The best/worst final boss in FE

[Mozuzu]

Which final boss in the series do you think is the best and the worst?

[Slumber]

Best:

Ashnard or Julius are probably my favorites as bosses. They're fun to work around, get to, and fight, and both are big threats that can easily kill your units. The set up for Madeus in FE3 is pretty great, too, and seeing him(Potentially) eat a bunch of characters, including a little girl and Marth's sister, is dark and dire as all hell. He's not a super great boss, but a neat set-up.

Worst:

Idunn is pretty bad as a boss. WAY too easy. The Fire Dragon is bad, too, just due to how generic and anticlimactic it is. I've also never liked the arena for Fomortiis. Putting chests on the final boss fight is absolutely ridiculous, and getting to Fomortiis has never been fun. And unlike Ashnard and Julius having interesting units supporting the boss and sub-bosses, Fomortiis just has... generic monsters. The same old monsters you've been fighting for most of the last 25 hours. As an actual boss, Fomortiis is... whatever.

Edited August 21, 2017 by Slumber

[Magical Glace]

Best: Ashera's aura system is pretty cool an she has very dangerous herd hitting attacks.  I hate the fact you need to kill her with Ike though, I find that to be nothing more than more of FE10's awful Ike shilling.

Worst: As much as I like her character-wise, Idoun's just... pathetic as a boss.  While it makes sense from a plot standpoint, I do think she should have put up more of a fight than she did.  I mean, even base Roy still does a lot of damage to her by himself with Dancer support because the Binding Blade's literally just that broken.  Provided he has 16 Str and 20 speed, he can one round her.  Idoun doesn't even have a ranged attack either, which means that Roy doesn't really need the bulk to survive getting counterattacked since the Binding Blade shoots fire.

Edited August 21, 2017 by Glaceon Mage

[maybe]

i would honestly call the fire dragon the best one

it comes out of completely nowhere, but I feel like that's the fun of it

it's so random and different from the rest of the game that you really have to plan what you're gonna do

it has 3 range allowing it to counter any attack in the game, always does 37 damage (which is such a random number I didn't even realize it was a fixed amount at first), and has an hp amount that starts so high you can't even see it at first. you have to figure out a good way to pile on some damage to it with your units who can actually engage the thing without getting them killed on the enemy phase. sure it's pretty simple once you have it figured out, and on later playthroughs it's a lot easier, but I feel like it's the one that's the most exciting and enjoyable the first time around.

[Interdimensional Observer]

FE has a hard time doing final bosses, mostly because it isn't built around 1 v. 1 combat. It's why both Ike-BK duels are badly done- they just couldn't do anything right with them by virtue of FE being FE.

Ashera is the best though- the Auras and her various attack shenanigans makes the final battle with her more than a 1 v. 1. Ashnard has the fact he moves on his side, so that's a plus. Takumi was quite different, I like that.

Ananny however just felt like an HP sink (did he really need the eyeball alone phase- what difference did it make?). Ananny was like the final phase of Polaris in Devil Survivor 2, but not so well executed. 

But it's the FD and Idunn who take the cake for the absolute worse. Birdo at least has a set of Deadlords you have to chop through first.

[Shadow Mir]

Worst: Fomortiis is a huge anticlimax - with a title like Demon King, I'd expect a better fight, frankly. At least there's a reason why Idoun's so bad as a final boss...

Best: I'd say the final boss of Revelation for being a multi-phase boss, with honorable mention to Ashera.

[Jingle Jangle]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

FE has a hard time doing final bosses, mostly because it isn't built around 1 v. 1 combat. It's why both Ike-BK duels are badly done- they just couldn't do anything right with them by virtue of FE being FE.

Ashera is the best though- the Auras and her various attack shenanigans makes the final battle with her more than a 1 v. 1. Ashnard has the fact he moves on his side, so that's a plus. Takumi was quite different, I like that.

Ananny however just felt like an HP sink (did he really need the eyeball alone phase- what difference did it make?). Ananny was like the final phase of Polaris in Devil Survivor 2, but not so well executed. 

But it's the FD and Idunn who take the cake for the absolute worse. Birdo at least has a set of Deadlords you have to chop through first.

True, you are forgetting Anankos from Revelations. Where he is so large and you need a team  to take him down. Due to wounding him by targeting his limbs,then his head.  In the future, I hope that the final boss can be taken down by a team. Not just by one person.

