Analysing The Underappreciated, But Genius Antagonist of Final Fantasy XIII
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
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Final Fantasy XIII has enjoyed a love/hate relationship with Final Fantasy fans for over 10 years now, but we thought it was time to take a deeper look into the role of Galenth Dysley (or Barthandelus), who took up the mantle of being the game's main antagonist.
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Thanks for watching!
If you enjoyed the Final Fantasy XIII Guitar Arrangement at the end, be sure to check out John Oeth! ruclips.net/channel/UCq77yWBegi4pnEj_PDQaDng
Please do Bhunivelze too. Bhunivelze is a very interesting villain too. He's a god who wanted to be human, but failed because he couldn't understand humanity.
*cough* at least hes better than 14's villains *cough cough*
IMO 14's has had mostly mediocre afterthought villains, Emet Selch was barely a notable mention.
Thank you so much for featuring my music! As I longtime viewer, this is surreal. ❤️
TLDW: Barthandelus' and his villainous plot was ahead of it's time. If this game came out in 2020 most people would immediately notice the similarity's between Cocoon and our nations in lockdown and probably ask a few questions. I mean, after all, Barty boy wanted his own FF version of a "Great Reset".
One thing, I'll never forgive Bartandalus for taking out Nabaat before we got to do it ourselves. And that darn doom counter.
Same. Never bought 13-2's DLC so I didn't fight her there neither.
At least Nabaat got a boss fight in a later game. Rosch was robbed.
The final boss Orphan is the absolute most annoying fight ever as he has that stupid instant death move and thx to the mechanics in this game if it is your main character it is a game over....
@@shawnaustin9437 Actually Progenitial Wrath (his Death move) is less annoying than it looks when you know how it really works.
In the first part of the battle PW always targets foe that is Sentinel or Medic (the target has to be one of them before he uses it obviously). If you pay attention to always have a Medic during light phase, PW is not a problem. And he doesn't use it before he lost 20 % of his HP. Put Poison on him when he's staggered, like this Poison will last as long as possible.
When he has both Dark and Light phase, he targets randomly with PW. If he uses it on the leader, just summon and let him die with Poison with Gestalt.
honestly i thought she would have had a bigger role in the game seeing as in the trailers she seems to be featured a lot more often even more than the sephiroth clone commander. Probably cut content.
I revisited XIII during quarantine, and while I did develop a greater awareness of the games shortcomings, I also gained a new appreciation for the world's lore and characters. Barthandalus almost does *too* good of a job keeping his plans and motivation hidden. Even the player might struggle to piece it together. Upon playing the game again, knowing the general outline of the plot, and taking the time to read all the datalogs, I consider XIII to have one of the richest worlds in FF. If only it had gotten better presentation and integration with the story.
@Nobody And the characters.
@Nobody And the gameplay.
@Nobody And the soundtrack.
@Nobody And the hallways.
@Nobody And the pseudo-sphere grid.
"He would then lose that confrontation on purpose" SURE DIDN'T FEEL THAT WAY
his damn smile attack
Right? Like, if you wanna lose on purpose, you shouldn't tpk me so many times.
So I just started this video and don’t know if they bring it up, but XIII’s lore says that the Fal’cie are specifically engineered to defend themselves as much as possible when faced with a physical threat, which is why they had to train outside parties (the l’cie) to kill them
oh my god yes...Fighting him on the bridge, I think? Like the second fight against him maybe?
I shake your hand. He was a monster to fight but man did I enjoy ever encounter.
If I still cosplay when I'm 50+, Barthandelus is my man!
and nobody will know what you cosplay, haha
“Our name is Orphan. By our hand the world shall know redemption!”
I love their speech at the end
FF13 has insanely good introduction for his main villains (Barthandelus and Orphan).
Orphan so iconic
I prefer Caius Ballad personally, but it's nice more people are giving the 13 trilogy a revisit
Me too, but I always thought that Barthandelus was an underrated villain.
I also found Caius to be a cool and somewhat relatable villain. Also that amazing voice.
Caius was an excellent sympathetic villain. But Barthandelus is a very underrated villain specifically because he is unrelatable. But he really was an intriguing villain as a god-like being.
Caius was amazing, the voice actor, the scenes and the plot behind him was awesome. I feel bad that FFXIII got a bad rep but it was still a good game series. Especially playing XIII-2 and lightning returns.
