Ardyn Izunia, is he your favorite Final Fantasy villain now? (Spoilers)

[Alantor32]

Despite the flaws in FFXV, the game gave us a amazing world and full of well liked or least liked characters. Now this is a interesting topic about the main antagonist of FFXV, Ardyn Izunia (Warning, be sure to hid spoilers about Ardyn while making comments on this thread) who isn't like the other FF villains, his goals and designs are remarkable in my honest opinion so I want to ask those who may or may not played FFXV, is Ardyn your now favorite Final Fantasy villain?

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by MMX20
Correcting myself. And changing title.

[Redgrave]

I wouldn't say my favorite but I love his character and the way he talks. You know he's got something up his sleeve, but he's too charismatic to get mad at him for it.

 

Spoiler

Also isn't saying he's a villain in the title a spoiler? He's not really revealed to be one until later on in the story.

 

[thegirlruka]

Title is definitely a spoiler. And he's not a villain. He's just misunderstood. @DEMON can attest to that.

[Beyondthegrave07]

Sephiroth (FFVII), Seymour (FFX), and Kuja (FFIX) are all better villians than Ardyn IMO. Ardyn was more goofy than evil. He seemed more like a devious joker who just liked messing with Noctis. 

 

Though I hear these wannabes got nothing on Kefka. He's straight up a cold-blooded psychopath.

[GorbHere]

Spoiler

1 hour ago, Redgrave said:

  Hide contents

Also isn't saying he's a villain in the title a spoiler? He's not really revealed to be one until later on in the story.

 

Perhaps, but it wasn't very surprising.

 

Spoiler

I thought Ardyn was a cool villain because his ultimate goal was just to die. Which is why he fucks with the party during the second half and goes as far as to kill Luna, to give Noctis motivation to take his life. I only wish the game explained that better.

 

[SkyMason]

This is 100% a spoiler, you should probs change the title. Also OP, I see you've made a lot of topics on FFXV, but your trophy list says you've gone no further than Chapter 6..? Assuming you haven't finished it on an alt, you should probably get round to actually experiencing the awful end of the storyline (IMO).

 

Anyway...

 

I thought he was serviceable as a villain, would have loved a more meaningful look into his backstory, but I can sort of understand why a lot of that was kept a mystery to the player (at least if you've only played the game...sigh...). Spoilers below..

 

Spoiler

I understood his motivation and his general backstory, but I still never cared for him as a character. He does a good job of making the player hate him, whether that be from his actions or just how irritating he can be in parts (his constant narration in the mind numbing sections of Chapter 13 makes me associate his character/voice with that awful, awful section). The boss fight itself was also a massive letdown - an absolute joke after fighting Ifrit, which was IMO the best boss fight in the game (if just for the simple fact that I was assuming that it was going to lead to something grander). Negative aspects aside, he is one of the better main villains of the series, but he is kept back by the overall plot IMO. He's the most prominent character outside of the bros but it still felt like his 'heel turn' could have been a little more well thought out, with perhaps some more of his betrayal of the empire shown on screen - the fact he was a chancellor of the empire and pulling the strings seems a little redundant by the end because he barely acknowledges it. Or at least in a way that would make it seem more meaningful that he was pulling the strings of everyone in this huge conflict. It would have helped the pacing in the last third of the game that's for sure. Like everything else in the game, a big 'what if' hangs over his character.

 

That being said, he's definitely not as iconic as Sephiroth, Sin or Kefka, nor do I think he's even as memorable as Ultimecia, Kuja or Exdeath etc. It's a bit premature to say if the character will gain a little more notoriety in a couple of years time, but there's just something about him lacking IMO, but he provided at least a decent amount of motivation for the player.

[Alantor32]

10 hours ago, SkyMason said:

This is 100% a spoiler, you should probs change the title. Also OP, I see you've made a lot of topics on FFXV, but your trophy list says you've gone no further than Chapter 6..? Assuming you haven't finished it on an alt, you should probably get round to actually experiencing the awful end of the storyline (IMO).

 

Anyway...

 

I thought he was serviceable as a villain, would have loved a more meaningful look into his backstory, but I can sort of understand why a lot of that was kept a mystery to the player (at least if you've only played the game...sigh...). Spoilers below..

