1. A wild Malboro appears! 2. Haven't saved in hours 3. Breath attack 4. Everyone is petrified/paralyzed/mini/frog/sleep/poisoned/berserk 5. Full party wipe, Game over Lesson of the story, kids: Save often and wear ribbons

Well, everytime you'll see a Malboro in a FF series, your save data better be recent man...

Malboro. he'll find you esuna or later.

I think Tonberries were by far the most surprising enemy when first encountered. These cute, unassuming, little mole things that don't even attack you. They just hold their little knife and lantern and slowly walk up to you. Then, all of a sudden, without much warning, Tifa's dead. Then you get unlucky and it counters Cloud with Everyone's Grudge and he promptly dies as well. At least Malboros look like these horrifying, sentient mouths, Tonberries just look like something out of a kids cartoon about friendship and rainbows.

Skull eaters from FFV: you are exploring a cave full of harmless nut eaters, then suddenly you are facing a gray squirrel with powerful attacks, when it's you attacking it will either evade or take 0 damages, try to cast magic on it and you will have to face many of them.

tonberry and yan are two good reasons to not judge an enemy by how they look.

I'll never forget when I was grinding out my lvls in ff8 when on island closest to hell got attacked by a malboro. Fight starts, bad breath, Zell and quistis are n blinded and asleep. Squall is blinded and confused. Also he has 255 accuracy so he never misses even if blinded. Unfortunately, he has 100 deaths junctioned to status attack. It was very handy once shotting lesser enemies with 100% death spell of every attack. But zell and quistis don't have death guard of any kind. So squall one shots quistis, turns, one shots zell, and, since he has deaths on status atk not Def, he is able to one shot himself... And so he does. And malboro just watches the carnage.

That FML at the Malboro part is a whole mood, man. Like just put your controller down and let your team off itself.

Fraya: aww, look at the sheep. so adorable! Yaan: *you will know true pain, unfortunate child*

I remember starting out FFXII and strolling into the Eastern sands. Killed a bunch of wolves and blah blah blah, then I saw a dinosaur and tried to kill it. I got fucking annihilated. Good times~ Awesome list, all of these were insane random encounters. I can't even image what it was like before the internet existed hahaha

Warmech from FF1. Maybe not that hard by today's standards, but deserves some recognition for being the first "superboss" in a FF game and the developers were cruel enough to make it a random encounter.

I remember those devil sheep called Yans, they were more sickening than the last boss himself. Super cute, super evil.

Other great features of the Yan: 1: Comet could still fail when used by a Yan, but Float made it guaranteed to connect. 2: Virus Powder would inflict the Virus status, which makes the character not gain any Exp or AP until cured 3: Yan had the highest exp, so farming them was the fastest way to level endgame 4: Getting party members removed from battle counted the same as death for game overs, and Float made Snort more likely to connect, I believe.

Even though FF12 doesn't have random encounters in the normal sense, the Elementals and Entites definitely count. They show up in various places under specific weather, but have levels far above the area's normal range (ex. the Salamand Entite at the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea during clear skies). They're normally non-agressive, but will aggro if you cast spells when they're nearby.

Oh God. I'm getting Vietnam flashbacks of the Malboro from Final Fantasy VIII. Certainly the worst version that vile beast. 😪 Another random encounter I find difficult were against the Red Chocobos in Final Fantasy Tactics. Even the best leveled-up and geared party was f**cked against a group of 3 or more of the damn things and their broken/cheap "Choco Meteor" attack... 🤬

Chac from Final Fantasy X-2 was a pain. Now she starts as a boss in the optional dungeon in Bevelle, but after her boss fight she becomes a random encounter in the lower levels. so not only did you have to figure out how to beat her, but you had to be ready for her at any time. Her biggest problem was that she caused petrify. but you have the dark knight dressphere you say. sorry you still get petrified even though dark knights are immune to it. talk about a real pain. LOL

I could never bring myself to attack the friendly Yan. He's asks you for a Diamond so politely and just look at those eyes, he's too adorable to attack. I say whoever attacks it deserves a game over!

