Which game 'Heroes' are more entertaining than their 'Villains'?

[Evonisia]

We all love a good villain. Without his villains and their wicked ways Batman would be a forgotten relic from an unsuccessful comic book franchise. Most of the time when asked who is more interesting one would say "The villain! Obviously". But what about them games with Heroes you actually want to play as because they're more interesting than their villains.

Personally I'd say Bayonetta (the character) is much more interesting and engaging as a character than her villains; even the penultimate boss fight who seems to be a quirky version of the Prophet of Truth doesn't really fill me with as much joy or awe. She's got this weird sense of arrogance and spouts seductive remarks constantly which makes me want to keep playing the game just to see what she does next.

Lorewalker Cho from WoW: Mists of Pandaria too is much more entertaining than Garrosh or any of the Sha in the game.

Of course there's always going to be games like Call of Duty: Black Ops I where the hero and the villain are equally as dull. So basically do you know any Heroes you prefer to the villains they face?

 

[Mikejames]

The protagonist, Agent York, was easily one of the most entertaining parts of Deadly Premonition.

Constantly talking to himself about other people right in front of them and reading prophetic messages in his coffee, while the villain was a mystery for a good majority of the story.

 

[The Forces of Chaos]

The protagonist from prototype I think. Sonic the hedgehog from way back. Only those off the top of my head.

I wonder if some heroes are really poor but their game is well realised.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Well, outside of Batman with villains like Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and Riddler, I've never really enjoyed villains more than the hero. At most I may put them on equal footing, such as in Xenoblade Chronicles or BioShock Infinite, but in most games, and in most media in general, I'm always drawn to the hero more than the villain.

 

[aozgolo]

Brutal Legend's Eddie. I think the only real disappointment I had with this game was the lack of a true climax. The final villain, Doviculus is not very villainous, definitely not on par with what Heavy Metal music can dream up. He doesn't even really do anything except be there at the end to give you someone to focus on. Eddie on the other hand has all the moves, all the skill, and all the humor in the game and he works very well as an excellent protagonist.

 

[krazykidd]

Kefka from final fantasy 6 . The cast of heros in that game was amazing and entertaining. But Kefka takes the cake. He is the Joker of Final fantasy 6. I absoletly loved every moment .

The protagonist, Agent York, was easily one of the most entertaining parts of Deadly Premonition.

Constantly talking to himself about other people right in front of them and reading prophetic messages in his coffee, while the villain was a mystery for a good majority of the story.

It doesn't help that Deadly Premonition was basically a murder/mystery that cheats all the way through. That final boss was bat shit crazy, and came out of nowhere .

Edit: Fuck, i read the question backwards. Fail on my part.

 

[aozgolo]

Edit: Fuck, i read the question backwards. Fail on my part.

At least you caught it before the rest of us snarks did

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The Prince of Persia from the Sands of Time trilogy for me. He and Farah get all the interesting narrative, leaving the Vizier with just 'I want to become immortal so I don't die of old age, gimme the dagger'. After attaining said Godhood in Two Thrones he's even more cliched, but the other villain in that game makes up for it.

I would say a lot of JRPGs like the Tales series could qualify since they always have a group of heroes compared to one or two villains, being often as diverse and quirky as the developers can make them. Granted, they've had some legendarily great villains too, but it's a numbers game. Tales gives its parties 'skits' involving conversations between members for the sole purpose of comedy, and many of its villains are of limited appeal, having sympathetic motivations but nothing special in their presentation.

 

[Fireaxe]

Spoiler: Spoiler: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Revan is much more interesting than Malak.

Warcraft 3 had Thrall as a good guy, probably the most interesting character in the Warcraft universe.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I'm almost always more interested in hero's usually than villains, even if they both can be generic or interesting at the same time. One of my favorite cases in Hero(s) vs. Villain(s) in games is in the first two Golden Sun games.

In the first game, your party is out to stop a group of Villains on a mission to do something pretty big, however, things get tricky the more you learn about their mission. In the second game, you play as a part of the original Villain party, but with the knowledge you know they are the good guys too. So the good guys from the first game seem a bit villainous, as they are unaware you are trying to save the world. In the end, everyone from both parties end up saving the world.

 

[gargantual]

Within the game I'd have to say Final Fantasy's Zidane as opposed to Kuja. He's not just optimistic and swinging for optimisms sake or to be a flat out douche. He was a guy who just loved adventure and life and I feel a lot of the emo-teens that disliked him back when FF9 came out missed that his positivity was strength despite the fact that he had no real family or connection besides the group. The boy had a 'bourne ultimatum' revelation about his real purpose for Gaia, was questioned about the futility of all existence like Neo in the matrix, and he dealt with it. You needed an independent, glass is half-full character for that. When Sephiroth toyed with Cloud about his origins the guy broke down entirely.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Well, outside of Batman with villains like Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, and Riddler, I've never really enjoyed villains more than the hero. At most I may put them on equal footing, such as in Xenoblade Chronicles or BioShock Infinite, but in most games, and in most media in general, I'm always drawn to the hero more than the villain.

