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Obviously Evil / Video Games

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He seems nice.
Examples of Obviously Evil in Video Games.

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    #-G 
  • In Adventure: Welcome to the Genre, the antagonist Jean-Eric LeMort was specifically designed to be as much of a stereotypical villain as possible. The fact that his first name sounds very similar to "Generic" is not accidental.
  • Agarest Senki: There is the outstanding example of Giganda. The minute you see him, he displays a lot of evil tropes. Black Eyes of Crazy, the dark armor of a Black Knight, always going on about "the Plan", and generally looking very different than his fellow Larva.
  • Dr. Coyle from ARMS. Mad Scientist? Check. Responsible for creating Helix, Springtron and Hedlok? Check. Experimented on herself For Science!? Check. Haughty attitude, Kubrick Stare and sometimes a Slasher Smile? Check! True Final Boss who uses Hedlok willingly as opposed to being controlled by him like Max Brass? Double check!
  • Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie doesn't even bother at hiding her true intentions, as Banjo and Kazooie make offhand remarks about what she has done to the Jinjos. Her response is by a creepy cackle, when she states ominous remarks about conquering the world, immediately throwing away any of the potential surprise when she was revealed as the Big Bad and the cause of all destruction.
    • In Banjo-Tooie, Gruntilda's villainous role is not really that surprising when the very first cutscene in the game shows her destroying Banjo's house, killing Bottles in the process. Even less so when you meet her two sisters, who are so arrogant and condescending that it's impossible for them both not to be bad guys.
  • Baten Kaitos Origins: Wiseman is an almost comically exaggerated example. Let's see... completely inhuman voice, always talks about 'the power of human hearts', and this◊ is his character portrait.
  • Bendy and the Dark Revival: Even before the janitor Wilson establishes himself as the new dictator of the Cycle, he seems to try and go out of his way to appear as creepy as humanly possible. A big scar over his right eye, constantly hunched over, speaks in a slow, menacing and raspy tone, and makes a lot of comments towards Audrey that border on the uncomfortable. Then he forcefully transports them both into the Cycle and promptly takes over with blatant Police Brutality by his sadistic mechanical minions and propaganda posters everywhere. He tries to pass himself off as a Well-Intentioned Extremist when you meet him again in the final chapter, but it's hardly surprising to anyone when he reveals his true plans for Audrey.
  • BlazBlue: Yuuki Terumi might not be the most triumphant example of this trope, simply because he comes across as such a snazzy lookin' smooth criminal at first glance, but once you see his Supernatural Gold Eyes or Psychotic Smirk you just know he's up to no good. In the sequel he stops pretending to be one of the good guys and instead throws himself head first into complete immorality and gleefully revels in depravity. It doesn't get the least bit better when you realize that his false name "Hazama" roughly translates to "Boundary", he has a prominent snake motif and has a shady but gentlemanly demanour. "Hazama" is also merely one of his many nefarious nicknames, the others including such endearing aliases as "Black Susano'o", "The True Evil" and his Phase 1 body is named "Kazuma Kvar". However, his not really true name is fairly safe ("Yuuki" means "courage")... until you realize that before he became known as "Satan", God's right hand angel went under the name "Lucifer", which meant "Lightbringer". And then Central Fiction threw all ambiguity out the window with the reveal of his original form and name: the God Susano'o, the Jerkass God of Japanese mythology...except even worse because this version never made up with Amaterasu and still wants to destroy the world, and his appearance is the Susanooh Unit having undergone an Evil Makeover, and basically acting out like or having the background closer to Lucifer than the actual Susano'o himself. So yeah, there you have it folks; Terumi is none other than the BB verse's own take on Evil Incarnate, and quite literally a God of Evil.
  • Blizzard Entertainment is known to play a lot with this trope:
    • The Orcs and their Horde from Warcraft played this trope straight in the first game and more in the second, but eventually subverted it starting with Warcraft III, where it was revealed they had been corrupted by the Demons (who play this trope very straight), and were actually a decently neutral species before that. They end up freeing themselves from the Demons' corruption and helped the Humans' Alliance to defeat the Demons. Ironically, by World of Warcraft, they have come to appear more sympathetic than the humans, due to the Alliance's Kick the Dog moments.
      • Consider the Pit Lord, a neutral (mercenary) hero from the expansion: a huge reptilian centaur-like demon with a giant spear, bat wings and More Teeth than the Osmond Family, with names like Destromath, Malvengeroth and Brutillus. And lines including "This will please me!" and "To the slaughter" (when told to attack), "I come from the darkness of the pit", "I go to destroy!", "Tremble before me!" and various rumbles and roars.
    • The buglike Zerg from StarCraft: dark colours, bug-like and monstrous. In a game where almost everything is Grey-and-Gray Morality, the zerg are clearly far more on the dark end of the spectrum.
    • In a similar vein, The Undead in Warcraft III, though a small faction ended up joining the Horde and as such became "good" guys... though their clear position remains complicated.
    • While Diablo plays this trope straight with most of the antagonists, who are almost all blood-thirsty, cannibalistic, Always Chaotic Evil demons, it includes some aversions.
      • Zoltan Kulle, who is voiced by Steve Blum at his hammiest, and will pull an Evil Laugh every time he teleports out (which is fairly often).
  • City of Heroes:
  • The Darkness: The Darkness 2 has Brother Victor, a heavily scarred, subhuman-looking Evil Cripple. Lampshaded repeatedly by other characters; one describes him as looking like "Nosferatu on crack".
  • Dark Souls: Lautrec of Carim likes to end his ominously voiced chats with sinister laughter. Also, like his spiritual predecessor Yurt from Demon's Souls, he wields a nasty assassin's weapon. He ends up killing the Firelink Fire Keeper Anastacia requiring you to hunt him down to get her soul back.
