Final Fantasy: 25 Greatest Villains 

Final Fantasy XII is a fantastic game, albeit one that is marred heavily by the fact that its main villain, Vayne, is largely anonymous throughout proceedings.

He appears in only a handful of scenes and though some of his actions are as dastardly as they come, including murdering his father and disbanding the Senate to seize control of the Archadian Empire, the number of interactions that he has with the main characters can be counted on a single finger.

This creates a sizable disconnect and inspires little in the way of emotion once he is defeated.

Gabranth, on the other hand, serves as a loathsome adversary. The head of the Judge Magisters, whose faceless appearances, dogmatic loyalty to the Emperor (and obligatory British villain accents) inspire fear by their presence alone, he is almost solely responsible for the ruination of Basch and Ashe’s lives, painfully keeping the former (his brother) alive solely to have him haunted by his failures.

Seemingly one dimensional at first, the fact that Gabranth becomes more and more conflicted by the line between his duty and Vayne’s tyranny, possessing more of a moral compass than destructive underlings like Judge Bergan, make him fascinating to explore.

His ultimate redemption can be seen coming a mile off, but facilitates something resembling closure with his brother and bookends the game almost perfectly.