Well, alot of things killed more than Sephy, but then again, lots of things die in those older FFs.

There's an emperor in FFII, and a King of Baron in FFIV, Emperor Gastra in FFVI (and, another certain deranged person who kills alot of people...), the Shinra in FFVII, though I always thought more oppressive than bloodthirsty, the Galbadian Army in FFVIII, the Queen of Alexandria in FFIX, the Yevon Church in FFX..

Yeah, empires, organized religion, and militaristic electric power companies are all pretty common in FFs.

But anyway, FFII and VI had a big 'Emperor who wants to take over everything', and was pretty extreme in FFII's case.

One thing to consider, the older FFs' storylines weren't as deep untill FFVI. That doesn't mean that they weren't flat, just that everything isn't dug into the ground, so to speak