When i cast my bad breath ability irl it just makes people flee...

Great Marlboro FFX Omega Ruins is the bane of my existence when you first go there and just want to try getting some sphere levels and he kills you because the only save point is at the beginning of the dungeon

You never forget your first encounter with Tonberry, for me it was in 7, the little bastard caught me off guard and I avoided him like the plague ever since, I had to grind for a couple hours before I managed to beat him.

Yes, the god damn Yans of FF9. I hated those guys.

5:00 running away? In FFV? And depowering the Sword of Courgae!? NEVER!

I was replaying FF8 a few years ago and managed to power my way through a large part of the story without saving. I ended up getting bad breathed by a Marlboro after 10 or so hours without saving. Yeah I sat there, stoned off my chops, staring at my TV in total disbelief. Pretty sure I had a few tears in my eyes. That's several hours of my life gone, awesome

Not really the hardest of random encounters, but one enemy that I was always fearful of is Sorcerers in the Ice Cavern in FF1. They have added effect death on their attacks. Didn't matter if you had death protection armor items or if you were a high level, they could 1 shot any character.

Ah Malboro this monster taught me how to always use equipment carefully not just focus on defense

FFX’s Blue Marlboro was brutal. First Strikes you with a Bad Breath right off the bat 😆

Who remembers playing ff7 & running into the Midgard serpent for the 1st time😟? I know I do. I also remember going back & facing it just to see how strong I've become. Anybody ever did that?😂

Running into a skulleater in FF5 was a learning experience. It was a squirrel but its damage threshold was really high and if you didn't hit it past this it would do 0 damage. Its defense, evasion and speed were ridiculous and it had an instakill move. There was also a change for one to multiply in to 4 skulleaters randomly. Definetly not fair at all

Sees a malboro in the intro starts having a ptsd flashback

I saw Yan in the thumbnail, I couldn't not click

In FF XV there was this giant mech lvl. 99 randomly dropping from the magitech aircrafts. My first encounter with it was pretty early in the game and it instantly killed my entire group. Now I know that this is one of the hardest enemies in the game and you will get the magitech armor from it.

starting the video ... my sister walks by screams NOOOOOO not one of those things xD

I've played enough final fantasy games to have felt the frustration of all of these encounters. You did not exaggerate their irritation in the slightest lol.

When I first encountered Barchiosaur, I was feeling confident! I had a full Party, decent Lv, but by the time I'd registered what I was facing, I found myself staring at a Game Over screen! Way harder than any Marlboro, that thing... And it can evade Magic! First enemy I encountered that can do that!

FF1 had a handful of these. My most hated was the 9 ghoul/ghast/etc. battles in Marsh Cave and outside Ruby Giant. Just paralyze the whole party and grind you to a slow death! Also the Sorcerers in Ice Cave. 1 hit kills and paralyze. Or Cocatrices. Or... My young brain was always terrified of the next battle. That's why I loved it!

FFX Malboro still gives me nightmares

In Final Fantasy 12 there's a T-Rex in the very first area you can be that's usually friendly and doesn't attack but as soon as you hit it can instantly kill a whole party of players in to this day I still haven't really even killed it I've just pretty much ignored it.

i remember i had FF9 for years before my cousin found the Yan's while running randomly around the world map. i couldn't believe what i heard when he yelled me that a sheep killed his party :D ..it was endgame save with some lvl 99 chars aswell so that just added to the disbelief

That intro was my entire FFX playthrough summed up

Demonolith from FFX always pissed me off early on in the Omega Ruins. And FF12 is full of ridiculous random encounters!

Magic Pots in Subterra of FF12. Intangir of FF6. Death Machine/Duel Armor formations if you're at bad levels or ambushed in FF6. Any formation of Madam/Cherry and Outsiders in FF6. Everything in the Lunar Core of FF4. Red Dragon in FF3. Parties of 4 Gas Dragons or Blue Dragons in FF1.

