Writing a good story, and especially one for a story-heavy genre of game like a JRPG, isn’t just about cooking up a good protagonist and sending them off on a little adventure. It’s also about giving them a counterpoint, something or someone to struggle against. In other words, an antagonist. The best JRPG stories have equally compelling protagonists and antagonists, but on many occasions, the antagonist ends up being just the slightest bit more interesting to players.
8 Best JRPGs Where You Play A Rebel
In some games, our protagonists are rebels; in others, we’re part of a rebellion.
That’s not to say these games’ protagonists are bad or uninteresting, of course, merely that there’s something about the antagonists that you just can’t quite seem to get off your mind. A big part of it is that they’re not our perspective character, so there are simply many details about them that we can’t get a definitive answer on the same way we could with the protagonist. Even if they’re technically not the final boss of the game, it’s these antagonists that gets people talking and drawing fanart, the same kind of dark allure that villains have had since the earliest days of gaming.
Major spoilers for the following games!
10 Shuyin
Final Fantasy X-2
In Final Fantasy X-2, the entire reason Yuna sets off around the world as a Sphere Hunter is because she received a sphere with a recording of a man who bore a striking resemblance to Tidus, who had disappeared at the end of the previous game. In actuality, this man was not Tidus, but rather Shuyin, a resident of the real Zanarkand who had passed away a thousand years ago during the war with Bevelle.
Shuyin was the lover of Lenne, a skilled summoner and popular songstress who had been sent to the front lines of the war. In order to decisively end the war, Shuyin broke into Bevelle’s secret weapons laboratory to activate their nuclear option, a giant Machina weapon called Vegnagun. Lenne followed him and tried to get him to stop, but the two were killed by soldiers before she could say anything.
Suffused with grief and anger, Shuyin’s spirit couldn’t reach the Farplane, so he lingered for centuries until he managed to escape by possessing Nooj’s body during the events of the first game. Angered that Spira had only gotten worse in the time since the war, Shuyin manipulated Nooj and his followers to get him back into Vegnagun’s chamber so he could wipe the slate clean again.
9 Artorius Collbrande
Tales of Berseria
Throughout Tales of Berseria, Velvet’s singular goal is to get revenge upon Artorius “Arthur” Collbrande, the Abbey’s head exorcist dubbed the “Shepherd” for his prominent daemon-slaying efforts. While Artorius is beloved by the public, he also sacrificed Velvet’s little brother to bring about the Advent, and imprisoned her in a concrete hole in the ground for several years.
Artorius was originally a disciple of the Hero King Claudin, with the two of them traveling the world and cleansing malevolence. Artorius, after many years of difficult travel, met Velvet’s sister Celica and married her. However, when their village was attacked by brigands, the villagers threw the two of them under the proverbial bus so they could flee, resulting in Celica’s death and rebirth as the Malak Seres.
From there, Artorius began an extremely long-term plan to reawaken the forgotten Empyrean Innominat, all with the ultimate goal of forcefully stripping away humanity’s emotions and preventing the generation of malevolence. It’s a terrible plan, of course, but he was just so utterly broken by his wife’s death and humanity’s unwillingness to better itself, it was the only one he could think of.
8 N
Pokémon Black and White
The majority of evil team leaders throughout the Pokémon series, assuming they aren’t blatant criminals like Giovanni, have some manner of warped, malicious ideal they wish to inflict upon the world. Arguably, the most sympathetic of these individuals is the king of Team Plasma in Pokémon Black and White, Natural Harmonia Gropius, better known simply as N.
N was an orphaned child living in a forest surrounded by Pokémon. Thanks to this odd situation, he gradually learned how to communicate with the Pokémon, loving them like a family. By chance, Ghetsis stumbled upon him and saw an opportunity to fuel his budding world-domination plans. Ghetsis adopted N and surrounded him with Pokémon that had been abused and neglected by humans, giving N the idea that Pokémon and humans can’t live in harmony and should be separated.
