Hojo is great example of a Greater Scope Villain. He's not the focus and not the final boss but he sets all wheels in motion and places all the pieces on the board.
In a sense he is the definitive villain imho.. just cause he is so relatable (more down to earth) and grand as a schemer. Just a man purely driven by his mad unstoppable desire.
When personified, they are often the villains that I find the most interesting. I really enjoy how they can propel the villainy of others to new heights while keeping everyone's motivations and actions grounded enough to be consistent. They can even be enabled themselves to create a feedback loop of awful. And all of this can be accomplished with a presence ranging from main cast member to a footnote that's never properly addressed or recognized during the primary conflict.
This just gave me a horrible idea. It would only work if well written. What if Hojo and Jenova were the same entity displaced by time? One a mad scientist and the other a deranged shell of a man turned beast by his own experiments. Shinra launches him/it into space, sprinkle in some black hole timey wimey nonsense and then boom...FF7.
Hojo basically sets the plot in motion in FFVII, definitely one of the most interesting characters in the game. I absolutely loved his portrayal in remake, he looks and sounds so slimey.
Hojo was more sinister than the others. Hojo was willing to sacrifice innocent villages, entire races, and even his own wife and child for the scientific cause. And he was gonna doom the planet for it.
@@Killer_Kris7 Bro you need to Chill out. Nobody is saying Sephiroth is Trash but reality is everything set in motion in the game is done so by the hands of Hojo - Sephiroth's insanity, Vincents atonement and his connection with Chaos, Clouds Amnesia, The Nibelheim incident, Red XIII desires for vengeance, Jenova reawakening and Meteor, He inadvertently Created avalanche by implanting Materia into Elfe, He created SOLDIER, He killed Aeriths Mother, He is the one that actually begins the manipulation of Cloud by telling him that he is A failed Clone of Sephiroth so he indirectly gives Meteor to Sephiroth and begins the end of the world, He literally takes control of Deepground and causes the entire conflict with Vincent. Hojo is directly and indirectly responsible for every major event in the entirety of FF7s history basically. Hell he was even the one who sealed Vincent in the Coffin in Shinra mansion like Come on... Nobody is saying Sephiroth is bad but people are acknowledging how involved Hojo actually was and how Sephiroth was also his victim. Making Hojo the main villain of FF7 - which he is because he represents Scientific advancement and Human endless ambition and lack of empathy for the world around them... which is literally the entire theme of FF7.
@@jamescalder5115 THANK YOU!! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks this as well. Hojo literally has his hand in almost everything that happened in the game. Even in other subsequent titles about FF7, Hojo's handiwork is still there. It's kinda scary now that I think about it...
I never played FF7 when it first came out, but for years I heard about how cool Sephiroth was as a villain. When I finally did play it, I was kind of disappointed in Sephiroth, because he didn't seem very interesting to me. Hojo, on the other hand, was much more of an interesting character to me, and I'm surprised that he didn't play a bigger part in the story. I'm glad he got some more backstory in the Compilation games.
I said the same thing when I first played the game about Sephiroth being the antagonist. The man looks good and has the charisma of a villain but he lacked that certain evil essence and his goals really wasn’t his own ambition but more of a by product of the Jenova cells manipulating him. Hojo on the other hand had the evil essence in spades and he had his own goal which what the pursuit of knowledge and testing his own theories. He will do anything by any means necessary to get the answers he is seeking. Now I would like to know what lead Hojo down this path of obsession of knowledge.
It’s funny to me that Hojo’s JP voice actor in Remake, Shigeru Chiba, and Sephiroth’s JP voice actor, Toshiyuki Morikawa, plays another father and son antagonists. Yoshihiro and Yoshikage Kira in Jojo Part 4.
Hojo was the real bad guy from FF VII. On some level, you felt bad for Sephiroth because it wasn't his fault he was born a monster, but Hojo knew what he was doing.
Gosh darnit I love the writing in this game, Hojo is so twisted it’s actually impressive. And putting everything in such a fluid video highlighting all the events that took placed really helped me to understand the story much better than I did before. I’ve always been a big fan of Vincent since I was a kid and was drawn to want to understand the FF7 story more and this video definitely helped!
I’ve been so looking forward to this origin video, especially since I consider Hojo to be the big bad for FF7 as Sephiroth or so many other characters in the game would’ve had very different lives had Hojo not been involved in their lives.
What you've said is true. After he caused Lucretia to go insane and become a hermit, he never gave me a dime in child support. I had to drag him onto the Maury Povitch show to hear those fateful words: "Hojo you ARE the father!" (He was counting on the JENOVA cells to interfere with the results, but nope.) I took the 3 million Gil and bought a villa in Costa Del Sol. You guys are welcome to come over and say hi after the release next year 😂
I wouldn’t rank Sephiroth in that high regard as far as a villain. Hojo’s goals was by far more grand in scale and it was his own ambitions of knowledge and testing his own theories that compelled him. Sephiroth’s goals was more of a by product of the Jenova cells manipulated him to do what he did.
You should do a video on Weiss from Dirge of Cerberus. He was one of my favorite characters from that game and it seems like his origins and lore weren't really explained that well. Would love to see him covered on here.
Hojo is like the "Revolver Ocelot" from the Final Fantasy 7 saga. He's practically to be the main antagonist/villain from this series, instead of Sephiroth.
Even listening to this account, I don't understand the difference between Angeal and Sephiroth's creation outside of Sephiroth being the child of a psychopath.
Angeal was created when Jenova cells were injected into his mother while she was pregnant with him. Sephiroth had Jenova cells injected directly into him as a fetus and yielded better results
@@davetyson5494 I guess that's where the confusion lies. So they were injected into her, but not into the fetus? Which should have caused her to become even more affected by the Jenova cells than Lucrecia was. Was that a plot point I just never noticed watching Let's Plays of CC?
Yes and I like to believe in that understanding Sephiorth is technically in a way the child of Jenova. kind of think of it as like Jesus in a twisted way. I've always admired Sephiroth and felt him to be more tragic and always thought Hojo to be the real villian.
