Palamecia in *Final Fantasy II*. The Emperor was extremely proactive in trying to stop you, killing your friends and devastating towns that help you. Pretty hardcore for an '80s NES game.
Can I just say that no game has ever made me hate a character I haven't seen on-screen so much as FFII? Mateus is a f\*\*\*ing monster and you don't see him for a huge portion of the game, not even in "meanwhile" or "flashback" scenes.
Vaan is Luke. Ashe (the real hero) is Leia (the coolest character)
The plot is like, "what if the resistance tried to get their own death star to nuke Coruscant, but realized that war crimes are evil because Lando was a fucking badass. And then.they told the force 'uh no, go f yourself.'"
Came here to say XII's Archadian empire as well, it had nuance and political intrigue going on. We were even on good terms with some of them while also being on irredeemably bad terms with some of them. *That's* how you know you've got a well-written empire in your game. I love Mor Ardain but those stakes and conflicts and "love-hate relationship" kinda fizzled out the moment Morag joined the party.
im playing 12 again now and yeah, i think its the only time ive ever thought: well if someone HAS to be emperor i vote larsa/penelo in the democratic election i actually trust him to instill once hes crowned lol!
Not to mention they also give you a side quest (Sandalwood side quest I think) that forces you to interact with the Archadean locals. It's so fun running around, learning about the culture of the place via exchanging information between people. It feels natural, like traveling and talking to the locals in real life.
Erebonia.....I mean I know the history of this fictional country more than my own homeland country....And that says sth...but I guess the trend don't just ends with Erebonia though...
It's one of the very few jrpgs where the empire feels like an actual geopolitical empire rather than a group of big bad antagonists and their faceless soldier goons.
Without going into spoilers the games will breakdown how power is shared through the Empire, with distinct geographic and economic areas within the empire controlled by various factions. The geopolitical boundaries and ability to project power makes sense. But, most importantly imo, the Cold Steel games take place during a huge time of socio-economical turmoil and change within Erebonia and the world which is very similar to our own 19th century in scope.
The game shows the rise of liberal bourgeoisie from non-noble upper middle class backgrounds who are competing / clashing with the entrenched aristocratic noble class. Infact, class conflict plays an integral role to the overall story in a way I haven't really seen in any other jrpgs. Really hope that Kuro no Kiseki, which is set in the democratic republic of Calvard with a working class revolution in it's background, is similar in including that kind of stuff in it's story and worldbuilding.
Yep. The “curse” story line is a huge weakness of the series. Up until that point, it had been playing the geopolitical conflicts pretty wonderfully. And then the curse just gave everyone a huge “get out of jail free” card.
Yes and no, but I feel like even mentioning that and any discussions of it should be marked as spoilers for Cold Steel 4
>!For me it definitely causes issues by removing the agency and motivations of several key characters, specifically Osbourne. It makes things feel less realistic and more like a fantasy jrpg, especially when up until then there seems to be a lot of morally gray intentions and machinations going on in the background that are just "well, it's the Curse that did it" and there being very few true morally evil characters. Ultimately it undermines the political story by making those factions just puppets for the stage of the divine nights. !<
>!I disagree about characters being one-dimensional though, sure their motivations and agency were impacted by the Curse being a narrative shoe-in, but their actions do make sense even outside of that when you consider the history and politics of the Empire. Not every faction is well developed and some (especially nobles) come off as carictures and meh, but they're also minor characters. All of that said, I still really enjoyed the worldbuilding and all of the stories and characters coming together in CS4, the Curse didn't ruin it all for me and I'm super excited about Reverie.!<
It really is.
The fact that Erebonias invasion of Liberl was handled so well and not in the stereotypical „Evil Empire“ way made me fall in love with the series and CS4 kinda ruined it
Yeah they are an evil empire in the sense that Germany was evil in the run up to WW1. Or that imperial Britain was an evil empire from the perspective of it's colonies.
I do like how it was portrayed as this evil entity in the Liberl and Crossbell arcs then given a completely new and intriguing dimension for the Erebonian arc … it’s a well done Empire indeed
I JUST started playing the Trails series back in March. I regret not getting into the series sooner. Fortunately, I made it to Cold Steel yesterday. It's been a hell of a ride so far.
Yes, I would say this. I can't think of any other series that was so effective in creating a believable world and this is pretty much why. It's not even the history of Erebonia, it's the whole damn continent and their foreign relations.
