First of all, do NOT say sephiroth. I know he's all cool and shtuff, but I'd think hes a bit overrated.
But he IS cool, dont get me wrong.

But I mean i always thought all the other bad guys were cool too yknoe?

Ill give you guys a few.
Seymour, i mean, this guy is cool, although he creeps me out...
There's Ultimecia, she's kinda weird. And there's the Adel lady too.
Seifer and his groupies are kinda cool too yknoe?
there's Jecht , he's KINDA cool.

Yknoe there's alot we never really think of,
so if u can think of more i mean thats cool.

The greatest main villain of all time is hands down, Kefka. I've explicitly stated previously in multiple places why I think so, and I really don't have the time or desire to post it again... so I'm just gonna say, play Final Fantasy VI and you'll see what I mean.

However, for villains that aren't the main villains, Golbez and his crew from Final Fantasy IV stand out. Kain and the four elemental masters (Milon, Cagnazzo, Vavalis, and Rubicant) play a great underdog to the villain that really wasn't.

Can anyone who played the game forget the first match against Rubicant? Or for that matter, the final showdown with the elemental masters? *Those* were battles.

I haven't been able to get behind any villain in the later games (largely because I really couldn't get behind the games themselves, but that's another story entirely). It will always go back to the villains of the hallowed old school for me. They are what I grew up with and what defined "villainy" for me.

Additionally, Garland will knock you all down.

This post is VERY long, and i put a LOT of thought into it because villains are a huge part of games. So, if you're a hardcore Final Fantasy fan, or at least have played nearly all of them, I HIGHLY recommend you read all of it. If you've only played 1 or 2 games and didn't like it, don't waste your time haha, because this is an analysis of all the Final Fantasy villains and why they ALL suck except for a couple. So if you disagree that nearly all the villains suck, then read this.


One thing that I absolutely FLAME Square for, is their lack of creation and depth to their villains. Nearly every large villain is "controlled" by someone or something, and they have no real sympathetic background.

<u>Final Fantasy 1</u>: Garland is the embodiement of Chaos, created to be the host of Chaos to get the Four Fiends to the future. Garland is some unsuspecting warrior who has this taken upon him, and the fiends have no real motivation to destroy everything.
<u>Final Fantasy 4</u>: Golbez is controlled by Zemus because the's an easy host, since he's a lunarian.
<u>Final Fantasy 7</u>: Sephiroth is in a sense "controlled" by Jenova, but there is debate that he's overcome this control with some side effects, but nonetheless. So in one theory he's contorlled, in another he's not. Nonetheless, it's the fact that Square gave us that option to believe it.
<u>Final Fantasy 8</u>: Edea is controlled by Ultimecia. Which leads to Rinoa being controlled. Which ultimately just leads up to Ultimecia.
<u>Final Fantasy 9</u>: Kuja is used by Garland to wreak havoc till Zidane reaches maturity (Although Kuja does have some depth to him in the end)
<u>Final Fantasy 10</u>: Jecht becomes the Final Aeon, which Yu Yevon then controls to become the new Sin.
<u>Final Fantasy 12</u>: The Occuria possess Dr. Cid.

The other flaw is that most of the REAL villains, aka the controllers, have no motive for their actions except to destroy the world for no good reason:

The four fiends, Exdeath, Jenova, Ultimecia, Necron are all examples.

I actually can't say anythign about Kefka because it's the only FF I haven't played, but I've heard that he's an amazing villain, i just hate the idea of an evil "clown". I've read up on him a bit, and I LOVE his development about how he was beaten as a child and raised with evil intentions (Much like Luca Blight, who I regard as a great villain). And I LOVE how comes to the conclusion of nihilism. But I can't STAND the fact that he decides that since life is meaningless he must destroy it all. I just don't see the logical connection between the two. But hell, I give him more props than most FF villains.


