Since the dawn of the joystick, there have existed inexplicably powerful characters in video games; both heroes and villains alike. From ornery crabs in Mario Brothers to a numbered plant in Resident Evil, there have been baddies that made you wonder how they could possibly kill you so easily. It is simply not logical to think that a lava pit could immediately kill you. Wouldn’t you lose a limb or toe first?

Overpowered characters also transcended to the light side of the story, with the elderly Gandalf being a great example. In gaming, however, it is usually someone the opposite of the famous Hobbit character; usually someone frail and petite. The major culprits of this are more often than not are RPGs and, more specifically, the Final Fantasy franchise.

With dozens of releases under its belt, Final Fantasy has hundreds of enemies, heroes, and NPCs. Some are just as powerful as they seem and you find that out within minutes of encountering them. A random battle will engage and you see an armored giant with an even larger sword and you prepare for some major damage. On the other hand, you will see a little bunny lying atop a head of cabbage and know this will be a cake walk.

We’ll walk through the weirdest of the weird and the ones far more powerful than they should be. Some are ugly, some are cute, and some of them are just plain underestimating bizarre. Do you have a favorite (or favorite to hate)?

15 Yunalesca (Final Fantasy X)

Final Fantasy X was originally released for the PS2 and has been called their comeback game. This installment, which has inspired a couple sequels and HD remake, centers around Tidus and a summoner named Yuna, whose destiny is to die fighting the evil Sin that plagues the planet. Upon your adventures, you encounter another summoner, the first summoner, Yunalesca who is not pleased that you do not wish to die for the greater good.

Yunalesca, upon hearing of your ideals, decides that you should die one way or another. You wouldn’t expect a seemingly “good guy” to challenge you to a fight to the death, but she does and what follows can be absolutely terrible. Not only does the daughter of Yu Yevon zombify you, negating all healing spells, but she then turns into a giant Medusa-like head. She is incredibly powerful at this point because you have yet to discover Yuna’s true potential; just terrible.

14 Professor Cid Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII)

The Final Fantasy series is rife with characters named Cid, from a playable character to a tiny bug that rules a kingdom. In the twelfth installment, Cid is an Archadian Hume scientist responsible for discovering the technology leading to the invention of the airship and currently works in the Draklor laboratory. The majority of his scenes involve passive aggressive rants against the judges and talking to who you assume is himself.

However, the climax of his character occurs after learning is Balthier’s father and you then soon discover he has been talking to an entity known as Venat. You wouldn’t think a crazy scientist would be a threat, until that nerd releases rooks protecting him from all attacks and whips out a gatling gun for good measure. He is incredibly overpowered for such an intellectual character, but it does make sense that he would have such hi-tech weaponry and that’s just terrible for you.

13 Black Waltz’s (Final Fantasy IX)

Overpowered boss-like villains that continuously make surprise appearances can be highly annoying, like that one kid that was always able to track you down on the playground. In the Final Fantasy series, it’s the Black Waltz who are the mosquitos in your ear. Black Waltz are made up of three cloaked, winged, pointy-hat wearing wizards that have a serious grudge against one of the main protagonists, Vivi.

With a name like Black Waltz, you’d think they’d be pushovers with maybe a few dancing moves. Also, the fact that there are three would imply lesser enemies; wrong. You’d expect them to get harder by number since each one of their numbers corresponds to the level of black magic they use, but you wouldn’t expect these three zombie-like villains to be so volatile and smiteful. They are terrible, but Vivi being their kryptonite softens the shock.

12 Exdeath (Final Fantasy V)

It’s always a little off putting when a familiar figure isn’t anything like you’d expect them to be. In Final Fantasy V, a game that gave us the job system, we meet a recognizable figure named Exdeath. It’s no secret that Final Fantasy takes inspiration from greek mythology and Tolkien novels, but Exdeath has a striking resemblance to the villainous Sauron from Lord of the Rings. However, when we find out that the oddly familiar Exdeath is actually a tree, it really throws you for a loop.

Exdeath was the first final boss in the series to offer a boss fight right before the final fight and has continued even today. First, you must fight the epic boss twice before fighting him as a tree, and then as Neo Exdeath. For the time, it was just awful to defeat the main antagonists, only to fight him again and again and again, but now it’s the norm.