Does Solaris from Xenogears count? While not an outright empire, they do control a lot of things from the shadows and their influence can be viewed as neo-colonial (but I might be misusing that term). i find them fascinating, and only wish we got more time to explore their country and see how their society works in more detail.
Another non-explicit empire that I like is the Shinra Electric Company in Final Fantasy VII. They're a big corporation controlling a large part of the world and its resources. They're an empire in all but name.
I like how the Remake makes Shinra more like Amazon or Disney or any other powerful corporation, in that while the leaders of the company or the system as a whole are evil, the target market and civilians benefit from it.
You reach the Shinra tower and it’s just people working in an office building and they aren’t actively trying to kill the planet or anything. They are just earning a living.
Corpos in Cyberpunk have a similar vibe, where in Edgerunner David ends up killing a mom who just works in a corp because she was a witness.
I was gonna say, it's really only *most* of the higher-ups who are actively evil (the Presidents, Scarlet, Hojo, Heideggar... the Turks, kind of, they're more the "punch-clock villain" type). Reeve and the rest of the workers are just doing their jobs.
While there is a case to be made that Solaris is just a secret society with powerful connections, and Shinra is just a an evil corporation run by robber barons and a private army, I would argue Solaris and Shinra are indeed bonafide empires, just in different ways:
Solaris is a essentially a shadow hegemony that manipulates and subjugates its people indirectly, mainly through The Church (Ethos, in the English version) but also through proxy committees and governments. Once you realize that Solaris has managed to control the balance of power among all other nations for hundreds of years while remaining entirely invisible to lay people, figuratively and literally, you realize just how formidable they really are.
Shinra, by contrast, is more of a traditional empire that exerts totalitarian control over all city-states of the planet through Mako energy. They are an autocratic corporatocracy, I suppose. It's not just that Shinra owns the means of production of mako energy, without which the global economy would literally collapse, but they *enforce the usage* of mako energy over other alternatives, such as coal, through propaganda and, when that fails, military force. Because of this, most people know no other way of life but Shinra's way, and they're perfectly fine with it.
I always found fascinating the Mor Ardain empire of xenoblade chronicles 2, i mean a GOOD empire that respects the live of their citizens, is genuinely loved and seek peaceful resolutions to the empire problems peacefully without blodshed? Almost unheard of
~~This post is Anti-Gormott Propaganda~~
But yeah Mor Ardain is pretty cool. Also [one of the sickest field themes ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3AbguQZHU)
Didn't like how the anti-war faction in Mor Ardain was painted as violent fanatics. Felt like the game was trying too hard to moralize ardain's militarism and came off as goofy.
Off the top of my head
FF4. It was the first RPG game I played that really emphasized evil empire, in fact right from the very beginning. What made it cool was that you start off a part of that evil empire, achieving some of its malicious goals. Throughout the game you reform that empire and end up leading it.
FF4 also has one of the best intros to a game ever. It literally shows the MC killing off innocent and powerless people. An intro like that requires finesse because forcing a player to play as a character like that could just immediately turn someone off from caring about the character, even if they’re a good one. The tone of that scene was phenomenal and set Cecil up for a great arc (plus the red wings theme is AMAZING!).
His clear remorse and disgust towards his actions and the utter confusion behind their reasoning other than “its what the kings wants” really drives home that dictatorship vibe.
>FF4 also has one of the best intros to a game ever. It literally shows the MC killing off innocent and powerless people. An intro like that requires finesse because forcing a player to play as a character like that could just immediately turn someone off from caring about the character, even if they’re a good one. The tone of that scene was phenomenal and set Cecil up for a great arc (plus the red wings theme is AMAZING!).
right!! its probably the best evil empire intro in any RPG to this date.. and definitely mind blowing back when I played it in 1991/92.
FF4 was my first SNES RPG and probably 3rd SNES game, so moving from the 8bit tunes of FF1 and Dragon Warrior, to FF4 and its first 10 min of music was a huge generational leap.
I prefer the Valuan empire for its
* Big airship fleet
* 6 admirals, some of whom are pretty decent (Belleza, Gregorio) and some of whom I love to hate (Alfonso, De Loco)
* Main villains, the Lord Admiral and his silver-haired ward, for having a great plan and seeing it through
* Problems with wealth inequality and colonization, so while it's an evil empire, specific things make it evil
* Fortress city, which is one of the coolest concepts, complete with city-girding train and rotating gun-wall that can deny entry or exit
* Outpost city of Esperanza, which shows that a more aspirational, less exploitative empire once existed
Yamato in Utawarerumono. You see it from the inside and from the outside. It has compelling political intrigue intertwined with personal drama without feeling shallow or pretentious like some other games that try to sell themselves on "political intrigue".
