Introduction to ten villains and evil characters in video games

11.01.2023 0 By admin

– [Falcon] Playing as the video game hero,

you need someone to defeat.

Hi, folks, it’s Falcon
and today on Gameranx,

10 of the most evil video
game villains of all time.

Now, just as a quick
little note ahead of time,

this is gonna contain spoilers.

We’re talking about bad guys
and the bad stuff they do.

So if you hear one you haven’t played

and intend to for the story,
you know what’s going on here.

Without any further ado,
starting off with number 10,

it’s Vaas Montenegro from “Far Cry 3.”

Vaas was the memorably psychotic leader

of the Rock Island Pirates
and one of the earliest

and best examples of
how performance capture

can really make a character
standout in a video game.

Michael Mando just gave
this guy a manic energy

that was rarely seen in gaming,

and while the “Far Cry” series
has tried again and again

to create a bad guy as good as Vaas,

none of ’em have been as
good or as bad rather.

The funny thing about Vaas is

he doesn’t really show up that often,

but when he does, you know,
stuff’s really about to go down.

He has his live-wire energy to
him that’s pretty unnerving,

like you have no idea
what he’s about to do

but same time, he doesn’t really go

over-the-top psycho either.

– It’s okay, I’m gonna
chill, I’m gonna relax

’cause you, moi,

(Vaas whistles)

and your tough guy brother,

we’re gonna have a lot of fun together

while we wait for the money.

– [Falcon] I mean, that
doesn’t mean you wouldn’t call

some of the stuff that
he does to you psycho,

but he sells it, like the
stuff that he does is nasty.

He leaves you to die
in a burning building,

he attacks and kills your allies,

tries to drown you in a sink hole,

like he’s a messed up dude.

The funny thing is that
he’s not even really

the main bad guy of the game.

This guy named Hoyt is,

and while he’s maybe more evil than Vaas,

like on a piece of paper
because he’s the one running

the whole human slavery
operation and all that,

he’s just barely in the game

and just is not nearly
as memorable as Vaas.

The only reason this guy
isn’t higher on the list

is ’cause he wasn’t really able
to reach his full potential.

He died too early in this
story to get a chance

to reach his final form, so to speak,

but for as little as he actually does,

he’s still one of the best

and most evil villains of gaming.

And number nine is David
from “The Last of Us.”

Another guy that doesn’t
have a lot of screen time

but leaves a really big impression.

David is a seemingly
mild-mannered survivor you meet

when you’re playing as Ellie

during the winter section of the game.

For a series as dark as this one,

there aren’t really that many
truly despicable characters,

at least ones that are actual characters.

Most of the bad guys in
these games are people

that are just kind of
desperate to survive, you know,

in a brutal post-apocalyptic world

that this game takes place in.

But David goes beyond that.

The new leader of a starving community,

David promised to solve
the problem of hunger

by having everyone become cannibals.

His people attack strangers,
kill them, and eat them, fun,

but he’s got different plans for Ellie.

In a disgusting scene, he
tries to get friendly with her.

When she manages to escape,

he hunts her down in a burning restaurant,

thanking her for killing all his men

and saying their deaths only
make his community stronger.

He is an all-around disgusting guy

with a creepy monotone voice.

– You kill to survive and so do we.

We have to take care of our
own by any means necessary.

– [Falcon] He’s a character
that’s both sinister

and pathetic at the same time.

You can’t talk about this guy though

without mentioning his voice actor.

It’s Nolan North, the
voice of Nathan Drake

who is playing way against type.

The whole winter section’s
actually a big standout

in “The Last of Us,” and
David is a big reason why.

At number eight is Mitsuru
Kuroiwa from “Judgment.”

The “Yakuza” series,

which the “Judgment”
games are a spinoff of,

have their fair share bad guys

but none of them are worse
than Mitsuru Kuroiwa,

AKA the Mole.

I told you there was spoilers.

The main plot of “Judgment”
revolves around solving a series

of bizarre murders where
the serial killer’s MO

is that he would gouge
out their victim’s eyes.