  • Demon Hunter: The Return of the Wings: Greed has a red costume, a wrinkled pale face and Absurdly Sharp Claws. Gun has a late realization that he's not going to answer his questions and is actually dangerous.
  • Demon's Souls: The NPCs Yurt the Silent Chief, Miralda the Executioner and Mephistopheles. Yurt has his deep, menacing voice, his black, Sauron-like armor and a sickle described to be an assassination weapon. Miralda has a hood that wraps around her skull and a guillotine axe. And Mephistopheles has all-black clothing and what looks like a Guy Fawkes mask. That's not getting into when you actually meet them closer, with Yurt killing people in the Nexus, or Mephistopheles getting you to do it and backstabbing you later. Miralda just attacks you.
  • Disgaea: Vulcanus. Between his Prophet Eyes, Fu Manchu mustache, and a less flattering face when compared to Lamington and Flonne who fit Angelic Beauty, everyone in the game (except said Flonne, a Horrible Judge of Character who nevertheless wises up) can instantly tell he's evil, a lampshade further pronounced in the remake with the Prinny Commentary on.
  • Doom³: Dr. Betruger. It's not enough that he's a disfigured obviously insane scientist. It's not enough that he has a sinister voice to accompany that. No, he has to have a name that gives it out. "Betrüger" is German for "betrayer", so...guess what he ends up doing in the game?
  • Dragon Age:
  • Almost every Dragon Quest Big Bad is designed to be very obviously evil, especially the ones from the Zenithia trilogy (IV, V, and VI) remakes and Dragon Quest VII, where the villains are oversized monsters with no resemblance of humanity. Dhoulmagus from Dragon Quest VIII could very well be called "Kefka the clown". The most blatant example would be Jagonuba from Dragon Quest X, whose initial form is a giant Big Red Devil with hooves for feet, and spews many Dark Hands and demonic miasma, even when sealed in a temple in the Netherworld.
  • Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius: Playing one of these is the point of these games. The former covers the red-and-horns-and-skulls variety; the latter the secret volcano lair with totem-pole sentry guns. It's actually a strong strategy in Evil Genius to keep the piranha tanks and sawblades tucked away as a last resort defence for your most vital rooms, as secret agents entering your base only to find nothing but entirely un-sinister soup kitchens will just wander off bored to seek out something more perilous. (Oddly, the cackling megalomaniac executing unfortunate minions in the corridors is oft ignored entirely.)
  • Dynasty Warriors: Dong Zhuo, who viewed honour as an outdated custom, duty as useless and he only cares about his gold, women, and land. He is fat, has a diabolical Evil Laugh, has a sword that has shark teeth along the blade and is heavily armored and is generally difficult to defeat. In more than a few games, he even says, "If I can fulfill my ambitions, I can burn down a capital city... or two... OR THREE!!" In Real Life, he might just be even worse.
  • Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG: President Zazz is a skull-faced cyborg with tentacles growing out of his face for some reason, and he's a greedy and bigoted dictator.
  • Eien no Filena (which translates to "Eternal Filena"): This SNES JRPG falls headlong into this. The Evil Empire has no redeeming qualities, and there exists not a single second of any of the bad guys being even Affably Evil.
  • Elden Ring: There are a lot of horribly evil people running around the lands between, but at least most of them have the grace to be honest about it.
    • Mohg, Mohg, Mohg. A Horned Humanoid who barely looks human underneath the horns, dresses in black, wields a trident, calls himself the Lord of Blood, invented Blood Magic, and lives in a creepy underground castle. It's hard to call him anything but evil even if you don't know he's planning to forcibly marry his half-brother to become Elden Lord.
    • Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy. The guy picked that title out himself, which tells you all you need to know about him even before you meet him in person as a giant deformed snake. It's really no surprise that he was a torturer who decided to fuse with a monster snake to eventually devour gods.
    • Godrick the Grafted may call himself "Godrick the Golden", but he's fooling absolutely no one considering that his body is a misshapen mess of limbs that he stole from others (you can find a lot of body bags in his castle).
    • Godskin Cultists wear robes made from human/demigod skin. If that doesn't scream "horrible person", then I don't know what would.
    • The first things you're likely to find out about Shabriri is that he's the most loathed person in the Lands Between, and he is the namesake of a talisman that makes everything hate you, and eyeballs from people who were driven mad and ripped them out themselves. And when you finally meet him in person, he laughs and screams "May Chaos take the world!" You really can't say you didn't know what you were getting into if you side with him.
    • The Loathsome Dung Eater is very proud of his reputation as a Serial Killer obsessed with defiling corpses. He starts his questline by telling you to free him so he can kill and defile you, and ultimately desires to defile the entire world.
    • Seluvis is a Jerkass to everyone except people who share his magical interests; to those who do, he's quite happy to talk about his field of magic involving enslaving living people to his will as his puppets, and it's heavily implied that yes, he does take sexual advantage of them. His questline even ends with him trying to puppet-ify his liege lady, Ranni (who sees right through him and murders him the instant she doesn't need him anymore).
    • Ensha of the Royal Remains is a minor example since he never speaks and is a very minor character, but the dude dresses up in armor decorated with human bones. Very few Tarnished were surprised when he invaded them.
    • The DLC trailer shows a new demigod, Messmer the Impaler, whose design, even in what little we see of him, is essentially a checklist of things that are considered Very Bad News both in general and in Elden Ring's specific lore:
      • He uses Playing with Fire magic, which is considered inherently opposed to the Erdtree (since it is a tree after all), and the Golden Order has waged a war of genocide on the setting's othe pyromancers, the Fire Giants, for the sheer threat their flame posed. And the unique look of his flames calls to mind the Aberrant sorceries.