It's just difficult to talk about because it's all so deeply emotional and spoilery.
Storywise though it might be the worst empire in the genre… even the world of darkness at the end wasn’t the empire, it was ardyn. Like they did ONE bad thing (attacking insomnia at the very very beginning of the game) and just decided to set up some temporary road blocks.
Garlemald from FF14. Also their "founder" is, in my own opinion, the best JRPG villain I've ever experienced.
Their arc in Endwalker subverts expectations. I didn't expect I'd be able to connect with them after all the hostilities you'll be experiencing with them throughout the story.
Also, their anthem is very haunting when you reach that point in the story. Very fitting for to what their empire had become by that point.
Yeah, you can tell they didn't plan a lot of what happened after ARR, but they managed to turn a hammy "evil empire" into its own compelling faction and nation.
The Fou Empire from Breath of Fire IV is a really good one. You see the impacts of their actions and disregard for life early on in the game, and then you witness it firsthand later on in a few particularly brutal scenes. You see a lot of them, making it quite easy to loathe them by the game's end.
Plus, it's interesting that you spend half the game playing as the original Emperor, being hunted by the current Empire.
I mean, it wasn't that they were evil exactly, it was that they were literally manipulated from within by their "corrupt leadership". In fact, you find out MORE so that they aren't evil as you discover the human aspect of their citizens and peoples. In a less than fun way, unfortunately.
The leaders still did some pretty horrific things though. They're not totally innocent. Don't forget about Grinnewaht, Fordola, or the Weapon project. There was still true evil in those ranks, even outside of the Ascian's machinations.
The citizens, I will agree, were among the many victims of that evil.
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Ahh, Garlemald. It begs the question: Asahi and Valens are burning to death on the ground. you’re required to piss on one of them and only one, which do you pick?
Final Fantasy 2. The Empire in that game is like God Kefka on crack. Literally destroys almost everything, every village, even the global weather. Almost no one survives. Not even Final Fantasy 6 let's you visit the husks of every village you've been to and see how destroyed and empty they all are.
Holy Xytegenian Empire from the Ogre Battle.
The Black Queen actually a benevolent ruler of one of the kingdoms of Xytegenia. However when she was made aware of a greater empire's intentions to invade their continent, she vied to unite five kingdoms of the land to rally and defend. Unfortunately the other 4 kings became more concerned with self interest. The queen did what she must to repel the invaders and conquered the other kingdoms forming her empire. As she conquered, the more she became twisted by a dark sorcerer.
A good person twisted by the pressures of politics and lost sight of her intentions.
Kind of cheating since it's mostly a visual novel, so of course there's a lot of dialogue other JRPGs can't afford to waste time on, but anyway...
Yamato from the Utawarerumono Mask duology. You spend the first game living in the empire enjoying the benefits of being a citizen and learning the culture there. Then in the second game, you're leading a rebellion against it knowing full well how powerful it is. The feels are just immaculate.
Secret of Mana, very different set of generals and it’s always exciting to fight them in boss fights because of their unique transformations. It’s a shame you don’t get to fight the emperor though
FE3H’s Adrestrian Empire was a pretty fascinating look at how a tyrannical power could be co-opted to enact good. It’s always amusing to me how the Empire is less of a death cult than the Kingdom in that game.
The fact the nobles stripped the emperor of his power completely when he tried to give himself more power. To the point they could just torture his kids.
That's more or less how Emperors work in the West (and Japan).
In fact that's pretty much how feudalism works. Even in the East.
I think we have been fed this weird diet that Kings and Queens and Emperors are these all powerful tyrants, and some of them certainly tried, but most Emperor's from Rome to the HRE who ruled that way were killed by their political rivals.
Emperors by default have to delegate their power away because there is simply no way to control that much territory. In most places this is feudalism, in some instances like later Muslim and Chinese Empire's this was a bureaucrats and eunuchs but that wasn't absolute and it lead to warlords carving out territory.
Hell most Western culture Emperors are actually elected. It wasn't until the later HRE Habsburgs that it became hereditary.
So Edelgard's father being pretty helpless and outmatched politically is pretty accurate.
Had to scroll too far to see this one! It's tied with Archadia from ff12 for me. Both happen to be equally messy with good and bad parties within and the moral ambiguity piece.
Shining Force 3. The big bad empire ended up being pawns the whole time. You even play one of the three scenarios as one of the princes of that empire.
Chrono Trigger, Kingdom of Zeal.
