This is kind of part two of the "likable characters" series, so if you have not seen the companion video, check it out (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0iPyq6a3jsY.html). Also, yeah, expect a likable heroes video in the future. I find villains fascinating and I wanted to take a look at why. Obviously, something like a "likable villain" is extremely subjective, but I tried to focus on general trends that I have noticed. Lemme know which video game villains (or any other villain I suppose) you find to be especially likable.
Honestly there really isn't a huge difference between video game villains and villains in other media, unless the game is extremely interactive, like, say, a tabletop roleplaying game.
SWTOR's Emperor Arcann and his sister Vaylin. He's probably on the more sympathetic villain spectrum whereas Vaylin was more fun psychotic sort that one couldn't help but root for. The fandom probably gravitate toward Darth Malgus for his coolness but I only love trolling him.
I got to see my favourite villain, Wesker, three times in this video and that made me really happy. But I couldn't help but notice right at the end there when you played him over a sound bite of you saying "figuring out which villain is right for your game". I'm curious, what are your thoughts on his absence in Resi now? Should he come back?
I remember playing portal as a kid and all i could think about was: "whens the next time GLaDOS is gonna say something, or communicate to me in the slightest way? Good old times.
@@theralf6454 Yeah Portal 3 Come on... I just want to see her actually be unambiguously happy at the end of a game. I know she claims she is in Portal 2, but it comes across as denial.
A villain is the hero of their own story. To me that is the best kind of villain. A lot of games tend to forget this. The villain needs to think on some level that what they are doing is justified. This even applies to Vas and the Joker. To them what they do makes sense. It's a small thing but something a lot of games and to be fair media tends to forget.
I think that there also needs to be some sort of logic to it. There are plenty of times where the villain's goal does not really line up with anything else about them, and it feels like, "wait, why are you doing this?"
@@razbuten This is true and like with the Joker the idea of "he is doing it just because" works because we are given context as to way he thinks that way.
@@thegameneededme5 This is true, if a bit on the nose sometimes, even the presequal explains his fear of being stabed in the back and why he hates even "civilized" people of Pandora.
The villain lacking a good motivation or even mechanical reason relevant to the plot for doing what they do is a serious problem in lazy writing, including bad books and movies as well. It's a huge problem now, and I appreciate it when I see a villain with good motivations, or at least believable or understandable ones.
Is he really a villain tho? I know there was that one episode where things went bad and he took over everything but honestly, if was to ever really get that kind of power, would even know what to do with it?? (No seriously, he's just doing the evil thing just so he can have someone to monologue to on a regular basis. He needs his support platypus.)
Mark Jiff Bula His biological parents didn’t attended his birth, his father had a dog named “Only son”, he was trown sand at 24/7 by a bully, and he lost to a soda volcano, It’s surprising he didn’t killed anyone yet
“You won’t kill me, because of some miss placed sense of self-righteousness. And I won’t kill you… Because you’re just too much fun.” ~Joker, The Dark Knight.
If I was a psychopath, I would definitely agree with Joker. I mean just think about it, it's really fun trying to cause chaos when something is actively trying to stop you.
Let's not forget the actors! Mark Hamill as the Joker, Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack, Ellen McLain as GLaDOS - and of course Michael Mando's Vaas! The writers behind Far Cry 3 loved Mando's performance so much, they even re-wrote portions of the game and reworked the theming just so they could have more of him. A good villain isn't just a matter of writing - I don't think any of the villains I listed would have worked nearly as well without the charms and subtleties of the actors portraying them.
Honestly, the worst part about Far Cry 3 was that they didn't go even farther with Vaas. He should have been the main villain of the game, his performance was just _that_ good. I completely forget who the main bad guy was. What I do remember is that I was utterly confused when Vaas died and there was still a bunch of the game left.
