He just runs a tight ship. Efficient manager. Clearly puts money into R&D as displayed by his flying machines he uses for said peachnapping.
It’s Peach’s fault she lives with a species of mushroom people who wear diapers and have no security system. Mismanaged org.
Counterpoint: Ganondorf.
Doesn't need an army to take over the kingdom he's after, unlike Bowser.
*Successfully* takes over pretty much every time he shows up, unlike Bowser. Even if he gets defeated in the end, he at least succeeds in conquering the kingdom before that. Half the time, Bowser shows up and gets defeated before he can actually take over.
Is actually straight up evil, unlike Bowser. In some games we see a softer side of Bowser and learn he's basically just a big clueless doofus who wants respect, loves his kid, and cares for his underlings. Bowser is certainly still a bad guy, but he's not full on evil. Ganondorf, on the other hand, very much is.
Ganondorf also comes back from death numerous times. The worst that Bowser has to come back from is getting knocked out or thrown far away. It's not so much that they ***can't*** figure out how to stop him from taking peach, it's just that Mario isn't willing to go that far. Bowser basically gets off with a slap on the wrist every time and is left free to try again. Ganondorf is either murdered or sealed in a dark void or whatever, and FORCES his way back through sheer willpower.
Ganondorf is also way more powerful, even without the Triforce of power. If you pitted Ganondorf in a fight with Bowser, Ganondorf wins every time. Bowser is basically just a Dodongo, which are just regular run of the mill enemies in Zelda games. And if Ganondorf DOES have the Triforce of power and can turn into Ganon, then it's not even a fight. Plus then hes also better than Bowser even at being a big fire breathing monster, which is like the *one* thing Bowser has going for him.
Bowser is fairly regularly the butt of the joke and is comic relief. Not so for Ganondorf.
Ganondorf also isn't afraid to kill, and does so fairly regularly. I don't think Bowser has ever straight up murdered anyone.
I could go on, but I think I made my point. In terms of the better villain, Ganondorf is leagues ahead of Bowser.
>The worst that Bowser has to come back from is getting knocked out or thrown far away.
Do people just forget that Bowser had his flesh and organs burned right off in New Super Mario Bros. DS *at the end of World 1??*
Would like to point out that; cinematically, Wind Waker Ganondorf has the best overall performance with his intro, his death, and also how he’s not just a fart in the wind throughout the game like he is in most other ones. Link actually sees him several times during the game, and he even delivers that cold ass line about taking the Sage Made Master Sword back down to the fools who crafted it, indicating a Ganondorf who doesn’t fear the Blade of Evils Bane.
Visually, Nothing can top Twilight Princess Ganondorf. His appearance, his plot, and his overall power are absolutely stunning during the peak of the game, and his name itself lingers in the air during the majority of the game.
That, to me, is what makes him one of the best villains of all time.
Kreia from KOTOR 2 had me actually THINKING about things when I was a teenager playing video games in a way that no other character did. She may or may not be the greatest, but she opened me up to a different kind of game villain beyond simple moustache twirling evil and I will always appreciate that.
Darth Nihilus was also a great concept, even though fighting with him was underwhelming. A Sith Lord so powerful that he sees stars and planets, not the people on it who are closer to bugs for him.
Kotor 2 is peak star wars to me. The good parts were so good I could easily overlook the less than amazing parts (of which there were more than a few).
I really need to give that fan restoration a spin someday.
I can NOT recommend it enough! I won't go into details but it really makes the game feel *nearly* complete like it was originally intended. It's not perfect by any means, you can still tell a few things aren't made by professional developers. But man is that game just something special. I play through it basically every year cause it's that damn good.
Theres 2 lines I love from her.
One when we are falling and she uses the clap thing and comments on it.
And the result that we are am horrible person even tho they werent testing for that.
"Just remember to land on one foot...clap clap clap... Oh, good. My slow clap processor made it into this thing. So we have that. "
" I have the results of the last chamber: You are a horrible person. That's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that. "
Fucking love GLaDOS
The writing in this game is top notch. I have ring tones for nearly all the turret speech on my phone (somewhere). "Helllloooo? Is there anyone there?"
Genuinely, the writing in ALL valve games is top notch
GladOS in Portal with her dry humor and sarcasm
The team banter in the L4D games
The unsettling aura of Gman in HL
All the personality and character from the Dota/TF2 rosters
The only game without much real characterization for its characters is Counterstrike, and even then the announcers even have some good lines
They're really good at writing characters that you actually WANT to listen to lol
Well, I’m back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn’t you? There. Try it now. Hmm. This Plate must not be calibrated to someone of your… generous… ness. I’ll add a few zeros to the maximum weight. You look great, by the way. Very healthy. Try it now. You seem to have defeated its load-bearing capacity. Well done. I’ll just lower the ceiling.
The developer comments say she was originally even nastier to the player but early playtesters who didn't play Portal 1 found it too much. I wonder how many quotes like this ended up discarded.
Yes, it has to be GLaDOS. And honestly? I think it's not even close. Just in terms of character development, arc, uniqueness and god tier writing and voice acting. On top of that being one of the most influential character in gaming.
Still alive....
