[General Discussion] Overly Frustrating RPG Boss Battles - Sephiroth kicked my ass

I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen a thread based on this subject. I guess I've been in a big thread making mood lately.

When playing an rpg I enjoy a nice good challenging boss fight just as much as the next person. Boss battles are never any fun when they're too easy and there isn't really any strategy involved. As much as I enjoy the odd challenging boss battle, there are sometimes boss battles (sometimes the final boss or a secret boss battle in some hidden dungeon) that are so overly frustrating you just lose to them so many times it ups your level of frustration to the point that you feel like putting your fist through the television screen.

I'm having that experience right now from a nice little extra dungeon called the Seraphic Gate from Valkyrie Profile 2. I can not pass the boss of the second floor of that dungeon, and the funny thing is I have a lot more bullshit to go through since there are 5 floors to the Seraphic Gate, so I'm sure when I eventually beat that boss, the next boss will be just as ridicolous.

To the Gamingforce Community, what have been some of the most anal retentive overly frustrating boss battles you have ever faced.

If you feel when talking about a specific boss battle might ruin an important part of the rpg story, please use spoiler tags where applicable.

Final Fantasy Tactics:

Spoiler:

Velius from Final Fantasy Tactics. I wasted too much time trying to get rid of the archaic demons, and by the time I killed two of them, Velius had already killed me. I lost to this guy literally 12 to 15 times before I finally beat him. I ended changing to a monk with counter and punch art to finally take him down. It was definetely a frustrating battle. My fiance warned me it was going to be a tough battle, but I didn't believe her. After trying to beat him after the 6th time I finally started to understand how frustrating that boss battle was.

Parasite Eve:

Spoiler:

Mutant Crab. I had always found a lot of the bosses in this challenging especially the first time I played it, but if it was one boss that frustrated me more than anything else was the mutant crab in the warehouse. It seemed like I could never dodge his bubble attack. It wasn't until my fifth try fighting I had finally realized I had haste, and using haste actually made this battle a little easier.

Final Fantasy X:

Spoiler:

Seymour Flux on top of Mount Gagazet. I was actually getting through many of the bosses in this game without much difficulty, but I actually found this boss fairly hard the first time I played Final Fantasy X. The boss fight always seemed to go well until I got this boss down to minimal hp and then he would throw out this massive attack with a lot of projectiles that literally killed my party every time. On the 5th or 6th try I finally managed to beat him by just throwing everything at him at once before he hit his critical hp level.

Keep in mind, I know for a fact that star ocean 2 tends to have the hardest boss battles throughout the majority of the rpgs that have ever been released. I just haven't actually sat down and played the game yet.

What have been some of the most challenging but frustrating boss battles you have ever faced.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Man, I killed Seymour flux in only a few hits. On the other hand, it took me six tries to beat Yunalesca.

I think the most frustrating boss battle I've ever been in though was Yazmat from FFXII. The constant one-hit kills were beyond aggravating. Especially annoying was when I accidentally used Renew on myself after he cast reflect on my party. Oops.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm at level 100 and STILL can't beat the final boss in Star Ocean 2.

Of course, he can't hold a candle to the bosses in the Cave of Trials. Man...

A lot of the bosses ARE hard in that game, but... a lot of others are only as hard as you make it. If you have an ill-prepared party (mainly an unbalanced one), a lot of battles will be hard...

But some... geez. I'm not grinding 100 more levels to get through the Cave.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Frozen Memories

I'm at level 100 and STILL can't beat the final boss in Star Ocean 2..

Did you accidently turn off his limiter? If not you just need to go in with a good strategy. If you have Opera her a on one attack brutalizes him. If you don't have Opera here is a little strategy that I used once, control a spellcaster and just cast Energy Arrow on him repeatedly. It may sound stupid, but Energy Arrow is one of the fastest spells you can cast and it will interrupt his Explosion spell and hopefully stop him long enough for the fighters to get in a few hits.

Honestly most of the bosses in that have a particular trick that screws them over if you know about it.

Anyhow frustrating bosses? The final boss in Legend of Legaia. I got to him and was beaten within a couple rounds. Also once you hit the last dungeon you can't leave, so I didn't really have anyway to try to level up. So yeah... never finished that game because of that.

