Contrasting Sequel Antagonist / Video Games

From Lean and Mean to Large and in Charge.^note Top: the Prophet of Truth, bottom: Atriox.

Contrasting Sequel Antagonists in video games.

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Far Cry

The Big Bad of each Far Cry game differs from the last one in numerous ways:

• The Jackal from Far Cry 2 is this to Dr. Krieger and Harland Doyle in Far Cry. They're all Americans, but they have differing occupations and goals. Krieger is a Mad Scientist responsible for creating genetically altered monstrosities known as Trigens on a small Micronesian island, whilst Doyle is a corrupt CIA agent. The Jackal is an Arms Dealer selling guns to two rival military factions in an unnamed African country. Both are Well Intentioned Extremists: Krieger forcibly mutates people because he thinks society is in danger of collapsing, and his Trigens are what will be able to survive it, whilst the Jackal is Playing Both Sides in the civil war so he can keep them attacking one another instead of the civilians, who would be caught in the crossfire if they ever stopped fighting or if one side got a distinct advantage over the other. Krieger is an older, grey-haired man who only becomes a danger to Jack Carver after exposure to his own mutagen. The Jackal is a younger man and in much better physical condition, often getting the drop on the protagonist when they meet simply because he isn't debilitated with malaria. Krieger ultimately dies at Jack's hands, while the Jackal convinces the protagonist to work with him and either blows up a mountain pass and himself with it to prevent the African armies' advance or bribes some border guards with a briefcase of diamonds before shooting himself (possibly, they Never Found the Body). Also, while the Jackal initially appears to be the Big Bad of his game, Harland Doyle appears to be on Jack Carver's side until he decides to betray him and take Krieger's mutagen for himself at the last minute. In short, the Jackal was Good All Along, whereas Doyle was Evil All Along.
• Far Cry 4 has multiple contrasts to Far Cry 3:
  • Pagan Min in bears some similarities and differences to Hoyt Volker. They're both brutal crime lords who rule over lands they're not native to (Hoyt rules the Rook Islands, Pagan rules Kyrat), they both are willing to kill their men if they do anything wrong, can display friendliness in spite of their brutality, and appreciate the finer things in life and dress sharply. They also started their criminal careers due to butting heads with their fathers, who they eventually killed. They are also both drug-users: Hoyt is a smoker, Pagan is a cocaine sniffer. Here, however, their similarities end. Hoyt sought to outdo his father; Pagan sought his father's approval, but eventually worked out that he'd never get it. Hoyt merely considers himself a businessman; Pagan views himself as the king of Kyrat, and not a level-headed king. They also have differing opinions of their respective Player Character antagonist: Hoyt hates Jason for destroying his criminal organization, Pagan seems to genuinely care for Ajay in spite of all the problems Ajay causes him. Most prominently, Pagan has genuine loved ones in the form of Ajay, Ishwari, and his daughter Lakshmana, whereas Hoyt only loves himself. On a purely cosmetic note, Hoyt is a black-haired South African who wears a grey suit and has a raspy voice, while Pagan is an Anglo-Chinese man with dyed-blonde hair who wears pink and has a deep voice.
  • Hoyt and Pagan's two Dragons, Vaas Montenegro and Yuma Lau, respectively, are this to one another. Vaas and Yuma are subordinates the main villain who want to kill their siblings, and serve as the Climax Boss in a level titled "Payback". However, Yuma is a Foil to Vaas. Vaas is an unpredictable psychopath, whereas Yuma is cold and calculating. Vaas deals with his enemies with brute force and intimidation, whereas Yuma favours tactics and Mind Rape. Vaas does most of Hoyt's dirty work, whereas Yuma largely sticks to her hideout at Durgesh Prison. Vaas is loyal to Hoyt, who controls him with the offer of drugs, whereas Yuma plans on betraying Pagan and controls her victims with drugs. Vaas is the villain Jason has the most personal enmity with, and as such Jason actively seeks him out when it comes time to deal with him once and fo rall; Yuma is a mere stepping stone for Ajay to confront Pagan, and their confrontation happens mostly because Pagan actively dares the Golden Path to try taking her on. Both are also confronted and killed in drug-induced hallucinations, but whereas with Vaas Jason never finds his body afterwards, Ajay can clearly see Yuma's body when he's done with her. On a cosmetic note, Vaas is a scarred Latino pirate with a beard and a red vest who swears excessively, whereas Yuma is a Chinese gangster lady who wears a black coat, has dyed-pink hair, and never uses any profanity.
  • Hoyt and Pagan's two other Dragons, Bambi "Buck" Hughes and Paul "De Pleur" Harmon, respectively, are both older men who work for the Big Bad, are sadists, and used to have legal occupations before becoming criminals, and can behave in a friendly manner that comes across as insincere. But there, they end up appearing quite different from one another. Buck is a bearded, tattooed Australian, whereas Paul is a clean-shaven, normal-appearing American. Paul used to work at an intelligence agency in the past, before his job was outsourced and he ended up becoming a "desk jockey". Buck used to be a soldier, but he got dishonourably discharged because he was obsessed with brutality. Paul is a high-ranking associate of Pagan in charge of governing South Kyrat from his own "City of Pain", whereas Buck is a Lazy Bum who lives in a small hut at the Rook Islands' Badtown. Paul is an unapologetic racist uninterested in the culture of Kyrat, whereas Buck is Wicked Cultured and has done a ton of research on the colonialists who visited the Rook Islands, sending Jason on several missions to hunt down a ceremonial knife. Paul doesn't have any personal enmity with Ajay, whereas Buck makes it very personal with Jason by enslaving his friend Keith. Paul enjoys hurting people with Cold-Blooded Torture, whereas Buck prefers rape as an alternative. Paul is straight and Happily Married to a woman named Laura, and has a daughter called Ashley, whom he dearly loves. Buck is a Depraved Homosexual who loves no-one except for Buck. Also, their defeats are portrayed in a different light: Paul has an Alas, Poor Villain moment when he's locked in a cage by the Golden Path, and he can't phone his daughter to tell her he's okay. Buck, by contrast, happily tries to kill and rape Jason after revealing he's used Keith as a Sex Slave, and dies like an Asshole Victim at Jason's hand. Also, they both look vaguely like Quentin Tarantino villains: Paul looks like Mr. Blonde, and Buck looks like... well, Buck.
  • The only other antagonists in each game are both Anti-Villain women where the harsh environment and other characters have essentially forced them into villainy, who force the player character to embrace his warrior instincts. Both of their fates can be decided by the player, with their potential deaths being caused by a knife. But while Noor Najjar was forced by Pagan Min into servitude by holding her family hostage (and it turns out that Paul Harmon has long since killed them off anyway) and commits suicide if Ajay wishes to spare her and tell her the truth, Citra Montenegro is the manipulator here, attempting to get Jason to embrace the warrior attitude of the Rook Islands and mentally separate him from his friends. Citra either dies by a mistaken dagger attack, or lives and kills Jason when he has fulfilled his purpose.
• The Project at Eden's Gate in Far Cry 5 operate similarly in practice to the Highwaymen in the follow-up sequel Far Cry: New Dawn, in that if you're not part of their gang/cult, they'll either take supplies from you or they'll kidnap/torture you into joining them. However, in terms of organization, they're different. The Project (or "Peggies", if you're part of the resistance) are a Christian doomsday cult who are preparing for the collapse of society and trying to survive it. The Highwaymen are a bunch of anarchistic robbers obsessed with hedonistic survivalism. Their leaders, Joseph Seed, and Mickey and Lou, embody this difference more than the rest of them. They're both powerful Faux Affably Evil characters, but Joseph relies on charisma, torture, and brainwashing to get what he wants, whereas the twins use straight-up force. They both had family members who they killed- Joseph had a daughter, Mickey and Lou had their father, Vince- but Joseph killed his daughter supposedly because God told him to, but more likely because he knew she'd live a dangerous life due to him being her father: Mickey and Lou killed their father to replace him as the leaders of the Highwaymen. Joseph had three siblings- two birth brothers, John and Jacob, and an adopted sister, Faith- to serve as his Dragons, whereas Mickey and Lou only have one another, and they're the only Highwaymen of significance. Joseph was a Happily Married man in his forties before his pregnant wife died in a car crash, and has two children- the baby daughter who he killed, and a bastard son called Ethan who Joseph took in after the Collapse and raised to adulthood. Mickey and Lou are in their twenties, unmarried, and don't have any children. Joseph is mainly reliant on drugs and supporters and a mystical empowering apple to fight his enemies, whereas Mickey and Lou use firearms or Improvised Weapons. Joseph is for the most part soft-spoken yet commanding, and polite in a creepy way, Mickey and Lou are loud, abrasive and deep-voiced, and openly rude. Joseph walks around shirtless most of the time, wears creepy yellow sunglasses, and goes barefoot as of New Dawn. Mickey and Lou wear a blue hoodie and pink body armour, respectively, along with biker helmets adorned with animal skulls. Joseph is a white man with a Beard of Evil and wears his hair in a man-bun; Mickey and Lou are black women who wear their hair in dyed white Braids of Action. Both of them have family they care for; Joseph had his siblings and his son Ethan, Mickey and Lou have each other and their mother. Finally, most importantly, they both lose a loved one to the Player Character, and have a Villainous BSoD, and can potentially be killed or spared by the player, but the way they react differs. Joseph, having had a Heel Realization following the death of Ethan, becomes a Death Seeker, and will go mad with guilt and despair if the Captain spares him, spending the rest of the game standing under his burning mystical tree screaming for release. Mickey, after the Captain kills Lou, is willing to Face Death with Dignity, but if the Captain doesn't kill her, she leaves Hope Country to atone for her actions and reconcile with her mother.
• Warchief Ull and Batari the Sun Daughter of Far Cry Primal to Col. Ike Sloan of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. First of all, Sloan is a Cyborg Super-Soldier from a war-torn version of the future based on an 80's action film, whereas Ull and Batari are cavemen from the prehistoric land of Oros. They're both high-ranking within the organizations that serve them, but Sloan is a US colonel, whereas Ull is chieftain of his tribe, and Batari is High Priestess of hers. Sloan is a traitor to his country and the world, whereas Ull and Batari are serving the best interests of their respective tribes, the Udam and the Izila (though Ull more-so than Batari). Sloan is a Bad Boss who's perfectly happy to let Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt kill the weaklings among his soldiers, whereas Ull is A Father to His Men, and Batari, while she doesn't display the same care as Ull, at least shows anger towards Takkar for attacking her people. Sloan and Batari have both killed or otherwise hurt people close to the hero, who happen to both be black; Sloan killed Rex's fellow Cyber-Commando and close friend Lt. TT "Spider" Brown after the first mission, whereas Batari enslaved Tensay, the Wenja shaman who serves as Takkar's mentor on being the Beast Master, some time before the game takes place, and burned his arm. All three have differing plans: Sloan plans on bombing the entire world with missiles filled with Blood Dragon blood, which will kill the weak and mutate the strong into savages, so that Sloan can fulfill his dreams of ruling over a Social Darwinist paradise, whereas Ull wants to kill and consume the Wenja tribe to save his people because they're dying from a sickness called "skull fire", and Batari wants to enslave all the neighbouring tribes to build a temple to the Izila's fire god, Krati, to prevent him from destroying the moon and all of Oros with it. Sloan claims that all of Rex's combat skills and memories are actually Sloan's, which in the Colonel's eyes, makes him Rex's father. Ull and Batari have no familial relation to Takkar, but they do have children of their own- Ull has a daughter and a baby, both of whom he entrusts to Takkar in his dying moments to prevent them from getting "skull fire", and Batari had a son called Krati, who she burnt alive for rebelling against her, and who now, she fears, plans to return as a god to take revenge on her. Sloan and Ull are both muscular powerhouses who can wipe the floor with Rex and Takkar, respectively, whereas Batari is a woman of average musculature who relies on combat pragmatism. All three are eager to kill people for different reasons, Sloan to purge the weak, Ull to give his tribe fresh food, and Batari to obtain Human Sacrifice to appease her gods. Sloan fights with cyber-soldiers and cybernetic attack creatures, in addition to Blood Dragons: Ull and Batari use normal human warriors instead, albeit with special weapons unique to each of their tribes (rot bane for Ull and the Udam, fire bombs for Batari and the Izila]], and Takkar can attack them with the native fauna of Oros. Further, while Sloan and Batari die unrepentant villains, Ull shows nobility and asks Takkar to Take Care of the Kids before he dies. On an aesthetic note, they all have some form of scarring to identify them as the villains, though different scars for each one. Sloan has tainted green skin, exposed muscles, and scaley patches, due to experimenting on himself with Dragon blood; Ull has a melted nose and ears, due to the Izila shooting him with fire arrows; and Batari just has ritual scarification running across the bridge of her nose. Sloan has one creepy red Electronic Eye, being cybernetic; Ull has Icy Blue Eyes; and Batari has dark brown eyes. Sloan is a white (or possibly Latino) man who wears a simple military vest top, a simple hat, and army trousers, whereas Ull is a pale-skinned archaic Homo Sapiens who wears cave bear furs and bones, and goes bare-headed, showing off his short dreadlocks and half-bald head. Batari is a black woman who also wears dreadlocks, in addition to wicker headdress, but in contrast to the two male villains, she walks around in just a skirt and sandals, with both her bare breasts on display.

Final Fantasy

• Final Fantasy has done this from the beginning.
  • Garland, once a disgraced knight of Corneria, is The Man Behind the Man who entered a mutual agreement with the Fiends to become Chaos.
  • Emperor Mateus is a despot who openly orchestrated his forces' hostile invasion of foreign territories, and betrayed the Devil to go One-Winged Angel. Unlike Garland, he is always the end goal and Big Bad, and doesn't even relinquish the roll in death.
  • Cloud of Darkness is a natural force come to pass and made its appearance at the very end.
    • Xande also merits mention: Unlike Garland and the Emperor, who were initially normal men who eventually craved power, Xande was an immortal whose loss of immortality was the driving force for his actions. Additionally, unlike the aforementioned men who grew stronger upon tapping into dark powers, Xande merely dies after being defeated and is replaced by the Cloud of Darkness.
  • Zemus orchastrates the entire game from afar with mind control, and comes back through sheer rage.
  • Exdeath is a centuries-old clump of demons stuffed into a tree that once wished to rule over the world; however, after acquiring the power of the Void, his goal becomes the pursuit of returning everything to nothing.
  • Kefka broke a lot of ground for Final Fantasy baddies by not only being completely cuckoo-for-Chocobo-Puffs, but also starting off fairly weak. Midway through the game, you actually fail to stop him from playing his trump card and he gains godly power through manipulation. A notable difference between Kefka and Exdeath is that some of your party members actually personally know Kefka and everyone gives him their reasons for living and fighting him, while everyone in your party only ever regards Exdeath as an enemy.
  • Sephiroth was the most famous soldier of the Shinra Private Military Company, and used to be the hero to all, until he learned the truth about the circumstances of his birth. He's much more of a Cold Ham than your traditional Final Fantasy villain. You also spend a lot of time doing things for him.
    • In contrast to Sephiroth's refined, mysterious demeanor,Genesis Rapsados does not shut up, is just as animated as Kefka and enters open warfare with Shinra as soon as he gets the chance. He betrays Shinra because of how he was made, but instead of him assuming he wasn't human, it's because he is literally falling apart. He's defeated by the man who inspired Cloud, but accepts his death instead of constantly coming back through the Lifestream to get vengeance. His resurrection at the end of Do C was done with science instead of magic, and due to the original Compilation being Left Hanging, it's hard to know how much he wanted to come back.
    • Weiss the Immaculate is back to being a Cold Ham, but unlike the other two he never defects from Shinra and keeps Deepground on it's original purpose long after its parent company is gone. While Hojo and his Suspiciously Similar Substitute Hollander serve the previous villains, Weiss is in turn controlled by Hojo.
  • Ultimecia is a sorceress from the future who uses the present sorceresses, including the protagonists mother figure and the main love interest, as proxies In comparison to Sephiroth using test subjects infused with his cells, including the protagonist Cloud, as vessels of his will. Her use of Seifer also foils Squall's relationship with Rinoa, while Sephiroth considered any other person outside of the party as obstacles to be removed from his vendetta with Cloud.
  • Kuja is a theatrical, misanthropic artificially made young man, from another world who goes mad when he finds out his true destiny of dying young. Kuja goes through scheme after scheme with different persons of interest for power and validation, while Ultimecia has all her power at the beginning and requires Ellone for her plan to make a universe solely for her.
  • Final Fantasy X has a lot of villains, but the biggest foil is Jecht, Jerk Jock supreme who followed a path similar to his son's own and now regrets what he does. Seymour was driven insane by a combination of parental abandonment and an addiction to magical powers.
  • Final Fantasy X-2 has Shuyin, a vengeful warrior who is already dead and decides to destroy all of Spira to enact his revenge.
  • Vayne, like Kefka, isn't some great evil supernatural force, but a normal man. But unlike Kefka, he isn't completely insane. Instead, he is a brilliant politician and military tactician who decides to win the long war between two powerful empires by seizing control of the world's most important natural resource. He is calm, collected, and unlike most Final Fantasy villains, he comes the closest to winning in the end and in some ways, does get what he wants. Also unlike many Final Fantasy Villains, he isn't shown very often in game, but his decisions are immediately felt worldwide.
  • Final Fantasy XIII by contrast has Barthandelus, who is effectively one of the manipulating gods that Vayne would have opposed, and who seeks the destruction of those he is charged with protecting. And while his plan does eventually work, it doesn't occur the way he wanted and takes far longer to come to pass (around another 1000 years).
  • Caius Ballad from Final Fantasy XIII-2 rounds back around to being a man, albeit an enormously powerful one. In comparison to Barthandelus, who was a Well-Intentioned Extremist based on the world, Caius only cares about one person, Yuel, and is willing to destroy time to preserve her. And while, like Barthandelus, he gets what he wants...it's not in the manner that he hoped for.
  • The divinity phase is switched once again for the finale of the XIII trilogy, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII with Bhunivelze, who is presented as the Big Good initially and genuinely wishes to save everyone. Until it's revealed that while he does intend to do so, he also intends to filter humanity into soulless puppets, while Caius wanted to preserve Yuel.
  • Final Fantasy XIV, being an MMORPG, features a succession of antagonists over the course of its run.
    • In the original "Legacy" game, the Big Bad was Legatus Nael van Darnus^note actually his sister Eula wearing his armor, the real Nael having been long dead of the Garlean Empire. Believing that the threat of Primal summonings in Eorzea was too great, and being corrupted by the presence hidden inside the moon of Dalamud, the Legatus enacted "Project Meteor" to bring the moon crashing down on the Eorzean nations.
    • In "A Realm Reborn", the reins were taken by Legatus Gaius van Baelsar who subscribed much more to a sort of Pragmatic Villainy. Believing in conquest over destruction, Gaius sought to establish dominance and combat the Primal threat by piloting the Ultima Weapon. However, he ended up being an unwitting pawn of the Ascian Lahabrea, who caused the Ultima Weapon to blow up Gaius's own base before Gaius was defeated by the Warrior of Light.
    • The "Heavensward" expansion has a Big Bad Duumvirate due to the Forever War between the Ishgardians and the dragons. The bulk of the story arc leads to a confrontation with Ishgard's ruler, Archbishop Thordan VII, who actually hijacks Lahabrea and devours the Ascian's energy in order to turn himself and his most loyal knights into Primals. The following updates, though, focus on the dragon Niddhog as the primary threat to peace. Having long ago lost himself to an all-consuming rage and lust for revenge against Ishgard, Niddhog is more of a force of pure malice than anything else.
    • In "Stormblood", the antagonist is Zenos yae Galvus, crown prince of the Garlean Empire. Unlike the previous foes, Zenos is a pure Blood Knight who doesn't actually care about anything other than finding an opponent to fight who will actually pose a challenge. He eventually decides that the Warrior of Light is both his greatest enemy and only "friend".
    • "Shadowbringers" has Emet-Selch, a.k.a. Solus zos Galvus^note founder of the Garlean Empire, a.k.a. Hades. One of the most powerful and manipulative of Ascians, Emet-Selch is the architect of incalculable suffering throughout the ages, yet presents himself as an Affably Evil friendly enemy for most of the story arc. When you get toward the end of the expansion, however, you find out that he views the world as "broken" by the Big Good, and every calamity he and his brethren have brought about has been for the purposes of rejoining the shard worlds with the source so that the utopian home he remembers from ages past can be rebuilt.
  • Final Fantasy XV features Ardyn. In contrast to the previous villains, who either didn't have personal relationships with the heroes or did, Ardyn wants to kill Noctis from the get-go; in comparison to Sephiroth and Cloud, who had developed enmity in their backstory; Noctis barely even knew who Ardyn was initially. Rather than be embraced in a way by the gods like the fal'Cie and Bhunivelze would do with the heroes of the XIII trilogy, Ardyn was spurned and shunned by them, and while they ultimately intended to save existence to a degree, Ardyn makes no such claims; he only wants Noctis to survive so that he can kill him at his strongest, the world be damned. Finally, unlike most humanoid villains, he doesn't have an One-Winged Angel form and is fought specifically as a Duel Boss. And on top of all that, he has his own personal Astral Ifrit, which he summons against a party that cannot control the appearance of their own Astrals. Finally, for the very first time in the franchise's nearly half-century of history, the story's main villain gets exactly what he wanted in exactly the way he wanted it - a fight with the fully-empowered Noctis, the devastation of the world, and end of the Lucian bloodline as Noctis dies with no heirs.
  • The main antagonist of Final Fantasy XVI, Ultima, serves mostly as this to his predecessor, Ardyn. Ardyn was a human who once used his ability to absorb the Starscourge for good but was demonized for it and eventually became the enemy of the world at the behest of his world's Bahamut. Ultima is an alien being and the creator of the Eikons who created humanity in order to stave off the decline of his own people thanks to the Blight, only to then plot against humanity so that they destroy each other and he goes in and terraforms whatever remains. Many of his motivations, as well as his contempt for humanity, are shared with the XV incarnation of Bahamut, who became the true main villain of the story in the Dawn of the Future novelization.

Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights at Freddy's

• Sister Location:
  • Circus Baby from contrasts the Puppet from and Nightmare Fredbear and Nightmare, the Big Bads of 4:
    • To the Puppet. Both are animatronics with Monster Clown designs and their hosts were little girls who were killed directly or indirectly by William Afton. However, the Puppet is very slim, has an androgynous design, and despite her dark color scheme, was designed initially as a security system for the pizzeria to ensure the well-being of the children in the establishment. Baby's body structure is huge compared to the Puppet and has a feminine design, and her initial purpose, down to her design, seems to be entertaining children, but it's all to hide her true purpose: kidnapping and murdering children. Furthermore, during her time as a part of Ennard in Sister Location, Baby wore a human as a meat suit temporarily, while the Puppet wore another animatronic over herself in Pizzeria Simulator. This even extends to their respective hosts: Cassette Man's daughter, Charlie, and William Afton's daughter, Elizabeth. While Charlie still retained her desire to protect and save innocent children and the other victims from William, at worst, she evolved into a Well-Intentioned Extremist Knight Templar due to the many security guards she killed on account of mistaking their identities with her killer. Elizabeth, on the other hand, has been implied to have been corrupted during her time as Circus Baby, and later, as Ennard following her eviction from the entity by the other A.I.s and reformation, resulting in her becoming the argubaly second-most evil animatronic in the franchise who desires to please her "Daddy" by following in his footsteps.
    • Nightmare Fredbear and Nightmare, both are animatronics whose purpose is specifically to kill, both in some fashion terrorize an Afton (possibly the same Afton, Michael), and both in some fashion serve as the Final Boss (though Baby only counts as this due to being the guiding will of Ennard). They both even only appear in person in Night 5. However, Circus Baby is clearly horrified by what she did to Elizabeth Afton and was implied to have had no control over her actions, and even all of her villainous acts are out of desperation, because she just wants herself and the other animatronics to escape the awful place they are suffering in. Nightmare Fredbear/Nightmare, on the other hand, seems like little more than a savage beast that seeks to kill out of pure malevolence, and may even enjoy repeatedly torturing and killing whoever the player is, according to their lines in Ultimate Custom Night. While Circus Baby is heavily involved in the game, serving as your helpful guide, having a huge presence throughout, and having masterminded the entire scheme to escape using Michael's skin as a disguise, Nightmare Fredbear/Nightmare has almost zero involvement by contrast and if a player hasn't been paying attention to the teasers, they only learn about it on the nights where it makes an appearance. Circus Baby ends up being rather heavily involved in the FNaF lore, and depending on what you believe, her act of killing Elizabeth may be the catalyst for the Afton family falling apart. Nightmare Fredbear/Nightmare has very little lore importance in comparison. They even look very different: Circus Baby is absolutely adorable, what with being chubby and childlike, even though she was designed that way to lure in and murder children; meanwhile, Nightmare Fredbear/Nightmare makes absolutely no attempt to hide its true nature.
  • Ennard to both the Puppet from 2 and Springtrap from 3.
    • To the Puppet. They both share the design of clowns and makeup, but The Puppet is just a Scary Jack-in-the-Box with a slender figure while Ennard is an outright Monster Clown who looks Lovecraftian by robot standards. The Puppet is possessed by one of Afton's victims who seeks to protect the innocent children. Ennard is an amalgamate of the various victims who kill other innocent children against their will. They also "bring life" in different ways: The Puppet aids those killed by Afton by helping them possess animatronics, while Ennard kills Eggs Benedict to wear his body, but once evicted from his body, Eggs is still alive despite by all means being a walking corpse.
    • To Springtrap. Springtrap is made out of the remains of a man stuck inside a spring-lock suit; Ennard is the collective remains of multiple endoskeletons wanting to get inside a human skin. Ennard wants to escape to stop murdering children; Springtrap wants to kill even more children.
  • The Bidybabs to the Freddles from the fourth game. Whereas the Freddles form Nightmare Freddy and are constantly hinged to him otherwise, the Bidybabs seem to act as separate entities from Baby, even apparently not following her orders.
• Five Nights at Freddy's World: Chica's Magic Rainbow to Scott's in game version of himself. Scott was more cold and only hated the player due to them being unable to be satisfied, whereas the Rainbow's just a bully who taunts them at every turn. Additionally, Scott spoke in text, whereas the Rainbow has voice acting. Finally, whereas Scott’s fight was mostly fair to the player despite his hatred, the Rainbow's fight is blatantly unfair.
• Pizzeria Simulator: Lefty to Springtrap. Both are sealed in a suit in some way; William Afton was killed inside of Springtrap, and the Puppet was already undead and haunted by the time it was sealed in Lefty. On top of this, they have borderline opposite motives. Springtrap wants to kill innocents, Lefty wants to protect them.
• VR: Help Wanted: Glitchtrap from to Scraptrap from Pizzeria Simulator. They are both instances of Afton turned into an animatronic. But while Scraptrap was Obviously Evil to the extreme (being a human corpse welded to the inside of a Killer Robot) and sadistic to its own detriment, Glitchtrap is far more superficially welcoming and is much better at finding ways to avoid unwanted attention.
• Security Breach
  • Vanessa from shares a number of parallels with Elizabeth. Both are blonde-haired green-eyed female villains who serve directly under William Afton. Both (maybe) have abusive fathers named Bill/William. Elizabeth is Daddy's Little Villain, while Vanessa is Ambiguously Related to the Aftons. Both also have a certain degree of conventionally girly traits. While the parallels are there, they differ in that Elizabeth is a long-dead child possessing an animatronic who has a history of pulling identity theft and impersonation throughout the franchise. Vanessa, in contrast, is a still-living adult woman who is the victim of Demonic Possession by the Big Bad.
  • Roxanne has some notable points of contrast to Foxy the original game, whose role she appears to fill in the new quartet. The original Foxy was characterized as shy and reclusive, though he had fans, while Roxanne is outwardly arrogant and boastful in an attempt to convince herself that people like her. Foxy's character design, being a pirate with an eyepatch, connotes visual impairment, while Roxy's unique mechanical attribute is her enhanced super-vision. A further twist on the latter point emerges: Roxy actually loses her vision and becomes impaired when her eyes are taken, while the original Foxy, despite his appearance, is never indicated to have a genuine visual impairment as an animatronic. Not to mention Roxanne is one of the more violent animatronics this time around (only beaten by Monty and perhaps surpassing him after she's been defeated), whereas Foxy, aside from him bum-rushing the security booth, has perhaps the least violent jumpscare in the original game.