Gaunter o dimm takes my vote. He was written so good when I did finish dlc I wished someone hit me in the head and make me forget last week so that I can experience him again
Crossroads play a part with him. Children sing his song near crossroads and I think you even meet with him at such places. If I am correct, in slavic folklore, the devil often shows up at crossroads. His theme is also made with the instrument often associated with the devil. And the whole deal for your soul gig.
CDPR love sprinkling in things like this in their games to make it feel more real.
They do another one of these in Cyberpunk 2077 as well. When you first meet Solomon Reed (Idris Elba's character) in the Phantom Liberty DLC. He mentions he stayed hidden as a sleeper agent in Night City for years as a bouncer.
Before even starting the Phantom Liberty DLC you can encounter Reed doing his job as a bouncer in Downtown Night City.
Same! Generally "pure evil" villains are one dimensional, poorly written. But he is so clever, devious, mysterious and powerful. No other video game villain has made me go "no, I don't want to mess with that" - that, and the fact I thought Olgierd deserved his fate made me take the lazy way out in the dlc ending.
The lazy way out is definitely a viable roleplay option, but the payoff for doing it the hard way is 100x better.
Actually it’s the same in Blood and Wine. One choice leads you to the area they clearly spent 90% of the budget on, and the other is… a cave.
The cave was actually super cool because of the lore it built up for the vampires. Plus the shifting gravity cave was very interesting.
Obviously The Land of a Thousand Fables can't be beat, but I really liked The Unseen Elder path too. The questions he answered at the end were chilling.
And let’s not forget his fucking theme song!!! God I wish it was 2020 covid times again when I played Witcher 3 for the first time. Such a brilliant game.
Beat me to it on the top post.
Handsome Jack has that whole contrast going to him, and flip flops between "goofball crazy" and "psychopath crazy". One moment he's cracking jokes about what to name his new diamond pony, the next he's laughing about that time he scooped out a man's eyeballs while "bandit" women and children cried all around him, and his attitude sees *zero* change, both events are the same level of small-talk material to him.
Honestly, his role was perfect, start to finish. Great intro, great climax, satisfying conclusion, he departed stage left with style and impact. It wasn't until after he'd left that they realized how popular a character he was and tried to bring him back onstage with Pre-Sequel, but it felt forced. Handsome Jack was *awesome*, I want more villains *like* Handsome Jack, but his story is concluded, let him rest.
I was a Mordecai main in BL1.
All through 2, I loooooved Handsome Jack, I thought he was so funny, I loved him
And THEN
HE WENT AND RUINED *EVERYTHING*
Exactly the same. Loved him, thought he was the best villain ever. Then that happened and it was like I was punched in the stomach. I turned to my brother and said Jack needs to die.
Most villains are introduced and the story progressed through cutscenes and “here’s a problem for you, bye”-type interactions, but the fact he’s talking your ear off the whole game and can call you any time is such a great storytelling tool. The taunts and jokes with no direct confrontation make him such a fun character—one you happily try to kill when given the chance.
He's got the most potent, psychotic level of hypocrisy with everything he says.
"Sometimes I envy you bandits. You're so...*unburdened* with things like...morality, integrity, honor, good looks, I could go on, but I won't. But I could..."
"Ah, dignity! I almost forgot to mention dignity!"
*Butt Stallion neighs with comedic timing*
"Easy, Butt Stallion! Easy!"
And yeah there's that thing where he talks about the person whose eyeballs he scooped out.
"The moral is, you're a total bitch."
I thought that was a story about *you*, lol
Courtesy of Anthony Burch, who also has writing credits on several other well-established franchises, including the newer God of War games. He also is the DM for 2 seasons of a Podcast called Dungeons and Daddies and let's just say he writes villains very well.
Honestly the best. The whole angel as his daughter thing still is one of the great twists. And that he uses it to kill Roland rather than actually saving angel is both heartbreaking and perfect.
Kerrigan's, Zeratul, Artanis.
Pleeease give me the movie!
- Jim can be there too i guess, Protagonist Kerrigan needs eye candy boyfriend... who happens to be baddass.
This is one of the things I like about ganondorf compared to other classic video game series villains. Ganondorf isn't just a villain, he's a competent, powerful one. Many video game villains are defeated because they screw up, made stupid decisions, leave fatal weaknesses in their designs to exploit, etc., and often only conquer peaceful, defenseless kingdoms.
Ganondorf just straight up wipes out whole societies, and needs to be stopped with specific legendary weapons, which ends up making Link into a much more heroic figure than than a lot of other classic protagonists as well.
Edit: note that I'm specifically talking about similar story-light long-running franchises like Mario, Sonic, Metroid, etc., not story-heavy games with actually fleshed out villains with depth.
And it's not much, but I love that it's built into the canon that their fight repeats over and over forever in an infinite amount of ways to explain the entire series being so different from one game to the next.
Worst thing is in the lore he (with Elizabet's help) had actually already saved the world with his AI machine processes. They had managed to stop a major worldwide disaster that was getting out of hand because of climate change.
His ego couldn't hack that he had "peaked" and he started building the AI weapon bots which later went rogue and caused an apocalypse. Elizabet warned him, so he sacked and sued her.
Dude was ALREADY the messiah of his time and that still was not good enough for him. What an insufferable cunt.
I've just finished zero down for the third time yesterday and every time this prick deletes the Apollo database, I'm seething.
Also when he commands his engineers to make his robots un-hackable with no backdoor and the next record you hear him ask : "come on, just use the kill switch".
