Emet is beyond shadow of a doubt one of the best written antagonists imo. While you do have to go pretty far in FFXIV to reach him almost everyone would agree that it is worth it just for him alone. The fact that the expansion he debuted in is phenomenal is gravy
Best quotes too, everyone I know who’s played it knows about the spoon story and the pretzels sucking. I love that we were able to see how his story happened, well some of it anyways, in The Pre-sequel and even technically play as his body double.
That’s stupid, the body double you play as comes back in a DLC in BL3, also I find him relatable as I also have a fear of heights. Also Handsome Jack is the one who ends the game with a literal Vault symbol burned to his skin plus, you talk with him in the only significant DLC in the presequel to get the H-source back from Clappy, like the claptrap you play as IN that game.
Far Cry seems to have a problem with not giving the interesting characters enough screentime. Pagan Min is in Far Cry 4 for like 10 minutes and the rest of the game is with his less interesting lackeys.
Far Cry 5 did it best imo. Even if they weren't as interesting I think all the antagonists stood out on their own and it made the game more interesting overall
Anthony Hopkins won Best actor in Silence of the Lambs with an incredibly small bit of screen time. Sometimes it's good to keep your characters from overstaying their welcome.
Yup. It was a pretty dumb decision on their part to shuffle him out for the second, grindier half of the game. I don't even remember the second antagonist's name.
I know that bit is iconic (and for good reason), but I still think his whole rant at the beginning was my favorite part. From taunting you about how "you must have felt free up there, like a little bird" into explaining your reality now.
Ending with you running for your life while he's shooting shouting "RUN FOREST RUN". Haven't played the game in years at this point and that whole intro did one of the best jobs of setting up a batshit crazy villain I've seen to date.
Add the lore of his tribe, what he was originally supposed to be to them, and you have the recipe for some massive anticipation for the next encounter.
Gaunter O Dimm is top tier. I know it's based on an old Polish folk tale, but that whole dlc is some of the best storytelling in games. A lot better than the main quest even.
>! Dude, he's as bad as the institute, just on a smaller scale. He killed an influential harborman, and replaced them by (by his standards) essentially killing one of his own refugees. If you consider the Institute the antagonists of FO4 THEN DiM is the antagonist of Far Harbor. !<
Honestly it didn't start that way... It's a "Save the Commonwealth" playthrough. Save it... No matter what.
Tbh I've already murdered thousands, what's a few more? For the greater good.
Damn, yeah, every scene with Gant in AA was amazing. These seconds of silence before his dialog, such a simple technique, but so effective within the framework of the game.
I think I have to go with this one too.
Dutch is an incredibly fascinating character. At first he seems like a very knowledgeable individual, and wise beyond measure.
But the more time you spend with him the more you realize how he's just warping reality around him to suit his needs.
And lets not forget the fantastic performance by his actor.
IMHO, the most complex antagonist in the history of gaming. If he was a character in literature he'd be up there with Ahab. He's a dreamer, a crook, a father, charismatic, repugnant, fiercely loyal and a cutthroat traitor. I mean, he's all that and more.
If I had to boil it down I'd say that he's a survivor that desperately wants to be an idealist. I suppose that I see a bit of myself in him, if I'm honest - minus the bitter betrayals.
"I'm making the mother of all omelettes here Jack, can't fret over every little egg". Is honestly an incredible line. I know it's memed a lot, but the game has some genuinely outstanding dialogue at points and Senator Armstrong has become pretty iconic for some of his.
Into schemers, huh ?
Liquid Snake is probably my favourite schemer in gaming.
But I adore the pizazz-having villains in general. The kind that loves throwing on a show, behave larger then life as well as taunt the player. It’s the thing Hideki Kamiya does great - villains that have their way with words and basically poke fun at the player/player character’s abilities, which makes the player motivated to get better regardless of how much they fail, which always results in him mastering the game and its mechanics.
Honestly, Thor too. Very restrained psycho energy. Loved when he threatened Heimdall, who was shocked enough to stand down despite thinking himself the superior.
In terms of my favorite Antagonists in video games, I’d have to go with 2.
“Handsome Jack” from “Borderlands 2” because he’s such an entertaining villain and consistently with you and mocks and belittles you throughout the game throwing his wealth around and dismissing the lives of the people around you. He’s an entire presence.
And
“Kreia” from “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2”. The wisdom of her advice throughout the game and how she’s right about the hypocrisy of the Jedi order and attempts to guide you to think not just in ultimates but to deep search yourself really makes her a top tier character and because of her betrayal a top tier villain to me.
King Dedede
Might be a weird pick, but among Nintendo's vast collection of beloved characters, none of them even come close to Dedede's level of character growth.
Ganondorf will always be the incarnation of evil.
Bowser will fill whatever role suits the game he's in.
Samus's rogues gallery will come back over and over for nostalgia.
