Kefka: The Greatest Villain in Video Game History
The most dangerous villains are often those we first dismiss as a joke
“Hee, hee! Nothing can beat the sweet music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison!”
In Square Enix’s most iconic game, Final Fantasy VII, everyone takes the main villain, Sephiroth, seriously the moment they meet him. Sephiroth is crazy, murderous, and on a mission to attain as much power and kill as many people as possible. He has just killed some of the powerful Shinra executives in the world. Throughout the game, Sephiroth is meant to be taken seriously and simply isn’t playing around.
Kefka Palazzo in Final Fantasy VI, however, is a more insidious villain than Sephiroth, and I’d argue he’s the best villain in video game history. There are a lot of comparisons between Kefka and Joker, and Kefka is clearly a very Joker-esque villain. He is a fool, a clown, someone you just laugh at throughout the game, someone you don’t seriously at all.
Xenoflux Raiden on YouTube makes a clear distinction between an antagonist and a villain. An antagonist opposes someone for interfering with their own goals, while a villains are people that do things that will cause the heroes harm. Sephiroth is an antagonist. Kefka is a villain. This is not to…
