Board 8 > What RPG has the worst final dungeon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not final boss, just the dungeon itself. The thought occurred to me because I'm playing a game with an unimpressive final dungeon right now, but it's not, like, the worst thing.
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Okage: Shadow King comes to mind. Which is a shame because overall I really liked the game. The difficulty scaling and balance just fell off a cliff.
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Maybe not the absolute worst, but off the top of my head Birth By Sleep's is terrible.
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Maybe Xenosaga Episode I?

although the dungeons in that game are all pretty terrible because they're too big and random encounters take too long
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SMTIV:Apocalypse
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Final Fantasy III, though the final boss being BS definitely skews my opinion. That dungeon is just so ridiculously long.
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Yeah, FFIII is a good one because you have to do it all in one go.
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FF3 almost for sure is the worst.

Trails in the Sky FC's final dungeon is also a pain in the ass because its basically just a huge maze where everything looks the same and there's no minimap. Luckily the rest of the series final dungeons are no where near that bad.

The last 5-10 hours of Divine Divinity were such a mind numbing slog.
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I haven't played enough to give a definitive answer, but some that I really didn't like were Tales of Berseria and Trails in the Sky The 3rd.
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Final Fantasy VIII was my first thought
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MZero11 posted...

Final Fantasy VIII was my first thought

FFVIII is one of the best final dungeons in the series.
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Mzero read it as "best"
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I don't agree that just being long and hard makes it bad.

I don't play enough RPGs though that I can even think of a particularly bad one.
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Final Fantasy XIII-2 practically changes genres by having platforming jumping puzzles in its final dungeon. It remains one of my most frustrating gaming experiences, trying to line up jumps while dealing with the ridiculous encounter rate and even more ridiculous enemies there. Plus it was a gigantic maze.
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SupremeZero posted...

SMTIV:Apocalypse

Seconded

Absolutely terrible. And to think I thought SMTIV's (both lawful and chaos) was bad in an underwhelming way.

Setting aside early first-person dungeon crawlers, which is probably where the REAL answer is, Final Fantasy III was my instant answer
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LeonhartFour posted...

MZero11 posted...

Final Fantasy VIII was my first thought

FFVIII is one of the best final dungeons in the series.

Also this. FFVIII has arguably the best final dungeon in a JRPG.

FFIII is without a doubt the worst.

Other ones I hated were Radiata Stories and Xenogears. Radiata had this mess of a climbing puzzle where if you go up the wrong ladder, it turns to sand and knocks you down a platform. In some cases, it knocks you all the way back to the start. It's basically saying, "OOPS DO THE DUNGEON OVER AGAIN!" Xenogears suffers from confusing layout, because I remember spending about 20-30 minutes doing random battles over and over because I couldn't find the way out. This from a game that had already decided to cut dungeons OUT because of budget.
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Final Fantasy VIII's drags ass and doesn't really give an epic feel for being long. It's definitely down there for me. Final Fantasy III's is worse for sure though cause at least FFVIII has an awesome final boss at the end.
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pjbasis posted...

I don't agree that just being long and hard makes it bad.

I don't play enough RPGs though that I can even think of a particularly bad one.

Yeah, I can't really think of any that just jump out at me as terrible. I guess I've been lucky, although some of the ones that have been named aren't that bad to me.
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I forget if it was the last or second to last dungeon, but I remember FFXII having something like 70-100 floors or something dumb. I'm sure it included an elevator or something, but it was still tortuous. It's a weird one, because the final boss isn't technically fought there.
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Pharos Lighthouse is good.
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Pharos. That's it. Maybe it's because I found XII to be boring, so I found the final dungeon to be boring by default.
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I will say that despite naming FFIII and FFVIII they aren't that bad. Random midgame dungeons tend to be where the stinkers are. Don't get me started with Ymir Forest or half the dungeons from Legendia or the Phoenix Cave or The Fade or The Tower of Babel or ...
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Oh, I remember another one: Legend of Mana. Each of the three story arcs have what would easily qualify as final dungeons. But when you get around to the finale, the dungeon is super short in comparison, and the final boss is pretty weak.
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i thought Grandia's final dungeon was an utter slog, but that might be because I think that game dragged on too long anyway

Final Fantasy 3 definitely has one of the worst ones if not the worst ever. Can definitely gives nods to FF12, Persona 5 and SMT Nocturne too. Pretty much any overly long final dungeon with tons of shit nobody wants (no saves, tons of hidden traps, forced/locked point of no return, pointless rooms that have nothing in them and just exist to waste your time, etc)

malyg posted...

i thought Grandia's final dungeon was an utter slog, but that might be because I think that game dragged on too long anyway

I played this game kinda recently and I don't remember what it was. But yeah the game had lots of charm but was soooooo draggy and slow.
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I remember liking .hack as a kid until I got to the last world of the first installment. Something about enemies being resistant to things.
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I don't think FF3's dungeon was all that bad from a design standpoint, I just think it was annoying that there was no place to save and/or heal.

Now FF4, I think it's the final dungeon, is full of hidden walls that lead to superbosses that have all the games best weapons. And that always bothered me because it felt like they forgot to have the best weapons in cool places, so they just stuffed all of them into the final dungeon.

Also while not the worst, Tales of Xillia 2 is perhaps one of the most boring looking, I think >_>
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malyg posted...

i thought Grandia's final dungeon was an utter slog, but that might be because I think that game dragged on too long anyway

Yeah on this type of note I felt this way about FFXIII and Persona 4 but I definitely blame my mindset at the time when playing them more than the dungeons themselves. I mean maybe they actually are bad but I'm not convinced.
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it wasn't a DUNGEON but I gave up on beating what I assume to be the final story level of Culdcept Revolt
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UltimaterializerX posted...

Pharos isnt the final dungeon. Bahamut is.

Bahamut is also the worst. All that buildup for two rooms.

Two rooms is not a dungeon.

It's a good referendum on the game that Dr. Cid and Gabranth get a massive dungeon and Vayne gets two rooms.
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Iwantedzero posted...

I don't think FF3's dungeon was all that bad from a design standpoint, I just think it was annoying that there was no place to save and/or heal.

One of the bosses has a guaranteed team wipe combo if you get unlucky. Theres literally nothing you can do about it and if it happens you lose all that final dungeon progress. Its such a poorly designed dungeon

Oh the end of Tokyo Mirage Sessions had some pretty annoying puzzles but I had that complaint with a lot of the game
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Not my real answer but an unpopular opinion: I think FFVII's final dungeon is pretty underwhelming, aside from the music. It's basically just a cave.

I don't have a real answer, but I'll agree with FFXII because I remember it being really long and boring.

Persona
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Defenders of Oasis

What a bad RPG in general but that last dungeon holy shit.
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Persona 1 was the first thing that came to mind.
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tcaz2 posted...

FF3 almost for sure is the worst.

Doesnt this one not have any save points? Or at least it has a boss before the first save point? I remember playing the final dungeon for an hour or two,l without saving, dying to a boss, and then never playing again
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Oh, I see my question was answered
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When I was a kid I remember Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits' final dungeon being terrible capped off by a final boss fight that jumped the difficulty up to an insane amount all while having you at a save point that was a point of no return. Not really sure if it was really that bad or if I was just terrible at the game though.
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I only played the ds FFIII and I don't remember this issue.. they fixed that right?
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No, that was the version I played. It was definitely still there
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I imagine most people played the DS version of the game.
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Dodongo Cavern actually has stuff to do in it. Bahamut has nothing to do in it.
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