Greatest video game villain ever?

We dont have a whole lot of threads around here that actually discuss video games, so I'll pose this question:

In your opinion, whos the greatest video game villain of all video game history? Feel free to nominate anyone, tell us which game they're from, and give a description of why this character diserves to be the greatest villain, if you wish. Spoiler warnings might be appriciated by some people, so please let us know if you're giving a spoiler.

Spoilers follow for my nomination from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords.





I nominate Kreia/Darth Traya from Star Wars KOTOR2. Kreia was a Jedi Master who was exiled from the Jedi Order. Very little is known of her past, but there are small hints given of her true identity within the game (look very closely, or just ask me if you're lazy ). She was also the teacher of your character in the original KOTOR game. When that character was Jedi and later when that character turned to the sith.

We do know that after her exile from the Jedi she eventually became a Sith Lord and master of the hidden Sith Academy on Malachor V. There, her two most promsing students, Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus, betrayed her. They exiled her from the Sith and stripped her of the force.

Durring her exile from the Sith, she refined her study of The Force. She came to believe that The Force as a whole is an evil entity that uses all life for its own gains. Her desire to prevent unnecessary death in the future was the overbearing motivation that cultivated her hatred for the Force. She grew to hate it and decided she needed to destroy it, but she didnt know how or what the conciquences would be. She envisioned a galaxy that would exist without the will of The Force. She thought she could achieve this by showing how one could willingly renounce the Force and eventually become stronger for it

She comes to find your player character (Who we'll call "The Jedi Exile"). Your character is a veteran of the Mandalorian Wars. The Jedi Exile joined the war against the wishes of the Jedi Council because he/she wished to protect innocents (or the lust for battle, if you're dark side). At the end of the war the Exile used a weapon of mass destruction to destroy the Mandalorian fleets at Malachor V. The detonation of this weapon caused the death of just about everyone in the battle. Feeling the shock of that many deaths at once through the Force nearly killed the Jedi exile, however he/she subconciously severed their own connection to the Force, completly.

This is why Kreia is interested in The Exile. She sees in you "the potential for the Force to die." This pleases her.

She joins your characters party, as your teacher. She vows that one day when your training is complete she will reveal everything to you. Kreia uses you, and the party, the whole game to find everyone who hurt her and teach them of their own mistakes. She uses you to kill her Sith Apprenteces. And kills the remaining Jedi masters. All the while shes studing you and attempting to mold you into her pragmatic teachings, which dont exactly line up to good OR evil. However your character never becomes what she wants. Your character either ends up being a shining example of a light jedi or a vengence driven Dark Jedi.

Wether your light or dark, at the end of the game the Jedi Exile follows Kreia (now assuming her dark side identity) to her Academy on Malachor V. You dual Darth Traya in an epic battle at the core of Malachor V as the planet crumbles. Before she dies she keeps your promise. She reveals everything, even the future of your party and even events that will take place far into the future in the Clone Wars times, using the Force.

One has to wonder her motivations after finding her whole story. Kreia saw the force as evil and wished to free the galaxy of its influence. Yet she used the Force in an effort to better understand it AND to further her own agenda. She experienced both sides of the force to their extremes and developed her own philosophy. Yet she was also willing to manipulate and betray those she held dear to further her belief.

 

Diablo, cause you know he'll be back....



But hmmm, tough question...

 

I have a really long time playing videogames so I have a lot of good villians but for me this ones are the ones that come to my mind right now:
1) Sephirot, final fantasy VII. If you want to be a villian, you'll wish to be half the mothe******* this guy is.
2) Liquid Snake, metal gear solid. This one really knows have to give a good fight.
3) Mike tyson, Punch Out. beating mike has to be one of the hardest task in videogame history. He was really scary, it used all the screen!
4)Ganon, The Lengend of Zelda The Ocarina Of Time. Fighting ganon when he's not a monster is awesome!
5)shao Khan, mortal Kombat 2. By his time it was a great to see a villian that looked real, that and his reallu cool voice.

 

Shao Kahn, Kain and Liquid Snake get my vote!

 

Kane from the original Command and Conquer!

And he's coming back for Tiberium Wars....

 

Recently I played KOTOR2 so Kreia gets my vote too.

 

One more vote to Kreia.

Max Payne, MaxPayne. Small man in the great world of lie which did what is opposite to court burocracy and on-demand justice - just killed them all.

 

Max Payne was not the villain, I think he was the good guy.

 

I haven't played that many video games with end game bosses, but seeing I'm old and so lame. The games for me have been Super Metroid and Zelda - Ocarina of Time, both on SNES for me Motherbrain and Ganon were both respectively cool bosses

Motherbrain:


Ganon:

 

Sephiroth- in MANY games. He's just bad.