But Dedede is different. Kirby characters exist in a linear timeline. They change. They grow.
He started off as a greedy king that existed to be a badguy for Kirby.
Then he became a rival. He mimicked Kirby's abilities, learned to float and inhale, wanted to prove himself the better warrior.
Then he became a begrudging ally. Recognizing when shit hits the fan he needs to step up and help Kirby.
Now, he's his closest friend. He's protective of Kirby and when the next adventure begins you can be sure he'll be there. Sure, we still get boss fights against him, but they're almost exclusively mind-control scenarios.
I don't even really consider myself to be a particularly big Kirby fan. But damn it do I love that big sassy bastard and his big bonk.
Might be a bit of an odd pick, but I'm gonna say Master Xehanort from Kingdom Hearts. More specifically in Birth By Sleep. He wanted to start a second Keyblade War and summon the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts just to see what would happen after the dust was settled. It was simply a morbid curiosity. An insane pursuit of knowledge.
In Kingdom Hearts 3, his goal seemingly changed to harnessing the power of Kingdom Hearts itself to remake the universe in his own image. Much more clear goal in comparison, but also much more generic.
As for why the change, I'm honestly not sure.
the lore is so vast and time between birth by sleep and kingdom hearts 3 they probably forgot however birth by sleep is a prequel there is more then one version of Xehanort i fell like he split himself into a bunch of versions of himself in his pursuit of knowledge.
Ganon/Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda, every instalment. No matter if it’s a 2D sprite or his most recent appearance in Tears of the Kingdom, he commands a very intimidating presence that makes anybody shudder. He is pure evil and will stop at nothing to conquer the world. Calculating, patient, combat genius, a great organ player. What’s not to love?
* Gaunter O 'Dimm (The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone)
* Vaas (Far Cry 3)
* Scarecrow (Arkham Knight)
* Not sure if this qualifies: G Man (from Half Life series)
* Sword Saint Isshin Ashina ( rom Sekiro : Shadows Die Twice)
I seem to have a certain soft spot, for building up a protagonist strong to epic proportions, with experience that matches none, and then encounter a opponent that's just undefeatable. Sort of unstoppable force meets immovable object kind of situation. Gaunter O' Dimm and G Man are the best examples here.
Vaas has many reasons. A character that challenges your perception; is he truly a troubled multi-layered person, masking something beneath his behaviour, or is just batshit insane? Also, the interesting facts like he wasn't even meant to be an antagonist but just a small boss. Kind of makes you feel respect for the effort behind Vaas.
Scarecrow, was just damn good. Disappeared mid-game in the first series, like a small problem to be tossed aside, and then comes back in the third to wreck chaos unparalleled even to Joker himself (talking of Arkham series here), and nearly beat the Batman.
Sword Saint Isshin Ashina, made me feel such respect for an enemy I never felt before. Nay, more an opponent. He's truly fascinated with Sekiro, and wants a duel to death even when he's revived to his prime after his death. The lines "Come, Sekiro!" at the beginning have been etched in my mind, like he's testing him. He doesn't want Sekiro to lose and die, he wants to see Sekiro defeat him, but still doesn't hold back.
its gotta be Sephiroth.
I've never wanted to beat a game so bad to give that guy what he deserved. like, that shit was personal. I'm sure there are other characters in other games that do the same thing or similar, but the way it was since in FF7 was special.
Monokuma from Danganronpa
No Spoilers - Sadistic teddy bear who takes over a school and forces the students to kill each other for his enjoyment. Brian Beacock always does an excellent job portraying the deranged yet hilarious monster.
MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!! Seriously, play Danganronpa blind, it’s a mystery game.
>!Obviously my REAL favourite is Junko Enoshima, who IS Monokuma, so it counts. She took over the world because she was bored, or I suppose she doesn’t feel anything and therefore needs people to feel that despair she feels. Her multiple personalities and lore behind literally corrupting students to kill themselces, mutilate themselves as well as kill their loved ones is disturbing as heck. Like, the how of what she did isn’t fully explained, but it didn’t really need to, the results speak for themselves. She is an evil genius, and is the perfect foil to our heroes’ desire to seek out hope. Oh, and of course Amanda Celine Miller and Erin Fitzgerald do an excellent job in voicing her.!<
William Birkin (Resident Evil 2)
Jack Baker (Resident Evil 7)
David (The Last of Us, but more in a “he’s my favorite because I hate him so much” kind of way)
Dutch Van Der Linde (Read Dead Redemption 2)
Caius Ballad from FFXIII-2. Everything he says is poetic, but it isn’t in an annoying way. He’s the games main villain, but you have to come to understand why he does what he does. He’s a guardian of a fortune teller, and everytime this fortune teller sees a vision of the future, she loses part of her life, eventually dies young but is reincarnated. He’s seen her die countless times and be reborn and he wants to stop that.
