10 of some of the most hated video game characters

Today, we’re gonna talk about 10 of some of the most hated video game characters.

Any really great story needs a good villain,and while there are plenty of sympathetic or understandable bad guys out there,these guys generally aren’t.

They either go way too far or are just plain despicable.

So let’s get started off with Micah from “Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Rockstar really knows how to make a character that you can love to hate.

Officer Tenpenny, Big
Smoke, are pretty bad,

but they’re still weirdly
likable in some ways.

Micah is not one of them.

He’s just a miserable little snake

that spends the entire game

being pointlessly
hostile to Arthur Morgan.

– [Arthur] You sure about this, Micah?

– [Micah] Mr. Morgan, I never
thought I would be so pleased

to see your face.

– [Jake] He’s selfish.

He’s randomly almost cartoonishly
violent and obnoxious.

He’s just an all-around odious character

that’s more of an annoyance

for most of the game
than a serious threat.

He’s really like dirty,
gross cowboy bad guy 101.

And now as the game goes on,

and the leader of the gang, Dutch,

becomes increasingly unhinged,

Arthur tries to pull
him back from the brink,

but Micah just keeps enabling
Dutch’s paranoid fantasies,

even though he’s ultimately the
one that ratted the gang out

to the authorities in the first place.

Now, when you finally get to
kill this two-faced coward

at the end of the game,

it’s one of the most
satisfying moments in the game.

Even if it’s at the start
of John Marston’s downfall,

it was still good.

Next, over at number nine, most
“Metal Gear Solid” villains

have some kind of
sympathetic ulterior motive

for what they do.

Liquid Snake wanted to
help the Genome Soldiers

and a bunch of other issues.

Solidus wanted to free the world

from the Patriots’ control.

But Volgin has no such ambitions, man.

I mean, he wanted to
advance the Soviet Union’s

place in the world, but otherwise,

he’s mostly just this
cruel, sadistic lunatic

that really revels in
the suffering of others.

The role of the sympathetic
villain in this case

goes to the Boss, of course,
if you’ve played the game.

Her motivations only become
more clear during the ending,

but Volgin doesn’t get any explanation.

He’s just like a paranoid jerk.

He tortures Eva for his own pleasure,

he beats a man to death
by punching and kicking

the character Granin in a drum can,

and in one of the most sickening sequences

in the whole series,

he beats Snake within an inch of his life.

A tense torture sequence follows

where he instructs the Boss
to cut out Snake’s eye,

and the whole sequence
of events leads to Snake

getting blinded in one
eye by a stray bullet.

(gun fires)

Series creator Hideo Kojima
loves to put his protagonists

through the wringer,

but no character gets it
as bad as Naked Snake,

and that’s mostly at the hands of Volgin,

this bully, this completely
hatable dude in the series.

Next, over at number eight,

look, a lot of people love Sephiroth,

but just as many people hate him.

As a villain, he’s pretty damn cool,

especially back in the nineties,

when being that brooding
leather jacket psycho

was kind of in the style at the time.

Now, for most of the game,

he’s just a mysterious
and sinister presence,

but not anything particularly hatable.

Hell, it’s almost like they
are more hatable bad guys

in this game and all of Final Fantasy.

But you know where this is going.

Aerith is one of the main party
members and a fan favorite.

She has a positive attitude
and a spunky personality

that made her an easy character to like,

so the tragic moment where
Sephiroth appears out of nowhere

and kills her, of course,

remains one of the most shocking events

in any video game ever.

It wouldn’t be that big of a deal

if she came back or you
could revive her somehow,

but nope, there is nothing you can do.

If she was one of your mains,
like your main party member,

then you were basically screwed.

She’s gone forever. You gotta replace her.

RPGs rarely, if ever, kill
a party member for real,

and when they do, they’re
usually temporary,

or just in games

where you can cycle your party
members constantly anyway.

“Final Fantasy VII” wasn’t like that.

Aerith was there from the beginning,

and when Sephiroth kills
her, she’s gone for good,

and it was more painful if
you were a 10-year-old like me

and you had a crush on her.

That single act made Sephiroth
a video game bad guy legend

and one of the most hated
antagonists of all time.

Next, over at number seven,

let’s think a hard shift from
JRPG mega-awesome bad guys

to a more hatable, different
Rockstar character.

Roy Earle is one of your primary
partners in “L.A. Noire.”

He’s your man during
Cole Phelps’s brief stint

on the Vice desk

where he acts like this
huge dick the entire time

while also being extremely crooked.

