Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Memorable cRPG villain

Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
17,046
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Most good ones have been mentioned. I want to add Inquisitor Mendoza from Risen to the list though. You interact with him a lot, and I think he makes a return in either Risen 2 or 3. Can't remember.

Another good one I think is Henry Leland from Alpha Protocol. You get to talk to him a lot, and even influence him. I think even you get a chance to join him in the end if you want.
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,336
Location
Crait
Something more recent:
BATTLETECH-Cast-Espinosa-Victoria.jpg


No one has mentioned this bitch, but spitroasting her King Crab between two Atlas IIs was quite satisfying.

Speaking of HBS, it's a little surprising that, despite Dragonfall being recognized for its story, no one's brought up
Npc_humanmale_vauclair.png

Adrian Vauclair, even though he actually was fairly well written. Maybe too well written?

There are seventeen great dragons in the world today. Seventeen ancient wyrms, millennia old, slowly dividing the planet into seventeen piles of gold to nest upon.

In front of our eyes. Once upon a time, they burned castles to steal the treasure we collected. Laid waste to entire armies. But here, here in the Sixth World, it is no longer about tooth and claw and fiery breath. Now it's public relations. Marketing. Mergers and acquisitions. You see it every day. Dragons on the trideo in the board rooms. They gather influence, wealth, power, continually hoarding, hoarding, until one of them sits atop it all.

Perhaps not in this cycle of the world. Perhaps not the next. But one day, one wyrm will stand alone - triumphant. With all of humanity as its cattle. With all the world as its prize.

And that... That I will *not* allow.

I guess we don't remember conspiracy-nut STEM white men as villains. A little too close to home for some?

 
Last edited:

pomenitul

Arbiter
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
Messages
979
Location
μεταβολή
They did a good job with The Architect in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, which is unusual for that franchise, although you could of course argue that he wasn't a villain at all.
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
Speaking of HBS, it's a little surprising that, despite Dragonfall being recognized for its story, no one's brought up
320


I think as far as Dragonfall goes, APEX is far more memorable. And I'm fairly sure that by all conventional definitions she/it qualifies as a villain, even if you have the choice to take her/its side.
 

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,336
Location
Crait
I think as far as Dragonfall goes, APEX is far more memorable. And I'm fairly sure that by all conventional definitions she/it qualifies as a villain, even if you have the choice to take her/its side.
I disagree. APEX is just a Wintermute rip-off, and not even the most interesting AI in Shadowrun lore. Vauclair is more memorable to me, sort of a fallen paladin (hm... not unlike Sephiroth?).
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
I think as far as Dragonfall goes, APEX is far more memorable. And I'm fairly sure that by all conventional definitions she/it qualifies as a villain, even if you have the choice to take her/its side.
I disagree. APEX is just a Wintermute rip-off, and not even the most interesting AI in Shadowrun lore. Vauclair is more memorable to me, sort of a fallen paladin (hm... not unlike Sephiroth?).
The problem with Vauclair is that you never interact with him until the ending encounter beyond watching some tapes, which aren't exciting or informative enough to register. APEX on the other hand is a much more active player and has a pretty interesting development arc - from a glorified ICE, to rogue AI, to (in one of possible branches) and AI-dragon hybrid.
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
You just sound butthurt that Fallout was too hard for you.

strokes his penis to a mighty erection

"F...Fallout... yes... oh Fallout... do it, Fallout... make me search for that waterchip... oooh. I see it, I see it! The The Glow! FALLOUT! God, I love you Fallout."
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,474
Location
Frostfell
The King of Shadows in NWN2.

FG4a62g.png


Forgotten Realms wiki said:
"Nott much is known about the King's early days, save that he was a talented human magic user who was trained for twenty years by the elf Master Isym in the arcane arts. Fiercely patriotic to his homeland, the Second Illefarn empire, the King was one of the hundred who answered the call by the priest Annaeus to sacrifice himself to become a weapon against Illefarn's enemies: the orc tribes to the north, and Netheril to the east. After he was selected out of all the candidates, the King underwent a 100-day long, extremely painful ritual in which Annaeus merged the man with the Weave. When the ritual had passed, the man had lost all traces of his former self; he was now known as "the Guardian," a perfect weapon with only two goals: to protect Illefarn and destroy its enemies.

