History SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome / FinalFantasy

*** Genesis tries to deliver a BreakingSpeech to convince Sephiroth to join him by revealing startling news about his birth, expecting that such a revelation would make Sephiroth join forces with him when he learns they are in the same position now. Despite the news surprising Sephiroth, due to Genesis having [[WeUsedToBeFriends burned so many bridges in their friendship]] by the time said BreakingSpeech is attempted, Sephiroth refuses to consider the idea and leaves, leaving Genesis momentarily surprised and confused as to what to do next.
*** The game depicts Sephiroth's defeat more realistically. As exceedingly powerful of a swordsman and warrior that Sephiroth is, Zack has taken multiple levels of badass, and Sephiroth is in the middle of a TomatoInTheMirror mental breakdown. While Sephiroth still wins, the struggle of beating an opponent who was a legitimate threat ended up tiring out Sephiroth. Combine mental instability with physical exhaustion, and it's no wonder that Cloud was able to catch Sephiroth off-guard.
*** No matter how badass you are, fighting against an entire army by yourself does not end well. Despite his skill, Zack dies when he gets fatigued fighting the Shinra Army, and it only takes a few shots after most of the army is beaten to kill him.

*** The game depicts Sephiroth's defeat more realistically. As exceedingly powerful of a swordsman and warrior that he is, Zack has taken multiple levels of badass, not to mention him being in the middle of a breakdown, so their fight is much more matched than the original game shows. As it turns up, while he appears perfectly fine after beating Zack, ultimately, the struggle of beating a serious opponent ultimately ended up weakening him, which explains why Cloud catches Sephiroth off-guard, as mental disability coupled with physical worn out is sure fire to leave anyone, even veterans, vulnerable.

** ''A Realm Reborn'' shows that while ultimately Bahamut was stopped, it doesn't mean the world is simply back to how it was. All the major city-states are damaged and the people are not living in the best of situations because of the apocalyptic events that occurred only a few years beforehand. Several areas have had their entire weather regions changed, such as Ishgard and the Coerthas Highlands going from grassy landscapes to snow- and ice-covered rocky landscapes - one can even find an encampment in the western highlands from ''Heavensward'' that's been totally abandoned, including a completely frozen-over and nonfunctional aetheryte because of the sudden and harsh change in weather - and the Mor Dhona area, being the spot where the two largest events in ''Legacy'' occurred, is now barren with crystals everywhere. The main story of ''ARR'' deals with how the world is trying to recover from the damage of the events, but ultimately struggling to do so because of just how ''much'' damage was down by Bahamut's awakening. Also, the Eorzean Alliance that allied to stop it? They somewhat fall apart because they have too much on their hands to work out and don't have the resources or manpower to help each other out, it isn't until the Scions step in and help that they reforge the alliance.

** Grywnwhat is introduced as a one-man GoldfishPoopGang and GeneralFailure that the protagonists humiliate every time he shows up no matter where he shows up. Unlike other examples within Final Fantasy like Gilgamesh or the Turks where this leads to FriendlyEnemy or even a HeelFaceTurn, Grynewhat's humiliations leave him slipping into a deep, seething hatred of the party, and after one loss too many, when given the opportunity to sacrifice himself for one final chance to take the Player Character out, he takes it, reducing him to a feral beast on borrowed time, constantly screaming [[TakingYouWithMe "WE GO TOGETHER"]].

** The game opens with Cecil attacking the city of Mysidia to take the crystal under orders from the King of Baron, an act Cecil feels immense guilt for doing. A few hours into the game later, Cecil washes onto the shores of Mysidia and approaches the city to ask for help. The people of Mysidia all promptly [[WhatTheHellHero call him out for attacking them]] at the start of the game and make it clear he is not welcome in the city, and the only reason he is allowed in is because the city's Elder is willing to listen and give Cecil a chance for redemption. Shortly after, Cecil braves Mt Ordeals and goes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin to complete his redemption. His traveling companions Palom and Porom then reveal the real reason they joined for this trip; the village Elder wanted them to spy on Cecil to make sure he did actually try to redeem himself. Just because you feel immense guilt and want to redeem yourself doesn't mean your victims will agree or listen, and those who do have every right to be doubtful of you for doing so. Even after Cecil becomes a paladin, there's still a few people in Mysidia who admit they can't bring themselves to forgive what Cecil did, a conclusion that Cecil ultimately accepts.
** Tellah is a ''very'' old man, and mixing this with GameplayAndStoryIntegration he actually gets weaker as he levels up, his stats decreasing and his magic costs going up. He might be a incredibly powerful master of both Black and White Magic, but his advanced age means he hit his physical peak long ago and has only been degrading with the stress and strain of having to go on an adventure like this and keep up with much younger characters.
* At the beginning of the ''Videogame/FinalFantasyV'', Galuf decides that the best way to get a ride on a pirate ship is to steal it. So they sneak aboard, take the helm, and nothing happens. Turns out there's more to setting sail than just grabbing the wheel, especially when there's no wind and the ship is actually pulled by a dragon.