[ping]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

FE has a hard time doing final bosses, mostly because it isn't built around 1 v. 1 combat. It's why both Ike-BK duels are badly done- they just couldn't do anything right with them by virtue of FE being FE.

Ashera is the best though- the Auras and her various attack shenanigans makes the final battle with her more than a 1 v. 1. Ashnard has the fact he moves on his side, so that's a plus. Takumi was quite different, I like that.

I fully agree with both the 1v1 argument and Ashera as the best boss in the franchise (although I'd subtract some points for the Ike clause in her battle) and can't really comment on Takumi, but I would name Jahn as the worst final boss in the series. I consider the fight against Idoun to be more of a "flavour" thing, almost a played-out cutscene, since her being rather weak in combat fits really well with the story. After all, the legends were taken aback as well when they saw that the demon dragon was but a young girl.

It gets spoiled by Jahn being a major pushover as well (and I dislike his map as well) - I think if the fight agains Idoun had a major, epic showdown as a contrast, it would work much better than it does now.

Edited August 21, 2017 by ping
Wrong quotation

[Armagon]

Best:

• Anankos, FE3/12 Medeus, and Zephiel (assuming you got the bad end). Anankos because he had a multi-stage boss fight that was actually pretty cool.
• Medeus because of how it was set up, and having to rescue the four maidens before he eats them.
• Zephiel because he was just a tough opponent. It's funny because even though he's not the true final boss, he's a lot harder.

Honorable mention:

• Duma: Ok, so while the map itself can get somewhat tedious because of Mogall spam, i felt that Duma himself was a good boss fight. And unlike Ike in FE10 who can only deal the final blow to Ashera, Alm being the only one who can deal the final blow to Duma makes sense (yes, i know about Nosferatu and the Marth and Roy Amiibos). Also, shield drop.

Worst:

• Julius, Formortiis, and Idoun. Julius himself is a good and challenging boss but he suffers because the map he's fought on is huge, and if you want to have a comfortable time beating him, you have to get the Book of Naga, which requires backtracking. Also the fact that it takes a good while in Endgame before you even reach Julius. He's an amazing boss on paper, but FE4's terrible gameplay just wouldn't let him shine.
• Fomortiis.....is really easy. Not Idoun easy but easy enough. Sacred Stones is a game where Light Magic reigns supreme and not just that, by the time you get to Fomortiis, you have a bunch of Sacred Weapons as well. I will give him credit for being one of the few bosses who actually moves and he can potentially screw you over with Nightmare. Not that it matters because he never uses it because he dies before he gets a chance to even use it. 
• Idoun is really easy, probably the easiest final boss in the series. It makes sense from a story perspective as to why she's so weak, but you know it's bad when she can easily get one-shot.

Dishonorable mention

• Awakening!Grima. You can literally end this boss fight in one to three turns via Galeforce spam. But he at least puts up a fight. 

Edited August 21, 2017 by Armagon

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Seriously Ashera has been the only really great boss in FE gameplaywise because it's not a traditional 1vs.1 battle at once. This map requires perfect positioning and best possible use of skills, dragons, and supports to take her down quickly. It's incredibly hard to take her down in one turn in NM / HM (pretty sure impossible without triangles). However sucks plotwise that Ike has to set the final blow to her.
Ashnard is cool in harder difficulties since he moves unlike most other bosses and really hard if Ike has not resolve at least.
The final boss in Revelations was actually the only good thing about this game because it was a multi stage fight. 

Idoun was the worst boss for obvious reasons.
Veld was pretty terrible too. Could remember that Mareeta ORKO'd him. He was really generic unlike most of his subordinates.
 

Quote

Ananny however just felt like an HP sink (did he really need the eyeball alone phase- what difference did it make?). Ananny was like the final phase of Polaris in Devil Survivor 2, but not so well executed. 

It was rather like Mizar with the multi stage fights.
In the Polaris fight you can avoid the outside tentarcles or whatever they are iirc.

Edited August 21, 2017 by Aya Shameimaru

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 hours ago, Jingle Jangle said:

True, you are forgetting Anankos from Revelations. Where he is so large and you need a team  to take him down. Due to wounding him by targeting his limbs,then his head.  In the future, I hope that the final boss can be taken down by a team. Not just by one person.