Darth Vader in LEGO Star Wars: the complete Saga. I think that was the one. In the scene where Luke loses his hand, instead of saying “Luke, I am your father”, Vader brings out a picture of himself and Luke’s pregnant mother and makes a loving gesture to it.
[there it is](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvX3MaFB9TI&pp=ygUqbGVnbyBzdGFyIHdhcnMgbHVrZSBpIGFtIHlvdXIgZmF0aGVyIHNjZW5l)
Though a lesser known one, I choose Buzzo from *Lisa RPG*. He's written so well, his whole behavior seemed as human as it can get in a game. I genuinely hated him for what he did, even though I could completely empathize with him.
I would definitely recommend more people to play Lisa RPG. It's so worth it.
Pavel in Metro Last Light. A very charismatic guy who initially fooled me in my first play through up until his betrayal and made me swear I was gonna kill him in the end (I didn’t but it was a very last minute decision)
The Calypso twins in Borderlands 3. I realised they were good designed enemies at the point that I actually startet to hate them. I never before actually hated a fictional character.
They wrecked shit and messed with the fandoms beloved characters while being annoying the whole time.
Plus they somehow antagonized social media.
Megumi Kitaniji and Joshua from The World Ends With You. The twists and turns of that game were so good and them culminating in the revelation right before the final boss blew my 17 y/o mind.
I've always like Saren in Mass Effect.
I feel whilst he's obviously a dick, he's kinda right, at least at that point in the story. The Reapers are an insurmountable threat to all life in the universe. They've wiped it out hundreds of thousands of times.
How was he meant to know you can actually just shoot them till they're dead?
This might be a bit of unpopular opinion but I would say:
Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5
Most of the time when the topic of Villains and Far Cry games come up, Vaas from Far Cry 3 is brought up and I agree as he is the best deranged psychopath role I’ve seen in a video game
But there is a charismatic thing going on with Joseph Seed, a cult leader with such a strong mental gravitational towards everyone he has recruited. His followers literally jump into the blades of your helicopter after you try to fly him out during his arrest to stop you from taking him.
And what does he do ? Looks you right in the eyes in the middle of a crashed helicopter with absolute calm like he owns the time and space & tells you “I told you God wont let you take me”
Not to romanticize cults and brainwashing but it was so well made to the point where Im almost certain he wasn’t exploiting the followers of his cult like most do, he genuinely believed in his agenda.
A Man chooses
A Slave Obeys!
Seriously, I love Andrew Ryan -> even more so after the Bioshock Book that expands on his backstory.
I love how its just Ayn Rands Objectivism personified (even his name being an acronym).
The Ideological field of anarcho-capitalistic socities that cant sustain themselves. Litellary Rapture havong the issue that it allows the poorest workingclass to be treated no better than cattle while they are the ones maintaining the base of the city, the ones that keep the water from gushing in and swallowing the city...
without getting hugely political: these days more than ever it captures the risks of billionaires with the dream of excentric mars colonies
What's his name, the demon leading the church of the holy mother in la pucelle tactics. Dude just wanted a home he could live in piece in. Went about it the only way he knew how. Blame the humans who slaughtered his family iirc.
Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3 !
(okay no, no seriously don't hit me, it was a joke!)
I'm gonna go with Ouroboros, a sort of crime syndicate from the Trails JRPG series. We have so many games now and still no one really knows what their true plans are or even who some of their members are.
Each time you face them they are insanely strong and after defeating them, they will go on and talk about how "it was all according to plan!" which sounds like terrible writing but i find it intriguing to get to know them more and more by every game.
Ouroboros seems to be intentionally a group that is there to distract the heroes rather than to stop them. This is something I noticed after the three arcs.
It’s a recent one but I love Raphael from bg3. He absolutely chews the scenery in the best way possible and he sings his own theme song like a proper villain.
Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, I know there are like a million versions of him but I genuinely love him.
Yggdrasil from Tales of Symphonia, there’s something almost tragic about him and he feels so… human (pun intended)
I would dive into details but I want to avoid spoilers
Eric Golem Jr. - Rocket Power: Beach Bandits
BROOOO
>!The kid created a bajillion robots, including one that looks similar enough to him he could call it his dad because he wanted to set up his own private resort. And to do that, and what made him the made villain, was by trying to steal ALL THE SAND FROM THE SHORE LMAOOO!<
How can you beat that??
Handsome jack in Borderlands 2 or GlAdOs from portal 2. Both characters made me laugh so hard while they asked me to kill myself. They both understood that making you villain complex enough to both be loved, and despised is the way to go, makes the game so much more memorable when you can decide if you hate the bad guy, or kinda wanna be their friend
Nightmare
Kirby's Dreamland (NES)
A Chaos God which is endless and forever lurking in the shadows.
After all your struggles and fights you gain the power of the Star Rod to face off against this other worldly all evil concept of Nightmares, and only stop him for now. Because asking as there is light there is dark, as long as there are dream Nightmare shall exist.
