Ranking the Final Fantasy Villains

[Dave 5,715]

Inspired by Team Four Star's countdown of villains, and with the series thirtieth anniversary coming up next year, I thought I would try and make a list of my own, ranking the Final Fantasy villains of the main titles. I really can't emphasize how much these rankings are founded on my own opinions and thoughts, and are not to be taken as universal fact. That being said, I usually keep my decisions based on factors of how interesting the character is, how effective they are as an antagonist, what their relation is to the heroes, and any extra things they give you to think about that give them and their games lasting value (Also, full disclosure: if you can't guess who I have at number one, you have not been paying attention to my avatar for nearly five years). 

 

Also, it's worth pointing out that this is far from a complete list. I haven't played XI or XIV, and though I've tried to do some research and homework on The Shadow Lord and Gauis, I really don't feel like I have a grasp on them, if only because I'm not familiar with how they effect the games as they play out. Not to mention that I've got a feeling that, given the focus on XI and XIV on being about your own characters and their adventure, you would get more out of how they are interacting with the villains based on your own experience and personal adventure, and without having that kind of experience, I don't think I can do them justice. I might do a quick write up on them later (especially as the Shadow Lord does interest me, especially his back story), but for right now, they are going to be sitting on the side lines. So this winds up being a list of thirteen, rather than fifteen. On that note, I have also not played II or XV (respectively, because I can't find a copy, and don't own a PS4), but because the plots are more structured around traditional storytelling, it was easier to watch cut scenes and playthroughs to get a solid grasp on the story and characters.

 

With that out of the way, let's get to the list. And remember, feel free to discuss and disagree as we go on. (also, spoilers abound, so tread with caution).

 

Number XIII: Zemus (Final Fantasy IV)

 

The reveal of a mastermind working behind the curtains, pulling the strings of other characters to make them do their bidding, is something of a staple in RPGs in general, and Final Fantasy seems to love it more than most. The idea of something being in control of a plot so vast, able to manipulate a plethora of strong willed and able bodied cast can serve to make the villain appear more threatening, serving to emphasize their own power or charisma. The problem arises, however, when the man behind the curtain not only lacks any kind of visible or noteworthy strength, personality, or nuances to make the reveal of their role as main antagonist satisfying in any way, but winds up being upstaged by the people he is supposed to be in control of.

 

The biggest sin that Zemus commits is that there’s really not a ton that makes him particularly interesting or memorable, mostly because he only makes an appearance at the very last second. The fact that he is on the moon more or less hinders his ability to make direct confrontation, but while it is his will that is responsible for the death and destruction Cecil and friends fight against, Zemus is so distant from our heroes (both geographically and emotionally) that you never really feel like it’s him that you’re fighting. Keeping Zemus’s involvement in the overall plot a secret for so long in the game does serve to make the twist and reveal more shocking, but at the cost of not being established long enough in the plot to really have him make an impact on the player. Now, the argument to be made for him is, if it’s his will that is causing all of the trouble in the world, from the destruction of Rydia’s village to the death of Tellah, the possession of Kain to the abduction of Rosa, isn’t he still functioning as a good antagonist, given how much he gets involved in Cecil’s personal quest and affects him on an emotional and physical level? The answer is yes, but the other villains on this list can also claim the same effect on the heroes in their story while still making more of an impression.

 

Not only does Zemus’s late coming into the plot hurt his chances of becoming memorable, it doesn’t help his case that he is upstaged by the person you spend most of the game fighting, Golbez. You spend so much time interacting with Golbez, making him the target of your ire and the hurdle you feel you need to overcome, that when it’s revealed that he is not the villain at all, and is in fact not morally responsible for anything that he has done, that it doesn’t feel like a twist so much as it feels like a let down. Golbez is the fight that you want, the one that you’re prepared for emotionally, but you then are treated to a final boss that you have not interacted with on any meaningful level, and who, in spite of being the one technically responsible for your troubles, feels like a watered down climax to the one you were anticipating. Even Rubicante, with his sense of fair play compelling him to heal you before you fight, makes more of a lasting impact with his short screen time than Zemus, whose time spent with Cecil consists of making generic comments about destroying the world and makes no effort to distinguish himself.

 

The motivation of wanting to reclaim a planet for his people, and not having the patience to wait until mankind is capable of being on their level, is interesting and has potential, but the problem is that we are told that this is what Zemus wants, rather than ever getting to see him personally express how he feels about the situation, or reveal his own thoughts and complexities on the topic of committing what is essentially a mass genocide in order to save a different race of people. Unleashing the Giant of Babil is an iconic part of the series, but there other villains who have done the same level of destruction while having more personality, developing a stronger relationship to the heroes, and making more of a mark on the plot. Even something as simple as a brief monologue might have given us some valuable insight into how he ticks, but as it stands, there’s a lot of telling rather than showing of what Zemus is all about. What Zemus really needs more than anything is time to be a character, rather than just a plot point; he gets the ball rolling, but if you replaced him with any other Lunarian, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

 

All together, Zemus feels like the odd man out of the villains, whose master plan and manipulating actually wind up making him have less of an impact, rather than making him seem powerful and intriguing.

