Orthros (The After Years)

Orthros (Ultros in the Wii version) is a boss from Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. He is in the Depths of the True Moon.

Strategy
Orthros regularly uses Quake and Tentacle, the latter of which strikes one target twice or two targets once. He sometimes uses Bad Breath on the party, and counters all physical attacks with Constrict and all magic with Bile. The player is advised to have many Remedies to deal with Constrict. After taking enough damage the music will change and the player receives a warning about Orthros changing his form. At this time he absorbs all elemental damage and counters elemental spells with the third-tier spell of that element, Firaga to counter Fire, for example. He will still use Tentacle, which can now hit up to four times, but his Constrict counterattacks occur less frequently. Orthros will begin using Deluge, which can do several thousand damage to the party, and Maelstrom to reduce the party's HP to single digits.

For the first part of the battle the player can take their time buffing the party as Orthros is not strong. With Float cast, Quake will be negated and thus his only form of offense save for his counterattacks is Tentacle. The player should cast Shell several times to reduce the damage from Deluge in the second part, and with stronger Tentacles and Maelstrom will need to be more diligent on their healing.

Another strategy is to cast Reflect on Golbez and Rydia if they are in the party and use Flare on Orthros's second form. He will counter with a direct Flare, which will bounce and hit him. One only needs to cast Flare twice to defeat him.

Orthros drops the Kitchen Knife, Sheila's kitchen utensil from the original game which can be thrown to cause 9,999 damage.

Trivia

 * Orthros's battle patterns are based on his Final Fantasy VI incarnation, specifically the third battle with him. His lecherous remarks about the female party members and his "muscle men" insults are taken from the first battle, where said comments were directed at Terra and Sabin, respectively.