@@liesdamnlies3372 While I agree that it's a shame we didn't get more Vaas, I feel like Far Cry 3 did something interesting with the fact that the story just didn't have enough room for him. Towards the end of the story, the protagonist has himself become a crazed killer and cult figurehead like Vaas. Beyond death, Vaas' sheer madness is still having an impact on the game's world, to the point where he could be considered reborn through your own actions. That's a pretty great way to handle a character's limited role in a story, if you ask me.
i know this is late but damn you articulated that perfectly and further solidified my love for voice actors, they dont get enough credit. The one game that i feel really emphasizes their voice actors is Overwatch with their constant stage panels, streamer interactions and youtube coverage. More games need to show off and acknowledge the performers behind the voices
So true. I could not imagine another voice actor other than Nolan North to voice Nathan Drake and make him as lovable and like able as he is. Talented people.
Damn i generally don't like seeing the faces of the actual voice actors even tho i love their work (my brain can't handle different faces sharing voices) but i i sorta had to see the real face of Handsome Jack... Yeah my brain accepts him because damn he is Handsome Jack irl. Now i want a live action series with him....fml
The only vault hunters that are not villains are maya, roland, mordecai(maybe?), HandsomeJackDouble, ClapTrap. The rest are fucking murderes, thiefs, war crimes etc, HELL EVEN GAIGE LMAO
I didn’t enjoy Pre-Sequel nearly as much as the others - but getting to see more of Jack was total selling point for me. One of the all timers, for sure!
@@ollytherev2957 do you know pickle? And zero g gets old pretty fast. (i wrote pickle in lower case even tough its a name. The reason for this is because he is a demon. )
Jack is honestly the best example because we got to learn so much about him with the pre-sequel and then Tales from the Borderlands series. His final monologue to the MC was truly that of a man who knew exactly what he did wrong in on his path to power but in the end also knew that in the end lots of those choices are unavoidable because in the end “Everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own story” He even tells us as we look on the destroyed Helios base that he too changed, and “after a while you’ll start measuring success by the size of the pile of destruction around you. You gotta break it down to build it back up” People may shit on the borderlands series for whatever reason, but Jack as a character has never been a reason that the series was bad.
Jack, or at least the indelible mark he leaves on the series, is precisely why I've shat on the series since BL2. They've never been able to reach that same level since and the core of the gameplay has largely gone unevolved. Because Jack was so incredible and each installment has largely felt the same, but narratively lesser or even stale caused me to just find the series to feel like recalling old college days of blackout drinking. Fun and novel with some great stories but looking back wondering why you put yourself through that
Aaaackshyually, the idea of having the villain of a game be constantly in contact with the protagonist from afar is something that goes all the way back to Banjo-Kazooie where gruntilda would roast you for your entire adventure
Undertale Spoilers: The Asgore clip reminded me of how much I enjoy him as the antagonist. You basically get adopted by a sweet old lady, and when she tells you to beware him and goes through such lengths as she does to keep you from him, it sets your expectations for the rest of the game. Every time you hear people praising him as king, you get this sense more and more that he's some form of evil tyrant dictator, ruling the underground with an iron fist. Every time you see the castle in the distance, it builds this idea more and more that he's the evil king you must defeat. ...and then you meet him, and he's not any of that. He's a truly beloved king, doing what he can for his people, even if he's wrong, and even if he hates doing it. He's the villain, but he doesn't meet any of your expectations, and when that happens, you start to call into question the nobility of your own quest, even though what he's doing isn't right.
In a way Pagan Min from Far Cry 4 is exactly that, although it follows the opposite approach, introducing you to Pagan first then you really only see how horrid the "freedom fighters" are as you play the game and you make the choice in the end. That really opened my eyes and made me do the "wait it out" play through where you just wait for him to come back after his phone call.
Agh, im racking my brain tryna think of a name for that diamond pony i bought. I was gonna call it piss-for-brains in honor if you but that seems... immature. You know what? Ill give it some more thought.
ANDRÉ I remember watching a video that explained how Troy being more ‘independent’ from Tyreen would have made the whole calpyso twins dynamic much better.
I've actually had people call me a bad person for liking Handsome Jack, no joke. You can *like* a villain, that doesn't mean you *aspire to be* that villain. All in all, Jack is a terrible person. But he's written to have some very relatable, likable sides to him. Also, his world view and how he goes about doing things is unique. Finding a villain cool, or funny, or just interesting, doesn't mean you want to *be* the villain. Same reason why many people love watching those shows about psychopaths. They're *interesting* in the way their minds work. Not admirable, just interesting.
