Most Evil Video Game Character

[BroomJockey]

Monkey Island series - LeChuck.

LeChuck was a 3rd rate pirate and a 5th rate villain. He's somewhere below puppy-kickers on the list of badasses.

Gary's hardly evil. He's a spoiled, selfish brat. In the realm of movies, we have people like Darth Vader and the Emperor, and to compare, you wanna put Gary on a list of "Evil Video Game Characters." The guy couldn't evil his way out of a paper bag.

Manhunt I'll give you, and Xenosaga, mostly because I've not played those. Assassin's Creed? Again, this isn't a list of villains. This is a list of Most Evil Villains. People who either have a profound effect on the entire world, or just totally dominate the lives of a few poor souls. Just being a little power crazy? Eh, your standard of evil's a lot lower than mine.

[gunsage]

While I don't necessarily agree with Sephiroth being a bad villain (though he didn't do much, admittedly), I'll throw my hat in here with a few I didn't see.

Monkey Island series - LeChuck. I really shouldn't have to say much, but for those unfamiliar he's an undead ghost/zombie pirate that constantly pursues Elaine, the governer of Melee Island, who obviously isn't into him. As Guybrush Threepwood, her new fling, you're constantly in the middle of meddle.

Manhunt - The Director. What can I say? He's a sadistic bastard you love to hate. You put up with his shit enough and eventually, of course, he turns on you. It's an obvious twist, but his dialogue is great and it feels great when you finally catch up to him.

Xenosaga series - Albedo. Okay, so mostly he's a villain in the first Xenosaga episode, but this guy's freakin' crazy. Sure, Kefka's crazy too, but I guess if anything, I see this guy as a more modern Kefka.

Assassin's Creed...well...

[spoiler]Your master. Think about it...this guy orders you around, killing off various co-conspirator's, all just to harness the power himself. I know that makes him typical, but until the next to the last chapter, I honestly had not expected him to be the main villain.[/spoiler]

Bully - Gary Smith. Albedo's crazy. THIS guy's MENTAL. The best part is he controls people through the power of suggestion...a true social engineer. I love it. And kicking his ass is fun, too.

[Fire_on_High]

Nope, once Invincible died he lost it, well and truly.

[MaggieTheCat]

Speaking of WoW, Arthas wasn't exactly a peach, either.

[Fire_on_High]

Odd as this one will sound, Varian Wrynn in WoW. Yes, I play Alliance, but I've never seen why the senseless war. Thrall and Cairne are honorable, sensible folks and if Varian wasn't a hotheaded idiot, there's a very real chance there could have been peace.

See the Wrathgate for what I mean. No spoilers, I'm talking about the final bit in Undercity where Jaina intervenes finally.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Yeah; can't believe I forgot that dude. XD Plus all those four armed baddies he had on his side; the female one was a real pain in the butt to defeat.

[Gravekeeper]

I'm gonna take an unpopular stand here, and say Sephiroth sucked. He didn't do shit. He killed Aeris (oh, spoiler warning) and that's about it. Everything else was someone else's idea, plan, or action. Shinra did more damage than him. And as for killing Aeris, what the fuck, I had TWENTY pheonix downs. It's just a damned sword wound, I coulda brought her back.

Amen. I never understood the fanboi/grrl fascination with Sephiroth beyond using him as a blatantly obvious yaoi slash fic character.

If you want an actual Villain(tm) from the FF series, you look no further than Kefka. ;p

[Bloodsoul]

Regarding M. Bison:
Chun-Li - "Monster! You killed my--"
Bison - "Yes, yes, I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? I killed my father, too, and you don't here me whining about it!"

Actually looking back through the numerous fighting games that I've played the first big super villain that comes to mind is Mortal Kombat's Shao Kahn. He causes his shadow priests to resurrect his dead queen, Sindel, on Earth and thus is allowed to open a gateway to reclaim her; this breaches the rules centered around the "Shaolin Tournament for Martial Arts", so instead of winning so many tournaments to win Earth the honest way, he cheats instead, using his queen (who was a stolen wife to begin with) just to make ends meet.

And what does he do afterwards? Steal all the souls of Earth, sending extermination squads against those protected by divine decree (the photo of common city folk getting their souls practically ripped from their bodies was rather unnerving to a wee lad back in '95). He even adopted Sindel's daughter, Kitana, just to lay claim to the Outworld/Edenian throne (only to have mutant clone of her created to, I believe, someday suplant her without anyone else knowing).

I know he's done other nasty things, like commited genocide and kicked puppies, but it's late and I can't remember much else (oh, there was the sacking of the Shaolin Temples as revenge for Shang Tsung's loss in the first Mortal Kombat game).

[Lady_Foxfire]

My nominations are:
Kratos, from God of War: He slaughters everyone and everything in his path, including his own wife and daughter (accidentally, but still). Eventually becomes a god, and slaughters even more people.

The Vizier, from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time: He gets the Persian army to invade India (resulting in many deaths) and tricks the main character into releasing the sands of time (resulting in even more deaths), just so that he can become immortal.

Draak, from Darkstone: Evil shapeshifting wizard who frequently burns villages to the ground, slaughters monastaries full of monks, and terrorizes the countryside, seemingly just for the fun of it. (Has anyone else even heard of this game? It's one of my favorite PC games ever.)

Dracula, from the Castlevania series: Do I need to explain this one? He's Dracula!

[lordlundar]

I'm gonna take an unpopular stand here, and say Sephiroth sucked. He didn't do shit. He killed Aeris (oh, spoiler warning) and that's about it. Everything else was someone else's idea, plan, or action. Shinra did more damage than him. And as for killing Aeris, what the fuck, I had TWENTY pheonix downs. It's just a damned sword wound, I coulda brought her back.

THANK YOU!

And yes, I fully agree. On another site I mention that I've seen heroes do more villainous things than Sephiroth did.

[MaggieTheCat]

I'm gonna take an unpopular stand here, and say Sephiroth sucked.

I love you.

I just didn't mention Sephiroth because he's got so many fanboys it makes me gag.

[BroomJockey]

Serious lack of Sephiroth in here. For shame.

I'm gonna take an unpopular stand here, and say Sephiroth sucked. He didn't do shit. He killed Aeris (oh, spoiler warning) and that's about it. Everything else was someone else's idea, plan, or action. Shinra did more damage than him. And as for killing Aeris, what the fuck, I had TWENTY pheonix downs. It's just a damned sword wound, I coulda brought her back.

[ArenaBoy]

Serious lack of Sephiroth in here. For shame.

Are we talking most effect on the game world? Kefka from FF VI. Destroyed the entire world and ruled over it.

Don't forget Kefka poisoned a town's water supply and called it music to his ears.

[lordlundar]

I don't even remember the guy's name, but I remember that "you BASTARD" moment. ;p

Bishop Stein, one of Solaris's thugs who actually knew a good part of their plan and wanted to play both sides from the middle. Not only an evil sociopathic bastard, but not having the most foresight. (let's see, destroyer of god on one side, manipulative nation on the other, and you're trying to screw over both?)

[Gravekeeper]

Ah yes, the G-Man. If you play Half-Life 2 and its follow up episodes, he gets more...hands on. However, I wouldn't classify him as a villain persay. He's sort of a...broker...for Gordon's services. Though who or what he works for or who his clients are is a mystery.

For consoles....Kefka aside, I'm going for the Bishop of the orphanage that Billy worked at in Xenogears. Just for the part where he reveals to Billy that all the kids Billy has cared for and helped raised over the years have basically been sold off into child prostitution rings, lab experiments etc.

I don't even remember the guy's name, but I remember that "you BASTARD" moment. ;p