Final Fantasy Villains! A book about villains in the Final Fantasy series. And not just the Big Bads of each game, but various mid-bosses and other bosses of note.

It's obvious that author Michael Greenhut knew what he was talking about, but unfortunately that didn't allow him to disengage enough to bring the reader in and kind of welcome them in to what may be new or less familiar territory. Sure, a lot of us grew up on NES/SNES, but we also didn't have access to several many of the original games if we didn't go the emulator route until the fairly recent pixel remasters. So for instance in chapter 2 (Final Fantasy II), even for example, "(first introduced villain of the chapter) was, apparently, at one time a nobleman in Hilda's ranks." Who's Hilda! Obviously those who have played the game would know, but just a little extra oomph of explanation for those who may have started, say, with the ever-popular FFXIV, would be exceedingly helpful and useful, especially to bring into context why a villain may be that much more villainous. (And Greenhut doesn't even give her the dignity of her title?) It makes the book much more only for people who are vastly familiar with the entirety of the Final Fantasy canon and not people who may be newcomers, or may not have had the experience or ability to play the older games.

Greenhut also has a lot of references to other games entirely, or other fictional characters not in the FF-verse who may make sense to him personally but do not always make sense as an encyclopedia-type book (I had to look up who Louis Litt was, and I imagine Final Fantasy II-to-Suits is not a hugely mixed Venn diagram), as well as using a LOT of conjecture/what-ifs to both flesh out characters in ways that don't seem supported by texts and suggestions to make them/their situations better instead of just reporting on the facts.

Additionally, Greenhut's bias toward the games of his youth are extremely obvious - there's barely a blurb and one single image on FFXIII which he calls "forgettable" and doesn't even bother to give much more than that. (It wasn't, especially not in Japan) and seeming to completely miss the point of FFXV (and I say this all as a FFVI being my favorite game in the series).

I appreciated the screencaps and art throughout the book, even if for titles I was less familiar with I would have appreciated a big [NAME] as well. Some of the screencaps however were inconsistent and taken from different versions (see specifically the FFVII chapter) but I appreciate the crediting of the websites that screencaps were taken from.

Thank you to Pen & Sword and White Owl for granting my wish for the eARC! Even though I didn't really enjoy how it was written, it's still a neat book to have around.

I loved this. I am the target demographic. Final Fantasy is my all time favorite game series. I collect lore books. I cannot wait to get a physical copy of this. It was so cool to relive the villains of the past games. Especially since I haven't played them in so long.

A fun trip down FF lane. It was great to re-visit each game in this fantastic series with a focus on the villains of each installment. I liked the authors critic and sense of humor.

I pretty much started and ended my Final Fantasy journey with VII but I have always been intrigued by the story and depth of the worlds created by the series. Michael Greenhut’s Final Fantasy Villains is an excellent look into the breadth of villains across the games that could have ended up being a boring reference book but it comes off as a fun, breezy read. And now I want to go play some Final Fantasy.

Thanks to Pen & Sword and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

I’ve always loved final fantasy. This is definitely an interesting book..
It is also accompanied by images, which, of course, are indispensable in this kind of book.
It is pleasant to read and I recommend it to all lovers of the saga.

This is an excellent guide of information for anyone who is a fan of the Final Fantasy games and general lore. I had fun reading through this!

both tongue-in-cheek and informative. the author clearly knows their stuff, this is basically a love letter to ff villains. needs more editing but this gives a great overview to the villain writing across the series, including some lesser known villains. a good introduction for game lore and analysis.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First and foremost, I am kind of biased because anything Final Fantasy automatically is awesome in my book, so take the review with a grain of salt. I really enjoyed the book. It goes through FF1-16 talking about the different villains and some monsters and their background within the games and some of the author's own interpretation of the villains, it seems.

Some of the descriptions are very tongue-in-cheek and provide some humor throughout the book, but most of the time, the author did a great in-depth job of describing the villains. He even mentions some of the more obscure villains and monsters, which was pretty neat.

I love the illustrations throughout the book as it brought me back to each game as I was reading it, and now I want to replay FF7 again for the 100th time. Great read for Final Fantasy fans!

Having only played 10.2, this was pretty informative. You can tell the writer has a passion for the games.

All the information you could ever want all wrapped up in a neat book!
It was super informative and even had some stuff i had no idea of.