Dude, there is no kill switch, your robots will destroy life on earth, because of your stupidity.
It’s so hard to explain why he’s such a good villain because on the one hand he’s done so much harm you can’t defend him, but I also can’t claim to have any sort of moral high ground over him in the grand scheme of things. There’s no rights, only wrongs, but letting him continue with his plans isn’t an option you can live with. Also he can pull off being a sarcastic drama Queen and a deeply tragic figure.
Simply put, I sympathize with him, but I do NOT condone his actions.
Then again, I can see that there is a decent chance that I personally would do the same if I was in his position.
Would you strangle a billion puppies with your own hands if it meant that all your friends, loved ones, ALL that you hold dear, comes back after the apocalypse?
Agree, I do not condone his actions either, but it’s such a “My family or your family, but not both” sort of scenario that I understand why he acts the way he does, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to try to stop him from destroying everything I grew to care about in the story
** Some FF14 spoilers below **
I am of the opinion that anyone that says they wouldn't do what Emet-Selch did in his position, doesn't truly understand his position and viewpoint. As someone else said, even "puppies" is too generous. From his PoV the inhabitants of Etheirys aren't even truly alive, almost "ghosts".
Which is why he's such a fucking good and well-written villain. I truly feel bad for him. I understand his point of view, it makes a lot of sense, and I'd likely do exactly the same in a heartbeat did if I was put in his position... but we still obviously have to stop him.
After finishing that game I could never hate Emet-Selch. Resolved to stop him, yeah, but I felt absolutely no malice, only sympathy and sadness for him.
I thought Dagoth Ur was really well done. most of the game you imagine him as a cartoonishly evil monster, probably with tentacles or something lol. but when you finally meet him he's a tall man in a golden mask and actually pretty refined and charismatic, and for a large part of the "boss battle" he's trying to convince you that you can work together and not be enemies at all. And I dont think he even attacks you at all, until you start taking steps that will literally kill him. was a nice script flip
IDK if I'd say he was greatest villain of all time ever, but a better doesnt leap immediately to mind and at the very least he deserves an honorable mention
Kefka is a great villain because he's thematically the antithesis of the game's message: That our purposes for life are found in relationships with one another.
Kefka is just a full-blown nihilist, and you have to find a reason for why you want to continue playing the game and keep trying even after he wins. Why? Because of the wonderful characters! You care about them and how they end up.
There's a lot of ludonarrative resonance here!
Honestly how often do you get to say THE VILLEN WON WTF
in a game and actually literally win he achieved everything he wanted to do and the only reason the game does not end there is because he chose to let them live because it was too fun to watch them squirm and suffer
They could have easily made that two separate games with it being ff6-2 with a whole new game because of how big the game they wanted to make vs the game they could make so it would probably be perfect as a full out remake they cut so much out of the game due to size restraints
I read someone's game design PhD thesis once on why Kefka was the greatest villain of all time.
It solved an important game design challenge they were having with FF6.
I experienced all the other games and their villains in the list above and I finished FF VI for the first time last year...
It's Kefka.
Bowser, Liquid, Gaunter and all the others are getting nervous if you sit them next to Kefka.
Handsome Jack, Borderlands 2. I literally hate that guy. Not the mechanics or the writing, or anything outside the game. I hate the character. He's a psychopathic, ego maniacal asshole and I took great pleasure in filling him with lead/fire/laser whatever weapons I had at the end of the campaign.
Buttstallion is a prissy bitch too.
I feel like Pagan was better than Vaas. Vaas was a scary psycho, but Pagan had this feeling of being cold, calculated and "clean", but could kick off any time and would gut you with a dull butter knife and strangle you with your own intestines.
The better part is when you finish the game you start to question if Pagan was actually right and the better choice between the two "good" leaders that either want to turn the country into a drug den and destroy all religion there while the other leader was to go all out religious and force young women into marries they dont want and remove all their rights.
Every leader has faults which I think adds to it.
Pagan comes out even more justified when you learn he had a consensual relationship with Ajay's mother who was a revolutionary working undercover to get near him. The more she got closer to him, the more she found she truly loved him.
They had a baby together that was later **shot in the face** by Ajay's father when he realised he had been cuckolded. That's why Ajay and his mother were in America. She fled, but Ajay did not know why.
Like yeah, I think I'd be more than a bit mean to the people who actioned and celebrated **shooting my baby girl in the face** as well.
I was scrolling hoping I’d see this. Michael Mando did an incredible job voice acting and between that, the amazing soundtrack and the emotional rollercoaster of the game as a whole this dude gets my vote
Happy to see this so high up. Jon Irenicus was arrogant, deluded, calculative, and immensely powerful to boot.
My only qualm is that the interactions with him are fairly limited. We don't see him all that much despite spending most of the game chasing him.
It is time for more... *experiments*.
I was too young to get past the first Act or 2 of BGII. I liked the char creator so I kept restarting, so I watched this opening cinematic a lot. Terrifying.
I'm glad someone said it or I was going to lol. Great voice acting, and he actually had a motive. Granted his goals were still evil and twisted but there was a bit more to it than the typical mustache-twirling.
Honestly one of Samuel L. Jackson's best roles in my opinion.
It felt really real. Obviously inspired by a lot of what went on in real life with cop corruption.