The lead investigator
is a by-the-books cop

who tries to impede the main
character’s investigations

the entire time.

It seems like this guy is beyond reproach

as a respected member of the Tokyo Police,

but he is the serial killer
and he uses his position

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at the police force as
a way to gain access

to the victims to more
easily cover up his crimes.

Yeah, I, for a long time,

really did not suspect this guy either.

I just thought he was a really big dick

and had a big chip on his
shoulder about Yagami.

Seems like pretty much
everybody does anyway, so…

This being a “Yakuza” spinoff,

the plot is a lot more complicated

than a simple serial killer,

but he is at the center of everything.

His ulterior motive for the killings

is he’s actually covering up

an illegal human testing scheme.

There’s this Alzheimer’s
drug that has a side effect

of killing people and basically
he’s killing victims of it,

but that just means that he’s
getting paid for the murders.

Doesn’t mean he’s not doing them.

The real kicker is when
you discover his identity

as the true killer, you’d
think a guy like this

would freak out, but he just doesn’t care.

He knows you can’t prove anything

and he just continues to
use his connections as a cop

to cause problems for you.

He doesn’t even stop the killings,

like the guy doesn’t even care at all.

Like it’s rare to get a
truly psychopathic villain

in these games.

Usually they have some kinda, like, code

or understandable intention
but this guy’s just psychotic.

Evil, evil.

And number seven is Molluck the Glukkon

from “Oddworld: Abe’s Oddyssee.

Literally described as the
meanest boss in the world,

Molluck is the ultimate
environmentalist bad guy out there.

Normally that’d put him on
the Captain Planet scale

of bad guys, but this dude
has a murderous edge to him

that makes him especially unpleasant.

You know, outside of the
whole incredibly ugly thing.

He’s got that going for him as well.

Set in the bizarre world of Oddworld,

the guy’s the CEO of Rupture Farms,

a cycloplian meat packing plant where Abe,

the humble Mudokon janitor works.

Molluck’s literally a slave driver.

All of the Mudokon
employees are just slaves,

but that’s not really good enough for him.

When profit starts to fall, the
executives look for new ways

to cut costs and that’s when this guy

introduces something new
and tasty: Mudokon pops.

Literally they’re heads on sticks.

I don’t know who’s
exactly going to eat that

but it doesn’t matter.

It’s just ridiculously evil
and it sets off the events

of the game where Abe escapes

and eventually comes
back to rescue everybody.

It’s not subtle, but usually
the businessmen-type bad guys

are a little more pragmatically evil.

This guy’s just over-the-top nasty.

And number six, Makarov

from “Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare 2” and “3.”

When the first thing you see a bad guy do

is shoot up an international airport,

it’s hard to imagine that
guy would do anything worse,

but again, it was the first thing you saw

and he was just getting started.

There are so many over-the-top bad guys

in the “Modern Warfare”
series that just do

ridiculous evil stuff,
but most of them are dead

by the end of the respective games,

and this guy had two, well, actually,

three kind of games to cause mischief in.

Makarov is formally introduced
in the No Russian mission,

which requires no
introduction at this point.

It’s infamous and so nasty
that it’s easy to forget

that it’s not even the
only evil thing he does

in the mission.

He also kills the undercover operative,

which is what sets off the
big Russian invasion plot

in the first place.

He doesn’t really do a lot
else in “Modern Warfare 2.”

General Shepherd’s the
main villain in that game,

but Makarov comes back with a
vengeance in the third game,

killing the Russian Secret
Service agent you play as

in the Turbulence mission,
ambushes your team,

gets multiple named characters killed.

He kills Yuri at the end of the game

and they even make him responsible
for detonating the nuke

from the Shock and Awe mission
from “Modern Warfare 1,”

so his personal body count is
literally in the thousands.

Honestly, it’s a little over the top,

but villainy is villainy and
this guy does a lot of it.

You might be rolling your
eyes through a little of it,

but there’s some satisfaction
to killing him in this game.

