*spoilers* Worst characters/villains

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Seifer Almasy

You know, when I'm honest with myself, I don't really get Seifer Almasy's deal. So he's been Squall's rival since childhood (which the characters conveniently don't remember because of those damn Guardian Forces), he slices Squall's head open, gets punished for not following directions during the SEED exam at Dollet, supposedly gets executed, becomes Edea's bitch, tortures Squall and then is wiped off the map by Gilgamesh until he shows up fishing during the game's ending.

I might care about the whole "torturing Squall" thing if I actually cared about Squall... but I don't which hurts my overall opinion of Final Fantasy VIII as a game. Still, I don't know who I like less. I guess I'd still have to go with Seifer since he can't do the Lionheart limit break. I mean at least Squall is useful as a character during battle. However, as a character and villain I just never felt threatened by Seifer which is the exact opposite of how I felt when I fought Beatrix in Final Fantasy IX.

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Kuja

I know there are some people that LOVE Kuja... but every time I play through Final Fantasy IX I can't help but think how much more I'd enjoy the game if I unconditionally hated the guy. As it stands I don't really hate the him... he's just kind of annoying being the schemer he is. It's true the game tries to drive home his viciousness by having him kill Dagger's mother with summon magic but that doesn't make me fear the guy even though I can sympathize with the princess.

Then the game tries to make you feel kind of bad for Kuja when Garland tells him there is a limit on his life and that he's "technically" inferior to Zidane... but then proceeds to have him destroy Terra. Still, probably the MOST annoying thing about Kuja is you never actually get to best him in combat... he always nukes you with Ultima before that point. Sure, that spell looks pretty cool, but fixed battles like that pretty much "nuke" my interest in him as a character.

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Seymour

Seriously, I wish Square-Enix would announce a release date for the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster already because I REALLY need to replay Final Fantasy X. Why? I can't for the life of me remember how Seymour ends up being one of the game's bad guys. However, that in itself is saying something because if it was actually one of the game's better moments I think I would have remembered.

Probably the most disappointing thing about Seymour was when I ran into him before the end of the game... I was so overpowered at that point he was practically a joke despite the fact there was something you had to do to beat him. Again... can't remember that battle so much compared to every other battle at the end of the game.

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Vile (Vava)

Everyone's favorite Boba Fett impersonator is kind of a special case when it comes to terrible villains because it generally depends on WHEN he appears that makes him good or bad. In the original Mega Man X Vile serves his purpose quite well, especially during the opening level. However, subsequent appearances - Vile popping in during X3 isn't TOO bad considering he swears to haunt X until the day he dies (chilling words) - but the impact factor is significantly reduced.

However, by the time Mega Man X8 came around Vile's reemergence and place in the story was simply pathetic and a sad attempt to relive moments from superior games. In the game itself Zero quotes that "it's like old times" with Vile running around... no, just no. Vile served a purpose at one point but he was eventually turned into a prop that meant next to nothing.

Also, it should be noted that Vile pops up during the Mega Man Zero timeline as well, but this battle isn't in any game - it's presented in a Japanese language drama track on the Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero Telos album.


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Sigma

Much like Vile above, Sigma started out as an excellent villain. The direction Capcom took with him compared to Wily (who had a side you couldn't really hate) helped drive home the more serious nature of the Mega Man X series. However, as the games kept coming down the pike Sigma became more of annoyance because it wasn't a question if Sigma was involved in the most recent incident... the question was when the game you were playing was going to quit playing charades and just spill the obvious fact that he WAS involved. In this respect I have to give Mega Man X5 a nod because it spills the beans a mere five minutes in unlike some of the games....

Of course, those that have played and completed Mega Man X8 know there is more to the constant re-appearance of Sigma than meets the eye. Unfortunately, the game fails to follow-up such a twist with anything real juicy - see below.

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Lumine

I'm sure those who played through Mega Man X8 were THRILLED to find that Sigma wasn't the last boss like the last nine (remember the two Xtremes!) games in the series. However, as nice of a twist as this is, it's my opinion that Lumine just sucks and he doesn't know when to shut up.