This mad man was working in that shadows the entire time as the true antagonist. I would rank him and Kefka as really down right evil antagonist that for the most part achieved their goals but at the end their selfish ambitions ended up killing them.
You have the perfect voice and tone for narrations. Alot of people on RUclips are hard to listen to....But you could easily be a narrator for documentaries.
I love everything about the Shinra Electric Power Company. Some may even refer to me as a "Shinraphile". The one thing not in that category of things I love? Hojo.
"Would you like to see your mother again? All be it through the lenses of one of my microscopes" Hojo at his core can't really even be described as evil, it's far more twisted and sick that what he's done to humanity is closer to a sin. In this sense, I can't really even call him a person, because no person with a soul could do what he's done, but he does it with an ACTUAL fetish in mind. He harvested Aerith's mother down to the very last cell infront of her as a child, slowly, until there wasn't anything left. (In which case, if you saw the labs in the game, the machinery for examining his subjects looked to inflict unbelievable torture from their designs. With which the rooms had windows for public viewing.) The only thing I could say that would describe Hojo is being closer to something of a Demon in personality compared to your normal bad guy, because there's logically no worse rating I can give a character that would do things this terrible.
Awesome vid as usual, Daryl, thank you! Ugh, Hojo, the real monster of FFVII, along with Jenova, of course. My dream ending for Remake is Sephiroth, redeemed and freed from the space bitch, getting to kick their asses, then going on to finally live his life as he wants to, no longer controlled by someone or something else. (We are SO getting Good!Sephiroth back, people. The pronouns have foretold it.) LOL, in the middle of Remake, I stopped to call my sister (who got me into FFVII in the first place) to say, "You're not gonna believe this, but they somehow made Hojo even creepier." That scene of him pawing the glass and frothing about keeping Ifalna's body parts made my skin crawl.
Honestly wondering if you'd be willing to do Adel & Ultimecia from FF8. Likely there won't be much info about either of them, but if you were to make a Dual Video (Origins on both of them), it would very likely be just as long as your other Origins videos.
I was gonna ask if you are ever doing videos on Nero, Weiss and Genesis but then I remembered that they’re gonna be fleshed out a lot in Remake project.
Hojo used his own son as a scientific experiment, can't go much more evil than that. The evil that formed in Sephiroth is all because of Hojo. Hojo told Sephiroth that Jenova was his mother to cover the fact that Hojo used Lucrecia, Sephiroth's actual mother, as an experiment also.
Lucrecia loved Hojo... No wonder Vincent clammed his emotions up so much, seeing as his emotions caused significant damage. I just can't be sympathetic to Lucrecia for leading Vincent on when she knew the truth all along. Hojo is one helluva manipulator. And folks still argue that Sephiroth isn't Hojo's son.... Love this video. Hojo is a fantastic villain. He's underappreciated. I've rarely seen anyone cover Hojo in this depth so this was really a great treat. Thank you!
Also....imma have to put Cloud and Aerith in a ringer of misery and pain. Why....in ...the....HELL didnt they just off Hojo at that damn beach --_______-- oooooooooh my lord. Or at least Tifa torturing him by grabbing his balls or something.
I think I hate Lucretia more than I hate Hojo for even taking the time out of her day to turn her back on Vincent and be with Hojo. Guilt or freaking not. You're a fool to not see what kind of person Hojo is. I do pity her but UGH....HOW GIRL!!?!
Some people are blind to who people actually are and that might be the case here. Who knows? I didn’t know that my ex-husband was a selfish and narcissistic man until I got away from him and I found the lies he feed me. Yeah Lucrecia was responsible for letting herself be injected with Jenova cells but I do believe he manipulated her for his selfish reasons and had no regard for his wife and child.
There is a LEGIT argument, that VII has 4 of the best 5 villains in the entire series with Seph, Rufus, Hojo, and the Don. Given what happens post FF VII, it’s probable they have the beat anti hero in Reno.
I just recently learned that the name Lucretia is more commonly pronounced as Loo-cree-sha. I've always pronounced it the same way as Darryl and the other way sounds almost unpleasant.
With the west not getting an official version of Before Crisis and then the avoidance of Dirge of Cerberus due to low popularity, I see I've missed a lot regarding the FF7 story. Also haven't read any manga or anything put out, so I only have FF7, Advent Children, Crisis Core, and Remake to go by. I was...working on something related to FF7, now I see I need to delete it 😅. Happy I watched this first!
Y’all really need to do an Ultimecia one. I still don’t know what in the hell was going on with her character. I saw your Edea one but that doesn’t really explain the whole Ultimecia thing well. She just feels like the most thrown in last minute character. I wouldn’t mind a Laguna one either.
I really low the deep lore of this character. When we first meet him (FFVII for me) hes just a "Mad scientist with ambitions", a side character you know.....after some time... so THIS is a "SIDE CHARACTER" ??!! Seriously :D there are really few characters in FF games that are "just" side characters and I love it :D The rabit hell hole of lore these game have....priceless.... good job Square Enix, good job...
I still say 6 is the better game overall in nearly every respect, however Hojo truly is one of the most devious villains they've ever done, and ranks up there just below Kefka. He's certainly far more interesting than Sephiroth ever was, and was easily the best part of DoC
Sephiroth is Vincents son. You can't change my mind. Look at the physical traits. The hair, eyes, even the nose. Vincent and Lucretia fell in love, but in the early stages of her pregnancy, she got brainwashed by Hojo. Hence Vincent feeling like he had a "never ending nightmare" because he felt what his son was doing and why he felt he had to "atone" for his "sins" that being not able to protect Lucretia and his unborn child.
