Anti-Villain/Video Games

"Ayla: Strange boy... But not bad boy."
 * Durandal from Marathon could be this, depending on how one interprets him. He's a self-aware AI that was meant for operating doors and elevators on a colony ship, and he ended up bringing a lone ship from an alien race of slavers to the ship. He does this all as a part of a big gambit to become God of the next universe. Despite his seemingly selfish goals, he does allow the humans that the Pfhor enslaved (which he used as his army) to return to earth on a captured Pfhor vessel. And he may honestly believe that he is humanity's only hope, as he does go out of his way to keep the Pfhor from finding Earth.
 * A rare PLAYABLE example is Cole, protagonist of In Famous, if you choose to play him that way.
 * The main antagonist, Kessler, doing all the evil things with the best of intentions for the grim future in order to combat The Beast.
 * Surprisingly,
 * Suikoden II: There are a whole bunch of them on the Highland side of the war. The main antagonist,, is the clearest example of this. In the end, both the hero and have the same goal, to ensure peace in the land. The problem is that they are leaders of opposing nations in a war in which one must wipe out the other to achieve peace, as well, they are destined to do battle due to the nature of the runes they possess. Culgan and Seed are also anti-villains, and work along with  and Leon (another anti-villain) to get rid of Complete Monster Luca Blight. Lucia also falls under this trope, as well as Kiba and Klaus, although they later join your party.
 * Also from the Suikoden series, Bahram Luger. He never wanted the bloodshed that the Godwins brought about, and he never wanted to face his mentor, Raja, in battle, but he holds his loyalty so high that he would suck it up and go do his duty.
 * It's hard to not feel sympathetic for F.E.A.R.'s Alma when one learns of her background and finds out why she's doing everything she does, and it becomes even harder in the expansion when she . It's less difficult with Paxton Fettel, who starts off as a cannibalizing monster who has no problem killing civilians for getting in the way, and, later on, tries to kill the Point Man out of anger that the Point Man killed him.
 * Fettel's case becomes a bit more understandable when you consider the fact that
 * Fire Emblem: Genealogy of Holy War: while it appears that Alvis makes a Face Heel Turn and kills all of Sigurd's army, he actually has a Freudian Excuse and isn't really that much of a villain, especially considering that  He gives Sigurd's son his Infinity+1 Sword. Yeah, killing him made a real difference...not.
 * One can also argue that Zephiel in Fire Emblem 6 is also an Anti-Villain, even if he has a different Freudian Excuse for deciding that Humans Are Bastards.
 * Definitely a valid argument - and all the Bern Generals except Narshen count, given their dispositions: Murdock was loyal ever since his king was a young and kind-hearted prince, and dies trying to hold off Roy's forces; Brenya goes into battle knowing her liege is dead and she will join him, entirely out of loyalty; and Galle feels he cannot turn sides even after  try to convince him, because he's chosen his path and won't betray it.
 * Fire Emblem (Rekka no Ken): the original Black Fang were heroes of the common folk for eliminating tyrannical members of their home country's government. It wasn't until Nergal showed up that they started attacking innocents.
 * There's also Eagler from the first 1/3 of the game, who served Lundgren because he was being blackmailed, and was truly loyal to Caelin. Kent and Sain even have fond memories of the man when Lyn asks.
 * In the main storyline, we have Kishuna, who is, and only fights your party out of a desperate desire to  . Kishuna can't even do anything to you personally save negate your magic - which makes it really gutwrenchingly cruel in Hector's Story Mode if you fight him in his 3rd Gaiden chapter, because, this time, you must kill him to finish the chapter. The objective doesn't even say 'Defeat' so much as 'Kill'. Why, Intelligent Systems...WHY?!
 * They further emphasis the sympathy factor with the Final Boss -, where the objective is, again, not 'Defeat' but 'Kill'. Both boss fights are majorly depicted as Shoot the Dog scenarios.
 * Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones' Glen, Selina, and, in some cases, Lyon.
 * Not even Glen! He disagrees with Vigarde's plans, actively opposes Valter, and refuses to harm Eirika when he finds her. If Valter hadn't killed him, he probably would've been automatically recruited for the next map.
 * Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has Zelgius,
 * Raven King Naesala straddles the line between this and Anti-Hero, since his allegiances shift during the game.
