Every Final Fantasy story is set in a different world. This of course means, every compilation features different locations and environments. The environments in every Final Fantasy are thus different from each other, as they reflect the themes and ideas of the story, as well as the emotions involved in the story at the time you encounter them in a game for the first time. Of course this is helped with the oh-so-magic use of music.

But hey, we remember some locations better than others. Some locations were embeded more deeply into our memories. This is a obviously due to the variety of the themes and emotions that are pumped out of each different envirnoment, and some loactions manage to do this better than other locations.

Continuing with our Top 5 Season (See Bosses, Evil Antagonist’s, Attractive Females, Distinguished Heroes, Damned Martyrs, Destructive Weapons) We’ve compiled our top 5 iconic Final Fantasy locations which can be found below. Do you agree with our choices? If not what would you change in the list? (Please note this article contains Spoilers)

5. Esthar City (Final Fantasy VIII)
• Esthar City is a location in Final Fantasy VIII. The capital city of the reclusive nation Esthar, Esthar City spans almost the entirety of the Great Plains of Esthar. It is hidden behind the OCS Barrier, an invention that cloaks Esthar from view of the outside world.
  For a long time, Esthar was governed by the cruel Sorceress Adel. With the help of Dr. Odine, she sought a child to whom she could give her powers to. She finally set her sights on Ellone. However, Laguna saw his chance here, and used Ellone as bait to seal Adel’s powers, and launch her into space. After this, Laguna was hailed as the hero of the Esthar revolution, and was elected president, with his two friends Kiros and Ward working together with him. With this, the Sorceress War was abruptly ended, and for the next seventeen years, Esthar kept it’s silence.
  By the time of Final Fantasy VIII, Squall arrives here, carrying the unconscious Rinoa on his back. Seeing only the Salt Flats, and no city, they were beginning to think the reclusive Esthar did not exist anymore. However, they discovered that most of the continent was hidden by a cloaking device to protect the city against invasion from their old enemies. They enter the city, and meet with Dr. Odine. He advises them to go out into space, and Esthar’s Lunar Base, to talk to Ellone about going back into time to find out the fate of Rinoa. Squall splits his group into two; his group will go into space, while Zell’s group protects the Sorceress Edea.
  Later on, Seifer and the Galbadian Army have raised the Lunatic Pandora from beneath the ocean, and are steering it over Esthar towards Tears’ Point. Zell devises a plan to board the Lunatic Pandora, and successfully does so, only to be thrown right out. The Lunatic Pandora reaches Tears’ Point and initiates the Lunar Cry.
  Due to Esthar City’s pure wonder and dark history it hits our top 5 respectably.
  Esthar City signifies that problems will still exist in the future, and that hiding them will never make them truly disappear (Abel). Even the most technological advanced nations still have their fears about outside influence hence Esthar’s OCS barrier.

4. Pandaemonium (Final Fantasy II)
• Many centuries ago, a great hole opened in the world, and many monsters spilled out. After them, the palace of Hell, Pandaemonium, rose from it. The people, fearing for their lives, made the ultimate spell, Ultima. Using this spell, they managed to seal the palace back from where it came. However, the monsters still remained, and the mages who cast Ultima, fearing their new power, went away and founded the town of mages, Mysidia, in a secluded area. Here, they sealed the Ultima Tome away, so that no one else could use its power.
  After the party kills the Emperor, his soul goes to Hell. Here, he absorbs the dark powers, and becomes Emperor of Hell. Using his new powers, he is able to raise Pandaemonium to the Earth again, where Palamecia used to stand. It could be theorised that Palamecia was built on the exact spot where Pandaemonium rose all those centuries ago.
  The party travels through the Jade Passage, and arrives in Pandaemoium. Here, they travel to the top and find the Emperor. They manage to defeat him in battle, and with his powers now gone, Pandaemonium once again sinks back into Hell.
  Pandaemonium’s the ultimate nightmare location. What else would you expect from hell? Especially consideing the final boss; Emperor of Hell resides there. It’s mixture of strong surrounding colour makes it stick in the mind as one of the top 5 iconic Final Fantasy locations.

3. Calm Lands (Final Fantasy X / Final Fantasy X-2)
• The Calm Lands are located in the world of Spira from Final Fantasy X and X-2. Historically, the location served as the arena where High Summoners fought Sin, but that was long ago.There isn’t much in the Calm Lands in Final Fantasy X, just a Travel Shop and a Monster Arena, but in Final Fantasy X-2, the whole place is being developed into a theme-park tourist attraction, which changes the personality of the location completely. (And as a result, only the Calm Lands from Final Fantasy X deserve to be in our Top 5 list, considering the emotions involved) On the north, there is the entrance to the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. It lies between Macalania Woods and Mt. Gagazet.

