Top 10 Video Game Villains Of All Time

Squidoo: Heroes are only as righteous as their villains are devious. The world of video games holds no exception to the proverbial rule. Human or creature, malfunctioning machine or ambiguous a-hole, behind every Mario and Master Chief stands, or hovers, a memorable malice that gives us gamers our power.

For when we grab that controller and gear on the console, with a flick of the switch, we are the hero. And only via the trial beset by a mightier opponent can we stand on top of our couch and feel like we're on top of the world. Yes, we are the hero, and these are my own personal picks of the Top 10 villains in video games.

[MrSpace]

Wow look at that FF7...again. They really are in every "top...lists" aren't they.

Oh wow a villain who wanted to destroy the world because he was a clone yeah great motivation. The only good thing about Sephiroth was his theme song but no it all comes down to "OMG everything FF7 is SUPER DUPER AWESOME" or etheir "If I put something FF7 related on my list it will sure attract hits"

[Pozzle]

To be fair, Sephiroth is one of the most memorable villains in gaming, if only because he appeared in one of the most memorable RPGs in gaming. It's no wonder he shows up on so many "Top 10" lists. He's as iconic as Wesker from Resident Evil or Bowser from Mario Bros...yet nobody complains when they keep popping up on lists.

(Though I would argue Sephiroth was a better villain when we knew LESS about him. Learning more about his backstory in Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus kind of...lessened his evil factor. I did NOT need to know who his BFFs were in SOLDIER or that it was Genesis who tipped him over the edge into insanity. He was a far more interesting character when we didn't know too much about him or his past, and when the player could decide whether it was Jenova or Sephiroth who was truly in control. I'll forever be a fan of FFVII's Sephiroth, but I'm not so sure about the Compilation's Sephiroth. :/

(however it would be pretty cool to see Hojo on a "best villains of all time" list for once. He WAS the guy who created Sephiroth, after all).

[WhiteLightning]

"He's as iconic as Wesker from Resident Evil or Bowser from Mario Bros...yet nobody complains when they keep popping up on lists"

I wouldn't say he's all that great as Bowser and Wesker, he's just popular because he appeared in FF7, if FF10's story was in FF7's place then Sin would be the most memorable villain or even if Ultimecia from FF8 was in Sephiroth's place she would be on all these lists. Get my point

The reason why nobody complains when Wesker or Bowser pop up on these lists is because they deserve it. They didn't just pop up in one game and that was it...they've continued to develop as characters over a number of games in there franchises. You were betrayed by Wesker, found out he became super human, wanted to resurect Umbrella, pulled the strings from behind the scenes, formed a bond with Tricell and created Urobourus....a lot of actions which has made that character for example iconic and STILL relevent even today.

It's not like he appeared in one RE game and he was hailed one of the best villains of all time, a character like Wesker deserved it not just because of nostalgia over everything in just one game.

Basicaly a monkey could of been the villain in FF7 who wanted to destroy the world before he could go back to his world on Bananarama...or some silly stupid plot like that and he would be on these lists just because of the game.

[Baka-akaB]

If FFX took FF7's place Sin would still be a forgettable villain , same a Ultimecia .

You guys needs to chills , no villains in the ff you prefers over FF7 got the same mixture of iconic manga-ish look+cool entrances+ indeed the epic music score .

I'm well over ff7 , it's not even my favorite game of the serie .
And indeed sephiroth seems like a truly shallow fellow that hasnt truly accomplished much .
But let's be honest , most other FF main villains either looks like grotesque (or well done) monsters , or humanoid without as much charisma and cool factor ... even if his appeal mostly screams teenage fanboy .

Guys like Kefa kicks seph's bottom in every way . But i sure wouldnt expect that weird (yet awesome ) fellow with the look of a clown to be more popular .

I have tons of other villains , mi or secondary , in jrpgs alone that i think vastly superior , like say Grahf from Xenogears or the uber awesomeness of Lucas Blight, or a few guys from Final fantasy Tactics ... but will certainly wont loose my cool over crybaby sephy boy being picked in popularity contests .

It's only a popularity contest

[RedDead]

Every time he appeared in FF7 was just great. Although his movements were somewhat Fuc*ed up and weird. With the arms all the time etc.

There seems to be some confusion about 'iconic' and well ....a good villain, Bowser is Iconic, Wesker is a good villain but not Iconic, Zombies and Tyrants are the 'iconic' side of RE. Seph is just somewhere in the middle.

THey really fuc*ed up Wesker imo as well with RE5, he was better before, mercenaries RE4's wesker kicked balls. And his 'spoiler' sucked, poor guy deserved better.