I understand that. But I brought it up to my girl (who has only ever watched me play the original and played the remake) she herself did a face to face comparison. They match. And Hojo could easily be calling Sephiroth his "son" because he was the only successful experiment. Which makes alot more sense than him actually getting Lucretia pregnant instead of just manipulating her once Vincent had got her pregnant and warping her and Sephiroths minds
I mean this is basically confirmed in Dirge of Ceberus that Sephiroth is actually Vincents son and is primary motivation for his "Atonement" and for him to continue fighting post Sephiroth. Its implied that Hojo is calling him "His son" to torture Vincent and because he views Sephiroth as his son because he succeeded in experimenting on him.
I find Hojo being able to charm Lucrezia and making her fall in love with him being a stretch too far for my imagination. Especially when when he was competing against Vincent.
I LOVE remake, but thought they might have overplayed the sadism a bit. Hojo never struck me in OG as a sadist. He didnt take pleasure in suffering, he was completely apathetic to it in the same way most children are apathetic to the suffering of an ant under the magnifying glass. Its just interesting to him. He truly did not care about anything or anyone except the pure pursuit of knowledge, and his own ego for having been the one to obtain it.
@@buddhapunch2486 i think square is trying to flesh out hojos character a bit more compared to the original. My theory is that hojo might play an even bigger role in the remake storyline. He can potentially be the main villain of the remake series.
@@blackmagekongs2588 While interesting, I hope that isnt the case. I think Jenova herself would be a much better late-reveal new main enemy. Hojo is brilliant and unquestionably evil, but kind of simple despite that in a way. Hes callous and egotistical about his research more than anything. jenova though? thats worth exploring, and why Sephiroth went from hero and generally decent person to insane genocidal god complex so quickly and completely. Jenova's will and personality are the perfect bridge to explore that and reconcile the Sephiroth we saw in Crisis Core and the Nebelheim flashback with the one after the shinra mansion. Slots in well with the remake "future Sephiroth" theories also, with Sephiroth maybe trying to free himself from that influence, even if he is still the villain afterwards.
@@buddhapunch2486No offense but i always found jenova to be the simple and the main plot device. The way the story described jenova was that of a creature driven by instinct, a bio-weapon to be used by the main villains despite jenovas potentially overwhelming power. Sephiroth i feel is turning more into an anti-hero, more than an actual villain. In the original he was undoubtedly the main villain of the story, but that was before we learned more about sephiroth during crisis core and towards the end of ff7r. Sephiroth seems to have an agenda of his own, but also seems like he wants to partner up with cloud towards the end of remake part 1. Hojo on one hand remains consistently a villain. My theory as to why hes potentially the new true villain of the story is because nobody knows more about jenova then he does. He is one of the greatest scientists alongside gast, lucretia, and hollander, however they are dead or incapacitated which gives hojo pretty much free reign to do whatever he wants, especially with shinra supporting him. Hojos maniacal and pursuit of knowledge has basically been the main cause of all major events in ff7. He has been known to be manipulative and cunning pushing his own agendas in the shadows of others. I could go further but i feel like ive written enough already lol. Tbh it could go both ways since its all theory rn.
I always considered him the most... villain-y of the villains, from a moral point of view. I mean, look, let's not wax philosophical, but Hojo's definitely the most powerful sociopath in the game. President Shinra and some of his staff were clearly sociopaths as well (one doesn't just drop an entire plate full of people on thousands of other people and sleep well unless there's something broken in their mind), of course, but Hojo sees the rest of the world as not just below him, but useful as *test subjects.* And often, after the experiments are done, garbage. Jenova is likely just doing what Jenova's species does. You can't call a lion immoral for eating other animals - that's just what lions are programmed by nature to do. Likely, so it is with Jenova's ambitions. It's feeding. Sephiroth is clearly a villain and definitely sociopathic, but he does have some claim to his anger - guy has serious PTSD for undertandable reasons, and to what extent Jenova is controlling him (or vice-versa?) is debateable. Point is, Hojo is the fuckin' worst.
@@Killer_Kris7 So I hear - and I agree, I think - but I’ve heard some well-worded arguments for Jenova being the main influencer, as well. My argument for Sephiroth at least being in *primary* control is that he acts much like he did after learning he was a test subject of Shrinra’s. That being before he… melded with Jenova more in the Lifestream. If Jenova was the one in the most control, you’d think he’d resemble a less intelligent creature, like a zombie.
Ya know the conversation people have about "Hey, if you could go back in time, would you eliminate Hitler before he became Hitler?" If altering timelines is viable in FF7R (it appears that it is in some capacity), eliminating Hojo from the timeline ain't a bad way to ensure Sephiroth is (a) never born or (b) doesn't become one with JENOVA and try to destroy the planet at every opportunity. Just saying...
Hojo is, in my opinion, the actual villain of the FF7 world. Sephiroth is just another victim If you think about it. Hojo is a monster whose thirst for scientific advancement knows no limits. I absolutely LOVE it when Cloud describes Hojo in FF7R. The absolute fear mixed with disgust in his voice when he says "we're only a pile of Flesh and numbers to Hojo". The delivery is spot on.
I thought the same thing about Hojo being the true villain. Sephiroth was a by product of Hojo’s grand scheme. I mean Sephiroth’s ambition wasn’t his own but more of the influence of the Jenova cells manipulating him to consume the planet’s life force. Hojo on the other hand was self driven to see his own goals achieved.
@@neomorphius2207 Sephiroth was psychologically broken after finding the truth about his origins. He basically went insane and concluded that was his purpose in life. However, think about Sephiroth before the reveal. He was a normal guy. Loyal, efficient, social even. There was no malice or evil within Sephiroth. Sure, he was a deadly warrior, but that was that job, and he was very good at his job. It's after he found out the truth that his world and mind crumbled. It was the pressure of being the best, the excruciating pressure of having the world's expectations on his back combined with the realization he was nothing more than an experiment what drive him mad. Hojo, on the other hand, he is the guy who took the opportunity to test his unborn child because he was curious. Because to him, there's absolutely nothing that's more important than the pursue of scientific knowledge.
@@robTCGZ I would say that him finding out the truth of his origin was the trigger that started him down that path of madness and triggered those cells to activate him into following that path. I mean he was starting to wonder why he was so different from everyone during his journey in life as a soldier.