  As the name suggests, the Calm Lands is the absolute place of calmness. But however, as you reach it in Final Fantasy X for the first time, you can also feel the melancholy present in the atmosphere (which is of course made stronger by the slow, soft music playing while you are in the area). In the open area where there seems to be nothing but empty land, a blend of mixed and opposite emotions and mental states (which are obviously how Yuna, Tidus and the rest of the party feel) are passed to us: calmness, freedom, inner peace, resting as well as depression, physical and mental fatigue, the need to bring back good and happy memories while you can and the bitterness of unfulfilled desires. This feeling however is completely spoiled in X-2, so we must make clear that only the Calm Lands from Final Fantasy X are meant to be in this list.
  So, the Calm Lands earn their place in the list as an area filled with a blend of opposite, yet equally very vivid emotions.

  “The Calm Lands. Long ago, the high summoners fought Sin here. The road ends here. Beyond, there’s no towns, no villages. Only endless plains.”
  —Lulu

2. Midgar (Final Fantasy VII)
• Midgar is capital city of the world in Final Fantasy VII (and the prequels and sequels), known as “The Planet”. It was built by the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company and also serves as the home of Shin-Ra’s HQ, the gigantic skyscraper in the middle of the town. It’s built on 8 big platforms, supported by pillarsm where people live both above and below them (one of the platforms is destroyed in VII). The area below the platforms are known as the Slums is of a place of low living standards, as the platforms cover the sky and polution there is very unpleasant. Every sector has one Mako Reactor, used to power up the town. By the end of Final Fantasy VII, Midgar is destroyed, as the Meteor strikes the city after Cloud and his team defeat Sephiroth. As a consiquence, the survivors of Midgar make the city of Edge (As shown in Advent Children), where they continue to live.

  Midgar is a very dark, urban environment, made carefuly to show how Shin-Ra’s power and actions turned the city and the nearby environment into extremely poluted areas. The atmosphere while moving around in the town (especially in the original VII and Crisis Core) feels heavy, filled with misery and desperation. And in the middle: the monsterous Shin-ra HQ tower, a definite symbol of force, domination, corruption and dictatorship. Below the plates lie the Slums, an area where the theme of depression is even stronger, as you can’t even see the sky… you’ ve got nothing to hope for. People in the Slums sometimes out of desperation depend on Shin-Ra to improve their life, but does Shin-Ra do something about it? We can pretty much say that while you are in the Slums, the sky symbolises freedom, change and a new begining. But sometimes, we are afraid of this freedom, this change, this new begining… just like Aerith told Zack in Crisis Core that she is afraid of the sky.
  Midgar earned it’s place in the list as a very moody, atmospheric and widely symbolical environment.

1. Zanarkand / Dream Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X)
• Zanarkand is the fallen city of endless lights, a city that used to be one that “never sleeps”, until Sin has decided to drag it into eternal and definite slumber…
  Dream Zanarkand is an exact copy of the city, created by Yu Yevon, summoned from the memories of Zanarkand’s people, who were turned into Fayth. Tidus and his father, Jecht, are from Dream Zanarkand, meaning that actually, they are not real, they are dreams of the Fayth that summoned Zanarkand. However, when Sin invades the city and annihilates it, Tidus is brought into the actual world, just like his father was when he was “lost” while he was practicing in the sea.
  1000 years after the war with Bevelle, Zanarkand is nothing but ruins…
  Zanarkand used to be a place full of life and then… just a graveyard of memories. From the early presentation of Zanarkand in Final Fantasy X (through Tidus’ last night at Dream Zanarkand) to the later discovery of Zanarkand again by our main character, the story of this city is one of definite rise and fall. If you remember the actual thing song if Final Fantasy X (”To Zanarkand”), you can clearly get the nostalgic, blue feeling of Tidus witnessing how Zanarkand ended, and how his memories of (Dream) Zanarkand must carry on living inside him. However, Zanarkand is also the symbol of defeat, and you can feel it while passing through the ruins… Tidus know’s that he was living a lie… And he know’s that eventuall, he will be gone since his Zanarkand was not real. But at the same time it’s a symbol of hope. The party defeat Yunalesca in Zanarkand’s temple, and their goal towards defeating Sin without contiuing the spiral of death is one step closer.
  To conclude: Zanarkand (and Dream Zanarkand) is in our Top 5 locations because it’s succeeds in symbolizing the fall from the top, from a city of life, into a ruin of death. It also marks a deeply emotional part of the story (considering Tidus’ memories and feelings), and made us all feel numb in our heart when we discovered the ruins.

  “A city dead for a thousand years… A city I had to see with my own eyes.”
  —Tidus