I need a villain!

[Banestar]

I'd vote for Chaos in the original Final Fantasy. Anyone who basically uses random numbers to be undefeatable half the time is truly, implacably, evil.

CUR4

(commits suicide)

[Dincrest]

If you're going that route, Maggie in Persona did some truly evil things... like making my party traverse a 12 level deep dungeon twice in a row.  Oh, and before that erasing all the exits in a previous dungeon and turning it into a hellish labyrinth filled with near-indestructible demonic toilets who could one-hit-kill my entire party. 

Okay, her being the "physical" manifestation of a troubled teenage girl's toxic cocktail of negative emotions (i.e. rage, hatred, disillusionment, etc.) was pretty diabolical too. 

[Dice]

All you Luca Blight people are boring.  Pick something else!

[Cyril]

I like this thread.  I'm going to try and go for a lesser known villain.

The "Hero" in the Demon path (New Game+) in Soul Nomad is perhaps the most utterly twisted character I've seen in gaming. The entire path is written something like a Greek Tragedy.  Death, death, murder, rape, death, insanity, everywhere and it either ends in the main character dying (which is the "good" ending) or the entire world being destroyed.  He/she (I believe female is canon, actually) also pretty much stands back and lets a girl get raped by her adoptive father.

[Ashtrot]

All you Luca Blight people are boring.  Pick something else!

Your picks weren't exactly strong either. If you really want a detestable villain in BoF4, for example, you'd want to pick Yuna, not Fou Lu.

[Dice]

All you Luca Blight people are boring.  Pick something else!

Your picks weren't exactly strong either. If you really want a detestable villain in BoF4, for example, you'd want to pick Yuna, not Fou Lu.

Beats seeing Luca over and over.

But I'm open for debate.  I liked Fou-Lu mainly because you see the depth into him - his reasons to fight.  He was more tortured to make his judgements (rather than evil for the sake of doing evil).  Not a strong choice, but you see much more with him than most.

I didn't pick really strong choices as much as unique.  Villains are easy...they're bad.  It's the games who do it differently I like the most.

Kefka - succeeded to some extent.  Torched the earth, obtained a brief god-like status.  Crazy and a good example of just a pure, black heartedness.

Xehanort - Atypical looking, major credit to Nomura who created a balance between JRPG aethetic (the wardrobe and over-the-top keyblade he owns) and more Western cartoon influence (how many JRPGs have a bald villain?).  He had an impish and creepy smile, and it rarely leaves his face.  Design wise, I think he's great.

My Baten Kaitos choice was because THAT type of villain rarely appears.

Chrono Cross and Trigger, like I said, fight for more biological and evolutionary reasons.  It's not evil, it's self-preservation.  Who said it HAD to be EVIL doing, especially when other reasons make sense?

Suikoden III's villains are fun because you get to play them for a bit.  Similar to Fou-Lu reasoning, it's nice to see the other side of things.  Grandia III had some of the worst villains in history.  I kinda chose this to counter it.

Tales of the Abyss - if you want conviction in a villain, there it is.  He went to the ends of the earth to set his plan and he brilliantly establishes it and walks through it with you almost the entire way.  He wants to change their fucked up little reliant planet into something completely new and free.  The means, as often seen, are the demented part of his plan, but he's nevertheless admirable.

10 Wise Man (SO2), granted, not my strongest villain.  But I like the idea of them more.  Shame tri-Ace has trouble fleshing stories out.

[Ashtrot]

Sympathetic/different villains aren't strong villains because you feel sorry for them or don't hate them. The OP wanted someone vile, hateful, and despicable, which means Luca Blight.

[Dice]

Sympathetic/different villains aren't strong villains because you feel sorry for them or don't hate them. The OP wanted someone vile, hateful, and despicable, which means Luca Blight.

Touche.

Shame there aren't all that many that top that.  In which case we're at a complete halt.  I understand malicious evil is one thing, but senseless evil feels one-dimensional to me.  When you're playing a 60 hour game, a good villain helps.  I know it's against Anubis' vision (sorry) but I like having something to see and relate to than just...*evil*. =/
But yeah, I see what you mean.  Like Kefka, like Luca, pure evil is sometimes the draw on its own - just something rarely done, and hard to pull off.

[Eusis]

All you Luca Blight people are boring.  Pick something else!

There really aren't many other alternatives in JRPGs, at least those that match his requirements and do so as perfectly as he does. Hell, it's hard to think of many alternatives within GAMING.

[Dincrest]

Luca Blight notwithstanding, I still stand by  my picks of Albedo and Maggie.  Again, I haven't played Baldur's Gate 2 so I can't judge Irenicus for myself.  But he is often mentioned as an ace RPG villain.  

A lesser villain I liked and wished got more than just one scene was Nanasato in Wild Arms XF.  It's rare for a prison guard to be eloquent and intelligent, but Nanasato was both.  Easy on the eyes too.  Why she wasn't in a higher position, I'll never understand.  The brief time she was there, she rocked.  Okay, Rupert was a pretty good villain in XF, but I still luffers Nanasato.

[Vanguard]

Ghaleon from Lunar:SSSC.

[Annubis]

Suikoden 2 - Luca Blight: Will borrow from friends to test

Baiten Katos - Not even sure I know anyone that could have that =/

Irenicus - Very good choice. He is abominable, hurts those you love and breaks you. Paired with Bodhi, they are the bosses I enjoyed killing the most up to now.

Albedo - Isn't even a bad guy.

Revya - Hard to hate your playable character.

Sephiroth - Weirdly, I never felt anything for him. Even after THAT.

Melfice - Good guy possessed, can't hate him for his actions because of that.

Adachi - Pretty good villain, but sadly, not the mastermind. Never truly understood his actions because he was just a puppet.

Kefka - he was senseless, making it hard to truly detest him.

Fou-lou - He was the good guy. I tagged with him.

[ZeronHitaro]

It's been a while since I played it (and sadly I didn't "quite" finish it, a mistake I'm going to have to rectify) but what about the villain cast from Wild Arms XF? Edna, Rubert, and Weisheit all stood out as pretty vile baddies.

[Dincrest]

It's been a while since I played it (and sadly I didn't "quite" finish it, a mistake I'm going to have to rectify) but what about the villain cast from Wild Arms XF? Edna, Rubert, and Weisheit all stood out as pretty vile baddies.

I'm with you there, pal.  I think XF had the best villains in the entire Wild Arms franchise. 

As for Albedo, his role is more complex than that of a straight up villain or bad guy, but he is a pretty terrifying antagonist for Shion and company.  An antagonist need not necessarily be a villain or bad guy, right? 

[Prime Mover]

Well, I ALWAYS throw out Kuja, then again, you do feel sorta sorry for him in the end, so that kinda takes the sails out of "strength". But my main love of Kuja is that he's a hero that can bleed, and can make mistakes, while still being really strong. He's one of the most human villains in video games. He's evil, dastardly, destructive (torches an entire planet), and selfish. But at the same time, his vanity gets the better of him (he spills the beans to an NPC because he's trying to impress her, leading to his ultimate downfall), and he's ultimately motivated by fear of his own mortality and replace-ability. I've never touched a villain that seemed so well defined. But yeah, maybe no the type you're looking for.