I understand why Sephiroth is the most iconic villain in the entire Final Fantasy franchise.

Hades

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Honestly, parodying the Buu saga is a waste of time, its almost a self-parody in canon. And they did Gohan filthy dirty so fuck it.
I think we already saw a bit of that with mister Satan who was already so wacky in the Cell Saga that he didn't really feel different when it came to the Abridged series. Though they apparently did have a fun idea for him in the Buu Saga where he turns into a conspiracy theorist who really believes in aliens but just isn't believed.
 
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dscross

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Just my opinion, but I never found Sephiroth that interesting compared to Kefka, for example. I prefer Sin as well, as a concept. And even in FF7 alone, I found Shinra more interesting as antagonists than Sephiroth.
 

Hades

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Just my opinion, but I never found Sephiroth that interesting compared to Kefka, for example. I prefer Sin as well, as a concept. And even in FF7 alone, I found Shinra more interesting as antagonists than Sephiroth.
Yes. Throughout the entire remake I was thinking how surprisingly great antagonists Shinra made while Sephiroth was a downgrade whenever he appeared on screen to mess with Cloud for a bit.
 
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BrawlMan

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Just my opinion, but I never found Sephiroth that interesting compared to Kefka, for example. I prefer Sin as well, as a concept. And even in FF7 alone, I found Shinra more interesting as antagonists than Sephiroth.
Another honest opinion, as far as Square Soft RPG villains go, I found Eve from Parasite Eve scarier and more threatening than Sephiroth.
 
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CriticalGaming

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Another honest opinion, as far as Square soft RPG villains I found Eve from Parasite Eve scarier and more threatening than Sephiroth.
That's because she can turn you into goo-monsters with just her eyes. It's not a fair comparison.
 

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That's because she can turn you into goo-monsters with just her eyes. It's not a fair comparison.
Sounds fair to me. She actually gave me nightmares. Sephiroth didn't. Parasite Eve had the benefit of:
  1. She could make you spontaneously combust.
  2. Turn humans or animals, but usually animals, into some horrifying John Carpenter's The Thing monster.
  3. Can turn humans into goo monsters to form a bigger goo monster.
  4. In the Parasite Eve universe, there's an extra scary benefit. The cells in your body hate you and want nothing to do with you and rather die than be with you. The only reason the mitochondria chooses to work with Aya Brea, is because they do not want to die and rather keep her alive as long as possible. Including make sure that she ages slowly as possible.
I find that more scary and memorable, than super soldier with a bug up his ass out to destroy humanity, because he has an identity crisis. Understandable sure. And yes, I know Eve wanted to destroy humanity for petty reasons too, but they're not that different. The only difference was Sephiroth wanted to quote" protect the planet and wipe everything out of its misery". Eve just wanted to wipe out humanity, because she considered them weak and mitochondria superior.


Her themes could get pretty freaky too. I found them more intimidating Sephiroth theme.​
 
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CriticalGaming

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Sounds fair to me. She actually gave me nightmares. Sephiroth didn't. Parasite Eve had the benefit of:
  1. She could make you spontaneously combust.
  2. Turn humans or animals, but usually animals, into some horrifying John Carpenters The Thing monster.
  3. Can turn humans into goo monsters to form a bigger goo monster.
  4. In the Parisite Eve universe, there's an extra scary benefit. the cells in your body hate you and want nothing to do with you and rather die than be with you. The only reason the mitochondria chooses to work with Aya Brea, is because they do not want to die and rather keep her alive as long as possible. Including make sure that she ages slowly as possible.
I find that more scary and memorable, than super shoulder with a bug up his ass out to destroy humanity, because he has an identity crisis. Understandable sure. And yes, I know Eve wanted to destroy humanity for petty reasons too, but they're not that different. The only difference was Sephiroth wanted to quote" protect the planet and wipe everything out of its misery". Eve just wanted to wipe out humanity, because she considered them weak and mitochondria superior.
First off Parasite Eve is a criminally under rated and forgotten series. The first two games where amazing, and i'm surprised their battle system was never used again in any game to my knowledge since. The PSP game was ass though.

