Final Fantasy / Tropes U to Z

This page covers tropes in Final Fantasy.

Tropes A to B | Tropes C to D | Tropes E to H | Tropes I to R | Tropes S to T | Tropes U To Z

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U

• Uncanny Valley: It's intentionally done with Sephiroth, even his in-game portrait he looks like a lifeless corpse compared to everyone else's portrait except maybe Vincent Valentine. If you look closely you can see that he has slit pupils like a cat.
• Unending End Card: Stopped occurring after Final Fantasy VII, but every game at the time ended with a never-ending field of stars after the credits finished up.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • This trope occurs in some form in several games. And also, you can't ignore how, in regular battles in several of the games, a character can be turned to stone and then shattered, which incapacitates them for the duration of that battle, but then you pop 'em a Phoenix Down and they're good as new.
  • Even more blatant use of this trope is seen in Final Fantasy IV in which ALL but five of the player's party members suffer tragic deaths, with all of them - even Cid, who rode a nuclear bomb into a pit, was at the epicenter of the explosion, fell several thousand feet and landed on some pointy rocks, had even more rocks fall down from thousands of feet above to seal the passage between the underworld and the upper world (this being the POINT of setting off the bomb), then dragged himself several miles to the dwarf city to rest up - coming back near the end. Except Tellah.
    • Contrast to Edward. Leviathan attacks the ship—leading to Edward apparently twisting his ankle. Apparently, he shattered his shinbone, because he will be bed-ridden or, at the very best, chair-ridden (in the tank at the end) for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Yang (same Leviathan incident) can still fly through the air with his foot out in battle. Rydia also suffers in the same boat accident and is seen being eaten by a giant sea snake! Yang goes through an even less survivable experience: he destroys the Tower of Bab-il's Super Cannon by apparently stuffing himself into the barrel before it fires, resulting in a massive explosion that destroys the entire chamber containing the cannon. He's presumed dead until you discover that a bunch of sylphs found him and nursed him back to health. Palom and Porom turn themselves to stone which is accompanied by sad music and the distraught characters trying to revive them only to find they can't. Then near the end of the game, they just turn up again saying their elder healed them (note, Tellah who is hailed as the greatest magic user in the world and had already recovered all his forgotten abilities claims they can't be revived). Oh, and Cid, the "Old Man" (quoth Edge about 10 times), back to blacksmithing approximately 3 hours in-game time after blowing himself up. Yang's case is, while still egregious, not quite as bad given that he is the World's Strongest Man if his stats are to be believed.
  • Final Fantasy VI: Kefka survives being stabbed by Celes, and the destruction of the floating continent, as the party survives an airship being torn apart, "the very day the world collapsed", shown as a series of explosions visible from space, and the rearranging of the continents.
  • Rufus from Final Fantasy VII supposedly died from the Weapon assault on Midgar, yet he's fine in Advent Children. When Cloud meets Rufus Shinra in Advent Children, he's shocked to find his supposedly exploded enemy alive. Rufus begins to explain what happened — and Cloud cuts him off impatiently, and turns to leave.
    Rufus: ...The day of the explosion—
    Cloud: What do you want?
    Rufus: I managed to get out of the building—
    Cloud: Why did you call me here?
    Rufus: before it collapsed—
    Cloud: I'm leaving!
    • It's been said in Dirge of Cerberus that Rufus Shinra merely 'ducked' to avoid being killed. He was later evacuated from Midgar when Meteor fell, via helicopter.
    • Additionally, contrary to popular belief, Tseng never died in the original game either. The line with Elena who implies he's dead is actually a mistranslation for 'Messin' my boss up'.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: Squall takes an ice shard to the chest, and wakes up fine by the next disc. However, the game does explicitly show mere minutes later Selphie attempting to use Cure to heal Zell after he was roughed up by prison guards, meaning that healing magic isn't just some abstract thing that only exists in gameplay, so while it's not explicitly stated, it's not too far of a stretch to just assume that Edea or someone healed Squall's wounds so that he could be interrogated.
  • In 'Final Fantasy X'' if a team member gets petrified in water they sink a few inches before shattering almost immediately after. They still get brought back the normal way, though fighting enemies that can petrify is almost a certain game over if armor isn't modified accordingly.
• The Un Favourite:
  • In Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, visiting the past shows you how badly the Chief treated poor Rekoteh. He laments that she's weak compared to her brother Rolan (not that he's a good father to him) and banishes her from the house until she can prove herself by finding the Dragon's Mark.
  • In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Kadaj considers himself such, sensing that his "mother" Jenova loves Sephiroth more than him. It's unclear how much of this is actually Jenova's will and how much is Kadaj interpreting Sephiroth's control of Jenova.* Unique Enemy: Here are the list of it.
• Unreliable Narrator: The series has several examples:
  • The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII has given no less than five different retellings of the Nibelheim Incident, each one slightly different than the last. Cloud, in particular, seemed to have several retellings on it. The base game eventually dives into his subconscious to figure out what really happened. Cloud's narration of the events is completely accurate, in terms of events that took place. The only unreliable aspect is that Cloud told the story as though he was in Zack's place. The rest of the retellings in other games in the compilation also get the major events correct, but elaborate on points that weren't there before.
  • In Final Fantasy X, much of the game is told as a flashback by Tidus as he reflects on the journey before entering Zanarkand. While not necessarily deceptive, Tidus also does not reveal a number of key points. This parallels his process of discovery; the player isn't told anything explicitly until the point in the story where the narrator himself first learned them.
  • The Wandering Minstrel is this in Final Fantasy XIV. He retells Extreme, Savage, and Ultimate trials and raids with significantly more embellishments than their original, Normal mode encounters (and thus harder). These boss fights are also non-canon.
• Unstoppable Rage: Occasionally occurs as a plot device in the Final Fantasy series, often against the villain. Often enough though, the character dies afterwards. An example is Tellah in IV.
  • Edge in Final Fantasy IV as well. It's what unlocks the ability to use his Ninjitsu techniques after Rubicante taunts him about letting his emotions get in the way.
    Edge:"''You think our rage... a weakness? Then let me show you how wrong you are!"
  • The Berserk Status Effect is this. It gives character boosted attack, defense, and speed stats in exchange for them only using physical attacks and being controlled by the computer.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • In Final Fantasy II, the cowardly Prince Gordon eventually musters the courage to assist the rebellion and departs for his home of Kashuan. Except he departs just when Firion's party needs to enter Kashuan Keep, which can only be opened by a member of the Kashuan royal family or the Goddess's Bell, forcing Firion's party to detour to the Snow Cavern to retrieve the Goddess's Bell. Their guide, Josef, doesn't return from the Snow Cavern.
  • Final Fantasy VII Professor Gast certainly counts. While he has the best intentions at heart and tries to obtain knowledge to help make the lives of the people better, he released Jenova from its prison, mistakes it for a Cetra, then writes a journal that Sephiroth reads that kicks off his descent into darkness.
    • To a lesser extent, Shinra executive Reeve counts as well. He's the one who designed the Mako Reactors and the Mako refining process. If he had never made his discovery then Shinra wouldn't have risen to power, probably wouldn't have found Jenova, and the many world-ending events the planet experiences over the next two decades wouldn't have happened. He later becomes The Atoner who tries to make up for the harm he did to the world by helping to build Shinra's power base.
  • Final Fantasy X:
    • The destruction of Kilika Port near the beginning of the game is a result of the actions of several characters. Two NPCs, who were from Kilika, wanted to divert Sin's attention (not heeding Wakka's warnings) to steer it away from their town, only to anger Sin further, and the Crusaders Luzzu and Gatta, whose confidential cargo on board the ship is later revealed to be a Sinspawn; as one character puts it, "Sin will always return for its spawn". But then there's perhaps Tidus himself, when a revelation about Sin a little later in the game makes him realize he's the one that keeps drawing Sin out.
    • So Yuna and her friends have uncovered the truth about Maester Seymour, and are getting ready to send his ash to the Farplane, when Trommel intervenes and interrupts the ritual. Then, Trommel, after being confronted with Seymour's wrongdoing destroys the sphere of Seymour's father warning about his son's Start of Darkness, with the excuse that "the Guado deal with Guado affairs." Needless to say, with this action, Yuna and company are forced into hostile terms with not just the Guado, but the entirety of Spira as well, and the unsent Seymour goes on to attack the party several times, proving to be a deadly recurring villain. The decision does later cause trouble for the Guado when Seymour nearly wipes out the Ronso, leading to the near retaliatory genocide of the Guado in the sequel.
    • In Final Fantasy X-2, Maester Wen Kinoc sent a battalion of Crusaders, known as the "Crimson Squad", on a dangerous mission inside the Den of Woe. The real objective of the mission is to figure out what to make of illusions of an ancient machine being seen inside the cave. The Crimson Squad wind up turning their guns on each other, becoming a total massacre, with only four survivors. That's not the doom part, since Kinoc never intended for any of the Crimson Squad to live, and immediately ordered a hit on the survivors. The real doombringer is how one of the Crimson Squad survivors winds up getting possessed by the evil spirit imprisoned in the cave, who plans on getting revenge on all of Spira, resulting in most of the events of the game.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII have Fang and Vanille woke up that brought the event of the game that cause millions of people to suffer death also have other people includes Serah and Dajh becoming a l'Cie.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers: The player is initially led to believe that the Echo, the blessing from Hydaelyn that renders them impervious to mind control from the primals, would also protect them from being corrupted by the light of the First's Lightwardens. This was actually a lie Urianger told, as Y'shtola realizes through her Aura Vision that the player character is not immune to the Light, but is slowly being subsumed by it the more of the Lightwardens' aether they absorb. Subverted in that Urianger and the Crystal Exarch knew about this, but the Exarch was prepared for this and planned to pull off a Heroic Sacrifice, taking the Light for himself before slipping into the interdimensional rift, laying down his life to free the First from danger.
• Unwitting Pawn: The series. Multiple times.
  • Terra and her comrades fall for this hard when the Empire in Final Fantasy VI insists that it wants to commence peace talks. Granted, a few party members are suspicious enough to prepare a backup plan, but Terra, Locke, and General Leo swallow the plot hook-line-and-sinker and deliver a whole bunch of Espers for Kefka to turn into Magicite. Worse, this enables him to enter the Esper World and raise the Floating Continent, where the Warring Triad are hidden away. It turns out that Emperor Gestahl was also a Unwitting Pawn: Kefka uses him and the Empire to get to the Triad, and then uses their power to kill him and take all of it for himself.
  • Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. One of the main points of his character is that Sephiroth can make Cloud do anything by manipulating him just the right way, and he makes sure Cloud knows it.
    • Deepground from Dirge of Cerberus are all pawns of Professor Hojo. After his death in the original game, he ends up digitalizing his mind into the worldwide network and later possesses Weiss, as well for his final, final experiment, the revival of Omega.
  • Queen Brahne Raza Alexandros XVI from Final Fantasy IX thought she was behind everything but it turns out she was just a pawn of Garland and Kuja as they manipulate her war and greed to fulfill their own objectives.
  • Tidus and Yuna from Final Fantasy X. They get bounced like ping-pong balls back and forth between Yevon's plan to continue the spiral of death and Auron's plan to destroy it and free Spira. Final Fantasy X-2 seems to imply that Yuna, at least, never figured it out.
  • Almost everyone ends up this way in Final Fantasy Tactics after the dust has settled from the Gambit Pileup by the story's end. Except Delita. And Ramza..
  • Bartz is this, aside from being an Idiot Hero. He and his companions Head into the Great Forest of Moore, in order to stop Exdeath from taking what's sealed inside. Turns out he waited for them to get to that world's crystals... And destroy them. Wow.
    • Bartz and Krile go to seek Ghido for help after Exdeath is defeated and the worlds fuse together and at that point, an innocuous-looking splinter that Krile has enables Exdeath to return. Having overheard the conversation, he sets out to take control of the Void.
  • Oh Cecil. We love the guy, but he's got a bad history with traps. First he delivers a trapped ring to the village of Mist (which, is known as the "Bomb Ring" in some versions). Then later he's approached with a Hostage For Macguffin deal, and he hands over the macguffin (assumed at the time to be the last one Golbez needed) before seeing the hostage. Then he and his group have the door to the second-to-last Underworld crystal opened because of some disturbance inside, and end up giving Golbez a way in. And then, after failing to secure the (seven!) lost Crystals, they go and unseal the door to the last one, and trudge through the Scrappy Level both ways to bring it outside, only for Golbez to re-control Kain and take it at the last second. And if you include the crystal that he retrieved for Baron in the backstory, that makes him directly responsible for Golbez getting fully half of the Crystals. Sometimes, you wonder why Cecil keeps doing things, considering that the situation gets worse every time he gets close to a macguffin.