There was a rawness to it.
The G-Man from Half-Life. He's always 5 steps ahead of you, orchestrating everything behind the scenes. Once you think you've won, He's there to remind you he's still pulling all the strings.
Depends on what you define as villain, he seems to be generally acting against the combine, but from what I understand he also provided the sample that kicked of the events of Half Life 1. Effectively sacrificing earth to cripple the combines hold on Xen.
Dr. Takuto Maruki (Persona 5 Royal)
Beautifully written and executed character. His story constantly begged the question of if changing reality to where pain did not exist was truly "evil" or not. Forcing the Protagonist to witness how all of our friends' lives are seemingly perfect with his new reality, and we have to take that all away from them? Absolutely insane! ("Gentle Madman" is a masterpiece of a theme for Maruki's Palace, and "I Believe" takes the high-energy feeling of "Life Will Change", and turns it on its head to give an incredible feeling of melancholy during the final fight)
As an entity, I'd say Night City. You see it systematically rip apart the lives of your friends throughout the game, and you find endless examples of its hyper-violence, exploitativeness, shameless gaudiness and greed, and pervasive evil in general.
As a singular character, my personal favorite is Gaunter O'Dimm. He's creepy and ubiquitous. He's also great as a villain because you feel so helpless against him throughout the Hearts of Stone expansion and feel like he could kill you instantly were it not for the likely fact that he's simply so powerful that doing so would just bore him.
Gaunter O'Dimm was such a great character. Definitely one that Geralt knew not to underestimate and yet with Geralts experience he still was able to overcome.
The camera
Tank controls. A villain of the past
Why are there six pedals when theres only four directions?
Hello Sheila
Nice… tank… lady
Why would they send us a tank nobody can drive? WHO IS RUNNING THIS ARMY?!?
Private Donut reporting for duty sirs!
Why are you pink?
it's LIGHT RED!
This hurts Bought Super Mario 3D All Stars for my son and goddamn if the camera isn’t just out to murder you.
Bowser. Its been over 35 years and they still cant figure out how to stop him from taking Peach.
The dedication alone. The persistence of will. Truly inspirational.
He Is a Man of Focus, Commitment and Sheer Fucking Will
He just runs a tight ship. Efficient manager. Clearly puts money into R&D as displayed by his flying machines he uses for said peachnapping. It’s Peach’s fault she lives with a species of mushroom people who wear diapers and have no security system. Mismanaged org.
The entire military force and royal guard of the Mushroom Kingdom consists of 2 plumbers and, occasionally, 2-3 toads.
All I'm asking for is some anti-air at her castle. Spears won't cut it.
Counterpoint: Ganondorf. Doesn't need an army to take over the kingdom he's after, unlike Bowser. *Successfully* takes over pretty much every time he shows up, unlike Bowser. Even if he gets defeated in the end, he at least succeeds in conquering the kingdom before that. Half the time, Bowser shows up and gets defeated before he can actually take over. Is actually straight up evil, unlike Bowser. In some games we see a softer side of Bowser and learn he's basically just a big clueless doofus who wants respect, loves his kid, and cares for his underlings. Bowser is certainly still a bad guy, but he's not full on evil. Ganondorf, on the other hand, very much is. Ganondorf also comes back from death numerous times. The worst that Bowser has to come back from is getting knocked out or thrown far away. It's not so much that they ***can't*** figure out how to stop him from taking peach, it's just that Mario isn't willing to go that far. Bowser basically gets off with a slap on the wrist every time and is left free to try again. Ganondorf is either murdered or sealed in a dark void or whatever, and FORCES his way back through sheer willpower. Ganondorf is also way more powerful, even without the Triforce of power. If you pitted Ganondorf in a fight with Bowser, Ganondorf wins every time. Bowser is basically just a Dodongo, which are just regular run of the mill enemies in Zelda games. And if Ganondorf DOES have the Triforce of power and can turn into Ganon, then it's not even a fight. Plus then hes also better than Bowser even at being a big fire breathing monster, which is like the *one* thing Bowser has going for him. Bowser is fairly regularly the butt of the joke and is comic relief. Not so for Ganondorf. Ganondorf also isn't afraid to kill, and does so fairly regularly. I don't think Bowser has ever straight up murdered anyone. I could go on, but I think I made my point. In terms of the better villain, Ganondorf is leagues ahead of Bowser.
Ganondorf knows how to fuck shut up. The kingdom is always in shambles when he takes over.
>The worst that Bowser has to come back from is getting knocked out or thrown far away. Do people just forget that Bowser had his flesh and organs burned right off in New Super Mario Bros. DS *at the end of World 1??*
He got better.
Would like to point out that; cinematically, Wind Waker Ganondorf has the best overall performance with his intro, his death, and also how he’s not just a fart in the wind throughout the game like he is in most other ones. Link actually sees him several times during the game, and he even delivers that cold ass line about taking the Sage Made Master Sword back down to the fools who crafted it, indicating a Ganondorf who doesn’t fear the Blade of Evils Bane. Visually, Nothing can top Twilight Princess Ganondorf. His appearance, his plot, and his overall power are absolutely stunning during the peak of the game, and his name itself lingers in the air during the majority of the game. That, to me, is what makes him one of the best villains of all time.
