• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Is Ganon the most competent video game villain?

The Reapers from Mass Effect seem to be far more competent. Really interested to see how the villains in ME: A will top them.

They we're able to go millions of years without being defeated, and we're extremely thorough in their actions.
 
Sometime i wonder if Zelda or maybe Nintendo fan has ever played other game apart from on on Nintendo system.

Yes. All of these Zelda tread really bug me. It is like seeing peopld comstsntly asking whether Zelda is thr best thing ever made of something. The horse thresd is another one.

And before u jump on me. I bought Swith just to play Zelda and I own Wiiu.

Well damn. Just ignore the topics. I don't see what's so f'in hard about that. It just came out, it's a great game and people are excited. No need to be a buzz killington.
 
Sometime i wonder if Zelda or maybe Nintendo fan has ever played other game apart from on on Nintendo system.

Yes. All of these Zelda tread really bug me. It is like seeing peopld comstsntly asking whether Zelda is thr best thing ever made of something. The horse thresd is another one.

And before u jump on me. I bought Swith just to play Zelda and I own Wiiu.

Nobody is forcing you to click on the threads.
 
What kind of wiki is spouting all that incorrect information?
Ori dies and so does Kuro, which is why Ori's foster mother who understood Kuro's pain adopts the child she leaves behind and starts a new family. And Kuro did not kill her own children either, that was the forest calling out for Ori, which is why Kuro wants Ori dead in the first place. Lastly, of course Kuro is the villain throughout, even if she has a very tragic motivation for her actions.

ori is literally shown in the ending living with the tree (his children cant actually even die), and kuro puts everyone in danger including her own egg, which is contrary to being "competent", and before you say "thats not ori",guardian spirits all look different as shown in the intro
 
Is he really a villain though? As shit as the age of fire is, the age of darkness seems way worse.
Gwyn is not a villain in any way, shape, or form.

Even if you have a negative view of the Age of Fire and want it to progress to the Age of Dark, Gwyn is not a villain for sacrificing himself to keep it going. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people who play Dark Souls have decided to take the words of the giant snake monster that lives in the Abyss, founded a covenant of murderers-turned-monsters, and later founded a church based around deceit and liars as the unvarnished truth.
 
Since 1999 Lan Di has been able to kill the player and obtain both mirrors.

As of today (and possibly forever), there is no avenue for the player to win.
 
All good fiction is reliant on the villain being somewhat successful. Rita Repulsa's minions would usually mess up a chunk of Angel Grove before the power rangers could get out of detention and save the day. "Villain intends to do this bad thing" isn't as impactful as "villain already did this bad thing".
 
Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat has a good track record.

In the original timeline he was considered the disruptor, as he worked behind scenes most of the time aiding Shinnok, on the events that led to Armageddon...though he was killed in that timeline.

In the new timeline, he has a more on hands appriach were not only heals and convinced Shao Kahn in doing many things, while resurrecting the fallen (good) warriors under his command. But then lead a 10 years old victory when the Netherrelm invaded the Earth.
 
Gwyn is not a villain in any way, shape, or form.

Even if you have a negative view of the Age of Fire and want it to progress to the Age of Dark, Gwyn is not a villain for sacrificing himself to keep it going. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people who play Dark Souls have decided to take the words of the giant snake monster that lives in the Abyss and founded a covenant of murderers-turned-monsters as the unvarnished truth.

#teamkaathe.

Gwyn didn't deceive the human race or use them as fuel. Where did you get that idea? Gwyn was the first to link the fire. The first time a human became fuel was after Gwyn died.

Bonfires are made of humans.

As long as humans pray for Gods the gods will rule the world. Gwyn sacrified himself because there was any other option left, he did it for his kind not for humanity, after the fire started to faded all gods left and didnt tell anyone about it.
 
Ganon would rule Hyrule if it wasn't for one sword wielded by a reincarnating hero who has the love and support of a Goddess. He started out as nothing more than a Gerudo male who successfully overthrew the king of Hyrule and took the triforce of power for himself. He basically loses only because of literal deus ex machina and divine intervention.

Also the one time the hero didn't show the Gods destroyed the world.
 
Bonfires are made of humans
There is no indication that Gwyn made this happen, so why attribute it to him?

As long as humans pray for Gods the gods will rule the world.
Humans already started ruling the world. Are you familiar with a guy called Vendrick? The gods don't rule the world anymore and haven't for a long time. In Dark Souls 3, the last god of Anor Londo got devoured by a human (Who himself is now worshipped... And look how nice the Cathedral of the Deep has become because of it).