That being said, what "good villains" are there then according to my FF games?:

Zemus: Wants to kill the people of Earth so Lunarians can inhabit the planet. That's a reasonable motive, he wants to conquer for his own people. It's war.

Yu Yevon: Although I said earlier that he possesses the Final Aeon, thus creating Jecht/Sin not a good villain, he DOES create Sin originally for a GOOD reason. People were using Machina as weapons to slaughter others in war. So he created Sin to destroy cities that grew technologically so he could prevent the rise of technology. That's a pretty good motive I'd say.

Vayne Solidor: Disagrees that Archadia should resort to negotiations as opposed to their tried-and-true theory of aggression and war. Upset that the consul wants Larsa instead of him, he kills his father to take the throne, in an attempt to become the new Dynast King so that he can unite all of Ivalice under him. When the Sun-Cyst is destroyed, he uses the myst to absorb it into himself thus becoming his final forms in a final attempt to rule all of Ivalice.

Delita: Yep. Delita is a villain. But is he? He did SO much wrong. He kidnaps Ovelia for Dycedarg. BUT, he's a SPY for Dycedarg and betrays him. Retakes Ovelia and brings her to Goltana. Creates friction between Goltana and his general T.G. Cid. THEN he's assigned by the Glabados church to kill Goltana. Not only that, but he says T.G. Cid is the murderer, then kills the "decoy" T.G. Cid so that he can help Ramza defeat the Lucavi. Hence, Delita was using Ramza to defeat the church and the Lucavi so Delita could take power of it all. AND, Ultimately, in the end, He ends up KILLING Ovelia when she tries to murder him first.

Sooo.... I'd say Delita is a villain right?? But, no. He did all this to quell all the power struggles and unite all of Ivalice under him, which he succeeded in. Then, he went on to lead a successful Kingship providing peace. Which is WHY, Delita is THE best villain in ALL of Final Fantasy. He does SO much wrong and manipulated people for nearly the entire game, yet his intentions are good, because he believes the Ends justify the Means. He wants to ultimately unite Ivalice and bring peace, no matter what he has to do in the process.

And THAT is what a good villain is. Somebody who you symapthize with becuase of their affliction and past, understanding how they came to be the person they are now. Because, as Squall says in FF8 (paraphrased), there is no right and wrong, only difference of opinion. And this is SO true. THAT is what makes a good villain.


To compare to other video game/anime villains that I consider great (Albeit none as great as Delita). Jowy. Basically the same plight as Delita, he's an anti-hero. Luca Blight, although bloodthirsty, he's tormented by his childhood when he saw his mother get raped while his father ran off and did nothing, and now he wants to conquer all the lands by any means necessary. Lust, Wrath, and Envy from Full Metal Alchemist are great villains. Lust wants to kill all the people to make the philosopher stone so she can become human again. Wrath wants nothing more than to reclaim is body and be with his true mother. And Envy wants to get revenge on Hohenheim for creating him and abandoning him. Harle from Chrono Cross for using Lynx to release the dragons and bring back the Time Devourer.

All these villains I just listed have a sympathetic depth to them that MOST Final Fantasy characters lack. Sephiroth had the potential to become a GREAT in depth villain, driven mad by his knowledge that he's a monster, created by experiments, not ever having real parents, upset by (Crisis Core Spoiler ahead) The loss of his two best friends Angeal and Genesis. But it just loses it all because it's revealed Sephiroth read incorrect information about Jenova being the Cetra, so when he (should have) found out that she's nothing but an alien lifeform trying to destroy everything, he shoulda snapped out of it. And he had a chance to redeem himself in Advent Children by coming back, but declared that he still wants to destroy the planet with "Mother" so that they can travel the galaxy destroying things.


Therefore, in conclusion (I know, finally, right?). IMO, the best villain is Delita. And the second best is Vayne.

