Evil Players
The Evil Players are a group of optional bosses in Epic Battle Fantasy 5. As the name suggests, they are twisted counterparts of the playable cast; while they aren't officially named in the game, they have been dubbed "Evil Players" to distinguish them from their predecessors in Epic Battle Fantasy 4.
All of the Evil Players are found in the Temple of Trials, with four of them being found in the first room and the last one hiding in a separate plane accessed by a portal opened by defeating the first four. As such, they can only be fought after fighting all of the other superbosses in the bonus dungeons, but not necessarily all optional bosses.
Description
The Evil Players are foul renditions of the players themselves, cruel and twisted parodies that emphasize their darkest aspects. Drama aside, they are far more diverse than the Dark Players; each Evil Player has their own status effect and is a different type of entity. They are also far more capable of rational thought than the Dark Players, conversing with the party in battle and having their own personalities.
Each of the Evil Players automatically saddles the party with a major negative status effect intended to interfere with the player's standard tactics (with one exception). While the status effect wears off once the battle ends (via the party winning, fleeing, or dying), it cannot be resisted or cured for the duration of the battle. For more details, see the respective Evil Player's page.
- Matteus is a golem that exaggerates Matt's single-minded nature and penchant for trying to eat anything that seems even slightly edible. He inflicts
Stoned, which prevents Limit Breaks and forces an automatic Game Over in 15 turns; players need to go on the offensive and maximize damage output to beat the time limit. - Natalia is some sort of dark priestess - either an undead being or a necromancer - that represents Natalie's (mostly unsuccessful) efforts to be the party's moral compass. Her mere presence makes the party
Undead, reducing their Fire and Holy resistance by 100%; more concerning still, it completely nullifies healing from skills and statuses. As such, players can only heal themselves through other means, like food and instant-heal summons. - Lancelot is a robot whose devotion to stoic logic and cold efficiency surpasses Lance's values on the same. His
Repulsion effect prevents Summons and automatic equipment effects, forcing the party to do everything themselves. - Annabelle is a demon that takes Anna's job and combat skill as a Ranger and twists it into a bloodthirsty obsession for hunting and torturing sentient beings. Her signature ailment,
Brimstone, inverts all buffs into debuffs; as such, the players must rely on their own stats (with the exception of the Turtle Gi's low-HP buff). - Finally, God is a nigh-omnipotent entity that appears as whatever the observer expects him to be - in this case, an unassuming limbless cat like NoLegs. Unlike the other Evil Players, he helps the party by making them
Epic, which massively buffs all of their stats every single turn, but they'll need those boosts to even stand a chance against the ultimate being.
Like most foes, the Evil Players can be captured and used as summons by the party. They all use ludicrously powerful attacks that hit all foes for massive damage, fitting given their status as EBF5's final round of superbosses.
The Evil Players will respawn in the Temple of Trials after all five of them are defeated, which is useful for guaranteed (but difficult) item farming or having another go at capturing them if they were not the first time.
Members
Note that while God is not necessarily evil, he is still one of the superbosses squirreled away in the Temple of Trials, and as such is included as one of the Evil Players.