Top Ten Final Fantasy Villains

JRPGs have had their share of great antagonists over the years, but no franchise has even come close to the gallery of rogues and villains the Final Fantasy series has assembled over the years. These characters are often the most memorable aspects of each game- whether they are clad in giant suits of armor, or with flowing locks of white hair, out to destroy the world or obtain absolute power, there is no denying that the assorted villains of Final Fantasy have made their mark on the RPG genre, and gaming as a whole. And now that the obligatory introduction is out of the way, let’s discuss ten of my favorite Final Fantasy antagonists!

Now, keep in mind two stipulations for this list. First of all, the characters I have listed are from the ‘main’ Final Fantasy series (that is to say, they can be from I-XIV, as well as X-2 and XIII-2), which unfortunately rules out some great villains from spinoff titles, such as Delita from Final Fantasy Tactics. Secondly, I will only be giving one entry on this list per game in the series, for the sake of variety. Lastly, obviously since this is a Top Ten list, a few characters (some of which may or may not be popular) will be left off, so feel free to tell me about how wrong I was later.

So, without further ado…

10- Caius Ballad (Final Fantasy XIII-2)

"I shall remember your pain. It will be carved in my heart. Together with the memories of every other Yeul, cursed to die this way."

Now, Final Fantasy XIII’s infamous sequel does have numerous faults in the narrative department, but there is one constant element that manages to salvage the whole enterprise- the villainous Caius Ballad, who made for an intimidating and memorable villain after XIII’s noticeable lack of such a character.

What makes Caius so interesting to me, aside from the fact that he can transform into Bahamut (no, seriously, he can turn into Bahamut, it’s awesome), but that his motivations were unlike any prior antagonist in the series. Caius’s ultimate goal is to destroy time itself, so that his lover, Yeul, can be freed of a curse that forces her to constantly die and be reborn. It seems that failing to protect her so many times has driven the old warrior mad, and it also creates a nice parallel between the protagonists of XIII-2, Noel and Serah. It’s honestly one of the few genuinely emotional plot points in the game.

Also, he’s voiced by Liam O’brian. Just thought I’d mention that.

9- Shuyin (Final Fantasy X-2)

"Shuyin? Just a shadow. It may look like him, but the real Shuyin died long ago. Even after a thousand years, his hate and misery linger on. His feelings grew so strong, they began to act on their own... Eventually, they became a shadow—a shade that wants only to vanish, but cannot."

Ok, just to get this out of the way, Final Fantasy X-2 is not a great game. It suffers from a seriously inconsistent tone, several plot holes, a rather ridiculous premise, and for the most part only its solid gameplay and connections with the stellar Final Fantasy X make it any more than mediocre.

So, yeah, I’m as surprised as anybody to find myself including Shuyin on this list. Still, he does make quite an impression, standing out as a tormented soul desperately trying to right the wrongs of the past. Thanks in no small part to the 1000 Words scene (one of the best parts of the game, and perhaps even in the entire series), Shuyin manages to secure the number 9 spot.

8- Emperor Mateus (Final Fantasy II)

"You have braved the bowels of Hell to reach me. But the hand of man, which deals in false justice and forsaken love, can never hope to defeat the lord master of Hell!"

Putting aside that the Emperor debuted in one of the early NES entries in the series, which was also one of the entries we didn’t get in the US until the Playstation era, and that a lot of aspects of the character (including his freaking name) were added in subsequent rereleases…

…let us consider that this man made a deal with the devil, summoned legions of demons from Hell to make his army, and when he died, he literally conquered Hell itself in order to get revenge. That’s awesome enough to give Mateus a spot on this list.

7- Vayne Solidor (Final Fantasy XII)

"Your lives are forfeit, and your insurgence along with them. Dalmasca will again know order. For good and all, I shall put your futile attempts at rebellion to an end."

Vayne is a Yasumi Matsuno villain through and through- like Delita before him, he is a cold and calculating individual who seizes great political power, yet has complex motivations. Is he just a power hungry aristocrat? Is he under the influence of the Occuria? Or does he simply want to protect his brother? He seeks to control his own destiny, but is he just a pawn in a game far beyond his comprehension?

While some of Vayne’s complexity may have been lost during Final Fantasy XII’s rocky development cycle (which led to Matsuno’s resignation from Square), he’s still one of the most unique villains in the series.

6- Sorceress Edea (Final Fantasy VIII)

“Come with me to a place of no return. Bid farewell to your childhood.”

Forget about Ultimecia- before Final Fantasy VIII’s plot went completely off the rails (and no amount of absurd fan theories can salvage it), Sorceress Edea, feared leader of the Galbadian Empire, had the spotlight as the primary antagonist, and boy did she put on a great show.

In a game with character development as problematic as Final Fantasy VIII’s, Edea manages to stand out as a uniquely intimidating villain, who ends up playing an integral role in the story. As one of the few remaining Sorceresses, she is regarded with fear and distrust by normal people, which makes her rise to power (featuring the public execution of the Galbadian president) all the more shocking to the SeeD mercenary organization. It appears that Edea has a vendetta against SeeD, and after Squall and company botch an assassination attempt, she has an excuse to make a nuclear strike against their headquarters. She’s cold, resourceful, and has the might of the Galbadian military as well as her unique magical powers behind her.  

Later, it turns out that the terrible Sorceress was once an ordinary woman who raised the main characters at an orphanage- the Edea they knew and loved is under the influence of another force. You see, there’s a sorceress from the future who wants to enact Time Compression because… you know what, screw this. If you want to know the plot of Final Fantasy VIII, play the game, because I’m not going to try to explain it here. All you need to know is that Edea is a terrific antagonist, and this makes Ultimecia’s complete derailment of the plot all the more aggravating.

5- Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

"There was one Soldier named Sephiroth, who was better than the rest, but when he found out about the terrible experiments that made him, he began to hate Shinra. And then, over time, he began to hate everything."

So… Sephiroth. Badass long coat and long silver hair. A master of the blade, the legendary SOLDIER member with a God complex. The one-winged angel himself. One of the most popular Final Fantasy villains of all time.

So, why is he only number 5 on this list?

Well, am I the only one who thinks Sephiroth’s massive popularity has more to do with the massive hit that was Final Fantasy VII, rather than any merit on the part of the character?

I mean, Sephiroth is cool and all, but disregarding his fan-service-y appearances in Crisis Core, Advent Children, and the rest of Final Fantasy VII’s expanded universe, there isn’t a whole lot to Sephiroth. He’s a sadistic madman with superhuman abilities, and he does try to drop a Meteor on the planet, but when you consider that he’s just an avatar for an alien monstrosity (Jenova) for 90% of the game, he loses a bit of his impact. Not to mention he completely upstages the Shinra Corporation guys, who were the primary antagonists at the start of the game.

Although he did kill Aeris…

…and has some of the most epic theme music of all time…

…okay, maybe Sephiroth is just popular because he’s awesome, and no amount of rational discussion can really invalidate that.

4- Golbez (Final Fantasy IV)

"Allow me to give you something—a gift, to remember our meeting by."

Golbez, to me, was one of the first truly great Final Fantasy villains. Considering that Final Fantasy IV was the game that really established the direction the series would take (i.e. story focused RPGs with denser plots and more focus on characters), it makes sense that the villain of the game would have a little more depth to him than prior antagonists.

Golbez is the mysterious man who takes command of the Red Wings after the protagonist Cecil is stripped of his command. It appears that he is manipulating the Kingdom of Baron from behind the scenes, using its military might (supplemented by his army of monsters) to conquer the surrounding nations and steal their Crystals for his own purposes. He maintains a forceful presence throughout the game- the heroes never truly defeat Golbez, and are always arriving too late to stop him, or getting their butts handed to him in due fashion. It’s only thanks to a late-game plot twist (that Golbez and Cecil are actually long-lost brothers) that he ends up joining the main characters to help combat an even more terrible threat.

Now there’s a villain for you- only exiting the stage because a Bigger Bad Guy showed up.

3- Kuja (Final Fantasy IX)

"Peace is but a shadow of death, desperate to forget its painful past... Though we hope for promising years. After shedding a thousand tears, yesterday's sorrow constantly nears. And while the moon still shines blue, by dawn, it will turn to scarlet hue!"

Not gonna lie, as divisive as he is among some Final Fantasy fans, I think Kuja is terrific. He is in the spirit of the classic Final Fantasy villains like Golbez, but invokes images of Sephiroth and Edea with his design and behavior, creating a nice mix between Old and New that is suitable for a game trying to pay homage to the legacy of the entire series. He’s smooth-talking, manipulative, and powerful, furthering Queen Brahn’s madness and profiting from her conquests. He also has a genuine character arc and develops nicely as the game progresses, which is a rarity for Final Fantasy villains.

His character design could’ve been better, certainly, but even that isn’t too egregious, as it keeps with the lighter tone of Final Fantasy IX.

2-Jecht (Final Fantasy X)

"You'll cry. You're gonna cry. You always cry, see? You're crying."

Some may question including Jecht on a ‘villains’ list, seeing as he isn’t a villain per se, but he is an unwilling antagonist, and besides, he’s on Chaos’ side in Dissidia, so there! Hmph.

Jecht is Tidus’ long-lost father, somebody Tidus regards with a combination of loneliness and loathing, borne from abandonment issues. When Tidus arrives in the world of Spira, he finds out that the reason his father disappeared was because Jecht also came to Spira, where he is remembered as a heroic Guardian. Tidus and his party also discover, to their horror, that Jecht has become the monstrous creature known as Sin.

Jecht is interesting because, as Sin, he has no control over his actions. As a person, Jecht truly loves his son and seeks to have Tidus end his misery, destroying Sin once and for all and ending the cycle of death and destruction imposed upon Spira. Jecht is technically an antagonist, but he’s a well-rounded character whose goals are beneficial, making him one of my favorite villains.

1- Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI)

"Hee, hee! Nothing can beat the sweet music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison!"

Do I even have to say it?

Final Fantasy VI is widely regarded as not only the best game in the series, but also one of the greatest RPGs ever made, period. And this is in no small part due to the actions of Kefka, the madman who leads the armies of the Gesthal Empire on their quest to gather magicite.

Kefka had had magical experiments performed on him, which are implied to be the cause of both his great power, and his madness. Thoughout the first half of FFVI, Kefka commits truly despicable acts. He poisons the water supply at Doma, killing innocent women and children, as well as Gesthal’s own POWs that were held captive there. The massacre of innocent civilians is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Kefka though.

 In one of the most famous plot twists in gaming history, Kefka becomes the first villain to actually “win”. Midway through the game, Kefka obtains the power of the Warring Triad and manages to inflict devastation upon the world and murder most of the population. The World of Ruin section of the game shows a bleak and desolate post-apocalyptic world where Kefka has risen to godhood. When the party does gather to confront him, the battle shows parallels to Dante’s Divine Comedy, where they hear the meaning of life from the lips of God Himself… but God has the leering face of Kefka, and there is no meaning to life. It is pointless to go on.

Twisted, cruel, and downright nihilistic, Kefka is assuredly the best villain Final Fantasy has ever had.