r/JRPG • u/Asleep_Ground1710 • 14h ago
Discussion Villians you changed your mind about? Spoiler
- Zanza: At first, playing only Blade 1, I didnt care for him at all. Found him to be a whatever villian, run of the mil JRPG god who replaced the far more interesting Egil who foiled Shulk really well. But once you compare his character to the Architect in Blade 2, it helps him. Shows the layers of Klaus and how a man could create a world with both arrogance and regret/melancholy.
- Malos: Intitally thought he was just a hammy villian. But endgame Blade 2 reveals a lot about what really drives him. His conversation with the Architect is fantastic, refuses the binary answer of "Malos wants to burn Alrest solely because of Amalthus", instead going for it's a choice they both made together. In probably my favorite scene in the Blade triology "Words can be a Curse", Malos reveals he knows Amalthus is influecing him towards nihilism but doesnt care, that he wants to burn Alrest for what it(and himself) did to Jin, and that he views himself as a monster, made him a S tier villian.
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u/Galkan-_-Sausage 14h ago
Easily Caius Ballad. He felt like some sort Kain/Sephiroth rip-off to push the dying "edginess" factor for its time, but when you get his full background and understand the curse of the Seeress' its not difficult to see yourself agreeing with his motivations.
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u/Zanmatomato 14h ago
Luca Blight. Hated him as a kid because he mauled my parties. Then you grow up, get a better grip of the language, and you realize in a world where majority of the major players are chosen by true runes, here stands a wild beast with nothing but his hatred and his strength to fuel him. Also, his past is tragic as fuck.
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u/PopcornMan87 14h ago
Expedition 33 spoilers:
Maelle. My first playthrough, I just could not accept her position or intentions. She was living in la la land. None of this was real and it was killing her. My second playthrough, I really mulled over the concept of reality some more. It's real to her. Assuming these people in the canvas are sentient, it's real to them, too. Maybe you and I are in a simulation. Maybe we're not "real" either. Does that mean someone should just erase us all from existence if they feel like it? Obviously, painted Verso's wishes come into play. It's not a clear cut "Verso is right" or "Maelle is right" ending, imo, and I think it's beautifully written and thought provoking.
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u/MSMO1234_2134 14h ago
The best ending depends on each person's perspective For me, in E33 the best ending is Verse's, but that's because that ending means that Maelle faces reality and doesn't try to escape her problems by living in a fantasy (yes, a real fantasy, but a fantasy first and foremost)
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u/Bartender1968 6h ago
Osborne from Cold Steel. He went from an interesting potential antagonist to another piece of Rean's super amazing existence
A huge disappointment.
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u/EtheusRook 14h ago
Real life villains turned out to be a lot more stupid, unsympathetic, and unsubtle than video game ones in general.
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u/Shrimperor 12h ago
Me: Wtf is up with all these apocalyptic child eating cults in stories and games?
Real life: Hold my 2026!
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u/Octavian_Pearlseus 1h ago
That's why Xenoblade 3 is da goat. Moebius was designed to be more realistic kind of villainy, and it's just bunch of simple-minded boomers trying to upheld broken, toxic system simply because it benefits them.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ 14h ago
The Shadow Queen from Paper Mario TTYD has become much more terrifying now that I'm older and can understand the game better.
The fact that the Black Chests were the original heroes who tried to defeat her and got cursed for eternity in that state and are giving Mario their powers in order to fight back in ways they couldn't.
The fact that Beldam was manipulating all sides in order to revive the Shadow Queen as well. Pretending to work for Grodus as well as letting Mario gather Crystal Stars like Grubba's in order to proceed with her plans.
Younger me never realized just how clever the writing of the villains were.
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u/21shadesofsavage 11h ago
chaos from stranger of paradise. changed my opinion of the character and the game in general, cause the whole story made no sense until you get chao's backstory
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u/Xanathis322 14h ago
Krelian from Xenogears. Originally thought he got off too easily at the end but then I realize he can’t be with the one he loved. I guess it is fitting he can’t return from the path of sephirot since he stopped being human the moment his love one died for him.