Favorite RPG Moment?

[Tukadian]

Just as the title says, I'm curious about what everyone's favorite moments in an RPG have been and why? I'm designing a game of my own at the moment and would like to learn from the best of what the industry already has to offer, but don't really have enough time to play every good rpg ever created...
I personally have a few that stick out in my mind;
Super Mario RPG - when I got into the secret door in Monster town and fought Culex. It felt really epic, a fairly hard fight and I felt like I'd accomplished something when I'd beaten him.
Final Fantasy 2 - Right at the very beginning when you have to take the package to the village and something unexpected happens when you get there. The shock value of it really pulled me in and got me invested in the story.
Dragon Warrior 1 - Having to use the flute to put the guardian golem to sleep. This was one of the first games I'd ever played where there was a situation you had to bypass by thinking, even just a little bit, rather than just hitting the guardian until he collapsed.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - The final boss fight, especially after the change. I didn't find it particularly challenging, but after so many awesome dungeons (The water temple especially), and such a long build-up, it felt incredibly satisfying to take him down, especially after he changes.

So what are your favorite moments, and what made them stick out and stay with you for so long?
Edit: Can't believe I forgot Chrono Trigger. So much about that game sucked me in and kept that it's too hard to focus on just one aspect. One thing that really stood out to me though was the Music, masterfully crafted and really sticks with me.

 

[Swaki]

Fallout 1, when you go and talk to the master, that shocked me, and when we started talking about "his" political views i was even more shocked by how much i agreed with him, but i had my mission, i had to save the people, and then when i got back the ending shocked me even more (careful not to spoil anything).

and then in fallout 2, there where tons of awesome plot twists but those that stick out the most are, learning what jet really is, that had me laughing for minutes, meeting the free and smart deathclaws, finding the president of the NCR (and who she is), learning the enclaves plot, meeting the friendly super mutants, how weak the BoS where (i continued to be surprised every time they appeared in another fallout game) and that i could marry a man in the game, the last one took me a long ass time to find, it took 11 years before another game would allow you to do that.

Edit; i barely had time to hit post before i remembered a dozen more.

In Dragon Age, pretty much every thing in the dwarven city, and that sequence where you are fighting a demon inside your own head.

In planescape torment, its been so long since i played that game so i cant remember the exact details, but the part where you meet the old lady and learn about your past selfs.

In any zelda game (i dont really know if they count) when you get a item, i know its clichéd but dammit it makes me feel good.

In WoW when i got my first Priest specific quest, that was the only point in the 2 years i played that game where i got sucked in to the story, i finally felt like i was a important character in a epic war and world filled with history and traditions, and not just another player in a game, it was a fleeing moment but it was awesome.

and i can mention many more, but this is already a wall of text, most rpgs i have played, that i can remember, had a fantastic moment that still shines in my memory to this day.

 

[lionsprey]

Finding out what the cure was in Fallout 3 the pit addon.
and Finding out where Darth revan (i think thats his name) was hiding in kotor

 

[CrankyStorming]

I speak for bereaved archaeologists everywhere when I say that my favourite RPG moment was at Coffinwell in DQ9:

Spoiler

I had to take Dr Phlegming to speak to the villagers after his wife succumbed to the curse that you defeated in the last dungeon, convincing him that they were grateful for the work he had done. The whole sequence really stood out for me, whether it was the sheer shock of it all, his wife's mannerisms and the general way she acted around him, I dunno.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Exploring Oblivion for the first time, unfortunately I can't wipe my memory and do that again.

 

[Steve B]

I'd say a few of the cutscenes from The Last Remnant. They were like woah.

But specifically, at the halfway point of the game, there is a 5 minute cinematic of the main villain marching into your home city, and fighting one of the main characters one-on-one. Obviously part of what made the impact was my connection to the characters, but hey. It is the best RPG cutscene I've ever seen. Maybe. It's pretty damn great. And not just for the choreography,

Spoiler

It ends with the theft of a major plot changing item, and the death of the character.

RPG cutscenes are usually filled with talking or beautiful scenery, so it was really awesome to see a lengthy one filled solely with action.

Unfortunately, the game is kind of plagued with frame rate issues if you don't download it to your hard drive, so no one ever really saw the cinematic....

Spoiler

Oops, there it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx9t1sq6y0U&feature=related

 

[MrShowerHead]

First that came into my mind was my awesome fight in Mount&Blade.

I was part of small scout party (about 200 soldiers) when a massive Nord army attacked us. There were 800-900 of them. We fought and we won. They lost almost all of those soldiers. How much did we lost? 15 soldiers.

Very epic fight

 

[NotAPie]

The dark brotherhood quest "Whodunit?"
If you don't know what it is, pretty much you get locked in a house with I think 5 or 6 other people, you have to kill them silently without any of the other guests suspecting a thing.
Pick them off one by one pretty much, as crazy as this may sound it was so much fun.

