In a full-on Crisis Crossover Final Fantasy game, there's plenty of opportunity for awesome moments with how surprisingly intense the plot can get.
Act 1
- In Chapter 11, Jecht goes toe to toe with Exdeath and survives. Tidus tries to help him, but Jecht pulls a You Shall Not Pass! and gets Layle to drag him away.
- Chapter 8, Lightning's introduction chapter, has her fighting one on one with Garland all throughout the chapter, with the party intersecting only occasionally. It does lead to a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero when they learn it agitates the Torsions, but still. Doubles as one for the animators as well: this was the first time characters were shown to use a unique fighting animation outside of battle, and it was done pretty smoothly as well.
- In Chapter 6, Shantotto plays both sides like a fiddle and finds out all kinds of things that Mog was either keeping from the party or that nobody knew about yet, and it sets the tone for the rest of the story.
- In Leon's event, the Emperor is about to finish off Firion when Irvine pulls a Big Damn Heroes and saves him and Leon with well-timed shots.
- the end of Arc 1 has a shot of ALL GAME LEADS VS THE BIG BAD. 13 heroes, the most ever on the screen has been about 6 before then. And, yes, it's awesome.
- Oddly, the scene omits some game leads like Tidus and Shantotto but has Eiko (there for being one of Mog's biggest supporters) and Laguna instead, but it's still awesome.
- Vayne has a couple. In his introductory chapter, Arc 1 Ch 10, he talks his way into the party (to Vaan's protests). He distrusts Mog (like everyone else at this point) but he is the first person to do something about it by striking him, then flies up into the massive Torsion that's created as a result of the attack, bigger than ever seen before. When the party tries to pursue him, he summons Ultima, the High Seraph out of it to fight them. He gets more in the Interlude chapter, where he sticks to his morals and ideals in the face of Garland and even Spiritus, vowing to destroy the world of Opera Omnia.
- Also in Chapter 10, for Mog. Ultimecia causes the party to get separated during a fight with Seifer and his posse. Mog ends up alone with Seifer, manipulating him into bringing him back to the party safely with promises that he'll get to fight them and reunite with Ultimecia, since Mog can always sense the party's location. Considering Seifer wants nothing more than to punch Mog's face in at this point, Mog outpacing him and taking advantage of the situation was more than clever on his part.
Act 2
- Arc 2, Chapter 1 of the main storyline is full of several, with characters rejecting something of The Final Temptation offered to them:
- The beginning of the chapter has Mog pretty much sacrificing all of his energy to teleport the entire party away from the airship as it's going down thanks to a mysterious attacker - keep in mind that this can be up to eighty or so people by this point, showing that he is most definitely on their side. He goes down with the ship, but thankfully Ashe finds him in the wreckage later, though he's out of commission for the rest of the chapter.
- Hope is offered the chance to side with Caius, and that if he does he can change the past and be with his mother again. He rejects the chance without any hesitation, being against Caius' methods.
- Near the end of the chapter, Caius brings up Rem's illness and says that she can be free of it if she joins him to change the past. She won't die of her illness and she won't be forgotten as a result. She rejects him with a great Shut Up, Hannibal!! moment, and while she admits there's a part of her that wants to go with him, she needs to accept her fate, to face it and fight, and that everyone here has had to do the same. All set to awesome music. In the same scene, Lightning tells Caius that their eternal battle ends here, even though she lacks any memories of Caius in the first place, all while the planesegorger roars behind him.
- Afterward, Caius summons a kaiser behemoth to deal with the party, and they still don't back down. Hope declares that, now that he has all of his memories (including of being an adult, where he hasn't seen Lightning in at least a decade) he will protect Lightning and the future.
- Arc 2 Chapter 2 has Palom calling out Cecil for wondering if getting his memories back was the right course of action, saying that all they've done can't have been for nothing and that he has to face reality. Keep in mind that Palom is less than 10 years old - calling out a full grown man like Cecil for his behavior was quite awesome to see.