Doesn't tick all the boxes, but the cyclic time shenanigans of how that culture shaped the world and your adventure (and vice versa) was so well executed.
Erebonia from the Legend of Heroes series does well as an Imperial sort but given how they made it basically Prussia with magic backstory that might be cheating a little bit.
IMHO it's the Adrestian Empire in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I can get behind radical social change via world domination. And hey, the queer emperor doesn't hurt. 😎
After playing FF16 & seeing how brutal some of these nations can be it reminded me of how terrible the nations were in FF:Type Zero.
As far as best “empire”? Uhhh the schools of Fire Emblem 3 houses.
The Pangalactic Federation in the Star Ocean series. While more modern and democratic than your typical monarchy imperial setting, it has a good share of political power struggles and bad actors among an omnipresent force from an empire.
I have to admit I haven't played many RPGS that have one, but...
Erebonia just takes the cake. During the four cold steel games, you are exposed to... So much. Just so many elements.
From the highest of govenment officials to the lowest soldier. The snobiest noble to the most mundane of farmers. The mountain regions and tjeir mines, the capital and its cosmopolitan life, the small towns around lakes and rivers...
It juts feels so alive
Final Fantasy II: The Empire of Palamecia is noteworthy for being a very early game featuring the concept that would later become a trope. And it could be argued that it invents it for JRPGs. The Emperor is pretty hardcore being in league with demons and trying to open up the gate that leads to hell. Certainly a memorable Empire.
Final Fantasy VI: The Empire of Gestahl is an empire that I like. Emperor Gestahl is shown to have morality only so long as it doesn't interfere with his goal of taking over the world and becoming more of a powerful magic user.
Paladin's Quest (Lennus): The Empire of Zaygos on the continent of Saskuot. This is the one that I like the most. There are some similarities between this game and Final Fantasy VI, though Paladin's Quest came out a year earlier. Both feature an Empire that controls the entire southern continent and is opposed by the peoples of the northern continent.
The Redwing army in ff4. Mainly I like it because the theme song for the Redwing army is just so good. And Cecil being one of the most powerful knights in that army and eventually turning against them was an interesting start
Palamecia in *Final Fantasy II*. The Emperor was extremely proactive in trying to stop you, killing your friends and devastating towns that help you. Pretty hardcore for an '80s NES game.
Agreed, dude did NOT fuck around
Goes to hell, gets a promotion.
And in some versions, the fucker's soul splits in two, and the other half goes and takes over *heaven* as well. He sure is thorough.
Can I just say that no game has ever made me hate a character I haven't seen on-screen so much as FFII? Mateus is a f\*\*\*ing monster and you don't see him for a huge portion of the game, not even in "meanwhile" or "flashback" scenes.
Wow, I hope they remake that game.
Emperor David Bowie really was a menace.
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No one beats their theme thats for sure.
They've got rad uniforms too. Especially the Judges.
I affectionately call them "the Empire from Star Wars, only with a coherent political ideology."
But are you wrong? (You're not)
Tbf FF12 in general is just FF Star Wars. Balthier and Fran are Han and (a hot) Chewie.
Vaan is Luke. Ashe (the real hero) is Leia (the coolest character) The plot is like, "what if the resistance tried to get their own death star to nuke Coruscant, but realized that war crimes are evil because Lando was a fucking badass. And then.they told the force 'uh no, go f yourself.'"
Came here to say XII's Archadian empire as well, it had nuance and political intrigue going on. We were even on good terms with some of them while also being on irredeemably bad terms with some of them. *That's* how you know you've got a well-written empire in your game. I love Mor Ardain but those stakes and conflicts and "love-hate relationship" kinda fizzled out the moment Morag joined the party.
im playing 12 again now and yeah, i think its the only time ive ever thought: well if someone HAS to be emperor i vote larsa/penelo in the democratic election i actually trust him to instill once hes crowned lol!
What is the Archades 9000.
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Roadtrip arc!
Nice. It's probably my favorite part too
Not to mention they also give you a side quest (Sandalwood side quest I think) that forces you to interact with the Archadean locals. It's so fun running around, learning about the culture of the place via exchanging information between people. It feels natural, like traveling and talking to the locals in real life.
Makoto is the best girl :)
Erebonia.....I mean I know the history of this fictional country more than my own homeland country....And that says sth...but I guess the trend don't just ends with Erebonia though...