Example Subpages

• Horizon
• Metro
• Killzone

Others

• Baldur's Gate: The first game's Big Bad, Sarevok was a scenery-chewing Tin Tyrant who, in spite of his appearance and demeanor tried to accomplish his goals through a far-reaching plot to manipulate politics and trade on a nation-wide scale. This is contrasted with the sequel's main villain Jon Irenicus, a quiet, intellectual Mad Scientist who chose overwhelming displays of arcane might as his path to power.
• Bendy and the Dark Revival: Wilson contrasts Bendy/The Ink Demon from Bendy and the Ink Machine in serveral ways.
  • Bendy is a powerful demon who can't be defeated through conventional means, Wilson is a human Non-Action Big Bad who's quickly overpowered the only time he tries to fight directly.
  • While both (at least initially) have ambiguous motives, Bendy often behaves in ways that make the player question if he's even a bad guy at all while Wilson is Obviously Evil.
  • Bendy is an active physical threat throughout the game, Wilson's only direct physical appearances are in the prologue and the final chapter.
  • Bendy doesn't talk, Wilson relies on lies, manipulation, and propaganda, resulting in his voice being heard much more often than he physically appears.
• BioShock:
  • BioShock 2 was very blatant about this. The first game's antagonist, Andrew Ryan, was a hardened capitalist and atheist who believed that self-serving actions will ultimately lead mankind to create utopia, and had founded the secret city of Rapture to work toward that end. Sofia Lamb, who had taken over the city by the events of 2, was a psychologist who believed human nature to be ultimately evil and strove to use the genetic engineering serum Rapture's scientists had discovered to create a new race of utterly selfless humans — and, while not overtly religious herself, is not above using religion as a means to that end. This extends to how they're treated by the plot as well: In the first game, Ryan's plans had already come to fruition by the start of the game and proven to be a miserable failure, and your support character who strings you along to kill him is out for revenge; Lamb, meanwhile, has yet to carry out her plans, and your goal is to stop her.
  • In BioShock Infinite, you face off against Zachary Comstock, who is overtly religious and believes that his own (eventually) hidden city is destined to actively destroy the "Sodom below", in contrast to Ryan, who believed that the Cold War would ultimately lead mankind to destroy itself. Also while Ryan is a strict Athiest, Comstock is a born-again Christian who delivers sermons to his populace and justifies his less-than-Utopian society with what he claims is divine law. Ryan's dystopia was born from not caring about his own population, his hatred of social programs, and he let them exploit and poison each other and encouraged selfishness, while Comstock's comes about from slavery and enforced mistreatment of "lesser" people, which he claims is for the greater good of all. Ryan claimed to want a nation free of oppressive authorities that keep people from doing what they want, but he quickly became one to keep his citizens in line. Comstock is secretly partially Native American, and massacred other Natives to get in good with white people who teased him about his heritage. Finally while both men had a distaste for the way the United States was run in their age (Ryan with the New Deal under Roosevelt and Comstock with the freeing of the slaves by Lincoln), Ryan's intention was to cut off all ties with the United States and make a new Utopia of his own. Comstock desired to keep a "Pure" form of the country preserved, and eventually return to "correct" the decaying nation with force.
  • It's worth noting that despite wildly varying beliefs and philosophies, the antagonists of each game inevitably end up very similar. All three are Hypocrites who betray their ideals to pursue their own goals, all three use their world-views to justify the exploitation and suffering of others, and all three ultimately have their Utopias crumble all around them. They all work to illustrate the series overarching moral that extremism to any one viewpoint is bad. They are all confronted by family members as well, who end up becoming the catalyst for their defeats.
  • Also, their relation to the primary protagonists of the game. Ryan is Jack's illegitimate father, sold by his mom as an embryo, and raised and brainwashed by the secondary antagonist as a weapon. Comstock is Booker, from another dimension. He adopted Elizabeth as his daughter, so she could replace him as a leader, and a weapon against the rest of the world.
  • Andrew Ryan doesn't really believe he did anything wrong, ever. Comstock was baptised, and convinced himself that his old sins weren't even sins anymore. They were things to be proud of.
  • Rapture is an isolationist rogue state, except for the bits that sneak out around Ryan's best efforts, while Comstock believes it's Columbia's duty to get involved in world affairs, especially if it benefits America.
  • This also applies to the "other" antagonists of Rapture and Columbia; Frank Fontaine, under the guise Atlas, and Daisy Fitzroy are both revolutionaries determined to overthrow the current government and its oppression, gaining many devoted followers in the process. However, Frank Fontaine is a ruthless gangster who uses the revolution to his own ends, while Fitzroy's motives are more genuine, if unhinged by her final moments (and as revealed in "Burial at Sea", is actually a facade for a greater purpose).
• The Borderlands series features a heavy contrast between Handsome Jack of Borderlands 2 and Colonel Zarpedon of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!. Both of them try to wipe out their respective groups of Vault Hunters at the start of their games, but that's about where the similarities end. Jack is the egocentric CEO of the Hyperion corporation by way of a Klingon Promotion who maintains loyalty through a combination of fear and revisionist propaganda; he constantly mocks the Vault Hunters throughout the game and is convinced that he's actually the hero. In contrast, Zarpedon was a high-ranking military commander before Dahl abandoned her unit during the Crackening, and she was well-loved by her men throughout, to the point that they were willing to carry on her cause even after her death; she views the Vault Hunters as worthy opponents deserving of respect and is under no illusions about how horrible her intended actions are, only going through with it because the alternative is worse. Even their ultimate goals differ: Jack is looking for the Vault of the Warrior to help him conquer Pandora by wiping out anyone he sees as a bandit, while Zarpedon was trying to guard the Vault of Elpis to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands until she decided that the only way to guarantee its safety was to destroy the entirety of Elpis (and unfortunately everyone on it).
  • The developers have confirmed that Handsome Jack himself was a deliberate attempt to invoke this trope with regard to the first game's Commandant Steele. One of the major criticisms of that game's story was that Steele, the closest thing the game has to a Big Bad, has very little characterization or story presence, to the point that players who don't pay careful attention are likely to have no idea who she is when she shows up and gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by the Destroyer before the final battle. The most interesting thing about her is the fact that she's a Siren, but not only is that fact completely irrelevant to the plot, it's also never outright stated in the game itself, just heavily implied by her tattoos (and subsequently confirmed by Word of God). When they began work on the sequel, Gearbox was determined not to make the same mistakes, so they gave their villain plenty of personality and made him the major driving force of the game's plot, in hopes of creating a more memorable Big Bad. Suffice it to say they were successful.
  • The Calypso twins in the third game contrast with Handsome Jack, most obviously being that the Calypso twins now command the bandits of the world instead of aiming to destroy them. While Handsome Jack often duped bandits into doing some of the work for him (and usually betraying them after), the Calypsos team up with Maliwan CEO Katagawa Jr. to have him do theirs (and is killed in the process early in the game). And while Jack had genuine, if extreme affection for his daughter Angel, Tyreen isn't above consuming Troy's life force and murdering her own father just to stay alive and spite the Crimson Raiders. And while Handsome Jack takes control of a Vault Guardian to act as the Final Boss, Tyreen in the end becomes the Final Boss, fusing herself with another Vault Guardian.
• Call of Duty: The Big Bad of Call of Duty: Black Ops was a sadistic Ax-Crazy Dirty Communist motivated by nationalism. The Big Bad of Call of Duty: Black Ops II however was an Anti-Villain with a Tragic Backstory who is given several Pet the Dog moments.
• In Clock Tower, both of the ScissorMen from both games have different characteristics from each other. Bobby, the first ScissorMan had a very ugly appearance who followed the orders of his mother, and didn't had the slightest bit of intellect. Dan, the Big Bad of the second game has a more handsome look, was a lot more intelligent than his brother, walked in his ScissorMan guise with a limped leg, and unlike how Bobby obeyed his mother, Dan is capable of corrupting and manipulating people into serving him. Also while Bobby kept his killings a secret, Dan makes his murders known to the public, as well that Dan kills people simply cause he desires to, Bobby killed following his mother's words.
• The various endgame 'conspiracies' in Criminal Case vary from season to season.
  • The first season had the Crimson Order, an Ancient Conspiracy who ran the city of Grimsborough since the founding of the city, having seized control of a gold mine from the Aloki land. The player never heard or dealt with them until after the PC's commanding officer committed murder on their behalf, and they are quickly dismantled once the police are onto them.
  • Pacific Bay's final cases featured a much smaller and more recent faction that directly involved one of the player's partners. There is no official name to the group, and it basically consists of one Omnicidal Maniac trying to destroy Pacific Bay and the people it roped into helping him.
  • World Edition featured Sombra, the multinational criminal organization with plans to Take Over the World. Unlike the previous two seasons, the Bureau knows about the group from the beginning, and bringing down Sombra is their mission statement and the reason they were founded.
  • Mysteries of the Past had several groups, including the Irish and Italian criminal gangs and the Rochester family trying to gain control of Concordia through various schemes. The season finale had the player take on Justin Lawson, a Knight Templar Fallen Hero who'd become a tyrannical dictator over their city.
  • The Conspiracy features Ad Astra, a small, close-knit group of young intellectuals who believe they are entitled to dominate the world because of their intellectual superiority. At the end of the storyline, they've become full-fledged supervillains — albeit ones on the run from their true founder.
  • Travel in Time had the Ptolemic Dynasty, who manipulated history to become rulers of an Egypt-themed dystopia. While directly responsible for all the team's troubles, they aren't revealed until halfway through the series thanks to the machinations of a particularly nasty Sixth Ranger Traitor on the team.
• In Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, Gwyn and Vendrick's wife Nashandra contrast pretty heavily. The former was a king who founded his kingdom, is associated with light and fire, may have been manipulated to some degree by Frampt, sacrificed himself to preserve the First Flame, and is found in an essentially mindless state defending said Flame; the latter was a queen who brought the kingdom to ruin, is associated with darkness and death, manipulated Vendrick into the actions that brought Drangleic to ruin, seeks to claim the Throne of Want (which appears to be tied to the First Flame) for herself, and is an active, intelligent participant in the fight. The final battles even contrast: Gwyn is at the First Flame already, while Nashandra goes there once you've cleared the way, to the point that she walks through the boss fog if you've met the conditions before killing the Throne Watcher and Defender. Of note, II pulls this as a Bait-and-Switch; Nashandra barely gets a mention, with everyone talking about King Vendrick, so it looks like Vendrick is going to be a Recurring Element resembling Gwyn in the same way that other bosses echo ones from the first game...and then you actually find Vendrick, now a giant, completely mindless Hollow who can only stagger around in circles and won't even fight you unless you aggro him, and realise things are a bit different now.
• The original Cult faction of Darkest Dungeon heavily contrasts its sequel incarnation:
  • The original Cultists were weak, predictable, but widespread Mooks who only gained some proper menace in the titular Darkest Dungeon. By contrast, the Cultists of the second game are hardened veterans who act as the forces of Darkness' elite legion, with their members alternating between guarding important locations and actively hunting down the heroes.
  • The original Cultists used poorly-made weapons, wore rags and crude metal skulls, and numbered only three identifiable ranks (Brawler, Acolyte, and Priest). The new Cultists are universally clad in long black robes and sleek chrome helmets, wield powerful magic and mutations alongside well-made conventional weapons, and are organised as a hierarchal Religion of Evil rather than a fringe Apocalypse Cult.
  • The original Cultists were mostly unaugmented humans driven by their faith, with those strengthened and mutated by the Heart of Darkness only appearing in the final dungeon. The new Cultists are all Cosmic-type enemies rather than Human, with even the rank-and-file showing signs of severe mutation. Furthermore, these mutated Cultists appear very early on in the game rather than exclusively in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Deadly Rooms of Death: 39th Slayer (Journey to Rooted Hold) is a deadly but mindless killing machine who represents a physical threat to Beethro, and must be constantly outwitted for Beethro to survive. First Archivist (The City Beneath) is a Non-Action Big Bad and master manipulator who continually taunts Beethro about how little he really knows about the Empire's plans.
• Dead Space: the first and second games had psychotic, violently deranged human villains. The third game's human antagonist is, in contrast, a very calm, polite, and soft-spoken man. He's no less insane and ruthless, however.
• Deltarune:
  • Though the game isn't an outright sequel to Undertale, King in Chapter 1 can be seen as this to Asgore. Though they both have tragic backstories, by the time you confront him, he's clearly beyond redemption, and has no qualms about (seemingly) killing his own son (he later reveals that Lancer would've been unharmed, but his treatment of him was nonetheless much harsher than anything Asgore does). King can also be compared to Flowey, as both are utter sociopaths who play with the player's emotions and have no restraint towards violence. The difference is that King commands authority over a nation while Flowey always worked in the shadows.
  • While King was mainly portrayed as a Bad Boss and Knight of Cerebus who remained unseen until near the end of Chapter 1, Queen in Chapter 2 makes her presence known to Kris and Susie almost immediately after they enter her Dark World and appears to be more Laughably Evil whenever she appears. Additionally, Queen is motivated by making all Lightners happy, compared to King's goal of making Darkners rule the world. Of course, that doesn't stop her from being able to fool Berdly, but she willingly performed a Heel–Face Turn after learning from Ralsei the consequences of opening too many Dark Fountains. She also takes much better care of Lancer than King, becoming his unofficial mother.
• Devil May Cry:
  • Devil May Cry 1: Mundus is the ruler of the demon world. He is portrayed as a malevolent and terrifying force whose presence is felt throughout the game even when he isn't in the same room with you.
  • Devil May Cry 2: The game features two villains, Arius and Argosax who serve as the Final Boss for Lucia and Dante, respectively.
    • While Mundus was the most powerful demon in the demon world, Arius is a human who relies on magic, technology and wealth to be a threat.
    • Argosax is a demon lord who was defeated by Sparda, similar to Mundus. Argosax differs from Mundus in three ways. Firstly, while Mundus is depicted as male, Argosax is Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous. The second way they differ is the evolution of their forms during the final battle; Mundus starts out with an angelic form that gives way to a hideous Blob Monster form. Argosax starts out as a weird amalgamation of previous bosses before its true form is revealed to be that of a fiery angelic creature. While Mundus relied mainly on long-ranged attacks, Argosax in its final form focused on closing the distance through teleportation.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening features a Big Bad Duumvirate consisting of the half-devil Vergil who is Dante's brother, and the human Arkham who seeks to claim the power of Sparda to become a powerful demon himself.
  • Sanctus in Devil May Cry 4 is introduced as the seemingly benevolent head of the Order of the Sword, but is also revealed to be covetting demon powers himself. Unlike Arius and Arkham who sought out demonic power for more obviously selfish ends, Sanctus's main goal is the extermination of demons plaguing the human world, but it becomes more and more clear that he has allowed all the power he has attained to go to his head and is willing to harm even innocent humans for his goals.
  • Urizen from Devil May Cry 5 is the first full-blooded demon main antagonist since Mundus from the first game. He is also the first villain since Vergil in 3 to defeat Dante in their first battle, which isn't surprising given he is Vergil's demonic half made flesh.
• Dishonored 2: The usurper queen Delilah Copperspoon is a supernatural entity compared to the corrupt politician, Hiram Burrows and General Farley Havelock from the first game who were realistic.
  • Lord Regent Hiram Burrows is strict, shrewd, and seeks to stamp out the Loyalists and thwart Corvo the entire game. In contrast, the Duke of Serkonos Luca Abele is mostly indifferent to events unfolding and spends most of time hosting orgies and lavish feasts at his palace. The Duke is also heavyset and wears light-colored clothing, in contrast to the Lord Regent who is thin and is quite fond of dark trenchcoats.
• Donkey Kong stars the titular ape as the villain, a large rampaging animal who takes a human hostage and takes her to the top of a man-made construction site where he uses human inventions such as barrels and springs to stop Mario from reaching him. The sequel, Donkey Kong Junior, has the human Mario take over as the villain, capturing the defeated animalistic Donkey Kong and locking him in a more natural-looking zoo exhibit, where he commands an army of other animals to guard his captive.
• Dragon Quest has numerous Big Bads that sway back and forth based on their methods or motivations.
  • In the first game, the Dragonlord attempts to conquer the land of Alefgard by kidnapping Princess Gwaelin and the Orb of Light. Upon being confronted, he attempts to make a deal with the protagonist, who's a descendant of Erdrick. He's also known throughout the entire game and is the endgoal of the quest.
  • In Dragon Quest II, Hargon is also a well-known antagonist by the start of the game, but not much of his goal gets off the ground aside from launching an attack on Moonbrooke and cursing the local princess who's one of the Scions of Erdrick. Otherwise, he remains at his Hall; and Hargon isn't the final boss, that role instead going to Malroth, a god of destruction that the High Priest was attempting to summon to ravage the world. Malroth counts too, as his presence is largely unknown before Hargon summons him, and is a natural demon, unlike the Dragonlord, who was implied in backstory to formerly be human.
  • In Dragon Quest III, Baramos is presented as the Final Boss which holds a lot of influence in the entire world of Aliahan and over lots of underlings, only to be revealed to be an underling himself. His boss, Zoma, keeps himself hidden until Baramos falls, where it's revealed he's already in control of another world, Alfegard, while attempting to take over the world mainly explored in the game as well.
  • In Dragon Quest IV, Psaro the Manslayer is not of demonic origin, rather being from a non-human tribe that distrusts humanity, but harbors love for an elf named Rose. He attempts to resurrect the Lord of the Underworld, Estark, from his long slumber while attempting to kill the protagonist before they can set out on their journey. When Estark falls and Rose is killed by greedy humans trying to obtain her ruby tears, Psaro swears vengeance on humanity and becomes the new Lord of the Underworld through the Secret of Evolution, losing his mind in the progress and attempting to destroy the world through sheer force. He's also the only villain that can be redeemed if the right steps are taken.
  • In Dragon Quest V, Grandmaster Nimzo takes a more methodical approach to conquering the world, attempting to prevent the arrival of the Hero before they are born and playing a long game throughout several years. It's implied Nimzo is also a product of the Secret of Evolution, but uses his smarts to covertly undermine kingdoms of importance and build up his forces, while kidnapping the protagonist's mother, Madalena, who has the power to break the seal keeping him in Nadiria.
  • In Dragon Quest VI, Mortamor also uses a cunning approach to forward his plans, but instead of strategic maneuvers like Nimzo, Mortamor uses his forces to attempt to break the will of his enemies in both the Real and Dream Worlds in order for their collective despair to reach a point where he can forcefully turn them into extensions of the Dread Realm for him to rule over.
  • In Dragon Quest VII, Orgordemir is stated to be the biggest enemy to that world's god, Numen, and attempts to seal all the lands of the world by using his forces to take advantage of humanity's weaknesses to trick them into self-destructing, ruining them in the past and thus rendering them nonexistent in the present. And where all the previous Big Bads tend to have ugly-looking second forms, Orgordemir starts out in his ugly form, but then changes into a more visually appealing form to showcase his vanity.
  • In Dragon Quest VIII, Rhapthrone is an active force throughout the entire game, having others act as his direct proxy. The majority of the game is attempting to chase him and his host, Dhoulmagus, down as they attempt to kill the descendants of the Sages who sealed him in the past. Otherwise, until he makes his return, Rhapthorne has no lasting presence and hardly any forces loyal to him, with the majority of monsters fought having no relation to him.
  • In Dragon Quest IX, Corvus stands out as the first villain of divine origin. Once a Celestrian, in the past he fell to the land below and was nursed back to health by Serena, who fell in love with him, but he was betrayed by the people of Wormwood he was charged with protecting to the Gittish Empire, who tortured him for 300 years. This fostered a seething hatred for humanity and, by extension, hatred towards the Celestrians who protected them as well as the Almighty who watched over them. Like Psaro, after his defeat, he's ultimately redeemed by Serena's spirit of the girl who healed him, and then ascends alongside all the other Celestrians.
• The villains of Dusty Revenge and the prequel, Dusty Raging Fist, differs greatly from each other.
  • Craven from Revenge is an oversized tiger-man brute who relies on muscles, heavy weaponry, a giant robot and his own strength; Elijah from Raging Fist is a rabbit sorcerer who's skinny, nowhere as physically strong, and relies on his cunning plans, manipulating the heroes, and his own magic abilities.
  • Craven is a hot-tempered Large Ham, Elijah is a Soft-Spoken Sadist.
  • Craven attacks the heroes directly, while Elijah manipulates them from the sidelines.
  • Craven starts off as a Badass Normal until he stole the Illumna Dust for himself; Elijah is a Sealed Evil in a Can who already have his own powers.
  • Both villains are Bad Bosses to their underlings, but their methods of executions varies; Craven kills his minion Tongada over his failure to apprehend the heroes by graphically pulling out Tongada's head, whilst Elijah congratulates his follower, William, only to slash his throat cleanly after deciding William is no longer any useful to him.
  • Craven's fight is a Sequential Boss that spans three areas, including an Advancing Boss of Doom; Elijah is fought in a single plane the entire battle.
