Final Fantasy/Characters/Recurring Monsters

This page deals with recurring monsters from the Final Fantasy series.

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Adamantoise

Turtle-type enemies with thick shells, they boast huge defenses but are vulnerable to ice.

• Boss in Mooks Clothing: Are occasionally boosted up to actually being bosses.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted in XIII, where they are vulnerable to Death.
• Giant Mook
• Kill It with Ice
• Made Of Adamantium: It isn't called Adamantoise for nothing.
• Mighty Glacier
• Took a Level in Badass: In XIII, they're even more massive and have stats comparable to a Bonus Boss.
• Turtle Power

Ahriman

Flying enemies that specialize in Death and Doom spells.

• Airborne Mook
• Degraded Boss: First featured as a boss in Final Fantasy III, it's now a high-level enemy usually found in endgame dungeons.
• Giant Eye of Doom
• Oculothorax
• One-Hit Kill

Basilisk

Reptilian enemies that specialize in attacks like Petrify and Gaze to turn party members to stone.

• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Appears as either a lizard or snake.
• Taken for Granite: What they do to you.

Behemoth

Some of the most powerful enemies in the game, they're huge monsters that have massive physical power and top-tier magic like Flare and Meteor.

• Boss in Mooks Clothing
• Counter Attack: Very often just sits and waits for you to attack it.
• Giant Mook
• King Mook: There are often more powerful King Behemoths.
• Lightning Bruiser: In games where they don't just counterattack, they hurt a lot, and are about as fast as a regular Mook.
• Taking You with Me: In some games, they cast Meteor on you when they die.
• What Could Have Been: Concept art was made for it to appear in Final Fantasy I, but it was not added into the game. Thus, it debuted in Final Fantasy II.

Bomb

Living balls of explosive flame, they react to being damaged by growing angry and inflating themselves larger until the pressure build up causes them to explode.

• Action Bomb: It's even called "Bomb"!
• Airborne Mook
• Cephalothorax
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin
• Feed It with Fire: In the games where they're not weak against fire, they absorb it. In this case, Kill It with Ice.
• Kill It with Fire: Often weak to fire.
• Signature Move: Despite other enemy types having said move, they're always associated with Exploder/Self-Destruct.
• Taking You with Me: Has a tendency to blow up on you if you don't kill it quick enough.
• Theme Naming: The Underground Monkey variants of it tend to be named "Balloon" and "Grenade". Along with "Bomb", they are all objects that can explode.

Cactuar

Rare enemies, they leave a large amount of Exp, AP and/or gil. The catch is killing them, because they usually boast high defenses or high evade.

• Defeat Means Friendship: In games where they're a summon, you usually need to defeat their leader first.
• You Kill It, You Bought It
• Evolving Attack: Stronger versions of them have 10,000 Needles, and rarely, 100,000 Needles.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Their trademark 1000 Needles, which makes them the former Trope Namer.
• Killer Rabbit
• King Mook: Gigantuar/Jumbo Cactuar/Cactuar King
• Mascot Mook
• Metal Slime
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Usually no taller than a foot.
• Plant Person
• Shout-Out: Based off the Japanese Haniwa figurines.
• Signature Move: 1000 Needles.
  • Older Than They Think: The move 1000 Needles predates the Cactuar by one game; the attack first appeared as Blue Magic in Final Fantasy V, while the monster made its debut in Final Fantasy VI.

Coeurl

Feline enemies with long tentacles in place of whiskers, they often attack in packs.

• Cats Are Mean
• Cats Are Magic
• Combat Tentacles
• Panthera Awesome
• Signature Move: Blaster, which either paralyzes you or inflicts a One Hit KO
• Shout-Out: Based off the alien animal from "Black Destroyer".

Flan

Slime monsters that come in a wide variety of colors, they have strong physical defenses but fall easily to elemental magic.

