Square-Enix's recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake has given players a new look at one of the series' most legendary villains, Sephiroth. However, with more games under the developer's belt, the team has developed both a bit of a pattern in developing villains, while generally improving on the quality of these characters.
One improved version of the template set out by Sephiroth is of course Ardyn Izunia from Final Fantasy 15, who may arguably be the best villain the series has had since Final Fantasy 7 first introduced the platinum haired, ex-hero. The comparisons become even more connected when looking at how both characters began their journey's as heroes before a tragic betrayal or realization set them on course for becoming the villains that we recognize in game, even Sephiroth's changes in the remake.
From here on, we'll be getting into Major Spoiler territory for Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Final Fantasy 15, all of which are well worth experiencing with fresh eyes. A proper comparisons requires a look at Sephiroth and Ardyn's actions, abilities, and most significantly their kill counts in order to compare these two characters. And who they choose to eliminate throughout the game actually sets these two closer than most would think.
Broken Hearts
Let's start of by looking at the way both Sephiroth and Ardyn treat some of the love interests to their respective protagonists, namely the deaths of both Aerith and Lunafreya. Of course there is some debate on the standing of Aerith as Cloud's love interest, but there is no debating that Noctis was in love with his childhood friend Lunafreya, making her unceremonious death at the end of Final Fantasy 15's second act a real gut punch. Similarly, Aerith, a playable character throughout Final Fantasy 7, is impaled in one of the most harrowing scenes of the PS1 era.
The way Sephiroth hunts Aerith down, only to appear out of seemingly nowhere to run his nodachi through her back, makes the comparison from Jaws to Sephiroth more prevalent than many of his other actions. These moments were more than simply a flashy cutscene, or a shocking death as well. Up until this point, both Sephiroth and Ardyn had been somewhat menacing, seemingly toying with the heroes as they lead the player along their journey, but these murders solidify them both as a true nemesis that needs to be stopped at all costs.
Jenova and the Starscourge
There is a great amount of division between players on whether or not they believe that the many games in the Final Fantasy series are interconnected or take place within the same continuous timeline. The official stance by Square-Enix is that the games are their own separate entities, but certain Easter Eggs, like Shinra's mask in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, have sometimes established the connections as canon in some isolated cases. However, some fans theories have connected in the past the similarities between the Starscourge and Jenova's cells in Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 15.
This is relevant when it comes to Ardyn and Sephiroth, because both of these men are infected with their relevant dark entity from space that has plagued their respective planets. In the case of Sephiroth, the Jenova cells planted in him as a fetus are the key to his incredible power and the reason he calls to her as his mother, and Ardyn's absorption of the original Starscourge turned him into an immortal deamon. Likewise, both Jenova and the Starscourge turn anyone who isn't a main antagonist that is infected with them into monsters, leading to Hojo's monster creating experiments and the deamons that plague the night in Final Fantasy 15.
Family Ties
As mentioned before, Sephiroth's connection to Jenova is what leads him to often think of her as his mother, and as a result, everyone else who has been infected with Jenova cells is often referred to as a one of Sephiroth's siblings. This is most notably seen in Advent Children, where the children mentioned in the movies title are the "Children of Jenova," with Sephiroth acting as a long lost brother. This makes Cloud and Sephiroth "brothers" in the sense that they both carry Jenova cells.
In a more direct lineage, Ardyn is also related to the hero of Final Fantasy 15, Noctis, except in their case it's a blood relation as a great uncle rather than being comparable test subjects. The name mentioned above for the villain, Ardyn Izunia, is actually a fake name that he gives in order to blend in in a time that he shouldn't belong to. Instead, his real name is Ardyn Lucis Caelum, making him a direct relative of Noctis Lucis Caelum.
Kefka
Of course, it would be impossible to talk about these two villains from the Final Fantasy series without mentioning possibly the most influential villain of the franchise, even if fans of more recent releases might not know him. Kefka Palazzo is a psychotic jester who truly set the template for villains in every Final Fantasy title since his introduction in Final Fantasy 6. In some cases, it almost seems like when Final Fantasy 15 was looking for a villain, Square-Enix just looked at Kefka and decided to just do that again, and it made for one of the best villains since Final Fantasy 7.
All of that aside, what makes Kefka so influential in the Final Fantasy series is that he did everything previously mentioned about Ardyn and Sephiroth first. Instead of Jenova cells or the Starscourge, Kefka absorbs literal gods to become a god himself, kills off the previous primary antagonist, potentially kills the party member Shadow, and most importantly succeeds in destroying the world in the way that both Ardyn and Sephiroth attempted in their own games. To put it simply, Ardyn and Sephiroth seem to have so much in common, because they can be traced to the common ancestor of Kefka who Square Enix has tried to recapture that "lightning in a bottle" with for decades, but have never really been able to top. What Sephiroth and Ardyn have most in common is that they share a space in Kefka's shadow, perhaps not in popularity's terms but in design.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available now on PS4.