- Act 2, Chapter 5: Kefka shows a level of depravity not shown since his own game and everyone is horrified by his actions. While he does succeed in using the Terra and Celes Dark Manikins to birth a new Blackened Will, the entire party stands up to stop him, overcoming many of their own previous foes such as the CPU, Guard Scorpion, and Ultima Weapon to do so. After the Terra and Celes Manikins fall to The Corruption, they lash out at the party, only to be stopped by their real counterparts (with Celes pulling a No-Sell on their magic attacks and Terra retaliating) and defeated.
- The Dark Manikins in Act 2, Chapter 6. Papalymo's sacrifices himself, in a direct mirror of the real Papalymo from his Heroic Sacrifice in his home game, to give his memories back to the real Papalymo and fight against Kam'lanaut and the planesgorger. Lyse's Dark Manikin, among other things, attempts to fight a planesgorger alone and manages to survive until the party arrives and helps her, and her will is so strong it's to the point where Kam'lanaut says she might be more real than the actual Lyse, who is the real puppet by comparison without her memories. Beforehand, she fearlessly ran into a Torsion alone after Kam'lanaut and tried to fight him, only for Y'shtola's Dark Manikin (battered and bruised, along with Thancred's, by Kam'lanaut himself) to cast Flow and teleport the three of them away to safety so they could give their brilliance back to their original counterparts. That last act took even Kam'lanaut by surprise.
- The real Lyse's determination throughout the chapter and unmasking deserves mention as well. Even without her memories back, she comes to the conclusion that the party wouldn't think less of her, and learns to take charge and deal with their foes with a solid focus uncharacteristic of the normally ditzy Yda. It's to the point where Papalymo wonders if she really did get her memories back after all before getting her Dark Manikin's brilliance.
- When the party comes across the planesgorger for the second time, sealed in a protective barrier, Papalymo is about to step up to break it on his own ( as a direct reference to his Heroic Sacrifice in XIV when he died to seal Shinryu into a barrier), but Lyse convinces him that they can all break it together. Cue the party all attacking it at once, with Lyse's Dark Manikin Taking the Bullet from the planesgorger for the real Lyse and inflicting the final blow on the barrier, allowing the party to defeat the planesgorger. This act convinces the Dark Manikin to finally give Lyse her brilliance back.
Act 3
- Act 2, Chapter 10: Vaan's Character Development. He comes across galbana lilies in the desert and throughout the chapter he has the hope of being reunited with his dead brother Reks, like many other characters have been. He finally stops being so confrontational to Vayne as well, allowing them and Ashe to come to an agreement: since their nations don't exist in this world, and Vayne is already dead and has nothing to lose, they can join forces against the bigger problem (Ardyn) that threatens Ivalice. Vaan also comes to terms with the fact that Reks may never end up getting summoned to this world and he shouldn't rely on that hope as his reason for keeping this world safe. It's enough for the other pilots to finally stop referring to Vaan as Just a Kid and allow him a proper opportunity in the pilot's seat with Penelo as his copilot.
- Ashe comes to a similar realization as Vaan in regards to Rasler. However, she also acknowledges that she cannot hope for him being summoned to this world too much, because if she accidentally summons him with her will it could unbalance the world - one of the gods would have to do it instead.
- When Ardyn kidnaps Yuna, Krile, and Machina into a Torsion, Vaan spearheads the effort to rescue them and succeeds.
- Separated from his twin and the rest of the party, Yuri spies on Jegran and Exdeath in an attempt to figure out their motives. Exdeath discovers him, leading Yuri to face Jegran, but before he is overpowered Sherlotta appears from nowhere and pulls a Big Damn Heroes, giving them both enough time to fend off both villains until the rest of the party arrives. Not bad for someone who had little fighting ability in her own game.
Lost Chapters / Intersecting Wills
- A minor one for Lion - in Rosa's Lost Chapter, she calls Seifer a brat and tells him off so he shows appreciation to Rosa for healing him. And even better, he listens.
