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[fastmower]

is link the most competent video game hero that wield a sword and carry a shield? discuss.

He is the most competent because he never really loses.

 

[Lanrutcon]

My vote goes to Catalyst from Mass Effect 3.

Completely fucked an entire universe. Setting. Franchise.

 

[Kyzon]

A bazooka that only fires one rocket and then foam darts after that.

Special Ganon tracking rockets though. They almost never miss.

He is the most competent because he never really loses.

He does though. That's why the timeline splits.

 

[Tye The Czar]

The most competent Nintendo villain is Achi from Sin & Punishment, since she outright wins. I know I posted this in some earlier thread; let me dig it out:

Now, if Treasure were better at presenting such a story, S&P would go down as having a pretty good one.

 

[Fancolors]

He is the most competent because he never really loses.

I thought there was a timeline that happened specifically because Link lost.

 

[JordanN]

Nobody made the joke? Ok, I'll do it.

 

[yamaneko]

wesker?

 

[NahaNago]

Bowser/king koopa would work as well i would think even if his success is usually temporary he still has all his minions after his defeats

 

[petran79]

Nintendo featured the most notorious villain in video game history: Mike Tyson.

So evil Nintendo had to remove his name from the franchise.

He searched his luck in Street Fighter but Capcom did the same

 

[Jonneh3003]

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.

It's sad when people on a video game forum get annoyed when a lot of people enjoy a video game. No, Nintendo fans don't all sit in their basements and constantly replay 1-1 of Super Mario Bros without exposure to everything else, I for one have a collection of around 1200 games and play the vast majority of releases. Breath of the Wild is just a better game than most (if not all). Do you get annoyed when people praise Bloodborne? If so, why?

 

[justchris]

Exactly. Kefka is damn good, but he still ultimately failed. Ardyn on the other hand. He succeeded in everything he set out to do.

Spoiler

Even his death.

Kefka didn't fail, exactly. At the end of the game, he's become a god, destroyed everything and rules the world with an iron fist, and realizes it's not really all that great. It's the most pyrrhic of all victories. By the end of the game he's so bored with it all that there's nothing to lose.

 

[Screaming Meat]

He's the hero of MGS

It's not that cut and dry.

Regardless, he's an antogonist who opposes the 'hero', so by definition he's the villain. Either that or Solid Snake is the most competent villain.

 

[Applecot]

Being competent means never losing in my book

That implies every gamer is incompetent

 

[ronaldthump]

Everytime he fails. so... No.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

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.

Aren't they one and the same though, with Ganon just being the boar/demon form of Ganondorf?

 

[ryushe]

Kefka didn't fail, exactly. At the end of the game, he's become a god, destroyed everything and rules the world with an iron fist, and realizes it's not really all that great. It's the most pyrrhic of all victories. By the end of the game he's so bored with it all that there's nothing to lose.

that's true I suppose. He's still a great villain mind you, I just think he's been dethroned by Ardyn since he's both chaotic and extremely calculated.

Never once does Ardyn even show weariness of his immortality or wish to day. In fact he seems to enjoy the power he gains.
Ardyn fails. He wants to see the prophecy proven wrong by showing the gods his own power is strong thah their chosen one. But his pride is his undoing as he basically shapes Noctis to the top of his power, thinking only killing him then will be the final insult to the gods. By doing this, though, he unwittingly creates his destroyer.

I was going to comment, but this:

I would say

Spoiler

Ardyn

from Final Fantasy XV is the most successful villain of any game I played.

Spoiler

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.

summed up everything very well.

 

[Protome]

My vote goes to Zero and the Patriots

This is the exact opposite of true though. The war economy came about because of Zero and the Patriot's lack of competence.

 

[BouncyFrag]

 

[ArchedThunder]

wesker?

This gave me a good laugh.
Wesker is beyond stupid, especially in RE5 where he could have easily killed Chris at any point in the game.

 

[Rurunaki]

Doubt it. For all the time he has been reincarnated you would think he would do something about the 2 pesky brats (not even the same ones seeing as it takes time to reincarnate him) that seals/defeat him.

Basically he gets wrecked by noob heroes when he's got so much time to plan when he returns from being sealed. Fix your shit Ganon.