  • By the time Final Fantasy XIII rolls around, the main group is being told that they're Unwitting Pawns.
    • And in the sequel, it comes up again when Noel kills Caius, destroying the heart of Etro, killing her with him, ensuring his plan succeeds. The most infuriating part is that Noel and Serah already knew this but Remembered Too Late.
• Updated Re-release: Especially since the new millennium, the first six games of the series have gradually been re-released over time, each time with new features, usually new dungeons and some enhancements to gameplay, occasionally updated graphics, and bonus content like art galleries and bestiaries. I, II, and IV were remade for the WonderSwan Color. Five of the six^note III being the odd one out after their WonderSwan Color remake plans fell through, until the DS remake came to the PlayStation (these versions later came to Play Station Network), and then got remade for the Gameboy Advance. With more specific improvements, I, II and IV were released for PSP with enhanced 2D graphics, III has been released in 3D for the DS, PSP, smartphones (and Ouya), and Steam, IV in 3D for the DS and smartphones, and V and VI have been released for smartphones with enhanced 2D graphics. To date, the only main games in the series, barring the MMORPGs, which aren't scheduled to receive this treatment are VIII and XIII^note Both games are on Steam, but are almost completely unchanged from their original releases.
• Uptight Loves Wild:
  • Final Fantasy VI has the subdued, professional military commander Celes Chere falling in love with the charismatic thi... er, treasure hunter, Locke Cole. Through him, Celes taps into her own morality, and Locke is able to move on from his previous traumas because of her.
  • Squall and Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII could be a trope image. Squall is a businesslike mercenary who tries as hard as he can to play The Stoic and is constantly Facepalming his teammates' antics. Rinoa is a free-spirited member of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who frequently questions the mercenary way of life Squall has and constantly encourages him to be expressive.
  • Final Fantasy X has Tidus and Yuna. Yuna was raised as the honored daughter of a martyr who fully intends to follow in his footsteps, and is constantly aware that she's a public figure who must put on a brave face for the populace. Tidus, meanwhile, is a tactless athlete who has no hesitation in barging into sacred ceremonies, trash-talking the hometown team of a tournament, and loudly questioning religious tenets. (In more than one instance where Tidus makes a big embarrassing scene, Lulu and Wakka look like they want to strangle him, while Yuna appears to be laughing and egging him on.)

V

• Verbal Tic: In the series, the Moogles, - wherever they appear and whatever they may look like, - always stick "-kupo" in at the end of every sentence, if they can say any other words at all. Some incarnations, in the Japanese versions, use "mogu" in place of a personal pronoun like "watashi" or "boku".
  • Cyan in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI speaks in a samurai manner ending sentences with "de gozaru." The English translation made him speak Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe by using "ye" and "thou". This caused Gau to call Sabin "Mr. Thou" he first meets the two of them.
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Reno's 'zotto'. Much more apparent in the Compilation. Sometimes translated as ending every sentence with 'yo'.
    • The Japanese version of Cloud tended to use lots of idioms and clichés - giving the impression of someone whose words weren't really his own. In the English version he merely tends to phrase things in an insecure way ("Not really") and use a lot more contractions than other characters.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, underlings Raijin and Fujin have verbal tics. Raijin ends every sentence with "ya know?", while Fujin almost always speaks in monosyllabic sentences, and IN ALL CAPS. Raijin's "ya know?" was carried over into Kingdom Hearts II, revealing that this is much more annoying in spoken form. There's also Watts who refers to nearly everyone as "sir" in every sentence to show his politeness.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, Regent Cid was transformed into an insect-like creature called an oglop, and while he can still speak English, he still makes a "gwok" sound every few words or so. Then he tries to get cured, and turns into a frog, and the gwok is replaced with a ribbit. When he finally returns to being human, he's so used to the verbal tics that he still gwoks and ribbits on occasion.
  • In Final Fantasy X, Wakka would end whatever he says with "ya?"
  • Rikku had one too, you know?
    • It sometimes spread to Tidus and Yuna too, you know?
  • In Final Fantasy XI, most Tarutaru NPCs have some sort of verbal tic, though it varies widely from person to person. The most common variant is adding extensions to random words to make them rhyme (for example, "timey-wimey") and ending words that would normally end in "t" with "taru." e.g. "Didn'taru you know? The homepoint is over that way"
  • Tama from World of Final Fantasy has a habit of adding the word "the-" to the beginning of random words, sort of the-like this.
  • In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ringof Fates, the Yuke mage Alhanalem ends his sentences in "-al" for all matters conversational. Lilty warrior-alchemist Meeth, as befitting of her "cutesy" personality, ends all of hers with "-ie" sounds.
• The 'Verse: Each numbered sequel produces a new one (see Non-Linear Sequel, above); the only established universe to get a large number of games set in it is Ivalice (FFXII and various Tactics games), and even then the links between various games is a little confusing.
  • Games getting sequels has increased in recent years including Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • In the Advance and Complete Collection versions of Final Fantasy IV, during Cecil's Trial in the Lunar Ruins, it's possible to be very cruel during various trials (like letting a kid drown, stealing a Megaelixir left at a grave, killing a soldier transformed into a Goblin despite his pleas...) and you'll get away with it. Hold it right there! There's a catch. You won't get one of the strongest weapons of the game if you do that. So, if your sense of humor is that horrid, forget casting Holy by simply swinging that sword.
    • In The After Years, you have to return the Eidolons to their senses in order to use them. However, you won't get their Bestiary entries if you do that. To obtain them you have to kill them (the only exceptions are Ifrit and Titan, which are obligatory to recruit and you'll have their entries as well). Also, you can kill Asura and Leviathan, but you'll get their entries even if you don't. HOWEVER! Spare both of them and you won't get Bahamut's entry. This is what you can call a dilemma.
    • Another cruelty you can do in this game is kill all the Sylphs, despite the fact that you can defeat only a group to get their entry (not that makes it any better). But like above, kill all of them and you won't be able to Summon them. So weight your actions.
  • Final Fantasy VI features a sequence where you can save Cid by catching fish. Fail the fishing minigame, and he dies. However, many players fail the minigame on purpose - partly because of this trope, partly because it's an annoying minigame, and partly because Cid's death is generally considered to be one of the most tragic moments in the game.
  • Final Fantasy VII has one part where you can be a total asshat to Red XIII. When the party reaches the beach town from Junon for the first time, Red XIII sits in the shade and notices how his tail loves to bat the soccer ball the kids are playing with. You can smash the ball to Red XIII and hit him in the face, causing him to growl, but that is it. The best part is you can do this endlessly and Red XIII won't be mad at you later.
    • There is another part in the game where you get to be cruel and it's a part of the storyline: Around disc 3, after Tifa manages to escape from Shinra, Scarlett confronts Tifa and slaps her in the face. You then get to press O and slap Scarlett back over and over again until she gives up. Safe to assume that at least a few people made a separate save file just so they can go back and play the slapping mini-game.
    • When you first visit the Sector 5 Slums, there's a kid talking in his sleep about his treasure in the drawer. If you open it, you get his 5 gil. When you return after the destruction of Sector 7, you can see him upset about it. However, if you leave it alone, he saves up and buys you a Turbo Ether.
    • On Disc 2, when you go to get the submarine, there are two Shinra grunts and their superior inside. These are the guys Cloud met on Disc 1 while posing as a grunt himself, and as such, you can either take them prisoner... or just kill 'em dead.
    • There is a bird's nest in North Corel with a mother cockatrice and her chicks. You can choose to leave it alone or go for a treasure, but are strongly encouraged to leave it alone if either Tifa or Aeris are in your party. If you choose to go for it, the reward is ten Phoenix Downs, but first you have to kill the mother cockatrice. And the girls will make fun of Cloud's hair.
    • You can be really nice to Aerith, or really mean. You can accuse her of being the slum drunk, leave her to fight a group of angry soldiers rather than doing anything to actually help, inform her that Tifa is your girlfriend when she's not, and after sharing a romantic date at the gold saucer, you can answer her question about whether you like her by saying that you don't. If you're feeling particularly cruel, you can go out of your way to woo Tifa, just to rub salt in the wound.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, One of the Knights of Pluto wants to quit the Alexandrian army to become a writer, and asks Steiner if he can leave the Knights. Steiner can either say that he'll eventually let the knight leave, but first he has to find Princess Garnet, or he can be a Jerkass and yell at the knight, telling him he can't leave before basically telling him to get off his lazy behind and find the princess. Either way, the poor knight runs off in tears.
  • Final Fantasy X: The wonderful Thunder Plains, which are constantly plagued by thunder and lightning. You can take shelter near very tall pillars designed to divert the lightning, jump out of the way of a strike with good timing, or — if you're feeling particularly sadistic — let Tidus get struck by lightning. over and over again. For as long as you want. (Unfortunately, this feature was removed in Final Fantasy X-2.)
    • Speaking of thunder... Rikku, the Genki Girl Wrench Wench, has a Fear of Thunder. Because of how targeting works in this game, you can cast lightning-elemental spells on her endlessly (as long as she has HP to burn) to see how she reacts.
    • There's also a scene where the rest of the Party tries to leave Rikku behind in the Thunder Plains. By using the Circle button to walk, the Player can join in on ditching her.
    • For that matter, you can inflict any kind of cruelty on other party members; petrification, poison, any other element... possibilities are endless. Why you'd want to is another matter entirely.
    • In Final Fantasy X-2, Clasko asks Yuna to let him board the Celsius airship in order to find a spot to fill his dream by opening a chocobo ranch. The choice to deny him is labeled "Sorry, loser."
  • Final Fantasy XII: There is only one enemy in the game that will not attack you on sight: A Garif hunter, who is walking around on the plains near his hometown, hunting animals for food. You have to kill him to fill out your bestiary. Multiple times. He also stands no chance against your party of mighty god slayers.
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII:
    • In the Dead Dunes, occasionally you come across tiny little lizards off the beaten paths, who are absolutely no threat to you whatsoever... that you can kill by attacking. With everyone killed, they either drop a Lizard Tail (for side-quests), or unappraised items (which when appraised, are good sources for gil and some rare consumable items). If you kill enough lizards, you get an achievement.
    • Soldiers wander around Luxerion, and you can fight them just like any monster, though you have to enrage them by attacking multiple times ... they don't come back after you defeat them, at any point, unlike their contemporaries in Yusnaan.
    • Running around with Lightning having her sword out is normally enough to startle random NPCs; actually swinging it directly at them will often cause them to cower or flee in terror.
  • In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers you have the ability to manipulate gravity. You use this power to toss monsters into one another and make impossible jumps. You can also use it to toss random civilians around. Some of them drop money when thrown. Old ladies are the most likely to drop Gil. It's like they want you to abuse your powers.
    • They do: There are achievements for getting an old lady who comes only when you've thrown a lot of them around, and one for throwing guards about and getting sent to prison.
  • Final Fantasy Adventure actually allows you to kill citizens when you're strong enough.
    Citizen: Hello there! Welcome to Topple!
    Boy: This is Topple? Wow, nice. Well where's Wendell?
    Citizen: Hello young man, welcome to Topple!
    Boy: This isn't Wendell! Where can I find it?
    Citizen: Hello young man! Welcome to Topple!
    Boy: YEEEAARRRGGGGHHHHH! *Goes Ax-Crazy and repeatedly slashes the townsperson until he vanishes and dies*
    Citizen's death quote: Hello young man! Welcome to Topple!
• Video Game Perversity Potential:
  • Final Fantasy VIII went way out of its way to avert this, at least for the North American release. The Scan spell shows details of an enemy, on a screen that also includes a rotating model of it. Many players don't realize that the game controls can be used to rotate the model at will, on two axes. Many players also don't realize that Scan can be cast on player characters, because this serves no purpose. But the developers certainly did. The rotation of Selphie's model is restricted — she is the only character that wears a short skirt.
  • Also averted in Final Fantasy XV: Most of the character models in the Monster Compendium can be zoomed and rotated, but the model for Shiva is fixed. For those unfamiliar with recurring characters in Final Fantasy games, Shiva is an ice goddess dressed in a bikini.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The series has a long history of Villainous Breakdowns. Kefka Palazzo, for example, had his after having attained godhood, mercilessly tortured the world and its remaining inhabitants for a full year in an attempt to make them all realize the futility of Life, Dreams, and Hope. When the heroes finally confront him and proclaim that dreams will always be worth dreaming, life will always be treasured, and hope will always be there to keep them going, even through the hardest of times, he announces that he has just about had enough of their insolent persistence and intends to go for Apocalypse How, Class X and beyond.