YES, I said it. Vayne. I HATED his development and had NO aura as a "villain", but his acts and motives are DEFINITELY deeper than people give him credit for. He believes in violence to solve things (Which is a reasonable thing to believe, because it HAS worked in the past). Has killed both his older brothers for conspiracies to dethrone his father. And has a good motive for trying to become the Dynast King and killing his father, because he loves Larsa and protects him, but he wanted to unite Ivalice himself. (Reminds me a little of Sialeeds from SuikV, but she was more of a protagonist than Vayne was).


But yeha.. Delita.

Hm. Agreed. His role as the main villain kind of came out of nowhere, but I love Kefka for his comic relief, insanity, and the fact that he's really probably the most successful villain to date in the FF series. (After all, he did technically destroy the world and become the god of it.) As a matter of fact, I kind of respect him for that last note. (Even if he is just a video game character. ^^; )

And now that you mention it, and I think about it, Golbez and the four elemental fiends really were some pretty great enemies. I think I'll have to agree with you fully on this, haha.

But, of course, let's not forget Ultros.

Hahah Kefka again. Too bad we didn't make a poll for this topic, maybe an admin can edit it and throw one in.

I see your points on Kefka, after reading up on his background more indepth online, I can see why you guys really love Kefka, and I can sympathize with you on that. Beaten as a child, raised as a genius, graduated at the top of his academy, appointed commander of armies, sets Edgar's entire castle on fire, and ultimately does destroy the world and become God of it.

Excellent background and progression. We're shown how he goes from collected young man, to just SNAPPING one day due to his past events. So I like the progression and background, but there area couple things that irk me...

His insanity is said to be caused by infusing the power to use magic. I like it, but it kinda detracts from his overall character. It reminds me of Seph how he snapped becase of some other control. Like, it's not necessarily of his own WILL that he becomes who he is, it's some fantasy magic concept.

Then in the end, he absorbs all the magic of the world and becomes its source of power and becomes a God. Yeah that's pretty damn impressive for a villain, but I've finally realized why I don't like Kefka as much as Delita or Vayne still:

Because his villainy is built up by fantasy ideas. What I mean by that, is that the concept of "magic" is how he becomes such a strong villain, and magic is imaginary/fantasy based, and I don't find that all that appealing. Now I know, it's called Final FANTASY, and there's of course Fantasy involved with magic, I don't mind having magic and abstract powers in the game, but when its those factors that create/change a character, I don't really give it that much credit.

it's not like he came to the realization on his OWN or his free will, it was dictated by the influence of magic, and he ultimately gains power due to magic.

As opposed to Delita and Vayne, who don't rely on anything like that to gain power or achieve goals. Vayne doesn't have any real character CHANGE, but Delita does. Delita stats off as this degraded adopted peasant always manipulated by the upper class. And when his sister is killed, he finally decides to stop being manipulated and take control.

Like, there's something TANGIBLE there that created his change, not something like magic. And his actions and goals were something tangible (Not becoming God of the world), but uniting Ivalice under his rule (Much like Vayne's, although Vayne's is much less inspiring and large/complicated).

So, I still stick with Delita as the best FF villain (And best villain of all time from any game I've played)

Favourite villain, Luca Blight hands down. Laguna, stop blasphemising that Delita is better than Luca, you know it isn't true. =P
The only problem that Luca Blight lacked, was a good supporting crew. Solon Jhee and Rowd really effed things up and only Culgan and Seed were promising and loyal followers.

Hahah good call Pesemerga, too bad it's the FF villain topic

BUT.... man who's better.... I give Luca to props as one of my favorite villains of all time in an earlier post. But compared to Delita?? That IS a toughie.... I gotta say Delita still though, just because his story is so much more ingenious, and cause half of Luca's almightiness comes from the Beast Rune. Nobody is as ruthless or bloodthirsty or cruel as Luca (Die Pig! I'll never forget.) BUT, Delita still kills LOADS of people as an assassin, and does eventually kill Ovelia (who he DID fall in love with). So it shows that his power comes before his heart. Definitely a toughie, but they're both astounding for different reasons.

