Final Fantasy XV's Villain Will Top Sephiroth and Kefka

TheArabGamer writes: "Final Fantasy XV's lead director, Hajime Tabata, has confirmed that Final Fantasy XV's main antagonist or villain will top them all including Sephiroth and Kefka (who are both highly regarded as the best villains in the series)."

[DarkOcelet]

I really think this is something for the player to decide.

But hopefully he is memorable. And that old man with the evil looking smile seems to be the main villian. I say he got the looks, so hopefully the writing and the English VA does him justice.

[RashBandicoot]

It's been confirmed that the main villain hasn't been revealed yet so both old men are out. I'm really keen in seeing this so-called bad ass to rule them all.

[DarkOcelet]

Most likely a young prince like Noctis but much more badass.

[Adrian_v01]

I always assumed the red haired guy from older trailers would be the main villain. He has that attitude.

[Godmars290]

No. Players can't think for themselves. They just need to watch the pretty, pretty cutscenes.

Why else do you think FF13 all but played itself?

[DragonKnight]

"Why else do you think FF13 all but played itself?"

Oh geez, now you've done it. Now all the "you must not have played FFXIII if you think it played itself" comments are sure to flood here.

[Spotie]

@Dragon: Well that's what happens when you make a comment that implies such a thing to be the case.

XIII "played itself" no more than, say, the .hack games, where your party members acted whether you did or not in battle. So why the criticism for XIII that wasn't leveled at another franchise?

[DragonKnight]

@Spotie: Context. Remaining on topic. Do you want me to build a time travelling DeLorean and go back to when the .hack games were made to criticize them playing themselves when those games were being discussed?

[Magicite]

Actually Ive died in FF13 many more times than in any other FF game.

[DragonKnight]

@Magicite: You probably forgot to use Libra.

[Godmars290]

@Magicite:
Likely because you weren't playing it the way Square *meant* you to play it.

The corridor went both ways...

And BTW:
Played for 50+ hour, so any "didn't play the game" disagrees.

[Irishguy95]

Yeah, I guess we're lucky Tabata and nomura had nothing to do with FFXIII's crappiness

[shmowboyfebop]

Why is this a comment? What's the point?

[Elda]

Totally disagree!

[Adrian_v01]

@Dragon, no but go to a forum or article where .hack is being discussed. Same as for Godmars, go to an article about FFXIII to write stuff about FFXIII. As I said already, this behavior is just pathetic.

[Meryl]

FFXV is nothing like FF13, you obviously haven't played the demo, you actually have to think in FFXV, whereas all you had to do is mash buttons in FF13.
For all the disagrees FF13 is the easiest FF out of them all, all you do is sit mash buttons, go play FF7 and try and beat ruby or emerald weapon and just see how hard RPG's really can be when done right.

[Godmars290]

@Meryl:
Given everything, I can say that they've yet to play a full representation of the game since magic has yet to be added. And there are things about it, like everyone just running around during combat like in any Tales title, which I just don't like.

[pivotplease]

Libra, auto-chain, paradigm shift twice, done.

XII was like buff with protect, shell, and bubble and then gambit the rest. Although you could probably gambit the buffs too if you set them up nicely.

Now the cutscenes never end! Good thing since the amount of FMVs was cut in less than half when XII and XIII came out.

[Spotie]

@Dragon: No, I... well, actually, it'd be pretty cool if you had a time machine made out of a DeLorean, but that's not the point.

The point is that .hack went seven games with a similar battle system, but was never accused of playing itself.

The even bigger point is that when you make the argument that XIII plays itself, it comes off as being less than genuine because it's far from the truth. Unless there was some "Easy" difficulty setting I was unaware of, you actually had to put a good deal of work into the game.

Battles were about having your characters properly leveled, having the right Paradigms in place, and having the timing to switch between the correct Paradigms when you needed to. Even priority targets need to be taken into account.

Sure, there are parts early on in the game that you can breeze through with little to no effort... but that's just like every other game I've played in the series(from VI onward, excluding XI). There are also points, however, where you've gotta be ready to switch through Paradigms every other second. Hell, despite all the grinding I did before, I found my ass getting handed to me by a Box Phalanx battle not long after you reach Gran Pulse. Just a normal encounter I couldn't sneak past that saw me die close to a dozen times.

And any battle could be like that, almost.

Maybe you and some others took extra precautions with your Paradigms or whatever, but there's no point where you can genuinely say the game played itself. That claims holds as little weight for XIII as it does any other FF.

[k2d]

I'd like to see them try!