And number five is Albedo
from “Xenosaga Episode 1,”

my pick for a while,

a very early aughts-era extreme villain

who enjoyed both sadism and masochism,

getting literal sexual pleasure

when you’re damaging him in a battle,

and made it a point to
both torture, murder,

and possibly sexually
assault young children

who were robot replicas of
a human girl he despised.

Long story.

If you’re an anime fan at all,

you’ve seen his archetype before,
the nihilistic pretty boy.

In the ’90s and 2000s, these
guys were a dime a dozen,

but what Albedo has over the rest

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is just how completely nuts he is.

The guy is a barely functional
ball of hate and resentment.

Everything that comes
outta this guy’s mouth

is either creepy or insulting,

and it seems like he’s
just got an endless hatred

for basically everything and
you can’t talk about this guy

without talking about the scene

from the first “Xenosaga” game.

The part where he captures
and psychologically tortures

the robot girl while sitting on a throne

of beheaded statues.

This whole segment is bizarre
and while it’s pretty extreme,

it was actually censored in the US.

The Japanese version
was even more violent,

showing a bizarre scene
where he saws off his own arm

with a knife.

Oh yeah, he’s immortal by the way,

so he can really go nuts
with the crazy freakouts.

Doesn’t stop at his own arm,

he actually rips off his own
head, cackling like a lunatic

and ranting about how
worthless humanity is.

In terms of body count,
he’s got nothing on Makarov,

like he kills a lot of soldiers

and tries to destroy an entire planet

by the end of the game,
but he ultimately fails.

Still, his pure, unchecked
hatred of everyone

and everything is pretty staggering,

and his absolutely legendary bad guy theme

makes him one of the best
JRPG villains of all time.

And number four is King
Bohan from “Heavenly Sword.”

Before “Hellblade,” before “DMC,”

before even “Enslaved:
Odyssey to the West,”

Ninja theory made a little
game called “Heavenly Sword”

that came out during the PS3’s launch.

It’s little more than
a cinematic tech demo

with some fairly pedestrian gameplay,

but one thing it does have

that makes it very memorable to this day

is the always awesome Andy Serkis

playing the amazingly evil King Bohan.

Imagine the ugliest, nastiest,
most hateable villain ever

and throw in a thousand more
things and you got Bohan.

He’s just got zero redeeming qualities.

He is a megalomaniacal lunatic

that thinks he’s the chosen
one sent to this earth

to shape the world in his image.

All he does is go off
about his divine will

and hurl abuse at his oversized

but mentally undeveloped son, Roach,

while getting up to some new atrocity.

It’s really something to see Andy Serkis

not just chew the scenery, but
the walls, floors, ceilings,

everything as this freak.

He’s so incredibly evil sometimes
you almost have to laugh.

It’s like every scene this guy shows up

and he finds some new low to sink to.

In any other game, King Bohan would be one

of a bazillion forgettable
bad guy, king types out there,

but Ninja Theory went
all out to make this dude

as evil as possible.

He is the most memorable
and easily the best thing

about the game bar none.

And number three is the
loathsome Dung Eater

from “Elden Ring.”

Not a lot else to say, right?

He’s called the loathsome Dung Eater.

You hear that name during
the opening of Elden Ring

and you think, how
loathsome could this guy be?

Well, turns out pretty loathsome.

You first meet him in the roundtable hold,

where he’s sitting in a corpse-filled room

and he immediately starts
threatening that he’ll kill

and defile your corpse.

Like, dude, I’m just trying
to be friendly. What the hell?

I mean, just listen to some of the madness

this guy shouts at you.

He calls himself a
scourge upon the living,

that must eat and defile
everything that matters to you,

which I guess being a dung eater

he must assume that dung matters to me.

So he may also be wrong on top of evil,

but he is a completely evil monster

that doesn’t just want to kill people,

he wants to kill him then defile them,

so that when they’re eventually
reborn into the world,

they’re cursed along with their children

and their children’s children and so on.

It seems insane to want to
help this guy that hates you

and wants to kill you
and mess up your corpse,

but you can which leads to the
blessings of despair ending,

where you curse the Sacred Tree

and make it so everyone forever is cursed.