13 isn't as bad as the rep it got would say. It wasn't great I'd say, but not bad either. 13-2 was tons of fun for me personally.
Finally some love for Barthandelus
Really enjoyed the video guys, Barthandelus was an awesome villain in my opinion, sure he wasn’t as memorable compared to others but the way he weaved his plot throughout XIII was really good and he was probably one of my favourite things to come from XIII, plus his boss fights were always a challenge and his boss battle music is amazing
His theme is iconic. His last boss battle theme is memorable.
The big problem in terms of story for FFXIII was that they didn't TELL us why we should care. They gave us a ton of extensive, lengthy, and hard to process datalogs. The story, if you really read it all, is quite good. It's just really really poorly delivered to us.
But the FFXIII antagonists were great. Especially Caius, for me.
caius to me is still **the** ultimate successful FF villain. Kefka died before **all** life ended. Sephiroth failed. Kuja failed. Bart kinda succeeded...? But no, Caius flat out succeeded. He got his exact wish, in exactly the way he wanted. No other FF villain can claim absolute victory and success like that. The rest all missed their mark slightly from the bullseye, or failed altogether (in the long run).
@@katomamundara8106 FACTS
I found myself very much caring but namely because of the predicament of the characters and how they felt through the journey...
You have to read the prologue novel Episode Zero: Promise, which didn't come out in the US until 2 years ago, to understand the story. All the essential set up happens in the novel which is wild. I can't fathom how they decided to start the game in what is literally act ii of the complete story.
@@j.r.cilliangreen4083 exactly. Maybe Bart and the Ffxiii sound not so bad in a 13 minute video, but when it is stretched out over hours of cliche, nonsensical story beats involving forced easily-resolved conflicts between unsympathetic characters, and one dimensional gameplay, it is so bad
I love that you also saw how he technically won in a way they need to go to the wiki and add him as one of the villains who lost but still succesed in what they wanted
He planned out everything. He even brought Fang & Vanille to Cocoon so they could try again. He was basically destined to win from the beginning.
I gotta correct you there, Caius did not replace Bhunivelze. He took over Etro's role of leading souls into the afterlife.
Come to Final Fantasy!
We have as villains, in order:
* time-traveling knight
* emperor palpatine
* bad weather
* moon thing
* a tree
* the definition of nihilism
* momma's pretty boy
* old (old) hag
* monke
* a whale
* ???
* darth vader rip off
* evil pope
* Xanax von Galvus
And last but not least
* demon jesus
Emperor Mateus is David Bowie, not Palpatine.
Gotta love demon jesus
😂👏
Wait, how is Vayne Solidor a dark Vader rip off? If anything, he was unique. Especially when you can actually argue that the villain... was the good guy all along.
Btw, the villain of ffxii is not the dude on the cover. He is a major plot point though.
@@davidevans7477 Gabranth
It was this game that got me into final fantasy as a whole. I know people hated it but that story had me hooked, I'd never played anything like it. Barthandelus humbled me the first time I fought him, took me atleast 10 tries. Storywise, Minerva caught me off guard in the end, and the dynamic between the group and Barthandelus was phenomenal. FXIII was phenomenal, I want to replay them all on ps5.
I loved it.
Do you think Final Fantasy XIII will see a remaster on PlayStation 5? We had remasters of X and XII on PS4, as well as VIII more recently.
@@jamesgravil9162 XIII was the newest of the games, even if its 10 or so years old. I highly doubt we'll see a remaster anytime soon if ever. You have to admit
VII
VIII
and X were masterpieces
I loved IX too but the above were remarkable, I love all of them to be honest
@@jamesgravil9162 I honestly have faith they will. There's a lot of people who want a remaster surprisingly, and lightnings popularity mixed with some fixes and ps5 120fps, I think it'd be a hit.
@@blackwaltz3135 VII and IX were masterpieces. VIII was my entry into the franchise so it's one of my favourites, but you have to admit it still divides fans.
The greatest thing to come out of FF13 was that torture scene at the end. The idea to continuously cast curaga and then hurt someone over and over was genius.
Honestly? Canon involvement of clearly laid out (in combat) abilities should be more present like this, like with Rydia in IV
yikes
It’s such genius it was used as a plot device in FF2. And 4, and 5. And 6.
Zzzzz
Orphan or Bunivelze?
@@johnmarionesantos275 who cares, they’re both Evil Space Pope in practice
Great video. I always thought FF13 had a good story that was just poorly told, and I appreciate you helped shed light on how much more went into Dysley's character than most notice.