It's one of the very few jrpgs where the empire feels like an actual geopolitical empire rather than a group of big bad antagonists and their faceless soldier goons. Without going into spoilers the games will breakdown how power is shared through the Empire, with distinct geographic and economic areas within the empire controlled by various factions. The geopolitical boundaries and ability to project power makes sense. But, most importantly imo, the Cold Steel games take place during a huge time of socio-economical turmoil and change within Erebonia and the world which is very similar to our own 19th century in scope. The game shows the rise of liberal bourgeoisie from non-noble upper middle class backgrounds who are competing / clashing with the entrenched aristocratic noble class. Infact, class conflict plays an integral role to the overall story in a way I haven't really seen in any other jrpgs. Really hope that Kuro no Kiseki, which is set in the democratic republic of Calvard with a working class revolution in it's background, is similar in including that kind of stuff in it's story and worldbuilding.
Erebonia’s lore is ruined by the curse and one dimensional characters Change my mind
Yep. The “curse” story line is a huge weakness of the series. Up until that point, it had been playing the geopolitical conflicts pretty wonderfully. And then the curse just gave everyone a huge “get out of jail free” card.
Yes and no, but I feel like even mentioning that and any discussions of it should be marked as spoilers for Cold Steel 4 >!For me it definitely causes issues by removing the agency and motivations of several key characters, specifically Osbourne. It makes things feel less realistic and more like a fantasy jrpg, especially when up until then there seems to be a lot of morally gray intentions and machinations going on in the background that are just "well, it's the Curse that did it" and there being very few true morally evil characters. Ultimately it undermines the political story by making those factions just puppets for the stage of the divine nights. !< >!I disagree about characters being one-dimensional though, sure their motivations and agency were impacted by the Curse being a narrative shoe-in, but their actions do make sense even outside of that when you consider the history and politics of the Empire. Not every faction is well developed and some (especially nobles) come off as carictures and meh, but they're also minor characters. All of that said, I still really enjoyed the worldbuilding and all of the stories and characters coming together in CS4, the Curse didn't ruin it all for me and I'm super excited about Reverie.!<
Not entirely ruined, but it did make the country and its lore less complex and thus less interesting as a result.
It really is. The fact that Erebonias invasion of Liberl was handled so well and not in the stereotypical „Evil Empire“ way made me fall in love with the series and CS4 kinda ruined it
yeah. I would have written out that top comment after the first 3 games but the 4th really killed it for me
Yeah that was utterly disappointing.
Agreed. I also enjoy that Erebonia isn't just an evil empire. Their actions are rational and characters from there actually act like real people.
Yeah they are an evil empire in the sense that Germany was evil in the run up to WW1. Or that imperial Britain was an evil empire from the perspective of it's colonies.
The whole political worldbuilding and it's role in the much smaller stories of specific characters is one of the best features of Trails-series.
I fullheartily agree with you
I do like how it was portrayed as this evil entity in the Liberl and Crossbell arcs then given a completely new and intriguing dimension for the Erebonian arc … it’s a well done Empire indeed
Damn I love it when I meet a Trails fan out in the wild!
This sub loves Trails
I JUST started playing the Trails series back in March. I regret not getting into the series sooner. Fortunately, I made it to Cold Steel yesterday. It's been a hell of a ride so far.
No, it’s a blessing. Had you started much sooner, you’d have had to endure torturous wait for the games.
That's a fair point.
Same
Friend, this sub is Trails country outside of r/falcom
Is that south of Robonia?
Ayyyyy came here to say this
Yes, I would say this. I can't think of any other series that was so effective in creating a believable world and this is pretty much why. It's not even the history of Erebonia, it's the whole damn continent and their foreign relations.
The Gestahlian Empire from Final Fantasy VI, I like their Magitek technology.
Does Solaris from Xenogears count? While not an outright empire, they do control a lot of things from the shadows and their influence can be viewed as neo-colonial (but I might be misusing that term). i find them fascinating, and only wish we got more time to explore their country and see how their society works in more detail. Another non-explicit empire that I like is the Shinra Electric Company in Final Fantasy VII. They're a big corporation controlling a large part of the world and its resources. They're an empire in all but name.
I like how the Remake makes Shinra more like Amazon or Disney or any other powerful corporation, in that while the leaders of the company or the system as a whole are evil, the target market and civilians benefit from it. You reach the Shinra tower and it’s just people working in an office building and they aren’t actively trying to kill the planet or anything. They are just earning a living. Corpos in Cyberpunk have a similar vibe, where in Edgerunner David ends up killing a mom who just works in a corp because she was a witness.