Beyond the two actual battles with Lumine (the first of which is just a pathetic rehash of the previous maverick battles) the end of Mega Man X8 is Lumine pretty much explaining that events of the previous games were just a means to an end... blah, blah, blah... massive plot dump that almost contracts some of the things the series already established. In a certain sense it teeters on the edge of mundane. Obviously a reploid that loves to hear himself talk, Lumine does prove to be the key to the game's ending which is beyond interesting (and irritating!) so he's not completely useless.

Also, if you want to hear a rocking tune be sure to look up "VS Lumine ~ The Second Form" from the Rockman X8 Soundtrack. It's easily the best thing about battling Lumine.

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Shadow

Okay, I'm am going to be a bit blunt and possibly rude here so please excuse my following outburst. If you started to play Mega Man X Command Mission and didn't have AT LEAST a HUNCH that Shadow was a bad guy that was going to betray you fifteen minutes later, well, you're an idiot. For the LOVE of ALL THAT IS HOLY HIS NAME IS FREAKIN' SHADOW! I don't think Capcom could have made it anymore obvious than they did. Really, these are the plot twists that have me coming back to the Mega Man games time and time again :P

Because Shadow's intent is more than obvious by just looking at him this makes him a terrible character. If you want to see this kind of character done right... or at least done a little better, check out Double/Jello Man from Mega Man X4.

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Elpizo

Those that have read some of my lists may know that I generally dislike the games in the Mega Man Zero series. Hate is too strong of a word... but I DO hate certain things FROM Mega Man Zero - especially Mega Man Zero 2. What am I talking about? Elpizo. I freakin' HATE this guy/girl/whatever it is. When the game opens Elpizo is the new leader of the resistance. Later on after some of Zero's missions he gets impatient and leads an attack against Neo Arcadia during a perceived weak point. This quickly goes askew and his offensive is quickly demolished. After his dreams are dashed, he goes batshit crazy and Zero has to go to trouble of tracking him down and stopping him. Of course, Zero can't stop him from being the game's final boss so you DO get the joy of knocking the snot out of him. Then, THEN the STUPID Dark/Mother elf SAVES the LOSER by turning him into a cyberelf which just PISSED ME OFF. Flat-out the guy didn't deserve saving...

Of course, I should probably mention that the pathos of Elpizo's backstory is intended to make the player feel that he is worthy of redemption. I'm sorry to say I didn't feel that way... I might have felt more of a connection to the character HAD it been part of a better series of games but nothing short of a case of amnesia can erase the fact that I insanely hate this character.

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Luther

To be honest I don't have much to say about Luther. In fact I COMPLETELY forgot about him until I scanned the games on my shelf when looking for characters to use in this list. Incidentally, this is WHY Luther MADE the list... as a character/villain he's just an enormous non-entity that made the ending of Till the End of Time the least memorable part of the game. Seriously, the only interesting thing about Luther is that his Japanese name is Lucifer... which makes him sound much cooler than he really is.

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Marco Bartoli

I have a lot of gripes with Tomb Raider II, most of which revolve around the fact it is nowhere near as good as the original. But if I was forced to pick ONE element of Tomb Raider II I disliked the most it would be the main villain Marco Bartoli. Why do I dislike Bartoli? It's quite simple. Despite the fact the cut scene at the end of the Diving Area level with the Barkhang Monk implies otherwise I simply feel the conflict between Lara and Bartoli never feels personal. Actually, if you think about it that aforementioned cut scene (snapshot above) makes NO SENSE. If you were Marco Bartoli WHY would you SHOOT THE MONK instead of SHOOTING LARA IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD? The monk is on the ground and has been severely beaten for info, he's NOT going anywhere! Lara on the other hand HAS GUNS and is a BIG PAIN in his side. Again, it makes NO SENSE other than the fact it would end the game prematurely. Thank god the game is as old as it is or there'd probably be some lame-ass QTE here....