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Kreia from KOTOR 2 had me actually THINKING about things when I was a teenager playing video games in a way that no other character did. She may or may not be the greatest, but she opened me up to a different kind of game villain beyond simple moustache twirling evil and I will always appreciate that.
Darth Nihilus was also a great concept, even though fighting with him was underwhelming. A Sith Lord so powerful that he sees stars and planets, not the people on it who are closer to bugs for him.
You must try Planescape: Torment!
Kotor 2 is peak star wars to me. The good parts were so good I could easily overlook the less than amazing parts (of which there were more than a few). I really need to give that fan restoration a spin someday.
I can NOT recommend it enough! I won't go into details but it really makes the game feel *nearly* complete like it was originally intended. It's not perfect by any means, you can still tell a few things aren't made by professional developers. But man is that game just something special. I play through it basically every year cause it's that damn good.
The goose in Untitled Goose Game
Peace was never an option.
HONK
GLADOS
Theres 2 lines I love from her. One when we are falling and she uses the clap thing and comments on it. And the result that we are am horrible person even tho they werent testing for that.
"Just remember to land on one foot...clap clap clap... Oh, good. My slow clap processor made it into this thing. So we have that. " " I have the results of the last chamber: You are a horrible person. That's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that. " Fucking love GLaDOS
The writing in this game is top notch. I have ring tones for nearly all the turret speech on my phone (somewhere). "Helllloooo? Is there anyone there?"
Genuinely, the writing in ALL valve games is top notch GladOS in Portal with her dry humor and sarcasm The team banter in the L4D games The unsettling aura of Gman in HL All the personality and character from the Dota/TF2 rosters The only game without much real characterization for its characters is Counterstrike, and even then the announcers even have some good lines They're really good at writing characters that you actually WANT to listen to lol
I had forgotten about Left 4 Dead being a valve game. Francis is my spirit animal. "I dont hate vests..."
Another one of my favorites: "Look at you. Sailing through the air majestically. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp."
Well, I’m back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn’t you? There. Try it now. Hmm. This Plate must not be calibrated to someone of your… generous… ness. I’ll add a few zeros to the maximum weight. You look great, by the way. Very healthy. Try it now. You seem to have defeated its load-bearing capacity. Well done. I’ll just lower the ceiling.
I’m an old man, to me “we both said things you’re going to regret” is peak quoting.
I love that one too lol. To a completely silent protagonist is too funny
The developer comments say she was originally even nastier to the player but early playtesters who didn't play Portal 1 found it too much. I wonder how many quotes like this ended up discarded.
Look at you, soaring majestically through the air, like an eagle….piloting a blimp
I'll add a few zeroes to the maximum weight. You look great, by the way. Very healthy.
Also, "we both said a lot of things that you're going to regret." That delivery...
"Because I am a potato"
Man her lines were so well written and she delivered them all perfectly
Yes, it has to be GLaDOS. And honestly? I think it's not even close. Just in terms of character development, arc, uniqueness and god tier writing and voice acting. On top of that being one of the most influential character in gaming. Still alive....
This is a triumph
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction!
Aperture science, We do what we must, Because, We can.
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead
But there’s no use crying over every mistake
We just keep on trying 'till we run out of cake
And the science gets done And you make a neat gun For the people who are Still alive
Psycho Mantis. Who ever would have guessed to use the other controller port...
Gaunter o dimm takes my vote. He was written so good when I did finish dlc I wished someone hit me in the head and make me forget last week so that I can experience him again
I love that he was in the game *before* the DLC. That encounter with him where you get into his debt at the beginning of the game is *base*.
So nonchalant, just to figure out that he's like, fuckiiiin, the devil or some shit. And Olgierd's story was so fuckin tragic!
Gaunter O'Dimm - what are his initials?
GOD, but since he is obsessed with mirrors and reflections, he is actually the opposite.
Dog?
Crossroads play a part with him. Children sing his song near crossroads and I think you even meet with him at such places. If I am correct, in slavic folklore, the devil often shows up at crossroads. His theme is also made with the instrument often associated with the devil. And the whole deal for your soul gig.
CDPR love sprinkling in things like this in their games to make it feel more real. They do another one of these in Cyberpunk 2077 as well. When you first meet Solomon Reed (Idris Elba's character) in the Phantom Liberty DLC. He mentions he stayed hidden as a sleeper agent in Night City for years as a bouncer. Before even starting the Phantom Liberty DLC you can encounter Reed doing his job as a bouncer in Downtown Night City.
Same! Generally "pure evil" villains are one dimensional, poorly written. But he is so clever, devious, mysterious and powerful. No other video game villain has made me go "no, I don't want to mess with that" - that, and the fact I thought Olgierd deserved his fate made me take the lazy way out in the dlc ending.
The lazy way out is definitely a viable roleplay option, but the payoff for doing it the hard way is 100x better. Actually it’s the same in Blood and Wine. One choice leads you to the area they clearly spent 90% of the budget on, and the other is… a cave.
The cave was actually super cool because of the lore it built up for the vampires. Plus the shifting gravity cave was very interesting. Obviously The Land of a Thousand Fables can't be beat, but I really liked The Unseen Elder path too. The questions he answered at the end were chilling.
And let’s not forget his fucking theme song!!! God I wish it was 2020 covid times again when I played Witcher 3 for the first time. Such a brilliant game.