[The 13th Kenpachi 4,279]

My favourite is Kuja since he's the most human, followed by Ardyn.

[Master Juan 574]

Caius Ballad is number two, Kefka number one.

[Isaix 924]

I'd say the worst Final Fantasy villain is Cloud of Darkness,as far as I remember she doesn't even have a character,she shows up at the end of the game and wants to turn the world to darkness because...reasons and that's it.If we don't take Dissidia in consideration Garland,Emperor,Zeromus and Exdeath are not far behind.Zeromus is kinda lame,but Golbez makes up for it

Edited December 18, 2016 by Isaix

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

I agree! Zemus, while threatening and imposing, only really appeared right at the end of Final Fantasy IV, and while the twist of him being the puppetmaster was shocking, it didn't leave a lasting impact me, because I was keeping my eye on Golbez all this time! But I loved how Golbez ended up being a man drowned in sin, feeling horrible for all the things he had done! Still, the amount of things Zemus got done by posessing Golbez was impressive, but as you said, Master Dave! Without proper screen time, Zemus didn't feel like that much of a significant character, ya know?

 

That still doesn't diminish my love for Final Fantasy IV, undoubtedly my favorite Final Fantasy of all time!

[Dave 5,715]

Number XII: Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII)

 

Misuse of ellipses and issues pronouncing the letter C only add to the reasons why Ultimecia finds herself so far down on my list. Much like Zemus, Ultimecia acts as a villain from behind a series of curtains, using her body and consciousness swapping powers to assume control over other would-be sorceresses, most notably Edea. The one major thing that the time sorceress has going for her is that her mind control is more direct than Zemus’s was; the speech she gives in front of the Galbadia crowd seems to be her own words, and by cracking the reveal that she’s running the show relatively early on, it doesn’t feel as distant or sudden a jump to switch the ire you might have had for Edea over to Ultimecia. Taking control of Rinoa and dropping her off in space lends itself to one of the more iconic moments of the game, but I think her greatest contribution is how she lends herself to Seifer’s story, pandering to his deep insecurities and letting him play out his dreams of being the hero that was denied to him through SeeD, only to become disillusioned with the hand that is feeding him.

 

But in a way, that kind of highlights the problem with Ultimecia. While Siefer’s story is interesting, and while Edea’s relation to Cid and the other major cast members can lend itself to emotional peaks and valleys, Ultimecia is mostly just bland in comparison. The major factor, I think, is while the two former characters have an actual relationship with the main party, both in their personal lives as well as having the benefit of interacting with them on a regular basis, Ultimecia falls into the trap of using people who are interesting, rather than being interesting herself. She’s got the stock personality of being aloof and condescending, but never really adds anything to that or branches out. Her primary motivation is the knowledge that sooner or later she will be defeated, but while we can assume that this drives her to go on her evil rampage through time out of some kind of fear of death, we never really get any kind of insight or development on that aspect of her character, as opposed to characters like Xande or Kuja. When Ultimecia makes an appearance, it’s usually as a plot point to get the game to go to the next setting it needs to (like space), rather than feeling motivated by any kind of character building. While, yes, the main role of the antagonist is to antagonize and set up the hurdles for the characters to overcome, it doesn’t change the fact that the villain still needs to be a character as well, and a strong character will display moments of personality, give insight into how they think, and provide some kind of arc to give them a satisfying story.

 

Which brings us the crux of what my major complaint of Final Fantasy VIII in general is: what on earth is going on with this story? Nevermind that there’s not only one, but a series of schools that exist for the purpose of creating child soldiers; the story is laden with ideas and concepts that feel underdeveloped, hastily introduced, and then dropped for something else. A war that lands our heroes into battle for the first time is quickly forgotten in time for a graduation ceremony and dance, a political subterfuge involving a virtually impossible train hijacking winds up not mattering as the President of Galbadia is killed almost as soon as he is introduced, and then we move on to time travel, memory manipulation, character relationships that introduce a new layer of complications rather than solutions, and blasting off into space. It feels like the writers made a list of things and events that they thought might be cool, and then rather than trim, edit, or decide how to make the concepts work together into something coherent, they just decided to use them all.

