Penance (Final Fantasy X)

Penance is the name of an exceedingly powerful optional boss found only in the PAL and International versions of Final Fantasy X, located in the Calm Lands but fought on the deck of the Airship. It appears to be a machina that is released after the ten Dark Aeons, who are also powerful optional bosses, are all defeated. It boasts the in-game record of 12,000,000 (million) HP, high stats, elemental absorptions and powerful attacks, making it what might be considered the most dangerous boss in the game (and some say the entire Final Fantasy series). It is accompanied by its two arms in combat which are able to act independently with similarly powerful abilities, with 500,000 HP each. The arms also regenerate a few rounds after defeat. Depleting this boss' hit points can take around one full hour.

As mentioned above, Penance is quite possibly the toughest enemy in the entire series of games, however like all other super-strong optional foes (the WEAPONS for example), Penance really only exists to challenge the player. With a lot of forethought and strategy, he can be killed, rather easily if a strict pattern is followed, though the length of the battle still makes it quite tedious.

Quick Tips

 * Like the other Aeons, Penance has an overdrive, Judgement Day, which is devastating to say the least. However, Penance needs both his arms active to be able to perform this move, so keeping them out of the battle is vital. He uses the attack during the second phase of the battle.


 * Despite Penance being incredibly powerful, it, like every enemy, can be felled by the auto-kill Zanmato attack used by the Aeon Yojimbo.

Did You Know?
In the Japanese version of the game, Penance was known as Der Richter, which translates from German as "The Judge".