Favourite End Sequence?

Simple enough – which Final Fantasy end sequence (or Fantasies, if you can’t settle on just one), do you like the most and/or which meant the most to you?

Now, the later games obviously have the best graphics, but there’s more to a good end sequence than just good looks. For me, a good end sequence needs to satisfactorily wrap things up storywise, and characterwise, and do so in a way that repays all the effort you put in to get it.

And let’s be honest, you need to be engaged with the game to get much out of even the best end sequences. If you just didn’t care about the final encounter, or the characters etc, its highly unlikely that the end sequence will change your opinion.

Basically, try to seperate the ones you think are actually the best from the ones that you personally felt the most connection to. They may be one and the same thing, but equally they may not. Just because you love one of the games, shouldn’t excuse a terrible end sequence (FF7 springs to mind).

So, with no further ado, here’s my favourite:

Final Fantasy 8
Still my favourite end sequence for a Final Fantasy, even though it breaks almost all of my above rules for what makes a good end sequence! But that’s understandable I think, because Final Fantasy 8 can be summed up as a whole by saying ‘This makes absolutely no sense, I don’t understand it at all… but its awesome!’

The sequence is very light on details when it comes to what happens with the characters. It sort of vaguely intimates that everyone lived happily ever after, despite how unlikely that would be (firing missiles at and performing armed seiges on schools, the murder of countless scores of innocents, torturing prisoners etc apparently isn’t a jailable offence for Seifer!)

The main plot is left completely unexplained (the characters themselves routinely confess they have no idea what is going on during Discs 3+4, with regard to who Ultimecia actually is, why she really wants to do this Time compression, how and why Ellone can send people through time etc etc).

But as with the rest of the game, I just loved it, despite how incomprehensible and awkward it was. Even now, the visuals and the sound impress, not just on a technical level, but in their ambition and ability to be sweeping and truly epic one moment, utterly bonkers crazy the next (Squall’s immersion in the time warp loop), then touchingly heartfelt and charming (Selphie and Irvine’s camcorder of the celebrations) to finish.

The time warp sequence is particularly good, and its just so freaky watching the screen jolt and reset, with Rinoa melting and morphing, thunderous guns echoing around you to the strains of classical music, then screams and blitzes of images from the game (especially the spidertron that suddenly appears and clanks straight at you).

Final Fantasy 8 may require you to lobotomise parts of your brain to understand it in the later sections, and there’s no denying it has a titantic slump from Disc 3 onwards, where it goes from high concept, high intensity, ultra ambitious spectacle and character work, to just being near gibberish.

An invisible city that’s technologically centuries ahead of the rest of the world, and space, and time travel, and body swapping, and dimension warping, and closed destiny loops, a villain with no apprent motive, in a castlevania castle that flies – in the far future!

So the fact that the ending is similarly bizarre and unlikely comes as no surprise at all. But it taps into that crazed energy this game has, where the director (who was presumably naked, giggling to himself and beating off whilst writing all this), plainly just splurged his imagination onto the screen, signed his name and went home.

Its crazy, but I’ll take crazy over boring anytime.

So, anyone else up for sharing?

Final Fantasy VI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xld0vsX9ynM#t=04m45s)

It’s the complete opposite of VIII, in that it ties everything together, gives a satisfying thematic coda to all of the characters, and uses the spectacular, blow-out finale medley to deliver all of the triumph and sadness and nostalgia that the ending to such an expansive game needed.

Final Fantasy 9, it ties everything together and is just played to perfection.

Unsurprisingly, VI.

The video tape ending of VIII gets an honorable mention. Selphie in Irvine’s hat and Zell choking give me the warm and fuzzies.

VIII, IX and X and by a pretty big margin.

I can’t even remember FF6’s end sequence at all. I remember Kefka sort of blowing up, and there was some CGI sequences which confused me, because they were from scenes earlier in the game (why they didn’t insert them at the appropriate times, I don’t know…)

I think I’ll download it tonight and give it another playthrough. I remember it being quite good, but its shocking how little I remember of that game.

VII – Flame me Haters…

Or if it counts the pre and after staff roll credits of FFT.

VII’s is pretty awesome. The final, final bit with Red XIII that is. Brilliant decision by the writers.

FF X after credits. The game ended with a lot of room for interpretation letting the player form his own ending….. of course before FF X-2 ruined everything.

Or saved everything, depending on your view of FFX 😀

Dead thread, I beseech you, awaken once more!!!!

