Top Ten #1: Most Awesome Moments in a Final Fantasy Game. Part 1. -SPOILERS-

It only came as a realization recently, that you don't really play games in the Final Fantasy series for their deep and meaningful plotlines, but that's a rant for another time. That said however, the games often have a way of slipping certain moments into the main progression of the game that get you psyched out, pumped up, or just feeling awesome, invincible, on top of the world, etc. When the game does them,  it does them pretty damn well, and I figured that since this is a forum for getting all my gaming rants and rambles out, this would be as good a time as any to pick out the 10 most awesome moments from the final fantasy series. I warn you now, there are no moments from FFIII, XII or XIII. I have not played III or XIII, and XII was incredibly dry and not very rewarding.

#10 - Final Fantasy X: Discarding Yunalesca's Tradition

Final Fantasy X is the story of a young Blitzball player named Tidus whose world flips upside down in one crazy night, and finds himself in a foreign land in a distant time. He finds himself tagging along with a party of warriors who are escorting a Summoner from the remote village of Besaid, all the way to the dead city of Zanarkand. The purpose of the pilgrimage is to obtain the Final Summoning, and use it against a monster that comes around every 10 years known as Sin. Tidus grows to care about the summoner, a girl named Yuna, and agrees to become one of her Guardians during the pilgrimage. When it is learned that the summoner of the Final Summon always loses their life during the process, Tidus begins desperately looking for a way out of the situation. By the time they make it to Zanarkand, he still doesn't have an answer.

Near the end of the foray into Zanarkand, the group finds the chamber of the Final Aeon and with it, the first summoner: Yunalesca. The tradition states that Yunalesca has the power to grant the Final Aeon to a summoner, and that any summoner who wishes to fight sin must obtain this power from her. There is a terrible price for gaining the summon however. The Summoner must choose one of his or her closest companions to be made INTO the summon. The group is obviously not thrilled about this, and begin to question whether it is worth it or not. Certain individuals are willing enough to go through the ritual, but they don't want their sacrifice to be in vain. Yunalesca goes on and on about how the world's only hope is to rely on the final summon, and ride out the hard times and wait for the time of the Calm. Basically, she tells you that you must sacrifice yourself, even though it's a perpetually temporary solution.

O Rly?

Sit tight, it's about to get awesome!

The group decides as a whole, "nah fuck that." When they make apparent their will to find another way to destroy Sin, Yunalesca suddenly turns hostile, saying that it would be better to kill the party where they stand, so that they don't have to move on with the suffering of life in terror. At this point, the party takes up arms, and throws caution to the wind, and battles the woman who in the eyes of the world, is the only remaining hope for peace.

                                                             This is what a real man looks like.

You are treated to a cutscene where one of your party members, a twice-Guardian named Auron tells your party that they have to decide now whether they can actually go through with this and the choice to live or die is theirs and theirs alone. Of course the group bands together. The group goes through a long hectic 3-form boss, and come out on top, having sent Yunalesca to heaven/hell and seemingly dooming the world to extermination.


#9 - Final Fantasy II -  A Small Exhaust Port, 2 Meters Wide

In Final Fantasy II, you play from the perspective of Firion, a runaway from a village nearby to an expansionist Evil Empire. Firion and his three friends escape the clutches of the empire and make it to a nearby village who has allied themselves with an underground Rebel faction. Throughout the course of the game, Firion and his friends travel around the world, looking for materials or people, or taking missions to hinder or cripple the empire's forces. Missions get accomplished, friends are made and summarily lost, the Rebel Force grows more powerful, and all appears to be going well. That is, until the dreadnought happens.

The Dreadnought, as drawn from real-life history, is a massive battleship that the empire constructs in response to the Rebel scum's actions. The ship flies over towns and suspected hideaways, virtually bombing the shit out of anything it comes across that doesn't have the Empire's logo on it. The town that Firion and crew initially ran to is among the first victims of this massive war machine.

Sit tight, it's about to get awesome!

 Couldn't agree more, Porkins!



The Rebel faction, already pissed off by tyranny, is now having to deal with some asshole bombing their towns and killing their doods. So what do they do? They come to a unanimous decision: "Fuck your boat." Firion and his friends hitch up their gear, grab a red bull, and charge off to the town where the Dreadnought is kept while it's taking its naps. They manage to sneak their way into the ship, navigate the maze of passageways and doors (who constructs a warship like this?!), and find a good spot to place a couple of bombs to take this abomination out.