AND, Luca Blight ultimately gets killed. Delita never does . Delita succeeds in every aspect of his plan and reaps the benefits of it. Luca never controls all of the nation and put down all his enemies.

That is not a proven fact that Delita survives as he seems to get stabbed as well. (or maybe it is, I'm not quite to the end of War of the Lions, so I guess that scene will probably be an FMV, so I'll see then)

I do agree with you though, Delita is a really good villain (although if this were of all time, I may have said Albedo from Xenosaga or Miang from Xenogears). He has a good story, and his rise through the ranks from a mere peasant to king of Ivalice shows that he is powerful (and manipulative). Basically, I agree with everything you just said.

Good point, but I'm pretty sure Delita lives for a couple of reasons:



This is rather ambiguous, but this is in the epilogue. The term "years later" implies more than 2-3 years, and it took him 5 years to compile all the information. And no big deal so far right? BUT, it says: Prince Clemence's meeting when new possessor of the throne is to be selected. So I guess it can be assumed that Delita eventually in years DOES die, but not immediately.

AND the other ambiguous thing is the final scene after the credits. We don't know when THAt takes place either. It could be 2-5 years after the disappearance of Ramza for all we know, but the bottom line, is that if Delita DOES die, then it wasn't immediately after the end of the game.

So I could argue that Delita does live for a decent period as king even IF it's declard he died (which its not proven for or against).

Yeah, I've seen the argument go both ways (although your point gives considerable evidence that he does live for a while) but I guess (I really hope) that I'll see for sure at the end of War of the Lions, so if I finish it today (I'm on the last set of missions, but being distracted by Mario Galaxy), I'll tell you what actually goes down in that scene. Although, I think they may not make it clear whether he lives or dies, because its also possible that the creators made the scene how it was on purpose so gamers can make a decision on their own.

Another thing that COULD have happened (although I obviously don't know for sure) is that Ovelia and Delita killed each other, and while waiting for Clemence (I assume that hes the 3 year old heir to the throne during the game) to come of age to take the throne, during which time Ivalice is ruled by, say a governor of some sorts, which could be about 8 to 10 years (or however long you said). Of course, if Clemence isn't the person that I'm thinking of, then that blows my theory away anyway.

haha no that's not Clemence that's Prince Orinas. But good thinking anyways.

For all we know, Prince Clemence could be a son that Delita and Ovelia had that we never saw lol

First since everyone keeps on talking about Kefka let me state this, I never knew Kefka was a guy.... well until i played the playstation version and saw a movie then it was clear it was a guy. You know now that i think about it he seems kinda like a how do i put it... wrong with that weird clown outfit and makeup.

Also as for my favorite villan has to be Jecht because i could never defeat him in the game... EVER!

Ah yes, thats Orinas, I was thinking Orinas was his last name though, so I got confused.

Also, the rest of my post has major FFT spoilers, so don't read it if you haven't beaten it yet or if you care about the story.

On another note going back to the whole Delita thing, I just beat War of the Lions and it turns out, the didn't make that scene an FMV (slight disappointment), so you still can't really tell what happens, except since they put the blood back in the game (I really don't remember being that much blood, if any in the original game) so theres clearly blood on Delita's knife, after Ovelia does whatever it is she does, Delita stabs her and is then holding his stomach, limping over to another part of the area, and crouches down, suggesting that he is hurt (especially since I highly doubt a punch from Ovelia would hurt him through his armor).

On another note, the new translation of the game finally makes what Delita says at the end make sense. In the new translation, he says (paraphrase) "Ramza, have you met your ends? This is mine." (referring somewhat to a conversation the two of them had earlier in the game where Delita says that he and Ramza ultimately have the same goal, but different means of reaching it.) Which makes the suggestion that Delita knows that he is about to die OR he will fall into some trouble because of Ovelia's death.

On yet another note, I think the reason that the final scene wasn't made an FMV is because the gamer is supposed to make the decision whether or not Delita dies.

