Why is Sephiroth praised as one of the best villians?

[Kelesti]

Screw the Final Fantasy Main series.

Tactics has by far the best villains in all Final Fantasy games (at least, the original Tactics and not this abomination of a GBA Version).

Never has there been a game character that I wanted to stab through the throat with their own crossbow-bolt, before or since Algus. Delita was the king of success, the entire church's perversion of the Zodiac Brave Story and Ajora was amazeballs. But Algus… fuck Algus, and send him straight to hell.

[Lahkesis]

Honestly, I think it has more to do with the fact that more people played FFVII than played FFVI. Not many people got to experience Kefka and in many ways, he is the inspiration for Sephiroth.

The other aspect of the game that draws people in is its probably one of the only FF where your main villain was a main antagonist first. He was just someone whose motivations you didn't understand until he made your fight personal and became someone you had to stop. That is a powerful motivator to draw someone in to a story. Not to mention he's one of the few villains who stayed the villain. You knew in disk 1 that he was your guy. You didn't have to suffer Square popping in half way through the story telling you that suddenly it was someone from another dimension, another time, someone you'd never seen etc.

Imagine how much more effective the story line of FF8 would have been if your job as SeeD was to destroy the woman who raised you because that's what she created your organization to do, knowing at some point she would be a threat. Instead you kill four other jobbers and no one gives a damn. Because they made the characters so childish and one dimensional, they figured Squall wasn't going to be able to realize his love for Rinoa if they didn't put her in danger somehow. (possession by the sorceress).

[Jewster925]

Never has there been a game character that I wanted to stab through the throat with their own crossbow-bolt, before or since Algus. Delita was the king of success, the entire church's perversion of the Zodiac Brave Story and Ajora was amazeballs. But Algus… fuck Algus, and send him straight to hell.

I totally forgot about this little *%( head. It's been so long since I've played the game, but after you mentioned Algus... so much rage.

Algus, the turd of FF Tactics.

[Kelesti]

Yeah, everyone hated Algus. He was just the only character in all of fiction that I hated that much.

[Sj]

I have to agree; I've never disliked a character as much as I hate Algus.

[Verdugo]

I totally forgot about this little *%( head. It's been so long since I've played the game, but after you mentioned Algus... so much rage.

Algus, the turd of FF Tactics.

I just saw that picture, if that is supposed to be him then I already hate him.

[The One Percent]

Because many people will jump on any bandwagon they see instead of formulating their own opinion.

[Master Jakken]

I've always disliked Sephiroth because of his character design. I'm not big on long haired males, anything past shoulder length becomes cheesy for me.

[Yuuki Asuna]

To me, he looked intimidating and a bad ass dude! Square did it right by involving the main antagonist throughout the game. Showing him on the main story and side quests, it just made me want to kill him more and more. By the time you get to Sephiroth, the battle is just...EPIC! It was well worth it!

*Edit* I cannot stand when the main antagonist isn't involved a lot during a game! Especially when we don't even get a back story behind their past or how they've gotten to who they are. I love hearing about the lore behind a final bosses past!

[Kelesti]

*Edit* I cannot stand when the main antagonist isn't involved a lot during a game! Especially when we don't even get a back story behind their past or how they've gotten to who they are. I love hearing about the lore behind a final bosses past!

You seem to be confusing main villain (or "Big Bad" as the trope itself is called) with primary antagonist ("The Dragon") as far as relating to other stories.

The Primary Antagonist is the one antagonizing the party for a huge chunk of the game. Seymour or Jecht both come to mind in Final Fantasy X, the judges (primarily Gabranth) in XII. It's the villain (Yu Yevon, and Vayne Solidor respectively) that you're feeling are lacking in presence. But them being big-bad-villains doesn't make them the primary antagonists.

[JustintimeSS]

I haven't read any other response -

That being said, Sephiroth was praised as a great villain mainly due to the American release of FF7. A large portion of Final Fantasy users started at FF7 on PS1 around the time it was released. The game was revolutionary and broke into a genre that a lot of gamers didn't know about. Yes, FF6 and before was great but a lot of gamers never knew of it and were brought into the fold at FF7, hence it's massive love and popularity.

Sephiroth was no different. Even fans of 7 who don't understand the story completely think he is the best ever and my best guess is that it is because it was the first real antagonist of their video gaming arch in a game that had an actual story during that time period. You have to realize that gamers during that time period had mario, sonic and the like. A game like FF7 really blew our minds and any character, bad guy or not, was awesome. This set precedent for games forthcoming, hence the "best villain" attitude.