Score One for Democracy!

That's what they get for not evacuating in their moment of triumph.

#8  -Final Fantasy IV: Dark Knight No Longer

Final Fantasy IV (II, when first released in the USA on the Super Nintendo), was an interesting game, because you actually start out on the side of the evil empire. Cecil Harvey is a Dark Knight, and the commander of the Kingdom of Baron's Airship Fleet: The Red Wings. At the start of the game, we see Cecil and his crew on a mission to the city of Mysidia, a peaceful town that spends much of its time researching and perfecting the magical arts. Until Baron's forces charge into the town, slaughtering everyone in their path, and crash their way until they reach the depths of the Elder's house where a magical Crystal is being held suspended on a pedestal in a room made of glass. Cecil and crew show no mercy to those who oppose them and when they finish their task, they fully withdraw, leaving behind a broken town.

Cecil doesn't necessarily agree to this however, and questions his King on his motives. This isn't taken well, and Cecil is demoted and told to, without his knowledge, eliminate a nearby town of summoners. After finally seeing his King's true character, Cecil leaves Baron and seeks to find the other crystals and protect them.

 But Cecil, she has green hair! It's mercy!

Events carry Cecil and the friends he makes onto a boat to Baron which then gets attacked by the fabled summon Leviathan. When Cecil wakes up, He finds himself stranded on a beach nearby to, guess where, Mysidia! When he enters the town, all of the inhabitants curse him and spit at him, and certain townsfolk will even turn him into a pig, a frog, or a pint-sized Dark Knight. However, he moves towards the Elder's home and apologizes to him directly. The Elder is a better man than I could ever be, because he lends an ear to Cecil, stating that he seems remorseful, and not the same as he once was. The Elder makes Cecil a deal: Become a Paladin, and you will have my forgiveness.

It becomes very clear as you climb Mt. Ordeals, the home of the Paladin, that the powers that be do NOT want Cecil to succeed. His Dark Knight's sword is worthless against the majority of the enemies, and a very frightful figure is thrown directly in Cecil's way.

Sit tight, it's about to get awesome!

Even with the Archfiend of Earth, Scarmiglione in the way, Cecil takes up arms, charges forward, and starts singing to himself, "Ain't nothin gonna break my stride." Cecil and his new party members defeat Scarmiglione, twice, and make their way into the tomb of the Paladins. As Cecil approaches the crystalline back wall, he sees himself in the reflection, but becomes confused when the reflection starts speaking to him. After a brief conversation, the image in the crystal deems Cecil worthy of walking the Path of Light, and removes the dark past from his sword.

Pala. Pala! Paladin! HOOOOOOO!

Now that he walks the Path of Light, Cecil gets himself ready to charge back into the Castle Baron and set things right. Fuck yea! Time for the game to get serious!

#7 - Final Fantasy VIII - The Landing: 50% of Your Grade.

In Final Fantasy VIII, you play an aspiring SeeD named Squall Leonhart. SeeD are elite task forces sent from locations named "Garden", whose sole purpose are to teach and train young kids to be efficient mercenaries and war machines. Yeah, I know. In the beginning of the game, we see Squall dueling with another trainee named Seifer, the two very clearly hate each other and give each other permanent wounds before the opening scene is even finished. We see that after Squall recovers, he still has some homework to do, so his instructor joins his party briefly and takes him to the nearby Fire Cavern, home of  the Guardian Force Ifrit! How is this an assignment?!

SHOOOOW YOOOOUR WOOOOORK

Anyways, after subduing and recruiting the summon, Squall is told to go back to his dorm and change into his school-issued trainee uniform and report to the main hall for his final exam. Squall does so, meets up with his instructor and is introduced to him team. His team is a three man cell comprised of him, a loudmouth idiot named Zell, and it's led by *gasp* Seifer?! No way! Way. The three of them jump into a car and drive to the nearby port town of Balamb, and jump into a small 5 or 6-man armored speedboat and take off to their exam destination. Once they're on the water, they learn that their mission is to storm the beaches of the Dukedom of Dollet, and assist their troops against the invading forces of the Galbadian army. Some exam.

Sit tight, it's about to get awesome!

So after the explanation of the mission, some light banter, and the introduction of the phrase "Chicken-Wuss", we're treated to a nice little cutscene of the SeeD making their approach.

