NOTE: Since this trope reveals a villain being responsible for other events in the series (potentially even after their own demise), expect spoilers.
Villainous Legacies in Video Games.
- Most of the conflicts that occur in Ace Combat can be traced back to Belka. Many scientists and engineers from the country went to various places around the planet to become arms dealers and weapons manufacturers to breed conflict and start wars to avenge their homeland.
- Assassin's Creed Syndicate: Despite having been dead for a hundred years, Reginald Birch - former Grandmaster of the Templar Order - and the purge he inflicted on the Assassins of Britain has been so successful the Assassins still don't have a foothold on London, save one guy who was Reassigned to Antarctica. It's also what allows the Templars of the 1860s to have the stranglehold they do have on the city.
- Many of the obstacles the Vault Hunters face in the Borderlands series are the results of three MegaCorp companies leaving their impact on Pandora: Dahl for creating the bandits by leaving prisoners and personnel staff to their fates after an unknown Vault incident as well as abandoning The Lost Legion on Pandora's moon after the Crackening. Atlas via the Crimson Lance for driving out what was left of Dahl's forces out of Pandora while forcing civilians and townsfolk to be in fiefdoms and killing any bandits and opposing Vault Hunters that interfered in the hunt for the Vault. With Knoxx's death, Atlas too left Pandora with the remnants of the Lance ironically becoming the bandits they themselves once hunted. Luckily Roland recruited the rest into the newly founded Crimson Raiders.
- In Borderlands 3, the DLC "Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot" deals with a casino created by Handsome Jack that has gone into lockdown after his death, trapping everyone (including Timothy Lawrence, the Doppelganger from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!) in it for seven years. Both Moxxi and Timothy lament that even in death, Jack is still screwing people over.
- Case 02: Paranormal Evil: Nya, the recently deceased Big Bad of Loser Reborn, had a hand in summoning Gla'aki to the real world. This makes them one of the main causes of the zombie apocalypse, though it's unknown how exactly they're connected to Gla'aki's cult.
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert Series: Joseph Stalin built the Soviet Union into an unstoppable military machine, and while he dies at the end of the first game, his successors continue his legacy of world conquest. This is especially pronounced in the case of the psychic Diabolical Mastermind Yuri, who reveals that he used to be a student and personal friend of Stalin.
- As of Contra: Shattered Soldier, it turns out that the Triumvirate is truly responsible for everything that has happened in the Contra series, when they had stole the Relic of Moirai and provoked the Alien Wars in the first place.
- Dark Souls:
- Manus, Father of the Abyss, is long dead by the time of Dark Souls II. His remains eventually became the Abyss, a dark realm haunted by malevolent spirits, and the fragments of his soul embodying his emotions were reincarnated as his Children of Dark. One of those Children Queen Nashandra, embodiment of Manus' desires, is directly responsible for Drangleic's downfall. Even in death Manus spreads Dark.
- Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, is the single most impactful individual on the world of the series, seeing how it was he who committed the "First Sin", when he refused to let the first Age of Fire be succeeded by an Age of Dark, breaking the very foundations of the metaphysical world order to preserve the First Flame. The result was the repeated cycles of the First Fire fading and being rekindled, which precipitate both sequels, and ultimately, the turning of the entire world into ashes, as seen in the final DLC of the third installment.
- Gorden Amherst created the Dollar Flu/Green Poison to bring about the downfall of civilization in The Division. By the time the Agent, finds him, he’s been Dead All Along, killed by his own virus. Nonetheless, he got what he wanted from the chaos caused by the outbreak, and a rogue agent named Aaron Keener steals his research and equipment to start a new plague that he intends to use to seize power.
- The Grotesqueries Queen, Final Boss of Drakengard Ending E, becomes this in Nier, since it was because of her that the Gestalts and Replicants were created to allow humanity to outlast the White Chlorination Syndrome caused by the Queen's remains. The Queen is also responsible for humanity's subsequent extinction once the Gestalt project failed, necessitating the formation of YoRHa to cover the news so as to not let the androids lose hope, eventually causing the events of NieR: Automata.
