Coolest Video Game Villains

[Serpentine Cougar]

Slightly different from the Worst Video Game Enemies thread, this topic instead asks the question: What are the coolest villains you've seen in video games? And what makes them cool? Is it their fighting style, sick personality, hot appearance, or something else?

[mur'phon]

The Grand Master (the witcher)
*SPOILER*
Seriously, that cynical bastard is the saviour, his motivations noble, meaning you might say that in the end, Geralt is the villain
*SPOILER*

La Croix, Nines, Xiao (VtMB) All villains, all awesome.

[Phantom Knight]

SEPHIROTH!!!!!!! (Final Fantasy 7)

Big-arse Masamune-wielding, life-hating maniac who thought his mother was an alien named Jenova. Gotta love the guy for having all that.

[Pho3nix]

Indeed, Sephiroth.

[Lantzen]

Don't know about coolest, but one of the best in my opinion is Irenicus from Badlurs Gate 2. He's a badass but i always feel sorry for him at the end.

spoiler:

When he is exiled he lose his whole life, his feelings and evrything and all that's left is a great void and lust for revenge. He try to keep his feeling for the one he loved by making clones of her, but the emotion still fails. He's a sad soul that try to climb on to life, even if he dosen't show it in the game, and the only way to get back that soul is to take the players soul

Another one is the final boss in Planescape: Torment

spoiler:

The enemy is your own soul, your immortality that you lost. And all he want is to be left alone, he try to kill the nameless one and imprison him. I think it's intriguing

And Kane is always a favorite before C&C3 atleast. Think they made him to much into a fanatic there

[Kilppari]

No, Kane isn't villain! Actually you GDI scum are evil!
One Vision, One Purpose, Peace through Power!

Heh, Kane is one of my favourites.

[jonathan7]

Sion's introduction to TSL was awesome!

And who could forget from Res, Albert Wesker;

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Originally Posted by Phantom Knight

SEPHIROTH!!!!!!! (Final Fantasy 7)

Nuff said.

[patient_zero]

Torio the enchanted lawyer from NWN2 sticks in my mind as one of the best "alternate" villains. Thwarting her plans was far more satisfying than most other "boss battles" (Apart from perhaps the final two fights). She also had a really nice jacket.

[mimartin]

To me the coolest villains are the ones that get some naïve pawn to do their dirty work. They receive all the reward and take no risk.

So my coolest villains would be:

Jade Empire

spoiler:

Master Li – Took years to train and prepare his student to meet his goal of revenge and betrayal against his brother. Even the knowledge that his own child was still alive could not persuade him from his evil goal.

BioShock

spoiler:

Fontaine – much like Master Li, Fontaine’s coolness come from the PC not seeing his deception coming. Unlike Master Li, thanks to science, Fontaine did not have to wait as long for his creation to come to fruition. Still that creation became his ultimate demise.

Now if we are just talking cool looking then Saren from Mass Effect wins hands down or perhaps my Niko from GTA IV.

[Corinthian]

spoiler:

Kerghan

Arcanum, of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. By far the most convincing video game villain I have ever seen.

[Lantzen]

Originally Posted by mimartin

Jade Empire

spoiler:

Master Li – Took years to train and prepare his student to meet his goal of revenge and betrayal against his brother. Even the knowledge that his own child was still alive could not persuade him from his evil goal.

Yeah, thats a good one also

[Serpentine Cougar]

Not as well known, but one of my favorites has always been Hecubah, from Westwood's game Nox. Voiced by Joanna Cassidy, she just had an insanely cool evil laugh and a lot of personality.

[Venom750]

I'm going with the jade empire one because it had such a personal touch and it took so long too set in motion if it wasn't for a certain water spirt he would have totally succed with his master plan

[JediAthos]

I always thought Big Boss and Liquid Snake were pretty cool villains and of course let us not forget Darth Malak: "Wipe this pathetic planet from the face of the galaxy"

[Rabish Bini]

The big one eyed thing from Duke Nukem 3D
The three evil things (Forgot names) and Dark Buffy from the original Buffy game
And, of course, THE MASTER HAND!!

[Salzella]

Ganondorf!! He's like Malak's medieval, fairy-tale, camped-up predecessor.

Honorable mention for Team Rocket.

[Bee Hoon]

Kreia, the most enigmatic villain I have ever encountered. I actually regretted her death, despite the fact her life ambition is pretty much 100% insane.

Originally Posted by mimartin

Jade Empire

spoiler:

Master Li – Took years to train and prepare his student to meet his goal of revenge and betrayal against his brother. Even the knowledge that his own child was still alive could not persuade him from his evil goal.

Agreed. I was sooo shocked when it happened, despite my distinct bad feeling, I keep trying to tell myself otherwise. Meh.

Originally Posted by patient_zero

Torio the enchanted lawyer from NWN2 sticks in my mind as one of the best "alternate" villains. Thwarting her plans was far more satisfying than most other "boss battles" (Apart from perhaps the final two fights). She also had a really nice jacket.

Beating her at her own game was one of the best moments in the game (bard with maxed diplomacy ftw!). I have to disagree about the clothes though. And she has a hideous in-game model, that poor sod. I always spared her though.

[Ravnas]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but Sephiroth definitely. Also Death's Hand from Jade Empire, Saren from Mass Effect, and The Rival from the Pokemon games.