Now, by the end of the game,

you find out that he’s closely associated

with the entire urban
redevelopment fund conspiracy

and is basically the enforcer

for protecting all the people
involved in this grift.

Cole tries to expose it all,
but is eventually killed

pursuing a serial killer

who is a key part of the whole thing.

Now, the game ends in an
appropriately noir way,

with Roy Earle, the man who
tried to ruin Cole’s life

and who’s basically
responsible for his death,

gives a eulogy at his funeral

while all the corrupt officials

who wanted a bury Cole’s
investigation stand in applause.

Now, unlike Micah from “Red Dead,”

who at least gets a bullet
for all his hatable behavior,

Roy Earle gets away with it.

He gets away scot-free

and it doesn’t really get
much more hatable than that.

Next, over at number six,

the Dragon Age games have
plenty of monsters and jerks

and lunatics running around,

but the most hatable in this series

has got to be this dude, Arl Rendon Howe.

Played with the perfect
amount of dismissive smugness

by the absolute freaking legend Tim Curry,

Arl Howe is basically
the underling of Loghain,

the primary antagonist here,

but while Loghain has
an understandable reason

for doing what he’s doing,

Arl Howe how is just a power
hungry and duplicitous coward.

You get to see the worst of him

if you choose to play
the Human Noble origin,

where he acts like a
friend of your father’s,

but the moment he’s gone, Arl
Howe just turns into a trait.

His men slaughter your
family and your entire staff,

which, sickeningly, includes children.

So that alone makes him pretty hatable.

It takes a long, long time

before you can finally get
your revenge on this dude,

but man, is it sweet
when it finally happens?

The only downside is that
you can’t make it worse.

Hacking this guy to death with a sword

just isn’t enough for some people.

– Maker spit on you.

I deserved more!

– [Jake] Over at number five,

yeah, let’s talk “Tony
Hawk’s Underground.”

In comparison to everyone
else on this list,

Eric Sparrow’s crimes are
pretty tame, you know?

He’s not killing anyone,
at least not intentionally.

He’s just an obnoxious kid

who eventually gets jealous of you,

your character’s success.

He’s this constant annoyance
for pretty much the whole game.

But the thing that really turns this

from a kind of annoying
sidekick into a true asshole

is when he changes the tape
of your most impressive stunt

to make it look like it’s
something that he did.

Oh, I still get mad at this one.

Your character is the
one that actually managed

to do this sick thing where
you jump over a helicopter

in a level, but Eric takes all the credit

’cause he was there.

Like I said, in comparison,
it’s not so bad,

but I think what makes Eric
Sparrow so uniquely hatable

is how relatable he is.

We’ve all known a kid like
this at one time or another,

the little twerp that
constantly gets into trouble

and wants you to bail him out,

the kid that talks you
into doing dumb stuff

and then blames you for it
when your parents find out,

you know, that kind of thing.

It’s a type of person you
don’t see too often in games,

and while “THUG” is
anything but realistic,

Eric is the type of person
we’ve all had to deal with,

and that’s just what
makes him really hatable.

Next, over at number four,
let’s talk “Dark Souls.”

Now, like Sephiroth,

the thing that really makes
Lautrec here so hatable

is less what he says and
more just what he does.

The Souls games have their
fair share of nasty characters,

but a lot of them have
some weird quirks to them.

Lautrec, though, this dude just sucks.

It’s a little suspicious
when you find him locked up

in a jail cell, but talking to
him makes him seem all right.

I mean, he’s not any
crazier than anyone else

in these games, so you trust him.

But that is a huge mistake.

The earlier Souls games
like “Demon’s Souls”

and “Dark Souls” try to pull
a few bullshit tricks on you,

and this one is the nastiest.

You’ve got the option of leaving him alone

or freeing him from the cell,

but it doesn’t actually matter.

He gets out either way.

He eventually starts hanging
out at the Firelink Shrine

and he seems like just another NPC,

but if you get far enough in the game,

then when you get back
to the Firelink Shrine

you’ll find the entire place dark

and the bonfire becomes unusable.

Now, Lautrec killed the
Firekeeper, Anastacia,

and because of that,

you can’t use the most important
save point in the game.

The Firelink Shrine is basically
that whole central hub.

It’s like a key location in the game,

and this guy ruined it.

It’s possible to get your revenge

and restore the Firelink Shrine

but it’s such a pain in the ass,

it’s probably better to just kill this guy

the second you see him.

The Firelink Shrine is
one of the few safe havens

you have in this game, and this
guy takes it away from you,

so we hate him for that.