      • He has a two-headed snake with dragon wings wrapped around his body. Not only is this generally a sign of villainy, but the lore of the Duelists also says that snakes were considered "traitors to the Erdtree" (hence why gladiators wore snake armor; they were heels in the arena and the audience liked seeing snakes get beat up), and the only other noticeably snake-associated character is Rykard, above.
      • His one good eye is bright yellow with a slitted pupil- which looks remarkably like the yellow eyes the player gets if they partake in Dragon Communion (eating dragon hearts to gain spells). While to the player it's just another source of incantations, in lore it's a terrible act that causes one to become consumed with bloodlust and eventually transformed into the draconic parodies known as Magma Wyrms.
      • His epithet is 'the Impaler', which isn't something one gets called by being nice. The audience will also immediately recognize it as belonging to a certain Wallachian nobleman infamous for bloodthirstiness and terror tactics.
      • And to top it all off, his line in the trailer suggests he's racist against Tarnished.
  • The Elder Scrolls
  • Exit Fate has the incredibly smug and underhanded Governor Miller, who even has the game's single most smug portrait. However, his conscience eventually catches up to him, and he turns in both Vosch and himself to atone for his corruption.
  • Fable III: King Logan is easily the most evil appearing person in the game. It later turns out he's simply being Necessary Evil in order to raise enough money to fund his armies to combat the game's true villain, The Crawler. And as you can probably imagine, that thing fits this trope much better than Logan does.
  • Fallout 3:
    • "President" John Henry Eden. His accent is suspiciously British (because his voice actor is ALEX THE DROOG). It sounds extremely sinister, and his messages about the Enclave have the undertone of "If you get in our way, you'll be zapped with laser rifles."
    • On top of that, if you played Fallout 2 before Fallout 3 then you already have experience with the Enclave and how they really behave.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • In the Fire Emblem series:
    • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light has Gharnef. In the original, he was simply a Black Cloak. But in the remake he has a hunchback, Pointy Ears glowing yellow eyes, clawed hands and pale, seemingly rotting skin. His new artwork speaks for itself.◊
    • The Loptr cultists in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War universally wear long, face-obscuring robes, go around with creepy smiles, and use terrifying dark magic in battle. Manfroy, their leader, shows more of his face and hews to the series' principle of ugly villains—he's bald, hawk-nosed, and his face is twisted into a Psychotic Smirk at all times.
    • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:
      • Ashnard, King of Daein. Dark costume? Check. Spikes of Villainy? Check. Evil grin? Check. No redeeming qualities whatsoever? Check. Big black dragon to ride around on? Check and mate. The last one's a double subversion. His mount Rajaion was a member of the Laguz dragon tribe, a sentient creature that he enslaved and drove mad to use as a weapon, a process that eventually resulted in Rajaion's death... leaving behind a grieving widow and a child he never got to meet. So Ashnard double subverts the trope by appearing extremely evil... and then actually being more evil than he looks. And that's not counting what he did to Almedha and Soren.
      • Izuka looks like Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings.
    • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the Grimleal religion as a whole is this. Their leader, Validar is very similar to Gharnef in that he does his best to make sure everyone knows he's a villain. His design includes long black robes, long and pointy nails, unnaturally grey skin, red eyes, an absurdly low neckline, and a goatee. The rest of the members, minus the lone female, Aversa (who was made Brainwashed and Crazy with magic), are all ugly thugs who Rape, Pillage, and Burn and deformed evil wizard types. They even refer to their god Grima as evil in Japan. Even Grima's English descriptor of fell has very negative connotations.
    • In Fire Emblem Fates, how King Garon of Nohr manages to get anyone to believe he's someone trustworthy is a mystery. Just one look at him should be enough to tell you that he is not a good person, what with his charcoal gray skin, red eyes, dark attire, a penchant for creepy laughter, and abusing his children. This one is admittedly played with. The real Garon has actually been dead since before the story began, and was noted to have been a kind-hearted father and ruler in the past. By this point in the story the Garon seen today is a possessed corpse carrying out the plan of the true Big Bad of the game. However, Fire Emblem Cipher shows that he was reasonably attractive for his age◊ before his possession.
      • Maybe you could give Garon a pass, given that he was a good person at one point and it’s possible some people might not have realized that changed. But his generals have no such excuse. Iago has greasy black hair, unnaturally pale skin, and constantly sports a smug expression, and is literally named after the most despicable Shakespeare villain ever. Hans looks like Darkseid. And Zola is a jaundiced, thin man with long fingernails. None of them are good people, although Zola is slightly less rotten than the other two.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has Those Who Slither in the Dark, who you can already tell are bad news just from their name. Their most prominent members consist of an Evil Overlord type with a severe countenance dressed in dark armor, a shriveled old wizard with a grotequely veiny forehead, and an assassin who looks like a demented jester. Funnily enough, they take a backseat in two of the routes in favor of a more down-to-earth conflict between greyer factions. They're secondary antagonists in the Church's route and only take center stage as the villains in the Golden Deer route.
  • Both Mara and Hel from Ghostrunner have Glowing Mechanical Eyes and freakishly mechanical bodies with lots of reds and blacks in case you were doubting they were villains.

    H-O 
  • Halo: "I? I am a monument to all your sins." Also, its name is Gravemind and it's made of thousands upon thousands of dead bodies. Who do you think it leads?
  • Heart of the Woods has Evelyn Fischer, Morgan's mother and mayor of Eysenfeld. She immediately adopts an unfriendly and threatening demeanor toward Madison and Tara, who came to visit Eysenfeld, and comes off as emotionally abusive toward her daughter Morgan. Madison ends up getting a bad feeling about her every time she interacts with Evelyn, and is not particularly surprised when Abigail reveals that Evelyn was the one who tricked Madison into pursuing an illusion of Tara into a snowstorm, causing Madison's death. As such, Evelyn being evil isn't much of a twist; the real twist is that she's a fairy possessing the real Evelyn's body, and who wants to steal Morgan or Tara's body.
