Some villains are mean for fun or because they like it. However, modern video games need deeper antagonists to attract audiences. A simple way to make a villain likable, or even likable, is to give them a well-rounded reason for what they’re doing.
There are plenty of stock reasons for villainy in fiction. Some antagonists want to conquer the world for power. Some want revenge against a person, an organization or a nation. However, more and more games have villains whose motivations can be unique, likable, or well explored. Either way, they always end up being memorable and interesting.
ten Fireflies really want to save humanity
The last of us
A simple way to give depth to the conflict is to give both sides a point. If the protagonist and antagonist really want to do good, it’s hard to root on one side. The last of us has a lot of hateful and nasty villains. Its final antagonists, however, are truly heroic in their motives but not in their means.
The Fireflies are the only faction still searching for a cure for the Cordyceps Plague. They try to synthesize a way to vaccinate everyone against it and stop the infection from spreading. To do this, however, they must kill Ellie. This puts them in instant conflict with Joel and makes the player’s actions incredibly grey. Fans are still debating the morality of their plan years later.
9 Saren tries to be saved by subjugation
Mass Effect
The Reapers are the greatest threat to Mass Effect. Saren Arterius, on the other hand, is a much more personal enemy. He is a rival to Shepard and a rogue Spectre. He spends the game leading the Geth to find the Conduit, with the ultimate goal of bringing the Reapers back.
However, Saren is not a generic villain out to bring about the apocalypse. He has met Sovereign and is convinced that the Reapers’ victory is inevitable. He hopes to save at least some organic life by being useful to the Reapers. His motives are particularly interesting because the audience knows he’s wrong and because the game doesn’t reveal how much of his actions are due to indoctrination.
8 Big Boss fights for a world where soldiers are valued
metal gear
The metal gear The villains in the franchise are interesting because most of them share the same goal. They all fight throughout the franchise to enact the Boss’s will. A visionary and a soldier, the Boss hated the way governments disposed of soldiers when they were no longer needed. Big Boss, Liquid and the Patriots are all trying to make a difference for her in different ways.
The Big Boss attempt is an integral part of the series and is the focus of several games. He tries to build nations where soldiers will always be valued: MSF, Diamond Dogs, Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land. His pursuit of this goal leads to increasingly dark means, to the point where he threatens the world with nuclear weapons.
seven The Gravemind has a reason for galactic annihilation
Halo
The purpose of the Gravemind in Halo 2 and 3 may seem like unnecessary naughtiness. He wants to spread the flood to all life in the galaxy. The Flood lives a horrific existence of pain and stagnation, but that’s the point. The Gravedigger and the Deluge exist to keep life in a repressed and helpless state.
The games only briefly touch on the Gravemind’s history, hinting that they were defeated long before and have a particular grudge against the Forerunners. The Expanded Universe reveals that the Deluge is the new form of the Precursors. After their near extinction by the Forerunners, they set about shrinking the galaxy to a state that could never harm them again – adding a unique twist to a zombie plot.
6 Andrew Ryan is an Objectivist to the core
BioShock
The BioShock the games do everything possible to be political and philosophical. BioShock and BioShock 2 unfold in a crumbling rapture, ruined by the obsessive pursuit of philosophical ideals. Andrew Ryan, the villain of BioShockbuilds his city on the purest objectivist ideals and watches as the same things cause it to crumble.
Ryan gives a speech detailing his philosophy, one that is considered the best in video gaming. He affirms that everyone is entitled to the fruits of his labor, to do what he wants without worrying about others. What elevates his motives is that he sticks to them to the end. Ryan chooses to order his own death rather than have someone else do it, an objectivist in his very last moments.
5 Edelgard wants to end a corrupt and oppressive church
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Each of the three lords of Fire Emblem: Three Houses has its own purpose. The unique structure of the game allows the player to side with any of the three and change whether he is a hero or a villain. Edelgard is one of Three House‘s worst villains on two roads, walking down a dark path and committing monstrous deeds.
However, she has her reasons, even the darkest ones. Edelgard wants to bring down the Church of Seiros. She sees it as a corrupt institution holding Fódlan back, and that’s not without merit. To destroy it, however, she dies with the evil Ones Who Slip in the Dark and plunges Fódlan into a hideous war.
4 Superman’s Ends Justify His Horrifying Means
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Injustice: Gods Among Us and its sequel follow an alternate version of the DC Universe. In this universe, Superman sets himself up as a tyrant over all the Earth, imposing his reign with an iron fist. Clark continues to see himself as moral throughout, believing he is genuinely doing what he has always done: saving lives.
However, it almost completely perverts what Superman stands for. He kills preemptively, blaming himself for letting the Joker live long enough to kill Lois and her child. He forcibly oppresses the world, thinking that people will only cause chaos if he lets them run free. It’s a well-crafted examination of the potential endpoint of an all-powerful superhero, and the acting just got better for it.
3 Queen Marika the Eternal fights to free herself from a god
Ring of Elden
Many RPGs focus on killing a god. Ring of Elden is unusual, however, in that it is a worshiper of that same god who wants to retaliate. Marika never appears as a threat in the game, but she is responsible for almost everything that goes wrong with the Lands Between. His plots and schemes lead to the journey of the Shattering and the Ternished.
Marika does everything she does to free herself from the Great Will. Although she is a goddess and queen of the most powerful empire in the world, she is limited by the will of a much more powerful outside God. Marika desires freedom and executes a centuries-old plan to achieve it. Ring of Elden is non-judgmental, letting the player decide whether their actions are justified or not.
2 The Templars strive for the most oppressive kind of peace
Assassin’s Creed
The Assassin’s Creed The franchise is taking an increasingly gray view of its two factions. The games hammer home the point that both sides ultimately want peace. Where Assassins want a world of free will, intervening only to deal with those who threaten it, Templars believe that free will ultimately lead to conflict.
As such, the Templars and Assassins have been waging war on each other for millennia over these differing ideals. Assassin’s Creed emphasizes over and over again that neither side is perfect and both do horrible things. Fans are still wondering if the Templar argument has any merit or if it’s just dictators looking for moral vindication.
1 Revan overthrows the Republic to save the Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Revan’s motivations are not well explored in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. A war hero of the Republic, he disappears and returns a few years later at the head of a huge Sith fleet. His war on the galaxy is brutal and overwhelming, but he doesn’t destroy planets, leave manufacturing untouched, or kill unnecessarily.
It’s because Revan is trying to save the Republic. Star Wars: The Old Republic reveals that Revan knows about the Sith Empire and the all-powerful Sith Emperor. Revan hopes to conquer the Republic and reforge it into a stronger military might to stand a chance of surviving the onslaught of the Sith.
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