8 PS3 JRPGs Where the Villain Feels More Compelling Than the Hero

I'm not sure if I'm alone on this, but in a game, if your villain sucks, I'm going to have a hard time being pulled into the experience. Because for me, heroes are boring. Especially in JRPGs. While there are exceptions for sure, so many of them are bright-eyed teenagers eager to save the world and, blah blah, have seen it 500 times before.

What makes the journeys compelling is the antagonist, whether they're comically evil, sympathetic or multiple shades of grey, the villain always makes the story in these games. The villains in JRPGs are the ones that make the story have stakes. Quiet down bright-eyed anime boy number 5000, there's an adult in the room, and they want to burn down your village and become a god, and you're going to let them monologue when they damn well please.

We're going to take a look at some of the best villains on the PS3 that left the heroes in the dust.

8 Lost Dimension

Enigmatic and Dangerous

Lost Dimension is one of the more unique JRPGs on the PS3, and it has one of the more interesting villains. That's much needed, because the main character, Sho, is not much to write home about. The villain here is The End, a terrorist who is threatening to basically destroy the world. And he's not just all talk because, at the beginning of the game, he's already killed over a billion people. This immediately establishes the stakes. This is an immense threat and the world understands that.

Too often, the villains in these games only register with the player and the party. Not here. The End is a threat of Biblical proportions and the UN is heavily invested in stopping him. He's a looming presence throughout the game and while you don't get the full payoff of who he is and why he's doing what he's doing until the end, his very existence is a compelling one and every challenge you undergo throughout the game is because he willed it to happen. He's the reason the game works.

7 Resonance of Fate

Controlling Fate

Resonance of Fate is a wild game with some awesome combat, but where it falls flat is the heroes of the game. Your three main party members are so dull, and it's a waste, because it's one of the older casts you see in a game in this genre. Luckily, the villains pick up the slack. Specifically, Rowen. He serves as the leader of the Cardinals, who are a mysterious group of people pulling the strings behind closed doors.

Rowen has a fascinating motivation though. Having lost his beloved, his looked for a way to alter the world, so fate would never take anyone from him again. To mixed results, of course, and obviously some nefarious methods within. But it's still an easy to relate to villain, and one that never feels fully evil, as this game is really good at making sure the world is painted in a firm shade of grey, so nobody ever really feels too good or too evil.

6 NieR

All Hail the Shadowlord

NieR is an amazing JRPG with some of the best storytelling and most unique gameplay out there, and while the main character, NieR, is fine, he's no Shadowlord. And that's not because of Shadowlord getting grand speeches, or committing massive atrocities; it's because of how much he doesn't say. His presence is menacing, but also familiar. It's that familiarity that becomes clear by the end of the game, but it makes his presence before then genuinely mysterious.

He doesn't say much and what he says is strange and hard to understand. But he's enigmatic, and you can feel the weight of his words, whether you understand them at the time he says them or not. And then when you play again, and have everything translated, you hear exactly what he's saying and why he's saying it. He knows who you are and is trying to communicate with you, but can't. It's a tragic battle and a tragic villain, but one whose methods are very much understandable when you find out what he's fighting for.

5 Final Fantasy XIII-2

Destined to Fail

Final Fantasy XIII-2 has the best villain in the 3-game arc in the form of Caius Ballad. He's at odds with the protagonists, Noel and Serah, who are on a mission to restore order to time and space to find Lightning. What they don't know is that Caius can't let that happen. The reason is that he's the immortal protector of Yuel, who is a young girl who can see the future and each time she uses her powers, she becomes weaker and dies eventually.

Caius, being immortal, doesn't like that, and having been forced to witness her end countless times stuck in a cycle, he eventually breaks. It's a really cool character motivation and his design is awesome as well. Noel and Serah are solid protagonists in the game, but I was just waiting for the next time Caius would appear because his scenes were so damn compelling. He deserved to get a bigger spotlight in this series overall.

4 Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Less Edge, More Existentialism

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a pretty underrated game in the long-running franchise and that's mostly due to its awesome character. The protagonist, Edge Maverick, is about as bad as his name is. In terms of villains, the game jumps around from different opposing forces and every single one of them manages to outside Edge. Whether it's the strange Phantoms that appear in the form of a cohesive military, the lizard aliens or the Crowe, who is shown to be Edge's better at just about every turn, the enemies in this game all have their own compelling little arc.

In particular, Faize eventually fills this role himself, turning the tables on the party and achieving a plan he'd been brewing all game at the very end. He's a fascinating character whose motivations are hidden in plain sight and when you finally realize what he's been trying to do, all these previous scenes that seemed odd fit like a perfect puzzle and in it makes the reveal make all the more sense.

3 Tales of Berseria

Artorius the Bold

Tales of Berseria is an awesome title in the Tales series with some great combat, a compelling story and arguably the best villain in the series. Artorius starts off the game as a seemingly good person, but that all changes during the Scarlet Night, which sets the hero, Velvet, against him forever. Velvet is a fine protagonist, but her motivation is pretty cut and dry. Revenge. Yawn. Seen it before and while it's done well here, it's nothing all that interesting.

Artorius, on the other hand, is an almost divine-like figure and the population reveres him as such. He has no interest in world domination or anything of the sort, he just wants everyone to lose free will and become emotionally numb. He believes this is the only way to true harmony. And in a way, he's probably right. If everyone is a hive mind, there would be no war, no class discrimination, etc. It's a fascinating motivation for a villain, and you almost find yourself siding with him throughout the story despite the atrocities he is committing to achieve that goal.

2 Drakengard 3

Just a Flower

Drakgengard 3 is the only PS3 title in the series, and it's every bit as insane as its predecessors. The plot surrounds Zero, a woman who has been possessed by a parasitic flower that is granting her strength but also consuming her very essence. In order to fix that, she tries to end her own life and the flower doesn't like that. So, instead, it spawns offshoots of her all possessed and completely nuts. It's a wild premise and Zero is a compelling character in her own right, but the main villain steals the show.

That villain is the flower. Yes, a literal flower steals the show in this game because of how it affects everything and anything you see in the plot to this wild entry in the series. It's infecting all the Intoners you fight throughout the game, as well as influencing the events in the background. It's this Eldritch horror in the guise of a simple flower and that dichotomy is one that makes this game feel all the more bizarre and compelling as you play it.

1 Dragon's Dogma

The Dragon Steals the Show

Dragon's Dogma is a classic for sure, but it's not because of its voiceless, personality void protagonist who you control. No, it's because of Grigori, the dragon who shows up in the opening moments of the game and literally rips your heart out. As the kids say, that's aura folks. But he doesn't just do that, he taunts you and basically dares you to come find him. That opening moment drives home how intimidating Grigori is and as you go through the story, that point is driven home even more.

When you encounter him towards the end of the game, he just obliterates a would-be villain and announces that he's the main event in the most badass way possible. This world-ending threat has some of the best dialogue, an incredible vocal performance and caps it off with an all-time final boss battle. Him being dumbed down in the sequel is a big problem, and one of the reasons why it wasn't as good of a game.