Lets talk about villains

So, whats your favorite villain in FFXIV and why?
What do you think about antagonists of Stormblood?


I tried Main Story Duty Roulette the first time yesterday. It took me about a hour to complete Meridanum, but thats not the point. While watching the cutscenes after 4 years again, I ve noticed, that Gaius is still a much more interesting villain than Zenos could ever be. I like his personality and his reasons why he fight us. So I came up with a small list of my favorite villains in FFXIV.


Gaius van Baelsar:
One of the best garlean antagonists. This one doesnt f*** around. Calm and very dangerous, even the Scions werent prepared at first. His personality is absolutely great and his reasons are easy to understand. His final battle was one of the most epic things I ve ever played.

Garuda:
Still one of my favorite Primal (besides Sophia). Great personality, great music, great fight. Compared to her "friends" Ifrit and Titan, this primal is crazy, powerful and very impressive.

Edda Pureheart (not Blackbossom):
During your main story quests in ARR, there are some minor cutscenes with this NPC which can be avoided very easily. But if you pay attentio, this NPC brings your to the most creepy content in the entire game. A tragic character with a suprising ending. Sadly, her story became boring and forgettable with Palace of the Dead.

Lahabrea:
Oh boy. I never expected that story twist. This Ascian did everything absolutely right!

Nidhogg:
His reasons are absolutely understandable. I would do the same in his situation. Nidhogg is a tragic character who is filled with hate. He and his horde are very dangerous. 10/10 would burn Ishgard again. His fight was awesome, too.

Sophia:
No actual personality, but I totally love her design and the music! Sadly, there is not much about her backstory or anything. Just cut down to 2 fights and nothing more. I want more.

Warriors of Darkness:
I did not expect to fight against these guys, so I was totally suprise to meet them face-to-face. I love the idea of having a counter part to the Warriors of Light. There was a lot of potenial for having them as some kind of long life antagonists. But at the end, their story end way too early. /shame



Stormblood:
Well, I kinda miss some kind of main threat in Stormblood.

In ARR it was all about Ascians, Primals and Gaius' ultimate weapon. In Heavensward it was about Thordan, Nidhogg and his horde. But Stormblood never feel like you re really in danger. Sure, there is OP Zenos, but doesnt even try to kill you. He let you take back Doma and Ala Mhigo, without any resistance. Even his "minions" (Yotsuyu or Grynewaht) arent acting very intelligent.

It feels like Star Wars. You vs. the big (useless) Empire. You and a small number of soldiers are more than enough to take back an entire country. How did the garlean empire even manage to occupy those cities/states?

Coil storyline with Nael and Bahamut. yummy

Warriors of Darkness.
Just like you I liked the counter part of the Warrior of light. It was one of the few things I really liked about ARR.

Byakko
I really love this fight, I just find it a fun fight and I quite enjoy the free fal.
I only wished it was made harder, and there should be much more red balls during the free fall too (and much faster).
Some adds that spawn during the phase where you have to move around when those red balls are swirling around would also be pretty cool (adds that give vuln stacks if they aren't killed fast enough).

Zenos. By far. He is charming, cunning and evil. He is one of the villains you tend to like more than you hate them.

So far the only villain in this game I realy liked.^^

+1 for Psycho husband. One of the best foils to the WoL introduced thus far

I liked Nidhog, and I liked the idea of the warrior of darkness. OTher than that... none of the villains left an impact on me. They either died to fast cause WOL is op or they were so lame they wasn't worth remembering to me. Zenos takes the cake for me on that last part. But I ranted about him enough, maybe he can turn it around and actually do something. Nidhog on the other hand was RAGE. and Even tho he kindof got over used I liked that there was NO turning him around. He hated you and wanted nothing but to see all the humans BURN. I can get behind that. The warriors or darkness was a neat idea but they failed cause noone can either stay alive in this game or stay evil. They HAD to be turned good and poof. So no lasting rivals for the WOL sadly. It was a good try until they turned good. :c Omega might have something for me... it really depends tho.

Nidhog.....he was the only one that didn't over monolouge - act like a whiny #### or go off deep end...he was ruthless..bloody..and got to business very quickly. (at least from what I observed)
Granted he saw nothing but red...but that's nidhog for you.

I liked Garleans as main antagonists back in ARR more than I do in Stormblood. Back on my first main story playthrough, I remember them feeling like a real threat to Eorzea. Now that we wiped the floor with them a couple of times... that thread no longer feels real to me.

Stormblood is nice and all, but in terms of antagonists I liked those that were driven to the empire way more, than the empire itself. Fordola and Yotsuyu to me feel more "villainy" and their motives are fleshed out more than those of Mr."I have all the swords in the universe, can go into scripted invincible god-mode, and in the end I just die, but don't".
Also scripted encounters against Zenos ruined him somehow, besides his only recognizable motivation being boredom and an obsesion for 'hunting prey' . Not sure if this goes for everyone, but to me he would have posed WAY more of a thread, had those encounters been an actual challenge. I mean, you are supposed to lose them anyway, so why not make them incredibly difficult? Also I fail the duty when he strikes me down, when in the end I succeed because of the same result, only at a different point in time.
With Gaius they did a better job at building up tension, so I'd agree with him being somewhere at the top of my list of favorite villains.

Ascians have the same feel to them - overwhelmingly powerful: check. Talking big-time, always: check. The most important part is missing though: motivations I can not only understand as a human being, but I can also identify with. To me they are just greedy.

Turns out Someone who is interested in seeing blood and suffering for the sake of... seeing blood and suffering is a pretty uninteresting villain. I like villains who believe to be the good guys, or have developed true hatred towards those they are oppressing, because of understandable emotions that make sense.

This is why I love primals. Some of them are summoned due to beast tribes fearing something or someone, which could be a thing, if story writers put more emphasis towards these conflicts through the long run, instead of simply throwing them at you ocasionally.

What about 4.2?

Zenos disciple?

Honestly I think we need a much better main villain to be introduced. HW did very well with Nidhogg as well as other characters.

We need a ruthless villain, one who will kill an ally or allies of ours with no hesitation.

I like Zenos but I think SE can do better

SB seems too streamlined no real lasting villains

Zenos, The Griffin and Warrior of Darkness. There are great villains on the jobs quests but I will not do a spoiler of them. And the ascians are always great too. Hopefully to see healers taking the spot on next cinematic if we fight the ascians and their god.