In most of my blogs that talk about RPG's, I talk about how a game needs really strong characters to help carry the player through the story. Strong characters can help a game's story because strong characters can help out the game through some its weaker story elements. However what makes a character a strong one, and what makes a character a weaker one? Well, instead of describing what makes a character strong v.s. what makes a character weak, I decided that I would talk about a character that I believe to be a prime example of a strong character, Golbez from Final Fantasy 4. However, I am warning you that if you plan on playing Final Fantasy 4 in the near future, or you do not want any spoilers regarding the game, I suggest that you stop reading now.
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| Golbez's in-game boss sprite |
Now, when I think of Golbez I think of one of the best Villains ever created in an RPG game still to this day. Throughout the game, he is always one step ahead of the main party, and he is brilliant, constantly throwing the main party into lose-lose situations. But the real question still stands, what separates Golbez from other villains found in other RPG games? The first spot where I saw Golbez stand out from other villains was the way he was introduced into the game. Instead of other games where you never even see the main villain for the majority of the game, Golbez makes an entrance that is very hard to forget.
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| Yoshitaka Amano artwork of Golbez from Final Fantasy IV. |
During the main story of Final Fantasy 4, Cecil (the main character), and his group of friends head to Fabul kingdom to prevent Golbez from taking the Air Crystal. When Golbez realizes that his army is not strong enough to take the crystal by themselves, he decides that he must do it himself. Golbez breaches the defenses of the castle with ease, and in dramatic fashion, he wounds Cecil and his other party members, takes the Air Crystal, and also kidnaps Cecil's love interest and main character, Rosa.
The iconic scene from the game is definitely a hard one to remember. Golbez comes in, takes names, establishes the coveted "son-of-a-bitch-must-pay" mentality, kidnaps the hero's girl, and turns the hero's best friend against hero, in a seemingly smooth, and near perfect fashion.
A final reason as to why Golbez is a great character and amazing villain is because he is a tragic villain. You learn later in the game that Golbez was not stealing the crystals on his own accord. It turns out that Golbez was being mind controlled by the real villain of the game, Zemus, who is a Lunarian that wants to eradicate the population of earth so his people have a place to live. Zemus was able to control Golbez because Golbez is half-lunarian. Cecil also learns much later in the game that he is half-lunarian, and through a messed up chain of events, we learn that Cecil is Golbez's younger brother. This makes Golbez a tragic villain because Golbez actually ends up being a really nice person after Fusoya breaks the spell over Golbez, and we learn one of the more tragic points of this game due to the fact that Golbez was basically forced fight his own brother, Cecil, without knowing what he was doing because his memory was wiped, and he was mind controlled. The emotion from the character can be seen in the
final scene when he finally feels at peace after his apology is accepted by Cecil.
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| Golbez from Final Fantasy Dissidia |
Like I iterated before, Golbez has got to be one of the characters I have ever seen in an RPG to this day. Golbez was such a polarizing villain, due to the way he constantly patronizes Cecil and his group, the legendary entrance he makes, and his
bone-chilling, tense theme. Golbez does a really good job of making the player hate him, and want to beat him, but also makes the character feel sad for him, and have sympathy for him during the final portion of the game. So in the end, Golbez is just an such outstanding character, that his presence makes what is regarded one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made, a truly phenomenal game.
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