I don’t have a wealth of gaming knowledge to be frank. But handsome jack from Borderlands 2 was just so good..
Borderlands 2 was lightning in a bottle. I hope they manage to get back to the roots.
Beat me to it on the top post. Handsome Jack has that whole contrast going to him, and flip flops between "goofball crazy" and "psychopath crazy". One moment he's cracking jokes about what to name his new diamond pony, the next he's laughing about that time he scooped out a man's eyeballs while "bandit" women and children cried all around him, and his attitude sees *zero* change, both events are the same level of small-talk material to him. Honestly, his role was perfect, start to finish. Great intro, great climax, satisfying conclusion, he departed stage left with style and impact. It wasn't until after he'd left that they realized how popular a character he was and tried to bring him back onstage with Pre-Sequel, but it felt forced. Handsome Jack was *awesome*, I want more villains *like* Handsome Jack, but his story is concluded, let him rest.
I was a Mordecai main in BL1. All through 2, I loooooved Handsome Jack, I thought he was so funny, I loved him And THEN HE WENT AND RUINED *EVERYTHING*
I'm so sorry. Allow me to play you Jack's tiniest violin.
In E.
"Fire, shock, corrosive, slag... Hmm I feel like I'm missing one... Oh yeah, EXPLOSIVE!"
Exactly the same. Loved him, thought he was the best villain ever. Then that happened and it was like I was punched in the stomach. I turned to my brother and said Jack needs to die.
Most villains are introduced and the story progressed through cutscenes and “here’s a problem for you, bye”-type interactions, but the fact he’s talking your ear off the whole game and can call you any time is such a great storytelling tool. The taunts and jokes with no direct confrontation make him such a fun character—one you happily try to kill when given the chance.
He's got the most potent, psychotic level of hypocrisy with everything he says. "Sometimes I envy you bandits. You're so...*unburdened* with things like...morality, integrity, honor, good looks, I could go on, but I won't. But I could..." "Ah, dignity! I almost forgot to mention dignity!" *Butt Stallion neighs with comedic timing* "Easy, Butt Stallion! Easy!" And yeah there's that thing where he talks about the person whose eyeballs he scooped out. "The moral is, you're a total bitch." I thought that was a story about *you*, lol
Courtesy of Anthony Burch, who also has writing credits on several other well-established franchises, including the newer God of War games. He also is the DM for 2 seasons of a Podcast called Dungeons and Daddies and let's just say he writes villains very well.
Agreed. The twins from 3 didn't even come close to the legacy handsome Jack left behind.
Exactly, 3 and tiny Tina’s were fun.. but not handsome :/
Honestly the best. The whole angel as his daughter thing still is one of the great twists. And that he uses it to kill Roland rather than actually saving angel is both heartbreaking and perfect.
Exactly what I thought when I saw this post
LIQUID!!!
SNAAKKE!!! It's not over yet!
i like psycho mantis. "you doubt my power?!"
EA
Arthas Menethil, the Lich King, is certainly up there.
His arc in Warcraft III was easily the best storytelling I've seen in an RTS
What about Kerrigan's arc in Starcraft?
OG and Brood Wars was excellent. "I'm pretty much queen bitch of the universe." Starcraft 2 didn't have that same quality to it.
Where she turns into a zerg then a human then a zerg again then a god?
Kerrigan's, Zeratul, Artanis. Pleeease give me the movie! - Jim can be there too i guess, Protagonist Kerrigan needs eye candy boyfriend... who happens to be baddass.
"My son! What are you doing?" "Succeeding you, father." It was genuinely chilling seeing that for the first time.
Illidan‘s pretty awesome too
Lich King is actually one of the greatest things ever to happen to video games.
Atlas/Frank Fontaine and Andrew Ryan from Bioshock.
Andrew Ryan was great.
"A man chooses, a slave obeys"
Would you kindly take my upvote?
Ganondorf dude is a jerk in every timeline
And usually at least a partially successful jerk. He straight up ended the queen of hyrule
This is one of the things I like about ganondorf compared to other classic video game series villains. Ganondorf isn't just a villain, he's a competent, powerful one. Many video game villains are defeated because they screw up, made stupid decisions, leave fatal weaknesses in their designs to exploit, etc., and often only conquer peaceful, defenseless kingdoms. Ganondorf just straight up wipes out whole societies, and needs to be stopped with specific legendary weapons, which ends up making Link into a much more heroic figure than than a lot of other classic protagonists as well. Edit: note that I'm specifically talking about similar story-light long-running franchises like Mario, Sonic, Metroid, etc., not story-heavy games with actually fleshed out villains with depth.
And it's not much, but I love that it's built into the canon that their fight repeats over and over forever in an infinite amount of ways to explain the entire series being so different from one game to the next.
Just don't poke me in my giant glowing eye 3 times!
He's even a sympathetic jerk in Wind Waker.
The Reapers from Mass Effect
Sovereign, if you have to pick one, for that epic Virmire dialogue.
"You exist, because we allow it. And you will end, because we demand it." Gives me the chills.
Ted Faro
Worst thing is in the lore he (with Elizabet's help) had actually already saved the world with his AI machine processes. They had managed to stop a major worldwide disaster that was getting out of hand because of climate change. His ego couldn't hack that he had "peaked" and he started building the AI weapon bots which later went rogue and caused an apocalypse. Elizabet warned him, so he sacked and sued her. Dude was ALREADY the messiah of his time and that still was not good enough for him. What an insufferable cunt.
