What characteristics distinguish a good villain? It’s a difficult topic to answer since fans’ preferences varies. It makes no difference if it is a video game, anime, movie, or whatever else. For example, highly evil individuals with no redeeming traits, such as Star Wars’ Emperor Palpatine, are entertaining to cheer against.
Darth Vader, in contrast to Palpatine, has a more convoluted history. He was born good, like Anakin Skywalker, but fell prey to the Dark Side. He eventually redeemed himself by stopping Emperor Palpatine and saving his son Luke. It’s also nice to witness full-circle narrative in villains. So, are there any video game counterparts to this dynamic character?
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1. Magus
In the beginning of Chrono Trigger, Magus is one of the bad guys. After Crono is pulled into the past, it seems like this evil mage is to blame for all the bad things that are happening in the world. Magus was the one who created Lavos, the real bad guy in the game, by calling him into being.
After this monster fight, Magus goes away for a while, but players can finally find him sitting on a cliff and thinking about what to do. They can fight him again to kill him, or they can get Magus to help them fix the problem he made.
2. Edea
Final Fantasy 8 is set up so that Edea will be the main bad guy. She is a witch who uses magic to run a whole country. To kill her, the main character, Squall, and his school, Balamb Garden, are hired.
Before giving up, Irving tries to pick on her during a parade. Later, it turns out that Edea was also under a spell from a much stronger witch named Ultimecia. Edea helped raise Squall and the other kids in a home when they were young, before their memories were erased.
READ: Get the most recent version of Amanda The Adventurer here.
3. Axel
Organization 13 is the main bad guy in the Kingdom Hearts series, and Axel is one of its members. Even though he’s always after Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2, it’s clear that Axel’s heart is hurting. Because he can see his friend Roxas in Sora. Roxas went away because Sora’s best friend was brought back to life.
At the end, Axel realizes how wrong he has been and gives his life to save Sora. Axel comes back in the sequels, even though it looks like he died at the end of the first movie. Axel even becomes a Keyblade Master, which is a big change from where he came from.
4. Bowser
Bowser is one of the most well-known bad guys in video games, so he doesn’t need to be introduced. In the Mario games, he is always trying to steal Princess Peach and take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser wasn’t playable until the many RPG spinoffs came out.
Bowser took Princess Peach hostage at the start of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, and Mario went after her. During the fight, a huge sword falls from the sky and takes over Bowser’s castle. Bowser and Mario work together from a command center to stop Smithy’s group of star-crazy maniacs.
In Metal Gear for the NES, Big Boss was the first bad guy to show up. He showed up in other games from time to time, but mostly to show that Solid Snake and his brothers were clones of him.Snake Eater was a prequel that took place during the Cold War in the 1960s.
Before he is forced to kill his boss, The Boss, and become Big Boss, Big Boss is just a student on a job. His fall into evil makes more sense than Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader, which makes Big Boss a much more likeable character.
6. Goro Akechi
Persona 5’s Goro Akechi starts the game as a Junior Detective helping the cops with the Phantom Thieves case. Eventually, he joins the main group for a short time, but it turns out that he was helping plan the whole Mind Palace problem in Japan all along. His turn is sudden, but he says it’s because he doesn’t have a father and other heavy things.
In the end, he does change his mind again, giving Joker and the others time to escape. In the expanded version of the game, he comes back to life as one of the Persona 5 Royal characters and can join more tasks, even though things went wrong.
7. Captain Qwark
Since the first Ratchet and Clank game came out for the PS2 in the early 2000s, a lot of time has passed. Most people may not remember this, but Captain Qwark was a straight-up bad guy in the first two games. Ratchet thought he was a hero, but it turned out that Qwark was helping Chairman Drek, who was a bad guy.
In the second Ratchet and Clank game, Qwark uses MegaCorp to make a product that tries to spread across the world. He does this so he can save the day, but Ratchet and Clank figure out what he’s up to along the way. Qwark finally changes his ways in the third game. Since then, he has been a good guy, even though he is still very greedy.
When Rockstar revealed that Red Dead Redemption 2 will be a prequel featuring villains, fans were divided. How could they humanize Dutch’s gang if they finally murder John Marston, the previous game’s hero?In this narrative, Arthur Morgan is the protagonist, and players may pick whether he is a merciless crook or one with a conscience.
In either case, the game will conclude with Arthur assisting John and his family in escaping Dutch’s gang. His sacrifice allows John to proceed in one of the most heartbreaking deaths in video game history.