The best video game villains and why?

[DiscipleofBob]

Just curious to see what others' opinions are on this.

What makes a good villain?
Do they succeed in their plans once/regularly/not at all?
Are they consistent in their tactics and battle style or do they show a variety of different styles throughout their game(s)?
Is the villain a fleshed out character with believable motivations and goals, not just a generic "destroy the world because I feel like it" villain?
What are their strengths? Their weaknesses?

[Pronounceable]

This subject keeps cropping up, but the answer is always the same: The Transcendent One. (Torment)

What makes a good villain? The story of course: stuff they do, why they do it and how they do it. TTO simply has the best motivation of all time (plus he lives in a fortress built literally of regrets). Sarevok (BG) is also a god among game villains, if you'll excuse the pun, in this respect. And Traya (KotoR2) or Master (Fallout) shouldn't be forgotten either. Grand plans make better game villains.

Motivation and methods of their villainy is the main attraction, followed by ingame interaction.

In that vein, Desann (JK Outcast) was a pretty good boss. We faced him in mid game without jedi powers and he smacked us around with impunity. And Frank (Fallout 2) frequently showed up in cutscenes killing friendly NPCs. But neither was particularly well characterized. But that sort of stuff gives the PLAYER (in addition to protagonist) motivation to get him.


And then there's bossfights. The Five (BG2:ToB) all have quite memorable battles, but they're as fleshed out as a skeleton. Sendai battle is one of the greatest RPG combats of all time, but she's just a punk with no real personality. She (and Yaga Shura) gets an honorable mention in a villains list just because of that.


And voicing. Darth Vader would be nothing if he sounded like Donald Duck. TTO is very decent in this category, but he's overshadowed by Master (Fallout), Sarevok, Morpheus (Fallout), Irenicus (BG) [David Warner FTW] and Sindri (Dawn of War).

[LordSintax]

i think reprehensibleness plays a factor, too. There's got to be an element of "I gotta get this SOB" from the player. otherwise, there's no motivation and i'm just going through the motions.. i.e., the master from fallout, Sephiroth from ff7, or umbrella corp from RE series all fit the bill

[Gungnir]

Don't forget the the bat**** loco villains. GladOS is a good example. But only if it's the main villain, crazy sidekick scientists don't count.

Oh, and it's great when they do something that COMPLETELY screws the character over. I almost crapped myself when Aries impaled Kratos from across the freaking country with a chunk of a pillar.

[Cainen]

Sarevok's up there. He was utterly brilliant, and he had a reason for doing nearly everything he did, even if he was evil. Irenicus was much less sympathetic. And really, I don't even view TTO as a villain; he's hardly evil, he's just self-preservatory.

Why Sarevok's basically my favorite villain can be attributed to why he did everything and how he went about it; he was inches away from causing a full-blown war and he did this through cunning and wit, not through being a general brute. He had finesse, which is extremely rare for the stereotypical fighter. And he had a motivation that made sense AND didn't make him look like a jackass; he wanted to ascend to godhood, as was his right due to his bloodline.

[Iskandar]

Shodan a from System Shock 2 (and 1, of course, but it's been too long since last I played 1)

Shodan was just scary crazy, an ego maniac with a serious God complex. worse, she came very close to becoming a god

"Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine? "

and of course,
when you find out that Polito, who has been guiding you thus far, is actually Shodan.
"The Polito form is dead, insect. Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? "

[JabberwockySupafly]

Don't forget the the bat**** loco villains. GladOS is a good example. But only if it's the main villain, crazy sidekick scientists don't count.

Oh, and it's great when they do something that COMPLETELY screws the character over. I almost crapped myself when Aries impaled Kratos from across the freaking country with a chunk of a pillar.

If we're talking Batpoop crazy villains, then Kefka wins that hands down. I do consider him one of the best villains in video game history. He is utterly and completely insane, and does what he feels like simply out of spite, megalomania, and an absolutely nihilistic urge to see everything go to hell, quite literally. He also achieves most goals that almost every other villain fails at due to the intervention of the PCs or another force of good. He becomes a god (Cefka/Kefka Palooza), he obtains ultimate power(Light of Judgement), he rules the world (World of Chaos), he gains the super artifacts (The Goddess Statues), and the ultimate weapon (Atma/Ultima Weapon Beast). If it wasn't for one young genetically cryo-enhanced Battle Mage with the drive to find her roguish boyfriend, he would have ruled with no fear of retribution.

He also gets some of the best lines (There's sand on my boots).

[Khanderas]

i think reprehensibleness plays a factor, too. There's got to be an element of "I gotta get this SOB" from the player. otherwise, there's no motivation and i'm just going through the motions.. i.e., the master from fallout, Sephiroth from ff7, or umbrella corp from RE series all fit the bill
Absolutly. Except my vote goes to Kefka. The only pixellated character ever to have me physically and litterary stand up, go to the TV screen and shout deaththreats at him.

[Timberwolf]

Shodan

'Nuff said.

SHODAN is where it begins and ends for me.

Master from Fallout ? An amateur in comparison. Ares ? Loser (I mean, he does lose and is nowhere near as scary as SHODAN in the process). Sephiroth ? A timewaster with angst. Sarevok ? Oh please.

For sheer, crazy ass evil, mental, scariness (and also good characterisation and really good scriptwriting, voice acting and, for the time, presentation) you can forget beating SHODAN.

She's mad, she's bad and, you can tell that System Shock was made before any of the other games mentioned, because it's hard, seriously hard. She really does try to kill you and keeps trying, hard, right up until the very end. From the moment you pick up that wrench on System Shock 2, you're fighting for your life.

Roll on System Shock 3 (not Bioshock) and the return of SHODAN.

[Artanis]

Shodan a from System Shock 2 (and 1, of course, but it's been too long since last I played 1)

Shodan was just scary crazy, an ego maniac with a serious God complex. worse, she came very close to becoming a god

"Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine? "
Agreed. Shodan wins, period.

[TwoBitWriter]

Shodan wins out pretty easily in the 1st person genre, but what about RPG's?

Kefka? He basically succeeded in nuking the entire world.

[Artanis]

Shodan wins out pretty easily in the 1st person genre, but what about RPG's?

Kefka? He basically succeeded in nuking the entire world.
Considering that System Shock 1&2 are FPS/RPG hybrids, I have to go with Shodan there as well :smallcool:

[TwoBitWriter]

I would say that SS is more of an action game that lets you play a customizable character, but there are few similarities to traditional RPG's beyond that.

I was just attempting to bring more villains into the fold. Because, in the end, it is impossible to select a single villain as the "best." Shodan shouldn't have the monopoly here.