11 Magic Master (Final Fantasy VI)

Final Fantasy VI (or 3 at one time), is considered a cult classic in the series for both story and the incredible amount of playable characters and side quests; coliseum anyone? It is a game that offers so many bosses that you may or may not fight as you see fit. Some bosses reward you with bragging rights, such as Deathgaze, and some allow you another permanent character, like the annoying Wrexsoul. One of the most infamous is the Frankensteinesque Magic Master. who waits atop the Cultist’s Tower.

Just getting to the boss’s room is a terrible feat in of itself, thanks to the disablement of all weapons excluding magic. Once you’re up there, the master of magic not only casts the most powerful magic in the whole game, but his weakness changes, making the entire battle a crap shoot. Will you hurt him or heal him; nobody knows?

10 Gogo (Final Fantasy VI)

Secret playable characters have alway been a staple in the franchise. Sometimes it’s an arduous journey to get the character, like when you had to creep around a haunted house for Vincent. Final Fantasy VI really knew how to anger the player, when they took all but one of your characters after the “final” battle with Kefka. You had to re-discover your comrades, but one of them was not in your original party; his name is Gogo.

The journey to find Gogo is not hinted at anywhere, only that Triangle Island has “something” on it of great importance. You must be eaten by a Zone Eater to travel a series of caves underground, where you’re pushed into caverns by leprechauns. Finally, you meet the great and powerful Gogo, who looks like a gypsy in a tie dyed moomoo. You learn hat he can do just about anything everyone else can do and it’s terrible that he’s not what you expected.

9 Edea Kramer (Final Fantasy VIII)

Final Fantasy VIII, once again, implemented the continuing theme of the protagonists suffering from amnesia, but you wouldn’t discover this for a couple of discs worth of gameplay. It stars several teenagers, all orphans, who grew up in a house together with a kind woman named Edea Kramer. Sadly, you don’t discover this until long after you engage in discourse with an evil sorceress by the same name, in true Tarantino fashion.

Edea Kramer seems like an evil superpower, even before she impales Squall's chest with an icicle. After meeting the good version of this woman, it really makes you question the evil side that you realize was being controlled by an even more evil sorceress named Ultimecia. You should have known that this overpowered, alligator-dog sicking sorceress was simply a tool by the black plaque on her scalp, but afterwards you just feel terrible that you tried to kill your “mom.”

8 Cuchalainn The Impure (Final Fantasy XII)

The summoning aspect of Final Fantasy is, without a doubt, one of the most popular parts of the franchise and a major reason it differs from other RPG series. Many of these summons” also known as espers and aeons, make multiple appearances such as Ifrit and Shive. However, some are just plain odd like a sword named Ragnarok and the ice imprisoned Terrato. But the strangest and creepiest by far is Cuchulainn in Final Fantasy XII.

Originally a bloody mental-patient in Final Fantasy Tactics, he is now a blue, chemically-bloated sadist with a penchant for poisoning people. He looks absolutely terrible, not what you’d expect from a good guy, but his evil powers are at your disposal.

7 Shantotto (Final Fantasy XI)

As the first exclusively online entrant into the franchise, Final Fantasy XI once again had to raise the bar of the rope playing genre. The concept had been done plenty of times before, so they had their work cut out for them. There are five races in the online game: Hume, Elvaan, Galka, Mithra, and Tarutaru. Tarutaru is by far the oddest of them all, being made up of two-foot-tall mages and Shantotto is their mascot.

Shantotto is nothing like you’d perceive her to be. When someone is up to my knee, I’d expect them to be sweet and shy, but not this girl. Shantotto speaks in rhymes like a bridge troll and has the superiority complex of a chihuahua. At first encounter, her personality is the definition of terrible, but eventually she becomes (somewhat) less terrible thanks to familiarity.

6 Warmech (Final Fantasy)

With over a dozen remakes under its belt, you’ve undoubtedly played Final Fantasy in one way or another and you’re familiar with its basis, enemies, and bosses. It’s a rather simple story about four heroes of light trying to save the world by destroying evil. The final boss in this game goes by the name Chaos, but he is not nearly the most powerful. Unless you spent some time harvesting XP in the final corridor of the dungeon in the sky, you’ve never faced the Warmech.