    • Listen closely to Kefka when you actually fight his final form: He laughs even longer than usual (by about 5 seconds) after saying "Life... Dreams... Hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go...? Such meaningless things... I'll destroy them all!!"
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Professor Hojo starts off as a calm, composed, and ruthless scientist. As the game goes on, however, he gradually starts to begin getting more and more unhinged, ultimately culminating in him going completely insane, willingly attempting to destroy Midgar to help Sephiroth, and going so far as to inject himself with Jenova cells, fighting the party as a pseudo-Eldritch Abomination, all while giggling madly. And as Dirge of Cerberus shows, death did not help his mental state. If anything, it made him worse.
  • Each encounter with Seifer in Final Fantasy VIII shows him edging a few steps further along a downward spiral; he starts out proclaiming himself a heroic knight pursuing a romantic dream, and ends up trying to sacrifice his former girlfriend to an insane sorceress in order to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, purely because by that point he felt like he'd gone too far to turn back. His slow breakdown is reflected visually by his long white coat, which starts off as a Badass Longcoat but is tattered and shredded by the last encounter. Unlike most villains, Seifer gets better; during the ending cutscene, Seifer's coat is back to the way it started out.
  • Final Fantasy IX's Kuja spends a good portion of the final part of the game hopelessly insane with rage upon discovering he's mortal and will eventually die, and was just a temporary tool of The Man Behind the Man (and that the protagonist Zidane is essentially a far more advanced model of what he was supposed to be). Kuja ends up blowing up one world and very nearly blows up another in quick succession.
  • Final Fantasy XII has Vayne. After the rebel forces and his own brother Larsa beat him up, he goes One-Winged Angel and orders Larsa's bodyguard Gabranth to protect Larsa while he deals with the rebels: Gabranth decides to help the rebels defeat him instead. Beaten a second time, all Vayne has to say at this point is "BURN IN HELL, GABRANTH!" as he tries to strike him down. Vayne then limps away, bemoaning that his plans and empire are crumbling around him.
  • Garland of Final Fantasy in Dissidia Final Fantasy has one just before the last fight with the Warrior of Light in his "Destiny Odyssey". Garland talks about the cycle of battle and how he and the Warrior of Light will always be in conflict. The Warrior responds with pity for Garland, who he then vows to save. Unfortunately, Garland does not take that well, yelling much louder than usual in the ensuing cutscene fight.
    Warrior of Light: Garland...I pity you.
    Garland: ...Pardon?
    Warrior of Light: You are bound by the chains of destiny and steeped in despair. And for that, I pity you. Indeed we have repeated our battles time and time again. You could say we have been caught in the cycle of battle. But now that I know the truth, I can overcome it. All that is left to do now is fight to end the cycle!
    Garland: You can defeat me here, but that would only be another step in the cycle!
    Warrior of Light: Whatever destiny the world may hold for me, I will never give up! This battle will come to an end, and I shall save you, too!
    Garland: You? Save me? I have heard enough nonsense!
    [...]
    Garland: This is the cycle, of battle! We will never come to accept one another. We shall always be in conflict!
    Warrior of Light: Destiny ends here!
    Garland: End it, if you can!
  • King Thordan from Final Fantasy XIV loses his composure after he sees that the party has withstood the Ultimate End limit break. The would-be god king is reduced to a desperate old man wildly swinging his sword about, screaming in utter disbelief, and questioning just WHAT the Warrior of Light is if they could survive the divine wrath. When the Warrior of Light recounts the battle to the Wandering Minstrel, the Minstrel opts to leave out Thordan's breakdown for the sake of telling a better story.
  • In Final Fantasy XVI, Ultima goes through one as Clive keeps on rejecting his attempts to break down his intended will, instead emerging more powerful each time they clash during the final boss battle. At this moment, the mask of eerie indifference slips as Ultima's demeanor starts unravelling, exposing their cruel and petty nature:
    Ultima: Have you truly become… free? No…! I forbid it! You are not a god. You are but flesh and bone. You are not one of us! I created you. All of you. And what is mine, is mine to destroy.
• Villainous Crush:
  • Final Fantasy IV: Kain is jealous of his best friend Cecil for winning the heart of Rosa, the apple of his eye. Does he Murder the Hypotenuse? Thankfully, no. Kain is ultimately accepting of his status as the Unlucky Childhood Friend and hides his feelings for Rosa out of respect for the trio's deep friendship. Unfortunately, Dark Kain does not value his better half's reservations, even going as far as to pull an I Have You Now, My Pretty moment when he captures Rosa◊ in The After Years.
  • Final Fantasy VII: When Cloud's group has an encounter with the Turks outside of Gongaga on the second continent, they bump into them gossiping like schoolgirls about who likes who. Turns out Rude has a crush on Tifa (which can be exploited to the player's advantage - he holds back against her in boss battles), and Tseng likes Aerith. Elena, who's implied to like Tseng nevermind her denials when asked, is clearly and hilariously fed up.
  • Final Fantasy X: Seymour Guado has one on Yuna, resulting in a Forceful Kiss.
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: It's clearer in the Japanese version, but the Final Boss Bhunivelze has some very suggestive dialogue towards Lightning. When you take into account his possession of Hope, the implication is that he was influenced by Hope's own feelings to be obsessed with her.
• Violence is the Only Option:
  • Final Fantasy VI does this grandly, with an extensive sequence near the middle of the game that features you negotiating with The Empire. The Emperor will even reward you if you're particularly skilled with your diplomacy. However, this is all just bait.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, the pacifist residents of Fisherman's Horizon criticize the main characters for solving problems with violence, arguing that all problems can be solved by talking them out. Atypically, the main character doesn't disagree with their outlook, but when the enemy's army shows up and the mayor of FH goes to try to reason with them, the main characters still end up having to rescue him and drive the enemy soldiers out by force.
    • The player can optionally choose to have Squall try to explain his stance after the battle, resulting in an explanation wherein Squall says that diplomacy is great, and he would prefer it, but that not everyone agrees, and as long as the threat of violence remains, it's impossible for everything to be resolved diplomatically. He then apologizes for fighting and walks away.
  • Done again in Final Fantasy IX where the queen attacks Clerya and the residents try to reason with the enemy, only to be killed. Zidane and some residents from Burmecia are fed up that the peace keepers can't fight and vow to slaughter every soldier that gets in the way.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • Lenne from Final Fantasy X-2 is revealed to have had a rather husky voice for a young woman who looked no older than her 20's.
  • Not unlike the above examples, in Final Fantasy XII, Ashe's deceased husband Rasler looks like a typical Bishōnen but his voice is surprisingly deep. It's jarring because he doesn't talk at all in his earlier appearances until a flashback late in the game.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • In the 2.5 main story, you meet a certain character that has a very booming and deep voice that is suited to him because he's a dragon that is nearly the size of an airship. Later on, he gains a new body that is no bigger than a person's head, yet he still retains the same deep voice.
    • Near the end of the Shadowbringers story, the player character is Suddenly Speaking due to Arbert fusing his soul with theirs and use their voice in that one scene regardless of the player's gender.
  • Final Fantasy XV:
    • Noctis looks like your typical Bishōnen protagonist, but in the English Episode Duscae demo he has a surprisingly deep and raspy voice. This was due to the voice acting being rushed and is averted in the game proper where his voice is younger and lighter.
    • Dino Ghiranze is a svelte pretty boy on par with Noctis, which has thrown players for a loop when he speaks with a thick, stereotypical New York accent.

W

• Waif-Fu:
  • Tifa from Final Fantasy VII. Hard to tell in the original game due to blocky polygons, but the upgraded graphics in Advent Children show she doesn't have any noticeably big muscles, despite being a martial arts master, and facing off against Loz.
  • Penelo from Final Fantasy XII is very petite compared to the rest of the party, but she can be formidable in her own right, and you can even give her a BFS.
    • That said, her stats do favour magick rather than combat, so it's up to the player's discretion. Fran is perhaps a straighter example: she is basically a playboy bunny species, and (in cutscenes and quickenings only, natch) shows dexterity and martially artistic moves.
• Walking the Earth:
  • Bartz (and his chocobo, Boco) in Final Fantasy V. He starts the game as a wanderer, following his father's dying wish that he carry out this trope. It's so much a part of who he is that he's given the essence of wind, Journey, as a Light Warrior. He returns to this after saving the world.
  • In Dissidia Final Fantasy, when he's threatened by Exdeath by being told that he'll wander forever in the void after being defeated, he calmly replies that that doesn't sound half bad, but then goes on to win anyway. He personifies the wind, after all, and the principle attribute of the wind is that it travels.
    • Another Dissidia example: Golbez, being not only The Atoner but the only Warrior of Chaos not to bite the bullet, does this until he feels that he will be able to join younger brother Cecil in the light.
  • Another Final Fantasy example, though to a greater degree: Gilgamesh. To date, he has appeared in V, both remakes of the first, IV: The After Years, VI, VIII, IX, XI, XII and its sequel, Type-0, Dissidia 012, and XIII-2 and two expansions of XIV, where he is currently residing.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, the Samurai Gosetsu starts doing this at the end of the events of Patch 4.3 as he wants to spend the rest of his remaining days giving reprise to those souls would couldn't get it.
• The War Just Before: XII opens with an elaborate Arranged Marriage intended to merger Nabradia and Dalmasca, sealing their alliance against Archadia should the Empire push westward in its rapid expansion. Unfortunately, Archadian soldiers kill the husband soon after, and his wife swears vengeance on the country. Cue plot.
• Warp Whistle: Chocobos, and occasionally airships (on those occasions when the party doesn't own one, but rather pays air fare).
  • XII cuts down on travel by allowing you to warp to previously-visited Teleport Crystals.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • In general, Revive Kills Zombie, so even undead bosses can be easily killed as long as you have a Phoenix Down in your inventory.
  • In Final Fantasy V, the Superboss Omega, like hard bosses in general, are designed to have immunity to every status attack the player can throw at him... except for Romeo's Ballad. For some reason, this machine of death will specifically never be able to dodge a song about love, and will unerringly be frozen for a (very short) time because of it.
    • Even more jarring, Omega is not immune to the Mix combination that generates Bacchus Wine, which gives the target berserk status causing them to do only physical attacks. Combine this with the summon Golem, which blocks all physical attacks, and you can render the superboss helpless.
    • Most bosses towards the end of the game are at level 97. Being a prime number, this makes them immune to a lot of Blue magic that use levels. Except by using the mix ability Dragon Power or Samson Power and the Blue Magic Dark Shock, you can manipulate their levels to make them vulnerable to any of the level-based Blue Magic, including L5 Death.
  • In Final Fantasy VI the irritatingly durable Platinum Dragons (formerly Wirey Dragons in the SNES version) have no elemental weaknesses and high offense and defense. However, Relm's generally useless Sketch ability triggers a monster spell called Cyclonic when she sketches a Platinum Dragon, and it knocks out 90% of their hitpoints. The Ultima/Atma Weapon on the floating island is extremely powerful and has a lot of HP, but dies when it runs out of MP, which it doesn't have nearly as much of. The spell Osmose absorbs a neat chunk of an enemy's MP and adds it to yours, while the spell Rasp destroys a large amount. Rasp, rasp, rasp, dead.
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, no enemy, including the superboss Omega Weapon, is immune to Vit0, which drops the target's defenses to physical attacks to 0. It's also stupidly easy to obtain the spell that causes it. By inflicting Vit0, you don't need to spend any of your magic stock (which can affect your character's build due to how the Draw system works) on the boss, just wail at them to death with weapons.
  • In Final Fantasy X, using Provoke on Defender X will force him to use an attack that halves the target's current HP for the remainder of the fight (unless the Provoker switches out of battle). Therefore, the fight becomes a Foregone Victory. Many other bosses have some exploitable weakness (some more obscure than others), making a "level one" run easier than you might expect.
  • The final boss of Final Fantasy Tactics, St. Ajora, is incredibly weak to the Oracle spells of Drain and Osmose, the two easiest spells to acquire for the class. The AI even actively hones in on characters using it by outright killing them if able, or depleting all their magic if not. However, even a single Chemist is enough to counter these effects, and you can merely have the rest of the party wail on the final boss without it even bothering them for an easy victory.
  • In Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, due to a rather unusual bug, the basic Cure spell causes a bizarre rollover effect when used on the final boss of the game, either hitting him for tens of thousands of points of damage, or healing him for that amount. Either way, he typically dies in the following round, likely due to a failsafe caused by his hit points being pushed into negative/out-of-range values.
