I really do believe this is the Final Fantasy with the best written antagonists

[SturmChurro]

Yeah, I've always liked Zenos. That's a controversial opinion though.

[ReynTime]

Emet-Selch, Varis, Nidhogg, and Nael (technically primal Bahamut) all work excellently as villains for different reasons. Endwalker failed in that aspect because they fell flat on their face trying to be "Shadowbringers 2: Electric Boogaloo".

The other games in the series have their own share of well written antagonists though. Kuja, Kefka, Jenova (no, not Sephiroth himself), Vayne are all just as good.

And I disagree on the take about the genre. As always it just comes across to me as the typical FF fan that doesn't bother stepping out of their SE bubble to notice all the things other jrpgs do better these days even though their visual style clings to mediocrity by comparison. But then again visual eye candy is modern FF's bread and butter.

[VirusOnline]

Emet-Selch, Varis, Nidhogg, and Nael (technically primal Bahamut) all work excellently as villains for different reasons. Endwalker failed in that aspect because they fell flat on their face trying to be "Shadowbringers 2: Electric Boogaloo".

If I had a say they should have at least had one member of the scions have a canon death.
This death could have been something that affected the group so much so that we see each individual scion begin to change for the better or for the worse which would in turn spur on a true focus on character arcs/developments for each of the scion.

In short, we need conflict even amongst this group of immortal benevolence.
It's needs that depth of change.

[Raoabolic]

To be honest, for the past few days I have been thinking Ilberd and Yotsuyu are some of the best Antagonists for me. Ilberd betrayed everyone, led people to a massacre to sacrifice them to become a primal, and more. His motivation was very scary and real to me, Yotsuyu as well.

People keep saying Ilberd is a pretty good villain and the more I think about it, the more it's true. He played the WoL and the scions like a fiddle, his plan did play out like he wanted, and he even got a dungeon for himself! I would even say he is more hateable than Zenos "YAWN" Galvus considering how cocky he was, but considering how it played out he kind of deserved to be cocky since the WoL and Scions were sloppy.

[VirusOnline]

Yeah, I've always liked Zenos. That's a controversial opinion though.

i like zenos as well but i know he's lacking
although we get a dungeon for him like we did ilberd, we're still missing so much on the 'what' has made him become who he is which would naturally lead into the 'why' he does the things he does and is the way he is. His actions to me are intriguing which is why i like him but he's missing so much of the what and why depth. Like what has happened to him that made him seek so desperately a friend in us ? Because I'm no longer buying that he wants a 'challenge'.

just like the wol, it's hard to simply say "he's just bad for badness' sake".
it's the same reason why wol is sorta a deadpan concept because we're good for goodness' sake.

[SturmChurro]

i like zenos as well but i know he's lacking
although we get a dungeon for him like we did ilberd, we're still missing so much on the 'what' has made him become who he is which would naturally lead into the 'why' he does the things he does and is the way he is. His actions to me are intriguing which is why i like him but he's missing so much of the what and why depth. Like what has happened to him that made him seek so desperately a friend in us ? Because I'm no longer buying that he wants a 'challenge'.

just like the wol, it's hard to simply say "he's just bad for badness' sake".
it's the same reason why wol is sorta a deadpan concept because we're good for goodness' sake.

I think it's good to have a villain every now and then without a sympathetic backstory; being "misunderstood", etc. I liked him. He explained very clearly why he did the things he did. Multiple times. The WoL at the very end can finally admit to him that they also do what they do because like the thrill to it, which I thought was cute. I very much liked our final bout with Zenos. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire expansion, and I think I even said it at the time, I had a smile on my face the entire time.

[znushu]

I still think FF11 has better to offer for stories and enemies than FF14 where it almost always goes down the same status quo every expansion.

[Darthgummibear]

Yeah, I've always liked Zenos. That's a controversial opinion though.

I liked Zenos until they brought him back from the dead. Not for that reason specifically, but everything he did(or didn't do) afterwards was kind of "um...okay?"

[HanWenqing]

I still think FF11 has better to offer for stories and enemies than FF14 where it almost always goes down the same status quo every expansion.

It is an evidence ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the nostalgia of my youth to lose myself in the streets of Bastok time is really fast when you have fun...

[TaleraRistain]

I think XIV has some really great antagonists. I also like Vayne and Caius on the sympathetic villain side. Caius really got a raw deal.

My favorite in the series is Kefka. Technically, he does have a sympathetic background, too. He was experimented on and driven insane by it. He comes to want to destroy existence due to that insanity. I've always thought there was an undercurrent that he didn't become like that, but he was already at least partly like that. Or at least made the choice to revel in it and embrace it. Especially since we have Celes who was experimented on as well but went a different route. Granted, they could have perfected it by then since Kefka was the first, but it's always a distinction that stuck in my mind.

Either way, the game doesn't focus on what happened to him much or try to excuse his actions. He's just a bad guy doing bad things because he wants to.