Final Fantasy with the strongest "second half".

Something that has come up in discussion a bit for me is the idea of how the Final Fantasy games always start off really strong in the beginning and then kind of peter out somewhere around the halfway point. It seems to me that some people here somewhat agree that even fan favorite entries don't necessarily end as strongly as they begin. So my question for you is which FFs have a strong second half for you. I don't mean just the ending, I'm talking about starting from a midway point all the way to the end.

For examples of where I would place the halfway mark for the games:

FFI: Everything after the defeat of Marilith assuming you didn't sequence break.
FFII: Retaking Fynn
FFIII: Restoring the land below the sky island.
FFIV: Entering the Lower world and meeting the Dwarves.
FFV: Galuf's Death
FFVI: The World of Ruin
FFVII: Sephiroth summons Meteor
FFVIII: Garden Battle and Edea's defeat.
FFIX: Queen Brahne's Death
FFX: Macalania Temple
FFXII: Mt. Burimasce and the Treaty Blade
FFXIII: Chapter 9, or basically when Dysley makes his true nature known.
FFXV: Alitssia and Leviathan

Granted this is simply where I feel the midway point is for their stories and you're free to pick a different one.

FFX really heats up during the first Seymour fight. Beforehand it's basically Wakka ranting about Sin and why Yevon is so great. Basically doing the worldbuliding.

FFV actually. The death is treated with the respectit deserves and has some payoff later, and we're soon thrown into yet another wold where, while tye story is as hands off as in the latter segments of other games, there's still tons of exciting things to do

The World of Ruin workspretty smimilarily. it's really a shame the series could never maintain that late game pace afterwars

Queen Brahne dies?!!!

FF6 has my favorite second half in the series, with its focus on exploration and decentralized story, but I also understand why some people don't like that, as it is a complete departure from the first half of the game. I also love FF3 and 4's second halves, as you hit that moment of, "Oooooooh, my. This . . . may be bigger than I expected" without the game's missing a beat, though that rather seamless transition into the second half is also why I don't like them as much as 6's second half, since it feels like more of the same rather than something new and major happening narratively.

FFVI. It's start with a very powerful moment, and then, we really feel what Celes feels, and we really want to find all the others. I love to explore to find them. Also, special mention to FFIV and FFXV.