@@Killer_Kris7 wtf are you talking about?! Don’t put words into something I never said. You a Sephiroth stand or something? I actually like him as a character but he is not one of my top 3 characters in FF7. You got some nerve saying this with no proof to back your claim.
Hojo is pretty much the catalyst for most of the bad shit that happened in the compilation. This will probably be made more apparent in the remake series.
I’ve always wondered the time frame of when Sephiroth was conceived because I wonder if Hojo is truly Sephiroth’s biological father. Yeah technically he would be a father to him by “making” him. But it’s if Lucrecia slept with Vincent too and Lucrecia lying to Hojo. That’s always the on going debate on if Seph truly is his father.
Hojo is his real father. Vincent was rejected in dirge of cerberus and hojo decieved lucrecia into falling in love with him. Thats why she feels too much guilt when facing vincent. She used her own child as an expierment. Vincent disaproved of this but hojo convinced her it was for the good of science.
Not going to lie, despite the Remake's VA peformance being very good, to me i like his Crisis Core VA performance of Hojo the most. It gives a evil yet quite nerdy kind of tone to it's character
Somehow.... I had managed to forget this monster. Or so I thought. But of course, he was just lurking in some dark corner of my mind. I don’t often ‘hate’ game villains, but I made an exception for this guy. As always, top quality video. Good job on analysing a disturbing character.
Without Hojo, we wouldn't have any mad scientist from JRPGs and action games to be both iconic and sinister. Vexen from Kingdom Hearts(since he was also voiced by Hojo's English VA excluding the remake Derek Stephen Prince, although his Japanese VA is retained in FFVIIR), Agnus from Devil May Cry 4, and Zanza from Xenoblade Chronicles are the numerous examples; having similar goals and experiments(Aerith and Red XIII/Nanaki from FFVII, Riku and Xion from the KH series, Nero and Kyrie from the DMC series, and Melia as well as her family in Prison Island from XC1)to achieve power and a godlike complex, although Vexen is the exception to this RPG/action game trope(that includes other genres in and outside of gaming).
Alsooo when you said Arbiter of Fate....that made me think something. The team in Remake killed the Arbiter of Fate, maybe that further proves they killed the timeline of not Just Advent Children but also Dirge of Cerberus as well. What do yall think? 🤔 💭 🤔
Its implied that this the case by Sephiroth who seems to imply that things are different. They didnt necessarily kill said timelines but they have created an alternate timeline parallel to those in which things will happen differently.
Hojo is great example of a Greater Scope Villain. He's not the focus and not the final boss but he sets all wheels in motion and places all the pieces on the board.
And now I know a new literary term!
In a sense he is the definitive villain imho.. just cause he is so relatable (more down to earth) and grand as a schemer. Just a man purely driven by his mad unstoppable desire.
When personified, they are often the villains that I find the most interesting. I really enjoy how they can propel the villainy of others to new heights while keeping everyone's motivations and actions grounded enough to be consistent. They can even be enabled themselves to create a feedback loop of awful. And all of this can be accomplished with a presence ranging from main cast member to a footnote that's never properly addressed or recognized during the primary conflict.
This just gave me a horrible idea. It would only work if well written. What if Hojo and Jenova were the same entity displaced by time? One a mad scientist and the other a deranged shell of a man turned beast by his own experiments. Shinra launches him/it into space, sprinkle in some black hole timey wimey nonsense and then boom...FF7.
And you actually take him out, unlike a certain fuckin' OTHER RPG SCIENTIST...
Hojo basically sets the plot in motion in FFVII, definitely one of the most interesting characters in the game. I absolutely loved his portrayal in remake, he looks and sounds so slimey.
Yeah I like how they captured this man’s evil essence in the remake. Looking forward to the later chapters in this game.
Hojo was more sinister than the others. Hojo was willing to sacrifice innocent villages, entire races, and even his own wife and child for the scientific cause. And he was gonna doom the planet for it.
I wouldn't say wife...
That last part
Yeah I would say wife either more like baby momma 😄 🤣 😂
He was also desperate enough to attempt interspecies breeding.
Damn Hojo is the real monster of FF7
More like the mega mastermind villain of FF7!
@@neomorphius2207 way to say Sephiroth is trash
@@Killer_Kris7 Bro you need to Chill out. Nobody is saying Sephiroth is Trash but reality is everything set in motion in the game is done so by the hands of Hojo - Sephiroth's insanity, Vincents atonement and his connection with Chaos, Clouds Amnesia, The Nibelheim incident, Red XIII desires for vengeance, Jenova reawakening and Meteor, He inadvertently Created avalanche by implanting Materia into Elfe, He created SOLDIER, He killed Aeriths Mother, He is the one that actually begins the manipulation of Cloud by telling him that he is A failed Clone of Sephiroth so he indirectly gives Meteor to Sephiroth and begins the end of the world, He literally takes control of Deepground and causes the entire conflict with Vincent.
Hojo is directly and indirectly responsible for every major event in the entirety of FF7s history basically. Hell he was even the one who sealed Vincent in the Coffin in Shinra mansion like Come on... Nobody is saying Sephiroth is bad but people are acknowledging how involved Hojo actually was and how Sephiroth was also his victim. Making Hojo the main villain of FF7 - which he is because he represents Scientific advancement and Human endless ambition and lack of empathy for the world around them... which is literally the entire theme of FF7.
@@jamescalder5115 THANK YOU!! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks this as well.
Hojo literally has his hand in almost everything that happened in the game. Even in other subsequent titles about FF7, Hojo's handiwork is still there. It's kinda scary now that I think about it...
Sephiroth is an icon of being a villain in FFVII. But in reality and story, Hojo is the true villain.
Hojo: the kind of guy that gets torn apart by his own experiment something you wanted to happen
Except in Hojo's case
His wife's experiment killed him.