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Dr. Willard

Beyond Natla in the original game the Tomb Raider series has a knack for creating terrible villains. Then again, since Tomb Raider III is a rather horrible game maybe it deserves a villain suited to its status. Still, it's not Dr. Willard and his evil, poison spewing sea otters of hate that really make me question the narrative of the game so much, but the decisions of Lara herself. Considering Lara was hired by Natla in the original Tomb Raider to find the three pieces of the Scion and then subsequently betrayed, WHY on EARTH would Lara agree to work for another corporate hack with NEXT TO NO explanation? The fact that the game implies Lara is incapable of learning from her past mistakes is simply insulting and makes her look like a dumb blonde. Of course, that might work in her favor when she's on trail for killing all the RX Tech workers she encounters in Antarctica - which again makes NO SENSE as she's technically still WORKING FOR RX Tech until Willard betrays her in the scene above.

While a decent game ("decent" being a gross evasion for phrases like "nothing new" and "boring as hell") Wild Arms 3 has a heap of terrible villains that do it absolutely no favors.


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Janus Cascade

Janus Cascade was Wild Arms 3's attempt to introduce a character without morals, a character who lied in direct opposition to the main character Virginia Maxwell. This is rather standard storytelling but I found such an effort to be greatly diminished because I find myself hard-pressed to care about Virginia - let alone ANY female lead in a role-playing game. Additionally, I wasn't too interested in the fate that awaited Janus past the game's first chapter since he's basically a way less interesting and likable version/play off of Ashley Winchester from Wild Arms 2 - one of my favorite games and characters.


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The Prophets

Without fail it seems the Wild Arms series likes to have the heroes face off against a formidable "group" of adversaries. The original Wild Arms had the Metal Demons and/or Quarter Knights (awesome), Wild Arms 2 has the terrorist group Odessa (again, awesome) and Wild Arms 3 has... the... Prophets? Man... I wish I could get excited about these guys but I just found them to be an insanely lame annoyance you run into here and there during the game. The only member of the Prophets that is interesting in ANY way is Malik (the guy in the middle) as his unresolved Oedipal Complex and a cloning machine makes for the game's best scene.


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Beatrice

Don't let Beatrice's appearance fool you... if I remember correctly (I haven't played the game in over a decade since I'm not fond of it) Beatrice is pretty much responsible for many of the villains actions throughout the game when your adversaries accessed the information library Hades. I guess a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, especially when the Prophets above are involved. The problem is Beatrice isn't really an interesting enemy because when you actually fight her it's not hard to outright slaughter her... which is actually a problem for the WHOLE game. If you know how to use the Gatling Force power correctly the ENTIRE game is your bitch. Her rise and fall is quick, anti-climatic and describes Wild Arms 3's viability as a product a little too well.

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Jeremy

This is a hard entry to write because beyond Jeremy Wild Arms 4 is FULL of antagonists that successfully blur the line between good and evil. Flat-out there are very few inherently evil characters in the game, and those who perform deeds that could be seen as evil generally have noble goals. This isn't really the case with Jeremy. When the player first meets Jeremy in a meeting with his fellow mercenaries he seems balanced enough, but this changes greatly when the player meets him for the second time. In fact, his actions at this point in time are deemed SO wreckless by his co-workers and superiors that he is sent to Illsveil Prison. After this the player tends to forget about Jeremy - and rightfully so - but...

...near the end of the game an artificially enhanced Jeremy breaks out of prison and attempts to kill the player's party. Through the rather surprising efforts of a third party your characters break free and send Jeremy to the depths of hell where he undeniably belongs. This seems to make for an open and shut case of Jeremy being through and through evil and rather generic villain... but is he completely forgettable? Not quite. On the most basic level Jeremy is a pretty terrible villain (undoubtedly) yet he was obviously created with the intent of being a point of contrast with the games other, misguided ones. In the end Jeremy is a sucky villain that isn't too sucky of you look at the bigger picture.

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Kartikeya

Kartikeya... oh, Kartikeya. I don't think there is another villain I've personally encountered that makes me wish time machines were a realty. How I wish I could crash the development room at Media Vision during the development of Wild Arms 5 and just smack the pen and paper from the hands that gave birth to this abomination. Now some may be expecting a grand diagnosis of why this character COMPLETELY SUCKS but it's far from being complicated. So why is Kartikeya such a bad character? From the first minute we meet his depraved "being" it becomes clear we are dealing with a complete psychopath. That may sound interesting, but... but this is all the player EVER learns about Kartikeya - other than the fact he loves senseless killing. We never find out WHY Kartikeya is completely devoid of any humanity. Someone PLEASE tell Media Vision that insanity without context is a COMPLETE waste!