..although I don't see Sephiroth as a villain, but instead a man gone mad. Turned into a puppet by Jenova. Jenova is the real antagonist in FF7.

[pasta_spice]

I don't see Sephiroth as a puppet of Jenova. But rather, an extension or evolution of her. He wasn't just injected with Jenova Cells like the other human experiments. He was born with them. So he was never really a man in the first place. He was always part-Jenova. Sephiroth going 'mad' probably would have happened even if he hadn't read those books in Nibelheim. The cells in his body were determined to finish Jenova's goal of destroying the planet.

It was the human part of Sephiroth's brain that was smart enough to plan and strategize how to do that, whereas Jenova (being akin to a virus) would have just mindlessly destroyed the planet and everything on it. But the part that makes it clear he wasn't just a puppet of Jenova was that he spends most of the game destroying pieces of Jenova's body and killing the "clones" with her cells in them before they can reach Reunion. Jenova wouldn't want that. But Sephiroth would. He knew that if Jenova's body re-formed she would be a potential threat to him, so he put a stop to that. That's why you fight those different forms of Jenova in the game. He was fully aware of his actions. He was never just a puppet.

[hleV]

It was said by Hojo in the game and confirmed in official outside sources that Sephiroth acted on his own and used Jenova's body to achieve his own goals (which may or may not have been what Jenova originally desired).

Sephiroth IS the antagonist of FFVII, regardless if you see him as one or not.

[goldwyncq]

The developers say otherwise. Sephiroth is the definitive antagonist of the game. Jenova is simply the catalyst.

[Irishguy95]

Seph became superior to jenova. If ya pay attention to the game you'll realize seph was controlling her.

[ColonelHugh]

A lot of you guys know what you're talking about. The Jenova Clones and experiments with her cells produced people with unique traits derived directly from her godlike genetics, i.e. perfect cloning, assimilation of consciousness to inferior DNA. Sephiroth was, in essence, her inevitable reincarnation. Given the power to manipulate ANY Jenova Cell, which is how he so easily manipulated Cloud, and even morphed Jenova's body parts like clay into, what else, a copy of himself with total conscious control. After his death and then the dissolution of geostigma in the movie, you could say Jenova's back-up plan has gone into effect, with her Cells incapable of dying in the Lifestream, Sephiroth's mind will reunite himself slowly, given time, and Jenova's memetic legacy will insist on his absorbing the Lifestream and then departing for a new Crystal-based planet.

Also, Hojo had long been subliminally controlled by Jenova's highly evolved DNA into giving birth to Sephiroth the way that he did. You can see for yourself what this looks like when Sephiroth messes with Cloud's mind

[k2d]

Either way. Glad it sparked discussion. It's an Aerith/Aeris type of situation for me. In my book it's canon and will always be.

Edit: I consider only the first game truely canon, included the flashbacks. Anything else that got added to the story either by sequels/prequels or what the devs say, don't matter to me if it's not conveyed in the first game itself.

Edit: Pasta spice; yours is the first comment and the only theory I've come across that I would give credence to. I'll have to revise my view on the matter. Bubbles.

[The_BlackHeart__]

I may be wrong. But if I got it right, Noctis is the inheritor of this huge industrial empire forged by the questionable activity of his relatives. Noctis seems to care little to none about becoming head of the "Family". Chances are the real antagonist(s) is (are) simply his rival(s) to the throne, and that we are getting a Japaneses Modern Game of Thrones entry with this FF. And Death of course.

[Irishguy95]

Not really no, Noctis is the last in line of the Lucis family. Noctis inherits the position of king but he ALSO inherits the powers of the Lucis bloodline. Theres a reason Noctis family are the rulers of his city.

Lucis(Noctis kingdom) and is not actually an indusrial empire. In fact his kingdom strayed away from 'war' and machines and stuck with Magic. The industrial empire(Nifilheim) are attempting to attain the crystal of Lucis.

Noctis kingdom is actually away from the rest of the world in a way. Protected by a magic barrier. Which is taken down by nifilheim and the city is invaded. Noctis and co are attempting to regain the stolen lucis crystal as crystals contain magic power.

Noctis has no rival to the throne, but the throne and lucis are invaded and taken over by nifilheim at the start of the game

[DevilOgreFish]

(spoiler alert)

Sephiroth is definitely one character to remember. Technically though It's difficult to give full credit to him as being a top villain when there was two of them running around credited for separate agendas, manipulated by the geostigma's influence. Jenova/geostigma technically is the real Villain; which supplied the abilities and the cause in the first place.

