Video Game Forums - View Single Post - Who was the most evil villian from FFI-FFX?

***Ace Mercury*** · 09-30-2009, 12:52 PM

In the earlier games, the main boss seemed more like faceless forces of nature. It was like fighting against a hurricane or beating up an asteroid. Maybe it was just a matter of poor presentation (e.g. limits on hardware specs like lack of memory), but the early series bosses had little characterization and ridiculously stupid motives; it wasn't required, though, since the spotlight was usually on the player and the player characters. I consider it a side-effect of an emerging industry and less experienced story-telling. Of the games that I've played (I, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX), villains before VI never felt evil.

Kefka was pretty damned evil; he had the weakly evil emperor to contrast how much of a badass he was. He personally screwed over every one of your player characters (e.g. Cyan's family poisoned, Celes imprisoned, Terra controlled, etc.) so it was a lot more personal than "guy wants to destroy all of creation, which by the way includes stuff you like." You also get to see how his evil impacts the world, when the overworld changes from a nice green-blue to a grey slush.

Sephiroth is sort of odd in that he's the product of "evil." Hojo (Mojo-Jojo) was mentioned, and in retrospect he's the most evil in the game, in that he lacks any sort of moral compass. There's a theme of being a puppet throughout the game, and I think that really defines Sephiroth's role. There's Jenova in the background controlling him, but it's sort of difficult to cast her as evil, partially because she doesn't do anything directly in the plot, partially because she is a parasite and she does this for a living (i.e. it's not personal, it's business). Most of the evil felt in the game is from Shinra itself, which is sort of controlled by Jenova, and here it starts getting all pear-shaped.

Ultimecia was just confusing. Also, there's the theme in this game about questioning what is "evil" and "good"; Squall at one point thinks to himself that there is no evil and good, only different points of view. Seifer's not evil insomuch as he's an idiot.

IX was a throwback to the old days of Final Fantasy, and what I remember from the plot is sort of sketchy. Kuja was a jerk, and there was some guy (Garland again?) who wanted to destroy the cosmos. I recall there wasn't a strong villain presence in this game; every now and then Kuja would come in and defeat your party (but leave you alive, for some reason).

09-30-2009, 12:52 PM	#16
*Ace Mercury* Marshmallow Knight ☆ Supermod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Southern Ontario Gender: Posts: 23,273 Thanks: 568 Thanked 3,295 Times in 1,580 Posts Blog Entries: 1	tl;dr In the earlier games, the main boss seemed more like faceless forces of nature. It was like fighting against a hurricane or beating up an asteroid. Maybe it was just a matter of poor presentation (e.g. limits on hardware specs like lack of memory), but the early series bosses had little characterization and ridiculously stupid motives; it wasn't required, though, since the spotlight was usually on the player and the player characters. I consider it a side-effect of an emerging industry and less experienced story-telling. Of the games that I've played (I, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX), villains before VI never felt evil. Kefka was pretty damned evil; he had the weakly evil emperor to contrast how much of a badass he was. He personally screwed over every one of your player characters (e.g. Cyan's family poisoned, Celes imprisoned, Terra controlled, etc.) so it was a lot more personal than "guy wants to destroy all of creation, which by the way includes stuff you like." You also get to see how his evil impacts the world, when the overworld changes from a nice green-blue to a grey slush. Sephiroth is sort of odd in that he's the product of "evil." Hojo (Mojo-Jojo) was mentioned, and in retrospect he's the most evil in the game, in that he lacks any sort of moral compass. There's a theme of being a puppet throughout the game, and I think that really defines Sephiroth's role. There's Jenova in the background controlling him, but it's sort of difficult to cast her as evil, partially because she doesn't do anything directly in the plot, partially because she is a parasite and she does this for a living (i.e. it's not personal, it's business). Most of the evil felt in the game is from Shinra itself, which is sort of controlled by Jenova, and here it starts getting all pear-shaped. Ultimecia was just confusing. Also, there's the theme in this game about questioning what is "evil" and "good"; Squall at one point thinks to himself that there is no evil and good, only different points of view. Seifer's not evil insomuch as he's an idiot. IX was a throwback to the old days of Final Fantasy, and what I remember from the plot is sort of sketchy. Kuja was a jerk, and there was some guy (Garland again?) who wanted to destroy the cosmos. I recall there wasn't a strong villain presence in this game; every now and then Kuja would come in and defeat your party (but leave you alive, for some reason).