• Blob Monster
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: One can often figure out their weakness based on their color.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors
• Punny Name: Their counterparts are all named puns involving the word "flan", such as Pudding, Jelly, Mousse, Bavarois, etc.
  • Theme Naming
• Stone Wall: Tend to be very resistant to physical attacks, but weak to magic.
• Underground Monkey: Comes in many variations.

Goblin

Basic enemies armed with daggers.

• The Goomba: Usually the first monster you run into. (Though the later on the series you get the more likely this is to be subverted. See below.)
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Tend to have a move called "Goblin Punch".
• Knife Nut
• Our Goblins Are Wickeder: Especially in XIII where they look vaguely mechanical.
• Put on a Bus: Quite common in early games, they've become more rare as the series has gone on.
• Signature Move: Goblin Punch.

Iron Giant / Iron Man

Massive iron golems armed with giant swords.

• Animated Armor
• BFS: Always seen with one (except in IV, where they traded it for Arm Cannon). Lampshaded in The After Years, when the party member commented on how the Iron Giant that originated from Final Fantasy II is different from the more familiar variants of theirs.
• Bonus Boss: An even more Giant Space Flea From Nowhere than the Cloud of Darkness.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: A rare and dangerous encounter in Final Fantasy II as well as Final Fantasy V.
• The Faceless
• Made of Iron: Literally!
• Mighty Glacier
• Name's the Same: Not to be confused with The Iron Giant or Iron Man.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Spikes of Villainy: May have one on each shoulder.
• Tin Tyrant

Malboro

Highly dangerous enemies made up of a giant mouth with a mass of tentacles, their Bad Breath inflicts a slew of status ailments.

• Breath Weapon: Bad Breath.
• Combat Tentacles
• Extra Eyes: Almost have more eyes than teeth.
• Giant Mook: Again, depending on the game. In Final Fantasy X they're friggin' huge.
• King Mook: There are often more powerful Malboro Kings.
• Man-Eating Plant
• Mascot Mook: One of the more iconic monsters from the franchise.
• Meaningful Name: Named after the Marlboro cigarette company. Their Bad Breath attack references the fact that said cigarettes cause, well, bad breath. May or may not be an intentional, as their name may also be derived from the Japanese for "bad breath".
• More Teeth Than the Osmond Family
• Signature Move: Bad Breath, of course.
• Standard Status Effects: The biggest danger with these creatures is their attack "Bad Breath" which tends to inflict characters with a whole plethora of annoying status ailments.

Mover

Featureless spheres that attack in trios and combine power for their trademark Delta Attack

• Combination Attack: When all three are alive, they may use the Delta Attack to petrify one of your characters.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: They move.
• Happy Fun Ball
• Killer Rabbit: Aww it's a little red ball with eyeHOLY CRAP Delta Attack!?
• Metal Slime
• Sinister Geometry
• Terrible Trio: Always appears in threes, in order to do their Delta Attack.

Mu

Cute and adorable rabbits that burrow underground.

• Cute Is Evil
• Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels: Or some squirrel-like animal.
• The Goomba
• Killer Rabbit
• Not So Harmless: In Final Fantasy VI, these do nothing but attack, but the Rage that Gau obtains from them allows him to perform a One-Hit Kill.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, they have the L4 Suicide move, which does 31/32 current HP damage as well as the Mini status on all opponents whose level is divisible by four. You can learn it, and they're the only enemies who use it.

Ochu

Giant plant enemies with huge mouths and vine-tentacles.

• Combat Tentacles
• Eyeless Face: Doesn't have eyes, unlike the Malboro.
• Giant Mook
• Kill It with Fire: It takes more damage from fire, being a plant and all.
• Man-Eating Plant
• More Teeth Than the Osmond Family

Omega (Weapon)

An infamous boss built by an ancient civilization for mass destruction, a job it is well-equipped to perform.

