8 Best Square Enix Villains With Heroic Tendencies

A lot of Square Enix games have villains with sympathetic plots. Players can reason with some villains but with other villains, they can’t. Final Fantasy 6’s Kefka is a good example of a villain who has absolutely no good in him.

From the start, he is trying to get as much power as possible and does not care who he steps on to get it. He pistons an entire kingdom and then leads to the end of the world. There is no redemption for Kefka other than to face a blade at the end of the game. That’s Kefka, but other Square Enix villains do have good sides.

8 Airy

Bravely Default

Airy is in the same area of deceit as Joshua from The World Ends With You. For most of the game, Airy is like Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in that she is a guide. She discloses a lot of useful information to the party from explaining the Job system to directing them toward the next story goal.

Bravely Default’s big twist is that the party is stuck in a time loop and Airy does not want them to leave. When they try, she becomes a monstrous form of herself and is the final boss. Not many games have successfully done this twist in such a way and Airy’s true self is quite unsettling.

7 Angeal

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7

Angeal is an antagonist in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 although he is conflicted. The game begins with Angeal mentoring Zack only to find him seemingly betraying Zack and Shinra once the plot thickens. Angeal’s goals aren’t malicious but he will do whatever it takes to protect his lifelong friend, Genesis.

He stands opposed to Zack throughout the game and yet it always feels like Angela is holding back. He does, after all, give Zack his trusty Buster Sword which would go on to Cloud once Zack dies as well.

6 Axel

Kingdom Hearts 2

Axel made his debut in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as a member of Organization 13. There is a cloaked figure that guides players on occasion which turns out to be Axel even though he fights Sora multiple times in the game. He also fights Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2.

There’s a big reason for that because Sora is housing Axel’s best friend, Roxas, within his body which is a bit too complicated to get into now. He wants Sora to die hoping that one day he can reunite with Roxas. Axel did a lot of bad things throughout his days, but he eventually righted his wrongs and even became a Keyblade Master under his real name, Lea.

5 Booster

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Booster was a character that Square Enix, Squaresoft at the time, made up for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. He was the ruler of Booster Tower who kidnapped Princess Peach following the debacle at Bowser’s castle in the game’s intro.

Like Bowser, Booster wanted to marry Peach before Mario and the gang butted in. The thing is, it’s not clear if Booster even knew what marriage was. The whole experience made it seem like he was a kid trapped in a body that weirdly looked like Wario. He does respectfully give up in the end, handing back Peach, and even rewarding players. At best, one could say this villain was confused.

4 Joshua

The World Ends with You

The World Ends With You centers on a game of death wherein players within the system have a set number of days to survive. Those who come out on top can get a wish. Neku is the star of The World Ends With You who goes through several phases and partners. In the second run, Joshua gets paired up with him who is seemingly another teenager going through the same hell.

The big twist at the end reveals Joshua to be The Composer, the one who orchestrated the whole thing. While he had some good intentions and even helped Neku in that second outing, he’s ultimately the villain of the game as some sort of weird god trying to puppet humans.

3 Magus

Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger kind of has two big arcs in the game. The first involves Crono and Lucca jumping into a time portal so that they can rescue their friend, Marlene. They go back hundreds of years when an overlord, Magus, is terrifying the land. Magus is set up like the big bad of the whole game but players can get through his section relatively early.

Before he can be stopped, Magus summons an alien known as Lavos to destroy the world. Lavos then becomes the true antagonist, which Magus soon regrets. Players can later find and recruit Magus who wants to right his wrongs which was kind of mind-blowing for a 90s RPG, especially after the things Magus did.

2 Rufus

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

In the original Final Fantasy 7, Rufus had no gleam of goodness in his eyes. As the universe expanded, Square Enix added more to the lore. For example, it’s implied that Rufus founded Avalanche within Wutai to help fight back against Shinra’s global pursuit of power.

Of course, this wasn’t done for a particularly noble reason. Rufus’ end goal was to see his father die so that he could usurp the metaphorical throne. That seems to be his play in the latest remake chapter, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, as well. So, Rufus did good for evil reasons but that’s still something.

1 Slimes

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

• Platform: DS
• Release Date: September 19, 2006 (NA)
• Developer: Tose

Slimes are the most iconic monsters in the Dragon Quest series. They, like most monsters in the game, are adorably rendered and for some players, it can feel bad to thwart them in battle. Slimes do attack though, so their goofy demeanor is seemingly all for show. Slimes do get redeemed in a few ways most notably in the portable spinoff trilogy.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is the only one the West got which was for the DS. It follows a Slime trying to rebuild his village after it gets attacked by other monsters, so there are good versions of these creatures out there.