Gwyn sacrified himself because there was any other option left, he did it for his kind not for humanity, after the fire started to faded all gods left and didnt tell anyone about it.
Gwyn literally burnt himself alive for his subjects, whether gods or humans. You can't really get around this fact. You can say, "Oh, he did it just for his own family," but he still did it for his family and not for himself. He is not a villain.

#teamkaathe.
Kaathe gave the gift of life drain to the Four Kings of New Londo and their subjects, which resulted in them turning into monsters and letting the Abyss seep into the city. After the horrific flooding of New Londo to seal the Darkwraiths away, Kaathe continued running his covenant of murderers wearing skeleton armor and telling them they were the good guys. Kaathe's followers founded the Sable Church, an organization that routinely uses murder and deceit to promote the good of hollows above all beings living, human or not.

Are you getting the picture yet of why I don't trust this guy or his followers?
 
Spec ops. Overlord, Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, Starcraft and Tyranny had us play the bad guys.



Those were the most competent villains or evil factions.
 
Sometime i wonder if Zelda or maybe Nintendo fan has ever played other game apart from on on Nintendo system.

Yes. All of these Zelda tread really bug me. It is like seeing peopld comstsntly asking whether Zelda is thr best thing ever made of something. The horse thresd is another one.

And before u jump on me. I bought Swith just to play Zelda and I own Wiiu.
OP here, and I've even linked an essay as to other villains I think are in the running for the role (spoilers: they're from Final Fantasy).

Read the thread before you post. Also,

Well damn. Just ignore the topics. I don't see what's so f'in hard about that. It just came out, it's a great game and people are excited. No need to be a buzz killington.
 
Ganon does lose to a kid/teen.

Most, if not all villains lose to kids/teens in anime games. Not even sure how it's much of an argument to make.
 
"It took hundreds to kill me but I killed humans by the thousands!!!! Look at me!!!! I am sublime!!!! I am the true face of evil!!!!" - Luca Blight

From Genso Suikoden II, Playstation
 
I would say
Ardyn
from Final Fantasy XV is the most successful villain of any game I played.

After the gods deem him impure and remove him of his royal title and family name, he hatches a plan that spans hundreds of centuries, successfully goads the two dominating empires of the world into going at war with one another, aids one empire into killing the king of another, then he kills the remaining emperor himself, kills the empire's next-in-line and her brother, goads the sole remaining prince of royal blood into activating his inner power, fully knowing 1) that's the only way to kill Ardyn and 2) doing so would be the only guarantee to annihilate the gods.

THEN he plunges the world into ruin for 10 years waiting for the prince to wake up and go after him. By having Noctis kill Ardyn, he kills the Lucis bloodline, purges the monsters and scourge, leaves both empires annihilated, and ends the eternal night. In essence, the "restarts" the world and leaves no empire, no rulers, and no gods. Exactly what he wanted since the very beginning.
 
In that case, Ganon still wouldn't be one of the most successful villains. He'd still be a loser. Who loses to children.

He is the villain at the end of a Scooby-Doo episode. "Rawr, you middling child!"

Link is often a young adult though, and he usually comes with both the blessing of at least one deity (Farore) but also the few relics specifically designed to defeat him. He also regularly has the incarnation of Hylia, a Goddess assisting him as well.

He's basically unstoppable until fate deals a specific hand against him.

Also, regardless of age, Link is always a terror. Especially by the time he fights Ganon.
 
Link is often a young adult though, and he usually comes with both the blessing of at least one deity (Farore) but also the few relics specifically designed to defeat him. He also regularly has the incarnation of Hylia, a Goddess assisting him as well.

He's basically unstoppable until fate deals a specific hand against him.

Also, regardless of age, Link is always a terror. Especially by the time he fights Ganon.

So Ganon gets beat by a kid who has literal gods on his side.

So ganon is not only a LOSER who is incompetent, but Link is also a LOSER who needs literal gods on his side in order to defeat an incompetent loser.
 
So Ganon gets beat by a kid who has literal gods on his side.

So ganon is not only a LOSER who is incompetent, but Link is also a LOSER who needs literal gods on his side in order to defeat an incompetent loser.

Is it really defeat if you just come back next week and actually succeed? More of a strategic forced retreat.
 
But isn't each Gannondorf different?
Zelda timeline stuff is so dumb.
Gannondorf's the only one who isn't different, as far as I can tell. Guy in Ocarina of Time is the same as the guy in Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Link to the Past, etc.
 