First of all, did he specifically asked for Final Fantasy villains? Nope, he didn't. Now, here comes the comment that you'll say that this is the Final Fantasy forum, which I counter with that you dropped the name first.

Second, what makes death a bad thing in a villain? In the end, all villains get the punishment they deserve. Why, 'good' will always defeat 'bad'.
A tragic death, or a hard fought battle is often a sign of the power that the villain wields.
You played Suikoden II and you know how tough Luca Blight was, needing 18 characters to injure him to take him on a one to one fight, where he can still kill you in 2 turns.
The amount of people that got killed by Luca's action, villages that got burned, capital that got sacrificed for summoning the White Wolf Rune, his father he plotted to get killed. I mean, nothing more that you can ask from a villain, other than a reason, which is explained as well.

Luca was also never looking for a benefit, all he wanted was to eliminate the City-State. That was his goal. He had one disadvantage and that was Leon Silverburg plotting his death.
Striking fear is what does best, if the villain were a good and proper villain. I think Luca does an amazing job at striking fear.

Y'all are forgeting Seymour >8O

LOL and I agree, Luca Blight IS the best villain of all time. Bravo.

Completely agreed Pes. Luca does it all and ur right, he strikes fear in people that Delita doesn't even come close to, so I guess you could DEFINITELY argue Luca is a better villain.

And ur right, death isn't a bad thing for a villain. I was just pointing out how what makes Delita so great in my eyes, is that he's never caught with all that he did, he ultimately succeeded in a way that most villains don't. But you're right, death doesn't really have anything to do with what makes a good villain, I was just using it was a point as to why Delita's story is so much more... whats the word... Exciting? Just because he succeeds in it all.

Part of it is how we both define good villains too. I think striking fear is one aspect of a villain, but what I like to see more is like, another motive, or another side to things. Like, how something may seem so wrong, but when looking at it closer, ur not really sure.

Delita made me think about things more carefully than Luca, another reason why I still stick with Delita.


@ Grahf


Glad I got the translation, but I think you've slightly misinterpreted it. Delita is summarized by the maxim "The Ends justify the Means". Where Means is equivalent to the events that happen, and the Ends is the ultimate result, or when all is said and done.

So when he says, Ramza have you met your ends? He's asking if Ramza completed his goal. And when he says, "This is mine". I don't think he literally means "This is my end." I think he means, "This is where I've ended up". Slightly ashamed and angry that he just killed someone he loved.

Yeah, I realize that he doesn't literally mean that this is the end of his life, but I interpreted as Delita asking if Ramza got the outcome he wanted, and by "This is mine", I figured Delita meant something like "this is what I got for my path" in a sort of "are you happy now?" kind of tone, referring to all his manipulation as paying off through his own death. It's hard to really describe how I interpreted it, but I think thats the best way of doing it, but I feel like if we continue this discussion, we should make a new topic.

Nope, just researched it:



I gotta dig up my book right now, but I knew that he had a peaceful rule for some time, which is why i loved him so much, cause like I said, he succeeded. So no, id be my money that he doesnt die.

But this is in the FF section. lol

Anyway, best villain... well to be perfectly honest, I think the FF series has some trouble of keeping their villains consistant.

Kefka was at first very passionate in his persiut of Terra, and his crazy way to go about it was awesome. Then he turned into a mindless drone with no "reason" for wanting to destroy... other than just wanting to destroy. That's great... if he wasnt the main villain where you'd like to have some sort of confrontation in the end with the one you've been fighting all along. Instead it felt like I was fighting "nothing". No explanation, no anything. Come on, you can be a bit more imaginary than that, Square.

Sephiroth... he looked cool. He killed a flowergirl. He burned down a village. And he steaked a giant snake.
Well honestly, he did have great potential as a villain that I could respect, but unfortunitely the villain part of his character was greatly underdeveloped. A lot of it needed explanation.

