SQUARE ENIX VILLAINS WHO ARE COOLER THAN THE HEROES

Squaresoft and Enix were separately prolific companies before their giant merger in 2003. With their combined strength, they have created some of the most memorable games in the industry, especially in the RPG genre. One thing that makes some of these games so endearing years or even decades later is the characters.

Final Fantasy 7, for example, has Cloud and his iconic Buster Sword. Some games have better villains than heroes though, which could be for several reasons, including their clothes, personality, power, and so on. Let’s discuss some examples from Squaresoft, Enix, and Square Enix games.

Alternis Dim

A Dark Soul Trying To Do The Right Thing In His Own Way

Alternis Dim is one of the main antagonists of Bravely Default. He is a Dark Knight, a classic Final Fantasy Job, and his design is stellar. It’s like how Darth Vader became a fan favorite above Luke Skywalker in Star Wars even though he was a villain.

Alternis served the Council of Six, an evil board of villains who were trying to capture the world’s precious crystals. By the end, it is revealed that Alternis comes from an alternate timeline wherein he fails to protect his friends. Alternis is Ringabell, one of the four main party members in the game, and his failure twisted his mind beyond reason. Also, like Darth Vader, Alternis has a good redemption arc in the end, although he is still a good antagonist through and through.

Booster

A Rich Boistrous Tycoon Who Just Wants Some Cake

Almost any character in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is objectively cooler than Mario. Most Nintendo characters in general are more intriguing than Mario, as he is mostly a silent character with a few “wahoos” thrown in for good measure. The classic villain in this series is Bowser, who appears as a party member in the game, so he doesn’t quite fit the villain status.

Instead, players can look to Booster, an original character made by Square Enix, or Squaresoft at the time. He’s not part of the overarching villain society, the Smithy Gang, but he does run opposition to Mario’s crew. He even kidnaps Princess Peach and tastes her tears. Booster is a weird guy and one who most fans would probably love to see pop up again, just like Mario’s party member, Geno.

Kefka

Sacrafices An Entire World For Power

There have been a lot of great villains in the Final Fantasy series but, above them all, Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 stands out. He begins as a small-time consort to Emperor Gestahl, but secretly Kefka was planning to betray him and the Empire all along. In a classic villain trope, he just wants power, and he even literally destroys the world, casting it into a post-apocalypse society, to get it.

His clown makeup and infectious laugh can throw people off that Kefka is a threat. Make no mistake though, this killer clown could stand toe to toe with The Joker. Final Fantasy 6’s main hero, Terra, is a bit quiet, so she’s not hard to beat in the finesse department. There are better heroes though, like Locke, Shadow, and Edgar, but Kefka still reigns supreme as a fun, albeit evil, character to see on the screen.

Magus

The Grim Reaper Wishes He Was This Cool

Chrono Trigger, like many 90s RPGs, has two major villains. In the first half, Magus is the big threat in the Middle Ages-like era, as he is trying to take over the kingdom and is slaying hundreds to do it. He’s working with monsters as well and, to top it off, he is trying to summon a beast to swallow the world. This beast, Lavos, takes over as the main villain once Magus disappears after a climactic battle.

Players can hear rumors about his whereabouts in the game, but officially, players can be done with Magus after this interaction. However, there is an option to fight him again, albeit in a weakened state. Players can instead spare him, which will prompt Magus to join the party. With his long hair, magic prowess, cape, and scythe weapon, how could he not be cooler than Crono or his other friends? Technically, this reversal makes him a hero too, but as it is an optional quest, it’s easy to still treat Magus as a dastardly foe.

Riku/Ansem

The True Hero Of Kingdom Hearts In His Darkest Hour

Sora, Kairi, and Riku were all friends in Kingdom Hearts, living around the Destiny Islands. One day, the world is swallowed up by darkness, casting the three friends apart. Kairi is captured, along with Riku, who is persuaded by the dark side to join their cause. Maleficent is the main Disney villain in charge, but she is also doing it to aid the even greater threat, Ansem, who eventually takes over Riku’s body.

While this is all going down, Sora joins Donald and Goofy to rebel against Maleficent and save the Disney worlds. Riku’s many appearances to dissuade Sora make him an iconic villain in the game, whether that’s all Ansem is talking about or not. Sora is a lovable himbo in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, but Riku has that bad boy status that makes him just the coolest, even after he becomes a more traditional hero in subsequent sequels.

The Tantas

A Bewitching Leader

Forspoken is kind of like Kingdom Hearts in that it is an Isekai. Frey, the protagonist, is sent to a new world full of magic and one much different from New York City. She befriends a magical gauntlet named Cuff and reluctantly starts to go after The Tantas, who are a ruling board of evil witches in Forspoken. That’s what she is told anyway, but there is more to the story.

Of the many villainous Tantas in the game, Tanta Sila stands out as the first major opponent Frey will fight. She looks like she belongs in a heavy metal music video with her blood-red dress and golden mask obscuring her eyes. It’s a great design and, as evil as she appears, Tanta Sila acts according to instinct to better serve her world. Frey, on the other hand, is a more sarcastic hero who doesn’t invest much thought into this world or becoming its savior.

2024-06-08T13:43:42Z dg43tfdfdgfd