The Sword of Light is back, and better than ever.
Warning: Spoilers Off applies to this page. Proceed at your own risk.
- In the beginning of Act 2, the Luminary, Hendrik and a small army of volunteers band together to protect the Last Bastion (formerly Cobblestone) from a horde of undead. The climax of said battle concluding with the sound defeat of the enemy commander by only the Luminary and Hendrik, sending the undead horde fleeing for the hills. Proof that hope does not die so easily.
- During Act 2, the Luminary must revisit the night of the fall of Dundrasil and is able to help fight against the monsters that invade, including assisting his father during his You Shall Not Pass! moment. It comes to a head when he's able to save his father's soul and end years of torment. Doing this also restores and expands his powers.
- In the new timeline, he can do it again, inheriting his father's armor as a reward.
- Sylvando and Veronica get an early one in Gondolia, when the Luminary and Erik are attacked by Jasper and his knights; Sylvando shouts at the them with Veronica at his side, followed by her shooting a swarm of fireballs at the knights and messing them up.
- Jade gets a big one at the Dundrasil Ruins, before she even joins the party. Hendrik and his knights once again catch up to the Luminary while he's alone with Jade, but the Luminary barely had to raise his sword; Jade is such a badass that she single-handedly beats the tar out of all of them at every single turn, over and over again. And then, after the Luminary falls off a dang cliff, Jade jumps after him, grabs him and hold him close, and takes him to safety. That's right, this girl literally fought off your attackers, survived a deadly fall off a cliff, and saved you from certain death, all before joining your party. Jade is the baddest bitch. Made even better should you choose to marry her, whereupon climbing the Tor with her reveals that Jade is acrophobic. She took a diving leap off an immensely high cliff despite her fear all to protect the one she'd once lost. Incidentally, this is all well after her introduction, which was made by soundly handing Erik his ass in the Colosseum.
- And THEN, she has yet another one immediately after the pair recover in the log cabin! The two are ambushed by Hendrik again on their way back to the rest of the party, and Jade fights alone and on foot, while Hendrik is on a horse.. It comes to a climax when she pulls a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to catch him off-guard, only to knock him off his horse and jump on its back herself, taking the Luminary with him, and the two head off. And then she and Rab join the party!
- It gets even better in retrospect when you find out later in the game that Obsidian only trusts Hendrik to ride him. It may have been due to events happening quickly, but the fact remains Jade was able to mount and ride away on Hendrik's faithful steed at all.
- Erik obtaining the forgiveness he'd been seeking by fighting to save his sister from her cursed necklace that caused everything she touched to turn to gold. Mia herself gets a moment when she destroys the necklace after declaring, "I don't need gold!"
- Serena's Big Damn Hero moment when she saves the party from the Auroral Serpent in Act 2. A perfect example of Beware the Nice Ones in action as well as turning her and Veronica's Declaration of Protection from when they first joined into a Badass Boast.Serena: Beast begone! Thou black offense! May Heaven's winds propel thee hence!Serena: Bold Luminary, Yggradsil's chosen, long have I waited to greet you. We of Arboria swear to protect you. While we live, none shall defeat you.
- Another one for Serena right before fighting Jasper for the last time. The moment the illusion of Veronica starts telling the party to die to make things fair, Serena doesn't even bother with denials and just gets to work dispelling the illusion. She knows her sister too well for that.Serena: Flee, foul phantom, dark intrusion! Light, dispel this black illusion! Veronica would never have said such awful things! Go on, be off with you.Serena: She didn't regret a thing, I know she didn't! She died with hope in her heart — hope that we would bring back the light!
- Alizaran getting his just desserts when you defeat him.
- The Luminary traveling back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, starting off by using the Sword of Shadows to dispel Jasper's barrier of darkness and change the timeline by not allowing Mordegon to get his hands on the Sword of Light, sparing Veronica her Heroic Sacrifice.
- The Heroic Sacrifice was the crowning moment for Veronica in the first place. The rest of the party, Hendrik and King Carnelian included, had been killed, and Yggdrasil was blowing up around them, while Veronica herself had been gravely injured by a falling branch. Despite her injuries, in the mother of all Chekhov's Spells, Veronica casts Zing Stick even though she can't learn it until Act 3 on eight characters at the same time to bring them all back to life...And then uses Zoom, the spell she taught the Luminary when she first joined his party all the way back near the beginning of the game, to get them all to safety. There's even a small smile on her face when she mouths 'Goodbye.'
- In the new timeline, Mordegon is defeated but Calasmos has returned. King Carnelian tasks the Luminary to leave Heliodor and investigate. Once he steps outside, he mounts his horse and rides forth as the world map theme changes to "Adventure
," determined to let nothing threaten Erdrea any more.- And that's when you realize that this is a prequel to the original trilogy. All the little things in Act 1 and Act 2 - building the Sword of Light, the Japanese-inspired town that speaks in haiku, the fact the town's leader was a Priestess - finally click in the player's head as they hear a glorious remix of the map theme from Dragon Quest III. And in combating Calasmos, you are becoming the original Erdrick.
- For that matter, Calasmos' masterful return in and of itself. In the first sequence of events, Mordegon completely avoided the Villain Ball by anticipating for Calasmos to make a grab for his body with Yggdrasil fallen and the Luminary (seemingly) dead, waiting until just before Calasmos was about to reclaim his former glory to swoop in and bisect the so-called "Erdwin's Lantern" with the one weapon (now corrupted, but still in fine form) that could destroy him. Calasmos returned fire by planning two steps further by occupying the Luminary's shadow to hitch a ride with him to the past, knowing the Luminary would avert Jasper's ambush, to keep the still-hiding Mordegon from pulling a fast one and exposing him to the heroes well-unprepared. Because the Luminary never prioritized wondering why "Erdwin's Lantern" fell and why Mordegon was in such a hurry to get rid of it, all the Darkling Calasmos had to do was waddle on out to the desert and call his body down while the party was prematurely celebrating their victory.I N A N O T H E R T I M E A N D P L A C E M O R D E G O N D E S T R O Y E D M E.B U T M O R D E G O N I S N O M O R E.
- Any time you avert a tragedy that happened in the old timeline is this combined with heartwarming. Breaking the curse put on Ryu so you don't have to kill him (as well as keeping Miko from being eaten by him, thus saving them both at once). Being able to revive Mia yourself so she doesn't become one of the Spectral Sentinels. Finding out that Michelle is ok instead of turning to foam. As well as several others you keep from happening. The fact that Yggdrasil's theme plays during the former two moments make them even better.
- The Side Stories of the Definitive Edition certainly count too.
- Sylvando's story of how he formed his merry band of parade-goers is awesome and heartwarming at the same time, and lo and behold, his entire crew can hold their own with Mordegon's enhanced monsters. In gameplay, that means five immortal party members that provide powerful assists.
- Jade's defeat of Booga's Girly Bruisers. Fierce fight, but awesome. She also teams up with some of the other Octagonia fighters to take down his girlfriend after a good Rousing Speech.
- Erik gains an insane, temporary buff and goes against the Spectral Sentinal Indignus, one on one, and wins. Indignus wins in the cutscene when the powerup runs out, but still awesome to two-shot or even One-Hit Kill one of the later bosses in the game.