This.

Half the time most video-game villains are retarded morons that exist for the PC to wail on. Characterisation isn't gamings strong point.

 

[Laser Priest]

Of course there's always going to be games like Call of Duty: Black Ops I where the hero and the villain are equally as dull. So basically do you know any Heroes you prefer to the villains they face?

This seems to be the case with most games that come to mind. Not necessarily dullness, but I feel that I often have equal interest in the heroes and the villains.

And I'd definitely nominate the Mass Effect trilogy for this (at least 2 and 3). While the first game had Saren backed by what seemed like eldritch abominations, the latter games had the Reapers taking on a much more generic alien-invader kind of role. And then Cerberus went back to full villainy for the third game, and they were never really interesting. And while the main hero, Shepard him/herself didn't have much definite personality to him, the allies you surrounded yourself with were a lot more entertaining than most - if not all - of the villains in the series.

 

[Evonisia]

Spoiler: Spoiler: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Revan is much more interesting than Malak.

Warcraft 3 had Thrall as a good guy, probably the most interesting character in the Warcraft universe.

And then Cataclysm happened... /cries

Of course there's always going to be games like Call of Duty: Black Ops I where the hero and the villain are equally as dull. So basically do you know any Heroes you prefer to the villains they face?

This seems to be the case with most games that come to mind. Not necessarily dullness, but I feel that I often have equal interest in the heroes and the villains.

Yeah I'd have to agree, for example I find Jack from BioShock 1 equally as interesting and entertaining as Andrew Ryan, mostly because Jack is supposed to basically be this scared, terrified person being thrown into a strange world. In other words Jack is the player.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

The "Heroes" in TF2 (And all of their associates via the Comics) are much more interesting then any of "Villains" (Politicians, Lawyers, Judges, Gray Mann) there. Then again, the "Heroes" of TF2 are just hired goons for a never ending war between two idiots and then them just fighting robots, and each one of them have some form of insanity to them (From the "I believe this is all a game" Scout to the "I sawed off my own arm to give me a robot one" Engineer to the "I went to Europe during WWII myself and killed Nazi's until 1948" Soldier to the "I see fire and Death as fun and happiness and babies!" Pyro), so they could technically be anti-heroes or villains themselves. Still, they are protagonists, so, I guess it counts.

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

As someone has already mentioned, the heroes of the Mass Effect games. I'll differ somewhat and readily apply this to the first game as well; Saren and Sovereign were both cool and memorable, but the relationship you build with your squadmates trumps all.

Garrett, from the Thief series. Consider that, of all the characters in those games, he's the one absolutely everyone remembers. Not for nothing is the internet up in arms over virtually every change the upcoming reboot has made to him.

The main characters of The Walking Dead, who I'm surprised no one else has brought up yet since the viewpoint hardly even requires elaboration. Though the villains, when they show up, are already leagues ahead of most video game antagonists character-wise, the likes of Lee and Clementine are the reason you play this game.

 

[Silvanus]

In the Harry Potter books, Snape is more interesting than Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge combined. Umbridge is the only one who even makes it a fair fight.

...Oops, we're in Gaming, not Off-Topic!


In the Harry Potter games, Snape is more interesting than Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy etc...

 

[Eddie the head]

Brutal Legend's Eddie. I think the only real disappointment I had with this game was the lack of a true climax. The final villain, Doviculus is not very villainous, definitely not on par with what Heavy Metal music can dream up. He doesn't even really do anything except be there at the end to give you someone to focus on. Eddie on the other hand has all the moves, all the skill, and all the humor in the game and he works very well as an excellent protagonist.

The main guys name is Eddie? Maybe I should play that game. . . .

 

[Evonisia]

i really like the classic Blizzard cheesily heroic Humans in the early Warcraft universe...Anduin Lothar the Lion of Azeroth, Uther the Lightbringer, Alexandros Mograine The Ashbringer, all that...and i really wished they'd rolled with it...

some of the best bits of WoW when i played was when there were echos of that...Bolvar Fordragon at the Wrathgate for example...The Argent Dawn/Crusade...i loved "The Dawn" tbh and never took that "lawful good" tabard off after receiving it...

imo playing "heroic" people who are perhaps better than we are is greatly underrated thing especially nowadays when it seems every protagonist supposedly has to be as "flawed" as we are...

Well, it does seem to be this new thing to make the hero flawed because otherwise they come as godly gods while the villains become Saturday morning cartoon villains. This hardly ever happens but that's the rule now. Usually making the hero flawed makes them bland or just irritating. I can't stand Booker DeWitt because of this.