- In Fable, Jack of Blades inspires followers in the form of the Cult of Blades years after his death.
- Non-character example in Fallout. The Big Bad of the first game, The Master, was using the Forced Evolutionary Virus to mutate humans. The villains of the second game excavated the ruins of his lair to retrieve the FEV for their own uses, and the villains of the third synthesized their own version for their plan as well.
- In Final Fantasy VII and its expanded universe, all major villains trace themselves back to Jenova, an Eldritch Abomination who tried to destroy the planet 2000 years ago. Jenova was found by Shinra, and the lab experiments produced by tinkering with her cells serve as the villains of the series, along with a few of the scientists who did said tinkering.
- Dirge of Cerberus: Deepground, the shadow-army of Shinra, which is a veritable group of conscripts and machines left behind by the then-defunct Shinra Company, of which said conscripts were raised for one purpose alone: To be efficient killers with no remorse. And boy do they make a surprise, grand appearance on a brutally-violent scale.
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has Ashnard, the Big Bad of Path of Radiance, who turns out to have been the cause of a major problem for Daein during the sequel. Of couse, he doesn't actively play a role due to being dead by then.
- Danette may be long gonespoilers by the time of the first Geneforge, but their invention, the Geneforge would come to be the catalyst for much of the conflict in the series to follow.
- In God of War, although Ares is long dead by the third game, his original goal to make Kratos his pawn to destroy Olympus and kill his family is fulfilled successfully.
- Grand Theft Auto IV: Billy Grey's betrayal hit the Lost hard. Even after his death, most of the chapter refused to believe Billy was planning to betray all of them, causing a major split in the gang. This led to massive hindrance to Johnny's plans to expand, making him settle in Blaine County, San Andreas, where he partners with a certain Trevor Philips, and to say things doesn't end well for them is a massive Understatement.
- The House of the Dead: OVERKILL has Clement Darling discover the "mutant compound" responsible for the Zombie Apocalypse. While they die at the end, The Stinger reveals he had "powerful friends" who had access to the compound, enabling all future outbreaks in the House of the Dead series.
- Injustice: Gods Among Us: Even though the Injustice-verse version of the Joker was killed by a grieving Superman early in the game and only appears as a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination suffered by Harley Quinn in Injustice 2, his twisted legacy of causing Supes' Face–Heel Turn by tricking him into killing his wife Lois and nuking Metropolis has affected heroes and villains alike. As such, he's also indirectly responsible for creating a wedge between Superman and Batman, the deaths of people who died fighting Superman and his allies, and the general collapse of everything good in the Injustice-verse. The game and its sequel also play up Joker's role as The Corrupter to Harley to make her Heel–Face Turn more plausible and enable more Character Development to her story, as even she regrets associating with him. While most are too happy to be rid of him, Batman opines that Joker's legacy still haunts everyone to this day.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword reveals that the machinations of Ganon are the legacy of Demise, the Demon King who cursed Link and Zelda to be plagued by an incarnation of his hatred forever, manifested in Ganondorf (and perhaps others).
- The Like a Dragon series has the Nishikiyama Clan, who after the death of their patriarch Akira Nishikiyama stick around for two more games as antagonists either attempting to make their own power play or attempting to avenge Nishiki by trying to kill Kiryu.
- In the Mega Man video game franchise, this comes up a lot, as Mega Man (Classic)'s Dr. Wily rivals the Trope Namer as a master of Hijacked by Ganon.
- In the Mega Man X series, it is discovered that The Virus that turns Reploids into Mavericks originated from Zero, and both were Wily's final creations before he died long before the X series. The Big Bad of the X series, Sigma, merges with the Maverick Virus and transforms it into the Sigma Virus.