** During the [=SeeD=] exam early on, Seifer ignores orders and runs off to do what he wants, namely going into a radio tower held by the enemy. Though he succeeds and the mission is mostly a success, Seifer is thoroughly punished and reprimanded by the people overseeing their exam for not only disobeying orders but for putting the lives of his fellow students (who he was supposed to be acting as the leader of during the mission) in danger to satisfy his own pride. He is promptly passed over for graduation because of this, while the others who did follow their orders graduate. They are a school for mercenaries after all.

* ''Final Fantasy X series'':

** A major theme throughout the first half of the game is that Ashe is the Princess of Dalmasca... and that means next to squat since her family is dead, she has no real political or military power, and no way to prove her royal heritage. The only respect she gets is from people who recognize her and feel loyalty towards her, but if she needs their help she is pretty much relying on them feeling charitable. Ghis also points out that Ashe hasn't been seen in two years and is presumed dead, so if Archadia ever wanted to use "Ashe's" influence, any young girl bearing a passing resemblance to her could be presented as the real thing and more easily molded into the Empire's pawn, so why should they even leave Ashe alive?

** The FinalBattle in-game. Once it's done, everyone gazes thoughtfully at the sky to contemplate the villain's death and the implications of victory (and, in Fran and Balthier's case, to do a fist-pound) Then a destroyed fighter crashes in front of them because the two airship fleets have naturally been focused on the enemy ships, not tiny people running around on a stationary object, and don't magically know that they can stop shooting. Cue the heroes' frantic scramble to announce a ceasefire before any more lives are lost.

* As a world that enjoys a bit of realism, ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has no small shortage of examples.
** The guild master of the Leatherworker's Guild, Geva, is a CausticCritic who believes in constantly belittling even the best leatherworker's accomplishments as a way of rallying them, except she doesn't make nearly the attempt to rally them alongside her insults. As a result, at the midway point of their original storyline over half the guild quits getting away from her abusive mentorship, leaving her to run herself to exhaustion trying to fill in an impossible amount of backlogged orders. Thankfully she learns her lesson from this... sort of. Being hostile is just who she is, so while she doesn't get kinder, she does get some more sense about giving proper praise where it's due.

** In a solo instance, Krile, who is a Lalafell, gets grabbed by a magitek deathclaw (basically a giant metal steampunk hand) and you have to break her out of it. Once freed, she ends up spending the rest of the duty and questline having to sit out and recover. While the claws were made for restraint, they were made for restraining larger races, so it nearly ended up crushing her smaller frame, and she says that she's pretty sure it broke a few ribs.

** ''Endwalker'' has the Eorzean Alliance stage a rescue mission to save the people of Garlemald from their [[BrainwashedAndCrazy tempered bretheren]]. However, most of the Garlean citizens still see the Alliance as the enemy since they lost so many of their own to them and TheEmpire always branded the Alliance as savages. Just because one side decided to broker for peace after fighting in a war for years doesn't mean everyone on the other side is willing to forgive and forget. The Warrior of Light is constantly reminded about all the Garlean soldiers they killed in the past and other people would rather risk death in the cold wilderness than accept supplies from their enemies.

** At the end of ''A Realm Reborn'', the Sultana dies from drinking poisoned wine and the only person that was with her was the Warrior of Light. Naturally, they're accused of assassinating the Sultana since there wasn't anyone else in the room, so logically, only they could have done it. This eventually leads to Teledji Adeledji openly mocking the Sultana's death (whom he saw as an obstacle to his plans) before Raubahn kills him in a fit of rage and engages in a fight against Ilberd when he outs himself as the Sultana's actual murderer. Kan-E-Senna and Merlwyb quickly leave the scene instead of helping out (the latter wanting to stay and assist before her aide ushers her away) since it's technically not their problem and helping out would cause an international incident. All they can do is assure the Warrior of Light that they don't believe in the false accusations and will make sure they are protected when they visit their cities.

** During the lead up quest that introduces the player to the dragon Ehll Tou, the Warrior of Light and Francel meet Marcelloix, a man who had drunk dragon's blood and became a dragon himself in order to aid Ysayle in the Dragonsong War, though said war was long over by the time his transformation had finished. Marcelloix wants to see his family again and returns to Isghard, which causes the guards to freak out and an inquisitor nearly sentences him and his family to death for heresy had the Warrior of Light and Francel not intervened. Even when Marcelloix is allowed inside the city, many of the citizens are angry and afraid of him because his draconic appearance reminds them of the dragons that killed their own families. Likewise, Marcelloix's wife is still angry at him for abandoning her and his daughter and nearly getting them killed for coming back to Ishgard as a dragon. While Marcelloix does attempt to make things right by crafting supplies and materials that the citizens and his family can use, it doesn't instantly make them forgive him for his past actions and it will take time for people to accept him in his new dragon form. Luckily, Marcelloix's daughter isn't too bothered by his dragon form and is just happy that he came back alive.
** When the Final Days began to wreck the ancient world, the Ancients chose to sacrifice half of their population to bring forth Zodiark so that he could fix everything. Venat points out that there's nothing to stop Zodiark wanting more souls and that the people should find a way to stop the event on their own, but she gets ignored. When an entire civilization has known nothing but peace and prosperity since the beginning of time and they are faced with a world ending event, it's not surprising to see how infantile the people as a whole are and how much they're willing to sacrifice just to be able to live their peaceful days again instead of looking forward to the future.