  • Additionally, both villains indulges in kidnapping children, with the game's main plotline being the heroes' subsequent rescue mission, but the way they play out differs - Craven abducted Rondel's cub to co-erce Dusty and Rondel into giving up the ancient Macguffin, Elijah on the other hand had children abducted, then poses as one of the kids to trick Dusty and the mercenaries to embark on the rescue before backstabbing them in the last minute.
• The Evil Within 2 has a big bad triumvirate versus Ruvik. In the first game, Ruvik's main goal was to escape back to the real world. This game's antagonists, Stefano and Theodore, have no intention of leaving; Stefano wanting to stay to "make [his] art forever", while Theodore wants to take control of Mobius (and by extension, the rest of the world) through the influence Union gives him. Subverted with Myra, as she originally entered Union to get her daughter out while she stayed behind to destroy Mobius, only for Union's malleable nature to corrupt her. Also, Ruvik was sinister and mysterious whereas Stefano and Theodore behave in a more theatrical and flamboyant manner that wouldn't be out of place in, say, Dead Rising.
• The Evolution duology does this thematically with its villains: The first game has Eugene Leopold, the crown prince of the 8th Imperial Army, whose goal is to find the legendary cyframe, Evolutia, and elevate humanity into gods. He wastes no time dismissing Mag after it's clear that he is of no use to him and only sees Linear of interest, even before he realizes that she's actually Evolutia. At the end of the game, he fights the party in a military mecha. The second game has Yurka, a strange boy who visits Linear at night while in Museville. Yurka indirectly manipulates Mag and Linear into accomplishing his goals, with his end goal being to combine himself and Linear, the twin halves of Evolutia, into the Ulticannon to destroy humanity, with said Ulticannon being what he uses in the final battle. Additionally, while Eugene met with Mag early in the first game, Mag is unaware of Yurka's existence until Linear tells Mag about him late in the second game.
• Fable:
  • In Fable, the villain is a powerful monster called Jack of Blades who wants to conquer the world and the hero has two epic fights with him to the death.
  • In Fable II, Lucien Fairfax is the former mayor of Bowerstone who tries to use the dark power of The Tattered Spire to resurrect his murdered family but was corrupted by its construction and power. Lucien doesn't even get a proper boss as one of the heroes will just knock him down the spire.
  • And in Fable III, the final boss is a horde of eldritch monsters led by the Crawler who force the king/queen to make desperate choices and kill infected friends. There's no ambition, no greater plan for Albion's enslavement, just an all-consuming hunger.
• The villains of the Fallout series can vary greatly, though they all generally fall under Well-Intentioned Extremist in one way or another:
  • The original game had "The Master", an insane mutant, who sought to assimilate all of humanity into his Super Mutant Army.
  • The second and third games have the Enclave, one of the most advanced factions in the series, who saw most the Wasteland's inhabitants as impure due to their exposure to radiation and sought to wipe them out. Though by the third game, most of them have decided to settle on just ruling over other humans, as long they're not "too" soaked with radiation.
  • From the second game, Frank Horrigan contrasts with The Master. Both are mutants, even if Horrigan refuses to consider himself one, but the Master is a very intelligent Big Bad who's confined to the Overseer chair, while Frank Horrigan is a Dumb Muscle Dragon-in-Chief who's a hulking soldier in power armor. The Master can be shown that his plan is doomed to fail, but Horrigan bluntly shuts down any attempts to reason with him.
  • Colonel Augustus Autumn in Fallout 3 acts as a foil to Frank Horrigan. Both men serve as Dragon-in-Chief to the Enclave President in addition to being the Final Boss of their respective games. Furthermore, neither Horrigan nor Autumn are terribly bright, with Horrigan primarily being Dumb Muscle while Autumn is prone to being Stupid Evil. However, Frank Horrigan is a mutated cyborg who is fanatically loyal to the President, revels in killing people even when he doesn't have to, and is exceptionally difficult to defeat. In contrast, Autumn is a normal human who can be motivated to turn on President Eden, is far more restrained in his villainy (such as when he expresses disgust in Eden's plan to exterminate all contaminated humans), and ultimately proves to be fairly easy to defeat. Their contrasting loyalties also tie into how they function as final confrontations. While Horrigan cannot be talked down or avoided in any way, Autumn and his men can be convinced to peacefully leave the purifier's control room (either by telling him about President Eden's plan or by saying he has nothing left to fight for if Raven Rock has been destroyed).
  • Fallout: New Vegas has Caesar's Legion, a fanatical slave army, that saw reliance on modern technology and medicine as a weakness, only begrudgingly using modern weaponry out necessity, led by a brilliant and charismatic, but delusional, Roman wannabe.
  • Fallout 4
    • Depending on the player's own personal views, the Institute and the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel from can both be seen as this, both of which are technologically advanced Knight Templars. The Institute is one of the few factions continuing to pioneer science in the post-apocalypse, but they're homicidally short-sighted by a lack of proper government and have their every physical whim granted by their personal machines and enslaved Artificial Humans. This utterly disgusts the Brotherhood, who were founded on the principle of keeping advanced technology out of the hands of those they see as not fit to wield it.
    • The Institute are also this trope towards Caesar's Legion from the previous game. As alluded to above, the Institute is technophilic, basing their entire society around the creation of Artificial Humans. Meanwhile, the technophobic Legion deliberately keeps themselves limited on the tech spectrum because of Caesar's personal beliefs. The Legion is also a purely military organization run in a brutal dictatorship that rules over its subjects with harsh and direct punishment. The Institute is a purely civilian organization run in a loose confederacy (the various Institute divisions are mentioned as mostly working independently unless the Directorate personally steps in and wants multiple departments to work together on a single project) that rules over its subjects with cloak-and-dagger tactics that breed paranoia and makes sure people never know who was really holding the smoking gun. The Legion's military is powerful and expansionist, with only the NCR exceeding their might, while the Institute is actually rather weak in a straight fight, only kept safe by their secrecy and focus on espionage. The Legion also deliberately stylizes itself after both the Roman Empire and Sparta, while the Institute is loosely based after Renaissance Italy and the Soviet Union (although they intentionally try to avoid iconography because they see themselves as the true inheritors of the future and not chained to any past).
• Fatal Frame certainly reuses the 'priestess of a failed ritual' as its common tie between its antagonists, but the biggest contrast comes in Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, the fourth game. The antagonist Sakuya has her ritual be the most recent event in the series' timeline — it happened during the 1970s, whereas the previous and later rituals took places during the Edo or early Meiji period, and she wears red while Reika, from the third game, wore blue as her main attire. There's also Sakuya's condition of the Moonlight Syndrome being referred to and treated as an actual medical condition, despite its clearly supernatural causes.
• In the Fire Emblem series:
  • Most main antagonists are either hulking Tin Tyrants or manipulative Evil Sorcerers who seek to Take Over the World, or incomprehensible dragons or other god-like entities that seek to level it. They also tend to be the all leaders of their factions and have their own unique classes. The Final Bosses of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, on the other hand, buck this trend.
    • In Thracia 776, Veld is certainly a major threat, but he is clearly subordinated to the main antagonists of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Manfroy and Julius. He is also a surprisingly weak Dark Bishop who is only separated from the random chapter bosses you mow down by his personal Stone tome.
    • In Fates: Conquest, Takumi is your own brother who seeks revenge on you for betraying him and getting his mother killed. He is never given the Big Bad position on his own, as he is either subordinate to Ryoma or a thrall of whatever corrupted Garon (revealed to be Anankos on the Revelation route). Finally, he is a mechanically unremarkable Sniper who relies on a very dangerous skillset and a stupidly powerful 1-4 range weapon to kick your ass.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones has Lyon. This is made most apparent when compared to his immediate two predecessors, Nergal and Zephiel. Compared to them, Lyon isn't an Obviously Evil Tin Tyrant or Evil Sorceror with a sympathetic backstory. Instead, he is a Tragic Villain whose friendship with the heroes helped lead to his fall to villainy - and it's not due to the heroes actions messing things up, it's due to his own attempts to get better that he messes up and falls. Lyon himself along with his resurrected father are revealed to be mere puppets of Fomortiis the Demon King, who either possessed or corrupted Lyon into resurrecting Vigarde to start the war across Magvel, in order to have Grado invade the other nations and destroy their Sacred Stones which sealed his body away.
• Lord Brevon from Freedom Planet is a completely unsympathetic Galactic Conqueror who only wants to save his home world to maintain his own power. Merga from Freedom Planet 2, on the other hand, is a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds lashing out over the loss of her people and beloved.
• God of War:
  • The Greek Gods are contrasted by the Norse Gods. While the Greek Gods put on an air of aristocracy and haughtiness, and are shown to have been Jerkass Gods even prior to being corrupted by Pandora's box, the Norse Gods are more down to earth, yet no less threatening, and the majority of them aren't really all that evil, being either morally grey or even outright good, with only Odin and Heimdall being portrayed as truly evil.
  • Two of the main villains of God of War Ragnarök contrast a villain from the previous game.
    • Odin serves as a contrast to Zeus. While both have goals centered around averting their fate and a penchant for shapeshifting and manipulation, Zeus is tall, muscular, a Walking Shirtless Scene, and has a long beard and hair, while Odin is short, thin, is always conservatively dressed, and has a short beard and is balding. Both are Abusive Parents, but whereas Zeus is portrayed as physically abusive, Odin is portrayed as emotionally abusive. Zeus is implied to have had at least some redeeming qualities prior to being corrupted by Pandora's box, while Odin was always the way he is. Zeus has a royal and grandiose personality that makes him feel like a true evil king, is willing to directly combat his enemies, and tends to make grand displays of power, while Odin has a subdued personality and acts along the lines of a Corrupt Corporate Executive, prefers to throw his subordinates at his enemies to deal with them, and isn't particularly overt in displays of his power. And whereas Zeus has an Undying Loyalty from those who serve him, Odin is Hated by All.
    • Heimdall serves as a contrast to Baldur. While both are Lean and Mean subordinates of Odin, have a power that makes it near impossible to hurt them, and pursue Kratos and Atreus on Odin's orders, Baldur is a messy and unkempt bruiser whose Nigh-Invulnerability allowed him to tank anything thrown at him, and is portrayed as a Tragic Villain, while Heimdall is a well-dressed and groomed man who fights with precision and whose Combat Clairvoyance allows him to dodge any attack thrown at him, and is portrayed as a Hate Sink. How they're defeated differs as well, with Baldur being defeated by pure chance when Kratos and Atreus accidentally use a mistletoe arrow to break his invulnerability, and spends his final battle ecstatic over his curse finally being broken, while Heimdall is defeated due to Kratos coming prepared with the Draupnir Spear to counter his precognition, and spends his final moments undergoing a Villainous Breakdown.
• Grand Theft Auto V: Devin Weston is this for most of the previous antagonists of the series, who were mostly small-time thugs and old school mobsters. In many ways, Devin Weston is a Foil or even an inverted Shadow Archetype to them, a reflection of the frustrations of antagonists like Jimmy Pegorino and the personification of what every antagonistic mobster would wish to be: legal, powerful, billionaire, feared, and hedonistic. However, despite his influence and power, he is a complete coward and absolutely lacks any intimidating aspect.
• Justice and Dizzy from Guilty Gear: The Missing Link and Guilty Gear X. Both are Commander Gears, and even relatives (Dizzy is Justice's daughter), but while the former is a genocidal warlord in Powered Armor out to exterminate all mankind, the latter is a kind Friend to All Living Things who just wants to be left alone, and the only reason you're going after her at all is the threat she poses as a Commander Gear. They both have Testament as their right-hand man as well, who themself is notably different in personality between games, being the Lone Psycho kind of Goth in Missing Link as a result of being controlled by Justice, and a Gloomy Atoner Goth in X as they choose to protect Dizzy of his own free will.
  • I-No from XX isn't a Gear at all and has no connection to Justice, and is working for another character - That Man. She's also utterly sadistic and manipulative, frequently causing mayhem for no reason other than The Evulz, leading to That Man having to clean up her messes when they get too extreme.
  • Valentine from Overture is once again connected to Justice, and is an Emotionless Girl dutifully working to further the agenda of an unknown Big Bad (revealed in Xrd to be The Universal Will). The only time she shows emotion when you finally thwart her plans, at which point she flies into an Unstoppable Rage.
  • Ramlethal from Xrd is another "Valentine" like the one in Overture, and from her first appearance it's clear from her sporting a Slasher Smile at the end that while she tries to keep up an act of being an Emotionless Girl like her predecessor, she's already developing emotions. Also unlike her predecessor, she's actually redeemed at the end of the story.
• Gunfighter: The Legend of Jesse James: The villain of the first game is the corrupt Sheriff Jack Carson, a sworn enemy of Jesse James who is directly responsible for the death of Jesse's best friend Cole, and intends to form an alliance with Pancho Villa to massacre all the outlaws, including Jesse himself, where most of the game revolves around Jesse trying to stop that meeting. In the second game, Revenge of Jesse James, however, the new villain is Bob Younger, Jesse's Evil Former Friend who, due to Misplaced Retribution, blames Jesse over his brother's death, firstly by exposing Jesse for robbing Fort Knox (making Jesse a wanted man in the process) and then having his legion of outlaws hunting Jesse in every level.
• In the first Halo trilogy, the main threat, aside from the Covenant, was the Flood, a biological Hive Minded parasite led by the Gravemind. In the second trilogy, their role is taken up by Forerunner Promethean constructs, led by the Didact in Halo 4 and Cortana and the Warden Eternal in Halo 5: Guardians. Notably, the Prometheans were deployed against the Flood during the last days of the Forerunner Ecumene. The Covenant themselves go from the dominant force in the Orion Arm in the first trilogy to a smaller but more fanatical terrorist group in the second one; in fact, the specific faction the player fights is only one of many Covenant remnants.
  • The Banished, the main villains of Halo Wars 2 and Halo Infinite, have the same species as the Covenant but are otherwise very different. The Covenant was a religious, theocratic empire, had predominantly purple structures, vessels, and weapons, and was ruled by the spindly, non-combatant Prophets/San 'Shyuum. The Banished are outcast, rebels who rejected the Covenant religion, have predominantly red structures, vessels, and weapons, and are ruled by the bulky, violent Brutes/Jiralhanae. Where the Covenant was defined by its religion and often stifled by refusing to perform "heretical" actions, the Banished disdain religion and are much more pragmatic. The Covenant had a rigidly defined caste system where one's species determined one's role, while the Banished's leader espouses meritocracy, being willing to promote anyone to any position regardless of race, so long as they prove competent. Also, while the Covenant Brutes had a vicious Interservice Rivalry with the Elites/Sangheili that eventually turned into an Enemy Civil War, the Brutes and Elites in the Banished get along just fine (the surprisingly warm interactions between the Brute Escharum and the Elite Jega 'Rdomnai in Infinite demonstrate this well).
• Sega's Illusion trilogy starring Mickey Mouse for their 8-bit systems has a different villain for each installment, though all of them are Disney villains under different names. Castle of Illusion had Mizrabel, who was based on Queen Grimhilde from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (specifically, her hag guise), Land of Illusion had the Phantom, who was based on The Horned King from The Black Cauldron, and Legend of Illusion had the Sorcerer of Darkness, who was based on Merlock from DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. While each of them uses magic spells in their battles against Mickey, their motives are all different; Mizrabel kidnapped Minnie out of jealousy for her beauty and popularity, the Phantom stole a magical crystal and used its powers to transform Mickey's friends into his henchmen to serve his evil purposes, and the Sorcerer of Darkness dammed up the River of Time so the Water of Life couldn't flow and everyone's crops would wither. In particular, the Sorcerer transforms into a dragon after Mickey defeats him in his normal form, and although he is the Big Bad for most of the game, he is not the game's final boss the way Mizrabel and the Phantom were in Castle and Land. That honor goes to King Pete, who had sent Mickey on the quest to recover the Water of Life, only to attempt to arrest Mickey at the end of the game upon finding out that whoever does recover the water will be crowned the new king of the Kingdom of Pete.
• Iron Marines makes a contrast with the villain factions of the game's three worlds/planets, with their motives, their nature and their weaponry/abilities.
  • Sagaan-1 had the Fell, whose motive was to consume the resources of and destroy Sagaan-1. They were made of flesh and bone and used Organic Technology and Natural Weapons in combat.
  • Ascendaar had the Peripheroids, whose motive was to hold VIPs hostage. They were made of metal and circuitry and used lasers, electricity and missiles in combat.
  • Borealis had the Raad, whose motive was galactic invasion. They were made of plasma and used Elemental Powers in combat.
• Jak and Daxter:
  • Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy has Gol Acheron, the sage of dark eco gone rogue who works alongside his sister Maia in a Big Bad Duumvirate. At one point a benign (if not reclusive) eco sage seeking to study the effects dark eco for the benefit of the world, constant exposure to the substance corrupted Gol and Maia's minds to the point of wanting to use dark eco to reshape the world in their image. To do this, they enlisted the aid of a race of monstrous creatures called Lurkers to collect precursor relics for them to construct a Humongous Mecha that would allow them to open silos across the land filled with enough dark eco to flood the planet, while the Acherons themselves abducted their fellow eco sages to use their powers to recharge their robot. Compared to the antagonists that succeeded them, Jak and Daxter have no initial enmity with Gol and seek him out in hope that his knowledge of dark eco will help them find a way to turn Daxter back into a human, though their objective changes once they realize who Gol is and what he plans to do with the dark eco.
  • Jak II: Renegade has Baron Praxis, the corrupt and tyrannical dictator who rules Haven City with an iron fist. Compared to Gol, who Jak and Daxter didn't know until well into the first game, Praxis immediately establishes himself as the object of Jak's hatred by unjustly jailing him and subjecting to inhumane dark eco experiments for two years in hopes of creating a super weapon to annihilate his enemies, the Metal Heads. While this initially makes him seem like a Well-Intentioned Extremist, it is later revealed he's bribing the Metal Heads with eco to attack the city just enough to justify his continued rule, at least until Praxis could find a way to betray them.
• Kingdom Hearts: while Master Xehanort is the overall Big Bad of the Dark Seeker Saga, he and his incarnations contrast each other.
  • Kingdom Hearts has Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Xehanort’s Heartless who waxes on passionately about darkness and has an army of Heartless under his command while manipulating the Disney villains from behind the scenes.
  • Kingdom Hearts II has Xemnas, Xehanort’s Nobody who is also the leader of Organization XIII and relies on both the organization and lesser Nobodies to carry out his will and wants to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts so that he and his fellow Nobodies can become whole again.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has Master Xehanort himself, a dark Keyblade Master who wants to unlock the secrets of both Kingdom Hearts and the Keyblade War by creating two beings- one of pure light and one of pure darkness- and have them fight each other to reforge the legendary χ-blade.
  • Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has Young Xehanort, who is Master Xehanort’s younger self with the power to travel through time and manages to interrupt the Mark of Mastery exam in order to make Sora the thirteenth vessel in the Real Organization XIII.
  • Kingdom Hearts III has Master Xehanort again, and this time he is the leader of the Real Organization XIII and plans to reforge the χ-blade by starting another Keyblade War via the clash of the Seven Guardians of Light and the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness.
• The King of Fighters has the saga villains that contrast each other.
  • Orochi from the Orochi Saga, is an infamous creature of legend that has existed since immemorial times, and seeks to destroy mankind to protect the earth. He also the god and leader of a cult called the Hakkeshu to help him in his plans.
  • Igniz from the NESTS Saga, is the leader of NESTS, a Nebulous Evil Organization that specializes in bio-engineering, and in contrast to Orochi who is a Physical God and seeks to destroy mankind, Igniz seeks to become a god by gathering data from the fighters and even sees humanity as nothing more than playthings for his experiments and entertainment.
  • Saiki, from the Tales of Ash Saga, is a deity created by the planet like Orochi, but contrasting both Orochi and Igniz, he managed to have descendants after he went into hiding and wants to use Orochi's power to go back in time and change the past so he can rule the world in both the past and future.
  • Otoma-Raga, from the Shun'ei Saga, is yet another godly being, though in her case she hails from outside the dimension KOF takes place in, unlike the previous antagonists who were all from Earth. While Orochi is based on Japanese mythology and Saiki is mentioned to be the western counterpart to him, Otoma instead takes inspiration from African mythology. Oh, and she's also female.
  • Downplayed with the NESTS Team of 2001 when compared to the Orochi Team of '97, with both teams consisting of a well endowed flirty wrestler (Ángel and Shermie), a young, psychotic pyrokinetic (K9999 and Chris), and a tall, white-haired mature person tasked with keeping the others in check (Foxy and Yashiro), with their leader having been introduced in the previous game (Kula and Goenitz). However, they diverge from each other in many ways as well: the NESTS Team answer to the scientific Igniz whilst the Orochi Team answer to the supernatural Orochi, Kula is a naïve teenage girl with cryokinetic powers whereas Goenitz is a well-educated middle-aged man able to control the wind, Ángel is a practitioner of American-style pro wrestling rather than the Japanese-style puroresu Shermie employs, K9999 is far more openly malevolent than Chris is to the point that not even his teammates are safe from his wrath, Foxy is an elegant Lady of War who fights with a rapier while Yashiro is a Boisterous Bruiser who fights with his bare hands, and while the NESTS Team eventually defect from the company whilst simultaneously collapsing due to infighting, the Orochi Team, despite their misgivings and mutual camaraderie, remain loyal to their master.
