This game lacks a good villain

[Myrhn]

" Summons Bahamut" Don't mess with the Au Ra, Master race

Sorry we already kick Bahamut ass lol

[Felis]

What we really need is a daring villain to rain hell from the sky, releasing an Elder Primal to destroy everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrZUUmiPtXo

[AnaviAnael]

I feel the problem is more lack of screen time vs the villains not being compelling or interesting. They all have a lot of potential, but we rarely get that extra scene or two to see what they're up to and make them more threatening.

[IndigoHawk]

Everyone is overlooking Yoshida!!
He won't give us more free retainers and keeps bringing new items. He's the ultimate villain for endgame glamor.

Also, Warrior of Light does not need to be defeated by Warrior of Darkness. That's dumb, because it's not like we've accomplished anything. It's already proven that killing primals over and over solves nothing, yet we keep doing it. All we've done is keep people alive short term at the expense of long term. We're bailing water out of a sinking boat, not winning.

[TouchandFeel]

There's a plethora of memorable villains in this game, in fact one of the longest threads on these forums is sort of dedicated to them.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...y.-Let-s-vent.

[Kaurie]

We have plenty of great villains!

- Ice mages in DF
- Relic grinds
- Weekly lockouts
- Party Finder


In seriousness though, we've had some decent villains, and we are just getting our next villain set up. The Warrior(s) of Darkness. I feel they are going to get a lot more interesting in the next patch or 2.

Previously, I felt the villains we've faced to be interesting enough, but could have been better.
- Thordan
- Teledeji (I felt this was underwhelming, but could have been great and I was interested in it at the time)
- Gaius / Garlean Empire

[Velhart]

A few things needed to make a good villain.

-They do need a simple name. Something easy to roll off the tongue. Not Flerdade'busi'ne'sin. This was more of an issue in FFXI than FFXIV. Right now through the series we had Darnus, Gaius, and Thordan. Names easy enough to remember. Ascian names are questionable at times but Lahabrea and Elidibus are not too bad either.

-Characters need simple traits and not over the top complex motives so they are easier to relate to and understand. They need to be three-dimensional and easy to understand.

-Villain needs more screen time. Something in FFXIV I noticed is a lot of times, we don't get to see the villains too often and when we do, it is to come in, do something bad that sets the party back, then leaves. We get very few scenes expanding on the villain and their motives. They do to an extent, but not as much as they should.

-Design. Design is such a heavy part in this. This is something FFXIV severely lacks right now. The most significant looking designed villains are Darnus and Gaius. Even then, we never see Gaius with his helmet off. We do for Darnus, but not in 1.0 when he/she was more significant. The ascians are the worst abusers of this. All in the same type of cloak and the only thing differentiating them is their name. Elidibus only being different by wearing a white cloak instead of black. I get we are going for a Organization XIII type thing here, but at least they took their hoods off to show a unique design. For the ascians, it is the same mask never taken off and just throw in a different voice actor. We never even saw what Lahabrea looked like without using a vessel like Thancred. If you want memorable villains, you have to give them memorable yet simple designs.

You do have to remember also that this is a evolving game. So a lot of stories and villains are going to be contained within the areas of the expansion. I can only see real high stakes and world shattering events happening when we have enough expansions that eventually join together similar to how Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia worked into the Apocalypse Nigh quest line in FFXI. Not the same story structure, but how we work into bigger stakes is the point I am getting at.

[Xlantaa]

The ascians are the worst abusers of this. All in the same type of cloak and the only thing differentiating them is their name. Elidibus only being different by wearing a white cloak instead of black. I get we are going for a Organization XIII type thing here, but at least they took their hoods off to show a unique design. For the ascians, it is the same mask never taken off and just throw in a different voice actor. We never even saw what Lahabrea looked like without using a vessel like Thancred. If you want memorable villains, you have to give them memorable yet simple designs.

THe Ascians has no face, no body. They posses the body of other people, so they have the appearance of the people they possess. As Lahabreah had the appearance of Thancred. So, for the Ascians, the Design itself is less relevant, because they have no body, they are simply a soul, a spirit.

[Alberel]

We do currently have a major villain but it's a very gradual build up. Zodiark is the true villain of the story (as far as we know) so far and it seems likely that he's going to be the overarching villain of a multi-expansion story arc, likely stretching at least as far as 5.0.

As others have said already it's difficult to do recurring villains well in an MMO due to how long the story is. Any villain that we were to regularly encounter that rivaled us throughout the entire story would get boring or even annoying pretty quickly. Gaius served well as a villain in 2.0. Lahabrea and the other Ascians have served well up until the end of 3.0. I would say that between 3.0 and 3.1 we were lacking a serious villain but I think most would agree that after the events of 3.2 Nidhogg has proven to be quite a threat that we've failed to truly take seriously thus far.

Going forwards I'm expecting the Warriors of Darkness to serve as a recurring nemesis that we'll likely fight on multiple occasions. I have a feeling they'll end up being allies though.

[Velhart]

THe Ascians has no face, no body. They posses the body of other people, so they have the appearance of the people they possess. As Lahabreah had the appearance of Thancred. So, for the Ascians, the Design itself is less relevant, because they have no body, they are simply a soul, a spirit.

I am aware of the reasons they look like that. It doesn't change the fact they have no unique design among them. You can at least put a different color or different looking cloak on them. The masks between them only look slightly different, nothing you can tell apart unless you look closer at them. I should know who is who from a distance. You line them all up and you will only know who is who when they speak and the bubble says their name. I can only tell who is who by their name, gender, and Elidibus because he wears a different color cloak.

Going forwards I'm expecting the Warriors of Darkness to serve as a recurring nemesis that we'll likely fight on multiple occasions. I have a feeling they'll end up being allies though.

I think we are going to learn more about both Hydaelyn and Zodiark going into 4.0 and 4.0 expansion itself. I think between the two there is a gray area on both sides. I don't think Elidibus is wrong when he says there is no balance and it is too strongly in favor of the light. Having both light and darkness to balance the world. Perhaps both us and the Warriors of Darkness see this imbalance and work on defeating the extremes on both sides so order and balance put back into place. I am just throwing theories out of no where though, so anything could happen. Maybe it is just straight forward one side is very evil and needs to be stopped and the light is the only real way to go.