Personal favorite video game villains?

[zombiejoe]

Which villains in video games do you personally enjoy?

The villains who everyone else finds silly or don't care for, but you like.

The villain you sympathize with.

Who are they?

I myself don't like to choose favorites, but one that comes to mind now is Lucien, from Fable 2.

Now say what you will about Fable 2 (I personally found it fun, but it had faults)

but Lucien is a pretty bad man.

[spoiler/]He kills your sister, and then shoots you. He builds a giant tower and enslaves people to work on it. He kills your wife, your children, and shoots your dog right in front of you, and then shoots you. And all of this is done because he wants to see his family again.[/spoiler]

Yep, pretty bad.

 

[TephlonPrice]

Liquid Ocelot.

A Soviet assassin who took on the mind of Liquid Snake from grafting his arm to himself... all to form the world that Big Boss dreamed of. Uses nanomachine tech to control the world & his own personal army.

 

[The Madman]

Oh that's easy:

Spoiler

Jon Irenicus and Sarevok from the Baldur's Gate series also deserve credit. Irenicus especially was just a damned impressive villain, ever so slightly sympathetic once you begin to understand his past and motivations yet all the same an often intimidating presence you'll want to put down once and for all by the end of the game.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Portal 2 spoilers

Spoiler

Wheatley's stint as evil overlord was probably the best villain acting i've seen for a while. He was just fun to fight against, all those awesome spike traps... And all the "i'm your nemesis" stuff "Holmes vs Moriarty, Aristotle vs MASHY SPIKE PLATE!"

's basically what i'd be like as an evil genius, trying to kill the good guy with overcomplicated traps. Except i'd be taking Chell to my easily escapable spike trap out of sheer melodrama rather than sheer stupidity.

Alsoooooo Persona 4 spoilers (like really late game spoilers)

Spoiler

Adachi's epic speech about his motivations after getting cornered as the true killer, the rebuttal by the good guys makes it go from great to awesome. He basically makes an awesome "you're just kids" speech but he's the one going all "STFU noob!" at the end, real mature Adachi...

 

[Skoldpadda]

Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is my favourite. He had his immortality taken away from him, so you can sympathize with his being pissed off. Anyway, his banter was incredible.

"I cannot be caged! I cannot be controlled!"
as he blows away Spellhold's wizards.
But this gem takes the cake:

"Stand.
You rest each night uneasy. Yes, you are weary. You struggle daily.
It will not end, you know. Not until you acknowledge what you are.
You walk as a mortal, taking no advantage from your heritage, from your talents within. So many things of flesh are greater than you.
Walk among them, these beasts that are less than you are. See their strength; see how easily you fall to their muscle and skill."

shows the protagonist being slain by an enemy

"Why do you stand for this? Why do you submit to the flesh, when death is bred in your bones?
Do you realize the power you might hold? When the world of flesh is beneath you, even creatures mysterious and magical will fall!"

shows the protagonist slaying multiple adversaries and laughing maniacally

"Follow, and receive the gift you are owed by the blood in your veins.
Follow, if only to protect the weak that fell because of you."

 

[Michael Hirst]

Prince LaCroix in Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. He's a dick I hate him, arrogant Ventrue silver spoon bastard (that's exactly what they wanted me to think and it worked)

The Master (Fallout) Who doesn't love convincing the villain that his plan is stupid?

Vergil, he's just badass man and still the best boss fight in a Devil May Cry game.

 

[Leemaster777]

Portal 2 spoilers

Spoiler

Wheatley's stint as evil overlord was probably the best villain acting i've seen for a while. He was just fun to fight against, all those awesome spike traps... And all the "i'm your nemesis" stuff "Holmes vs Moriarty, Aristotle vs MASHY SPIKE PLATE!"

's basically what i'd be like as an evil genius, trying to kill the good guy with overcomplicated traps. Except i'd be taking Chell to my easily escapable spike trap out of sheer melodrama rather than sheer stupidity.

Alsoooooo Persona 4 spoilers (like really late game spoilers)

Spoiler

Adachi's epic speech about his motivations after getting cornered as the true killer, the rebuttal by the good guys makes it go from great to awesome. He basically makes an awesome "you're just kids" speech but he's the one going all "STFU noob!" at the end, real mature Adachi...