  • Vercingetorix in Final Fantasy XIII is brutally hard...unless you know he's vulnerable to poison. In that case, killing him is simply a matter of inflicting poison, then turtling in a three Sentinel paradigm until he removes the debuff, then repeating. It doesn't even take that long.
    • Poison also remains extremely powerful in both sequels. This is thanks to its mechanics draining a flat 1% of the boss' max HP, instead of their current HP, meaning that its effectiveness never falls off, many of the games' harder Superbosses could be cheesed by laying on poison, turtling with sentinels and a medic, and just waiting it out.
• Weapon Specialization: The Final Fantasy series loves this:
  • Though Final Fantasy II's characters could use every weapon, they were best with certain kinds:
    • Firion uses swords. However, as of Dissidia, he has been established as a weapon master, using all eight possible weapons (swords, axes, daggers, spears, shields, maces, bows and his bare hands), sometimes all at the same time. He also knows magic, though it's less powerful than most everyone else who does.
    • Maria uses bows.
    • Guy uses axes.
    • Minwu uses staves.
    • Ricard uses lances.
    • Leila uses knives.
    • Josef uses bare fists.
    • Gordon uses spears.
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Cloud uses broadswords. Ridiculously large ones. Before you make the joke... yes, he is compensating for something. Not that, but crippling self-doubt. It also serves as a memorial for his best friend. As with everything FFVII, this later became a stereotype for JRPG heroes in general.
    • Aerith, the Staff Chick and the sole dedicated caster of the group, uses staves.
    • Tifa uses gloves/gauntlets.
    • Barret, The Big Guy with a chip on his shoulder, uses a gatling gun grafted into his arm.
    • Red XIII uses his claws, but his weapons are listed as headdresses.
    • Cid uses polearms.
    • Caith Sith uses megaphones.
    • Yuffie uses giant shurikens.
    • Vincent uses guns.
  • Final Fantasy VIII:
    • Squall and Seifer both use gunblades, a weapon explicitly stated to require extreme skill. Fancy way of saying "The Hero and The Rival."
    • Rinoa uses "blaster edges", wrist-mounted projectile launchers.
    • Laguna uses an assault rifle.
    • Quistis uses whips.
    • Zell uses his bare fists.
    • Selphie uses giant nunchaku.
    • Irvine uses rifles, which becomes a plot point. He's supposed to be a military sniper, but he really doesn't have the heart to kill in cold blood.
    • Kiros uses katars.
    • Ward uses a giant harpoon.
  • Final Fantasy IX:
    • Zidane uses twin daggers, as a fast-hitting thief.
    • Garnet and Vivi use staves, being magical types.
    • Steiner uses swords.
    • Freya uses lances.
    • Quina's only schtick is being a Big Eater, to the point where she uses dinner forks in battle.
    • Amarant uses claws.
    • Eiko uses flutes.
  • Final Fantasy X:
    • Tidus uses short swords
    • Yuna uses staves
    • Auron uses great katanas
    • Wakka uses Blitzballs
    • Lulu uses dolls
    • Kimahri uses polearms.
    • Rikku uses bladed gauntlets
  • Final Fantasy XI every class has one or two weapons each they excel in.
    • Warriors use Axes and Great Axes
    • Black Mages use Staves
    • Red Mages use Swords
    • White Mages use Clubs^note Maces, Wands, Rods and Hammers
    • Thieves use Daggers
    • Monks use Hand to Hand weapons
    • Paladins use Swords and Shields
    • Dark Knights use Scythes
    • Beastmasters use Axes
    • Bards use Harps, Flutes and Songs.
    • Rangers use Bows, Crossbows and Guns
    • Samurai use Great Katanas
    • Ninja use Katana ^note Ninjato, Wakizashi, and Kunai
    • Dragoons use Polearms
    • Summoners use Staves and Clubs
    • Blue Mages use Swords
    • Corsairs use "Hexaguns"
    • Puppeteers use Hand to Hand
    • Dancers use Daggers
    • Scholars use Staves and Clubs
    • Geomancer use Clubs and Handbells
    • Rune Fencers use Greatswords
  • Final Fantasy XII, characters can wield any weapon depending on your choices in the licensing system, but at the beginning of the game every character uses a different weapon
    • Vaan uses short swords
    • Ashe uses long swords
    • Basch also uses long sword
    • Balthier uses guns
    • Fran uses bows
    • Penelo uses daggers
    • This also applies to the guest characters
    • Larsa uses long swords
    • Vossler uses great swords
    • Reddas uses twin swords
    • And finally, Reks uses short swords
  • Revenant Wings (the sequel) is mostly the same, except characters only have one type of weapon.
    • Penelo now uses staves.
    • Kytes (from Revenant Wings) uses staves as well.
    • Filo uses a hoverboard.
    • Lluyd uses spears and lances.
    • Ba'Gamnan (a Guest-Star Party Member) uses a Chainsaw.
    • Ashe now uses hand grenades for some reason.
    • Basch now uses greatswords.
  • Final Fantasy XIII:
    • Lightning uses a gunblade that actively changes between sword and gun
    • Sazh wields dual-pistols
    • Snow is a fist fighter that uses emblems on his coat to augment his stats
    • Vanille uses rods that have hooks and wires built in for damaging foes.
    • Hope uses a hi-tech boomerang
    • Fang uses a double-ended spear that can segment into a three section staff.
  • Final Fantasy XIII-2
    • Serah uses a bowsword that, like her sister's gunblade, switches between sword and bow.
    • Noel uses a pair of swords that can combine into a spear.
  • Final Fantasy XIV, the weapon you wield defines your class:
    • Archers use bows
    • Gladiators use swords
    • Lancers use spears
    • Marauders use axes
    • Pugilists use knuckles and claws.
    • Rogues use daggers.
    • Conjurers use wands and canes
    • Thaumaturges use scepters and staves
    • Arcanists use grimoires
  • Final Fantasy XV:
    • Noctis, The Hero and the main Player Character, is capable of using almost every type of weapon in the game. In his spinoff and crossover appearance such as Dissidia Final Fantasy (2015) and Tekken 7, he favors short swords, but also uses a spear, a large sword, daggers, and a shield.
    • Gladiolus, The Big Guy of the group, favors big swords, but is also well-versed in using shields, as befitting a royal bodyguard.
    • Prompto, the excitable shutterbug, uses weapons that allow him to fight at range, such as Handguns, shotguns, and BFGs like the Auto Crossbow and Bioblaster.
    • Ignis, The Smart Guy of the party, uses weapons that allow him to strike with speed and precision, such as daggers and spears.
  • Final Fantasy Type-0
    • Ace wields Tarot Cards
    • Deuce uses a Flute
    • Trey wields a bow and arrow
    • Cater uses a magic gun
    • Cinque wields a mace
    • Sice uses a scythe.
    • Seven uses a whip
    • Eight uses martial arts
    • Nine uses a spear
    • Jack uses a Katana
    • Queen uses a sword
    • King uses dual handguns
    • Rem uses dual daggers
    • Machina uses screw like swords
• Welcome Back, Traitor:
  • Final Fantasy II: Leon, the Dark Knight
  • Final Fantasy IV: Yang, Kain turned and came back twice - although the second time, Edge refused to trust him and Kain outright asked to be killed if he was brainwashed again.
    • Yang had amnesia and was being manipulated by Baron while he lost his memory. The only party member who holds this against him is Bratty Half-Pint Palom.
    • In Palom's defense, when someone repeatedly kicks you in the head when you first meet them, it's probably not conducive to offering your total trust and respect right away.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Yuffie, Cait Sith. In the latter's case, the moment of turning is just a short chase segment and brief cutscene in which you don't have access to the party command, and thus, it's entirely possible that the time before Cait's Welcome Back, Traitor moment is so brief that he literally never even left.
    • Though at least Cait Sith's is justified in that he threatens to kill a hostage if the heroes don't let him keep tagging along. His full forgiveness doesn't come until later.
    • Yuffie forces herself back into the group.
    • A Mind Control example of this happens when Cloud gives the Black Materia to Sephiroth.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack":
  • Final Fantasy XIII-2: The cat at NORA House in New Bodhum is named Snow, after the team's Boisterous Bruiser leader. Fragments reveal Gadot originally meant it as a joke, 'but the name stuck and that was that. For the record, the cat is female and the NORA leader is male.
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, in the post-game, has a cat named Sherlotta, after one of the main characters. Well, kind of.
• Wham Episode:
  • Final Fantasy II: Your party has just slain the Emperor and celebrations are underway. But then a soldier rushes in and reveals that the Dark Knight is Leon, Maria's brother, and that he has taken up the mantle of Emperor. Upon confronting Leon at Palamecia Castle, the Emperor rises from Hell in demonic form. Ricard, your current Guest-Star Party Member and the last of the Dragoons, performs a Heroic Sacrifice so the others can escape.
  • Then there's Final Fantasy VI, where Kefka destroys the world, Final Fantasy V, where Exdeath squashes two worlds together and combines this with the death of Galuf and a rare lack of Forgot About His Powers, Final Fantasy VIII, when we learn that the Sorceress Edea raised everyone in the party at an orphanage, and Final Fantasy IX, where we discover the sinister origins of Zidane.
  • Before it was widely known, Aeris/Aerith getting Killed Off for Real in Final Fantasy VII was pretty much WHAM all over.
    • It didn't stop. Add in the first scene at North Crater where Cloud loses his sanity, gives Sephiroth the Black Materia which lets him cast Meteor, causes the WEAPONs to be unleashed, and wrapped in the candy coating that is Sephiroth has actually been dead this whole time and the one who you've been chasing around the world was actually Jenova (Who, admittedly, was under the control of puppetmaster Sephiroth).
  • Half of Final Fantasy IX consists of this. one city's population slaughtered in a surprise assault, another one nuked, summoned Eldritch Abomination crushes one more city... and the situation goes even more downhill from there. Every time you think "This can't be going on any more!" you get the next wham.
  • There's also the scene in Final Fantasy X in Zanarkand, where Yunalesca tells the party that Sin is eternal, and that every Final Aeon that defeats Sin will become Sin in its place. Tidus is simply part of a dream of the fayth, who will wake up if you complete the game. You then move forward realizing that finishing the game will essentially mean the "death" of Tidus.
    • The events in Home offer another good one. Tidus has a major Freak Out when he learns of the only way to defeat Sin: for Yuna to die—and everyone knew this without telling him. For the rest of the game, he is determined to come up with some other way to beat Sin.
    • But before all of those, you get Operation Mi'ihen. It's an attempt to beat Sin using what we would consider conventional weaponry (as opposed to the Final Aeon). It is an out-and-out massacre, including one of Those Two Guys dying. Which one of them dies depends on some choices you made earlier, which seemed pretty irrelevant at the time. Operation Mi'ihen is also the first clue that Yevon isn't as nice as it seems.
  • Everything after Leblanc's hideout and before Chapter 3 in Final Fantasy X-2. Also, the Den of Woe. Still freaky, even if you know it's coming. And it makes so much of the game (and Paine's backstory) make much more sense.
  • In Final Fantasy XII when the party reaches Giruvegan and Ashe has a meeting with the Occuria.
  • Chapter 8 of Final Fantasy XIII starts out as a Breather Episode. It doesn't stay that way.
    • Chapter 9, The Primarch is a fal'Cie, one of you must become Ragnarok.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • The Main Scenario quest "All Good Things"; you return triumphant from your battle with Titan, only to find Garlean forces invaded the headquarters of the Scions and killed nearly everyone, forcing you to seek sanctuary at the church near Drybone Camp.
    • "Lady of the Vortex": Following your battle with Garuda, the Primal of Wind, she not only proves to be too powerful to be beaten by normal means, but she re-summons Ifrit and Titan so she can steal their powers. Just when it looks like you can't get any more screwed, the Garleans show up and reveal Ultima Weapon, a living superweapon that literally eats the other three Primals and absorbs their powers.
    • "The Parting Glass", the penultimate quest of the 2.5 patch, is very much this. At what is supposed to be a celebratory banquet, the Sultana is assassinated and the player and Scions framed for it, the Crystal Braves company that the player had spent the previous few patches helping to build up is revealed to be corrupt and responsible for the assassination, and the other Scions sacrifice themselves to allow the player to escape. The player and few remaining Scions are now wanted criminals in Ul'dah and hunted by the Crystal Braves, and forced to find refuge in the isolationist state of Ishgard. It gets better pretty quickly in Heavensward.