[DragonKing81]

I totally agree @DarkOcelet

[italkgame]

Regarding the English VA: Iwish we could get the option for japapanse VO.Personally if SE asked for up to $5 I would purschase it.

[showtimefolks]

I hate turned based games so this will be my first ff game. Hopefully it will be amazing

And here is hoping ff7 game play also becomes real time. At my personal preference

[3-4-5]

It's individual.

How could they know what we would like ?

Sounds kind of arrogant....let me decide who I like better.

[Snookies12]

Those are some bold words... To make a statement like that, he must be very confident in the game. Can't wait to finally play through this...

[TheCommentator]

It's a set up for some potentially major disappointment if fans don't agree though.

[Snookies12]

That's why I'm saying, those are bold words. I'm both excited by this, and apprehensive as well. I've loved just about everything I've seen of this game, but a claim like this has me a little bit nervous. Especially since Sephiroth and Kefka are so fondly remembered by people. Regardless, I certainly hope they manage to top them!

[Eonjay]

Reading your comments. you all seemed convinced that the villain will be a man.

[DragonKnight]

Because it will be. Come on now, you should know by now men are evil. Making a woman the villain will just invite sexism and misogyny claims.

[Eonjay]

The best part of Infamous Second Son was the female antagonist. No one claimed sexism. I think if she is intriguing and done well, players will welcome her.

Then again, with the all male cast, you might be right. Sigh. Oh well.

[DragonKnight]

I hated Augustine. I didn't find her intriguing or compelling at all.

I mean, she claimed to be trying to help Conduits, by making the world view them as monsters, training them to be killers, just to lock them up. That's just stupid reasoning. When you compare her to the likes of Kessler, she falls flat in a big way.

It's funny because both Augustine and Kessler had similar methods and motivations, but Kessler was just a much better done villain.

[izumo_lee]

Come now DragonKnight, The Cloud of Darkness & Ultemicia were pretty good villians in FF 3 & FF8.

Granted men usually are represented as the 'evil' in most JRPGs cause it is easy. Making a women the evil usually takes some more effort in story telling.

Other great female villans in JRPGs include Eve from Parasite Eve, Selvaria Bles from Valkyria Chronicles were also pretty memorable.

[Metallox]

"Making a women the evil usually takes some more effort in story telling."

Uh, no. The evil a character is depends strictly on the character itself, not the sex.

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

Tabata used the word "he" when talking about the villain.

[Eonjay]

Fair enough. Thanks.

[Adrian_v01]

He talked in Japanese so it could be a misstranslation. There is no he or she in Japanese language.

[DragonKnight]

Sephiroth is a pathetic excuse of a villain, so anyone can top him and have.

Kefka on the other hand. You'd have to really ramp up the psychotic, "evil for the fun of it" sadism to top him. I mean, Kefka essentially became a god just to destroy the world. Not because he wanted to rebuild it in his own image, not because it was his job to, just because he could. Good luck topping that.

[Snookies12]

Kefka is a better villain, but Sephiroth has one of the best character designs for an antagonist hands down.

[DragonKnight]

That's debatable.

Sephiroth's character design is very cliche anime style. Hell, even the more obscure anime/manga have it. Ever heard of Tenjo Tenge? Take a look at Shin Natsume.

http://pre13.deviantart.net...

[Godmars290]

You mean that an 8-bit sprite design wasn't as good as early game CG?

[Snookies12]

@DragonKnight - So, just because a character looks kind of like something from an anime, it's cliche? I guarantee you the same could be said for just about any RPG game characters. There's way too much anime out there, of course some will resemble them.

@Godmars290 - No, I'm saying design in general. Not whether the sprite style is better/worse than the CG. Sephiroth just has a very cohesive and great 'bad guy' design.

[DragonKnight]

@Snookies12: You know I could easily reverse your statement to apply to your statement about Sephiroth right? I mean, this is basically you just ignoring that Sephiroth's design is nothing new to say that he has one of the best character designs.

For what? For his already overdone design? For an FF game that has better designed villains?

To each their own.

@Baka: What? Shin and Sephiroth are nearly the same in every way. Long silver hair, oversized Katana, known as the strongest around and yet both go nuts. Sephiroth obsesses over Jenova, Shin over Maya. And then you go and add Berserk into it.

How about Escaflowne? You heard of Allen Schezar?

Or Inuyasha and Seshomaru?

I mean, Sephiroth is not unique at all.

Sure, he looks cool, but so did Shin Natsume and Seshomaru.

[Baka-akaB]

Problem is , even by your example , Shin Natsume was hardly generic in design or personality . Ans his inspiration was most likely Griffith from Berserk . Say that he looks anime , fine , but generic when so few characters looked even close at the time of his conception ? Come on ...