  • From Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep comes Master Xehanort. He's bald, has golden eyes, a silver goatee, wears a Black Cloak, walks around hunched over with his hands clasping behind his back, the only smile he knows how to give is a Psychotic Smirk, and his Keyblade◊ is practically a battle axe adorned with Spikes of Villainy, demonic wings, a horned face, and a Hellish Eye. Yet the heroes are all shocked when he turns out to be the villain, and one even trusts him as a mentor. This twist is strictly in-universe, the game makes it obvious to the player that he's evil in the opening cutscenes, when he sabotages the Mark of Mastery exam with dark powers and directly says to his Dragon that he's putting on an act to fly under the radar for now. This goes back further to the secret ending to Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ that foreshadows Xehanort's battle with the three heroes in Birth By Sleep. The scene has no dialogue or vocalizations, and the characters have never been seen before by the player, so they will have absolutely no context for this scene — yet the moment Xehanort appears on-screen, it's obvious who the villain of the confrontation is.
  • In Kirby, there are several examples. Dark Meta Knight, while his Anti-Hero normal world counterpart hardly looks nice, is far more blatant. Massive scar over his mask? Check. Thin, hostile-looking eyes? Check. Ragged, tattered cape that turns into demonic bat wings? Check. Even darker and duller colour than normal Meta Knight, usually gray or black? Check. There's also Dark Matter, which is a horrific shapeshifting one-eyed ball of goo led by Zero, whose insatiable will to destroy the universe pretty much fits the name, and Galacta Knight, who has a far hotter and deeper shade of pink than the series protagonist, making him look more intimidating, bright red eyes, and golden horns on the front of his mask. Though the angel wings might throw you off. There's also Nightmare, a mad wizard with a constant Evil Grin, massive starry void and tornado beneath his cloak, golden horns much longer and sharper than Galacta Knight's and silly sunglasses.
  • Knights of the Old Republic:
    • All of the Sith in this game and the sequel are pretty disturbing-looking (except for maybe Visas and Darth Bandon). The shot with Malak without his mechanical collar? Darth Nihilus, whose Black Speech is so evil it doesn't get subtitles?
    • In the sequel, barely anyone reacts to the revelation that Kreia is a Sith, since they never trusted her in the first place.
    • Star Wars: The Old Republic generally uses the same aesthetic for the Sith, made even better with the decent chance that the Sith in question is a Pureblood Sith, who have red skin and horned faces.
      • The Sith Inquisitor storyline has an unusual example in Lord Zash, who is polite, friendly, and helpful to the Player Character, which stands out among the majority of NPCs that enjoy reminding you of your low status. Thing is, this behavior is so out of character for a Sith Lord that everyone and your grandfather thinks she's up to something. As it turns out she intends to kill and posses you, so their fears were justified.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Most villains, especially Ganondorf and Vaati. Ganon calls himself the King of Evil and Prince of Thieves, plays the Ominous Pipe Organ and altogether should set off alarm bells for miles around. Vaati is already suspicious in 'human' form, let alone when he's in the standard One-Winged Angel form involving a gigantic eye and bat wings.
    • Agahnim◊ from A Link to the Past trips pretty much every Untrustworthy Bastard alarm at first glance, yet is trusted enough by the royal family to get into a position where he can mentally dominate the entire palace guard and army and murder the king. In the international versions of the game he's a wizard which he could possibly pass as, while in the Japanese version he's a priest!
    • And Chancellor Cole from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Never trust a villain who looks like a leprechaun, wears two top hats at once, has inverted eye colour and a Slasher Smile with More Teeth than the Osmond Family, of the shark-like variety.
    • Hilariously, in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf starts out as a member of the Gerudo who pledges to serve the King. Zelda is the only one before Link shows up who realizes that Ganondorf is evil and tries to tell her father, who doesn't believe her. On the other hand, the series does subvert it in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess with Zant. While he was desperate to rule the Twili kingdom, the royal family actually did notice the greed and insanity that consumed him (granted it was rather difficult to miss) and passed over him as ruler, instead giving the title to Midna. He just decided to serve Ganondorf and took the throne anyway...
    • Inverted Trope in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Batreaux is a demon and looks evil, but he's actually a nice guy.
      • It doesn't help that he had supposedly kidnapped a little girl (who was actually staying at his place overnight because it's dangerous at night), who was screaming at the top of her lungs as you approach his house (playing a "scream as loud as you can game", what else?), and the fact you enter in to find him standing directly above her menacingly (all part of the game).
      • The game does play it straight however, with its Big Bad Ghirahim who is a bizarre effeminate guy with eerie silver-pale skin but none the less Ax-Crazy narcissist, and Greater-Scope Villain Demise, whose true form is 10 foot expy of Akuma with flashing hair, pitch black skin, a muscle build that makes steroid abusers look slim, and an evil looking version of the Master Sword. And did we mention he's the Predecessor Villain to Ganon?note 
    • Yuga in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is this. After all, he's a creepy magician style character who looks a lot like Ganondorf's Distaff Counterpart, so it shouldn't surprise absolutely anyone that he's one of the main villains of the game except Princess Hilda who thought he was totally trustworthy.
    • Ganon takes this up to eleven in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Now he's not even a boar like monster, but a swirling cloud of dark malice that hovers around Hyrule Castle after having destroyed the entire world a hundred years ago. And he gets even more obviously evil when fought, turning into a Magitek hybrid of darkness and Guardian parts in the shape of a giant spider with a human skull. Or a towering boar like monstrosity made of Malice with the title 'Hatred and Malice Incarnate'. And that's not even getting into the fact that it was a fragment of Demon King Ganondorf's soul that escaped his imprisonment way beneath Hyrule Castle. Speaking of Ganondorf...
      • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes it to infinity and beyond the heavens or Depths when even in his initial Gerudo form, Zelda could tell Ganondorf was bad news, despite telling Rauru that the Gerudo will no longer fight Hyrule and be accepted into the kingdom, though Rauru admits that he is bad news and decides to keep an eye on him. His Demon King form, obtained by murdering Queen Sonia and stealing her Secret Stone is even more blatant, since it almost looks like his ancestor Demise.
    • Hyrule Warriors has Cia and her two Co-Dragons, Volga and Wizzro. Cia is a Lady of Black Magic with a skimpy black dress, red pupils in her eyes, and a sinister-looking mask. Volga, while not evil by choice, is still the leader of a tribe of man-eating lizards, and he wears red armor topped with a horned helmet. And Wizzro is an Undead Abomination that looks the part, even betraying Cia twice, the latter just wanting to be with Ganondorf.
    • Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has Astor, who wears a dark hooded robe, has deathly pale skin and greasy black hair, wears a headband with an adornment that resembles the red eyes found in Malice in the game and in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and speaks in a very deep voice.
  • LittleBigPlanet: The Negativitron from Little Big Planet 2. Eldritch Abomination? Check. Tons of purple and black? Check. Four Hellish Pupils? Check. Fanged mouth and Devil-style horns? Check. Alternates between an Evil Laugh and Mighty Roar? Double Check.
  • Ghaleon from the Lunar series is an obvious Card-Carrying Villain. Just observe his long white hair and red, slit-pupiled eyes; it's written all over his face. Even his borderline Creepy Monotone introductory speech screams 'I'm up to no good!' Still, the main character doesn't figure it out until he does an Evil Costume Switch, kills (or, depending on the version captures) the White Dragon and kidnaps Luna. It's a Subverted Trope later, when he does a Heel–Face Turn to stop the Big Bad of the second game.
  • In Love & Pies, Edwina, the owner of Global Corp Clean Bean Café and rival of Amelia, is arrogant and snobbish, and often insults her to crush her in the business competition. She wears a white suit to go along with her mostly white hair and dark eyeshadow, and Amelia's new dog runs away from her whenever she visits Windmill Café. She also laughs evilly at the player whenever they fail her Cash Dash event.
  • Mass Effect:
    • Saren Arterius... More cybernetic parts than is necessary? Check. Chalk-white scale plates as opposed to the usual turian gray? Check. Cold blue-glowing cybernetic eyes? Check. More spiky-faced than your usual turian? Check. Barefaced?note  Yep... In fact, one of his arms is a geth arm (the enemies of the first game). And to top things off, the music that plays when he shows up is the same as the Critical Mission Failure music.
    • Subverted by Nihlus, who had skull-like face paint and a less-than-pleasant name. However, he serves as teacher and a friend of Anderson... for about less than an hour into the game.
  • Master Detective Archives: Rain Code:
    • Yomi Hellsmile and Makoto Kagutsuchi stand out as the most blatantly evil characters in the whole game, the former being an outright selfish, corrupt Jerkass with red hair and black clothes, and the latter being a Hidden Agenda Villain who is described as such In-Universe that the story depicts as the Malevolent Masked Man archetype. While the latter tries to conceal it, pretty much everyone sees that Makoto might be evil and not on the heroes' side. It turns out both of them are highly unrestrained in all possible ways and they both serve the role of main antagonist to some degree. Though it may not look that way at first, they are responsible for Kanai Ward's current state, with the former directly turning it into a dystopia and the latter seemingly indirectly.
    • In addition to the aforementioned, the Mad Scientist is blatantly obvious, being Dr. Huesca, Amaterasu Corporation's head researcher, of whom is Hated by All regarding the company's research facility, as he is a tall, short-tempered, insane-looking old guy with a pointy face and body. He's the Greater-Scope Villain of the game, being responsible for Makoto and Yomi's success as the game's main antagonists, indirectly for Makoto and directly for Yomi.
  • Mega Man (Classic): The original series has Dr Wily as its Big Bad a Mad Scientist with a bat-like hairdo, a skull motif and a surname called Wily. How he's able to fool people he's not behind the latest evil plot, like using an obviously fake identity like Mr X or frame Dr Light, nobody knows.
  • Mega Man Battle Network:
    • In this series, Dark Chips (evil battlechips which slowly corrupt your Navi and sap your hit points if you use them) truly look evil, with glowing purple icons and scary-sounding, robotic descriptions such as "USE LARGE SWORD AND SLICE".
    • Dr. Regal takes this to ridiculous levels in his introduction. Beard of Evil? Check. Monocle? Check. Extremely polite? Check. Smug Grin? Check. Mentioned as being from "Nation Z, the infamous military country"? Check.
    • In Mega Man Star Force, we have Mr. King, who is certainly known around the world as a famous philanthropist, the game wastes absolutely no time revealing that, yes, he is the Big Bad.
  • Mega Man Zero: Dr Weil, the ultimate evil of the Zero series is a red-eyed, black and red-clad Mad Scientist who was initially banished after causing a near-apocalyptic war, is a bitter misanthrope who openly admits to have enjoyed the suffering he caused back then. Even in-universe everyone knows he's bad news, and he only manages to get away with taking over Neo Aracida by reviving their leader Copy-X and then exploiting his naivety (along with implicitly brainwashing important Reploid figures).
  • Metal Gear Solid: The Grey-and-Gray Morality makes it difficult to find any truly evil characters in the entire series. But then you get a few types who really leave no trace of doubt that they need killing, and soon:
  • Metal Warriors: The invading forces are called the Dark Axis, and are led by an openly-declared dictator.