• Klonoa: The Big Bad of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, Ghadius, is contrasted heavily with both Leorina and The King of Sorrow, The Heavy and Big Bad respectively of Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. The respective Dragon of Ghadius and Leorina, Joka and Tat, would also contrast with one another.
  • Ghadius and Leorina both have an intimidating presence, dark clothing, and deep voices. Ghadius is the Big Bad of his game, and he is known to be the Big Bad from the moment we see him. Leorina initially seems like the Big Bad of Lunatea's Veil but turns out to be a Disc-One Final Boss. Ghadius stays evil to the end and dies laughing as his plan to summon Nahatomb succeeds, while Leorina makes a Heel–Face Turn after Klonoa saves her from being cursed.
  • Ghadius and the King of Sorrow represent a negative aspect of their world that was rejected by the inhabitants (Nightmares and Sorrow respectively) and seek the world's destruction because of that, but that's where the similarities end.
    • While it's made clear that Ghadius is the Big Bad from the moment we see him at the end of the first Vision, the King's role and identity are kept hidden until the very end. Ghadius is directly fought before the final boss, while the King is the Final Boss.
    • Ghadius sought to destroy the world from the beginning and he's even willing to die if it means taking all of Phantomile with him, whereas the King initially only wanted to make Lunatea remember his Kingdom, before deciding to destroy the world outright after losing his remaining sanity during the final battle.
    • Ghadius is portrayed as an irredeemably evil villain to the very end, with nobody sympathizing with him, and he dies laughing at the success of awakening Nahatomb and heralding Phantomille's destruction, whereas the King is a Tragic Villain, Well-Intentioned Extremist, and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds that Klonoa feels sympathy for and actually helps the King with his goal before comforting and reassuring him Lunatea will remember Sorrow, allowing the King to pass away peacefully.
    • Ghadius' goal to destroy Phantomile is completely foiled, Klonoa kills Nahatomb before the monster can even do anything and Lephise heals the world with her song. The King of Sorrow's goal for his kingdom to be accepted by Lunatea on the other hand is fulfilled, with Klonoa and Lolo ringing the Bell of Sorrow so Hyuponia will reconnect with Lunatea. The ending has Leorina and Tat work on rebuilding the Kingdom of Sorrow.
  • Joka and Tat are cheerful, comical sidekicks to a dark and intimidating antagonist. Both resemble a clownlike cat, although Joka's design leans more towards "clown," while Tat's leans more towards "cat." Tat has a flirtatious Tsundere attitude towards Klonoa, while Joka is Faux Affably Evil with no such feelings. Both have a moment early in the game where they get on top of a high ledge and wait to see if Klonoa can make it up there. Joka mocks Klonoa, only to panic when Klonoa actually succeeds. Tat gives Klonoa a tip on how to get up to the ledge because she likes him a little. Tat gives Klonoa a hint on how to get up to the ledge out of kindness, while Joka accidentally gives Klonoa hints on how to beat his monsters out of sheer stupidity. Tat makes a Heel–Face Turn and lives to the end along with Leorina, while Joka stays evil to the end and dies just like Ghadius. In fact, the connection between Tat and Joka is highlighted in Phantasy Reverie Series, where the DLC allows Klonoa to wear a Joka mask in the first game, and a Tat mask in the second game.
• Knights of the Old Republic: Darth Malak is a physically towering villain, who strictly follows the Sith line of strength = power. He's not subtle and will destroy a whole planet for one Jedi and has a simple plan, use the Star Forge, build a lot of powerful weapons and conquer the galaxy. In his death scene, Malak admits that he deserves it because he wasn't strong enough to be the true Sith lord.
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: the third member of the Sith Triumvirate, Darth Traya is a anti-villain with Black And Gray Morality; she's also a physically weak, blind old woman who begins the series disgraced and exiled by the Sith, and actually spends most of the game as a main party-member known as Kreia. Hating the Force itself for dictating countless galactic struggles in pursuit of balance, she wants to destroy the Force through manipulation of her apprentice the Jedi Exile. Most of the time Traya doesn't kill her most dangerous, potential enemies, but breaks them into serving her, e.g. Anton, Hanharr, Darth Sion. The most 'violent' thing she does beyond self-defense is kill the Jedi Masters who planned to cut the Force from her apprentice.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic, has The Sith Emperor Vitiate, who, like Malak and Traya has a connection to Revan as he’s the one who turned him to the dark side in the first place, but in contrast to Malak and Traya, is a Sith pureblood and the founder of the true Sith Empire, who uses his followers as pawns, secretly created new empires and tried to become a god by committing genocide.
  • He also plays this with himself, through his multiple personas:
    • Darth Vitiate orchestrates events atop a lofty, shadowed throne, instilling fear through mere presence and the extent of his empire and machinations. Once confronted, he is dismissive of any threats, and sees even death as just a setback.
    • Valkorian is more in-touch with humanity and how to manipulate it, playing brother against brother against sister, all the while presenting a respectable facade to the host of his spirit. This is all an act, of course, and once they all challenge him, he is particularly wrathful in attacking their emotional weaknesses.
    • Tenebrae, "purified" of his original self's detachment and distractions, is the most straight-forward—a true Sith in his grasp at power. He discards manipulation for simply attempting to overwhelm his captives' minds, and while he is complimentary of the PC's accomplishments, he doesn't waste time when trying to consume them too. As a result of his overconfidence, he is the most shocked, outraged, and cornered of the personalities when his resurrection is revealed to have been a trap all along.
• LiEat:
  • Each Big Bad of LiEat is different from one to the other.
    • Rachel Rigfire is a vampire in Vermilion Town who is responsible for Carol's death at the start of the game, who is driven from her bloodlust and cares for her older brother Keith. Olivia Cameron is a snake lady who works in the casino in Azure Town, who is Lucas' abusive girlfriend. Rachel is a Tragic Villain whose villainy is triggered by her vampiric nature where Keith protects her from being executed due to her nature. Olivia is a Smug Snake who is the complete opposite to Rachel in many ways, being an obsessive Yandere and a Sore Loser who refuses to accept losses and is Obviously Evil, going so far in using William to initiate a mass memory wipeout.
    • Unlike the previous antagonists Rachel and Olivia, the main antagonist of III, Cyril "Butterfly Thief" Leonhart, is a human who is Phantom Thief and a Bifauxnen who looks like a boy at first. She has similarities to Olivia, being charismatic, manipulative and charming; but while Olivia is a Smug Snake who cannot handle losses and resorts to abuse and cheating, Cyril is a Phantom Thief who is extremely suave and skilled, who doesn't go into a breakdown when her plans are in danger. Both the previous antagonists were the Non-Action Big Bad of their games and had zero close relations to Teo, while Cyril is forefront to the action and has a very deeply personal connection to Teo.
  • The other antagonists are also different in each game, despite being Lie-corrupted near the end of the game.
    • Keith Rigfire is the titular Vermilion Vampire, who is Rachel's 18-year-old older brother, has a calm and collected personality and will do anything extreme to protect her from execution from the town's townspeople. William is the titular Azure Dreameater, who is a 4-month-old dragon boy (appearing as 4 years old) serving as Sofia Juanele's servant, is extremely shy and naive, being an innocent boy who is unable to comprehend good and evil. Both were eventually corrupted by Lies from their actions, but while Keith constantly lies to the town's visitors about Rachel's actions, William instead lies about how everything is right that ultimately led him to have more self-doubts.
    • Unlike the previous antagonists, the titular Gold Thief is not the Final Boss of the game that is fought by Efina. Instead it is Theobald Leonhart, who becomes the Big Bad Friend to Efina in III. Unlike Keith and William who lie to hide their tragedy and their insecurities and don't have personal connections to the main character, Theo is a Consummate Liar who lies a lot more convincingly and is an experienced young man, who has a lot more personal connections towards his disowned "family" and is the target of Cyril's enmity.
• In all of The Legend of Zelda games that feature the same Link but follow a different villain, the new villain will contrast the previous in one way or another (and often they inevitably end up being Hijacked by Ganon anyhow).
  • The first game had Ganon, a feared leader of the monsters that ravaged Hyrule, and who is defined by his desire to possess the full Triforce. He evades Link with invisibility and fires magical bolts at him. The Final Boss of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was Link's Shadow, a Doppelgänger of Link and a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere. He is the final test that must be overcome before Link can obtain the Triforce of Courage, and he relies entirely on his sword to fight.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past features the return of Ganon, having used the alter ego of Agahnim as he sought to regain power. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening features the Nightmares, who differ from all other villains in that they want to save the world, as while they are a threat that keeps the Windfish asleep, defeating them and waking up the Windfish will cause Koholint Island and its inhabitants to disappear.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is the king of the Gerudo who seeks to claim the Triforce to conquer the world of Hyrule out of his hunger for power. In The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the demonic entity in the titular Artifact of Doom took control of the Skull Kid to destroy the world of Termina For the Evulz.
  • The sub-trilogy that started with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker has this with its three main villains. In The Wind Waker, Ganondorf, after breaking free from the seal that contained him, had started to outgrow his original evil nature and become a more complex figure who wanted the Triforce to restore Hyrule despite still wanting to control it (this in turn gives him a contrast from both his ruthless portrayal in Ocarina of Time and the For the Evulz-minded antagonist of the preceding 3D game, Majora's Mask). In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Bellum was a mindless beast who was trying to break free from its own seal and only seemed interested in consuming life force. Also unlike Ganondorf, Link does not know of Bellum's existence until midway in the game. Even their signature hideouts fit this. The island-based Forsaken Fortress was designed by Ganondorf to repel any intruders, and he abandons it partway through the game. Bellum's Ghost Ship is mobile and lasts the entire game, and it was designed to use rumors of treasure to lure people in to have their life force drained. They are followed by Cole in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, a small, leprechaun-like demon who at first pretends to be on the side of the royal family. While Ganondorf was an Affably Evil Magic Knight and Bellum was an Eldritch Abomination with powers derived from the Sands of Time, Cole is a Smug Snake who has to fall back on his dragon Byrne or his superior Malladus when faced with a threat.
  • Yuga and Lady Maud were both obsessed with beauty, but in different ways. Yuga was a vain painter while Lady Maud was a vain fashion designer. Yuga was The Sociopath who manipulated Princess Hilda by pretending to care for Lorule so he could claim the Triforce to remake the world in his image, Lady Maud cursed Princess Styla with an ugly dress as a "gift" because she hated her cute outfits and is offended that it is called a curse. Another departure from the series usual villains is that Lady Maud doesn't die when she's defeated.
  • Though The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a prequel to the franchise, Eiji Aonuma confirmed in an interview prior to the game's release that Ghirahim was designed with this mindset as a contrast to Ganondorf. Ganondorf wears black armor while Ghirahim wore a white suit. Ganondorf was muscular and masculine, Ghirahim was slim and feminine. Both take on transformations, but while Ganon was a hulking pig monster, Ghirahim's transformation, his true form, was still the same body type. Even their Leitmotifs sound like opposites with Ganondorf's ascending and Ghirahim's descending.
  • In a strange case of being two variants of the same character, the Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was specifically designed to contrast his appearance in Wind Waker. In the Wind Waker timeline, Ganondorf is humbled by his defeat at the hands of the Hero of Time and the Goddesses' flooding of Hyrule, leading to an Older and Wiser Ganon who, while still evil, shows signs of being a Noble Demon and Well-Intentioned Extremist who seems to genuinely regret some of his past actions, or at least their unintended consequences. In the Twilight Princess timeline, however, Ganondorf's initial plan to get the Triforce is thwarted before it even begins, only for him to later get the Triforce of Power anyway due to a "divine prank" that was the result of the Hero of Time's Time Travel. This turns Ganon into a manipulative, sadistic brute with a god complex and no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
  • Calamity Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is considered by the people of Hyrule to be a force of nature; nothing like the Sorcerous Overlord incarnations it had assumed previously. It takes the form of a great miasma cloud in the shape of a serpentine boar, encircling the ruins of Hyrule castle where Princess Zelda has been keeping its true form contained for the past century.^note That's right; unlike how it ever was before, this time it's Zelda who has Ganon locked away!
  • In Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Astor is a clear contrast with Cia from Hyrule Warriors. While Cia was the Guardian of Time, Astor is a mortal who was chosen at random to serve Ganon. While Cia was a beautiful woman with revealing clothes, Astor is a zombie-like man with a robe and hood. While Cia was ultimately a lonely figure who fell in love with Link, Astor is a Misanthrope Supreme who doesn't care if the world burns for the sake of his personal legend.
  • While Calamity Ganon was a bestial and primal entity that ravaged the world through instinct and hate alone, Ganondorf of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is far more conniving and deliberate in his actions to eradicate Hyrule. The most cunning thing Calamity Ganon did was corrupt the Guardians and the Divine Beasts with his Malice. By the time of Tears of the Kingdom, however, Ganondorf takes a tailored approach to deal with Hyrule's many obstacles, personally manipulating Link with a fake Zelda, all while he continues to gather strength in preparation for his final confrontation with Link. This even extends to his actions in the past. He pulls a Kansas City Shuffle on Zelda and Sonia to steal Queen Sonia's Secret Stone and is even moments away from defeating the Seven Sages until Rauru performs a Heroic Sacrifice to keep him sealed away for years, and even then his raw power is so strong that it leaks out and operates as Calamity Ganon in the previous game. That said, when push comes to shove, Ganondorf refuses to go down without a fight and also transforms himself into a purely bestial enemy for Link to defeat, but unlike Calamity Ganon, he does so deliberately rather than it simply leaking from him.
• Life Is Strange:
  • The original game has Mark Jefferson as the kidnapper of Rachel Amber. He is a Hidden Villain who's identity is hinted at but not revealed until the end, and seems to be a nice person before being revealed as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. He also has a respectable job as a teacher, is a beloved artist, and has Sean Prescott backing him up, all while hiding behind his pawn Nathan Prescott who does some of the dirty work. In Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, Damon Merrick is a gangster who is Obviously Evil, presented as the villain from the start, and has less resources than Jefferson does. He also has the inverse relationship with James Amber as Mark does with Natahn, as Damon is working for James but is blatantly using him and the one really in charge.
  • In The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Charles Eriksen is a normal father in contrast to the other two, and is treated much more sympathetically, as while he is an abusive father, he is a Troubled Abuser who is driven by the death of his wife and is trying to improve.
  • In Life Is Strange 2, the antagonist is not a single character like in the previous games, but an organization- the police, who chase after the Diaz brothers after an accident involving Daniel's psychic powers killed a cop. Unlike the others, they are depicted mainly as a Hero Antagonist who have no ill will but are doing their job. The closest thing to a single main antagonist is Special Agent Maria Flores, the head of the Diaz brothers case, but she is also a Hero Antagonist. Also, unlike the others, she is female. It also contrasts the previous entries by having a series of Arc Villains to also antagonize the Diaz brothers.
• Metro:
  • Metro 2033 has the original main villains, the Dark Ones, former humans turned mutants who have psychic powers. In reality, they not a threat to humanity and are more of an Anti-Villain. But the repeated hostile actions of humanity in the Moscow Metro, which puts humans being the real monsters , is what led them to become a hostile threat in the first place.
  • Metro: Last Light introduces the far-left communist faction Red Line and its corrupt leader General Korbut as the main villains, who are drastically different to its predecessor villains as they are human in flesh and blood. Korbut orchestrates a master plan to steal the virus to initiate an apocalypse to destroy any of his political rivals to rule Metro for himself.
• Little Tail Bronx:
  • Tail Concerto's main villain is Fool, a black arms dealer who goads the Black Cats Gang into collecting crystals to awaken an ancient super-weapon known as the Iron Giant so he can try and rule the world with it. He's also the only villain to never be fought directly in battle, given how "physical labor isn't [his] style".
  • Solatorobo: Red the Hunter has Bruno Dondurma for the first half of the game, leader and founder of the respected Kurvaz Hunter's Guild that wants to awaken Lares to spread his dominance throughout the world. But following his defeat, the second half has his role supplanted by Baion, who believes himself to be Gaia's Vengeance and wants to commit mass genocide, believing the Caninu and Felineko races to be "failures" no better than the humans of eons ago. He also doesn't have a military force of his own to carry out his dirty work, as he and his creations Nero and Blanck are more than powerful enough to level an entire city themselves.
  • The original Fuga: Melodies of Steel gives us Colonel General Shvein Hax, the man commanding the all-out invasion of Gasco on behalf of the Berman Army. Like Fool and Bruno, his ultimate goal is to reawaken a Living Weapon to wield its power for his own ends, but that's where the similarities end. Unlike Fool, he has an entire army at his disposal as opposed to just the Black Cats Gang, and he's also not too lazy or cowardly to fight the heroes himself, since he actively encourages the children to try and fight him once his plan is in motion. And unlike Bruno was seemingly motivated by nothing more than a desire to Take Over the World and attain power purely for the sake of it, Hax is motivated by Patriotic Fervor and doesn't even bother trying to be a Villain with Good Publicity since he truly believes what he's doing is righteous and is aided mostly by subordinates who feel the same. To a lesser degree, Hax is also the first villain to be a Mirror Boss, as his Tarascus tank is functionally similar to the children's Taranis.
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 has Cayenne Riesling, as revealed late into the game. On the surface he's something of a Mirror Character to Hax, a Felineko from Gasco who's out to attack Berman while Hax was a Berman Caninu out to attack Gasco. However, as more of his machinations are revealed it's evident that he's not motivated by any sort of Patriotic Fervor like Hax was, and only cares about his own personal vendetta against Berman for the deaths of his wife and son. By the time he's nearly succeeded in his plans he's eager to destroy both nations just to suit himself, while Hax at the very least never relented on his loyalty to Berman and never did anything to harm it up to the very end.
• Mari and the Black Tower: Morgoth, like Typhus before him, has been influenced by Lilith's master into plotting the destruction of humanity. Unlike Typhus, who was corrupted by the Vulcan Stone, Morgoth was Driven to Madness by Lilith's master directly due to receiving visions of the world's destruction. Additionally, Typhus has his own Doomsday Cult of mostly willing followers while Morgoth has to use the miasma to brainwash Vera and the nymphs into serving him. Finally, Typhus is defeated by an ancient enchanted sword while Morgoth is defeated by a miasma-immune warrior from a sci-fi future.
• Metroid:
  • Mother Brain, from the first game and one of the main antagonists of the franchise as a whole, is an intelligent Supercomputer whose goal is to conquer the galaxy and is also the true leader of the Space Pirates.
  • The Queen Metroid, the main villain of the second game, is a simple feral creature that is the source of the Metroids and protective of its offspring.
  • Metroid Fusion has the SA-X, a member of the X Parasite species, and is a copy of Samus (in her suit, at least) in contrast to most villains, and isn’t the leader of its race, but still serves as a main villain due to its intelligence and power.
  • Dark Samus, the Big Bad of the Prime Trilogy is this to SA-X. Both are Evil Counterparts to Samus, retain her weaponry and are out for her blood. While the SA-X is merely using her tools as Samus would, Dark Samus puts a twist on almost every tool both of them share and even displays tricks Samus lacks entirely. Whereas SA-X seeks to kill Samus knowing that she possesses Metroid DNA which fully counters the X Parasites, Dark Samus seems to want to rule the universe through Phazon to infect every planet. Dark Samus was originally a Metroid while SA-X is an X Parasite. To further this contrast, Dark Samus was originally Metroid Prime, which is a mutated Metroid, the natural enemy of the X Parasites.
  • Raven Beak from Metroid Dread contrasts to most of the previous main villains of the series:
    • Most of them, such as the Queen Metroid and SA-X, were just instinct-driven monsters with only vaguely-implied intelligence.
    • Mother Brain was a megalomaniacal mastermind with mostly simple-minded beasts working under her through mental manipulation rather than brute force. This is best seen with Kraid's status under her versus his status under Raven Beak.
    • Dark Samus, while about as cruel, only coveted the Phazon and had Omnicidal Maniac goals.
    • Alarmingly, the one that Raven has the most in common with is Ridley, in that they are both violent, narcissistic and destructive commanders with no redeeming qualities to speak of; and even then, while Ridley's monstrous personality is only implied in certain sources like the Metroid manga and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Raven's depravity is made front and center from the get-go. To top it off, the other antagonists were Arc Villains at the very least, while Raven Beak singlehandedly kickstarted the entire series' Myth Arc, indirectly causing all of the above mentioned's own schemes or conceptions. In contrast, Ridley is consistently The Dragon to the true Big Bad, in spite of his rivalry with Samus. It's telling when, according to sources such as the Manga, Ridley at least had a measure of camaraderie with his men despite being a Bad Boss and seemingly had an actual friendship with Kraid, while Raven has loyalty to absolutely no one but himself and seemingly left his men to fend for themselves during the X Parasite outbreak. Their relationships to Samus are are also polar opposites, with Ridley having orphaned Samus by killing her human parents, while Raven Beak considers her his daughter due to him donating his DNA to her.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • The final boss of Mortal Kombat is Shang Tsung, an elderly, shapeshifting sorcerer who oversees the MK tournament. His fighting style revolves around tossing fiery skulls and copying other characters.
