20. Sin Attacks Zanarkand (X)
'This is it. This is your story. It all begins here'
The year was 2001 and a human voice had been heard in a Final Fantasy game for the first time, though somewhat surprisingly it was uttered by the vocalist of a heavy metal group. A man is shown playing Blitzball in a dome of water, before the scene pans out to another man standing on the edge of an elevated point in the city of Zanarkand. In time, players would learn that the two were Tidus and Auron respectively, two of Final Fantasy X's playable characters, but for now they were merely the centrepieces of an incredible cinematic sequence. Out of nowhere, a large wave approaches the city that the two inhabit, in which is the being that will soon be revealed as Sin. The landscape is then suddenly and completely obliterated, starting the game in stunning fashion as players are left on the edge of their seats, eager to begin what will become a one hundred hour project. Such high scale graphics had never been seen in the series before, making the scene doubly impressive. It will certainly be one to look out for once again when the game is re-released in HD later this year.
19. Lost In The Music (Various)
One of the standouts of the Final Fantasy series, without a shadow of a doubt, is the music. Almost every scene in every release has been accompanied by a beautiful and fitting musical accompaniment for which one man is predominantly responsible pictured composer Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu was responsible for the creation of almost every track featured in Final Fantasies I through X, where it was almost always an enjoyable experience to temporarily ignore game progression at the expense of listening to one of his compositions. He left the company in 2004, resulting in subsequent games in the series having somewhat underwhelming scores, though his successors have been responsible for the occasional great composition. The music of Uematsu and his fellow composers has been used for Olympic routines, mixed into more mainstream compositions (such as Rock the House by Dutch DJ Afrojack) and voted into the Classic FM Hall of Fame (beating works such as Barber's Adagio For Strings, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Mozart's Requiem), amongst other things, so it is only right that enjoyment of it should feature as one of the franchise's defining moments. For those unfamiliar with it, here is a list of twenty five great pieces to get you started:
Chaos Shrine (Uematsu, from I),
The Dark Crystals (Uematsu, from III),
The Final Battle (Uematsu, from IV),
Clash On The Big Bridge (Uematsu, from V),
Aria Di Mezzo Caraterre (Uematsu, from VI),
Celes' Theme (Uematsu, from VI),
Forever Rachel (Uematsu, from VI),
Terra's Theme (Uematsu, from VI),
Aeris' Theme (Uematsu, from VII),
Judgement Day (Uematsu, from VII),
One Winged Angel (Uematsu, from VII),
J-E-N-O-V-A (Uematsu, from Advent Children),
The Burdened (Ishimoto and Toyama, from Crisis Core),
Rivals (Uematsu, from VIII),
The Extreme (Uematsu, from VIII),
The Landing (Uematsu, from VIII),
The Oath (Uematsu, From VIII),
Dark Messenger (Uematsu, from IX),
You're Not Alone (Uematsu, from IX),
Ending Theme (Uematsu, from X),
To Zanarkand (Uematsu, from X),
Memories Of Lightwaves (Matsueda and Eguchi, from X-2),
Zanarkand Ruins (Matsueda and Eguchi, from X-2),
Blinded By Light (Hamauzu, from XIII),
Shock! (Sakimoto and Iwata, from Tactics)
18. Vivi's Fate (IX)
'I'm so happy I met everyone... I wish we could've gone on more adventures. But I guess we all have to say goodbye someday'
After he discovers that he was created solely as an instrument of warfare, the character of Vivi begins to question the meaning of life (insert obligatory '42' reference here) as Final Fantasy IX progresses, learning from a number of other sentient mages that live in a forest village outside of Kuja's control that other members of their kind have 'stopped', usually around a year after their creation. Though it is suggested that, as a prototype, Vivi may live longer (the game's manual actually lists him as being nine years old, though no mention of this is made in the game itself), he comes to accept his fate and tries to make something of the time he has left by successfully opposing Kuja with rest of the party. Several of his species appear in the ending, conversing with Puck, a character Vivi met at the start of the game, and declaring themselves as his sons, though Vivi himself is noticeably absent. This, combined with the fact that he appears to be narrating proceedings (saying personal farewells to each individual character in the process) makes it apparent that he has died by this point, though it undoubtedly goes over many players' heads given the distraction that Zidane's return brings. Given that he is one of the most loved characters in the history of the franchise, it's somewhat depressing to realise that Vivi has passed away unceremoniously off screen, but the black mage's narration indicates that he has no regrets about the life he has lived.
17. Fratricide (T)
'F-farewell, my brother. And...Thank you'
Final Fantasy Tactics initially seems to imply that Zalbaag is the more malevolent of lead character Ramza's half brothers, being complicit in the death of his best friend Delita's sister, though the revelation that Dycedarg is the man behind the murderous intentions of Gaffgarion suggests that they are both as bad as one another. Zalbaag later meets with Ramza once again, refusing to believe of Dycedarg's involvement in any sort of plot, though he begins to formulate his own suspicions about his brother when Dycedarg kills the man they have been fighting for, Duke Larg, and puts himself in a position to assume the regency of Ivalice's throne. With his last words, Larg informs Zalbaag that Dycedarg was responsible for the death of their father. He discovers the accusation to be true, as well as the fact that his brother is in league with the Knights Templar, and confronts Dycedarg about his actions, killing him only to then witness his transformation into a Lucavi demon. Dycedarg effortlessly kills his brother in this new form, though his half-brother Ramza subsequently arrives and manages to get the better of him, mourning little for his passing. Ramza appears to be the last male in the Beoulve line, until Zalbaag is revived as an undead being by the Templar's leader Folmarv. Unable to control his actions, he attacks his younger half-sibling, but retains control of his voice, imploring Ramza to end his life before he can hurt him. Ramza succeeds, prompting Zalbaag to express regret and apologise for the actions he was responsible for in life before passing. The loss is a crushing one, but the revelation that Ramza had at least one honourable half-brother is a ray of light in a period of the game marred by dark happenings.
16. The World Is Yours (I)
'There is a legend that says a ship that flies in the sky, called an "Airship," is buried somewhere...'
The original Final Fantasy begins on a small landmass that is sufficient to contain merely the Kingdom of Cornelia and the Chaos Shrine in which the four heroes defeat Garland for the first time and rescue Cornelia's Princess, Sarah. Out of gratitude, Cornelia's King orders the reparation of a broken drawbridge, allowing players to access and explore another section of the map before they take possession of boat and then a canoe to reach more areas. This combined with storyline developments then allows the leading quartet to discover an ancient piece of technology that will grant them access to the remaining areas of the world, something that has become as strongly associated with the series as Chocobos and Cactuars an airship! Airships have appeared in every game of the franchise (though the removal of the world map in recent games means they can't actually be flown manually any more), but never has the acquisition of an airborne vessel been more memorable than the first time, when players were given the unfamiliar freedom to traverse a large virtual world at their leisure and discover hidden content (in an era before the internet was available to reveal everything).