Video Game villains that you really sympathized with

[shadyh8er]

I've always thought of Kratos as the villain of the GOW franchise. Not so much in the first one, but from the second one onwards he was sort of evil. I also kind of hate how they tried to make Zeus look like the bad guy. Zeus wanted to kill Kratos because Kratos was no better than Ares, not because he was "consumed by the evils released by Pandora's Box."

 

[SecretAlienMan]

Lavos from Chrono Trigger. Poor little fella, he was only hungry... for planets...

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

The Boss, Big Boss (by extension Ocelot) and Solidus Snake. But not Liquid.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

All of them except for Lucien from Fable 2 because he's such a weakling!

 

[w1n5t0n]

The Locust in Gears. You're on the planet Sera. The backstory books say humans depleted their resources and then found other planets, so we pretty much invaded their home, then humans destroyed large chunks of their planet fighting other humans for immulsion, and the main characters are kinda on the hollow no personality space marine side of the spectrum which makes it that much harder to sympathize with them, I almost hope you play as locust in the next game, but it probably won't happen.

 

[captainwolfos]

Eggman. All he wanted to do was build robots to make life simpler for people, but a bright blue super hedgehog foiled his selfless plans each time.
Sure, he used and tested on animals, but who didn't back then?

 

[The Eggplant]

I've always thought of Kratos as the villain of the GOW franchise. Not so much in the first one, but from the second one onwards he was sort of evil.

Yep, except I never really sympathized with him. Maybe if he hadn't been quite so much of a colossal phallus...actually, I didn't think there were any heroes in that game, per se. Most of the Titans are insane, embittered, or megalomaniacal (or all three...hi, Kronos!), Zeus is selfish, and Kratos is...well, a dick.

OT: Axel from the Kingdom Hearts series. A questionable villain at best, especially from KHII onwards, but even in his earlier appearances I found myself relating to him on a level I never did with any of the other antagonists of the game, even the ones whose motives were every bit as grey as Axel's.

 

[chrono16]

I Kind of had a soft spot for Magus is Crono Trigger. It wasn't his fault that his deranged mother summoned Lavos and split him from his sister and was raised by Fiends. Of course he was gonna hate humans.

 

[apelsz]

Axel from the Kingdom Hearts series. A questionable villain at best, especially from KHII onwards, but even in his earlier appearances I found myself relating to him on a level I never did with any of the other antagonists of the game, even the ones whose motives were every bit as grey as Axel's.

Ninja'd.

OT: Bowser, more specifically, Paper Bowser. All he wanted was some alone time with Peach, and to beat Mario for once...

 

[demoman_chaos]

Eggman. All he wanted to do was build robots to make life simpler for people, but a bright blue super hedgehog foiled his selfless plans each time.
Sure, he used and tested on animals, but who didn't back then?

ITS ROBOTNIK NOT EGGMAN!!!

I have always wondered about Robotnik though. It is almost as if he is trying to take over the world just for the sake of playing with Sonic again. All of his machines take 8-hits to destroy (save for the final boss sometimes and the 3D games) and have glaring weakpoints. It is as if both he and Bowser realized without the hero around, there would be nothing to do so they make sure they give the hero a chance to pull victory out of their ass so they can play with them again in the next sequel.

 

[shootthebandit]

obviously the pacman ghosts, those guys are trying to protect there precious yellow blobs and this asshole just eats them all.

also most of the MGS villians apart from liquid because generally they all had really terrible childhoods or they had some sort of sceintific genome experiment done on them

 

[clipped crow]

While I forgot his name, the villain in Splinter cell: chaos theory always hit me as good guy. Every time I play the game, I choke up and wait about ten minutes before I have to kill him.

Eggman from sonic if I remember correctly was actually a good guy. He even made sonic blue, gave him his shoes. Then sonic broke everything and turned him into an egg and evil incarnate. Instead of trying to help him, sonic just teases him and destroys all of stuff.

Also, while this is kinda the opposite of the thread. The Jackal from far cry 2 didn't seem like a good guy at the end, I still wanted to put a bullet between his eyes...

