I had no idea there was a bonfire in Sen's Fortress until my friend pointed it out for me

the most effective and heart wrenching death scene in the history of videogames broke my spirit

Dark Souls has one that is much, much worse

if you love how dark the game can be in terms of lighting, you can make night fall over Anor Londo

Sif's death, particularly if you fight him post-DLC? Because yeah, that is so goddamn heartbreaking.

The benefit of hindsight shows that death in the Final Fantasy series is nothing new. Noobs love to go on about Aeris's death and I get it is (like most things involving FFVII) kind of the cool thing to hate on, but it at least had some impact because you're not even halfway through the game when it happens, she's likely still got a ton of potential leveling to go, and she's billed as not only the love interest, but also the lynchpin in the entire plan to stop the big evil bad guy. So say what you will about it being played out or whatever because of how well known it is, it's pretty effective when you take in everything that built up to that moment plus the suddenness of it.

Since I haven't finished the first three, I can say that death was also a factor in IV, with Tellah biting the dust. When Golbez effectively kills him, the characters all made a huge deal about it and pretty much gave him an impromptu funeral on the spot. The problem is that it did nothing for me because everybody died in FFIV, and he's the only one who stayed dead. Death was an inconvenience in that universe, and a bad plot device to make up for the fact that there was no system for party management in the game. Tellah dies and stays dead, Cid sacrifices himself in an airship crash and shows up later recovering in a hospital bed, Edward gets killed somehow but also shows up in a hospital bed later, Palom and Porom were petrified during an escape scene but also end up surviving by the end, Kain is presumed dead near the beginning but (surprise) shows up okay later when controlled by Golbez, Yang "kills" himself for literally no goddamn reason at all and OF COURSE shows up later just fucking fine. Tellah's death meant shit because everybody fucking died in FFIV.

VI... well, Leo died but nobody gave a fuck about him. He was the villain until five minutes before his death and we never even really got to see him all that much beforehand. I felt absolutely no inclination to grieve or avenge him.

But in between all these meaningless or hacked out deaths, we have FFV. As Morri noted, V has probably the best combat system in the series, and that's a claim I will not dispute at all. The job system was incredible because it allowed for an amazingly diverse potential for playstyles and battle strategy, and instead of giving us a wide, colorful cast of characters like the games surrounding it, it gave us four defined personalities and let them grow as the story carried on, while still keeping the potential combat scenarios open and varied. Because of this, despite whether or not you were able to personally connect with the characters or not, there's no denying that there are no throwaway joke characters like Edward or Umaro or Cait Sith or Quan or even "why the fuck are you even in the party" people like Amarant or Vaan or Penelo. These four people were the four people, and you stuck with them from the beginning to the end. And with that, Galuf (and FFV in general) was a really lighthearted character. He was far older than the other three but was clearly enjoying himself on his adventure, and never came across as a cocky asshole or self important douche or whiny, brooding doofus. He was a fun, irreverent guy who laughed a lot and enjoyed his journey with his newfound friends. When you get to his realm, he completely brushes off the fact that he's a king and just remains "one of the guys" and does everything he can to have fun while saving the world. You can even see his relationship with his granddaughter, Krile, where he's a very positive old man she looks up to and he loves her more than anything. They look out for each other. He's one of the most likeable people in the entire Final Fantasy universe.

And then comes the fight with the four Crystals inside that tree (the exact name escapes me right now), which I recall being a boss battle like any other, if a little more difficult than usual if unprepared (fuck the Earth Crystal). You finish it, dust yourself off and prepare to continue your journey, and fucking Exdeath just shows up right there and wrecks everybody's shit. Krile shows up and tries to help, which Exdeath responds by circling her in a ring of fire. This pisses off the wounded Galuf, a normally very irreverent personality, so much that he hauls his bleeding ass up and tries to fight Exdeath. Exdeath just unloads on him, hacking him up and casting obscenely overpowered spells on the old man, but he just keeps trudging forward, one foot in front of the other, and taking impossibly weak shots at the supremely powerful dark knight. Their dialog was really good too from what I remember:

"All the hatred in the world could not defeat me!"

"This... isn't anger... this isn't hatred"

He keeps pushing forwards before Exdeath gives up and runs away, leaving the lifeloving old man with a young spirit that we've been traveling with for the entire duration of the game in a bloody heap. The rest of the party finally manages to their feet and over to Galuf's side, where he lay in the throes of death, all while his sobbing granddaughter desperately tries to heal him. "No! Grandpa! CURE! You can't leave me... PHOENIX DOWN!"

And then that's it, he's toast. Granted, Krile immediately joins your party with all of Galuf's equipment, skills, and experience so it's not like you lose anything from a gameplay perspective, but from the viewpoint of the narrative, it just depleted me. I know I'm supposed to be all "Well FUCK Exdeath! I need to avenge Galuf, dammit", but instead I was like "Well... shit. I don't think I have the will to do this anymore..."

Post-dlc is definitely worse, but even pre-dlc is pretty sad. Just the way he limps during the fight. I usually wait until I'm o.p. to fight him, stand under his belly, and swing until he dies. Takes very little time, and it's fast enough, and the position occluded enough, that I don't have to see him limp. But Jesus-fucking-Christ I wish there was a way to avoid that fight. Waiting to see what they torment us with in Dark Souls II

Incidentally, the Artorias fight is my favorite in the entire game. There's some of Artorias' deleted dialogue people found buried in the game's files, which is also sad and kind of scary. Ornstein & Smough is a close second.