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Well, don't they? If you're an RPG villain, you certainly do. But why? Is it for the women? The fast cars and glitzy lifestyle? Or are you just plain off your rocker? It may well be that the motivations for a villain's attempts at conquest and/or destruction of the world are the most vital key to understanding them as a character. It might even be said that a villain is often nothing more then a diabolical plot wrapped in oversized shoulderpads. Let's do a little digging into the raison d'etre of a few major RPG bad boys, shall we? As a warning, spoilers will abound, due to the nature of this exposition.
To start, the grand daddy of the all. Scene stealer of the first title he was in, FFVII, he went on to play a recurring role as "that really hard extra boss" in Kingdom Hearts I and II both (and for all we know maybe 3 as well). He's the only RPG villain voiced by a member of N'Sync, and he even had a role on the big screen in Advent Children. Of course, I speak of Sephiroth. What makes this guy tick? Sigmund Freud would have nibbled his cigar and mumbled words like "Oedipus complex" and "complete nut". Yes, Sephiroth was insane. The stress of the SOLDIER experiments performed on him, as well as the revelation of his genetic origin in Jenova, drove him mad. Taking refuge in the Northern crater with the last remains of his dying alien "mother". With that, he sought to become a god by absorbing the power of the lifestream in the advent of Meteor destroying most of the world. The fact it would kill all other life really didn't matter to him. He felt betrayed by humanity, and his actions were an almost childish display of lashing out at those he beleived hurt him. In the end, one almost has to pity him.
Of course, he's not the only Final Fantasy villain to lash out due to being someone else's guinea pig. Another would be Sephiroth's predecessor, Kefka. One of my favorite villains and probably one of the most memorable, the Killer Clown from the Empire and his trademark laugh have been goading players to rip that smug grin off his cackling, face since 1994. Much like Sephiroth, Kefka recieved an infusion of an otherworldly source of power (in this case Magitek), and the resulting experience drove him mad. Brimming with hatred for basically everything that exists, he began a diabolical campaign to betray and destroy his own empire, become a god, and lay waste to the entire world. He too chooses to be a god, but unlike Sephiroth's wish to gain power for power's sake, Kefka wants nothing but nihilistic destruction. Another sad figure.
Sadder still is Dhaos, main villain of Namco's Tales of Phantasia. From the very start, this blond-haired bad boy seems like the perfect villain. A mysterious all-powerful sorceror, his only goal seems to be the gaining of the Mana Seed, and he doesn't seem to care how many people he has to slaughter in order to do it. But once defeated, this titan of terror reveals his true goal- saving his own world from destruction. Sadly, he couldn't seem to think of a way to do that without committing genocide. It really seems as though many villains are less evil and more tragic. Almost makes you feel sorry for them.
In fact, that seems to be a more and more recurring theme in RPG villains of late. once cold-blooded hearltess murderers, now they often seem more victims fo fate then the protagonists! And left in the throes of such unkind fate, destruction seems the only option. So maybe everyone doesn't want to rule the world, but a fair number seem to want to blow it up. Whether because of despair, hatred, insanity, or desperate need, more and more villains seem to be taking their frustrations out on the entire planet. One wonders if maybe a few anger management sessions is all you really need to save the world.
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