The 10 Most Badass Videogame Villains

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I love videogames. But what I love most is videogames with vast stories. So in depth RPG's and Action-Advnture games are my favorites. What makes or breaks many of these games to me is not the heroes, but the villains. The villains are always more interesting and fun. Hell, I rock the Decepticon logo on my laptop cuz they are ultimately more awesome than the Autobots.

My list will include bad guys with real motives, backstories, and all out badassery so a few that frequently top lists such as these will not show up. I'm looking at you Bowser, Ganon, Dr. Wily, Mother Brain, Lavos, etc. All you Sephiroth fanboys may now weep as well. Sephiroth was not a great villain. He was an emo dousche with mommy issues and his one real badass act was actually a GOOD thing. I was glad Aeris was killed. Bitch was useless.

Reader beware. There is alot of spoilers for many games below. Also I can't stress enough that this is just MY personal opinion. Don't be offended if your favorite baddie isn't on the list below.

Now I shall start my list:

10. Dormin/Wander from Shadow of The Colossus

Why is this a double entry? Because it's one in the same. Kind of. You are the simultaneously the hero and the villain the same time, but not at the same time. Dormin is a God/Demon that tells Wander where he might come across the giant Colossi so he may slay them and awake his dead/comafied girlfriend. Of course, as he kills each beast they emit "black tentacles" and Wander repeatedly wakes up in the castle where Dormin's voice comes thru the skylights. Wander also keeps looking worse after each kill. He goes from a healthy young man at the start to a almost looking zombified as he goes to take down the final Colossus.

After he kills the 16th and final Colossus he finds himself back in the castle again and he looks like hell. Some soliders storm in and bitchat him for coming to these "cursed lands" and the proceed to stab him with the sacred sword and this causes him to turn into a giant Colossus. One would think he has now taken Dormin's form.  Another thing to think about. These Colossi were just chilling in their little areas not doing anythng to anyone. Wander just comes along and kills these mythical giants one by one. This is like going out hunting, finding, and killing  Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Champ, Mokele Mbembe, El Chupacabra, the Mongolian Death Worm, etc. What a dick, but a least the girl came back to life.

9. Zeus from God of War II

Sure Zeus aided you in the original God of War but then you went and pissed him off. God job, Kratos. But aside from his anger at Kratos being totally deserved, Zeus takes it too far. First off, did he really feel the need to kill EVERYONE in Rhodes? Even the citizens of Rhodes who did nothing wrong!? Also, that was a pretty dick move by tricking Kratos to give up his powers into the Sword of Olympus. Of course, throughout the game and in Greek Mythology as a whole Zeus has never been a particulary kind lord.  His cruel enslavement of the Titans and other acts of cruelty to humans and other Gods point out this fact. His act of being a vilain is far from done as we will see what kind of crap he pulls in the final God of War game.

8. Wilhelm from Xenosaga I, II, and III

Speaking of God(s), we have Wilhelm here. While he isn't a God perse, he is the overseer of the "eternal recurrence" which essentially means he can reset all of time when things are getting too fucked up in the universe. He is ageless and has ties with Yeshua and Mary Magdalene, both of which are necessary in his plan to "hit the button." Of course, one is still around and the other needs to be reawoken. To achieve this the guy is the head of not only the "good" side of the fight, but is also the head of the "bad" side of the fight using an alias. Oh, and he is also the CEO of the organization that creates all new technology in the universe. He has his finger on the pulse so to say. He manipulates pretty much everything in the Universe except "U-DO" which is a wave form that is pretty much God that never changes even after the reset.

He also has the power to grant immortality after death. He has 4 of these minions which are called "testaments" who work to help him achieve the eternal recurrence. All 4 of them have close ties to the main heroes of the game. This further shows his manipulative powers over people.

The problem with the Xeno series is that there is many great villains from the games. I chose Wilhelm for this slot because there was 3 games to flesh out his character whereas my other candidate for this spot; Krelian from Xenogears only had one and was more of a "for himself" purpose than a bad guy even tho he was a bastard. Even Wilhelm's motives are good, if you're not living during the reset that is. Still, his way of manipulating everyone and getting what he wants whatever the cost makes him a badass, even if it's a very unassuming one.