Because of the silver/gray hair ? Yes it's a common trait in bad guys , because white and silver are colors that generaly represent goodness or purity in those series , especially when combined with angelic features . And it's a stark and effective constrast to give a villain that pure striking look ... The whole White Hair, Black Heart trope .

But he still had his own design , that many proceeded to copy afterward or possibly get inspiration from . He was there before those guys from Tenjo tenge , Cowboy bebop , Inuyasha , Escaflowne , Black Cat etc . Pretty much most of them , except Griffith and a few early 90s villains

Other than that , i agree that he wasnt such a good and interesting villain . he was all style and little substance , but he was definitively one of the most stylish ones .

[Baka-akaB]

@DragonKnight

Like i was saying in my edit , Sephiroth predate most of those characters , so how can he be generic ?
Folken and Allen are pretty much the only ones out before in late 96 ... but FF7 was already in development and shown around the same time . And of course their grandfather Griffith was way before .

And i'm not denying they all look cool , hell any of those are cooler imo ... and some got a more interesting personality

What you are doing is like claiming that Rei from Evangelion is generic , because of the flurry of clones released later on , repeating and abusing her autistic style on top of her look .

[HiddenMission]

@DragonKnight

I'm an artist and they are very very different in style. You saw long silver hair and katana and thought they look similar...sorry thats two design differences out of 20 I spotted.

I've been designing characters for almost 30 years and very well versed on the subject you on the other hand come off as someone who generalize yet knows little to nothing.

Every artist regardless of western or eastern taps into inspirations from multiple sources along with story/character traits when building a new character.

In the act of melding these things together a new character design type is created since those elements combined together never existed before.

Don't make generalizations before truly examining the subject matter because it makes you look ignorant on the topic...which in this case you did...

Just a word of advice...

Edit: Sheshomaru is so far and away different in design compared to Sephiroth it's almost comical to compare. Costume design takes the bulk of the time creating and hair weapon are basic frame types that you establish early in build but tweak as you finalize you design.

By your logic every bold or shaved head character ever created is just another clone...you should just stop because you look foolish...

[Godmars290]

A word of advise from who? Someone who as an artist is trying to apply an authoritarian viewpoint?

Yes. Going by basic appearance Sephiroth is a better *looking* character than Kefka.

But when actually *looking* at the characters as a whole one goes from normal to nihilist in response to a soul breaking revelation and uses the position he's been manufactured into to try to end the world over the course of a few years, while the other started of as wanting to see the world burn and dedicated decades of his life to make it happen.

One was a spoiled brat, the other a mad but masterful manipulator.

There's not really that much difference between them, but when examined Kefka was more involved whereas Sephiroth largely waited in the background depending on others to act for him.

[DragonKnight]

Dude, don't act pompous and then end your comment with "a word of advice"

I don't really care that Seshomaru wears fur and Sephiroth doesn't. When you look at them, both are tall, both have long brightly colored hair, both are arrogant... I mean I can keep going. There's inspiration, and there's just remaking the same character over and over. You don't have to be an artist to see that so kindly take your smugness elsewhere.

[Godmars290]

Yeah...uber-psycho bad guy does not go well with go-lucky roaming bro trip.

[RustCohle]

Who said it was always gonna be go-lucky?

[Eiyuuou]

Haters?

[Big_Game_Hunters]

So Nsync, biggest rivals to the backstreet boys, are confirmed?

[Double_O_Revan]

98 Degrees and New Kid as Summons??

[ecchiless]

Bubs for funny guys.

Now im expecting that the op from ffv is this one https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[pandehz]

Ooooh Snap

Shits getting real

[sephiroth420]

Doubt it but I hope so.

[Shinuz]

But what about Golbez?! Loved that villain.

[UNKLE]

oh I know maybe tabata is the final pure evil final enemy :) he created himself in the game :)
but for seriously I think noctis or prompto is the villain.

[ShadowWolf712]

Topping Sephiroth isn't terribly hard, imo. Never saw him as much of a villain like other people seem to. Can never really get an explanation as to why.

Kuja was a dang good FF villain imo.

[Baka-akaB]

Dunno Kuja was better , and yet worse , if it makes any sense at all . it started well , he had charisma , style , enough bad deeds , was some decent blend of Sephiroth's style and Kefka's style and ego ,.His motives and origin seems even well fleshed out ....

And then comes the Darkness transformation part ... which blew it imo

[Heavenly King]

Kuja was mega ultra super GAY. And with his purple "Trans"(sexual) mode even gayer.

