Top 5 Villains Of Gaming

Who are the top 5 villains in the world of gaming?

Are they a Magnificent Bastard group? Is it That One Boss? Is it an Anti-Climax Boss, an SNK Boss, a Load Bearing Boss? A Big Bad?

I'd say...

• #5: The Ghosts from Pac Man . They're literally coming back from the grave just to hunt down Pac Man. And sooner or later...
• #4: Zinyak from Saints Row IV, for representing the mass-murdering psychopath the player is and playing it against you.
• #3: Gla D Os from Portal. For effing with the player every step of the way and dashing through a Heel–Face Revolving Door.
• #2: Dracula from the Castlevania series, for coming back every time, essentially giving the previous player character the middle finger, and daring the new one to try their luck. Also consistency.
• #1: The Merchant from Resident Evil 4, for having the stones to charge a government agent in the middle of a mission to save the president's daughter money to fight off roving hordes of infected, mutating villagers and similar monsters. And depending on how you play, the Merchant gets away with it too.

What are yours?

edited 16th Dec '13 11:05:48 AM by FOFD

• 1. Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid
• 2. Vayne Carudas Solidor from Final Fantasy XII.
• 3. Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir from Dragon Age: Origins.
• 4. Vergil from Devil May Cry
• 5. Dr. Wily from Mega Man

edited 16th Dec '13 3:48:30 PM by VeryMelon

5. Sepiroth, like him, hate him, or barely heard of him, you can't escape him and his fangirls.

4. A bit of a screwball here, but I'm gonna go with Asagi Asagiri. A very sympathetic one, though.

3. G La DOS

2. Dr. Robotnik/Eggman Sorry Wily, you're just way too predictable

1. Bowser for sheer presence alone.

edited 16th Dec '13 12:27:53 PM by Grounder

1. Kefka Palazzo, Final Fantasy VI - he's literally the yardstick I measure evil against. I even scale evil by millikefkas - with one millikefka being 1/1000th as evil as Kefka. If there's any evil deed he hasn't done, it's on his day planner.
2. Bowser, Super Mario Bros. - He has his downs, sure, but when he's on, he's one of the most impressive villains out there. Also, his downs make pretty much anything surprisingly credible. Kidnap the princess? Try to take over the galaxy? Steal your stuff while playing board games? It's all on the table.
3. SHODAN, System Shock - I like GLaDOS, yeah, but she's a kitten compared to the ultimate in malicious, taunting AI systems. Here's your dose of Nightmare Fuel, please come again.
4. Luca Blight, Suikoden II - Of all the evil rulers I've ever seen, he's probably the one who stands out at just being sheer evil.
5. Emperor Mateus, Final Fantasy II - What kind of encore could top using your military might to Take Over the World? Taking over Hell and becoming Like A Badass Out Of Hell.

I honestly think Bowser is more about the humour factor than being legitimately threatening. Not that that's a bad thing.

1. Father Elijah, of Fallout: New Vegas' s Dead Money DLC.

2. The Think Tank, of Fallout: New Vegas' s Old World Blues DLC.

3. The Combine/Universal Union, of Half Life 2. Also win my prize for the most underrated.

4. Handsome Jack, of Borderlands 2.

5. Revolver Ocelot, Metal Gear Solid.

• 1: Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2 for being one of the best Love to Hate Magnificent Bastards ever.
• 2: Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2, because he's easily the most intimidating and genuinely threatening antagonist I've ever seen.
• 3: Heiss from Radiant Historia. Very Tragic Villain.
• 4: Sarevok from Baldur's Gate 1 might not be as great a villain as Irenicus, but he deserves a mention for being a Genius Bruiser, which is a character trope I love simply because it's the opposite of an "Idiot Bruiser", which I hate. Bonus points for being a sympathetic villain.
• 5: Elijah from Fallout: New Vegas' Dead Money DLC.

edited 16th Dec '13 1:19:09 PM by Sabylas

@ Very Melon: Whether Logain is actually a villian or not depends on your perspective of things. I think he was an antagonist, and he wasn't necessarily a good guy yeah, but most of his decisions were for the best of the country, and while he wasn't 100% right. If he hadn't pulled out at Ostagar, you'd probably still lose, just more people.