 

And this cornucopia of idea mishmash does not do Ultimecia any favors. As mentioned, her motivation stems from the knowledge that at some point in history, a legendary SeeD will show up and defeat her. And this sets off a series of confusing plot points that, while able to be explained, sets up a swamp of a plot that it’s easy to get lost in. In spite of the more obvious option being to just find this would-be legendary SeeD and kill them, she goes to the extreme of deciding to compress time and space into a singular moment in order to become a god of sorts within it. What ensues is a confusing tale of swapping consciousnesses, with the rules invented for time travel in this universe creating a long checklist of having to find the proper body, needing the relatively unexplained power of Ellone in order to get further into the past, the fact that the Time Compression spell needs a specific point in history to be cast, and creating a hairpin of an opening into her own time that Squall and friends traverse with the power of friendship. Amid all of this, we have her finding her way into an ambassador position within Galbadia, which honestly seems like less of a coup when you realize that in spite of executing the existing president on a national broadcast, everyone still seems completely okay with her being the new ruler, and that any kind of subtlety leading up to that point is unnecessary. Not to mention that the speech she gives after her ascension and the ensuing parade don’t seem to be in line with the plan of a person who is living in fear of SeeD finding out about her and defeating her so much as it feels like someone standing up and saying, “Hey, people who I know will defeat me in the future! Here I am, and here is my itinerary, but I’m still counting on you not wanting to defeat me until I’m good and ready!”

 

Now, yes, all of these plot points can be explained, and can be merged into a plot that makes sense of all of the moving parts. But that doesn’t change the fact that with some streamlining, and a greater focus on which parts matter over parts that don’t, the story could simply be made better. Also, it’s true that the central point of the story isn’t Ultimecia or her plans, but on Squall and Rinoa, and on Squall’s personal journey on learning how to love, trust, and rely on other people. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that Ultimecia’s role in the story can’t be made into something generally more interesting. If I can offer a counter story for a moment, what if Ultimecia knew that it was Squall that was going to defeat her, and made it her goal to go after him directly? Suddenly, you have an immediate relationship between the villain and the hero, with the villain having more of a personal connection with the person that they are trying to kill, and more of an increase in stakes as they continue to fail at stopping the hero in progressing, forcing them to up their game in hopes of beating fate. Heck, it worked in Macbeth, and I’m inclined to believe it would serve Ultimecia well also.

 

In the end, Ultimecia’s grand scheme of compressing (sorry… kompressing…) time and space might have been more impressive if it focused less on the scale of the plan and more on the person who made the plan in the first place.

[Isaix 924]

Ultimecia always creeped me out a bit because of the whole possessing other people from the futur to do her bidding and the awesome sorceress theme of FFVIII,but other then that,she's not that interesting or memorable,I can barely remember anything about her

[Dave 5,715]

Number XI: Xande (Final Fantasy III)

 

I guess the first thing to discuss is why I consider Xande to be the main villain in Final Fantasy III as opposed to the Cloud of Darkness. It’s revealed after Xande’s defeat that the Cloud has been influencing him in order to tip the scales of Light and Dark needed in order to be freed, but unlike Zemus and Golbez, it doesn’t appear that Xande was ever devoid of autonomy, or was really needed any kind of manipulation to go on his villainous quest at all. Throughout the story, it’s clear that he is the one responsible for the disruption of the Crystals used to keep the world in balance, and although this co-aligns with what the Cloud of Darkness wants, it also benefits Xande’s own personal goals enough to the point where his plans exist just fine on their own without the added effect of letting a creature of mass destruction breakout of its prison. As the man who is the primary mover and shaker of the plot, and the one who acts as the direct antagonist for the Warriors of Light, I still think Xande can be considered the primary villain.

 

Like the previously discussed Ultimecia, Xande’s main goal in the game is to avert death by freezing time via destroying the Crystals that keep the world going. The thing that Xande has going for him over Ultimecia is that we simply know a little more about him. We get his backstory via his former compatriots, Doga and Unei, about their past as apprentices under Master Noah, and while the other two received the powers of understanding magic and control over dreams, Xande was given the gift of mortality. I think the fact that it is referred to as a gift through the game is important, as it implies that Noah thought highly enough of Xande to give him something valuable (as opposed to referring to it as the curse of mortality, for instance, which would insinuate that Xande needed to be killed). But no matter what wisdom he might have had, Xande doesn’t understand why he was given mortality, and it conjures up a host of insecurities and fears. Unfortunately, a lot of this is conjecture, but one can imagine that this would stir up jealousy of his peers, as they were not only given gifts that he would see as more useful, but were not given the same doom that he feels cursed with, and being confronted with the prospect of dying for the first time in his life seems to have made him feel very vulnerable, small, and frightened by a prospect that he doesn’t understand. The fact that Xande’s motivations stem from him being vulnerable immediately makes him more complex and opens him up to more empathy from a human audience. The notion of life not being fair, being envious of the success of others, and trying to come to grips with your own mortality is something a lot of people can understand, and doesn’t him as aloof as someone whose motivation is, for instance, intentionally getting yourself killed in order to summon God (but we’ll get to him later).