Dr M from Sly 3. Your deceased father's brainy partner in their crime circle, who is hellbent on breaking into a vault of mass riches your ancestors have amassed for thousands of years. Buys the entire island and fortifies it heavily with loads of mutated monsters and weaponry. He's gone cynical over the years, unable to break in, where he is willing to kill his lackies if they even screw up a task such as resetting security codes. And with him knowing how the ancestors have a code or honor, had planted a seed a doubt inside your current teams brains of the operations.
I think this guy deserves so much more credit than currently given. While people overall viewed the 2nd game to be the best, I think Dr M made the 3rd game evenly matched on favorability my opinion.
Sovereign from me, handsome jack from bl2 and Gaunter o dimm from the witcher 3 dlc
Gaunter O'Dimm was fucking perfect.
He was absolutely terrifying, brilliantly written character
When Gaunter slowly pushed that spoon into the guys eye socket... he was so nonchalant about it.
Haytham Kenway from Assassin's Creed III
He was such a well written character, and my eyes were glued on him everytime. I need to play rogue
"How about them apples" One if my favorite achievements
I laughed my ass off when that achievement popped.
Emet Selch I mean I've said this before but every time this question gets asked I'm going to say the same thing.
Best Final Fantasy antagonist by far.
Emet is beyond shadow of a doubt one of the best written antagonists imo. While you do have to go pretty far in FFXIV to reach him almost everyone would agree that it is worth it just for him alone. The fact that the expansion he debuted in is phenomenal is gravy
I didn't expect this to be here but I'm so glad it is
Love seeing Emet at the top, this is always my answer when I see this question. A complex and very well written antagonist.
As you should. And I'll agree with you any time I see it.
Came to make sure he was on the list. So much you can say about him, and he and hythlo live rent free in my head. Edit: grammar fix
Remember us, remember that we once lived.
Night City
God damn corpos. Ruined our city, choom.
A Happy Ending? For folks like us? Wrong City, Wrong People.
Night city perfectly encapsulates the joy of living in Poland /s
Oh boy.
Handsome Jack is pretty cool
Best quotes too, everyone I know who’s played it knows about the spoon story and the pretzels sucking. I love that we were able to see how his story happened, well some of it anyways, in The Pre-sequel and even technically play as his body double.
There's a fan theory that you actually play as Handsome Jack
That’s stupid, the body double you play as comes back in a DLC in BL3, also I find him relatable as I also have a fear of heights. Also Handsome Jack is the one who ends the game with a literal Vault symbol burned to his skin plus, you talk with him in the only significant DLC in the presequel to get the H-source back from Clappy, like the claptrap you play as IN that game.
Ditto Handsome Jack
Glados from Portal
Oh. Vaas from Far Cry 3. He is such a good antagonist. There's not too many antagonists that i still think about years later.
Most impressive about Vaas is that he made such a huge impression on so many people and he has what, 15, 20 mn of screentime?
Far Cry seems to have a problem with not giving the interesting characters enough screentime. Pagan Min is in Far Cry 4 for like 10 minutes and the rest of the game is with his less interesting lackeys. Far Cry 5 did it best imo. Even if they weren't as interesting I think all the antagonists stood out on their own and it made the game more interesting overall
Anthony Hopkins won Best actor in Silence of the Lambs with an incredibly small bit of screen time. Sometimes it's good to keep your characters from overstaying their welcome.
The fact that he's not even the main boss in FC3 says a lot about his character and infamy.
Yup. It was a pretty dumb decision on their part to shuffle him out for the second, grindier half of the game. I don't even remember the second antagonist's name.
“Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?”
I know that bit is iconic (and for good reason), but I still think his whole rant at the beginning was my favorite part. From taunting you about how "you must have felt free up there, like a little bird" into explaining your reality now. Ending with you running for your life while he's shooting shouting "RUN FOREST RUN". Haven't played the game in years at this point and that whole intro did one of the best jobs of setting up a batshit crazy villain I've seen to date. Add the lore of his tribe, what he was originally supposed to be to them, and you have the recipe for some massive anticipation for the next encounter.
Liquid Snake #IIIIII SEEE YOUUUUU
MGS has the best antagonists, Ocelot is my favourite.
Surely you meant to say, Revolver Ocelot, Revolver Ocelot?
BROTHERRRR!!!
Gaunter O'Dimm.
Gaunter O Dimm is top tier. I know it's based on an old Polish folk tale, but that whole dlc is some of the best storytelling in games. A lot better than the main quest even.
Gaunter O Dimm is universal devil, like the one from Faust.
I'm still hoping he makes another appearance in Witcher 4, seems like he's not done in the story.
I've got a couple: GLaDOS(Portal), Leshy(Inscryption), Grey Mann(Team Fortress 2), DiMA(Fallout 4), The Dealer(Buckshot Roulette), and Damon Gant(Ace Attorney)
Is DiMA an antogonist? He felt more like a quest giver to me. I suppose I sided with him tbh actually.