Also, you eat a whole bunch
of dung in the process, no.

I’m sure he does, though. You don’t.

I mean, this is one of the few

ridiculously evil video game characters

that you can actually help if you want to,

if you’re crazy enough to do so.

And number two is the Joker
from “Batman: Arkham Asylum,”

“City,” “Origins,” and “Knight.”

One of the all-time most
evil villains in fiction

is also one of the most evil
villains in video games too,

all thanks to the incredible
Badman “Arkham” series.

The Joker plays a key
role in all these games,

from the first all the way to the last.

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Like this is a guy who’s so evil,

he’s almost more powerful after he’s dead.

In the first game, “Arkham Asylum,”

he’s of course responsible for
all the events of that game,

along with the whole Titan Formula scheme.

It’s easy to forget,
but a lot of people die

in the first game, almost all
the Arkham staff that you find

end up dead eventually,

and only a few manage
to live ’til the end.

The Joker’s evil is a little
more personal in “Arkham City.”

His blood is poisoned from
taking the Titan Formula

in the first game and he wants
Batman to make him a cure.

Of course, this is the
Joker we’re talking about,

so he didn’t exactly ask nicely.

He infected hundreds of
people with his poison blood,

including Batman.

At the end of the game, he takes Talia,

Batman’s love interest,
hostage and kills her

in a particularly pointless and cruel way,

which eventually leads to his own death.

The Joker’s evil gets even more bizarre

in “Arkham Knight,” where he appears

as a fear-gas induced hallucination

while also literally threatening
to take over Batman’s body

because of the magic blood he
ejected into him or something.

Listen, it’s a little bit confusing,

but if you really want a vision
of how evil the Joker is,

then the vision of a Jokerized
Batman at the end of the game

shows him at his absolute worst,

killing all the other villains

while the entire city
is engulfed in flames.

And finally, at number one is Kefka

from “Final Fantasy VI.”

As bad as the Joker is,

this is the true gaming
clown prince of evil.

“Final Fantasy VI” is a game
that’s almost 30 years old,

but Kefka’s evil is timeless.

He starts the game off as
kind of a goofy side villain

working for the Evil Empire,
but as the story unfolds,

it becomes more and more clear that Kefka

is a much more dangerous enemy
than how he first appears.

It doesn’t take long for
the atrocities to pile up.

He poisons an entire castle
filled with innocent people.

He murders the only decent
character in the Empire,

General Cid, and in one of
the most shocking moments

of all time, he betrays the
emperor and destroys the world.

He doesn’t even really
do it for a good reason.

He just saw an opportunity and took it,

and the entire world paid the price.

It’s rare to see a
villain win so completely

in a video game, but Kefka did it.

The entire world has
changed from this point on,

and the rest of the game

is mostly about trying to
put the team back together.

By the end of the game, Kefka’s
become a God-like entity

with a death ray that he uses
to wipe out towns randomly

just to show he can, you know?

There’s tons of bad guys who
threaten to do bad things,

but not really a lot
as successful as Kefka.

It’s kind of cliche at this point,

but he really can’t be topped.

Couple of bonus ones for you too.

Volgin from “Metal Gear Solid 3.”

This guy’s gotten plenty of play

on some of our other bad guy lists,

so we don’t want to really

avoid repeating ourselves too much.

We’re just dropping him in
the bonus for that reason,

but he is a nonstop rollercoaster of evil.

Every time he shows up,
something bad happens.

Someone is gonna get killed.
Someone’s gonna get tortured.

Maybe a nuke is about to
go off. Who really knows?

That’s the kind of guy Volgin is.

And then Luca Blight from “Suikoden II.”

Another guy we’ve mentioned before,

but gotta bring him up again.

He’s a war-mongering
lunatic who starts the game

by attacking his own
people as a justification

to invade an ally and only gets worse.

He’s literally called the Mad Prince

and he absolutely lives up to the title,

gleefully killing anyone
who stands in his way.

He’s so evil that his
own allies turn on him.

Nobody can deal with how
over the top this dude is.

And that’s all for today.

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I’m Falcon, you can follow
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