    • The end of Patch 4.4 of Stormblood quickly turns the entire story on its head: It's revealed that Solus zos Galvus, the beloved late first Emperor of the Garlean Empire, is actually alive and well... and an Ascian. Always has and always will be. The Empire's desire to eradicate the Primals and unite the world under its leadership? A big fat lie — all done to sow chaos so the Ascians' one true God, Zodiark, can be revived. This suddenly turns virtually every event and quite a few characters' involvements on its head.
    • EVERY LAST BIT of Shadowbringers/5.0 winds up being this to the entire story to this point! The Ascians were the original form of humanity from the unfragmented world, and THEY created the first and most powerful of all primals...ZODIARK AND HYDAELYN. Created to save the world from an apocalyptic calamity by rewriting the laws of the universe, humanity sacrificed half of itself to create Zodiark (whom promptly branded the sitting thirteen leaders of Ascian civilization, who we know as the Overlords), then half of what remained to have the God of Darkness restore all the damage done. However, another half of the remnants (essentially one eighth of what the original population had been) felt that too much was being given to the dark god and created Hydaelyn, His counterpart of Light. Their battle ended with Hydaelyn's victory, as she struck a final blow so incredible it blasted thirteen dimensional shards from the universe to create lesser parallel dimensions, all in 'orbit' around the now-incomplete Source. Solus zos Galvus is revealed to be one of the three 'whole' Overlords who escaped the fragmentation and is known as Emet-Selch, who not only created Garlemald but ancient Allag as well. G'raha Tia is also here as the Crystal Exarch, but from a Bad Future wherein the collapse and Rejoining of the First results in the Eighth Umbral Calamity, a global release of Black Rose across the entire Source that kills nearly everyone, including you and every Scion. The Ironworks of this future toil to augment the Syrcus Tower to be able to travel through space and time, and the Exarch goes back in time to the First to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, defeating Sin Eaters across the planet to drive back a malaise of light that was PLANNED by the Ascians all along to cause another Rejoining. Over the course of the adventure, you discover that you are a fragmented Ascian yourself, the Warrior of Darkness Ardbert is likewise, both being splintered from Emet-Selch's best friend in the Ascian capital of Amaurot. This all ends with you FINALLY fighting the founder of Garlemald and Allag to the death deep within the illusory recreation of the city, in order to save the kidnapped Exarch and prevent knowledge of the augmented Tower - that not even the Tower's creator understands completely - from being used to cause more Rejoinings. It also bears mentioning that Emet-Selch, true name HADES, is by and far the strongest Ascian ever fought, revealing that the Overlords were taken a lil too for granted against the Warrior of Light. And as the cherry on top of this cake of twists and turns, The Stinger shows that Zenos yae Galvus, the Garlean prince who the Warrior saw die after the final battle of Stormblood, managed to cheat death by using his artificial Echo to hijack another body until he drove the Ascian Elidibus from his body, took his body back, killed his father, the current Emperor, and now vows to take the power of Hydaelyn and Zodiark for himself just so he can get another crack at the Warrior!
    • On a more lighthearted note is the trial Kugane Ohashi from the Hildebrand questline in Stormblood, which starts with the players fighting Yojimbo, the mercenary swordsman and a boss previously encountered in a post-game dungeon. Then "Battle on the Big Bridge" kicks in as Yojimbo reveals himself to be none other than Gilgamesh!
  • Final Fantasy XV has the Leviathan trial, which ends very badly for all involved: Ardyn shanks Luna, and Ignis gets blinded offscreen.
  • Final Fantasy XVI has one of the biggest ones yet which turns everything on its head: during the raid on Drake's Head, Ultima appears to Clive and attempts to capture his body, showing that the story is going beyond petty squabbles of nations and into the "fighting the divine" territory.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics might challenge IX for the most Wham-tastic game in the series.
    • At the end of Chapter 1, Delita and Ramza's lives get changed in a major way.
    • About three storyline battles later, you learn that Gafgarion is not what he seems.
    • Then, in the last battle of Chapter 2, you learn what the Church is really hiding. Those are just selections. There's Wham candidates after just about every battle.
• Wham Line: You can see it here.
• Wham Shot:
  • The end of Disk 1 in Final Fantasy VII, Aerith getting stabbed by Sephiroth may be the most famous Wham Shot in the medium.
  • At the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake, one of the last shots is Zack Fair in the aftermath of his ill-fated Last Stand, triumphant and alive.
  • At the end of Final Fantasy XIII-2, the time gates are closing, the paradox is resolved, Hope's Cocoon is ascending, and Noel, Serah, and Mog are safe...and then you see Etro's Gate shining in Serah's eyes.
  • Final Fantasy XV:
    • If you play Episode Ignis before the events of Chapter 13 (preferably right after Chapter 9), the shot of Ardyn warping towards Ignis after the latter dons the Ring of the Lucii counts as this.
    • In Chapter 11, Noctis sees Ardyn inside the train and attacks him in a fit of rage. Shortly thereafter, he fights alongside his friend Prompto to defend the train. Shortly after taking out the Magitek engines, Noctis sees Ardyn holding Prompto at gunpoint on top of the train, and knocks the former off the train. A moment later, you see Prompto falling and Ardyn standing, at which point Noctis, along with the player, realizes that Prompto and Ardyn's appearances had been swapped to trick Noctis into attacking his friend.
• What Beautiful Eyes!:
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Cloud Strife. He's well known for having vivid blue eyes (which glow aqua-green because of his being injected with Mako). These Mako eyes are apparently also bewitching for men. As noted by one of Corneo's rapist lackeys that went chasing Cloud (in drag):
      Lackey: "Oh, your eyes. They seem to... glow. I'm all yours, baby!"
    • There's Zack Fair, whose eyes literally glow blue. In particular, Aerith at one point describes them as "wide and beautiful like the sky".
    • The Glowing eye thing is something that all members of SOLDIER have as a byproduct of the procedures that gave them their superhuman abilities. Sephiroth has 'em too, but it just makes him look more creepy.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake:
    • Barret wears Cool Shades for most of the game, even in scenes taking place in the dark, because his eyes are so brimming with kindness and beauty that it is impossible for him to look intimidating without covering them up. Considering he is a musclebound hulk with a gun attached to the end of one of his arms, this should give some idea of how gorgeous his eyes are. He takes the glasses off in scenes where we have to see Beneath the Mask, such as when he's having an emotional breakdown after the collapse of the Sector 7 Plate or taking care of his daughter Marlene.
    • Cloud has huge blue eyes with a vivid neon green flare around the pupil that looks unnaturally bright, because the magic treatments that gave him his impossible strength also gave him glowing Occult Blue Eyes. Jessie and Aerith both find them beautiful and comment on them. Tifa, who remembers what his natural eye color was, instead finds them disturbing and creepy.
  • Laguna from Final Fantasy VIII. Julia even comes out and tells him: "You have beautiful eyes. Don't worry, I'm not going to pluck 'em and eat 'em." There's a reason that the love song he inspired her to write is called "Eyes on Me".
  • Yuna from Final Fantasy X has heterochromatic eyes; one blue and one green. This is implied to be a trait of her being a child of an interracial couple ^note Her mother is an Al Bhed, all of whom have green eyes with spiral-shaped pupils. There are many close-ups of her eyes throughout X and X-2 and during a battle, Seymour even remarked that her eyes "burn with passion".
• What Is This Feeling?:
  • In Final Fantasy VII Remake Played for Laughs, if you talk to Chadley, the Shinra materia researcher and secret helper to your party when Cloud is in his dress, he will comment, "Forgive me, miss, but the way you're staring at me is rather... O-oh goodness. I'm experiencing an emotional response." If you speak to him again, he'll ask "What is this emotional response...?". It's also Foreshadowing his artificial nature. It's called Love, Chadley.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, the black mages are originally created as automatons by Kuja, their sole purpose to wage war. They begin to gain sentience and flee to the Black Mage Village, but have trouble processing their feelings about the death and destruction they've taken part in, the "stopping" of their comrades, and other feelings such as simple joy at the wonders of nature around them, such as a baby chocobo. Your party member Vivi also struggles with such feelings, but eventually starts to come to an understanding.
    Vivi: I was really confused when my grandpa died. He told me, 'Vivi, no need be sad.' So I told myself, I can't be sad. That's why I felt confused again when I heard that everyone was stopping around him. I don't know what to do or what to feel... But when I saw Dagger crying when her mom died, I wasn't confused anymore. I was sad.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?:
  • Half-human, half-esper Terra from Final Fantasy VI spends quite a part of the game trying to understand love (she only gets it after some time taking care of a group of orphaned children).
  • In Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII have Shelke confused about love. After she had spent ten years with Deepground, it ain't no wonder that she hasn't learned what love is. So when Shalua sacrifices herself for her and Vincent tries to be her friend, she first reacts with coldness and surprise, and then with curiosity. She eventually learns what love is by the end.
  • Chadley, a teenage cyborg, in Final Fantasy VII Remake freaks out upon seeing Cloud Disguised in Drag: he gets jittery, starts stammering, and says that he's "experiencing an emotional response" in a tone of legitimate surprise.
  • The Warrior of Light from Dissidia Final Fantasy, who is very emotionally stunted on account of starting life as an emotionless clone, manages to fail to realize there might be more to his natural disposition to be at Cosmos side than mere loyalty. This is shown best when he is genuflected before her, he sees she's in pain and raises a hand to seemingly comfort her, but quickly retracts said hand.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In Final Fantasy II, if you return to Altair right after Gordon joins, Hilda will tear into Gordon, as had he not run away when the party needed to enter Kashaun Keep, Josef would not have had to die while helping the heroes obtain the Goddess's Bell.
  • Much of the first part of Final Fantasy IV is Cecil being called out for his actions as a Dark Knight, or calling himself out.
  • In the backstory of Final Fantasy V, Dorgann is not at all happy about sealing Exdeath on the First World. He nearly refuses to help and then insists on staying behind to keep an eye on things, eventually having a son named Bartz. Later, Galuf admits that Dorgann was right.
  • Final Fantasy VII begins with you committing eco-terrorism for pay. Checking the news soon after reports that hundreds died and untold numbers of people are left without power. And, just to make sure you can't miss it, Cait Sith calls you out on it again late in the game.
    • In Final Fantasy VII Remake Tifa gives a small one to Cloud after he suggests killing her friend Johnny for mouthing off Jessie's involvement with Avalanche to a few Shinra soldiers.
      Tifa: Cloud... You're scaring me.
  • During the siege against the Al Bhed Home in Final Fantasy X, Tidus learns that if Yuna completes her pilgrimage she'll die. He promptly gives a What the Hell, Hero? to Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri. After the scene unfolds some more and his ignorance of the world he's in hits him, he gives one to himself as well.
  • During Dissidia Final Fantasy 012 Kain and the Warrior of Light come up with a plan for the other heroes to survive to the next cycle of war by killing them off. Once Lightning learns of this she takes a moment with each of them to make it clear how disappointed she is in them both.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics is filled with call-outs between characters, including the main hero, Ramza. Early on in the game, he gets called out on that, being born and raised a noble, he's blindingly naive about class differences and shares the blame in being part of the system that ended up killing Delita's — his common-born best friend's — sister. As a result, Ramza abandons his name and spends some time running away from the guilt before coming to agree that, while he may not have directly killed Delita's sister, he WAS part of the aristocracy that did her in and more or less stood by and let it happen. This was a development that gave him the strength to be willing to fall into obscurity (something which he himself looked at to be the worst kind of death) to do the thankless job in fighting against the wrongs of corrupt politics.
    • And being Ramza's foil, Delita definitely counts, and with worse deeds to his name. In reaction to losing his sister, he determines that the only way to change a world that manipulates everyone is to be the manipulator at the top so he can use people the right way. Which he does and becomes king. He uses everyone, including those closest to him, and many characters consider this in VERY bad taste. There are several times in the story where he's called out on it; the most notable of which is when a trusted companion expressed surprise that he would go so far as to use his best friend (to which Delita furiously reacted by telling her to shut up), and Ramza himself asks Delita if he's not as bad as the rest by using the woman he loves — the Princess, who is treated as nothing more than a political pawn (which Delita couldn't give an answer to). In fact, Delita got the ultimate call-out when the Princess ends up stabbing Delita, accusing him of never caring for her and only ever being a cold, manipulative bastard.
  • Marche of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is frequently questioned on whether his actions (attempting to bring his friends home from an idealized dream world) are right, though just about always by people who were on the good side of the transfer. Whether or not he actually is remains contested on this Wiki.