[Pozzle]

"I wouldn't say he's all that great as Bowser and Wesker, he's just popular because he appeared in FF7, if FF10's story was in FF7's place then Sin would be the most memorable villain or even if Ultimecia from FF8 was in Sephiroth's place she would be on all these lists. Get my point"

Don't get me wrong, I definitely agree there. That's why I said "if only because he appeared in one of the most memorable RPGs in gaming". Sephiroth was lucky enough to be the main antagonist of the one RPG that made RPGs mainstream in the West and became many gamers' first RPG, so for alot of people he's the one they remember when they think "RPG villain". If FFVIII had been released first, more people would probably remember Edea or Ultimecia as some of the greatest villains of all time.

But that's not to say Sephiroth doesn't deserve at least some credit. He might have had some dodgy writing and has been over-exposed in the Compilation and other Square titles, but he wasn't as bad a villain in FFVII as some people say. When he did pop up in FFVII, he moved the story along and always posed a threat throughout the game. So he at least deserves credit for being a fairly decent bad guy in his own right. He wasn't completely awful like, for example, Nevon from FFIX.

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

yeah they will get hits and comments from FF7 haters.

I think wesker is retarded because he died in RE 1 as a normal human. clearly in RE 1 they were not planning him to come back. I think they came up with that idea in CV.

If you looked at weskers dead body in RE 1 Chris says something like "what a sorry way to die" as his dead body lies in a huge pool of blood. can someone explain how wesker came back to life, I cant remember.

[GunofthePatriots]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Whenever FF7 mentioned a hater is found and here you are. Get over it already.

[Baka-akaB]

They can get blue all they want in the face . It's the very nature of polls and lists like this .

What do you expect from a "top 10 X thingie" list ? The most popular items will appears regardless of their qualities or lack of , end of story .

[garos82]

@white lightning
your comment about bowser "They didn't just pop up in one game and that was it...they've continued to develop as characters over a number of games in there franchises."
for wesker yes but for bowser? come on you cant be serious, bowser has nothing on sephiroth, unless in one of the forseeable mario games we get to see bowser impale princess peach

for me,having been a gamer now for almost 18 years it definately has to be sephiroth number one as it was probably the first ever villain in a game to get me to properly "hate" the baddy.

memorable mentions for me: psycho mantis,the end,and sniper wolf(mgs series)
kefka (ff series)
the king in heavenly sword (voiced by andy serkis)
heavy rain villain (shall not be named due to spoiler :))
and last but definately not least kain from soul reaver

[Lord_Sloth]

I was just thinking the same thing about Nintendo characters.

[Pozzle]

I'm glad Wesker is on the list...even though Capcom screwed up his character in RE5. I miss the working-behind-scenes mastermind scientist who's main goal was collecting viruses and being one step ahead of the other characters. Not the CRAZY I-WANT-TO-TAKE-OVER-THE-WORLD comic-book-villain from RE5. :/

[WhiteLightning]

Plus Jill and Barry didn't even help Chris take him down. Sheva had the privilege even though she didn't deserve it. That's what happens when you add co-op it messes with the story, what bugs me though is that they had Barry/Jill as your partner in the beginging stages of RE5 why didn't they continue it with the STARS team

[Pozzle]

NGL, I don't think I would have minded the co-op quite as much if we had been given Jill or Barry as out co-op partner. It's not that I hated Sheva as a character...I just couldn't be invested in her story because she hasn't been there from the beginning. She wasn't there when Wesker was STARs leader, she wasn't there when Wesker turned on STARs, she wasn't there when Wesker tried to kill Claire in Code Veronica, she wasn't there when Wesker was found to be working behind the scenes in RE4...so why the hell should I care when she vaguely mentions her family dying as a result of Umbrella? I wasn't there when that happened.

But I WAS there when Chris and the rest of the STARs team were betrayed. THAT was the story I was invested in. Sheva entered the story too late for me to give a damn. (Hell, even Wesker didn't give a damn about her. I think he addressed her ONCE in the entire story. The rest of the time, he only ever talks to Chris).

Capcom could have at least let Jill be the one to take Wesker out with a rocket launcher. Hell, the guy betrayed her team and ruined her life (twice). If I was her, I wouldn't be handing Sheva a rocket launcher to take him out. I'd be moving Sheva out of the way, so I could get a chance to finally kill the bastard myself!

