Great Villains Outside the Main Games?

VillainFan42

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A while back I posted my top 20 Final Fantasy Villains. I want to expand it to 30 and make a YouTube video, but with that many, I want to know if there are any villains outside the main 15 games that deserve a place? I haven’t played any FF games outside the main series, so I don’t know. I imagine Tactics probably could provide a few at least. Any others I oughta be aware of?
 
I haven't played Type-0 so I do not know if he is actually entertaining or interesting as a villain, but perhaps Cid Aulstyne might be worth investigating.

Dycedarg from FF Tactics is quite a complex and scheming villain. In my opinion he is more interesting than some of the other villains in that game, but I remember the game being very good on the whole.

Queen Remedi and Llendnar Twem from Tactics Advance were quite interesting ideas, but I don't remember them having a remarkable presence. The story behind Advance is that the
people from the modern day are transported into a dreamworld version of Ivalice created by Mewt in order to deal with his mother's death. The main character (Marche) has to destroy crystals and return to the real world (thus destroying Mewt's dreamworld). Twem is Mewt's darkside and acts as his guardian in the dreamworld, whereas Queen Remedi is actually Mewt's mother resurrected and alive and well in the dreamworld. The twist of Advance, I guess, is that in facing Queen Remedi and Twem and destroying the dreamworld, it could also be argued that Marche himself is acting like a villain in this game. Rather than protecting crystals, you end up destroying them (and the world)
.

World of Final Fantasy is a great game, but the villains are not what makes the game interesting. Brandelis is the main antagonist if you want to look into him, but I wouldn't say that he stands out.

The Chocobo Dungeon series is another avenue. The main antagonist of Chocobo Dungeon 2 is a a time-traveller from the near-future called Glass Goth. He might be a bit too obscure for your list though...

Maybe there are other villains in the main FF series that would deserve a shout too. Secondary or tertiary antagonists in some of the main titles are interesting and can be considered 'great villains' in their own rights for a variety of reasons. Jenova, Yunalesca, Don Corneo, Zorn and Thorn, Queen Brahne :-)brahneto:), Black Waltz 3, NORG, and Ultros, as examples.
 
If you count direct sequels as being "outside the main games", you can include Caius Ballad from FFXIII-2. After FFXIII gave us only throwaway minor human villains and evil machine Pope, its sequel at least offers a villain with presence, who is easily far more complex a character than his forerunners in the trilogy. He isn't an unambiguous, moustache-twirling villain performing evil cackles every five minutes, but like a few characters in the game, is a rather tragic individual who is bound to a seemingly eternal cycle. He is forced to witness a loved one reincarnate and die repeatedly for maybe thousands of times while he himself is cursed with a form of immortality where he cannot escape from any of this. He forms a close bond with every incarnation of this girl, so every time one would die, it would further drive him mad. So in spite of FFXIII-2's actual story being a nonsensical acid trip conceived by writers who likely had to make things up as they were going along, Caius sustains himself as a tragic, compelling antagonist throughout and towards the very end of the game:

he technically wins. He "dies" by forcing his reluctant friend to impale him and due to there being a divine MacGuffin item inside Caius that allows him to be immortal in the first place, thereby permanently disrupting the natural divine order of the universe, create a world without conventional time and one that isn't bound by death. This ensures that his loved one and all her past incarnations no longer need to suffer an eternal cycle of constant death and reincarnation. The main characters of FFXIII-2 have been unknowingly playing into Caius's hands the whole time, because everything they end up doing is frankly futile.

Otherwise....ehhh, I can't think of any good villains from any other direct sequel or side game really - at least not from ones I've played. I never got far enough in FFXII: Revenant Wings to even meet the main antagonist. I can't remember anything of FF Tactics A2's story and characters, let alone attest to the strengths or lack thereof of its villain(s). Crisis Core plagues us with Genesis, is second rate to Sephiroth even in his own game, and whose only memorable and maddening trait is to recite lines from a rubbish poem that he's inexplicably obsessed with. FFX-2 has Shuyin who is essentially a dead guy so obsessed with finding his equally as dead girlfriend again while holding on to a millennium year old grudge against a world that wronged him. I don't personally believe that's worth inserting him into any "Greatest Villains" list.

Cid Aulstyne from Type-0 is brought up in the post above, but if you've already seen plenty of military autocratic leaders in other forms of fiction (that are clearly inspired by Hitler, Mussolini and similar contemporaries), you're not going to find anything new in Cid. The most you can say about Cid Aulstyne is that he has parallels with Vayne Solidor. Both are strongmen who believe themselves to have the resolve formidable enough to shatter the gods' control over their respective worlds and allow humanity (under their imperial grasp naturally) to seize control of their own destiny. Beyond that, he's not very interesting and rarely makes an appearance.

Honestly, if you haven't played any FF game outside of the main 15, you may want to refrain from making any list with thirty entries. Your list would be far better off if you keep it condensed. Remove the bloat, because it means you have to rack your brain to even think of anyone worth putting in just for the sake of filling in every spot. That's not an indication of a good list. A good list in my books is one where there aren't THAT many entries (maybe 5 to 10 at most) - where each spot is competitive and therefore much of my effort goes into trying to justify why this particular character deserves this spot over another. A condensed, more focused list means you can dedicate sufficient due time, care and attention to properly explain each one. It also means you can dedicate your focus on villains you actually are familiar with. You would actually have something to talk about as opposed to a list where a good chunk of them are ones you've no knowledge of.

Or as said already, consider secondary or tertiary villains. You'll have to, because if you stick to main antagonists of each game, I don't even think you're going to find thirty of them.
 
Thanks for your suggestions. I'll look into those. And for the record, even though I do absolutely hate the XIII trilogy I sill put Caius in my top 10 (He's at #8 ), and I have been including secondary antagonists as well- Seifer from 8 and Dr. Cid from 12 also made it into the top 10, and Gilgamesh and Rubicante not far behind. (Incidentally, Dionysos, thanks for suggesting Black Waltz No. 3. I can't believe I forgot about him!)

In regards to Tactics villains, so far the only one who sticks out to me is Wiegraf. I haven't gotten real far in Tactics though. (I think I just suck at turn-based strategy.) I think Dycedarg could make the cut.

One last thing. Are there any noteworthy villains from XI or XIV's expansions I should consider? I've already included one villain from XIV (Livia, which may surprise you) but any others from XI, Heavensward or Stormblood I should consider? (And more importantly, does Shantotto count as a villain?)

Edit: I have decided that Shantotto does not qualify as a villain. Sadly.

Also, Linnaete, the reason I want such a large list is because I want to plagiar- I mean, imitate Team Four Star's DBCember, where they have a top 24 countdown stretched out over the 24 days leading up to Christmas, and I thought it'd be cool to do a villain-themed countdown in October in the 30 days leading up to Halloween.
 
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Well if you wanna go into the anime, Earl Tyrant was actually an interesting villain. otherwise ones that were named are great, and the only other ones I can think of are not that great...maybe Juluis from Adventure
 
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