Goddess (Final Fantasy VI)

Goddess is a boss in Final Fantasy VI. She is a member of the Warring Triad, and one of the three final bosses in Kefka's Tower before facing Kefka himself. According to the Final Fantasy III Nintendo Player's Guide, the final battle sequence against the Statue of the Gods is supposed to be a rematch of the Warring Triad; the second tier being Goddess. No official material support this, however; the idea was created by Nintendo of America.

Battle
Though Goddess has the lowest HP of the three Warring Triad members, she is arguably the most difficult to defeat due to a dangerous attack unique to her that can catch players off-guard. Goddess has inherent Shell and Haste and she counters any regular physical attack with Overture, which forces the target to take all physical damage for the Goddess. She can use Entice, inflicting a Confuse-like status that cannot be healed by spells or items and makes the character attack their allies, and Lullaby. Offensively, the Goddess's normal attacks are not powerful. She uses Thundaga, Thundara, Flash Rain and Quasar, a rare spell that does non-elemental damage to the party.

When damaged eight times, Goddess uses Cloudy Heaven, an attack unique to her. All characters gain a Doom-like timer over their heads and when the counter hits zero, the targets become zombies. The target will also become a zombie if they are killed normally. This effect lasts until the end of the battle — if a party member is cured of Zombie status and killed again, they become a zombie again. Only the Safety Bit and the Memento Ring block this move, as Cloudy Heaven is treated as an instant death attack rather than a status attack, thus ignoring status immunity to Zombie from relics like the Ribbon.

Strategy
It is best to kill Goddess as quickly as possible before Cloudy Heaven. Flare and Ultima will ignore Shell and do full damage, and multi-hit attacks with the Master's Scroll also work well. Equipment that absorbs or negates Lightning will nullify much of the Goddess's attack spells, though the true dangers are her status attacks.

AI Script
Attack Turns: 1st Turn: Thundara (33%) or Attack (33%) or Lullaby (33%) 2nd Turn: Thundaga (33%) or Entice (33%) or Attack (33%) 3rd Turn: Thundara (33%) or Attack (33%) or Thundaga (33%)

If HP <= 32640:
 * 1st Turn: Thundaga (33%) or Flash Rain (33%) or Nothing (33%)
 * 2nd Turn: Thundaga (66%) or Flash Rain (33%)
 * 3rd Turn: Thundaga (33%) or Quasar (66%)
 * 4th Turn: Thundaga (66%) or Flash Rain (33%)

If attacked by "Attack": Overture (33%)
 * Increase Var3 by 1

If attacked by anything: Thundara (33%)
 * Increase Var3 by 1

If Var3 >= 8 (only done once per battle):
 * Set Var3 = 0
 * Cloudy Heaven (100%)

Etymology
In the original concept artwork by Tetsuya Nomura, the Warring Triad are given names beyond their basic titles. Goddess is named Sophia.

Goddess is the only one of the Warring Triad whose name has remained the same in all official English translations—likely because, unlike the other two, there is little ambiguity in how to translate "めがみ".

Trivia

 * In the North American SNES release, due to tighter censorship, Goddess's clothing was edited for greater coverage of her breasts and upper thighs. The uncensored sprite was used in all other releases until the mobile remake, which uses a new design.
 * In Final Fantasy X, Yunalesca's appearance seems to be based on the Goddess. Yunalesca's is in the same position as the Goddess, and her third form has her mounted on the back of a medusa-like head similar to the Goddess and her mount. Like the Goddess, Yunalesca favors turning the party members into zombies.

Related Enemies

 * Fiend
 * Demon