The thumbnail alone gave me war flashbacks...

In final fantasy 4, first time in ‘the fathers cave’ or whatever, on the long skinny passages a Behemoth or a Red Giant could spawn. If you weren’t ready for the fight, or didn’t know how to fight one, just beating one could rain on your parade, and then you had to hope a second one didn’t pop out. You don’t encounter these again until the final dungeon.

The Entites in FFXII come to mind, they were a huge pain also FFVI Intangir

I remember the first time I ever got introduced to Marlboros in FFVIII. I was getting some tips and tricks from a friend of mine who was much further in the game. Showing me the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell, and despite the fact he was very high leveled and had no problem taking down other enemies, he always tried to run from a Marlboro fight, and while on the islands he saved constantly because they were a threat. I still do the same on the remastered version. Haha

King Malboro...the very reason why I modified some equip with Rikku’s feature so that I could negate Confusion/Berserk. I have lost way too many hours of grinding because of him!

Thanks for the video! This was a fun one to watch! That awful Marlboro brought back some funny memories of game over screens. Would it be possible for you guys to make a video answering the question, what are your top three favorite final fantasy games of all time and why?

FF9 Seems to hold so many records

grinding for level in final fantasy 9 and I came across yan !! the first time was a good lesson for me . after that I owned them like a boss , by the way you can level up so fast if you keep fight yan it's really a good chance for leveling up !!

Yan is 100% the worst random encounter. Literally just a speed DPS with no mercy.

Green dragon in FF9 at low level. Or Gimme Cat..meow, meow, meow! I fooled you!

Great Malboros were bad, but the Mega Tonberries were a nightmare!

Malboro appears! Ambushed! Uses Bad Breath Presses the restart button PS2/ Go to Home button PS3/PS4

My first FF game was FFVIII and Malboro almost made me gave up first time. I finished the game and played my second FF game that is FFIX. The Yan gave me a brutal scare compared to Malboro or any other monster. Stupidly I tried to use them as EXP farm. Didn't go well, to say the least.

Man I love this channel, straight up ff encyclopedia

Loving the content guys. You're doing great!

I actually wanted to fight with warmech because I was fascinated by how unique this enemy was.

The Yan are Dragonborns and Snort is actually Fus Ro Dah.

Wicked! Opening with the great malboro in the omega ruins encounter gave me chills! Dealing with them is forever branded in my mind! That said is easy when you know the trick, a lot of omega ruin encounters required "gimmicks", for great malboro get tidus a first strike wep and then just provoke him, it won't use bad breath with provoke in effect!

Great video, man. Subscribed.

What you say about random encounters at the beginning of this video is exactly why I miss them. I feel like JRPGs are lesser without them. :( But I know I'm in the minority with this.

Oof... I walked through the Crystal Tower in FF3 on the DS and encountered a Red Dragon.... it was such a low encounter rate and you can't save inside that dungeon. Needless to say I didn't play for a while after that horrendous defeat.

Good to see that the first thing I thought of other than what's on the thumbnail is the first entry.

For FF8 I'll always remember the mad dash to land Quistris's degen attack before the Malboro hit bad breath, during grinding efforts. Unless you had the initiative (?) skill junctioned (IIRC).

Hands down the Marlboro in FF8!

5:00 Hello darkness, your not my friend fu!

Neat video! Thanks for uploading!

Just south of the village where you start in Final Fantasy II for the NES, there's a location called southern point, it's the 4 bottom squares of the peninsula. Just play around in there for a bit and you'll see the true horror of FFII random encounters

Marlboro from any FF series gives me a headache including the latest FFVII Remake Marlboro. So much joy when you defeat one

The goblin type enemy in the end dungeon of Final Fantasy 4. It asks you to use a lightning attack on it, so guess what I did after not saving for about 2 hours - cast bolt. Needless to say it didn't end well

I'm learning through your channel that I never properly utilized Quina when playing Final Fantasy IX. I need to do a Quina run one of these days and exploit their full power.