  • Final Fantasy Brave Exvius has this twice - notably, The Hero isn't the one being called out either time, but one of his companions is:
    • The first instance features Rain and his companions doing this to Jake at the climax of the Zoldaad chapter. After a long and hard fight, Rain and his crew finally manage to save a Cosmic Keystone. Jake then proceeds to destroy it himself, to the shock and frustration of Rain and his crew, who call Jake out on taking the world one step closer to The End of the World as We Know It. Jake insists that he did what he had to do - the empire of Zoldaad was using the power of the crystal to wage bloody war, and he felt that the only way to stop it was to cut off that energy source. He does admit, however, that Rain was right to call him out and that things went From Bad to Worse due to his actions. Part of his rationale for joining Rain's party is to make up for the problems he caused in destroying said Cosmic Keystone.
    • The second instance is later, when Nichol is out for the blood of Veritas of the Waters because she killed his brother Elle and made it such that his sister had to go in seclusion to fix what Waterlord broke. He even criticizes the rest of the party for holding him back, saying that they have no idea what kind of pain he's going through. However, two of the other party members point out that Rain does know that exact pain, because he learned that Veritas of the Light killed his mother, and that Nichol is being dramatically unfair to Rain. Rather than get talked down, however, Nichol grabs the Conflict Ball and makes the interparty squabbling worse.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: To be fair, games like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII treat the deaths of human enemies the same way, so it's hard to ascribe it wholly to human-centrism.
  • On the other hand, we see a number of more or less unique defeated enemies (only occasionally mini-bosses, like Biggs and Wedge) return to attack the players again (likewise with the Turks in FFVII, though they were all humans). So we can assume that defeated enemies are not quite as dead as they seem. This still doesn't make all the enemies you supposedly 'knock out' and leave behind when escaping the inevitable base on a self-destruct countdown any less dead though.
  • Possibly purposefully used in Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII by Zack's mentor Angeal, when he purposefully turns himself into a monstrous form in order to force Zack to kill him, after Zack proves reluctant to even fight back against him in his human form. However, he changes back before dying and Zack is completely devastated regardless, so it doesn't exactly suggest that he was worth less because of it.
  • The trope itself is used in other places in the game, however, such as in regards to Genesis' clones, which are treated just like the monsters, despite looking human, and are perfectly okay to kill in large numbers.
    • Genesis' copies that we fight do not seem to have any intellect or feelings to speak of, so there is no real difference between them and other monsters. At the same time however, they are also very closely connected to him and he still counts as a human. When you think about it, there is simply no clear line dividing monsters and human beings in Crisis Core, which puts the characters' angst into an interesting light.
  • Final Fantasy X has the "fiends" composed of "pyreflies", "bundles of life energy", which are freed by the destruction of the monster.
    • Fiends are what you get when people aren't given last rites, and it's considered truly horrifying when it occurs. Killing the resulting monsters is considered a case of Shoot the Dog... or the dog will eventually kill a lot more people and create more fiends.
  • Final Fantasy XIII: L'Cie, humans 'blessed' by fal'Cie, are frequently regarded as 'not even human', despite the fact that they are still very much human in body and mind, they're just able to use magic and have a Power Tattoo to show for it. This attitude is most likely born of the government's rampant paranoia concerning Pulse and all things related.
  • Sometimes individual quests, designed by more thoughtful programmers, will have a nonviolent option, which will often give more XP than just killing them. These could be more jarring than the standard way of doing it because not every quest where it would be reasonable has such an option.
  • It gets even more unreasonable when the plot criticizes racism and intolerance between certain races (like humans and elves) while encouraging the wholesale slaughter of other races (like goblins).
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, sapient races are divided into two categories: the Spoken, and Beast Tribes. The Spoken consist of the traditionally humanoid races, which include the races selectable to the player, and are by and large the dominant peoples of Eorzea and the world of Hydaelyn as a whole. Beast Tribes, on the other hand, consist of other races that, while every bit as sentient as the Spoken, are more monstrous in appearance. Beast Tribes are often subjected to Fantastic Racism, such that aside from friendly moogles, the only major settlement that allows Beastmen entry is Limsa Lominsa (and even then, only Qiqirn, Mamool Ja, and Goblins are seen). A large cause of this systemic racism is the fact that Beast Tribes often pray to and subsequently summon Primals, massive god-like creatures that can potentially drain the planet of its life force if not destroyed. Unfortunately, this creates a catch-22 situation where the summoning of primals leads to continued racism, which leads to more summonings, and so forth. Ultimately, the distinction is meaningless, as it was introduced to the "Spoken" races by Ascians to sow discord and further their destructive ends. Shadowbringers further reinforces this idea as, even though the "Spoken" peoples of the First have cast aside their differences with their world's Beast Tribes to contend with the Flood of Light, one of the world's so-called "Beast Tribes", the Dwarves, are actually no different from the Lalafells of the Source, physically or otherwise.
    • Discussed in Shadowbringers: also Inverted. As revealed in the story, the mortal races of Hydaelyn as we know them, as well as in the thirteen "Shard" worlds created from Zodiark's fracturing, contain only a fraction of the aether and lifespan as the Ancients from before what is referred to by the Ascians as the "Great Sundering". Emet-Selch, one of the few "unbroken" Ancients from before the Sundering, thus considers the mortals of Hydaelyn and Her reflections to be little more than pale imitations of life as he knows it. He even goes as far as to say that if he killed a mortal, he wouldn't really be guilty of murder, because he never considered the mortal to truly be alive to begin with.
• White Mage: The Trope Namer.
  • White Magician Girl: White Mages throughout the games are unquestionably one of the Trope Codifiers.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Refia of the 3D versions of Final Fantasy III has a batrachophobia (fear of frogs), which makes for a fairly amusing conversation the two times where you have to transform into one to enter a dungeon. It's even better if she is the character who has to cast the "Toad" magic.
  • Rydia's pyrophobia (fear of fire) can be chalked up to Cecil and Kain's delivery burning the village of Mist to the ground in Final Fantasy IV. Very soon after, she's forced to confront this fear and cast fire magic to melt a wall of ice blocking the party's path to Fabul, as she is the only one capable of doing so.
  • Bartz Klauser in Final Fantasy V has acrophobia (fear of heights) ever since he almost fell down from the roof of a two-story house while playing hide and go seek. He reveals this the first time the party rides the wind drake, and Galuf physically hurls him onto its back. Later on, he hesitates before jumping off the relatively low height of Bal's drawbridge into the moat.
  • It's never explicitly stated, but in Final Fantasy VII, Cloud freaks out whenever he's forced to go into a tight space, like when he goes into the hut to open the bridge on Mt. Corel or has to enter the submarine interior. Considering his history, it would make sense for him to have Claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces).
    • Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Remake is shown to have phasmophobia (fear of ghosts) when the party visits the Train Graveyard (in the original game, it was just a short level but in the remake, it's a full chapter). Aerith even beckons Tifa to get behind her and hold her for comfort. Also, Tifa isn't alone when it comes to this phobia. Even badass former SOLDIER Cloud admits "Ghosts aren't my thing" and displays reluctance to go into Train Graveyard, having to be encouraged by his female companions holding onto both of his arms and guiding him in.
    • In Final Fantasy VII Remake has Barret's acrophobia (fear of heights), most notably when traversing the Sector 4 underplate, which has been left in disrepair and leaving a lot of treacherous terrains dangling just over a drop hundreds of feet down. Related to this, he also dislikes ladders, not just because of the heights but the difficulty in climbing them with one arm.
      Barret: I see a console on top of that ladder. Um... a really tall ladder...
  • Adelbert Steiner in Final Fantasy IX has a sort of entomophobia (fear of insects). He's deathly afraid of oglops, an otherwise harmless insect. So is Blank, though not to the same degree (he says he "can't stand them", but is able to put up with them for the sake of the plan to kidnap the princess). Though when Blank's armor breaks and the oglops are released, both Steiner and Blank begin running around in a panic. Garnet/Dagger later fakes a fear of oglops in order to make her "ordinary girl" act more convincing. Steiner even punches Regent Cid clear across the room and begins ranting ("Get that repulsive bug off the throne and call the Regent!") when he first reveals himself to the party, having been cursed with an Oglop body.
    • Vivi Ornitier, just like Bartz, has acrophobia (fear of heights) stemming from falling from a great height when he was young (specifically falling out of the cargo ship.)
  • Rikku from Final Fantasy X has two phobias. An astraphobia (fear of lightning) due to a traumatic childhood experience of a misaimed attempt to protect her from a sea monster using lightning magic. She gets over in the sequel by camping in an area in Spira where lightning is striking down nonstop. And her other phobia, ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) when fighting the Battlesnakes screaming "Snake? Snake?! Snaaaaaaake!!!". Strangely Riku has no problem with the Anaconda in Final Fantasy X despite them being far more terrifying than the Battlesnakes.
  • Luso from Final Fantasy Tactics A2 revealed his phasmophobia (fear of ghosts) when the clan must defeat a group of Undead. Adelle teased him afterward.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: The Gambler class in some Final Fantasy games.
  • Astrologians in Final Fantasy XIV use this power thematically as healers. Using star globes and magic tarot cards, Astrologians can see all of the different fates someone might have and selects the best possible fate for their ally.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Practically every villain of the series from VII onward is either this or else Put Them All Out of My Misery, and arguably the villains from many of the previous games and spin-off lines.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth, thanks to the revelation that he is the product of a Mad Scientist's experiment, compounded by the effect of falling into the Lifestream and being exposed to the voices of all souls not currently alive, warping his mind even more. His crossing of the Moral Event Horizon keeps him from truly being a Woobie, but then again, he is the premiere Draco in Leather Pants of the Final Fantasy series.
    • He's built up much more into this in the prequel, Crisis Core, where his two best friends turn out to be flawed prototypes, abandon Shinra, and are hunted down like animals. One goes insane and the other commits Suicide by Cop in fear of doing the same, and in a few months, Sephiroth loses the only people he could relate to and any pretense of trusting the organization that rules his life. So when Genesis and Hojo set him up for The Reveal about himself and Jenova starts messing with his head, he cracks because he's got nothing worth holding on for. Also, Crisis Core shows that prior to the Nibelheim incident, Sephiroth was a fairly decent and caring person.
    • A much more straight example of this trope is Dyne, who snapped when Shinra took everything away from him.
  • While Ultimecia may not be a future version of Rinoa, her own backstory is just as tragic. Due to being a Sorceress, she was persecuted her entire life because of the terrible actions of evil sorceresses in the past. Not only that, but thanks to history, she knows she is destined to die at the hands of a bunch of teenage mercenaries and all her plans are based on a desperate desire to escape her fate. Sadly, her actions in the past to achieve this goal caused the start of the persecution of Sorceresses in her own time. The story itself screws her over because of the subtle method of storytelling in the game, her backstory has to be pieced together from hints and comments by characters and plot events, making her seem like a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere.
  • Kuja in Final Fantasy IX and Seymour in Final Fantasy X are Put Them All Out of My Misery types, and thus their examples fall under that page. Seymour was waaaaay too far gone to Take a Third Option, however.
  • Shuyin in Final Fantasy X-2 fits this trope to a T, being subjected to a thousand years of non-stop visions of him and his girlfriend being murdered until two years before the start of the game. It's quite understandable that he'd want to use Vegnagun on a world that basically made his existence hell...
  • It's implied that this affects Kefka Palazzo in Dissidia Final Fantasy during his surprisingly touching final scene in which it is implied that the reason Kefka became an Ax-Crazy Straw Nihilist was because he's so damn insane, he thinks there's nothing worth living for except destruction. Terra herself says that he was destroying to try and fill his "broken heart".
    • While you don't find out exactly why Garland betrayed Cornelia, his actions in Dissidia are said to be motivated by him pitying Chaos and Cid of the Lufaine. Also, One Man's Monologue depicts him lying paralyzed in the destroyed parallel world for several days and clearly shows that he felt regret about his time loop shenanigans in hindsight.
  • Caius Ballad. He was tasked by Etro to forever guard over the Seeress of Paddra (Yeul), and 'blessed' with Etro's own heart, making him immortal. Which means he's had literally millennia of the same cycle; Yeul dies young, is reborn, dies again... etc. By the time the game starts, his mind has become so warped by the pain of her thousands of deaths, that he believes Yeul's cruel existence must be put to an end, and that stopping time itself from existing (after all, how can a seeress have visions if there's nothing to see?) is the only way to truly save her.
  • Bahamut and the remaining Meracydian dragons would certainly qualify for this as well. Forced to be summoned for thousands of years, his followers prayed to Bahamut for salvation - not knowing that Bahamut himself was imprisoned and tortured alongside them. By the time Bahamut destroys Eorzea in the opening cinematic, he has literally endured hundreds of lifetimes worth of torture. By the end of the Binding Coil storyline, you start to realize that the opening theme of the game, Answers, was more about the Meracydians than modern-day Eorzeans.
