Most Iconic Villains From PlayStation Games

Summary

• Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 is one of the most iconic horror villains with great design.
• Kessler from Infamous becomes more intriguing at the end, changing the story completely.

PlayStation has a long list of memorable heroes in its games. Just look at Astro Bot with its PlayStation hero cameos. However, if you look through the special bots, you’ll notice plenty of incredible villains, though not as many. Some of the greatest PlayStation villains rival those of other mediums, including comic books.

Similarly, villains are better off alive and kicking, developing new stories rather than getting killed off, an issue both video games and comic book movies can have sometimes. These villains can be just as memorable, if not more so, than the heroes, a testament to their greatness.

10

Albert Wesker – Resident Evil

The Best Resident Evil Villain

Debuting as a traitor in the original Resident Evil, Albert Wesker is the longest-running and best villain Resident Evil has ever had. While he survived in RE1, he kept working in the background, setting up events in future games. When he did appear in games like Code Veronica, Umbrella Chronicles, and finally, RE5, he was a true menace.

Evil to the core, with great voice acting from practically everybody who voiced him, he was a cool action-movie-style bad guy. He literally looks like Iceman from Top Gun. Appearing in the original game and finally meeting his end in RE5, it felt like Resident Evil Endgame, to be frank, with how Capcom built up Wesker as this unstoppable bad guy for so many titles.

9

Pyramid Head – Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill’s Most Iconic Villain

When making the original Silent Hill 2, it’s safe to say nobody expected Pyramid Head to explode in popularity as it did. One of the most iconic and greatest designs ever for a monster in horror, its red pyramid head screams menacing like no other.

Being an ever-present threat to James and Maria, Pyramid Head was so popular that it appeared in later games, even though it didn’t make sense for it to appear. The villain is great design-wise, important and symbolic in the story, and very scary. All factors fit for an all-time great horror villain.

8

Zoran Lazarevic – Uncharted 2

The Best Uncharted Villain

With Uncharted essentially being the video game Indiana Jones, there must be devious bad guys you’ll want to take down, and Zoran Lazarevic has to be the best. An evil bald war criminal who looks exactly like many action movie villains at the time, Zoran is the perfect Indiana Jones-esque villain.

Aiming to become immortal by drinking from the Tree of Life, Zoran gets what he wants, but with a catch. In the most memorable final boss in the series, Zoran is, in fact, invincible but can’t withstand explosions from the nearby blue resin that ultimately take him down. Throughout the entire game, he’s a real threat, but this satisfying ending seals the deal and makes him the best Uncharted villain.

Blurring The Line Between Good And Evil

Metal Gear Solid has a ton of great villains, including Psycho Mantis and Liquid Ocelot, but the best has to go to the villain with the most significant impact. Big Boss’ mentor, The Boss, starts off as a traitor at the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 3 and becomes the main villain for the rest of the game.

She’s voiced amazingly by Lori Alan, who nails that veteran feel of the character. The final boss with her is incredible, testing your CQC and battle skills, but the ending completely flips the script. You need to play it for yourself, but the ending revelation with The Boss sets up the entire Metal Gear series and completely changes your viewpoint of the character.

6

Kessler – Infamous

The Mastermind Behind Everything

Like The Boss, Kessler from the original Infamous becomes so much more interesting at the end of the game. The person behind all the events setting up the disaster that leads to Cole MacGrath gaining his powers, Kessler persists in giving Cole a rough time.

He seems to know more about Cole than Cole himself. The ending of Infamous hits so hard that it once again completely changes the story. All of Kessler’s dialogue from early in the game makes sense now, and it’s a twist that shouldn’t be spoiled.

5

Vergil – Devil May Cry

A Battle Of Blood And Of Brothers

There are few things better in action games than a rival equal in power to yourself. It’s always fun to play these boss fights, but the character can mean a lot, too, and the Devil May Cry series nailed Vergil out of the park in this regard. Dante’s brother, Vergil, is the complete opposite of Dante both in design and as a character.

Dante puts more focus on his human side, while Vergil is more towards his demon side, wanting absolute power. This makes for a great rivalry throughout Devil May Cry 3 and the rest of the series, which is helped by the solid voice acting of Daniel Southworth. The charisma and likability of these two brothers are off the charts, and the developing story in DMC5 also works exceptionally well.

4

Ryuji Goda – Yakuza 2

The Dragon Of Kansai

You know a villain’s special when the Japanese box art has the villain directly opposite of the protagonist, almost like a Boxing or UFC Pay-Per-View poster. While Kazuma Kiryu is the Dragon of Dojima, Ryuji Goda is the Dragon of Kansai. A fierce rival to Kiryu, Ryuji Goda doesn’t mess around and wants only one dragon standing.

He’s easily the best and most charismatic villain in the Yakuza series, and Sega killed him off in his debut game. Why couldn’t he be a recurring character like Goro Majima? You don’t kill off your best villain right away. Sega even knows it screwed up because, in the non-canon zombie spin-off, Dead Souls, Goda is brought back as a playable character and changed the ending of Yakuza 2.

3

Doctor Neo Cortex – Crash Bandicoot

One Of The Best Platformer Villains

Crash Bandicoot was the big 3D platformer on the PS1, so Naughty Dog had to deliver a villain to match up to the likes of Bowser and Dr. Robotnik. It’s safe to say Naughty Dog delivered. While he’s another doctor like Robotnik, Neo Cortex was distinct, fitting more into that evil mad scientist archetype with an iconic big head design.

Fitting, considering the big head motif of the early games with the Aku Aku mask. In terms of cartoonish bad guys on PlayStation, you can’t get much better and more iconic than Doctor Neo Cortex.

2

Zeus – God Of War

The King Of The Gods

If there’s one little issue with the Norse God of War games, it would be Kratos’ resentment of his past killing the Greek gods. It’s a story element that would be completely understandable if not for the fact that the Greek gods, including Kratos’ father, Zeus, were legitimately evil. Kratos gets betrayed hard at the start of God of War 2, and for a while, it seems that Kratos is just on a simple revenge trail.

That is until the last third when you discover that Zeus has destroyed Sparta, killing dozens of innocent people. Kratos is very self-centered, but his Spartan people and hometown are some of the only things he’ll help, no matter what. Zeus is an actual bad guy at this point, and you want to kill him throughout the rest of the Greek trilogy.

1

Sephiroth – Final Fantasy 7

The Baddest Baddie In All Of PlayStation

Final Fantasy 7 was a very important RPG title in the genre’s history, leading to a few characters being some of the most iconic in all of gaming. While Cloud is the mighty hero, the evil sinister villain is Sephiroth, the most iconic villain in any RPG.

His iconic look, wildly long sword, and evil actions struck such a cord within the gaming community that FF7 would not have become as big as it did without the character. The moment he directly kills another party member was when many first cried at a video game back in 1997. That iconic moment solidified Sephiroth as one of the all-time greatest villains in gaming.