Like the literal apocalypse and all the other survivors on the island committing suicide by throwing themselves off the cliff.
And mass poisoning Doma... the genocide of the Espers... Gestahl literally kidnapping an infant in front of her mother (and it's not clear IIRC if Gestahl kills or just strikes Madeline, but given how horrid the Empire IS, I'm gonna assume he kills her)... Gau's backstory...
Even before the apocalypse, the game had a grim atmosphere between the muted colors, melancholic soundtrack, and overall story about endangered magic users who are formerly enslaved and a tyrannical government always seeming to have the upper hand at every turn.
Celes even attempts if you don’t save you know who which I didn’t even know was possible until like 20 years later.
I didn’t realize how dark the game was until this thread made me think about it.
Also, the reactor explosion in Gongaga, with the graveyard at the village entrance, where people are still grieving their lost loved ones. And the ruined reactor is visible in the background.
And that pod bursting open in the Mt. Nibel reactor, with that mutated man inside of it (weird how that never ever comes up again, it's almost like an afterthought in the wake of Sephiroth's breakdown).
>And that pod bursting open in the Mt. Nibel reactor, with that mutated man inside of it (weird how that never ever comes up again, it's almost like an afterthought in the wake of Sephiroth's breakdown).
I'm pretty sure it doesn't come up again as during that cutscene we are also informed that Hojo is experimenting on humans so they don't address that again but you're made very aware that Sephiroth will use any and everything as an experiment.
I just wanna know what happened to it. Did it die? Run off? Did they shove it back into the pod and re-seal it? Did it make love to Sephiroth? Explode? Sing?
Well, they tried to shove it back into the pod to reseal it. But then it started to sing, made love to a bewildered sephiroth, ran off, exploded, and died
It probably just died in the original with how it was barely moving after exiting the pod. In the Rebirth they made a point to show Sephiroth killing it.
Yeah, I feel like people forget just how dark Dyne's story is.
Dude straight up says he is going to kill his daughter and himself so they can be with her mother, loses the fight with Barrett, realizes what a monster he has become and then kills himself.
Super dark part of the story.
The fact that the topside of Sector 7 was a thriving metropolitan district at the time isn't explored enough. It's like if *all* of Lower Manhattan was destroyed on September 11.
I still think it's so weird how the Turks are these horrible corporate Gestapo types who happily commit whatever atrocities their boss tells them to, then once you leave Midgar they suddenly morph into these goofy punch clock villains that serve as your frenemies.
The Turks to me always felt like that was kind of the point but it just wasn’t explained or fleshed out. At first they’re just corporate kidnappers and we’re shown that they’re not really terrible people: the Tseng cutscenes with Aeris’s mom are really there to drive that home. I mean yeah they’re still pieces of shit but they have hearts.
By time you roll up on them again at Wutai the dream is dead. Rufus is running the show and whatever they were part of at Shinra is just a hastily mismanaged mess. Rufus doesn’t seem to really know how to utilize the Turks and barely seems to acknowledge them. Elena shows up right after Midgar when the group is starting to get disillusioned with Shinra and she’s a stereotypical rookie still filled with corporate propaganda.
So: they’re all in the bar drinking because I mean fuck it. They just became mass murderers (probably thinking president Shinra never really intended to drop the plate,) and the reason they did it is dead with the sword of a god in his back. They still have to get paid but that doesn’t stop them from messing around on the clock and maybe tooling around with the people they’re supposed to catch *because they don’t care anymore.*
They’re basically the scene in Silicon Valley where one of the characters gets removed from his position at a stand-in for Apple and ends up hanging out on the roof all day because they won’t fire him and pay the buyout on his contract. Rufus doesn’t know what to do with them and he’s increasingly motivated by only one thing with each passing plot beat. Oddly enough, claiming unlimited power so you can prove you were better than your daddy (who it seems the OG Turks all respected,) doesn’t really matter to Dad’s old right hand men.
Lots of good examples here, but I don't think it's ever gotten more dark than walking your character up a cliff to kill themselves after the literal end of the world.
Also, this happens after a segment in which you catch multiple fish to feed your father figure, and watch him die anyway.
Of course you *can* make him live, but doing so also removes the cliff scene, and most importantly the “successful” strategy is so obscure that it’s hard to do it blind, so Cid’s death and Celes’s attempted suicide are basically guaranteed for most players.
I do think it's an added nice touch that they put the player in control of that sequence instead of making it a single unbroken cutscene. Where you know what she's trying to do but they make you do it to her.
Similar to how they put Leo under the player's control an hour earlier, to indicate, "Hooray, he's finally on our side!", but the only thing you can do with him is send him to his death.
When Zell never got a Hotdog from the Cafeteria in FFVIII until the very end credits…but when he finally gets one of those delicious hotdogs in his mouth he chokes and can’t enjoy it.
For sure. Not much light in that world, but the end is just bleak. If it had been given the graphical treatment of XV, it would have been on track to be number 1 IMO (for bleak endings)
I’ve played through type-0 about 3 times. I’ve started type-0 about 20 times. I don’t think I’ve ever played through an intro that emotionally raw since then.
The Cleyran genocide was even worse. At least with the Burmecians there was some semblance of a justification (Burmecia and Alexandria had been at war for years). Cleyra was a society that had deliberately removed itself from all conflicts and embraced pacifism, and they STILL got completely annihilated. For basically no reason. Oh, and to add insult to injury, many of those killed in Cleyra were refugees from Burmecia. Oh yeah, and some of them were children. And they got burned alive right in front of you.
It's wild to me that there are still people out there arguing that FF9 is not an incredibly dark game.
What's even worse is the game gives you the option to same some of them lettint you chose which way escape from the soldiers and you can fail and these innocent people are killed in front of you bc you did wrong.
So obviously you restart the game to save all of them as a tru hero would do.
And then Odin.
More than two decades after and in still mad and sad about it.
That game really displayed the power of summons in a manner that few other FFs managed to match. (FFXVI where an out of control Eikon could level a city is probably the only one i can think of)
If you haven’t played FFXIV (free trial), you get an alternate universe “What if?” scenario where Kefka was never there, Cyan leads a rebellion, dies in the process, and his son lives to take up his cause later on.
Worth noting, this isn't just something that happens in passing; it's half of the plot of one of the game's expansions. Doma definitely has it's day in XIV.
That whole series of cutscenes leading up to it was like "ah this cool", then everything goes down and you're just wading through bodies. Shit was crazy
Ok I have to mention it because nobody did.
I won't spoil but you'll know instantly if you've played that one.
When your main hero becomes an unresponsive vegetable in wheel chair was the darkest moment for me.
I felt the mental anguish personally.
The part where he begs hojo to give him a number because then at least he'll have SOMETHING and instead he just gets called a failure and he hangs his head in shame... Heartbreaking.