[DemonicAngel]

With all do respect, what about Kerrigan? y'know, the infected Terran from starcraft? the queen of blades?
the freaking self-proclaimed queen ***** of the universe?
Dang, she has so many issues... first, she becomes an infected, losing her humanity, but not losing her mind like most.
second, she basically kills every opponent she ever had, if they were from the Zerg, Protoss, or Terran.
third, she actually killed her 'father', the overmind, which made the whole zerg race fall to her control.

now thats, ladies and gentleman, a true villain.

[theMycon]

I came in this thread to mention Sven T. Uncommon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLgK3ZHgNxQ) from Popful Mail. Not because he accomplishes much of anything, and his motivations aren't too clear (It's a ten hour game, at most. He's there for three of them.). He's just damn cool. Other Working Designs villains- If you play the SegaCD version of Lunar: The Silver Star, Ghaleon is a crazy, disturbing, evil, yet perfectly understandable villain. And even though you want to get him (because he's so damn evil), you want the same thing he does, in the end.

However, Shodan was my second choice after Sven. And as a real villain, instead of a running gag, he works better.

Honorable mention: From the Marathon series, Durandal as the best "evil that's on your side."

[Swordlol]

Two words: Gendo Ikari

Justification: Gendo Ikari



Runner Up: Jay-Z. (<----- Thats a joke.)

[Timberwolf]

now thats, ladies and gentleman, a true villain.


But SHODAN, left to her own devices (ie with identical plot armour to Kerrigan) would have effectively become a god.

Kerrigan's just not as scary. You can kill her (somehow, assuming the script writer lets you) but SHODAN just keeps finding a new host. You never get that feeling of palpable, complete and utter insanity about Kerrigan. Oh sure, she's mental nuts in a fight and out to enslave / assimilate / kill the entire universe, but it's nothing personal, she's rational and her long term goals don't begin and, pretty much end, with your death. You (as in the human / Protoss race) just happen to be in the way. You're just food. SHODAN, it's all about killing you, personally. She doesn't care what's happening outside, it's all about manipulating, terrifying and then destroying you.

SHODAN's is the original Survival horror bad girl and I loves her. (in a "this is a really good villain, they don't make them like that anymore" kind of way).

Actually, that got me thinking. Has there actually been a villain from a game that's newer than say, 2003 seriously considered ? Aside from Ares (who I think we can all agree isn't a patch on Kerrigan and especially SHODAN) and possibly this Kefka bloke, who I'm unfamiliar with, I'm not sure that we've mentionned anyone who isn't old school.

I mean, I believe System Shock 2 came out in 1999. It's nearly 10 years old. The original System shock came out in 1994. SHODAN is 15 years old this year. Starcraft came out in 1998. Kerrigan is 10 this year. While I hate playing Starcraft, I will admit the universe is good and the characters are well thought out and distinctive and well rounded. It pains me that no one has been able to come up with, in a decade of trying, villains that could replace SHODAN in my heart or join Kerrigan in my respects as a worthy other villain.

[Volug]

Sephiroth was freakin' awesome in FF7.

And GLaDOS wins in everything:smalltongue:
The cake is a lie bee-yatch!:smallbiggrin:

[Triaxx]

While Kefka actually takes my vote as number one of the series, he's a very, very narrow winner in front of Kuja. Lots of people didn't like FF9, but I personally have found it to be my favorite of the series (Card Game aside.). In no small part because of Kuja. He doesn't actually show up until late in Disc 1, after his puppet has destroyed three cities, and only then to destroy the fourth himself. He floods the world with monster spreading fog...

In short he's completely awesome. Unfortunately, he got cheated out of Final Boss status for no reason.

[Demented]

GlaDOS is a sinister hybrid of spider and cat.
She sits and purs in her lair, content to leave you alone forever and ever until you're stupid (or unfortunate) enough to find yourself in her claws. From then on, you're in hell, her personal toy to abuse, mistreat, coddle, tempt, betray and mentally sodomize.
She will run you through her maze. She will taunt you. She will berate you. She will dunk you in acid. She will lock you in and let you die of thirst. She'll vaporize your dental fillings. (Oops!) She'll even congratulate you after you've won and call it a fair fight. Then she'll proceed to let you know that you've succeeded in changing nothing and that she was always in control. Maybe you did win. Maybe you didn't. She just doesn't care enough to let you know so that you can rest in peace.

SHODAN is human, at the very core. She is a super-intelligent, immortal, limitless human. It's that last part that upsets her. Humanity's greatest act was ushering in a new era by creating SHODAN, and now it would be nice if they'd just do the respectful thing and die. Your continued existence is a protest to her deific immortality, and that makes things personal.
As the lead designer of System Shock 2 put it, most villains are on vacation in a Caribbean island, waiting for you to get through the game so they can return for the final battle. SHODAN isn't one of those villains. SHODAN is right there with you. She watches you, talks to you, cares about you, and bothers to tell you exactly how she's going to kill you if you decide to screw with her plans for genocide. After all, it would be a shame to have to kill you; you'd make an excellent cyborg slave.


There are a few others I'd love to rattle off...
Kane, Command & Conquer. His only failing: Joe Kucan couldn't deliver a line if his life depended on it.
the Shivans, Freespace. An alien race that has apparently taken on the role of an elemental force of the universe.
the Woodsie Lord, Thief: TDP. A very minor villain, but an eminent King of Creepsie!
Genh, Riven. He creates worlds. They inevitably fall apart, potentially killing everyone within. Does he care? Of course not! He can just create another world, after all.

[LordVader]

Slight nitpick with Kerrigan:

She is very much out to get revenge. She still seethes with hatred for Arcturus Mengsk, who she (rightly!) regards as having betrayed her, and, I suspect, the rest of the human race as well. I don't know anything about SHODAN, but Kerrigan has my vote for best villian.

Oh, and Kane also. He's bald. He believes he's the messiah. He's been Ion Cannoned what, 3 times, and is still alive. He leads a fanatical religious cult bent on what will be the doom of the human race.

Kane is awesome.


EDIT:
Forgot about the Shivans! Those guys were scary as hell. On that covert ops mission where you had to blow those devices and then head back, just floating there in space staring at the juggernaugts, the devices and the Knossos device oh so far away....God, that was incredibly eerie. I don't know why, but it just scared me. :smalleek:

[Tengu]

I disagree with Kerrigan being even let to see the door of the Best Video Game Villains Club. She is not an interesting villain, she is just the embodiment of every fanboy's "hawt ebil dominatrix chick lawlz" wet dream - and it seems that Blizzard is full of fanboys. Her plans are easy to see through even if you are an 10-year old, but because Blizzard are zerg fanboys everyone starts to act like a gullible retard when dealing with her - how extremely stupid do you have to be to enter a temporary alliance with an enemy who has betrayed you before?

