Screw Nuance, Give Me A Memorable Villain | Semi-Ramblomatic
Added 2024-05-23 15:02:54 +0000 UTCThis week's episode of Semi-Ramblomatic is now available!
Comments
Someone tell Yahtzee that The Batman has some of my favorite characterizations in cbm's in both Batman and Riddler. It's also not overly realistic, check it out i you have time.
Erin Anderson
2024-10-04 01:47:05 +0000 UTCHey Yahtzee! I definitely miss some pure evil villains. Played a game recently that you should check out, called Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior. The main villain of that game isn't really a pure evil villain, but it definitely sets up the sequel to have one. I really hope it get's a sequel cause it's one of the most interesting concepts I've played in years. Keep up the great work!
Davis Garrett
2024-05-25 17:16:17 +0000 UTC^_^
ur ppnballs
2024-05-25 12:27:18 +0000 UTCYakuza villains are always a joy for me, Yakuza 6 has probably two most punchable men in existence as final bosses.
Nikolai Sitko
2024-05-25 08:06:17 +0000 UTCI will say this can sometimes go slightly too far. I’m fine with the motive being “I’m a dick and proud” but this has to be balanced with ability. The villains in Fire Emblem Engage (as the game that came out most recently I remember playing) were definitely hammy and memorable, but I found them constantly one-upping me in cutscenes and then gloating to be more annoying than anything. Now Higgs in Death Stranding… that was an unabashed weirdo that you couldn’t wait to finally punch out and smack with some luggage!
Tim Wilson
2024-05-24 12:52:02 +0000 UTCI mean, I beat Ganandorf, felt great about it and was very satisfied with the ending and journey I went on… then went back in time so I could either kill him again or finish off the few side quests I didn’t have time for beforehand. The game didn’t ban me from Hyrule?
Tim Wilson
2024-05-24 12:49:13 +0000 UTCIt's a shame you hate MuhMorPuhGuhs, Yatz, because FFXIV has knocked it out of the park in the last two expansions with the villains. One of them even became part of the most recent expansion's central theme with his, "My reason for living is to MURDER SHIT, what's YOUR excuse???" attitude.
Maytree
2024-05-24 00:14:24 +0000 UTCA great episode, good point made about the loss of the operatic villain these days and the joy in the purity of that
Maximilian Vermilye
2024-05-23 21:16:35 +0000 UTCYour second point reminds of the completely psychotic mess that was the recent arc (as in one or two years back) in the X-Men comics where this random nature themed mutant girl sees a seagull chocking on a six-pack plastic ring or some shit like that and decides to go on a totally psychotic rampage murdering random literal blue collar workers, small town shopkeepers and other everyday people who all of a sudden become cartoonishly asholley just so the murdering feels justified. The whole thing ended with the nature girl getting caught by the rest of the X-Men and being tried for making mutants look bad with all her murdering (and just that mind you, the X-Men didn't really care about the whole murder thing for any other reason), only for the literal voice of the Earth or something setting her free saying that actually murdering people is good because climate change.
Wally Hackenslacker
2024-05-23 18:07:30 +0000 UTCFor traditional villains who are evil for evil sake I can think of Adam Smasher in Cyberpunk 2077 and Jadus Heskell from ION Fury. And ***SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS***the narrator guy from WRATH Aeon of Ruin END OF SPOILERS***. It also reminds me of how Disney fans were clamoring for this very thing for years and all they got was the absolute wonder bread of a villian that is King Magnifico from Wish, who I'm pretty sure is equals part Disney crapping the bed because they forgot how to write fun villains and a fat middle finger to the people that didn't like Disney's "the bad guy is either an abstract concept or a predictable twist villain" phase.
Wally Hackenslacker
2024-05-23 17:58:51 +0000 UTCBG3 had some pretty operatic villains. Not really any debating that they're evil and that they love hurting people and destroying things. The only thing is that we don't really meet them until right at the end of Act 2. I've noticed a trend in a lot of media nowadays that the villain card tends to be held less and less by individual people and more and more by society itself. Or, rather, that the characters blame society for their woes rather than people. They give excuse after excuse why a character is the way that they are, no matter how evil or genocidal, and after a certain point you just have to wonder if the writers *agree* with the villains and are only making them the villains because causing total societal collapse is considered tacky, to put it lightly. That they want to justify the villain causing a ridiculous amount of death and destruction and a complete upheaval of the status quo and are making them the bad guy out of obligation more than anything. I won't lie, after a certain point I just want them to admit that they're in favor of all this chaos just so we can have an actual discussion rather than them just waffling back and forth, being all coy about their implied support of a character that you aren't supposed to openly support otherwise.
Ryallen
2024-05-23 17:13:18 +0000 UTCI think this is the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction from kids who grew up in the '90s with literal cartoon villains growing up and realizing the world isn't so black-and-white. Unfortunately, as pendulums do, it swung too far and now you've got weirdos whose entire personalities are talking about how "ACTUALLY the villain was right all along!" and can't fathom the idea that sometimes assholes are just assholes because they're assholes.
Dr. Judge, Private Eye
2024-05-23 16:52:33 +0000 UTCI also struggle to of memorable villains in indie games. It´s also probably harder to pull off if you don´t a have budget larger that is larger than that of a small country´s goverment. -_-
Skujat
2024-05-23 16:48:10 +0000 UTCTHANK YOU! YES! ENOUGH NUANCE!
Meinos Kaen
2024-05-23 16:33:03 +0000 UTCThe flip side of your point about Suicide Squad is that single player games that DO let you defeat the evil villain reward you by kicking you out of the playspace (think TOTK). No more villain, no conflict, no story or combat-based gameplay.
Max Goldstein
2024-05-23 15:42:20 +0000 UTCSay what you will about the Star Wars Prequels, Sheev Palpatine was having a blast.
ChemistryMickey
2024-05-23 15:21:33 +0000 UTCI think one of the most recent villains that fit this who I loved was Jack Baker. He was having a whale of a time driving his car, was so excited to shoot himself in front of you, and was just all around very excited about what was happening until the end. Lucas was very similar. Marg was a bit angry, but still flamboyant and memorable as hell. But I don't think nuance has to be at odds with flamboyance. The Joker is often flamboyant and excited, but writers sometimes do a good job with putting nuance within the flamboyance or using the flamboyance to hide some nuance.
Thomas
2024-05-23 15:13:02 +0000 UTC