Seeing that battle encounter transition at the start of the video i was like ok here we go!!

Just imagine a beautiful girl like Quistis has bad breath...

Red dragon in 8 drove me nuts. The breath attack hit so hard.

I remember playing Final Fantasy I on my PS1 when I was a kid. I was grinding at the end of Tiamat's dungeon because I needed money, but then I suddenly encountered Warmech. I think they buffed it in all the remakes (Origins too)

You'd best believe that I liberated those Brachiosaurs of their Ribbons.

I remember grinding to level 99 with all characters by killing those sheep on the fairy island in ffix... they were tough, but with good strategy you can beat them and the exp they gave you was pretty hefty. And of course you can save game on overworld map, so even if you die it wouldnt be too bad..(which would happen at times, even with good strategy)

a great random encounter is when you got out of Balamb Garden for the 1st time on FF VIII to head to Ifrit's Cavern & you by chance pass the jungle area just to meet a freakin T-Rex

In my first playthrough of FF5, my first Game Over came as a result of encountering Page 64 (for the first time) when all four of my party members were level 15.

Bring back random encounters! XVI needs to return to the actual final fantasy format!

I always loved the unseen random encounters in this series. I always made my own head cannon on why i got into the fight in the first place. I also like how it gives you the feeling that you may have the biggest hang low around, but you could still get your shit rocked. Yeah it sucks when you get a team wipe, but that would be the reality if you actually lived the scenario. Real life doesnt let you see your fights, so you have to be prepared

great video guys loved

In Final Fantasy 4 towards the last dungeon there was an enemy that would go by the name of Wicked Mask. This enemy would cast reflect on itself and your entire party so if you tried healing your party it'll just bounce back towards him. Plus the damage from the reflected spells like Holy or flare can deal around 2000-3000 damage. It is a very tedious fight where you have to target your spells at your allies and hope your reflect status hasn't expired.

Final Fantasy Tactics - my best friend ran into a whole group of Calculators on a random encounter during a play through. RIP

Not gonna lie, casting bad breath on a marlboro is a god tier feeling.

You used BlackearacheXD's cover! An put a link in the description! Thank you! I love this guy's FF covers. Absolutely deserve more views.

Great Malboros in FFX is definitely the worst random encounter enemy in that game. If you want to complete the game 100% you need to capture 10 of them and they have 64,000HP. This means that you can't attack them with any celestial weapons (unless you're underpowered) and you have to make sure at least one character has ribbon. Capturing 10 of those things that always start the fight with Bad Breath was probably the biggest kick in the teeth for me

What about the Archaeoaevis from FFXII The Zodiac Age. They have 961,000 HP and are crazy strong. Was just wondering around the Zertinan Caverns at lvl 70 plus then just got owned.

I always ran away whenever a Yan appeared. Would still keep me as a pet though

I once randomly encountered the Lvl 99 Red Chocobo in FFXII while grinding lvls. I lost SEVERAL hours of progress. I had no idea what happened when I died out of nowhere to this giant red bird. I initially thought it was a glitch. But nope. I was just EXTREMELY unlucky.

I distinctly remember playing through FFX on my PS2, climbing Mount Gagazet and battling hard for over an hour without seeing another save point. Finally I got to the top and was a few steps away from the save point when a random battle appeared and... of course, a Marlboro, which instantly performed Bad Breath, causing confusion to my party members who killed each other before I could flee the battle. The controller hit the floor so hard I was amazed it didn't smash into pieces...

The viciousness of the FRIENDLY YAN! OMFG. This vid brought me back. I've encountered all of these. Not in a minute though. I just got Tales of Berseria. Pretty fun so far.