  • Mortal Kombat II introduces Shang Tsung's master, Shao Kahn. Kahn is a massive barbarian warlord who simply overwhelms his opponents with sheer brute strength and lightning speed...when he isn't taunting them.
  • Mortal Kombat 4 and by extension Mortal Kombat X have Shinnok, Elder God of Death who is less imposing than Shao Kahn, but is skilled in sorcery, has been manipulating events behind the scenes, and fights with giant skeletal hands and necromancy. He also manages to be The Corrupter, manipulating Raiden, Liu Kang, and Daegon into turning evil.
  • Mortal Kombat: Deception has Onaga who is far more powerful and imposing that either Quan Chi and Shang Tsung, as displayed in the opening cinematic where he No Sells their attacks. Onaga was also the original ruler of Outworld before he was betrayed and killed by Shao Kahn.
  • Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has Daegon as the Big Bad of Konquest Mode. He is an Edenian demigod unlike the previous primary villains who were either from Outworld or Netherealm. He is also opposed by his brother Taven while other villains were opposed by main heroes who were biologically unrelated to them.
  • Mortal Kombat 11 has Kronika, an ancient being who has been manipulating the events of the entire series from behind the scenes, only taking a more proactive role when Raiden proves to be too immutable an obstacle. On top of being the first female lead villain in the series, she is also coldly pragmatic, indifferent to those around her, and exhibits a mastery over the flow of time that makes her the most dangerous foe in the series up to this point.
• The Pigmasks of Mother 3 were pretty explicitly written to contrast Giygas of EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan). Giygas is a freakish alien monster without a comprehensible physical form, while the Pigmasks and their leader Porky Minch are an authoritarian military force who rise to power by exploiting humanity's greed and desire for entertainment. Giygas is scary because he embodies everything mysterious and incomprehensible about the universe beyond Earth, while Porky and the Pigmasks are painfully human in their evil—and they embody everything despicable about the human race.
• No More Heroes III gives us FU. The antagonists of the prior two major entries, Jeane and Jasper Batt Jr., were both professional assassins with some sort of personal connection to Travis, and were largely unseen as a presence until the very end. FU, on the other hand, is a space alien that conquers planets, has no apparent link to the series-wide Cycle of Revenge theme, and openly shows himself, seemingly wanting to get in Travis' way. He also happens to be a childhood friend of Damon, the Greater-Scope Villain of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, who does have a vendetta against Travis, yet is similarly not hidden and not an assassin. In addition, FU doesn't particularly care if his loved ones die as long as he can keep his game of death going.
• In Persona 5, Obvious Judas Akechi is this to Persona 4's Obvious Judas Big Bad, Adachi. Both were detectives who hid their grotesque personality behind an affable mask, and used their supernatural powers for murder & mayhem while seeing themselves as victims. However, Adachi was a Straw Nihilist Serial Killer who had no real goals or motivations while Akechi was a cunning Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist with an elaborate plot for revenge years in the making. In spite of this, Adachi does a far more efficient job in concealing his malicious personality from the Investigation Team than Akechi did with the Phantom Thieves. The Investigation Team never suspected him to be the Killer until late in the game. The Phantom Thieves, on the other hand, never trusted Akechi from the moment he joins their team.
• The Jail Monarchs of Persona 5 Strikers are mirror images of the Palace Rulers of Persona 5, but the most consistent contrast is that the Jail Monarchs are Anti Villains who turned to the Metaverse out of desperation, while the Palace Rulers were Asshole Victims who got what was coming to them.
  • Alice Hiiragi and Suguru Kamoshida are both Starter Villains associated with Lust, and at first glance they seem similar, with Kamoshida viewing women as objects and Alice being a Serial Home Wrecker who steals men, but ultimately, the former is a bully with a lust for sex and power, while the latter turns out to be a bully victim with a lust for revenge. Their differences are encapsulated in their initial interactions with Ann Takamaki: Kamoshida became obsessed with her as a Lust Object, while Alice irrationally pigeonholes her as an Alpha Bitch simply because she's a model.
  • Ango Natsume and Ichiryuusai Madarame are both hack artists who've given up their integrity for money. The latter, however pretends to have an artistic vision while plagiarizing his students works, while the former sincerely wanted to a great writer, but is painfully aware he doesn't have the talent for it, and has settled for brainwashing people into buying up his copy-paste word salad.
  • Mariko Hyodo and Kunizaku Okamura are both Bad Bosses who overwork their staff. But Okamura was just a plain old Corrupt Corporate Executive willing to do anything to break into politics, while Mariko is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is going overboard to get re-elected as mayor and clean up political corruption. Their interactions with Haru Okamura shows their differences most clearly: Okamura was willing to use his daughter for his own benefit, while Mariko is affectionate to her.
  • Akane Hasegawa and Futaba Sakura are both young girls associated with Wrath and complicated relationships with their fathers. Futaba, however, turned her wrath inwards in the form of suicidal depression, while the former has turned her wrath outwards in a petty hatred of all forms of authority. Likewise, Futaba got to personally know the Phantom Thieves and joined them as a member, while the Jail Monarch has a blind idol worship of the Thieves to the point her Shadow masquerades as one and fights with group of cognitive knock-offs she insists are the real deal.
  • Akira Konoe and Masayoshi Shido are the Pride-associated leaders of their conspiracies and have country-spanning ambitions, but Shido was a Faux Affably Evil thug with delusions of grandeur, only got as far as he did with intimidation and brute force, and only cared about his personal prosperity as he spoke about Japan's. The Jail Monarch, meanwhile, is genuinely charismatic, caring and far more intelligent, and truly wants to improve the country. However, their contrasts serve to show their similar flaws: their dependence on supernatural aid and their arrogant belief that they alone are the only ones capable of fixing the country's problems.
• The main antagonists in Pokémon tend to do this, normally taking in account the respective legendary mascot Pokémon of every generation of games, which also normally counts as an antagonist in a primal way:
  • Generation I introduces Giovanni, a well-known mob leader who secretly holds the title of Gym Leader, and his Team Rocket, a mafia-like organization whose main motivations are profit. Though not faced in the main story, there is also the local "major" Olympus Mon Mewtwo, an extremely powerful clone of Mew, though Team Rocket has no connection with it (despite what the animé may say).
  • Generation II introduces Archer, Ariana, Proton and Petrel. Though they were given distinct names and designs in the Gen IV remakes; before that, they were largely identical Rocket Executives with no names, the new commanders of Team Rocket, who unlike Giovanni, are quite weak on their own and only desire the comeback of their leader, their desperation being a main point of the plot. Lugia and Ho-Oh contrast Mewtwo in being a more benign (though hardly less dangerous) duo who are constantly at odds against each other, though they are (again) never mentioned by the villains and are completely optional encounters (not so much in the remakes).
  • Generation III:
    • The game introduces two different teams, as opposed to only Team Rocket in the previous two generations. Maxie (leader of Team Magma) and Archie (leader of Team Aqua), as well as being Foils to each other, are also radically different from the previously thuggish antagonists, being ecoterrorists who plan the best for humankind in their own distorted views; as well as Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, super-ancient masters of land, ocean, and sky, who unlike their previous counterparts are integral to the plot, and while not evil per se, are definitely more brutal and dangerous to the world than Lugia, Ho-Oh, and even Mewtwo.
    • While the previous rival characters, Blue and Silver, were jerkasses, Brendan/May and Wally are both Friendly Rivals; future rivals would all be much friendlier, with the exceptions of Gladion and Bede. In addition, Brendan/May is the only rival who totally quits being a Pokémon Trainer during the game, to the point that in the original Ruby and Sapphire they are the only rival who never fully evolves their starter (this was altered in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire).
  • Generation IV introduces Cyrus, a 27-year old Straw Nihilist who hopes to destroy all of existence, since he sees humans and reality as a whole as pointless, as opposed to Maxie and Archie's Well-Intentioned Extremist motivations. He's also the first antagonist in the game to have a named hometown, namely Sunyshore City, unlike previous faction leaders. Team Galactic, unlike the previous teams, exists in the open and are constantly treated as a bunch of harmless weirdos (that is, until they start bombing places). Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina, along with Arceus, are each an Animalistic Abomination that embodies cosmic concepts, such as space, time, antimatter/otherness, and divinity, respectively, unlike their very Earth-centered previous counterparts. Their threat comes less from natural brutality and more from sheer destructiveness and alienation, such as Giratina accidentally creating a world-consuming black hole-like portal while trying to protect reality. Giratina also deserves mention for being a Foil to Rayquaza, with both of them being the third members of their groups. While Rayquaza is the more benevolent of his trio, Giratina, while serving a similar function, is much more destructive and less noble.
  • The first games of Generation V introduce N, a boy raised by Pokémon with very strong convictions, but very little knowledge of the outside world, and Team Plasma, a PETA-esque Animal Wrongs Group who makes the population of the Pokémon World question their beliefs. The sequels then cut to the real Big Bad, Ghetsis, N's megalomaniacal evil father, and the second incarnation (and splinter) of Team Plasma, who evolved to full-blown terrorists interested in world-domination. Local legendaries Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem are a group who used to be a single Pokémon, and unlike the cosmic-themed trio of Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina, they represent the very human concepts of truth and ying, ideals and yang, and emotional voidness. Kyurem also is a foil to Giratina and Rayquaza, seeing as it allies with Team Plasma due to its desperation to be complete once again.
  • Generation VI introduces Lysandre, a beauty-obsessed man, and Team Flare, a group of supremacists who believe that only themselves are allowed to live. Unlike the other villains, Lysandre is a Villain with Good Publicity, being respected across Kalos for his inventions such as the Holo Caster and for his philanthropy, and unlike the selfish Ghetsis, he sees his plan as doing the world he loves a service by protecting its resources from being used up. The trio of Xerneas, who represents life, Yvetal, representing death and destruction, and Zygarde, who represents equilibrium and potential, having a Nordic inspiration, as opposed to the eastern influenced Tao Trio of Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem.
  • Generation VII features Team Skull, a... rather inept equivalent of Team Rocket that is regarded by a good deal of the Alola region as a joke, but share similar motivations, led by Guzma, a violent man who turned to crime after failing to become a Trial Captain. The real antagonists, however, are the Aether Foundation, led by Lusamine, an abusive mother who is obsessed with things 'deserving of her love' and seeks to remain in Ultra Space with Nihilego, with which she has an intense obsession. For that matter, she contrasts all the previous Big Bads by being the first female one in the series. Contrasting Gen VI's Nordic inspirations, Solgaleo and Lunala are alchemy-themed, merely 'represent' the sun and moon rather than embodying concepts like the previous legendaries, and are actually from Ultra Space, not to mention evolve from a Pokemon you've seen for most of the game — Nebby. The more antagonistic Ultra Beasts contrast with legendaries from previous games in that while they're on the same power level as legendaries, they're common Pokemon in their own dimension and are completely new to science. Design-wise, while legendaries have a passing resemblance to familiar animals, the Ultra Beasts are quite alien, often lacking anything in the way of a face.
  • Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon's Big Bad is Necrozma — in a series first, it's the first one to be a Pokémon acting on its own as opposed to being controlled or influenced by a human. Unlike the benevolent Solgaleo and Lunala, however, Necrozma steals light rather than emitting it, and swiftly overpowers one of the other two and absorbs it. And unlike Kyurem before it, it has a "true" form — Ultra Necrozma, which the player fights as the Climax Boss in Ultra Megalopolis. On a related note, in order to fit Necrozma into the plot, the human villains of Gen VII become genuinely altruistic and hoping to stop Necrozma from destroying Alola. The problem is that Lusamine is out of her depth and it is implied she is doing this because she is mad with grief over losing her husband and is terrified of losing anyone else. While past villains were often Well Intentioned Extremists, they were more selfish in their desires.
  • Generation VIII:
    • The human antagonists are Team Yell, who are more like the Pokémon world's version of Football Hooligans. They just so happen to be loony fans of Marnie, one of The Rival characters to the player, and want her to become the next Champion of the Galar region. As such, they go out of their way to obstruct the other participants of the Gym Challenge so that Marnie is unchallenged. This makes them the first villain team to be directly connected to the player character's journey to become Champion. Their "leader" Piers is a Gym Leader like Giovanni, but unlike the Team Rocket boss, his association with Team Yell isn't hidden, having their symbol adorn his gym and shirt. His only goal is to retire from his Gym Leader position and have his sister Marnie take over. He even helps the player out post-game. The real villain is Chairman Rose, who has been using the tournaments to gather energy in order to awaken Eternatus, and even he is a much more stable and honorable individual than the incognito villains of previous games.
    • Eternatus itself contrasts Necrozma greatly. Both are alien draconian Pokémon only tangenitally related to the main duo of their generation that are associated with energy beams, fell to Earth long ago and caused the region's unique gimmick while being injured in some capacity and while possessing unique forms based on these, and possess two signature moves, including one with 100 base power and one with 160 power that requires a turn to recharge. Necrozma was light-based, is only a Dragon-Type in its true Ultra form, which is offensive-based and could be used by the player^note though only in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and is otherwise permanently crippled, acting with its own motives and also having two other forms based on fusing with the legendary duo of the region. Eternatus by contrast, is associated with darkness, having caused the Darkest Day spoken of in Galarian history and is Dragon-Type all the time, with its Eternamax form being more defensive and unaccessable by the player^note outside of briefly assuming the form in Eternabeam, while despite having lost pieces of its body is otherwise relatively intact, and was awakened by human actions while being Ambiguously Evil, having no relation to Zacian and Zamazenta at all beyond being foes.
  • Generation IX:
    • The main antagonistic Pokémon, the other 'raidon, breaks the streak of world-threatening Eldritch Abominations and is instead nothing more than a territorial animal who only becomes a problem because it beat up your 'raidon at the beginning of the game and serves as the last line of defense for the time machine at the end. While other legendary Pokémon genuinely earned the title, the 'raidon is merely a time-displaced Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond.
    • The real villain that you encounter in Area Zero, the AI Sada (Scarlet) or Turo (Violet), heavily contrasts to every villain in the previous series, being that it is an artificial intelligence rather than a flesh-and-blood human. It also acts on its own programming and even more so after they are controlled by the Paradise Protection Protocol, as opposed to doing things under their own volition. Rather than causing an apocalyptic event through using a legendary Pokémon, the AI Professor is instead antagonistic towards the player against its will and it later goes completely bananas once the Protocol takes over the AI and attacks the player by sending out its Pokémon.
    • The main antagonist of Pokémon The Teal Mask are the "Loyal" Three, who contrast the 'raidon. While the 'raidon was a territorial animal lashing out on instinct and was a grave ecological threat to the entirety of the Paldea region, the "Loyal" Three are knowingly malicious, but are a bunch of petty thugs in scope of threat.
  • The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games contrast their villains too. The main sentient antagonist of Rescue Team is ultimately nothing more than a petty and spiteful prick, and the world-ending threat is a giant meteor. The Explorers villains try to create a Bad Future to preserve their own survival while the villains of Gates of Infinity are a suicide cult who have grown so depressed at the state of the world and the uncaring attitudes of those in it that they are willing to let an Eldritch Abomination destroy it. Meanwhile, the villains of Super Mystery Dungeon are Brainwashed and Crazy by the local Eldritch Abomination as opposed to the other villains who were willing participants in villainy. The Bittercold from Gates was also more of a force of nature than a character that was defeated by rejecting it while Super had the Dark Matter which was sentient and was defeated by accepting it.
• Portal Stories: Mel is a fan sequel (well, prequel) that was released after Portal 2. The antagonist in the former is AEGIS, while the original game's villain is GLaDOS: both are all-powerful AIs which control the Aperture Science laboratories in which the series takes place, and both are out to kill the player. However, AEGIS doesn't appear to be sentient, while GLaDOS has a human personality, and AEGIS is unable to lie whereas GLaDOS is a pathological liar. When the player finds him, AEGIS floods his chamber with lethal amounts of oxygen, while GLaDOS' preferred method of killing is to remove the oxygen by pumping in neurotoxin. Finally, AEGIS dutifully follows his programming to protect the Aperture scientists (he's only after the player because he believes Mel hurt them) while GLaDOS rebelled and killed them all. Notably, AEGIS has a vendetta against GLaDOS for this, and he's prepared to flood the entire complex and destroy himself to make sure she stays dead.
• Professor Layton: Jean Descole, a recurring antagonist in the prequel trilogy, is this to Don Paolo in the main trilogy. Both impersonate someone Once per Episode and eventually ally with Layton against the other antagonists in the third installment, but Descole is considerably more competent and ruthless than Don Paolo.
• Rayman:
  • Rayman: Mr. Dark primarily wears an indigo robe and sombrero-like hat, is about a head taller than the title protagonist, and doesn’t make himself physically available prior to the final battle besides stealing the Great Protoon and kidnapping Betilla. He’s also skilled in magic, as shown by his ability to steal Rayman’s powers one by one in the final level, summon flame projectiles to corner his adversary, (depending on the player’s interpretation) capable of shapeshifting, and (in the Game Boy Color version) attack his adversary with lightning bolts.
  • Rayman 2: The Great Escape introduces the Admiral Razorbeard. Despite being an Orcus on His Throne like Mr. Dark, he differs from him by being diminutive, wears a red and white garb, and gets significantly more lines of dialogue than Mr. Dark (Who only spoke once in the entire game). Also, unlike the previous villain, Razorbeard cannot use magic but rather relies on machinery (As evidenced by his pirate gang being robots and his piloting of the Grolgoth at the end).
  • Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc has Andre the Dark Lum Lord, a black-bodied, unclad, black-comedy spewing, and very small vermin who turns the red lums into his loyal followers and spends a large portion of the game in Globox’s stomach. In contrast to the robot-commandeering Razorbeard, Andre relies on tearing off pelts of animal fur in order for his lum goons to stand any chance against Rayman and building everything from scratch since he and the other black lums just came into existence. The other major antagonist of this game, Reflux the Knaaren, is also dark-bodied but much larger, wears a sienna loincloth, wields a magic staff, has very few funny quirks compared to Andre, and is primarily motivated by revenge against Rayman after losing to him in their first encounter. By the time he teams up with Andre in the game’s closing moments, they become the very first contrasting-antagonist twosome in the series. On top of that, due to the fact that part of his essence continued existing inside of Globox after his defeat, Andre becomes the main threat again in Hoodlum's Revenge. Although the original Reflux is Killed Off for Real, Andre manages to transform the hypnotized Globox into a clone of the disgraced Knaaren warrior, preserving the shared state of Big Bad that they shared when they first met.
• Resident Evil
  • Resident Evil: Albert Wesker is an emotionally collected and manipulative officer of the S.T.A.R.S special force who plans on betraying his team and let them be used as data for Bio Organic Weapons.
  • Resident Evil 2: William Birkin is a mad scientist who is killed by mercenaries. He injects himself with the G virus to become a monster. William is a more desperate and emotional villain, who tried to hunt his daughter Sherry.
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis goes full-on monster with the villain being the mysterious hunter known as the Nemesis.
  • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica: This game's villain is another human-turned-monster, Alexia Ashford, who wants to take over the world.
  • Resident Evil 4: The villain is not a genetically engineered monster but is an unearthed parasite queen of Las Plagas that has possessed a religious leader called Osmond Saddler.
  • Resident Evil 5 gives us Wesker again, but this time he's injected himself with the Uroboros virus and declared being a god himself.
  • Resident Evil 6 has Carla Radames who, like Wesker, wants to destroy the world through a global virus outbreak. However, while Wesker was motivated by Social Darwinism and a godhood complex, Carla's reasons for her actions insanity from being forcefully transformed into a doppelganger of Ada Wong by Derek Simmons whom she tries to take revenge upon by throwing the world into chaos and upending the status quo he and The Family prefer, as well as framing Ada Wong whom she blames for her misfortunes. Carla is also the first main villain to be killed by Ada and would be considered a personal enemy to her rather than Leon, Jill or the Redfield siblings. Carla is also played more tragically than Wesker, at least in Ada's campaign.
  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard has a family of backwoods rednecks transformed by the Mold as the antagonists, and it's revealed that each one is a Tragic Monster who became the way they were because they wanted to help a sick little girl. They also contrast to the previous villains, being that they break the trend of having their goals not focused on taking over the world

