Nael Van Darnus vs Shadow Lord

[Pandastirfry]

Shadow lord has one of the most cliche and overused back stories in fantasy gaming/literature, while final fantasy games very rarely stray from well trod ground and never push the envelope storywise, even his name is cliche and silly. Shadow Lord? Really? That sounds like a working name that would be changed prior to release.


Darnus, while really just as cliche ( again FF storytelling is built on them), is refreshingly a lesser used one in fantasy tropes. He also has a decent name.

edit: he's also coming off as "Mid-Boss" at best. Shadow Lord was a "Big-Bad" with a cliche story, Darnus is being implied as being a villian with a cliche story and "a pawn...OF A FAR GREATER EVIL!!(dun dun DUNNNNN! *dramatic re-verb, ominous crash of thunderrrr....*

[Mijin]

Well if you consider Dynamis Lord to be Shadow Lord, the its obvious which fight was harder... although Dynamis Lord didn't come out until RotZ, according to the lore Dynamis Lord was the true form of Shawdow Lord or something along those lines I thought?

[AnaviAnael]

Nael van Darnus has a giant meteor and better battle music. My vote for van Darnus.

[Kiote]

Darnus was a much better fight.

Shadowlord was a slightly better story.

[AsterBarnivere]

I didn't like the shadowlord in FFXI, his motives were quite shallow as was his reasoning for doing the things he did, he was the typical "Heartbroken revenge" villain archetype. He didn't have much of a personality either. We all know of the Raogrimm sob story that turned him into the shadowlord and he was consumed by his hatred. He was just too cliche to me, and as far as villans go, all he did was sit on a throne, no actual means on motives, as he was more of a:
"I'll just sit here and do nothing" kind of character

Now Nael Van Darnus (What a man! lolz) even though he's rather cliche as well with the whole (Imma destroy za warudo!) He rules with an iron fist, he believes what he does is for the "GREATER GOOD" even if it is otherwise, the fact that he considers us guilty by association is what makes me think "WTF is up with this guy??" I loved the fact that he was able to fulfill his motives using others, and even in death, his motives were complete.
He also has manners... and he's an elezen so that's extra points with me.
(If only I could see what was under that helm)


SWAGGER!

[Yucie]

FFXI's level cap was level 50 when people first fought Shadow Lord. I'm sure FFXIV will have it's level cap raised eventually and I'm sure Darnus will become a joke character by then too.

Also, Shadow Lord has Dynamis Lord (And Hyper Dynamis Lord, one of the game's hardest bosses). Not to mention Shadow Lord from the past, who is far more powerful. So really, the Shadow Lord fought as the final boss for mission 6-2 was really just the weakest form of him.

Darnus won't be in the game at that point. I'm 99% certain, so it's not really a similar case.

In my personal opinion, I thought the shadow lord was a bit of a sissy. You see Darnus far more than SL, and he actually tries to kill you on several occasions (but never succeeds).

[Alaltus]

+1 for the ego-maniacal villain aka Darnus =D

[Req]

(If only I could see what was under that helm)

Another helmet.

[ThePatriarch]

I think more along the lines of Dynamis Lord, as compared to shadow lord.

Shadow lord was a cakewalk, but his castle zhval (spelled it wrong, sorry) was awesome.

However, Dynamis lord stomped level 75 alliances like they were ants. Not to mention he had an entire realm (dynamis), and required you to go through copious amounts of work to get to him.

I mean, when you are guarded by twin dragons named Ying and Yang, you have officially hit "Baller Status"

[Kagato]

I didn't like the shadowlord in FFXI, his motives were quite shallow as was his reasoning for doing the things he did, he was the typical "Heartbroken revenge" villain archetype. He didn't have much of a personality either. We all know of the Raogrimm sob story that turned him into the shadowlord and he was consumed by his hatred. He was just too cliche to me, and as far as villans go, all he did was sit on a throne, no actual means on motives, as he was more of a:
"I'll just sit here and do nothing" kind of character

Now Nael Van Darnus (What a man! lolz) even though he's rather cliche as well with the whole (Imma destroy za warudo!) He rules with an iron fist, he believes what he does is for the "GREATER GOOD" even if it is otherwise, the fact that he considers us guilty by association is what makes me think "WTF is up with this guy??" I loved the fact that he was able to fulfill his motives using others, and even in death, his motives were complete.
He also has manners... and he's an elezen so that's extra points with me.
(If only I could see what was under that helm)


SWAGGER!

I remember you. You're a racist.