• Bonus Boss
• Bragging Rights Reward / Cosmetic Award: After being defeated, Omega usually leaves behind some token of the feat that serves no purpose.
• Giant Mecha
• Palette Swap: When they appear in the same game, they usually look very much the same, Final Fantasy XII being a notable exception. It was said that the Omegas that appeared in Final Fantasy series are from a same basic structure and merely improved themselves over time.
• Roaming Enemy: In Final Fantasy V. Especially problematic in the Bonus Dungeon, where there are about a half dozen of them walking around the room. What a relief!
• Sealed Evil in a Can
• Signature Move: Surge Cannon/Wave Cannon
• Theme Naming: In the game where it has a variation beside the Mk. series, it usually has a name based on Greek alphabet like Alpha and Upsilon.
• Walking The Multiverse: Much like Gilgamesh and Shinryu, it is implied that the various "Omegas" across the series are either the same entity, or copies of the original, and travel to the various worlds seeking Shinryu.

Sahagin

Aquatic enemies that act as basic water-elemental Mooks.

• Blade on a Stick/Prongs of Poseidon: Uses either a harpoon or a trident in some games.
• Defend Command: In Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX, they can withdraw into their shells to block your attacks.
• Fish People
• Making a Splash
• Turtle Power: In some games, they're more like turtle-men.
• Underground Monkey: Desert Sahagins, which are fought in the desert.

Shinryu

Along with Omega, one of the infamous optional bosses of the series.

• Arch Enemy: Though the full backstory isn't clear, it is implied that Omega was created specifically to destroy Shinryu. They often appear together in games, suggesting that one is pursuing the other.
• Ascended Extra: Got to be a major character in the backstory of Dissidia Final Fantasy
  • Adaptational Badass: While there's no question of its difficulty as a boss, according to Dissidia, Shinryu may be the most powerful entity in the entire multiverse.
• Bonus Boss
• Infinity+1 Sword: It often guards one.
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons
• Meaningful Name: "Divine Dragon".
• Walking The Multiverse: As with Omega, the implication is that all the Shinryus across the series are the same being travelling between worlds.

Tonberry

Small reptile-like creatures armed with butcher knives and lanturns, they're among the most dangerous foes in the series.

• Boss in Mooks Clothing
• Cute Is Evil
• Defeat Means Friendship: As with the Cactuar, beating one occasionally lets you summon them.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It
• Evil Chef: Wields a kitchen knife.
• Eyes of Gold
• Finger-Poke of Doom: Doink!
• Fixed Damage Attack: Depending on the game, Karma either does damage proportional to the number of enemies the target character had killed, or the number of Tonberries the party has killed.
• Killer Rabbit
• King Mook: The Tonberry King and Master Tonberry.
• Knife Nut
• Mascot Mook
• Revenge: The Tonberries are THE Moe Anthropomorphism of its concept.
• Signature Move: Chef's Knife, as well as Karma.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Their Karma move makes a character take damage proportional to number of enemies he/she killed.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Tonberry will make you know this via Karma.

Ultima Weapon

Completing the trinity of series-wide optional bosses with Omega and Shinryu, it's often a degraded version of the former.

• Bonus Boss
• Disk One Final Boss: Of Final Fantasy VI.
• Organic Technology: As its sprite should indicate.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: In its first two appearances it was a stand-alone enemy and a powerful one at that, while Omega was just Omega. Then VIII included both of them for the first time and renamed Omega to "Omega Weapon", reimagining Ultima Weapon as a lesser version of Omega. Since then Ultima Weapon is mostly just a Warmup Boss to get you ready for the much more dangerous Omega.
  • Took a Level in Badass: As of The After Years and Theatrhythm though, Ultima Weapon has begun to move back to not only being a stand-alone boss, but is given a power boost to the level of Shinryu and Omega so they form a Power Trio of Bonus Bosses.
• Pure Energy: It's Badass Boast.

Zu

Giant bird enemies with massive wings.

• Airborne Mook
• Blow You Away: If they do have a special attack, it would be a gale-based one of some sort.
• Giant Flyer
• Giant Mook
• Smash Mook: Generally don't have any kind of special attack, but they hit hard.
• Toothy Bird