What makes this so INFURATING is Media Vision has gotten this kind of character correct in the past. In Wild Arms 2 the player is introduced to Judecca, a member of the terrorist organization Odessa. Much like Kartikeya, Judecca was a psychopath. The player doesn't really learn much about Judecca beyond his actions, but Judecca was a fully developed character, not a half-full one like Kartikeya. It's comparisons like these - and there are many more - that prove the difference in quality between the first two Wild Arms games and the rest on the PlayStation 2.


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Volsung

Where a character like Kartikeya shows how little Media Vision tried with some of the villains in Wild Arms 5, Volsung is an example of Media Vision trying WAY to hard to fuel the narrative's main selling point. For those that are in the dark about what the game's story was about, Wild Arms 5 is about class/race relations between Filgaia's native inhabitants and the space-traveling Veruni and how the Veruni have gained the upper hand in society. Volsung was a mixed-race child that was prophesized to bridge the gap between the factions but failed due to the abuse and prejudice he suffered as a child.

The general premise of how Volsung became a cold, evil being sounds solid enough in theory... but the game completely screws it up. Near the outset of the game one can view a cut scene depicting Volsung effortlessly, soullessly cutting through a squadron of soldiers. Okay, so I take it I'm meant to fear and respect this guy. Thing is, I don't. A few hours later when I visit a certain town - the town Volsung grew up in - I'm shown a brief snippet of his childhood. However, I am not shown the abuse he suffered or shown how he transformed into an benevolent being. No, I am TOLD THROUGH TEXT that this is what happened - NOT SHOWN. This UTTERLY DESTROYS any chance there is of me getting to know this character. Urgh! *frustrated grunt*

Edit/Update: I wanted to update this section without changing the original text. Anyways, after watching some video of the end of the game, Wild Arms 5 DOES show how Volsung became an evil being. However, it is INSANELY lame and is far from interesting.


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Chuck Preston (aka cocky S.O.B. that has nothing to smirk about...)

Those of you reading may wonder how the characters in Wild Arms 5 could possibly get worse. Well, they do, and to add insult to injury Chuck Preston is NOT a villain! That's right, Chuck is the only character on this list that isn't and man oh man does he deserve it. The thing is the game really presents us with two Chucks... the one we meet a few hours into the game and the one we meet before the end.

The first time we meet Chuck the character isn't really allowed to display why the person playing should hate the game's scenario writer. During these events and most of the game Dean is the annoying, over eager character. This changes dramatically twenty some hours later when the player encounters Chuck trying to prevent his love interest from being sold into bondage to the Veruni. In the ensuing scuffle (with one of their leaders Fereydoon) Chuck is revealed to be the spineless, weak-kneed person he really is. Later on in the game, Chuck manages to best Fereydoon in one-on-one combat and then has the NEVRE to talk down to him about protecting the ones you love and blah, blah, blah when Fereydoon is one of the MOST moral members of the Veruni. The exchange and complete disharmony of this segment completely DESTROYED my faith that anything written in Wild Arms 5 had ANY validity. A terrible character in a terrible game at the end of a franchise's lifespan.

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Albedo

We're saving the most controversial and overvalued for last. Albedo is a villain where A LOT of people tend to gloss over the insanely insipid aspects of his character. Point blank, I do not find the cut scene were he frightens MOMO by ripping off his limbs and head to be that great. To me it's a case of insanity for the sake of insanity. No, personally the things I love about Albedo tend to be more subtitle. For example, I find his "extracurricular activities" and sadist actions with the Kirschwassers deeply unsettling and it's really Jr.'s memories of Albedo's childhood in the second game (how he was driven mad by the fact he couldn't die and would be left alone) that make the character interesting to me - NOT where he stood mentally in the first game with his over-the-top theatrics.

However, in saying this I probably should mention that I haven't played the third game in the series and I've read that Albedo's personality undergoes a rather radical transformation due to certain events... so I don't have a FULL picture of Albedo as a character... yet.