Kept sitting on this draft but was struggling with XII onward. I'll give what I've got 'til then:
FFIII
see:
@YangusKhan. We were rather delinquent for how sober we were. Thank you for indulging me.
I've got a non-specific answer. When the FF3 DS remake came out, it was my Freshman year in college. I had found 2 friends (1 of them is @demi!) I was becoming really close with and we bonded over video games. One time we had a ridiculous set up happening where 2 of us brought CRT TVs to a room and we all 3 hung out and played RPGs. I was playing FF3 on my DS, and we just kept playing so long that it went into the next day/morning and we had to leave because the cleaning crew had started to show up and we didn't want to get in trouble. This same group of friends also came up with lyrics to the regular Battle Theme in FF3 and so we sang that quite a lot together.
FFIV
In the opening of FF4 when Cecil is ruminating over his actions and Rosa questions the integrity of responses "Then, why won't you look at me?", that struck me since when I was young. Their love is made very clear from the outset - there is no angst or will-they-won't-they or anything like that in the premise; and, their intimacy is very clear without delving into, like, raw details over their relationship. It's never a question that love is worth fighting for, though Kain struggles to find the answer within himself whether it's worth fighting
over. Extremely good game.
Also, FFIV was always Yangus's favorite, it was one of the first things I knew about him when we met & continue to bond over our interests. So, decades later, watching him demonstrate his passion and knowledge of the game in each of his live or practice
Free Enterprise runs has been wonderful.
Of the three on the SNES, FFIV is ultimately the one I've played the least, but as I am writing all this out I think it's the one I have the most to say anything about.
FFV
What was that thing in the cave that was rly hard, the Gil Eater? One of my first times clearing the game that fight was a tremendous challenge to try and tackle asap. IIRC Lennah did a lot of work as Ninja... and I love her sprite, too. Also- the Pyramid was an exciting and dangerous dungeon with loads of treasure to boot. FFV sure has some great adventuring in it.
FFVI
The scene where Celes dupes Setzer into losing his bet with
The Coin... I love the way it came back around, the way that both in the past and the present it is used to trick fate into the direction the heroes want it to go. It's the kind of scene that could've found its way into FFIX with it's wry wit and the overall feel of the resolution as Setzer concedes he's played the fool.
The fight and music with Atma weapon on the floating continent, losing precious seconds and hitpoints to devastating Flares. My heartbeat waiting for Shadow at the very end.
FFVII
The other college friend mentioned by Yangus is somebody I've known since I was ten, we bonded over
Secret of Mana/Evermore and
Chrono Trigger deeply... but I didn't have a Playstation, and his was always at his Mom's place - all our sleepovers were at his Dad's or my place. Anyway, we borrowed the name "Narnia" for our collective imagination world where he would always roleplay all the various character parts from the cast of any of the games we loved, while I was just kind of "me" getting to interact with everybody. For the longest time, I had no conception of who Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, or Sephiroth were beyond how he would portray them in our endless roleplay out in the elements behind his house, or into "the witching hour" in the basement of my house. The characters, their personalities, and their plights were deeply engraved in me long before I ever had the chance to play the game myself, and even before he brought his BraveKnights figures to the waterpark where we gleefully swapped their heads onto each other's bodies before diving back into the water fort to re-enact "The Bombing Run" mission.
When I finally could play it for myself, I would later learn that Emerald weapon was indeed as terrifying as he made it out to be during our adventures. And looking back on it now, he had a really sophisticated understanding of Cloud's identity crisis for twelve years old. He always "got" things.
Final Fantasy Tactics
I remember Southerland, my trusty Chemist who was with my roster the entire game. I remember some late encounter at Grog Hill, the rain, and the struggle. I
don't remember saving my game before realizing his spirit and turned to a crystal in the skirmish. I'm so sorry, Southerland.
FFVIII
Didn't play this one 'til Spring Break as like a sophomore in HS my little circle of degenerate friends had a collaborative FanFic file that we would take turns appending too while somebody else was playing this game - two of us had files going that we were playing through side by side. Anyway, it was mostly just us mashing together parodied versions of the various characters from Final Fantasy, Capcom fighters, and other things - it was asinine, but I can't untangle it from my memory of that game. Mostly, I just think it was really funny that we all came together to make something so ridiculous together, just to make each other laugh and inspire them to add in more of whatever we were riffing on at the time. FFVIII's Cid was pretty popular in these.
FFIX
Like the whole first disc is one of the best times, and as good as it feels to escape Midgar for the first time in FFVII, for me it's easily rivaled by the fresh air that is escaping Evil Forest and getting hit by "Crossing Those Hills". The sound design in this game is just so warm all the way through, sweet melodies and comforting basslines as a bed for the menu bleeps and Moogle Flutes...
Also a big fan of "misplaced love letter" scenes in Disc... 3? That whole series of events is so funny.
Esto Gaza... (see: OST)
FFX
I was in love with the game the first time I set foot on Besaid Island - one of my fave places in the game and music tracks across the series.
That desolate environment where TIdus washes up when he first is thrown into Spira left a big impression too, the dream waking up to a harsh, cold reality. And being accosted by that monster dwelling in the ocean ruins is a kind of light foreshadowing for future encounters.
Also, they sure had a heck of a vision for the last stretch of the pilgrimage, on the road to Zanarkand; with the camera pulled way back and a side view, it makes the party feel so small as they traverse and endless, winding road to confront an unknown truth.
FFX-2
I think the LeBlanc massage scene is the fastest I ever leapt out of my seat to kill the volume when I was a teenager.
FFXI
Young, lost, and totally enamored, I was led around the world by a slightly-older girl who had a deep passion for the game. I think I first met her near the Lighthouse in South Gustaberg, where she cured me up and threw a Protect on me. She protected me as we crossed the dunes, got me to the Tele-crag crystals, and shared her lyrics she had written for the song that plays on the boat as we crossed over to Mindartia. We had a small circle of friends and there was some who-likes-who stuff going on that I was aside from. We all mostly fell out of touch after a few years, but I miss them and hope they're well!
The Blue Mage job quest, start to end. It's so dramatically focused on a destiny that is seizing you as much as you are seizing it.
The agony of failing the level 20 Avatar quests after using the last of my gil on the recovery items needed to conquer the fights - how good it felt to finally summon my own Garuda though.
That's all for now!