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

Hey Ive played Re 1-5 but I dont understand when wesker came back to life? I remember him in CV, 5 and 1. but in RE 1 he was a normal human and the tyrant killed him. How did he come back to life, was that explained in CV, I cant remember.

[Pozzle]

IIRC Capcom said that they always intended on having Wesker die in RE1, but because fans loved him so much they decided to bring him back for CVX. Then Capcom gave him a backstory in Umbrella Chronicles which explained that Wesker had been injected with a virus BEFORE entering the mansion, which allowed him to be reborn (as a "zombie" of sorts) and escape the mansion before it exploded...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Jappy-k7]

I would add Liquid Ocelot and Vergil

Edit: oops i just realized that this is about villains of "All Time" i didn't read the last 2 words lol that explains the disagrees...sorry :p

[Kur0]

Oh c'mon Vergil wasn't that bad.

[Gen0ne]

Mother Brain

[FrightfulActions]

I'm bit upset Heavy Rain's villain didn't get a spot on the list. Though I can't really say more than that without becoming spoiler-central.

[Gen0ne]

Never finished it. I got to the electrical area and just stopped playing. No specific reason, just went on to other things. I still have it, is it worth finishing?

[Kahvipannu]

yes, it's worth it, I loved that game.

[garos82]

are you nuts sir? get off your pc and go find your son! one of the best story orientated games ive played in ages definately worth to finish and also for multiple endings

[FrightfulActions]

I'd say it's definitely worth playing, if you're in it for the story. There are indeed many endings (you can kill off pretty much every main character in the game) but I never could get into replaying it. It has a certain Sixth Sense effect to it. Great movie, but once you know the huge plot twist at the end, it takes away from the experience of watching it again. For me anyway. Without giving too much away, the killer turns out to be someone you know all along through out the game. Someone you THOUGHT you knew and trusted, someone that, for me at least, was never on my suspect list. So when they finally revealed who it was, I was rather surprised. It's a great villain because its's "real". There is no super powers, or alien abilities. Just one 'normal' person who turns out to be a deranged psychopath who's been playing with the gamer's mind the entire time. I can't really say too much about it, but take my word for it, if you played it out and know the story, you'd see why I think he belongs on the list. I know I just got done saying I couldn't get into replaying the game, but after all this talking about it, now I gotta go fire up a newsave. Haha.
"JASON! JASONNN! JASON!"

[Kahvipannu]

Darth Malak I agree, one of the best, but where is Saren? That's my personal favourite by far.

[darfreeze]

No Kefka? *sad

[No_Pantaloons]

#1 - Wesker, nope total fail list. He's never been even close to being a top villain.

In games like veronica and 4 he appears for almost no reason at all, they just throw him in front of the camera so gamers can say, "hey I know him, hes doing something shady," only to have him leave and the games plot resumes undisturbed.

[Quagmire]

Dr. Neo Cortex

one of my favourite childhood villains

[MWH]

indeed Wesker is one of the badest and coolest villains in old and recent memory. Sephiroth is a cult classic villain no arguing there.

a relatively ok list which would've been a relatively good list imho if it included Shenmue's Lan Di, a cold really intimidating presumable villain (presumable because the story didn't end and we never learned Lan Di's background and motives).

[Tokyo_reject]

Liquid Snake/ Ocelot should be on there!!! other then that very good list haha!!! also would've like to see DR. Wily and EggMan!!!

[chiwoo]

Sephiroth alone deserves his own game and feature movie.

[Hicken]

Yeah... no.

[gypsygib]

Darth Malak was an amazing villain. One thing I will admit, the villains this gen are kinda lame, with a gen so focused on sequels its a shame they don't build an identifiable nemesis along with the main character.

I want that unstoppable force meets an immoveable object dynamic in the hero vs villain,

not unstoppable force vs waves of dumb enemies culminating with some guy/creature just introduced into the game in the last hr.

Villains are the key to great games

[ssb3173]

wow, its like ganon is on every list

[TheFirstClassic]

No liquid snake???

[Lord_Sloth]

Pretty crappy list, dude.

[humbleopinion]

No Glados? No Shodan? No Andrew Rian? No Kane? No Purple Tentacle? No Ur-Quan? No Lich King? No LeChuck? No Kreia? No The Master?
How can a list actually miss every single one of the best villains and countless more villains that are better choices then most of the cardboard cutout villians shown here?
They even manages to mess up their choices games that good villains when they went for the obvious bland and boring villains from the same game instead.

[Brownghost]

I loved glados's personality

[Drewminati]

Pfffff!!

Darkforce - Phantasy star series
Kelfka - final fantasy 3