>! Dude, he's as bad as the institute, just on a smaller scale. He killed an influential harborman, and replaced them by (by his standards) essentially killing one of his own refugees. If you consider the Institute the antagonists of FO4 THEN DiM is the antagonist of Far Harbor. !<
I'm playing it now, already sided with DiMA ages ago lol I might side with Institute too. Both are "for the greater good" hahaha
An evil playthrough, huh? I can respect that.
Honestly it didn't start that way... It's a "Save the Commonwealth" playthrough. Save it... No matter what. Tbh I've already murdered thousands, what's a few more? For the greater good.
*"I can't believe I >!murdered and replaced someone.!< I feel terrible. Wait, I can fix this. Let's >!murder and replace someone.!<"* DiMA logic.
scrolled too far to find GLaDOS..
Damn, yeah, every scene with Gant in AA was amazing. These seconds of silence before his dialog, such a simple technique, but so effective within the framework of the game.
Leshy constantly cheating is so fucking annoying in a good way lol
Sovereign from Mass Effect.
Kefka Palazzo
Sylens and (fuck)Ted Faro
Dutch van der Linde
I think I have to go with this one too. Dutch is an incredibly fascinating character. At first he seems like a very knowledgeable individual, and wise beyond measure. But the more time you spend with him the more you realize how he's just warping reality around him to suit his needs. And lets not forget the fantastic performance by his actor.
But, but….he has a plan.
Agree. Too much charisma and reminds me of my grandpa so I have a biased enjoyment of him on top of it.
IMHO, the most complex antagonist in the history of gaming. If he was a character in literature he'd be up there with Ahab. He's a dreamer, a crook, a father, charismatic, repugnant, fiercely loyal and a cutthroat traitor. I mean, he's all that and more. If I had to boil it down I'd say that he's a survivor that desperately wants to be an idealist. I suppose that I see a bit of myself in him, if I'm honest - minus the bitter betrayals.
Ganondorf (WW) Though I really liked the TotK version as well.
WW is my favorite Ganon, too. He's almost sympathetic. Almost.
I always liked Sephiroth and Genesis
It's unironically Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance.
"I'm making the mother of all omelettes here Jack, can't fret over every little egg". Is honestly an incredible line. I know it's memed a lot, but the game has some genuinely outstanding dialogue at points and Senator Armstrong has become pretty iconic for some of his.
Albert Wesker Karl Heisenberg Mr. Scratch (from American Nightmare specifically) Todd Howard
Todd Lololol 😂
Into schemers, huh ? Liquid Snake is probably my favourite schemer in gaming. But I adore the pizazz-having villains in general. The kind that loves throwing on a show, behave larger then life as well as taunt the player. It’s the thing Hideki Kamiya does great - villains that have their way with words and basically poke fun at the player/player character’s abilities, which makes the player motivated to get better regardless of how much they fail, which always results in him mastering the game and its mechanics.
For a more recent one, Odin in God of War Ragnarok was excellent. Nothing like what I expected and all the better for it.
Honestly, Thor too. Very restrained psycho energy. Loved when he threatened Heimdall, who was shocked enough to stand down despite thinking himself the superior.
Oh man, they did Odin sooo well.
I'm waiting for the PC release.
The VA was absolutely incredible.
Practical incarnation from Planescape Torment
Deionarra's story still gets to me.
Emet Selch of FFXIV
Kain from Soul Reaver!
Remake soul reaver and legacy of kain!
Pagan Min, I dunno, he was just an over the top fellow. Lived listening to him rant about who the hell keeps lighting all those candles.
In terms of my favorite Antagonists in video games, I’d have to go with 2. “Handsome Jack” from “Borderlands 2” because he’s such an entertaining villain and consistently with you and mocks and belittles you throughout the game throwing his wealth around and dismissing the lives of the people around you. He’s an entire presence. And “Kreia” from “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2”. The wisdom of her advice throughout the game and how she’s right about the hypocrisy of the Jedi order and attempts to guide you to think not just in ultimates but to deep search yourself really makes her a top tier character and because of her betrayal a top tier villain to me.
Vergil from Devil May Cry 3. I like it when Villains are an actual challenge and threat to me.
Wario
The pinnacle of what a fat, greedy American pig like me should strive to be.
WARIO CHEATS!
