(continued)

"So, Andross, you reveal your true form!"
You will have to kill the evil villain at least twice at the end of the game. First the villain will look like a person or some creature and be rather easy to kill. Then he will grow to about 50 times the hero's size and be much harder to kill.

In Your Face, Jesus!
Even if you manage to deal with him that time, you're not done -- the villain will then transform into his final form, which is always an angelic winged figure with background music remixed for ecstatic chorus and pipe organ.

* In Your Face Corollary (Kuja Rule)
If the person you thought was the main villain through 99.9% of the game dies in the first battle, then you know you're about to face a hidden evil villain that was never even hinted about throughout the course of the game, and you had no clue existed until now.

If I Cannot Rule The World, There Will Be No World To Rule
During the last battle, the villain may destroy the world or even the entire solar system just to get you. Do not be alarmed: since the world is generally none the worse for wear afterwards, these attacks seem to be largely illusionary. They still hurt like the dickens, though.

The Moral Of The Story (Ghaleon Rule)
Every problem in the universe can be solved by finding the right long-haired prettyboy and beating the crap out of him.

WEAPON Rule
There's always a hidden creature who is much harder to defeat than even the ultimate bad guy's final, world-annihilating form. It's lucky for all concerned that this hidden creature prefers to stay hidden rather than trying to take over the world himself, because he'd probably win. As a corollary, whatever reward you get for killing the hidden creature is basically worthless because by the time you're powerful enough to defeat him, you don't need it any more.

The Ultimate Rule
Anything called "Ultima (whatever)" or "Ultimate (whatever)" isn't. There's always at least one thing somewhere in the world which is even more.