What makes a good villain? It’s a complicated question to answer as tastes are different between fans. It doesn’t matter if it is a video game, anime, movie, or something beyond. For example, extremely vile characters with no redeeming qualities like Emperor Palpatine fromStar Warsare fun to root against.
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Contrary to Palpatine, there is Darth Vader who has a more complicated past. He was born good as Anakin Skywalker and then lost his way to the Dark Side. He then redeemed himself, in the end, to stop Emperor Palpatine and save his son Luke. It’s great to see full-circle stories like that in villains too. So, are there any video game examples that come close to this dynamic character?
8Magus
Magus is one of the beginning antagonists inChrono Trigger. After Crono gets sucked into the past, it seems like this villainous mage is behind everything wrong in the world. Because of his efforts, Magus was the one who summoned Lavos into existence, the true villain of the game.
After this boss battle, Magus disappears in time, but players can eventually find him contemplating his decision on a cliff. They can choose to fight him again to finish him off or they can recruit Magus and make him help fix the problem he caused.
7Edea
Edea is set up to be the main villain ofFinal Fantasy 8. She is a sorceress who is controlling a nation with her spells. Themain character Squall, and his school Balamb Garden get hired to assassinate her.
Irving tries to snipe her like during a parade before backing down. It is later revealed that Edea was under a spell herself from a much more powerful sorceress named Ultimecia. It turns out that Edea helped raise Squall and the others as children in an orphanage before their minds were wiped clean.
6Axel
Axel is one of themembers of Organization 13, the central villain of theKingdom Heartsseries. Even though he is constantly pursuing Sora throughoutKingdom Hearts 2, it is clear Axel is hurting inside. That’s because he sees his friend Roxas inside Sora. Sora getting revived is the reason why Roxas, his best friend, disappeared.
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Eventually, Axel sees the errors of his ways and sacrifices himself to help Sora escape doom. Even though it looks like he dies, Axel comes back in the various sequels. Axel even becomes a Keyblade Master which was an unexpected twist from his origins.
5Bowser
The legendaryBowser needs no introductionas he is probably the most famous bad guy in video games. He is constantly trying to kidnap Princess Peach and try to rule the Mushroom Kingdom in theMariogames. It wasn’t until the various RPG spinoffs that Bowser became playable.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Starsbegan normally with Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach and Mario running after her. In the middle of their battle, a giant sword descends into Bowser’s castle and takes it over. Out of a command center, Bowser teams up with Mario to help take down Smithy’s gang of star-hungry maniacs.
4Big Boss
Big Boss was the very first villain setup inMetal Gearon the NES. He popped up from time to time in the other games, but mostly as a reference to Solid Snake and his brothers being clones of him.Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eaterwas a prequel, taking place in the 1960s era of the Cold War.
Big Boss is just a trainee on a mission before he isforced to kill his mentor, The Boss, thus inheriting the title of Big Boss. His downfall into darkness makes more sense than how Anakin became Darth Vader, making Big Boss a much more sympathetic character.
3Goro Akechi
Goro Akechi is fromPersona 5and begins the game as a Jr. detective assisting the police in the Phantom Thieves case. Eventually, he joins the main party for a short time before it is revealed he has been helping mastermind the entire Mind Palace situation in Japan. His turn is abrupt, but he blames it on not having a father along with some other heavy issues.
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In the end, he does have another change of heart and buys some time for Joker and the others to escape. In the expanded version of the game,as one ofPersona 5 Royal’s characters, he gets resurrected and can join more missions even after going haywire.
2Captain Qwark
It’s been a long time since the originalRatchet and Clankhit thePS2 in the early 2000s. Most fans may not remember this but for the first two games, Captain Qwark was a straight-up villain. Ratchet believed he was a hero but it turns out Qwark was helping the evil Chairman Drek.
In the secondRatchet and Clank, Qwark manufactures a product via MegaCorp that tries to infect the galaxy. He does this so he can step in to save the day, but along the way, Ratchet and Clank figure out his nefarious deeds. Finally, in the third game, Qwark turns things around and he has been a good guy ever since although he is still plenty greedy.
1Arthur Morgan
When it was announced that Rockstar was makingRed Dead Redemption 2as a prequel starring villains, the fan base was split. How could they humanize Dutch’s gang when they eventually kill John Marston, the hero of the first game?Arthur Morgan is the protagonistin this story and players can choose to have him be a ruthless criminal or be one with a conscience.
Either way, the game will end with Arthur helping John and his family escape Dutch’s gang. His sacrifice paves the way for John to move forward in one of the most gut-wrenching deaths in all of video games.