Some of the random encounters in FF3 are pretty up there in terms of kicking your ass. Red Dragons come to mind. Behemoths in FF4 are pretty brutal in the original version of the game. They counter attack everything with high physical damage, use twister at low HP to reduce party members to critical, and are quite capable of one shoting anyone save Cecil or Kain. Hard to contend with if you're behind on levels for some reason. Legitimately surprised that you ranked Exdeath Soul as the hard encounter from that dungeon. Shield Dragon is way more powerful without making use of Control with the Beast Master class. Especially relative to your level development if you go in there early. Exdeath Soul you can just mow down without much thought by the time he starts appearing. Though would you really classify either of these as random encounters, since they are the only enemies encountered within that castle? When I was a kid I always dreaded encountering Brainpans on The Floating Continent in FF6. I didn't understand why instant death didn't work, and when they inflict stop on party members, for which there's little/no defense against other than killing them before they do it... on top of Blowfish/1000 Needles... If you're behind in levels and don't take those Brainpans out fast they'll wreck you. In FF2 there are lot of nasty encounters. Iron Giant isn't really that bad. You just Berserk up and cut him down. Couerls x6 that get an ambush though... those can wipe you out completely with you being unable to do anything about it. Very similar to Mindflayers from FF1, though those are neutered by Protect Ring/cape/etc. Will forever remember the Moogle's warning in FF9 to not go outside the Gizamaluke's Grotto with the vine. Ignoring him. Boom, Green Dragon. Relative to my level it was Game Over. Prior to the advent of Trusts, overworld enemies in FFXI were all far stronger than most every job class in FFXI. The only way to solo things was with magic or abilities that allowed you to undertake battles of attrition. Even then, even on the best classes(Mages), regular enemies could kill you through a spell failing to land and have its desired effect or by as little as 1 other monster joining the fray. This echo'd onto EXP parties as well, without someone to crowd control, getting links often led to death and EXP loss. Absolutely brutal world for FFXI, prior to Trusts. In fact, it was so brutal that you often would buy items such as Silent Oil and Prism Powder to turn yourself invisible/mute your foot steps. Monster behavior had monsters that agro by sight, sound, true sight, true sound, and beyond that they would follow you using their detection type, sight, sound, or smell. There was legitimately an item and spell called Deodorize(r) so that you could lose a monster pursuing you. And originally monsters had no tethers, so they would pursue you to the depths of hell. Of particular note was the Tauri type monsters on the Uleguerande Range. Agro one of those, true sight, and they would follow you at 150% your running speed up the whole mountain. There was no getting away, and a high chance for you to die. Not random, but certainly an encounter, and certainly not a boss.

I remember that in FFV in the first world, there was a squirrel in a castle (where you get Odin) and it damaged 9999 in one hit and had a very high Def, already in world 3 it captured it to do great damage to the bosses .

One I haven't seen mentioned here yet is cactuars. 10k needles caught me off guard and now I'm always wary of tiny unassuming monsters

This hit the nail on the head for so many I would have thought of. Dumb ones like Exdeath Soul are like the people you play a board game with who go out of their way to make you lose even when they have nothing to gain from it! My addition to the list would be basically anything in the final section of the moon in FF VI on the way to Zeromus. But probably the double red dragon fight. Sure, you have a freakishly low chance of earning the best whip in the game from beating them, but at what cost? Them and other demons in there drain your health and resources while going to fight the final boss, so rude.

I remember my first run-in with a tonberry. It was before the internet and I'm busy playing away on Final Fantasy 7 when I run into one. I had not learned what I know now which is looks can be deceiving. So when it stabbed one of my characters and killed them? I paused the game and stared at the screen. After the shock wore off, I unpaused the game and ran for my life. To this day decades later, anytime I see the tonberry the first word out of my mouth is F***

The Iron/Red Giants in the ruins under the secret Research Station, the frequency of the encounters plus the giants ability to strike your whole team and what damage sponges they were led to many unexpected deaths.

I remember the trex in ff8 being extremely hard. And since the game leveled with you it was always had no matter what.

You forgot Jackanapes from Final Fantasy V. I got so many game overs because of this bastard.