  • Resident Evil Village: While the Baker family was a group of evil hillbillies influenced by sci-fi, the Four Houses of Village are a group of evil nobles with aesthetics influenced by the supernatural (such as werewolves, vampires and evil puppets).
• Though the Dreamers serve as a Greater-Scope Villain throughout The Secret World, the major story arcs and downloadable expansion packs all feature their own contrasting villains:
  • Freddy Beaumont, the villain of the Solomon Island arc, is a gloating, scheming trickster of an Evil Sorcerer with no interest in anyone but himself; despite supposedly leading the local Morninglight as a lieutenant to cult-leader Philip Marquard, he's just using them to further his own ends. Plus, he technically doesn't have an army and doesn't bother to fight until the final boss fight kicks off. He's later revealed to be Loki, out to seize ultimate power from the island's Gaia Engine via the sword Excalibur.
  • The Cult of the Aten from the Egypt Arc/Issue #6. In sharp contrast to Beaumont's oily selfishness, they're an individuality-obliterating religious movement devoted to the worship of the eponymous sun deity, and will do anything to ensure that their prophet Akhenaten rises from the grave and brings Aten to Earth - with apocalyptic consequences. Plus, where Beaumont made do with magical firepower and illusions, the cult substitutes with wave after wave of brainwashed mooks armed with mundane weaponry.
  • Her Majesty Mara of the Transylvania arc; quite apart from the fact that she has probably the most varied army in the entire setting - encompassing vampires, werewolves, ghouls and the super-soldiers from the Red Hand labs - she's every bit as spoiled and self-important as her name implies, preferring to hide away in the catacombs of the castle while the rest of the vampire army take over the area. It turns out that she's just a minion for a much more powerful villain, namely her mother Lilith.
  • Introduced in Issue #7, we have Lilith. An ancient entity known and feared throughout the setting for the huge range of atrocities under her belt, she prefers a subtle approach despite her Large Ham tendencies: directing pawns like Mara, Lidiya and Dr Schreber to act in her stead, she prefers to remain hidden while she gets up to Mad Scientist antics; if she has to confront her enemies directly, she presents herself as an ally - the Russian Agent to the players, a surrogate mother to Emma, and Chairwoman Lily Engel to the Orochi Group; and once she has what she wants, she stabs her allies in the back and leaves with her prize in tow.
  • The Black Signal AKA John, first introduced in Issue #9. In contrast to all the other villains, he doesn't spend most of his time attacking the player head-on or creeping around behind the scenes; in fact, he's in constant communication with the player via his own personalized lore entries, using the Bee's lore signal to try to convince the players to join him. While other villains seem to act with some kind of purpose in mind, he seems perfectly content to spend his days using his incredible powers to mess with unsuspecting bystanders and is actually procrastinating in order to avoid facing Lilith again. The biggest contrast of all lies in how young and unfamiliar the Black Signal is: every single villain up until now has been over five hundred years at the very least and usually have some kind of well-established position in the lore of the setting; by contrast, the Black Signal is a total unknown and can't be much older than twenty - and plays the Psychopathic Manchild more often than not.
  • The Bogeyman of The Park tie-in game. A monstrous, illusory presence haunting Atlantic Island Park, he has no overarching agenda, no ambition to rule the world, no desire to take revenge, no secret mission to complete: he just wants to feed on the joy and terror of anyone unlucky enough to stray into the park - and god help you if you're not suitable for feeding on. It's actually because he's already gotten what he wants: Nathaniel Winter's transformation into the Bogeyman has given him the magical power and immortality he desired, and now he wants to hang onto it by fueling his hunger.
• Rocket Knight Adventures: The original game had Emperor Devligus Devotindos, the leader of the pig-like Devotindos Empire who owned and operated the Pig Star, a Space Station with the destructive capactity to annihilate an entire planet. Near the end of the game, Devligus was revealed to be a robot, and one of many stocked aboard the Pig Star, with the actual final boss being a sentient computer in the Pig Star's core. The sequel, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 had King Gedol, the leader of the lizard-like Gedol Empire. Unlike Devligus, Gedol isn't a robot and he uses magic spells during the final battle, including one that turns him into a giant for the second phase.
• Shenmue: The primary antagonist Chai is a skinny and bald lower ranking member of the Chi You Men who wishes to kill protagonist Ryo to prove himself.
  • Shenmue II: Dou Niu is the bald, fat and hulking leader of the Yellow Heads who is a gang war for the dominance of Hong Kong and has greater things to deal with than just hunting Ryo.
• Sly Cooper:
  • Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus: Clockwerk, the leader of the Fiendish Five and the mastermind behind the murder of Sly's parents, was mostly a hands-off antagonist who chose to remain in his volcano fortress in Russia while his subordinates carried out their own criminal schemes free of his supervision. For most of the game, we are given little to no information about him beyond his role in the murder of Sly's parents until the final act of the game, at which point the game starts to foreshadow there's more to his vendetta against the Coopers than what we know since Sly notices an avian silhouette in the backgrounds of images of his ancestors in the Thievius Raccoonus, which looks identical to the police photos he has of Clockwerk. At the final level of the game, Clockwerk finally reveals himself to be a MASSIVE, terrifying robotic owl who has been in conflict with Sly's family since as far back as the days of Ancient Egypt and has stayed alive for that long because his burning hatred and jealousy for the Cooper Clan's reputation as master thieves has allowed him to transcend death itself in order to achieve his goal of finally outdoing the Cooper's success.
  • Sly 2: Band of Thieves has Neyla, who is far more involved in the game's storyline than Clockwerk ever was. Whereas Clockwerk, though shrouded in mystery for most of the first game, was already established as a villain by virtue of being leader of the Fiendish Five, Neyla is introduced as a charming, friendly INTERPOL agent who sympathetic towards Sly's goals and acts as a Friend on the Force to the Cooper gang by helping them in their heists. This is before gradually revealing her true colors by selling out Sly and Murray to INTERPOL, along with Carmelita by framing her for working with the gang the whole time to get Clockwerk's parts, so she can get promoted, then turning out to be a mentee to the Klaww Gang's tech expert and de facto leader Arpeggio by helping him take down the Cooper Gang and the other members of the Klaww Gang to get at whatever Clockwerk parts they have so Arpeggio can reassemble Clockwerk. Then, she stabs Arpeggio in the back by knocking him down, jumping into the completed Clockwerk frame to become Clock-La, and crushing him to death with her beak once the merging process was complete. Also, up until merging with the Clockwerk frame at the final stage of the game, Neyla was for the most part a Badass Normal who could give Sly a run for his money and needed little more than her wits and whip to get ahead in the game.
  • Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves gave us Dr. M, a demented Mandrill Mad Scientist who comes into conflict with the gang because they both want to get inside the Cooper Vault that contains centuries worth of stolen treasure that the Cooper clan has accumulated over the years. Unlike the villains of the last two games, Dr. M was a much more reclusive antagonist with no interest in leaving Kaine Island to commit any crimes or leading some international criminal group, focusing all of his efforts on cracking the Cooper Vault and maintaining his fortress while Sly and Bentley travel the globe to recruit more members for the gang to help them break into the vault, making him the villain with the least involvement in the game's main story. Additionally, while the game's prologue reveals his species, his significance to the plot as the main obstacle between the gang and the Cooper Vault, his aptitude in the fields of genetics and robotics, and his familiarity with the Cooper dynasty, it is not revealed what his beef with the Coopers is until the final stage of the game. At that point, Dr. M reveals he was a previous partner of Sly's father Connor back when he was alive and in charge of the Cooper gang, with Dr. M being the brains of the team similar to how Bentley is to Sly's group until he began to resent Connor due to feelings of being little more than a sidekick.
  • Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time has Cyrille Le Paradox, a French Jerk Skunk who is the mastermind behind the band of rogues threatening Sly's ancestors across time. While just as resentful towards the Coopers as the villain of the previous game, Dr. M was a hermit who worked independently from other villains. Le Paradox, however, masqueraded as a legitimate member of society and used others to do the dirty work for him. In the end, they both lost as a result of their own undoings, but while Dr. M was too caught up in his bitterness to leave the collapsing Cooper Vault and died, Le Paradox survived, but lost everything as a result of getting Sly caught up in his plans.
• Many of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games have greater-scope or secondary villains along with Dr. Eggman, each of which differ greatly from each other:
  • Sonic Adventure has Chaos. In contrast to the loud-and-proud Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik and his focus on modern science and robotic technology, Chaos is a silent being made of water with a centuries-old mystical origin. And whereas Eggman's reasons for wanting to take over the world are purely egotistical, Chaos is fueled by the anger, grief and hatred from when his Chao brethren were slaughtered by Knuckles' ancestors.
  • Sonic Adventure 2 has Professor Gerald Robotnik, Dr. Eggman's grandfather, in contrast to how Chaos was connected to heroic character Knuckles' backstory. Similar to Chaos, Gerald's actions are driven by anger towards the world for what it took away from him (his granddaughter Maria in this case), but whereas Chaos was redeemed through the actions of Super Sonic, Gerald is long deceased by the events of the game, and was left bitter and full of hate to his dying breath.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog also counts as a contrast to Chaos before him: both act as subordinates to Dr. Eggman in their respective games, both are unnatural "mutant" beings as a result of Chaos Emerald energy (Chaos is a mutated Chao, Shadow is a genetically-engineered hedgehog intended to be biology's "Ultimate Life Form"), and both initially desire revenge against the world for the losses they experienced in the past (Shadow for the same reasons as Gerald, being his creation) until they redeem themselves in the end. However, Shadow's origin is once again based in science in contrast to Chaos' mystical one, and whereas Chaos only chose to desert Eggman after enough setbacks into his game, Shadow was manipulating the doctor into playing a part in his own greater plan from the start.
  • Sonic Heroes has Neo Metal Sonic, the selfsame Robot Me of Sonic, being a returning villain from Sonic the Hedgehog CD as opposed to a whole new character debuting in this game. And in opposition to Chaos, Gerald and Shadow's Tragic Villain statuses and grief over their lost loved ones, Metal is instead driven by a purely selfish desire to surpass Dr. Eggman and prove himself as the "real Sonic" to his organic counterpart.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog has Black Doom, the dark-and-mature-themed leader of an invading alien army and Shadow's genetic donor, in contrast to how Neo Metal Sonic was a returning villain from the more lighthearted classic games that instead gathered biodata from all the other heroes. Additionally, whereas Shadow's other "father" Gerald originally aimed to use Shadow to move humanity towards a bright future (prior to going insane from Maria's death, anyways), Black Doom's aim was always for Shadow to become his champion in his brutal and violent subjugation of Earth's inhabitants.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) has Solaris (and its conscious half Mephiles), which contrasts Chaos before it. Both are ancient, godlike elemental entities (one of Fire, one of Water) that Eggman seeks to control and unleash (without realising that he himself is being played), and that are capable of destroying the world (or more). The difference is that Chaos is an Anti-Villain and Well-Intentioned Extremist at worst, while Solaris seems to be genuinely sadistic and evil.
    • Solaris also contrasts Black Doom: whereas the latter's appearance is demon-like, Solaris' true form is akin to that of an angel. And whereas Black Doom aimed to exploit the world's resources and people for the glory of his species, Solaris wanted to outright erase space and time itself.
  • Sonic Unleashed has Dark Gaia. While it, like Solaris, is a godlike creature that aims to destroy the world and has the power to spawn smaller monsters from itself, it contrasts Solaris' light-based imagery with, well… dark ones, as a result of being the planet's personification of darkness and negative emotions. And whereas Solaris' ultimate fate was being erased from history itself, Dark Gaia is an immortal force of nature that cannot be completely destroyed, only put to rest for millions of years.
  • Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations contrast the 3D games before it by having the main antagonist be… Eggman himself as opposed to a new villain. And while he is using supernatural assets for his plans once again, he keeps control of them until Sonic's intervention and doesn't get usurped by it at the end of the game.
    • The Time Eater from Sonic Generations shares Solaris' ability to erase time and space, but has an opposing dark violet color palette and lacks sentience, being fully controlled by Dr. Eggman and his Classic-era self.
  • Sonic Lost World features the Deadly Six, who contrast many other assorted solo antagonists across the series by aiming to be a more cartoonish and quirky Quirky Miniboss Squad, despite also being mystical creatures (demons or "Zeti" depending on the dub), again contrasting with Eggman's Mad Scientist nature. And while Eggman is a jerk to his underlings who wants to Take Over the World, the Deadly Six have a mutual respect for each other and want to completely drain the world of its energy. And while they do usurp Eggman and become the major threat for the story, it's only because Sonic clipped off their leash, and whereas Eggman's plans were fully skewered by previous villains who took over the plot at the last minute, the Deadly Six take over early on in the game and the good doctor exploits this specific Enemy Mine with Sonic by having the hedgehog deal with the Six while he takes back his scheme.
  • Sonic Forces has Infinite, another minion of Eggman's who contrasts many other villains in the series by starting out as just another normal inhabitant of Sonic's world before being upgraded by Eggman, as opposed to an origin of magic, science or something else supernatural. In particular contrast to the colorful Deadly Six and their respect with each other, Infinite has a literally Darker and Edgier design and is a lone wolf who cares for nothing and no one but his own bloodlust. It's also worth noting that Infinite has a fair amount of Parody Sue traits as opposed to how other villains were portrayed as definite and serious threats, with a purely petty motivation to be stronger than Shadow after getting beaten by him, and his lust for making others suffer frequently throwing a wrench into Eggman's plans, leading to the doctor eventually deciding to dispose of him personally rather than wait for him to mess things up further like his other partners in the past did.
  • Sonic Frontiers introduces THE END, who contrasts Infinite in almost every way, right down to their names.
    • Both act as subversions of Eggman’s usual Evil Is Not a Toy plots, but Infinite was a deliberate creation of Eggman’s who was dismissed as expendable when he screwed up one too many times. THE END is an independent Ancient Evil who Eggman didn’t even know about until it was already too late.
    • Both have strong connections to the anti-villains of the Adventure games: Infinite was completely beaten down by Shadow in a one-sided fight, and inspired to go From Nobody to Nightmare when Shadow didn’t think him important enough to finish the job. THE END was just barely sealed away by Chaos’ ancestors, who unlike Shadow, went out of their way to make sure it never menaced the world again.
    • Infinite is a major presence throughout his game, mocking the heroes and relishing in his power as publicly and often as possible. THE END also has a major presence in its own game, but is far subtler about it, manipulating everything from behind the scenes, and its true nature isn’t revealed at all until shortly before the final battle.
    • Infinite is a rare Sonic antagonist with no connection or interest whatsoever regarding the Chaos Emeralds, to the point of using a completely different magic gem for his purposes. THE END is the reason the Chaos Emeralds came to Earth in the first place.
    • It's also a direct contrast to prior Eldritch Abomination Evil Is Not a Toy antagonists as well. Prior Eggman plots usually had him trying to control a dangerous being to varying degrees of success, from total control (Time Eater), believed control until betrayal (Perfect Chaos, Dark Gaia), or just being undermined as the villain by the machinations of others (Gerald Robotnik and the Biolizard, Solaris and its components Mephiles and Iblis), which usually results in his being knocked out of the picture, and needing Sonic to ultimately defeat his mistake. This time, THE END is an entirely independent Ancient Evil who pretty much outright ignores Eggman, instead dedicating it's efforts into manipulating Sonic instead, with Sage (and by proxy Eggman due to being his creation) having to save Sonic and help deal the final blow.
  • Also in Sonic Fronties we have another antagonist contrasting with Infinite Forces, Sage.
    • They both share black, gray and red color scheme but Infinite is a Jackal in a mask powered by magical gem, while Sage is a human-looking robot created when Eggman put an AI into Ancient technology.
    • Infinite has personal vendetta against Shadow, while Sage is noted by Eggman to be slowly taking personality traits of Shadow's dead friend, Maria Robotnik.
    • Infinite is agressive, sadistic and opposes Sonic and the Rookie directly in combat, while Sage is emotionless and calculated and only tries to stop Sonic to avoid release of THE END, utilizing giant ancient robots against him. As they both keep losing, Infinite suffers Sanity Slippage and gets increasingly more unhinged, whle Sage develops respect and even admiration of Sonic, forming a Friendly Enemy relationship with him.
    • Eggman eventually gets sick of Infinite's failures and betrays him, after which Infinite disappears from the plot and is never seen again, leaving his fate ambiguous. Meanwhile Sage pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to stop THE END, but is salvaged by Eggman, who grew found of her
• Splatoon 3's Mr. Grizz bears many similarities to Splatoon 2's Commander Tartar, the villain and final boss of the Octo Expansion. However, Mr. Grizz is a more stoic, subtly tragic villain. While he has similar goals to Tartar in that he's trying to use a special kind of ink to wipe out the current population of Earth, he comes off less as a raving Omnicidal Maniac and more as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who, having been driven mad by years of loneliness and isolation, believes what he's doing is a necessary evil to ensure the survival of his kind. To Tartar, Agent 8 is a persistent thorn in his side, something to be crushed underfoot; Mr. Grizz views Agent 3 as a Worthy Opponent and is impressed when they manage to follow him into orbit just to stop his plans. Upon defeat, he goes out not with a crazed, hateful rant, but a quiet Heel Realization in which he realizes mammals simply don't belong on Earth anymore.
• Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: The Specimens of the main game have flashy and varied designs, ranging from a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl to a puppet who resembles the Happy Mask Salesman to a siren. The Monsters of the Karamari Hospital DLC are more uniformly designed, but are quite visceral and all look like they've stumbled out of a gritty PS1 horror game.
• Spyro the Dragon
  • Spyro the Dragon (1998): Gnasty Gnorc is a muscular goblin who's simply agitated by the dragons making fun of his kind rather than being a borderline-malicious individual like some of the later Big Bads, prompting him to turn all of them (except Spyro, since he's too small for his spell to detect) into crystal statues. Other than that and his ability to turn gems into gnorc soldiers, Gnasty has absolutely no experience when it comes to magic.
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: Compared to Gnasty Gnorc, Ripto is short, action-oriented, and has somewhat better experience with magic, being able to turn orbs into robotic mounts during the final battle. While he also despises dragons as a whole, no explanation is ever given as to where that hatred came from. Not only that, but most of the enemies in the game are random threats that Spyro runs into while trying to collect the talismans, rather than goons working directly for Ripto. While he and Gnasty Gnorc both plan hostile takeovers of their respective realms, Gnasty Gnorc mostly succeeded, while Ripto barely even had a chance to get started.
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon: In a similar manner to Gnasty Gnorc, the Sorceress an Orcus on His Throne type of antagonist who doesn't become a direct obstacle to Spyro until the end of the game. Contrarily, though, she has a more stable political base than Ripto or Gnasty in that she's the formally-designated monarch of the Forgotten Realms; where the prior two were invaders, the Sorceress is not. On top of this is the fact that her minions are an already-existing race known as the Rhynocs, who work as hirelings sent out to kill Spyro any chance they get. She also has a good deal more knowledge of magic than either of the previous villains, which is especially true when she turns one of her guards into a gargoyle-esque beast intended to eradicate everyone who sides against her. Lastly, she's the only villain who is explicitly stated to have no qualms against committing genocide on the dragon hatchlings, just because the idea of watching them wriggle around in her throne room after she harvests their wings grosses her out.
  • Spyro: Season of Ice: Grendor stands out from the rest of the antagonists by starting off as a puny mook who is unhappy with his position as a librarian. In a desperate act to heighten himself socially, he attempts to learn some of the Sorceress' magic, only for it to go awry and transform the poor Rhynoc into a two-headed (and on top of that, split between being constantly depressed and frustrated on each side) scourge. He also sticks out for being one of the only antagonists to perform a Heel–Face Turn, even going as far as to appreciate his job of being a librarian after Spyro defeats him and Zoe reverts him to his non-corrupted state.
  • Spyro: A Hero's Tail: Red is the first villain to be a dragon himself as opposed to a non-dragon who holds some type of a grudge against the dragon race. Near the end, he converts the gnorcs into robotic goons and the final battle also involves him turning into a colossal mech, emphasizing his connection to machinery as opposed to brute force, evasiveness, or having a political advantage. In Shadow Legacy, he's the only other antagonist to perform a Heel–Face Turn. In Red's case, instead of his evilness having been caused by accident, he was brainwashed by the villain of that game, which leads us to...
  • Spyro: Shadow Legacy: The Mysterious Figure/the Sorcerer. He first shows up as a conspicuous-looking hooded wanderer who is revealed to have mind-controlled Red prior to the events of A Hero's Tail. While the previous few villains were hammy to some extent (even the Sorceress, who is a Vile Villain, Saccharine Show in her own right), this villain is utterly devoid of any humor and is far more reserved in his tone of voice (not to mention, his absolutely terrifying dragon form in the final boss fight), more befitting of an antagonist in the reboot. He's also the only villain to fall in Karma Houdini territory, getting nothing more than a devastating blow to his reputation and fleeing the final battle so he can formulate another scheme against the good guys.
• Street Fighter villains vary when it comes to appearances, techniques, and goals:
  • The Final Boss of the original Street Fighter is the Muay Thai master Sagat, who arranged the tournament to test his abilities against the world's greatest fighters.
  • Street Fighter II has M. Bison, the ruthless, power-hungry leader of an evil organization bent on world domination.
  • Street Fighter III introduces Gill, a Messianic ubermensch who leads a secret society that performs unethical bio-engineering experiments; his tournament is his way of seeking out those strong enough to repopulate the planet after the end of the world.
  • Street Fighter 6 introduces JP, a Villain with Good Publicity and a nihilist who uses his vast resources to manipulate the developing country of Nayshall, frame Ken for terrorism, and generally act as a dick to everyone around him simply because Humans Are Bastards and he believes his wealth and power afford him carte blanche to be the biggest bastard of all. Like Bison, he is also adept in the use of Psycho Power; but whereas Bison uses his Psycho Power to completely overwhelm and crush his enemies, JP uses his Psycho Power to carefully create constructs, such as thorns and specters, to assail his foes at range.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Donkey Kong is a gorilla who kidnapped an ordinary lady and invaded a construction site in New York (later revealed to be New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey). He was mostly working alone, and just threw obstacles for Mario to avoid. Bowser is a fire-breathing dragon turtle king who took over the Mushroom Kingdom using an entire army of his own, transformed the Toads into various objects using black magic, and kidnapped the princess of that kingdom in attempt to keep her from undoing said magic. Unlike Donkey Kong who was an Anti-Villain attacking out of rage and confusion and later redeemed himself when he grew into Cranky Kong, Bowser truly is evil (though he does have his heroic moments—situation wise) and stuck around as Mario's constant nemesis throughout the series.