[RiotDragonX]

Sephiroth's way of being slowly presented in the game, as well as his graphic appearance is what got him there. His first introduction is just having the big boss you thought was going to be the end of the game impaled by a sword, and all you get is his name. After that hes alot more style than substance, his motivation is kind of lackluster, and he doesn't really come off as an interesting villain. He doesn't really have an interesting philosophy behind him, he just found out his origin and went crazy, the most one dimensional villain arc there is.

Actually, you're wrong in that aspect. His entire plan is as follows. This will be simple so anyone reading can follow.

1. Get his hands on Jenova. He did so when entering the Nibelheim reactor, however after Cloud intervened, his plans were put on hold.
2. Using the small fragment of Jenova that he had, use clones to lure Cloud to the Black Materia.
3. Get the Black Materia to the Northern Crater, currently the only location with enough power to actually make it work.
4. Use the Jenova cells in Clouds body to make him hand over the materia.
5. Take the Black Materia to the impact site of Jenova, where the planets energy was still trying to heal the wound.
6. Utilize the energy to summon Meteor through the use of the Black Materia. With the amount of energy used, the Meteor would be enormous.
7. Wait for Meteor to hit, causing a cataclysmic event that makes the planet once again try to heal itself. The size of the wound would be so massive that the planet would then have to exhaust an ungodly amount of energy to heal it.
8. Take the energy that planet used to heal itself, making him a God.
9. Use the lifeless husk of the planet to travel through the stars, finding more planets to break.

Basically, in the end, he wanted to absorb the energy of the entire planet to become God-like, then travel to the next planet and start the process all over again.

[Northern Goblin]

The biggest attraction I always thought, was because you play such a bland and boring protagonist that the guy with the giant (less ridiculous) looking sword who happens to be far more interesting becomes the guy you wish you were playing instead. He's not a villain, he's an anti-hero, same way you had with Kain Highwind and Seifer Almasy.


And Kain Highwind is far better.

[Kelesti]

The one thing, the only thing that pissed me off with Seifer is that him killing Odin via Zantetsuken-Reversal wasn't animated. Like at all. Kain may do it better in pretty much every regard, but c'mon one of Seifer's key points is he takes on Odin, and wins. Why didn't that have an animation? D:

[Northern Goblin]

The one thing, the only thing that pissed me off with Seifer is that him killing Odin via Zantetsuken-Reversal wasn't animated. Like at all. Kain may do it better in pretty much every regard, but c'mon one of Seifer's key points is he takes on Odin, and wins. Why didn't that have an animation? D:

Note how I only used Seifer as an example of an Anti-hero, not to say he's better. And yes killing Odin was a huge "WTF" moment for me, in my first playthrough the Seifer and Raijin/Fujin were a nightmare. Then when Odin showed up I had a massive sigh of "Oh thank god for that."

Then *slice*


But yes, Kain is so much the better Anti-hero. Especially if you get the remake of FFIV, his voice actor is awesome.

[Deleted]

I just liked his theme song in Kingdom Hearts.

[Caiada]

Sephiroth is from a time when JRPG stories, and especially villains, we're very, very simple thematically. He was the first popular villain to not be that simple, and so, he got that legacy. His design probably was a major part of it too.

[endersblade]

The problem is, you guys are trying to put him in a modern light. You have to remember that 7 was the first 3d FF game, and for those of us who actually experienced it at release, the entire game was just fucking amazing. I myself played through the whole game probably 20 times or more within the first year. And, while Seph's character may be cloned the world over in every emo/goth/cosplay kid there is, that wasn't the case back then. He was quite unique as far as culture was concerned. He was just that badass that was willing to destroy the world to become a god.

I've played every FF game I can get my hands on, and I think Seph maybe isn't the 'best' villain of all time. Not even in the FF series. Hell, some of the MGS bosses are more evil than Seph. But for his time, and for the impact that game had on us, he's definitely one of the most iconic baddies of all time.

[Xilurm]

Kafka > Sephiroth..

People can say what they want but Kafka changed and ruined an entire world, Sephiroth did not

And Ultimecia didn't. Right..... The group had to go in a time when she had already won. Which means she actually enjoyed her time there as opposed to Kefka who died after he became "God".

[hulkgor]

Sephiroth was an amazing villain. FFVII was an amazing game, absolutely immersive, and when i played it at the time, really impressed me a lot, and is to this day, one of my favorite games of all time.

Of course that now, 15 years later, with the outdated graphics, people just look at the pictures and go "meh, is this it?". But at the time, and the memory i have of him, is that Sephiroth was one scary villain. One of the best, in my mind, no doubt. Best Villain of all time has to be Darth Vader though < 3