[ForeverNight]

The weird semi-boss thing in Half-Life 1 that stood in the train tracks like area near the end of the Earth levels... (Prays that people knows what I'm talking about) I always thought that that thing was awesome... You can hardly ever defeat it and in order to get past it you seem to have to run around the thing to get where you're going.

Failing that, I'd have to say that Darth Malak has it... the only video game villain that I have seen who has ordered a planets destruction!

But, we don't want to hear about him, right?

Oh, and the final boss from Half-Life 1 was cool too... especially when beating it with a Crowbar...

[GeneralPloKoon]

I think as a villian overall The Combine from Half-Life 2 are freaking evil but sooo awesome in their vehicles, soldiers, and countless other technology.

[dhollmusik]

Psycho Mantis...I was truly shocked when he started going on about my memory card and then the TV went blank.

Genius!

[Da_man]

Pasternak from AC6.

He had the god-mode plane and MILLIONS of these little flying UAV's that ticked me off to no end. But it was a worthy challenge on Ace difficulty, on top of trying to kill 30+ of the UAV's to get the S rank. But the cutscene before the level kinda made me feel like a dick for killing him.

The Psycho Mantis scene will always be embedded in my mind.

But All Your Base could count as a villain from a game, since because of that video, I keep seeing "All Your Base Are belong to US' everywhere. It is my personal nemesis.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us.

[DeadYorick]

The guy you have to kill in the football stadium in Duke Nukem 3d, the queen from 3d.

Dagoth Ur, Morrowind. Alpha, Megaman Battle Network 3. Desann, JK2. Darth Malak, JA. Many more

[Da_man]

Darth Malak was in Jedi Academy?

[Rogue15]

the end fight in JA with that guy who u wanted to cut down from the start.

[Da_man]

I'll just take your word for it, because I've never played JA. And I thought the villain from the start was

spoiler:

Tavion?

[Corinthian]

Rosh, he's talking about Rosh. And Rosh was not a good villain, he was annoying as hell.

For the record, Nines Rodriguez was not a villain. He never directly opposes the protagonist. Now, Smiling Jack could be considered a villain for manipulating the protagonist, but Nines had nothing to do with that. You're right about LaCroix and Ming Xiao, though.

Emperor Hawthorne, Exile. Not that Hawthorne was anything special as a villain, he was fairly standard, but the entire encounter with him, from teleporting into his Spire from Exile to storming up it's height with thousands of Imperial warriors at your heels, bursting into his throne room and slaughtering his personal guard before dispatching Hawthorne himself, seeing no escape, and then, right before the main host reaches you, Erika Redmark opens a portal to escape.

Starcraft: Former Lieutenant of the Sons of Korhal, and now self-styled Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan. Simultaneously evoking fear, pity, revulsion, and awe and single handedly obliterating the greater strength of the U.E.D., High Protoss forces, the Dominion, and the renegade Zerg broods before finally taking on the combined surviving fleet of the U.E.D., a massive Protoss force led by Artanis, and Mengsk himself leading the last of the Dominion fleet and single-handedly obliterating them all.

[Arátoeldar]

Originally Posted by Da_man

I'll just take your word for it, because I've never played JA. And I thought the villain from the start was

spoiler:

Tavion?

Rafael Ferrer aka Darth Malak never did any voices in JA so fa as I know

If you are light-sided then the final boss is

spoiler:

Marka Ragnos after you beat Tavion

If you are dark-sided than the final boss is

spoiler:

Kyle Katarn after you beat Tavion

Originally Posted by Bee Hoon

Kreia, the most enigmatic villain I have ever encountered. I actually regretted her death, despite the fact her life ambition is pretty much 100% insane.

Kreia, Jon Irenicus, & SHODAN are my favorite video game villains.

[Druganator]

Jack Of Blades in the pre lost chapters fable before he got the weird voice.
definately the final boss in jade empire.
saren was a disappointment tho. as was malak.
and i consider the maw in halo 1 to be a villain cuz it was so damn hard

[Druganator]

oh and cant forget portal.....

[Rogue15]

i thought darth malak was pretty cool.

[Druganator]

darth malak was awesome he was just very very easy to beat

[Revan 411]

Coolest Villains eh? Well I got three great villains:

Number 3.



Number 2.



And Number 1...



Well, that's who I can think of at the moment..

[Druganator]

nihilus looked awesome but the boss fight was again disappointing.

[jawathehutt]

Bob Page, no other video game villain has made me wonder what Bill Gates and/or steve jobs could be scheming to do once he/they get(s) into area 51

[The Betrayer]

Yuri from RA2:YR.
Betrayal at it's finest.

[SW01]

I'll add a vote to Sephiroth from FFVII. The character's appearance, personality, and theme were amazing - not to mention playing in constant fear that he'd show up and tear you to pieces...

Also, the Order of Arcadian Judges in FFXII, Gabranth, Bergan and Zargaabath. Drace didn't have much of a story, but the others were great - from their weapons and armour to the backstory, and even the sound of their armour as they walked!

Final Fantasy villains are just so much better than the ones in Star Wars games...

[Corinthian]

If you're gonna talk about JRPGS, Kefka deserves a place of honor as the only FF villain ever to actually succeed in conquering the world and becoming a God.

[DeadYorick]

Originally Posted by Da_man

Darth Malak was in Jedi Academy?

I mean Kotor. I was in a rush and while writing JK2 I accidentally wrote JA as a reflex

Originally Posted by SW01

Final Fantasy villains are just so much better than the ones in Star Wars games...

I beg to differ.