Who is the best Final Fantasy villian?

[Rockman X]

Kuja is by far the most underrated villian. Everyone pretty much sees that he has a thong on and goes "ew! he sucks!" And they completely ignore pretty much all the chaos he cause in the game. I put him slightly behing Kefka, and I mean slight.

And then they think of stupid theories like ZOMG HE WUZ GIRL AND THEY TOOK OFF HIS BOOBS. I blame it on kids being raised on DBZ and Harry Potter so they don't know a good villain when they see one.

I think Sephiroth is way overrated. All he really did was destroy a town, stab a girl in the back, and send meteor towards the planet, which was destroyed and did not cause any real destruction. Compared to Kefka and Kuja, that almost seems minor. Rufus was a more effective villian than Sephiroth.

Rufus was a bastard, Sephi was a crybaby. Kefka ruined/conquered the world in VI, and in IX Kuja destroys (or at least blasts the shit out of) his home planet...WITHOUT the aid of a meteor or any fancy summons. And once Kuja found out his origin, he changed his plan to wiping out all of EXISTENCE. I mean that's pretty hardcore <.<

 

[DKnight]

I'm sticking with Kefka, because he is just a guy you love to hate. He is the most sinister of all the villains. he will play cheap if he gets the chance. All the other villains wanted to wipe out life. He wanted to make everything into a living hell.

 

[Nami]

I haven't played Final Fantasy IX, so I can't really comment on Kuja. However, between Sephiroth and Kefka... I would have to say Kefta wins.

I have to admit, seeing Kefka's appearance before I played Final Fantasy VI made me think he was probably a villain like James from Team Rocket. (I think Team Rocket fail as villains.) I still didn't see the big deal when I started playing, since Emperor Gestahl was the one trying to take over the world. I think Kefka wins because I feel his motives are much more corrupt than Sephiroth's.

Sephiroth felt he was simply claiming a birthright. He had reasons and self-justification for the things he did.

Kefka, on the other hand, did not care. He simply thought it was fun. Killing people and causing people misery was the highlight of his day. Therefore, he destroyed a planet and decided to rule with it as his footstool. Not because he had been wronged. Not because he felt justified. He just felt like it. Just like he just felt like poisoning those people. He did it for the lulz.

Sephiroth's appearance aids in his character. If Sephiroth looked like Kefka, he would fail utterly as a villain. Kefka looks a bit like a jester. However, his evil precedes him. I bet anyone who was stupid enough to remark on his appearance would up dead.

... That's basically it. I can't formulate anything better at this time of night. I'm going to bed.

 

[Kenpachi]

While Kefka is good, my vote goes to Kuja. His brilliance was insane, the sheer power of his manipulation was awesome and when it came to the crunch he wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty.
He had the best adapting skills (finding out his origin), he had the coolest lines (read my sig.) and he was (I feel) the best manipulator, taking souls and making them into killing machines...

Dang...

I quite like Seymour as well though. The idea that removing "death" from the world (and becoming it... shh!) was insane and his means were... harsh... to say the least.

 

[Dragoondeath]

the coolest villain is choas FF1 and whats its name from dawn of souls FF2


Mod Edit
Please put more thought into this. You have to give reasons.

 

[barretboy]

Kuja was epic - he truly was. He decimated a planet purely for shits and giggles. His trance shows that he does have emotions and a conscience which to me shows just how brutal he is in the way he conducts himself. When he uses Brahne as his bitch and she fails. He goes in and does it himself - something most villains wouldn't do eg. Vayne.

 

[Rockman X]

I'm genuinely surprised to see so many fans of Kuja and Kefka here, kudos to you all

Kuja was epic - he truly was. He decimated a planet purely for shits and giggles. His trance shows that he does have emotions and a conscience which to me shows just how brutal he is in the way he conducts himself. When he uses Brahne as his bitch and she fails. He goes in and does it himself - something most villains wouldn't do eg. Vayne.