* ''Videogame/FinalFantasyIII'' has [[BlingOfWar Gold swords]] that are [[CoolButInefficient about as effective as they would be in real life]], and they're also [[BetterOffSold just as valuable if you want to sell them]].

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': [[ItWasHisSled Infamously]], when Aerith is murdered by Sephiroth in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', there is no theatrics to it at all. No HopelessBossFight, no HeadsIWinTailsYouLose, no chance for Aerith or Cloud to react; Sephiroth just ambushes her while she's alone with Cloud in the middle of the night and impales her through the heart with his Masamune. While other characters have demonstrated the ability to survive such grievous wounds along with other things, all of them are battle-hardened veterans or enhanced to be superhuman. In contrast, Aerith is a powerful mage but has little physical power, so that one hit instantly kills her.

-->'''Auron:''' Though not the man I once knew, Kinoc was still my friend, Seymour. You will pay for his death!

*** After millennia of MedievalStasis, Spira's freedom from Yevon's machina ban causes the world to change ''drastically'' in just the small-time skip between the two games. Formerly untamed wildernesses like the Calm Lands and religious sites like Zanarkand have turned into tourist attractions. Augmenting technology into combat has forced off most wild beasts, leaving formerly endgame zones relatively safe. The Thunder Plains in particular, for what a pain to navigate they used to be, has turned the lightning storms into a non-issue with machina-augmented lightning rods laid out across the entire road.
*** Since Summoners relied on Aeons and the teachings of Yevon, when the truth came out and Yevon was overthrown, Summoners became obsolete. Thus, any summoner or apprentice summoner was forced to suddenly change their entire lives quickly. Several Summoners in-game admit to having no idea what to do now and thus are conflicted on their life choices.
*** Politics have also shifted after Yuna revealed to the world that Yevonism was both hypocritical and led by ghosts upholding an AncientConspiracy. As a result, not even the most staunch followers of Yevon stayed loyal, instead replacing it with the "New Yevon" religion - which keeps to the positive morals of the old religion while preaching for conservatively giving machines to the world - and the Youth League - who think that since most of Yevon was lies, they don't deserve the time of day for redemption and want to tear down as many walls as possible to augment the world with machines. The Al Bhed, who have centuries of persecution from Yevon behind them for their use of Machina, naturally side with the League. When the two factions go to war, the story angles towards the Youth League being the "right" faction, as while neither is technically in the right and both are at fault for tensions getting so high, siding with a church that has a risk of slipping back into their old corrupt ways is considered the worse option of the two. Showing New Yevon any favoritism at all locks you out of the game's GoldenEnding.

*** Yuna is beloved by the people of Spira, both as the only High Summoner to have ever survived fighting Sin, and for bringing the Eternal Calm with Sin gone for good. As such, many see Yuna as a rallying figure, which results in all the major factions wanting her to ally with them because it will make their side look more legitimate to the rest of the world. As a result, when Yuna finds a potentially important sphere and has to choose who gets it, it results in one side getting what they want, but the other factions become openly hostile because someone like Yuna can't just make choices freely when she carries so much weight in the world.

*** What, you thought you'd just waltz into the most sacred place in the city after being declared a traitor, and walk back out of there without getting captured? Get real.
*** When Tidus learns about the grueling process a summoner must go through to gain the power to do so, he charges in to go and save them, thinking they need help. When he arrives at the final room, he finds that there are already qualified guardians waiting to help her, said summoner (Yuna) emerges fatigued but successful, and he ultimately doesn't do anything because, again, she already had help. Later that evening, the townsfolks of Besaid [[WhatTheHellHero chew him out]] for breaking their traditions and going in. Even when Yuna thanks him, and tries to downplay the issue, the townsfolk are still pissed, and don't change their opinions at all.
*** Wakka, who was a devout believer in Yevon, goes through a CrisisOfFaith after learning that Seymour killed his own father and the group fights him. Unlike in most works of fiction where a character going through such a crisis typically resolves themselves to turning against their beliefs quickly, Wakka remains conflicted for pretty much the rest of the game. Having grown up his whole life being taught Yevon's teachings, he struggles with what to do because it was all he knew and believed in. Also, Wakka's hatred for the Al Bhed doesn't automatically go away either; Wakka has to re-evaluate his beliefs over the course of the game to fully let go of it, especially when he finds out Yuna was half-Al Bhed.
*** The game doesn't forget that Auron and Wen Kinoc were old friends. When Kinoc is murdered by Seymour, using Auron's trigger command shows just how angry a person can get in that situation, with the resultant massive buff to Strength to go with it.
*** Wakka enlists Tidus, a star Blitzball Player, in the upcoming Blitzball tournament, so that the Besaid Aurouchs can break their 10-year losing streak. Naturally being a top player, you'd expect the actual Blitzball game to be easy sailing, especially since Wakka himself is a pretty good player, right? Wrong. Wakka's team is still considered to be the worst team of all time in Spira, and even someone as talented as Tidus cannot carry the game all by himself against the Luca Goers, a considerably stronger and more competent team. Unless the player themselves knows how to play Blitzball, obtains Tidus' Jecht Shot technique, and also have a little luck on their side, the Besaid Aurouchs are simply going to lose the tournament yet again.