    • Answers Opening Chorus: "I close my eyes, tell us why must we suffer? Release your hands, for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us ere must we wander? How can we carry on with redemption beyond us?"
    • In the endgame of Stormblood: Yotsuyu, the cruel Boomerang Bigot viceroy of Doma, has lived in hell for practically all of her life. Her mother died when she was young, leaving her in the care of her relatives. Her aunt hated her with every fiber of her being. She was forced into marriage with an abusive drunk, then when he died in debt, was forced to pay off those debts in sexual servitude before being recruited into the Garlean military, where she took out her rage on her own countrymen. She was believed dead near the end of the game, but actually survived, albeit with amnesia. It seemed for a time she would finally get a chance at happiness as the childlike "Tsuyu", unburdened by memories of abuses both suffered and inflicted...until her foster brother Asahi forcibly resurfaced her memories and manipulated her into performing a summoning and becoming the primal moon goddess Tsukuyomi. During the battle, she realizes her power came from her suffering, inviting phantoms of those who hated her to strike her down, until a vision of Gosetsu tries to save her. She laments, however, that she is beyond redemption as the primal influence robs her of her agency. Then after Tsukuyomi is defeated, Asahi shoots and hits her until he gets his Karmic Death at the hands of Yotsuyu in her dying moments.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • To a lesser extent, Rubicante, the Elemental Fiend of Fire, from Final Fantasy IV. Although he is perfectly willing to see the entire world destroyed in the name of his master, he is infuriated to discover that one of his aides turned a protagonist's parents into monsters, and fully heals the party before battle with him commences. To add on to Rubicante's honor, if you cast a fire spell on him while he is guarding with his flame cape, he responds by casting "Life" or "Raise" on your party. His last words are, true to form, praise for the protagonists.
  • Invoking Defeat Means Friendship, several of the Guardian Forces in Final Fantasy VIII are acquired by battling them. Kick their butts and they're impressed enough to serve you.
  • Zenos Yae Galvus from Final Fantasy XIV feels this way about your character, The Warrior of Light to an extreme degree. As the crown prince of the Garlean Empire his incredible skills as a fighter, and the sadistic pleasure he enjoys in causing bloodshed, inspire dread amongst any that find themselves on the wrong end of his blade. As such, he's grown completely bored over the fact that no one has ever been able to put up a fight against him. After he thoroughly wipes the floor with you the first time you face him, when you come to fight him the second time he recognizes how vastly your skills have improved in such a short period of time and encourages you to get even stronger. When you finally face him a third time and can truly hold your own against him, his normally languid and composed tone of voice takes on a psychotic glee over finally having someone to fight with that could potentially defeat him. Once he's defeated after he tried to merge with the primal Shinryu, he's utterly ecstatic over the fact he has lost to you and even declares you the first friend he ever had, shortly before he kills himself both to go out on a high and to avoid facing justice from the Ala Mhigans. When he returns in Shadowbringers, he can't even go one scene without expressing his increasing desire to face you once again, and upon learning that both Zodiark and Hydaelyn are primals, plans to have both of you fuse with them so that you can have the greatest battle in existence.
• Would Hit a Girl: The whole series. Pretty much everyone. The exceptions are listed on the Wouldn't Hit a Girl Page;
  • Final Fantasy V:
    • Bartz smacks Krile for being cheeky at one point, but as she was newly empowered by Galuf's inherited abilities knocks him across the balcony in retaliation. He doesn't do it again after that.
    • If you choose 'yes' to killing the wind drake in a flashback, King Tycoon hits Lenna fairly hard.
  • Final Fantasy VII
    • Sephiroth would absolutely hit a girl. Or stab, whatever.
    • Poor Aerith gets a lot of this. Minor villain Tseng gives Aerith a backhand early on, and even our hero Cloud gets in on this, giving her a misplaced beating (although he was mind-controlled by Sephiroth at the time, and was very sorry about it afterwards).
    • In the Nibelheim Flash Back Sephiroth ruthlessly cuts down Tifa with Masamune almost killing her. In the remake Sephiroth shows explicit visions to Cloud of him killing Tifa and reveals he personally killed Cloud’s mom too, both these instances are a Berserk Button for The Hero.
    • The Turks, Reno, and Rude in particular generally have no problems fighting the female members of the party. Though with that said Rude has a crush on Tifa and will only use status effect spells on her if she’s only left standing. In the remake Rude will still fight the female party members but will not use his strong attacks on them (he has an excuse for Aerith, he has orders to make sure she’s unharmed; on the other hand Rude just doesn’t want to hurt Tifa due to his Villainous Crush). Tseng’s backhanding of Aerith was also omitted in the remake, to better line up with his Crisis Core characterization where he actually cares greatly for Aerith.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, the closest to someone who wouldn't is Zidane Tribal, the Chivalrous Pervert who has an ability called 'Protect Girls', and in Dissidia Final Fantasy says when up against Terra 'A girl? This'll be tricky...' but with no effects on gameplay. However, in his own game he has no compunctions about fighting and killing the Alexandrian soldiers when they're invading Cleyra or trying to stop him from rescuing Dagger.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy lets us know that Garland has no trouble "knocking down" Terra, despite being a former knight. (Keyword: former.)
    Garland:"Expect no chivalry here, woman!"
  • In Final Fantasy X Tidus, Wakka, Kimhari, and Auron deliver no mercy to female opponents as seen when they kill Lady Yunalesca. Although it helps that Yunalesca barely resembles a human once she goes One-Winged Angel in his boss fight and starts revealing her tentacles and Medusa head.
  • In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, when Adelle smacks Luso during an argument, he smacks her right back. She gets indignant that he'd hit a girl, but he points out that she started it.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Vivi and Eiko from Final Fantasy IX. The former is a child physically and mentally, but since he's a black mage "doll", adult workers in Dali promptly kidnap him and stuff him inside a box. In the latter case, Alexandrian jesters kidnaps her and perform a ritual to steal her spells. Due to an RPG format, both are defaultly subjected to physical and magic attacks, especially those from Kuja's minions.
  • Final Fantasy XIII has Hope Estheim — the youngest, most physically weak character in the game. That doesn't matter to anyone; he's a Pulse l'Cie, and therefore must die.
    • Before this, he and a town were put on a train and promptly shot at by the military when they tried to escape.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Every character is willing to hit a girl, but there are a few exceptions;
  • Final Fantasy VII: Cloud can be taken as this, when Elena confronts you about allegedly doing in her boss, you can either dodge her punch or letting her clean your clock, leaving her to wonder why you just let it happen.
    • When running into the Turks at Gongaga, Reno reminds Rude that even if they're girls, not to go easy on them with Rude guaranteeing to do his job. However, Tifa only takes damage from him during an all-party attack or she's the only one left to target. Even then, when it's his turn he might not attack at all or if he does, avoids using his special abilities. Seeing as he has no problem fighting Yuffie or Aerith though, it's probably for that other reason he avoids attacking her.
    • However a sad subversion happens when Sephiroth possesses Cloud and Aerith comes rushing to help, causing her to get brutally beaten by him. Cloud is horrified by his actions but Aerith forgives him, before getting stabbed.
  • In the Final Fantasy VII Remake, Rude will avoid using his stronger attacks against your female party members Tifa and Aerith. He was ordered to bring Aerith in unharmed, and appears to still have a Villainous Crush on Tifa; Yuffie doesn't appear, so it's possible he'd be willing to get more violent with her.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: Raijin. During the three boss fights with him, he will refuse to attack if there are only female characters left standing in the player's party, claiming "I don't hit girls, ya know?" His partner Fujin is female and has no such reservations.
  • Final Fantasy IX: Zidane has an ability called 'Protect Girls', in which he will take the damage for the female characters in your party, and in Dissidia Final Fantasy says when up against Terra 'A girl? This'll be tricky...', though this doesn't affect his gameplay. He also once picks fighting a man over fighting a woman in the storyline. In his own game he has no compunctions about fighting and killing the Alexandrian soldiers when they're invading Cleyra or trying to stop him from rescuing Dagger.
    • As proven with General Beatrix and Lani, he will fight women without a problem, and in some cases flirt with them, too.
  • During a particular boss battle, the boss will refuse to attack Princess Garnet. However, he has a good reason - he was sent to kidnap her. If Garnet is the last party member alive, the boss will attempt to put her to sleep, and that counts as being defeated. So while she won't be attacked, she doesn't have to die for you to still lose.
    • In a later boss battle with this character, however, takes place while the character in question is... not well. He will still not hit Garnet/Dagger, but, should all other party members be incapacitated, it will proceed to attack itself. Apparently, when constructing magical death machines, chivalry comes before sanity.

Y

• Yandere:
  • Compilation of Final Fantasy VII has some quite disturbing examples.
    • Sephiroth and the Remnants are this toward their "mother" Jenova. They are ready to kill in order to be reunited with her. Since Jenova is not human, and looks like a shattered corpse, that is very disturbing.
    • Sephiroth could be viewed as one toward Cloud, if you care for Foe Romance Subtext. Further exacerbated by how, no matter what world he inhabits, even if it's not directly Final Fantasy, Sephiroth can just never leave Cloud alone.
    • Nero the sable may be one too, toward his brother Weiss, seeing how emotionally dependent he is toward him, and how worried he is for his safety. If it is in a brotherly or romantic way, that's all up to you.
  • Edda from Final Fantasy XIV starts out as an innocent, if somewhat ineffectual, NPC conjurer. Early in the story, her lack of healing skills and gladiator fiance's bullheadedness lead to her losing him. In later cutscenes, she seems determined to do something with her life (despite still carrying around his decapitated head). She eventually decides that the best way to use her life is to summon demons and use the souls of the damned (and the player's party) to create a new body for her deceased partner in the place where he died - Tam-Tara Deepcroft. All while giggling and sobbing uncontrollably.
    • Zenos yae Galvus in Stormblood is this, starting off as a Bored With Victory viceroy and prince of the Garlean Empire who gives a Curbstomp Battle twice to the Warrior of Light, and are quite surprised they even survived their battles to the point he wants them to get stronger, considering them the greatest hunt he's ever had. At the end of the main expansion after defeating the Zenos possessed Shinryu, he considers you his first friend before killing himself. Turns out that didn't stick as he body surfs his way back to the Empire, very eager to continue his war against his "friend". Even after learning the truth about Hydaelyn and Zodiark from his father and Elidibus, who has possessed his body, he still doesn't care. He takes his own body back and kills his own father not for the empire, but because he doesn't want the Black Rose to spoil his hunt.
• You Are Worth Hell:
  • Final Fantasy X-2. has this in the backstory of Lenne and Shuyin. they die together in front of Vegnagun. However, it's not until the end of the game that the two spirits are reunited. This parallels Yuna and Tidus' own separation.
  • Final Fantasy XIII has this happen to Fang and Vanille, becoming crystals holding up Cocoon.
    • A better example, Snow was willing to do anything for Serah including begging the fal'Cie who branded her to Take Me Instead.
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form:
  • Final Fantasy VII has the ???? skill. That's right, even the name of the ability can't be determined. The effects of the spell are pretty nutty too as it only shows a weight with a question mark on it before dealing damage to the target. It deals damage equal to the amount of HP the character has lost in comparison to their max HP. "Revenge" was one name for the attack, but in Final Fantasy IX it was Played for Laughs, having the name "Pumpkin Head." The Pandora's Box skill invokes this as well, only showing a giant question mark floating through space before dealing massive non-elemental damage.
  • The final battle with Sin in Final Fantasy X plays out with Sin's attacks not being labeled except for its Limit Break, Giga Graviton.
  • Played for laughs in Final Fantasy XIV with the Great Serpent of Ronka, which looks like an Ugly Cute worm, but then you read the flavor text.
    "This creature, Quinfort insists, is the all-seeing, all-powerful Great Serpent of Ronka. Though its wobbly girth may deceive the eye, that is, presumably, a mere mark of the serpent's mercy, for its true form would be too terrible for mortal minds to comprehend."
• You Can't Fight Fate:
  • The Stable Time Loop in Final Fantasy VIII involves some elements of this trope. Ellone repeatedly sends Squall's consciousness into the past in an effort to change it, but concludes after repeated failures that changing the past is impossible. The Big Bad also mucks around in the past in an effort to change it, but although the meddling causes quite a bit of trouble for everyone involved, it ends up causing the very results it was intended to prevent.