"A good story that was just poorly told".
That just sounds like a poor story to me. Being told is the entire purpose of a story. In fact, if it's not told, it doesn't exist. So if it's poorly told, it's just a poor story.
@@robinmattheussen2395 Maybe he meant the plot. As in the events that happen. Not how they are shown.
@@robinmattheussen2395
I see what you're trying to say, but I have to disagree. If someone comes up with the greatest story ever conceived, yet doesn't share it with others, that doesn't mean it fails to exist. The one responsible for it is merely the only one who knows of it. You can quite easily have a great story told poorly, and the ability to differentiate the two factors is important for breaking down what a piece of media got right, and where a piece of media went wrong. Once one identifies these qualities, they can more appropriately learn from them. Unless, of course, you simply disagree with the use of the word "story" over something like "narrative". In which case, fair, but that's nothing more than a discussion of semantics.
@@robinmattheussen2395 The story of Superman is a story that's been told many times with many different interpretations. Some well crafted, others shat out of some douch's asshole. Does that mean all of Superman's story is shit cause one of them were? No.
I've gained new-found respect for this Fal'cie. Not even Mateus was so effective at winning with mind games and Mateus was a master manipulator with the powers of Hell itself.
Adrammelech, the hidden Esper in Zertinan Caverns. Nice.
It's weird to me that Dysley wasn't in Duodecim or Dissidia NT. His whole deal is about wanting to have a higher power end the world could've intersected pretty well with the whole endless conflict of battle perpetrated by Shinryu.
nope what he wants to do is the thing that all falcies are programmed to do and wants to do open the gate and summon pulse and lindsei the first falcies
His moveset might have been hard to integrate, especially on the PSP. We never fight Barthandelus in this human form and his transformation is a huge wall of faces. He might have made for a good boss in the game, though.
@@Dzzy123 They could have just had him transform into Bartandelus during his EX-Burst and have him just be in his old dude form normally
@@BritishTeaFGC Nah, Caius Ballad would have been a much better fit for Dissidia
@@artemis1993 Yeah, you're right. Caius has more tools to work with and could be more easily translated into Dissidia. It's a shame there probably won't be any more Dissidia games after NT though. That game might have killed interest in the series.
I just remember calling him Evil Robot Space Pope. That and both him and Cid Raines kicked my butt a few times.
Cid was probably the coolest character to me.
His four winged cieth form that he used to kick the crap out of me in style made me jealous there wasn't a cieth form for ourselves to use.
Cid Raines was the most fascinating character in FF13
Only FF13? Cid is the best character in every Final Fantasy he's in.
😂😂😂😂 I can’t help but read in between the lines
He was wasted in this game
I still get chills every time I watch that scene with his reveal. I’ll admit, didn’t see it coming.
Im so glad FFXIII is finally getting the love it deserves. It wasn't a perfect game, but it was ambitious, and I can appreciate an ambitious game more than one that consistently takes the safe route and is predictable because of it
Replaying Final Fantasy XIII again just this week, literally finishing it again this morning, I really like Barthendalus. He put the heroes in such a tough corner. His Fal'cie appearance is creepy as hell. He is just so cruel and cold. By the time I got the end of the game I felt that rush of wanting to kill this evil robotic bastard again for using the people of Cocoon and Pulse just to sacrifice them. Similar to Palpatine, he is the center of every scene he is in. I felt like the voice actor had fun with this role and enjoyed being an evil character. Not to mention "Fighting Fate" is still one of the best boss themes in the franchise.
At last! I thought I was the only one who understood the 13 series' story.
You're not alone ^^
FF13 lore lovers, where you at??? 💎
We love 13 here 🙌
@@Rafael-kr6zv you can say that again
@@adventmemory2247 Dozens of us!!
I discovered 13 during Lockdown (needed something to distract me from the hell of working in a hospital) and I feel so sad that so much potential wasn't quite realised enough. The politics going on in the BG being pertinant to real life, and old Barty himself? Both great things about the game. So thanks for making this video, 13 really needs the love.
Ahh yess me too, and i don't know why the game story seem soo relevant to last year event
Yeah, I replayed it for like the 8th time last year and 100%ed it, and the story took a whole new perspective playing it during the pandemic
Replaying 13 and lightning returns recently going for the 100% again too.