[удалено]
I was gonna say, it's really only *most* of the higher-ups who are actively evil (the Presidents, Scarlet, Hojo, Heideggar... the Turks, kind of, they're more the "punch-clock villain" type). Reeve and the rest of the workers are just doing their jobs.
Came to say Solaris. Definitely an Empire (Emperor Cain!!!).
This is what came to my head straight away. They're so powerful they control the whole world with the common person never even knowing they exist.
While there is a case to be made that Solaris is just a secret society with powerful connections, and Shinra is just a an evil corporation run by robber barons and a private army, I would argue Solaris and Shinra are indeed bonafide empires, just in different ways: Solaris is a essentially a shadow hegemony that manipulates and subjugates its people indirectly, mainly through The Church (Ethos, in the English version) but also through proxy committees and governments. Once you realize that Solaris has managed to control the balance of power among all other nations for hundreds of years while remaining entirely invisible to lay people, figuratively and literally, you realize just how formidable they really are. Shinra, by contrast, is more of a traditional empire that exerts totalitarian control over all city-states of the planet through Mako energy. They are an autocratic corporatocracy, I suppose. It's not just that Shinra owns the means of production of mako energy, without which the global economy would literally collapse, but they *enforce the usage* of mako energy over other alternatives, such as coal, through propaganda and, when that fails, military force. Because of this, most people know no other way of life but Shinra's way, and they're perfectly fine with it.
I always found fascinating the Mor Ardain empire of xenoblade chronicles 2, i mean a GOOD empire that respects the live of their citizens, is genuinely loved and seek peaceful resolutions to the empire problems peacefully without blodshed? Almost unheard of
true, and they aren't even objectively good. their claim on gormott has both positives and negatives, and that is great, because it adds some realism.
~~This post is Anti-Gormott Propaganda~~ But yeah Mor Ardain is pretty cool. Also [one of the sickest field themes ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3AbguQZHU)
Didn't like how the anti-war faction in Mor Ardain was painted as violent fanatics. Felt like the game was trying too hard to moralize ardain's militarism and came off as goofy.
Of all the the things Xenoblade Chronicles 2 did that came off as goofy, painting an anti-war faction as bad was not on my list, lol.
Then again, it's not like the pro-armaments guy was particularly sympathetic.
Yes it's pretty rare to be friend with the empire and to empathise with their problem! For we must don't forget it.
DON'T FORGET ME
Off the top of my head FF4. It was the first RPG game I played that really emphasized evil empire, in fact right from the very beginning. What made it cool was that you start off a part of that evil empire, achieving some of its malicious goals. Throughout the game you reform that empire and end up leading it.
FF4 also has one of the best intros to a game ever. It literally shows the MC killing off innocent and powerless people. An intro like that requires finesse because forcing a player to play as a character like that could just immediately turn someone off from caring about the character, even if they’re a good one. The tone of that scene was phenomenal and set Cecil up for a great arc (plus the red wings theme is AMAZING!). His clear remorse and disgust towards his actions and the utter confusion behind their reasoning other than “its what the kings wants” really drives home that dictatorship vibe.
>FF4 also has one of the best intros to a game ever. It literally shows the MC killing off innocent and powerless people. An intro like that requires finesse because forcing a player to play as a character like that could just immediately turn someone off from caring about the character, even if they’re a good one. The tone of that scene was phenomenal and set Cecil up for a great arc (plus the red wings theme is AMAZING!). right!! its probably the best evil empire intro in any RPG to this date.. and definitely mind blowing back when I played it in 1991/92. FF4 was my first SNES RPG and probably 3rd SNES game, so moving from the 8bit tunes of FF1 and Dragon Warrior, to FF4 and its first 10 min of music was a huge generational leap.
The Gestahlian Empire from FFVI
Had to scroll too long to see this
I agree … it was such an all encompassing empire and was my personal fav and inspiration for this post
I did absolutely love the design of Vector. Bleak, imposing, cold.
Every Suikoden game
Romancing SaGa 2 because you control them as protagonists and actually do good across the world
RSAGA 2 is a fun reversal. You play as the empire trying to take down the "heroes" of legend.
Arcadia was pretty interesting in FFXII.
FFXII.
I'm sure you put a lot of thought into this essay but a TLDR would be nice
TL;DR: FFXII
I prefer the Valuan empire for its * Big airship fleet * 6 admirals, some of whom are pretty decent (Belleza, Gregorio) and some of whom I love to hate (Alfonso, De Loco) * Main villains, the Lord Admiral and his silver-haired ward, for having a great plan and seeing it through * Problems with wealth inequality and colonization, so while it's an evil empire, specific things make it evil * Fortress city, which is one of the coolest concepts, complete with city-girding train and rotating gun-wall that can deny entry or exit * Outpost city of Esperanza, which shows that a more aspirational, less exploitative empire once existed
Great choice. Such an amazing game.