[Artemician]

I disagree with Kerrigan being even let to see the door of the Best Video Game Villains Club. She is not an interesting villain, she is just the embodiment of every fanboy's "hawt ebil dominatrix chick lawlz" wet dream - and it seems that Blizzard is full of fanboys. Her plans are easy to see through even if you are an 10-year old, but because Blizzard are zerg fanboys everyone starts to act like a gullible retard when dealing with her - how extremely stupid do you have to be to enter a temporary alliance with an enemy who has betrayed you before?

Either you're even more retarded than the fanboys you seem to deride, or you're being sarcastic. I pray that it is the latter.

[WoodenTable]

I can still hear Kefka's maniacal laughter, in my head. It suited him perfectly. Most villains from that gaming era were like the heroes, leaving a trail of bodies without a defining sound effect... but not the madly laughing Kefka, oh no. Loud, insane, and utterly ruthless.

Ghost Zombie Pirate LeChuck! He was awesome. He's totally unkillable, has great lines, kidnaps Elaine Marley as often as he can, is permanently on fire, and is evil in the "Get back to work, ya swabs, or I'll beat ya with yer own legs!" kind of way. Now that's some grade-A villainy.

[Reinboom]

Kefka is a laugh, amusing villain.
I wouldn't say he is the best though... I prefer significantly more depth to my villains.

I'm going to have to give it to the "villain" of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (it was a PC game first).
Revealing it is a huge spoiler to it, however...
The villain is cunning, has a great motif, you can be on the same level with them and understand why, yet, you can appreciate their insanity...

For more familiar games, Irenicus of Baldur's Gate 2. Not quite cunning, but, he's a story in of himself. Which I like.

I get motion sickness with first person games and have not played through Planescape: Torment, so, I can't comment on them.

[DemonicAngel]

I'm no fanboy to Blizzard or anything of that sort, but Kerrigan is a good villain.
Ever heard the phrase "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"? thats exactly what happened inn this game, also with "my enemies enemy is my friend..." think about it.

SHODAN is also a great villain, now that I refreshed my memory on when I heard that name.

[Pronounceable]

Didn't bother to mention GLaDOS, cause we all know she's right at the top, just below TTO.

I get the feeling that I'm gonna obtain and play System Shock. Been hearing praise for years. Seems GLaDOS is this SHODAN's "daughter" in the spiritual sense.

D'oh! The Shivans. How could I forget them? They come kicking ass and taking names. If it weren't for not ONE but TWO deus ex machinas, we could never stop them. They're mysterious, cold and ruthless. One of the few truly alien races.
Sidenote: I died on the final mission (subspace) on my first playthrough. But my wingmen managed to accomplish the mission. Felt so heroic, didn't replay the level.

Sometimes I feel I should play FFs just to see who exactly these Kefka, Sephiroth, etc guys are. But I can't stand the mindless droning called gameplay in jRPGs. Maybe if there were trainer programs that allow me to just bypass those trillions of random battles with a keystroke...

[Kanti]

I have to throw my vote to Ganon from the legand of zelda seiries as best villain. He is always the main bad guy so thats good points for consisstencey.
He's more kick ass in every new game. And he's a friggen shodowy god of darkness. One word=awsome!

[Tengu]

Either you're even more retarded than the fanboys you seem to deride, or you're being sarcastic. I pray that it is the latter.

I am serious, and please don't make me lose respect to you by using insults instead of arguments. Kerrigan is almost as weak a villain as the old Lich King. Arthas is the only villain Blizzard created that is above average.

[Cainen]

...Arthas basically is Kerrigan. He's just male instead and got to do a bit more because WC3 is longer than SC.

[Pronounceable]

...Arthas basically is Kerrigan. He's just male instead and got to do a bit more because WC3 is longer than SC.

Not to mention he was a retarded, stereotypical, holier-than-thou jerk of a paladin. Then he became an eleventh rate stereotypical villain. At least Kerrigan was fine when she was human (I'm not saying Kerrigan is actually a good villain, but at least she HAD a reason to become a villain).

EDIT: Now Lich King: THAT is a perfectly servicable villain. But Arthas is no more. He has ceased to be. He is an ex paladin. He has expired and gone to meet his maker (which is Nerzhul incidentally). He's a stiff. Bereft of life, he can't even rest (cause he's being ridden around by Nerzhul). If he wasn't utterly conquered by Nerzhul's fell powers he'd be pushing up the daisies. He's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. Arthas is a late villain.

(and I know they're "canonically" merged, I just don't believe Arthas is willful enough to exist as a seperate entity inside Nerzhul's psyche)

Nerzhul has always been one of the more interesting (not to mention influential) characters in WC lore. But the best villains to come out of WC are Gul'dan and Illidan.

EDIT STRIKES BACK: You're actually right. TTO isn't exactly a villain. He's an antagonist (even an anti hero, much like TNO himself). But he's borderline villain.

RETURN OF THE EDIT: Two post below: You're confusing fanboyism with boy fantasyism (action, adventure, golden age of comics, Treasure Island, good vs evil etc stuff that'd traditionally enchant little boys while being utterly boring for little girls).

And never underestimate the fanboyablity of a pair of boobs and feminine body curves. Think of GLaDOS: She's already beloved by all, yet there'd be salivating armies of fanboys if her mainframe was shaped like a shining and beautiful woman body instead of a metal and cable mess.

[Cainen]

I'm curious. What makes you think of TTO as a villain? Sure, he did evil stuff, but it was never malicious by its nature. I never really saw him as a true villain, but then again I looked at it from his point of view, too.

[Artemician]

I am serious, and please don't make me lose respect to you by using insults instead of arguments. Kerrigan is almost as weak a villain as the old Lich King. Arthas is the only villain Blizzard created that is above average.

Nah.. she's definitely a better villian than Ner'zhul, although admittedly, it doesn't take much to be better than a villian you never see do anything.

But really, aside from the moment of stupidity for Raynor and Fenix, what about Kerrigan makes you say that she's a hawt ebil dominatrix chick?

I quite liked Kerrigan, to be honest, although she wasn't particularly scary then. She was brutish, simple-minded and easy to anticipate. I laughed as Tassadar did when she fell into an obvious trap, and I felt not a little sympathetic at her little vengeful crusade against Mengsk. That sympathy sort of evaporated during BW, but I still liked Kerrigan.

I find that an extremely irrational statement to make. If anything, I would consider the Terran and Protoss sections of BW more fanboy fantasies than Kerrigan's crusade. Seeing Evil being defeated by Good through good ol'fashioned force of arms - that's what the fanboys want.

Kerrigan's sneaky little campaign on the other hand, was heavily reliant on gambits, bait, the hard-nosed xenophobia present in both races, as well as a healthy dose of help from a superior inlellect (Duran). There's nothing that would endear her to a fanboy, even a Zerg fanboy. What's there to cheer when you realize that your favourite faction has been used simply as a cog in the wheels of another being's plan?