 

It’s also worth mentioning that a good villain will always make the heroes look stronger, if not necessarily physically then at least morally and in terms of strength of character. Throughout Final Fantasy III, there are characters that, when faced with death, choose to accept it because the value something more than their own lives. Aria takes a dive in order to save the heroes who she’s barely met, because she knows that their survival will save the world she loves. King Gorn manages to overcome mind control to kill himself, rather than murder his own son, Alus. And, perhaps most poignant of all, Doga and Unei both choose to die in order to help fulfill the quest of the Heroes of Light. They both willingly choose the gift that Xande believes to be the worst possible fate, because they are able to look beyond their own fears and insecurities and find value in what they have left behind.

 

Great motivation and conversation piece aside, though, there’s no hiding that Xande ultimately harbors the same problem as Zemus. He doesn’t make an appearance until the end of the game, and then his personality on display is pretty standard, with nothing shown that sets him apart from any other boss that you’ve run into thus far. It’s too bad, too, because I feel like there is a lot that Xande could talk to us about. But not only does he not make the most of his screen time, he winds up getting delegated to merely being the setup man for the Cloud of Darkness to take the role of final boss. On one hand, it makes sense for a villain of his style, concerned as he is with his own preservation, would try his best to not be put into the fray for as long as he could, but this still doesn’t change the fact that he isn’t around enough in the story to make a long lasting impression. Heck, with a little help from Dissidia, most people are inclined to believe that the Cloud of Darkness was a standalone antagonist, assisted by the lack of impact Xande is able to make on his own.

 

Xande was a character with a lot of potential, and offers a lot to the game that he’s in. Unfortunately, when he does finally get a moment to shine, all he has to offer is a pretty copy and paste bit of dialogue, a relatively easy boss fight, and mostly just doesn’t get the time he needs to become someone truly memorable.

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Favorite is Kefka, 'cause he's just a maniac. Doesn't give a damn about why he has to blow up the world. He just does.

 

Second greatest has to be Kuja. I'll reserve judgement till I finish FFXV about Ardyn, but he seems pretty badass. Wasn't really feeling Jecht though, or Gilgamesh.

[The 13th Kenpachi 4,279]

Number XII: Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII)

 

Misuse of ellipses and issues pronouncing the letter C only add to the reasons why Ultimecia finds herself so far down on my list. Much like Zemus, Ultimecia acts as a villain from behind a series of curtains, using her body and consciousness swapping powers to assume control over other would-be sorceresses, most notably Edea. The one major thing that the time sorceress has going for her is that her mind control is more direct than Zemus’s was; the speech she gives in front of the Galbadia crowd seems to be her own words, and by cracking the reveal that she’s running the show relatively early on, it doesn’t feel as distant or sudden a jump to switch the ire you might have had for Edea over to Ultimecia. Taking control of Rinoa and dropping her off in space lends itself to one of the more iconic moments of the game, but I think her greatest contribution is how she lends herself to Seifer’s story, pandering to his deep insecurities and letting him play out his dreams of being the hero that was denied to him through SeeD, only to become disillusioned with the hand that is feeding him.[/size]

 

 

But in a way, that kind of highlights the problem with Ultimecia. While Siefer’s story is interesting, and while Edea’s relation to Cid and the other major cast members can lend itself to emotional peaks and valleys, Ultimecia is mostly just bland in comparison. The major factor, I think, is while the two former characters have an actual relationship with the main party, both in their personal lives as well as having the benefit of interacting with them on a regular basis, Ultimecia falls into the trap of using people who are interesting, rather than being interesting herself. She’s got the stock personality of being aloof and condescending, but never really adds anything to that or branches out. Her primary motivation is the knowledge that sooner or later she will be defeated, but while we can assume that this drives her to go on her evil rampage through time out of some kind of fear of death, we never really get any kind of insight or development on that aspect of her character, as opposed to characters like Xande or Kuja. When Ultimecia makes an appearance, it’s usually as a plot point to get the game to go to the next setting it needs to (like space), rather than feeling motivated by any kind of character building. While, yes, the main role of the antagonist is to antagonize and set up the hurdles for the characters to overcome, it doesn’t change the fact that the villain still needs to be a character as well, and a strong character will display moments of personality, give insight into how they think, and provide some kind of arc to give them a satisfying story. [/size]

 

