Final Fantasy Villains

[Meggiepants]

I think Sephiroth gets a little more depth if you play through Crisis Core - but, that being said, I don't think there are many FF villains or heroes who are particularly well fleshed out. FFVII suffers from far too many plot twists, a problem with any dramatic setting that lasts 40 hours. How do you keep your audience interested? Make a twist!

Because of that, I think so much of the game is spent on tricking you at who the villain is, in order to keep the game interesting, that character consistency often suffers as a result. That's when you have a situation like Sephiroth taking a right turn in character development; because it's shocking.

Many of these long RPG games have this problem, and I think that's also why sometimes you get these overly simplistic villains, like Ultimecea. The story is easier to follow and the villain is easier to hate. Even so - VIII has the same problems as VII. Wait? We all grew up in the same orphanage? What?

In any case, bad villains won't stop me from playing these games. I kind of enjoy joking with my friends about all the insane plot twists. Sometimes the bad villains, like Sephiroth, make for the best laughs post game.

 

[Dragonpit]

Well...I haven't beaten Final fantasy VIII, but in Dissidia, Ultimecia claimed she wanted to create a pocket of time, forever looping and eliminating both past and the future simultaneously. She claimed it was better because it removed the suffering caused by both. I don't know if this was ever expressed in any way in FFVIII, though.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Well...I haven't beaten Final fantasy VIII, but in Dissidia, Ultimecia claimed she wanted to create a pocket of time, forever looping and eliminating both past and the future simultaneously. She claimed it was better because it removed the suffering caused by both. I don't know if this was ever expressed in any way in FFVIII, though.

It is, but it's still a little bit odd. It's basically the same as Sephiroth's "Destroy everything on the planet" deal, only she wants the whole universe and her reasons aren't for revenge. She simply wants to become God. I don't see why people have such a hard time understanding that. Her methods are crazy and convoluted, but there are plenty of villains who want to do what she's doing.

 

[Chibz]

I always liked the gay clown you fought in FF6.

 

[Dragonpit]

Well...I haven't beaten Final fantasy VIII, but in Dissidia, Ultimecia claimed she wanted to create a pocket of time, forever looping and eliminating both past and the future simultaneously. She claimed it was better because it removed the suffering caused by both. I don't know if this was ever expressed in any way in FFVIII, though.

It is, but it's still a little bit odd. It's basically the same as Sephiroth's "Destroy everything on the planet" deal, only she wants the whole universe and her reasons aren't for revenge. She simply wants to become God. I don't see why people have such a hard time understanding that. Her methods are crazy and convoluted, but there are plenty of villains who want to do what she's doing.

Well, no. I get that, but it's being made out by Square-Enix that becoming God was just a stepping stone, not the ultimate goal. It was with Sephiroth, sure, but it was just a means to an end for Ultimecia. Therein lies the difference.

Oh, and Sephiroth wasn't out for revenge. He in the end just believed that Jenova was superior. In Dissidia, Kefka described him as "just another sadist with a god complex." Sephiroth was just endeavoring to finish his mother's work as a form of genocide.

But then, I guess it is a bit hard to understand. We're talking about the games without voice acting. It's hard to convey proper emotion through text alone, which could've made some difference in the showing of the story.

 

[Nieroshai]

The way I see it about Sephiroth, Crisis Core shows him starting to hate Shin-Ra for their experiments and brooding over it until he discovers Jenova. Now, my theory is that this close proximity to Jenova by someonee with her cells in him is what sparked the Reunion event. I believe it was Jenova herself who was slowly driving Sephiroth mad and feeding him suggestions. Then he stumbles on "revelations" that humanity destroyed the forerunners, whatever Aerith is the last of, I forget the name. Now, in his hypnotically-weakened state, he starts to believe he is an Ancient, and it's his duty to avenge the genocide of his people. Therefore, killing spree. He even acts hypnotized in Jenova's chamber and doesn't remember Zack. I think the fake Sephiroths are actually vessels of Sephiroth's mind, mostly because they exhibit the same madness as him and one literally goes nuts in the Black Materia pyramid.
As I said, his motivations make sense to him both because of Jenova's hold over him due to the Reunion effect(weaker than it is later in-game because he isn't IN the Lifestream yet to spread her signal) and because he believes the lies about Jenova being an Ancient and humanity the reason for their death. So he's not an evil masterind at all, just a vengeful pawn of Jenova. This makes him decent in that he does make sense. Unlike the Order of Yevon.

 

[Jennacide]

I'd like to state that Sephiroth isn't a "bad" villian in the sense of poorly crafted, just a shitty and generic one. There can be "bad" villians that are still great, look at Kefka. His motivation is extremely shallow, but he's also great because he is just batshit crazy. Or another awesome example, Luca Blight from Suikoden 2. He's a fucking monster, and his little that motivates him to do so. But he's an amazing villian because of how he does the evil he does.

The true villian in FFX was Seymour Gaudo, who was actually a pretty good villian, though I'd wager people with argue with me on that. He knew what he wanted, he was manipulative, vindictive, and stepped on anyone that got in his way. He made public displays to try and make the people of Spira think highly of him, even while he was using the anima of his tortured mother. And much like Luca Blight, the little bastard just outright refused to die, and not in the lame cheesy way of older games. In Seymour's case, they were all perfectly valid methods of escaping death that the game world had explained to you before they turned up. In Luca's case, he was just made of fucking steel and murder, and had rape for dinner.