10 Ridiculously Hard Final Fantasy Trophies & Achievements

The Final Fantasy series has long been beloved for offering players respectable challenges that truly feel rewarding to complete. Whether it's a powerful superboss you've spent an entire playthrough training for or a mini-game that takes hours to beat, it's hard to argue that each entry doesn't come with its own unique challenge that keeps players on their toes, no matter how familiar with the franchise they've become.

With older titles being released on modern consoles, these challenges are now enshrined with trophies and achievements. This has also given the developers free rein to create some truly punishing challenges, which, to this day, have players second-guessing their platinum runs.

With all that in mind, we're going to take a look at the hardest achievements across the Final Fantasy franchise whose sheer mention causes fans' cortisol levels to rightfully spike.

10 Final Fantasy X

Chocobo Rider

Final Fantasy 10 is loaded with minigames that will have you almost break your controller in a fit of rage, but none are as rage-inducing as the Chocobo race. Once you reach the Calm Lands, you'll be able to dabble in some Chocobo racing. Which you'll want to do, as not only will completing it get you one part of Tidus' Ultimate Weapon, but also the Chocobo Racer trophy.

But for whatever reason, Square Enix concocted this minigame in a lab into the most unfair and frustrating experiences of all time. To complete this mini-game, you'll need to earn a 0.0 time, which you can only get by collecting 13 balloons and avoiding getting hit by any birds. Which is a nigh-impossible feat given that the lap has invisible walls, birds seemingly spawn out of nowhere to hit you, balloons will sometimes spawn in inconvenient locations, and you're racing against another opponent who can steal those much-needed balloons and block you. Don't even get me started on the clunky Chocobo controls as well.

All of this culminates in an enraging mini-game that could see you trying for hours, which will most likely have you second-guessing your completionist run.

9 Final Fantasy IX

Hail To The King

I was never much of a skipping man, but after completing this mini-game in Final Fantasy 9, you won't find me anywhere near a rope lest I start experiencing traumatic flashbacks.

The jump rope mini-game may just be one of the most infamous side activities in any Final Fantasy game, and it doesn't take long to see why. To gain both the Hail to the King trophy and a powerful accessory for Vivi, you have to successfully perform 1,000 jumps. If that doesn't get your thumb cramping, then you should know that the tempo increases every 20–50 jumps, just in case you were starting to figure out the rhythm.

If you fail the minigame, your count resets to zero. At least with the lightning bolts in Final Fantasy 10, you'll get incremental awards to help soften the blow, but hitting the 900 mark and missing your jump by a microsecond is enough to make me cry into a pillow.

8 Final Fantasy XII

Mist Walker

We're all familiar with the 12-hour-long battle with Yiazmat, but what if I told you that isn't Final Fantasy 12's hardest achievement? With the right gambits, gear, and an entire six-pack of Monster Energy White, you're sure to take down the superboss without too much stress.

That's why Mist Walker takes the crown, as there really isn't a solid strategy to figure this one out. This trophy is tied to Final Fantasy 12's new Quickening system, which is a new kind of limit break that you can chain multiple times if you're quick enough. Each character can learn three quickenings, which will randomly appear when you start casting one in a roulette-like system. After each quickening cast, your timer will get faster, making it harder to chain them back-to-back.

What makes this trophy so hard is that it requires you to use all nine quickenings in one rotation. Given that quickenings only show up randomly and the timer is rapidly ticking down, trying to cast all nine in one go is a surprisingly difficult feat. Even worse, after a single failed run, you'll need to start grinding back your mist charge to full right after to attempt it once more.

7 Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion

Mission Completionist

It should be a no-brainer that the toughest achievement in a Final Fantasy game is "beat all the other achievements", but I don't think any game makes it such a struggle quite like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion.

Mission Completionist is such a difficult achievement that to earn it, you need to complete all 300 SOLDIER missions available in the game. Sure, that sounds like a slog on paper, but then you remember that it's actually possible to miss unlocking these missions. These triggers can be as minor as missing mail in between missions or failing to speak to a security guard in the Shinra Building. With no chapter selection available, you'll have to slog your way through another playthrough to ensure you pick it up the second time.

It doesn't help that some of these missions themselves are extremely tough, and will see you facing off against the superboss Minerva, and a gauntlet of other tough mobs. This makes this achievement not only such a massive slog, but also one with such high stakes if you fail to unlock even a single mission.

6 Final Fantasy VII Remake

Corrupter of the Immaculate

Final Fantasy 7 is home to so many great superbosses, although all pale in comparison to Weiss. If you're ever in an argument over which superboss is the ultimate "filterer" for bad players, then Weiss should be your number one pick. This fight is the definition of an onslaught, as there's almost no room to breathe while the silver-haired edgelord hits you with seemingly unending combos. Even when you think you've found an opening, he'll instantly trigger a counter-attack which can wreck you in a single hit.