7. Jaquio from Ninja Gaiden I & II

Ninja Gaiden was one of the first games I played with a real storyline and he was the first villain I was wowed with. Also stands up even to today's standards in my opinion.  His creepy introduction in the first game when he turns your father into the Masked Devil and then obtaining the statues and laughing all the while. Plus that castle. That castle was epic. Just standing there in the middle of the fucking Amazon. He eventually gets killed by Ryu but his plan on summoning the demon comes to fruition and ironically, the demon's death brings him back to life. Oh he is also referred by the Government as "Guardia de Mieux" or Guardian of Men. That's a laugh.

In the sequel, the game tricks you into thinking the dark  leader of the world of chaos, Ashtar is the main antogonist. Only he dies and it's revealed that Jaquio is still alive and all this plotting to get everyone to a brand new castle(with a skull shaped front no less!) to awaken yet another demon and have Jaquio use it's power to become a supreme ruler of both our world and the world of chaos. Of course, he's killed before he can summon the demon, but his blood summons and brings him back to life again before he's finally brought down for good. Lots of villains come back in sequels, very few are given the backstroy of badassitude that Jaquio had.

6. Darth Malak from Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic

Now this dude was metal. Well, part of him. He lost his lower mandible when he took a lightsaber to the chin. Fucker lived and got a metal prosthetic jaw. I've never been a Star Wars fan but this game was sick and this was an awesome villain. Of course, in typical Star Wars theme he was a Jedi that turned to the Dark Side of the Force. You character is a former Sith Lord who had his memory wiped and Malak was actually your apprentice. He blockaded an entire planet after blowing up a ship, he kills countless Jedi's in an attack, abducts a talented Jedi and turns her to the dark side through torture, and finally kills 2 more Jedi's in particualry cruel ways.

The only way to take him down was a one-on-one with his old master in which he stood no chance, even tho he believed he was stronger. Typical ego-maniac!

5. The Masked Bishop/Luc from Suikoden III

This whiny bitch goes back through even the first 2 suikoden games. You first meet him as an 11 year old kid who feels the appropriate thing to do to visitors is to summon a goddamn Golem and then joke about it afterwards. What an adorable little scamp, eh? Of course he's a on your side as one of the 108 recruits. His job was to stand there in front of the tablet so you can see who you've recruited. He also sucked as a fighter.

Flash forward 3 years and in Suikoden II  he's a 14 year old with an attitude. He feels he's forced to join your group by Leknaat and he just bitches and whines throughout the entire game until you get to a particular war battle and all of a suden he's all ready to fight. Why? Because his "brother" Sasarai is leading a Harmonian unit helping out Luca Blight's Highland army. What does Luc do? He only goes out and completely destroys Sasarai's unit all by himself revealing he is the owner of the True Wind Rune. He then pretty much returns to being a dick who doesn't feel like doing shit for the rest of the game and standing in front of his stupid tablet. But that one scene was pretty badass. It was also a precursor of things to come.

Suikoden III takes place years after II and for the first half of the game you are occassionally met by this character The Masked Bishop and 3 cronies, one of who was in the first 2 games as a summon baddie(Yuber). This guy tricks Harmonia into accepting him as a bishop and gaining support to start a war with neighboring countries. He gives the ok for Yuber to assassinate a Grasslands chief and frames one of the Heroes for it, he himself kills a helpless Karayan villager in cold blood in front of the victim's children, his army annihilates another village, etc. He then loses his mask about halfway through revelaing his true identity as Luc. Thereon he only gets worse by painfully removing the True Runes of his brother Sasarai(and traumatizing him by revealing their origin), Hugo and then Geddoe. The Geddoe scene in ruthless in particular because True Rules grant agelessness. Geddoe states he is actually very old and when Luc forcefully removes his True Lightning Rune he laughs that he wont have long to live and then leaves the group a "present" in the form of unending monsters.

In the end his plan fails. He had 2 plans really. One was that he holds the True Wind Rune and pretty much hates being stuck with it and even has the balls to say to Geddoe that he's had it for  "32 long years." In short, Luc wants to kill himself but the runes are somewhat seen as "part of God" so that would be killing part of God and thus shit would get destroyed. Lots of shit. Luc also wants to save humanity from being enslaved by the runes. he's just kind of warped. His death is memorable in it's sadness more than anything and it brings down the badass level a little but expands the character a lot. Luc and Sarah dying together is a very memorable scene and it made Luc see what he was doing was wrong. Still doesn''t take away the shit he did in the past. I should also add that I'm glad Suikoden II's stats didn't transfer to III because I built up Luc big time in II and pretty much owned Luca Blight and the Beast Rune with Luc alone.

