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The Tales series may not have the most powerful villains, but their unique ideas and human perspectives make them by far the genre’s most interesting.
A big part of what makes the Tales series renowned introspective stories work so well is its villains. Whereas most JRPGs pit their heroes against would-be gods and planet-killing maniacs, Tales games are usually about competing factions trying to save the world through different means. As such, their antagonists are often good people making moral compromises or former heroes who lost their way and were twisted into antagonism. This gives them a humanity rarely seen in the genre, resulting in a pantheon of likable and even sympathetic enemies.
This complexity is arguably integral to Tales’ continued existence as a franchise. Though certainly no commercial slouch, with lifetime sales exceeding even Persona and Fire Emblem, the franchise’s focus on human values means its relevance is determined by how well it discusses those ideas. As such, its older games may become dated as peoples’ understanding of the issues they raise develop and perspectives change with time. It’s important the series keeps challenging players with bigger and more complex ideas, and nowhere is that ambition better reflected than in its rogues’ gallery.
Tales games rarely bother with continuity, frequently taking place in different worlds, but each setting is typically afflicted with a great societal problem. This can be anything from a real-world issue, like racism or a deadly pandemic, to a more metaphysical one, like a lack of free will. Whatever the dilemma, it’s typically big enough that fighting some dark lord won’t solve it. In rare instances where a Tales does receive a sequel, it may show people struggling to overcome this hurdle. In one particularly heartbreaking example, Tales of Symphonia and Phantasia take place 4000 years apart, and discrimination remains a community-dividing problem even after all that time.
It’s because these problems are so monolithic that each villain’s proposed solution makes a tragic kind of sense. Whereas villains in competing franchises, like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, often seek to destroy the world because of its flaws, a Tales villain aspires to correct them. The problem is that their good intentions are often twisted by the cynicism that emerges from living in such broken societies. Symphonia‘s Yggdrasil was traumatized by the racism he experienced growing up and sought to erase all ethnic distinctions to ensure no one suffered as he did. Xillia‘s Gaius was so determined to protect his people from imperialist invaders that he intended to destroy their advanced technology, even though it would’ve sent millions of innocents back to the Stone Age.
Even the more high-concept antagonists have understandable motivations. Abyss‘s villain lives in a world where fate is predetermined, forcing people to become killers, tyrants or worse without any choice in the matter. Because clones are exempt from fate, he seeks to replicate all living things, giving up on the current humanity so that a new one can take its place. Each villain’s ambition varies in scope from game to game, but their warped desire to do good makes them understandable. Unlike rival franchises, Tales doesn’t take the easy way out by insisting its antagonists are motivated by a vague “insanity” or evil for its own sake. Their writers think about what problems exist in their worlds and what would push their inhabitants to extremes.
The best evidence of this is that even the villains who are struggling with dwindling sanity feel relatable and sympathetic. Berseria‘s Artorius may seem like an icy tyrant who rejects all personal freedoms, but he’s also a deeply broken man who wants to return to the peace he once knew. The game never truly asks players to forgive him, but it does explain why he thinks he’s right. This depth of character also makes each Tales villain much scarier by showing how, given the right circumstances, anyone could have fallen. It can be comforting to think of villains as cackling maniacs who loudly announce their desire to destroy all joy in the world, but reality is rarely so simplistic. Usually, they’re just flawed people making bad decisions at the worst possible time.
While the main antagonists consistently drive each story, that’s not to say lesser foes can’t stand out. In fact, it’s common for Tales games to feature villainous parties whose members have their own reasons for wanting to change the world. Abyss‘s Legretta seeks to overturn fate because she resents being destined to fall in love with her brother’s killer, while Berseria‘s Teresa wants to protect her family from the chaotic world. Their stories may be comparatively smaller, but they highlight personal problems that the people of each setting face. This more human perspective helps keep the fantastical stories grounded and reinforces the drama of more realistic ones.
That being said, not every Tales villain is perfect. Despite having tried to offer deeper antagonists since it began on the SNES, it took until Symphonia for the series to really hit its stride. As such, many of its earliest foes embody the destructive tropes the series now works hard to reject. Furthermore, the shifting awareness about the subjects it discusses inevitably means some stories have aged better than others. Phantasia‘s villain Dhaos and his desire to protect the environment might have seemed unique in 1995, but his simplistic plan seems decidedly lacking in modern times. Still, if the worst thing that can be said about these characters is that the discussions they relate to eventually transcended them, that’s hardly a failure of their writers.
Ultimately, the Tales series is committed to delivering relatably human villains, through whose flawed ideals it hopes to spark engaging moral debates throughout its fandom. Few stories in any medium have characters complex enough for audiences to question their ethics, so the fact that a whole franchise is always striving to achieve this with each installment merits admiration. These villains may lack the world-ending might of Final Fantasy‘s or the existential horror of Shin Megami Tensei‘s, but in a battle of wits, ideals and convictions, they will win every time.
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