- In the Mega Man Zero series that comes after the X series, Dr. Weil (no connection to Dr. Wily according to Word of God) creates Omega as a Dark Messiah to subjugate and/or exterminate all Reploids. Omega's consciousness inhabits Zero's original body since Zero's mind was extracted after the X series in order to better study his body's status as the Maverick Virus's carrier. The Mother Elf, who becomes the Dark Elf, another major antagonist, was created by Ciel's ancestor from these studies as an antibody, which was used to eliminate the Maverick and Sigma Viruses (and putting a permanent end to Sigma), but Sigma's actions in the Maverick Wars are what inspired Weil's decision to use Omega, claiming that Reploids should be rendered totally subservient to humans and uncontent with "letting Reploids off easy".
- In the Mega Man ZX series, all the Biometals are created from studying the original Biometal Model W, created from the ruins of the Ragnarok satellite that Weil fused with at the end of Zero 4 (and is still technically alive within).
- Metal Gear:
- Major Zero is responsible of the creation of the Patriots, which he quickly loses control over and become the Greater-Scope Villain for most of the series.
- Big Boss, after his apparent demise at the end of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, looms like a shadow over the next two games as the villains — both clones of him — follow in his footsteps by rebelling against the US Government's authority and trying to establish a nation-state named Outer Heaven. Then his admirer/follower Ocelot, who is apparently possessed by one of Big Boss's clones, and becomes Liquid Ocelot, decides to establish Outer Heaven using private armies.
- The Patriots themselves, and to a lesser extent Liquid Ocelot, become this for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The war economy cannot simply stop dead even after their defeat, continuing on into new avenues while different villains emerge to exploit it or stop it in their own destructive ways to accomplish their own goals.
- In Metroid, the main antagonists of the series, the Space Pirates, suffer their final defeat in Super Metroid when the last of their forces, including their top leaders Ridley and Mother Brain, are destroyed with the planet Zebes after they have spent decades terrorizing and raiding remote colonies on the galactic frontier and starting at least one major war against the Federation. However, their technology and methods live on when corrupt Federation Army forces recreate Mother Brain as an AI and clone Ridley and Zebesian special forces soldiers as well as Metroids in Metroid: Other M and Metroid Fusion. In Metroid Dread, it also turns out that Raven Beak's plan for galactic conquest is nigh-identical to Mother Brain's methods by cloning and deploying Metroids as weapons of mass destruction, seeming to imply that she may have been influenced by him.
- Orochi in Ōkami makes sure the yet-to-be-lifted evil curses cast by him wouldn't fade away after his defeat by Amaterasu and Susano. In addition, as his soul flies away to the north of Kamui to reactivate the Ark of Yamato to summon Yami, the Lord of Darkness, he releases several monsters originating from that place so they can terrorize all of Nippon, starting with Kamui itself.
- Shuji Ikutsuki was a major antagonist in Persona 3 who was defeated and died. However, Sho Minazuki, his "son" (actually an orphan he experimented on) attempts to continue his legacy in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax. As much as he tries to deny it, all of Sho's villainous actions stem from Ikutsuki in some way.
- Giovanni, the Big Bad of the original Pokémon Red and Blue games, is AWOL in Pokémon Gold and Silver but his organization is still committing crimes and experiments in his name. The Big Bad of these games is the Dragon Ascendant, who went nameless in the original Gold and Silver editions but was named Archer in the remakes.
- Portal and Portal 2 have Cave Johnson, the deranged, corrupt and non-wheelchair-friendly CEO of Aperture Science. Although long dead by the time of the games, he's responsible for the company's horrific (and counterproductive) policies, as well indirectly responsible for creating GLaDOS and putting her in charge of the facility.
- Re:Kuroi: The game has no active Big Bad because the evil factions of the past are either inactive or neutralized. However, their actions still have lasting effects.
- The Magic School originally used the Black Pearl to create a monster army and rebel against the Western Kingdom. After the Magic War, the Magic School underwent its own civil war, resulting in damage to the Black Pearl that caused the Night of Black Snow. This caused people in the northern mountains to transform into monsters. The surviving faction of the Magic School is trying to find a way to erase magic from the world to prevent monster transformations and misuse of magic.