"Butt Stallion! Butt Stallion, c'mere!" He is by far my fav character in the game. I really hate Cl4p-TP and I havent seen another big character like them
One of my favorite villians is Ocelot from MGS. Throughtout the series, he isn't even a villian, and sometimes he just feels like a sort of double agent, not fully on one side or the other.
In my opinion some best villains are often ones that just seem like people with different motives to the protagonist. It really helps to make the protagonist seem more grounded in reality and genuinely more relate-able.
I have no idea what the guy's goal even is half the time. In MGS2 he's working for the Patriots but in 4, he's trying to destroy them. I like Patrick Zimmerman a lot but that's how far it goes.
Amen to that. It's awesome that we live in a time where there are so many storytelling mediums, good access to them, and more creators have the ability to get their work out there. Unfortunately, that also means it's so easy to find slush instead of good writing.
I think the best way to think about "likable villains" is like this: If the framing was switched and we where following the story of the villain, could we see them as the hero?
He aint the devil for fucks sake! He helped geralt without asking him for anything or giving him a mark. He either takes the souls of objectively bad people or at least make them understand their mistakes and then grow and change like spoon lady or even olgeird himself, who was a pillaging elitist.
@@thewiedzmin6062 He wasnt the "Devil" but he was a Devil, in fantasy worlds like Witcher and others the term devil is a creature that makes a pact with mortals but ends up tricking them, they speak the unbound truth but not the complete truth, as Asmodeus (the D&D king of Devils and lord of Hell and God of Law, Tyranny, knowledge, truth and betrayal. And also the most famous Devil in pop-culture) always says: "You should have read the fine print", they will make a deal but find a way around it, like when Asmodeus made a deal with the other god's (genuinely good guys) that he will punish the evil and corrupted mortals in his hell's, makes a pact he cannot break otherwise he'll die, and then he ends up corrupting and tempting mortals to do bad stuff so that he can absorb their souls when they die
@MC Cooper *5 MONTHS LATER* How much screen time did Darth Vader have in the original Star Wars trilogy? Not a whole lot.. and yet he is in pretty much everyone's top 10 villains list. O'dimm's lack of screen time has the same effect it had for Vader, it only makes his character that much more intriguing and threatening when he finally *does* show up. His frequent absence also makes you pay more attention, and make you appreciate the small details*, if you spot them of course. All this makes you want to find out more about him, to unravel the mystery. The biggest expository dialogue provided about his character - which feels like the tip of the iceberg - isn't even through him, but some old blind professor.. you're barely even worth his time (which is ironic considering his power). Do I agree that he is the absolute _best_ villain in gaming? No, but I can understand - to a certain degree - why he is for some. Personally, he is easily among my top 10. *An example of those small details is that over the course of the Hearts of Stone expansion, O'dimm can be spotted numerous times in crowds - as either a peasant or a guard - in the background. This immediately makes you wonder what he is up to. Is he observing Geralt to make sure he fulfills his end of the bargain? Or is he there simply just to sit back, grab some dumplings, and watch how yet another pathetic mortal is manipulated by him?
Another one important quality that makes a villain likable is to be powerful in a fair way. Sephiroth is incredibly powerful, but when he is presented to us he fights using the same rules and limitations the player has. If a villain can beat the player fair and square without cheating, that inspires respect.
TheDarkever, IMO a perfect example of this is Jetstream Sam from MGS Rising:Revengeance. He is a likeable villain, but the moment you have to fight him it feels like a battle between two equels. This is further re-inforced by the fact that Jetsream Sam and Raiden(protagonist) use the same weapon, a sword.
@@SomeRat-zx4wr I loved the battle between Sam and Raiden, gods honest some of the best 1v1 sword play I ever had in a game. Not to mention Jetstream Sam was a neat character
There might be another side to this. I'm thinking of someone like Wesker from Resident Evil. If the villain is so stupidly overpowered that it becomes almost laughable, there might be some inherit awe inspired by that. Or maybe it just works in RE because the whole series is hella campy and having the sort of villain who can literally catch rocket launchers fired at him is just... really fucking funny and over the top? (Thinking mostly of RE5 Wesker here of course, rather then his earlier incarnations.)
