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Like in movies and books, video games tend to have great villians that make you want to play just to see them go down. Which ones are the worst?

1.) Prophet of Truth (Halo): This guy is pure evil. He causes a war that kills trillions just to keep power, screws over countless people, and brutally mocks johnson after coldly murdering the plucky female lead. Voiced by the great Terrance Stamp, he's the embodiement of religious hypocrisy. His defeat and death at the hands of the arbiter is easily the greatest scene in halo 3.

2.) Clockwerk from Sly Cooper: This guy is literally immortal due to the sheer hatred in his body. His hatred for the cooper family kept him alive for millenia, and he leaves the last member alive purly to show that they were worthless without their book. Damn.

3.) Chairman Drek from Ratchet and Clank: The fact that he destroys countless worlds to make his people a new one is bad enough; the fact that he secretly polluted his own world and caused the mess in the first place just for money is what really sends him over the edge. Fortunately he gets his via a superlaser to the face (essentially).

4.) Baron Veeger from Jak 3: This guy is like Umbridge in that he's just so sickeningly pompous and self righteous that you just want to reach into the screen and punch him. The fact that he seperated jak from his dad for experiments, and then gloated about the fact that his father died never knowing this is what solidifies his evil. Needless to say, his Karmic fate is both funny and well deserved.

5.) Satan from Castlevania Lords of Shadow: He manipulates every single atrocity in the game (killing marie, killing gaby (he gets better) killing claudia, just to return to heaven. The smarmy voice of jason isaacs only heightens the evil levels.

6.) The Dark Voice from Starcraft 2: Though he only appears in one mission, he's still utterly evil. Wiping out 4 races will do that ya.

7.) Nicole Horne (Max Payne): Killing a woman and an infant simply to keep the fact that you're developing and selling drugs that kill/drive people loco, this bitch is the pinnacle of sociopathic greed. Not surprisingly, few shed tears when the bitch meets her firey demise at Payne's hand

8.) Cavik Toth from Jedi Starfighter: Developes a bioweapon to kill innocents, tests it on civillians, and uses said weapon to kill your developers for being behind schedule, this guy is truly a heartless prick. Watching him loose it in the final level is easily the high point of the game, as is his fiery demise.

9.) Darth Malak: With a cold robotic voice, he's darth vader merged with darth sidious. from the moment he utters "wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy" you know he ain't fucking around.

10.) Rodrigo Boria (Assassins creed 2): A pedophillic, child murdering bastard, borgia is easily the pinnicale of what's wrong in religion. Hypocritical, self serving, and meglomaniacal, and utterly repulsive. scarily, the real rodrigo borgia might have been almost as big a douche as this version. While he does appear to be nuetered in brotherhood, after the asskicking and humiliation recieved by ezio, I don't blame him.

Does it count to say Sovereign? Because he was so blitheringly stupid I wanted to bring him down so he'd stop ruining Mass Effect?

if you hate the villian, sure.

My pick is will always be Dahlia Hawthorne from Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations.

Pretended to fall in love with a guy and used him stage a fake kidnapping.
Faked her death after the kidnapping was botched and let the guy go to prison.
She killed her step sister who botched the kidnapping years later.
Convinced the same guy to kill himself so he wouldn't testify to her being the possible killer of her sister.
Leaves the courtroom smiling.
Poisoned and put one of the lawyers who was onto her act in a coma.
Killed the guy who was trying to warn her new boyfriend that she was nothing but trouble.
Then finally got the death penalty and still manage to fuck up people's lives in the afterlife, but that's a bit harder to explain out of context.

Adrian Ripburger (Full Throttle): He stands out as the most memorable for me. Back in 1995, Full Throttle was the first game on a CD-ROM that I had ever played. Lots of CD games at the time sucked terribly, but I was lucky enough to play Full Throttle as my first. Ripburger was voiced by Mark Hamill, who did a great job at bringing the evil businessman to life. No spoilers, but the ending battle with Ripburger was an amazing finish to the game that my preteen brain thoroughly enjoyed.

By the way, for anyone that can't stand the pixelated look that the game has nowadays, you can run it through a filter with DOSbox that actually makes it look pretty good.

The gnomes in Arcanum. Even the big bad guy has nothing on these little eugenics enthusiasts.

oh god I almost forgot about those little Gorian bastards, almost make Genocide reasonable....

another point
the PC in Planescape Torment.
The whole rest of the PC's family minus your sister Imogen in the Two Baldar's Gate stories.

The Yosemite Bear wrote:The whole rest of the PC's family minus your sister Imogen in the Two Baldar's Gate stories.

Imoen. No G.

And actually Irenicus was far more of a villain than Sarevok was.

The Pratical Incarnation in the aforementioned Planescape: Torment.

CaptHawkeye wrote:Does it count to say Sovereign? Because he was so blitheringly stupid I wanted to bring him down so he'd stop ruining Mass Effect?

Harbinger was worse.

I know feel this.

I'd vote for Lord Galcian from Skies of Arcadia.