. . . Anyhow, I’ll rank my favorite endings in order from fave to least fave:

1. FFVI – Loved the resolution and tribute each character gets before their final sendoff into the annals of our memories forever~
2. FFIX – Having redone the ending seven (or ten, can’t remember which) times, SE hit the nail on the head. Truly an emotional overflow that concludes the amazing journey perfectly.
3. FFX – Dammit Tidus, don’t go ; ; Yuna needs you!!!
4. FFIV – The very first videogame I beat and felt truly accomplished having beaten.
5. FFXII – The game is a mixed bag of emotions but the ending sums it all up nicely, IMO.
6. FFV – Not much to say, just a decent end to a somewhat predictable story 🙂
7. FFIII – The ONLY one I’ve yet to beat, so no comment.
8. FFII – Leon and Kain mirror one another in this ending and IV’s. Thought it was rather nice.
9. FFVIII – ‘Meh’ ending to an awesome game. Kinda underwhelming compared to what I expected, but good enough nonetheless 😉
10. FFI – Nothing too special, but just fine for its time 🙂
11. FFVII – . . . Okay, fine, didn’t wanna know what happened to the characters anyway :/ Except maybe Red XIII.

Simple enough – which Final Fantasy end sequence (or Fantasies, if you can’t settle on just one), do you like the most and/or which meant the most to you?

Now, the later games obviously have the best graphics, but there’s more to a good end sequence than just good looks. For me, a good end sequence needs to satisfactorily wrap things up storywise, and characterwise, and do so in a way that repays all the effort you put in to get it.

And let’s be honest, you need to be engaged with the game to get much out of even the best end sequences. If you just didn’t care about the final encounter, or the characters etc, its highly unlikely that the end sequence will change your opinion.

Basically, try to seperate the ones you think are actually the best from the ones that you personally felt the most connection to. They may be one and the same thing, but equally they may not. Just because you love one of the games, shouldn’t excuse a terrible end sequence (FF7 springs to mind).

So, with no further ado, here’s my favourite:

Final Fantasy 8
Still my favourite end sequence for a Final Fantasy, even though it breaks almost all of my above rules for what makes a good end sequence! But that’s understandable I think, because Final Fantasy 8 can be summed up as a whole by saying ‘This makes absolutely no sense, I don’t understand it at all… but its awesome!’

The sequence is very light on details when it comes to what happens with the characters. It sort of vaguely intimates that everyone lived happily ever after, despite how unlikely that would be (firing missiles at and performing armed seiges on schools, the murder of countless scores of innocents, torturing prisoners etc apparently isn’t a jailable offence for Seifer!)

The main plot is left completely unexplained (the characters themselves routinely confess they have no idea what is going on during Discs 3+4, with regard to who Ultimecia actually is, why she really wants to do this Time compression, how and why Ellone can send people through time etc etc).

But as with the rest of the game, I just loved it, despite how incomprehensible and awkward it was. Even now, the visuals and the sound impress, not just on a technical level, but in their ambition and ability to be sweeping and truly epic one moment, utterly bonkers crazy the next (Squall’s immersion in the time warp loop), then touchingly heartfelt and charming (Selphie and Irvine’s camcorder of the celebrations) to finish.

The time warp sequence is particularly good, and its just so freaky watching the screen jolt and reset, with Rinoa melting and morphing, thunderous guns echoing around you to the strains of classical music, then screams and blitzes of images from the game (especially the spidertron that suddenly appears and clanks straight at you).

Final Fantasy 8 may require you to lobotomise parts of your brain to understand it in the later sections, and there’s no denying it has a titantic slump from Disc 3 onwards, where it goes from high concept, high intensity, ultra ambitious spectacle and character work, to just being near gibberish.

An invisible city that’s technologically centuries ahead of the rest of the world, and space, and time travel, and body swapping, and dimension warping, and closed destiny loops, a villain with no apprent motive, in a castlevania castle that flies – in the far future!

So the fact that the ending is similarly bizarre and unlikely comes as no surprise at all. But it taps into that crazed energy this game has, where the director (who was presumably naked, giggling to himself and beating off whilst writing all this), plainly just splurged his imagination onto the screen, signed his name and went home.

Its crazy, but I’ll take crazy over boring anytime.

So, anyone else up for sharing?

She wants to compress time to stop her death and kill everyone because she was hated and feared before she was even born, the twist is………………………………………… ………………………………………..

Its her own fualt she’s feared and hated.

I can’t even remember FF6’s end sequence at all. I remember Kefka sort of blowing up, and there was some CGI sequences which confused me, because they were from scenes earlier in the game (why they didn’t insert them at the appropriate times, I don’t know…)

I think I’ll download it tonight and give it another playthrough. I remember it being quite good, but its shocking how little I remember of that game.

FF6 Anthology Ending (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84DOyg_Jzno)

I played FF8 again very recently and though I still loved it, I couldn’t help but laugh, because again and again, the characters confess that they have absolutely no idea what is really going on. The time compression is a bizarre plot device that is dropped out of nowhere, and is the epitome of ‘The Evil Villain Who Wants to Kill Everyone in the Whole Wide World – Bwa ha ha!’