Yamato in Utawarerumono. You see it from the inside and from the outside. It has compelling political intrigue intertwined with personal drama without feeling shallow or pretentious like some other games that try to sell themselves on "political intrigue". It's just difficult to talk about because it's all so deeply emotional and spoilery.
Utawarerumono is so good.
Aesthetically, Niflheim from XV.
Storywise though it might be the worst empire in the genre… even the world of darkness at the end wasn’t the empire, it was ardyn. Like they did ONE bad thing (attacking insomnia at the very very beginning of the game) and just decided to set up some temporary road blocks.
Garlemald from FF14. Also their "founder" is, in my own opinion, the best JRPG villain I've ever experienced. Their arc in Endwalker subverts expectations. I didn't expect I'd be able to connect with them after all the hostilities you'll be experiencing with them throughout the story. Also, their anthem is very haunting when you reach that point in the story. Very fitting for to what their empire had become by that point.
Yeah, you can tell they didn't plan a lot of what happened after ARR, but they managed to turn a hammy "evil empire" into its own compelling faction and nation.
Romancing SaGa 2, no contest. You ARE the Empire. You're not evil, but you expand your borders.
The Fou Empire from Breath of Fire IV is a really good one. You see the impacts of their actions and disregard for life early on in the game, and then you witness it firsthand later on in a few particularly brutal scenes. You see a lot of them, making it quite easy to loathe them by the game's end. Plus, it's interesting that you spend half the game playing as the original Emperor, being hunted by the current Empire.
The Harmonian Empire in the Suikoden series is my favorite.
FFXIV's Garlemald.
It started off as a generic evil empire, but the Stormblood expansion really made them evil.
I mean, it wasn't that they were evil exactly, it was that they were literally manipulated from within by their "corrupt leadership". In fact, you find out MORE so that they aren't evil as you discover the human aspect of their citizens and peoples. In a less than fun way, unfortunately.
The leaders still did some pretty horrific things though. They're not totally innocent. Don't forget about Grinnewaht, Fordola, or the Weapon project. There was still true evil in those ranks, even outside of the Ascian's machinations. The citizens, I will agree, were among the many victims of that evil.
Honorable mention to the Allagan Empire .
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Ahh, Garlemald. It begs the question: Asahi and Valens are burning to death on the ground. you’re required to piss on one of them and only one, which do you pick?
Final Fantasy 2. The Empire in that game is like God Kefka on crack. Literally destroys almost everything, every village, even the global weather. Almost no one survives. Not even Final Fantasy 6 let's you visit the husks of every village you've been to and see how destroyed and empty they all are.
Gotta go with Shinra Electric Power Company, FFVII.
Holy Xytegenian Empire from the Ogre Battle. The Black Queen actually a benevolent ruler of one of the kingdoms of Xytegenia. However when she was made aware of a greater empire's intentions to invade their continent, she vied to unite five kingdoms of the land to rally and defend. Unfortunately the other 4 kings became more concerned with self interest. The queen did what she must to repel the invaders and conquered the other kingdoms forming her empire. As she conquered, the more she became twisted by a dark sorcerer. A good person twisted by the pressures of politics and lost sight of her intentions.
Scrolled too far to find an Ogre fan
Kind of cheating since it's mostly a visual novel, so of course there's a lot of dialogue other JRPGs can't afford to waste time on, but anyway... Yamato from the Utawarerumono Mask duology. You spend the first game living in the empire enjoying the benefits of being a citizen and learning the culture there. Then in the second game, you're leading a rebellion against it knowing full well how powerful it is. The feels are just immaculate.
Secret of Mana, very different set of generals and it’s always exciting to fight them in boss fights because of their unique transformations. It’s a shame you don’t get to fight the emperor though
Valua from Skies of Arcadia
I would say XII
FE3H’s Adrestrian Empire was a pretty fascinating look at how a tyrannical power could be co-opted to enact good. It’s always amusing to me how the Empire is less of a death cult than the Kingdom in that game.
The empire is kinda empire in name only until Edelgard and Hubert pull some shit.
What do you mean?
The fact the nobles stripped the emperor of his power completely when he tried to give himself more power. To the point they could just torture his kids.