Unlike most evil team leaders, N genuinely loves Pokémon, and has no particular ill will toward humanity either. It’s just that, in his mind, the only way for both groups to be truly happy is to be separated forever, with said separation brought about by force if necessary.
7 Ryo Aoki
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Midway through the story of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ichiban and company end up in the crosshairs of Ryo Aoki, the governor of Tokyo and co-founder of the nonprofit Bleach Japan, which had been working to remove all the criminal grey areas in Japan’s cities. Aoki’s public-facing persona is conscientious and approachable, making him a very popular contender for Prime Minister.
In actuality, Aoki is Masato Arakawa, the son of Ichiban’s former patriarch, Masumi Arakawa. In his youth, Aoki had a weak constitution, forcing him to be chauffeured around in a wheelchair by Ichiban. While Ichiban was always kind to him, Aoki grew resentful of his own weakness, as well as the social ostracization that came with his yakuza ties. This is why he faked his death and fled to America, receiving surgery to improve his health and studying at Harvard to begin amassing political power.
Aoki is fiercely protective of his own agency in life, insisting that none of his underlings move without his direct orders. He wants singular, unquestionable authority over Japan’s political system, all to ensure he could never be in a weak, marginalized position ever again.
6 Tohru Adachi
Persona 4
In Persona 4, not long after moving to Inaba, Yu is acquainted with Detective Tohru Adachi, his uncle’s bumbling, good-natured partner. He seems like a harmless enough guy, not to mention useful to the Investigation Team given his tendency to leak classified case details, but all of this was actually an elaborate cover for the mastermind behind the town’s mystery.
Adachi possesses the same power to enter TVs as Yu, as well as an inverted version of his Persona, Magatsu-Izanagi. He was the one who originally dumped Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi in the other world and left them for dead, then manipulated Taro Namatame into kidnapping anyone else who appeared on the Midnight Channel. Why? It seemed like something fun to do.
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Adachi’s childhood was mostly fine, if a bit overly-regimented, he’s just never been good at forming genuine connections with people. He only joined the police force so he could legally carry a gun, and his assignment in Inaba is so boring that he instigated serial murders and kidnappings just so something interesting would happen. That’s what’s kind of tragic about Adachi; he didn’t have any grand plan at first, he just had a lot of simmering resentment that boiled over at a particularly bad time. “One bad day,” as they say.
5 Porky Minch
Mother 3
In Earthbound, Porky Minch (AKA Pokey Minch) is Ness’s irritating next-door neighbor. He starts out merely annoying and useless, but the corrupting influence of Giygas in the world gradually turns him into a conniving megalomaniac, gradually conning his way up to being the powerful entity’s right-hand man. After Giygas is defeated, Porky escapes into time and space using the Phase Distorter, ultimately setting up the events of Mother 3.
With the ability to freely travel through time, Porky was able to amass immense knowledge, resources, and influence, gradually assembling the Pigmask Army in his preparation to attack the Nowhere Islands. However, due to misusing this technology, Porky has aged in a distorted manner, becoming old and decrepit while still having his same childish personality.
As he battles Lucas and company, Porky gleefully exclaims that he’ll wake up the Dark Dragon and wipe out everyone else in the world who “doesn’t like him,” which means everyone. When defeated, he escapes into the Absolutely Safe Capsule, which seals for all eternity. In a way, he got exactly what he wanted: now, nobody he doesn’t like can ever bother him again.
4 Louis Guiabern
Metaphor: ReFantazio
In Metaphor: ReFantazio, the entire reason Will and company join the Tournament for the Throne is in order to get close to Count Louis Guiabern, a high-ranking official in the royal army and, allegedly, the one who struck the missing prince with a wasting curse. Louis is in the race himself as one of the most popular candidates for the throne, having amassed a healthy percentage of public support for his efforts in slaying Humans.