I like Kerrigan - not because she's all-powerful, or really depraved, or makes me **** my pants. I like Kerrigan because she really shows how the inner darkness in us all can lead us to damnation. She had every oppurtunity to repent, but she never does. And strangely enough, I can't fault her for that. Despite Kerrigan's alien appearance, she ironically behaves in a very human way. And that's why I like her - I see myself in her.

Sorry for insulting you over there, but I still maintain that calling Kerrigan a fanboy fantasy is a horribly short-sighted statement to make.

[Cainen]

The basic summary of that mindset is as follows. "I've seen better, raise your damn standards." I wholeheartedly agree with it, but on totally different things; I absolutely can't stand the joke that people call JRPGs(and most WRPGs, too) because they're so hilariously inept at storytelling and combat is so boring that I should really rather be reading a book. It'd keep pace better and tell something more interesting than a damage total.

Regardless, that's basically exactly what he meant. Sephiroth is a hilariously bad villain, and people who think he's good should seriously, seriously take a look at other things before fanboying. This applies to a lot of people, even if it isn't the same villain or game.

That being said, SHODAN is an awesome villain. Bioshock should've seriously taken more cues from her for a villain.

[Tengu]

The difference between Kerrigan and Arthas is that, in the second case, they have put accent on his downfall and managed to create a decent tragic (initially, at least) villain thanks to that - while in Kerrigan's case it was a single hop from total good to total evil. Justified due to the way it happened, but not very interesting. And she lacks the qualities that make a good villain - she's not a magnificent manipulating mastermind like Jon Irenicus, she's not giving you the creeps like Shodan, she's not so hateful that you do not want to reach into the monitor screen and strangle her dead so badly as you do with Kefka, she's not even nearly as deep at TNO or as bat**** crazy as Glados. Maybe my standards are too high, but hey - this is a thread about the best video game villains.

Oh, and fanboys at certain age do prefer evil to good, or even better, antiheroes to normal heroes - because they think it is more badass thay way, while good is boring, naive and stupid.

[Cainen]

Arthas was NOT tragic in the least. He was a monstrous jackass, and that was shown when he set the ships on fire and pinned the blame on the mercenaries he hired. Murdering the infected city did not help him either, but that was far more understandable. Him falling was basically one of the most obvious things that happened in the game, and I didn't feel sorry for him in the least.

[Tengu]

Yeah, but when he did these two he was already a villain. Compare this to how he presents himself before and he's more tragic. Still nothing to write essays about, but better than Kerrigan.

[Timberwolf]

Didn't bother to mention GLaDOS, cause we all know she's right at the top, just below TTO.

I get the feeling that I'm gonna obtain and play System Shock. Been hearing praise for years. Seems GLaDOS is this SHODAN's "daughter" in the spiritual sense.

I've not played Portal, but from taking a swift look over the synopsis last night, I'd say that's broadly correct.

If you're using Vista, forget running System Shock 2. It's a Windows 95 game. However, I believe there's a thread around here about it and getting it to work on XP. I think System Shock 1 is a Windows 3.11 game so even less likely to work.

Anyway, how could I forget Kane ? Kane's awesome. And the hilarious acting, well, would it be Command and Conquer without it ? The series would lose its soul without the ham acting.

When I have a PC capable of it, the Orange Box is one of my 1st priorities. I look forward to seeing what they've done with the idea of SHODAN with 15 years to work on it.

[Artemician]

The difference between Kerrigan and Arthas is that, in the second case, they have put accent on his downfall and managed to create a decent tragic (initially, at least) villain thanks to that - while in Kerrigan's case it was a single hop from total good to total evil. Justified due to the way it happened, but not very interesting. And she lacks the qualities that make a good villain - she's not a magnificent manipulating mastermind like Jon Irenicus, she's not giving you the creeps like Shodan, she's not so hateful that you do not want to reach into the monitor screen and strangle her dead so badly as you do with Kefka, she's not even nearly as deep at TNO or as bat**** crazy as Glados. Maybe my standards are too high, but hey - this is a thread about the best video game villains.

Agreed with you on all counts. Kerrigan's not a particularly good villian. But I don't agree with you when you say that she's a horrible villian. She's not good, but she ain't bad either.

In addition, regardless of her merit as a villian, a hawt ebil dominatrix bitch she ain't.


Oh, and fanboys at certain age do prefer evil to good, or even better, antiheroes to normal heroes - because they think it is more badass thay way, while good is boring, naive and stupid.

Good.. boring? Nah... :P

[Reinboom]

Sometimes I feel I should play FFs just to see who exactly these Kefka, Sephiroth, etc guys are. But I can't stand the mindless droning called gameplay in jRPGs. Maybe if there were trainer programs that allow me to just bypass those trillions of random battles with a keystroke...

I now only play Final Fantasies for nostalgia. Sephiroth is a dull villain who shines when your standards are every other jRPG.
Kefka fills a niche of being a maniac (and one of the few villains to actually accomplish something without a second thought), which makes him interesting.
However, I would now consider neither of these worth the game they are in. Final Fantasys (and their mindless, pointless, combat that serves little functional use whatsoever) in general is like a MMORPG without the good part (the MMO part, that is) and with more story.
At least, to me.

I wouldn't recommend succumbing to something like them in order to figure out the villains. You will waste 20-35 hours of your life with each game to figure out a couple maybe neat character ideas and a villains personality. Not worth it.

To figure out kefka, I highly recommend reading wikipedia on it, if it has anything and reading a quote page. That while give you a sense of him enough.


Perhaps the only jRPG that I would consider to have a great villain wrapped around a decent story is Chrono Trigger's Lavos.
It's just a big animal with a lot of power that feeds off the planet. Simple.
Yet, it has a great tale and string of villains, antagonists, heroes that are there only by chance. It creates a great story by just simply being powerful.. without really doing anything but living how it knows how to live.
Of course, the game degrades for me the moment the black omen raises in to the sky. Meh. :smallsigh:
The game at least has the benefit of being able to walk around a lot of encounters, and having encounters only show in the spots they are programmed to, instead of variably.

[The Great Skenardo]

Must be a question of temperament; I've no problem wasting hours in the combat system and leveling up. But then again, I'm about as patient as a rock.

Anyways, villains:

My Favorites are Count Bleck and O'Chunks from Super Paper Mario, with Lukan the Witless from Arcanum coming a close second. I like enemies with a touch of comedy about them.

[Cainen]

Kefka is a psychotic clown who gains power over the course of the game, causes what's basically an apocalypse, and just generally ruins everything because he feels like it(and was driven insane by an experiment).