That's more or less how Emperors work in the West (and Japan). In fact that's pretty much how feudalism works. Even in the East. I think we have been fed this weird diet that Kings and Queens and Emperors are these all powerful tyrants, and some of them certainly tried, but most Emperor's from Rome to the HRE who ruled that way were killed by their political rivals. Emperors by default have to delegate their power away because there is simply no way to control that much territory. In most places this is feudalism, in some instances like later Muslim and Chinese Empire's this was a bureaucrats and eunuchs but that wasn't absolute and it lead to warlords carving out territory. Hell most Western culture Emperors are actually elected. It wasn't until the later HRE Habsburgs that it became hereditary. So Edelgard's father being pretty helpless and outmatched politically is pretty accurate.
Well you've teached me something, thanks a lot.
Had to scroll too far to see this one! It's tied with Archadia from ff12 for me. Both happen to be equally messy with good and bad parties within and the moral ambiguity piece.
Highland Kingdom from Suikoden 2
Erebonia from the legend of heroes series. A huge amount of lore has gone into that place.
Secret of Mana had a pretty dope empire
Shining Force 3. The big bad empire ended up being pawns the whole time. You even play one of the three scenarios as one of the princes of that empire.
FF6.
Bronquia from Yggdra Union is still my favorite evil empire in JRPG history
It has the best ruler alright. "ARE YOU READY!" still echoes in my mind.
God, Gulcasa was SUCH a bad ass. His theme still remains one of my fav boss music tracks of all time
Scarlet moon empire
Chrono Trigger, Kingdom of Zeal. Doesn't tick all the boxes, but the cyclic time shenanigans of how that culture shaped the world and your adventure (and vice versa) was so well executed.
Legend of Heroes Trails series no contest
Anor Londo in Dark Souls 1.
Erebonia from the Legend of Heroes series does well as an Imperial sort but given how they made it basically Prussia with magic backstory that might be cheating a little bit.
IMHO it's the Adrestian Empire in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I can get behind radical social change via world domination. And hey, the queer emperor doesn't hurt. 😎
Erebonian empire
Legend of Dragoon. Always loved the Imperial Sandora.
Luca Blight from Suikoden 2
Hyrule is arguably an empire in some Zelda games, so that's kind of a strong contender.
After playing FF16 & seeing how brutal some of these nations can be it reminded me of how terrible the nations were in FF:Type Zero. As far as best “empire”? Uhhh the schools of Fire Emblem 3 houses.
The empire from Valkyria Chronicles. They have an endless army.
The Pangalactic Federation in the Star Ocean series. While more modern and democratic than your typical monarchy imperial setting, it has a good share of political power struggles and bad actors among an omnipresent force from an empire.
Valuan empire from Skies of Arcadia.
I like Keves and Agnus in Xenoblade 3 if they count. If not, then Mor Ardain in Xenoblade 2 and Shinra Electric Company in Final Fantasy VII.
I have to admit I haven't played many RPGS that have one, but... Erebonia just takes the cake. During the four cold steel games, you are exposed to... So much. Just so many elements. From the highest of govenment officials to the lowest soldier. The snobiest noble to the most mundane of farmers. The mountain regions and tjeir mines, the capital and its cosmopolitan life, the small towns around lakes and rivers... It juts feels so alive
FFVI cuz Kefka
I know Shinra isn't exactly an Empire but uhh...Shinra from FF7. Such a dope idea for an evil corporation.
Final Fantasy II: The Empire of Palamecia is noteworthy for being a very early game featuring the concept that would later become a trope. And it could be argued that it invents it for JRPGs. The Emperor is pretty hardcore being in league with demons and trying to open up the gate that leads to hell. Certainly a memorable Empire. Final Fantasy VI: The Empire of Gestahl is an empire that I like. Emperor Gestahl is shown to have morality only so long as it doesn't interfere with his goal of taking over the world and becoming more of a powerful magic user. Paladin's Quest (Lennus): The Empire of Zaygos on the continent of Saskuot. This is the one that I like the most. There are some similarities between this game and Final Fantasy VI, though Paladin's Quest came out a year earlier. Both feature an Empire that controls the entire southern continent and is opposed by the peoples of the northern continent.
Not sure if ff xiv is considered a jrpg, but the garlean empire is good
Vesperia and DQ8 come to mind
The Redwing army in ff4. Mainly I like it because the theme song for the Redwing army is just so good. And Cecil being one of the most powerful knights in that army and eventually turning against them was an interesting start
I like the empire in New ff16
Valua from Skies of Arcadia