  • Mortal Kombat has a number of characters who qualify, but the most prominent example is Evil Overlord Shao Kahn, ruler of the Death World Outworld. Skull helmet, copious Spikes of Villainy and a grim throne to sit upon. He towers over all other characters and verbally abuses anyone, who would dare to challenge him. Noob Saibot is another such type; a being of pure shadow spawned from the depths of hell after years of taint and death corrupted the soul of Elder Sub-Zero/Bi-Han. Also, the Evil Sorcerer responsible for the creation of Noob Saibot, Quan Chi, is a bald, pale Necromancer with distinct red eyes, Facial Markings, and Spikes of Villainy on his costume. Most people probably aren't going to look at any of his pictures and think "Oh, here's our hero."
  • MySims: Morcubus from this series. Aside from having a Name to Run Away From Really Fast, he carries a very prominent Beard of Evil, and in your first case of the Wii version of MySims Agents, he claims that his (it's really Poppy's) dog's name is "Killfang".
  • NEO: The World Ends with You has Tanzo Kubo, one of the Shinjuku Reapers. He's an obvious Slimeball who is noticeably uglier than most of the cast. The protagonists are wary of Kubo from the beginning and even some of Kubo's colleagues, such as Shoka, dislike him. It turns out that Kubo is the true Big Bad of the game, who is responsible for the erasure of Shinjuku and plans on doing the same thing to Shibuya.
  • Nintendo Wars:
    • While none of the COs of Black Hole in the first three Advance Wars games look especially trustworthy, Sturm, the Big Bad of the first two games, and Von Bolt, the Big Bad of Dual Strike, practically scream at the player that they're the bad guys.
    • In Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, it comes as no surprise that Admiral Greyfield is evil to either the player or the characters in-universe. The trouble is that Brenner's men are that desperate to save as many civilians as possible and Greyfield has plenty of food and supplies... and they severely underestimate just how evil and unhinged Greyfield is.
  • Neverwinter Nights:
    • Examine some of the villains closely. Could you see any of them (except maybe Desther, the actually effective mole or Maugrim, who doesn't really look evil, he is just insane) as good guys? The half-demon elf? The white dragon? The black-skinned white-haired almost nude drow queen (though she does get some help on that front by being the villain of an arc where your closest allies, who are mostly good guys, are also black-skinned white-haired drow)? The giant red guy with the trident, goatee, and horns?
    • Desther, convincing? The same Desther that spends all his screentime up to The Reveal viciously badmouthing you and Aribeth and downplaying the plague's threat? The same Desther whose Helmites give out "blessings" that give an ominous red glow? The same Desther who instantly becomes defensive and dismissive every time you hand Fenthwick evidence of the Cult's existence (which you can point out if your Wisdom is high enough)?
  • Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer has One-of-Many. While the main campaign's two Evil party members, Ammon Jerro and Bishop, were a Well-Intentioned Extremist and a selfish, amoral mercenary, respectively, One-of-Many is just completely malevolent. It's a collection of souls (most of whom were exceptionally violent criminals) shoved into the dead body of a minor god, it speaks in constant hissing whispers, and it looks like a ringwraith being possessed by the devil◊. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of its dialogue is steeped in encouraging the player to do the worst thing they could do in that situation.
  • Clancy from Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship Of Doom at first introduces himself as if he's to be an ally like Robert from the previous game, but with a music theme like this and a face like this◊ he looks a man who eats puppies for a living. Surprise surprise, he's the Big Bad.
  • Overlord: The title character is a Tin Tyrant who usually starts out equipped with a battleaxe and commands a legion of Chaotic Stupid minions (albeit ones that are Ugly Cute).

    P-Z 
  • Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh: Paul Allen Warner, which Spoony takes great pleasure in mocking ("I heard that, Curtis") during his Let's Play of the game.
  • Pokémon:
    • In Pokémon Black and White, Ghetsis from Team Plasma is extremely obvious. From running an evil team, to nearly letting slip his true goals in casual conversation, to dressing like wearing a robe with eyeballs on it. Not to mention the red and black monocle on his right eye. And yet, people oddly enough, actually listen to him. One of the best parts of the game is when Cheren (one of the rivals and the smarter characters in the game) is shocked when Ghetsis turns out to be evil.
    • In Pokémon X and Y, there is Lysandre from Team Flare, who isn't revealed to be the villain until later. His hair and clothes are Red and Black and Evil All Over matching Team Flare's colors, the he waxes philosophically about beauty, and his theme that plays while you and him talk is very ominous, to say the least. Later on, it's shown that the cafe that he owns is, in fact, Team Flare's hangout. It's so painfully blatant, the players were surprised to know it was (supposed to be) a secret. If his comment about "replacing old filth with new filth" in his Coumarine Holo Caster message to you doesn't set off alarms, you may be genre blind. The only reason there's any ambiguity over his status as the Big Bad is that AZ is a more sinister-looking person whose behavior practically screams that he's some sort of man behind the man, except he's actually an Atoner who is obviously against Lysandre's agenda.
    • In Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, XD001/Shadow Lugia has been corrupted to the point of its physical appearance changing, while "normal" Shadow Pokemon are visually indistinguishable from their non-corrupted counterparts.
    • Averted with Darkrai in the main series, one of the most evil-looking Pokémon you can find, who puts anyone who comes across it into eternal nightmares which can only by cured by Cresselia. The nightmares it gives are an involuntary defense mechanism, and it actually means no harm.
    • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
      • The DLC The Teal Mask introduces the Loyal Three, Pokémon who supposedly protected Kitakami from the evil Ogerpon...but the dark purple accents, sinister poses, and the fact that their shared ability is Toxic Chain hints at a far more sinister role. Sure enough, it's revealed that the true story is an inverse of what people think; Ogerpon and her human friend were peaceful visitors who received masks from a friendly mask maker, but hearing about the jewels embedded in their masks, the Loyal Three, thugs one and all, visited the cave where they stayed, killed the human, and stole three of their masks. Ogerpon killed them in vengeance, but the villagers thought they'd been protecting Kitakami from the rampaging ogre and venerated them as heroes.