Which brings us the crux of what my major complaint of Final Fantasy VIII in general is: what on earth is going on with this story? Nevermind that there’s not only one, but a series of schools that exist for the purpose of creating child soldiers; the story is laden with ideas and concepts that feel underdeveloped, hastily introduced, and then dropped for something else. A war that lands our heroes into battle for the first time is quickly forgotten in time for a graduation ceremony and dance, a political subterfuge involving a virtually impossible train hijacking winds up not mattering as the President of Galbadia is killed almost as soon as he is introduced, and then we move on to time travel, memory manipulation, character relationships that introduce a new layer of complications rather than solutions, and blasting off into space. It feels like the writers made a list of things and events that they thought might be cool, and then rather than trim, edit, or decide how to make the concepts work together into something coherent, they just decided to use them all. [/size]

 

And this cornucopia of idea mishmash does not do Ultimecia any favors. As mentioned, her motivation stems from the knowledge that at some point in history, a legendary SeeD will show up and defeat her. And this sets off a series of confusing plot points that, while able to be explained, sets up a swamp of a plot that it’s easy to get lost in. In spite of the more obvious option being to just find this would-be legendary SeeD and kill them, she goes to the extreme of deciding to compress time and space into a singular moment in order to become a god of sorts within it. What ensues is a confusing tale of swapping consciousnesses, with the rules invented for time travel in this universe creating a long checklist of having to find the proper body, needing the relatively unexplained power of Ellone in order to get further into the past, the fact that the Time Compression spell needs a specific point in history to be cast, and creating a hairpin of an opening into her own time that Squall and friends traverse with the power of friendship. Amid all of this, we have her finding her way into an ambassador position within Galbadia, which honestly seems like less of a coup when you realize that in spite of executing the existing president on a national broadcast, everyone still seems completely okay with her being the new ruler, and that any kind of subtlety leading up to that point is unnecessary. Not to mention that the speech she gives after her ascension and the ensuing parade don’t seem to be in line with the plan of a person who is living in fear of SeeD finding out about her and defeating her so much as it feels like someone standing up and saying, “Hey, people who I know will defeat me in the future! Here I am, and here is my itinerary, but I’m still counting on you not wanting to defeat me until I’m good and ready!”[/size]

 

Now, yes, all of these plot points can be explained, and can be merged into a plot that makes sense of all of the moving parts. But that doesn’t change the fact that with some streamlining, and a greater focus on which parts matter over parts that don’t, the story could simply be made better. Also, it’s true that the central point of the story isn’t Ultimecia or her plans, but on Squall and Rinoa, and on Squall’s personal journey on learning how to love, trust, and rely on other people. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that Ultimecia’s role in the story can’t be made into something generally more interesting. If I can offer a counter story for a moment, what if Ultimecia knew that it was Squall that was going to defeat her, and made it her goal to go after him directly? Suddenly, you have an immediate relationship between the villain and the hero, with the villain having more of a personal connection with the person that they are trying to kill, and more of an increase in stakes as they continue to fail at stopping the hero in progressing, forcing them to up their game in hopes of beating fate. Heck, it worked in Macbeth, and I’m inclined to believe it would serve Ultimecia well also. [/size]

 

In the end, Ultimecia’s grand scheme of compressing (sorry… kompressing…) time and space might have been more impressive if it focused less on the scale of the plan and more on the person who made the plan in the first place.[/size]

I liked Ultimecia and having her appear only a few times made her presence actually scary. She's the only FF villain I genuinely felt afraid of. Her castle alone is just terrifying and the forms she took were horrifying. I still think 8 has one of the best stories in the franchise, but that's for another day. But Ultimecia's character does have a lot of flaws.

[Dave 5,715]

Number X: Barthendelus (Final Fantasy XIII)

 

Hoo, boy, trying to be objective about Final Fantasy XIII.

 

I think I’ll start out by listing the things that I do like about Barthendelus, because, in complete fairness, there’s more than a few things in his favor. First and foremost, I really like his design, both in his human form, and as a fal’cie. The allusion to the Catholic pope is a bit on the nose, but it does lend itself to a design we’ve never really seen in a villain before, not to mention that he winds up being the first to be depicted as an elderly man. His true form in an intricate ivory and gold colossus that truly stands apart, with the pale faces plastered aside his being both artistic, as well as unsettling. Considering how many times we’ve seen the usual batch of summons and deities, it was good to see something that could have borrowed from them, but didn’t, managing to give us something aesthetically pleasing and unique.

 

His motivation, while at first a little hard to grasp, actually is solid and interesting. While most of the other villains on this list are either seeking power or to become more powerful, Barthendelus appears already content with the power he has, already earning the blind devotion of his followers, having a stranglehold on the military, and being something of a god on earth already. What he wants instead is enlightenment, a desire to find a way to meet the person that created him. Exactly why he wants this is sadly vague and underdeveloped, and it’s discouraging that a good portion of why he’s doing it stems from the fact that he was ordered to, instead of being something more personally driven. In order to achieve this goal, Barthendelus is willing to play the long con by setting up a city on Cocoon and letting it flourish for the sole purpose of destroying it once it becomes great enough a civilization to warrant sacrificing and opening the door of his Maker. It actually makes for one of the best villain moves in the series: the idea of acting as the apparent benefactor and protector for centuries, allowing to let these people grow and thrive under his watch, only to snatch it all away when it benefits him the most, killing the very people he cultivated to reap a better harvest.

