What do you look for in a Villain game?

General
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Considering there is two amazing Villain game Fallen Hero and Villains, The Catalyst it got me thinking about what I want in a Villain game and if I ever write one ( if I ever get a computer what I should include in it.)

I want sadism. And here’s where this gets tricky as an author certain characters have important parts in the plot unless you want to write a ten million word story determinant for each death. So we can’t run around killing everyone Willy nilly. But if I can’t kill them I want to break them. Their body, their mind, their spirit, their code. I want them to accidentally hurt someone because that person startled them and they thought it was me. I want it to be that if they were the player character you’d be excited for our final showdown because you HATE me. And I want my Villain to earn that. I don’t want to throw a puppy in a blender that’s just senseless cruelty for shock value. And what’s better if you’ve shown the hell I went through to become a monster . If you’ve shown why people should empathize with me I want to cross that line where I’m a monster that can’t be saved. Fallen Hero has several moments where our character can leave psychological trauma as well as physical trauma in our enemies and I’m looking forward to seeing how far we’ll go into the darkness.

Additionally becoming an omnicidal maniac bent on extinction of all life is something I enjoy as a villain

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Seeking to punish even the crimes of gods. That’s all. Well maybe some badass/adorable lieutenants and horde of minions while I’m at it.

Even if the universe would fall without them there will be justice.

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I like smart calculating vilain . Kreia from Kotor 2 for exemple was a good one . She didn’t wanna kill just anyone , but kill with meaning…with intentions…like every kill show what lie beyond the fog .

The Strategist for exemple from Jade Empire was also one .

These kind of vilains are rare . Nowdays , its all ‘Muahahahaha die die die!’’ …or ‘greedy! I want it all ! Gimme!’ kinda of vilain . And I mean in games .

I like a vilain that make me think , whats his next move ? where is he going with this ? then…I can rage and chase and put his head on a pike .

As long as the end mean I get to kill the bastard , I be happy .

Irenicus from BG2 was a satisfying vilain , I mean sure…he suffered from ‘I love hearing myself talk’’ , but I did like…that he didn’t care for redemption and didn’t get one . What I didn’t like…is how they went about showing how he become what he did…making those who did…sooo STupiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid…

Here a vilain , I argued alot with my roomate (RIP) cose she was in love with the character . It was WESKER from resident evil ? and she would say that if he met the character from Naruto…he win . Cose he mutated and had super power . Let just say…I remember fondly how we disgaree about this . I never liked Wesker , I liked ALexia though (from code veronica) .

I don’t mind the psychopath ‘Muhahahahaha Die die die’’ , I have a character like that in Swtor and it’s a thrill to play one like that . What I don’t like , is how often such a character , all that is shown…is their badass and crazyness . I love my character , because even if she is nuts bend on destroying everything and killing everyone just for Lolz…the best part about her , is also when things backfire badly in her face . Sure , she survive still…but damn…that dent in the armor make it fun everytime .

forgot to add , that when it come to writing a vilain . It isn’t as easy as it seem .

Pretty much the hardest part I had to deal with , was combat (if the vilain fight the hero at any point ) , and sticking to what you want the vilain to come off as . Like if he is broody…you gotta stick with that . Would be weird if he start cracking joke mid way lol .

In my stories , I went for your boring human vilains . I haven’t made any ‘Super natural’ stuff like with powers .

The 1st story had 4 vilains . 2 get sort of redemption and 2 die . Happen in ancient Asia kinda of setting with Samurai .

The 2nd , the vilains were a dead specie…and what they left was kinda of evil .

the 3rd story , the 1st book : had a psychopath serial killer as vilain . The 2nd book had some weirdo as a vilain . And the 3rd book had a cult group as a vilain .

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Wesker had a unique style. Sunglasses indoors, scientist smarts but not enough to compare with his best friend so he goes into security, kidnaps his best friend’s daughter, faked his death with a super serum that was actually something he didn’t expect, had DC Douglas as a voice actor. Now him fighting like Naruto or whatever he definitely loses it’s the equivalent of a Sonic the Hedgehog vs The Flash sonic is fast and could win most races but there’s quite a few people over his power level. Wesker would lose . He’d lose with style but he’d lose.

Wesker and Sherry actually have sentimental value to me. But I know he’s not the perfect badass.

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lol yeah…she said he was cool . I never said he wasn’t . But she was adamant that he would win against anyone from Naruto . I was like…even about to die Itachi for exemple…could win in a blink .

But like I told her , never compare characters from different worlds and not similar .

Its like comparing an ant to a lion lol .

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Excuse me while I leave @Samuel_H_Young name right here, just for him to ‘modestly’ discuss his latest WiP.