 

[Octopusesgarden]

Every single collosi in shadow of the colossus.I know they weren't really villians and yet that's what made it so tragic,That you HAD to kill them,that you HAD no choice

 

[Maeshone]

The Locust in Gears. You're on the planet Sera. The backstory books say humans depleted their resources and then found other planets, so we pretty much invaded their home, then humans destroyed large chunks of their planet fighting other humans for immulsion, and the main characters are kinda on the hollow no personality space marine side of the spectrum which makes it that much harder to sympathize with them, I almost hope you play as locust in the next game, but it probably won't happen.

Really? Because I haven't seen any information about the humans invading Sera. As far as I'm aware, GoW takes place in an alternate universe where Sera is humanitys homeplanet. I've played both games countless times, and read both books, and the only mention they ever make of any sort of space program is when they talk about the Hammer of Dawn-system which is a satellite-based weapons system. So any link you could give me to where the books say that would be appreciated

OT: Saren Arterius from Mass Effect. I've already been ninja'd with details about why he makes such a sympathetic villain

 

[Jamiemitsu]

The Boss, Big Boss (by extension Ocelot) and Solidus Snake. But not Liquid.

Quadruple ninja'd! How about every boss in no more heroes? Especially Holly Summers.

 

[Kagim]

Organization XIII from KH2.

Quite honestly there was no reason for Sora to do what he did. They could have worked together.

Spoiler: The major Ethics question

In KH2 we are meant to believe the Nobodies are unable to process emotions. Meaning they are purely logical beings. Meaning they are incapable of having ulterior motives. So all Org13 wanted was to fill Kingdom hearts and make everyone who had died whole again. So Sora is killing a bunch of people for no other reason then they are inconvenient to his plans. Org13 can't technically be evil if they have no emotions. Which leads me to...

The game makes it seem at first that Org13 are not really people. Just figments of people that don't and shouldn't actually exist. Well through KH2 and Days it becomes more then obvious that Nobodies have emotions and feelings. So the flimsy pretense that its alright to kill them because they are not really people is false. Sora is killing people who think and feel and just want to be whole again. Even Diz admits this before he kills himself.

Ultimately the bad guys in KH2 aren't really bad guys. Just people trying to get back there hearts to be whole once more. Sora then choosing to listen to Diz who later says he was totally wrong about the Nobodies goes around killing them. Which is later confirmed by the graveyard in The Castle that never was.

Kinda Odd that a game made in part by Disney has the hero going around killing people on a flimsy pretense "They is not people!" which is later retracted by the person who gave you that pretense. Then again I like this direction so I'm not fighting it.

 

[Jandipoo]

Richard Grey (aka The Master) from Fallout 1.

Sure, he went about it the wrong way, but his goal was to save the human race. He wasn't even being that big a jerk about it, he had no plans to wipe out the humans who refused to be turned into mutants.

 

[Yureina]

Jecht. I feel bad that a complete and awesome bad-ass spawned a whiny twat like Tidus.

Agreed. Also, it was just wrong that he got forced to be... you know.

I'll also add Ishmael Ashur to this list from Fallout 3: The Pitt, though...

Spoiler

You don't actually have to kill him, and can side with him. I only killed him the first time I did The Pitt, and I felt genuinely bad about it after I listened to the holotapes he made. I've never killed him since.

He's your classic "Do evil for the greater good type," which is a character type that for some reason is one that I can sympathize with and understand.

 

[Methos12]

Dagoth Ur from Morrowind. Seriously, how could you NOT sympathize with him, if you've been following the story even in the slightest, when he basically got shafted by everyone he trusted and believed in? Not to mention his goals are basically to overthrow the corrupt Tribunal... even if it also means eliminating all non-Dunmer people in Morrowind.

 

[mrsketchy]

"Duke" from "Tales of Vesperia" by far his solution was far smarter than "let our friendship save the world" also it would've returned the world to it's natural state, no humans or technology. I'd prefer that, even if I was dead.