Like with my protagonists video, if you have a question and I don't reply, try reposting or replying to this comment. RU-vid has been giving me notifications for comments I can't see because they hide them for whatever reason, with no way for me to see them, even in the back end.
Osbourne was such a good antagonist, his speech in cs 1 and 2 always steal the scene, he have such a presence, you never really hate him because his role as the chancellor justifies his action to make his empire great but you kinda hate him because he is so good at his job. I hope we have someone as great as him for the future of trails, maybe the grandmaster.
I personally like Gilbert because not only do I find him entertaining, but the reason why he's a joke villain is that he couldn't realize what his talent is: when he pilots vehicles such as during the CS4 fight, he's competent. This might be setting up a return with potential character development which will turn Gilbert into a competent villain. Heck, I'm expecting him to be an Enforcer (maybe the Chariot Enforcer?).
He is kinda entertaining, but kind of a one-trick pony in that regard, so I found him more annoying than funny on subsequent appearances. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens to him in the future. If he does become an enforcer, that would be comedy in itself, just sayin'
@@LowestExpectations I'm expecting Gilbert to have a surprise in store for us. The games keep telling us that Gilbert could grow into a great person, but he's too unfocused. And since he hasn't appeared since CS4 and Reverie, I'm sure he's trying to focus and grow into someone to fear. It would be awesome to have a former joke villain grow from the defeats he receives.
I personally love Egil, he's a tragic villain who wanted revenge from Zanza who wiped the capital of Mechonis, but his boss fight is one of my personal favorite even though he sacrificed himself to stop the bionis aka Zanza, another jrpg villain I like is Luca Blight, this villain is cold and a monster, but the final villain I personally enjoyed the most is Kefka from Final Fantasy 6, you mostly have been spoiled of the story but he won and every scene, you know he is going to do something evil or diabolical, but his personality won me in the end and his laugh and theme was so creepy.
I agree on Egil, he's probably my favorite antagonist in that game, and his boss fight was just incredible. I hear about Luca Blight a lot, so I'm really gonna have to get into that series one of these days. Thanks for the comment 👍
@@LowestExpectations np, Egil along side Count Bleck are the best tragic villains, these 2 villains are examples of tragic villains at their best and also, Egil has a good voice for a 2010, 2011 game, idk when it released.
My top 10 jrpg villains are: 10: Golliath Osborn from the entire trails series is an honestly a great tragic villain who wanted to protect his son, he was also sort of responsible with the gut wrenching scene in Cold Steel 3 9: Cauis Ballad from Final Fantasy 13-2 was a tragic villain who has a reason to destroy the world because he had to keep watch yeul die. 8: Team Plasma from Pokemon Black and White and Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 for being well developed and actually having some what a reasonable goal. 7: Adryn Izunia from Final Fantasy 15 is a down right tragic villain who just wanted to die? His voice actor did an amazing job and design was so amazing. Even though he does win because he was betrayed. 6: Edelgard from Fire Emblem 3 houses and Fire Emblem Warriors 3 hopes is honestly a great sympathetic antagonist and her twist really caught me off guard, but honestly she can be really tough and even though she also a Protagonist, I don't agree with invasions, they feel wrong even on Edelgard side. 5: Black Knight aka Zelgius from the Fire Emblem tellius saga is a great antagonist and is my personal favorite Fire Emblem villain, his rivalry with Ike is masterly done. 4: Team Galactic from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, I agree, they can be tough, but I do like fighting even though BdSp didn't fix the them, I did enjoy their leader. 3: Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario, 😭, I like his backstory and he is one of the most tragic villains in the 2000s 2: Mithos from Tales of Symphonia is a really great antagonist who is a very strong villain. He like Dhaos of Tales of Phantasia but he knew what to do especially with he wounds both his former allies 4000 years before the events of the game. 1. Egil from Xenoblade Cronicles: I already explained you can find it once you enter my comment. Long story short he is a memorable tragic villain that deserves respect for almost winning. Honorable mentions: Lyon from Sacred Stones is a tragic villain who struggles but he is also being controlled by the main villain who I won't spell. Lyon also had feelings for Eirika and actually cared for her. Lyon did want Eirika to lead his country with him. The Begnion Senate from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is the most interesting and probably the most realistic depiction of a corrupt group of politicians. Emet Solch from Final Fantasy 14 is a tragic and probably the most iconic villain from the Final Fantasy 14 line up. He had a reason to do what he does. He is a great villain who is popular in the fan base. Tyrea from Xenoblade Cronicles has an excellent story shown through a side quest and the dlc story with an excellent redemption story. My least favorite jrpg villains: 10: Mobius from Xenoblade Cronicles 3 are fantastically written but are too flawed N, M, and S are the only Mobius's I like. 9: Bhunivelze from Lightning's return is so lame that I basically didn't enjoy him and also the game is so confusing even playing 13 and 13-2. 8: Validor from Fire Emblem Awakening is so boring that I wish Awakening didn't include him. 7: Grodus from Paper Mario: The Thousand year door is probably the weakest in the Mario rpg series, while their design is great, their story presence is meh. 6: The Agarthans from 3 houses and 3 hopes are so full of lore but are so underwhelming that I cringe when Arval was introduced. 5: Manfroid or whatever his name from Fire Emblem Thracia 776 is so bad because of a retcom and his final map in the game. Also he is responsible for kidnapping Sigurd's wife. 4: Team Magma and Aqua from Pokemon are goddamn stupid and has the worst boss fights and story moments even the remakes don't make good. 3:
Spoilers for Trails in the Sky FC to Trails into Reverie. Osborne is by far my favourite villain ever. Built up for 10+ games, it's no wonder he's my favourite. He's always three steps ahead, even for Musse Egret. He plays his cards just right, manipulating certain events and people to further his goals. Even before it's revealed Ishmelga has been doing everything, he looks like he's doing it for his country. He loves Erebonia, and is a perfect representation of the iron will of the Erebonian people, as well as the blood, sweat and tears they put into their work. Digging into his manipulation, let's go over the shit he's done throughout the games. After his ''revival'' in Cold Steel 2, he made his son (Rean Shwarzer) into a slave of the empire, using him as a public hero for Erebonia to unite under, following the civil war. He made Rean lead the invasions of Crossbell and North Ambria, which is not something a teenager should really go through. In Cold Steel 3, he caused the Gral of Erebos to appear, which is how the ''curse'' rebirthed. He blew up The Courageous (an airship that became a symbol of hope during the civil war) and didn't lift a finger when Millium (an artificial girl who thought of him as a father) sacrificed herself to protect her sister from the tainted holy beast. All that caused Rean to lose control of the power slumbering inside him, and he murdered the tainted holy beast, releasing the curse throughout Erebonia. Rean then became a mindless husk of a human, and had to be restrained by his best friend. And his boss theme, Majestic Roar, is fantastic. I recommend everybody reading this to go listen to the full song. It shows off everything the blood and iron chancellor is about. Imposing instruments, intimidating choirs, and the beautiful Heimdallr motif used in many themes throughout the Cold Steel arc. It is by far one of my favourite themes in Cold Steel 4, right behind To The Future (the other final boss theme).
