Summary
There are a lot ofFinal Fantasygames and the franchise has become over the years one of the longest-running ones in gaming history. Narrative excellence is one of the priorities with each original story that is contained within the games, and whether fans of the franchise agree with the stories or not, they are intricately thought out.
Related:Hardest Final Fantasy Games, Ranked By DifficultyHowever, not allFinal Fantasygames end happily.The franchise has more entriesthan nearly any other RPG franchise, and it isn’t always as simple an ending as the heroes win and everything turns out alright. SomeFinal Fantasyendings are much darker than that.
6Final Fantasy 10
The battle that gamers face to bring down Sin throughoutFinal Fantasy 10is a fascinating one, and the story of the heroes attempting to end the cycle of rebirth so that Sin will finally be defeated once and for all felt like it was heading in the direction of a horrible tragedy for a long stretch of the game, withone of the franchise’s best antagonistsleading the charge of terror.
WhileFinal Fantasy 10does end with the heroes succeeding and sending Sin, along with the Aeons, to the far plane so it cannot be reborn, it involves Yuna losing Tidus and Dream Zanarkand. With the summoning stopped, Yuna’s love interest Tidus disappears before her eyes, ending one of the very bestFinal Fantasyromance stories in absolute tragedy. This left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of gamers as they finished this amazing adventure, and remains one of the saddest moments inFinal Fantasyhistory.
5Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7
The prequel toFinal Fantasy 7had players prepared from the start for what the likely ending was going to be. That didn’t make the sadness of it arriving any easier, and the eventual death of Zack Fair felt like an inevitable conclusion since it had already been referenced at times throughoutFinal Fantasy 7itself, being justone of the huge number of spin-offsthe franchise has seen.
This didn’t make that moment any easier though. Some fans refer to Crisis Core as being similar in prequel style toRevenge of the Sith, and the inevitability of Anakin becoming Darth Vader was a similarly dark ending to Zack’s heroic sacrifice and bequeathing of the buster sword to Cloud.Crisis Coreeven ended with the opening scene ofFinal Fantasy 7, as Cloud claimed to be a former SOLDIER. The sacrifice of Zack being emphasized so greatly changes the perspective of how challenging it really was to bring down Sephiroth.
4Final Fantasy 8
There is a lot of joy and sadness throughoutFinal Fantasy 8,despite it being one of the easiest gamesin the franchise, and while gamers continue to debate the ambiguous ending to this day, it definitely makes for one of the saddest in the franchise. Again, the devastating part of the ending is all about lost love, this time between Laguna and Raine.
Related:Final Fantasy Villain Tier ListAt the end, with players expecting the game to be finished, a scene came up where Laguna visited the grave of Raine, while a scene flashed over the top of it showing Laguna proposing to Raine. This part of an otherwise mostly happy ending reminded players of the loss and struggle that the players had gone through, and was generally devastating to think about since it seemed to come out of nowhere.
3Final Fantasy Type-0
Though it involved multiple playthroughs and alternate endings to see different versions of the story, the first ending inFinal Fantasy Type-0is particularly dark. However, this is hardly surprising, given the generally dark nature of the entire game.Type-0is a PSP game released as part of theFabula Nova Crystallissubseries ofFinal Fantasygames, withan amazing variety of playable characters.
The game focused on Class Zero, fourteen students at a magical academy who become entangled in a war with the Militesi Empire. This darkerFinal Fantasyworld was based on various real-world wars, and in the original ending of the game, the members of Class Zero go into battle against Rursus and die, or they refuse the offer of the Crystal and defeat the Arbiter, but still all die after imagining together what their lives would look like after the war if they had survived.
2Final Fantasy 6
Despite the fun, pixilated look it has, and featuring some ofthe strongest characters in the franchise, there is no doubt that the story ofFinal Fantasy 6is one of the saddest and bleakest told in the franchise’s history. Even games with more generally serious tones likeFinal Fantasy 16don’t match up to the depressing nature of the story told in this classic edition. The story of this game features a brutal military dictatorship, chemical warfare, teen pregnancies, and brutal apocalyptic confrontations.
Besides all of this, the ending ofFinal Fantasy 6is rather bleak. Despite the group eventually defeating Kefka, it results in magic and Espers disappearing from the world, likely forever, and Kefka’s defeat only happened after a year of tyrannically ruling over the world and destroying entire villages that opposed him. It’s also possible that Cid died due to player actions near the end, leaving the party and their lives completely devastated in spite of their eventual victory.
1Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tacticsis a very different sort of game, as it features a much more tactical style. At the same time, it features another generally bleak tale. Ivalice is a complicated world and this was the firstFinal Fantasygame set there, featuring the Lion War over the throne of Ivalice. In spite of this providing a great backdrop for a tactical game, the ending is particularly bleak.
After Ramza stops the resurrected Ultima and escapes Avalice, those left behind remain in turmoil. Delita marries Princess Ovelia to become King, but they end up stabbing each other and Delita is left crying out to Ramza, asking what he has gained. Additionally, it is shown that Orran tried to expose the Church’s plot and was burned at the stake for heresy, resulting in a brutally depressing ending for Ivalice itself. Fans who miss this game still debate overwhether a remake would be right, but if it came to be, the ending would be a much-discussed topic once again.
More:Games To Play If You Miss Final Fantasy Tactics