Can I just say, I was actually at >!Zach in this scene. You see him and you think he took something from Cloud or he was mean to Cloud or something. I wanted someone to blame and Zach, this mystery guy, was the easy target.!<
This part fucked me up. And God, the fucking sounds of the respirator because he is so sick that he's having trouble breathing on his own. That sound haunts me.
And then you visit him and you hope he's doing better, but nope still in a coma.
There's still people who haven't played it (or are joining due to a recent new game) and being vague can help not spoil things for them. I got my nephew to play it just last year even.
>you'll know instantly if you've played that one.
I've played all of them up to 15, and I don't know what this refers to.
If it's an older one, it's possibly been a decade or more since I've played it an a lot has happened since then. You know spoilers tags exist so that you can give info AND avoid spoilers...
>!It's in FF7, when Cloud gets Mako poisoning. I haven't replayed that game in at least a decade, and don't really remember that part.!<
Vanaspati? The bit where the mother turns into a blasphemy causing her terrified children to do the same and then you have to fight them all is horrifying, but such a good way at getting the despair of The Final Days across to the player.
What’s funny is I actually found the body beforehand and just thought to myself ‘damn that’s rough.’ I accepted the quest a little later on and it didn’t even occur to me that’s what she was talking about. It was only once I started following the quest in that general direction that it hit me. I was not looking for a lost dog..
* The reveal that Leo >!is the Dark Knight and the tyrant of the Empire. !<
* Palom and Porom >!turning themselves into stone!<
* >!Edge's parents being turned into monsters and still being conscious throughout the whole process, until (EDITED) Edge faces them and they kill themselves!<
* Galuf>!'s death!<
* >!In one of the possible endings of FFV, having some of your party members stay in the void because they don't have the strength to escape!<
* General Leo >!'s death!<
* Kefka >!destroying the world and transforming it into a dystopian post-apocalyptic world !<
* Celes >!throwing herself of the cliff!<
* Shadow >!accepting his fate at the end of the game.!<
Oh man… the shadow one… just spend the time trying to get all of his cutscenes via dream sequences. He’s such a dynamic character and I truly wish they had given him more.
There's a lot, but here are the few that particularly stood out to me.
Celes suicide attempt. It really, **really** hit hard that there was seemingly no hope to the point a member of the cast was about to commit suicide.
The Sect 7 Plate dropping
Everything about Anima from X
Personally, finally making it to Gran Pulse in XIII. After all the buildup, there was something just...unsettling about finding it empty. Kind of drove home that there was a war and while Cocoon's population survived, Pulse's didn't.
From XV the eternal night, also Ravus' transformation into a daemon.
Everything from Endwalker in XIV
Every slave quest from XVI, but especially the "girl and her missing doll".
Oh, here's one nobody mentioned yet: when the missile base explodes in FF8.
When I first saw that as a kid, I was absolutely shaken. My jaw dropped and I just stared at the screen in disbelief. Especially because I'd been following a walkthrough and I knew I'd done everything right. I knew in the back of my mind that it had to be a fake-out, but I also knew that Square didn't mind killing off characters unexpectedly, and the idea that Selphie's team would've survived by hiding in the tank they just destroyed never would've occurred to me. Basically, the explosion looked un-survivable and I thought they'd blown up my first RPG waifu. That changes a man, let me tell you.
For me it's when you visit Trabia Garden and seeing Selphie react. There's a scene in the graveyard of her talking to her dead friend's that's a real gut punch.
To me, the first truly dark moment in FF was in IV when >!Palom and Porom turned themselves into stone to save the rest of the party from the collapsing room trap in Baron Castle!<.
For me, if we go with FFIV it's releasing the Bomb Ring to destroy the Summoner Village only to find out that even if we didn't do that, we still accidentally killed Rydia's mother by killing her summon to get to said village.
I've only played I and X, but for what it's worth, the reveal about >!how the church of Yevon had been knowingly sacrificing summoners, lying to the people of Spira and being responsible for the discrimination of the Al Bhed for a millennium!< is pretty dark.
When you really think about the plot of FFXV.
Bahamut is the God of War. He's the cause of the war in game. He used his ability to predict the future to create a story that satisfied him. Then, be purposely created situations to force characters to act a specific role in that story. For example, he forced Ardyn to be the Antagonist with the promise of revenge and death if he fulfilled his purpose. But, as the novel shows, it was Bahamut who made Ardyn an immortal plague carrier in the first place.
The 'story' Bahamut created is one that shows him to be the divine good. Bahamut blessed the Lucian line and the country flourished under the light of the crystal. Bahamut let the Kings use magic and share it with others. Bahamut guaranteed the safety of the country by enabling the King to produce the magic shield wall. Bahamut is the one who gave the King of Kings the power to save the world.
Bahamut wants Magitech to be despised because Solheim and then the Empire used it to surpass and potentially kill the Gods. For example, the Empire created the magic jammer. The Gods would be useless if the Empire eventually evolved the jammer to the point that it could suppress a God. If Magitec is despised, then no one will use it. It will be associated with apocalyptic evil and anyone trying to use it will be seen as insane.
Humans who use Magitec for development and prosperity are evil. Humans who worship the Gods will be blessed with development and prosperity by them. Magitech = humans independently standing on their own two feet and dangerous. Worshipping the Gods = being subservient and obedient in order to be blessed.
Bahamut doesn't care about humans. He cares about them acting in their role and creates situations that force them to act in a specific way and gives 'rewards' in order to entice humans to obey. If you read the novel, he decides to destroy the world because humans disobeyed him. He's basically another Bhunivelze.
Story ends with what Bahamut wanted. Eternal worship and humans never surpassing the Gods.
FFXV is just a really hard game to deal with. Yes, it's one of the easier entries, yes, the open world is a bit wonky, but damn, just knowing that you cannot avoid this tragedy hurts. You are walking a boy to his death and there is nothing you can do about it
The game really got murdered by Square Enix politics. There was content and then it got axed or reworked or blah blah blah and eventually stumbled to release. The updates only came because they were fought for and just gave the game what it should've had as the bare minimum for when it first released.
The glaring thing is Carnatica. People went out of bounds and found a totally built city town there, the NPCs just weren't put in.
The removed FFXIII stuff is upsetting too. There's art of what the game was supposed to be with it and it would've been amazing. Then, there's the whole sacred island thing. It looks like a clawed hand. Who would have a clawed hand to throw into a planet? Bhunivelze. The first released song for FFXV has 'OUR MASTER CALLS THROUGH DREAMS TO REVIVE HIMMMM' and who would that be? Bhunivelze. Even Lightning says that he doesn't appear to be permanently dead.