You really had me when you mentioned Lezard. He was definitely not a plot twist for me as a VP1 player, but it was still really fun being like "the hell's he doing in my party, hide Alice! He's a valkyrie freak!" Incredibly memorable in both games. At first I was "wait, a Kiseki villain in the bad list" then it was Cayenne and I was like "oh right, that guy. Makes sense". Love to see Weissman, Loewe and Osborne in the list. All 3 are so incredibly different, yet amazing for different things. Also very happy to see Ar Tonelico alive in the minds of other people. I think Mir was especially cool as she returned as playable in Ar Tonelico 2. OST of this franchise isn't talked about enough. It's funny you mention Team Aqua and Team Magma. I can't talk about the red-hair guy, but it's precisely the 3rd gen where I decided my time with pokemon was up. Finished the game, but didn't ever touch a pokemon game again. You didn't mention this, but I think that, ironically speaking, besied his cool appearance, one of the things that make Sephiroth so special in the first game is that he actually barely appears, and that just adds to his mystique (edgy) aura. We can see his trail of blood, so to speak, but we don't actually see him, we just know he's ahead of us, but eerily close at the same time. I love Xenoblade 3, but I do absolutely agree about Moebius. I think they had potential as this 3rd party controlling both sides to battle each other, but as a whole was kinda horribly executed. Z was very plain too. This would've definitely been my favorite Xenoblade game with better villains (something 2 did great and 1 was good, imo), but I can't easily call it the best because this is actually a big problem. Takes a lot away from what generally speaking a nice setting and some amazing party interactions. Loved the fact that Future Redeemed barely had any Moebius. Finally, opening up with Sergius and finishing up with Albedo... kudos for that. Sergius was indeed kinda bland, especially in a series full of great protagonists and antagonists, and even some amazing in-betweens. I'm not sure if he'd be among my "10 least favorites" but it does kinda stand out considering the game he's from... and one of the reasons is precisely because that same saga has Albedo, the biggest maniac out there who's absolutely amazing at his job of being a villain. Xenosaga 2 tends to be considered the black sheep of the saga because of its combat and art direction, but I actually love the game, and Albedo is likely the biggest reason. I do kinda miss here the Suikoden 2 antagonists. I think those are the first that came to mind as missing characters in the good list. In the same light, Delita from FFT. For antagonists, maybe because I just played it recently, but first that comes to mind is Ultima from FFXVI, which felt very underwhelming in what I otherwise consider a really nice story overall.
Thanks for all the long comments recently. If you're interested, there is still a small community of Ar Tonelico fans out there, with one of the biggest contributors Aquagon having done a relocalization of Ar Tonelico 2 back in 2017 that was very good, and is currently working on a fan translation of Ciel Nosurge, which we never got in the west. FF7: I should have gone into more detail on Sephiroth, but it had been quite a while since I played the game, so I didn't want to say anything that would sound wrong. Xenosaga: I'm glad you liked it. I love this series, and Xenosaga 2 has many of my favorite moments in the entire Xeno series, even though it's a pain to play through. I do hope that they will re-release the trilogy some day, but it seems like Bamco doesn't want to. As for Suikoden, I have not played it but I hear a lot of good things, so maybe I will one day.
@@LowestExpectations I'll check the Ar Tonelico thing. Might even be an excuse to replay the games, since it's been a long while since I played them. I sure recommend Suikoden. Like, considering the videos I've seen lately, I don't see how you wouldn't like them, especially 2 and 4 (they also used to be like the go-to franchise of related games before Trails became a thing). Not sure if you played Future Redeemed, but without saying much, I will say that DLC gave me at least a tiny bit of hope about Xenosaga maybe getting some form of rerelease at some point. Or maybe it's just me dreaming, but it'd be nice.
Some of my fav Antagonists are the following- Kratos from Tales of Symphonia, Xigbar from KH franchise (I am expecting him to be a future boss in the future), Shadar from Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (I would give her an honorable mention though), Belleza from Skies of Arcadia (this was a hard pick, so many good antagonists), and Melfice from Grandia 2. These are the ones I could think of out of my fav JRPGs.
I can't remember if I saw that one, but yeah, Osbourne's story is pretty great, and he's probably my favorite character in the entire Cold Steel series. Thanks for the comment 👍
Saturos and Menardi are complete jokes; their motives makes no sense whatsover. All they had to do was tell Isaac and crew their intentions, and there would be no conflict. They essentially died for nothing.
