TOP 5 Best Villains in Final Fantasy Games

[Zora]

Hey, some of us haven't quite beat X here

Anyways, for me, Kuja and Kefka are honestly the only main villains I liked. Kuja had a motive and was largely developed, so you could empathize with him. Most of the other villains (Ultimecia, Garland, and Ex-Deaths to name a few) just never had that development. Kefka is just plain crazy, and I like that.

As far as secondary villains go? Well, we have Cid from Final Fantasy XII, another crazy pal of ours. There was also Gilgamesh from FFV, who was just plain awesome But that's about it really. Honestly, villains haven't exactly been the series' strong point. Its more of, he's EV1lL and you must stop him.

[Laddy]

Kefka, Kuja, Sephiroth, Golbez, and Jecht in no real order.-

[The Man]

1. Kefka
2. Kuja
3. Ultros
4. Gilgamesh
5. Golbeza

[Jessweeee♪]

I don't think he quite understood the Aeon's role in everything

[Dreddz]

Top 5 eh.....

1. Cid (FFXII)
2. Kuja
3. Sephiroth
4. Hojo
5. Kefka

[reinward]

i can only comment on the games ive played which would be VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII in which case it would be...

1. kuja
2. seymour
3. president rufus
4. vayne
5. sephiroth

i agree with vivisteiner about seymour. he was damn creepy

[Rocket Edge]

Some of you need to give this guy a break.

Mine:

1. Sephiroth
2. Edea
3. Kuja
4. Kefka
5. Jecht

[Forsaken Lover]

Wow. Who knew anyone actually liked Zeromus, let alone considered him one of FF's best villains. It was always my impression FFIV fans would rather he not exist and Golbez be the real villain.

Also I am happy at all the mentions of Kuja in the lists in this thread.

I think Gabranth was the best character in 12 but while he was an antagonist, he wasn't really a villain IMO. Maybe barely one but not very evil or sinister.

Cid was the best villain in XII as he was FF's best example of a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

[razorrozar7]

I'm going from the ones I've played, so some may be left out that should be here, like Ultros or Exdeath, but...

5. Kefka. So... friggin... annoying.
4. Genesis. Just... because.
3. Sephiroth. He's evil. He's insane. And... he's DEAD.
2. Vayne Solidor. Killed his brothers, killed his father, tried to SUCK OUT THE LIFE of his only remaining brother just to defeat the party...
1. Jenova. Destroys planets for no apparent reason. What is more evil than that?

[Jaffer]

1. Sephiroth
2. Kuja
3. Kefka
Top 3 were very close together, no other main villain came even close to invoking the scene of danger that these three did.
4. Golbez
Despite not being a main villain, Golbez makes a good attempt, the music the feats, character death (or at least departures from your crew whenever he showed up) he had you running.
5. Edea
Yes Edea, seducing Seifer to her side, mindcontrolling Rinoa, thrusting an icepick into Squalls chest whn he confronted her, she had *****ing scenes.

In my mind nobody comes close to these five.

[Stecloud]

1) Sephiroth - just because of the mystique that was built up around him, before you finally SEE him upon leaving Midgar. Am I the only one who imagined Sephiroth to be wearing a blue Shinra uniform?

2) Kefka - Never actually completed FFVI, but Kefka is so wonderfully insane, he had to feature highly.

3) Kuja - Again, bit of a mad-head. Poetic as well. I liked him

4) Seymour - A good villain, but his voice used to annoy me.

5) Edea - I know she was being controlled by Ultimecia (would have been better if she wasn't), but it was nice to have a pure evil, female villain. She (nor Ultimecia) had no motive whatsoever, mind.

[Sefie1999AD]

I thought the list was quite... strange. Here's mine:

1) Kuja (FFIX)
I'd put Magus here if Chrono Trigger was one of the series.
2) Sephiroth (FFVII)
3) Golbez (FFIV)
4) Gilgamesh (FFV)
5) Vayne (FFXII)

Interestingly, if I had to write a list of Top 5: Worst villains in the FF series, #1 would also start with 'K', and #2 with 'S'.

[Seboist]

1. Kefka
2. Ultimecia
3. Emperor Mateus
4. Shuyin
5. Adel

[Bolivar]

I thought the list was quite... strange. Here's mine:

1) Kuja (FFIX)
I'd put Magus here if Chrono Trigger was one of the series.
2) Sephiroth (FFVII)
3) Golbez (FFIV)
4) Gilgamesh (FFV)
5) Vayne (FFXII)

Interestingly, if I had to write a list of Top 5: Worst villains in the FF series, #1 would also start with 'K', and #2 with 'S'.

lol

1. Gabranth
2. Gilgamesh (V)
3. Garland (SPOILER)FFIX
4. Emperor Ghastra
5. Xande (humanity)

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who did a double take on this guy saying the Aeons were the actual villains.

Also he sure spends a considerable amount of time explaining why Kefka has always been better than Sephiroth instead of saying why he's the #1 villain in a series of 13 main installments. Also, saying Sephiroth is a rip-off of Kefka is nonsensical to the point of mental erosion. Speaking of nonsensical:

The biggest and most successful element in Final Fantasy VI, and the one thing that Square-Enix has since tried to replicate and/or spin-off successfully (and has often failed at doing) is the villain that ruined the world where every other Final Fantasy villain -- and most fictional villains in general -- has failed.

1. "element" is too general for his meaning, 2. he's trying to say Kefka's the only one and simultaneously says SE has tried to replicate and "spin-off" 3. "spin-off" isn't the best word to use here 4. he means whereas instead of where, 5. "every other final fantasy villain" and "most fictional villains in general" are bad to put together because one should be "has failed" and the other "have failed."

For such a scholar he's a terrible writer. It's also hard to understand why people think Kefka's greatness is attributable to his responsibility for archs within the story. In general, that has no bearing as to the merits of how well the character is portrayed. But specifically, Shinra ruined the world just as geographically as he did, but there was also a socio-economic element to it, and they even destroyed cultures replacing the names of towns to numbers of slums. Part of the reason why later games like VII had multiple dimensions to their plot elements (whereas VI barely scrapes out one) is because of the extent of which the story was fleshed out. This lack of breadth in the script also carries over into why Kefka is such a bad villain to begin with. He has an almost non-existent back story, very few lines, and the lines he actually has are poorly expressed.

It's ironic that fans make arguments on story elements like "best villain" championing a game that hardly has any story at all.

[Elskidor]

1. Kefka - Truly psychotic villain, with some of the most memorable scenes in FF history. Anyway, he's the only one the managed to destroy and take over the world.

2. Jecht - Never took him seriously really, but reminds me of my friends Dad: An uneducated redneck that somehow got mixed into some really weird time and place and somehow became larger than life. Funny character.

3. Golbez - Really feel the threat of Golbez every time he comes into the story, and his music is just awesome. In the end he's not really the ultimate baddie, but for the majority of the game it's Golbez you fear.

4. Hojo - Shinra, President Rufus, and the Turks are all in the same family tree but I'll just give this reward to Hojo since the mad scientist is the craziest and most wicked. Have always liked is dialog.

5. Ultros - Like Jecht, Ultros has comical value and after all he is Octopus royalty.