Is it really defeat if you just come back next week and actually succeed? More of a strategic forced retreat.

I mean, yes? In a week the gods probably ditch link and ganon comes back and slaps a teenage kid. Grats you beat scooby after he got his scooby snack.
 
The Reapers from Mass Effect seem to be far more competent. Really interested to see how the villains in ME: A will top them.

They we're able to go millions of years without being defeated, and we're extremely thorough in their actions.
The reapers were a creation of the catalyst or as the leviathan called it "the intelligence". So they were merely a tool of the AI. So really it's the catalyst that's the mastermind behind the systematic destruction of the galaxy every 50,000 years over the course of millions of years. So as far as a villain being competent is concerned I would agree that dominating all life in an entire galaxy for millions of years would make the catalyst the most competent villain of all time.
 
Is it really defeat if you just come back next week and actually succeed? More of a strategic forced retreat.

Tell that to Dracula

There is no indication that Gwyn made this happen, so why attribute it to him?

You can say Gwyn indirectly involved in the creation of the bonfire network with the help of the other lords, Gwyn invented the Chosen One to lure all undead to sacrifice to the flames while the way of white put the firekeepers to keep an eye on key bonfires.

Humans already started ruling the world. Are you familiar with a guy called Vendrick? The gods don't rule the world anymore and haven't for a long time. In Dark Souls 3, the last god of Anor Londo got devoured by a human (Who himself is now worshipped... And look how nice the Cathedral of the Deep has become because of it).

DS2 is hundreds of years ahead of DS1, the fire was relinked at least five times because of Gwyns tale was never forgotten but modifed by humans themlselves to keep their kingdoms alive. Sadly kingdoms fell anyway due the undead scourge or manus fragments

Gwyn literally burnt himself alive for his subjects, whether gods or humans. You can't really get around this fact. You can say, "Oh, he did it just for his own family," but he still did it for his family and not for himself. He is not a villain.

Gwyn did it for his family yet his own family which fleed at the first sight of danger. he trusted humans once and they failed him in new londo

Kaathe gave the gift of life drain to the Four Kings of New Londo and their subjects, which resulted in them turning into monsters and letting the Abyss seep into the city. After the horrific flooding of New Londo to seal the Darkwraiths away, Kaathe continued running his covenant of murderers wearing skeleton armor and telling them they were the good guys. Kaathe's followers founded the Sable Church, an organization that routinely uses murder and deceit to promote the good of hollows above all beings living, human or not.

Are you getting the picture yet of why I don't trust this guy or his followers?

Ironically the darkwraiths survived long enough rather than anor londo itself, until DS3 screwed DS2 timeline
 
You can say Gwyn indirectly involved in the creation of the bonfire network with the help of the other lords, Gwyn invented the Chosen One to lure all undead to sacrifice to the flames while the way of white put the firekeepers to keep an eye on key bonfires.
Gwyn started the Chosen Undead myth? The Chosen Undead myth is literally about finding someone to replace Gwyn after he linked the fire. Frampt and Gwyndolin likely started it since they're the major figures encouraging you about it in Dark Souls 1. Gwyn certainly didn't start it while he was burning in agony.

The Way of the White is associated with worship of the gods, but has never been completely representative of their will. For example, the gods are totally chill with Seath the Scaleless, while Havel the Rock was his sworn enemy.
 
I would say
Ardyn
from Final Fantasy XV is the most successful villain of any game I played.

After the gods deem him impure and remove him of his royal title and family name, he hatches a plan that spans hundreds of centuries, successfully goads the two dominating empires of the world into going at war with one another, aids one empire into killing the king of another, then he kills the remaining emperor himself, kills the empire's next-in-line and her brother, goads the sole remaining prince of royal blood into activating his inner power, fully knowing 1) that's the only way to kill Ardyn and 2) doing so would be the only guarantee to annihilate the gods.

THEN he plunges the world into ruin for 10 years waiting for the prince to wake up and go after him. By having Noctis kill Ardyn, he kills the Lucis bloodline, purges the monsters and scourge, leaves both empires annihilated, and ends the eternal night. In essence, the "restarts" the world and leaves no empire, no rulers, and no gods. Exactly what he wanted since the very beginning.

When I actually hear the story for FF 15, it sounds pretty cool. Too bad they didn't do a good job explaining things in the game. I did enjoy the game, I actually really liked the 4 bros and thought Ardyn was a decent villain, bUT they really didn't do a good job explaining just what the heck was going on as you progress through the game.
 