Most amazing jew boots

Mother F'ing Borgan from the original Lunar: Eternal Blue. That guy was annoying as hell! His freaking gravity bomb spell would easily take out 3/4 of my party's HP and that's BEFORE his three little orbs each made their own moves. Add to the fact that there's a nice long story sequence before the fight begins, and he has got to be the most annoying boss I think I've ever faced. I must've grinded for at least a good 5 game time hours just trying to level up enough to where he wouldn't wipe my party out in the first two or so turns. When Ruby makes reference to Borgan being harder than the final boss in the game, there's something wrong there balance wise.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Last boss in Arc the Lad 2 is pretty unpleasant if you aren't willing to power level your ass off or abuse cheesy tactics like Elc+Romancing Stone+Invincible spammage. (requires you to carry all the stones over from the first game and combined them in the second, though)

Jewel Beast and 10-stone Saruin are probably impossible without the chalice/infinite turn/overdrive trick in Romancing SaGa. (First one not so much if you wait til the end of the game to fight it, but if you want to avoid it smashing up the frontier towns I don't honestly believe there's another choice.) I've never heard of anyone beating Saruin without it at least.

Quote:

When Ruby makes reference to Borgan being harder than the final boss in the game that there's something wrong there balance wise.

Well, yeah, and that's why they knocked him down a few hundred pegs in the remake. And of course purists whined about the change, but come on... there was nothing in the game more difficult than him. It was ridiculous.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Forsety

Well, yeah, and that's why they knocked him down a few hundred pegs in the remake. And of course purists whined about the change, but come on... there was nothing in the game more difficult than him. It was ridiculous.

I was so relieved when I found out he wasn't a one hit kill wonder anymore. Anyone who liked that level of difficulty must've been a masochist. There's hard, yet fun and then there's hard and wanting to kill the developer who tuned his difficulty level that high.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'd say the secret boss in Digital Devil Saga 1 was up there in frustration. After a bunch of instant kills, followed by a bunch more non-instant kills trying to fight him the real way.

Man, that shit sucked so much. The best strategy at the time was basically "Hope you fall asleep 6 times in a row, at just the right time." I never got past two. =(

How ya doing, buddy?

Where to start...ah yes:

Final Fantasy X:

Yuna-freakin-lesca and Braska's Final Aeon (a.k.a. Jecht). Those two had to be the hardest bosses in the game. First of all, they both had different forms which added to the difficulty. Yunalesca would go from a normal human to a butt-fugly monster. Jecht, pulls a freakin sword out of his chest and just starts owning. I think the longevity of the Jecht battle is what frustrated me, but Yunalesca's is a bit more cheap..."Hey, I just cast Zombie on your party and you can't even freakin revive them until you give them a remedy, THEN a phoenix down."

Speaking of cheap...

Final Fantasy IX:

The majority of the bosses in this game were cheap, but the one I remember most is the final one...I believe Necros was its name. First it had that one attack where it crossed its arms and shot a laser at a party member, reducing he/she to 1 HP. Then, there was Grand Cross...if your party members weren't at a high enough level, you were fucked. I remember my normal party of Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, and Vivi couldn't get the job done so I had to switch out Vivi for Amarant because he had higher HP.

Kingdom Hearts:

Sephiroth...and holy shit was he difficult when I first faced him, if you can even call it that. Two hits, dead. I kept pounding away at him and his HP bar wouldn't even go down! I couldn't figure out if my attacks weren't strong enough or what, but damn. I finally had to look up a guide on how to beat him and I still got owned thanks to his Omnislash and Meteor attacks (rapid heal and MP hastega, thank you). It wasn't until I got to about level 82 that I was finally able to take him down...and then the final boss was NOTHING.

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix:

There's quite a few, so I'll list them:
Zexion Data: This is mostly due to my lack of knowledge of kanji. He transports you to another world and then casts some spell on you that turns your attack menu into pages and you flip through them until you can end that spell.

Demyx Data: The weakest member of Organization XIII and he had to be the hardest rematch. Even today, I stay the hell away from him. I probably wouldn't have a hard time if his water clones had a fair time limit, but no...he'll spawn 10, then 30, then 77, then 99 more with different time limits for each.