MGS3 The Boss
King Dedede Might be a weird pick, but among Nintendo's vast collection of beloved characters, none of them even come close to Dedede's level of character growth. Ganondorf will always be the incarnation of evil. Bowser will fill whatever role suits the game he's in. Samus's rogues gallery will come back over and over for nostalgia. But Dedede is different. Kirby characters exist in a linear timeline. They change. They grow. He started off as a greedy king that existed to be a badguy for Kirby. Then he became a rival. He mimicked Kirby's abilities, learned to float and inhale, wanted to prove himself the better warrior. Then he became a begrudging ally. Recognizing when shit hits the fan he needs to step up and help Kirby. Now, he's his closest friend. He's protective of Kirby and when the next adventure begins you can be sure he'll be there. Sure, we still get boss fights against him, but they're almost exclusively mind-control scenarios. I don't even really consider myself to be a particularly big Kirby fan. But damn it do I love that big sassy bastard and his big bonk.
Hermaeus Mora
Jetstream Sam on Metal Gear Rising for sure.
Luca Blight from Suikoden 2
Might be a bit of an odd pick, but I'm gonna say Master Xehanort from Kingdom Hearts. More specifically in Birth By Sleep. He wanted to start a second Keyblade War and summon the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts just to see what would happen after the dust was settled. It was simply a morbid curiosity. An insane pursuit of knowledge. In Kingdom Hearts 3, his goal seemingly changed to harnessing the power of Kingdom Hearts itself to remake the universe in his own image. Much more clear goal in comparison, but also much more generic. As for why the change, I'm honestly not sure.
the lore is so vast and time between birth by sleep and kingdom hearts 3 they probably forgot however birth by sleep is a prequel there is more then one version of Xehanort i fell like he split himself into a bunch of versions of himself in his pursuit of knowledge.
Jack Of Blades in Fable
Ganon/Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda, every instalment. No matter if it’s a 2D sprite or his most recent appearance in Tears of the Kingdom, he commands a very intimidating presence that makes anybody shudder. He is pure evil and will stop at nothing to conquer the world. Calculating, patient, combat genius, a great organ player. What’s not to love?
Motherfucker strolls into the Door of Time and **laughs** in Link's face. Thanks for doing all the work for me, kid. See you in seven years. 😈
The Turks from Final Fantasy 7. They’re cool cats, have great theme music, and Reno and Rude really care about each other.
Halo 343 Guilty Spark
Caius Ballad
King Deedee
Gotta be Big Smoke
* Gaunter O 'Dimm (The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone) * Vaas (Far Cry 3) * Scarecrow (Arkham Knight) * Not sure if this qualifies: G Man (from Half Life series) * Sword Saint Isshin Ashina ( rom Sekiro : Shadows Die Twice) I seem to have a certain soft spot, for building up a protagonist strong to epic proportions, with experience that matches none, and then encounter a opponent that's just undefeatable. Sort of unstoppable force meets immovable object kind of situation. Gaunter O' Dimm and G Man are the best examples here. Vaas has many reasons. A character that challenges your perception; is he truly a troubled multi-layered person, masking something beneath his behaviour, or is just batshit insane? Also, the interesting facts like he wasn't even meant to be an antagonist but just a small boss. Kind of makes you feel respect for the effort behind Vaas. Scarecrow, was just damn good. Disappeared mid-game in the first series, like a small problem to be tossed aside, and then comes back in the third to wreck chaos unparalleled even to Joker himself (talking of Arkham series here), and nearly beat the Batman. Sword Saint Isshin Ashina, made me feel such respect for an enemy I never felt before. Nay, more an opponent. He's truly fascinated with Sekiro, and wants a duel to death even when he's revived to his prime after his death. The lines "Come, Sekiro!" at the beginning have been etched in my mind, like he's testing him. He doesn't want Sekiro to lose and die, he wants to see Sekiro defeat him, but still doesn't hold back.
Xenoblade 3 - N FF6 - Kefka Baldurs Gate 2 - Irenicus
its gotta be Sephiroth. I've never wanted to beat a game so bad to give that guy what he deserved. like, that shit was personal. I'm sure there are other characters in other games that do the same thing or similar, but the way it was since in FF7 was special.
Joseph Seed from FC 5
Monokuma from Danganronpa No Spoilers - Sadistic teddy bear who takes over a school and forces the students to kill each other for his enjoyment. Brian Beacock always does an excellent job portraying the deranged yet hilarious monster. MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!! Seriously, play Danganronpa blind, it’s a mystery game. >!Obviously my REAL favourite is Junko Enoshima, who IS Monokuma, so it counts. She took over the world because she was bored, or I suppose she doesn’t feel anything and therefore needs people to feel that despair she feels. Her multiple personalities and lore behind literally corrupting students to kill themselces, mutilate themselves as well as kill their loved ones is disturbing as heck. Like, the how of what she did isn’t fully explained, but it didn’t really need to, the results speak for themselves. She is an evil genius, and is the perfect foil to our heroes’ desire to seek out hope. Oh, and of course Amanda Celine Miller and Erin Fitzgerald do an excellent job in voicing her.!<
KEFKA from FF3. If only for the theme music.
There seems to be an issue with your list. Handsome jack isn’t on there.
Andrew Ryan
One of them is Ghaleon from LSSC and LEBC.
