Our heroes are trapped in the lobby of Shinra HQ, surrounded on all sides with no way out. How ever will they escape? Cue Cloud riding down the stairs on a fucking motorcycle. Everyone else piles into a pickup truck and they all drive straight through the window and into the chase sequence from the opening of Akira. Hell yes!
One of the reasons why Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII is such an Ensemble Darkhorse villain is because of his tendency to pull off a Moment Of Awesome with amazing style and finesse. These moments include his famous "fire walk" in Cloud's flashback, finding a monster you would have no chance of defeating at that point in the game without massiveLevel Grinding due to its almost-always lethal Beta attack (though a well-planned strategy can change that) impaled on a tree, and his epic Mind Screw of the main hero, Cloud. However, his realMoment Of Awesome to many of his fans was his shishkabobbing murder of Aerith. To her fans, this was his Moral Event Horizon.
And there's the fact that she saves the entire world even after death, made particularly awesome by the last scene in the game.
Cloud himself gets his Moment Of Awesome in a flashback (recreated with much better graphics in Crisis Core): After the aforementioned torching of Nibelheim, Cloud stabs Sephiroth in the back with the Buster Sword. Then, after Sephiroth impales him through the chest with his stupidly large Katana, Cloud pulls himself even further onto it so he can use the sword as leverage, and flings Sephiroth into a wall to his death. The fact that he came back seven years later doesn't diminish the simple fact that a lowly infantry grunt did what armies couldn't: killed Sephiroth. Arguably more badass than anything Cloud has done since.
"SIT DOWN AND DRINK YOUR GODDAMN TEA!". Man, why that hasn't been meme'd is beyond this troper's comprehension.
It's because in 1997 when FFVII was first released, "Internet" wasn't a household word and they still capitalized it when they even used it. The concept of Memetic Mutation wasn't even a twinkle in CATS's eye.
But there's no excuse for "Conflict Resolved!" from Crisis Core not being a meme.
It is on 4Chan's /v/.
Cait Sith's "noble sacrifice", which is of course later negated when another Cait Sith body appears right after he "dies".
Cait Sith gets another awesome moment when he calls out Barret near the end of Disc 2 with a pretty epic "What the Hell, Hero?" speech. He reminds him that when AVALANCHE carried out the terrorist attacks, people actually died just so they could prove a point.
Cait Sith: "Doncha worry none, Marlene's in a safe place. She's with th's mama. Barret!! What was that scratching just now!? As long as Marlene is safe, who cares what else happens, right? I been itchin' to say this to ya fer a while now! When ya blew the Midgar No. 1 up, how many folks d'ya think died?"
Barret: "...that was for the life of the planet. Ya gotta expect a few casualties."
Cait Sith: "A few? Whaddya mean 'a few'? What may be a few to y'all is everything to them who died...... Protect the planet. Hah! Y'all sure sound good! Ain't no one that'd go against ya. So ya think ya can do whatever y'all want?"
It looks like it's all over for Tifa when Scarlet has her stranded on the end of a huge cannon, then a voice tells her to jump. Cue Barret showing up in a huge airship and lowering a rope.
And right before that, Tifa, having taken one too many slaps from Scarlet, gets pissed and yells, "Quit slapping me! You old wench!!!" and starts slapping her back. Scarlet quickly learns that engaging in a slap fight with a master martial artist is a BAD idea.
Cloud's fourth-wall breaking "Shut Up, Hannibal!" to Sephiroth, covering up Sephiroth's text box with his own, simply saying "Shut up."
Rufus's Obi-Wan Moment death scene in the original game was awesome. He faced the canon blasts from Diamond WEAPON without flinching or blinking. This Moment of Awesome factor was diminished somewhat by the revelation in Advent Children that he survived it.
Well, Advent Children gave us Rufus managing to pull a massive screwjob on Kadaj for the majority of the movie magnificently, and despite having a lethal disease, he jumped headfirst out of a window many floors above ground to blow Jenova's head up without any regard for the safety of his own ass! The fact he managed to bullshit EVERYONE into believing he was totally harmless (including his own allies, based on their reactions), and perform a balls of steel level Moment of Awesome is pretty amazing. Considering that, I'd say it was a more than acceptable trade-off.
Although it seemed as though the Turks were working towards this goal from the beginning. How else do you explain Tseng and Elena showing up as Rufus is plummeting towards the sidewalk, and they're armed with grappling-hook net-guns that nicely save their still-cool-headed-as-all-hell President? And Reno and Rufus don't see surprised to see the friends they thought were dead.
Let's not forget the awesome way Rufus not only pulled off the sheet hiding his face and the aforementioned massive screwjob on Kadaj, he also had the last word, as well! This troper thought his line, "A GOOD son would have known," to be one of the best lines in the movie.
FFVII was my first Final Fantasy game, and after going through 8 hours of the game where my attacks were doing from 50-300 damage, during the Kalm flashback when Sephiroth was semi-playable, watching him do 3500 damage per attack and taking 0 damage from a dragon that one shot KO'd Cloud, I was floored.
A-hem. The kids of AC. Did Marlene just chuck stuff at Loz? After seeing him beat Tifa, of all people, into the ground? (And remember that basically reads: Did Marlene just stand up to Sephiroth?). Neither of those kids likes people messing with their adoptive mama, actually; Denzel charges straight at Bahamut SIN, which is decimating the place, screaming "You son of a BITCH!". The Complete version only made this better: Denzel smashing a fire hydrant to Kill It With Water, and the scene where Cloud drops Marlene off at the bar... and she tells him she knows exactly what he's been up to, and proceeds to deliver a Rousing Speech to a man four times her age. (That last one doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.)
Though Final Fantasy VI did it first, this game was the Trope Codifier for Limit Breaks. Admit it: the first time you saw your favorite character, whomever he or she was, launch into a devastating super-powered strike against the bad guy (or in some cases, pull you back from the brink of death with a just-in-the-nick-of-time free heal), you felt a little thrill of pure win course through your veins.
Tifa's arguably stand out among the best of the best. All her limit breaks consist of her launching a combo of pure, unadulterated destruction, and just get more and more powerful as they level up. On top of that, they also allow her to suplex absolutely ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, resulting in her often suplexing monsters the size of freaking buildings with ease. Land all her slots on "Yeah", and you've got yourself a borderline One-Woman Army. Perhaps this troper might just be a raving Tifa fanboy, but there's no denying the total awesomeness of her limit breaks.
Vincent: *joining the fray* "Where can I buy a phone?"
The Crowning Moment of Awesome for this Troper...After a full game of the stress, fear, and pain that Sephiroth has caused you. He's murder thousands of people, killed Aerith, and is sending Meteor to the planet to destory it. You beat him in the final battle and he pulls you into the mind fight....Cue Cloud unleashing Omni-slash and watch that murdering bastard go down!!!!
