The monster behind the human appearance.
Octopath Traveler has enough Complete Monsters to get an own page.
- Out of the many villains inhabiting the eight tales of Bravely Default's Spiritual Successor, one of the worst of the lot has to be Lyblac, the daughter of the thirteenth god Galdera, as well as the architect of every single misfortune in the game in her bid to open up the Gate of Finis and hand the world over to Galdera for the subsequent annihilation of all humanity. For a full century, Lyblac deceives and manipulates everyone around her, causing the fall of both Matthias and Yvon to lives of evil and murder for the purposes of her plans while implicitly having Geoffrey Lockhart murdered by the Obsidians to cover up the Gate of Finis. Lyblac, dealing with the corrupt sellsword Werner, also set in motion the events that led to the fall of Hornburg, destroying an kingdom full of lives to take control of the Gate. Finally, Lyblac attempts to use those of the Crossford lineage in her attempt to have him bear Galdera's essence, slowly reducing Graham of them to a tortured monster as the consequence for escaping her and simply opting to use his son Kit as her next choice for the vessel. Described as a lethal poison by her own uneasy allies, Lyblac is an evil witch truly worthy of the epitaph "Daughter of the Dark God."
- Another example is Lucia, the Big Bad of Cyrus Albright's path, and an ambitious scholar who seeks and values ultimate knowledge of the world, even over the lives of humanity itself. Allying with the abovementioned Lyblac in corrupting Headmaster Yvon into evil, Lucia then commissions the amoral sorcerer Gideon to perform dozens of horrifying blood experiments on innocents, resulting in their agonizing deaths, to perfect a working blood crystal. After orchestrating Yvon's death, Lucia reveals her plans to harness immortality and then spend years amassing all knowledge that humans are unaware of - such as cures to illnesses or things that would help humanity progress - then horde and keep them all for herself, just for the pride of being the smartest entity on the entire planet.
- Yet another one is Werner, the Big Bad of Olberic Eisenberg's path, who was once a mere sellsword with lofty ambitions before he was given a chance to realize his dreams by Lyblac, at the cost of the entire kingdom of Hornburg - a price Werner considered more than worth paying. Werner wins his trust with the local people of Hornburg by arranging bandit attacks on border villages and beating them back with his own warriors, the Black Brotherhood, before integrating within Hornburg's own royalty and arranging the assassination of the king and his personal guard. The resulting fallout destroys countless innocent lives and annihilates the entire kingdom, while Werner walked away from the ashes a rich man. When Olberic, one of Hornburg's last soldiers, finally tracks him down, Werner sets himself up as the despotic ruler of Riverford, regularly having innocent people burned alive on trumped-up charges or solely as a means to curb-stomp any rebellion. When he eventually tracks down the resistance, Werner proceeds to have all of them massacred while also murdering his own men simply because they refuse to fight the much-stronger Olberic, even going so far as to pridefully gut himself in front of Olberic at the very end rather than admit his guilt in destroying thousands for his own self-gain.
- Another still is Helgenish, from the first chapter of Primrose Azelhart's path, who is bar none the most repulsive Starter Villain in the game, even matching the likes of Lyblac herself in sheer malevolence. A depraved, obese tavern-keeper who employs several exotic dancers to entertain his guests, Helgenish brutalizes and demeans the women under his care while beating any who try and fight back to near-death, leaving them in the gutter to die a slow agonizing death. Helgenish favors Primrose herself, raping and abusing her to assert his control of her, and when Primrose defies his orders with the help of her only friend Yusufa, Helgenish has her brutally tortured. And when Primrose comes back, Helgenish murders Yusufa right in front of Primrose's very eyes, hysterically mocking her tearful last words and then topping it off by saying that "if she'd shown that kind of potential earlier, maybe I would have kept her on longer!"
- And last, but certainly not least, we have Simeon the "Puppet Master", the head of the Crow Men, the master of the Obsidians, and the bane of Primrose's very existence. As master of his "Wings", Simeon has a hand in all forms of mass murder, assassinations, and human trafficking, all while eliminating anyone who could stand up to his organization's rule, notably murdering Primrose's father with his own bare hands. A complete psychopath who gets the most joy out of life by hurting and tormenting others, Simeon takes sick glee in befriending Primrose and developing a romance with her, only to quite literally stab her in the back, make her watch a play of Simon's own production showcasing the tragedies and traumas of her life that ends with her and Simeon in a "happily ever after", and then make one final attempt on her life, never ceasing his vicious mockery and proclamations of his desire to see her die screaming in despair.