Higgs Monaghan in Death Stranding. Because he's hot. 😂
Shodan
Raul Menendez would also be a strong contender
Gary Oak
Vaas from Far cry 3. He just stole every scene he was in.
Vaas comes to mind.
Dr Naferious!
Savathun. Hive God of Deception. Always such a cool character to interact with.
When she came in for that final battle I knew shit was real then.
Gravemind, from the original Halo trilogy.
William Birkin (Resident Evil 2) Jack Baker (Resident Evil 7) David (The Last of Us, but more in a “he’s my favorite because I hate him so much” kind of way) Dutch Van Der Linde (Read Dead Redemption 2)
Jack baker from re7, i feel like you dont see him much but damn is he a good villain
Odin from God of war Ragnarok
Not sure if this counts as antagonist but The Boss from MGS3..
Caius Ballad from FFXIII-2. Everything he says is poetic, but it isn’t in an annoying way. He’s the games main villain, but you have to come to understand why he does what he does. He’s a guardian of a fortune teller, and everytime this fortune teller sees a vision of the future, she loses part of her life, eventually dies young but is reincarnated. He’s seen her die countless times and be reborn and he wants to stop that.
Lord Ghirahim!
Can't believe Sephiroth hasn't been mentioned yet.
Sephiroth isn’t even the best antagonist in his own game.
He's a classic gaming villain and easily one of the most popular for decades.
I think the Remake series has elevated him so far. Excited to see how it pans out in part 3.
Did the 2nd one hit pc yet? I ain't buying no PlayStation to play final fantasy. 😂
Darth Vader in LEGO Star Wars: the complete Saga. I think that was the one. In the scene where Luke loses his hand, instead of saying “Luke, I am your father”, Vader brings out a picture of himself and Luke’s pregnant mother and makes a loving gesture to it. [there it is](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fvX3MaFB9TI&pp=ygUqbGVnbyBzdGFyIHdhcnMgbHVrZSBpIGFtIHlvdXIgZmF0aGVyIHNjZW5l)
probably either ridley or the ender dragon.
Though a lesser known one, I choose Buzzo from *Lisa RPG*. He's written so well, his whole behavior seemed as human as it can get in a game. I genuinely hated him for what he did, even though I could completely empathize with him. I would definitely recommend more people to play Lisa RPG. It's so worth it.
Pavel in Metro Last Light. A very charismatic guy who initially fooled me in my first play through up until his betrayal and made me swear I was gonna kill him in the end (I didn’t but it was a very last minute decision)
The Company (Lethal Company)
Gaunter o' dim The illusive man General Shepherd Handsome Jack
Clockwork from Sly Cooper. Giant, immortal robo owl. Yes please
Jin from Xenoblade 2. A tragic villain, one created and shaped by the cruelty of the world.
Antasma, Mario & Luigi Dream Team
Eric Sparrow from Tony Hawk Underground. He deepfaked himself into your helicopter jump video in 2003.
Poseidon (God of War) Aesthetically, he is fantastic.
The Calypso twins in Borderlands 3. I realised they were good designed enemies at the point that I actually startet to hate them. I never before actually hated a fictional character. They wrecked shit and messed with the fandoms beloved characters while being annoying the whole time. Plus they somehow antagonized social media.
Eric Sparrow hands down
Megumi Kitaniji and Joshua from The World Ends With You. The twists and turns of that game were so good and them culminating in the revelation right before the final boss blew my 17 y/o mind.
I loved Joseph Seed. Cults are pretty fascinating so that was an interesting entry in the series for me.
I've always like Saren in Mass Effect. I feel whilst he's obviously a dick, he's kinda right, at least at that point in the story. The Reapers are an insurmountable threat to all life in the universe. They've wiped it out hundreds of thousands of times. How was he meant to know you can actually just shoot them till they're dead?
This might be a bit of unpopular opinion but I would say: Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5 Most of the time when the topic of Villains and Far Cry games come up, Vaas from Far Cry 3 is brought up and I agree as he is the best deranged psychopath role I’ve seen in a video game But there is a charismatic thing going on with Joseph Seed, a cult leader with such a strong mental gravitational towards everyone he has recruited. His followers literally jump into the blades of your helicopter after you try to fly him out during his arrest to stop you from taking him. And what does he do ? Looks you right in the eyes in the middle of a crashed helicopter with absolute calm like he owns the time and space & tells you “I told you God wont let you take me” Not to romanticize cults and brainwashing but it was so well made to the point where Im almost certain he wasn’t exploiting the followers of his cult like most do, he genuinely believed in his agenda.
Zobek from Castlevania Lords of Shadow 1, I still have trust issues to this day.
Handsome Jack and GLaDOS like other said
Luca Blight from Suikoden 2
Vaas. He's just such an entertaining baddie.
