FFVI (or III) Concept Art - Yoshitaka Amano

[murph20]

An unbelievable artist! :-)

[murph20]

More...

[murph20]

And then some...

[Flarey]

The moogle with the drink is very cute.

Personally, I still prefer Terra with light green hair. It distinguishes her from Celes.

[murph20]

The moogle is chillin' and sippin' on some vintage wine ;-). It is a nice pic. I am gonna guess that Terra is your fave character? Heheh. My sis always thought Terra and Locke should "hook-up" rather than Celes and Locke.

Anywho, I think the pics of Sabin with the rugged facial hair are much better than the clean shaven look. I am going to guess that the ones with the facial hair are when the game takes place in the World of Ruin.

[Flarey]

Terra and Celes are both awesome, but I somewhat favor Terra a little bit more.

[Ryoga_Kiwamu]

I think its the same artist that made the early concept art for FFVII

[xXxBLYNDS1DExXx]

My favorite of the FF series. Kefka > Sephiroth any day of the week.

"Life... dreams... hope... Where'd they come from? And where are they headed? These things... I am going to destroy!"

[murph20]

I agree with you, xXxBLYNDS1DExXx, although I have a feeling we are of the minority opinion. To me, being powerful, cold, calculating, AND a little crazy makes for a diabolical and scary villian. Although, early in the game, he is seen as the right-hand man of Emperor Gestahl, it is obvious he is the man behind the curtain. I love his lines after killing Gestahl: "Poor old...oh well, what a worthless excuse of an emperor!" lol ;-)

[Flarey]

"I take it back...NOW you are worthless." ~ Kefka

[xXxBLYNDS1DExXx]

If you break it down by pure actions, the answer is clear.

Sephiroth, except for causing one of the most tragic character deaths in any FF game and having an awesome theme song, doesn't accomplish very much in the game. He kills the president of Shinra, and summons a meteor that manages to almost completely. That's about it. Unless you count in events after the game in Advent Children where Sephiroth infected the lifestream with geostigma. It's really only his intentions that make him the antagonist, because his evil"doings" fall a bit short.

Kefka, on the other hand, poisoned an entire city in order to speed up the results of a siege that he was already winning, and that was before he had any actual powers. He annihilates the esper race, gathering their power in the form of magicite to himself. He kills the general of the army and the emperor in order to obtain Ultimate Power, and actually succeeds in destroying the world and reshaping it into his own image. He had his own cult to worship him, and stood atop his tower raining down destruction on any city he wished.
Plus, he had a 16 bit midi laugh that is recognizable the entire gaming world over.

[Flarey]

I agree that Kefka is the better villain, but I like Sephiroth better simply because he had a deeper back story and more intricate plans, even for events after his own death.

Besides, he has better evil dialogs. Not to mention better hair. ^_~

"I have been think about what present to give you, Cloud. Shall I give you despair? Tell me, what do you hold the most dear, so I can have the pleasure of taking it away from you." ~ Sephiroth

[Ryoga_Kiwamu]

I was gonna write something smart but all the Sephiroth talk make me wanna see Advent Children again, maybe play some on playstation as well:biggrin:

[xXxBLYNDS1DExXx]

I was gonna write something smart but all the Sephiroth talk make me wanna see Advent Children again, maybe play some on playstation as well:biggrin:


I know what you mean. I keep the English version on my Video MP3 player (I don't have an IPod, Creative Zen Vision:M for the win) and sometimes even just listen to it and visualize what's going on when I'm in my car, lol.

[murph20]

I do admit that Sephiroth has the hair going for him, but how 'bout Kefka having the make-up going for him? ;-)

[N8Dogg5k]

All I can say is this:

Planets Conquered:

Kefka- 1

Sephiroth- 0

Not being sent out as hate or anything. Just seems like Kefka gets the job done better.

[Flarey]

I know Kefka is probably the better villain, but I still like sexy Sephy more. XD

Number of screaming fangirls: Sephy >> Kefka

Hehe, to each their own. And I might consider myself one of the fangirls, even though I still like Vincent the best. ^_~

[murph20]

He's got the sexy flowing silver hair, he's got the craziness.... He's.... Sephika (please understand I am not good at editing pics lol)

[Flarey]

Now that is just creepy. XD

[murph20]

You know you want it :-p

[xXxBLYNDS1DExXx]

Haha, that makes me laugh. Way to go.

[N8Dogg5k]

Actually we already kind of got our Sephiroth/Kefka hybrid in Kuja from Final Fantasy IX. When the creators were making the main villain to IX, they said that they wanted someone who was just as evil as Kefka from VI, but looked like Sephiroth from VII, thusly Kuja was created.

I think it is safe to say that they two do not mix well... at least design wise. In areas of evil though, Kuja is definately up there as one of the more ruthless and vile villains in Final Fantasy history. Sadly I just can't get past the whole man-thong deal to actually take him more seriously as an antagonist to an epic story.

From what I've been hearing on the rumor mill about Final Fantasy XIII though, the main villain will be a Sephiroth-like female to coincide with the Cloud-like female main character. And after seeing what they did with the character Lightning, I do look forward to seeing what they do with the villain.