Dracula in all the Castlevania titles.

 

Well, if you are considering Kreia, then Krelian from Xenogears is about on the same league. He wasn't truly good nor truly evil, he had his own agenda and manipulated practically the whole world to get what he wanted which was becoming one with the Wave Existence. Does the word "villain" apply to Kreia and/or Krelian? They weren't mercilessly evil, they just had their own plans and acted upon it, if it meant saving someone's life to achieve their goal, they would do it, if it meant killing a world or a galaxy, they would still do it.

Anyway, you say Kreia reveals her true identity, where does she do that?? I remember her telling that she was some sort of librarian or record keeper but that was pretty much it.

 

Kefka - FF6

 

Sephiroth sucks Lame little emo kid trying to be tough! Kefka was the greatest FF villain ever! Sorry, just had to get that out. Hes just so pathetic



(image from deviant art)

Kreia never really reveals her true identity, you can piece it together from her dialogue, however. She was the librarian of the Jedi on the Council. Atris replaced her. This she pretty much says.

Her real identity is widely speculated to be Arren Kae, the Handmadens mother. She suddenly becomes very coy whenever you talk to her about Kae, and if you talk to her about Handmadens father, she reacts in a similar way. Kae was said to be Revans first teacher and Kreia also directly stated she was Revans first teacher. Kreia's name actually seems like a combonation of Kae and Traya. When you ask Atris about her when the endgame begins, she says Kreia isnt her name (but she may be refering to the fact that Kreia has again taken her dark side identity Darth Traya.) I know they said Kae was dead somewhere in dialogue, however they also said no body was discovered.

 

Kefka from FF6 by far. He is funny, witty, heartless and laughs at everything. He is like the next generation villain, one who many people will willingly follow because of his unique personality (not out of fear or because he is strong), even if his intentions are selfish and unkind.

 

Kreia was kinda cool, Sephiroth just sucked... But of those mentioned here, I think I'd have to side with Kane from C&C. Not sure why, but ****, he's cool.

I always had a weak spot for Dr. Eggman/Robotnik from Sonic as well...
And The Master from Fallout

 

I like Sephiroth. In terms of actual character-quality the only other Square-villain that could touch him is Kuja.
http://www.geocities.com/sephirothmyths/Debunked.html

For the life of my I can't figure out why so many people laud over Kefka's flamboyancy. The only Ted-Woolsey-adlib I thought was legitimately funny was the self-help book line.
Joker came out first and was vastly superior; Let's 'gasm over him.

 

My friend requires venting. This is how he responds to Sephiroth being the greatest villian:

 

How is Kefka NOT emo?
WUHWUHUWU I MUST DESTROY DREAMZ AND HOPES AND HAPPY CAUSE THEY EXPERIMEBNETED ON ME?!??!!

Seph wanted power. Who the hell decided he was the emo one? Honestly. -.-

I just think villains from your favorite games get a special-pass from the same "flaws" used to criticize other villains.

 

Name one Square character that isn't emo, please.

 

Gonan, Zelda (Ocarina of Time). He really was a bad villiand, and a very cool one too.
Second: Final Fantasy X (Seymour Guado)
Third: Liquid Snake.

Actually I do no know any other. But Ganon is my favourite I think.

Charlie

 

The Boss of the MGS series is probably the best villain, now that I think about it.

They pretty much all have an angst factor. But the only characters in the FF universe that can come close to touching Kefka in terms of extreme emo are Ultimecia and Vincent.


Let's compare Seph and Kefka ...
In fact. I will back up my post with statistical evidence proving Kefka is far more emo.


Sephiroth
+Victim of an unfortunate experiment. For five minutes he hates people. Not the whole world, not everyone who ever lived, just the non-cetra.
Emo Rating: +10
+Has a five minute hissy-fit at Nibelheim after discovering he's not a human, but a mutated alien-parasite. Smashes something, tells Mom he wants to have vengeance and rule the world.
Emo Rating: +50!!
+Wears black leather ... how woamg emo.
Emo Rating : +5


-After Nibelheim, when he recognizes his true identity and power, he never whines about life again.
Emo Rating: -10
-After Nibelheim, he NEVER again refers to Jenova as "mother." The one time he even brought up Jenova(again, he called her Jenova, not mother or any other seemingly affectionate title), he was explaining her power to Cloud. The vulnerability Sephiroth displayed at Nibelheim died and he's no longer interested in emotional-companionship. At all. Just power.
Emo-Rating: -25



Final Judgment: +25 Emo. Frankly, it's just stupid to put his five-minute hissy-fit above the drastic change in his personality/development which occurred after falling into the lifestream. You pretty much have to ignore every scene in the game BUT the Nibelheim incident to even consider Sephiroth "emo."