Next, over number three,
let’s talk Kamoshida,

the first primary
antagonist of “Persona 5.”

There’s a lot to say about him.

Honestly, the Persona
fan wiki describes him

pretty much perfectly
saying that, and I quote,

“Kamoshida is a lustful, vain, cruel,

and utterly selfish bully,”

which, yeah that covers it.

He’s a former professional athlete

and the coach of the
school’s volleyball team,

which in any normal story,

would make this guy barely
worth thinking about.

The problem is, is that you
play as a high school student.

Anyone who’s done school
sports has probably met someone

kind of like this guy, you know,

sometimes a total jerk
that peaked early in life

and takes it out on everyone around them.

That’s only the half of it, though.

What really makes this guy hatable

is what he does in this game.

He seeks out relationships
with his female students.

He abuses his male students
with torturous training regimens

and is for all intents and
purposes a full-blown predator

in the worst possible ways.

And on top of all that, he’s
protected by the principal,

and the students are afraid
to speak out about him

in fear of reprisal.

When you finally manage
to expose his crimes

to the world, though, it is so satisfying.

This guy is so bad that it
makes every other villain

in “Persona 5” seem like kind
of a letdown in comparison

’cause he’s just that hatable.

Now, over at number two,

we’re gonna go a little
old school for this one.

I mean, okay, “Suikoden
II” actually came out

a few years after “Final Fantasy VII,”

but it sure looks older, right?

Now, this classic RPG starts off high,

by introducing one of
the most hatable villains

of all time, this dude called Luca Blight.

I mean, of course, he’s a bad guy,

but his antics are legendary.

The whole story starts off with him

getting your entire unit killed

as a pretext for his invasion
of a neighboring country.

That’s the level we’re starting at here.

You were a member of his army,

and you still get slaughtered,

just because this guy wanted an excuse

to invade his neighbor.

He only gets worse from there, though.

One of the most infamous sequences happens

a few hours into the game,

where Luca invades a
town and kills everyone

except for one person who he orders

to crawl in the mud and oink like a pig.

And then he kills him, too, of course.

He just had to humiliate him first.

Ugh.

At least Kefka could crack
a joke once in a while,

do the whole Joker thing
in “Final Fantasy VI”

before his atrocities and war crimes.

Meanwhile, this guy doesn’t
even try to be likable.

He’s just nuts.

Now, down to number one,

let’s talk about Ted Faro
from “Horizon Zero Dawn.”

I mean, who else could be
number one, but this guy?

What makes Ted Faro so unique

is that he’s actually not an antagonist.

He’s not even a character
you ever actually see.

He’s just a guy whose
story is entirely told

through audio logs and
the computer terminals,

but he’s so despicable

that that’s all you
really need to hate him.

Basically, he’s the guy responsible
for destroying the world

of Horizon, not even once,
but technically twice.

He’s the founder of Faro
Automated Solutions,

the robot manufacturer

that eventually created
the deadly nano-swarm

known as the Faro Plague
that was responsible

for destroying all the life on Earth here.

That part, at least,

you can chalk it up as kind of a mistake.

His shortsighted greed is
definitely partially responsible

for bringing about this apocalypse,

but it’s what he did after that

that makes this guy a legendary ass.

If you didn’t play the game,

as this world was slowly
being consumed by the plague

and things were looking bad,

a team of scientists
created the GAIA System,

which was meant to bring life
back to a devastated world

and eventually restore the old world

using a massive computer
database and science stuff

and Apollo.

And then as the world ended,
Farrow had a mental breakdown,

and using his special clearance,

he managed to gain access
to the GAIA control system

and delete the Apollo servers,

essentially destroying all of
humanity’s combined knowledge

in a single stroke

because of his misguided
belief that this information

would somehow make the
new human race less pure.

Of course, another part of it

was that Faro wanted to cover up his past.

At this point, he was completely nuts

and thought that he’d become
the ruler of a restored earth.

You eventually find out his ultimate fate

in “Horizon Forbidden
West,” and all I can say is

it couldn’t have happened
to a better guy, sarcasm.

Anyway, those are 10
absolutely detestable villains

in video games.

We know there are so many
others out there, though,

so we wanna hear from
you down in the comments

some of your picks.

We can definitely make a
follow up to this video,

so hit us up.

If you enjoyed this video, though,

and like talking games with us,

clicking the Like
button’s all you gotta do.

It helps us out.

And if you’re new, maybe
consider subscribing,

hitting that notification
bell if you haven’t already,

because we put out
videos every single day.

But as always, thanks for watching,

and we’ll see you guys next time.