Vincent got his revenge
I knew Hojo was a piece of shit in the original game. But damn they did the impossible and made him so much grosser and nasty 🤢 in the remake 😩
Oh they finally brought out Hojo’s true nature and it’s ugly to see.
I never played FF7 when it first came out, but for years I heard about how cool Sephiroth was as a villain. When I finally did play it, I was kind of disappointed in Sephiroth, because he didn't seem very interesting to me. Hojo, on the other hand, was much more of an interesting character to me, and I'm surprised that he didn't play a bigger part in the story. I'm glad he got some more backstory in the Compilation games.
I said the same thing when I first played the game about Sephiroth being the antagonist. The man looks good and has the charisma of a villain but he lacked that certain evil essence and his goals really wasn’t his own ambition but more of a by product of the Jenova cells manipulating him. Hojo on the other hand had the evil essence in spades and he had his own goal which what the pursuit of knowledge and testing his own theories. He will do anything by any means necessary to get the answers he is seeking. Now I would like to know what lead Hojo down this path of obsession of knowledge.
@@neomorphius2207 for the last damn. Sephiroth controls Jenova. Not the other way around
@@Killer_Kris7 I’m just voicing my opinion and nothing more. Not sure why you are taking this seriously.
@@neomorphius2207 BECAUSE THE DEVS SAY OTHERWISE
@@neomorphius2207 Because he is a Sephiroth Fanboy
It’s funny to me that Hojo’s JP voice actor in Remake, Shigeru Chiba, and Sephiroth’s JP voice actor, Toshiyuki Morikawa, plays another father and son antagonists. Yoshihiro and Yoshikage Kira in Jojo Part 4.
Hojo was the real bad guy from FF VII. On some level, you felt bad for Sephiroth because it wasn't his fault he was born a monster, but Hojo knew what he was doing.
Hojo and Jenova, an unholy matrimony of sorts I guess you could say.
Gosh darnit I love the writing in this game, Hojo is so twisted it’s actually impressive. And putting everything in such a fluid video highlighting all the events that took placed really helped me to understand the story much better than I did before. I’ve always been a big fan of Vincent since I was a kid and was drawn to want to understand the FF7 story more and this video definitely helped!
I’ve been so looking forward to this origin video, especially since I consider Hojo to be the big bad for FF7 as Sephiroth or so many other characters in the game would’ve had very different lives had Hojo not been involved in their lives.
What you've said is true. After he caused Lucretia to go insane and become a hermit, he never gave me a dime in child support. I had to drag him onto the Maury Povitch show to hear those fateful words: "Hojo you ARE the father!" (He was counting on the JENOVA cells to interfere with the results, but nope.) I took the 3 million Gil and bought a villa in Costa Del Sol. You guys are welcome to come over and say hi after the release next year 😂
I wouldn’t rank Sephiroth in that high regard as far as a villain. Hojo’s goals was by far more grand in scale and it was his own ambitions of knowledge and testing his own theories that compelled him. Sephiroth’s goals was more of a by product of the Jenova cells manipulated him to do what he did.
@@neomorphius2207 stop it
Well thats his daddy!
Hojo should have been the one who died ngl. If it did, then Zack would be alive and be with his date with Aerith.
You should do a video on Weiss from Dirge of Cerberus. He was one of my favorite characters from that game and it seems like his origins and lore weren't really explained that well. Would love to see him covered on here.
No one:
Hojo: 👏EVERY👏BODY👏IS👏AN👏EXPERIMENT👏 😁👍
Hojo is like the "Revolver Ocelot" from the Final Fantasy 7 saga. He's practically to be the main antagonist/villain from this series, instead of Sephiroth.
Even listening to this account, I don't understand the difference between Angeal and Sephiroth's creation outside of Sephiroth being the child of a psychopath.
Angeal was created when Jenova cells were injected into his mother while she was pregnant with him. Sephiroth had Jenova cells injected directly into him as a fetus and yielded better results
@@davetyson5494 I guess that's where the confusion lies. So they were injected into her, but not into the fetus? Which should have caused her to become even more affected by the Jenova cells than Lucrecia was. Was that a plot point I just never noticed watching Let's Plays of CC?
Yes and I like to believe in that understanding Sephiorth is technically in a way the child of Jenova. kind of think of it as like Jesus in a twisted way. I've always admired Sephiroth and felt him to be more tragic and always thought Hojo to be the real villian.
Also, hojo was always my favorite villain.
This mad man was working in that shadows the entire time as the true antagonist. I would rank him and Kefka as really down right evil antagonist that for the most part achieved their goals but at the end their selfish ambitions ended up killing them.
You have the perfect voice and tone for narrations. Alot of people on RUclips are hard to listen to....But you could easily be a narrator for documentaries.
I love everything about the Shinra Electric Power Company. Some may even refer to me as a "Shinraphile". The one thing not in that category of things I love? Hojo.
The lore deepness kept
Me hooked all those years.
"Would you like to see your mother again? All be it through the lenses of one of my microscopes"
Hojo at his core can't really even be described as evil, it's far more twisted and sick that what he's done to humanity is closer to a sin. In this sense, I can't really even call him a person, because no person with a soul could do what he's done, but he does it with an ACTUAL fetish in mind. He harvested Aerith's mother down to the very last cell infront of her as a child, slowly, until there wasn't anything left. (In which case, if you saw the labs in the game, the machinery for examining his subjects looked to inflict unbelievable torture from their designs. With which the rooms had windows for public viewing.)
The only thing I could say that would describe Hojo is being closer to something of a Demon in personality compared to your normal bad guy, because there's logically no worse rating I can give a character that would do things this terrible.
Not gonna lie, this guy is the reason I always walk slightly hunched over with my hands behind my back while wearing a lab coat...
I’ve been waiting for you to do a video about him
Hoo boy, did Hojo's (and Shinra's) "playing God" have dire consequences for the entire planet down the road.
Ah yes, one of the greatest mysteries of FF7: How in God's name did his ugly ass hit Lucrecia? Was she blind?
Lucrecia was down for them bad boys. She wasn't down with Vincent's simp ways.