Not very deep, but he's a bastard alright. He's also the best FF villain, which... doesn't say very much. At all.

And really, I'm pretty sure I'm more patient than you are. TBSes are my favorite genre, specifically 4X games: by the end, most singular turns take several minutes to resolve, and that's ignoring the fact that there are others there too. There is a huge difference between tedium and slow-paced, and if something's as boring as listening to Ben Stein I am not going to appreciate it.

[Jaappie]

Those of you who are playing "The Witcher" or plan to do so in the future should really not read this for it destroys your game.

I really liked the Grandmaster "Jacques de Aldersberg", or as you know in the end, your very dear Alvin. You actually talk to this guy when he is still a child just days before you kill him in adult form. He is constantly haunted by visions, you get attacked by fanatics fighting over lost causes. He then teleports away apparently into the past, by your fault. Along with everything you and the world taught him...
Only to make every bad thing happen to himself, as the Grandmaster.
The really cool thing is that he actually quotes things you said without first understanding the meaning. Because, as far as you know, this guy is just the loony leader of some cult.
I felt really bad as he was lying there with medallion you gave him in his hand.
He's not the most evil of BBEG's but for the interactive part it my favorite for now.
The best truly evil villain would still be Kefka for me. Completely insane + World destruction + Insane laughter = Awesomeness.

[factotum]

I think System Shock 1 is a Windows 3.11 game so even less likely to work.


Windows 3.11? System Shock was a DOS game...you remember, the black screen with the > prompt? Or are you too young to have ever encountered the delights of fiddling with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to try and get a game working? :smallamused:

Anyway, I've run System Shock on DOSBox--you need a pretty powerful machine to get it to run at a decent frame rate, though, because DOSBox is essentially emulating *everything* (including the CPU) and therefore is a little slow.

[Triaxx]

Don't disregard the FF series, just because they talk. Baldur's Gate babbled incessantly at times, but it's still worth playing. Besides, FF has had some awesome villians, which are worth playing the game through for. (Though I freely admit Sephiroth was a sorry excuse for a character, period.)

Wiegraf from Final Fantasy Tactics is another prime example of perfect villiany.

[Jimblee]

Kefka is a psychotic clown who gains power over the course of the game, causes what's basically an apocalypse, and just generally ruins everything because he feels like it(and was driven insane by an experiment).

One of the more important things to remember about Kefka is that he was the first video game villain in which there was actual growth on his end of the spectrum. He hand plans, growth, (mild) character development, goals, ect. Before him, every villain was just a big bad monster you had to defeat. I think for that reason, he's worth a number on the high list

My favorites up there are definitely Ganondorf, Dagoth Ur, and just from thinking of those two games, Jyggalag and from the recent Twilight Princess, Zant. I thought Mephisto was among the more cool looking villains of all time, even if he did only boil down to a boss.



Ganondorf is just up there as being the more awesome villains of all time. He's cunning, powerful, manipulative, and an expert at all he does. Really, his downfall is never due to his own weakness, but by the strength of others.

Dagoth Ur is also one of the best combinations of flesh and "just plain awesomery". He's got a complete background, filled with reason, logic, excuse, stories, full philosophical reasoning behind his actions. I mean, you could even sympathize with him if you bother to listen to his story. On top of that, he's got that whole godly air about him; the arrogance, the tone of his voice, the looks. Just so my type

And Zant is just cool in concept. The mad Usurper King, chosen by the Lord of Evil to spread, quite literally, darkness into the real world. He took his people and turned them into beasts, whipped out his dark magic and wove, quite literally, darkness into the world. And that plan of his was, honestly, well thought out - he really wouldn't have stopped unless he chose to, which he did in the end.


Why do I take the time to look at this stuff?

[Demented]

And never underestimate the fanboyablity of a pair of boobs and feminine body curves. Think of GLaDOS:
...

*looks at quote*

*looks at GLaDOS*

*looks at quote*

*looks at GLaDOS*

*rolls on floor laughing*

That's ALL SHE IS!


I like Kerrigan - not because she's all-powerful, or really depraved, or makes me **** my pants. I like Kerrigan because she really shows how the inner darkness in us all can lead us to damnation. She had every oppurtunity to repent, but she never does. And strangely enough, I can't fault her for that. Despite Kerrigan's alien appearance, she ironically behaves in a very human way. And that's why I like her - I see myself in her.

This applied in Starcraft, and I rather liked her there.

In Brood War, she has no ties to the overmind, and only barely to the zerg, in the sense that she commands them around with essentially the same perspective that the UED does. Though I don't remember exactly, I don't recall any specific character development on her part... She slipped into a "I just want to rule the world sector" mentality, with no humanity or character. Maybe I was just bored with the campaign and was ignoring the subtleties in the storytelling by then.

While there's always a second chance in SC2, her growing high heels is a bad sign.

[Timberwolf]

Windows 3.11? System Shock was a DOS game...you remember, the black screen with the > prompt? Or are you too young to have ever encountered the delights of fiddling with CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to try and get a game working? :smallamused:

Anyway, I've run System Shock on DOSBox--you need a pretty powerful machine to get it to run at a decent frame rate, though, because DOSBox is essentially emulating *everything* (including the CPU) and therefore is a little slow.

Too young ? No. Too possessed of an incredibly bad Amstrad (and a father who is notoriously protective of his computer) at the time, yes.

[Lord of Rapture]

I haven't played any games that include Kefka, GLaDOS, SHODAN, or any other villain mentioned on this thread. Therefore, I must submit Frank Fontaine from Bioshock as the best video game villain I have ever encountered.

Fontaine's the whole reason Rapture turned into a utopia that I would love to live in into a terrifying dystopia that no person in their right mind would ever go to. He begins the plasmid business knowing about the dangerous side effects, and thinks, "Hey, more profit for me! Screw you, whichever sucker is using this!", fakes his death and becomes the proletarian hero Atlas who is responsible for Rapture's downfall, drives many people which I considered good before their current state in Bioshock insane and borderline psychopathic, and engineers the main character to be his slave since his birth. The worst part is that he fools you into working for him at the beginning, right up until you finish off Andrew Ryan, and then drops you like a piece of ****.:smallfurious:

When Fontaine showed his true colors, I was swearing at the TV, which I never do.

[Morty]

Those of you who are playing "The Witcher" or plan to do so in the future should really not read this for it destroys your game.

I really liked the Grandmaster "Jacques de Aldersberg", or as you know in the end, your very dear Alvin. You actually talk to this guy when he is still a child just days before you kill him in adult form. He is constantly haunted by visions, you get attacked by fanatics fighting over lost causes. He then teleports away apparently into the past, by your fault. Along with everything you and the world taught him...
Only to make every bad thing happen to himself, as the Grandmaster.
The really cool thing is that he actually quotes things you said without first understanding the meaning. Because, as far as you know, this guy is just the loony leader of some cult.
I felt really bad as he was lying there with medallion you gave him in his hand.
He's not the most evil of BBEG's but for the interactive part it my favorite for now.