I will however argue, that being scary doesn't yield a better villain. Eve is certainly scarier because we see her do a lot of her evil directly. You watch her melt the crowds around her, summon monsters, etc. Sephiroth's power and motives are left vague for a lot of FF7 so that the player ends up building him up in their imaginations thus making him leave a bigger impact.

That's why we don't really talk about Albert Wesker from Resident Evil being a great villain because he is just a sort of fall guy for the evil that happens, but isn't really remarkable as a character.
 

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First off Parasite Eve is a criminally under rated and forgotten series. The first two games where amazing, and i'm surprised their battle system was never used again in any game to my knowledge since. The PSP game was ass though.
Thank you.


I will however argue, that being scary doesn't yield a better villain. Eve is certainly scarier because we see her do a lot of her evil directly. You watch her melt the crowds around her, summon monsters, etc. Sephiroth's power and motives are left vague for a lot of FF7 so that the player ends up building him up in their imaginations thus making him leave a bigger impact.
I know. It's called the Jaws effect we've already been through this earlier in the thread. Don't get me wrong, it's well done and effective, but Seph-dog didn't have that much of an impact on me. And keep in mind my brother and I played Final Fantasy VII just a year before Parasite Eve was even announced. I was upset when Aerith died, but I didn't take it that hard. For me, Eve is the better villain, that's my opinion. And there's nothing wrong that you feel the other way.


That's why we don't really talk about Albert Wesker from Resident Evil being a great villain because he is just a sort of fall guy for the evil that happens, but isn't really remarkable as a character.
I know. He started off as nothing more than a joke and a patsy. Especially in Chris's path when he mocks him in vanilla RE1. To the point that Wesker gets frustrated and tells to Chris stop it in the whiny voice of a toddler. Wesker really didn't start getting awesome until RE5 and the remake of RE1. Wesker's had many voice actors over the year, but DC Douglas from 5 and whoever the guy who voiced him for RE remake and Umbrella Chronicles nailed him down with their performances. Wesker is basically the Dio of the Resident Evil Universe.
 
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xmbts

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He's not my favorite, but he's iconic for the series big push into more cinematic presentation, as well as the first mainline title to be officially released in Europe. Not to mention 7 being hands down the most pervasive game in the franchise.

Honestly I don't know who my favorite villain out of any of them is, there's a few standouts, Probably Emet Selch though.
 

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Just my opinion, but I never found Sephiroth that interesting compared to Kefka, for example. I prefer Sin as well, as a concept. And even in FF7 alone, I found Shinra more interesting as antagonists than Sephiroth.
Yep. FF7 is at its strongest when it's dealing with the halfway-realistic stuff: a soulless conglomerate is plundering the planet's natural resources for energy. Eco-terrorists are aiming to take it down through acts of sabotage and violence. It's analogous to real-world concerns and problems, but set in a sci-fi/fantasy universe. Y'know, like a lot of good sci-fi.

Sephiroth, on the other hand, just wants to destroy the world and become a god. Uhrm, alright, but that's not terribly believable or relatable to anything; it's just Anime Villain Motivations #1 & #2 combined.

The most compelling thing about Sephiroth is his backstory, his father & mother & his obsession with Jenova after Hojo tells him that's who his mother is. Because that's at least exploring how a kid can get fucked up by a sociopathic father & a lack of love.
 

CriticalGaming

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Yep. FF7 is at its strongest when it's dealing with the halfway-realistic stuff: a soulless conglomerate is plundering the planet's natural resources for energy. Eco-terrorists are aiming to take it down through acts of sabotage and violence. It's analogous to real-world concerns and problems, but set in a sci-fi/fantasy universe. Y'know, like a lot of good sci-fi.

Sephiroth, on the other hand, just wants to destroy the world and become a god. Uhrm, alright, but that's not terribly believable or relatable to anything; it's just Anime Villain Motivations #1 & #2 combined.

The most compelling thing about Sephiroth is his backstory, his father & mother & his obsession with Jenova after Hojo tells him that's who his mother is. Because that's at least exploring how a kid can get fucked up by a sociopathic father & a lack of love.
I do like how well the Evil God bad guy ties in with the seemingly mundane evil corporation part of the game. They link the heroes towards the greater evil so well in 7.