Gannondorf's the only one who isn't different, as far as I can tell. Guy in Ocarina of Time is the same as the guy in Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Link to the Past, etc.

I'm pretty sure 4 Swords Adventures is the one exception, but otherwise, yeah.
 
Ganon does lose to a kid/teen.

Most, if not all villains lose to kids/teens in anime games. Not even sure how it's much of an argument to make.

Just think about Pokemon. The mafia gets defeated by a 10 year old kid in all the games. Could you imagine the real world mafia getting defeated by a 10 year old in the real world?
 
Gwyn started the Chosen Undead myth? The Chosen Undead myth is literally about finding someone to replace Gwyn after he linked the fire. Frampt and Gwyndolin likely started it since they're the major figures encouraging you about it in Dark Souls 1. Gwyn certainly didn't start it while he was burning in agony.

The Way of the White is associated with worship of the gods, but has never been completely representative of their will. For example, the gods are totally chill with Seath the Scaleless, while Havel the Rock was his sworn enemy.

Gwyn started it, yes before he took a sunbath in the cauldron. Frampt , the church (without having knowlegde of gwyn death) and Gwyndolin just keep the tale alive.

Well, the way of white were clueless the entire time and kept sending undead to the asylum or just disposed them to find the art of kindle. Dont forget the miracles the WoW got were from Gwendolyn maidens who obey Gwendolyn. As long as Humans have faith on miracles the gods have humanity at their will just look how dumb and manipulated they were. except for havel who was imprisioned and tortured because he was against seath
 
Dimentio from Super Paper Mario.

200px-DimentioSuperPaperMario.png


He succesfully manipulates pretty much everybody to give him the powers to destroy the universe. It's implied that this includes writing a sham prophecy thousands of years ago for the sole purpose of duping some random guy in a top hat. The game can't even come up with a plausible excuse for him losing that doesn't involve the game ignoring all his powers and some gigantic asspull at the end.

And one point, he
teleports into the room with you in the middle of a cutscene. Does he engage you in fisticuffs or some shit? No, he paralyzes Mario and co. and disintegrates them with explosions. The next level is the afterlife.
 
No because he didn't get what he wanted;
a) the Tr8force
B) revenge
C) Hyrule
D) get rid of Demise.

In the end he is either a pathetic tool or a reincarnation of a loser
blob
 
He's one of the more competent villains in that he's succeeded in his goal multiple times but fails to hold onto his power for very long before some kid in a green tunic comes to fuck him up. But then again the bad guys in Mario games have also succeeded in their goals at the beginning of the game. Bowser usually already has Peach, King Boo had captured Mario long before Luigi got to the mansion, etc. A lot of the game is spent regaining ground
 
Bowser obviously. The guykidnaps peach in front of marios own eyes nowadays
No mention of Sarah Kerrigan, self proclaimed Queen Bitch of the Universe who took over the galaxy through force of will and by artfully deceiving her enemies into killing one another until she secured power? (At least in the good original Starcraft and Brood War stories, not the Saturday morning cartoon crap they passed off in 2 and its expansions.)



Isn't everything in the Zelda mythos just self fulfilling deus ex machina? Link, Zelda, and Ganon all have power derived from the original goddesses (literal deus ex machina) and cyclically upset and right the balance. Ganon only has the power to take over because he either bears or steals the Triforce of Power. Also I think you're conflating Ganon and Ganondorf, only the latter of which is a Gerudo and who only appeared in a couple titles.
yeah kerrigan is a great villain in 1 but 2 ruined it for her i am afraid
 
Alex Wesker should count too,she is too competent that she ended up outsmarting herself.

Albert could count but he is a fool,he didn't survived the game were he was the villain (without retcons)
 
BOTW Ganon is surprisingly competent for a seemingly personality-less abomination.

Dude took a look at the setup that already took him out 10,000 years ago, laughed, and proceeded to subvert the whole thing to his aims. He got the Champions killed and put Link out of commission for a century. The only reason he didn't completely destroy Hyrule is Zelda basically using her suddenly-awakened powers to keep him sealed for a hundred years until Link fully healed, and Link only survived because the ancient Sheikha planned ahead by creating the Shrine of Resurrection.
Basically, he almost won by doing literally one thing.
 
I see Ganon's accomplishments get downplayed because he's eventually defeated each game yet he's murdered or had so many people murdered in his name. He's completely destroyed hyrule a few times over even forcing the gods to flood it to stop him. I wonder how many people would die in a biblical flooding? Just because he doesn't stay in power for eternity doesn't mean he hasn't pulled out a few wins.
 
Top Bottom