10 Longest Boss Battles In Gaming History

5. Pandemonium Warden - Final Fantasy XI

final fantasy 11 pandemonium warden
Square Enix

I genuinely made an effort to get away from only including JRPGs on this list but it’s really tricky. Actually it was incredibly tricky just to get away from the Final Fantasy franchise, but if that’s where the long fights are that’s where we must follow so here’s the first in a good pile of brutal Final Fantasy encounters.

Final Fantasy XI has not one but two appearances on this list because there’s nothing that stokes the flames of long boss fights like the unholy trio of a JRPG, an MMO, and Final Fantasy. This nasty-looking guy is one of two High Notorious Monsters in the game and he was nigh-on unbeatable due to his ten different forms and tendency to summon even more dudes with 25,000 HP apiece that you also need to deal with.

One group tried to take him on for 18 straight hours and couldn’t defeat him and stories began circulating that players were actually vomiting and passing out trying to finish him off. Pandy Warden gave players such a hard time that Square Enix needed to nerf him and put a time limit on the battle so players weren’t physically endangering their health.

I don’t know what’s worse, getting sick from fighting one dude for almost a full day or making real progress only to lose to a time limit. Rough either way.

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Contributor

Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.