 

Unfortunately, how he tries to get to that payoff is where things start to fall apart. It seems that the only way to get Cocoon to tip over is to destroy Orphan, who powers most of Cocoon, and because for some arbitrary reason fal’cie can’t kill one another, he needs a Pulse l’cie to do the trick. So, in other words, the final boss wants you to beat the final boss. Hell, he’s practically rooting for you to do it. His entire plot involves making an adventure for you to have in order to get you where you need to be, and he literally forces the party to level grind in order to become stronger. It seems like he’s the tutorial, rather than the person who is trying to stop you. Granted, the end goal of his assistance is to abet in mass murder, but it doesn’t change his almost passive relationship with the heroes creates a dynamic that’s devoid of tension, because he makes no pretense about the fact he doesn’t want to stop you. It’s not aided by the fact that the heroes are only going on this adventure because they have been branded and will mutate if they don’t fulfill their obligations, making playing into Barthendelus’s hands practically unavoidable, so he’s content just to shepherd them along a path that they can’t deviate from any way, making his role as an antagonist moot, because there’s no reason to antagonize at all. We have no direction to go EXCEPT right into his plans.

 

That’s right: in a game that takes place in a hallway, Barthendelus’s plan is to put you in a hallway. Not only does the game take away any agency from the player, but the story does as well.

 

The argument can be made that, as Lightning and friends don’t fancy being played like a deck of cards, then Barthendelus’s game plan still functions as antagonistic, forcing them to do something against  their will. It’s a fair enough point, and as we see in the climax and ultimately the ending, they do manage to break expectations and manage to save Cocoon, effectively thwarting the villain’s plan. But it doesn’t change the fact that you still spend the majority of the game working in relative cooperation with the man, making it increasingly difficult to feel that you, the player, are making any kind of progress, accomplishing anything, or playing through a story in which your active role as protagonist is being reflected by playing the game. You want to overcome adversity and climb a mountain, not walk in a relative flat line that doesn’t offer any challenge, and the role of a villain in a story is to create those mountains of adversity (and no, offering challenges designed for the story purpose of level grinding don’t count, because he’s counting on you succeeding, not trying to hinder you in any way). Barthendelus’s contentment to let you coast denies the heroes a chance to really assert themselves and have an effect on the plot, denies the player a chance to feel any moments of accomplishment, and denies the fal’cie himself any chance to grow as a character, because there are no conflicts he has that could ever instigate development.

 

Barthendelus is a cool design with some cool ideas behind him, but his plans render him boring, force the story into a tunnel, and acts as a microcosm of everything that is wrong with Final Fantasy XIII.

[Guest]

My favourite is Kuja since he's the most human, followed by Ardyn.

 

For me personally, It's honestly a tie. Kuja is just manically sadistic by nature but Ardyn is a victim of consequence by his peers. The way that they both present themselves, it's not cliche nor is it a bore-fest, Tabata wasn't kidding when he said that Final Fantasy XV was going to have a memorable villain!

[Hardrada 117]

I don't consider Jecht a villain, but he's my favorite antagonist in the series (over Seymour, who seemed more like a side villain in X) .

At least of the games I've played.

[Dave 5,715]

Number IX: Garland (Final Fantasy I)

 

 

Poor Garland; most of the things that I hold against him aren’t so much about him as a character, but how he’s a product of the time he was made. It’s hard to rank Garland much higher than this when compared to the other villains in the series, not because he’s necessarily bad, but because a lot of the things he did, others had the technology, precedence, and experience to do just a little better. In a time where villains in video games weren’t really expected to be complex or fleshed out (neither Ganon nor Bowser do any talking in their first appearances, after all), Garland doesn’t do a whole lot to shake things up. He gets a grand total of five lines during his first appearance, and doesn’t do a whole lot to make it sound as though he’s anything more than a thug. There’s a piece of dialogue somewhere that mentions that Garland was once a trusted knight that went rogue, which is interesting, but is never really developed on or given any particular reason for occuring. Not to mention that his disappearing for about 95% of the game doesn’t really give him a chance to add onto himself and make his character more compelling.