The Timelords tried to do something very similiar (almost identical in fact) in the new series of Doctor Who, a couple of years back. It didn’t make much more sense then either.

I liked the ending to FFVIII as well. It gives me something to think about. If an ending doesn’t tie up all the loose ends, then it allows us to think about what might have been going on. Rinoa = Ultimecia and Squalls Dead theories are very cool to think about. Of course, we can’t prove anything, but on the other hand, the ending didn’t really tell us anything. I haven’t come across any major theories about the other games yet, but I’m trying to.

She wants to compress time to stop her death and kill everyone because she was hated and feared before she was even born, the twist is………………………………………… ………………………………………..

Its her own fualt she’s feared and hated.

Precisely. She’s trying to change the course of time but ultimately cannot change her fate. She still isn’t the most fleshed-out villain of the series, at any rate.

I haven’t come across any major theories about the other games yet, but I’m trying to.

There was an old and long-proven false theory about FFVII’s ending that humanity was supposedly wiped out by Holy and the Lifestream in the final moments of the ending sequence (and leaving Red XIII’s species as the only intelligent species on the Planet), simply because some players misinterpreted Bugenhagen’s earlier ambiguous comment about Holy – that ‘all that is bad for the Planet will disappear’. Naturally this was long before Advent Children and the Compilation titles were developed, hence it’s no longer even referred to.

Haha, that’s the theory I always used to be on board with. But Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus both feel so entirely foreign compared to the original atmosphere of FFVII that I still count it valid :p The whole compilation (save for Crisis Core) feels like a whole different universe to me. Advent Children’s story is entirely mundane with not even a single moment that shined for me, and it feels like just one big tech demo to give fans a chance to hear the characters talk. Bringing Sephiroth back felt just as unnecessary as bringing Liquid Snake back in Metal Gear Solid 2 (if only in spirit). Both of them rightfully die at the end of their respective original titles and it’s pushing the envelope to drag them back out for conflict from beyond the grave. And Dirge of Cerberus could easily be a completely new title, considering how much new story content is introduced and old content seems left behind. My initial thoughts playing it were that SE just plugged FFVII names in and stuck the FFVII monicker on there to merit more sales :laugh:

Haha, that’s the theory I always used to be on board with. But Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus both feel so entirely foreign compared to the original atmosphere of FFVII that I still count it valid :p The whole compilation (save for Crisis Core) feels like a whole different universe to me. Advent Children’s story is entirely mundane with not even a single moment that shined for me, and it feels like just one big tech demo to give fans a chance to hear the characters talk. Bringing Sephiroth back felt just as unnecessary as bringing Liquid Snake back in Metal Gear Solid 2 (if only in spirit). Both of them rightfully die at the end of their respective original titles and it’s pushing the envelope to drag them back out for conflict from beyond the grave. And Dirge of Cerberus could easily be a completely new title, considering how much new story content is introduced and old content seems left behind. My initial thoughts playing it were that SE just plugged FFVII names in and stuck the FFVII monicker on there to merit more sales :laugh:

Retcon Core retconned stuff.

Oh yes, it did indeed retcon out the ass, but to me that game is great on its own and does tend to invoke moments that remind me of the original. The environments (well, most of them at least) feel more like FFVII than those of any of the sequels. But you’re right, the story (awesome as it is) is bogged down with numerous retconned moments that leave you scratching your head (like Genesis in the Nibelheim reactor . . . why?!). That’s just one small example, and I do think retconning is okay to some extent, as long as it’s not intercepting major plot developments (which the Nibelheim reactor sequence is), but rather just minor side things that don’t matter. Unfortunately though, Crisis Core does the opposite :p It’s a damn good thing the story is so good that I often let it slide.

If you want to change your fate and not die, you kill the people responsible – isn’t it going a little overboard to completely restructure how reality works so you are the only person who can actually exist?! And that’s without addressing the fact that she can somehow actually do this in the first place! (And that despite this outrageous power, she can’t beat 6 kids, none of whom have turned 20!)

Its a superpower that she pulls out of nowhere, and there are plenty of people who think that Ultimecia herself drops out of nowhere. And whilst we’re on the subject, they never explain why Ellone just does have that power to manipulate time.

I love FF8, but the second half of that game requires you to take an awful lot on faith. The powers and motivations of Ultimecia can only be guessed at, since you only meet her once (twice if you include that brief bit at the end of disc 2). The characters themselves freely admit at the end that they have no idea what she is or why and how she is doing this (Squall even stays behind to confront Laguna on these very facts).

And I still can’t get my head around how Seifer is just allowed to go free. Same with FF9, where we are expected to feel sorry for Kuja and hope he survives? I think not – how many people did he kill in Alexandria, Burmecia, Cleyra, Lindblum, Terra etc? Its absurd that we are asked to feel any sympathy for people like that. If Hitler had spiky hair and a Buster sword, would Square Enix give him a free pass too?

