Great games can’t exist without villains constantly pushing players to persevere. For theFinal Fantasyseries, it’s perhapsFinal Fantasy 7andFinal Fantasy 6that remain close to fans of the franchise. Each of these iterations came stellar appearances of their major villains: Sephiroth for Cloud and his friends (FF7), and Kefka against Terra and the Returners (FF6).
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Both Kefka and Sephiroth served as gripping villains in their respective titles. ForFF6, it’s Kefka’s maniacal laugh that can send shivers down to players' spines. Meanwhile, it’s Sephiroth’s “One-Winged Angel” that’s become one of the most iconic video game soundtracks. However, of the two powerful villains, just who’s the better baddie?
10Sephiroth Wins: He Has That Mysterious Aura
Sephiroth never loses his charm as a character. Regardless of what incarnation of Sephiroth players see, his iconic long white hair, black garb, and piercing look made every on-screen appearance enthralling and scary. Players can perhaps give credit to Tetsuya Nomura for Sephiroth’s character design, withFF7director Yoshinori Kitase naming him as his favorite villain in the series as he was “kind of a mystery novel.”
And one might say Square Enix achieved that goal, as any mention ofFinal Fantasy 7won’t be complete without imagining Sephiroth’s silhouette surrounded by flames. In FF7, there’s no way of knowing whether that cutscene with Sephiroth will lead to battle or more questions about the game’s overarching plot.
9Kefka Is Better: No One Wants To Be Near Him
Sephiroth has that mysterious charm. However, despite his comedic appearance, no one wants to be near the jester Kefka. TheFF6villain shows no degree of remorse or mercy towards both his enemies and his allies. On multiple occasions, Kefka showed he couldn’t care less if soldiers who accompanied him died in front of him.
What made Kefka’s Big Villain reveal shocking wasn’t his murder of Emperor Gestahl. Instead, it’s players knowing Kefka has a loose screw but never expecting him to pull it off. Kefka, slowly showing his true colors without players noticing it outright, made him quite the terrifying villain.
Sephiroth makes his presence known as an integral character inFF7thanks to recurring flashbacks. However, while this strategy can be used in any story,FF7maximizes Sephiroth’s impact with how his presence actively affects Cloud. Players know Cloud as quiet, distant, and collected. However, the game slowly makes it aware that Sephiroth constantly plagues Cloud’s presence. When Tifa and his friends reveal Sephiroth’s role in their lives, players know Sephiroth has to be stopped.
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However, perhaps what’s impactful is the fact that Sephiroth’s presence in the protagonists' lives makes him such a scary villain.
Unlike Sephiroth, Kefka immediately establishes himself as a villain in the story. However, given how the past games worked, players simply looked at Kefka as the possible penultimate villain. Who better to be the boss before Emperor Gestahl than his faithful servant? Despite the visible “cracks” in his psyche, players can easily dismiss Kefka as the stereotypical henchman. Players underestimating Kefka makes him terrifying, especially when it’s revealed he’s the ultimate villain in the story.
Moreover, Kefka establishes his status without any ulterior motive. He doesn’t want to usurp control over the empire, or even establish his own kingdom. Kefka simply wants to destroy.
6Sephiroth Wins: An Experiment, Born Into Greatness
Sephiroth began his descent to madness upon discoveringthe true natureof his birth. Not only is he the son of Professor Hojo, a man he hated, but Sephiroth is also the byproduct of the Jenova Project. As a result, Sephiroth had alien Jenova cells in his system, giving him remarkable abilities. He became the progenitor of Shinra’s SOLDIER program and was also the best SOLDIER to have existed.
Unfortunately, when Sephiroth discovered the true nature of his existence, he thought his birth prophesied his ascension into a Messiah. Players slowly get to see Sephiroth’s story unfold as they learn more about him in the game, which was at a steady pace. Thanks to this, gamers had enough motivation to take him down during the endgame, and feel satisfied afterward.
5Kefka Is Better: An Experiment, Born Into Madness
Kefka was supposed to be a Magitek Knight, capable of harnessing both magic and technology to perform various supernatural feats. Unfortunately, the Gestahlian Empire hadn’t perfected its Magitek Knight creation process at the time. As a result, this process had “broken” Kefka into madness. Unlike Sephiroth’s, the game didn’t weave Kefka’s story inherently into the story’s plot. Moreover, players would likely never expect Kefka to “snap” until his reveal as the principal antagonist.
The game reveals Kefka’s rather tragic backstory and shows gamers how one horrible experience can warp a person’s entire worldview. For Kefka, he saw nothing but ruin and destruction. As a response, players who fought Kefka to try and change his view saw this final battle as a valiant effort to try and change a villain.
4Sephiroth Wins: Fighting The Savior
Given the cinematic “feel” ofFF7, the game implies that Cloud and Sephiroth will inevitably have a final showdown. Before that, they haveto fight Sephiroth three timesin the game. The first Bizzaro-Sephiroth is a gigantic structure that may embody Sephiroth’s pursuit of power. The second Safer Sephiroth is his ultimate form, a multi-winged angel of immense god-like abilities. It’s his final “battle” that’s interesting, as Cloud simply has to fight a topless Sephiroth on a one-on-one brawl.
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Unlike otherFinal Fantasybattles, Cloud and Sephiroth’s showdown felt like a climactic Wild West scene, one where Cloud has to strike some sense into Sephiroth and show his Messianic vision is something he can’t achieve. It’s this high-stakes “movie” appeal that makes their boss fight something to remember.
3Kefka Is Better: Fighting An Idea
Theparty fights Kefkafive times in the game, three of which are cinematic and the fifth one being the final battle. Moreover, the last fight serves as the culmination of Kefka’s “quest” in destroying the universe. Kefka winning this final fight means being able to destroy all of existence, and he needed the power of godhood to do so.
In his “god” form, Kefka appears as a demonic angle with a red loincloth. He’s much more muscular, with two pairs of angelic wings and another pair of bat-like wings. Only his ponytail gives Kefka any semblance of being human. Amongst otherFinal Fantasyvillains, Kefka has one of the most elegant and “straightforward” boss forms. This might be because players aren’t fighting “Kefka,” per se, but his nihilistic vision.
2Sephiroth Wins: A Lasting Legacy
Sephiroth remains as one of the most recognizableFinal Fantasycharacters, thanks to the massive popularity ofFF7. It’s in this regard that he bests a lot of the other villains in the franchise. Sephiroth was also designed to share a lot of differences with Cloud. Players can notice the different designs with their hairstyles, weapons of choice, and the way they act throughout the game.
Moreover, Sephiroth had a rather interesting development process.Earlier draftsstate that Square Enix wanted Sephiroth to have a more cruel and brutal personality. In initial drafts, Sephiroth would grow addicted to mako. However, instead of showing withdrawal, mako addiction was supposed to strengthen Sephiroth’s madness and let him keep his composure.
1Kefka Is Better: A Lasting Voice
Whereas Sephiroth makes a mark as a villain, Kefka makes himself memorable because of his design. Players know Kefka for his high-pitched cackle. While Kefka as a character laughs frequently throughout the series, his cackle precedes significant events in the story.
Moreover, Kefka’s endgamewasn’t originally in the story draft. Square Enix only considered Kefka’s “world of ruin” when they noticed development was going so smoothly that they had extra time to add the released game’s final stages. In fact, players were originally supposed to defeat Kefka before in-game events brought upon the apocalypse. Regardless, it’s thanks to this “extra mile” that players got to explore Kefka’s true personality.
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