Nael Van Darnus vs Shadow Lord

[Vydos]

i think dalamud is a prison for Eikons in general not just bahamut

Most likely, considering Garuda her strength was being sapped because of it. I guess the strongest summon of them all controls dalamud. Or perhaps his essence has been made to control the others. I just love to speculate lol.

[ThePatriarch]

Shadow Lord

hands down

[KiriA500]

My vote goes to Shadow Lord.

Nael van Darnus was cool, but something about the Shadow Lord sticks with me more.

[Req]

Which of these two villains had more of a lasting impact as the first major antagonist of the Final Fantasy MMO series?

My Vote: Shadow Lord.

Well, Darnus is kind of about to blow up the world so I would have to say he had a more lasting impact. I mean you can't get anymore impacty than having a giant meteor crash down and completely make way for a new environment.

[Gramul]

Shadow Lord. Darnus is just standard lolcrazy for now. Kinda mediocre as fas as villian reasons go.

[AdvancedWind]

Honestly? Shadow Lord. However, I kinda think this comparison is somewhat unfair due to the circunstances of both games.

Shadow Lord had a far a better environment for development (you know, his game not being overhauled from the ground up and his storyline not added in a semi-rushed way to keep players busy while that was done) and more "screentime" overall in comparison to the other.

Nael has no reasoning, no motivations other than LOL PURIFY, little to no backstory. The Seventh Umbral era storyline as a whole is entertaining, the developers did well given the circunstances and Nael at least is good at being Mr. Villain, but as a character he's just a bit more developed than Necron.

A more fair comparison would be Shadow Lord VS whoever is the final boss / main villain of the FFXIV's main storyline. And that one will have to wait a while longer.

[Rhomagus]

Some people are saying the entity of the Shadow Lord is cliche villainy and I think I agree with that.

Raogrimm, on the other hand, adds a new level of depth.

I would also argue that straight crazy villainy is more cliche than the empathetic villainy we get from Raogrimm / Shadow Lord.

There are some interesting variations of that kind as we've already seen references to Kefka in this thread, but I prefer a touch of empathy with my villains. I'm partial to the fallen hero types.

[Hyrist]

This is Sephiroth vs Kefka all over again.

Those that prefer the sob story fallen hero with 'a tale to tell' are always going to lean towards Shadow Lord.

Those who prefer a straight out down and crazy psyco that you love to hate will lean towards Darnus.


But here's something you should be aware of in Final Fantasy Lore.

The straight out crazy ones win - Keka succeeded in ripping the world apart. Guess what Dalamud going to do to Eorza thanks to Darnus?

Sephrioth and Shadow Lord - both were badda**es who were slain promptly after getting themselves revived.

[Starlord]

Darnus, because he's like always there mocking your existence, and Shadowlord and Darnus Fights are equal in Difficulty to me at level 50.

[Dhalmel]

Not even close

HE does alot of things kefka did, even betray his king.