without grinding, the party should be just fine against him. Better yet, Palmer is susceptible to Poison, Sleep, and Stop. The fight notably ends with Palmer being struck by a Shinra truck.
8 Hardest: Safer Sephiroth
Although the second to last boss in the game, Safer Sephiroth might as well be considered the true final boss, and the player’s last real challenge before credits roll. Beyond being a difficult endgame boss in general (following a potentially grueling boss fight,) Safer Sephiroth is actually buffed if the player matches a few criteria.
Notably, Safer Sephiroth is buffed for every Lv 99 character the player has and if Knights of the Round was used against Jenova-SYNTHESIS. Depending on how much the player has done over the course of their playthrough, Safer Sephiroth can be a brutal final boss– but always a satisfying one.
7 Easiest: Air Buster
Air Buster is notably one of the hardest boss fights in the Final Fantasy VII Remake, so anyone going back to play the original after the fact might be surprised at how pathetically easy the original Airbuster was. Players won’t even be overleveled at this point in the game– Airbuster is just that easy.
Even splitting Cloud apart from Barret and Tifa, Airbuster is never really a threat. It’s a nice means of showcasing how the party can be split during battles, but it’s just a shame the boss design doesn’t really play off that. This is one area where FFVIIR clearly improved upon the original.
6 Hardest: Demons Gate
Demons Gate is not only the last boss fight Aerith can (and will) take part in, he’s also one of the few chokepoints in Final Fantasy VII that can give players a really hard time. With high stats and and aggressively fast, Demons Gate can kill the party without much effort if the player isn’t paying enough attention.
Even then, Demons Gate can force players to go back and grind out a few levels just to make the ordeal smoother. Even overleveled, Demons Gate offers a level of challenge at a point in the game where the party’s equipment and Materia might not be enough to give them a clear advantage.
5 Easiest: Gi Nattak
The Final Fantasy franchise has a long, storied tradition of including undead enemies. Not just any undead enemies, though– undead enemies who can be insta-killed via healing. Mystic Quest notably featured a final boss that could be two-shot with healing magic, and Final Fantasy VII includes a similar boss.
Gi Nattak is fought as part of Red XIII’s arc in Cosmo Canyon, but all a player needs to do is cast Life, toss a Phoenix Down on the guy, or just heal him. Interestingly, Gi Nattak was even easier in the original Japanese release where he was susceptible to both Sleep and Poison.
4 Hardest: Emerald WEAPON
The Weapons wreaking havoc on the world mark a turning point in Final Fantasy VII’s narrative as the plot starts to gear up towards its endgame. While the player has to fight Diamond WEAPON and Ultimate WEAPON as part of the main story, Shinra defeats Sapphire WEAPON themselves while Emerald and Ruby WEAPON are left to their own devices.
Emerald WEAPON can only be found and fought underwater, and notably features a time limit (of which the base is 20 minutes, but can be increased to half an hour.) To put into perspective how tough this fight is, players are going to likely want the half hour. Emerald WEAPON is vicious, but beating him rewards the player with the Earth Harp (and subsequently Master Materia.)
3 Easiest: Dragon
After finally leaving Midgar, the party makes a pitstop in Kalm where Cloud explains his history with Sephiroth and why they need to go after him. Part of this flashback notably includes a sequence where both Cloud and Sephiroth fight a Dragon (with Sephiroth as a party member.) Notably, Sephiroth can’t be controlled and the Dragon will likely knock out Cloud ASAP.
This simply leaves the player to watch Sephiroth massacre the Dragon, defeating him with next to no effort. While an easy boss “fight,” this is an incredibly important moment that showcases the difference in skill between both Cloud and Sephiroth– a crucial detail to establish for Cloud’s arc.
2 Hardest: Ruby WEAPON
The Ruby WEAPON is far and away the single hardest boss fight in the game. Not only is this a vicious encounter which forces the player to be both max level and play (very) strategically, actually gaining access to Ruby WEAPON takes an incredible amount of effort on the player’s part.
Beyond just defeating Ultimate WEAPON to trigger Ruby WEAPON, players must actually breed a Gold Chocobo (an incredibly lengthy process) to regain access to the desert since their buggy has been destroyed. Thankfully, as players will have a Gold Chocobo, this also means they can snag Knights of the Round to give themselves an advantage.
1 Easiest: Sephiroth
Like the Dragon boss fight earlier in the game, the final fight against Sephiroth is more ceremonial than anything. He doesn’t even have stats, and only has 1 HP. Any attack he does against Cloud will fail to kill him, always leaving Cloud alive. Cloud even has immediate access to Omnislash regardless if players unlocked the Limit.
All the same, while an easy cap off to the game, this is why players fight Safer-Sephiroth. Where Cloud was once too weak to knick a dragon, he’s so strong Sephiroth literally cannot kill him. Cloud’s final duel with Sephiroth is a cathartic conclusion to Final Fantasy VII.