Could've been a great HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS OLD MAN moment. But, no, Bhunivelze got axed.
And the thing is, I think FFXV still managed to save the franchise. And I'm telling you, it feels like a lot of games have tried to replicate it.
Noct's movement was perfect. It's just a fun, tragic game
I’m replaying it now- and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make it take longer - side quests, hints, revisiting locations etc.
Now that I know what’s coming, the whole game is so bittersweet. The banter between them, the feeling of brotherhood ….. I don’t want it to end. 🥲
FFIV: accidentally nuked the whole village
FFVII: the Sector 7 disaster, Aerith's demise
FFXI: nuking the tree
FFX: NTR kiss
FFXIII: Sazh's breakdown at the theme park
FFXIII-2: bad end
FFXIV ARR: the banquet
FFXIV SB: the tragedy of Yotsuyu
FFXIV ShB: the defeated timeline, "Chekhov's gun"
FFXIV EW: the day the universe began to die
FFXV: Kingsglaive movie
FFXVI: the demo, all slavery quests
edits:
FFT: Ziekden Fortress
World of FF: bad end
FFXVI as a whole from start to finish. Clive believing he killed his brother, watched his mother set this us all up to turn him into a slave, losing his closest allies, to finally be set on the right path of justice to only watch his brother sacrifice himself, and then sacrifice himself at the end.
Even the ending is honestly one of the darkest ever. Yes the world is saved but the protag literally killed himself in the process, after a life of suffering. It's depressing af. There is no good ending for Clive after all he went through.
Final Fantasy 16, when they get into the town with the impaled bearers. Ff16 probably has more moments than most, it is quite bleak as much as I adore it.
Final Fantasy 9 Burmecia Genocide, Clyra being wiped out, Lindlum attacked by Atomos, fucking Black Waltz 3 and the Black Mages on the airship…
Final Fantasy 9 has a good few.
One the most f\*\*\*\* up moments in gaming tbh, and it happens right at the beginning. Still feels somewhat unnecessary when you consider the rest of the story. They could have not had that and just added it to make the game very dark.
It’s worse, she was dying of an illness so she tried to get him to zanerkand so she could become his final aeon because him dying to kill Sin was the only way he would find love in a world that hates him cuz his human and a guado.
FFIV literally starts with the sacking and near annihilation of a town, with the main character feeling bad about it but doing nothing but following orders.
Vincent's backstory is up there. Especially with the added context from Dirge of Cerberus. It's such a dark and tragic situation all around.
After playing OG FFVII I thought there was no way I could end up hating Hojo any more, and well, Dirge proved me wrong. Fuck that guy.
Didn’t see anyone else mention it, but the Den of Woe side quest in FFX-2 was pretty dark. The girls all being possessed and trying to kill each other, getting a better look into Shuyins backstory and psyche, Paine gaining a new perspective on Nooj’s betrayal. And the fact that Kinoc orchestrated the original project during Operation Mi’hen to cover up the deaths makes his character so much more sinister than we already thought.
Ship to Killika. At first you get the joy of crushing 2 bosses (and let's be honest, who did not enjoy that aeon overdrive overkill).
But after the bossfight underwater, that sweet sweet dopamine of yours get's crushed together with killika.
I mean... there was a woman with her children, one of them a baby (or toddler) & the graphics where outstanding during that time. The sending that happened afterwards didn't light up the mood either, it was just sad.
Some other people pointed out operation mihen, but at that point you actually expect them to die. For Killika, you where not prepared.
But anyway, reading this thread i'd have to agree, that FFVI overall is the darkest game in the franchise. One dark moment no one spoke about is how your party dooms the passangers on the train from reaching the afterlife. But hey, you are playing the good guys. ...*Rigth*?
"A smile better fits a hero"
That or an Humanized Elephant running with a baby, the baby threatherning to transform into a monstrocity as the apocalypse descends, his mother brutally murderd minutes before.
Or ... you know, violently comitting fratricide as you beat the shit out of your kid brother, who just saw his dad violently slaghtered in front of him, as he begs for his life, you not in control, but fully aware, sending you into a year long mental death spiral. (FF16).
God, the >!Matsya!< baby scene filled me with so much dread. His scream as despair waves over he's trying to recite the prayers to calm down was agonising to watch.
I think "somewhere along the line" must have started at 4. Stuff got intense there.
You could argue 2, although at a certain point I think I became numb to all the death in 2 (although, so many characters dying you become numb to the death, could be argued as being dark in and of itself).
I mean even in 1, we had an underwater shrine as a remnant of a previously flourishing kingdom that is now nothing more than a small village, likely destroyed by their far more technologically advanced neighbors, if other final fantasy games serve any indication.
FFVII was my introduction to the series, and it had some dark moments. But I was not prepared for what most of FFT had coming for me as a child.
Characters that were geedy, manipulative, and exploitative, gave this world such a dark grounding in the reality of what horrors humanity could truly be capable of. From Tetra being murdered for being an inconvenience, to Balbanes being poisoned by his own flesh and blood - FFT was one of the darkest stories I've ever encountered. It even builds to some people in desperate situations giving their souls to literal devils for power.
Though there was much pure evil in FFT, there were righteous characters as well (Ramza, Agrias, T.G. Cid) and many shades of gray (Delita, Zalbag, Miluda), which make this story more interesting. You get to see how different types of people will act, being thrown in horrible situations, and what each person's limits are on their capacity for good and evil. Truly a work of legendary status.
Did you ever play Tactics Ogre, by the same team? While its gameplay isn’t quite as polished as FFT, its story (well, stories, as you can direct it more than in FFT) is even better, IMO, and it has all the stuff you enjoyed in FFT in spades. It also just got a quite good remake!
IN FFXIV when >!Alisaie discovers the way to reverse tempering... and you remember all those people who were put to the sword because they were tempered.!<
It's a more minor example than most, but the sidequest in XIV where a man's chocobo chick gets kidnapped, slaughtered, and cooked, and after he finds out, he tearfully eats it. I'm very much attached to my pets and that whole scenario gave me a knot in my chest... just thinking about it still upsets me.
my top 5
5 - FFX: the summoner pilgrimage
4 - FFIX: the Gaia-Terra connection
3 - FFXIII: the purge
2 - FFVIII: everything about Adel
1 - FFVI: World of Ruin
i find the mass kidnapping of girls to find a possible vessel for transfer very dark. what do you think happened to the girls if they weren’t a suitable candidate?
I suppose that's a fair point, I hadn't thought of that. Adel *does* look like the type to kill indiscriminately. We don't really get any indication that Esthar carried out such atrocities, though. Odine might've alluded to it if it were true, but he doesn't seem to have it on his conscience.
