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Being such a lengthy game, and being from the older era of RPGs, Final Fantasy IX has more than its share of enemies that will slap you silly if you’re not aware of them and what they can do.
Well in this list, I’ve gone ahead and ranked some of the scariest monsters in the game – aside from bosses, who got their own list.
These are some real enemies that you should not face unprepared.
8. Grand Dragons
Perhaps unsurprising, but the Grand Dragons are among the hardest enemies in the game.
Even worse is that you don’t have to go far out of your way to accidentally find them in Disc 1.
They’re the first enemy you’ll meet with over 10,000 HP. So you’re in for a bad time if you try to beat them early.
These dragons also carry a brutal arsenal of abilities, namely venom and Thundaga. Any character the dragon hits will drop dead in a single attack this early.
7. Marlboro
Surprise here, I know, but Bad Breath alone is enough to warrant a spot on this list.
This fiend can use Bad Breath and inflict a plethora of ailments to every character in your party.
Little known fact: despite the name being spelled Marlboro, it’s actually read aloud as “Run on sight”.
Thankfully, they’re only encountered later in the game, so you don’t have to dread accidentally meeting one in disc 2.
6. Dracozombies
Now this one isn’t too dangerous later on. But when you first meet them, they have a level 5 death skill.
Which isn’t so bad… except that you first meet these dragons when your party members are likely to be hitting level 20.
Potential oneshots aside, these guys are just kind of tough. Unless you abuse revive items for free oneshots.
This is hard to advise, however, as your two healers are quite fragile.
Having them both down and running out of phoenix downs or MP can spell disaster for later in the Iifa Tree.
5. Movers
These oft-forgotten about enemies have a pretty brutal tendency to throw Delta Attack at your team.
Which hurts really bad.
You encounter them late in Disc 3, so one could really say their whole premise is to warn you of the incoming difficulty spike on Disc 4. But that hardly justifies how painful these guys are to actually kill.
4. Chimera
I don’t wanna talk about it. I don’t. Screw these guys.
Found in Memoria, the Chimera enemies are known better as “Oh, I forgot about that particular ailment and have no items to heal it”.
They have a tendency to use Venom, Virus, Heat and Freeze, which alone are some of the most frustrating ailments.
3 of these 4 can incapacitate your characters via instant death (or in venom’s case, Stop), and the remaining one prevents you from gaining EXP.
They would be higher on the list, but there are even worse enemies to factor in. If that tells you anything.
3. Behemoth
These beasts are only found in the Time Warp in Memoria. That’s the good news.
Everything else is the bad news.
These big boys are tanky, and they tend to counter everything with Meteor which to say the very least, hurts a lot.
24,123 HP isn’t exactly easy to inflict without a disgusting level of grinding up certain skills like Frog Drop.
At the very least, this enemy is susceptible to Death or Odin.
2. Yan
My God are these things frightening.
Only found on Vile Island in Disc 4, these little guys pack a punch.
Comet hurts.
Float + Aera really hurts.
And Snort is just plain mean, ejecting a character from battle outright and forcing you to defeat the mob with 3 characters.
It’s possible to have your whole team ejected, resulting in a Game Over.
To really drive the point home, these things don’t travel alone. They tend to attack in groups of three.
Have fun.
1. Friendly Yan
Honestly, this guy almost counts as a boss, if not for the fact that you can encounter him normally repeatedly.
His stats and strategies certainly behave like a boss.
Firstly, he counters any and everything with ‘BAAAHHHH!!’ which hits incredibly hard, but also silences the party.
Friendly Yan is also immune to most ailments, which makes things worse.
But Friendly Yan also carries a whopping 65,535 HP. Meaning you’ll have to endure the BAAAHHH!!! around 5-6 times minimum if you wanna beat this guy.
Just give him the Diamond, it’s not worth the effort.