On another note of that Trance of his...the reason it was so uber was because he absorbed all the souls that The Invincible had taken...I'm not sure, but I don't think any other villains have absorbed souls (Sin kinda does, with seymour and the fiends...but he really has a whole environment inside him so I dunno if it counts).

 

[The_Oathkeeper]

I'm going to go with Kuja here, as well. Of all the villains in the Final Fantasy series, Kuja definitely went through the most growth. As an antagonist, he was ruthless, and as a character, he was realistic. His actions really succeeded in making you hate his guts. He murdered, cheated, destroyed, and abused until the very end. As I played through those first Discs, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that I would enjoy putting a stop to his reign of terror. However, even so, it was plain to see that he was just as human as the protagonists. Despite his malicious intentions, he, too, had thoughts, dreams, motivation, and fears of his own. He developed, in other words. He was a dynamic character if I ever saw one, which is way more than a lot of the FF Villains can say for themselves.

That's pretty much what I like most about Kuja. It's clear that the developers put just as much work into his character as they did into Zidane's. Ordinarily, a villain's character pales in comparison to that of the main protagonist. They're typically treated as nothing more than an obstacle in the hero's path to saving the world/kingdom/galaxy/universe, which I, personally, find quite disappointing. Final Fantasy IX, however, doesn't have that problem. Kuja is regarded with just as much humanity as the other characters, and even serves to personify mankind's fear of death. He develops as well, eventually coming to terms with his own demise when all's said and done. As far as I'm concerned, there's no better villain than one like Kuja. Hating him is not at all difficult, yet his humanity also makes it easy to sympathize with him...if only just a bit.

Oh, and the guy is a freaking badass. When a villain is secure enough with his masculanity to wear a thong in public, in front of his enemies, and in battle with his enemies, you just know he's incredibly tough. Notice how nobody in the game ever says "Lawl, yur weerin a thong." That's because anyone who does gets a Thundaga. Even before going into his Super Trance, Kuja took a Mega Flare from Bahamut and received nothing more than a small cut. Speaking of Super Trance Kuja, that guy is just a juggernaut. He took out an entire planet with that Ultima of his. A planet. Do you know how hard Sephiroth and Kefka had to work to do that? Yeah, Kuja did it in about five minutes.

Sephiroth comes in at second place, but he falls short of Kuja by quite a bit in terms of how much I like him as villain and a character. Though there's certainly nothing wrong with him, he just can't compare to the Ultima-toting powerhouse that is Kuja. As of right now, however, I suppose there's really nothing special about Sephiroth. In my experience with anime and JRPGs, I've seen much better villains (such as Mithos from ToS or Vicious from Cowboy Bebop). So, at the present time, there's not a whole lot he brings to the table. Still, that's to be expected, considering every other video-game designer copied off of Nomura's design once they saw how popular Sephy became.

Still, at the time of his original creation way back in 1997, there really weren't any villains like him in RPGs. Keeping in mind that this was back when RPGs were simpler, Sephiroth did actually raise the bar quite a bit in terms of what was expected from a villain. Before Sephiroth, you see, antagonists along the lines of ExDeath (shadowy figures operating from the background) were commonplace. Sephiroth, however, was different in that he was given a somewhat-realistic motivation for his actions. The player actually got to see him descend into insanity rather than just being told "This is Generic Villain #392. He's psychotic for reasons we don't have time to explain. You have to stop him now. Yeah."

Of course, his character has been completely destroyed in the FF7 Compilation...Remember the original script for Final Fantasy 7? Remember how scared all the little kids were when they saw Sephiroth come on-screen? Well, Square-Enix has effectively ruined whatever impact Sephiroth had with Advent Children and Crisis Core. No longer is Sephiroth a genuinely complex, interesting character. Rather, he is now an overpowered mass of eye candy for the fangirls. It makes me sick to see such a great character go down the tubes like that...Oh well. I'm not trying to defend Post-FF7 Sephiroth. I can still enjoy FF7 Sephiroth, right?