Fearing this Guardian, even Netheril dared not attack Illefarn, and so the empires co-existed for a time. However, when the wizard Karsus killed Mystryl, then-goddess of magic, via the spell Karsus's avatar, all magic ceased to function for a time. This caused the tie between the Weave and the Guardian to be shattered, and Netheril's floating cities to fall from the skies. Even after the goddess had been resurrected as Mystra, the King was unable to draw upon his old power. Therefore, he turned to the Shadow Weave, a dark magic source governed by Shar that turned him into a creature of darkness. Some Illefarn citizens came to fear this new incarnation of their Guardian, and sought to kill him before he could turn on his allies, even though he had made no attempt to do so. The six Silken Sisters attacked him in a forest, but were severely beaten. When they returned from the woods it was discovered that the King of Shadows had magically fused the six into one tortured creature. Deciding action had to be taken, Annaeus devised a Ritual of Purification, and assembled a large group of wizards and priests to attack the King of Shadows. Though they were successful in completing the ritual (apparently wounding him), the group was beaten when some of the Guardian's old friends decided to attempt to reason with him instead of slaying him. The King of Shadows was finally defeated when the rest of Illefarn's forces attacked the King in a later battle. Many soldiers, and the great wyrm Nolalothcaragascint, died in the battle, but a group of wizards was able to successfully seal the King away in the Plane of Shadows."

source : https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/King_of_Shadows

Quite interesting story
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
3,524
I feel bad for people who get spoiled about Dagoth Ur before finishing Morrowind. I played it not knowing what was coming and when I entered that last dungeon and that voice started talking to me... words can't describe the awesomeness of that moment. Everything about that last part of the game is just absolutely fantastic

I found Dagoth Ur very disappointing.

The voice and appearance are campy and ridiculous and the battle is uneventful.

It's very common that the end villiain in an RPG is not as interesting nor anywhere near as difficult as a generic monster you fought a dozen hours earlier.
 

Peachcurl

Cipher
Joined
Jan 3, 2020
Messages
8,794
Location
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
So, in between all the posts here, I think rusty_shackleford mentioned that "antagonist" might be a more accurate term than villain for this discussion.

But that makes me wonder: Are there any decent examples where the player is at least somewhat evil (maybe even the villain himself), and faced with a well portrayed, "good"-aligned antagonist?

I mean, there's a bunch of RPGs where being evil is possible, but the main antagonist is still evil as well (or gray area / borderline evil).
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2020
Messages
1,284
So, in between all the posts here, I think rusty_shackleford mentioned that "antagonist" might be a more accurate term than villain for this discussion.

But that makes me wonder: Are there any decent examples where the player is at least somewhat evil (maybe even the villain himself), and faced with a well portrayed, "good"-aligned antagonist?

I mean, there's a bunch of RPGs where being evil is possible, but the main antagonist is still evil as well (or gray area / borderline evil).
Here anon I do give you this cute game anon! I do!
https://vndb.org/v29098
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
Are there any decent examples where the player is at least somewhat evil (maybe even the villain himself), and faced with a well portrayed, "good"-aligned antagonist?

I mean, there's a bunch of RPGs where being evil is possible, but the main antagonist is still evil as well (or gray area / borderline evil).
I think Lands of Lore 2 comes closest: if you choose the evil path, all your good allies become antagonists. You still have to kill the evil big bad, but he won't be the final boss in that case.
 

Storyfag

Perfidious Pole
Patron
Joined
Feb 17, 2011
Messages
15,899
Location
Stealth Orbital Nuke Control Centre
So, in between all the posts here, I think rusty_shackleford mentioned that "antagonist" might be a more accurate term than villain for this discussion.

But that makes me wonder: Are there any decent examples where the player is at least somewhat evil (maybe even the villain himself), and faced with a well portrayed, "good"-aligned antagonist?

I mean, there's a bunch of RPGs where being evil is possible, but the main antagonist is still evil as well (or gray area / borderline evil).

MM7 has you either side with the good guys against the evil ones or vice-versa. There's no final "bossfight" tho.
 

Sykar

Arcane
Joined
Dec 2, 2014
Messages
11,297
Location
Turn right after Alpha Centauri
I feel bad for people who get spoiled about Dagoth Ur before finishing Morrowind. I played it not knowing what was coming and when I entered that last dungeon and that voice started talking to me... words can't describe the awesomeness of that moment. Everything about that last part of the game is just absolutely fantastic

I found Dagoth Ur very disappointing.

The voice and appearance are campy and ridiculous and the battle is uneventful.

It's very common that the end villiain in an RPG is not as interesting nor anywhere near as difficult as a generic monster you fought a dozen hours earlier.

But you can make dope synthwave out of him!

:slamdunkride:
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom