Yep, it works on bosses. I've heard it defeated Omega Weapon if it connects.

Well, the only reason the heroes even beat Odin is because he let them. Unlike every other boss in the game, he doesn't so much as poke them with his horns or whatever. But we see quite clearly when the time runs out why that is - if he did attack them, they all die instantly.

What did Edea do that hints she's stronger than Odin? I mean, end of Disk 1 Squall survived her Limit Break. But he can't survive Zantetsuken.

Plus the Zantetsuken cut a hole in reality just by flying out of Odin's hands...what do you think actually getting cut by that thing would do to someone?

As for Bahamut, it's possible that he's stronger than Odin. The fact remains Bahamut attacks the party while Odin just kinda plays with them.

I can't personally testify but I've heard on a few forums about how Gilgamesh, if he connects, can kill bosses instantly with Zantetsuken.
I heard he can't beat Ultimecia's final form though.

Anyway, new reveal....

From the official guide to FFVIII, for the first boss fight with just Seifer and Squall.

Seifer wasn't training while Squall was.

in my opinion, squall was stronger than seifer. squall fought to protect everyone and he did it extremely well, as for seifer, when it came time to fight, he was always at his knees huffing and puffing from getting his ass kicked! squall even got stuck through the heart by the sorceresses icicle attack and he still lived! squall is obviously stronger..

Yes, Seifer was tired during the second battle, but...if I remember correctly, didn't Edea revitalize him to a degree or something? Again, it's been a while since I've played through the game, but I'm pretty sure that's how it happened. Seifer was lying flat on his stomach, then Edea/Ultimecia told him to rise, at which point he stood up and kind of limped away. I suppose my primary reason for not giving this battle too much credit is because, even after fighting him on two separate occasions, the party was still strong enough to defeat Edea, who was obviously much stronger than Seifer. If he had actually posed any sort of a threat/worn them down, I don't really think they would've been able to overpower the sorceress.

I don't know what to make of their battle in Disc 3, either. Again, almost immediately after fighting him, the party was still able to beat Adel (admittedly, it was a weakened/groggy Adel, but I'd imagine she was still quite an imposing enemy). When it comes to Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken, I honestly don't know what to say about that, either. I highly doubt that Seifer had gotten that much stronger than Squall during the time between Disc 1 and Disc 3. Remember, although Seifer had been training, Squall was off fighting a number of powerful monsters and robots. He was bound to have gotten stronger, as well. Probably more so, in fact, because Squall was fighting under extreme circumstances.

Now that I think about it, isn't it possible that Seifer was being powered up by Ultimecia? He was still technically her knight, after all, so she might've been giving him some sort of boost. I suppose it's extremely unlikely, but I have heard that theory before. Admittedly, this one isn't probable at all. I'm just throwing it out there. I simply don't see how else Seifer could survive an attack that, by gameplay standards, can kill the likes of Adel or Griever in one hit. Even if he is stronger than Squall, I think it would be by a very small margin. As evidenced by their duel at the beginning of the game, they two are at least very close in strength. Yes, Seifer gave Squall a scar, but only after he cheapshotted him with a Fire spell. Even then, Squall retalliated and gave Seifer an identical scar.

I think it's obvious that neither one is that much stronger than the other. Their fight at the end of Disc 1 proves it. When Seifer and Squall fight one-on-one, it basically comes down to who is having the better day. The two are probably so close that the slightest outside influence could make all the difference. If one of them is tired, the scales will tip in the other's favor. If one of them had been training for a few days whereas the other hadn't, then the one who was training is going to win. That sounds like the most logical assumption to me, considering the two of them were typically portrayed as being relatively equal to one another, anyway.

Well I've checked and it seems a few people, the people who have bothered to reply to the topics anyway, say Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken always misses bosses. You could argue that just proves they would kill the bosses and thus the game itself makes him miss to make the fighters harder.

Well...if it always misses bosses, then I'd have to say that it just isn't supposed to effect bosses. I mean, what else can they do except have it miss? They aren't going to program a unique reaction for each boss to use whenever Gilgamesh uses Zantetsuken when it's much easier to just have the attack miss. You could always try to justify it by saying that the bosses just evade the attack, but certain bosses are rather large and probably don't rely primarily on speed and agility during combat. From a storyline perspective, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be interpreted as "Zantetsuken doesn't kill the bosses."