Falling into a very close third is Kefka. He and Sephiroth were so close, in fact, that Kefka gets a mention here, as well. Now Kefka...he was just fun. Square-Enix certainly didn't pull any punches with this guy. He wasn't a super powerful tank of a man, he was just a greedy little coward trying to conive his way into power. Simple but definitely effective. I'm not going to pretend that Kefka wasn't cliche, even at the time of his introduction. Despite what some people say about him, Kefka can, in fact, be summed up in one word: psycho. Of course I realize that he's a villain, but you should NEVER be able to summarize any character in one word.

Even so, Kefka is still a very enjoyable villain. I really had a lot of fun watching him trip up when he fought the party before the World of Ruin. But despite how comical he was Pre-WoR, I couldn't help but despise him come the final confrontation. He was just...evil. While I hate 2-Dimensional villains under most circumstances, I'm willing to make an exception here. Just don't expect me to move him up to first place anytime soon.

So yeah, basically it goes something like...

1. Kuja
2. Sephiroth
3. Kefka
4. Everyone Else

 

[lisalover1]

Kefka would definitely be my top choice. He's evil, darkly funny, and you hated him the moment you saw him. If I may quote the FF retrospective from gametrailers, "Kefka was not a supernatural being, or the collected sum of all evil, or a mind-warping god from another planet. He was a man. Albeit a twisted soul, who sought supreme power over all else. He wasn't a puppet to a higher power, or a victim seeking revenge. He was just an awful human being. And a wonderful bad guy."

 

[Lady Mjrn]

Kuja has taken Sephiroth's place, hands down. What a perfect DIVA he is! His crimes become greater and greater through out the game, and the more I learn of him as I go on, the more I just wanna KILL him on Disc 4. Have to agree with everything you said about him, Ronin.

 

[Rockman X]

Excellent post Oathkeeper, I won't bother quoting all of it but this bit in particular I wanted to say something on:

Still, at the time of his original creation way back in 1997, there really weren't any villains like him in RPGs. Keeping in mind that this was back when RPGs were simpler, Sephiroth did actually raise the bar quite a bit in terms of what was expected from a villain. Before Sephiroth, you see, antagonists along the lines of ExDeath (shadowy figures operating from the background) were commonplace. Sephiroth, however, was different in that he was given a somewhat-realistic motivation for his actions. The player actually got to see him descend into insanity rather than just being told "This is Generic Villain #392. He's psychotic for reasons we don't have time to explain. You have to stop him now. Yeah."

Just like you said, Sephiroth was great for his time. With the move from cartridges to CDs, Square was able to fit more into its story and characters, including villains. Also, from what I've heard Nomura's character designs in VII were something unique during that time period. However, during this era when anime is so prevalent and stories can be told better...Sephiroth is pretty stale (plus, as you said, the Compilation destroyed him and he's a bigger cliche than the anime art style).

I recall a thread we had on these forums a couple months ago about Shakespeare, I had said his stories were cliche and someone countered by saying how he was great because everything he wrote about during his time were new themes. Naturally I had to point out that while they weren't cliche 400 years ago, they are NOW.

And that's the thing about Sephiroth. He was a great villain ten years ago. Now he's nothing more than a boring anime character. Nomura's art style might have been unique in games ten years ago, but now it isn't, and there is NOTHING in his artwork that sets him apart from other anime artists (except his horribly bad clothing designs). I think the only reason he's so popular today with fans (the ones who weren't playing VII in '97) is that he's the generic, cliche, uber popular anime style.

 

[Dragoondeath]

i cant remember if i posted in this but i think i like chaos
not much action but he is a easy target to kill
and i like dark night from FF 2 and the final boss
THE real final boss

 

[Ryvius]

I'm gonna have to go with Kefka. He manipulated an entire empire, committing horrible war crimes all the while. He gathered up mounds of phantom beasts to infuse himself with uber magics at their life's expense. He caused an apocalypse and became a living god, ruling the planet with an iron fist. (at least for a year until you come in and kick his ass.) and the end game dialogue with Kefka is probably the best out of any Final Fantasy.

