What are the characters that cheat us in video games?

11.01.2023 0 By admin

Sometimes characters are secretly evil.

It’s a good narrative
device, let’s be frank,

but a lot of the time they’re
like important characters.

Them being evil has a
huge impact on the story.

Like Big Smoke from “Grand
Theft Auto San Andreas”.

This list is a little bit different,

like we’re not talking about allies,

party members, friends or cast members.

We’re talking about NPCs who
just don’t seem to matter

until they turn out evil.

Hi folks, it’s Falcon.

And today on Gameranx, 10
secretly evil NPCs in video games.

Starting off with number 10,

it’s Kingseeker Frampt from Dark Souls.

He’s a pretty central NPC in Dark Souls.

Basically your guide.

He tells you most of what you gotta do

to become the king’s successor

and rid yourself of the
curse of the undead.

You just play the game normally.

You probably have no idea
this guy has ulterior motives.

– I am pleased to see you well.

Is it something urgent?

– It’s never explicitly stated in the game

that this guy maybe doesn’t
have your best interest at heart

or that he’s trying to deceive you.

So it’s up to the player
to put together the clues

and figure out what’s
going on for themselves.

Now here’s the thing.

Almost everything that
Fireseeker Frampt tells you

in Dark Souls is either a half truth

or an outright fabrication.

He tells you that your destiny

is to take on Lord Gwyn’s place,

but conveniently leaves out

that you’re not taking his place as king.

You’re taking his place
as an eternal kindling

in the magic fire that keeps
the world of Dark Souls alive.

One of the biggest clues to
his deception is Anor Londo,

the seat of the gods.

When you get there, it
seems pretty nice and normal

and it’s there that you
meet the goddess Gwynevere

and obtain the Lord Vessel.

Everything seems like
it’s on the up and up

but the Gwynevere you see
is actually an illusion

as is all of Anor Londo.

Basically everything about the
privacy of the chosen undead

in this game is made up by
Frampt and his allies to trick

some gullible idiot

into setting themselves
on fire for all eternity.

Now it’s questionable that
this is really evil per se

because it’s implied that

if the world goes dark
it’s gonna be extremely bad

for lots of people.

And that kind of puts everything
here in a murky gray area,

which kind of describes
the story of Dark Souls

on the whole.

And number nine is Nick
Johnsmith from Psychonauts 2.

The main plot of Psychonauts 2 revolves

around uncovering a mole within
the Psychonauts organization

and there’s plenty of red herrings

pointing to other characters
who have plenty of reasons

to have some kind of grudge
against the organization.

This being Double Fine, the
actual answer’s not so obvious.

The real culprit is Nick Johnsmith,

the humble mail room clerk
that you’re an intern for

at the beginning of the game.

He spends pretty much the
entire game as a brainless husk

who seems like more of a walking punchline

than anything else.

But the final mission is
where it’s revealed that he,

and try to follow along
with me here folks,

he’s the last living member
of an exiled royal family

who wants to resurrect the
powerful psychic Maligula

and conquer his own country.

Now that’s a hell of a motive.

And this is all told to
you in the final mission,

which is an It’s A Small World ride

through Nick’s fractured mind,

which is expository and frankly catchy.

♪ Drowned in prosperity ♪

♪ Grulovia, Grulovia ♪

– Unlike a lot of these
out of nowhere twists,

this game does a lot

of work to try to justify
it, after the fact at least.

Some people probably figured
out Nick was the mole

before the big reveal

but I really doubt a lot of
people came up with that motive.

That’s a hell of a motive.

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At number eight is Major
Phillips from Binary Domain.

When it comes to evil NPCs,

sometimes they come outta
nowhere, make perfect sense.

And well, you can probably
tell from my tone,

Major Phillips is not that,
he’s one of the other times.

He is your mission control,

and pretty much no personality
in this guy to speak of.

He talks like he’s the pilot
of a 747 telling passengers

to expect some like, minor
turbulence or something.

That’s how he sounds like,
literally all of the time.

He’s barely a character,
let alone even an NPC.

He’s just kind of a voice over the radio

giving you mission objectives.

Most players forget he even has a name.

So when it’s revealed

that he’s actually a bad guy
and actually the final boss,

most players are like, whoa, what?

– Major?

What the hell is going on here?

– Regrettably, soldier,
this is the end of the line.