A Man chooses A Slave Obeys! Seriously, I love Andrew Ryan -> even more so after the Bioshock Book that expands on his backstory. I love how its just Ayn Rands Objectivism personified (even his name being an acronym). The Ideological field of anarcho-capitalistic socities that cant sustain themselves. Litellary Rapture havong the issue that it allows the poorest workingclass to be treated no better than cattle while they are the ones maintaining the base of the city, the ones that keep the water from gushing in and swallowing the city... without getting hugely political: these days more than ever it captures the risks of billionaires with the dream of excentric mars colonies
Skull Face MGSV. Dude is gangsta
Only AAA and big games fr, aka real gamer
Letho, from The Witcher 2.
Handsome Jack. He's a fucking asshole.
I second Joker. I'll also add Dettlaff from Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC.
Junko Enoshima from Danganronpa!~
Ellie
Glados and the dude from P2 for sure
Ubisoft
Those ghosts from pac-man
Grahf from Xenogears...I always got chills as a kid when his theme music popped up.
Doors
Skull kid. There should have been more scenes with him causing mischief
What's his name, the demon leading the church of the holy mother in la pucelle tactics. Dude just wanted a home he could live in piece in. Went about it the only way he knew how. Blame the humans who slaughtered his family iirc.
Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3 ! (okay no, no seriously don't hit me, it was a joke!) I'm gonna go with Ouroboros, a sort of crime syndicate from the Trails JRPG series. We have so many games now and still no one really knows what their true plans are or even who some of their members are. Each time you face them they are insanely strong and after defeating them, they will go on and talk about how "it was all according to plan!" which sounds like terrible writing but i find it intriguing to get to know them more and more by every game.
Ouroboros seems to be intentionally a group that is there to distract the heroes rather than to stop them. This is something I noticed after the three arcs.
Hades from Kid Icarus: Uprising. He was a fun character. A massive jerk, sure, but still fun to listen to.
It’s a recent one but I love Raphael from bg3. He absolutely chews the scenery in the best way possible and he sings his own theme song like a proper villain.
Alma Wade I think is my favorite all time antagonist.
Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, I know there are like a million versions of him but I genuinely love him. Yggdrasil from Tales of Symphonia, there’s something almost tragic about him and he feels so… human (pun intended) I would dive into details but I want to avoid spoilers
That bastard Eric Sparrow
Handsome Jack Sephiroth I’d say Micah Bell as well, Rockstar made him such a good villain that I genuinely hated with every fiber in my being.
Isaac from Last of us 2, he was absolutely in that game at times
Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Revengence is the goat, no villain makes such a big impress in so little time, plus nanomachines son.
Darth Malak
Daud and Billie Lurk from Dishonored series. Outsider too, if you can count him as an antagonist.
Eric Golem Jr. - Rocket Power: Beach Bandits BROOOO >!The kid created a bajillion robots, including one that looks similar enough to him he could call it his dad because he wanted to set up his own private resort. And to do that, and what made him the made villain, was by trying to steal ALL THE SAND FROM THE SHORE LMAOOO!< How can you beat that??
The Hollow Knight and/or Five Pebbles (technically) from Rain World.
Dr mobius from Fallout new vegas
Handsome jack in Borderlands 2 or GlAdOs from portal 2. Both characters made me laugh so hard while they asked me to kill myself. They both understood that making you villain complex enough to both be loved, and despised is the way to go, makes the game so much more memorable when you can decide if you hate the bad guy, or kinda wanna be their friend
Ghestis (Pokemon BW/B2W2)
Kefka Sephiroth Nightmare
Nazis. There’s no edgy tryhard writing to make them sympathetic, you just fucking kill the evil shits and it’s incredibly satisfying.
The ghost pirate LeChuck from monkey Island is the clear winner here
Nightmare Kirby's Dreamland (NES) A Chaos God which is endless and forever lurking in the shadows. After all your struggles and fights you gain the power of the Star Rod to face off against this other worldly all evil concept of Nightmares, and only stop him for now. Because asking as there is light there is dark, as long as there are dream Nightmare shall exist.
Dr M from Sly 3. Your deceased father's brainy partner in their crime circle, who is hellbent on breaking into a vault of mass riches your ancestors have amassed for thousands of years. Buys the entire island and fortifies it heavily with loads of mutated monsters and weaponry. He's gone cynical over the years, unable to break in, where he is willing to kill his lackies if they even screw up a task such as resetting security codes. And with him knowing how the ancestors have a code or honor, had planted a seed a doubt inside your current teams brains of the operations. I think this guy deserves so much more credit than currently given. While people overall viewed the 2nd game to be the best, I think Dr M made the 3rd game evenly matched on favorability my opinion.
Joker from the Arkham series Ana the evil stepmother from the latest Tomb Raider trilogy Dutch Van der Linde from Red Dead
The S piece from Tetris
Kessler in infamous 1 is such a brilliant character
Maybe liquid metal gear solid 4
Salazar from RE4.