Kuja for me has the worst villain character design in gaming history. And as a character he also sucks.

[ShadowWolf712]

lol no to both, but okay.

Least he wasn't a one-dimensional manchild with mommy issues.

[Eiyuuou]

Quite the bold statement. Hopefully it's true.

I'm already satisfied if he reaches the level of Caius Ballad from XIII-2.

No matter how much flak the XIII series gets, Caius was awesome. (Liam O'Brien helped a lot!)

[MegaRay]

No way. Unless Nomura design the character before he leave the game.

[ninsigma]

Don't say things like that. Silly thing to say. Especially considering the game is under scrutiny for being in development for so long and the new director changing a load of things. Just release the game and let US decide if they are better.

[goldwyncq]

Kefka is just The Joker without the depth. Just an insane, nihilistic clown who wants to end everything just because he can. Nothing special about that.

[Vanfernal]

Sephiroth.... Maybe. Kefka? Not a chance in hell.

[Germany7]

That's a bold statement, and hard to believe.

[F0XHOUND]

I doubt it. They failed in 12 and 13 with its villains, tried to in 13-2 and failed again.... they'd have to reskin sephiroth or kefka to create the illusion the new one is cooler!

But hey, who knows..... we sure as hell don't really, do we!

[Baka-akaB]

Not really , if there is one thing they actually succeeded with in FFXIII2 and Lightning , it's actually getting a good and interesting villain with Caius ... instead of the Sephiroth lite rut they had going on for a while

[F0XHOUND]

Caius was them trying to hard to recreate a villain in that style, imo, he was "OK" but not memorable, amongst the likes of kefka, sephiroth and even kuja.

[scark92]

Hopefully! This game seems very ambitious!

[Summons75]

Bold statement, hope it's true Kefka is the best but there are much better villians in FF then Seph.

[nommers]

Honestly, I wouldn't put too much stock in the claim of FFXV's villain. Before FFXIII released, Kitase said there would be a moment in the game just as touching as that one particular moment in FF7(you know the one).

It would be interesting if Noctis was the main villain..eventually.

[SarcasticDuck]

im imagining a guy that made a way to copy/steal the Noctis ability to control/call eidolons (or maybe he's an "Hacker" and created those three giants on the end of the last trailer, which SE said it wasnt eidolons). He will probably show up as some kind of ally and will make a big plot twist. He NEEDS to have a strong, solid and sad past that make his reasons even feel like they are deserved. To end, he needs to be a bit gentle and offer me a PS4 and the game (really, i feel i could kill someone for this game)

[Elda]

We'll just see!

[DafunkyRebel]

He better be like Don Quixote Doflamingo evil

[Last_Boss]

Goddamn!! That Tenryubito hate is strong.

[Imalwaysright]

Sephirot was a weak villain but Kefka? He was a psychopath with no regard for human life and he wanted to watch the world burn just because. If that wasn't enough, he enjoyed seeing the pain and suffering the he inflicted on others. How can any villain top that?

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Kuja>>>>>>Se phiroth

Sephiroth are boring villain. All that mommy crap.

[Hotabang]

what they meant:
pmsing fan girls = perfect villain for a boyband

[Hotabang]

or maybe the paparazzi?

[Last_Boss]

This thread is sad, just like all the other entitled rpg posts.

[KryptoniteTail]

LOL. FFXV can't do that. Even Seymour didn't match the iconic Sephiroth despite me liking him more. FFXV has no shot at this. It's just eye candy anyway, damn action RPG.

[Sixstring]

**SPOILER** I betcha Noctis is the bad guy,or atleast not a classical "Hero". Atleast at the beginning of the game,I think it's gonna be alot like FF Tactics storywise.

[nommers]

Honestly, that would be awesome as a plot twist if he was turned evil or was evil to begin with. I'd respect him as protagonist more. It seems like everything both good and bad was given to him without choice: his powers, his position, his company, his love interest and his "incident" according to spoilers that resulted in him getting powers. So far he doesn't seem that involved with the story around him. The narrative is doing all the talking so maybe there's an underlying theme for Noctis that is darker then we see.

[Feriku]

It's an impressive claim to make, and I'm interested to see how they'll attempt it. I love villains, so this much confidence in FFXV's villain intrigues me.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

The main character becomes the villain in a Earth shattering twist.

[goldwyncq]

Like Breaking Bad?

[-Gespenst-]

lol at that phrasing, "has confirmed." How can you "confirm" something like this?

EDIT: I personally thought Caius was a great villain. He wasn't really evil so much as he was tormented and trapped. He did what he did out of love.