*** After millennia of forced MedievalStasis, Spira's freedom from Yevon's oppressive Machina ban causes the world to change ''drastically'' in just the small-time skip between the two games. Formerly untamed wildernesses like the Calm Lands and religious sites like Zanarkand have turned into flat-out tourist attractions, augmenting technology into combat has forced off most wild beasts, leaving formerly endgame zones safe at best, and the fiends that do show up are very low-level. The thunder plains in particular, for what a pain to navigate they used to be, has turned the lightning storms into a non-issue with machina-augmented lightning rods laid out across the entire road.
*** Since Summoners relied on Aeons and the teachings of Yevon, when the truth came out and Yevon was overthrown, Summoners became obsolete and thus anyone who was training to be one, or was one, were forced to suddenly change their entire lives quickly. Several Summoners in-game admit to having no idea what to do now and thus are conflicted on their life choices. This also means that Fiends have become more dangerous without Summoners, as they were the only ones capable of preventing pyreflies from becoming Fiends.

*** As the one who defeated Sin for good, Yuna is beloved by the people and many see her as a rallying figure, which results in all the major factions wanting her to ally with them because it will make their side look more legitimate to the rest of the world. As a result, when Yuna finds a potentially important sphere and has to choose who gets it, it results in one side getting what they want, but the other factions become openly hostile because someone like Yuna can't just make choices freely when she carries so much weight in the world.

*** Generally, any fighter who slacks and doesn't fight for long periods of time is bound to grow rusty and weaker in time, no matter how badass they are. Tifa gets her ass handed to Loz, and the party doesn't get anywhere near the same level of combat as Cloud nor do they help him in his final fight because they've chosen to live their lives rather than continuing to fight and is no longer capable of effectively fighting enemies of Sephiroth's caliber, meaning Cloud is the only one who could take Sephiroth in a fight now.
*** The final fight of the film all but demonstrates that without Sephiroth having a case of WorfHadTheFlu, Cloud would have no chance in winning directly against Sephiroth. He may have taken numerous levels in badass from the couple of years since the game, developing his own skills after spending the original game relying solely on Zack's abilities, but given that he has never been truly trained as a SOLDIER, just relying on the memories of Zack's fighting prowess, which is hardly a passable imitation of the true SOLDIER 1ST Class level skills of Zack, and outside from the experiences he gained, he only has a few years of training as a mere infantryman, it cannot possibly be compared to Sephiroth, who's not only fully trained and seasoned in his battle prowess, but also has more than a decade of experience over him. As such, the difference between Cloud and the SOLDIERS (Genesis, Angeal, and Zack) is as clear as a day as he is barely able to keep up with Sephiroth even with Sephiroth clearly JustToyingWithThem, whereas those three can at least hold him at bay to a decent extent and make him fight seriously, and it takes having yet another emotional upheaval, combined with Sephiroth's arrogance, to finally end him. Zack even calls out Cloud for trying to defeat Sephiroth directly, although in an encouraging way, stating that for all he's grown, he's not a SOLDIER 1st Class in skill, and against someone of his level, it's going to take more than just skill to put him down.

*** Delivering a BreakingSpeech and calling your [[WeUsedToBeFriends former best friend]] "the perfect monster" is not going to get him to do what you want. When Genesis tries to invoke a BreakingSpeech to get Sephiroth's aid late in the game, Sephiroth states that no matter if he is right or wrong, he will never give him what he wants after everything Genesis did in the game.

* At the beginning of the ''Videogame/FinalFantasyV'', Galuf decides that the best way to get a ride on a pirate ship is to steal it. So they sneak aboard, take the helm, and... nothing happens. Turns out there's more to setting sail than just grabbing the wheel, especially when there's no wind and the ship is actually pulled by a dragon.

** During the [=SeeD=] exam early on, Seifer ignores orders and runs off to do what he wants, namely going into a radio tower held by the enemy. After the mission ends, Seifer is thoroughly punished and reprimanded by the people overseeing their exam for not only disobeying orders but for putting the lives of his fellow students (who he was supposed to be acting as the leader of during the mission) in danger to satisfy his own pride. He is promptly passed over for graduation because of this, while the others who did follow their orders graduate. They are a school for mercenaries after all. This also causes Quistis to be demoted from her teaching position back down to a regular [=SeeD=] agent because, from the school's perspective, Seifer's failure was her fault as his instructor. Doesn't matter that Seifer did it on his own, Quistis is responsible for her students' successes and failures.

