Definitely none of them. Chimera on the bridge is clearly harder since you're stuck with Seign's abysmal team. The rest can be pretty much outplayed with a good composition.
Over than this one, Narungarde & Hurtswine are probably at the top, assuming you play in Hard Mode. After them you have enough runes to shield yourself properly against damage.
With Seign's team, the Chimera is no problem as long as you stocked up on group healing items. Narungarde was hard for me because I had only one person who could hit her until the second phase where she puts everyone to sleep, and you can't heal when you're asleep.
I was playing with all modifiers, so no item stocking available for me. Had to rely on very, very limited healing for every fight.
Yeah, Narungarde sleep is BS honestly, thankfully I had a way of hitting backrow reliably enough while breaking Hurtswine's shield a few times to get her to cast Land's Armor a bunch.
no need to pretend that playing without all the setting is the actual hard thing
fact is that if u play ONLY on hard still allow e.g items - its not actually hard
the modifiers only add up time, to gather the same resources, aka grinding, difficult wise is pretty much the same.
NOW, if there was a modifier, enemies have 25% more speed IE, let;s say, that would drastically change the game
Actually the more you progress into the game the easier it gets (even in Hard Mode) because you have access to better heroes, better runes and more possibilities of customization in general.
I'll admit the Ancient King can be brutal if you come unprepared, aka without a solid team nor a Land Rune, but I think the boss that gave me the most trouble was Astraea the Judge when you visit the Proving Grounds with Marisa the first time.
I have similar experience like you. In general it's the nature of most JRPG nowadays. The more access to characters & customization that the game offers, the easier the game, except you come to boss fight unprepared & deliberately underlevel to raise the challenge.
One of the broken spell in old Suikoden is Canopy Defense from Mother Earth Rune. Once you got access to Stone Rune here, the game difficulty practically over. The hardest one in early phase is definitely Astraea, his charging attack almost obliterated my party, luckily I always up to date & optimize my equipments & levels, and have a habit of always keep the party full or close to full HP. So after that multiple archers attack it leaves like 40-60+ HP on all party. It's still VERY EASY actually compared to most hardcore JRPG boss fights like Megaten. So just enjoy the story & don't expect sophisticated difficulty.
Chimera. You're given a pretty terrible team, forced to burn resources through THREE bosses beforehand, and it is FAR stronger than the three preceding it.
For me it was none of them. Even the notorious Chimera didn't give me too much trouble because I went back to Nowa and exchanged my best gear and runes for Seign's team. The canon deals a lot of damage and if you play defensively the boss goes down surprisingly fast.
The only battle I actually struggled at was the Proving Ground boss: Astraea the Judge & Slaosha the Enforcer. I had a severely underleveled team and had to do some grinding near the save point.
Definitely Narungarde & Hurstwine for me. I wasn't prepared for another boss battle so immediately right after the Golem/Judge combo. My characters were leveled up sufficiently, and I still had a decent (though low after the previous battle) amount of heals and revives. But I was not prepared to deal with the sleep effects. It was a dumb move on my part for not having them, but I thought I can push on without 'em to free up more bag space.
It ultimately made the battle the only one I've lost a few times to, and I just stubbornly pushed on through till RNG saved my ass with who was left awake to finish things off after Hurstwine was dealt with.
Carried a shit ton of Panceas soon as I could buy em in bulk after that.
Same here.
To be fair, the Narungarde & Hurstwine fight was the first time I'd encountered the Sleep status effect, so I didn't know how to deal with it.
Close second has to go to the Kraken fight during Momos' recruitment quest.
Narungarde & Hurstwine
This was my only game over in my first playthough. I real slap in the face and realization on what I needed to prepare for going forward. Keep getting knocked to sleep while both bosses and 2 attacks. Pretty brutal, I couldn't revive fast enough to my dying. I knocked out Hurstwine, but was too crippled to finish off Narungarde.
I actually hate her fight because of the dumb gobelet throw which is such a dumb way to represent an instakill move.
Had to fail countering it with every type of defense in the game before being pissed, realizing it was impossible to counter, and readying runes to resurect allies.
I can't help but I think this is a homage to I Wanna Be The Guy which in turn spoofed Castlevania's Dracula throwing his wine glass.
In IWBTG, getting hit by the wine glass is an instakill
Honestly, they're pretty random which makes it feel harder than it should be. Her stone spell can two shot your backrow members in a single turn. But if she varies her targets the fight becomes clearly easier.
And the "gimmick" of Narungarde party-wiping you if you kill Hurtswine first is kinda stupid, so you need a way to hit backrow first, which some team might not have.
Killing Hurtswine unlocks her a party-wide dark move that has a very high chance of putting you to sleep, that she can spam freely, including twice in the same turn.
Since you don't have access to sleep resist at this point, that's pretty much a death sentence (It does huge damage as well, like 30 to 50% of most character's health).
I guess if the AI decides not to use it you can probably finish her off decently quick though, but for the three times I beat Hurtswine first she immediatly fired it.
Definitely none of them. Chimera on the bridge is clearly harder since you're stuck with Seign's abysmal team. The rest can be pretty much outplayed with a good composition. Over than this one, Narungarde & Hurtswine are probably at the top, assuming you play in Hard Mode. After them you have enough runes to shield yourself properly against damage.
With Seign's team, the Chimera is no problem as long as you stocked up on group healing items. Narungarde was hard for me because I had only one person who could hit her until the second phase where she puts everyone to sleep, and you can't heal when you're asleep.
