Ok, this is kind of what I thought the other thread would be, and what I thought would be interesting to talk and ask about:
Specific moments or experiences in a game that really stand out or are memorable to you.
While it would seem that emergent games and the situations they create would be the ripe for these sort of stories, most of mine appear to be scripted.
For a relatively recent example, stepping out of the vault into the open world for the first time in Fallout 3. Almost all just achieved through graphical trickery, but it sure did wow you.

Another example is (spoilers in this paragraph for Deus Ex: HR) deciding to and having to go through with saving Malek. Now, I get that this was supposed to be a callback to the original Deus Ex, but for me, that was always incredibly buggy and finicky, so I actually experienced it first in HR.

An example from my childhood, but even with the constant trial and error, the final battle in KQ5 felt really cool and epic and satisfying to me.

And finally, with this being 100% nostalgia based, but every time I see the island by night, and that music begins in most Monkey islands, I get tingles.

So... share some of yours?

Here's an unscripted one of mine.

Dragon Warrior 2 (NES), battle against a Blizzard.

Thing is, in this game, there is a spell called Defeat. When cast by the player, it attempts to instantly kill a group of enemies; if an enemy casts it, it attempts to instantly kill the entire party (and I believe I have seen it actually work on everyone; do you think that's fair?).

Anyway, I had discovered that Defeat actually works well against this particular enemy, so I had the Prince of Cannock (PoC for short) cast Defeat. Unfortunately, before he got a chance to act, the eneny cast Defeat and killed the PoC (who, it's worth noting, is the only party member who can cast Revive in the NES version).

So, I remembered that the Chance spell, which the Princess of Moonbroke (PoM for short) can cast, can occasionally have an effect similar to Defeat, but targeting all enemies. (The effect of Chance is random, of course; it's a fun spell to use, but not particularly practical.) Anyway, I decided to have her cast the spell, and what happened is something I did not expect; it *revived* the PoC with full HP. (It's worth noting: In the NES version, the player's Revive spell is only usable outside of battle and only restores 1 HP; there's one enemy that can cast it during battle to revive other enemies with full HP.) That Chance effect is an effect that I had never seen (in this game) before or since.

I have more memorable RPG experiences (related to combat) to tell.

when i was playing conquer online in arena i liked to chain multiple fast blades in case 1 doesn't finish the job. or kill the opponent before the timer for start battle runs out - it's about 2 seconds while you're allowed to attack before you get the message on the screen that the fight started. in last days when i played CO there was a pure water tao with a powerful shield which only the pure water class can have. i chained 3 hits and he didn't even have time to attack me he just quit the match and let me win ok? i must go back to conquer i miss that game.. :-/

More Chance shenanigans:

This time, the game is Dragon Quest 5 (SFC version):

In this version of Dragon Quest 5, the paralysis status does not wear off on its own. If the entire party is paralyzed, it's game over; however, paralyzed characters do get experience if you manage to win the battle.

One encounter was with an Evil Eye (wagon not present). The Evil Eye cast Chance, and the spell paralyzed all battle participants; game over (do you think that's fair?).

Another encounter was with a Metal King Slime (wagon present). For anyone not familiar with the Dragon Quest series, metal slimes (including their stronger cousins) have some rather interesting characteristics:
* Physical attacks do either 0 or 1 damage, unless you score a critical hit (which ignores defense). In some DQ games, there might be a weapon or skill that does *2* damage.
* Magic does not work against them. (There might occasionally be an exception, most commonly spells that kill enemies without giving you the experience, and of course the Chance spell.)
* Metal slimes have low HP. I believe even this Metal King Slime has single digit HP.
* Metal slimes love to run away (and you get no experience if this happens). (In Dragon Quest 6, there is one place where you can talk to a metal slime outside of combat, but if you try, it *will* run away, even outside of combat.)
* If you manage to kill one, you earn a lot of experience; over 30,000 (per character) from a Metal King Slime.

Anyway, that Metal King Slime cast Chance, and it again paralyzed all battle participants. However, this time I had the wagon with me, so the characters in the wagon jumped out, allowing me to continue to fight. So, I am now fighting a paralyzed Metal King Slime with non-paralyzed party members; since a paralyzed enemy can't act, it can't run away, giving me an easy 30,000 experience.

So, same spell, same effect, two very different outcomes.

(Why they gave that spell to an enemy, I don't know; however, Dragon Quest 7 also does that, but not until the second bonus dungeon.)