LogFAQs > #979486276

There are times in this game where it feels like it forgets its own mechanics, with the very final fight with Cloud and Aerith being the worst offender. It's specifically two elements - first is Heartless Angel. I'm conceptually fine with a 'reduce everyone to 1 HP' move, but the fact it is unavoidable essentially forces you to horde ATB charges. You have to respond immediately, and if you happen to have an auto-whatever materia on Aerith she is going to waste her ATB (was there a way to edit this during just that fight? Because no way was I restarting the entire ending sequence. They gave this option during the Zack segment but I saw nothing for this part). So I spent most of the fight with Cloud at full charge, too afraid to use any move lest Sephiroth get off an undodgeable all-but-1-HP attack (I was unfortunately low on team-targeting health items so I needed both charges). Which, all of this would be fine if it was broken apart from the other fights, but it feels like the whole thing is set up around a specific materia setup that you would have no reason to expect ahead of time.

Then is the final super attack he does which ends in an instant ko if you don't kill him in time. It's total RNG nonsense - he doesn't appear to enter it at any set point. One time I had him already all but staggered from the previous phase, but that actually screwed me over because his instant ko goes off after he recovers. I only managed to get through this phase because I got lucky enough to have him hit the lowest HP possible before he enters the state after 10+ attempts. It's insane to end the game on a timed sequence but where the parameters of that sequence are incredibly variable.

And it's so freaking long, with an unskippable cutscene right before it. It's 2024 and they're still doing unskippable cutscenes? So it ends up being an entirely ordinary fight except for two specific moves that completely screw you over if Sephiroth uses them at a bad time. It never comes off as a hard fight but a cheap one.

It's been a few days and I still feel like it's among the worst boss fights I've ever encountered. Just a failure from every angle - tedious, unengaging, cheap, and not even giving you a meaningful way to take a break.