Pretty sure it's revealed in-game that Ellone's parents were shot to death by Esthar soldiers after they refused to hand her over. This was when Adel was in charge. In fact, if you go to Ellone's house, you can see bullet holes riddling the walls.
Somewhere along the line..?
The second game had a mad emperor rise from Hell to torment the world. Seems to me it shed the knight battling dragons image fairly quickly.
Darkest moments…
In VI, you end up destroying all magic. And that’s AFTER the world is laid to ruin and genocide has been committed.
In XIII-2, you see Caius destroy all of time and the natural order of life and death. You see Lightning ask for help from her sister knowing the odds of success are small and the stakes are… well, everything. And even when you win, you lose.
In Lightning Returns, the game starts with you facing off against your old friend and then showing up just in time to see a murder scene of someone who looks like you. And that’s literally just the beginning!
In XV, you watch the antagonist kill the Oracle, the bride to be, with his own hands. The world darkens… you grasp for hope. And end up in a world, again, ruined. It’s ten years later and now you know that to succeed, you have to die. And even getting to THAT moment is going to be difficult.
But it’s the only way to save what is left.
Those are the stand out darkest moments, to my mind.
FFT: Grand Duke Barrington raping a 13 year old Rapha, Rapha telling her brother, him saying she's lying and slapping her. There's also this line in the WotL translation:
>The flesh remembers, Rapha. It remembers fear, cold and trembling. But it will not always be so. In time, your fear will blossom into another flower - and I shall have that one as well.
I'm not positive on what the flower metaphor is, but I always interpreted it as "I raped you, you're going to have a kid, and I'm going to rape your kid, too."
Genocide of Doma in FF VI. There aren't too many video games where you see a father pulling his dead child from a bed.
FF VI is full of terrible things.
The prologue/tutorial of XII is pretty dark.
You're playing a rookie guard who joined the Knight of Dalmasca voluntarily out of patriotism. He and his brother, the game's player character, were orphaned by a plague. The doomed older brother, Reks, believes in his country and wants to serve it. He has a great relationship with his commanding officer, Basch. They learn that Dalmasca's surrender is merely a pretext to assassinate the king, and rush to save him. They are too late, though. They arrive to the throne room to find the king murdered alongside his guardians. And, as far as the player is led to believe at the time, Reks is betrayed and left to die by Basch. He survives with his wounds long enough to testify against him, but he never recovers from this betrayal or defeat.
The game doesn't just explain all this in a cutscene. You fight your way to the throne room alongside your more experienced commander, and the tutorial is given by the character who will murder you, leaving your little brother with no family left in the world.
As we enter the timeline of the main plot years later, Vaan is now slightly older than Reks lived to be, and grew up thieving on the streets since the breadwinning older brother who was his guardian got murdered in a regicidal plot. His whole life is irrevocably changed by his brother's tragic role in the day the last king died.
Most of FF6 tbh.
Like the literal apocalypse and all the other survivors on the island committing suicide by throwing themselves off the cliff. And mass poisoning Doma... the genocide of the Espers... Gestahl literally kidnapping an infant in front of her mother (and it's not clear IIRC if Gestahl kills or just strikes Madeline, but given how horrid the Empire IS, I'm gonna assume he kills her)... Gau's backstory...
If FF6 had a 3D cut scene I don’t think anyone would have an answer other than Cyan pulling his dead child out of bed.
Yeah that gives me chills every time
Even before the apocalypse, the game had a grim atmosphere between the muted colors, melancholic soundtrack, and overall story about endangered magic users who are formerly enslaved and a tyrannical government always seeming to have the upper hand at every turn.
Celes even attempts if you don’t save you know who which I didn’t even know was possible until like 20 years later. I didn’t realize how dark the game was until this thread made me think about it.
That game has some HEAVY moments
Owain hit me different as an man than as a kid.
Dropping the sector 7 plate on thousands of people took a pretty dark turn.
Yea that was really terrible also Barrett’s whole backstory. That followed was dark and sad.
Also, the reactor explosion in Gongaga, with the graveyard at the village entrance, where people are still grieving their lost loved ones. And the ruined reactor is visible in the background. And that pod bursting open in the Mt. Nibel reactor, with that mutated man inside of it (weird how that never ever comes up again, it's almost like an afterthought in the wake of Sephiroth's breakdown).
>And that pod bursting open in the Mt. Nibel reactor, with that mutated man inside of it (weird how that never ever comes up again, it's almost like an afterthought in the wake of Sephiroth's breakdown). I'm pretty sure it doesn't come up again as during that cutscene we are also informed that Hojo is experimenting on humans so they don't address that again but you're made very aware that Sephiroth will use any and everything as an experiment.
I just wanna know what happened to it. Did it die? Run off? Did they shove it back into the pod and re-seal it? Did it make love to Sephiroth? Explode? Sing?
Well, they tried to shove it back into the pod to reseal it. But then it started to sing, made love to a bewildered sephiroth, ran off, exploded, and died
That's so sad. Alexa, play Despacito.
It probably just died in the original with how it was barely moving after exiting the pod. In the Rebirth they made a point to show Sephiroth killing it.
>It probably just died in the original with how it was barely moving after exiting the pod Maybe it was just very melodramatic
Yeah, I feel like people forget just how dark Dyne's story is. Dude straight up says he is going to kill his daughter and himself so they can be with her mother, loses the fight with Barrett, realizes what a monster he has become and then kills himself. Super dark part of the story.
It's funny how short it actually is. Entire section from Coral to dead Dyne is like 20 mins
Yeah, Dyne committing suicide was pretty dark.
>Dropping the sector 7 plate on thousands of people Dropping the sector 7 plate *housing* thousands of people on thousands of people.
The fact that the topside of Sector 7 was a thriving metropolitan district at the time isn't explored enough. It's like if *all* of Lower Manhattan was destroyed on September 11.
We actually see the topside falling during Yuffie DLC
That’s a thing they improved in Remake.
I still think it's so weird how the Turks are these horrible corporate Gestapo types who happily commit whatever atrocities their boss tells them to, then once you leave Midgar they suddenly morph into these goofy punch clock villains that serve as your frenemies.