      • The Indigo Disk also has an example in the form of the Loyal Three's boss, Pecharunt. Between its name (which sounds like "petulant"), its dark-colored design, its Poison/Ghost-typing, its affiliation with the above-mentioned Loyal Three (being their boss and creator), and even its base stats (five out of six of which are 88, which in Japanese is pronounced similarly to yabai, which means terrible or dangerous), it's not hard to guess that this is one of the few genuinely evil Pokémon in the franchise.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:
    • Zig-Zagging Trope in this series. While evil-looking Pokémon (especially Ghost, Poison, Dark and Dragon types) do end up being villains, just as many are neutral or good.
    • Rescue Team plays it straight with Gengar, a red eyed, purple, spiky, and perpetually grinning Ghost type. Most would immediately assume that he's no good the moment he makes his first appearance and he proceeds to back it up moments later. He ends up becoming a Jerk with a Heart of Gold after some sobering experiences, though.
    • Explorers has Dusknoir, who looks like a one-eyed Grim Reaper. While he tries to pass himself off as good initially, he makes a very dubious remark shortly after his introduction that will immediately make most players call his true intentions into question, and sure enough, he ends up being a bad guy. He ultimately repents by helping to save the world in Sky, however. Later on, it introduces Darkrai, who looks a living shadow; appropriately evil for the deeds he commits in the story, such as nearly plunging the world into eternal darkness, and trying to convince you and your partner to commit suicide.
      • There's also Team Skull, whose ranks consist of Koffing, Zubat, and Skuntank; all of them purple, and overall not looking like the first bunch of Pokémon you should be trusting (Which of course, some characters do end up doing...). On the other hand, there's Team AWD, consisting of Arbok, Weavile, and Drapion; all black and/or purple and all of them based on animals with rather unsavory reputations. However, despite being made out to be evil on Explorers of Time's boxart, they're neutral at worse, simply providing you with advice in all of the games, and being mistaken for bad guys in Sky due to a lie.
    • Gates To Infinity has Kyurem, whose soulless yellow eyes don't exactly scream "good guy" and while initially not seeming that villainous otherwise, he makes a suspicious remark like Dusknoir that makes it very clear that he's hiding something. Even more evil looking is Hydreigon, who's got plenty of black and red on him along with Black Eyes of Crazy, and he cements the evilness by attacking Munna in the game's opening. Except it later turns out that the scene was an illusion and that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he's actually the nicest guy in the world. Then there's Cofagrigus, who despite being a red eyed, living sarcophagus with a Slasher Smile, is merely a friendly, but creepy collector of gold bars.
  • [PROTOTYPE]: Blackwatch and Gentek were already pretty bad in the first game, having no qualms about kidnapping, murder, developing bioweapons, and wiping entire towns off the map. In [PROTOTYPE 2], they drop all pretenses and openly gloat about all of that and more, including mowing down innocent civilians and even sterilizing poor people and minorities. Their commanding officers even reprimand the handful of troops that show compassion for the civilians that have been caught in the crossfire. Their outfits in the second game look like steampunk Darth Vader cosplays.
  • Resident Evil: Was it really surprising that the man wearing all black, sunglasses indoors, and mysteriously disappears at the beginning of the game would turn out to be the villain? Not to mention his very flawed excuse the only other time you meet him over the course of the game. What's worse is that Jill actually seems to trust Wesker over Barry during the residence meeting. In Chris's story, Wesker does do Barry's job of providing occasional off-screen assistance so you could almost excuse him for trusting Wesker. Almost.
    • Lisa Trevor, is a subversion. While being a hulking mutated berserker, is a tragic victim, who was kidnapped by Umbrella note  and heavily mutated on, with almost every virus known in the series before the fourth game. She kills everything in sight, but that was because the experiments drove her feral, killing any humanity she had left, except for her determination to be reunited with her mother whom she thinks is still alive. The subversion only applies to poor Lisa's motivations; she's still extremely dangerous and one can tell at a glance that going in for a hug wouldn't be a wise move.
  • Return to Krondor: Bear, for starters. The head scribe for the jail, due to his shrill voice that sounds like a talking weasel and a Villainous Widow's Peak. Journeyman Jorath, due to his oily voice, and his politically incorrect, racist attitudes toward Keshians, and a Villainous Widow's Peak. The necromancer leader Sidi, although he certainly did an impressive job sounding calm and normal at one point.
  • ReVOLUTION (2002): The Corporation has a logo resembling a big, evil-looking winged skull (death's-head). It also has posters saying "Power And Control," as well as "The Corporation Is The Sun Of Your New Life!" plastered all over the place.
  • The drivers in Rides With Strangers tend to be at least slightly off, from Father Donald to the Joke Teller.
  • Ripper: Joey Falconetti first appears to Quinlan in a virtual burning hellscape filled with human corpses, wielding a dozen knives—that he throws at the tied-up Quinlan—and his head occasionally turns transparent to reveal his skull. No, he couldn't possibly be the Ripper.
  • Rival Schools: Raizo Imawano, the principal of Justice High School, has huge stature, anevil monocle, and his fingernails sharpened into claws... but all evil acts he commits are a result of brainwashing.
  • RuneScape: Lucien is a hunchback with a black robe complete with a face-hiding hood in human form. In real form, he has a skull for a face, flings black magical skulls as attacks and black smoke come off him continuously.
  • Samurai Warriors:
    • Oda Nobunaga has a Beard of Evil, a black and red ragged cape, and a black sword with a purple, glowing aura. Considering that everyone else is fairly normal, with a regular weapon, he stands out a little bit. But then, he's designed to be an Anti-Hero or Jerk with a Heart of Gold, so this Nobunaga is at least much safer than...