– Hearing this guy’s like,

warehouse safety training manual voice

give a villain monologue is just silly,

and it’s the perfectly goofy capstone

on an already very goofy game.

At number seven is the cab driver

from Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

This guy is an NPC in the
purest sense of the word.

He’s just a guy who will take you around

from one district to another in a cab.

Doesn’t even have a name, just cab driver.

So like he seems

like a total non-factor
at any and every moment.

Oh, but he’s more important than he seems.

A major part of the endgame of Bloodlines

is the various factions
fighting over this sarcophagus.

It’s supposed to contain
a very ancient vampire

and everybody wants it.

I guess ’cause old vampires
are like trading cards

or something and they
want to collect them all.

No, that’s not it.

It’s for reasons, obviously.

Depending on the ending you
choose, though, it’s revealed

that the whole sarcophagus
affair was just a big joke.

Like there was never
anything of value in there.

It’s just stuffed with explosives

and whoever opens it would die.

The game basically just ends
on a big joke on the player

and the one who’s responsible
for it was the cab driver

who, by the way, may or may not be Cain,

the very first vampire.

It’s a pretty crazy
twist that really fits in

with the nihilistic humor of the game.

You always hear about
how the butler did it

but it’s rarely the cabby.

And number six is Vicki Vale

from the Batman Telltale series.

If you’re a Batman fan, you
probably recognize Vicki Vale.

She’s a Batman love interest
in the the ’89 movie.

She was in Arkham City, minor role though.

And basically just one

of those consistent characters
in the Batman universe.

Usually just a reporter,
no major traits otherwise.

That’s what makes her big reveal

in the first season of
the Batman Telltale series

so shocking.

In that game

Vicki is actually the leader
of the Children of Arkham,

which is basically the big
bad of the first season.

Telltale actually did a lot

of crazy stuff with Batman’s
story up to revealing

that Thomas Wayne, Batman’s father,

who’s normally portrayed
as basically a saint,

was in league with a bunch of gangsters

and would institutionalize his enemies

at the asylum for his own personal gain.

– Please.

Please help (indistinct).

Please don’t do this.

– You had your chance.

You should have made
the deal we offered you.

– Now we’ve seen similar plot lines

play out elsewhere, ie “Joker”.

But at the end, Vicki Vale reveals herself

to be a new villain called Lady Arkham,

and she battles Batman in
the ruins of the old asylum.

It’s a crazy twist on an
established character.

It’s like if it was suddenly
revealed that, I don’t know,

Harvey Bullock was actually
secretly controlling

all crime in Gotham or something.

It feels wrong and not necessarily

because Vicki Vale really
matters in the Batman universe

but it’s so contrary to what
seems like established fact.

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At number five is that big
bird in Heavenly Sword.

Yeah, it’s kind of another
one that comes outta nowhere.

For pretty much the entire game

the main bad guy is King Bohan,

the cartoonishly evil tyrant.

One odd quirk of his character

is that he’s always got this
raven beside him though.

It’s never commented on,
like the raven never speaks

or even seems to do anything.

He’s just always there.

And during the final battle it’s revealed

that the bird is actually
some kind of demon

that possesses Bohan.

For the final battle you have
to fight a fusion of the two.

The only clue you ever get

that this bird is the
actual bad guy of the game

is that the titular
Heavenly Swords backstory

mentions a Raven Lord.

It’s a really small clue

and I don’t think anyone
really hears that and goes,

oh, well the bird is really
the bad guy, you know?

I don’t think that happens.

Like this is another one of
those outta nowhere twists.

It’s kind of bizarre.

Not totally non telegraphed,
but telegraphed in a way

where I certainly wasn’t
thinking about it that way.

But it’s interesting nonetheless,

like King Bohan’s kind of a clown.

He needed some kind of power up otherwise

he really wasn’t gonna be
like a proper last boss.

And number four is Lucy Stillman

from the Assassins Creed series.

Anyone remember this character?

She was really only in the
first two Assassins Creed games.

And the most memorable thing

about her was that she was voiced

by Kristen Bell and that
she was randomly killed

at the end of Assassins Creed Brotherhood.

It was like actually a really
shocking and memorable twist

at the time, but the follow
up was disappointing.

Basically, she was a double agent.

She broke Desmond out
of the Templar facility

in the first game so she
could find the piece of Eden

that the Templars wanted.