 

But while I usually complain about villains not making enough of an appearance in order to make an impact, Garland’s absence from the majority of the story actually works in the game's favor, bookending the plot as being bother the first and final boss. Not only is it kind of a cool measuring stick to think about how far you’ve come, but it works as a good reveal, as the lack of teasing his return makes for a greater shock when you discover he wasn’t finished off at all. And while his appearance at the end of the game kind of has the same issue, with his minimal dialogue doing more to provide exposition than actually develop him, there’s still a lot going on with it. Garland’s reveal as the man who has stuck the world in a 2000 year time loop sets a precedence not only for the villains to come, but for Final Fantasy as a whole. It’s no longer enough to kidnap a princess or threaten a kingdom; suddenly, there is a threat to space and time, existence itself, and whatever lies beyond our physical plane. He raises the stakes to new heights, and all of the entries in the series are compelled to live up to that legacy.

 

Ultimately, the only reason why he winds up being this low is because he leaves you wanting more, but doesn’t really have a way to deliver it. It’s actually one of the few cases where Dissidia managed to do someone's character a favor and develop them more. I really liked the idea of Garland regretting his decision to create a time loop, as two thousand years starts to drain on his will, and his being a willing servant of Chaos, loyal to his master while also pitying him, gives him a really great complexity that helps flesh out a knight formerly limited to a handful of lines.

 

Garland manages to do a lot with a little, and creates a precedence that the rest of the villains on this list are obligated to match.

[Dave 5,715]

Number VIII: Yu Yevon (Final Fantasy X)

 

While Seymour is the more active antagonist in the story who constantly interferes with Tidus and friends and tries to stop their meddling, and Jecht acts as an emotional antagonist for Tidus who probably drives our hero’s character to grow the most, I consider Yu Yevon to be the true villain of Final Fantasy X if only because everything is his fault. 

 

Yu Yevon is something of a Sauron style of character; their physical presence in the story is kept to a minimum, yet they are still omnipresent simply through the scale of their influence and how much direct effect they have had on the world. The Spira that we find ourself in has been molded almost entirely by the actions of Yevon. Their culture, technology, and fates are dictated by Sin and the millenia of destruction that he rains. In essence, Yu Yevon has already won: he’s managed to shape the world in his style, he has a church that worships him, and his goal of more or less enforcing a luddite state is cemented, either through the loyalty of his followers, or because any time people threaten to become more advanced, he returns with a new Sin armor and destroys what they have made. And in this style, he provides a constant, albeit passive, antagonism towards the main party of heroes. He’s the reason that Yuna has to take on the burden of saving the world, and worse yet, he’s also the reason her sacrifice will ultimately be in vain. 

 

While we don’t know much about him when he was still a person, we get enough info on Yevon’s background that we get a good insight into where he’s coming from. His goal is simultaneously understandable, somewhat tragic, and still villainous. Having seen technology advance to a point where his Zanarkand is on the verge of destruction, he not only tries to preserve the memory of the city he lost, but tries to avoid the world ever reaching that point again. So he creates a pseudo Zanarkand, wraps himself up in his Sin armor, and proceeds to scare off the attacking Bevelle hordes. Of course, in the process of doing so, he also destroys the real Zanarkand, and gives Sin the mantra of destroying anyone who delves into technology or any civilization that threatens to become advanced. Whatever noble thoughts he might have had are lost as his single tracked mind forces the world into stagnation, and any attempt at saving a civilization are muddled as he tries to actively destroy others. His plan involves constant sacrifice of others to his end, from the people he runs roughshod over as Sin, to the Summoners and Aeons he needs to make himself a new body.

 

As much as some people feel let down when encountering the meek, bug-like thing as the de facto final boss in X, I actually really like the decision to make Yu Yevon an unintimidating presence on his own. He’s guarded by Seymour and Jecht, wrapped inside a monstrous Sin that is protected by Yunalesca’s machinations, and is worshipped by a church that praises him as a saviour, but ultimately, Yu Yevon is a small, meek, broken thing that needs all of these other people in order to be thought of as great. He’s not a god, great warrior, or a sorcerer; he’s just a wretched creature clinging to life, and once you’ve gotten past all of his walls, there’s nothing left to protect him from his fate. It kind of puts the final nail in the coffin of Yu Yevon as a pitiable figure. He might have started with the best of intentions, but there is nothing left of the man that indicates the humanity that might have set Spira on this crash course.

 

Praise be to Yevon. At least, that’s what I’d say, if I were a follower of Yevon.

[Dave 5,715]

Number VII: The Emperor (Final Fantasy II)

 

There’s a reason why the much used story arc of a small rebellion fighting against a greater power works so well and stands the test of time: it provides an active quest to both the heroes and the villains, with the heroes trying to topple the regime and the antagonists being forced to constantly try and hinder those efforts. Though the Emperor has achieved great power and can summon demons, he still has something to work towards in suppressing what remaining kingdoms there are, as well as constantly fighting back the Wild Rose rebellion. The reason why this matters so much is that it makes the plot more dynamic and engaging; no story is made interesting by having the characters sit back and rest on their laurels, and that goes for both the protagonist and antagonists alike. If we, as the player, can manage to have an impact on the villains plot as it unfolds, it makes it feel as though our actions actually have ramifications, as opposed to constantly be in a state of reaction, not to mention that it gives the Emperor something to do other than just wait for us to arrive and defeat him. 