4. Albedo from Xenosaga I, II, and III

Albedo, in alchemical terms means "the whiteness" and it's ironic because he's such a dark individual. It should also go to note that Xenosaga had the characters Albedo, Rubedo, Nigredo, and Citrine which are all alchemical terms and the characters had the colors to go with it. Alot of this game came from Carl Jung philosophies and these names all show that.

Albedo the character is just freaking insane. However, he is at his worst in the first game. He rips off his arm and then his head in roder to make a point and scare the shit out of a little girl. The same girl in which there is implied rape, which was censored for the U.S. version of the game of course. There was nothing sexual about the scene at all, he was literally reaching his hand into her abdomen to extract "Y-data" left by her creator. But she moans as if she's being raped and Albedo's comments sure make it sexual. It goes with his character as he refers to her as an angel and has corpses of other "realians" all over the place.

His other transgressions include torturing his one-time conjoined twin Rubedo. You see, Albedo, Rubedo, Nigredo, and Citrine are lab creations and Albedo and Rubedo were attached at birth and it plays into Rubedo's psyche. Each one of the children had a special power and Albedo's was regeneration. After learning he cannot die he pretty much flips out fearing he will end up all alone because Rubedo and Nigredo will die one day. He becomes even more crazy after being nailed with U-DO waves because Rubedo screwed up.

His psychoticness is only matched by Kefka and his laugh is just frighteningly crazy. Even after he loses his regeneration abilities and Rubedo kills him at the end of  Xenosaga II, Wilhelm resurrects him as the White Testament. He then does things to help Wilhelm's plan before eventually helping destroy his creator; Dmitri Yuriev, but also Nigredo in the process. His body in the form of a testament is also lost and he returns to be part of Rubedo. Yet another badass villain who's character development kind of softens him but you still gotta give him due for his role as a real bad guy in the first 2 games.

3. Jowy Atreides from Suikoden II

Jowy is probably the most interesting guy on this entire list and is generally one that doesn't appear on many villain lists. Mainly because you grow to like the guy. He's the hero's best friend for a quarter of the game and they have been lifelong best friends. However, this isn't your typical betrayal we've seen before. Jowy's reasons were so good it makes YOU look lke you're on the bad side of a war. Plus he acquired the Black Sword Rune while you, as Riou, acquired The Bright Shield Rune. The holders of these runes are always bound to fight with each other. He also happens to be the final boss of the game. Which many people tend to forget because he's often overshadowed in this game by a much worse villain.

We can't overlook the bad deeds Jowy has done though. This includes, killing one king and plotting the death of another, murdering the mayor of the biggest city in the country, laying siege to a city while also freeing the citizens of another city into that city knowing they'd fight each other for food and supplies, raising his army's morale by pretending to kill his wife. He also encourages you to jump off a cliff at the beginning of the game. Looking like a Rufus ShinRa clone once he becomes King of Highland really doesn't help his cause much either.

Jowy has always had this awesome redeeming quality about him in which you hated him for what he's done but understand his motives and know he's still a man with high morality. This scene is one of my favorites because the fact it happens so late in the game and you get to fight beside Jowy this one last time.

2. Kefka from Final Fantasy VI

Kefka is one crazy bastard. So crazy that he makes Albedo looks like a cool, calm, and collected individual. I think only Milton Bradley or Kanye West can achieve Kefka's level of crazy. He is the ultimate Final Fantasy villain, even though he looks stupid as hell in CG. Probably the only villain to actually achieve the goal of destroying the world! His other marks on the badass villain checklist include poisoning the drinking water of an entire town and laughing about it, killing General Leo, helping lead a raid on the Esper village which resulted in their deaths, enslaving Celes, and pushing Emporer Gestahl off the Floating Continent. After he successfully transformed the world into the World of Chaos people even buolt a goddamn tower to honor him! he was also imprisoned earlier in the game and got out of jail.