It feels spot on with the world we live in, the things they say and how were controlled. Game looks great on Pc :D
I enjoyed learning about Barthandelus through today's video! It was very informative! The music from John Oeth and TPR was great too. Their music made the video feel relaxing.
How to detect a FF antagonist: Do they have freakishly long fingernails?
Yes?
Well you got yourself an antagonist!
When I start recalling the times when I was playing FF13, I do remember being quite confused about the lore throughout the trilogy. Still loved the series.. Good times
Yeah man that’s always been my issue with them. They were fun as hell and I loved our party members, but DAMN that shit started branching like a tree.
@@longhornfanatic10 The lore of Final Fantasy 13 is ridiculously interesting to me, but it's incredibly complicated and way too complex to cover in-game. I don't blame people for being confused. I found a 90+ page PDF of lore, explanations and theorycraft surrounding the FF13 universe and mythos and man it's a hell of a read.
@@richardsinclair7661 Yeah man, the Fabula Nova timeline is great when you get the entire story, and it’s VERY under appreciated when you do get the full cup. I just disliked “dark souls” story. (Having to get the lore everywhere but in game)
If the ever remaster I’ll buy and play again though, especially with the background knowledge I have now.
@@longhornfanatic10 That's the thing though. You get A LOT of lore in-game. There are sooooooooooooo many references to the lore and the FNC mythology. The game world (Especially the Grand Pulse areas), the cinematics (especially the ones featuring Barthandelus) and even the enemies. The problem is (like I said in my prior comment) the entirety of the FNC lore is too big to cover every detail, so even though you get an abundance of it in-game, it feels incomplete and lacks context.
I doubt a remaster is coming considering the games are still pretty new, but playing them with mods on PC is pretty amazing. I'm actually in the middle of another playthrough using visual mods and difficulty mods and it's pretty great.
Not just forgotten, most of my friends who played FF XIII didn't even remember his name, they just call it "Evil Pope", "Super Pope" , or "That Pope", i call him "Pope Barthandelus XVI" (Parody of "Pope Benedictus XVI")
Emet-Selch is acknowledged! One step closer to getting a video on him.
What a surprise- a final fantasy 13 video that isn’t “waaah it’s DIfEReNt, it’s LiNEar. BAD GAME.”
Thank you
which is sad since the good part is once you get to gran pulse, exploring the place was epic
Interesting video.
I'm terms of FFXIII's true Villain, I had a different interpretation. Bart is certainly "Evil" from the Human's perspective, but I think actually it's the creator of this world, "The Maker" who is the True Villain of FFXIII.
To me, Barthandelus was the main antagonist to the party, and all the other soldiers and enemies Lightning and company fight through were simply his henchmen/tools.
Dysley was behind the plan to destroy Cocoon, but he had to trick a Pulse Fal'Cie into branding the party. To give them a Focus to Destroy Cocoon.
This is because... Bart ALSO has a Focus of his own given to him by his creator. A Focus that he cannot resist because the Fal'Cie do not have the same level of free will as humans do.
Bart and the other Cocoon Fal'Cie must serve/protect the citizens of Cocoon, even if that would be against thier will. And they are all forced to follow this Focus FOREVER because they were created as immortal beings.
They are fully Sentient, Powerful, and immortal beings. Yet they are also FORCED by an unseen God to use all thier power and every moment of thier never ending lives to serve the thousands mortal beings that they cannot relate to.
That is a cursed existence.
The Fal'Cie are never able to rest or follow thier own desires. They are bound to their Focus as their only purpose in life, and they have no idea why their creator left them in this situation. That is a kind of personal hell that I wouldn't wish on anyone.
It's no wonder that the Cocoon Fal'Cie are desperate to either summon The Maker back or die trying. Anything is better than remaining a slave machine for eternity.
Of course this meant they would have to destroy the humans on Cocoon. But if you think about it from the point of view of the immortal slave machines, those human lives are a small sacrifice. They've probably seen tens of millions of human lives come and go in the time they've been serving Cocoon. And they also probably resent those human lives because they are bound to them as well.
So the Fal'Cie are trying to defy thier Focus, even if that means they would have to die trying. From their point view this.makes sense. It's also the exact same conclusion the party comes to when they realize thier own focus is to destroy Cocoon. They'd rather die down on Pulse than follow the focus handed to them.
So in my view, the true Villain of this story is "The Maker". Or whatever God or entity created this situation in the first place.