Kefka
+Another poor victim of a cruel experiment. Kefka now hates everything and even wants to destroy nature and buildings over it.
Emo rating: +50!!
+Actually, Kefka HATE HATE HATE HATE HATEHATES(!!!) the world. And has more than one hissy-fit about it.
Emo rating: +20
+Is trying to destroy HAPPY. A step beyond merely hating the world, Kefka dedicates himself towad the goal to specifically destroy hope, happiness and dreams. You're hard-core emo when you simply have to pee on everyone's cupcakes cause life bit your butt.
Emo Rating: +20
+Lots of make-up. if wearing leather makes Sephiroth emo, than Kefka's eye-shadow has to count for something.
Emo Rating: +5


-Is funny if you like Ted Woolsey's corny one-liners. This really has nothing to do with being or not being emo, but I feel kinda bad about Kefka's impending emo-rating victory.
Emo-rating: -5
-Though definitely emo, for the half of the game, FFVI doesn't force you to take him seriously. That works to kefka's advantage as a lot of people just ignore everything sucky about him cause "RUN RUN OR YOU"LL BE WELL_DONE?!?! ROFL"
Emo Rating: -5

Final Judgment: +85 emo. It's an emo-TKO. And unlike Sephiroth, Kefka made sure to remain emo for years(not minutes) and throughout the entirety of his respective game. Well done, Kefka.

 

In multi-player games, I am your worse villian. MUAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Vergil from Devil May Cry 3.
Badass villain.

Havent really played the others mentioned above

 

The Wizard of Yendor.
'nuff said.

 

the AI in Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

if you don't get the joke read:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/bigrigsotrr/review.html?mode=gsreview

 

Well, u are all wrong............
The greatest villain or villains are the bullies from School Daze on my oooold ZX Spectrum 48k.
So there you have it.........




swank

 

A man in black suit from Half-Life series which whole time makes G. Freeman's heroizm just a piece of it's plan.

 

The guys who created WorldWar2:Iwo Jima. (Wonder how they survive, or maybe becoz they r villains.)

 

Ah I see ... I had thought about Kreia, never in my mind did it cross that she may be the Handmaiden's mother, but I did know she was a librarian and Atris had taken her place. It's funny how nobody remembers Krelian from Xenogears but me.

 

I remember Krelian, but Kreia wanted to kill the Force. That makes her made of win!

 

Ok, but should they be called villains? They're not evil in the sense that we're familiar with. Killing the Force didn't mean killing a galaxy since the Exile lived without his connection to the Force, her reasoning was exactly that. Krelian did get what he wanted, he ascended to a higher dimension and became one with the Wave Existence but did not destroy the whole world in the process (but both hurted people along the way .. which is a inevitable consequences of one's actions), so should they be called villains? By villain, I understand someone like Kefka (which is in my opinion the best villain in FF series, though Sephiroth is the best "looking" one) or Ansem in KH or even Bowser (lol).

 

Killing the force in Star Wars is a pretty big thing though. The Force is almost a character in and of itself. Not to mention its representation of the moral battle within everyone (though on a much grander and more black and white scale). Kreia is a villain in a different manner. Of course this could also be interpreted in many other ways. The paradox of a character like her is whats most interesting!

 

yea kreia was a good one...
but the best one is...
...wait for it...



...THE GRUNTS FROM HALO!!!!!!
those things are so mean, so small, and so darn fiesty!!!!

 

I go with the aforementioned Half Life G-Man-and the best part is that we don't even know if he is a villan.

 

What about Osmund Saddler from Resident Evil 4? That dude was SERIOUSLY sick, twisted, crazy and evil. Anyone who has played the game knows what his intentions were for his 'Las Plagas' infected cult and it is truly frightening. Not a very well known villian, but a classic nonetheless.

 

Oh, I'm agreeing with you. Sorry if I sounded like I'm not, I was just putting Krelian on the same level as Kreia. I even got her to like me once on Dantooine, I manipulated both the Jedi Master there and the mercenaries to my bidding, I ended up killing the mercenaries but the Jedi never knew I played him too... couldn't do the same with the others so in the end, I had to kill him once the Academy was restored (even though there was only Jedi Master).

 

I was just ranting about her awesomeness. I'm STILL trying to play the game like Kreia would and having her congratulate you on Dantooine when you gather the 3 Jedi Masters and have played through the game trying to use her methods.

 

I say this guy

 

Kane or CABAL from C&C
They are by far the coolest characters of the series.

 

The Cyberdemon from Doom II was pretty cool and, at least until I learned how to kill him, struck fear into my heart.

The villain from Planescape "The Transcendent One"

 

CABAL was awesome And he had one of THOSE voices!