Hell yes. I don't know why I forgot about it, but Witcher's Big Villain provides one of the better plot twists I've ever seen.

[Cainen]

Don't disregard the FF series, just because they talk. Baldur's Gate babbled incessantly at times, but it's still worth playing.

I don't think you understand why I disregard them, especially since my favorite RPG is far, far more wordy and dialogue-heavy than FF could even aspire to be. The FF series' dialogue and plots are exceptionally slipshod, especially when compared to roughly any good piece of literature, and the terrible gameplay compounds this problem.


One of the more important things to remember about Kefka is that he was the first video game villain in which there was actual growth on his end of the spectrum. He hand plans, growth, (mild) character development, goals, ect. Before him, every villain was just a big bad monster you had to defeat. I think for that reason, he's worth a number on the high list

System Shock was out before FFVI, and I think we've established how creepy SHODAN is. Both parts of Ultima VII were out before it, and the Guardian makes Kefka look silly as a villain. Ultima VI gave you a very nice piece of story with regards to how it was carried out; the villains were homeless gargoyles who had come to think of the player character as a false prophet who would bring their species to extinction, so they assaulted everything. You had to clear this up. Or kill the gargoyles, since you were given choice.

FFVI was hardly a first in any way.

[factotum]

System Shock was out before FFVI, and I think we've established how creepy SHODAN is.

Are you sure about that? AFAIK both games came out in 1994, so it was a tight-run thing as to which one was first.

As for the Guardian, I never played Serpent Isle, but I didn't really think he was a brilliant villain in Ultima VII; fact is, the whole game would have worked just as well if the loony religious sect turned out to have been behind everything, and when you have a villain who isn't really necessary to the game, you have to ask how good a villain he really is!

[Project_Mayhem]

My favorite computor game villain is easily Salazar from Resident Evil 4. No question. He's the guy you love to hate.

Meeeester Kenedy

[Triaxx]

Salazar and Saddler were the first characters in a long time I actually wanted dead.

I wasn't going to mention the plots. I tend to ignore them for the most part. Who plays for the dialogue? I'm playing to kill innocent monsters. And gameplay can always be ignored.

[Rutee]

PSP (http://www.dontpressstart.com/pro/SF6/).

We /are/ talking about video games as villains, right?

In seriousness, I'm going to say Nyarlathotep from PErsona 2, Vindel Mauser of Super Robot Wars, Kefka, Irenicus, and The Dark One from Arc the Lad are all special villains to me. Just, too much to discuss on the ones that haven't been, and the others are being discussed already, and I don't know what's to argue about; They're all different villainous strokes for different folks.

[Hzurr]

I agree that Salizar was a pretty good villain, however I have never been more terrified during a boss fight than I was when I went up against his "right hand man." Man that was scary...

I realize that this next statement is going to sound completely ridiculous, but the one video game "villain" that has caused me to curse at the screen more than any other is Petey Piranha from various Mario games. That giant-headed b*stard would screw me over time, after time, after time in Mario Kart Double Dash, then he would get right in front of the camera with that HUGE FREAKING HEAD OF HIS, so you can't see the bloody road... *shakes fist at the memories* Then came Mario Strikers, where he would vomit mud on me, beat me to death with that HUGE FREAKING HEAD OF HIS, then do the limbo in celebration of my hours of wasted time trying to beat the stupid Crystal Cup.

Other villains I like:
Kefka - for reasons already mentioned
GladOS - for reasons already mentioned

I never played any of the Final Fantasies after #6, so a lot of these I can't comment on.

[Cainen]

Are you sure about that? AFAIK both games came out in 1994, so it was a tight-run thing as to which one was first.

As for the Guardian, I never played Serpent Isle, but I didn't really think he was a brilliant villain in Ultima VII; fact is, the whole game would have worked just as well if the loony religious sect turned out to have been behind everything, and when you have a villain who isn't really necessary to the game, you have to ask how good a villain he really is!

System Shock - March 1994, FFVI - April 1994. Doesn't matter that much, but FFVI was not a first.

And as for the Guardian, it would help if you knew why he established the Fellowship, how he managed it, and what he had done before that. There is no way in hell more than half of what happened in U7 could have went smoothly without him. Serpent Isle and Ultima VIII make him a much better villain than he was in Black Gate, even if VIII's quality is lower than Black Gate's or Serpent Isle's. Hell, Ultima Underworld II works just as well. He didn't have any particular motive(much like Kefka), but it was his methods that made him a disturbingly effective villain.

[Illiterate Scribe]

If GLaDOS was Shodan's spiritual daughter, then she got her querkiness from her spiritual father, Durandal (although that sits uneasily with my shipping of GLaDOS and Durendal as a happy couple - Science and Doors Opening, reunited at last, as someone here said - but aren't uneasy sexual ties the hallmark of such things?).

Anyway, I found Durandal much scarier than SHODAN. She was merely mad, whereas he was the magnificent bastard of magnificent bastards. Where she thought she could become a god, Durandal knew he could, and, by the end, it seems that he had.

Also, his style was so unnervingly confident; one minute, he's telling you about the intricate plan to enter a power station ('You needn't worry about this part. I opened a hole in their roof by bombing it with a small asteroid'), the next he's composing poetry, and sending you on missions to distant terminals, just so that you can read it.

Also,


If you insist on stumbling around when our time here is limited, I may just decide that you're not all that special after all and teleport you
out into space.

GET INTO THE TOWER!

Still Rampant,
Durandal

Whereas GLaDOS or SHODAN would say that anyway, and probably not deliver, you can't be to sure with the third of the Marathon AIs.

The whole idea of rampancy is very interesting, but I think that Bungie had some of the most insightful things to say about it (other than OH NOES! TEHY R MADD!!!).

[Cainen]

Marathon's younger than System Shock is, mate.

[BRC]

In terms of Evil, Kerrigan was actually preety smart, sure her betrayal was somewhat inevitable, but how would the other characters really know that. Raynor knew Kerrigan pre-infestation, and she wasn't lying when she said she had her free will back (with the overmind dying and all), there was no reason for him to believe she would really betray him, especially considering their former freindship. Mengsk proably wouldn't trust her, but Mengsk was desperate, the UED had just overthrown him, so he was preety low on options anyway. She used her alliances in a very effective manner, then betrayed them when they were no longer useful and before they became a threat.

