100. Vegnagun Destroys Spira (X-2)
'All of Spira is finished!'
One of the most awe-inspiring scenes in Final Fantasy X-2 happens to be one that a significant number of players will never actually see. In the game's final battles, the player's party are pitted against Vegnagun, an ancient weapon of mass destruction (Hans Blix must've missed it) controlled by Shuyin, an 'unsent' (a dead soul that hasn't passed on to the afterlife and can continue passing for one of the living). Tormented by a thousand years of anger and grief, he wishes to destroy Spira and reunite with his long-lost love, Lenne, who was killed alongside him when he attempted to locate Vegnagun for the first time a thousand years prior in an attempt to prematurely end the war between the cities of Bevelle and Zanarkand. Should the player fall in one of these battles, the game is not content to merely flash to a 'game over' screen. Instead, they are shown the consequences of their failure as the world is obliterated and the innocent people within it are vaporised. Its heavy stuff for a hidden scene that I personally didn't even know existed for several years, having never fallen to Vegnagun in combat during my playthroughs of the game.
99. Laguna The Ladykiller (VIII)
'Uh-oh... My leg's cramping up! Argh!'
Aaaaand we're back to comedy, this time starring Laguna Loire, the secondary protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII whose story predates Squall's by a number of years and is told predominantly through dreams that are forced upon the player's party at different points of the storyline by an initially unknown source. In the first of these sequences, the impulsive and fearless (if clumsy) Galbadian soldier Laguna is coaxed into talking to Julia, a beautiful lounge pianist that he is attracted to, by his friends and comrades-in-arms Kiros and Ward. You'd think that he'd be confident, but instead he repeatedly embarrasses himself with his awkwardness, failing to approach Julia on his first attempt due to his 'leg cramping up', which earns him much banterous mockery from his fellow men. Eventually he somehow manages to secure an invitation to her room (to the disbelief of many, I'm sure), yet despite continuing to cut a pathetic figure with his nervousness he and Julia share stories of their dreams, with Laguna wishing to retire from the military and become a journalist. Their story takes a more depressing turn when their budding romance is cut short by war, but Laguna's 'pulling' technique is nothing short of hilarious, ranking amongst the funniest Final Fantasy moments and resonating with players who have ever found themselves in similarly awkward situations.
98. A Perfect File (Various)
A perfectionist is defined by dictionary.com as 'a person who adheres to perfectionism', which is in turn defined as 'a personal standard, attitude, or philosophy that demands perfection and rejects anything less'. In gaming terms, therefore, perfectionists are individuals that seek to achieve absolutely everything that is possible to achieve within a game. When faced with a Final Fantasy title, such people are not merely content to defeat a game's final boss and be done with it, instead seeking to complete every side quest, maximise the levels (and possibly stats) of their characters, learn every possible ability, acquire every possible item, complete every bestiary entry and obtain every trophy/achievement (in later games) amongst other things. Because of the sheer amount of content that each release in the series features, the obtainment of a perfect file is a daunting task, particularly as each game has its fair share of missable content (in the form of items, quests and such). It is a rewarding one; however, as players that succeed can come to the realisation that they have exhausted absolutely everything from their chosen title.
97. Beatrix Turns On Brahne (IX)
'That was ridiculous...My troops alone would've been more than enough to take Cleyra. Why does the queen insist on using black mages and eidolons? I didn't train all these years so I could take a backseat to anyone...'
The character of Beatrix is first seen early on in the events of Final Fantasy IX, but her true introduction doesn't come until towards the end of the game's first disc, where the swordswoman participates in the nation of Alexandria's attack on the Kingdom of Burmecia, effortlessly defeating the player's party in battle when they step up to defend a hopeless soldier. She then participates in her country's destruction of Cleyra (defeating the party in battle again), but despite her unwavering loyalty to Alexandria's Queen, Brahne, and merciless obliteration of her enemies, she begins to question the highly destructive actions of her monarch, particularly after she floats the idea of executing Princess Garnet, her own daughter. This prompts one of the series finest heel-face turns when the party arrives in Alexandria with the intention of rescuing Garnet from such a fate, as Beatrix opts to side with the forces of good and team (somewhat ironically) with Freya, the dragon knight whose home (Burmecia) she had a heavy part in the defeat of, to fend off Brahne's other minions and create an escape route for Garnet and her rescuers.
96. The Coin Toss (VI)
'Sabin... Let's settle this with the toss of a coin. Dad gave me this one'
Final Fantasy VI is very much a character-driven piece and given that the game features no fewer than fourteen playable party members, it has its fair share of crowning character moments. The characters of Edgar and Sabin are twin brothers, with the former serving as the flirtatious King of the nation of Figaro and the latter existing as a dedicated martial artist who hasn't been seen in the ten years prior to the game's beginning. Events inevitably bring them together once again though, later revealing the emotional event that drove them apart via a flashback. Following the death of their father, each brother had an equal claim to the throne, though only one could take the job. Neither wanted it, wishing to leave the corrupt world of royalty and politics behind, but knowing that it was their duty, Edgar proposed a coin toss to decide the matter, with the seemingly fair stipulation that if it was tails, he would become King, whilst if it was heads, Sabin would be crowned. Knowing that his brother wished more strongly for freedom than he did, Edgar is shown to have rigged the toss, using a two-tailed coin to ensure that he would be left with the burden of running the Kingdom, allowing his beloved brother to depart without ever learning of his trickery.