The fact he's the lead admiral of an emprie that merges the worst of the British and Spanish empires is just the start of it, he has no compunctions in slaughtering defenclessmen women and children and then when his evil scheme is almost complete commits almost total genocide on said Spanish/British empire in an attempt to make himself undisputed ruler of the world. He's smarter then the average villian too and almost gets away with it all completly.

His second in command Rameriez also deserves a mention, for following said ruthless orders without hestation, bombarding a helpless city from the air and attempted total planetery extinction event.

Kefka's a pretty big douche bag in FFVI.

All good things come in threes. We'll start gently. I don't think my first choice is necessarily the most evil one of the lot. Still, if you played as a female, then arguably the most twisted villain I know is Darth Sion from KotOR 2, when revealing why he felt compelled to kill you. It's because of his Sith master, you see.

Darth Sion wrote:You and her are alike... Yet different in all the ways that matter. And I hate you as I hate her. I hate you because you crawl within my head as she does, but your presence holds no thoughts, no teachings. You are just there... unspoken.
I hate you because you are beautiful to me, and in that weakness lies death.

^Protip: as motivations are judged, this is what we may justifiably deem fucked up.



Next up, Dagoth UR from Morrowind.

Dagoth UR wrote:If, by my crimes, you mean the inevitable suffering and destruction caused by war, then I accept the burden of leadership. The Sixth House cannot be restored without war. Enlightenment cannot grow without the risk of upsetting the tradition-bound and complacent herd. And the mongrel armies of the Empire cannot be expelled from Morrowind without bloodshed. As I have charity and compassion, I grieve. But our mission is just and noble.

This is the same creature who spreads his influence through a corrupting plague the likes of which would make a banquet of ebola and leprosy look enviable. The few survivors become bloated, self-cannibalizing husks who praise the coprus meat (their own, frequently) as the "food of the Gods" before eventually descending into madness, where his control is absolute. However, even the uninfected are not safe, as Dagoth UR can influence those of weak will through sendings and dream visions. His plan is to siphon the power of a creation god so as to spread his brand of benevolent rule across the whole world and, in all likelihood, eventually the cosmos.

All for the greater good, of course.



Thanas mentioned him earlier, but as D&D villains go, you don't get much worse than Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2. Since it's usually revelatory, I'll go straight to his justification - the reason why he stole the player's God-child soul, the reason why he's murdered, tortured and betrayed across Faerûn and staged an invasion of the elven capital of Suldanessar:

It was all just a diversion so he could reach the Tree of Life long enough to tap its power.

"And for what? Power? Is that all you exist for now, Jon?"

"It is all I have left now, Ellisime. There is nothing else beyond my revenge. Revenge for what you did to me, what the Seldarine did to me."

"And your revenge has poisoned your heart. The tree touched you once, long ago. Do you remember nothing of it? Is there nothing in your heart that remembers love? Is there nothing in your heart that remembers our love? What we once shared before this obsession doomed you?"

"I... I do not remember your love, Ellesime. I have tried. I have tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory, but it is gone... a hollow, dead thing.

"For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. And then nothing. The Seldarine took that from me, too. I look upon you and feel nothing... I remember nothing but you turning your back on me, along with all the others. Once my thirst for power was everything, and now I hunger only for revenge. And I... will... have it!"

...yeah. This is him destroying everything he once loved because that revenge is the only thing of consequence left, and he'll burn the cosmos before letting it go.

Whenever I wonder why the villain of Throne of Baal didn't measure up, I only have to think back to this conversation.

You know, I always felt that the Taiidan Emperor in Homeworld was an 'evil' video game villain, despite having almost no lines or anything because the entire game felt like a struggle against his corrupt imperium. Exiling people to whatever systems, building giant defensive monuments you have to plow through, killing planets for minor punitive reasons etc. It's as much a 5000 year old guy in a tube, as the system he runs.

The 'mid game boss' you meet in Persona 3 after the 'last' Shadow is destroyed. If you've played, you know who I'm talking about.

Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun in Toonstruck. Evil, vile creature.

Eleas wrote:Thanas mentioned him earlier, but as D&D villains go, you don't get much worse than Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2. Since it's usually revelatory, I'll go straight to his justification - the reason why he stole the player's God-child soul, the reason why he's murdered, tortured and betrayed across Faerûn and staged an invasion of the elven capital of Suldanessar:

It was all just a diversion so he could reach the Tree of Life long enough to tap its power.

"And for what? Power? Is that all you exist for now, Jon?"

"It is all I have left now, Ellisime. There is nothing else beyond my revenge. Revenge for what you did to me, what the Seldarine did to me."

"And your revenge has poisoned your heart. The tree touched you once, long ago. Do you remember nothing of it? Is there nothing in your heart that remembers love? Is there nothing in your heart that remembers our love? What we once shared before this obsession doomed you?"

"I... I do not remember your love, Ellesime. I have tried. I have tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory, but it is gone... a hollow, dead thing.

