The villain. An integral part of a narrative, whether it’s film, TV, or video games. The Final Fantasy series has presented many great villains over the past thirty years. When it comes to deciding who the best villain is, people will often say either Sephiroth from FFVII or Kefka from FFVIII. Whilst they are some of the most memorable villains in video game history, in terms of best villains in Final Fantasy, there is one man who better than both of them: Professor Hojo.

Professor Hojo doesn’t fit in the typical main antagonist mould. His role as a mad scientist fits perfectly as a secondary antagonist. He doesn’t have any magical powers, he is not strong, he has zero charisma, and he has to rely on his brains in order to make an impact. In the world of Final Fantasy, you need those traits in order to be considered a threat. However, the events of Final Fantasy VII would not have happened without the actions of Hojo, and it was all part of his master plan, making him the true villain of the game. These are some of the reasons why Hojo is the best villain not only in Final Fantasy VII but the entire series.

He subjected his own wife and son to experiments.

Towards the final hours of Final Fantasy VII, it is revealed that Hojo is the biological father of Sephiroth. Throughout the game before this reveal, we were led to believe that the alien lifeform Jenova was the true mother of Sephiroth, albeit through using her DNA to create Sephiroth in a lab.

In reality, Sephiroth was conceived naturally between Hojo and his wife Lucrecia, and Jenova cells were injected into the womb of Lucrecia in hopes of creating a Cetra, this hypothesis being erroneous due to a case of mistaken identity with Jenova.

Although Lucrecia was willing to take part in the experiment, Hojo cared very little about what would happen to his unborn child or his wife. He showed in Dirge of Cerberus that he may not have loved Lucrecia, and may have only married her so that he could create the perfect specimen using her DNA. He was a man with very little remorse or empathy for others, even if they were his own family.

He caused the main characters to suffer.

Whilst Sephiroth made a lot of dick moves during the game, Hojo was the guy who made the lives hell for many of the main characters. First, we have Vincent Valentine. Hojo murdered him in cold blood after Vincent protested using Lucrecia and her unborn child as test subjects. To add salt to the wound, Hojo would go on to perform experiments on the corpse of Vincent and then seal him in a coffin when he was done with him.

He murdered Aerith’s father Professor Gast and kidnapped her and her mother to experiment on to discover the secrets of the Cetra, and would years later recapture Aerith and try and force crossbreed her with Red XIII who had also been kidnapped by Hojo.

Finally we get to the main protagonist Cloud. He took the wounded Cloud away to test a new theory of his, involving the reunion of Jenova cells. He would hold Cloud and his friend Zack prisoner for many years before they finally escaped. Hojo made most of the main characters lives hell, all in the name of science.

He intentionally put the planet at risk to get results.

By now we have established that Hojo loves to experiment, particularly with humans. But his greatest experiment nearly ended the world, that experiment being the Jenova Reunion in order to bring Sephiroth back to human form. The experiment that Cloud was subjected to, the aforementioned reunion, is when Jenova cells will all gather to its host body, which was originally Jenova herself before Sephiroth’s will managed to override the gathering to come to him instead due to his immense power.

If this wasn’t enough, Hojo took control of a Mako Ray with the intent to shoot it at Sephiroth to give him more power, all so he can gather data on his greatest creation. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is for Hojo, as long as he can get results for his research. He would go as far as killing everybody on the planet in order to complete an experiment. This man was quite simply crazy.

He is the evilest man in the entire Final Fantasy series.

At this point, you have to come to the conclusion that Hojo is just pure evil. He enjoys the pain and suffering of others; he is a murderer and has one hell of a superiority complex. Sephiroth might have had a superiority complex, but you can argue that Sephiroth was a tragic villain. Before he burnt down Nibelhiem, he was an honourable soldier and showed to be quite a decent fellow before he found out about his past. Sephiroth’s desire for power came about due to the insanity he fell into whilst going through a major identity crisis.

Hojo, on the other hand, had no redeemable qualities. He always wanted to be the best at everything he did and would resort to murder if anybody got in his way. Kefka may have destroyed the world in Final Fantasy VI and was an evil in every sense of the word, but there was something oddly charming about him due to him being a jester. Hojo was all serious and was truly a despicable creature. His actions prevented Sephiroth from living a normal life and he caused the suffering of not just the main characters, but countless people who were unfortunate to find themselves in the presence of Hojo as they found themselves being part of his experiments.

So hold the other villains in Final Fantasy in high regard: they do deserve the recognition of being some of the best-written villains of all time. But always remember, when it comes to the best, Hojo should be considered the all-time greatest in Final Fantasy history.