Awesome vid as usual, Daryl, thank you! Ugh, Hojo, the real monster of FFVII, along with Jenova, of course. My dream ending for Remake is Sephiroth, redeemed and freed from the space bitch, getting to kick their asses, then going on to finally live his life as he wants to, no longer controlled by someone or something else. (We are SO getting Good!Sephiroth back, people. The pronouns have foretold it.)
LOL, in the middle of Remake, I stopped to call my sister (who got me into FFVII in the first place) to say, "You're not gonna believe this, but they somehow made Hojo even creepier." That scene of him pawing the glass and frothing about keeping Ifalna's body parts made my skin crawl.
You're most welcome! Glad you enjoyed :) ~Darryl
Jesus talk about twisted but man he Is a great bad guy
Honestly wondering if you'd be willing to do Adel & Ultimecia from FF8. Likely there won't be much info about either of them, but if you were to make a Dual Video (Origins on both of them), it would very likely be just as long as your other Origins videos.
I was gonna ask if you are ever doing videos on Nero, Weiss and Genesis but then I remembered that they’re gonna be fleshed out a lot in Remake project.
love, love, loved the video. I appreciate all the effort, research, and time you put in all these videos.
Hojo used his own son as a scientific experiment, can't go much more evil than that. The evil that formed in Sephiroth is all because of Hojo. Hojo told Sephiroth that Jenova was his mother to cover the fact that Hojo used Lucrecia, Sephiroth's actual mother, as an experiment also.
Can you make one for Ignis? cuz his loyalty to Noctis is remarkable especially after those DLCs.. and I wanna know about Ignis too
Lucrecia loved Hojo... No wonder Vincent clammed his emotions up so much, seeing as his emotions caused significant damage. I just can't be sympathetic to Lucrecia for leading Vincent on when she knew the truth all along. Hojo is one helluva manipulator. And folks still argue that Sephiroth isn't Hojo's son.... Love this video. Hojo is a fantastic villain. He's underappreciated. I've rarely seen anyone cover Hojo in this depth so this was really a great treat. Thank you!
Also....imma have to put Cloud and Aerith in a ringer of misery and pain. Why....in ...the....HELL didnt they just off Hojo at that damn beach --_______-- oooooooooh my lord. Or at least Tifa torturing him by grabbing his balls or something.
Kain Highwind!!! Always my favorite
I think I hate Lucretia more than I hate Hojo for even taking the time out of her day to turn her back on Vincent and be with Hojo. Guilt or freaking not. You're a fool to not see what kind of person Hojo is. I do pity her but UGH....HOW GIRL!!?!
Some people are blind to who people actually are and that might be the case here. Who knows? I didn’t know that my ex-husband was a selfish and narcissistic man until I got away from him and I found the lies he feed me. Yeah Lucrecia was responsible for letting herself be injected with Jenova cells but I do believe he manipulated her for his selfish reasons and had no regard for his wife and child.
Cant wait to see what the remake devs have been cooking with Hojo for part 3 Damn!
Dude! Remake Part 3 would be far more crazier than ever!!!
Yeah way to go my friend😍❤✊️
Lore 👈 Origins 👈 Golbez 👈 GOLBEZ 👈 All 👈
Great review of his story dude.
Hojo literally created the final boss.
There is a LEGIT argument, that VII has 4 of the best 5 villains in the entire series with Seph, Rufus, Hojo, and the Don. Given what happens post FF VII, it’s probable they have the beat anti hero in Reno.
I just recently learned that the name Lucretia is more commonly pronounced as Loo-cree-sha. I've always pronounced it the same way as Darryl and the other way sounds almost unpleasant.
Genesis. Plz cover Genesis!! 🙏🏾
About time as he's the pro against antagonist
i always wonder why Sqaure enix never made a Dissidia musou game could be popular. wonder why they haven't done it yet ? i for one would LOVE it
I would like to see a Genesis background
Do Kain Higwind next
Wow when your soul is so vile that even the Lifestream doesn't want it 😅
With the west not getting an official version of Before Crisis and then the avoidance of Dirge of Cerberus due to low popularity, I see I've missed a lot regarding the FF7 story. Also haven't read any manga or anything put out, so I only have FF7, Advent Children, Crisis Core, and Remake to go by. I was...working on something related to FF7, now I see I need to delete it 😅. Happy I watched this first!
Y’all really need to do an Ultimecia one. I still don’t know what in the hell was going on with her character. I saw your Edea one but that doesn’t really explain the whole Ultimecia thing well. She just feels like the most thrown in last minute character. I wouldn’t mind a Laguna one either.
Why wasn't this guy the main villain again? He has more villain in him than Sephiroth.
No
I was looking at the Final Fantasy Wiki last night, looking him up! lol
I really low the deep lore of this character.
When we first meet him (FFVII for me) hes just a "Mad scientist with ambitions", a side character you know.....after some time... so THIS is a "SIDE CHARACTER" ??!!
Seriously :D there are really few characters in FF games that are "just" side characters and I love it :D
The rabit hell hole of lore these game have....priceless.... good job Square Enix, good job...
Hojo comes back in final fantasy dirge of Cerberus
Please cover Emet Selch some time :)
Rumor has it that Aerith and Nanaki did reproduce, I saw pics of it on r34!
Does anyone knohw many companies thee were before Shinra took goat?
I still say 6 is the better game overall in nearly every respect, however Hojo truly is one of the most devious villains they've ever done, and ranks up there just below Kefka. He's certainly far more interesting than Sephiroth ever was, and was easily the best part of DoC
Worst Dad, ever!
Hojo.
A name like that should tell you everything you need to know.
Hojo is on par with shoe tucker from fmab, in fact, hojo is by far WORSE
Hojo was the real big bad of this entry
Lucrecia was down for some of Hojo's mojo...🤣
Aaaaaaaamazing!
Para min, ele é o vilão, vilão da série 7
FF6 Shadow and Locke
The creepy evil who could be the Villain in a H**tai too, interesting
Joaquin Phoenix, Live Action.