"For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. And then nothing. The Seldarine took that from me, too. I look upon you and feel nothing... I remember nothing but you turning your back on me, along with all the others. Once my thirst for power was everything, and now I hunger only for revenge. And I... will... have it!"

...yeah. This is him destroying everything he once loved because that revenge is the only thing of consequence left, and he'll burn the cosmos before letting it go.

Whenever I wonder why the villain of Throne of Baal didn't measure up, I only have to think back to this conversation.

She was just the usual genociding maniac. Irenicus...he really was a threat. I mean, capturing the hero's party from the first adventure, killing Dynaheir then slowly slicing up Khalid in front of Jaheira....ugh.

Do you want me to tell you what his original character ark in BG2 was supposed to have as further deeds of villainy?

Thanas wrote: She was just the usual genociding maniac. Irenicus...he really was a threat. I mean, capturing the hero's party from the first adventure, killing Dynaheir then slowly slicing up Khalid in front of Jaheira....ugh.

Do you want me to tell you what his original character ark in BG2 was supposed to have as further deeds of villainy?

I always did think there was something missing somewhere around the mid-part of the game, so yes, I'd love to hear it.

Eleas wrote:

Thanas wrote: She was just the usual genociding maniac. Irenicus...he really was a threat. I mean, capturing the hero's party from the first adventure, killing Dynaheir then slowly slicing up Khalid in front of Jaheira....ugh.

Do you want me to tell you what his original character ark in BG2 was supposed to have as further deeds of villainy?

I always did think there was something missing somewhere around the mid-part of the game, so by all means I'd love to know.

Well, basically the original idea was that the Imoen rescue would fail, that Irenicus would kill her out of spite at the end of the fortress rescue part.

Thanas wrote:

Eleas wrote:

Thanas wrote: She was just the usual genociding maniac. Irenicus...he really was a threat. I mean, capturing the hero's party from the first adventure, killing Dynaheir then slowly slicing up Khalid in front of Jaheira....ugh.

Do you want me to tell you what his original character ark in BG2 was supposed to have as further deeds of villainy?

I always did think there was something missing somewhere around the mid-part of the game, so by all means I'd love to know.

Well, basically the original idea was that the Imoen rescue would fail, that Irenicus would kill her out of spite at the end of the fortress rescue part.

That's odd. I always saw Irenicus as fundamentally dispassionate, save his one remaining craving for vengeance.

Eleas wrote:That's odd. I always saw Irenicus as fundamentally dispassionate, save his one remaining craving for vengeance.

Well, basically he would kill her in order to either drive the PC into monster rage or to buy time.

Thanas wrote:

Eleas wrote:That's odd. I always saw Irenicus as fundamentally dispassionate, save his one remaining craving for vengeance.

Well, basically he would kill her in order to either drive the PC into monster rage or to buy time.

Ah. Which would fit in with the player's transformation into the Beast.

Indeed. IIRC the geas which Yoshimo got was intended to be either mirrored with Imoen or straight up replaced (given that in the code there are some unused dialogue scripts for Yoshimo the latter seems to be true).

But since I absolutely adore Imoen, having her live is fine with me. I just wish they had not gone into the "hey, she is a bhaalspawn too" route with her, as that kinda devaluates BG1. Yeah, right, a second Bhaalspawn right under Gorion's and the watcher's nose...righto. It just does not mesh well with BG1 especially as she does not get dark visions or anything.

adam_grif wrote:

CaptHawkeye wrote:Does it count to say Sovereign? Because he was so blitheringly stupid I wanted to bring him down so he'd stop ruining Mass Effect?

Harbinger was worse.

I know feel this.

This hurts you.

Sure, sure it does. You delivering that line every 10 seconds really gives me a painful headache. That really was a botched villain, I'd say. Almost every fight against a group of Collectors included a Harbinger avatar (or more depending on how slow you were in killing them and your difficulty level). It was as predictable as the day is long, and it didn't really build tension or anything. It was just mundane. If they had made Harbinger more like the Praetorian (which had me going "shit, shit, shit, shit" on Insanity) where he was a rare but very powerful enemy, not only would it have fights against him more interesting, it would have actually caused the player to respect him. It's hard to feel intimidated by or fearful of the big bad when you kill him at least 7 times a mission. The things Harbinger did were pretty evil, like the whole collection of the human colonists and melting them to goop thing. However, it was hard to feel like he was a serious villain when he wasn't impressive.

As for a well-done evil villain, most of the ones I would contribute have been already mentioned. However, I think Darth Malak from the first KoTOR is a pretty good villain. He betrays his people, "kills" his master, bombards a planet surface for little reason, corrupts your closest friend, and attempts to conquer the galaxy with his eeeeeeevil Star Forge. And of course, he's a Sith. He hits all the right points and also is visually good looking too.

Harbinger is apparently the big bad of ME3 as well. I can't wait

I wonder what contrived situation they have leading to Shepard personally defeating the reapers this time. Maybe the ancients protheans Beings of Light left a deus ex machina lying around somewhere.