Every story, every game
needs a good villain, right? What is a story without a villain?
However, sometimes the “bad
guy” in video games isn’t always that evil, or bad. Maybe they’re just simply
looking at it in different perspective, maybe what they’re doing is just for
the greater good. Video games have tons of ambiguous antagonists, each of them
shaped from their own backstory and their own motivation. Today, we’re going to
talk about the types of video games, along with the character.
The Evil Antagonist
The truly villain, or the
purely villain; with their intent of harming the others, or just to fulfil
their desire of evil, or just simply wanted to see the world burn. This type of
villain usually can be found in fantasy, sci-fi, and action-adventure, although
they can still appear in other genres.
Often, the narrative
surrounding of this Evil Antagonist usually develops into light vs dark, with
the protagonist as a noble hero. Conceding that this type of villain is played
out, but there is a reason why this type of villain is so popular. This pure
villain is satisfying to beat, they also gave us the basic human instinct,
fear. We beat the evil, we conquer our fear.
The pure evil antagonist can
be seen in the character of Sephiroth
from Final Fantasy VII.
Some Evils are born, Others created
Not every antagonist born
and just straightaway becomes evil. Maybe some of them just unfortunate to grew
up in the wrong place, or maybe something that triggers them to do bad things.
In many stories, there have been many villains that’s forged by the cruelties
of life, and one of them is Delilah
Copperspoon.
Born to the Kaldwin lineage,
as the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Euhorn Kaldwin. Sometimes she would ask
her father if she could participate in court, in hopes that she can get the
role of a princess, yet Emperor Kaldwin always postpones it. Until one day
she’s being framed for breaking a valuable item then thrown out of Dunwall
Tower. Leaving her and her mother to struggling to survive in the unforgiving
streets of Dunwall.
Misguided in Their Beliefs
There are many antagonists
that have taken their own dark roads, and one of them can be an erroneous
belief. Whether they think that they’re saving their own country, or even their
world or fighting against something that is good, the hubris of these villains
is sometimes went too far. This kind of antagonist can be found in the Illusive Man.
An elusive, secretive, and well-informed
leader of Cerberus who believes that humanity must be preserved at all cost,
the Illusive Man thinks what he’s doing is right for the galaxy, for the
humanity, he thinks that he can make humanity much better, yet at the end he
becomes a pawn of the evil that he tried to stop.
They Only Appear Evil
Let’s face it that this kind
of type of antagonist is that they’re all just tragic. They look like an evil
person on the surface yet their purpose is for the greater good. It’s tragic
obviously because we only see them as villain not hero who try to save the
world. There is no greater martyr than Metal Gear Solid’s The Boss.
A character who sacrifices
everything for her country, for her mission, The Boss die as a traitor in the
eyes of the world in order to keep peace in the world, in order to keep the
world stay away from another great war.
How to Create an Amazing and Memorable Villain
There are many ways to
create a great villain either in video games, movies, or books. We are going to
show you how to create one.
Start with have a great and
interesting backstory. It doesn’t have to be a cheesy tragic backstory, make it
simpler so the audience can understand and relate to the backstory.
Then have yourself placed in
their shoes, in other words, different perspective. Understanding your villain
character is important in building their own character. How would you feel as a
villain, what is your motivation. There are many motivations, even though it’s
silly but it’s reasonable.
You can also give an
unexpected plot twist to the characters that you wanted to make a villain. As
for an example, the protagonist’s friend could be their worst enemy, with this
kind of formula can result a great impact to character building, that could
make the protagonist have a trust issue because of the backstabbing.
Lastly, give them a great design. Visual is also
important! Make your villain character more stand out, make them different. A
great design of character can be memorable.
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