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I love to see conflict within the villain. I want to see the reasonings, the justifications from the villain for what he does, and those justifications must hold a lot of merit because after all, every villain is a hero in his own mind and I want the game/story to truly make me feel that way. The better the author does this, the better the story will be to me (the reason why I love Fallen Hero so much). I don’t like to see/play a character who is just ‘evil’ for evil’s sake, blowing up buildings and going about murdering people without a solid reason/context for him being that way. I want the him to very human, very vulnerable, and I want the story and the character to make me question my own worldview and morals as I read along; even better if the story can make the traditionally accepted ideas of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ seem pointless or at least, very flawed.

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Well in Fallen Hero one motivation is “I don’t know it all feels inevitable”
I’m not sure every Villain has to be the hero of their own story especially if they hate themselves.

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Well if we’re dealing with an undeniable evil I would prefer them in pairs instead of leaving us with some foul extremist message.

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Here’s the link to my WIP thread, Mass Mother Murderer. The MC is a psychopathic serial killer magician in a medieval setting. They were horrendously abused by their mother as a child and want more than anything to kill her.

Being abused for so long scarred them psychologically to the point that they’re unable to confront their mother without breaking down, though. So, they start to kidnapp various villagers, take them to their basement and dress them up as their mother, and then torture and murder them. This is all done because they believe it will help them gain enough confidence and courage to finally murder their mother and set themselves free. :innocent:

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That’s not the only motivation though. You can certainly choose to be very doubtful about the path you’re going down, haven’t the game played recently but I can certainly remember there also being choices of personal motivations like ‘I need to show the world the truth’ and such.

And I agree, not every villain has to be the hero of their own story, and there can be certainly a great villain who knows they’re a villain. It’s just my preference.

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My character’s motivation is vengeance but I just meant it’s possible to be a Villain without a motive. But that’s hard to write.

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Oops sorry, I misunderstood your post. I agree, it is indeed possible to be a villain without a particular motive, but I personally tend to find them a little bland and uninteresting.

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One of my favorite Villains is Wilford Warfstache. He literally doesn’t understand the universe he lives in. He knows 2+2=fish but doesn’t know why do he just goes with the flow dancing drinking flirting and accidentally killing people. When he sees someone in the same condition as him but their mind is too rigid to accept it he tries to help guide them in a rare moment of lucidity.

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By “villain game,” I assume you mean a game where you play as the villain. In that case. I need the villain to be… um… not very villainous.

They need a motivation I can relate to, and at least some kind of moral compass. I guess in the end I just don’t want to be that bad.

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I look for villain that don’t think they are not the villain

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I like sympathetic villains, and ones who think they are ultimately doing good in the world, or at least tricking themselves into thinking so. Kreia was mentioned earlier and I agree she’s great. She’s convinced herself that she is doing something that will ultimately be good for the galaxy, but deep down she is just a petty person who wanted to be a leader and is upset everyone rejected her leadership and is jealous of those whom people choose to follow instead.

She claims to want to destroy the Force so that normal people in the galaxy aren’t subject to its whims and the whims of Jedi and sith, but her real motivation is just petty revenge against the two organizations who rejected her.

Loghain in Dragon Age Origina is another great one, a hero of a war to overthrow an oppressive empire, now in his older years he’s gone borderline insane with paranoia which is being preyed upon by a power hungry noble. He doesn’t seize the throne out of powerlust, he does it because he thinks that the king (who is the son of his best friend) is about to hand the country back over to the empire (and he’s kind of right about it).

Eventually he realizes that a threat he mistakenly took as a ploy to make the kingdom weaker is real and he was in error, which makes him snap further because endangering the kingdom was the last thing he wanted to do

Spoilers for a 9 year old game when you beat him finally, he is rather gratuitous in defeat, realizing you are the best chance to protect the kingdom he has dedicated his whole life to defending. If you let him join you, he will offer to do the final sacrifice of that game without hesitation, hoping it will be a form of repentance for his earlier mistakes

So yeah, I like villains who think they are the good guys; who have understandable and sometimes sympathetic motivations; and who could even be reasoned with in the right circumstances

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Further spoiler Cailan actually was pseudo consorting with Orlais possibly trying to get into Celenes pants as seen in return to ostagar

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Yep! That’s what I meant about him being kind of right. The King was making plans to put aside his wife
(who is Loghain’s daughter) to marry the Empress.

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See I have one problem with the demo . I can’t empathize with the Character for one reason and surprisingly it’s because they hate/treat their sister like shit. I have a thing about siblings I’m either overprotective or… overly attached usually if there isn’t any other love or affection in my life.

All the rest is fine but that bit made me lose interest.