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I understood his motivation and his general backstory, but I still never cared for him as a character. He does a good job of making the player hate him, whether that be from his actions or just how irritating he can be in parts (his constant narration in the mind numbing sections of Chapter 13 makes me associate his character/voice with that awful, awful section). The boss fight itself was also a massive letdown - an absolute joke after fighting Ifrit, which was IMO the best boss fight in the game (if just for the simple fact that I was assuming that it was going to lead to something grander). Negative aspects aside, he is one of the better main villains of the series, but he is kept back by the overall plot IMO. He's the most prominent character outside of the bros but it still felt like his 'heel turn' could have been a little more well thought out, with perhaps some more of his betrayal of the empire shown on screen - the fact he was a chancellor of the empire and pulling the strings seems a little redundant by the end because he barely acknowledges it. Or at least in a way that would make it seem more meaningful that he was pulling the strings of everyone in this huge conflict. It would have helped the pacing in the last third of the game that's for sure. Like everything else in the game, a big 'what if' hangs over his character.

 

That being said, he's definitely not as iconic as Sephiroth, Sin or Kefka, nor do I think he's even as memorable as Ultimecia, Kuja or Exdeath etc. It's a bit premature to say if the character will gain a little more notoriety in a couple of years time, but there's just something about him lacking IMO, but he provided at least a decent amount of motivation for the player.

I think I will enjoy the end of the story. I don't care how awful it is, if it is enjoyable, then I will enjoy it to the end. I'm waiting for future DLC to the game before I can continue playing FFXV as well as updates to the game.

 

And my bad. I'll change it.

Edited June 29, 2017 by MMX20

[SkyMason]

7 hours ago, MMX20 said:

I think I will enjoy the end of the story. I don't care how awful it is, if it is enjoyable, then I will enjoy it to the end. I'm waiting for future DLC to the game before I can continue playing FFXV as well as updates to the game.

 

Eh? Why do you keep making threads about everyone's thoughts on the story if you haven't finished it yet then? I get that you like the game but most people who have played it didn't like it because they had actually finished it. I mean, I get that you want a discussion on the plot, but isn't that better left for later on when you see for yourself why people have the opinion they have on it. I mean, even the topic of this discussion is past where you in the game. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

[DEMON]

On 29/06/2017 at 2:56 AM, kuuhaku said:

Title is definitely a spoiler. And he's not a villain. He's just misunderstood. @DEMON can attest to that.

 

Ok. Big long post coming up here. I am for one, not an "Ardyn apologist".

 

He's not misunderstood by any means, he is a villain. He had easier ways out than he had. For example, the scene with Lunafreya, he wouldn't have reacted the way he did to her (giving her the backhand when she tried to draw the daemons out of him), I believe at any point of the 2000 years he lived, he could have went to an Oracle and let them healed him, but he didn't as he also had the goal of ending the Lucis Caelum line.

 

He basically went into Niflheim and corrupted them, in the Ultimania it was detailed that Iedolas was quite a nice leader (just lacking a bit of experience when it came to running an empire), until Ardyn came along, then he became power hungry. Verstael also as detailed in his loading screen, he once sought for world peace.

 

In fact, here's a list of everything Ardyn does wrong:

• Give Verstael fucked up ideas to create the MTs with.
• Which caused kidnapping people from their homes and breeding them with daemons, and turning some into daemons.
• Killed Shiva's giantess form (in some languages, he says he killed her).
• Took over Tenebrae, just to capture Lunafreya (Ravus was a bonus).
• Took over Insomnia, just to gain the crystal... plus probably to gain Noctis but Regis seen that shit coming.
• Killed Lunafreya (in a way, this kind of ended her suffering I suppose sooner? Was going to die anyway).
• Killed Ravus who tried to redeem himself to Noctis as 'Noctis'.
• Caused a right mess in Niflheim even though they deserved it I guess.
• Stole Prompto, possibly tortured him off-screen, it was implied.
• He is possibly the reason why Ignis is blind.
• Put the world 10 years in darkness, killing millions.
• Hung dead bodies up and supposedly "played" with them.
• And all of this was just some suicide quest of his to get back at the astrals.

So yep, don't say he's not a villain. He clearly is. He might have once been a hero to people, but that Ardyn is long gone from the one we seen in the game.

 

Also, yes, he's my favorite villain of the series now even though, I feel SE held back on him a lot. He didn't always have that backstory either, Versus XIII Ardyn was just a straight up villain. Him and Zenos are easily the best villains we got in years in the series. Definitely surpasses ones like Sephiroth.

[Cleggworth]

Your title is still a spoiler. Adding (spoiler) to the end of it doesn't negate the fact you've said who the villain is in the title.