Kane. A little representation for formats besides platformers, FPSs, and RPGs!

(Kane, GLaDOS, Sephiroth, Bowser, Pyramid Head seems like a decent mixture.)

5. G La DOS, because of popularity, weird cake memes, and evil jokes.

4. Kefka, because very memorable and old gaming FTW.

3. King Dedede, one of Nintendo's flagship franchises and his Back At Ya voice.

2. Eggman, because walrus and old.

1. Bowser, because iconic and hilarious (in the RPG games).

edited 16th Dec '13 3:57:58 PM by DiscoDancer

"I'm gonna clobba dat dere Kirbeh!"

5: Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy 6)

4: Chakravartin (Asuras Wrath)

3: Molag Bal (The Elder Scrolls)

2: Morganna Mode Gone (Dot Hack)

1: Yuuki Terumi/Hazama (Blaz Blue)

1. Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

2. Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid

3. Bowser from Mario

4. Father Comstock from Bioshock Infinite

5. Sovereign from Mass Effect

5. Dormin — Despite having only one, very ambiguous appearance to his name, Dormin is the driving force behind Shadow of the Colossus, one of the sixth generation's greatest games, and one of the premier arguments for games as art. That pedigree speaks volumes. There is very little in gaming that is more beautiful and tragic than the death of the Colossi, and Dormin is responsible for it. And in the end, we don't know why, and likely never will.
4. Shao Kahn — Mortal Kombat famously has some of the most aggravating bosses in the fighting genre, and none has been responsible for more controller-based property damage than Shao Kahn. And he wins. The beginning of 2011's franchise reboot reveals that Kahn was the ultimate victor in the previous game's battle royale, and it's only by Raiden sending a message back in time that his total dominion over all realms is averted. Brutally snapping Kung Lao's neck after being fairly defeated at his hands simply reinforces him as the ultimate evil in the MK universe.
3. Sephiroth — Sephiroth was (pardon the pun) a game changer. And his reputation is balanced on a single moment. The murder of Aerith may not have been the first time a party member was violently taken away from you in an RPG, but Final Fantasy VII was played by so many people that it rocked the world. Every school yard was abuzz with rumours that there was a way to save her, to bring her back. But it was to no avail. FFVII's lesson to a generation was that sometimes there is just nothing you can do. That you can't save everyone. And no young gamer would ever be the same because of it.
2. Ganondorf — Say what you will about Hijacked by Ganon, there is still something special about walking into a throne room and hearing that distinctive chuckle. The Great King of Evil has returned time and again to menace players across 27 years of gaming, and he has consistently provided some of the most epic final battles in video game history.
1. Revolver Ocelot — Metal Gear is a series known for its complicated plot of political intrigue. And in the centre of this web sits Revolver Ocelot, playing a game only he knows the rules to. There is no one who Ocelot won't stab in the back to further his own goals, and no lie he won't tell to gain the upper hand. And in the end, his goals were ultimately more or less the same as Snake's and his actions were necessary for the destruction of the Patriots. But for his duplicitous nature, the complexity of his machinations, and the countless people who died because of him, Ocelot is the greatest villain in all of gaming.

edited 16th Dec '13 5:20:11 PM by BadWolf21

5. Colonel Mael Radec. He may look like your stereotypical gasmask man with a gun, but Radec is one cool customer. He is fiercely dedicated to the Helghast army, a master on the battlefield and a military genius. Despite his single-minded pursuit of war, Radec is somehow a highly charismatic villain who could well have the player Rooting for the Empire. He certainly did for me. His serious, stoic personality also lent itself well to Playstation All Stars Battle Royale, where he became a highly effective straight man for Sir Daniel Fortesque. Their scenes together are hysterical.