You can't create intelligent and immortal beings and give them orders to just be servants forever. Any intelligent being in that situation would go insane and basically what ended up happening to the Fal'Cie and.many of the L'Cie on Pulse as well.
The true lesson of the Story is that to assign anyone an inescapable Fate that goes against thier Free Will is literally worse than death. It drove the Fal'Cie to the point of creating human wars and attempting mass murder just so they can break free of that Fate given to them.
Imagine if humans were immortal and trapped by a Focus to protect/feed animals forever with our every waking moment. Unable to do anything else. No relationships, no art, no hobbies, no holidays, no days off. Just every day get up and feed/shelter the animals. We'd be fine for a while, but after a few hundred years we would start to go insane without being able to do anything else. We'd probably become just as bad as the Fal'Cie did eventually.
I think you're right. The true antagonist of the Trilogy is Bhunivelze.
@@groudonvert7286 Wasn't Bhunivelze created by 2 other gods though??? One of them being Lindzey which Barthandelus was seeking?
Verry good point!
@@FrostFire7777777 No, Bhunivelze's mother is Mwyn. Lindsey and Pulse were created by Bhunivelze.
@@groudonvert7286 OHHHHHH! dang, I had no idea! Thank you! I wonder why they never tried to find lighting to seek out revenge after 13 3 LMFAO
1:51
Lack of "focus"
*wheeze*
Thank you for covering this antagonist! Although Ff 13 Trilogy is underappreciated its nevertheless my favorite FF ever!💕💕😁
Still a very terrible trilogy
The characters are my favorite part of FFXIII. Lightning, Fang, and Vanille are amazing women that inspired me in different ways. The way they interact and handle things was so dynamic and can't fully be compared to really any FF characters before them. I believe Lightning when she's pissed, I believe Fang when she's frustrated, I believe Vanille when she feels lost. They feel real.
FF XIII have one of best stories in franchise, but many people just don't understand it.
MY HAIR SINGS IN LATIN, YOUR DAYS ARE OVER.
I played through ff13 twice one last year and I still didn't understand the story to this depth. Thanks for this, it makes me want a ff13 remake soooooo bad
What I knew about Bart before this video: amazing theme music
What I know after: amazing and *appropriate* theme music
Loved Bartandalus boss fight as being one of the few who's full form was larger than the entire screen! Also, you guys have summarized his character so well that I can now honestly say the part that probably killed the impact of his character was failure "to show" rather than "to tell", much like was done with Caius. Still one very satisfying boss fight!
I wish a FF13 trilogy collection would be released. Would love to play on my Switch
It's worth noting that if not for Dysley we wouldn't know Lightning is called Claire.
The FFXIII series as a whole is very interesting as each progressive entry became a more refined product. You can see this in how the tone of the story and battle system develops with each game. Lightning Returns ended up being the game I think many people expected FFXIII to be upon release in terms of overall feel and especially its battle system, but the story is particularly interesting due to how it builds upon the pieces of each previous entry. I'm glad the developers stuck with the FFXIII series because I do feel FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns have some of the best soundtracks in the FF franchise.
Orphan/bartandolous(?) had an amazing villain design. Like a twisted Renaissance painting. But the old guy was very underused and the confusing story did him no favour. And lets be honest: people like hot villains like sephiroth or crazy people like kafka.
Would've been nice if this exposition was progressively integrated into the game instead of hidden behind codex entries/supplementary materials.
Just finished XIII recently and started XIII-2, it's really underrated
This is why I love Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy so much. The story goes with Nova Crystallis Mythology so perfectly, especially in Final Fantasy Xiii-2, Cause Ballad, one of the best antagonist in FF Serie. Its sad people played or stoped playing without knowing all of these...
@Sypha Flowen When i write Caius autocorrect turned it to cause lol
@Sypha Flowen he is one of the best antagonists
@Sypha Flowen no he isnt
@Sypha Flowen no he isnt
Glad to see Barthandelus actually getting a decent, fair look. While it is true that a lot of his machinations are hidden within the lore, even on the surface I found him to be an entertaining antagonist. In fact, you said that Caius overshadowed him as a “sympathetic antagonist”, and...yeah, I can see how many people would be drawn to him instead, but for me, no, the space pope was a way better villain that Mr. Edge with his Soul Edge.
I think the biggest thing I learned from this is how lightning returns ties I to the main story. The three games felt like different stories with the same characters with nothing bringing them together.
The fact that the ending of ffxiii was the result bertandalus wanted kind of feels a little more cohesive.