You can look at Emporer Gestahl as being one of the dumbest guys ever in a videogame because would you trust this guy as your right hand man? That being said, Gestahl had more or less the same plans Kefka did but he wasn't as ruthless or batshit crazy. Kefka also happened to be an endless quote machine. He has many awesome quotes that were whacky, off the wall, and disturbing. Some of his classic hits include:

"Wait he says! Do I look like a waiter?"

"You sound like chapters from a self-help booklet!"

"Run, run, or you'll be well done!"

"There's nothing like the sound of hundreds of voices screaming in unison"

"I don't like this little hamlet. Burn it!"

"Son of a submariner"

"I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate you!"

Kefka: "Triad! Your first victim has stepped forward! Show this useless old man your true power"!
Kefka: [after killing Emperor Gestahl with the Waring Triad] "Oh dear... Well, I guess I was a bit hasty in calling you a useless old man before... NOW you're useless!"

Kefka: "Edgar, you pinhead! Why do you have to live in the middle of nowhere? These recon jobs are the pits!"
Kefka: [to a couple of soldiers who are with him] "Ahem! There's *sand* on my boots"

What a guy. What really bothers me with him is that he just had to take the final form of an angel. That's so played out. But hey, he did do it before Sephiroth. 

1. Luca Blight from Suikoden II

So we've reached #1 one and Luca is number one for quite a few reasons. He likes to kill things. Your soldiers, his soldiers, his family, whatever. He wants to kill whomever strays in his path. He has no real political agenda to do what he does other than he's a little fucked up in the head after a traumatizing childhood incident. He doesn't like his father to say the least. Thinks he's a gigantic coward for letting his wife get raped as he ran away.

What really sets Luca apart from everyone else on this list is that he has no magical powers or is a super being or anything. He's just one pissed off human that is strong as hell. The final fight with Luca is legendary in videogame circles. He had to be lured into a trap that was in majority laid by Jowy Atreides to dispose of him, 3 teams of 6 members, countless archers, and a 1 on 1 duel with Riou just to end his reign of terror. As stated before, Jowy is the main antagonist of the game, but Luca is the one always remembered. Even though he dies only roughly 70% into the game

In that time he spent in the game his list of attrocities dwarfs everyone else on this list except for maybe Kefka. In fact, I'm going to go list form for him.

- In the game's intro he is literally sitting on top of a mountain of dead bodies and loving it. (this is where the picture I used for him is from).

- He doesn't like that a treaty has been signed to stop a war so he and his men have an entire unit of CHILDREN killed just so they can blame the other side for breaking the treaty. This is also where Jowy convinces Riou to jump off a cliff to save themselves from being slaughtered.

- Burns down the village of Toto, killing everyone including Pilika's parents, rendering her mute.

- Murdered Pohl and set the Mercenary Fortress on fire.

- Orders that Mayor Granmeyer is killed after a surrender and then posts his severed head on a stake outside of the city.

- Orders that his best friend, General Solon Jhee is beheaded for failure in a war battle.

- Orders Jowy to assassinate Mayor Annabelle

- Sacrifices the city of Muse to the Beast Rune.

- Ruthlessly slaughters the Muse refugees at the Maltilda border.

- Has his father poisoned in a plan set up by Jowy. Laughs and taunts his dying father as he assumes the crown of the Highland. He really didn't care about being King. He just wanted Agares Blight dead for his own reasons.

- Of course, there's possibly his most famous scene, aside from his death scene...The slaughter in Ryube. He lined up the citizens and killed them one by one and of course burned the village down. But what sets this apart is Luca making one of the victims crawl around like a pig in an effort to spare her life. this resulting in the shout of  " DIE PIG!!!!"

Luca was by far the strongest member of the opposing army and his unit was damn near unkillable in war battles. The fact that it took such an elaborate plan and so many people just to kill a man with no superpowers is a feat in itself. The only bad thing about Luca is the fact that he isn't the final boss and his reign of king is so short before Jowy's plan takes effect and he's killed off.

What do you think his favorite band was? I'm pretty sure it was PIG DESTROYER.

Well, that's my top 10. There were many up for this list but these are the 10 I have decided on. Lots of god games coming out next year so this could be a completely diferent list. Not that I'd rewrite this or anything. That too much work as it is. If you wish to add your own 2 cents just comment below!