*** Politics have also shifted after Yuna revealed to the world that Yevonism was both hypocritical and led by ghosts upholding an AncientConspiracy. As a result, not even the most staunch followers of Yevon stayed loyal, instead of replacing it with the "New Yevon" religion - which keeps to the positive morals of the old religion while preaching for conservatively giving machines to the world - and the Youth League - who think that since most of Yevon was lies, they don't deserve the time of day for redemption and want to tear down as many walls as possible to augment the world with machines. The Al Bhed, who have centuries of persecution from Yevon behind them for their use of Machina, naturally side with the League. When the two factions go to war, the story angles towards the Youth League being the "right" faction, as while neither is technically in the right and both are at fault for tensions getting so high, siding with a church that has a risk of slipping back into their old corrupt ways is considered the worse option of the two. Showing New Yevon any favoritism at all locks you out of the game's GoldenEnding.

** It turns out that training children into a special forces combat force are really bad for their mental health and emotional stability, especially when they lack more than the most cursory adult support and guidance. Squall, the worst-case thanks to his Ellone-related abandonment issues, is a nuclear stress meltdown waiting to happen, but ''none'' of the Garden kids are in great shape: Seifer is a bully whose combination of grand dreams and trouble with authority figures leaves him vulnerable to manipulation by the BigBad; Quistis was driven to mature too quickly and thus ended up saddled with responsibilities too heavy for her, not helped by her own crippling self-doubt; Selphie, despite her cute GenkiGirl demeanor, is almost always quick to suggest excessive violence as a problem-solving strategy; and Irvine presents himself as a shallow, self-absorbed flirt to cover for ''his'' abandonment issues, only to completely crack under pressure during a critical mission and nearly flub the whole thing. The only member of the main [=SeeD=] squad to have their head on even halfway straight is, ironically, the hot-tempered and impulsive Zell, who got the benefit of being raised by and maintaining a close relationship with a loving parent to offset the whole "child soldier" business.

*** The final fight of the film all but demonstrates that without Sephiroth having a case of WorfHadTheFlu, Cloud would have no chance in winning directly against Sephiroth. He may have taken numerous levels in badass from the couple of years since the game, developing his own skills after spending the original game relying solely on Zack's abilities, but given that he has never been truly trained as a SOLDIER, just relying on the memories of Zack's fighting prowess, which is hardly a passable imitation of the true SOLDIER 1ST Class level skills of Zack, and outside from the experiences he gained, he only has a few years of training as a mere infantryman, it cannot possibly be compared to Sephiroth, who's not only fully trained and seasoned in his battle prowess, but also has more than a decade of experience over him. As such, the difference between Cloud and the SOLDIERS (Genesis, Angeal, and Zack) is as clear as a day as he is barely able to keep up with Sephiroth even with Sephiroth clearly JustToyingWithHim, whereas those three can at least hold him at bay to a decent extent and make him fight seriously, and it takes having yet another emotional upheaval, combined with Sephiroth's arrogance, to finally end him. Zack even calls out Cloud for trying to defeat Sephiroth directly, although in an encouraging way, stating that for all he's grown, he's not a SOLDIER 1st Class in skill, and against someone of his level, it's going to take more than just skill to put him down.

*** In Complete, Cloud tries to use Omnislash to defeat Sephiroth once more, only to fail miserably. As it was the same move that was used to take down Sephiroth in their second battle when they were fighting on the Lifestream with Sephiroth weakened from being beaten as Safer-Sephiroth, Sephiroth's previous experience with the attack makes it easy for him to not only block all of Cloud's attacks, but he ends up using Cloud's attempt to deliver the finishing leaping blow to instead stab Masamune through Cloud's stomach. The Fusion Sword Cloud was using not being nearly as long as Sephiroth's Masamune, the move works spectacularly in Sephiroth's favor and completely negates Cloud's attempted attack before it can even come close.

*** The context of the reactor bombing is changed entirely to reflect that Shinra here is exactly as dangerous as a world-dominating mega-corp should be. They've survived wars with a society of Ninja, masters of stealth and subterfuge, so in spite of Avalanche considering themselves clever for their reactor bombing mission, the Shinra execs were aware of what they were doing from the start, and instead of just letting them destroy the reactors, they actively make the first explosion worse (To create a FalseFlagOperation justifying cracking down on Avalanche) and the second explosion on a remote detonator they easily hijack, evacuate their staff, and set off to justify their desperate measures of the plate drop and justify ditching the entire city.

