Most video games need a villain. If you don't have an opposing force pushing against you then why are you doing any of this? While some games do in fact relish in just letting you wander in space, or explore a character♓, mos༺t games need a baddie try♏ing to stop you from getting what you want.
A lot of these neer-do-wells are pretty clear-cut in their evilness. Bowser is rarely given a justifiable reason for wanting to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, GLaDOS has been programmed to hate you, and Handsome Jack is such a duplicitous liar that it's basically impossible to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there are some villains we feel conflicted about. Some of them could even be considered so morally justified that they are the protagonists of their stories, but that is what makes them so tragic.
10 Mr. Freeze - Batman: Arkham♉ City ಌ
The backstory of famed scientist Victor Fries has always been a tragic one. It was most beautifully adapted in Batman: The Animated Series in the iconic episode Heart of Ice. The Fries of Arkham City's universe has basically an identical downfall. Once a brilliant scientist he's been driven to evil for a righteous reason.
His wife Nora was diagnosed with a terminal illness, which led him to investigate cryogenics. However, his boss caught win﷽d of this unapproved work and tried to shut it down, during the chaos Fries fell into a vat of chemicals and Nora was frozen. He is now tra🤪pped in this monstrous body doing whatever he can, no matter how evil, to find the funds and equipment to save his frozen love.
9 Sc𒁏orpion - Mortal Kombat 🍒
Even since the first game, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mortal Kombat series has had more lore than almost any other fighting game series. All the characters have not only had deep backstories but pretty logical motivations. None more than Scorpion, who along with becoming the face of the franchise has spent most of the games being a tra🔥gic pawn of those that🌟 would manipulate him.
Scorpion, despite his lone wolf demeanour, has often allowed his hate for the Lin Kuei that killed his family to blind him. This even includes seeing him being manipulated by Quan Chi, the man responsible for their deaths. Thankfully, however much of Mortal Kombat 10 and MK 11 has been dedicated to seeing him take back the initiative, but we still wouldn't go as far as calling him one of the "good guys".
8 ♔ Odin - God Of War: Ragnarok
Odin's son Baldur, arguably has a much more depressing backstory in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War at first glance. A man who has slowly lost his mind thanks to his inability to feel anything, desperately picking fights in the hope that someone can end his torment. However, the more we think about Odꦅin, the more his life 𝔉just makes us sad.
The more Atreus in particular comes to know this ancient ruler, the more you realise he is just a sad old man, terrified of what fate has in store for him, and not being able to control everything. As a result, he's taken to trusting no one in his purest of infinite knowledge. What's more is when he explains this all, he puts forth remarkably well-reasoned points in a very calm manner, it would almost be enough to make you want to side with him, if the means he was using to get to the end weren't so heartless.
7 Kenny - Telltale's The Walking Dead
Kenny is the first controversial character on this list, and he won't be the last. The upsetting thing about Kenny is that the way he is written for much of the second season of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Walking Dead is that it's hard to tell if the writers at Telltale knew that they were writing such an emotionally manipulative character.
His actions are often understandable after what happened to his family in the first season, but that doesn't make it any more difficult to watch him guilt-trip Clem into staying with him and very much act as the antagonist force in her world. The game does finally present him as a more outwardly destructive entity in the final episode but the idea of being able to side with him, after all the emotional abuse he has overseen, has always been deeply upsetting.
6 Goro Majima - Like A Dragon Series 🔜
For years, The Mad Dog of Shimano seems like a force of pure chaos. He wasn't even depicted as much as a villain and more as a rival for Kiryu and an agent of mayhem, hell-bent on throwing wrenches in Kiryu's plans. However, thanks to Yakuza 0 we can now understand why he's such a tortured soul. The game doesn't just give Majima a backstory, but sends him through the absolute ringer.
Suddenly, after all the heartbreak and pain he has suffered, it makes a lot more sense that h🎃e is the way he is. Goro Majima is a man who spe🔴nt his life being controlled and so gave into chaos, so that no one could ever use him as a pawn again, and he is the only one in control of his own future.
5 👍 Goroꦫ Akechi - Persona 5
Akechi is very much the distorted reflection of the protagonist of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 5. His fate s🐻eems intertwined with Ren, and he too has awoken his persona. Unlike, the main Phantom Thief who is trying to change the hearts of evildoers, Akechi has taken to using his powers to drive people mad and assassinate them under the orders of his estranged father Shido.
If his backstory as an unwanted orphan trapped in a system that stigmatised him wasn't sad enough, he does finally come good, but due to forces outside his control, only the Phantom Thieves will know his sacrifice. He isn't just a tragic villain, but a hero that will tragically never be remembered as one.
4 𒅌 David Arche✃r - Mass Effect 2
The villains of Mass Effect all operate in shades of grey, despite the game's binary moral system. However, none of their stories are as tragic as that of David and Gavin Archer. David is one of the few people with the ability to understand the geth on a higher level, but his brother takes advantage in awful ways until he has become something truly monstrous.
Without spoiling the whole of the excellent Overload DLC for Mass Effect 2, David's actions are horrific but are a cry for help as he tries to escape the prison of his own mind and the geth hivemind that Gavin has trapped him in.
3 ꩲ Father Gascoigne - Bloodborne 🎐
Almost all of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bloodborne's hunters are tragic villains. Due to the corrupting nature of the Old Blood, pretty much every hunter that took up arms against the nightmares of their realm has been tainted by bloodlust.
Many of them 🍌are like Father Gascoigne, a man who only wants to protect his wife and daughter but has been hunting for so long that he can no longe🥃r stop. There is still some goodness left in this man, as anyone that has played the music box in his arena will know, but sadly, all told, he is too far gone.
2 Superman - Injustic🔯e: Gods Among Us
It's hard to overstate how tragic Superman's downfall is in NetherRealm's alternate universe DC story. The actions of the Joker that lead him to become a fascist dictator controlling the entirety of the earth are some of the most dastardly in that character's history (and that's saying something).
We won't say that we sympathise with Superman in this universe, but we can understand how the man that can do anything has become so fundamentally broken by losing the one thing he loved.
1 𒉰 James Sunderlan🔯d - Silent Hill 2
James is a bad man; the entirety of Silent Hill 2 is built around communicating that. The game you play is him finally confronting his awful deeds, but itജ does not make him any less of a bad person.
The real debate isn't whether Sunderland is the hero or villain of the story though, but whether has he done enough to deserve forgiveness and to escape Silent Hill. The game obviously doesn't give any clear answers. In fact, it gives several potential vague ones. It is up to you to decide if he has earned his redemption.