  • The Sengoku Basara version of Nobunaga, both game and the anime version. Spikes of Villainy? Check. Beard of Evil? Check. Well-known villain voice actor? Norio Wakamoto, double check. Makes speeches about opening portals to Hell on Earth and refers to himself as the Demon King? Check. Dramatic Thunder and Ominous Latin Chanting whenever he makes a public appearance? Oh, you better believe check. And just to make absolutely sure anyone who sees him knows that he's a Card-Carrying Villain, he drinks sake out of a human skull. While sitting on a throne decorated with skulls. Which is itself seated on a giant pile of human skulls.
  • Section 8: Prejudice: Salvador. A bald, ugly blue-skinned giant wearing blood red armour... Who would have guessed?
  • Sonic The Hedgehog:
    • Black Doom in Shadow the Hedgehog. He is gigantic, has nearly godlike powers, is the head of an empire in space, has an ultra deep voice, can detach an eye from himself to observe things in detail and to accompany allies, desires total power and control, has a near infinite army of bloodthirsty monsters, and is named Black Doom. For some reason, Professor Gerald Robotnik, himself a good man at the time he met Black Doom, thought that helping Doom get the Chaos Emeralds was a good idea.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), the villain of the game introduces himself as Mephiles the Dark. When asked about himself, he falls silent and changes the subject. He looks like an evil twin of Shadow the Hedgehog (who himself already looks like an evil twin of Sonic the Hedgehog). It's almost mind-boggling that Silver didn't realize Mephiles was a bad guy the very first time they met. He moves like a puppet, has soulless, feral eyes, and NO MOUTH (yet his face moves when he talks). And that's when he is a Shadow doppelganger, to say nothing of his powered up form, which is crystal-like, emits blue flames, and has red scleras with green glowing cat irises. On top of that, his name is a corruption of Mephistopheles.
    • The Deadly Six in Sonic Lost World. Their name says it all, but the leader of them, Zavok, is the biggest example as he is a giant horned demon with a predominately red and black color scheme.
    • Infinite from Sonic Forces. With his black-and-silver coloration, menacing red eye, glowing red aura, and menacing mask, you'd have to be blind to think this guy was friendly.
  • Soul Series (Soul Calibur): Nightmare: full dark blue armor, glowing red eyes, a BFS that stares back and a 'funny' right arm. The third and fourth iterations added in a giant fanged mouth on his chest in case any players were unclear on it.
  • Street Fighter:
  • Putrefaction 2 has the Hermit, your Treacherous Quest Giver, who betrays you in the final stage before going One-Winged Angel. He's a sinister, glowing skull shrouded in flames, and his betrayal is hardly a surprise to the player, or the hero, who even throws a lampshade on it.
    "Hey idiot, you are a burning green skull in my head, Of course you are evil. Now I will kick your ass and go home."
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Bowser, at least when not go-karting with his foes or being good for once. Evil Laugh? Check. Boasting? Check. Plans for world domination? And beyond. He's also a giant monster with red eyes and spikes, which helps. What doesn't help is those times where he's helped his foes fight greater villains for his own personal interests instead of doing what any Obviously Evil type would do like helping likes of Fawful, Cackletta, and Dimentio defeat his foes. And those occasions weren't just go-karting with foes, they actually contradict those said traits.
    • Wario and Waluigi are both exaggerated versions of Mario and Luigi, and their personalities are also counterparts. Wario is a Fat Bastard who downplays this trope because he is an anti-hero, even if a Sociopathic Hero. Waluigi sports (sometimes) purple glowing eyes and is just as twisted as Wario.
    • King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country is exactly the same way, boasting about his evilness, trying very obviously evil plans and saying that he is evil in every last word.
    • In Luigi's Mansion and its sequel, the two ghosts that are most obviously this are Bogmire and King Boo himself. The former doesn't even look remotely humanoid, appearing as a living shadow in the form of some sort of nightmare monster, the latter is well, King Boo, with glowing eyes of doom and an appearance in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon which looks creepy as hell, especially in Treacherous Mansion.
    • Antasma from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Seriously, just look at his official art◊. He even looks like a living nightmare!
  • Super Robot Wars X: Nearly every single scene that Hopes is in features some sort of blatantly evil musing to himself: the game lays it on thick that he's a villain planning to betray the party in some fashion. In the end, it's all to get even the player to buy into his Zero-Approval Gambit.
  • Supreme Commander: Inverted Trope with the Cybran nation, whose units all have a red and black color scheme similar to Nod and have a spiky insect like appearance or anything done that makes units in an RTS look more menacing, are overall the nice guys of the game's factions compared to the "ends justify the means" UEF and the genocidal Aeon (they're so extreme they make the UEF's extreme actions seem rational).
  • Tail Concerto gives us Fool, a mysterious arms dealer that dresses in black, has Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness, speaks in a sneering tone, and, according to Flare, he reeks of fish. Everyone knows how much of a creep Fool is at first glance, yet for some reason, Alicia thinks he's trustworthy enough to keep working with, ignorant to the fact that her Black Cats Gang is just a means to an end for Fool's ambitions to Take Over the World.
  • Tales of Xillia 2: Redau. He's got black hair, a red and black suit, narrow yellow eyes, and a devious smirk and voice that make it obvious he's a Smug Snake. He proves it a few minutes after you meet him by blackmailing Ludger.
  • World of Mana:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1:
    • Lorithia. "Oh no, dear Shulk, I am not evil. I just dress in red bondage gear and talk entirely in sexual innuendo to give the boys in the Ministry something to dream about, ohoho."
    • Mumkhar is a cowardly Gonk with a guttural voice who abandons his comrades in battle almost immediately after he's introduced. You'd have to be Dunban to not get that this guy's not watching anyone's back but his own, but the matter isn't if he's evil, but how evil he turned out to be.
  • Zettai Hero Project: Really, how evil can you be if your name is Darkdeath Evilman?! Subverted. He's not as evil as he initially seems.

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