Personally, I actually like standard SC Mengsk, he goes from friendly to enemy, but he never actually changes. It's not a Heel Face turn, he wasn't tricking you the entire time, his motivations never change. He's just a believer in achieving his goals by the most effective means possible. At one point, that is to rescue some colonists abandoned by the confederacy, at another it is to use psi emmitters to doom tarsonis to a zergy death. Also, he WAS actually fighting somthing bad, the confederacy, and with good reason too. I just think that, as a villinous character, hes well done, a good example of a non-cliche villain.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Marathon's younger than System Shock is, mate.

I know, but they were being developed at the same time.

[someonenonotyou]

whos kerrigan? that one blue and green girl who like muffins?
any way i have never played the ff with Kefka, Sephiroth is a great villan but i liked master seymore for ff10 the game wasnt that great but i loved master seymore

[Artanis]

Anyway, I found Durandal much scarier than SHODAN. She was merely mad, whereas he was the magnificent bastard of magnificent bastards. Where she thought she could become a god, Durandal knew he could, and, by the end, it seems that he had.
Actually...

SHODAN did know she could become God. Not "a god", but God. She damn well nearly pulled it off, too, had the character in SS2 not stopped her.

[Demented]

Durandal became an archailect, with the help of the jjaro. That's as I recall from finishing Marathon 2, the only one of those games I played.

SHODAN was probably inspired by WOPR.
Whereas Durandal was inspired by HAL.
Heck, maybe they were both inspired by HAL.

Wait, is that a sign? ..."Now leaving Video Game History". Oh.

[theMycon]

The Dark One from Arc the Lad ... special villain

The whole series was "short bus" kind of special. Which you can't consider offensive if you enjoyed the game, because they include a special girl as a playable character, your heroes make fun of, and have her fit every stereotype, and be nearly worthless.

I'm a rabid fan of all things Working Designs, and I really wanted to like this, but it was a horrible game- you can tell they didn't rewrite the script like in their flagship ports. The music was the only good thing about it. The first one had a character that had personality- so they took her out of the second one, but kept everyone else. Every building in the entire game collapsed the moment you didn't need it, none with any explanation, and they played the whole thing straight. And, suddenly, near the end, the enemies jump from level 60 to level 80, so your previously "just ahead of the curve" party becomes one-shot fodder, where your whole party together can't quite kill one of them in one round. But you still win... how? Because the AI is horrible, and it's child's play to set it up so that hey never hit you. Not "they can't hit you," just that they're too stupid to do it. Then, suddenly, the enemies jump to level 99 and you do 1 point of damage (out of hundreds) every time you attack, and you can't level any more because you're in the final dungeon and can't leave. So each single enemy turns into a simple battle of patience.

I'll admit the game was darker than any console game I'd seen since Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, but dear god was it painful. It's one of the few games where I got to the final boss, didn't get killed or stuck, but just gave up due to being so bored I'd rather blow my brains out than finish the fight.

[factotum]

Serpent Isle and Ultima VIII make him a much better villain than he was in Black Gate, even if VIII's quality is lower than Black Gate's or Serpent Isle's. Hell, Ultima Underworld II works just as well. He didn't have any particular motive(much like Kefka), but it was his methods that made him a disturbingly effective villain.

I played both Ultima 8 and Underworld 2, and I remember thinking the same thing both times: if the Guardian is so evil, why doesn't he just kill the Avatar and be done with it? I mean, in U8 he just transports him into an alternate world, and in UW2 he encloses the entire castle in blackrock (though somehow everyone inside can still breathe, so he must have left some convenient airholes :smallwink: ). It always struck me that a simple dagger to the chest would have removed the greatest obstacle to the Guardian's takeover in one fell swoop!

I think that's my biggest problem with the Guardian, all told--he just never had believable actions or motives for a Big Bad.

[Project_Mayhem]

I agree that Salizar was a pretty good villain, however I have never been more terrified during a boss fight than I was when I went up against his "right hand man." Man that was scary...

Oh man, single scariest boss fght ever. And hard util you know what to do. Salazar was easy, but just a cool character.

And I forgot about that Rasputin lookalike Mendez.

[Rutee]

I'm a rabid fan of all things Working Designs, and I really wanted to like this, but it was a horrible game- you can tell they didn't rewrite the script like in their flagship ports. The music was the only good thing about it. The first one had a character that had personality- so they took her out of the second one, but kept everyone else. Every building in the entire game collapsed the moment you didn't need it, none with any explanation, and they played the whole thing straight. And, suddenly, near the end, the enemies jump from level 60 to level 80, so your previously "just ahead of the curve" party becomes one-shot fodder, where your whole party together can't quite kill one of them in one round. But you still win... how? Because the AI is horrible, and it's child's play to set it up so that hey never hit you. Not "they can't hit you," just that they're too stupid to do it. Then, suddenly, the enemies jump to level 99 and you do 1 point of damage (out of hundreds) every time you attack, and you can't level any more because you're in the final dungeon and can't leave. So each single enemy turns into a simple battle of patience.
I remember the final stretch of AtL 2. I cheesed it with Elc, Choko, and some other stupid broken characters. That wasn't what I meant though. Simply put, despite an omniloathing of children, villains (And people RL, for that matter) seriously frost my cookies when they mistreat them. The whole Academy thing, which they managed to bring up tactfully JUST AS I HAD CALMED DOWN, had my blood boiling for 80% of game 2. A villain that gets me that mad, out of any sense of moral outrage, for /that long/, gets an honorable mention in some form. And if you mean Choko.. she's a blank slate. A god damn /scary/ blank slate. She's pretty much Dizzy, without breasts, when May finds her. Her character development was.. tragic, if I recall properly (It's possible that I don't.) Break the Cutie indeed.

[sonofzeal]

Shodan a from System Shock 2 (and 1, of course, but it's been too long since last I played 1)

Shodan was just scary crazy, an ego maniac with a serious God complex. worse, she came very close to becoming a god

"Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine? "

and of course,
when you find out that Polito, who has been guiding you thus far, is actually Shodan.
"The Polito form is dead, insect. Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? "
"In my talons I shape clay, crafting lifeforms as I please. From my thrown room, lines of power careen into the skies of earth. My whims become lightning bolts that devastate the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, begging for me to end their tedious anarchy. GOD: the title suits me well."

(Click for SHODAN awesomeness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOFZ5fv_pb8))

I think what made SHODAN so effective for me was not her viciousness, or god-complex, so much as the gradual decay into insanity over the course of the game. I remember one moment in particular, while playing the game for the second or third time, that I noticed the vague quiver in the voice during the prerecorded welcoming message in SS1.... That single moment creeped me out way more than any number of mutants or Secbots.



Who'd win in a showdown - SHODAN or GLaDOS?

