By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
twesterm on 13 April 2008
Edit Thread
Words Of Wisdom said:
twesterm said:
Words Of Wisdom said:
twesterm said:

The game has quite possible the best villain ever.


If you're referring to Kefka, I actually think he was one of the worst parts of Final Fantasy VI because he was a walking cliche with zero character depth.


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 a 60% for one noteworthy act.

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.


 Backstory - He was a genetic experiment gone bad.  The expirements fucked with his head and made him bat-shit insane.  Also, he has that evil for the sake of being evil.  Someone going on a rampage because they don't like Mondays may not be scary to you, but it's pretty frightening to me.  Difference of opinion I suppose.

Motivation - Part 1 -- gain power.  Part 2 -- create a monument to nothing.  Motivation doesn't have to be overly complex to be good, sometimes simple works just as well. 

Actions - Well lets see.  He poisoned an entire nation because he was impatient.  He seriously fucked with Celes and all her trust issues.  He more or less ended a race (espers).  He back stabbed his boss.  He destroyed and sucked the life out of the world.  He reshaped the world.  It took 13, not three, people to bring him down.  He killed general Leo.  The list goes on.

Ire Level - look above, you can have him for just about any of those.

Personality - True, not much personality other than being a psycho clown but like I said, he didn't need it.