Or from a storyline perspective it could mean "Zantetsuken will kill bosses so it just happens to miss every time." I mean, it never actualy hit any of them so you can't say it wouldn't effect them.

Now you're getting into the realm of uncertainty, though. This is a question that is genuinely impossible to answer because we never do see Gilgamesh hit anyone else with Zantetsuken in the storyline, and technically, it never does hit the bosses. Still, what else could they do? Typically, when something has no effect on a character (for example, if the enemy tries to cast a status-effect on a character who is immune to that particular status-effect), I believe the message that comes up is 'Miss.' Again, I could be wrong because I haven't played FF8 in a while, but if that's the case, I think it only makes sense that Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken "misses" the bosses because it doesn't have any effect on them.

Still, you could make an argument for either side, I suppose, but I think my explanation clears up the most plotholes. I mean, even if Seifer is stronger than Squall, how could he possibly have gotten that strong? By your logic, Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken could wipe out the likes of Adel, Griever, or any of Ultimecia's forms sans the last one. I highly doubt that Seifer is superior to any of them, considering how close he and Squall were portrayed as throughout most of the game. There's really no explanation for Seifer, a normal human, to become so powerful in such a short amount of time without any outside help. I just don't see how Seifer could survive something that could theoretically kill any boss in the game except for Ultimecia's final form, so I've reached the conclusion that Zantetsuken is simply too weak to effect the bosses from a storyline perspective.

Well, from a storyline perspective, Zantetsuken can "cut anything".


We also saw the sword simply whirling through the air slash through spacetime itself to cut a hole between dimensions.
I think it's a formiddable weapon from a storyline perspective and featless bosses like just regular Griever shouldn't be thought of as stronger.

Well, of course Zantetsuken is a powerful weapon. I'd go so far as to say that it could, in fact, probably defeat most of the bosses if it were actually usable during those fights. However, I don't think that it could beat Griever. It's true that we haven't actually seen Griever do anything all too impressive in cutscenes or FMV's (unless you count Shockwave Pulsar, which I can only assume is also pretty strong from a storyline perspective), but remember, Griever is described as the strongest Guardian Force. Considering Odin, himself, is a Guardian Force, he would be included in that statement. In other words, even when compared to Odin, Griever is still the most powerful Guardian Force.

While it's true that Zantetsuken can cut through anything, that doesn't neccessarily mean that Odin himself is the best fighter in the Final Fantasy VIII universe. I think Seifer proved that. The fact of the matter is, if someone can dodge Zantetsuken or simply strike Odin down first, he is just as defeatable as anyone else. Personally, I believe that the likes of Ultimecia would be able to do that. For example, Ultimecia could just strike him down from afar with magic, thus ending the fight before Griever can get close enough to use Zantetsuken in the first place. The same can be said for Edea, Adel, or pretty much any other sorceress/magic specialist. I'd say that Zantetsuken's biggest weakness is that it's a close-range weapon in a world where just about everyone can strike from a distance using magic.

So, in terms of raw power, Zantetsuken probably surpasses most of what the bosses can dish out from a storyline perspective. However, put Odin up against someone with incredible speed (Seifer) or who can use long-ranged attacks (Ultimecia, Adel, or even Rinoa), and he's probably going to have a pretty tough time. Of course, this is a JRPG, so having a close-range weapon probably isn't going to be thought of as a huge disadvantage, but you get what I'm saying here. Logically, a long-range fighter who has demonstrated incredible magical prowess should be able to take him out.

Then again, that's not really the argument here. We were, after all, discussing whether or not Seifer surviving Gilgamesh's Zantetsuken is an impressive feat. Personally, I think that it is an impressive feat, but not one that would put him above Squall (leastways not that far above him). I mean, really, can you honestly say that you think Seifer is more durable than Griever (who is a giant lion GF)? It just doesn't make sense. He shouldn't be able to survive something that could potentially wipe out a creature many times his size who isn't even human and probably isn't composed of flesh and blood to begin with.