twesterm said:
Villains don't always need a lot of depth to be scary. Kefka is just pure evil (Evil doesn't need a purpose, evil is its own purpose) and he's one of the few villains that you see go from lackey to godhood in the timespan of the game. Sure, a villain who massacres a church audience because he's upset God took away his son or a villain that slaughters a family and rapes the daughter because he thought they were meant to be are both pretty scary but I'm much more afraid of the person that kills someone because it's Tuesday. |
Scary != Good villain.
Good villains need a lot to be good villains IMO. I see several important characteristics...
Backstory - A good villain should have a history that makes the villain interesting as a character and not just as a bump in the road for our heroes. Without a backstory, a villain is no more interesting than the faceless thug we killed on level 5 in a random battle.
Motivation - I really like to know what makes the enemy tick. Why are they doing what they're doing?
Actions - What actions define the villain?
Ire level - Can the villain make the player genuinely angry? Is killing/stopping the villain something that the game makes the players look forward to?
Personality - What is the villain like? What are her quirks? Her habits?
I'm sure there are more but those are a few off the top of my head. Let's look at Kefka along those dimensions...
Backstory - What was Kefka's backstory again? Lackey to Gestahl and...? I got nothing. Considering I replayed FF6 last month, this is depressing.
Motivation - He wanted to conquer the world or destroy the world simply because. Yeah, he fails motivation too.
Actions - Appear, spout one-liner, do evil thing, laugh maniacally, leave. That was almost all he ever did. He was true to form. He'll at least get a 50% for consistency.
Ire level - The closest I ever got to disliking Kefka was for killing Leo but then I realized that Leo had maybe 5 scenes in the entire game and I didn't care about him at all. Kefka can get 10% for one noteworthy act and another 50% of the whole I'm going to destroy debacle that created the World of Ruin.
Personality - He didn't have one. Being the cliche, stereotypical evil baddie was the level of depth for Kefka. He fails this too.
If you want to see a truly awesome villain, look at Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2. He was on a whole other level and he craps on just about every villain ever dreamt up. He's one of the epitomes of a great villain IMO.