Sephiroth is Vincents son. You can't change my mind. Look at the physical traits. The hair, eyes, even the nose. Vincent and Lucretia fell in love, but in the early stages of her pregnancy, she got brainwashed by Hojo. Hence Vincent feeling like he had a "never ending nightmare" because he felt what his son was doing and why he felt he had to "atone" for his "sins" that being not able to protect Lucretia and his unborn child.
I understand that. But I brought it up to my girl (who has only ever watched me play the original and played the remake) she herself did a face to face comparison. They match. And Hojo could easily be calling Sephiroth his "son" because he was the only successful experiment. Which makes alot more sense than him actually getting Lucretia pregnant instead of just manipulating her once Vincent had got her pregnant and warping her and Sephiroths minds
I mean this is basically confirmed in Dirge of Ceberus that Sephiroth is actually Vincents son and is primary motivation for his "Atonement" and for him to continue fighting post Sephiroth. Its implied that Hojo is calling him "His son" to torture Vincent and because he views Sephiroth as his son because he succeeded in experimenting on him.
@@jamescalder5115 thank you! For once I'm not the only one that actually paid attention to that storyline
Hojo my dad
Unit 731
I find Hojo being able to charm Lucrezia and making her fall in love with him being a stretch too far for my imagination. Especially when when he was competing against Vincent.
I hate when people call him Red XIII. He is Nanaki, son of Seto.
I mean that is what he refers to himself as though....
@@jamescalder5115 only until you reach Cosmo canyon and he learns the truth regarding his father.
Ff7r did a real good job at portraying hojo as a disgustingly sadistic psychopath. It was amazing.
I LOVE remake, but thought they might have overplayed the sadism a bit. Hojo never struck me in OG as a sadist. He didnt take pleasure in suffering, he was completely apathetic to it in the same way most children are apathetic to the suffering of an ant under the magnifying glass. Its just interesting to him. He truly did not care about anything or anyone except the pure pursuit of knowledge, and his own ego for having been the one to obtain it.
@@buddhapunch2486 i think square is trying to flesh out hojos character a bit more compared to the original. My theory is that hojo might play an even bigger role in the remake storyline. He can potentially be the main villain of the remake series.
@@blackmagekongs2588 While interesting, I hope that isnt the case. I think Jenova herself would be a much better late-reveal new main enemy. Hojo is brilliant and unquestionably evil, but kind of simple despite that in a way. Hes callous and egotistical about his research more than anything. jenova though? thats worth exploring, and why Sephiroth went from hero and generally decent person to insane genocidal god complex so quickly and completely. Jenova's will and personality are the perfect bridge to explore that and reconcile the Sephiroth we saw in Crisis Core and the Nebelheim flashback with the one after the shinra mansion. Slots in well with the remake "future Sephiroth" theories also, with Sephiroth maybe trying to free himself from that influence, even if he is still the villain afterwards.
@@buddhapunch2486No offense but i always found jenova to be the simple and the main plot device. The way the story described jenova was that of a creature driven by instinct, a bio-weapon to be used by the main villains despite jenovas potentially overwhelming power. Sephiroth i feel is turning more into an anti-hero, more than an actual villain. In the original he was undoubtedly the main villain of the story, but that was before we learned more about sephiroth during crisis core and towards the end of ff7r. Sephiroth seems to have an agenda of his own, but also seems like he wants to partner up with cloud towards the end of remake part 1.
Hojo on one hand remains consistently a villain. My theory as to why hes potentially the new true villain of the story is because nobody knows more about jenova then he does. He is one of the greatest scientists alongside gast, lucretia, and hollander, however they are dead or incapacitated which gives hojo pretty much free reign to do whatever he wants, especially with shinra supporting him. Hojos maniacal and pursuit of knowledge has basically been the main cause of all major events in ff7. He has been known to be manipulative and cunning pushing his own agendas in the shadows of others. I could go further but i feel like ive written enough already lol.
Tbh it could go both ways since its all theory rn.
This reminded me how bonkers the story of FF7 is. I love it.
I would like to counter your point with the story line of FF6. Kefka was 🔥!
Stellar work as always team FFU. Thanks for the time and effort you spend on these
Our pleasure Tony! So glad to hear you enjoyed :) ~Darryl
I always considered him the most... villain-y of the villains, from a moral point of view.
I mean, look, let's not wax philosophical, but Hojo's definitely the most powerful sociopath in the game. President Shinra and some of his staff were clearly sociopaths as well (one doesn't just drop an entire plate full of people on thousands of other people and sleep well unless there's something broken in their mind), of course, but Hojo sees the rest of the world as not just below him, but useful as *test subjects.* And often, after the experiments are done, garbage.
Jenova is likely just doing what Jenova's species does. You can't call a lion immoral for eating other animals - that's just what lions are programmed by nature to do. Likely, so it is with Jenova's ambitions. It's feeding. Sephiroth is clearly a villain and definitely sociopathic, but he does have some claim to his anger - guy has serious PTSD for undertandable reasons, and to what extent Jenova is controlling him (or vice-versa?) is debateable.
Point is, Hojo is the fuckin' worst.
Sephiroth controls Jenova
@@Killer_Kris7 So I hear - and I agree, I think - but I’ve heard some well-worded arguments for Jenova being the main influencer, as well.
My argument for Sephiroth at least being in *primary* control is that he acts much like he did after learning he was a test subject of Shrinra’s. That being before he… melded with Jenova more in the Lifestream.
If Jenova was the one in the most control, you’d think he’d resemble a less intelligent creature, like a zombie.
To think Vincent lost a women to this man🤢
Ya know the conversation people have about "Hey, if you could go back in time, would you eliminate Hitler before he became Hitler?" If altering timelines is viable in FF7R (it appears that it is in some capacity), eliminating Hojo from the timeline ain't a bad way to ensure Sephiroth is (a) never born or (b) doesn't become one with JENOVA and try to destroy the planet at every opportunity. Just saying...