 * Miles Edgeworth in the Ace Attorney series. He's portrayed as an Amoral Attorney willing to do anything to get a conviction and keep his perfect record at first, but eventually, it's revealed that his use of questionable tactics are a result of genuine trust in the police's work and a massive hatred for unpunished crime, instilled in him by childhood trauma and a truly Evil Mentor. Though the change that comes over him is not as drastic as a Heel Face Turn, he's easily one of the most interesting characters in the series.
 * The murderer in the circus case from Justice for All would also fall under this trope. It's pointed out that the tragedy of this case is that nobody was really a bad person.
 * Godot is a shining example in the series, blaming himself and Phoenix for Mia's death, which is his main motivation for opposing Phoenix in the first place (even if he flat out admits Phoenix is not to blame). Even Maya takes the fall for the guy later in the game.
 * Mass Effect 1's
 * Unless you've read the prequel novel, in which he,  Even worse,  . And this was all well before he encountered.
 * He will reveal this if you talk to him enough in the main game.
 * Matriarch Benezia is a much better example of this.
 * Aria T'Loak, bitch-queen of Omega. She professes no virtues beyond self-interest, and permits all manner of crime but she does try to keep some semblance of order, such as enforcing a quarantine when a plague breaks out. In Mass Effect 3, she recognizes the Reaper threat, and puts her own personal vendetta against the Illusive Man on hold to help you defeat the Reapers, uniting the various mercenary companies to back your cause - under her command.
 * Ser Cullen and Ser Thrask of the Kirkwall Templars in Dragon Age II serve as the game's Anti-Villains, with Thrask seeking to aid mages on the run rather than executing them or seizing them and forcing them to join the Circle (he will, however, accept a peaceful surrender to prevent bloodshed), and Cullen turning against Knight-Commander Meredith once it becomes clear to him how crazy she has become after.
 * On that topic,
 * For that matter, the Knight-Commander herself. She saves the PC's life during the, and has no problems fighting beside an obviously-apostate mage. She seems rather reasonable
 * General Forsythe from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, though he declares war against the player's country in the game, barely qualifies as a villain. When Caulder offers him powerful, but horrible, weapons that could guarantee his victory in one of the early missions, he is appalled and flatly refuses. Shortly later, it is revealed that he does not kill POWs, considering it to be dishonorable. To top it all off,
 * Even the declaration of war is ambiguous, considering that Davis is the one who says that Lazuria started it, and he probably heard this from Greyfield (paragon of honesty, that man). It's more likely that Greyfield started the war and told everyone that Forsythe did, while Forsythe hopes to end the war by defeating Greyfield. Forsythe is a Hero Antagonist.
 * Inuart in Drakengard goes from being The Lancer of your group to a Rival Turned Evil thanks to the Big Bad's brainwashing, assuming the position of her Dragon. He comes to his senses when his true love is killed as part of the Big Bad's plans, and then becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist, wanting to bring her back to life. Delusioned, perhaps, but one can't help feeling sorry for him and how he was manipulated.
 * Meta Knight from the Kirby video game series. Although technically an opponent of Kirby, he's a rather enigmatic character who follows his own code of honor, and always throws Kirby a sword and power-ups before their one-on-one battles. Word of God says that Meta's main antagonism towards Kirby is a result of the latter's tendency towards Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moments.
 * King Dedede is not only an Anti-Villain, but he probably got here BEFORE Meta Knight. Affably Evil? Check. Doggedly loyal to his minions? Check. Copious amounts of Foe Yay? Dear sweet god, check. Half the times they fight, Kirby only thinks Dedede's up to no good when he's actually not (or even trying to save the day). About the only thing keeping him a villain anymore is the fact that he stills wants to fight Kirby, but that seems like more of a genial rivalry than anything else, given they enjoy racing each other in their free time. And The Glomp...
 * Dedede's Antivillain status is even included in the story mode for Super Smash Bros.. Brawl where he starts stealing the trophies (corpses) of various heroes from Wario, presumably because he's trying to complete the same evil task as the other villains. He takes them to his castle and puts strange Dedede pins on them. Turns out, these pins are time-release detrophyfiers that bring said heroes back to life just in time for them to become the final resistance against the real villain. Dedede even selflessly gives his own pin to whichever Princess he captured when he realizes that he doesn't have enough to save himself and the heroes.
 * This does not, however, excuse Dedede's vices, like his gluttony, which started his antagonism with Kirby in the first game, and his determination to better Kirby in anything, no matter how pointless, which, ironically, are qualities shared by Kirby and, occasionally, Meta Knight, respectively.