Enigmatic Soldier/Armored Unknown: Yeah, he's not as bad to fight today, more like a fun sparring session. However, when you first face this guy you have no idea what you're getting into especially if you're playing in Critical Mode. The one attack of his that caused me the most trouble was when he transformed his keyblade into a bow and fired light shots at you. If he caught you, your HP would go down gradually and your menu would have three bad selections and one good selection randomly skipping around. If his shot brings you down to 1 HP, you're fucked.

Now this next one was one of the most depressing moments I had ever encountered in gaming, but also one of the most frustrating battles as well:

Chrono Cross:

Miguel. Freakin, Miguel. He doesn't look tough at first, but the fact that one move in his arsenal can bring your HP to critical or even kill you is just unbelievable. I've forgotten the name of the move, but his whole arm becomes a light elemental sword (and the fact that two of my characters were dark elementals don't help either) and he just dashes and slashes once. Once is enough...heal fast or die.

Dragon Quest VIII:

Dhoulmagus and Rhapthorne. The game was hard enough with its difficulty, but the fact that these guys can attack twice in one turn is enough to make you want to curl into a ball and cry.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I love a challenging boss battle in RPGs. In hindsight, getting frustrated with super powerful bosses was sort of exhilarating. xD Sadly, I haven't encountered many overly difficult bosses in recent games (PS2 era, specifically) but then again I just might not be playing the right games. Here are a few frustrating bosses I just thought of:

Final Fantasy III (NOT VI, III):

Spoiler:

The Dark Crystal Guardians. Damn, probably the most difficult FF-series bosses. I remember a couple of years ago when I finally got around to playing FFIII for the NES (after playing II...*shudder*) and I was blown away by these damn bosses. Echidna was a real bitch with her super spells and unfortunately very sound tactics. 2-Headed Dragon (whoa creativity right there) was a bit of a bastard; when I finally overcame his monstrous attacks and won I was pretty excited. ^.~ (<-- Arguably the most satisfying feeling in all of video games) Also, Ahriman, the last of 'em, was a huge pain in the ass. To this day, whenever I encounter one of Ahriman's brethren in more recent FF installments, I'm sure to kick it's bloody ass.

MegaMan Battle Network 3 (=.="):

Spoiler:

I like to think of myself as a master of the MegaMan Battle Network games. I know the battle system like I know how to breathe. Only one time ever have I been put in a spot of bother during a (boss) battle, and that was the final battle of MMBN 3. I think it's called ALPHA or something, and it caned my seemingly underwhelming chip folder. But thanks to some nice help from a GameFAQS boss guide, I beat him. (Ok, so I didn't really feel that happy; I hate having to stoop to guides for help on beating bosses...especially on the first run-through.)

Final Fantasy X (seems pretty popular in this thread, actually...):

Spoiler:

The funny thing about Yunalesca is that during my first playthough of Final Fantasy X, I defeated her on my first try. No help from guides, no nothin'. I think I just level-grinded pretty hard while I was at the Calm Lands. However every try since (I think 2 more playthroughs, like 4 years ago. Don't think I'll be returning to the game any time soon) I've struggled so much. She destroyed me so many times, it was ridiculous. Haha, and one time, I had obviously forgotten that the battle came in three parts...I defeated the first "stage" and I was like "*sigh* I'm so awesome *relief*" BUT THEN SHE TURNED INTO THIS STUPID OCTOPUS THING! (or was that the third stage? *shrugs*) My face was like =O, but I was so angry I killed her eventually. 8-)

There are a few more which come to mind, but those three will do. I would have loved to have put a couple of Suikoden bosses in there, but...there isn't a single boss in the Suikoden series that has given me troubles. Not a one. Oh well~ Although one time I struggled beating that rat in the Two Rivers sewer..=P (Suikoden II)

Oh yeah and if you "Threaten" Seymour Flux, he's powerless, FYI.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by DarkMageOzzie

Did you accidently turn off his limiter? If not you just need to go in with a good strategy. If you have Opera her a on one attack brutalizes him. If you don't have Opera here is a little strategy that I used once, control a spellcaster and just cast Energy Arrow on him repeatedly. It may sound stupid, but Energy Arrow is one of the fastest spells you can cast and it will interrupt his Explosion spell and hopefully stop him long enough for the fighters to get in a few hits.