Kefka is the de facto choice. Dude poisoned a whole castle and became a god. Points for Luca Blight as well as a competent villain.


Edit: Zelda timeline is stupid. It was badly forced.

 

[Dynedom]

If we're talking about a villain consistently in a video game series, I'd say this crown goes to Sigma from the Mega Man X series. He literally is the same guy coming back every game, he finds some new way to fuck up everything and almost every victory at the end of these games seem hollow for one reason or another (doubly so when you realize the fucker is still around and doing shit in the next game).

In particular:
The civil war in X4
The zero virus and its ramifications in X5-6

The X-series world never truly recovers from his actions. I mean, if there were ever to be an X9, the guy will probably still show up. He is almost a walking Xanatos Gambit.

 

[Kysuke]

Wesker

He was in the background villain of resident evil 2,3 and 4 and at the end of code Veronica he was on top.

 

[Eumi]

Oh man these Zelda threads are becoming self aware. How far will they evolve? What form will they ultimately take?

On topic though, I dunno, Ganon has 'won' before, sure, but never really. Plus competency isn't really much to do with actual success, and you gotta remember this is the same Ganon who has yet to figure out keys shouldn't be put right next to the doors they unlock.

I think my vote would actually go to Ardyn in recent games. Dude set up a win-win situation for himself. By the time the heroes figured out his plan it was already basically finished.

In a well written game, he'd probably be remembered as one of the greats.

 

[fireflame]

Someone mentioned Mike Tyson but there was something i was wondering. Hulk Hogan was removed from hall of fame and from wrestling video games, but years ago i am sure Mike Tyson appeared in a wrestling video game. Why? From my point of view what Tyson did was worse.

 

[ActWan]

MGS villains always win (except 4 I guess) [but most of the time it's morally gray so nvm, carry on]

 

[Illucio]

I mean, doesn't the Demise stuff take credit away from him?

For Ganon and Link to fight is a curse of it it's own. So long there is a hero there will be a villain, if the hero fails villainy raises until the hero is reborn/a new one arises.

It's not reincarnation so we are told, but more the curse/universe trying to even things out with one another.

 

[fireflame]

The Ancient God in Soul Reaver was a deceptive parasite that caused countless tragedies.

 

[Edris]

No.

The Ancient God in Soul Reaver was a deceptive parasite that caused countless tragedies.

This

 

[Melkezadek]

The Ancient God in Soul Reaver was a deceptive parasite that caused countless tragedies.

Was thinking the same thing along with Moebius

Nosgoth's greatest manipulator. With his ability to access the time stream, he stays always at least 2 steps ahead of Kain and Raziel. He's also responsible for some of the most consequential events in the timeline - From starting and almost completing the genocide of the vampire species, to thwarting Kain's ambitions of changing his destiny again and again.

Spoiler

His double death was so satisfying.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

Man people actually like

Spoiler

Ardyn

from FFXV? That's hilarious.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Man people actually like

Spoiler

Ardyn

from FFXV? That's hilarious.

He's easily in my top three villains list. To each their own, as they say.

 

[Azoor]

Skullkid is far more competent than him, he actually succeeded.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Gannon's so successful he loses at the end of every game he's in.

If we're including "wins" that are against people other than the player, there are a fuck ton of villains with better records than Ganon.

This.

These "wins" are as shallow as one can be: events that are written just to set up the narrative of the hero emerging and winning.

Gannon is probably the most incompetent villain in videogames considering the amount of L's he takes in every single Zelda game.

 

[Ms.Galaxy]

Until Ganon realizes that his first goal should be to kill Link and securing the Triforce of Courage before kidnapping/killing Zelda, he's extremely incompetent. I mean, in one timeline he got killed by a prepubescent boy who didn't even have the spirit of the hero or any real formal combat training. That's just sad.

 

[MrBadger]

Bowser/king koopa would work as well i would think even if his success is usually temporary he still has all his minions after his defeats

At the start of every 2D Mario, Bowser's already taken over the Mushroom Kingdom. He owns every castle except Peach's

 

[Vargavinter]

Reminds me of:

 

[FoxSpirit]

Being competent means never losing in my book

You can do everything right and still loose. By your metric there is no single competent person in the world.