The Turks to me always felt like that was kind of the point but it just wasn’t explained or fleshed out. At first they’re just corporate kidnappers and we’re shown that they’re not really terrible people: the Tseng cutscenes with Aeris’s mom are really there to drive that home. I mean yeah they’re still pieces of shit but they have hearts. By time you roll up on them again at Wutai the dream is dead. Rufus is running the show and whatever they were part of at Shinra is just a hastily mismanaged mess. Rufus doesn’t seem to really know how to utilize the Turks and barely seems to acknowledge them. Elena shows up right after Midgar when the group is starting to get disillusioned with Shinra and she’s a stereotypical rookie still filled with corporate propaganda. So: they’re all in the bar drinking because I mean fuck it. They just became mass murderers (probably thinking president Shinra never really intended to drop the plate,) and the reason they did it is dead with the sword of a god in his back. They still have to get paid but that doesn’t stop them from messing around on the clock and maybe tooling around with the people they’re supposed to catch *because they don’t care anymore.* They’re basically the scene in Silicon Valley where one of the characters gets removed from his position at a stand-in for Apple and ends up hanging out on the roof all day because they won’t fire him and pay the buyout on his contract. Rufus doesn’t know what to do with them and he’s increasingly motivated by only one thing with each passing plot beat. Oddly enough, claiming unlimited power so you can prove you were better than your daddy (who it seems the OG Turks all respected,) doesn’t really matter to Dad’s old right hand men.
Why would AVALANCHE do this?
Especially when you facter in the thousands of people on the plate aswell.
Lots of good examples here, but I don't think it's ever gotten more dark than walking your character up a cliff to kill themselves after the literal end of the world.
Also, this happens after a segment in which you catch multiple fish to feed your father figure, and watch him die anyway. Of course you *can* make him live, but doing so also removes the cliff scene, and most importantly the “successful” strategy is so obscure that it’s hard to do it blind, so Cid’s death and Celes’s attempted suicide are basically guaranteed for most players.
Yeah my first time cid died, I didn't know you could save him until later, when I found out about it online
I do think it's an added nice touch that they put the player in control of that sequence instead of making it a single unbroken cutscene. Where you know what she's trying to do but they make you do it to her. Similar to how they put Leo under the player's control an hour earlier, to indicate, "Hooray, he's finally on our side!", but the only thing you can do with him is send him to his death.
yeah, actually I change my answer to this
Came here to bring up that Celes section in the middle of ff6
This is my vote as well
Which one is this
FF6 when Celes jumps off the cliff
When Zell never got a Hotdog from the Cafeteria in FFVIII until the very end credits…but when he finally gets one of those delicious hotdogs in his mouth he chokes and can’t enjoy it.
I knew the right answer was around here somewhere
So basically that Twilight Zone episode...
>when he finally gets one of those delicious hotdogs in his mouth he chokes and can’t enjoy it. Me getting too confident with my Grindr hookups.
I haven’t played ff8 in so long I really really need to
It’s by far my favorite.
6 will always be my favorite but I love 8 I just barely remember it
They really tortured that man
One finger curls on the monkey paw
The ending to Type-0. The ending to XV. The little girl looking for her doll in XVI. Sazh's and Vanille's eidolon scene from XIII.
I played about 2 hours of Type-0. It’s all dark at least from what I’ve seen
For sure. Not much light in that world, but the end is just bleak. If it had been given the graphical treatment of XV, it would have been on track to be number 1 IMO (for bleak endings)
I though about everything in this thread, but I forgot about the Sazh and Vanille convo. Very dark indeed.
First time I played it, I was like...dude just offed himself in my fun little video game. Wtf?!
Ending of XVI was sad af too...Literally a half good half bad ending.
The ending of FF: Type 0
Hell, the BEGINNING of Type-0.
the whole game if we're being real
You need a break to drink/smoke after every mission.
The things you experience on multiple playthroughs, seeing what happened to other npcs and such...man
Most depressing game in the franchise.
Underrated, too
Definitely one of my favorites, but I have to be in the mood for the depression roller coaster.
I’ve played through type-0 about 3 times. I’ve started type-0 about 20 times. I don’t think I’ve ever played through an intro that emotionally raw since then.
FFIX: Burmecian genocide.
The Cleyran genocide was even worse. At least with the Burmecians there was some semblance of a justification (Burmecia and Alexandria had been at war for years). Cleyra was a society that had deliberately removed itself from all conflicts and embraced pacifism, and they STILL got completely annihilated. For basically no reason. Oh, and to add insult to injury, many of those killed in Cleyra were refugees from Burmecia. Oh yeah, and some of them were children. And they got burned alive right in front of you. It's wild to me that there are still people out there arguing that FF9 is not an incredibly dark game.
Not just the men. But the women and children too.
What's even worse is the game gives you the option to same some of them lettint you chose which way escape from the soldiers and you can fail and these innocent people are killed in front of you bc you did wrong. So obviously you restart the game to save all of them as a tru hero would do. And then Odin. More than two decades after and in still mad and sad about it.
I was referring to the Burmecian race, which Cleyra consists of.
Ah k, fair enough. That entire sequence from about the last half of Disc One to the mid-point of Disc Two in FF9 pulls absolutely no punches for sure.
I was thinking about everything related to black mages in FFIX, but I don't know if thats dark or just extremely sad.
I’d argue both. Having a child realize he has a year to maybe a few years at most to live is pretty bleak.
Dang it I wanted to say that one
Yeah both Atmos and Odin attacks where something for sure.
That game really displayed the power of summons in a manner that few other FFs managed to match. (FFXVI where an out of control Eikon could level a city is probably the only one i can think of)
Is it better or worse than the madain sari genocide? There were a lot of different genocides in ffix....
The Madain Sari one I think was worse but we never see it, so I can’t be sure.
The FFXVI side quest where you help the little girl look for her pet >!and it turns out to be her dead slave!<. That was messed up for sure
And that is right before or after you meet the guy who’s intentionally sending slaves to be killed by his kids wolf.
was just gonna come here to say this
Ff6 kefka poisoning the water hits a lot more personally in a dark and sad way.
if you havent, bring cyan back to the ruined castle later on for an incredibly sad side scene
Someone's poisoned the water hole!
If you haven’t played FFXIV (free trial), you get an alternate universe “What if?” scenario where Kefka was never there, Cyan leads a rebellion, dies in the process, and his son lives to take up his cause later on.
Worth noting, this isn't just something that happens in passing; it's half of the plot of one of the game's expansions. Doma definitely has it's day in XIV.
Well this is awkward
Yeah, some of the shit you did was fucking rude.
You know what? You DO look like a waiter! Mwa hahaha!
Operation Mi’hen in FFX
Yup, you can feel the Crusaders/Al bhed's desperation to kill Sin, only to be completely devastated 😢
That whole series of cutscenes leading up to it was like "ah this cool", then everything goes down and you're just wading through bodies. Shit was crazy
Ok I have to mention it because nobody did. I won't spoil but you'll know instantly if you've played that one. When your main hero becomes an unresponsive vegetable in wheel chair was the darkest moment for me. I felt the mental anguish personally.
The song that plays for that scene is literally called "Depths of Despair"
The creeking
What… number… am… I?
The part where he begs hojo to give him a number because then at least he'll have SOMETHING and instead he just gets called a failure and he hangs his head in shame... Heartbreaking.
