Opposite of the other thread, who or what were some bad guys you didn't expect much from and later they blew your socks off with how awesomely villainous they were?
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Opposite of the other thread, who or what were some bad guys you didn't expect much from and later they blew your socks off with how awesomely villainous they were?
It's always going to be Miang from Xenogears. Perhaps I was just too young and stupid at the time but I brushed her off as Ramsus' arm candy and thought Ramsus was the real deal. But of course, in the end, Miang turns out to be scarily competent and ruthless and basically the main villain. (Krelian owes a lot to her)
Surprising villains? Hmm...
I feel like Caius from FFXIII-2 surprised me. I was going in expecting a fairly generic 'bad guy' but then you learn his motivations and he takes on a different perspective.
There's probably more: but I need to have a good ol' think (and discuss with Mr. Carny) before I get anywhere.
Erika of course~
Ardyn in recent memory because (SPOILER)he succeeds. Sure the world was saved from him, but he achieved every goal he set forth.
I'll second this, one of the better chess master villains. I'll also nominate Grahf, simply because he starts off as such a cliche Darth Vader clone and then you finally start to learn about him and holy crap is it amazing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover
Kandori from Persona always throws me off. In the first game he kind of pulls a Kekfa where he succeeds in his goals and then grows bored with becoming a god, but my god when he comes back in Eternal Punishment, whew boy he's grown into a more well rounded and sympathetic figure despite being the original asshole villain of the franchise before a certain melon loving scrub took his place.
Luc from Suikoden III is another that throws you off, especially if you played the earlier entries. Its one of those scenarios where it's shocking he turned out to be the bad guy, but not terribly out of character for him since he is an absolute jerk in the first two games.
Myria from Breath of Fire III was also pretty damn cool, especially since she's such a generic evil in the first game, it was kind of interesting to watch the devs retcon her into a misguided figure who wanted to save the world from itself. I think Big Boss is the only other character to go from generic 16-bit villain to being retcon into a more benevolent extremest in later sequels.
Not a singular villain, but Ouroboros in the Legend of Heroes: Trails games. Won't go into spoilery stuff, but not only do all of its individual members range from decent to great characters, the organisation as a whole, in terms of structure, rules and goals, is intriguing too.
He far from succeeds because revenge on the Lucis and being free from immortality is not the only thing he wants. He still does not want to lose and at this point already die and after seeing the final scene with him where he clearly tries to resist I really always wonder why people think that "he succeeds with everything". He partially succeeds. Like all the villains. Caius is the only villain who absolutely won. He wanted to die to free the seer and brought Noel to kill him. Then Nova Chrysalia and the Seer Paradox Chaos happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by Darth Ganon
And yes, Ardyn also surprised me. I never imagined I could find a Final Fantasy villain so bad and that one could feel so forced in as "annoying character that the audience is supposed to find funny" just so it is a Kefka copy with the difference that Kefka, a person with no script is actually more enjoyable because I do not constantly get the "forced upon me and not well executed" feeling again.
So that is the negative surprise and more fitting to the first post: Positively surprised I was by Galenth Dysley, I guess. He is far from my normal villain style that I like but I guess he and Emperor Sidious will be the only "cool oldies" for me.
Who else ... maybe Ganondorf in Twilight Princess? I never really liked Ganondorf that much because I just think he did not look cool in Ocarina of Time but aged Ganondorf in Twilight Princess, his presentation and the mano a mano duel with Link just was great for me.
Kuja because I thought that he was a woman. That was a BIG surprise.
Harbinger, Mass Effect 2. That tiny little twist at the end where Harbinger is revealed to be a Reaper possessing the Collector controller, instead of the controller we'd been dealing with directly the whole time. That was unexpected, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ghaleon from Lunar kinda surprised me as a kid. For such a cliche and generic game, you get a surprisingly compelling backstory for him. He was one of the first characters I remember where you can understand his motives, and see that he thinks he's trying to do what's right, except somewhere along the way he lost sight and took the path a little too far to the left and went a little crazy. But his motives and the beginning to his quest made sense. He didn't like or understand why the world had to lose their goddess and wanted to attempt to undo what he thought was a damaging decision for the world and bring her back in whatever way he could
Gaius from Tales of Xillia was a surprise for me in that he had a code of honor and ethics and by the end of the game there was a complete turn around in how he's viewed by the characters and his role in the plot. Which is typical of a Tales game, but I thought it was done a lot better in that game. And even finding out he was not the true antagonist or final boss, which is again, typical, he still had a large role to play and influenced the ending scenarios quite a bit. They could have easily just wrote him off after any number of big reveals, but he's so badass and awesome he stays relevant to the very end and throughout the sequel as well
Totally this!Quote:
Originally Posted by Darth Ganon
Revolver Ocelot from MGS, because he started off as just another weird boss, revealed himself as a massive double-crosser and tactical manipulator, and turned out to be one of the central figures in the series and one of my favorite characters in it.
The mastermind in Danganronpa. Such an unconventional and disarmingly funny villain when they're revealed, but they're still charming, prodigiously intelligent, and perfectly hateable.
And oh yeah, Ardyn, just to pile it on. Went in not expecting much from him, because his design was weird and I was kind of iffy on the game at that point, and he ended up being one of my favorite FF villains in years. The perfect combination of brilliant chessmaster (without being overpowered to Caius degrees) and seemingly amusing buddy. (SPOILER)And when he wins, it actually feels like he earned it, rather than the plot saying he just had to come out on top.