    • Squall himself also catches some You Can't Fight Fate; he doesn't want to be in charge of anything and takes it very badly when he's summarily appointed leader of SeeD thanks to Cid's knowledge of the Stable Time Loop, but not only does he grow into and accept the role as his destiny, he also gives Edea the information which she and Cid use to found SeeD and put him in charge in the first place.
  • In Final Fantasy XII, the main plot of the big bad is to win the power of the gods to control humanity's own history.
  • Final Fantasy XIII-2 focuses on Time Travel to avoid a Bad Future. Despite going into various decades, centuries, alternate centuries or even obtaining the paradox endings, it always ends with Etro dying, time itself being destroyed and the Caius achieving his goal.
    • Many people see Final Fantasy XIII as the same thing: The party resolves to fight fate by saving their world and escaping the curse of the L'cie (turning to crystal or turning into a monster), however while they do save their home, they are only saved from the curse by the intervention of one of the Gods (Who's intervention causes the events of the sequel to take place).
  • Present for the Big Bad in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. Larkeicus's plan is to stop an event that's about to happen from causing crystals to disappear from the world 2,000 years in the past (...somehow). He calculates the exact time and location of the event, which is in the middle of the air. So he builds a tower to reach that point. After you defeat him, Sherlotta tells him something along the lines of, "If there wasn't this tower, what could have possibly happened, all the way up here?". She then follows up by essentially stating this trope.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • Final Fantasy VII have Cloud and Tifa where they can't go back to their hometown because it was burned to the ground by Sephiroth. Although the town is rebuilt by Shinra and stocked with actors to cover up the event later in the game, the implication is still the same.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, this happens to a lot of the characters due to the massive property damage over the course of the game, but special mention to the Terrans (including Zidane), whose home planet gets blown up, and the summoners Eiko and Garnet, whose village was nuked in the backstory.
  • Final Fantasy X: Tidus spends most of the game looking forward to returning to Zanarkand, which he discovers is pretty impossible seeing that it's been in ruins for the past thousand years and wasn't even really his Zanarkand anyway because he had been living in a literal dreamworld.
  • Fran in Final Fantasy XII chooses to abandon her home in the woods in order to live freely and she runs away with Balthier, who is a Sky Pirate. Because Fran left her village, she effectively abandoned her duty as a guardian of the wood and is unable to communicate with it. Fran's abandonment effectively has her ousted and is not allowed to returning home. Fran does eventually return to her village for the sake of assisting her party, though she chooses to remain at the entrance so that she doesn't see her sisters in shame.
  • The Ala Mhigans in Final Fantasy XIV were ousted by the Garlean Empire from their homeland and were unable to return. By the events of the Stormblood expansion, the player character liberates Ala Mhigo from the Garleans, allowing most of the refugees to return home after being away for decades. Player-created Rava viera in the Shadowbringers expansion are also exiles who abandoned their hometown, in a similar vein to the aforementioned Fran.
  • Final Fantasy XV: early in the game, Noctis's hometown of Insomnia falls under Imperial occupation, preventing him from returning. Subverted in the last act of the game, as Noctis and his allies return to Insomnia to confront Ardyn. The Insomnia they return to, however, has been ravaged by daemons.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Zidane of Final Fantasy IX says this almost word-for-word when the Armodullahan appears out of nowhere in an enclosed space. To his credit, he does start running before saying the line.
  • Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning summoning Odin for the first time cues the following quote just before he tries to bisect Hope. Bonus points for snarking her sudden role as the Badly Battered Babysitter after they were separated from Sazh and Vanille prior to the summoning.
    Lightning:This cannot be happening.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Averted. It is heavily implied that Professor Gast was the father of Aerith Gainsborough. He was murdered by Professor Hojo, and Hojo then subjected Ifalfna and their daughter, Aerith, to seven years' worth of horrific experiments, which ultimately took its toll on Ifalfna when they eventually escaped. However, Aerith never knew that Hojo killed her father, and you only get to find out about this after Aerith is dead.
    • This is Tifa's personal motivation for going after Sephiroth. He single-handedly killed her father, her friends, and everyone she knew and loved in Niblehiem (minus Cloud), and he comes scarily close to killing her as well. Much of the anger towards Sephiroth still remains in Tifa's later portrayals, including physically attacking him in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
    • Sephiroth also killed Cloud's mother, though it goes unmentioned in the original game, with Cloud being simply unable to describe to his friends what he saw in his burning house, though he is seen collapsing with grief in the flashback. Cloud does get to avenge his mother and Tifa's father as well as Niblehiem as whole, at least three times in the canon.
      Give me back my mother, Tifa and the whole village... I used to admire you.
      — Cloud (stabbing Sephiroth) Last Order: Final Fantasy VII
  • Final Fantasy XIII: "Moms are tough", but not tough enough to escape death. His failure in regards to the counterattack at Hanging Edge continues to metaphorically haunt Snow even as he tries to rescue Serah. It also physically haunts him in the form of Hope, the son of the woman who volunteered to assist him and misinterpreted that failure as Snow leaving her to die. It gets to the point where revenge is Hope's sole driving factor, and he almost exacts his revenge before a Sanctum mech blows them both to the streets below. They manage to smooth things out from that point forward.
• You Monster!:
  • Final Fantasy VI: Kefka is referred to as such in the Advance remake. Well, sort of. The exact words are "You're Inhuman" when Shadow and Sabin reveal themselves to Kefka shortly after Kefka demands to get the poison ready so he could proceed to dump it into Doma's water supply, the message is still just as clear.
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis are all described by themselves and others as monsters. Sephiroth is the only one of the three who truly fits this trope. Interestingly enough, Sephiroth tends to call Cloud and Zack traitors in such a venomous tone as to suggest that he's the bad guy.
    Cloud: I've got some things...to settle with you.
    Sephiroth: You ignorant traitor!
  • In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall tells Seifer that he's just another enemy to the party, like one of the monsters that they regularly encounter. Seifer replies that the party is the monsters for attacking in a swarm like they do and begins the battle with "Let's go after them monsters!"
  • Final Fantasy XIII has Snow say this when Dysley slaughters every human in the room (that being everyone excluding the party and himself).
    Snow: Monster! People are not yours to use!
• You No Take Candle:
  • In some translations of Final Fantasy II, Guy speaks this way.
  • In the American SNES version of Final Fantasy IV, the Dark Elf speaks like this, but speaks normally in other translations.
  • Final Fantasy IX features the Qu, large gluttonous humanoids indigenous to swamplands around the globe.
  • In Final Fantasy X, the Hypello are depicted as being incredibly lazy (they won't play blitzball despite being incredibly good swimmers because they can't be bothered) and speak like Jar Jar Binks with a mouth full of water.
    That's Imposhibible!
    Rides ze shoopuf?
    • Also exhibited with the Ronso. It's kind of hinted that this is merely a language barrier, since the Ronso Maester speaks perfectly eloquently, but Kimahri has spent at least ten years away from Mt. Gagazet and still hasn't learned a personal pronoun...
    • Brother, who speaks perfectly good Al Bhed and very poor English. Oddly enough, his younger sister Rikku and father Cid are both fluent English-speakers. Leads to a distinctly heartwarming moment when he tells the main character, before you leave to fight the final boss, "Rikku, you... guard." He improves drastically in the sequel, apparently because he wanted to talk to Yuna.
  • Final Fantasy XI has the majority of the beastmen use simpler forms of the Common Language, if at all. Goblins and Lamia are actually more fluent in the player's language, although for Goblins, being good at language is good for business. It's also subverted in that there's a very well-spoken Orc in Wings of The Goddess, as said Orc is actually a cursed Elvaan. Why is this text spoiler'd and not the earlier part? Because it's actually an aversion; the Orc is really a well-learned real Orc who puts this trope and the expectations of it to work in order to trick you into freeing him, and it's only until you meet him again in The Lost Woods that it's revealed you've been had.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • Final Fantasy X: Auron states indirectly to Tidus that he reminds him of himself. "I was just a boy. A boy about your age actually. I wanted to change the world too, but I changed nothing." See also below ("You remind me of him").
    • Auron tells Tidus that he reminds him of Tidus' father Jecht. The latter isn't happy about the comparison, considering that Jecht was an alcoholic and sometimes abusive father who could only express affection through Tough Love. That said, part of Tidus' Character Development is coming to accept that Jecht wasn't always quite as bad as he believed and that Jecht did genuinely reform himself and become a legitimate hero over the course of his pilgrimage with Braska, much as Tidus becomes a hero during Yuna's pilgrimage.
    • Wakka also initially goes out of his way to help Tidus and act as something of a big brother to him because Tidus reminds him of his dead little brother.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy: Never quite stated, but Cloud's interaction with Firion and later Terra seem to remind him of his friends, Zack and Aerith. If anything, at least they are Shout Outs.
• Your Mime Makes It Real: The Mime class has this as its power. Apparently, they mime any action last performed by an ally or enemy, and it becomes a real repeating of this action, sometimes without even enacting any cost of said action.

Z

• Zero-Effort Boss:
  • Final Fantasy II: At the end of the Snow Cavern, the traitorous Count Borghen confronts the party, knowing the Emperor will have him killed for his failure to keep the Rebels from obtaining the Goddess's Bell and deciding to take the party with him. He's far weaker than the Adamantoise guarding the Bell and poses little threat. He gets the last laugh, though.
    • When the party refuses to hand over their loot to Leila, she sics her pirates on them. Each of them can be taken out with a single hit, or even one or two group-casted magic attacks.
  • Final Fantasy V: Played for drama where all but one of your party members is incapacitated, requiring the one to take on Exdeath solo. Despite laying into Galuf with everything he's got, doing enough damage to kill him several times over, Galuf remains standing through sheer force of will, with his HP going down to 0, but still fighting. It isn't until Exdeath is defeated that Galuf finally allows himself to die. Worth mentioning is the fact that this entire fight is presented through the in-game battle screen. Galuf defeats Exdeath long after his own HP is reduced to zero.
    • Famed Mimic Gogo. In the sunken tower of Walse, you can find him at the bottom of the tower. How do you defeat him? Since he told you to mimic him and he won't act until you do, the right action is to do nothing yourself, and you'll win. If you manage to reach the bottom with enough time to spare to wait him out, you win. If you attack him, he'll counter with attacks that deal 9,999 points of damage, then, if you get him down to a certain point, he'll cast Meteor three times, killing everyone, unless one is using cheats. It is possible to win by killing him before he gets off the three Meteors, though.
  • Final Fantasy VI: The imposter Siegfried on the Phantom Train opens the battle with a flurry of hits, all of which are pathetic, and has such low health he'll die in one hit to anything. If you're using the Black Belt accessory, or even if you still have Shadow and his dog Interceptor decides to, y'know, intercept, he'll probably die before he finishes his initial attack combo. The battle against the real Siegfried in the Colosseum later on? Not so easy.
  • Final Fantasy VII: After the epic One-Winged Angel battle against Safer Sephiroth (with kickass music), there's one more fight against him in the Lifestream. He is impossible to lose against — the only attack you can do is the Limit Break Omnislash, which kills him in one hit, he can't do enough damage to kill you because his attack is percentage-based, and if you do wait for him to attack, you automatically (whether or not you had the materia equipped) counter with a normal attack which also kills him in one hit.
    • The final Jenova fight is basically impossible to lose unless you've been doing a low-level run of the game. It only has 45,000 HP, and if you take more than 15 turns to beat it, it will cast Ultima and you automatically win. This attack is easily survivable if you've been playing the game normally. Interestingly, winning this fight in this fashion decreases the HP totals of the next two bosses.
    • The fight against Palmer in Rocket Town is laughably easy due to him spending half the time taunting you and the other half shooting you with an elemental based gun. Said gun does pathetic damage and can be reduced even further with MBarrier. You also have materia and accessories that can reduce damage fire, ice, or lightning attacks, which Palmer's gun uses.
  • Final Fantasy X has Yu Yevon, the Post-Final Boss of the game and the biggest single threat in the world...except all he does is heal himself and use percentage-based attacks (he only uses Ultima when low on health), so it's very unlikely he'll cause enough damage to kill you, and even if he did, everyone in the battle has permanent Auto-Life, so they spring right back to life as soon as they get knocked out. The only way you could possibly lose is by deliberately casting petrification spells on all your characters. Hell, you can even Zombify the boss, and watch as he slowly whittles his own health away with healing magic.
  • Sol in Final Fantasy Legend III just stands there and says "Kill me" so he'll take Xagor down with him. However, the True Final Boss comes right after that fight, so it's a perfect opportunity to put on some buffs.
• Zombify the Living: The Zombie status makes sufferers vulnerable to Revive Kills Zombie without affecting their allegiance.