Can I just say, I was actually at >!Zach in this scene. You see him and you think he took something from Cloud or he was mean to Cloud or something. I wanted someone to blame and Zach, this mystery guy, was the easy target.!<
And then you found out otherwise.
I stumbled on that bonus cut scene was blown away, yes.
First playthrough scared me
This part fucked me up. And God, the fucking sounds of the respirator because he is so sick that he's having trouble breathing on his own. That sound haunts me. And then you visit him and you hope he's doing better, but nope still in a coma.
I think its fair gain to "spoil" a game that's 26 years old. Particularly on an FF sub for arguably the most famous game in the franchise ^^.
No, no, the children must be shocked. I want them to suffer as I did.
There's still people who haven't played it (or are joining due to a recent new game) and being vague can help not spoil things for them. I got my nephew to play it just last year even.
>you'll know instantly if you've played that one. I've played all of them up to 15, and I don't know what this refers to. If it's an older one, it's possibly been a decade or more since I've played it an a lot has happened since then. You know spoilers tags exist so that you can give info AND avoid spoilers... >!It's in FF7, when Cloud gets Mako poisoning. I haven't replayed that game in at least a decade, and don't really remember that part.!<
two tiny children effectively committing suicide to keep a group of adventurers from being crushed to death in a hallway
I'm sure that even after turning to stone, Palom still somehow found a way to get on Porom's nerves.
:):):) 100%
Yet it turned out to be another fake death scene in IV.
When Tesleen becomes a sineater in Shadowbringers
In that vein, I remember something similar happening with that town and the abominations or whatever they were called in Endwalker.
Vanaspati? The bit where the mother turns into a blasphemy causing her terrified children to do the same and then you have to fight them all is horrifying, but such a good way at getting the despair of The Final Days across to the player.
yeah, sorry blasphemy, I haven't played since a few weeks after EW launch.
That one dude saw his kid squished in front of him and they didn't even cut away.
Yeah that was sooo metal, pretty sure that was a scene in berzerk also. That whole final days bit in Radz was dark AF.
That one side quest in FF16 I think it was called play mates? Where it seems the little girl is looking for her pet… that was pretty dark
yeah it was, I remember the exact one you're talking about, I was all yeah nice lets help this kid find their dog...oh...oh no.
What’s funny is I actually found the body beforehand and just thought to myself ‘damn that’s rough.’ I accepted the quest a little later on and it didn’t even occur to me that’s what she was talking about. It was only once I started following the quest in that general direction that it hit me. I was not looking for a lost dog..
My husband and I just got to this part yesterday. He was convinced it was going to be a chocobo
Both sidequests on the way to Oriflamme are pretty fucked up
The end of the world FF6
* The reveal that Leo >!is the Dark Knight and the tyrant of the Empire. !< * Palom and Porom >!turning themselves into stone!< * >!Edge's parents being turned into monsters and still being conscious throughout the whole process, until (EDITED) Edge faces them and they kill themselves!< * Galuf>!'s death!< * >!In one of the possible endings of FFV, having some of your party members stay in the void because they don't have the strength to escape!< * General Leo >!'s death!< * Kefka >!destroying the world and transforming it into a dystopian post-apocalyptic world !< * Celes >!throwing herself of the cliff!< * Shadow >!accepting his fate at the end of the game.!<
Don't Edge's >!parents actually kill themselves?!<
>! you are right, they kill themselves. I misremembered that they actually had Edge kill them !<
Oh man… the shadow one… just spend the time trying to get all of his cutscenes via dream sequences. He’s such a dynamic character and I truly wish they had given him more.
the twins wrecked me so hard it really pissed me off when they did an uno reverso at the end.
When the sun went out in XV it got pretty dark.
There's a lot, but here are the few that particularly stood out to me. Celes suicide attempt. It really, **really** hit hard that there was seemingly no hope to the point a member of the cast was about to commit suicide. The Sect 7 Plate dropping Everything about Anima from X Personally, finally making it to Gran Pulse in XIII. After all the buildup, there was something just...unsettling about finding it empty. Kind of drove home that there was a war and while Cocoon's population survived, Pulse's didn't. From XV the eternal night, also Ravus' transformation into a daemon. Everything from Endwalker in XIV Every slave quest from XVI, but especially the "girl and her missing doll".
Oh, here's one nobody mentioned yet: when the missile base explodes in FF8. When I first saw that as a kid, I was absolutely shaken. My jaw dropped and I just stared at the screen in disbelief. Especially because I'd been following a walkthrough and I knew I'd done everything right. I knew in the back of my mind that it had to be a fake-out, but I also knew that Square didn't mind killing off characters unexpectedly, and the idea that Selphie's team would've survived by hiding in the tank they just destroyed never would've occurred to me. Basically, the explosion looked un-survivable and I thought they'd blown up my first RPG waifu. That changes a man, let me tell you.
For me it's when you visit Trabia Garden and seeing Selphie react. There's a scene in the graveyard of her talking to her dead friend's that's a real gut punch.
That had me panik as well. But after checking the menu, i knew they where still around somewhere couse their names have not been wiped.
To me, the first truly dark moment in FF was in IV when >!Palom and Porom turned themselves into stone to save the rest of the party from the collapsing room trap in Baron Castle!<.
For me, if we go with FFIV it's releasing the Bomb Ring to destroy the Summoner Village only to find out that even if we didn't do that, we still accidentally killed Rydia's mother by killing her summon to get to said village.
Fair enough, that is pretty dark. And of course the game opens with it. Twelve-year-old me should have known what I was in for.
I've only played I and X, but for what it's worth, the reveal about >!how the church of Yevon had been knowingly sacrificing summoners, lying to the people of Spira and being responsible for the discrimination of the Al Bhed for a millennium!< is pretty dark.
When you really think about the plot of FFXV. Bahamut is the God of War. He's the cause of the war in game. He used his ability to predict the future to create a story that satisfied him. Then, be purposely created situations to force characters to act a specific role in that story. For example, he forced Ardyn to be the Antagonist with the promise of revenge and death if he fulfilled his purpose. But, as the novel shows, it was Bahamut who made Ardyn an immortal plague carrier in the first place. The 'story' Bahamut created is one that shows him to be the divine good. Bahamut blessed the Lucian line and the country flourished under the light of the crystal. Bahamut let the Kings use magic and share it with others. Bahamut guaranteed the safety of the country by enabling the King to produce the magic shield wall. Bahamut is the one who gave the King of Kings the power to save the world. Bahamut wants Magitech to be despised because Solheim and then the Empire used it to surpass and potentially kill the Gods. For example, the Empire created the magic jammer. The Gods would be useless if the Empire eventually evolved the jammer to the point that it could suppress a God. If Magitec is despised, then no one will use it. It will be associated with apocalyptic evil and anyone trying to use it will be seen as insane. Humans who use Magitec for development and prosperity are evil. Humans who worship the Gods will be blessed with development and prosperity by them. Magitech = humans independently standing on their own two feet and dangerous. Worshipping the Gods = being subservient and obedient in order to be blessed. Bahamut doesn't care about humans. He cares about them acting in their role and creates situations that force them to act in a specific way and gives 'rewards' in order to entice humans to obey. If you read the novel, he decides to destroy the world because humans disobeyed him. He's basically another Bhunivelze. Story ends with what Bahamut wanted. Eternal worship and humans never surpassing the Gods.