You know all those animals you meet at the north pole? All are JENOVA creatures and they are capable of becoming JENOVA.
@@dansmith1661 That explains ziggy stardust
Just starting the video now - looking forward to the future of this series in seeing how the Remake timeline correlates with the OG games.
honestly, hojo is one of the best villains in the series! thank you for an excellent, comprehensive video!
Hojo is, in my opinion, the actual villain of the FF7 world. Sephiroth is just another victim If you think about it. Hojo is a monster whose thirst for scientific advancement knows no limits.
I absolutely LOVE it when Cloud describes Hojo in FF7R. The absolute fear mixed with disgust in his voice when he says "we're only a pile of Flesh and numbers to Hojo". The delivery is spot on.
I thought the same thing about Hojo being the true villain. Sephiroth was a by product of Hojo’s grand scheme. I mean Sephiroth’s ambition wasn’t his own but more of the influence of the Jenova cells manipulating him to consume the planet’s life force. Hojo on the other hand was self driven to see his own goals achieved.
@@neomorphius2207 Sephiroth was psychologically broken after finding the truth about his origins. He basically went insane and concluded that was his purpose in life. However, think about Sephiroth before the reveal. He was a normal guy. Loyal, efficient, social even. There was no malice or evil within Sephiroth. Sure, he was a deadly warrior, but that was that job, and he was very good at his job. It's after he found out the truth that his world and mind crumbled. It was the pressure of being the best, the excruciating pressure of having the world's expectations on his back combined with the realization he was nothing more than an experiment what drive him mad.
Hojo, on the other hand, he is the guy who took the opportunity to test his unborn child because he was curious. Because to him, there's absolutely nothing that's more important than the pursue of scientific knowledge.
@@robTCGZ I would say that him finding out the truth of his origin was the trigger that started him down that path of madness and triggered those cells to activate him into following that path. I mean he was starting to wonder why he was so different from everyone during his journey in life as a soldier.
You're all the reason as to why Sephiroth is Cloud's gay ex boyfriend
@@Killer_Kris7 wtf are you talking about?! Don’t put words into something I never said. You a Sephiroth stand or something? I actually like him as a character but he is not one of my top 3 characters in FF7. You got some nerve saying this with no proof to back your claim.
Hojo is pretty much the catalyst for most of the bad shit that happened in the compilation. This will probably be made more apparent in the remake series.
I’ve always wondered the time frame of when Sephiroth was conceived because I wonder if Hojo is truly Sephiroth’s biological father. Yeah technically he would be a father to him by “making” him. But it’s if Lucrecia slept with Vincent too and Lucrecia lying to Hojo. That’s always the on going debate on if Seph truly is his father.
Hes not. Vincent is his father
@@freshproduce2170 oh I agree totally that Vincent is the real father of Sephiroth
I really hope in remake that there is an allusion to vincent being his real father.
I mean they share a bigger resemblance than sephiroth and hojo do.
@@The_winds_of_change I agree! That was one thing I wish they would elaborate on in the remake. We’ll see
Hojo is his real father. Vincent was rejected in dirge of cerberus and hojo decieved lucrecia into falling in love with him. Thats why she feels too much guilt when facing vincent.
She used her own child as an expierment. Vincent disaproved of this but hojo convinced her it was for the good of science.
Given hojos personality and lucretias judgement of character, I think sephiroth was better off not being raised by them
Been waiting for this one! He is the root of all evil. To understand his story means to understand the whole backstory of the Final Fantasy 7 lore.
Hojo might be the big bad of remake
I like how he still wears his lab coat even when on the beach.
Hopefully the remake stays the same with him chilling with bitches on the beach in coat
Hojo is one heck of a manipulative and twisted man. Father like son. It's wild people still deny this.
Hojo is one of those villains that I truly despise.
Hojo is the best character of Final Fantasy VII
Thank you for another character origins video! These are hands down my favorite content that you create! Thank you so much for bringing it back!
Not going to lie, despite the Remake's VA peformance being very good, to me i like his Crisis Core VA performance of Hojo the most. It gives a evil yet quite nerdy kind of tone to it's character
Somehow.... I had managed to forget this monster. Or so I thought. But of course, he was just lurking in some dark corner of my mind. I don’t often ‘hate’ game villains, but I made an exception for this guy. As always, top quality video. Good job on analysing a disturbing character.
I would also like to add Kefka on that list!
Hi. I'd like to see Dagger
Incomprhensible decisions. I mean, who goes to the beach in a lab coat???
Without Hojo, we wouldn't have any mad scientist from JRPGs and action games to be both iconic and sinister. Vexen from Kingdom Hearts(since he was also voiced by Hojo's English VA excluding the remake Derek Stephen Prince, although his Japanese VA is retained in FFVIIR), Agnus from Devil May Cry 4, and Zanza from Xenoblade Chronicles are the numerous examples; having similar goals and experiments(Aerith and Red XIII/Nanaki from FFVII, Riku and Xion from the KH series, Nero and Kyrie from the DMC series, and Melia as well as her family in Prison Island from XC1)to achieve power and a godlike complex, although Vexen is the exception to this RPG/action game trope(that includes other genres in and outside of gaming).
@@JB-mm5ff That too! 👍
Dr Cid did all the heavy lifting but yeah Kefka’s the same kind of sick monster egging on Emperor Gestahl until he *spoilers* him
@@girthbrooks398 I thought of Cid too, but let's be honest...
he's more of an engineer than a "dr".
Alsooo when you said Arbiter of Fate....that made me think something. The team in Remake killed the Arbiter of Fate, maybe that further proves they killed the timeline of not Just Advent Children but also Dirge of Cerberus as well. What do yall think? 🤔 💭 🤔
Its implied that this the case by Sephiroth who seems to imply that things are different. They didnt necessarily kill said timelines but they have created an alternate timeline parallel to those in which things will happen differently.
With Dirge of Cerberus being my first FF game, Hojo was my original antagonist, lol.