Honestly most of the bosses in that have a particular trick that screws them over if you know about it.

Hmmmm... I'll have to try that one out! Thanks!

Now if I could just get to the guy without being eaten by those yellow blobs...

And I second the Dhoulmagus statement. ...

Spoiler:

His second form, goddamn. Two or three attacks per turn... he kept wiping the floor with my party. Didn't help that my party's speed randomly changed. Or that Angelo kept dying. Or that the revive spell I have NEVER WORKED. AARGH.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Ozma. It's a killer. It's a rubber ball...

Spoiler:

...it's a killer rubber ball!

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm with Muzza. Goddamned Ozma.

If you weren't over-leveled, there was only one approach. PRAY TO ANY GOD YOU BELIEVE IN THAT YOU GET LUCKY AND TRIGGER THE PHOENIX SUMMON. That was it. Otherwise you were boned.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SuperSonic

Chrono Cross:

Miguel. Freakin, Miguel. He doesn't look tough at first, but the fact that one move in his arsenal can bring your HP to critical or even kill you is just unbelievable. I've forgotten the name of the move, but his whole arm becomes a light elemental sword (and the fact that two of my characters were dark elementals don't help either) and he just dashes and slashes once. Once is enough...heal fast or die.

Spoiler:

That would be Holy Dragon Sword. The worst thing about it is he would always cast turn black and strong minded before doing it. It didn't really matter what innate you were, you were "roast chicken".

I'm gonna give the frustration nod to Odette from Odin Sphere, but not because of difficulty...

Spoiler:

sllllllllloooooooowwwwwwwwdoooooooowwwwwwwwnnnnnnn ...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I must be really old but... How is it we're talking about difficult RPG bosses and no one has mentioned the Calbrina from Final Fantasy IV? That goddamned music, playing over and over and over.

Also of note - Wiegraf in Final Fantasy Tactics. His first battle in the opening chapter is tricky but not too difficult...

Spoiler:

On the other hand, once he gets the Zodiac Stone and transforms in the third chapter - its a back-to-back fight without a break. Its really f*cking hard

FELIPE NO

I've never attempted Digital Devil Saga's secret boss, but I've read a comprehensive strategy on how to prepare for and beat him and Christ. That gets my vote without even experiencing it.

Same two answers I always give to this thread when it pops up.

Saga Frontier II. Knight's or Gustave's time lines, the end battles. Gustave's strat-rpg battle was downright impossible. Performing every move as perfectly as you could still relied heavily on luck. Knight's battle through the sizable last dungeon seemed insurmountable. Hardly no restoration items to speak of. Level up system left largely to random and out of your control. Of course, up to that point the game was easy enough to where it didn't matter to much. The end made up for that though. So, there were, what, six optional bosses in the final dungeon, each one defeated knocked down the hp of the final boss and took away some strength and abilities I think. But you couldn't fight any of them because you would be too worn down to actually take him on. But you couldn't take him on otherwise because he then stood too tall. I seriously fought that fucker for over an hour and still could not take him down. Again, seemingly impossible.

Xenogears. Ramsus and Mieng back to back. One with an ability to knock you down to 1 hp in your gears, the cost for healing, half your fuel (or about). He does it more than once in the fight and you are screwed in the next that comes immediately after. Except it doesn't come immediately after. There is tons of text that you infamously can not scroll through before each fight. Fucking bullshit.

I also remember something about Breath of Fire 3's end boss taking a ridiculously long time to beat but not ultimately being that bad, just a grind.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by LeHah

I must be really old but... How is it we're talking about difficult RPG bosses and no one has mentioned the Calbrina from Final Fantasy IV? That goddamned music, playing over and over and over.

I was only thinking about frustrating boss battles because of their tactics and difficulty, but now that you mention it you're right. That music annoyed me to no end and since I could never defeat them quick enough, after the dolls merged the boss battle music coming in was a relaxing sensation.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by LeHah

I must be really old but... How is it we're talking about difficult RPG bosses and no one has mentioned the Calbrina from Final Fantasy IV? That goddamned music, playing over and over and over.

I forgot about that. When I replayed Final Fantasy IV a couple years ago that fight seemed easier then I remembered it, but everything else seemed harder then I remembered. But when I played it originally on the SNES, yes I remember that fight being annoying. It always seemed impossible to finish them off before they split up again and reset the fight.