** In the Stormblood Astrologian quests, it's shown that there's a strong demand for geomancers in Kugane, as the local businesses consider their divinations to be essential to success. Unfortunately, this also means that there's no shortage of fraudsters willing to play on the general population's ignorance, aided by a general attitude of "buyer beware" and lack of regulatory authority. And, as Kyokuho discovers the hard way, it's all too easy for a genuine and honest geomancer to be branded a fraud.
** The Ishgardians have spent almost their entire history as a nation fighting dragons, so when they have to face threats that aren't dragons, they do poorly because [[CripplingOverspecialization they aren't equipped to fight against it properly]], which is why the Heretics begin to become a massive issue in the lead up to the ''Heavensward'' expansion, especially when Iceheart gives them a unified leader. Even the Ixal's main camp of Natalan is in Coerthas rather than the Black Shroud where they're actually a problem in-story because, since they're not dragons and are troubling their neighbors instead of them, Ishgard officially declared them [[BystanderSyndrome somebody else's problem]] and never stepped in to stop them. Furthermore, in Heavensward itself, after Aymeric pushes to end the war between Ishgard and the benevolent groups of dragons, the people are heavily resistant to peace, and some even try to sabotage the proceedings because fighting dragons is all they have. Aymeric has to set up a war game between Ishgard and the other three city-states to try to prove that fighting dragons isn't the only thing that can bring them national pride.
** Magic being in play doesn't make wounds any less serious. Resurrective magics are more like magical defibrillators instead of putting a dead soul back into a body and even healing spells have limits to what they can do. The Conjurer's guild delves heavily into this, and Haurchefant, Moenbryda, Conrad and multiple others all die decisively because they suffered wounds too immediately-lethal or severe for healing magic to save them, and several characters spend chunks of the story PutOnABus because they suffer injuries that are too deep for the quick patch-job that magical healing can do, and need to spend time in proper hospitals under doctor care. Moreover, injuries and the like still leave after-effects on several occasions, such as with Radovan, the Gunbreaker job trainer, whose body seizes up in paralysis several times because he'd been on the receiving end of ElectricTorture at a Garlean prison for ''years'' before escaping. Likewise, Sanche from the ''Stormbood'' White Mage storyline has a heart disease that will eventually kill her, and all healing magic can do is delay it and not outright stop it. There's also Arenvald where he [[TakingTheBullet threw himself in front of his ally]] to take an attack meant for them. This resulted in one of his legs getting broken and being confined to a wheelchair while stating that he may never walk again, showing that being an adventurer is a very dangerous gig.
** At the end of the ''Stormblood'' White Mage questline, Sanche indeed finally succumbs to her condition, from what is at least implied to be the exertion of visiting several nearby locations with her daughter so that she'll have no regrets when her time comes. When a powerful [[OurDemonsAreDifferent voidsent]] shows up immediately after to feast on her young daughter's aether - which [[PowerIncontinence she loses even the most basic control over]] when she's experiencing strong emotions, like the fear she's constantly felt recently over her mother's deteriorating condition - all he needs to do to send her into the throes of despair so she emits a lot of aether for him to feed on is to simply point out that her mother very well might not have died if she hadn't come out to the cave in the first place, which very quickly makes the young and fragile girl [[ItsAllMyFault jump to the conclusion that she's directly responsible for her mother's death]].
** The [[PlayerCharacter Warrior of Light]] has reality strike them every now and then as well. Sometimes their allies will outright force them to take a rest because god-slaying walking Armageddon or not, they're still only mortal and have mortal limits, those limits are just a bit higher than a normal person's. They're also not immune to poisons or drugs, which results in at least one scenario where you get laid out because of a spiked drink. [[spoiler: The final fight against Zenos at the end of ''Endwalker'' also shows that the Warrior of Light does have their limits when it comes to its physical capabilities. By the time they put Zenos down for good, they collapse to the ground due to pushing their body beyond its limits. They nearly die from their wounds and would have actually done so if they hadn't been saved by the Scions.]]
** In a solo instance, Krile, who is of the Lalafell race, gets grabbed by a magitek deathclaw (basically a giant metal steampunk hand) and you have to break her out of it. Once freed, she ends up spending the rest of the duty and questline having to sit out and recover, because while the claws were made for restraint, they were made for restraining larger races, so it nearly ended up crushing her smaller frame.
** The "Return To Ivalice" raid shows that when the people of Rabanastre saw their brothers in Doma and Ala Mhigo rise up and reclaim their home from the rule of the Garleans, they too rose up in defiance. However, while the Domans and Ala Mhigans succeeded because they had the Eorzean Alliance to assist them and the Garleans ruling their lands were either incompetent or were essentially left to their own devices due to various factors, the Rabanastre people were not so lucky, and so when they rebelled against the Garleans, they were defeated easily because they simply lacked the resources or manpower to take on a more focused and competently-lead military force. Even when they used auracite to even the odds, the demonic beings inside the auracite then used their wielders to bring ruin to both sides. When you arrive in Rabanastre, it's clear that the people never stood a chance against the crushing might of the Empire and the auracite-wielding monsters; just because their neighbors succeeded doesn't mean they were guaranteed success.

** An example is done for a joke near the end of the ''Shadowbringers'' main story; early on the party decides to not take credit for the night coming back when they defeat the lightwardens, so they can keep moving subtly, especially since they're basically Eulmore's most wanted for most of the story. Near the story's end before taking off for the final battle, they're taken aback when the Crystarium's residents refer to them as Warriors of Darkness and assume the Crystal Exarch spilled the beans, only for them to say that no, they figured it out because wherever the party went, the night came back, so it ''really'' wasn't hard to put two and two together.
** The Echo grants some of those who wield its power, including the Warrior of Light, the ability to delve into another person's memories to make sense of something, such as whether a woman really stole a loaf of bread as she's accused of just before one of the first uses of the power. As established early on, this happens in real-time rather than [[TalkingIsAFreeAction the rest of the world pausing itself while they view these flashbacks]], and [[PowerIncontinence they have no control over when it happens]]; as the story has gone on it's started pointing these out several times, especially in ''Stormblood'' where both the Warrior of Light and another Scion with the Echo suffer from these flashbacks at inconvenient times (the Warrior of Light while interrogating an unrestrained Garlean POW, the other Scion in the middle of a ''battle'') and nearly get killed for it. It also causes problems during the ''Shadowbringers'' role quests; all of them center around hunting Sin-Eaters who [[WasOnceAMan were once that world's Warriors of Light]], and the player character keeps getting visions of them from before they were Sin-Eaters, particularly causing problems in the ranged DPS quests since they happen right as the player character and the quest giver are about to spring a trap, eventually leading the quest giver to fire you from the hunt and storm off in a huff because he thinks you're doing it on purpose.

