But how can you choose a 'best' villain, when the motivation ranges from misunderstood anti-hero to madman intent on destroying the world? When power ranges from self-taught magic or swordsmanship to pilfering the power of the gods (or demons)? And when most have their own distinct style, that makes them unique?
I believe that even in this diversity, there are elements that are better- or more effective- than others. The closer a villain comes to a God, for instance (really a god- not the "I'm invincible! Hahaha- is that a sword stuck through my ches-urgghhh..." routine), the more memorable it will be: Sephiroth's power trip was really effective; between the flashback of Nibelheim (a dragon, two Masamune strikes), the Midgar Zolom incident (staked 30-foot-long snake) and other incidents, he seemed so powerful that not even the last pushover battle (the last, last battle, I mean- the auto-Omnislash one) really diminished his appeal. Sephiroth was inhuman: his motivations were inhuman, his strength was inhuman, and he had an inhuman amount of style, with his big sword, silver hair and black trench-coat. The closer a villain comes to a real person, in terms of motivation and source of power, as well, the more memorable it will be. A villain that outsmarts you- that really outsmarts you and comes with plans you as a player didn't see, but that aren't gratuitous- is much more believable and prone to cause an impression on you, than one who gets his power for free. And a villain who has a motivation powerful enough so that you can sympathize and put yourself in his shoes, or else that you understand and can believe but intensely dislike, is also a very powerful one. That's why extremes work well: The most memorable villains tend to be either mad and irrational, like Kefka, so that they are, in essence, monsters that you cannot understand, you're not expected to understand, but can certainly learn to dislike or hate, or else very human beings who have strong, believable and understandable motivations that you might even sympathize with (remember Breath of Fire IV? I played that game for Fou-Lu. Hell, I willingly picked the 'bad' ending- according to his reasoning, everything he said was right. Since Ryu didn't have a personality or beliefs of his own, Fou-Lu should have won. A case where the villain is a much better character than the hero... man, I personally would have liked to play with Fou-Lu as main character for the whole game. But I digress). The same goes for power. A villain with little power who manages to get the upper hand anyway through real cunning, and a villain who has really god-like powers are both likely to impress the player.
Now,
Luca Blight was a very special villain. As a boy, he was traveling with his father and mother, the King and Queen of Highland, respectively, when a group of bandits fell on them and killed most of the guards. The King escaped cowardly, leaving his son and wife to the bandits' mercy, who took both of them to their hideout. One of the King's loyal knights eventually made his way there, killed all the bandits by himself, and rescued Luca and his mother- but not before she was raped several times in front of him. Seeing his father as such a coward and his mother disgraced, Luca grew to harbor an all-encompassing hatred towards people, animals- things in general. Strong by nature, he trained and became an inhuman fighter, by far the strongest warrior in the world of Suikoden- I'm serious. He fought at the forefront of his army because no one was capable of killing him, and he enjoyed the slaughter- called his enemies 'pigs' before he killed them. In a world in which power is usually determined by which True Rune you own, Luca Blight, being stronger by himself than any single other character in the game without a True Rune or magical aid, was a force to reckon with. He was truly an unstoppable monster: in a field army battle, in which your leader's squad, the strongest one, might have an Attack value of 11 and a Defense of 12 if you really concentrated on boosting him, Luca Blight's squad had an Attack of 18 and a Defense of 16. His appearance in the field among the armies was enough to turn back the tide and make you retreat. How was he defeated, then? It wasn't your typical fight of hero vs. so-called God: he was betrayed by his closest advisor and ambushed during a night raid with few soldiers. After your archers pick off most of his troops, he sets off to fight your three squads of 6 characters- Suikoden games are notorious for having a roster of 108 characters, usually 70 or so playable in battle- and fights evenly with them, none of the three successive squads able to bring him down. After escaping through a forest and happening on a tree lit with fireflies, he was finally spotted by a group of archers, who sprayed him with arrows. After a volley of arrows, a fight against 6 people (with powerful spellcasters), another 6 characters, and finally your strongest 6 characters with your main characters, and another volley of arrows, he still wasn't dead- it took a final duel with the main character to kill him. And all this without magic, potions, healing, Runes or anything- he was _that_ strong by himself. Luca was undoubtedly mad. The way he slaughtered people and fought, there's no doubt about it. He was easy to hate, and he had a very strong character. And he had a lot of style- you can't help it, being a monster like him, to stand out in memory in his armor, blue cape, and maniac look (just look at Suikoden 2's opening movie). What was most remarkable, however, was his strangely human dimension- there was no excuse of magical power or unnatural help; his strength was his own, making him at the same time very human, because his power had no 'source' as such, and also very inhuman because of the extent of his power. This dichotomy was very effective in heightening his image as a strong bastard (that was the designers' intentions; for more info on the Suikoden series in general, you can look at
http://www.suikosource.com), and that and the actions and role he fulfilled in the game are enough for me to acknowledge him as the best RPG villain I've seen.
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But how can you choose a 'best' villain, when the motivation ranges from misunderstood anti-hero to madman intent on destroying the world? When power ranges from self-taught magic or swordsmanship to pilfering the power of the gods (or demons)? And when most have their own distinct style, that makes them unique?
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