If you think you can simply switch to an easier difficulty, oh, you'd be mistaken, as the game locks you to the Hard difficulty, taking away your healing items. Not only is Weiss the hardest boss in the game, but he's also quite possibly the hardest superboss in any Final Fantasy game ever, making defeating him all the more triumphant.

5 Final Fantasy X

Sphere Master

Final Fantasy 10, to me, is two games: you have your main story about a summoner who defeats Sin, and the second is grinding out the sphere grid. This is one of those trophies that's surprisingly easy to take for granted, but once you get into the weeds of it, it's a lot more complex than you thought. Not only do you have to grind out the hundreds of levels needed to fill the sphere grid, but you'll also need to collect a variety of different stat spheres to fill all the empty nodes. Which means a lot more grinding to backtrack throughout the sphere grid to fill them in.

If you're exploiting the Tonberry AP exploit, this won't take as long as it would take otherwise, but it's still a behemoth of a task. One that will take up as much of your time as the entire main story quest and side content combined, all so you can claim this single silver trophy.

This trophy is so unpopular that only 4% of players have completed it. For reference, 4.2% of players have beaten Penance, the game's hardest superboss, meaning even the most passionate and hardcore players choose to forgo the extra grind required to take on this one.

4 Final Fantasy XIII

Treasure Hunter

Final Fantasy 13 is a game rightly criticized for its linear structure, especially for what feels like 80% of its main story. Despite its linear structure, it actually has one of the hardest trophies, which asks players to get every weapon and accessory for all six characters. Seems simple, right? Oh, sweet summer child, you don't even know half of it.

Not only do you need to collect all the weapons and accessories, but you'll also need to upgrade each weapon to its next rank, and every accessory to its third tier. Not every weapon and accessory here can be found in the overworld, either. Some of these you'll need to buy, others you'll discover after dismantling other accessories at a certain rank.

Next to Final Fantasy 10, this is by far one of the longest slogs in any Final Fantasy game. That's not even mentioning how you'll have to fight several Long Gui for a precious material, which is a challenge in and of itself.

3 Final Fantasy X-2

Sweet Perfection

Following in the footsteps of Crisis Core, we have Final Fantasy X-2, which shares the same problems in that it can be an absolute slog to work through. Sweet Perfection will require players to once again get a 100% completion here, although it's possible to entirely miss side quests or certain events, which lock you out of key events connected to completing the game.

Even worse, some of these are entirely arbitrary, such as missing a single scene, not picking up a certain item, or choosing the wrong dialogue, which can lock you out of earning this reward. Because the game is so open-ended and has players backtracking, it's too easy to accidentally miss these moments.

My most hated feature of this trophy is that if you don't receive a weapon with "No Encounters" from the Geosgaeno, you won't get the trophy, as this is the only instance this weapon will drop. If you're not playing along with a guide, it's almost impossible to finish this challenge, which is just devastating.

2 Final Fantasy XV

Adamant Will

Final Fantasy 15 isn't short on spectacle, so it makes sense that its iconic superboss, Adamantoise, would go all out. You'll see several allusions to the giant tortoise throughout the game, as you'll see the odd-shaped mountain looming in the distance at several points throughout the game. It isn't until chapter 15 that you'll finally be able to take on the beast, for better or for worse.

Much like Yiazmat, the Adamantoise is less a superboss and more an endurance test. The boss boasts a mighty 5.6 million HP and can take players up to three hours to bring down, which may make some players react like Conan O'Brien upon hearing the news. The Adamantoise also deals pitiful damage, with slow attacks that are pretty easy to avoid, unless you fall victim to the fight's wonky camera.

If you're lucky, you can spam the Ring of Lucii's spell Alterna, which has a 1% chance of instantly killing the turtle. Which is nice, as the alternative is the gaming equivalent of watching paint dry.

1 Final Fantasy XIV

Warrior of Light

Putting Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn on the PlayStation was an immense feat, introducing console gamers to the wonderful MMO and its lush world. In saying that, whoever designed the trophies for the game is one of gaming's greatest villains. As you can guess, to earn the platinum trophy, Warrior of Light, you'll need to undertake some intense grindy activities.

If, for whatever reason, this trophy calls to you like a Green Goblin mask you just can't avoid, then you'd best quit your job and carve out a solid 6 months just to play the game. At a minimum, you'll need roughly 400 hours to grind through some of the more demanding milestones here.

Finishing A Realm Reborn is easy compared to everything else you have to do, like needing to craft 1000 items for each crafting class, gather 1000 items for all three gathering classes, reach the max level cap for one of every class role (Tank, DPS, Healer), and lastly, do a bunch ton of FATEs. Once all is said and done, you'll finally get to claim that platinum trophy for yourself, but at what cost?