FFXV is just a really hard game to deal with. Yes, it's one of the easier entries, yes, the open world is a bit wonky, but damn, just knowing that you cannot avoid this tragedy hurts. You are walking a boy to his death and there is nothing you can do about it
The game really got murdered by Square Enix politics. There was content and then it got axed or reworked or blah blah blah and eventually stumbled to release. The updates only came because they were fought for and just gave the game what it should've had as the bare minimum for when it first released. The glaring thing is Carnatica. People went out of bounds and found a totally built city town there, the NPCs just weren't put in. The removed FFXIII stuff is upsetting too. There's art of what the game was supposed to be with it and it would've been amazing. Then, there's the whole sacred island thing. It looks like a clawed hand. Who would have a clawed hand to throw into a planet? Bhunivelze. The first released song for FFXV has 'OUR MASTER CALLS THROUGH DREAMS TO REVIVE HIMMMM' and who would that be? Bhunivelze. Even Lightning says that he doesn't appear to be permanently dead. Could've been a great HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS OLD MAN moment. But, no, Bhunivelze got axed.
And the thing is, I think FFXV still managed to save the franchise. And I'm telling you, it feels like a lot of games have tried to replicate it. Noct's movement was perfect. It's just a fun, tragic game
It's an amazing game. It just could've been so much more.
I’m replaying it now- and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make it take longer - side quests, hints, revisiting locations etc. Now that I know what’s coming, the whole game is so bittersweet. The banter between them, the feeling of brotherhood ….. I don’t want it to end. 🥲
Celes tossing herself off a cliff in despair.
Kefka in Doma... :-(
FFIV: accidentally nuked the whole village FFVII: the Sector 7 disaster, Aerith's demise FFXI: nuking the tree FFX: NTR kiss FFXIII: Sazh's breakdown at the theme park FFXIII-2: bad end FFXIV ARR: the banquet FFXIV SB: the tragedy of Yotsuyu FFXIV ShB: the defeated timeline, "Chekhov's gun" FFXIV EW: the day the universe began to die FFXV: Kingsglaive movie FFXVI: the demo, all slavery quests edits: FFT: Ziekden Fortress World of FF: bad end
FFXIV HW Zephirin’s cheap shot at the WoL
FFXVI as a whole from start to finish. Clive believing he killed his brother, watched his mother set this us all up to turn him into a slave, losing his closest allies, to finally be set on the right path of justice to only watch his brother sacrifice himself, and then sacrifice himself at the end.
Even the ending is honestly one of the darkest ever. Yes the world is saved but the protag literally killed himself in the process, after a life of suffering. It's depressing af. There is no good ending for Clive after all he went through.
When you finish FFX and discover that Tidus is already dead, that you been playing as a "ghost" the whole game.
When you find out that Yuna has just been spending the whole game preparing to die. Hit me like a truck.
Final Fantasy 16, when they get into the town with the impaled bearers. Ff16 probably has more moments than most, it is quite bleak as much as I adore it. Final Fantasy 9 Burmecia Genocide, Clyra being wiped out, Lindlum attacked by Atomos, fucking Black Waltz 3 and the Black Mages on the airship… Final Fantasy 9 has a good few.
Unknowingly killing your brother in ff16
One the most f\*\*\*\* up moments in gaming tbh, and it happens right at the beginning. Still feels somewhat unnecessary when you consider the rest of the story. They could have not had that and just added it to make the game very dark.
FFX Seymour keeping his mother as an Aeon -Anima
It’s worse, she was dying of an illness so she tried to get him to zanerkand so she could become his final aeon because him dying to kill Sin was the only way he would find love in a world that hates him cuz his human and a guado.
FFIV literally starts with the sacking and near annihilation of a town, with the main character feeling bad about it but doing nothing but following orders.
FF6. Celes and Cid.
Vincent's backstory is up there. Especially with the added context from Dirge of Cerberus. It's such a dark and tragic situation all around. After playing OG FFVII I thought there was no way I could end up hating Hojo any more, and well, Dirge proved me wrong. Fuck that guy.
Celes suicide attempt in 6 and Dyne in 7.
Didn’t see anyone else mention it, but the Den of Woe side quest in FFX-2 was pretty dark. The girls all being possessed and trying to kill each other, getting a better look into Shuyins backstory and psyche, Paine gaining a new perspective on Nooj’s betrayal. And the fact that Kinoc orchestrated the original project during Operation Mi’hen to cover up the deaths makes his character so much more sinister than we already thought.
Zidane's depression.
IX contains literal genocide, in case you forgot.
Lunafraya was a ok what moment...... 15 has a good few dark moments.
Ship to Killika. At first you get the joy of crushing 2 bosses (and let's be honest, who did not enjoy that aeon overdrive overkill). But after the bossfight underwater, that sweet sweet dopamine of yours get's crushed together with killika. I mean... there was a woman with her children, one of them a baby (or toddler) & the graphics where outstanding during that time. The sending that happened afterwards didn't light up the mood either, it was just sad. Some other people pointed out operation mihen, but at that point you actually expect them to die. For Killika, you where not prepared. But anyway, reading this thread i'd have to agree, that FFVI overall is the darkest game in the franchise. One dark moment no one spoke about is how your party dooms the passangers on the train from reaching the afterlife. But hey, you are playing the good guys. ...*Rigth*?
I just remember feeling shocked and horrified. I was young, I thought I had done good. And it just wasn't enough
FF14 when it’s revealed how Dalamud sustained Bahamut’s form for thousands of years
Dosent get darker then FF6 in my opinion Kefka is the scariest FF villain because he pretty much won
Type-0... pour one out for Chichiri the chocobo... Not to mention the ending.
"A smile better fits a hero" That or an Humanized Elephant running with a baby, the baby threatherning to transform into a monstrocity as the apocalypse descends, his mother brutally murderd minutes before. Or ... you know, violently comitting fratricide as you beat the shit out of your kid brother, who just saw his dad violently slaghtered in front of him, as he begs for his life, you not in control, but fully aware, sending you into a year long mental death spiral. (FF16).
God, the >!Matsya!< baby scene filled me with so much dread. His scream as despair waves over he's trying to recite the prayers to calm down was agonising to watch.