 * Both are such a light shade of Anti-Villain that fandom who don't know of the term often refer to them as a type of Anti-Hero.
 * Vagrant Story's  is actively trying to seal away Leá Monde, so as to defend it from the power-mad Cardinal and his Knight Templar, Romeo Guilderstern. The entire game is a Batman Gambit to.
 * Shadow Hearts'  may be trying to end all life on earth, but he's doing it because he's fed up with the fundamental injustice of human society.
 * Shadow Hearts: Covenant: Kato was a mild-mannered, devoted NPC on the heroes' side in the first game, who lost the woman he loved. This leads to him becoming a major character in Covenant. Though he works as part of the Japanese conspiracy which puts him in an antagonistic role to the heroes, he sympathizes with Yuri's loss and offers encouragement and support where he can..
 * In the City of Heroes expansion City of Villains, we have one of Lord Recluse's four Dragons, Scirocco. Originally a freedom fighter in the Middle East, he finds his scimitar and is granted the mantle of Scirocco, the Desert Wind. Unfortunately, as he technically stole the items, he was cursed to do only great evil, with everything he does being tainted (this might make it a subversion, as it IS a curse after all). His main motivation is to break the curse forcing him to be evil and find redemption. His actions toward heroes include mercy, fairness, and that sort of thing. When you meet him and choose him as your patron, his second story arc has you retrieve some magic artifacts for his plan to . As a villain yourself, naturally, you end up having to stop him.
 * There is some debate as to whether Scirocco truly is an Anti-Villain under a curse that makes him evil, or if he is just deluded into thinking he is good, but is actually only unable to recognize his evil, blaming it on other people. Given how he comes to accept who he is after his plan to fails, the latter seems very likely.
 * And back in City of Heroes, you have the Clockwork King, who started out as a nice, nerdy young man obsessed with robots who could animate piles of scrap metal using his Psychic Powers. But when those robots killed a few police officers, Blue Steel got enraged and ended up beating him to the point where his robots put his Brain In a Jar and he kinda went a little insane. He is somewhat overprotective of Penelope Yin, a teenage girl who also has powerful Psychic Powers, and who describes him as "A nice guy who just has a problem with heroes."
 * Axel of Kingdom Hearts fame. Even though Yen Sid says it's difficult to think of his motives as anything but sympathetic, not least thanks to his de facto
 * To some extent, nearly all the members of Organization XIII fall under this trope, particularly in the fandom. Although most would agree that Xemnas was always a megalomaniacal psycho who was manipulating the others' strong desire to reclaim their own hearts, even Saix displayed such pitiable qualities by the end.
 * Riku, to a certain extent, at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts. Even when he is 'seduced' by Maleficent and starts being a thorn in Sora's side, it's only so that he can rescue Kairi.
 * Ingway from Odin Sphere fits this trope perfectly. He does too many bad things to list (mostly for the sake of gaining power or furthering his plans of revenge), but it's hard not to feel bad for him once you realize that
 * Yellow 13 from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies also fits this trope. Yellow 13 leads his feared Erusean squadron of aces into battle against the player's nation, and he himself is responsible for shooting down over sixty planes. Despite this, he is seen in the story as a kind and proud ace who values the lives of his wingmen more than his battle record, and who has a high degree of respect for Mobius 1 (the player character), the one enemy ace who can match him. Despite being a member of the opposing air force of the narrator and the player, he is constantly shown in a positive light, even going so far as
 * The Strigon Team from Ace Combat 6 also fits. You can read their bios after downing their jets, and some have dialogue throughout the campaign. Most are soldiers loyal to their country, which had recently been through a brutal civil war. Their leaders, Voycheck and Pasternak, are very concerned about their squad mates' well-being, and
 * Saturos and Menardi in Golden Sun and Agartio and Karst in Golden Sun: The Lost Age are interesting examples. In the first game, they appear completely ruthless and apparently want to light the 4 lighthouses to abuse the power of alchemy. After their defeat at the hand of the player, Felix, who was believed to be merely held captive by them, tries to continue their goal. In the second game, it is revealed that the "bad guys" were actually trying to save their homeland (and, by extension, the world) from destruction and were merely justifying the means. The heroes of the first game later join Felix's group in their quest to activate the lighthouses and actually work together with the replacement new "villain" couple.