This game is criminally underrated tbh it feels like an action movie through the duration and then the ending just blows up in your face
Playing 13 for the first time right now, and as a major 7 and 10 fan, I have to say I'm impressed! Only a few chapters into the story but wow awesome! This is so exciting!
This game is still magnificent after all that time, my favorite Dysley quote : ", Life's spark shines on, once fleed from its fleshy shroud, dreams meanwhile shatter in a flash".
Problem is that there wasn't enough info. You had to read data logs to pick the story up. The game didn't give you enough development of Barthandalus.
Also, Caius was just a MUCH stronger and better character.
Finally, the fact that he was only a part of the trilogy didn't help. By the time Bhunivelze was revealed, you just kinda forget/not care about Bartandalus
Bhunivelze was revealed before Barthandelus in Fabula Nova Cristallis' legend.
@@groudonvert7286 which is something that not every player would read/be able to access
@@devegas4910 You can find it on internet lol
there is all the info
He had a hell of a voice actor, if nothing else.
But he wasn't anime like Caius so no one remembers him lol
"You saw the fools. A mindless mob, drunk on fear of a few l'Cie." I agree with you.
"You're in my way, sir."
-- Reynolds, SWAT 4
@@amanofnoreputation2164 OMG I was just thinking of the SWAT games just a few days ago! Aah that old game nostalgia....
@@kilik0410 He's just Kain the Dragoon, except he has a giant Riku sword.
Which is ironic in and of itself, because a long-haired pretty boy antagonist in a Final Fantasy game = *how original and memorable!!!*
I always liked him, because he set up his plans so perfectly that you couldn't thwart them, plus he has one of my all-time favorite boss themes.
13, like most FF’s, had an amazing story that the game barely even tells. Many fans of 7/8/9/10/12/13/15 don’t even know what really happened in the stories. The games are good enough that you can enjoy them without even knowing the true genius of their scope. 😂
Pretty much this. And it's not even that they're "badly told" they just leave enough out to keep the mystery and intrigue, but explain enough so that you get it if you really pay attention (while leaving out some info for you to look up afterwards). For example FFX I got the gist of, but I didn't fully understand everything at first.
Dysley getting the attention he deserves, nice!!! 🙌
Wouldn't describe the villain as genius, but more like ''neat'' The presentation in-game pretty much ruins any sort of interest in the character, as much of the storyline in XIII it's needlessly convoluted and hidden behind mountains of boring data logs and technobabble. By the sound of it, evil pope could have been a decent villain but falls flat because of how poorly character's handled and presented during the actual game.
My thoughts exactly. Games like FFVIII had a lot of its story tucked into NPC lines and such, but FFXIII, lacking those completely, tried to jam everything into menus.
I very much appreciated this video. It's always the underrated characters that come out being absolutely complex and add so much depth to a story. I love it.
Honestly I think the reason barthandelus as a villain struggled wasn't because he was bad, but rather the main characters had the intelligence of bricks. He told them his plan, and what he wanted from them. And every time their method of trying to stop him was...to do exactly what he said? The party had no plan, no idea of what to do, and showed no interest in thinking about how to handle it. So he never came across as this grand manipulator because the party had no plans of their own to be manipulated. It was only through unplanned luck that they didn't destroy the world, a deus ex machina of creating the crystal pillar (something they had no plan to do, it just happened) that he didn't win. It didn't ever feel like a battle of wits, so he never had his strengths tested.
Frankly with better writing and pacing, he could have been an excellent villian. He had all the pieces in place. But the best villians are foils for the protagonists, opposing their ideals and strengths with their own. And he had no overlap with what the party was doing because the party was disorganised, unfocussed mess. He never got the opportunity to shine.
Wut? Barthandelus won though, because his main goal was for Orphan and him to kill themselves to reunite with Lindzei. The only thing unnecessary was opening Ethros' gate, because Lindzei is not in the Invisible World to begin with, thus destroying Coocoon is unnecessary, only empowering the Lcies to be strong enough to kill them is.
Also the party did try by looking all over Grand Pulse, the thing is Barthandelus just has all the cards in his hands, so the party in the end still are forced to follow his plans.
His voice actor did an amazing job as well.
i say this all the time, but the FFXIII OST is top 3 greatest of the FF Universe and Masashi Hamauzu is the best composer of FF music. i will die on this hill
It is very well done. Even the ones with lyrics are pretty good.
Good? Sure.