 

[Brown_Coat117]

Dragon Age Orgins where you confront Logain and you finally see that he's not the pure evil man you thought the whole game that he was. It doesn't change the fact that he has done bad things and needs to be stopped, but the fact that Bioware could alter around 30 hours of how you viewed a character in a brief few minutes is amazing.

Also in KTOR when you findout (spoiler) that you are Darth Revan. The best reveal in video game history.

 

[Steve B]

A really great way to engage a player in any game, but in RPGs specifically, is to twist a gameplay mechanic temporarily.

What I mean by that is, you know how RPGs work. The fighting systems, the plot dynamics, random battles, and world traveling. And with RPGs in the 40+ hour ranges, players can get pretty comfortable in the ways of a certain game.

That is when you screw with their comfort a little bit. And I don't mean that in a scary mindfuck sort of way. Here's an example:

In Final Fantasy 9, there is a castle later on in the game that reverses the strength of your weapons. So, the bad-ass sword you spent 10 bazillion Gil on now has the power of a dandelion, and that dinky little dagger you started the game with is now Sephiroth's Masamune.

This kind of subversive design, when placed unexpectedly into a normal situation, really blows people's minds. This is also why the airship was so crazy in the original FF games. Because suddenly YOU CAN FLY.

 

[Lordmarkus]

Discussing philosify with ZAX in Fallout 1 while my radcounter ticks away.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

 

[BENZOOKA]

When in Dragon Age: Origins, I have an idea how to win the before-excruciatingly-difficult battle and the idea works seamlessly.

 

[soren7550]

Too many to list from Mass Effect 1 & 2, but I'll stick some from Fable 3 here:

Spoiler

-The first twenty minutes or so when you see just how tyrannical Logan is really stuck with me (as well as how awesome & nice Jasper, Elliot and Sir Walter are), as did having to choose between Elliot and the protester leaders. I haven't done so myself, but I've seen what happens if you choose to let Elliot die, and it's just heart wrenching.

- The entirety of the Dark Sanctum quest is really gripping as well as haunting. It's really creepy (esp. with headphones on) to hear the Creeper and his 'offspring' moving about and talking to you. When you enter the City of Aurora for the first time and leave for Albion is really good as well.

- The death of Sir Walter. It was so heart wrenching, depressing, and sad that I nearly started bawling when he died. His death made me despise the Crawler even more than I already did.

 

[Steve B]

[HEADING=3]OH MY GOD LEGEND OF DRAGOON[/HEADING]

Guys. Holy crap. Spoilers of the end of the first disc.

Lavitz. He is the second character you meet in the game, and he is the best person you will ever know ever. Him and the main character (Dart) instantly hit it off and are all buddy-buddy with each other. The game then spends the entirety of disc one making you as a player fall in love with how great this dude is. He makes jokes, he helps you save your girl... He is the epitome of likable character. At one point you go have dinner at his house, and meet his mother. His mother! And she's delightful.

He is the most calm and collected dude. Ever.

But then, at the climax of the first disc, the situation causes him to snap, and he lunges at the bad guy... And he gets stabbed clean through his abdomen right in front of you, and bleeds out...

Spoiler

I cried.

To compare to a few games you are more likely to have played, Bioware likes to do this sort of thing a lot. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and KOTOR... I think? They establish a mentor sort of character, someone for you to feel safe with, and then kill them off an hour into the game.

The difference is, in Legend of Dragoon, it took 15 hours, and you already wanted to marry the guy.


Oh and sorry for leaving so many posts, I'm just writing these as I think of them.

 

[ikey]

Picked up Fallout 3, my very first rpg. started the game, walked out of the vault, found grandma sparkle (or whatever her name was), found out that she had a lot of stuff I wanted but didn't want to pay for, and so promptly shot her head off. That just paved the road for future rpgs for me.

 

[Gamblerjoe]

"Surely you've heard of me. I am Craven Morhed, the famous spelunker!"

 

[blankedboy]

The dark brotherhood quest "Whodunit?"
If you don't know what it is, pretty much you get locked in a house with I think 5 or 6 other people, you have to kill them silently without any of the other guests suspecting a thing.
Pick them off one by one pretty much, as crazy as this may sound it was so much fun.

Agreed. That was the best quest EVER.

Hell, it even outdid the vast majority of Morrowind's quests... and that's bloody hard to do xD

 

[SAccharing10]

I managed to shoot down a chopper gunner at ultra long range with my RPG, that shit was impressive I'll tell you that much.

 

[Flour]

The first time I broke 100 million damage in Disgaea 3. I've already hit 250 million damage, but the first time I hit 100 million is special because of the effort involved.