If you want to change your fate and not die, you kill the people responsible – isn’t it going a little overboard to completely restructure how reality works so you are the only person who can actually exist?! And that’s without addressing the fact that she can somehow actually do this in the first place! (And that despite this outrageous power, she can’t beat 6 kids, none of whom have turned 20!)

Its a superpower that she pulls out of nowhere, and there are plenty of people who think that Ultimecia herself drops out of nowhere. And whilst we’re on the subject, they never explain why Ellone just does have that power to manipulate time.

I love FF8, but the second half of that game requires you to take an awful lot on faith. The powers and motivations of Ultimecia can only be guessed at, since you only meet her once (twice if you include that brief bit at the end of disc 2). The characters themselves freely admit at the end that they have no idea what she is or why and how she is doing this (Squall even stays behind to confront Laguna on these very facts).

And I still can’t get my head around how Seifer is just allowed to go free. Same with FF9, where we are expected to feel sorry for Kuja and hope he survives? I think not – how many people did he kill in Alexandria, Burmecia, Cleyra, Lindblum, Terra etc? Its absurd that we are asked to feel any sympathy for people like that. If Hitler had spiky hair and a Buster sword, would Square Enix give him a free pass too?

1. I wish that they would’ve made something for FF8 like a novel after the game. But they’re love killing FF7.

2. The planet was already dead, the only things he killed besides the planet itself were the monsters.

But wasn’t the whole point of Terra that it needed the energy from Zidane and co’s side to revive the planet and all the people who were sleeping etc? His rampage would have killed them – it certainly prevented Garland’s plan from ever working. And even if he somehow managed not to kill anyone, he intended to kill eveyone and none of this lets him off the hook for Burmecia, Cleyra, Alexandria etc.

Similarily, Seifer bombed Trabia garden killing scores of students, arrested and tortured political prisoners in Galbadia, stormed another school with armed soldiers, and he tried to sacrfice Rinoa… What do you have to do to be considered a war criminal in that world?

Im not saying that Kuja wasn’t wrong, I just pointed out that the planet was already pretty screwed. On the subject of kuja, it gets me irritated when they say that him going crazy was childish.

How do you mean? For myself, I can’t really stand Kuja anyway, and I never had any sympathy with him at all, because he kills so many innocent people and is so callous about it. It really bugs me when they try and say things like ‘Oh he had a hard life’ or ‘He was just being used etc etc’, because the fact is that the people he killed are still just as dead, no matter what his reasons or what his circumstances were.

But then I’m an Eye for an Eye kind of guy. I never have sympathy with villains, and I don’t believe in forgiving them. They made their choice to do all those evil things, so they can’t complain when I kill them for it. Time spent showing sympathy for people like them is better spent remembering their victims.

FF4 and FF6 will always be memorable for me.

FF8 had Eyes On Me, which is REALLY memorable as it is and then you have the great ending.

FF10, which I didn’t care for, had a great bittersweet ending.
FF10-2 killed it, but, that’s SE for ya.

But wasn’t the whole point of Terra that it needed the energy from Zidane and co’s side to revive the planet and all the people who were sleeping etc? His rampage would have killed them – it certainly prevented Garland’s plan from ever working. And even if he somehow managed not to kill anyone, he intended to kill eveyone and none of this lets him off the hook for Burmecia, Cleyra, Alexandria etc.

Similarily, Seifer bombed Trabia garden killing scores of students, arrested and tortured political prisoners in Galbadia, stormed another school with armed soldiers, and he tried to sacrfice Rinoa… What do you have to do to be considered a war criminal in that world?

Look at FF6, Kefka had to destroy the world for the Main Cast to do something useful about it.

And I’m starting to dislike FF6 again… xD

He goes insane due to Garland telling Kuja he’d die right? but its not only that. Kuja is also angry at the fact that when he finally gets to be free from Garland(Dad), to be his own person, he is quickly told that he’s goes to die. I’d angry was well.

Kuja wasn’t exactly some tormented soul whilst he was working for Garland. He was scheming about how to kill him and take over, and thought all the people he was killing were pathetic and to be mocked. He had no sympathy for them, so why should anyone have any sympathy for him? Garland at least seemed to treat it as work that had to be done for Terra’s sake – but Kuja gets a kick out of hurting and manipulating people.

Zidane may feel Kuja has learnt his lesson and tuned over a new leaf etc at the end. But as I said before, those people Kuja killed are still just as dead. That’s a hell of a price to pay in order to make him realise what a sadistic jerk he’s been. The only reason I’d have gone back for him at the end, is to make sure the son of a bitch was dead.