@@valkyrie-randgris ah yes, the "Senator Armstrong effect", as I like to call it, because he is that exact mentality in its purest form. He's likable and enjoyable solely because he's utter bullshit initially to fight and full of shit when he talks. You can't help but be irked by him and yet still enjoy how one-dimensional he almost seems.
or also vergil from devil may cry 3. Although tbh at the start if he feels stronger, on the second encounter he's roughly on par, and on the third encounter while you can feel he too got stronger, once you win you realize you've gotten stronger too, and far more than him. That's not just fair and square, that's fair and square+character development of both protagonist and antagonist at the same time.
6:22 Just going to say as a fan of all of the Borderlands games, Jack wasn't the one who made his life terrible. It was his incredibly bad luck, always happening to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, his conflicting ideals and ultimately being betrayed by his closest friends that caused him to descend into madness and twisted sense of what was right.
The fact that I'm not the only person who considers Jetstream Sam to be a likeable villain made my day. Really wish the sexy bastard got his own game :(
Memist Central agreed, I quite liked the Seed family I must say. Far Cry has a lot of good villains, Jesus I still remember the damn Neanderthal leader from Primal
Another thing that makes Handsome Jack more likable is that as he talks to you he tells you all the horrible things he's done but in a comical way. It makes you laugh at this absolute maniac and makes you think, "AM I the villain like he says?"
While it is subjective, I guess I agree with Andrew Ryan being a great villain instead of likable. But I like him b/c of his ambition, and what he created in Rapture. But yeah, Vaas and Handsome Jack are definitely likable in many aspects. Makes me wanna look at all the great villains before the turn of the millennium and see which are great and/or likable.
Yeah! It is definitely an interesting separation. Ultimately, it comes down to the kind of relationship the writer(s) want to create between the villain and the audience, and that can vary drastically.
Yeah, too bad he went back on his own philosophy. At first he thought no rules only objectivism and capitalism was good. But then when things didn't go his way he made more and more rules.
Andrew Ryan is a stand-in for Ayn Rand, and anyone who has read up on Rand's personal life will know she was a huge hypocrit and built a cult of personality around herself, with her Objectivist followers turning into creepy sycophants.
I think it also really depends on what kind of villain youre looking for. Not every villain needs to be likeable or even understandable to be intimidating or an opposite force to the player/protagonist. I guess mass effect reapers and breath of the wilds ganon are good examples. The conflict between them and the hero isnt somethin personal really, but while they stay rather vague throughout the story, the story shows WHY they are a serious threat, what they are capable of if the hero doesnt stop them and why out hero has the means to defeat them in the first place which pushes the story forward. Again, villains like these, while intimidating, mostly lack personal conflict and thus drama for the protagonist, especially if not written well. Thats why mass effect also has saren for example to create a more close and comprehansable threat Great video as always dude!! Also really like the thumbnail on this one
To add to that I feel you can do alot with such villians by focusing on the reaction that our protagonists and the world has to them, both immediate and long term. Like Gandalf in the Mines of Moria when the Balrog appears. When he says that the foe, a foe that has not even been fully revealed yet, is beyond our party of badasses and then yells for them to run it says more about the Balrog than any appereance it might have made at that time. The conflict between Hero and Villian need not be expressed in a dialogue between them. Discussions in Mass Effect on how much will be needed to stop the Reapers, that this is not a war that can be won without sacrifice, is conflict that our heroes have to face without the Reapers ever beeing on screen and this can easily be made very personal. Say, you have a villian using some ancient power and our hero attains similar powers to stop them, maybe even without realizing they are the same powers. Once our hero learns that he is using the very same powers as the villian, especially if they have a dark or dubious origin, what kind of reactions will he have? Fear that he might turn out like the villian(justified or not)? Does he consider it a necesary evil to use these powers? Does he seek a new path that does not involve these powers? My point is in brief that there are plenty of ways a villian, one neither likeable nor understandable, can still directly or indirectly create internal conflict, drama and personal discussion for our heroes.