Everyone calm the fuck down. I got this.

As well as we are treated to one of the best musical tracks in the game, all in the first hour of the game! The SeeD vessels all speed forth, crashing through barricades, taking fire, and slam into the beach where a war zone has erupted. Bombs are bursting, guns blazing, and the people getting off the boats aren't even recognized soldiers yet. So in you run, following your reckless leader, cleaning out the enemy forces within the city quite handily, and basically being the most badass a 17 year old could ever hope to be. As you close the distance to the enemy's objective, you battle with one of their commanders, a comical fellow, and shortly thereafter receive the order to retreat to the shore. Just as you're about to make your way back though, the enemy commander sends a giant mechanized Spider to chase you through the city. As you run about halfway out, the game switches to cutscene mode. Your party is frantically fleeing through the city, the spider is breaking down walls, smashing cars, basically doing as much damage as the actual battle. Just as Squall is about to jump into the vessel and sail away, it looks like the Spider is about to get him until your instructor shoots the ever loving shit out of him with the boat's built-in Gatling gun.

Not-so-awesome side note: Y'know, some of the students FAILED this test. Do they have to wait for the next war to break out in order to be accepted as soldiers?

#6 - Final Fantasy VI - The Epitaph of Darryl

Final Fantasy VI is another Rebellion vs. Empire story, which doesn't have so much of a main character as earlier installments of the game. You start off play with Terra, but as she gains more allies, you begin to play out scenes in the game from their perspectives, and the storyline branches out in several different directions until a point where the group can meet each other once more.

Near the end of the first "half" of the game, one of the Empire's generals, a man named Kefka, betrays a fellow soldier to gain the power of ancient creatures known as Espers. These creatures' essences are harvested in order to infuse people with the ability to cast magic. Through his betrayal, Kefka is able to capture scores of them and elevates his and his emperor's power to such a point, where they lift an entire chunk of a continent off the face of the planet and into the sky. At the end of the floating continent sequence, Kefka's madness furthers itself and he betrays his own Emperor and kicks him off the edge of the floating island. He then proceeds to imbue himself with the magic that had been keeping the world in balance, which is then upset. The world starts to fall apart, lands are sundered, your airship gets totally destroyed, and the entire face of the world is changed.

Note the distinct lack of an Emperor in panel two

Of course this is a Final Fantasy, so the game can't end there! When control comes back to us, we have control of a former soldier of the Empire, Celes Chere. She is stranded on an island alone with the man who was her mentor from a young age forth. He helps her get off of the island by giving her a raft, and she sails her way back to the mainland continents. As she wanders on, she finds a few of her friends, some come with her and others do not. As things continue to look hopeless, the small group happens upon their airship pilot, Setzer. As mentioned before, Setzer's airship was completely lost during the apocalypse and since then, he's been boozing it up in a local bar. The group meets him and talks a bit of sense into him, and a plan begins to hatch in his head. He merely gets up, rejoins the party, and directs them to a small cave near the town.

When you enter the cave, the name bar shows it as being "Darryl's Tomb." Who the heck is Darryl? The group travels deeper and deeper into the tomb, fighting off the Dullahan that plagues it, and enters into a long expository staircase. Here we see the sad story of Setzer, who at this point in the story became one of my favorite characters in the game. You learn that his airship was not the only one in the world. There was once a woman with whom Setzer was romantically involved named Darryl. Both of them were airship pilots and both had undying faith in their own ships. One day Setzer and Darryl were racing around the world, and Setzer lost. After the contest, Darryl said she was going to break all of the records and fly closer to the moon than anyone ever had before.

The scene then cuts to Setzer standing by himself at their meeting spot, staring out at the sunset and he tells how he waited there for her all night but never saw her again, as well as he found the remains of her ship a year later.

Don't do it, man!

Sad yet? Well sit tight, it's about to become awesome!

As the group reaches the bottom of the staircase, Setzer reveals that he gathered up the remains of Darryl's ship, reconstructed it, and then buried it with her in this tomb. Now his memories of her may be the only thing that can save the world now. For the first time since the apocalypse, the group feels hopeful, like maybe they can start to fix everything. As the ship starts up, it moves forward and up out of the ocean, and the new airship music begins to play, a hopeful theme that plays any time you fly the falcon. Finally, your mission becomes clear to you. Find your friends, prepare yourself, and destroy that madman Kefka. With the Falcon, anything is possible.