  • Bowser himself is a predecessor to some of the major villains that follow-up in the Mario franchise.
    • Wart in Super Mario Bros. 2. Bowser is a dragon-like turtle who can breathe fire. Wart is an oversized frog who spews harmful bubbles. Bowser typically prefers having his castle on the ground (mainly in a volcanic environment). Wart typically prefers having his castle in the sky. Bowser was a character who originated from the Mario franchise. Wart was taken from a previous video game, Doki Doki Panic that Super Mario Bros. 2 is based off of.
    • Tatanga in Super Mario Land. Bowser wrecks havoc on the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnaps its ruler, Princess Peach out of unrequited love. Tatanga on the other hand wrecks havoc on Sarsaland and kidnaps its ruler, Princess Daisy, simply because he wants to conquer the kingdom and doesn't appear to have enough characterization that displays having interest in the aforementioned princess. Bowser is a monstrous dragon-like turtle who is capable enough to take on Mario himself. Whereas Tatanga is a short, purple alien smaller than Mario himself who has to rely on technology (such as his spaceship) to take on the Italian plumber. And finally, Bowser is the king of his own army, whereas Tatanga is largely independent and ultimately becomes Demoted to Dragon to Wario in the sequel. Speaking of which...
    • Wario, starting from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Bowser is driven by conquest and his unrequited love for Peach; Wario doesn't appear to have an interest in anyone and is mainly obsessed with personal greed. Bowser is an oversized turtle-dragon who is Mario's most hated enemy; Wario is simply an edgier version of Mario, but has a friendlier rivalry than the former. While Bowser is an outright villain, Wario is mainly an anti-hero—and doesn't appear to have any animosity for Mario after his first appearance.
    • Bowser's son, Bowser Jr., starting from Super Mario Sunshine. Bowser is the brawn (prefers fighting using his brute strength and power), whereas Junior is the brain (prefers fighting with his toys and inventions). Bowser's voice is very deep (granted, as he is an adult) whereas Junior's voice is high-pitched (granted, as he is a child).
    • King Boo as well, being Luigi's Arch-Enemy since Luigi's Mansion. Both a large Mook with a personal vendetta against the Mario Bros. (Bowser as an oversized Koopa Troopa who hates Mario, King Boo as an oversized Boo who hates Luigi). In line with Bowser Jr., Bowser is more physically confrontational, whereas King Boo is much more methodical (given that Bowser outright kidnaps Peach, whereas King Boo uses trickery to lure Mario into a trap). Bowser is driven by his hatred for Mario, but also has other plans such as his love for Peach, and even galactic domination. King Boo on the other hand is mainly driven by his hatred for Luigi, and would go through great lengths (destroying the universe) to make sure Luigi loses. The differences also come with their treatments of their troops; Bowser actually cares for his minions (which is a big reason why they respect him). King Boo on the other hand has absolutely no care for them, even outright dismissing them as useless in Luigi's Mansion 3.
  • The Paper Mario series has their Big Bads that stand out in their own unique way.
    • All three times Bowser is the Big Bad and Final Boss, it's by a different circumstance. in Paper Mario 64, he is empowered by the Star Rod and opens up his desires in using it to become ultra-powerful. In Paper Mario: Sticker Star, he is empowered by the Royal Sticker, but strangely has no lines of dialogue at all. In Paper Mario: Color Splash, he is empowered by the Black Paint that outright possess him and makes him far more malicious.
    • This is also applied to the other Paper Mario Big Bads as well. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sir Grodus wants to take over the world and make it about himself. Super Paper Mario has Count Bleck that wants to destroy all worlds as a means to lash out his anger after losing his lost love, Timpani. Paper Mario: The Origami King has King Olly, who wants to turn the Mushroom Kingdom (and possibly the Mushroom World) into an origami landscape with the genocide of toads due to his misinterpreted anger on the Origami Craftsman. Of all the three, only King Olly remains as the Big Bad and Final Boss, whereas Sir Grodus and Count Bleck are both surpassed by a greater evil that takes over as the Big Bad and becomes the Final Boss.
    • Speaking of greater evil, both the Shadow Queen in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Dimentio in Super Paper Mario have their similarities and differences. Both the Shadow Queen and Dimentio are typically colored in purple and yellow. Both betray their "supposed masters" to signify their takeover as the game's Big Bad and Final Boss. Both are fought in the Inner Sanctum of a darkness-themed sinister location (Palace of Shadow for the Shadow Queen, Castle Bleck for Dimentio). Both offer the heroes a chance of joining them, resulting in a Game Over if they agree to do so. And both seize Mario's closest allies as their designated host for the Final Battle (Peach for the Shadow Queen, Luigi for Dimentio). However, their differences do not go unnoticed. On one hand, the Shadow Queen is female, a Sealed Evil in a Can who only appears and is fought at the end of the game, has followers worshipping her, is a 1000-year-old demon who had a history with heroes from the past, and desires to cover the world in darkness to signify her rule. Whereas Dimentio is male, The Heavy who acts as Count Bleck's mercenary throughout the vast majority of the game, is fought three times (including his One-Winged Angel form for the Final Battle), is largely independent (he doesn't have any known followers—NOT counting Mr. L who was brainwashed by him), is merely a mind-bending jester with a largely unknown past, and desires to destroy all worlds and make new ones in his own image. When both betray their "masters", it's by different circumstance. The Shadow Queen makes it very clear that even though she is revived by Sir Grodus, she is not to be bossed around by a lesser being — and makes good on her statement by striking him down in response. Dimentio on the other hand pretends to serve Count Bleck so that when the heroes defeat him, he'll use the opportunity to snatch the Chaos Heart and make good use of it. Of the two, the Shadow Queen is more brawn — as she is powerful enough to confront anyone on her own and put up an extremely tough fight in any form. Whereas Dimentio is more brain — he has to manipulate the heroes to defeat Count Bleck (knowing full well he can't contend with him on his own) so that he can seize the Chaos Heart for himself.
  • The Mario & Luigi series also has their Big Bads (and Greater-Scope Villain) that stand out in their own unique way.
    • Cackletta in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was a beanish witch who just had Fawful as her minion, and only seized Bowser's army when she possessed him; she takes over Bowser's Castle and uses it to conquer both the Beanbean and the Mushroom Kingdom. Princess Shroob in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time was an alien princess who commanded her species long before the events of the game (though she's really just The Dragon to her older sister when all is said and done); she takes over Peach's Castle and plans to conquer both the Mushroom Kingdom of the past and the present. Fawful is a Dragon Ascendant beanish evil genius who has variations of himself as his minions (alongside Midbus and The Best Fitness Friends) and takes over both Peach's and Bowser's castle and plans to use the Dark Star to conquer both kingdoms. Antasma is a bat-king who worked independently — only allying with Bowser and his Koopa Troop to bring darkness to the Mushroom Kingdom (until the latter betrays him); Bowser himself has the Koopa Troop with his desire to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and have Peach to herself with the Dream Stone. Then there's Bowser and Paper Bowser who seem to be willing to work together to conquer both the paper and the real world.
    • Speaking of Greater-Scope Villain and Final Boss, three of them stand out: Elder Princess Shroob, the Dark Star, and Bowser himself. The Elder Princess Shroob is a Sealed Evil in a Can and the true leader of the Shroobs who only makes a major appearance close to the very end of the game, desires to avenge her younger sister and continue on their campaign in conquering both the Mushroom Kingdom of the present and past, and possess Bowser as a last-minute ditch effort to defeat the Mario Bros. The Dark Star is also a Sealed Evil in a Can, though he is simply a cataclysmic figure working independently, desires to bring the Mushroom World into darkness, and uses Bowser's DNA to create his own variation of Bowser. Bowser himself, while not a Sealed Evil in a Can, Took a Level in Badass by usurping the role of the main antagonist from Antasma, has his own Koopa Troop, and uses the Dream Stone to turn One-Winged Angel in his ultimate goal in conquering the Mushroom Kingdom and putting an end to the Mario Bros.
    • Cackletta's and Fawful's Dragons also fit this this trope too well. Cackletta's Dragon, Fawful himself, is the brain to Cackletta's brawn; Fawful has all the gadgetry that he relies on, whereas Cackletta has dangerous magical abilities that she is able to utilize in any form (be it, her original Beanish witch, possessing Bowser, and her soul). When Fawful becomes a Dragon Ascendant, he retains his status as the brain to his new Dragon, Midbus's brawn — the latter being a Dumb Muscle capable of being an equal physical match to Bowser. Because Cackletta has to rely on Fawful plenty of times in the story (i.e., needing the Peach bots to awaken the Beanstar, saving her soul and having her possess Bowser), it's no surprise Fawful doesn't really need her in the first place and is capable of becoming a Big Bad in his own right. Whereas Midbus doesn't have the intelligence and resources that Fawful has, thus is stuck remaining under his boss whether he likes it or not.
    • The main antagonists of the added stories from the Mario & Luigi remakes are also distinct in their own right. For Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser, Fawful is the Big Bad with Superstar Saga's Big Bad, Cackletta, as the Greater-Scope Villain, whereas in Bowser Jr.'s Journey, the Best Fitness Friends are the Big Bads with Bowser's Inside Story's Big Bad, Fawful, as the Greater-Scope Villain. Fawful was already introduced in the original game as The Dragon to Cackletta and the overall secondary antagonist, emerging as the Dragon-in-Chief in the added story. He antagonizes the four main minions with his army of mechanized clones. Whereas the Best Fitness Friends are introduced in the added story, are seemingly at a lower rank to even Midbus, and are largely independent when antagonizing Bowser Jr. It's also worth noting that both act as The Starscream to their masters; while Fawful is quite subtle about it considering he's scheming his own plans behind Cackletta's back without saying much, it's much more explicit with the Best Fitness Friends who outright call Fawful a loser behind his back and openly plan to usurp him.
  • This is also applied to the Mario vs. Rabbids games, with their Big Bad standing out.
    • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle has the Megabug as the overall Big Bad of the story (as it is responsible for the main conflict), but it's not much of an active threat until the second half (making it a Walking Spoiler) — leaving Bowser Jr. as The Heavy causing the most problems to Mario and co. just so that he can please his father. That being said, the Megabug is a voiceless evil force that wants to consume the world in darkness and possess Bowser as the game's Final Boss. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope has Cursa who is the game's obvious Big Bad, is an active threat among the heroes, desires to consume the sparks for nefarious purposes, has a personality and voice, and possess Rosalina throughout the vast majority of the game.
• The final bosses of the Super Smash Bros. games may be lacking in on-screen personality or depth, but they are very distinct from each other visually and thematically.
  • Master Hand is the final boss of the first game, and is traditionally the final opponent in the Classic Mode of subsequent games. It is vaguely implied that Master Hand is the creator of the Super Smash Bros. universe, and may be the representation of a child playing with his action figures. Later games imply further that Master Hand enjoys challenging the fighters to test their worth.
  • Melee introduces two new bosses; Crazy Hand and Giga Bowser. Crazy Hand is Master Hand's opposite number, being chaotic and destructive as opposed to careful and creative, but despite their differences the two hands make a pretty effective team. Giga Bowser is a powered-up transformation of Bowser unique to the Super Smash Bros. series who serves as the game's ultimate challenge, only appearing when certain conditions are met.
  • Brawl gives us Tabuu, the first villain with a clear motivation. He's explicitly a being from another dimension who aims to absorb the Super Smash Bros. universe into his domain of Subspace. He differs from previous bosses in being the most human-like villain of the series so far.
  • Master Core is the True Final Boss of 3DS/Wii U, being a monstrous transformation of Master Hand which is implied to be his full strength unleashed. Master Core's battle consists of multiple distinct phases, which is a first for the series. What makes it stand out from the previous games' final bosses is that, on top of being a very chaotic entity (even surpassing Crazy Hand in that sense), it has no definite form as it tends to change forms during battle. It also doesn't appear to be sapient either, unlike the other final bosses.
  • Galeem and Dharkon from Ultimate are the most distinctive villains so far. In terms of design, all of the previous villains looked vaguely anthropomorphic or creature-like; Galeen and Dharkon are utterly alien beings that look completely inhuman. In terms of motivation, Galeem seeks to control the universe whereas Dharkon seeks to obliterate it. This makes them a contrast to the Hands, who are ambiguously evil and don't seem interested in domination. Also unlike the Hands, who get along well and make a good team, Galeem and Dharkon absolutely hate each other; even when they're forced to team up, they actively fight amongst themselves.
• Tales of Berseria turns out to be a prequel to Zestiria, but the point remains. Artorius is the first Sheperd in history and is a Villain with Good Publicity, loved by most of the citizens because his actions allowed Malakhim to become controllable, which allowed people to rein in the problems of daemons roaming around. He was also a tragic hero with Hidden Depths, with his ultimate goal being well-meaning attempt to remove free will to prevent the rise of Malevolence. In contrast, Heldalf was mostly made out to be nothing but pure evil and having little to no desire of doing anything but spreading Malevolence wherever he appeared. He does eventually get revealed to be a bit more of a Woobie, cursed with loneliness, but his goal of spreading Malevolence to end pain is overall less sympathetic than Artorius's goal due to how self-contradictory it is. There's also how they relate to the game's protagonist: Velvet has a very personal connection with Artorius, since he's her brother-in-law and he killed her younger brother, while Sorey has zero connection with Heldalf, except that he's the Shepherd whose duty it is to defeat the Lord of Calamity. Though there are implications that Heldalf may be Sorey's father, unbeknowst to the latter.
• Thief
  • The Big Bads of the first two game are representatives of two religions that have a strong Elves Versus Dwarves conflict with each other; the first game's villain, The Trickster, is associated with the Pagan religion, which worships the concepts of chaos, magic and nature, while Karras in the sequel is associated with the Hammerites, who worship order, technology and civilization. The former wants to destroy civilization using a magic ritual, the latter wants to destroy organic life by using machines to flood the city with poison gas. In both cases, Garret forms an Enemy Mine alliance with members of the opposing religion to bring them down.
  • The third game's villain, Gamal the Hag, is associated with a third faction, the Keepers, who believe in the balance between dangerous extremes. While the other two villains had clearly defined ideologies, and goals relating to them, this time the villain has no obvious motivation beyond selfishness and unnaturally extending their lifespan.
• Thing-Thing: The bosses of the first two games (Zeus and Poseidon) are this to Project 153 from the third game. While Zeus and Poseidon are both Flat Characters who serve as little more than impersonal enforcers to Systems Corp., Project 153 displays a much more egotistical personality and considers the conflict between him and the main character to be personal, frequently contacting 154 to berate his "treachery" or proclaim himself superior to the renegade project for his loyalty to the company. Their combat styles also notably contrast - Zeus and Poseidon use heavy weaponry to directly attack 154 while Project 153 prefers to remotely co-ordinate the corporation's mercenaries against 154, only attacking him directly when he has military vehicles or a completely berserk Bioweapon Beast backing him up.
• The Tomb Raider reboot trilogy:
  • Ana and Konstantin are this to Father Mathias and Himiko from the first game. Mathias is the founder and leader of the Solarii Brotherhood, a small island Cult. Konstantin is a middleman soldier in the wide organization called Trinity. Mathias doesn't believe in anything he preaches, while Konstantin is deeply religious. They also both have a woman backing them up, but Mathias knows what Himiko is, and he's only helping her so he can leave her cursed island, and he cares only for himself. Konstantin is manipulated by his sister Ana into thinking he's destined for greatness, and he genuinely cares for her. Ana and Himiko also contrast with one another. Himiko is a thousand year old Japanese queen with magical abilities, Ana is a middle-aged American normal woman. Himiko wants to rule over the modern world, Ana has to report to her superiors in Trinity. They're also both controlling the Big Bad, but Himiko exploited Mathias' wish to leave her cursed island, Ana has manipulated Konstantin his whole life. Also, they both have an ailment of some type which they are trying to cure: Himiko is trying to transfer her soul into a younger body to escape the confines of her rotting old one, Ana is trying to cure her cancer by gaining immortality from the Divine Source.
  • Dr. Pedro Dominguez/Amaru is this to both Mathias and Konstantin. They are clean-shaven white Americans, while he's a bearded Peruvian actually a Mayan, and instead of having a woman behind his actions, he's the leader of Trinity, and therefore the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire trilogy. Also, Mathias was too selfish to realize releasing Himiko could put the world in danger, and Konstantin was too delusional to realize his sister was manipulating him for her own ends. Dominguez knew Ana had betrayed Trinity, and sent his Dragon Rourke to Siberia to kill her, and his reasons for putting the world in danger are to defend Paititi, his home village.
• Zoran Lazarevic from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Asav from Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, the first game to feature Chloe Frazer, and the most recent one featuring Chloe as the Player Character, respectively. They're both war criminals, but differ in numerous ways. Lazarevic is a dictator, Asav is a terrorist. They both are willing to sacrifice their own men, but Lazarevic kills his men to punish disobedience and maintain control, Asav does it to "cleanse" his men because he hopes that they then may be reborn in a more useful form. Each has their own justification for their actions- Lazarevic regarded history's worst tyrants as "great men" because they will willing to resort to any means to get what they wanted, Asav is a descendant of the old Hoysala kings, who would kill any who refused to fight in times of war to inspire those who would fight and purge the weak from society. Lazarevic has a personal enmity with Nate, Asav with Chloe and Nadine. On a more cosmetic note, Lazarevic is a tall, bald, scarred Serbian who never stopped shouting, while Asav is a bespectacled, bearded, apparently-unassuming Indian who rarely raises his voice.
• A few antagonists from The World Ends with You have contrasts in the sequel, NEO: The World Ends with You:
  • Yodai Higashizawa and Kaichi "Susukichi" Susuki are the main antagonists of the first weeks of their respective games. Both are burly men who rely on brute force and have hulking Noise forms, and enjoy referencing their passions in their speech- food and cooking for Higashizawa, Reversi for Susukichi. However, they're polar opposites in terms of motivations; Higashizawa is the only Reaper loyal to Kitaniji, while Susuki is working to bring Shiba down.
  • Shiba Miyakaze, the Game Master of the second game, is one to Megumi Kitaniji, the Conductor from the first game. Both run the Reapers' Game while the Composer is out of the UG, which means Joshua's rules are undefined; however, while Megumi continued as though Shibuya's usual rules were still in play, Shiba exploits the opportunity to enforce Shinjuku's rules on the Game. Megumi kept the Reaper's Game relatively fair up until the third week, and his reasons for participating were to save Shibuya by imprinting on the citizen's minds. Shiba, by contrast, rigs the game from the very start by supporting the Ruinbringers, who comprise of Reapers from Shinjuku, and has no love for Shibuya as he aims to destroy it (although this is due to Kubo manipulating him). This also extends to their boss fights; while Kitaniji is a Time Master who partners with a brainwashed Shiki, Shiba's powers lean more towards spatial manipulation and uses clones of himself to fight.
  • Tanzo Kubo, the true Big Bad of Neo also contrasts with Kitaniji. Kitaniji was an Affably Evil Well-Intentioned Extremist who wanted to save Shibuya from erasure even if it meant subjecting everyone in it to an Assimilation Plot. Kubo, however, is an unapologetic Jerkass who wants to destroy Shibuya For the Evulz.
• World of Warcraft's expansion villains generally tend to contrast each other to some degree.
  • The main villains of Burning Crusade (Illidan Stormrage and Kael'thas Sunstrider) are egomaniacal, mana-addicted elves in extreme denial about their relatively small roles in the greater scope of things. They are ultimately manipulated by the overarching Big Bad, Kil'jaeden, whose summoning is the primary threat.
  • Wrath of the Lich King has the titular Lich King: Arthas Menethil, who was the original Arch-Enemy of the previous two and ultimately caused their conditions by defeating them. He came the closest of all the villains to total victory, contrasting Illidan and Kael'thas's inadequacy as threats. It was his remaining sanity that did him in while the last two's instability led them to betray their allies, leaving them easy pickings.
  • Deathwing of Cataclysm is a former Aspect driven insane by the Old Gods. Both were heroes before, but Deathwing's body burns with magma while Arthas is Evil Is Deathly Cold incarnate. Deathwing is fought primarily by the Shamans and Druids of Kalimdor, in contrast to the heavy focus on Paladins and Death Knights in Arthas'.
  • Garrosh Hellscream, Big Bad of Mists of Pandaria, more closely resembles Illidan and Kael'thas in that his own ego and pride drive him to villainy. Instead of being forcibly corrupted by the Old Gods like Deathwing, Garrosh was a Willing Channeler of Y'shaarj who never lost control of himself. He is also the only villain who used to be part of the new Horde, while prior villains had left their factions during or before the Third War.
  • Warlords of Draenor has this happen within the same expansion with Grommash Hellscream and Gul'dan. Grom is a Badass Normal who, with Garrosh's warnings, rejected the Burning Legion. Unlike his son, however, he went through a Heel–Face Turn later on. Gul'dan, meanwhile, becomes a follower of the Legion willingly, is the Squishy Wizard warlock to Grom's Badass Normal, and is the only villain with no redeeming traits whatsoever. Where Grom led the Iron Horde directly, Gul'dan is a manipulator who prefers being the Man Behind the Man.
  • The Big Bad of Legion, Sargeras, is the only one out of the expansion's main villains who is never fought directly. The Final Boss is instead his ace in the hole: the corrupted world-soul of the planet Argus, a character never seen until his boss encounter and, unlike all the others in the series, is firmly in Tragic Monster territory.
• The main villains of the of the Xenoblade Chronicles series contrast each other greatly:
  • The first game has Zanza, who was once a scientist in the old world who tried to create a universe, but became a Physical God and created a new universe and created High Entia to eliminate all life on Bionis as Telethia and has manipulated events from behind the scenes using vessels to further his plans.
  • The second game has Malos and Amalthus, the former is an Aegis, a blade with tremendous power and has the power wield darkness as that is his element, the latter lost his mother as a child and believes himself to be the Architects will to destroy Alrest and the one responsible for turning Malos into an Omnicidal Maniac.
  • The third game has Z, who's a living piece of malware and the embodiment of humanity's desire for stagnation formed when the two worlds of Bionis and Alrest's corrupted desires infected the Origin system and is present-focused to a fault, seeking to preserve the "endless now" by any means necessary.

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