I think that due to the nature of Breath of the Wild, a very personal villain isn't necessary. The game is mostly open world and as such should invite the player to explore, not to pursue the main story.
YES, the Reapers and the Night King from GoT are examples of villains that are completely impossible to understand, both are basically forces of nature, more so than an actual character, they don't need dialogue, they don't need a story to understand them, they just need to be stopped, as Beric from GoT says, "death is the enemy, the enemy always wins, and we still need to fight him."
@@jonmartin43 that would make Smoke one of the best betrayals, but not really a villain from how this video is using it. Tenpenny would be one of the villains.
My absolute favorite villain in a game was Vergil in Devil May Cry 3. I've never felt like an enemy in a game was really enjoying the fight as much as me until Vergil yelled out "Now I'm motivated" when I got S rank in a fight against him and *Spoilers* when I teamed up with him in the second to last boss fight I felt unstoppable, but then immediately having to finish him in one last epic battle at the gates of hell left such an impression.
SHCUM Ok but memes aside, it's not just that, the amounts of times you see him throughout the game and imho moat importantly how you can see with your own eyes the consequences of his actions, whether big(the destruction of the city through the rising of temem-ni-gru) or small(the prints of blood you can see post mission 11 once you reach that room with dante) just make it all the more better, you feel like he's always there, watching your every move, while you're following his steps and getting closer and closer, and even the other bosses, yeah, you might see them only once, but most of them are incredibly charismatic and when you beat them you get their weapon, and when you do a second playthrough? You understand that while you don't know about them as much as vergil, that feeling gets transposed to them as well, you know where they are, you know they're waiting for you, you know they know you, and it just feels so damn good. Most open world games and games with only one focused villain pretty much never nail that for me, portal might be the only exception and maybe death stranding if i find the time and will to finish it
Jack is a villain who has always resonated with me, since we saw him in the presequal we really got to see how he ticked and worked. He was the hero, he saved lives, and when he started to cover his ass from being backstabbed, he got backstabbed way more and it changed him. He is the hero of his story.
warcraft 3 did an amazing job in this regard. you play as the 2 of the best villains in gaming (Arthas and Illidan), see them turning into villains. especially in Arthas' case, when you start the game, he's a champion for the good guys. the game ends with him basically a supervillain. the last level in the game puts the two against each other, with you controlling Arthas.
I think they're both more tragic heros. Both do whatever they can to protect the ones they love, including self-sacrifice, which is what both end up falling on. Illidan redeemed himself after his curse, whereas Arthas never did. Very good writing on both of them though.
Wish we had more warcraft strategy games they all turned into mmorpg I still like warcraft story line but sometimes it gets ridicilus. Thankfully we will see it all in fullhd again
I actually disagree that Illidan ever turns into a villain - he is just seen by one by the others, which - In MY opinion - are the villains in the story. Hard to grasp, I know - but we all view things differently which makes it all so interesting. "Evil is a matter of perspective" afterall :)
@@Manicca Illidan was never a villain. Maybe a bit vain before his imprisonement, but never after. Even with that, all he did was for his people and the planet. It's just that WoW writers are utter trash and had to pull a villain out of their own asses, so here we go - demolish, belittle and mix with the dirt 2 good characters who did all they could for their people, and portray them as stupid villains.
Gwyn stays a tragic villain only until you figure out what he has actually done, particulary in the ringed city, and then he's just a dick who had it coming to him.
I was kinda rooting for handsome jack to be honest. Not that he is relatable, but I had morbid curious about how pandora would turn out if handsome Jack did win and created a weird dystopia.
@@HYBRID-uw7ef >thinks everybody on Pandora is a bandit even if they aren't and even if he knows they aren't >vows to kill every last bandit on pandora. Game, set, and match. Good debate. I enjoyed it.