4. Uka Uka, for being the first genuinely menacing villain I saw in a game. For the first two games, Cortex as a villain was your typical platformer villain like Bowser or Dr Eggman - he's serious about what he does, but his hamminess, silly appearance and ever so slight campness keep things light-hearted. Uka Uka was different. He was playing for keeps. He has a much more intimidating appearance and harsher personality than Cortex, and introduces his own minion to oversee Cortex, N.Tropy, who is a Knight of Cerebus in his own right, fittingly enough. He is also the Bigger Bad behind Cortex's past schemes and the twin brother of Aku Aku. Giving Cortex his own mask was a great idea and Uka Uka's presence makes Crash Bandicoot 3 a fitting end to the P Sone trilogy. However, he was hit hard by Villain Decay after Crash Bash, which keeps him from ranking higher.

3. Calypso, the video game equivalent of a used car salesman. While he rarely gets personally involved in any villainy, he is the one pulling the strings in the Twisted Metal tournament, and he almost always gets the last laugh. Be very careful what you say around him.

2. Ghetsis, for being one of gaming's biggest Love to Hate villains. We know that he's in the running for the title of Worst Dad Ever, and whatever he did can't have helped his son N, but most of it took place offscreen, giving the fandom an excuse to go nuts with fanon about how evil Ghetsis is and that he drinks the tears of orphaned Cubones. The Complete Monster page has had some trouble keeping Ghetsis off there because of this. Ghetsis has the most personality of any Pokemon villain, and that personality makes him the most terrible person in the series, in the best possible way. He also has a Hydreigon ten levels earlier than he's supposed to, the jerk.

1. Master Xehanort. Everything bad that has ever happened in Kingdom Hearts can be traced back to Master Xehanort. He is so evil that, having realised that he can only do so much evil by himself, he decides to create multiple incarnations of himself so that he can get more done. He's nothing if not ambitious. He has all sorts of situations planned, and he's good at altering things on the fly should his original plan get thwarted somehow. His appearance as an infirm old man, combined with excellent voicework from Leonard Nimoy, helps convey that here is a man who seems much more ancient than he actually is. He's been around for a long time and he knows all there is to know. He is also ruthless and will ruin the lives of anyone who gets in his way, best portrayed when he talks to Mickey about some past victims in a completely nonchalant manner. The level of sheer    darkness    surrounding him is almost awe-inspiring. In this case, Evil Is Cool.

edited 17th Dec '13 4:18:49 PM by GavsEvans123

• 1.    HADES    (Kid Icarus Uprising)
• 2. Ganondorf
• 3. GLaDOS
• 4. President Richard
• 5. Grey Mann

• 5. Revolver Ocelot from the Metal Gear Solid series. Although the credibility of his plans being to spiral into downright omnipotence for him to succeed, you still gotta love that Russian cowboy for the amount of hamminess and style he has all while doing it. With the except of a couple of moments, there isn't a point in the game where he is in control of almost all the chess pieces on the board!
• 4. Kane from the Command & Conquer Tiberian universe. The leader of the Brotherhood of Nod, and downright impossible to kill for good. He even wins in either endings of C&C4!
• 3. General Sheperd from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. While the plot may have had a million holes and played out more like an unrealistic Michael Bay movie, for some reason the guy is the single most memorable villain in the COD series (at least in my opinion - I haven't played BLOPS 2 yet). Probably has to do with the fact that his gripe about the American people having unrealistic expectations in war and losing the will to fight due to a (albeit rather massive) nuclear setback being slightly sympathetic. Slightly. Oh, and that whole knife-fight scene at the end of the game was pretty badass, too.
• 2. Sarah Kerrigan, aka the "Queen of Blades" from Star Craft. Yeah, she kinda got clichéd and stupid in the story of Star Craft II, but her work of backstabbing and treachery in Brood War is the stuff of legends. She ain't the Queen Bitch of the Universe for nothing, fellas.
• 1. Genevieve Artistide from the FEAR series, but especially FEAR 2. When you managed to be more manipulative, heartless, and downright unethical to the point where the homicidal spirit of a teenage girl with immense psychic powers proves to be more sympathetic (and even reasonable!) than you are, you know you've got some MASSIVE morality issues going on. The only true pity here is that she never gets her well-deserved come-uppance in the finale of the trilogy, implying that she may have even gotten away with all of her crimes...