I'm in agreement- final battles should be an entire stage of challenge, with the final boss prominent in it.

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Anankos because he had a multi-stage boss fight that was actually pretty cool.

I think my problem with Anankos is the fact I'm walking on eggshells the entire time. For C27 it's an assassination via Rescue, or a long drawn out battle where you spend lots of turns killing everyone before finally taking down the big bad. I chose the former option because it can be done quickly- which is good since otherwise you've wasted a lot of time if you have to reset during C28. And C28 Rev isn't like C28 BR, where you can afford to go slow on C27 because C28 can be one-turned rather easily. For C28, I think my problem was that I was rushing things a little too fast wanting again to just assassinate Mr. I and get the fight over before the endless reinforcements on this very open battlefield killed someone. I was being closer than not to hyperoffensive fearing a more gradual approach would kill me, not that I didn't dedicate units to taking out the reinforcements.

Given on Classic Mode the death of just 1 unit = a reset (well 2 if you're willing to have someone use Bifrost) for most, multi-stage battles without saving between them in FE is rather perilous. I should play Rev 27-28 again for the sake of it, but overall, I don't like it as much as Ashera by virtue of a screw up costing you so much more time. I'd loathe the Tower of Guidance in RD if I couldn't save between its 5 parts. And I'd like Ananny more if I could save between 27 and 28, perhaps in a Battle Save slot to avoid locking myself out of My Castle access if I need to go back to the drawing board and grind/buy stuff.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think my problem with Anankos is the fact I'm walking on eggshells the entire time. For C27 it's an assassination via Rescue, or a long drawn out battle where you spend lots of turns killing everyone before finally taking down the big bad. I chose the former option because it can be done quickly- which is good since otherwise you've wasted a lot of time if you have to reset during C28. And C28 Rev isn't like C28 BR, where you can afford to go slow on C27 because C28 can be one-turned rather easily. For C28, I think my problem was that I was rushing things a little too fast wanting again to just assassinate Mr. I and get the fight over before the endless reinforcements on this very open battlefield killed someone. I was being closer than not to hyperoffensive fearing a more gradual approach would kill me, not that I didn't dedicate units to taking out the reinforcements.

Given on Classic Mode the death of just 1 unit = a reset (well 2 if you're willing to have someone use Bifrost) for most, multi-stage battles without saving between them in FE is rather perilous.

That's fair. I personally found the whole "no save between Ch.27 and Endgame" deal to be a lot more troublesome in Conquest. Because Conquest Ch.27 is already hard enough and Conquest Endgame is even harder. I reset so many times during Conquest's Endgame, that every time i think about it, i just get war flashbacks.

But hey, i'll give Conquest's Endgame credit for being a genuine challenge.

Edited August 21, 2017 by Armagon

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think my problem with Anankos is the fact I'm walking on eggshells the entire time. For C27 it's an assassination via Rescue, or a long drawn out battle where you spend lots of turns killing everyone before finally taking down the big bad. I chose the former option because it can be done quickly- which is good since otherwise you've wasted a lot of time if you have to reset during C28. And C28 Rev isn't like C28 BR, where you can afford to go slow on C27 because C28 can be one-turned rather easily. For C28, I think my problem was that I was rushing things a little too fast wanting again to just assassinate Mr. I and get the fight over before the endless reinforcements on this very open battlefield killed someone. I was being closer than not to hyperoffensive fearing a more gradual approach would kill me, not that I didn't dedicate units to taking out the reinforcements.

Given on Classic Mode the death of just 1 unit = a reset (well 2 if you're willing to have someone use Bifrost) for most, multi-stage battles without saving between them in FE is rather perilous.

Fair enough. TBF, final chapter-wise, I find the situation in Birthright worse - you start out surrounded by enemies, and most of the Hoshidans can't survive more than one or two hits. Even though you COULD one turn it, it requires good RNG, else you are at a severe risk of losing someone and having to restart.

[Sweet_Basil]

Best- Ashera, her boss fight feels really engaging but not tedious. I also like the feeling that everybody co-operates to beat her auras and defend against the spirits. The only thing I don't like about it is that only Ike can finish her. 

Worst- The Slimy man from Conquest, idk why I get so bored on that map.

[vanguard333]

Best: Tie between Ashnard and Ashera.