Another annoying one I remembered is the boss in Cyan's dream in FF6. I can't remember how I originally beat him, but every time I played though after that it seemed like I had to use the vanish trick to win.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Dr. Uzuki

I also remember something about Breath of Fire 3's end boss taking a ridiculously long time to beat but not ultimately being that bad, just a grind.

Myria, huh? I agree it's more the fact that she had so much health that it took quite a while to kill her. I recall it being like 20 minutes or so. She's not insanely hard, but I wouldn't call her easy either, she did have some cheap abilities. The one I remember in particular is the AOE random status effect spell she casted every few rounds. In fact when I think about it, just about every spell she had was AOE. That's what made it take so long, 1 person is always stuck healing, halfway near the fight the other is always using a turn to use those mp restore items, so really you only have Ryu attacking.

Anyway, I always forget what bosses frustrated me. Lets see...

Radiata Stories

Iseria Queen. I think everyone who went this far will know why. The game itself is really not all that hard, most bosses were hardly any challenge at all, but what made this fight so hard is because of the stupid battle system, where if Jack dies you go game over. This so pissed me off! I had 3 overpowered allies with me, one of which had a powerful ressurection spell, so why?! It really was a challenge to keep him alive in that fight, since he had nowhere near as much health as the others.

Star Ocean 2

Indalecio unlimited. This guy is just insane. Even with everyone at 255, best equipment available, all skills maxed, and whatever you might name, he's still insane. He'll move faster then your characters with bunny shoes, he casts nearly instantly, and some of his spells do 9999 damage no matter what your resistance is. Basically the only way you'll win, is to keep at least one person alive or it's game over, and I had that so many times, you had him at 10 or 20% and you screw up.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm going to second Indalecio Unlimited. That was a pain in the ass. Hell, I thought he was hard enough (especially when he got wings) when he was limited.

Other notables include the one on one fights with the gang from Wild Arms Vth Vanguard. If you didn't spam those Sheriff Badges, some could kill you instantly (aka do more damage than you have). That was a pain in the ass too. God damn Fereydoon and your 5000 damage attack...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The Polis Police in Chrono Cross. It took me for fucking ever to finally beat that boss. The way i finally beat him the first time was by accidentally casting Grim Reaper on him which did roughly 1500 damage. Then i beat him down with Saints and holy lights (for some reason he's a white boss that's vulnerable to white spells as well, it's weird). On subsequent play throughs i've learned some trick of the trade to make him easier, such as white plates, the and the Mastermune.

Seymour Flux in Final Fantasy X was also a huge moment of frustration for me. it took me roughly 12 times of dying of trial and error with various strategies, until i finally found an item combination of Rikku's that cast protect and reflect on all of my characters just in time for him to launch that huge mega attack on me. That with Mega phoenixes and Holy Waters did the trick.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by ZiggyGo

Other notables include the one on one fights with the gang from Wild Arms Vth Vanguard. If you didn't spam those Sheriff Badges, some could kill you instantly (aka do more damage than you have). That was a pain in the ass too. God damn Fereydoon and your 5000 damage attack...

Well, It wasn't so much that they were hard, it's more the fact that in my game, I used Rebecca, Dean and Avril, so when I saw that I had to fight the one on ones with the character I never used I was surprised alright. The Kartikeya was pretty insane, I'll give you that. I really had to boost Greg for that one.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

This topic is curious to me, most probably not for the same reason as the threadmaker started it. I was reading through some of the replies and it has occurred to me that there haven't been any properly difficult RPGs that have been made anytime recently.

Ya, I know that by my saying this, you are mostly likely concluding that I'm being a pretentious dickwad who thinks he's a god at videogames. Well, I'm not. In all honesty, I really suck, but I'll at least admit that. Ya I got killed off by Emerald Weapon the first few times. Yes, I died at Omega weapon. Yes, I even got killed off by the Atma Weapon in Kefka's tower. This, however, does not mean that these bosses are difficult by any stretch of the imagination.