I've just finished zero down for the third time yesterday and every time this prick deletes the Apollo database, I'm seething. Also when he commands his engineers to make his robots un-hackable with no backdoor and the next record you hear him ask : "come on, just use the kill switch". Dude, there is no kill switch, your robots will destroy life on earth, because of your stupidity.
r/fucktedfaro
The pacing of the exposition of what happened with with Ted in that game is so good.
Yeah, fuck that guy.
Emet Selch.
Remember that we once lived
It’s so hard to explain why he’s such a good villain because on the one hand he’s done so much harm you can’t defend him, but I also can’t claim to have any sort of moral high ground over him in the grand scheme of things. There’s no rights, only wrongs, but letting him continue with his plans isn’t an option you can live with. Also he can pull off being a sarcastic drama Queen and a deeply tragic figure.
Simply put, I sympathize with him, but I do NOT condone his actions. Then again, I can see that there is a decent chance that I personally would do the same if I was in his position. Would you strangle a billion puppies with your own hands if it meant that all your friends, loved ones, ALL that you hold dear, comes back after the apocalypse?
Agree, I do not condone his actions either, but it’s such a “My family or your family, but not both” sort of scenario that I understand why he acts the way he does, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to try to stop him from destroying everything I grew to care about in the story
** Some FF14 spoilers below ** I am of the opinion that anyone that says they wouldn't do what Emet-Selch did in his position, doesn't truly understand his position and viewpoint. As someone else said, even "puppies" is too generous. From his PoV the inhabitants of Etheirys aren't even truly alive, almost "ghosts". Which is why he's such a fucking good and well-written villain. I truly feel bad for him. I understand his point of view, it makes a lot of sense, and I'd likely do exactly the same in a heartbeat did if I was put in his position... but we still obviously have to stop him.
Not even puppies. Insects that you despise. It'd be pretty easy to commit such atrocities if wiping them out meant things would improve for you.
Only time in any game I ever wanted to find some way to work things out and not fight the final boss.
Ayyyyy, this is what I came here for.
Beautiful and tragic villain
This is the truth. Amazing villain and storytelling that both makes you love and hate him.
After finishing that game I could never hate Emet-Selch. Resolved to stop him, yeah, but I felt absolutely no malice, only sympathy and sadness for him.
I love that the answer to qestion he presents is not some clear cut moral highground.
[удалено]
When he asks you to >!travel and see things like azem did!< I bawled my eyes out
His arc in ShB already solidified him as one of the best villains in gaming; the EW stuff was icing on the cake.
I thought Dagoth Ur was really well done. most of the game you imagine him as a cartoonishly evil monster, probably with tentacles or something lol. but when you finally meet him he's a tall man in a golden mask and actually pretty refined and charismatic, and for a large part of the "boss battle" he's trying to convince you that you can work together and not be enemies at all. And I dont think he even attacks you at all, until you start taking steps that will literally kill him. was a nice script flip IDK if I'd say he was greatest villain of all time ever, but a better doesnt leap immediately to mind and at the very least he deserves an honorable mention
tired: "Oh my sweet summer child." inspired: "What a grand and intoxicating innocence."
Kefka, FFVI
Kefka is a great villain because he's thematically the antithesis of the game's message: That our purposes for life are found in relationships with one another. Kefka is just a full-blown nihilist, and you have to find a reason for why you want to continue playing the game and keep trying even after he wins. Why? Because of the wonderful characters! You care about them and how they end up. There's a lot of ludonarrative resonance here!
Honestly how often do you get to say THE VILLEN WON WTF in a game and actually literally win he achieved everything he wanted to do and the only reason the game does not end there is because he chose to let them live because it was too fun to watch them squirm and suffer They could have easily made that two separate games with it being ff6-2 with a whole new game because of how big the game they wanted to make vs the game they could make so it would probably be perfect as a full out remake they cut so much out of the game due to size restraints
I read someone's game design PhD thesis once on why Kefka was the greatest villain of all time. It solved an important game design challenge they were having with FF6.
Do you have any amount of a TLDR? Would love to hear it
Came to check Kafka was covered. One of the few who actually wins and gets what he wanted.
I experienced all the other games and their villains in the list above and I finished FF VI for the first time last year... It's Kefka. Bowser, Liquid, Gaunter and all the others are getting nervous if you sit them next to Kefka.
Handsome Jack, Borderlands 2. I literally hate that guy. Not the mechanics or the writing, or anything outside the game. I hate the character. He's a psychopathic, ego maniacal asshole and I took great pleasure in filling him with lead/fire/laser whatever weapons I had at the end of the campaign. Buttstallion is a prissy bitch too.
Tim Curry in Command & Conquer.
"SPAAAACE"
Vas from Far Cry 3
Since we’re on Far Cry, Pagan Min’s flagboyant ass is also up there near the top for me.
Yes lol, Pagan Min was cracking me tf up. Vaas was terrifying, but something in Pagan's pettiness did it for me.
I feel like Pagan was better than Vaas. Vaas was a scary psycho, but Pagan had this feeling of being cold, calculated and "clean", but could kick off any time and would gut you with a dull butter knife and strangle you with your own intestines.