 

[Ferr986]

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


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 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.


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?

Also, you fogot Kathee fooling Oolalice people

Spoiler

into seeking Manus, which turned them into bloated monsters.

The two serpents (and Gwyndolin to a lesser extent) are more villain than Gwyn in Dark Souls story. For better or worse Gwyn did his thing for his kingdom and his people, even if that may have fucked or not humans (let's not forget humans pre-Gwyn lived down earth and were all kind of undead). It's the serpents that manipulate the Chosen Undead to do whetever the fuck they want. Also, even the Sable Church exiles the hollows (their own) that doesn't think like them. They're just cultist.

Is he really a villain though? As shit as the age of fire is, the age of darkness seems way worse.

Yeah I would rather link that fire than live in a pitch black world full of zombies. Especially when the "gods" are not as much as a treat as people make them out to be.

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

Nah, Ganon always chills after a good victory and lets the hero appear or respawn to beat him. Ridley keeps coming back, and also inflicts physical and mental harm on Samus from childhood to adulthood.

 

[TronLight]

This dude not only fought and destroyed an immortal race of dragons, he created the Age of Fire, an age that lasted for cycles upon cycles through multiple millenia. He created massive, prosperous cities, with him and his ilk revered as gods, and became the first Lord of Cinder, fuelling the First Flame for a very, very long time.

He won, well before the Chosen Undead even existed. The man you fight at the end of the game is a mere shadow of a man who was a god. So I think he's competent.

Not really a villain though.

 

[plagiarize]

'Beaten by a child' is the lamest counter to this.

Link is constantly shown to be at least as capable as an adult in almost all of his forms.

BOTW spoiler:

Spoiler

Every race's *chosen* champion, IE the best they have to offer, falls to the same monsters that Link handily defeats.

 

[Revolutionary]

He's the most persistent, I'll give him that.

'Beaten by a child' is the lamest counter to this.

Considering it's happened nearly a dozen times now, I'd say it's actually a pretty sound explanation for why he's not "the most comptetent video game villain".

 

[plagiarize]

He's the most persistent, I'll give him that.

Considering it's happened nearly a dozen times now, I'd say it's actually a pretty sound explanation for why he's not "the most competent video game villain".

Why aren't you responding to my point?

In which games is Link not shown to be at least as competent as the adults around him?

 

[ItIsOkBro]

shao kahn actually won. and depending on what kind of alternate timeline theories you subscribe to, he's still out there winning somewhere.

 

[specdot]

Delita isn't really the villain of Final Fantasy Tactics(he's definitely an antagonist of sorts) but the dude accomplished all of his goals 100% and didn't get taken down later like Kefka.

Spoiler

He won so hard the history books view him as the great hero king while the the MC is the unsung hero who is viewed as a crazy heretic

It brings joy to my heart that Final Fantasy Tactics was mentioned. Don't know if we can consider him a villain though. He was certainly the antagonist to Ramza and co.

 

[Skittzo0413]

Didn't Bowser wind up successfully destroying the universe, such that a new one had to be created?

Also, while Vivec probably isn't necessarily a villain, he's probably the most competent video game character in general since he sorta transcends the bounds of being a video game character. And he certainly isn't a good guy, though obviously not the main antagonist.

Considering it's happened nearly a dozen times now, I'd say it's actually a pretty sound explanation for why he's not "the most comptetent video game villain".

Please name "nearly a dozen times" Ganon/dorf is defeated by a teen. I'm pretty sure he's only been in 7 games total, not counting Four Swords Adventures. Or Smash Bros.

 

[trikster40]

Taking over a kingdom populated by strange creatures and constantly being defeated by a Elfish child? Sure, he's competent. Bowser is more successful than Ganon simply because he's been in Waaaaay more games.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I'm going to have to go with the Pac-Man Ghosts.

Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are literally unstoppable. Eating a Pac pellet may delay things, but your defeat is guaranteed at their hands every time.

 

[Briarios]

Yeah, I'd have to go with Wesker -- half the time you think you're beating down his forces, only to realize he's just using you to clean them up. In most RE games, Wesker is doing what he wants while the player is just trying to survive.

 

[killatopak]

with the amount of games he's in, he's bound to succeed.