[Cainen]

I played both Ultima 8 and Underworld 2, and I remember thinking the same thing both times: if the Guardian is so evil, why doesn't he just kill the Avatar and be done with it? I mean, in U8 he just transports him into an alternate world, and in UW2 he encloses the entire castle in blackrock (though somehow everyone inside can still breathe, so he must have left some convenient airholes :smallwink: ). It always struck me that a simple dagger to the chest would have removed the greatest obstacle to the Guardian's takeover in one fell swoop!

I think that's my biggest problem with the Guardian, all told--he just never had believable actions or motives for a Big Bad.

This is actually all explained by the entirety of Ultima 8. He enjoys tormenting and being slowly sadistic far more than just quickly exerting his power; he has the power of a god, in essence, but he finds it much more enjoyable to take the long way around. He subdued Pagan in a most unusual way for a villain; he attacked but didn't honestly kill them, then proceeded to speak to them and pretend as if he was a great defender. He turned the entire world into a parody of what it was before by simply making everyone worship him, and that's mostly what makes him scary.

...and upon seeing an avatar, I can't believe I forgot the Ur-Quan and the Dnyarri. Simply excellent villains.

[Hunter Noventa]

And never underestimate the fanboyablity of a pair of boobs and feminine body curves. Think of GLaDOS: She's already beloved by all, yet there'd be salivating armies of fanboys if her mainframe was shaped like a shining and beautiful woman body instead of a metal and cable mess.

I have nothing to contribute to this argument other than the following image of brain-hurting quality-

Gentlemen, BEHOLD! GLadOS-tan! (http://hoihoisan.deviantart.com/art/GLaDOS-tan-73920490)


EDIT- I changed my mind. I submit Luca Blight as maybe not the best, but definitely a top contender for most deserving of hate and death.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Best video game villian?

Kefka. Hands down. Why?

1) He won. He did it. His evil plan suceeded. He beat the good guys.

2) He's the guy you love to hate. Seriously, all throughout the game, since the first time you are introduced to him, you are just aching to put a sword in that creepy bastard.And every time he pulls another stunt, you're just wanting to kill him all that much more. No other villian have I truely wanted to pound like a tent peg worse than this guy.

3) He is evil. We're not talking evil-lite, we're talking about a complete psychopath and sadomasochist who laughs joyfully about poisoning an entire town, and half his own troops in the process... then goes on to backstab his emperor, who wanted to rule the world, because he wanted to blow it up instead. And did so. And then had a reign of terror on everyone left after he did that by casually frying towns on a whim.

Little villians grow up wanting to be a quarter as evil and sadistic as this guy. Kids who torture cats look up to him and hope they can one day be as sick and twisted. Litches go down on bended knee to accept his villany. Tiamat would have sent a marriage proposal but Kefka is just too out there even for her. Lloth secretly has fantasies about him. I mean, even Cuthulu has met his match in the creepy department.

[Tempest Fennac]

I'd say Albert Wesker from the esidant Evil games due to how his pretty much calm at all times while being willing to do whatever it takes to succeed while not caring about anything but his own goals.

[Timberwolf]

Who'd win in a showdown - SHODAN or GLaDOS?

I'd need to play Portal before I really give my answer to that. However, my PC is in the shop for upgrades so that may happen yet.

However, SHODAN just has that much more experience of being a mental scary assed manipulating ego maniac god complex nutter. Plus she has a cooler name that doesn't sound like something your granny's best mate is called.

My money would go on SHODAN for the above reasons in addition to rose tinted glasses fannishness although GLADoS does sound like my kinda villain.

[Demented]

GLaDOS isn't much of a schemer, and her combat abilities are limited to putting gun turrets here and there, with the occasional stationary rocket turret.

SHODAN makes combat cyborgs and bio-engineered killing machines.

Though I suspect that if they ever met, they'd be on good terms.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

whos kerrigan? that one blue and green girl who like muffins?
any way i have never played the ff with Kefka, Sephiroth is a great villan but i liked master seymore for ff10 the game wasnt that great but i loved master seymore

I couldn't understand a darn thing you said except the first sentence, so allow me to address this, at least, and cure your ignorance.

Kerrigan was a major character from the Starcraft series. If you have any interest in playing, I'd rather not spoil it for you. Of course, that's what Spoiler tags are for...

Kerrigan starts out as a Terran Ghost, gets captured by the Zerg, and becomes Kerrigan, Queen of Blades. In this new form, she retains her cloaking device, and has huge claws that do considerable damage. In addition, she gets Psi Storm later on.

In the expansion, Brood War, she pretty much plays everyone for a pack of fools, plays one off against the other, and in general gets everyone to do her dirty work for her until she finally is ready to announce herself as the big bad b***h of the universe again. Then, of course, she ends up being in the middle of a four-front war, when ALL her chickens come home to roost. The UED, Raynor, the Protoss, and the Dark Protoss all show up on her doorstep simultaniously. That's the final Zerg mission, and the final mission in the game.

I guess I have an Aries problem... I liked Kerrigan as a Ghost. Turning her Zerg was... okay... I guess. That everyone kept falling for her crap in the expansion got old. Quickly.

[Pronounceable]

Plus she has a cooler name that doesn't sound like something your granny's best mate is called.

That IS the best part, actually. Wait till you hear the turrets' voice.

And a vs would be stupid. From what I gather, SHODAN is the Saw guy (not seen the movies, but there's gotta be someone doing all that traps and murder and whatnot) of AIs, while GLaDOS is a geeky scientist girl gone mad. Both are weirdos, but they don't compare.

[Geno9999]

Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario

1: He's funny. "Bleh bleh bleh BLECK!"
2: He's wearing a top hat! And a monocle. monocle= Lawful Evil.
3: He's a sane, smart, and evil. Bowser... pick any two.

[theMycon]

GLaDOS isn't much of a schemer, and her combat abilities are limited to putting gun turrets here and there, with the occasional stationary rocket turret.

SHODAN makes combat cyborgs and bio-engineered killing machines.
Durandal (I forget if he actually did this, but he seems the type) uses the teleporter to rip away a chunk of the enemy's control deck, and replace it with an asteroid travelling the other direction at a fair chunk of C.

[Triaxx]

Nonsense, GLADoS wins instantly. SHODAN is so distracted by the Weighted Companion Cube it doesn't notice her gun turrets shooting out it's power source.

[Tengu]

I have nothing to contribute to this argument other than the following image of brain-hurting quality-

Gentlemen, BEHOLD! GLadOS-tan! (http://hoihoisan.deviantart.com/art/GLaDOS-tan-73920490)


Cute.

And yes, a SHODAN vs GlaDOS fight would be pointless - they simply are villains on much different scales.

[Rutee]

EDIT- I changed my mind. I submit Luca Blight as maybe not the best, but definitely a top contender for most deserving of hate and death.

Seconded. SQUEAL PIG! is too memorable.