10 Best Fight Scenes In Gaming History

2. Final Fantasy XVI - Clive Vs. Every Eikon

Final Fantasy VII Cloud Sephiroth
Square Enix

It's unfair to label Final Fantasy XVI a one-trick pony. Clive's decades-spanning story is one of the best Square has ever delivered in a mainline series entry, after all, but no matter how favourably the narrative is compared to the works of George R. R. Martin, it's the Eikon encounters littering its runtime that are going to be remembered long after its release.

The sense of spectacle when facing off against Garuda, Bahamut, Odin and the rest of Final Fantasy's iconic summons is unparalleled. That's not hyperbole, either. The sheer amount of cheddar Square invested in bringing each of Clive's (and, by proxy, Ifrit's) major skirmishes to life must have been astronomical, and it was money well spent.

The highlight has to be during the midway point, where Clive finally gets to enact revenge on Titan's dominant, Hugo Kupka. From beginning to end, the grudge match endures for well over an hour, deploying one outlandish set piece after another. It's impossible to not involuntarily grin and laugh in disbelief as the literal earth-shattering entanglement refuses to end again and again, providing pure visual and audial ecstacy, the latter coming courtesy of Masayashi Soken's thumping soundtrack.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.