Top 3 in FF universe? No fucking way in hell lmao
Great vid.
Happy to see some FFXIII.
The Lore is some of the best imo.
Deep and complex, it deserves more praise and exposure.
I wonder how the game would have been, had they included all the lore in the dialogue and exposition of the game.
A complex task that might have been convoluted nonsense?
One of my fav. FF's 🌸
Thank you for making this video! I want to play back through XIII now; I feel like there's a lot of juicy lore I overlooked the first time.
Always heartwarming to see some FFXIII content here
FFXIII video starting with FFXV OST "Somnus"... Instalike, my 2 beloved FF games
He like every other Fal'cie, they where sad because they where created just to do one purpose for the entire life, while humans was made to do whatever they want, to achieve whatever they plan to, so they made l'cie, to bind them to a unique prupose, to play god, just like the makers of they made to them
I think barthandelus wanted to ask Lindzei why she made they like that, just like a kid/teen wandering what is this purpose of life
@@unkup0w Well there's a mistake in Union's video. Finding Etro's Gate is not for making come back Lindzei, but Bhunivelze himself. Bhunivelze wanted to kill Mwyrn (his mother) because he thought she will destroy the world with the chaos. But by opening the Etro's Gate, Bhunivelze's plan would destroy the world either way.
Pulse's objective was to find Etro's Gate. Lindzey was to protect Bhunivelze and then awake him when the gate was finally found. Every Fal'Cie's main focus was to find Etro's Gate. For achieving this goal, for example, they create Taejin Tower.
@@groudonvert7286 yeah that too lol, FFXIII/2/LR are the games with the most dense story building in the series, so much to remember
@@unkup0w Well, reading Fabula Nova Crystallis first makes everything easier to understand ^^
@@groudonvert7286 yup, i've read the ultima magazines too
I remember Galenth Dysley/Barthandalus easily enough and thought he had an interesting design but kudos to this channel for actually making me appreciate his role 👍
What I love most about him is his English voice acting! It's so damn good I couldn't help but absorb every word he said.
This is definitely among my favorite antagonists in video games. Glad to see more appreciation for what they accomplished here. FFXIII is my favorite FF games and easily one of my favorite games, so it's nice to see.
FFXIII's main story was pretty wishy washy at best. The fact the story is in the data logs is criminal. If they'd spent some time in the game itself telling the full story chances are it would've been much better received than what it did. Great video explaining exactly who and what Dysley was and what his motivations were from start to finish
Ah, the evil pope dude
FFXIII was my first game in the series, and even though it had it's problems, the game was still such a blast to play. Bartendelus was a huge thorn in my side every time he showed up.
I just hope we get a PS4 port someday
At this point hopefully it’s a PS5 port remastered in 4K!
That first fight tho
@@kevincolbert58 Oh my gosh, I'm getting flashbacks.
It's when I first learned about FF Suffixes. Blizz... Ara? Blizz.. AGA? (Party Dies)
I would gadly ask for a video about Bhunivelze.
My favorite Final Fantasy. Still desperately want an origins video for Snow.
Pretty please.
The real antagonist was the friends we made along the way
Final fantasy tactics?
Huh, that's not Caius Ballad!
In all seriousness, good video. I always was confused about Dysley as a kid given he kinda got what he wanted?
Caius wasn't in the first game.
*sees a video about final fantasy 13 in general, excitedly begins to exclaim*
"Yuhhhhh get into ittttt!!!!"
Final Fantasy XIII whas the first final Fantasy I ever played and it was what got me into the franchise in the first place. It holds a special place for me in the franchise for that reason. So I always like to see it get some love every now and then. However I noticed that you made a few mistakes in regards to the lore of these games. Which is not hard given how far in the background it is during the first game. Humanity was not created by Lindsey they were created by blood of Etro when she destroyed herself. She's the one who gave Humanity souls so that they could join her in Valhalla. The Maker that the Fal'cie are trying to bring back is Bhunivelze he's the one who created Lindsey, Pulse, and Etro. Also just as a fun fact you actually see Pulse in the game he's the one that shows up before everyone is branded as a L'cie.
Can you explain how the maker itself finally appeared? I love the game and I want to know more about the story
@@GoezThex The maker is Bhunivelze.
You're a brave man...
😂 indeed he is. I would not dare pull a stunt like that
You left out that ff 13 was also the first final fantasy to be released on multiple platforms at launch.
