Final Fantasy 14's battle content designer Masayoshi Ishikawa says that he put Absolute Virtue in Windurst: The Third Walk just to show how strong Shantotto is. He also jokes that the menace could've been the first boss of Windurst if Shantotto hadn't destroyed it in the pre-fight cutscene.
In an interview with Famitsu, Ishikawa discusses the ways he tried to show Shantotto's strength in the finale to the Final Fantasy 11 crossover, Echoes of Vana'diel. Despite being the first boss of Windurst: The Third Walk, Ishikawa wanted her to appear particularly powerful.
As translated by GamesRadar+, Ishikawa says, "As she's the first boss, there are limits on how strong we can make her. In the distance Meteor rains down in the middle of the fight exploding in chaos, and as she casts a large number of mage actions, FF14 players can easily tell 'this is a powerful black mage.' She shows her strength in a number of ways, like the dynamic way Quake raises walls up from the ground."
However, it's not the damage she deals in battle that best demonstrates how formidable she is, but who she defeats before the fight with her even begins. "The cherry on top is that she defeats Absolute Virtue in the cutscene before the battle starts," Ishikawa explains with a chuckle.
The interviewer then asks Ishikawa if Absolute Virtue would have been Windurst's first boss if that cutscene didn't exist. "Could've been," Ishikawa replies with a chuckle. He shouldn't have teased us with a good time.
Absolute Virtue stands as one of Final Fantasy 11's most infamous bosses due to how hard it once was. To be honest, at the peak of its powers, it was probably among the hardest super bosses you could face in the whole Final Fantasy series.
In the years following its release, Square Enix got heat for discounting teams for not beating it by legit means. While the devs did eventually release some tips on how to topple the beast, they eventually conceded and nerfed Absolute Virtue. Mind you, it did take us a few years to get to that point.