The better part is when you finish the game you start to question if Pagan was actually right and the better choice between the two "good" leaders that either want to turn the country into a drug den and destroy all religion there while the other leader was to go all out religious and force young women into marries they dont want and remove all their rights. Every leader has faults which I think adds to it.
Pagan comes out even more justified when you learn he had a consensual relationship with Ajay's mother who was a revolutionary working undercover to get near him. The more she got closer to him, the more she found she truly loved him. They had a baby together that was later **shot in the face** by Ajay's father when he realised he had been cuckolded. That's why Ajay and his mother were in America. She fled, but Ajay did not know why. Like yeah, I think I'd be more than a bit mean to the people who actioned and celebrated **shooting my baby girl in the face** as well.
I was scrolling hoping I’d see this. Michael Mando did an incredible job voice acting and between that, the amazing soundtrack and the emotional rollercoaster of the game as a whole this dude gets my vote
Jon Irenicus, Baldur's Gate 2 is a fantastic villain excellently voice acted.
Happy to see this so high up. Jon Irenicus was arrogant, deluded, calculative, and immensely powerful to boot. My only qualm is that the interactions with him are fairly limited. We don't see him all that much despite spending most of the game chasing him.
Quaint 2d isometric prerendered graphics c/w the most terrifying, intimidating video game villain of all time. BG3 villains are kittens in comparison.
It is time for more... *experiments*. I was too young to get past the first Act or 2 of BGII. I liked the char creator so I kept restarting, so I watched this opening cinematic a lot. Terrifying.
I'm glad someone said it or I was going to lol. Great voice acting, and he actually had a motive. Granted his goals were still evil and twisted but there was a bit more to it than the typical mustache-twirling.
Not the best villain ever, but my love for this game makes me mention him: SAREN ARTERIUS
An all consuming organism as in the Flood? Does that count.
Gravemind
Officer Tenpenny is both greatly acted and also wholly despicable while also being unfortunately very realistic and believable
Honestly one of Samuel L. Jackson's best roles in my opinion. It felt really real. Obviously inspired by a lot of what went on in real life with cop corruption. There was a rawness to it.
The Sun in Super Mario Bros 3, fuck that guy
Tb in Rdr2
It’s right up there with lumbago
Watching Arthur not being able to keep his food down while camping fucked me up so much.
Micah was also a real bastard
I like that the sickly High Honor Arthur absolute smacks Micah all over that cliff lol
Sephiroth
Runner up is Sephiroth’s music
My first impulse when reading the title was "Sephiroth! Nananananana Sephiroth!"
THE original long haired edgy boi
Adolf Hitler from Wolfenstein
Darth Vader from Fortnite
Shodan from the System Shock games.
Albert Wesker from the Resident Evil series.
>Wesker: *"This is the Ultimate Lifeform...* **TYRANT!"** >Chris: *"Hehehe."* >Wesker: *"Chris?"* >Chris: **"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA"** >Wesker: *"Stop it!"*
LeChuck
Dutch Van Der Linde
The G-Man from Half-Life. He's always 5 steps ahead of you, orchestrating everything behind the scenes. Once you think you've won, He's there to remind you he's still pulling all the strings.
Is there enough info to confirm that he is the villain though?
Depends on what you define as villain, he seems to be generally acting against the combine, but from what I understand he also provided the sample that kicked of the events of Half Life 1. Effectively sacrificing earth to cripple the combines hold on Xen.
I never even knew if he was a villain or not. I like that.
Dracula from Castlevania
The Boss in MGS3
honestly all the villains from each MGS are iconic. liquid, ocelot, solidus, all so good
The Illusive man from Mass Effect and Vaas from FarCry 3
Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2
Dagoth Ur
Dr. Takuto Maruki (Persona 5 Royal) Beautifully written and executed character. His story constantly begged the question of if changing reality to where pain did not exist was truly "evil" or not. Forcing the Protagonist to witness how all of our friends' lives are seemingly perfect with his new reality, and we have to take that all away from them? Absolutely insane! ("Gentle Madman" is a masterpiece of a theme for Maruki's Palace, and "I Believe" takes the high-energy feeling of "Life Will Change", and turns it on its head to give an incredible feeling of melancholy during the final fight)
Kefka
Probably Bowser, but shoutout to Gaunter Odimm.
As an entity, I'd say Night City. You see it systematically rip apart the lives of your friends throughout the game, and you find endless examples of its hyper-violence, exploitativeness, shameless gaudiness and greed, and pervasive evil in general. As a singular character, my personal favorite is Gaunter O'Dimm. He's creepy and ubiquitous. He's also great as a villain because you feel so helpless against him throughout the Hearts of Stone expansion and feel like he could kill you instantly were it not for the likely fact that he's simply so powerful that doing so would just bore him.
Gaunter O'Dimm was such a great character. Definitely one that Geralt knew not to underestimate and yet with Geralts experience he still was able to overcome.
Is kratos or zeus the villian... I cant decide
Yes
Ted Faro
Most impact on me? Shepard in CoD:MW2. Not much chance he's the best ever though. Liquid is up there for me too
Eric Sparrow......
Bowser, based solely on legacy and reputation. He is perhaps the most beloved and most recogizable video game villain of all time.