The crazy thing about Final Fantasy games is how things escalate, and how strong the main villains become. A lot of the Final Fantasy titles would often start off🅘 on a small scale, with the prota🐟gonists commonly beginning their journey against relatively grounded antagonists. You may begin the game small, but before you know it, you’ll be fighting literal deities and trying to save all of existence.

It is ridiculously over-the-top and incredibly anime-lik🐟e; however, a lot of times that’s the charm of the franchise. It is one thing to save a princess from a giant turtle, yet it is an entirely different thing to save all of humankind from a being of pure nothingness. Villains would often begin as realistic adversaries during your quest, but by the end, they will have the power to try to end everything by destroying a crystal or something. That may sound silly to some of you; to me, it sounds awesome.

Since the bad guys in Final Fantasy are so incredibly powerful, the question is, who is the most powerful baddie in the franchise? Since pretty much every main bad guy in the Final Fantasy series is an all-powerful being capable of destroying all things, it is pretty difficult to determine which all-powerful being that's capable of destroying all things is the strongest. Despite that, I’ll try my best to rank the Final Fantasy villains from weakest to strongest.

30 ಌ Cid Aulstyne (Type-0)

While many antagonists in Final Fantasy games are gods that need to be stopped before they end everything, Type-0 just has an old man as the main villain. To be fair towards Cid Aulstyne from Type-0, he is the leader of the Milites Empire. He is cold and calculative; he is an adversary that uses his cunning military experience to outdo the protagonists. He would later pass away and get possessed by a deity. He becomes a monstrosity, just like any other good Final Fantasy villain.

29 🌳 Yu Yevon (Final Fantasy X)

Final Fantasy X has an epic story of traveling a strange land and rising against the establishment, while dealing with complex themes like faith. It ultimately comes to head in the final boss, where you face against Yu Yevon. Yevon is the main religion in the world of X and is based on the teachings of Yu Yevon. After spending countless hours of gameplay to reach the final fight, you find yourself incredibly disappointed to find out that Yu Yevon 🧸is just a bug. The final boss also cannot be lost, as your party members are auto-revived.

28 🎐 Seifer (Final Fantasy VIII)

Talk about a character that was all bark but no bite. Seifer is Squall’s rival in Final Fantasy VIII and was advertised as being a very major character in the game. He serves mostly as a bully, of𝐆ten antagonizing the group and claiming to be better. He is not a completely villainous dude, as he does have some honor. He is just gullible and is easily manipulated by the villains to work for them. He acts tough, yet he is always one of the easier bosses to fight. Each one of his battles is super easy, making Seifer come across as a wimp.

27 Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V) 🗹𒈔

A giant with four arms should be a total beast in battle. Right? Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth. While multiple iterations of Gilgamesh have existed throughout the series, I am focusing on the original Gilgamesh that first appeared in Final Fantasy V. Gilgamesh, who is named after the legendary hero found in the oldest living story, is a big oaf. His boss fights aren’t necessarily easy; it is just that Gi✨lgamesh is never treated as a real threat within the story. He is incompetent and was stupid enough to fall for a fake Excalibur.

26 🐎 Shuyin (Final Fantasy X-2)

Shuyin is the primary antagonist in the Final Fantasy X sequel, X-2. He is a great warrior who passed away many years ago and refused to go on to the next life. He became a wandering spirit and grew more and more resentful towards Spira. He ꦗeventually activates the Vegnagun, a machine with the capabilities to de💧stroy the planet.

Shuyin himself isn’t that strong; however, he is a lot mo💞re competent than the previous entries on this list. He also has a giant world-ending machine, which gives him extra points.

25 ﷽ G𝕴olbez (Final Fantasy IV)

Golbez from Final Fantasy IV had the making of a memorable villain. He was a tall, dark wizard who manipulated the events of the games from behind the scenes. He was imposing, and he even taꩵkes the life of one of the main characters. This guy was meant t🌼o be cool.

That is, unti🧔l we discover his backstory, and realize he was brainwashed by the true villain of the game, Zemus. We also find out his real name is Theodor, 🤪which is just the dorkiest name ever. Nothing makes your main villain less intimidating than naming them Theodor.

24 Genesis Rhapsodos (Crisis Core𝓰) ꧒

Genesis Rhapsodos is the main villain from the Final Fantasy VII spin-off, Crisis Core. He is a person that was bred to be the ultimate warrior for Shinra, not unlike Sephiroth. If you thought that would give him bonus points, think again. Genesis is 🍰mostly just a dude with angel wings who is obsessed about his favorite poem. There is a boss fight where he transforms into some sort of monster called the Genesis Avatar. That monster version was defeated by Zack, and he was turned back into his normal, kind of annoying self.

23 Xande (Final Fantasy III) ꦡ

Man, Xande got really messed with within the Final Fantasy franchise. Xande from Final Fantasy III is a sorcerer who, after gaining the gift of mortality, is driven mad. He would try to drain the crystals to create an imbalance between light and dark and freeze time to escape perishing. Xande is the main villain of III, and most of the game is focused on stopping him. Yet somehow, in all the spin-off games, they treat the Cloud of Darkness, the last-minute final boss of III𝐆, as the main antagonist. It doesn’t make sense, and Xande was left forgꦅotten.

22 Ardyn Izu⛦nia (Final Fantasy XV)

Similar to the previous villains mentioned on this list, Ardyn from Final Fantasy XV is a cool character, but he is ultimately just a guy. He is immortal and has the powers of past kin🐓gs. He is still a regular dude compared to the more exaggerated antagonists in the series. He has a cool design and speaks in a manner that is fascinating, yet his motives and backstory are pretty confusing. Did I mention he is immortal?

The final boss battle with him is actually pretty easy, and he never transforms into a more godlike form like other Final Fantasy baddies.

21 Gabranth And The Other Arcadian Judges (Final F𝐆antasy XII)

The Arcadian Judges in Final Fantasy XII serve as the ultimate keepers of justice within the series. Despite them supposedly being on the side of law and order, they ar🐽e unfortunately under the tyrannical rule of the Arcadian Empire.

They are hard as heck as bosses within the game. Thougꦑh, if we're being honest with ourselves, they don’t nearly have the god-levels of strength compared to other enemies. Most of them are relatively normal people, some of which are even pretty old. They are just super challenging bosses, with sweet looking armor.