 * The Controller of Armored Core 3 plays on this, as an interesting twist to the typical A.I. Is a Crapshoot. It pits corporation against corporation in pointless yet violent and often deadly battles over land or goods, is outright abusive in its control of the normal populace, and has locked humanity into underground vaults for centuries. It even, as the story progresses, seems to be going insane, making contradictory decisions and sending Nine Ball mind uploads—a character established in Armored Core to be nearly genocidal—after the protagonist and others follow its orders. It's revealed that the outside world was devastated and that the Controller was designed specifically to challenge humanity enough for them to overthrow the Controller through force and be able to defend themselves from other groups of humans.
 * Reptile from Mortal Kombat is typically portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light; while most of the villains are after absolute power, he is always attempting to resurrect his race, of which he is typically portrayed as the Sole Survivor. He is, however, still completely willing to kill for his masters in order to see this through. In most of his endings, Reptile is betrayed by his far more evil masters, and his goals are never realized.
 * Magus of Chrono Trigger is a decent enough example. In 600 A.D. he's the Fiendlord, head of an army of magical demihumans waging war on humanity...officially. In the meanwhile, he's brooding in his keep, trying to summon and destroy the Eldritch Abomination that took his big sister away, drove his mother to madness, and destroyed his home, while his "generals" led the campaigns and are the only ones interested in the war. That said, he did kill the heroic knight Cyrus (in self defense?) and turned Frog into a...well, frog. But hey, he has pet the cat moments.
 * Magus was always a slightly cold person, as evidenced by your party's encounters with his youthful counterpart, Jacky/Janus. Losing his only friends (his sister and cat), to say nothing of becoming displaced in time, simply made him moreso, hence, while he could presumably care less about whether the Guardians or Ozzie's armies won the war, he still was a wicked enough person that he probably did enjoy inflicting suffering on others (assuming Frog's flashback of Cyrus' death didn't exaggerate Magus' cruelty).
 * Magus of Chrono Trigger is a decent enough example. In 600 A.D. he's the Fiendlord, head of an army of magical demihumans waging war on humanity...officially. In the meanwhile, he's brooding in his keep, trying to summon and destroy the Eldritch Abomination that took his big sister away, drove his mother to madness, and destroyed his home, while his "generals" led the campaigns and are the only ones interested in the war. That said, he did kill the heroic knight Cyrus (in self defense?) and turned Frog into a...well, frog. But hey, he has pet the cat moments.
 * Magus was always a slightly cold person, as evidenced by your party's encounters with his youthful counterpart, Jacky/Janus. Losing his only friends (his sister and cat), to say nothing of becoming displaced in time, simply made him moreso, hence, while he could presumably care less about whether the Guardians or Ozzie's armies won the war, he still was a wicked enough person that he probably did enjoy inflicting suffering on others (assuming Frog's flashback of Cyrus' death didn't exaggerate Magus' cruelty).


 * Dhaos, the Big Bad of Tales of Phantasia, appears to be a ruthless Sealed Evil in a Can that aims to destroy all of mankind. However, after his defeat by the heroes, he regrets that it didn't have to end that way and reveals that he was actually the leader of an alien planet named Derris Kharlan, which had become ravaged by a great war and was slowly dying without a tree of mana to support it. In order to obtain a mana seed, he came to Aselia, but that planet's mana tree, Yggdrasil, was in danger of dying itself due to the development of Magitek. He attempted to warn the leaders of the research in Midgard, beseeching them to stop, but when that failed, he decided that Humans Are Bastards and waged war on Midgard to force them to stop Magitek research. The heroes feel guilty, as they've effectively doomed Derris Kharlan by killing its would be savior. In the end, Martel, the spirit of Yggdrasil, transforms Dhaos' body into a mana seed and transports it to his home planet.
 * For that matter, the Big Bad in almost ANY Tales (series) game is an Anti-Villain, although some more than others, since they may be revealed at the end of the game or the last few hours.
 * The supposed Big Bad of Tales of Destiny, Hugo Gilchrist, could count. For that matter, a non-Big Bad example is Leon Magnus, who's only out for the safety of his surrogate mother figure, Marian,  Yes, this occurs in both the original and remake version.
 * Shizel claims she is removing all the negative emotions from the world by destroying Eternia in Tales of Eternia, except this is more of a case of  Another set of twists involved
 * Tales of the Abyss features many Anti Villains, even if they barely fit into this trope, considering that their idea of saving the world would wind up destroying it in the process.
