Lack of real "bad guy" presence

[Squall of SeeD]

I guess one other key word that I missed out of my first post that is equally important to 'presence' would be 'depth' - I found the only bad guy in this game with any depth was Seifer, and they ruined that one by having him live and be happy and dandy at the end of it. Which was okay, but it meant that the only enemy with any depth was actually a good guy in the end anyway - where's the fun in that? Need more character depth! What was her background story? Her reason for taking over the world? Such a one dimensional bad guy it's insane. Sin at least had a twist to his story. But Ulti? She, uh, wanted to take over time. Reason? Pshaw! Who needs reason!

This is why I loved Sephiroth. Now that was depth and presence more than anything else. But yeah, Ulti really needed a lot of reworking, in my opinion.

When examining her in light of every other story, she might seem a little lacking in depth, but when examining her in the context of her own story (it taking concepts from the Fairy Tale formula of the beautiful perfect princess (Rinoa) and the evil Witch who is evil pretty much for the sake of it (Ultimecia)) I think it works wonderfully.

[crazybayman]

Its true, they don't portray much depth into Ultimecia's character.

Yes you know she's there, as later in the game you find out that Edea was being controlled by her. However, they don't develop the character Ultimecia, as they do Sephiroth, for instance. From the beginning, you get to know Sephiroth, and he eventually takes a turn for the worst, becoming evil to the point of desiring total domination and control, and even destruction of the world.

They don't really do this with Ultimecia. You don't know who she is, except that she's a sorceress from the future, who wants total control of time, and the world. Yes its totally evil, but I didn't find myself personally really anxious about kicking her a$$, as I did even with Seymour (who was a completely pathetic villain by the way, a puss who just wouldn't go away), Sephiroth, and Seifer.

I think they should have given more depth to the character of Ultimecia, by developing her in more detail, maybe giving her some sort of past, in which she becomes evil, and eventually desires domination of the world and time. This would have better portrayed her as the incredibally evil villain that she is, which would have added more depth to her character, making her more hateable, making it even more satisfying to defeat her.

Not to take anything away from FFVIII, as its one of my favorite games ever, probably tied with FFX. My point is that Looney Bob has a very valid point, in that little flaw in character development.

[rubah]

I find Edea to be an adequate villainess for teh first two discs.

[crazybayman]

I find Edea to be an adequate villainess for teh first two discs.

Yes she is.........

However, (SPOILER)when Ultimecia leaves her, she just becomes the Matron again, leaving us without a villain that has much depth, as far as the gamer can tell. All we know before going into the future is that there is some evil sorceress that we gotta defeat, or else she'll rule time, and the world. Sure that's evil, but we still aren't familiar with the character Ultimecia enough to really despise her.

[Armisael]

Seifer and Ultimecia worked fine for me!^_^

[Optium]

That's why they have (SPOILER)Rinoa getting posessed by Ultimecia so you
can get pissed off at that old hag messing with your girl

.opt

[ThroneofDravaris]

Hehe, has anyone else noticed that Square can’t create a decent female villain? Maybe Altima…

I think the main problem with Ultimecia, one which can be seen in other less successful villain such as X-Death, is that you don’t feel sorry for her. All of the more successful villains; being Sephiroth, Kuja and IMO Seymore, have a tragic side to their stories. I think the only exception to this is Kefka, who seems to be popular simply because he was entertaining. Unless you run with the Rinoa=Ultimecia theory, then it’s hard to find any compassion for her. To put it simply, she’s a bitch.

[rubah]

However,

Like I said, teh *first two* discs.

[JulioA]

I would say yes. I mean, Seifer is a very mediocre "bad guy" if you ask me. And Ultimecia... well, compared to Sephiroth or Kefka, she´s a sweet angel of love and peace.

Further more, Square really blew up the critical part of the game: the final confrontation between Squall and Seifer (final part of disc 3), by giving the mic to a "semiGF", that really is completely useless. If Squall and Seifer had been able to end their rivality there (you know, one vs one), it would have gained Seifer a couple of points.

Sorry if my English is not right, I´m from Mexico.

Where in Mexico, Im from Tijuana.

[Del Murder]

Edea was pretty bad for her time, but I agree that Ulti didn't fill my villain fix like Sephiroth, Kefka, Kuja and the rest.

[Khimbar]

I think that the reason FFVIII was a little lacking in some areas is because for VII, Square went all out, using an orchestra for the soundtrack, the first FF for PS, etc. and I guess they were a little worn out when working on VIII, and I've also read that when they finished VIII, Square wanted to jump to X, so they just made IX a filler (Less work).

But thats just my two cents...

[Optium]

Where'd you hear that about 9? I disagree and think that statement is
false. Tihi.

.opt

[Squall of SeeD]

Considering that IX required at least as much work as any previous FF (if not more; its graphics are more advanced than VIII's and its FMV sequences are usually as long or longer), it certainly wasn't "filler." It was a homage to the last eight titles in the series, yes, but it wasn't a rehash in any sense. It was its own well thought out story that happened to pay homage to eight others in various ways.

[Delta]

I say yes, sefier was just a little prick running around being semi-evi so he wasn't as good as sephorith or Kuja.

[Yamaguchi Oyabun]

Yeah I must agree with topic creator. I really like FFVIII (not a fave but I like) but it lacked a good explaination for the villain like other games. Ultimecia is great and evil and all and was alot better final encounter than Sephiroth's 2 forms u fight at the end of FFVII (Seph first form was pitiful, while Safer Seph was a rip-off of Kefka's final form), but we as players never got to know much about her reason for time compression all what led her to that reason. A little more mention of her background and fill in a little more plotholes would have just made this game have that much more impact to the player, hence making it stand tall amongs the other FF.