Both of these are really good, and I agree.

I'd also like to add my personal favorite, Xigbar:

Spoiler

I don't like him as a villain, I just like him in general. He's just a fun, funny guy. And his appearance in Birth By Sleep only cemented my love of the character.

 

[octafish]

L-l-look at you, hacker. A p-p-pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you r-run through my corridors-s. H-h-how can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?

It is her. It is always her. It will always be her.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Rather large KOTOR II spoilers ahead.

Spoiler

Kreia, my favorite villain by far in any game, and definitely my favorite Star Wars Expanded Universe character. Her whole role in the story is just one huge subversion of Star Wars lore, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your viewpoint.

 

[D0WNT0WN]

If this wasnt a general best villian thread I would say Magneto but my favorite videogame villian come down to

Kain from Legacy Of Kain: Who is just plain evil.

Kessler from Infamous: Kessler travels back in time and kills the woman he loves and tortures Cole so he can become strong enough to fight The Beast and stop him from killing millions of people.

Ganondorf (Wind Waker Version): In Wind Waker he is pretty shocked from when the Godesses flooded and destroyed Hyrule to stop him when a hero didnt appear but he escaped so he proceeds to rebuild his army, kidnap young women who look like Zelda so he can claim the triforce and wish to free Hyrule from the flood so he can rule.

Spoiler

And to be honest Ganon will always be a sympathetic villian because he is the manifestation of Demise's hatred for Link and Zelda, the product of a curse that Demise placed upon them just before being sealed away within the Master Sword.

Nier from Nier: By killing The Shadowlord he has pretty much doomed humanity being that The Shadowlord was the only thing keeping the Gestalts sane and alive and if the Gestalts die the Replicants die from The Scrawl.

I cant think of anymore.
TO TV TROPES!

 

[Vault101]

Kessler from Infamous!

damn I was going to say him..he is at least memorable (your description is a little spoilerish though..a little...ok yes I know the game is "old" by now..but still)

soverign and Saren from mass effect- Sarren because of his awsome ending scene and soverign because of that one speech (which makes a game thats kind of "narm" dead serious at that point)

 

[Zhukov]

That would be GLaDOS, Shodan and Andrew Ryan.

...

To be honest, video games in general strike me as being rather weak in the villain department. The attempts at sympathetic villains always come across as pathetically hamhanded. "Oh look, he was just being a genocidal lunatic to save his family!"

 

[ms_sunlight]

Kefka!

Spoiler: Kefka laughs at all other feeble so-called villains.

"Life... dreams... hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go? Such meaningless things...I'll destroy them all!"

 

[Rooster893]

Dr. Robotnik never fails to amuse me. Andrew Ryan was awesome as well.

 

[Element Zero]

So many wonderful choices! Kefka comes to mind as the only FF villain I ever liked, and Kain from LoK was also a nearly perfect choice. Both of them are not only evil, but they absolutely delight in it.

I'm a big fan of Saren (Mass Effect) as well. He's sympathetic, 'cause he thinks he's doing the right thing...slavery or annihilation, which would you choose? Though it seems I wasn't the first to choose him, or his master.

"We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

Prince LaCroix has also already been named...it's like people ripped the thoughts right out of my head!

 

[Andy Shandy]

Has to be Dr. Robotnik for me.

GET A LOAD OF THIS...video

 

[Guffe]

I will have to go with Bowser.
Only because I played Mario64 when I was about 7 and he was MY Nemesis.
I'll always remember how I put myself in marios shoes and have a 10 times bigger lizard in front of me and actually defeating him. Ahh the mind of a child...

 

[Dutchy115]

Krew-Jak II and Jak X
GLADOS-Portal 1 + 2
General Shepherd-Modern Warfare 2
Gravemind-Halo 2 + 3
343 Guilty Spark-Halo Trilogy
Rodrigo and Cesare Borgia-Assassin's Creed II + Brotherhood respectively
Uka Uka- Crash Bandicoot
Captain Quark- Ratchet and Clank