 * Tales of Symphonia loves this trope. Almost every villain winds up being an Anti-Villain in their own way, even if some were moreso than others.
 * Even more in the sequel. Richter continues this tradition even if there are some classic villains like Alice and Decus to try balancing it out.
 * Tales of Legendia had this with the Ferines and the Raging Nerifes, the primary antagonists of the second half of the "Main quest". The game reveals that the Legacy dropped from another world and eventually became land. While it drops tantalizing hints throughout the game that, at the very end, it is instead revealed by Maurits that
 * And in the character quest, Schwartz,, was, acting like she was just granting the desires of mankind.
 * Tales of Vesperia also uses this trope with the final Big Bad, . While the first two Big Bads, Barbos and  were just greedy and cruel,   becomes the Big Bad after deciding that Humans Are Bastards thanks to the great war and  stupidly summoning the Adephagos, and winds up acting like Shizel and deciding to save the planet and not the people.
 * Except that  also subverts it when
 * Although much closer to being a "true" villain than  even   could still be considered this because, as
 * The Magic Emperor from Lunar is a definite example. He plays a Genre Savvy Card-Carrying Villain for most of the game, but his motives are not entirely selfish.  His true desire is to save humanity from itself, as is made obvious by his clear anguish during his Face Heel Turn.
 * That was really the whole point of the second game, in fact. If you read between the lines enough, you can see that he figured out somewhere (likely by some ancient texts in the Magic Guild Library) that the Big Bad of the second game
 * Bian Zoldark from Super Robot Wars Original Generation (though apparently not in his original appearance in Super Robot Wars 2). He interrupts a secret peace talk between the government and some aliens, starting a war in the process, and creates the Divine Crusaders under the premise that the government planned to surrender to the invaders, and only by overthrowing them and uniting mankind can the Earth be saved. What he doesn't mention is that he knew all along that the aliens were actually planning to betray them and enslave humanity, and he certainly wouldn't mind it at all if a group of heroes showed up that were capable of defending the Earth themselves. He even goes out of his way to make sure the protagonists make it to their final battle with him.
 * In his previous appearances in Super Robot Wars 2/2G, his actions are also based on the knowledge that aliens will be coming to Earth and, as things currently stand, would have no problems annihilating it. Unlike in Original Generation however, the player and characters in game have no idea that the aliens in question even exist, and Bian's motivation appears to be based on World Domination, which is not really helped by the company he keeps.
 * Darkstalkers has Cosmic Horror Pyron and Dark Messiah Jedah. Pyron was prime Big Bad material in the original games, considering that he's essentially Galactus except he destroys planets for fun, but the PlayStation 2 port of Vampire Savior showed that he recognized that there was something worthwhile in Makai and Earth and he lets them live. This wasn't the first time he spared Earth, incidentally. And Jedah, granted, has an Assimilation Plot as his grand scheme, but can you really fault him in a world where nine out of every ten demons are bloodthirsty monsters without any sense of dignity, respect, or loyalty and are just furthering their own goals? The others are perfectly nice and upstanding individuals, but they've got to worry about humans. The savior of humanity is a mentally scarred girl who is probably one step away from going Tyke Bomb on us. A chance to start fresh and correct past mistakes can't be that bad, can it?
 * Virtually every human opponent in the Xenosaga series.
 * Each of the Testaments has their own reason for supporting Wilhelm's manipulations of the universe's time-space. Albedo  Voyager, however, is still a prick.
 * The Ormus group consisting of Pellegri, Margulis, Herman, and Richard fights to avenge their destroyed homeland and protect the ancient relics that power humanity's exploration of the universe.
 * Wilhelm
 * Xenogears, spiritual ancestor to the above, also shares the proclivity.
 * Ramses fights to justify his existence despite
 * Krelian
 * In all honesty, Shakhan is the only villain in this game whose morality is painted black.
 * What about ? For that matter, what about ?
 * is also rather nuanced.  is pretty black, but he's also a rather minor character, all considered.
 * It varies from game to game, but in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Dr. Eggman sometimes fits this trope. Noticeably, in Sonic Adventure 2, along with Shadow and Rouge.
 * Sonic Adventure 2 is not much of an example. Here, Dr. Eggman is portrayed more as a Magnificent Bastard, committing global terrorism, destruction of a military island and the Moon, kidnapping, and  for no other reason than to control the world, threatening to destroy it this time. Meanwhile, Shadow only cares for revenge until his Heel Face Turn. An argument can be made for Rouge, however.
