Final Fantasy 6 - The Apocalypse (Pixel Remaster)

One reason this is the best one. It actually happens! Plus Uematsu's music makes it twice as terrifying. I kind of can't believe I was playing these kind of games at 9 years old. Well, it hits a little different at 37 for sure...

"But more than anything else, I will never, ever forget the feeling of arriving at a climactic battle on a floating island, preparing to save the world from a magical apocalypse. And failing.

16-bit or not, there has never been a moment in a video game that has thrown me through more of a loop, made me drop my controller in slack-jawed disbelief, and completely question everything I thought I knew about storytelling than the incredible act-two move of FFVI. Our player characters have arrived preparing to stop the evil Emperor Gestahl from unleashing the chaotic magic of a trio of goddess statues upon the world.

Yet just when players might think they’re about the save the day, Kefka moves from comic relief henchman into the game’s primary antagonist, killing Gestahl and seizing the goddesses’ power for himself. Just we players might have thought the end of the game was at hand, a huge cataclysm throws the world into devastating ruin. After escaping the collapsing floating landmass where this confrontation happened, the heroes’ airship is destroyed and the group is scattered."

[owenwexler]

Everybody is gangsta until it gets dark out at 11am and blue spikes start flying around

[controlplusc]

Damn, Shadow saving the party is always badass

[veghesther]

I made sure ALL 12 party members learn EVERY current spell first and are ALL at least lv 30.

[RetroRuss]

This is something I didn't appreciate as a kid, but love now. The bad guy won. The heroes are just trying to save whatever is left.

[malikutara]

The First time i saw this tragedy in FF VI it’s jaw dropping, I just had no expectations that all heroes will fail to save the world, and kefka win the triads, this is so plot twist.

[chrisdonahue]

One of the first video games I remember playing where the villian won!

[zachg]

Pay attention sephiroth this is how you do it

[AlchemicSoul]

Somehow this has never been outdone in the hobby.

This is the most meaningful apocalypse in gaming

[VertigoCat]

“Free my boy he done nothing wrong”
What he did: 1:49

[Djieff]

Interesting changes, we dont see people being crushed anymore

[IidosGamingDen]

FFIX probably has the darkest themes in the series, but FFVI is the bleakest by far in the endgame. Kefka won, he destroyed the world.