With 2,000 HP and extreme defenses, Warmech can easily decimate your party in a preemptive strike, leaving your mouth hanging open. The Warmech looks just like it sounds; a futuristic machine with guns and hooks. There is no doubt that this was the inspiration for the Magiteck armor later found in the sixth game. If you’re not at a high level and possess the right buff spells, you could be in for a terrible time.

5 Marlboro (Final Fantasy XV)

One of the most seen and sometimes feared enemy is the Marlboro; once called a Mad Oscar. Marlboro has somewhat evolved over the years, going from a pushover in FFVI to an absolute nightmare in FFX. Marlboro is an eyeless, slithering plant of varying sizes that secretes and breathes poison, but the worst by far is found in Final Fantasy XV.

The Marlboro in this game is encountered as both a boss and a basic villain, but is always an issue. In this incarnation, the slimy plant is about fifteen tall with dozens of poisonous fangs and cannot be injured by regular physical attacks without receiving the HP draining poisonings. And don’t let it breathe on you or you’ll be sorry. Marlboro is always an ugly and overpowered foe, but in this HD installment, they really take the cake; an ugly, ugly cake.

4 Emerald Weapon (Final Fantasy VII)

You just cringed a little, didn’t you? Everyone remembers the optional “weapon” bosses named after gems: ruby, sapphire, diamond, and emerald. Fighting these monstrously long bosses was a quest in itself, but it wasn’t absolutely necessary unless you wanted to do everything there was to do in Final Fantasy VII. Among these, Emerald Weapon was by far the most arduous to fight.

Emerald Weapon was found under water once you had possession of the sub and he was released, so God help you if you accidentally bumped into it while looking for sunken treasure. The strategy for defeating this terrible boss resembling a transformer is almost as infamous as the battle itself. With a time limit of only twenty minutes to deal 1,000,000 damage, the best strategy is Mimic paired with the Knights of the Round materia. Emerald Weapon’s terrible ability to bring all HP down to one was enough to drive you mad.

3 Zemzellett (Final Fantasy IX)

Final Fantasy IX was a really odd idea as far as Final Fantasy games go. They brought back several elements of the series, like they usually do, but made them a little more happy and friendly. We’ve mentioned killer rabbits earlier, but Zemellett is by far the most different between two separate games.

In Final Fantasy VII, Zemzellett is exactly what a murderous rabbit should look like; with fangs, claws, and evil eyes as it attacked your team. However, in Final Fantasy IX, Zemzellett is much more disturbing thanks to its incognitus state. It sits there being happily fat until you strike, which causes it to attack with psychosis and pink bubbles. He may not look it, but he can be a really terrible foe if you don’t know his magic weaknesses.

2 Carbuncle (Various)

Making its appearance in over twenty different Final Fantasy related games, Carbuncle is a real fan favorite for both looks and friendly powers. Carbuncle is named after the red jewel that sits in his forehead and most likely gives him the power to heal and buff those who summon his power. Though we didn’t discover Carbuncle’s gender until Final Fantasy XI, we still are not sure what he is. Carbuncle looks to be a third cat, a third dog, a third rabbit, and 100% cuteness. However, the aqua-colored ray of hope is ironically weak against physical attacks. You’d think that a being with supreme healing abilities could at least heal itself, but no, Carbuncle is terribly weak when it comes to its own mortality. With that being said, he is still one of the most powerful (and adorable, but also terrible) summons in the franchises history.

1 Omega Mark XII (Final Fantasy XII)

In Final Fantasy XII, there is a side quest in which you can hunt down bounties for various rewards. Once you finish all but one of these, Yiazmat, you now have the option of fighting a gigantic, steroid-induced version of a mimic called Omega Mark XII, which looks like a relative of the X-ATM092 from Dollet in Final Fantasy XIII.

Any seasoned Final Fantasy gamer will tell you that the worst part of optional bosses in this particular franchise is the journey in which you travel to get there and Omega Mark XII is no different. After a series of turns in the repetitive Great Crystal, you finally meet the overpowered super boss. It fires a laser that will kill even max-level characters in two hits or less, making it a nightmare to fight if not properly equipped. This incarnation of Omega is terrible looking, terrible to locate, and offers terrible rewards for wasting your time.