This isn't true. Final Fantasy XI was the first one. And yes, it ABSOLUTELY counts as a main game, before someone replies with that garbage.
Yes but how important is that to the actual point of the video??
You could say that this is the first time you kill a Pope in FF, but no as Tactics did early
I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your FF13 videos, especially the ones regarding the villains, so thank you for taking time to create them! They helped really explain the larger storyline at play across the trilogy. It would be neat to see if there's anything you could dig up regarding Bhunivelze (since he was the primary antagonist of Lightning Returns), or even the deity hierarchy and their various relationships, roles, how each contributed to the setup of the world, how they were regarded by people over time, etc.
Another thing I'm not fully understanding is why Serah was gifted the Eyes of Etro. I now better understand Yeul and Caius via your Caius video, but how does Serah fit into the larger schemes at play?
The timeline is close but I imagine that someone on the story team was watching Supernatural because it has the exact same "Let's end the world to bring Dad back" storyline at the time.
FFXIII recognition you love to see it.
im still waiting for square enix to make a FF13 trilogy HD remaster collections in ps4/ps5
The games aren't that old, and they're already IN HD. Plus, they still look great to this day, especially if you're playing on PC.
Bartandalous had abandonment issues, so thought sending a dump truck full of corpses to his moms house would make her come back to check his malfunction. This was a logical plan.
I love his theme tune, "Fighting Fate", feels very inspired by "One-Winged Angel" with the voice choir and frantically dramatic stringed instruments and overall atmosphere of the orchestra
Game as a whole was underrated. I really loved this game at the time when it came out on ps3. I’ll need to replay it on the series Xbox soon
Unpopular opinion, but they nailed ff13 and bartandalus. I'm an oldie who has played and finished them all. Please give us a re-release on ps4
I got the platinum for FFXIII and still didn't know this stuff about Bartandulus lol
I like how 13 Versus music is playing on a video about 13.
I think the XIII trilogy as a whole is underappreciated IMO
Analysing The Underappreciated, But Genius Antagonist of Final Fantasy XIII
Me: I know right, Caius Ballad is awesome!
Watches video
Me: Wait huh???
Caius isn't in the first game.
@@justinwhite2725 Yes
That is the joke
Sorry you couldn't understand
Barthandelus is underrated as a villain, especially considering that he was a break from the nihilistic villains of previous ones. And as you mentioned, he was successful in the end, even though he, himself, personally failed. It also left a lot of unanswered questions, ones that not even the following two games fully answered, just as it also implies that Etro is not quite as benevolent or at least benign as one would think. On the other hand, if you see Etro through the lens of the version of God that was the Old Testament, it makes a lot more sense.
Final Fantasy XIII, all three games, takes a very deep look at motivations and the reasons why people do things.
I just finished this game yesterday. Perhaps as an “older” gamer (41, lol) and being awake to the manipulation in our own world, I did not struggle to understand Barthandalus’ motivations and grand plan. I actually adored the Datalogs and the constant updating of them because I wanted to know if my suspicions throughout the game were accurate, and about 90% of the time they were. The game did a good enough job with in-game exposition if you have a keen ability to consider ulterior motives and think down that path.
That being said, perhaps the lore surrounding Linzei could have more direct through character interactions rather than through the Anilects, which if you don’t do any missions you would never know anything about. This may be why so many never understood the history to this point. The missions are side quests for sure, but it may have been too much to make world building lore a reward when it’s never implied that there IS more to know.
Full disclosure, I also love FF8, so perhaps I just have a soft spot for black sheep! 😅. I can’t wait to start XIII-2 and see how this all progresses.
I think FFXIII in general is a better game than people give it credit. It has its flaws, no doubt, but it's more good than bad.
Oh absolutely!
I absolutely agree it’s more of it was just a trend back then but now people are actually playing it and looking at the lore.
Everything about XIII is underappreciated.
I had to Google to learn more about how Vanille and Fang were the crystallized vessels of Ragnarok and what that meant (I forgot).
I also had to Google how Etro "intervened" in the last battle, since you did not explain how. According to a wiki I found, I guess Etro prevented Fang from transforming into (half-baked) Ragnarok?
You also imply that Etro turned the party back from C'ieth into humans?
It was also helpful to learn from Google that Etro was a goddess who sympathized with humans to a fault (leading to her "death", which is why she's nicknamed "fool"). Knowing this aspect of her identity explains why she helped/intervened the humans during the final fight.