 

[Rydia]

I think the only reason he's so popular today with fans (the ones who weren't playing VII in '97) is that he's the generic, cliche, uber popular anime style.

That or they never even played VII but they saw Advent Children and thought "Wow! That guy looks so cool! And he has a giant sword! Best video game character ever! lolz!"

 

[Rockman X]

That or they never even played VII but they saw Advent Children and thought "Wow! That guy looks so cool! And he has a giant sword! Best video game character ever! lolz!"

And that just makes NO damn sense, there are so many people who are exposed to VII through AC first. I thought it was common knowledge that you don't start out on a sequel. And then they're all like "it wasn't confusing at all, I totally understood it!" and I'm like "wtf? I've played VII and AC still confused me." Liars, the lot of them

 

[Contra Fates]

Sometimes I really wonder if my best friend is a cause for a lot of Kefka's recent popularity.

He's the Kefka cosplayer on Youtube, and I can't go to a forum, or talk to that many FF6 fans, who haven't seen his videos before.

He'll never accept the idea, but, I sometimes think he's part of the reason for the Kefka vs Sephiroth bit. xD

To be more on topic. My favorite villain always was Kefka, since I was a little kid, because he was the only villain to really make me laugh, and yet he was still a horrible, evil bastard at the same time. He was also one of the only villains to really SUCCEED with what he wanted to do. He ruled the world with an iron fist, poisoned many, killed many, stole and used the power of GODS, and destroyed little towns and civilizations whenever they tried to rebuild.

He was a real villain.
I just feel that the outdated graphics make it difficult for next-generation FF fans to appreciate his character as much as the newer villains.

 

[Ryvius]

I've never seen this friend of yours. But I'm not really into cosplaying so that's not surprising. I think it is hard for players that started with 3d graphics to appreciate the older games properly. You gotta have the proper imagination you know?

 

[Rockman X]

I've never seen this friend of yours. But I'm not really into cosplaying so that's not surprising. I think it is hard for players that started with 3d graphics to appreciate the older games properly. You gotta have the proper imagination you know?

I'm sure you have seen him, he's pretty well-known. Plus I swear to god he's the real-life Kefka.

And I agree, plenty of gamers today are such shallow graphics whores that they don't even wanna go near 16 or 32 bit graphics. I suppose it's partially game developers' faults though, alot of times actual story/characters/good gameplay are traded off for shiny graphics and pretty characters. It's much easier to be a fanboy over a bishounen with long flowing hair and a 6 ft sword than it is a tiny pixelated clown with a synthesized laugh.

 

[Contra Fates]

I'm sure you have seen him, he's pretty well-known. Plus I swear to god he's the real-life Kefka.

And I agree, plenty of gamers today are such shallow graphics whores that they don't even wanna go near 16 or 32 bit graphics. I suppose it's partially game developers' faults though, alot of times actual story/characters/good gameplay are traded off for shiny graphics and pretty characters. It's much easier to be a fanboy over a bishounen with long flowing hair and a 6 ft sword than it is a tiny pixelated clown with a synthesized laugh.

Haha. I think THIS video is a lot better than that one. Though, him getting pwned by Tifa was pretty amusing. xD

It's very true, though. And, sometimes, it's even hard for me to sit there and play my Super Nintendo after being spoiled by Square's gorgeous graphics nowadays. I'll just keep hoping that Square will make a full blown FF6 remake. That'd make my fandom complete.

 

[Ryvius]

Exactly what I thought when I picked up FFXII. Wow! the landscape is beautiful! The characters actually look like normal people, and so detailed! the water looks like water and not ripply blue paint! Now if only the damn game would stop masturbating and let me play it!

I'm always wary of remakes, I kinda like them to just leave the old games as they are.