Louis is one of the most dangerous kinds of villains: a charismatic and self-assured one. What makes him so popular with the people is his meritocratic approach; he doesn’t discriminate against anyone based on their race, he just wants powerful, capable individuals by his side. In a world that is severely choked by institutionalized racism, this is a breath of fresh air to many.
Louis’ ultimate goal is to flood the world with magla and forcefully evolve all sapient beings into humans, creating an “equal” world governed by survival of the fittest. He was inspired by the same fantasy novel as Will, though where he sought equality through getting people to cooperate, Louis has such little faith in people that he just figured the best approach would be to devolve back into an age of beasts.
3 Kefka Palazzo
Final Fantasy VI
Kefka, the main villain of Final Fantasy VI, is both one of the series’ most iconic and, seemingly, most straightforward. He’s a mad jester, gleefully inflicting pain and terror on anyone the Empire throws him at, and ultimately, the entire world. If ever there were someone worthy of the title “omnicidal monster,” it’d be Kefka. However, he wasn’t always like that.
Kefka was the prototype Magitek Knight, the very first in a highly experimental process conducted by the Gestahlian Empire to create footsoldiers capable of wielding magic against their enemies. The process did technically work; Kefka gained the ability to wield magic, and an impressive aptitude for it at that. However, the process was not without side effects.
The experimental process utterly destroyed Kefka’s mind, particularly his ability to feel positive emotions like happiness. The only thing that can make him happy, or at least a rough approximation of happiness, is the rush he feels when he hurts, kills, and destroys, and much like any addictive feeling, its diminishing returns force him to seek progressively greater thrills. This is the impetus for his ultimate plan to become a god of magic and destroy the world, and what puts him at odds with Terra and company.
2 Magus
Chrono Trigger
The first time we hear of Magus in Chrono Trigger, it’s as the evil king in the Middle Ages waging war against the Kingdom of Guardia. Given his blood-red cape and demonic sickle, he seems like a textbook bad guy. While his aims weren’t exactly peaceful, though, they did have a genuine justification.
Magus was originally Janus, crown prince of the Kingdom of Zeal in 12,000 BC and son of its queen. He was a bit introverted, but otherwise a good kid who just wanted to protect his sister, Schala. When his mother and her followers activated the Mammon Machine, they, Janus, and his sister were sent to the distant future, coming face-to-face with Lavos, before being scattered across history.
Janus landed in the Middle Ages, terrified of Lavos’ eventual emergence, so he resolved to amass strength in preparation, assuming leadership of the Mystics and the name Magus. The entire reason Magus was trying to summon Lavos wasn’t to conquer or destroy the world, but so he could get the monster right where he wanted it for a climactic showdown. He actually gets his proper shot at this, but only if he’s spared by Crono and company.
1 Takuto Maruki
Persona 5 Royal
In the vanilla version of Persona 5, the primary antagonist is Yaldabaoth, a manifestation of humanity’s collective ennui and desire to have someone handle difficult things for them. Yaldabaoth is still fought in Persona 5 Royal, but that’s followed by a battle against a subsequent enemy in a new palace: Takuto Maruki.
Maruki is originally hired as a guidance counselor at Shujin Academy following Kamoshida’s exposure by the Phantom Thieves. He’s a genuinely nice guy, seeking to use his research into cognition to help people overcome their traumas. Prior to this, though, he was in a relationship with a woman named Rumi, who went into a depressive spiral after her parents’ untimely death. Desperate for some way to help fiancé, Maruki inadvertently awakened to his own Persona in a nascent state, gaining the ability to influence cognition directly.
Following Yaldabaoth’s defeat, Maruki’s Persona, Azathoth, awakens fully, allowing him to assume direct control over reality in Yaldabaoth’s stead. With this power, he rewrites reality, eliminating the traumas of the Thieves in order to make an unsettlingly “perfect” world, not dissimilar to what Yaldabaoth himself was getting up to.
10 Games Where You Never Fight The Main Villain
They may be bad, but they’re not strong enough to fight you themselves.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