Nah, their antagonism towards the people of Vale does make sense, but I will admit it requires _filling in the blanks_ that the original story failed to expand upon. Kind of an issue both GS games have across the entire plot.
I think the Moebius bit where they're unserious clowns is very much on purpose. As you said, they view the whole world as their playground. They don't take it seriously. That said, there are way too many of them yeah lol
Funny how you show Shining Resonance Refrain near the begin of the video because George is pretty high up there as one of my least favourite JRPG antagonists for me
@@LowestExpectations I had a feeling that was the case. He was fresh in my mind because I just finished that game when I made that comment. I know Yuma is a pretty boring character, but George makes no sense to me. He also has some ridiculous plot armour by the end
Okay I have to comment on this rn Team Rocket to me are the best pokemon antagonists, that being said, when it comes to ruthlessness they're not even top 3. They're a mafia, Ghetsis and Plasma tried to freeze the whole region and trying killing the player. Cyrus tried to distort the entire world and Lysander literally wanted to kill EVERYONE
Fair enough, but I think the way they abuse Pokemon on-screen just got to me more, like the whole Slowpoke tails thing. I will admit I am biased towards Gen 1 and 2 because I'm old lol
Idea Factory be like let's make the R4 Card the personification of evil...let's also put most of our games on the PSP and Vita two systems infamous for piracy.
@@LowestExpectations I don't even count monsters who are barely sentient or personifications of concepts as villains, as their nature means they have no agenda or objective, and a villain is defined by an agenda or objective that is actively opposite to the hero's one. Necron is the embodiment of the concept of death itself, he feels to me more of a bonus trial that Zidane and the cast have to fight to return to life after being murdered, than an actual villain. Cloud of Darkness also feels more like an inanimate or barely sentient, well, cloud of darkness, which only looks human but literally has no personality, so I don't count it as a villain. Same goes for Ishmelga or Persona 5's Yaldabaoth, I count Osborne and Shido as main villains. Zemus though is trash because he is a random final boss and is supposed to be a person, so he counts as a villain.
@@vittoriopugliese3352 I had similar thoughts while making the video, which is why I used the term antagonist instead of villain. That way things like that could be included if they were interesting or worthy enough to be mentioned here (or in Yu Yevon's case, underwhelming, even though it was once human).
Moebius are like Powerranger Monsters of the week they come do their stupid stuff transform and die. Still liked Xenoblade 3 though. Also, I think the pure disrespect not even mentioning Kefka, the clown who manipulated an Empire and became a god, is worth a dislike Kefka is such a good Vilian, he at least would have deserved an Honorable mention.
That's a good comparison lol. Did you watch the honorable mentions? He's at 59:08, and the reason he isn't on the main list is because I didn't finish FF6 due to being spoiled.
In defense of Duke Cayenne He sucks, but he's meant to suck. The whole game he basically gets outplayed and was dancing on Osborne's strings without him even knowing it. Yeah his actual attempts at villainy are pretty lame, but he serves a purpose in the grander narrative.
@@ShroomRPG He was lame but I do think they could have had added more to him to make him stand out more despite his role. There's a character similar to the role that Cayenne played that was done much better in a future Trails game but that would go into spoiler route.
I thought she was alright. Clone characters/doppelgangers/etc. lose a lot of points for me usually. Rei is still my favorite antagonist in the entire series.
Ok, spoilers ahead... For best, I'd go with Maruki from P5. Because he wasn't a villain... he was just an escapist trying to make everyone happy. For worst, I'm ganna have to go with FF10 as well. :p
Yeah, Moebius is pretty bad but it didn't stop me from liking the game. I thought N and M were written quite well (N can also be annoying over the top), but the rest are absolutely stupid. I feel the overall story in Xenoblade 3 is written very well though.
Yeah the whole idea behind Xenoblade 3's story is actually pretty interesting. The way it was presented was just awful, and the villains being the worst part of it by far.
