Apollo



Apollo is the main antagonist of SaGa II/Final Fantasy Legend II. He is named after the Greek god of the Sun.

Story
Not much is known about Apollo's past in the original, but the DS remake hints that he was once a normal human transformed by the Magi and has a history with Father. He is first met in the fourth realm, which he rules as a benevolent figure and is well loved by his subjects. When the party meets him, he tells them he has no interest in MAGI and hands over the pieces he has. He then comes to the party's aid a few times and is met during the dragon races which he holds.

In truth, Apollo seeks all the Magi in the world; and he is the leader of the forces that keep trying to steal Magi and fight the Guardians. waits patiently until the heroes of the story collect all but one (which he keeps safe himself). Once the heroes have accomplished this task Apollo appears to them and demands they hand over all Magi to him. When they refuse Apollo sends two powerful monsters on them only for the heroes to defeat them, however Apollo uses his godlike powers to threaten the lives of all the companions the heroes had made during their journey. In order to save their companions the heroes give Apollo all of the Magi and he gloats, telling them all that they may serve him, calling himself the only god. The heroes try to plead with Apollo that using the Magi will destabilize the world but he simply laughs at what he views as silly rumors and teleports away.

However Apollo's plan was not full proof as a revelation was made that there was a hidden Magi outwith Apollo's grasp and the heroes seek it out. Apollo is thus confronted by the heroes again within his temple as he tries to obtain true godhood and they engage him in battle, however due to the level of power he absorbed he was able to take on a secondary form and rapidly began to mutate until he violently exploded in a last ditch effort to kill the party. Father takes the blast in their stead and is killed. Apollo's abuse of the Magi caused the Arsenal to become active and thus triggered the final confrontation of the game.

Battle
Apollo is fought as a boss in the entrance way to the final world in SaGa 2. His battle is scripted, but it is still possible to lose if the player allows Apollo to overpower them. When the battle begins, Apollo will do nothing but speak to the party while trying out some of the Magi he's acquired like Aegis and Masemune. Once he gets serious, he transforms into a garuda form and will begin pelting the party with high powered attacks and spells like Flare. After several rounds, Apollo will eventually realize something is wrong and begin to transform into a horrible melted form before he tries to use a suicide to take the party with him.

The player has two options to win the fight. They can either stock up on Healing Rods and Cure spells and simply use defensive gear like shields, tanks, and the Defender sword to offset the high damage with liberal use of healing, or they can try to speed the fight up by attacking Apollo and reducing his HP faster.

Trivia

 * Apollo's battle sprite is a slightly altered Magician sprite from the original SaGa.
 * His second form is of Garuda, who is a Hindu deity that is both the god of birds and associated with the Sun, coinciding nicely with the Greek counterpart that is his namesake.