* ''Videogame/FinalFantasyIII'' has Gold swords that are about as effective as they would be in real life, and they're also just as valuable if you want to sell them.
* ''Videogame/FinalFantasyIV''

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': The game ends on a BittersweetEnding where Ramza defeats Ultima, meaning the Church is more or less depowered, and the world is free from the Lucaiv's threat, but Ramza goes down in history as a heretic and a traitor to his house. Ramza's actions occurred during a massive world war-like conflict, meaning the crowning of Delita as king overshadows much of the events that occurred. With nobody able to vouch for Ramza in an influential way, he [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade goes down in history as a villain]] instead of TheHero.
** Marche in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' knows that staying in the dream world is not mentally healthy for him or his friends and he tries to get them to face and solve their problems rather than run away from them. Because the main cast are young teenagers around the ages of 12 to 14, they aren't confident in themselves and see the fantasy world as an easier solution where they can be happy and not have to deal with life's problems. Seeing Marche's friends and his own brother lash out against him when they themselves don't know of his own struggles in life is a pretty realistic outcome of what happens when one feels like you're forcing them against their wills to leave their seemingly only source of happiness.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', Cid is known as an enemy of a criminal organization that he used to be a member of. He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere left the syndicate]] after seeing how evil they were and he wanted no part of it. This results in the syndicate eventually finding and shooting him in the middle of a street, only for him to barely cheat death by swearing an oath to a Judge. Just because you want an out and don't want to be in a crime syndicate anymore doesn't mean that said group will [[ResignationsNotAccepted let you go without a hitch.]]

*** Complete, Cloud tries to use Omnislash to defeat Sephiroth once more, only to fail miserably. As it was the same move that was used to take down Sephiroth in their second battle when they were fighting on the Lifestream with Sephiroth weakened from being beaten as Safer-Sephiroth, Sephiroth's previous experience with the attack makes it easy for him to not only block all of Cloud's attacks, but he ends up using Cloud's attempt to deliver the finishing leaping blow to instead stab Masamune through Cloud's stomach. The Fusion Sword Cloud was using not being nearly as long as Sephiroth's Masamune, the move works spectacularly in Sephiroth's favor and completely negates Cloud's attempted attack before it can even come close.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''.
** What, you thought you'd just waltz into the most sacred place in the city after being declared a traitor, and walk back out of there without getting captured? Get real.
** When Tidus learns about the grueling process a summoner must go through to gain the power to do so, he charges in to go and save them, thinking they need help. When he arrives at the final room, he finds that there are already qualified guardians waiting to help her, said summoner (Yuna) emerges fatigued but successful, and he ultimately doesn't do anything because, again, she already had help. Later that evening, the townsfolks of Besaid [[WhatTheHellHero chew him out]] for breaking their traditions and going in. Even when Yuna thanks him, and tries to downplay the issue, the townsfolk are still pissed, and don't change their opinions at all.
** Wakka, who was a devout believer in Yevon, goes through a CrisisOfFaith after learning that Seymour killed his own father and the group fights him. Unlike in most works of fiction where a character going through such a crisis typically resolves themselves to turning against their beliefs quickly, Wakka remains conflicted for pretty much the rest of the game. Having grown up his whole life being taught Yevon's teachings, he struggles with what to do because it was all he knew and believed in. Also, Wakka's hatred for the Al Bhed doesn't automatically go away either; Wakka has to re-evaluate his beliefs over the course of the game to fully let go of it, especially when he finds out Yuna was half-Al Bhed.
** The game doesn't forget that Auron and Wen Kinoc were old friends. When Kinoc is murdered by Seymour, using Auron's trigger command shows just how angry a person can get in that situation, with the resultant massive buff to Strength to go with it.
** Wakka enlists Tidus, a star Blitzball Player, in the upcoming Blitzball tournament, so that the Besaid Aurouchs can break their 10-year losing streak. Naturally being a top player, you'd expect the actual Blitzball game to be easy sailing, especially since Wakka himself is a pretty good player, right? Wrong. Wakka's team is still considered to be the worst team of all time in Spira, and even someone as talented as Tidus cannot carry the game all by himself against the Luca Goers, a considerably stronger and more competent team. Unless the player themselves knows how to play Blitzball, obtains Tidus' Jecht Shot technique, and also have a little luck on their side, the Besaid Aurouchs are simply going to lose the tournament yet again.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2''
** After millennia of forced MedievalStasis, Spira's freedom from Yevon's oppressive Machina ban causes the world to change ''drastically'' in just the small-time skip between the two games. Formerly untamed wildernesses like the Calm Lands and religious sites like Zanarkand have turned into flat-out tourist attractions, augmenting technology into combat has forced off most wild beasts, leaving formerly endgame zones safe at best, and the fiends that do show up are very low-level. The thunder plains in particular, for what a pain to navigate they used to be, has turned the lightning storms into a non-issue with machina-augmented lightning rods laid out across the entire road.
** Since Summoners relied on Aeons and the teachings of Yevon, when the truth came out and Yevon was overthrown, Summoners became obsolete and thus anyone who was training to be one, or was one, were forced to suddenly change their entire lives quickly. Several Summoners in-game admit to having no idea what to do now and thus are conflicted on their life choices. This also means that Fiends have become more dangerous without Summoners, as they were the only ones capable of preventing pyreflies from becoming Fiends.
** Politics have also shifted after Yuna revealed to the world that Yevonism was both hypocritical and led by ghosts upholding an AncientConspiracy. As a result, not even the most staunch followers of Yevon stayed loyal, instead of replacing it with the "New Yevon" religion - which keeps to the positive morals of the old religion while preaching for conservatively giving machines to the world - and the Youth League - who think that since most of Yevon was lies, they don't deserve the time of day for redemption and want to tear down as many walls as possible to augment the world with machines. The Al Bhed, who have centuries of persecution from Yevon behind them for their use of Machina, naturally side with the League. When the two factions go to war, the story angles towards the Youth League being the "right" faction, as while neither is technically in the right and both are at fault for tensions getting so high, siding with a church that has a risk of slipping back into their old corrupt ways is considered the worse option of the two. Showing New Yevon any favoritism at all locks you out of the game's GoldenEnding.
** The Guado and the Ronso are both feeling extreme tension towards one another at the start of the game due to Seymour's actions. Seymour massacred a ton of their race as well as their Maester when the party went climbing Mount Gagazet to reach Zanarkand in the first game, and as the official leader of the Guado as a whole, his psychopathy made everyone else look at the Guado with suspicion at best and hatred at worst, not helped that some Guado continue to revere Seymour, even if they admit that he was misguided and what he did was awful. If the party doesn't talk the Ronso down, this leads to tensions boiling over to a race war that it's implied leads to the extinction of the Guado.
** As the one who defeated Sin for good, Yuna is beloved by the people and many see her as a rallying figure, which results in all the major factions wanting her to ally with them because it will make their side look more legitimate to the rest of the world. As a result, when Yuna finds a potentially important sphere and has to choose who gets it, it results in one side getting what they want, but the other factions become openly hostile because someone like Yuna can't just make choices freely when she carries so much weight in the world.

** ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'': Complete, Cloud tries to use Omnislash to defeat Sephiroth once more, only to fail miserably. As it was the same move that was used to take down Sephiroth in their second battle when they were fighting on the Lifestream with Sephiroth weakened from being beaten as Safer-Sephiroth, Sephiroth's previous experience with the attack makes it easy for him to not only block all of Cloud's attacks, but he ends up using Cloud's attempt to deliver the finishing leaping blow to instead stab Masamune through Cloud's stomach. The Fusion Sword Cloud was using not being nearly as long as Sephiroth's Masamune, the move works spectacularly in Sephiroth's favor and completely negates Cloud's attempted attack before it can even come close.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
*** [[ItWasHisSled Infamously]], when Aerith is murdered by Sephiroth in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', there is no theatrics to it at all. No HopelessBossFight, no HeadsIWinTailsYouLose, no chance for Aerith or Cloud to react; Sephiroth just ambushes her while she's alone with Cloud in the middle of the night and impales her through the heart with his Masamune. While other characters have demonstrated the ability to survive such grievous wounds along with other things, all of them are battle-hardened veterans or enhanced to be superhuman. In contrast, Aerith is a powerful mage but has little physical power, so that one hit instantly kills her.

* Marche in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' knows that staying in the dream world is not mentally healthy for him or his friends and he tries to get them to face and solve their problems rather than run away from them. Because the main cast are young teenagers around the ages of 12 to 14, they aren't confident in themselves and see the fantasy world as an easier solution where they can be happy and not have to deal with life's problems. Seeing Marche's friends and his own brother lash out against him when they themselves don't know of his own struggles in life is a pretty realistic outcome of what happens when one feels like you're forcing them against their wills to leave their seemingly only source of happiness.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', Cid is known as an enemy of a criminal organization that he used to be a member of. He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere left the syndicate]] after seeing how evil they were and he wanted no part of it. This results in the syndicate eventually finding and shooting him in the middle of a street, only for him to barely cheat death by swearing an oath to a Judge. Just because you want an out and don't want to be in a crime syndicate anymore doesn't mean that said group will [[ResignationsNotAccepted let you go without a hitch.]]

*** No matter how badass you are, fighting against an entire army by yourself does not end well]]. Despite his skill, Zack dies when he gets fatigued fighting the Shinra Army, and it only takes a few shots after most of the army is beaten to kill him.