 

Keeping him active in the plot also makes it easier to identify him personally as the thing we are fighting against, rather than an abstract idea or someone who is so far behind the curtain that we don’t really know who it is we are fighting towards. Although the Emperor doesn’t take center stage very often for the obvious reason that he has people who do that for him, he is still identifiable enough during the story that we know who to blame, and can still identify him as the villain. Not to mention that, as the bodies pile up from the characters we have come to know, it creates even more of a sense that this man must be stopped, that he has not only transgressed against the world, but has now made this entirely personal. Considering that there is still limited technology and precedence at this point towards fleshing out your own party characters, it helps that the Emperor’s antagonism can make you feel more attached to them if only because he has shown himself to have the ability to take them away. 

 

I had mentioned that one of the problems Garland ran into is that he arrived in an age where the villains weren’t expected to be particularly complicated, making it all the more impressive that his immediate successor manages to be as complex as he is. Though the idea of someone trying to take over all the land and crush a rebellion certainly isn’t new, the Emperor is able to add his own angle to it. He’s a condescending, aloof, and refuses to let himself be rattled, even when Firion and co. are actively messing up his plans. It isn’t just that he’s an elitist member of the ruling class;  it stems from his own refusal to admit that anyone can be on his level, that there is anyone on the planet who is worthy of his concern. All of this ego winds up tying into the thing that makes the Emperor all the more interesting. Unlike Vayne, whose quest for Empire involves the greater goal of trying to bring free will back to mankind, or perhaps even the financial empire of Shinra simply doing it for the money, the Emperor wants to be in control because he can’t stand the thought of someone else being in such a position of power other than him. While some might want to be center stage for the adoration, the Emperor seems to actively dislike the people he rules over; he comments at one point how mankind “deals in false justice and forsaken love,” as though they are doing it wrong and only he truly understands how the virtue of love and justice works. Which, considering he spends most of the game spreading destruction and death, paints a bizarre picture of what he must imagine love to be. He firmly believes that he is the only one who gets it, that knows what must be done, and that the loss of human life is no loss at all because they have no virtues worth protecting. 

 

It’s not as though his sense of superiority comes without something to back it up, either. Far from being one to rely on others (which makes sense, considering he doesn’t seem to like them very much), the Emperor shows himself to be a one man army, bring forth the demons that wreck the world on his behalf, and conquering kingdoms with his own magic. But most impressive of all, even death is something that has limited consequences against him. His body isn’t even cold before he manages to destroy Satan himself and take over Hell, and threatens to take down the rest of the world with him. This was the perfect way to emphasize the Emperor as the type of Final Fantasy villain we could come to expect. He wasn’t going to just hide behind armies and rule from afar, but was able to take center stage and exude powers that threatened existence in ways that made his defeat seem impossible. Naturally, the bigger the threat, the bigger the satisfaction when you do manage to defeat him, and by acting as a mountain of a roadblock on the path to beating the game, it’s hard to understate how well the Emperor played his role as villain.

[Isaix 924]

To me the weakest FF stories are FF 1,2,3,5 and 13,but FF2's story is my favorite of the bunch because of the Emperor.Because of Star Wars I like the Rebels vs Empire stories,it always seems hopeless because the Empire is so powerful,but somehow the rebels manage to save the day.I like that the first scene of FF2 you see the Emperor destroying your hometown and you almost get kill by his dark knights,it gives you a motive for revenge and they are showing you just how powerful the Empire is and you can't mess with them and only a chosen few,strong warriors, can be part of the rebel army.And I'm not sure if that's what they were going for,but in the first battle against the Emperor,you fight him alongside his minions and the way they are position the minions are in front and the Emperor is in the back,so I always interpreted this as him being cowardly,he lets his minions do the dirty work and he fights only if he has to and at the end of the game when he gets the power of hell he doesn't need minions to protect him because he's all powerful.

 

Oh and is it implied that the Emperor killed Satan and God to get the powers of Hell and Heaven or is it canon in the story?

[Joker 1,560]

Im loving these so far, keep at it. For me Id have to say my fav villain would be Golbez even with all the Zeromus stuff going on. The fact that we learn its our MC brother is all the more painful. For XIII I think the idea that the villain's goal is for you to kill him is a interesting one but xiii didn't handle it well I feel like more could be done with that. XV's villain is nice to but that's spoilers and I think we still have our policy up for that