Luca Blight: The Greatest Villain of All

by Bobby Skelton

Now, to start off, I want to state that I know this article will spark some debate, which is perfectly understandable; it's a very debatable subject. But when it comes to the great villains in video game history, the evil and incredibly powerful antagonist from Suikoden 2, Luca Blight, is rarely discussed, if ever. But there are many traits that I believe should put Suikoden II's swansong villain to the top of the list, which I hope you will read and find out.

The most obvious trait of Luca Blight is his strength. In a one on one duel, nobody in the game would have had a damn chance. Just think about what it took to bring him down (I'll save that for the end though). Now what made his strength so extraordinary is the fact that he didn't use some supernatural power like some of the evil greats. He didn't turn into some out of this world beast when he fought (the final battles with Sephiroth for example). Luca fought in a strictly human state, which he should be commended for, considering he was damn near unbeatable. He fought like a normal soldier would, with his sword. Now don't get the wrong impression (sorry if I'm giving one), he was evil and used his strength for evil purposes, but hey, that's what villains are supposed to do.

Another thing Luca should be commended for is the fact that he didn't just stand back and let his army fight. The reason I say this is because he was in the royal family, but he didn't just give orders and sit back and watch results. He was the most powerful combatant on his side of the war, which is kind of rare for someone with royalty running through their veins.

Now what stands in my mind the most when I think of Luca Blight is his, in my opinion, legendary death. He was ambushed with naught but a few weak soldiers to aide him, but he wouldn't stop fighting and surely did not go down easily. He fought three different parties of six, but you could make a state that at this point he still had the upper hand. In the end of this epic battle, Luca Blight was backed up against a tree, fatigued, but still ready to fight. Then a swarm of arrows flew from some hidden archers, which finally put an end to his fight and life. Now, reading this hackneyed version of that fight is nothing like the experience of playing through it. Suikoden II, as a whole, kind of disappointed me because they did not save the fight against Luca for the end, (the final boss turned out to be a big beast thing whicg Luca summoned somehow before he died. *Sorry if details are a little edgy, it's been a while since I've played the game) but that's not the point of this article.

Anyways, I truly do believe Luca Blight is one of the greatest villains in all of video games. But he is just extremely overlooked. Maybe that's because the Suikoden series doesn't have the mainstream popularity of the Final Fantasy series, but either way I think it's a must for all RPGamers to play Suikoden II just to experience fighting against whom I believe to be the greatest villain in all of video games.

I've also comprised a list of what I believe are the top 5 villains in all RPGs:

(1) Luca Blight - I've already explained why.
(2) Kefka - The pure evil of FF6's antagonist puts him in this spot.
(3) Sephiroth - If you've play FF7 and don't know why he's here, you're and idiot.
(4) Ganondorf - Maybe I'm just being biased here, but Zelda Oot's bad guy does deserve a spot on this list.
(5) The Gods/Goddesses of the Breath of Fire series - I couldn't choose just one, but the many different ways the series pits you against them should be noted.