As a Moments subpage there are unmarked spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!
Episode 1
- While some of these boss fights are a bit easy now, it shouldn't be understated how awesome and groundbreaking most of the boss fights were in a game like this. In particular, Vol Dragon made for a fantastic Wakeup Call Boss, Big Varder is an awe-inspiring semi-Colossus Climb against a giant mecha-tank, and the Quartz Dragon is a friggin' jet fighter dragon. And the main big "raid boss" for the episode, Dark Falz Elder, is still one of the coolest "raid bosses" ever, despite being superseded by later Urgent Quest bosses.
- Ko'Riu stepping forward to stop Persona in their tracks. And he successfully fights him to a standstill. Considering who Persona is, that is very impressive.
Episode 2
- Being able to go back in time and save Ulku and Zeno from certain death.
- The entire mothership mission, even if a Marathon Level, is awesome from start to finish:
- The masterful use of Gameplay and Story Integration, with Emergency Code ABYSS turning you into the target.
- Echo successfully resisting the Absolute Order. Even Maria comments that she must be something special if she can pull that off.note
- Zeno's return, demonstrating that he has become part of the Council of Six.
- Finally getting to ruin Luther's plans.
- The UQ boss against Dark Falz Luther/Loser, and Regius just strolling in like a boss to finish the job.
Episode 3
- Magatsu is in the running for Best Boss Ever for this game, and it shows, being a massive boss enemy you have to fight on foot, and then in mechs.
- The Night Lord copy has such Undying Loyalty to Sukunahime, he actually warns her to flee before being re-absorbed by Gemini.
- Kotoshiro providing a What the Hell, Hero? to the Day Lord and the people of the Daybreak Province, and then using Ash Transfer to save Sukunahime.
- The protagonist and Persona successfully saving Matoi from becoming the Profound Darkness. And then there's the battle against the Profound Darkness itself.
Episode 4
- Let's be honest, Phaleg is pure concentrated badass, being the world's strongest woman, and arguably the first actual challenge for a story boss, especially for the English version.
- The Yamato Battleship boss fight is also in contention for one of the best bosses in the game. Really, you're fighting an empowered recreation of a World War 2 battleship with mechs.
- The cutscene following defeating Esca Falz Mother involves Matoi showing up, and basically teaming up with the Player, performing synchronized moves to get close and hold her in place, while Hitsugi deals the final blow and frees both Mother and Al.
- Deus Esca, upon being summoned, just casually dismissing the Earthlings' Avatar Arms and then also casually sending the Guardian and the ARKS ship back to their universe. False god, perhaps, but he's still basically a god.
Episode 5
- The Guardians successfully breaking the stalemate with the Profound Darkness, even if it has unintended consequences, it ends up providing a path towards defeating the Profound Darkness properly and freeing Persona.
- Gettemhult giving his power to the Guardian, who uses it to gain their first Dark Blast mode, which they use to throw down with Schreger and provide a proper Curb-Stomp Battle to him.
- While the Epyk arc is more hilarious than anything, there are a few really cool moments:
- The Guardian has a Gun Kata fight with Euclyta, and it's actually pretty cool to watch.
- When they get back to Margareta's palace, they find Elmir waiting for them. Margareta slaughters him with her god's divine power.
- The original Clarissa manifesting to help the Guardian save Florent from his corruption as Dark Falz Gemini. Despite him being a subject of study for her, she really did care for him.
- The final stretch to save Harriet and defeat Elmir.
- The Laconium Sword consciously deciding to act outside of its original purpose and lend Alis its power in order to help save the world.
- Not only does Margareta manifest her deity's power outside of her palace, said deity is actually the original Klariskrays, who also summons phantoms of Atossa and Wolf to join the battle.
- All four Dark Falz hosts manifest independently allow the Guardian to pass when their doppelgangers show up, fighting said copies in their human forms.
- While Alma is stopping Elmir from gathering photons from outside Omega, he sends a lot of Falspawn to stop her. And then Regius and Maria shows up to provide the firepower she needs to hold the line - they may not be able to see her, but they know she's there, and that's all that matters.
- And finally, the beatdown you give Elmir, twice, followed by the Dark Falz Collective joining in to help you beat the absolute crap out of him, including Persona, who finally became free mid-fight.
- When things seem to have gone unexpectedly pear-shaped as Shiva shows up at the end, who else but Risa shows up with a brand new Cosmogenic Arm to chase her off? Better yet is the Cosmogenic Arm itself: it's Hariette, who sides with Risa explicitly to save the Guardian.
Episode 6
- Ulku pulls a rather impressive moment for a noncom: while the Big Damn Heroes to save the photon-deprived Sarah (whose attacks went through Shiva's shielding, for what it's worth in the end) worked out to a degree, Shiva gets them pinned down in short order. Ulku shows up in an old-model AIS, Theodor freezes the ground around Shiva, and then Ulku ejects the AIS as it kamikazes into Shiva. It didn't hurt her significantly, but that wasn't the point: Ulku then uses Code: ABYSS to withdraw every ARKS op on the Xiao Mothership while Shiva is distracted! Pulling this off flawlessly would require some serious moxie and Ulku's got enough of it to fill the entire Mothership. But give Xiao credit too: once he realized Shiva was on the Mothership, he immediately deployed every security measure he could to stall her, granted every vessel independent operation protocol, passed on enough of himself for Sarah to see Alma, and then tanked a hit from Shiva to save Sarah. Even on the back foot, ARKS does not hold back when decisive action is required.
- When Xiao returns, he Came Back Strong. This finally links both Xion replicas on Amduskia together to gain the predictive abilities he had never been able to inherit from Xion, allowing him to neutralize Varuna's advantage completely.
- They one-upped the Yamato battle with the climactic Armada of Annihilation. In one finale, the players take to space in the A.I.S. VEGA, with full movement, a powerful counter-shield and heavily bolstered capabilities as they go toe-to-toe in an intense battle with an opposing giant Luminmech. The other finale is diving straight into a giant enemy ship to fight its core head-on, swapping to the A.I.S. and then back as you tear it apart piece by piece, before obliterating it and the entire ship from the inside out with a Wave-Motion Gun and riding the explosion out to safety.
- Speaking of the Yamato, in Chapter 4, the Photoners attack Earth, but when things get really desperate, Hagith comes onto the scene and summons it back to blast the Luminmechs to scrap. Highlights include Phaleg being Phaleg, Hitsugi covering for Kohri before you arrive, and Aika, Rina and Itsuki using the Stargazer attack to cut a Photoner ship in half!
- The Guardian and Risa team up to duel Varuna for the fate of their plan in stopping Shiva - and win where everyone needed distractions galore to hold him off before. Unlike Mitra calling upon Shiva's power previously and needing a massive limiter to even make her beatable, the pair outright kill him with no aid and a well-timed finishing shot. This starts the true counter-offensive.
- The Grand Finale itself ends with a bang. Once you finally take down Shiva (and nearly die trying to take the Profound Darkness with you to the beginning of time), you confront The Primordial Darkness, having been finally backed into a corner without a host and kill it. Your character is so powerful, they've pulled off what no other Phantasy Star protagonist has ever done: wipe out Dark Falz from the face of history!