[murph20]

While I liked FFIX, I agree that Kuja did not come across as the most successful villian in FF history. The man-thong definately did not help and he was too much in the middle ground between looking like Sephiroth and having the crazy, diabolical nature of Kefka. He never hit the extreme nature of disregard for others and manipulative traits that were characteristic of Sephiroth and Kefka. Nor did he possess the same craziness that was Kefka (I think they left that for his cronies, Thorn & Zorn). They have yet to hit that mark since conceiving the character of Kefka :(

[N8Dogg5k]

I will agree to that. Kefka was pretty much a once in a lifetime villain it seems anymore these days, as all of the villains in Final Fantasy just don't seem to match up. Although I will say that Vayne from Final Fantasy XII was pretty cool.

The whole political storyline to XII really got him over as a manipulative governmental figurehead. But he seemed more like a Palpatine/Emperor than a sadistic psycho like Kefka was.

[murph20]

The reason Kefka has been in my mind as of late is because my girlfriend and I went to see the showing of The Dark Knight with Heath Ledger as Joker. I went into the movie thinking he was getting praise because he was now dead, but boy was I wrong. Ledger stole the show! I saw a lot of similarities between his portrayal of The Joker and Kefka of FFVI, which has reignited my interest in Kefka

[Flarey]

I can imagine Kefka saying it now.

"Let's put a smile on that face..."

[N8Dogg5k]

Or telling Terra...

"You see to them... You're just a freak... Like me!"

That would be pretty cool... :)

And now that it has been brought up, in a lot of regards, TDK Joker was very much like Kefka. Nice comparison there!

[murph20]

Aww... Ain't they cute? I especially like Strago's ;-)

[murph20]

Forgot a few :-\

[Flarey]

Chibi Shadow is cute. XD

Kefka (to Celes): Ooh, a little fight in you. I like that.
Sabin: Then you're gonna love me. *uses Blitz*

[murph20]

Looks like he is doin' a little jig :)

P.S.

I really like the Sabin quote ;-0

[Darkseider]

I may be alone in this, but I almost don't consider Sephiroth a villain. He does evil things, yes, and he's a certifiable whackjob, but his entire life is manipulated by Jenova, in my mind the real villain of the story, as is so expertly exemplified by the final Jenova fight. So in that sense, Kefka is a much better villain and he's certainly more disturbed. Kefka just manages twisted, sadistic EVIL better than Sephiroth. This is not to detract from Sephiroth, but he's much more of a brooding pawn than a demented mastermind.

[Flarey]

That is why I like Sephiroth better. He is not pure evil, but he actually has a confused past, and he has to deal with the fact that he was engineered using Jenova.

Kefka is more of a two-dimensional villain, completely evil and insane, with no redeeming qualities. That explains why he lacks screaming fangirls. XD

[DarkRunner00]

He's got the sexy flowing silver hair, he's got the craziness.... He's.... Sephika (please understand I am not good at editing pics lol)

awful....

anyway I love FFVI

and I love yoshitaka amano's work...

[N8Dogg5k]

As much as you may feel that Kefka is a two-dimensional villan Flarey, I can't help but feel that a lot of Kefka's appeal actually comes from the fact that he IS pure evil.

There is no redemption factor to his character. He is a villan in the truest sense of the word. In a world nowadays where every villan seems to have to be sympathetic or redemable, Kefka stands tall as one of the few legit bad guys who simply just doesn't care about anything but his own goals.

The fact that he is so irrevocably evil made beating him all the more important in the game. Kefka was going to destroy everything until there was nothing left. Sephiroth simply wants to help his mom. In a sense, Sephiroth COULD be talked out of what he is doing. Kefka on the other hand... Talking is useless.

Agan though, I'm not hating on Sephiroth, I just feel that the sympathetic villan is a little played out nowadays...

[Flarey]

To each their own, I guess. ^_^

[murph20]

Agreed :-0

[Fats McBastard]

some badass artwork. i love the styling of them all.

[N8Dogg5k]

Yeah to each his own indeed.

Sephiroth is still a cool villan. I mean, how do you top his design? Tall brooding guy in a trenchcoat with a 8 ft. long katana... That just screams ultimate badassery! In terms of a villan, Sephiroth does have it in the design department for "cool look."

But then again, Kefka did tap into everyone's latent fear of clowns... :)

[murph20]

Kefka and watchin' "It" solidified my fear of clowns forever!

[Flarey]

Why so serious? XD

[murph20]

The re-emergence of Joker didn't help any :-p. I had to seek psychotherapy after the movie came out ;-)

[Flarey]

A chat with Alfred would probably do more good. XD

[N8Dogg5k]

Yeah, is it me, or has Alfred given like some of the best advice in movie history?

The only other character I've seen in the movies who gave advice on that level was Doc Holiday in the movie Tombstone.

But seriously, Kefka did show how evil a clown could really be. After playing Final Fantasy 6, me and a few friends were watching Ronald McDonald like hawks. Wondering when he would attempt to take over the world...

[Flarey]

I came across some very nice pictures featuring Terra.

Edgar looks like a real gentleman in the second picture. It almost made me fall for him, if I did not already know he was a womanizer. XD

Terra looks so beautiful in her Esper form in the fourth picture. Edgar also looks cool with his Auto Crossbow.

By the way, name the monster that Shadow is fighting in the picture. ^_~

[Pervysage]

Thanks Flarey you just found me my new desktop image

[Flarey]

Which one did you use?

[Pervysage]

just a awesome picture

[zer0]

Those are very nice pics Murph. i as well had the same thoughts as I watched the Dark Knight. In fact, a week before the movie came out, my friend got me into FFVI. i knew about the FF series, especially because of VII, but it never really interested me like VI did. Very Odd, I might say.