Seifer was a great rival and nemesis for Squall, in pretty much every way right down to their love interest and position in Garden. But he never became a real villain in my eyes because he was controlled by someone else. Even if he let himself be controlled, kind of like Vegeta does in the final arch of DBZ, it's still not enough for me when characters act on someone elses accord like that.

Ultimecia, well in one way she felt like a villain that popped up out of nowhere. On the other hand if you think back, she really was there every step of the way, pulling the strings. And I have to admit that I do appreciate a bit of a different take on a villain like that. I think it was pretty interesting in fact. What I don't like though is how increadibly underdeveloped she was after you started to confront her directly. Almost nothing is known about her, and I think that's her greatest flaw, because she had a lot of potential. If she was developed propely I'd no doubt be calling her my favorite FF villain right about now.

Kuja was a pretty consistant and classic villain though. I don't think he suffered from any development problems like the ones above, or that his role was missplaced in any way. He had the villain spot light pretty early on and kept it that way until the end. I think it's just a questoion of if you like him or not. And while I did like his "I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well take all of you with my" way of thinking, I have a hard time saying that he's my favorite villain. It just doesn't roll well off my tongue. Maybe it's because my overall feelings for FF9 are like that as well. I really like the game, but there's "something about it..." which I can't really put my finger on.

As for Seymour, he was in the game known for it's terrible voice acting and voice actors by many people. And Seymour was no exception. He sounded like he had something stuck in his throat all the time, and quite a contrast to the villainy voice of his original Japanese voice actor. I was annoyed by his ugly voice, and I didn't think he was an interesting villain even story wise.

Yu Yevon I guess you could concider a villain, but he only had Kefka's bad points. The mindless destruction. But at least Yu Yevon had his reasons for doing it originally. Still, not very interesting.

Delita was a fallen angel type. Former friend and shared a bond with the main character. I like those kind of villains the most. And he was pretty cunning in his quest for power. But for some reason I wasn't particularly fond of Delita.


So in conclusion, I don't think I have a favorite villain in the FF games.

Yep, Athrun just summed up basically all my thoughts from earlier. FF villains lack any real motives or detail behind their actions. At least he conceded Delita is his type of villain, although his reasons for not liking him are more based off gut feeling hehe

Usually when I think of my favorite FF villain, I always come to a halt at Kuja. Between his monologues and the realization of his mortality (however destructive), I admired him more as the game carried on. I've yet to play through III and XII, but if I had to choose one, Kuja would be the closest at this point.

And ol' man Trema:

I'm gonna just list because I have to go to work soon so I dont have time to get in detail.

FF1: Garland not bad for FFs first
FF4: Golbez really cool guy, lots of secrets
FF5: Would be X-Death but Gilgamesh is way cooler
FF6: Kefka, even does become mindless, you think of him as becoming that corrupted with evil
FF7: Sephiroth duh, but Hojo is quite a bit of evil if you ask me. The Turks are interesting
FF8: Seifer, not a big fan of the villians in this game; Adel might be a better choice
FF9: Kuja, if you can get into that much, that game was long and I got distracted from Kuja a lot
FF10: Yeh Seymour, he was at least better than Jecht
FFX-2: LeBlanc is fun that's all I'm gonna say
FF12: Vayne did pull it off, not as well as others but he did
FFT: Delita, some of the best character development ever

Other Games:

Xenogears: Ramsus & Miang, both are interesting in their own ways
Grahf, many revelations

Xenosaga: without question Albedo or Margulis
Suikodens: Luca Blight & Jowy, Gizel Godwin, Yuber
Tales: Dhaos(he's pretty evil), so far the 5 Tales of Abyss bad guys, Tales of Destiny...Leon
Chrono Trigger: Queen Zeal
Chrono Cross: Lynx & Harle
Legend of Dragoon: Lloyd
Lunar: Galleon
Wild Arms: Zeikfried
There was some other good one I thought of but have now forgotten