I forgot to talk about the awesome final dungeon in SO4.

Mirage even conceded he liked Brilliant Rose and in addition to this awesome piece of music, the Palace of Creation is beautiful and interesting. It's a very different design for a final dungeon, with the fast synth music and bright colors. Nox Obscuros, with its subdued music and its black, dead appearance is much more what you'd expect of the evil villain's lair. Coming off that, the Palace seems even grander and more lively. The "time is stopped" parts and the little planetoids you travel across in particular stick out in my memory. That and how confusing it is to navigate the place.

But the Palace of Creation is an infinitely better final dungeon than Orphan's Cradle. I've never seen a duller final dungeon than XIII's.