Ashnard moves and is rare in being a human final boss, yet one that actually feels like a force to be reckoned with unlike some (looking at you Takumi: gameplay-wise you were somewhat interesting but a second rematch where all you have is a new bow and a purple glow is not even scary; just seems like an abrupt nuisance rather than a menacing boss). Ultimately it actually felt like an interesting fight.

Ashera was really interesting. You had to destroy every barrier surrounding her, fight off spirit reinforcements, take her AoE attacks into account and everything. Ike being the only one able to kill her is a bit strange, but I honestly did not mind.

Worst: Anankos, Grima

Both of them could have been great boss fights with interesting theatrics and some slightly interesting mechanics, but somehow manage to be dull and bland.

Grima was interesting in that you fought while on top of him. This could have been so interesting with the map itself trying to kill you: he could have tried to shake you off his back, swipe the back row with his tail, used dragon breath as an AoE attack, etc. But he just... flies around, while risen appear, and don't even block your way to him! You can just run your best units up to him and just keep attacking until he's dead. What!? You're fighting on an evil dragon's back!

Anankos could have been a decent final boss to make up for Fates' bad story, but it was just bland... Having to attack different limbs as a team was nice, but it would have been more interesting if the limbs were actually some distance away. I barely had to divide my units! It also just felt repetitive. Attack two arms, attack head, boss is dead.

Honourable Mention: Duma. His HP being ?? actually made it interesting, as did his being able to move and him having two different attacks: one physical and one magical. The problem was that, despite being a rotting shell of what he was, he was a bit too good: go in for the first time without prior research and I basically ended up warping Alm to deal with most of the damage. Perhaps the problem had more to do with it having been my first playthrough of Echoes. If he had a good final chapter map to complement the good boss fight, he probably would have been up there with Ashnard and Ashera; maybe even better.

Dishonourable Mention: Takumi. Gameplay-wise, he was alright. Where Duma was a good boss fight in a bad map, Takumi was a bad boss fight in a decent map. I defeat Gooron, the slime monster king of Nohr, and the thing that's supposed to be an even stronger boss is a second rematch with Takumi where almost nothing's changed?

[FootwaySublong]

Best: Ashnard. He's cool, has lots of conversations, and even has a second phase for the brave folks on Hard.

Worst: Garon. He's pathetically easy, and with Corrin and Ryoma the final chapter is a joke.

[Jotari]

As much as I love Thracia's final chapter, Veld himself is a joke. At least Idounn is a joke because of the super effectiveness of your weapons, and narratively speaking, it suits her. But Veld is legitimately comparable to bosses you fought in the middle of the game. He does have stone though, which is more than I can say for the Fire Dragon who, while bulky as all hell, stands virtually no chance at killing your units if you have your head on straight. At least fomortiis and Idounn can move, meaning theoretically they could be some kind of threat if you didn't one turn them.

As for the best, I'd probably give it to Doma. He just feels threatening and has good psnergy with the map. Ashera's is of course a noteworthy one too with a lot more thought going in to her than most.

[Heir of Dragons and Beasts]

Best: Ashera, Ashnard, Duma, Veronica

Worst: Any boss other than those two

Edited May 9, 2018 by Tharja123
forgot something

[Zkitty8]

Out of the final bosses I've fought:

Best: Ashera. I thought it was interesting how you had to multitask with destroying the barriers, fighting off the spirits, and positioning your units on the right tiles so they can survive Ashera's attacks. It felt like everyone was working as a team. It gave me a lot of trouble but it was so satisfying.

Honorable mentions: Idoun. Even though the fight's really easy, I just love the buildup to it and I especially love the music.

Takumi. The boss fight itself isn't that hard but I consider getting to him to be the real challenge. I hate that if you restart you have to do chapter 27 again though.

Worst: Fomortiis. You either kill him in one turn with the sacred weapons or he survives and puts all your good units to sleep or something because that's fair.

[DragonFlames]

Best:

For me, it's a tie between Ashnard, Duma and Shadow Dragon Medeus. I feel they are the most "Fire Emblem" final boss fights. As in, you have an actual map to beat before you can get to them and the bosses themselves also provide a nice, beefy challenge. All three are good way to close off what I consider to be fantastic games.
Music-wise, Duma wins, when it comes to the actual map, I like Ashnard's and Medeus' the most.