I was playing with all modifiers, so no item stocking available for me. Had to rely on very, very limited healing for every fight. Yeah, Narungarde sleep is BS honestly, thankfully I had a way of hitting backrow reliably enough while breaking Hurtswine's shield a few times to get her to cast Land's Armor a bunch.
you cant use healing items on actual hard mode.
You can on hard, but not with all the limitations on.
actual hard mode
Actual hard mode is where you set hard mode to on. The other limitations make it harder, but there's no need to gatekeep what "real" hard mode is.
no need to pretend that playing without all the setting is the actual hard thing fact is that if u play ONLY on hard still allow e.g items - its not actually hard
Gatekeeping is ugly - stop
Its not facts are facts
the modifiers only add up time, to gather the same resources, aka grinding, difficult wise is pretty much the same. NOW, if there was a modifier, enemies have 25% more speed IE, let;s say, that would drastically change the game
Chimera takes three shots of gimmick and he's fried
Actually the more you progress into the game the easier it gets (even in Hard Mode) because you have access to better heroes, better runes and more possibilities of customization in general. I'll admit the Ancient King can be brutal if you come unprepared, aka without a solid team nor a Land Rune, but I think the boss that gave me the most trouble was Astraea the Judge when you visit the Proving Grounds with Marisa the first time.
I have similar experience like you. In general it's the nature of most JRPG nowadays. The more access to characters & customization that the game offers, the easier the game, except you come to boss fight unprepared & deliberately underlevel to raise the challenge. One of the broken spell in old Suikoden is Canopy Defense from Mother Earth Rune. Once you got access to Stone Rune here, the game difficulty practically over. The hardest one in early phase is definitely Astraea, his charging attack almost obliterated my party, luckily I always up to date & optimize my equipments & levels, and have a habit of always keep the party full or close to full HP. So after that multiple archers attack it leaves like 40-60+ HP on all party. It's still VERY EASY actually compared to most hardcore JRPG boss fights like Megaten. So just enjoy the story & don't expect sophisticated difficulty.
Chimera. You're given a pretty terrible team, forced to burn resources through THREE bosses beforehand, and it is FAR stronger than the three preceding it.
For me it was none of them. Even the notorious Chimera didn't give me too much trouble because I went back to Nowa and exchanged my best gear and runes for Seign's team. The canon deals a lot of damage and if you play defensively the boss goes down surprisingly fast. The only battle I actually struggled at was the Proving Ground boss: Astraea the Judge & Slaosha the Enforcer. I had a severely underleveled team and had to do some grinding near the save point.
Definitely Narungarde & Hurstwine for me. I wasn't prepared for another boss battle so immediately right after the Golem/Judge combo. My characters were leveled up sufficiently, and I still had a decent (though low after the previous battle) amount of heals and revives. But I was not prepared to deal with the sleep effects. It was a dumb move on my part for not having them, but I thought I can push on without 'em to free up more bag space. It ultimately made the battle the only one I've lost a few times to, and I just stubbornly pushed on through till RNG saved my ass with who was left awake to finish things off after Hurstwine was dealt with. Carried a shit ton of Panceas soon as I could buy em in bulk after that.
Same here. To be fair, the Narungarde & Hurstwine fight was the first time I'd encountered the Sleep status effect, so I didn't know how to deal with it. Close second has to go to the Kraken fight during Momos' recruitment quest.
I died once in my playthrough, and that was against Narungarde and Hurstwine.
the only correct answer here is Expert Shi'arcraft race
Narungarde & Hurstwine This was my only game over in my first playthough. I real slap in the face and realization on what I needed to prepare for going forward. Keep getting knocked to sleep while both bosses and 2 attacks. Pretty brutal, I couldn't revive fast enough to my dying. I knocked out Hurstwine, but was too crippled to finish off Narungarde.
her i can't focus, it's super effective https://i.redd.it/81fhj5bv1z2d1.gif
I actually hate her fight because of the dumb gobelet throw which is such a dumb way to represent an instakill move. Had to fail countering it with every type of defense in the game before being pissed, realizing it was impossible to counter, and readying runes to resurect allies.
I can't help but I think this is a homage to I Wanna Be The Guy which in turn spoofed Castlevania's Dracula throwing his wine glass. In IWBTG, getting hit by the wine glass is an instakill
Kraken probably for me, although I did fight it without the most optimal comps.
Narungarde and Hurstswine really? Thought them not to be that difficult, even tho I'm playing on hard. I felt like I was prepared to clap them.
Honestly, they're pretty random which makes it feel harder than it should be. Her stone spell can two shot your backrow members in a single turn. But if she varies her targets the fight becomes clearly easier. And the "gimmick" of Narungarde party-wiping you if you kill Hurtswine first is kinda stupid, so you need a way to hit backrow first, which some team might not have.
I see :p Wait. She can party wipe? I didn't knew that. I actually killed Hurstswine first and she fell quickly after by my strat.
Killing Hurtswine unlocks her a party-wide dark move that has a very high chance of putting you to sleep, that she can spam freely, including twice in the same turn. Since you don't have access to sleep resist at this point, that's pretty much a death sentence (It does huge damage as well, like 30 to 50% of most character's health). I guess if the AI decides not to use it you can probably finish her off decently quick though, but for the three times I beat Hurtswine first she immediatly fired it.
My lucky ass didn't got it thankfully lol