That’s the reason she
gets killed in the end

because the goddess knows
that she’s a double agent.

What makes this all
kind of weird though is

that you really only find out the details

about Lucy’s scheme in the
next game, Revelations,

and only in background material.

For most people playing these games

Lucy just seems like a good guy.

Then she gets killed

in a cliffhanger ending and that’s it.

She barely gets brought up again

and there’s almost no
repercussions for killing off

basically the secondary main character

of the first three games.

Lucy Stillman’s reveal is one

of the first things people
point to to talk about

how the Assassins Creed modern
day storyline is a mess.

I mean this stuff happened

in the third game of what’s
now a 12 game series.

And number three is the purple haired girl

from Wild Arms 3.

As far as RPGs go, Wild
Arms 3 is a weird game.

Instead of having a single
main antagonist, it’s split

into chapters and each of
them have their own bad guys.

First, there’s Janice, the
Prophets, then Siegfried

who seems like the final bad guy

but the true enemy actually reveals itself

to be some random purple haired kid.

What makes this so weird is that you see

this character occasionally.

Sometimes shows up when
you first enter a town

or like, will be standing
in the background

of an important scene or something.

Never really focused on though,

and you can easily go
through the entire game

without even noticing
this purple haired kid.

But always seems to be
nearby for whatever reason.

This being a JRPG, they’re not
just like a random schemer.

The reveal’s a lot crazier than that.

So in reality, this
girl is the dream demon

who’s responsible for turning
the world into a desert.

Apparently she was actually
the one that manipulated

everything so that the good guys

would take out all the bad guys.

We never actually see any
of that, but she’s a demon,

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so I guess she can just do anything.

So there you go, JRPGs love
crazy outta nowhere reveals

but this one really takes the cake.

The bad guy of this game is
literally just a background NPC.

(energetic music)

And number two is the two
janitors from Hotline Miami.

This bizarre and
disorienting top-down shooter

doesn’t put a lot of emphasis
on plot, at least at first.

The basic plot of the game
is you follow various hitmen

who get phone calls.

The phone calls say go kill a
person, and hey, you get it.

The psychedelic vibe makes it seem

like there’s gonna be some kind of twist

revealing this is all in
your head or something,

like your memories are screwed
up or some crap like that.

But the actual reveal’s really simple.

Near the start of the game

you see two random janitors
who, like a lot of characters

in this game, just seem totally random,

like tons of random
characters in this game

that just don’t matter in
any way, shape or form.

Not these guys though.

In the final act of the
game, part five, Answers,

the guy you’re playing wants to put a stop

to the hitman operation

and eventually hunts the phone
calls back to the source.

There he finds that the ones

behind the plot are these two janitors.

And depending on if you
can hack their computer

it’s revealed that they’re
just doing this for fun

or possibly some kind of
supernationalist plot.

Maybe they find supernationalism
fun, I don’t know.

Basically like everything
else in Hotline Miami,

the reveal’s kind of disorienting

and only makes sense to some extent.

It sometimes seems like
it’s supposed to be literal

but with this game you don’t really know.

(frenetic music)

And at number one, Airy
from Bravely Default.

Airy the fairy is basically

Bravely Default’s version of Navi,

the annoying fairy from Legend
of Zelda, Ocarina of Time.

– Hey, listen!

– She’s more of a gameplay
tool than an actual character.

Like she’s there for tutorials,
to tell you objectives,

and that seems like it.

Get far enough into the game
though and the truth comes out.

Airy’s actually the bad guy of the game

and is manipulating the party
into doing what she wants.

It’s one of the most shocking twists

in any game because she’s
basically part of the UI.

It’s like if your quest
objectives started lying to you

in Skyrim.

It’s just not something
you would really expect.

The game does start
telegraphing her evilness

before it’s actually revealed,

with the title screen
message slowly changing

from Where The Fairy Lies to Airy Lies.

Airy is basically of
Navi wasn’t just annoying

but was like actively a villain
who was working against you

which is actually kind
of a pretty clever twist

in terms of the player’s expectations.

Place the bad guy where
you’re never going to look

for the bad guy.

But interestingly enough,

in a character you’re
going to hate anyways.

Like can you imagine if
Navi was actually a villain?

You would be like, oh yes,
I can kill this thing!

Brilliant, honestly, just brilliant.

And that’s all for today.

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