Image via Complex Original
Final Fantasy XIII-2 just dropped to mostly positive reviews. Gone are the mistakes of its predecessor. It’s no longer more linear than an episode of Full House and the battle system is quicker, leaner and pretty darned fun. Finally, we can appreciate the series again with little or no reservations (Let’s conveniently forget about XIV).
Now is the time to gaze down through the decades and recount the coolest and most cherished moments in final and fantastical history. Consider this the opening salvo in our celebration of its twenty five years on this Gaia earth.
Note: We will be sticking to the series proper here. The spin-offs have some cool moments, Tactics especially, but that is an article for another time. Also, this is going to have more spoilers than your loud coworker the day after Lost aired. Read at your own risk.
10. The Expendables
Game: Final Fantasy IV (1991)
Man. Final Fantasy IV is filled with so many character deaths there should have been a warning on the box. Perennial martial arts fave Yang locks himself in an exploding room. Palom and Porum turn themselves into stone. Cid hurls himself out of an airship. Tellah casts a self-deteriorating spell. Are you catching a theme? Self sacrifice is the name of the game here. Of course, most of these characters magically come back by the end of the game which sort of takes a bit of the sting out of their self-sacrificial luster. Hey, if it worked for Jesus.
9. The Journey Of Galuf
Game: Final Fantasy V (1992)
Gather around children and I'll tell you a tale as sad and ridiculous as time itself. There was once an old buffoon called Galuf. Nobody in his party took him seriously, including the higher power holding the game controller. It turns out this occasionally perverted amnesiac was not only king of the world you explore during the second half of the game but was responsible for saving the planet thirty years prior. Then he sacrificed his life in an epic battle with the arboreal villain Exdeath. Galuf's story was filled with the kinds of “oh snap” moments that makes playing these games so fun, imperfect translations and all.
8. Get A Job, Hippie
Game: Final Fantasy III (1990)
Certain fans credit the original title with creating the job system but for our money that honor rests with Final Fantasy III. Most of the standard professions started right here. Knights, thieves and dragoons are all present and accounted for. The game also originated the massive stat increases for the onion knight class once they achieved level 90. That's a lot of grinding, to be sure, but a crew of high level onion knights seriously cannot be stopped. Changing jobs in an RPG is just fun. If only it were so in real life.
7. Luke, I Am Your Father
Game: Final Fantasy X (2001)
If you are gonna crib, you may as well crib from the best. Throughout the entirety of Final Fantasy X, there was a question as to what happened to Tidus's father and why he abandoned him at a young age. Spira was entirely devoid of therapists so Tidus had to work out his daddy issues the old fashioned way, by martyring himself to save the world from absolute evil. That absolute evil, by the way, turned out to be his long lost father. Yikes. Where's a protocol droid when you need one?
6. Death Of An Aeris
Game: Final Fantasy VII (1997)
This was the moment you realized Final Fantasy had some brass chocobos. Killing off a top tier character right when she was, no doubt, becoming an invaluable member of your party? That's some serious stuff right there. It wasn't the first permanent video game death but it certainly was the most shocking. Plus it cemented Sephiroth as one of the baddest baddies in all of gaming. Not bad for a long-haired pretty boy.
5. When Gardens Attack
Game: Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
Don't we all wish high school rivalry culminated with schools transforming into Voltron-like beasts and taking to the sky for battle? That's so much cooler than stealing a lame mascot. That's also exactly what happens to your alma mater in Final Fantasy VIII, in one of the most beautiful cut-scenes of the era. You see, back in the days of the PS1, Square were the kings of pre-rendered video. There was no greater showcase of this than FF8. The smooth sci-fi aesthetic of the title really loaned itself to some amazing visuals and the garden brawl really stood out. You hear that? That's the sound of millions of pre-millennial jaws dropping to the floor.
4. Adventure Begins When The World Ends
Game: Final Fantasy VI (1994)
Some games really just want to screw with you. Much like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy VI is one such game. Just when you think you know the world backwards and frontwards, the villainous Kefka succeeds in his quest to destroy it. That's right. The dude commits planetary genocide. He's a walking Death Star. The rest of the game (20 hours or more) is spent acclimating yourself to this new and ruined world. It is truly a mind-blowing event for anybody playing it for the first time. They don't make 'em like they used to.
3. A Trip To The Theater
Game: Final Fantasy IX (2000)
Love it or hate it, Final Fantasy VIII was kind of, um, heavy. So when it came time to prep the ninth installment, Square wanted to keep things jokey. The humor starts right from the opening scene of the game, which tasks your party with putting on a play called "I Want to Be Your Canary." It's a sort of surreal take on Shakespeare that acts as a battle tutorial and as a way to introduce several of the protagonists. The whole thing just exuded charm and let you know the kind of experience you were getting yourself into. Also, is the title a Stooges reference? Cool!
2. Warriors Of Light Grow Up
Game: Final Fantasy (1987)
The original Final Fantasy created so many of the things that would become long-running tropes of the franchise. Airships, black wizards and, heck, even leveling up. One of the major plot points of the original FF was to have your party transform, sprites and all, from newbs to battle-ready warriors. This was a pretty big deal back in 1987, especially for teems of twelve year old boys who were undergoing their own, ahem, transformation. Final Fantasy IV gave a brilliant nod to this scene with Cecil's upgrade to Paladin toward the end of that game.
1. Seeing The World For The First Time
Game: Final Fantasy VII (1997)
The opening city of Final Fantasy VII, Midgar, is so sprawling and so epic that you almost forget there is a whole other world out there. It takes an average player around five or six hours to trawl through it and when you finally make your way out of the Shinra Building you are reminded of what makes this series so great. A whole world opens up around you for the first time, ready to be explored. It's sort of like those old ketchup commercials. Good things come to those who wait. Only an entire world is cooler than tomato-based condiments in our book. Turtle's Paradise probably has some stellar house-made ketchup anyways.