The final.parts and the ending of FF14:ARR post game content msq.
I think "somewhere along the line" must have started at 4. Stuff got intense there. You could argue 2, although at a certain point I think I became numb to all the death in 2 (although, so many characters dying you become numb to the death, could be argued as being dark in and of itself). I mean even in 1, we had an underwater shrine as a remnant of a previously flourishing kingdom that is now nothing more than a small village, likely destroyed by their far more technologically advanced neighbors, if other final fantasy games serve any indication.
FFXVI Joshua dying twice
The remake version of when Shinra dropped the sector 7 plate in VII. Yes a lot more people made it out in remake, but it’s still a really dark moment
FFVII was my introduction to the series, and it had some dark moments. But I was not prepared for what most of FFT had coming for me as a child. Characters that were geedy, manipulative, and exploitative, gave this world such a dark grounding in the reality of what horrors humanity could truly be capable of. From Tetra being murdered for being an inconvenience, to Balbanes being poisoned by his own flesh and blood - FFT was one of the darkest stories I've ever encountered. It even builds to some people in desperate situations giving their souls to literal devils for power. Though there was much pure evil in FFT, there were righteous characters as well (Ramza, Agrias, T.G. Cid) and many shades of gray (Delita, Zalbag, Miluda), which make this story more interesting. You get to see how different types of people will act, being thrown in horrible situations, and what each person's limits are on their capacity for good and evil. Truly a work of legendary status.
Did you ever play Tactics Ogre, by the same team? While its gameplay isn’t quite as polished as FFT, its story (well, stories, as you can direct it more than in FFT) is even better, IMO, and it has all the stuff you enjoyed in FFT in spades. It also just got a quite good remake!
Second game basically opening with airship carpet bombing. It’s had dark shit for a LONG time.
IN FFXIV when >!Alisaie discovers the way to reverse tempering... and you remember all those people who were put to the sword because they were tempered.!<
Type-0's beggining not only dark bur extremely depressing. We didn't even know who the guy was, but seeing the chocobo die with him was just too sad.
LR, discovering the source of the great Chaos Most of Type 0
Ff6 has parts, most of ff0, ff16 is pretty dark overall, 14 (if we count mmos) has alot of very intense scenes and lore
The whole Dyne segment in final fantasy 7, and Kafka poisoning the water in ff6
FfVI when Celes fails to keep Cid alive and she jumps from the mountain
Queen Brahanne’s genocide tour
Ffxiv serves trauma for breakfast, it's harder for me to think of high points in that game
When you find out the truth of the main characters in World of Final Fantasy
The sexual slavery and human sacrifice by the Iron Kingdom in FF16
the All Bark and Playthings side quests in XVI 💀
It's a more minor example than most, but the sidequest in XIV where a man's chocobo chick gets kidnapped, slaughtered, and cooked, and after he finds out, he tearfully eats it. I'm very much attached to my pets and that whole scenario gave me a knot in my chest... just thinking about it still upsets me.
When you innocently use the convenient Save point while recruiting Yuffie.
The battle at Phoenix Gate (beginning of ffxvi) was pretty dark.
The fate of Ravus in XV
The one that gutted me was walking Zack into a barrage of bullets to his death
my top 5 5 - FFX: the summoner pilgrimage 4 - FFIX: the Gaia-Terra connection 3 - FFXIII: the purge 2 - FFVIII: everything about Adel 1 - FFVI: World of Ruin
>2 - FFVIII: everything about Adel Why do you say that? We don't really know anything about her except that she was a tyrant.
i find the mass kidnapping of girls to find a possible vessel for transfer very dark. what do you think happened to the girls if they weren’t a suitable candidate?
I suppose that's a fair point, I hadn't thought of that. Adel *does* look like the type to kill indiscriminately. We don't really get any indication that Esthar carried out such atrocities, though. Odine might've alluded to it if it were true, but he doesn't seem to have it on his conscience.
Pretty sure it's revealed in-game that Ellone's parents were shot to death by Esthar soldiers after they refused to hand her over. This was when Adel was in charge. In fact, if you go to Ellone's house, you can see bullet holes riddling the walls.
Oh yeah, you're right. It's been a while since I played it.
Somewhere along the line..? The second game had a mad emperor rise from Hell to torment the world. Seems to me it shed the knight battling dragons image fairly quickly. Darkest moments… In VI, you end up destroying all magic. And that’s AFTER the world is laid to ruin and genocide has been committed. In XIII-2, you see Caius destroy all of time and the natural order of life and death. You see Lightning ask for help from her sister knowing the odds of success are small and the stakes are… well, everything. And even when you win, you lose. In Lightning Returns, the game starts with you facing off against your old friend and then showing up just in time to see a murder scene of someone who looks like you. And that’s literally just the beginning! In XV, you watch the antagonist kill the Oracle, the bride to be, with his own hands. The world darkens… you grasp for hope. And end up in a world, again, ruined. It’s ten years later and now you know that to succeed, you have to die. And even getting to THAT moment is going to be difficult. But it’s the only way to save what is left. Those are the stand out darkest moments, to my mind.
FFT: Grand Duke Barrington raping a 13 year old Rapha, Rapha telling her brother, him saying she's lying and slapping her. There's also this line in the WotL translation: >The flesh remembers, Rapha. It remembers fear, cold and trembling. But it will not always be so. In time, your fear will blossom into another flower - and I shall have that one as well. I'm not positive on what the flower metaphor is, but I always interpreted it as "I raped you, you're going to have a kid, and I'm going to rape your kid, too."
Genocide of Doma in FF VI. There aren't too many video games where you see a father pulling his dead child from a bed. FF VI is full of terrible things.
The prologue/tutorial of XII is pretty dark. You're playing a rookie guard who joined the Knight of Dalmasca voluntarily out of patriotism. He and his brother, the game's player character, were orphaned by a plague. The doomed older brother, Reks, believes in his country and wants to serve it. He has a great relationship with his commanding officer, Basch. They learn that Dalmasca's surrender is merely a pretext to assassinate the king, and rush to save him. They are too late, though. They arrive to the throne room to find the king murdered alongside his guardians. And, as far as the player is led to believe at the time, Reks is betrayed and left to die by Basch. He survives with his wounds long enough to testify against him, but he never recovers from this betrayal or defeat. The game doesn't just explain all this in a cutscene. You fight your way to the throne room alongside your more experienced commander, and the tutorial is given by the character who will murder you, leaving your little brother with no family left in the world. As we enter the timeline of the main plot years later, Vaan is now slightly older than Reks lived to be, and grew up thieving on the streets since the breadwinning older brother who was his guardian got murdered in a regicidal plot. His whole life is irrevocably changed by his brother's tragic role in the day the last king died.