OK, level with me here. The first real RPG I ever played was Robotrek for the SNES. We all took turns playing the game. Man, there were a few super frustrating boss battles in that game. I remember an epic encounter with the Meta Crab. The bastard used up all my items but he eventually got his ass kicked. Then there was also this one boss that looked kind of like a cross between a butterfly and a fairy. That was probably the most damn annoying thing I've ever faced. The fairy thing could ravage my party in seconds and each attack my robots did only took off a single solitary hitpoint. I had an auto controller for my SNES so me and my friends managed to find a 'safe spot' on the screen where our characters wouldn't take any damage and we left my party to repeatedly attack over and over again, slowly whittling away the massive HP of this monster. Content with the probable outcome of this setup, we decided to break for lunch and let the auto controller work its magic. After two and a half hours, our stomachs were full and the battle was finally over, so we resumed playing the game until we got accosted by a golem. The stone statue proved to be an unassailable opponent so we quit playing out of pure frustration.

Ya, most frustrating boss battle, right? Well, I bought that same game off of ebay many years and many games later. I began replaying it and to my surprise, I basically sailed through most of these enemies. Even the Golem didn't prove to be much of a challenge. I had discovered that the quintessential strategy for surviving in most games is to be sure to build one's characters enough.

That being said, I hear stories of people doing speed runs (Like real ones, not TAS) of more modern titles -such as FF IX- and they manage to complete the game in under 10 hours with levels below 20 or some crazy crap. Somehow, these clowns also manage to beat the big ol' baddies without too much difficulty. This is why it is so curious to here you guys rambling on about how difficult bosses are in most Modern RPGs. See, I discovered something here. When you cannot defeat a boss or have difficulty doing so, it is either usually a case of insufficient levels, or more likely a case in not using your equipment / items / abilities to your best advantage.

In the case of Emerald Weapon, it becomes a whole lot less challenging of a battle once you breed a few birds, find a few rocks, and cast a certain infamous summon over and over and over again. If this kind of a strategy does not work, usually your adversary has a weakness that must be exploited. Be sure to check weapon and item combinations and re equip them to maximize your chances of success against your adversaries.

So how does this post relate to this here thread? Well, if you are having difficulty with an RPG boss, chances are it isn't because the boss is difficult, but rather because you aren't adhering to the simple guidelines listed above. It is for this reason that I think the new thread title is so fitting. (thanks for that, Qwarky)

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Traumatized Rat

It is for this reason that I think the new thread title is so fitting. (thanks for that, Qwarky)

Oh, so it's a Qwarky-Rat combination? No wonder it's so incredibly unfunny.

Also, by your logic there, cap'n, anyone who finds Mega Man difficult has nothing to do with the game, as they can just train their hand eye co-ordination and memorise patterns of enemies and they'll be fine. Same thing with any platformer.

Of course if you overtrain your characters things are going to be easy in an RPG. The point of threads like these is attached to an unmentioned rule of saying "on average levels" at the end.

Man, I don't know how anyone could find puzzle games hard. Just get used to the patterns and spend a few hours wrapping your head around the concept to train and it gets easy.

This is why no one takes you seriously.

P.S.

Never end anything with "it is for this reason that I think", as it makes you look like you're writing a 6th grade essay. Go home.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I remember also having significant difficulty with Ozma, although I probably kept trying prematurely. After winning the fight, taking many many many tries, I realized my characters were only level 39 for some reason, so I guess I could have went into that fight with more preparation. Meteor would be every turn and pretty much instant-kill, but even stuff like Holy was devastating still which goes to show that I could have went into it better. Ironically I faced Hades later on, went all out and beat him on the first try with Vivi as the sole survivor.


I'm very intrigued that SS mentions Miguel. That was also a fun and masochistic memory from my experience. He always beat you down with such style and brutality and that music was appropriate, but annoying to hear over and over again as your black innates get energy slashed to death anyways.

Valkyrie Profile:

Iseria Queen was still largely luck, although partially controllable. Probably the first three or four times to you descend through all three or four large levels of the Seraphic Gate (when you haven't memorized the layout) are the hardest, as the damage output was lower due to levels and such. If your guts didn't kick in on at -least- one member out of four (and it does happen!), you die and have to trek all the way down to her again! As fun as Empress Massacre was, Cosmic Spear was really the dreaded attack every turn. Without Angel Curios for additional insurance, you'd really have to cross your fingers, come every cosmic spear.

Jam it back in, in the dark.