5: Kane

4: GlaDOS

3: Dr. Eggman

2: Vaas Montenegro

1: Lord Zinyak

1: Bowser 2: Dr. Wily 3: Ganon 4: Mother Brain 5: Dr. Robotnik

1.Master Xehanort, pretty much for the reasons stated above.

2.Ridley. The asshole Will. Not. Stay. Down. Also more than likely triggered the very first Mama Bear/Papa Wolf instinct for a generation of gamers when he abducted the Baby Metroid right in front of the player, with nothing the player could do about it.

3.Hazama/Terumi. Mind Raped Noel into becoming Mu-12, mindfucked Tsubaki into basically becoming evil and trying to kill her best friend, IIRC is responsible for the bulk of Ragna's Dark and Troubled Past, and he wants to make the world a place of eternal despair. And yet... and yet, it's so hard sometimes to actually hate him, if only because Evil Is Cool and he's so damn funny.

4.Relius Clover. Turned his daughter into a doll-type Nox Nyctores and stopped halfway, forcing poor Carl to finish it in order for her to stay alive, and then did the same thing to his own wife, although he completed her, unlike Ada.

5.Kessler. He's actually Good!Cole from a Bad Future who's trying to accelerate his past self's power development so that present!Cole will be able to stop The Beast, and is willing to ruin his own past self's life in order to make sure that present!Cole will be strong enough - both in powers, and mentally tough - to do it. Oh, and he's somehow Genre Savvy enough to make sure that [[spoiler: you can't save your girlfriend, no matter what your reaction to the Sadistic Choice is.

edited 18th Dec '13 9:27:28 AM by EvaUnit01

1. Glados

2. Andrew Ryan (But either Comstock or Shodan could also fit here)

3. Master Atris

4. Officer Tenpenny

5. The Illusive Man

Hey, do characters whose behaviour is controlled by the player have a chance? Cause if so, evil Revan, evil Shepard, and even a particularly despicable runthrough of Geralt all have a chance here.

edited 20th Dec '13 10:05:32 AM by stripes-the-zebra

Making the player character evil does not make them the villain.

Could be a case of Villain Protagonist like with Big Boss.

Except there are always other villains when you're playing as Big Boss. Volgin, Gene, and Hot Coldman are the villains of his games (and really, it's only once we get to Phantom Pain that he seems to be going full-on Villain Protagonist anyway).

Funnily enough, I already had a list of top 10 villains lying around.

5. The Sorceress, from Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Spyro annoys her, because he's doing hero stuff. So, she upgrades her plans from "Take all the dragon hatchling's wings for an immortality potion" to "kill ALL dragons in retaliation. And then take their wings for an immortality potion."

4. Lord Recluse, from City of Heroes. You just can't get worse than the head of Arachnos. For just one example, there's the villain mission arc where you're working with a charity worker... who is an Arachnos mole, designed to ferret out all sources of hope for the Rogue Isles, so you can go and messily destroy it. These are the people that Recluse approves of.

3. Admiral Razorbeard, from Rayman 2. Planetwide slavery, toxic dumping, and even in his comedic moments, he is always a threat. He manages to make a completely badass death threat, while dangling from one leg from his chair. Oh, and this wasn't the first planet he's done this to: He's a galactic wide threat.

2. Chairman Drek, from Ratchet and Clank. Forget about ruining planets, this guy DEMOLISHES them on a daily basis. And although he says that it's to help his people, it's really just so he can get rich.

1. Nyx, from Persona 3. At least the two above this guy/girl aren't trying to kill on a planet wide scale. This is the freaking avatar of death itself, and gets a hell of a build up, too.

edited 14th Oct '14 7:58:57 PM by ekimmak