@@Phurzt Haha, what do you see around Pandora that's redeeming? If you're not a bandit, you're either an outcast, lone wanderer or a crimson raider - of which there are few. Also, the leaders of the crimson raiders befriended him and backstabbed him when he was trying to be a hero out of their own fear for his capability with power and his, although harsh, logical actions. Also, anyone who isn't a bandit, is offered to live in Opportunity for free, as long as they aren't assholes and praise Handsome Jack; all he ever wanted was a bit of love. '...when they look up from their baby meat stews and see the gleaming beacon of Opportunity on the horizon.' Game continues?
Yakuza 0 made me love the one villian with the eyepatch even more (I'm blanking on the name as it's been a while since i played yakuza, i think it was majima) as being able to play as him made me understand and like him more as a character, and person
I liked being able to play as kenway in the beginning. When I then became connor and only then saw all the horrible things Kenway did, I was shocked. I the player had done those horrible things and I didnt question it. Anyone can be the villain if they refuse to believe they're not the hero
I love love love your videos and I’m a huge fan. I’ve been a gamer for most of my life and I agree with all the points you made here and I would like to add something that makes a villain likeable and that is the way they look. I think we’re all usually drawn to, unconsciously or not, villains who look “weird” or have characteristics that just sets or defines them apart from the rest, like they just stand out on their own without having to say any lines or do any actions. This is of course coming from a person who is very visual and aspiring character designer. Thanks for your effort I can tell you put a lot of it in your videos. Keep up the good work :)
The moment that got me attached to Pagamin Min in Farcry4 was at the start. “You got blood, on my fucking shoes”. That shit made me new i would love that game
Handsome Jack, Vaas and Pagan Min are by far my favorite villains. Handsome Jack is very funny in a psychopathic way (diamond pony anyone?), Vaas is amazingly charismatic while terrifyingly sick yet surprisingly funny. Pagan Min is pretty much the same. Their constant messages to the player throughout the playthroughs being so funny is a strong part of what drives me to play those games.
I have thought of a game where you will play as two different parties both chasing to defeat a common enemy, but at the end, there will be a twist where you find out they have both been told the other is the enemy, and there are two endings, one where party 1 wins, and one where party two wins
I'll just respond to the "...Unless the audience too, is a villain." Villain is an entirely subjective construct of framing. From a perspective, all the villains are the good guys, in truth, the villain may too, be the good guy. In the case of handsome jack (I despise borderlands, so this example is begrudged.)his ex tried to murder him and the vault hunters cooperated. This information shifts our perception of Roland from "good guy by default," to "opportunistic manipulator." And so, we see the motivating factor behind Jack's vendetta, and we experience that vault hunters indeed initiated the conflict. Making them aggressors.
also they are the ones that want to awake antient creatures that could destroy the world just to kill the for their personal gain now on the other side handsome jack wants to spawn an antient monster that he has a way to control in order to use as police in order to bring the planet into livable conditions again makes you think about who is the real villain.
His life was chaos he was beat viciously by his grandma his wife died to his daughter his daughter was being taken from him by bandits, the people that he trusted back stabbed him and took a lot from him and said people also assist in killing his daughter
You must have missed the parts where Handsome Jack had his own daughter strapped into a device that pumped her full of Eridium, STARTING WHILE SHE WAS STILL A CHILD (as confirmed in Borderlands 3 ECHOs) and kept her there for years, emotionally manipulated her and used her powers for his own gain, until she couldn't take it anymore and begged for the machine to be shut off even though she knew it would kill her. And how Jack had people dragged into laboratories to be experimented on and injected with Eridium slag to mutate them (among them Tiny Tina's parents and Krieg), then laughed when they screamed, while forcing scientists like Dr. Samuels to do the Mengele-style experiments, on the threat of "if you refuse to do it I will have your own wife used for these experiments". Or those many instances Jack killed someone for the lolz, bragging for example how he carved someone's eye out with a spoon, or making fun of the grief of their relatives and friends. Or how he kept the people of Overlook under Hyperion domination and forbidding them to leave their houses, despite them being sick and needing medicine. Or how he used an innocent clone as his dopplerganger, to die in his stead. Handsome Jack is not merely an antagonist, he is very much a villain, and a textbook sadistic psychopath. And like many real life psychopaths, he was charming and charismatic and good at manipulating people. Of course Jack saw himself as the saviour of Pandora (by his logic of "kill everyone who opposes me, once everyone is dead we will have peace"). Psychopaths always do. He was willing to release the Warrior, the creature that could lay waste to entire planets, because in his megalomania he thought he could control it. Never once did he actually try to use Hyperion's vast resources to improve the living conditions on Pandora that turned so many people into bandits or slowly poisoned them with Eridium that drove them insane. If you think he was a hero, you just fell for his propaganda, hook line and sinker.