- The Western Kingdom used ether drugs to create their own magical child soldiers, but this leads to the children becoming addicted to the drug or turning into monsters. In the present, one of their former spies, Asha, is still suffering from ether addiction. However, it's implied that the treaty with the Magic School put an end to the use of ether drugs by the Western Kingdom, though the drug itself is still in circulation in the black market.
- Resident Evil:
- Albert Wesker is the overarching Big Bad for most of the series, until he's Killed Off for Real at the very end of 5. Even then, his influence leaves a shadow throughout the rest of the franchise. Alex Wesker makes use of the Uroboros virus he created in Revelations 2, his illegitimate son Jake Muller is one of the protagonists of 6, and a file in 7 reveals that his organization, the H.C.F., had a role in the creation of Eveline and the Mold.
- Mother Miranda in Resident Evil Village is a greater version of this, as her interaction with Oswell Spencer in the 60's is the trigger for all the tragedy in the Resident Evil games, including those above of Wesker.
- The Secret World: farmer-turned-Evil Sorcerer Archibald Henderson died in 1906, but the aftereffects of his atrocities continue to plague Solomon Island as of 2012. For one thing, the animated scarecrows he built to protect his property are back to killing people; for another, the farmhand he transformed into a pumpkin monster is still haunting the island as a supernaturally-empowered serial killer. Worst of all, the experiments he performed to harness the hidden power of the island eventually paved the way for Nathaniel Winter's attempt to do the same via Atlantic Island Park, leading to the creation of the Bogeyman.
- In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, the Big Bad is a mechanical owl named Clockwerk. But in the second game Clockwerk is now destroyed, shut down, and separated into several pieces, but still a very dangerous potential threat if he were to be rebuilt. The Cooper Gang intend to try to steal and destroy his remains, but are beaten to the punch by an illegal spice distribution ring called the Klaww Gang. Most of the Klaww Gang's leaders are just using pieces of Clockwerk for their own small-time schemes, until it becomes clear that Arpeggio intends to fully rebuild Clockwerk to take Clockwerk's body for himself so that he can be immortal. Then his protege Neyla backstabs him (which he really should have seen coming since she did that to everyone else) and takes Clockwerk's body for herself.
- Gerald Robotnik from Sonic Adventure 2. The main conflict of the story is against Eggman, but it was Gerald's actions 50 years in the past that caused many of the problems in the game.
- Star Shift Series: The Calterans are a mysterious civilization that destroyed Earth in a Bad Future, leading to the Terran Republic going further back in time to attack the Calterans first. This led to the Terran Republic becoming the Earth Systems Alliance, which is even worse than the Calterans.
- While not quite "villains", the Touhou Project Story Arc consisting of games 10 through 13 is generally referred to as the "Moriya arc", because the events of each game are caused by a character who debuted in the previous game, despite not appearing in the game in question, starting with the Moriya Shrine members. Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism was caused by Kanako giving Utsuho the tremendous power that gave her ideas of megalomania. Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object was caused by a geyser that Utsuho created launching the Palanquin Ship into the sky. And Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires was caused by Byakuren landing the Palanquin Ship on Miko's mausoleum, giving her the boost she needed to resurrect.
- Ultima: Mondain is the Big Bad of the first game. The second and third games have the villains as his lover and apprentice Minax, and their creation Exodus. The fourth game requires the player to retrieve Mondain's skull, and the fifth game has the villains as manifestations of the shards of his Artifact of Doom the player destroyed in the first game. In the sixth game, the Gargoyles summoned Mondain's spirit to embody their virtue of Control, along with Minax and Exodus. Finally, the Guardian, the villain of all subsequent games from VI, was initially planned to be revealed as the combined form of the Shadowlords after they were cast into the Void, but this was axed.