Worst:

Formotiis, Anankos, Takumi.
The first one is just pathetic, the second one is a boring slog (multi-phase bosses and Fire Emblem don't go well together, as proven by this... thing), the third is just stupidly unfair on higher difficulties AND it's at the end  of what I consider the worst story ever conceived in the Fire Emblem universe, so I can't really enjoy it.

[LunarLute]

Best: Julius probably.

Worst: Idoun easily, the fact that she is can easily be killed by Roy goes without saying.

[Kubson]

Best: Demon King

Worst: Idoun

Edited July 4, 2018 by Kubson

[Bishop Rodan]

Best: Hard to say. I guess Ashera? Honourable mentions would go to Ashnard, the Fire Dragon, Julius, Formortiis.

Worst: Probably Veld. He barely has any buildup, any presence in the story, so he's not even good as a villain. And as a boss he's simply pathetic. Dishonourable mention to Idoun, who, while a pathetically easy boss, at least gets points for having a sympathetic backstory and semi-decent buildup.

[DarthR0xas]

I'm not sure about the best boss fight, most of them are pushovers that feel epic.

The GBA games have the best pre-final boss fights. FE6 dude (I forget his name, it's been a while), Nergal, and especially Lyon. The problem comes with the final boss, who is either a pushover (see Idunn), Comes out of literally nowhere (see random Fire Dragon), or just kinda make the plot a little worse (see Demon King). 

I've only played RD in the Tellius series, but Ashera was kinda neat. I didn't like the Ike can only kill mechanic, or more accurately the way it was implemented. At least with Duma, who is decent in his own right, his health didn't regenerate to full when you tried to kill him with a non-main character unit. Thankfully, I knew that you shouldn't kill Ashera with another unit going in, but had I not it would've been maddening. 

Awakening's Grima was pathetic, beat him with literally only Robin and Chrom in my R/C solo of the game. But, the atmosphere was great, with that amazing song in the background.

Fates bosses, oh boy these guys. Birthright's Garon, thing, was dumb and a pushover. Anankos was dumb, and an interesting boss since it accommodated FE being a game where you focus on multiple targets. Takumi was, admittedly, kinda cool, and a decent challenge (or at least his map was).

That's another important aspect of a final boss, their final boss map. The Fire Dragon has an awesome final boss map, with all of the villains getting cool morph forms, and you get awesome weapons.Or Takumi's which forces you to move forward quick or be crushed. Or Duma's, which is a boss rush. All of these add to the boss, making it cooler when you kill them, instead of Grima, where you literally just blitz him (you don't even have to give Robin the final kill to get the good ending, which would've been a nice call-back to Ashera/Duma)

So to put it into three neat lists.

Story-Wise, the bosses go as:

Ashera

Takumi

Duma

Demon King

Idunn

Grima

Garon

Fire Dragon

Anankos

Gameplay-Wise, the bosses go as:

Duma

Takumi

Ashera

Anankos

Fire Dragon

Demon King

Idunn

Garon/Grima (both equally bad)

Final map wise, the bosses go as:

Takumi

Fire Dragon

Duma

Demon King

Ashera

Anankos

Garon

Grima

Idunn

[DMan64]

From what I played, overall I'd say that I personally like Takumi, Duma, and Anankos the most, and generally speaking those are the ones that I hear most people talking about as good final bosses/ endgame maps in FE.  Though if I had to be objective, I feel Duma is the overall best; the story, map design and enemy placement, music,  and scope just all gel together the best to me, even if individually those qualities may not be the best on their own.  Takumi I feel is a great challenge and story-wise it's one of the few great things about Conquest's story(even if I think it could've been executed a bit better), though it suffers from the issue that, like many FE endgames, it's about just rushing to him so that you don't get overwhelmed, I just feel that it's actually challenging and fun due to the map attack and Takumi's Bold Stance skill along with the other skills he has.  Anankos has the scope part down, and while I don't think it's challenging, it's very unique as far as FE endgames go and is very fun.

As for the worst, in my opinion it has to go to Garon, due to the fact that he is literally right in front of you and it takes very little effort to beat him, and it sucks because their was a good idea for an endgame map, with him able to use the dragon veins to damage anything in a given area to heal himself, with a number of enemy troops surrounding the area.  Sure, Grima is pretty bad, but at the very least you have to work your way up to him to some degree, and it takes more effort to beat him.