While I still REALLY don't like the ending of this game (and frankly have problems with most of the third act, largely stemming from Ultima being boring at best and outright lame at worst, resulting in the side quests carrying the shit out of the third act) I can't deny the closing moments of the actual Ultima boss fight are up there for one of the hypest moments in FF.
Still The Rising Tide REALLY needs to either give us an alternate ending or at least confirm Clive's survival 'cause him dying adds nothing to the ending and just seemed to be done for the sake of people who would otherwise complain the ending was too cheesy or optimistic.
Fully agree on that. Not to mention "hey turns out I can't do the one thing the entire plot revolves around me being able to do" was a diabolus ex machina to make the plot end bittersweet.