Summary
As far as difficulty curves go,Final Fantasyhas never been particularly consistent as a franchise. There’s a fairly large disparity in quality between the three Famicom entries (Final Fantasy 1through3), and the SNES games range from varying shades of easy (4&6) to occasionally challenging (5).
The PS1 era follows suit in this regard, withFinal Fantasy7,8, and9being all over the place in terms of difficulty, butFinal Fantasy 7is arguably the easiest of the three. While a relatively easy RPG in general,Final Fantasy 7has its fair share of challenging boss fights to keep Cloud on his toes.
Updated on July 15, 2025, by Ritwik Mitra:With Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth making waves, it’s easy to get lost in the spectacle and not acknowledge the game that started it all. The original Final Fantasy 7 was a landmark moment in video gaming, letting people get lost in what is easily one ofthe greatest JRPGs ever made, helping the genre break new ground in the West and continue to deliver excellent gaming experiences to this day. During a player’s adventure across the fascinating world of Final Fantasy 7, they are bound to stumble upon certain bosses who can pose a massive challenge if they are unprepared to deal with their relentless assault.
35
7,000
2,000
Gil
Lost Number is especially worth fighting ASAP for anyone usingRed XIII in their party– as the boss drops his ultimate Limit, Cosmo Memory – but Lost Number jumps between physical attacks and magic attacks, with its two sides working in conjunction with each other. This can result in the battle turning into complete chaos, but it’s worth fighting through it.
After enough damage, the Lost Number will exclusively start using one style of attack– while something of a mercy, Lost Number will still be quite the heavy hitter here, so it’s best to finish the fight as soon as humanly possible.
26
4,000
250
400
In the grand scheme of things, the Midgar Zolom isn’t too difficult. As far as the story is concerned, the party isn’t even expected to fight it. The story pushes Cloud towards catching a Chocobo and just zooming right by the Midgar Zolom instead. Those who stop to fight it, however, will quickly find themselves painfully under-leveled.
Generously, losing to the Midgar Zolom doesn’t actually trigger a Game Over and instead kicks the party back to the overworld. It’s also worth noting that itispossible to beat the Midgar Zolom here, but it’s incredibly difficult and requires a keen understanding of the mechanics a fresh player likely won’t have at this point in the story.
25
680
800
When players board the ship to head to Costa del Sol, they have no idea what’s in store for them. After a fairly light-hearted sequence where they explore the ship and interact with their party members in disguise, a sudden roadblock hits when almost everyone in the crew is done away with by a mysterious entity.
It’s here that players interact with Sephiroth for the first time in the main timeline, who proceeds to unleash one of Jenova’s body parts on the party. The fight against Jenova Birth is unnerving and pretty challenging to boot, especially when it casts Stop on a party member and renders them useless for quite some time.
43
18,000 for each head
4,400
3,000
Schizo is fought very suddenlyin Gaea’s Cliffand is surprisingly sturdy to boot. Any players who miss the healing spring right before Schizo might find themselves panicking, especially since this boss is deceptively hard. At first glance, the creature seems easy enough to deal with, but the two heads it has both have different attributes, with the left using ice and the right using fire.
Using spells with the All Materia can be particularly dangerous in this fight. It’s also worth noting that this is one of the first boss battlesafter Aerith leaves the party. Considering how overpowered Healing Wind is, players might find themselves hurting for convenient healing, and this battle will likely have them scrambling to reorganize their playstyle to survive.
61
60,000-180,000
Bizarro-Sephiroth is one of the coolest endgame boss fights in gaming, and this is largely due to its hidden mechanics. Depending on how well the player makes it throughFinal Fantasy 7,Bizarro-Sephiroth (the final boss' first form)will not only be buffed, but the player will be allowed to take multiple parties with them in the final battle.
The default is the standard one party, but it’s possible to fight Bizzaro-Sephiroth with two or three parties, depending on if Yuffie & Vincent are recruited, the result of the fight with Jenova-SYNTHESIS, and party level. Bizarro-Sephiroth also influences another boss fight, but more on that will be discussed later.
39
6,000
3,200
20,000
Depending on when exactly players choose to go to Wutai (and if they have Yuffie in the party), they can potentially be greeted with one ofFinal Fantasy 7’s single hardest set pieces. Upon landing in Wutai with Yuffie recruited, Shinra infantrymen will ambush the party, only for Yuffie to rob everyone blind of their Materia.
The path to Wutai is long and dangerous, with Cloud refusing to let the party leave until they get the Materia back, and the side quest ultimately ends with a boss fight against Rapps, one of Don Corneo’s pets. Without Materia, this already hard boss is even harder as its Aero3 will also do around 1.5k damage, something that is hard to get around without access to magic.
45
24,000
2,800
Throwing Bolt after Bolt at Carry Armor can potentially get the job done quickly enough if the party’s Materia has been leveled enough (Bolt3 is what gamers should be looking for specifically), but that doesn’t mean Carry Armor can’t do some serious and nasty damage. Notably, Carry Armor can grab two of the players' party members, locking them in place while draining their health.
Carry Armor basically takes after Reno in this regard, but the former is far more dangerous than the latter. Considering the set piece sees the party going after Huge Materia, though, a challenging boss fight should be expected.
87
55,100-400,000
As is the case with Bizarro-Sephiroth, Safer-Sephiroth(the final boss' penultimate form)gains buffs based on how well one gets through the game – gaining health buffs for max-level characters along with some notable stat increases. Unlike Bizarro-Sephiroth, who offered the player multiple parties, Safer-Sephiroth tasks the player’s core three characters with going in for the kill.
Safer-Sephiroth is hard in general, but his boss fight only gets tougher if the party is lacking in health. Equipping Magic Materia willy-nilly will result in those stat penalties coming back to bite the party– Safer Sephiroth hits hard, and even if he follows an attack pattern, it only takes one slip-up for him to be able to wipe the party.
100,000
35,000
25,000
There are many unique bosses and the like that players need to defeat if they wish to get everyone’s Ultimate Weapon. For Cloud, it’s poetic that his powerful sword is held by none other than Ultimate Weapon, a powerful boss that can dish out some serious damage.
After a story encounter, the Weapon starts flying around the world at random. Players must fly around on the airship and locate this beast before engaging it in a ruthless battle that nets them Cloud’s best weapon. Ultimate Weapon will flee if given the chance, but if players are strategic and gain some levels before trying to show this enemy who’s boss, they will only require a few encounters to bring it down.
10,000
3,800
Demons Gate is notably the last boss players fightwhile Aerith is in the party, potentially resulting in the player losing Aerith’s ultimate weapon in the process since she leaves with it (not that this is a problem). While that may be frustrating for completionists who like a comprehensive inventory, it is worth keeping Aerith equipped to the nines if only because Demons Gate is surprisingly hard.
This is a difficulty spike that truly comes out of nowhere. The fact Demons Gate is just so fast and heavy-hitting makes it a challenging battle by design, but watching him gradually nudge toward the party adds an element of real-time tension that captures how hard the boss can be. If nothing else, it’s a good note for Aerith to leave the party on.