@@TF2CrunchyFrog sometimes the psychopath has to get the ball rolling for change for the better and you definitely say that Pandora is in need of change in the scale of possibilities the loss of all bandits lesser bandits and innocent people if they all die for which then it could be in turn become like "promothia" then once change happens it is suited for his death but to have that change occur could create a golden age for the next generation of settlers on this new planet owned by hyperion now to say there wouldn't be revolts would be his downfall
"the knowledge a villain must be stopped, but having the sense that it would be sad for them to lose", when you send evil weathly in space in portal 2, I legitimately grown an attachment to weathly, and when he was corrupted i almost cried when he said he was sorry in the end cut scene
I got an idea for a game: An RPG, where, at certain points, you switch between playing the hero and the villain: 10 Minutes of Hero, then 10 Minutes of Villain, then 10 Minutes of Hero, then 10 Minutes of Villain, and so on until the story ends.
Golden Sun: A GBA game with one set of protagonists. Most of its sequel (well, rather call it "Part 2" - they are one story, after all) with another set of protagonists with the others being portrayed as "doing the wrong thing" throughout both of the games (not really villains, those games have no TRUE villain). And... then they reunite. Also, the first one has a very much beloved antagonist (Saturos) who gets revealed to not be a true villain only quite deep into the second game, which is the point he's long dead (as a consequence of game one's finale).
I think *Detroit: Become Human* does a great job at this. You play the storylines of Kara and Connor and grow attached to both of them despite their conflicting ideologies. This ensures that when they first meet, the player is unsure about which side he is supposed to be on. At this point in the story, Connor is clearly the villain, as his main goal is to find and eliminate whatever it is that causes Androids to become self-aware. But the player (at least me) doesn't really see him as a villain, having spent as much time with him as with Kara and Alice and understanding his goals.
I think one of the greatest villains in video games is in Bioshock Infinite. being able to share so much time with the villain and the investing story, you get a great experience in the end, what mostly only movies can achive.
I had rafe adler in my mind when i clicked on this video and I’m glad he was used as an example of a good villain. Also i fricken love Super Paper Mario and Count bleck is a dope villain and the example of using cutscenes to develop a villain perfectly sums up the game
And this makes me so sad that the villains in the Borderlands 3 are so bad, not likable at all, and not intriguing or interesting, just chaotic dumb =/
The best villains are the enemies *and* the companions of the main character at the same time. That, among like 1000 other reasons, is why everyone loves GLaDOS so much.
One way I make villains likeable in my writing is by making them a twist villain, so being on the protagonist's side for a while, and use that time to develop their character. And by the time they're revealed to be the villain, they don't pull a 180 and become a cackling maniac - most of what we learned about them when we thought they were allies still is true, and we understand why they do what they do. Or better even, they're introduced as an ally who's genuinely on the protagonist's side but a change in circumstances pits them against one another
Tips gor character developers 1. You can develop a villian through radio/tv broadcasts that are outside cutscenes. Already mentioned but is easy to make in large qantaties. 2. Likeable villians are always sane and smart 3. Please avoid cliches. I gind Plot armor the worst and un immersive. 4. Edgyness is apricated, bad actions alone does not make a villian .dialoque is the priority 5. Create the most unrelatablw villain, see the reaction of your test group.
"Did i ever tell you about the definition of insanity" -Vaas Montenegro Maybe the first bad guy that i wanted to kill and didn't want to at the same time in a game
my favorite type of antagonist is the insane omnipotint being Bill Cipher Sheogorath that kind. something about villans being villans because they're bored is really fun to watch for me.
