He Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Mortal Men. And Women.

The quest through the Lunar Subteranne eventually leads Cecil and his friends to the central core of the artificial moon, where an epic battle is being waged between Zemus and FuSoYa and Golbez. The stage is thus set for the boss battle. After a long sequence in which Zemus is killed, but then reborn again as Zeromus, Cecil and his friends enter the battle nearly annihilated.

Much like in Final Fantasy III, many of the characters from the past return to help the characters out. Another sequence involving many of your past allies, some living some dead, leads to the restoration of the party and the chance to take on what some would call the toughest boss in all 10 of the games. Even though I find him rather easy to beat even on level 60, I would have to agree that he does do the most damage and can be the most difficult of all the Final Fantasy end-of-game bosses. The Chronicles version of the game attempts to make him even more of a challenge, almost requiring that players steal a new item called Dark Matter to bring him down. I did steal the Dark Matter, mostly to be able to say that I got it. When you have all your characters on Level 99, however, it does not make too much sense to cause a fight to become any easier, so I took down Zeromus without the Dark Matter's assistance.

Speaking of which, as this is the only time I plan on ever raising my characters to Level 99 (with the exception of FFVIII, where it is so easy to do that I will probably go ahead and do it), this would be a perfect time to talk about the lack of challenge of the End-Of-Game Bosses when characters are at the maximum level. Personally, this makes sense to me, as not everyone is willing to take the time to build their characters up as much as possbile. I think the first time I ever waited to beat a game before my characters were as maxed-out as I could make them was in Final Fantasy VIII, and I have since done it in IX and X as well. Before then, though, I saved the level-maxing for my second playthroughs of these classics, and thus would have been upset were the fight to prove too challenging. Even so, I do hear people complaining about how weak the final bosses are compared to super-characters. Well, that's just tough. If you are maxing out the characters, you should know from the start that you are only doing so for your own personal sense of achievement. The only time I have can think of where it would be almost required for players to max their stats to bring down a boss would be for some of the optional fights in FFX. Painless and boring fights are in themselves a reward for players who take the time to build their characters. So quit the hating, alright?

Anyway, after defeating Zeromus Square includes a message for all of the players out there - don't let darkness overcome your heart. In an attempt to include a tangible message of some sort, the fight on the moon concludes with the idea that Zeromus will survive as long as evil resides in the hearts of human beings. Cecil breaks down his own hatred by forgiving his brother. Kain embarks on a quest to purify his own self. The Summons talk at length about the goodness and love within Rydia. This is one of the first times that I can remember where a video game tried to spread such a deep message, and this no doubt led to some of the more serious themes found in the later installments.