 * Due to the way the Nasuverse treats antagonists, you can end up as enemies of people who may be really, really evil or crazy; they, at least, have good kills. For example, Arcueid and Akiha are both love interests, and they can also go rather Yandere over Shiki. Ilya is a confused girl who can't decide if she hates Shirou for being Kiritsugu's (apparent) favorite or likes him because, or Lancer, who serves out of his personal sense of honor and, because  has none, turns on him in both Fate and UBW. Even Kotomine gets an A for Effort in Fate/Zero and Heavens Feel route despite numerous rather unpleasant to downright sadistic things he does For the Evulz. Also, Walachia/Tatari is a horrible, horrible monster because...he's trying to avert the doom of mankind, which can't be done, but as far as he knows, turning himself into what he is now is his only shot. Motive Decay is sort of inevitable when you stop being an actual entity though.
 * Touhou is loaded with these, almost to the exclusion of anything else. Virtually every Big Bad was simply misunderstood, or didn't realize the risks that their actions entailed, and could be convinced to stop...just as soon as the requisite shooting was through. In fact, after the eleventh game featured a villain who actually had a blatantly destructive and evil goal, the game's creator, ZUN, decided to go for a far more light-hearted sequel.
 * In fact, even Utsuho (the aforementioned evil villain) had an excuse, and went more or less back to her old self after the events of the game. She is still the evilest Touhou character, though; so, to compensate, in the sequel, we got final boss Byakuren "Youkai Jesus" Hijiri...
 * No one in Touhou is really evil. Utsuho had a good reason, too, in addition to her With Great Power Comes Great Insanity excuse. She misunderstood Kanako's explanation that her power over nuclear fusion could be used to 'fulfill the wishes of both the Underworld and the Surface World'. This actually meant providing nuclear power for the Kappa's technology, who were working for Kanako, but being a Hell Raven (and kind of an idiot), as in a youkai that lives in the fires of hell, her interpretation was to wreathe the whole world in flame and rule over it since, from her point of view, that's a good thing.
 * That tree, Saigyou Ayakashi.
 * Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario. How many Big Bads do you know who treat their minions like family? Even if his goals aren't exactly heroic, that doesn't detract from his Woobie status.
 * To a lesser extent, Bowser himself qualifies as this in some games (like SPM and SMRPG), but they have affected his evilness and he unwittingly shows he is even slightly capable of goodness. Also, from Super Mario Sunshine on, he has become more and more incompetent and his attempted "evil plots" are defective (especially in the Party games) and would never work, whether Mario defeats him or not. The Galaxy games are another story—his plots are clearly above his station and would only get himself killed with the galaxy he's trying to recreate, unless Mario intervenes. And as a result, Bowser has a better chance for survival being defeated by Mario.
 * From Final Fantasy:
 * Final Fantasy VI's General Leo may have worked for the bad guys, but he's the model of honorable conduct throughout the game. He refused Magitek infusion, holds back his forces at the siege of Doma in order to minimize casualties on the other side, and apologizes to your party for the atrocities The Empire committed during the course of the game. This is especially in contrast with another general in the army, Kefka,
 * The Shinra Corporation (or at least, key members of it, including the Turks) from the Final Fantasy VII series has elements of anti-villainy. The ideals and methods used by AVALANCHE (of which the player's characters are members of) can even be seen as anti-heroic, for example, terrorism. Make no mistake, there are some outright villains in Shinra, but many of its members do have noble intentions, for instance, trying to stop Sephiroth from ending the world by launching a rocket with huge materia into space to destroy it (which the protagonists successfully disarm) and also firing the Sister Ray to kill Sephiroth (which, again, the protagonists thwart, but not before the barrier housing him is destroyed for the heroes to enter).
 * In Final Fantasy XII, most of the Judge Magisters (Drace, Gabranth, and Zargabaath) qualify, as they're simply trying to do what they consider right. Ghis and Bergan, on the other hand...There's also a case to be made for Vayne and Venat.
 * It's rather telling about the general tone of a story when its most depraved antagonists are dealt with earlier in the storyline, leaving the Anti Villains in charge for the final arcs...and also mention Doctor Cid.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII, Yaag Rosch and  both fit this role. Rosch only attacks the party to ensure Cocoon remains protected and safe, while   attacks the party to stop Barthandelus' scheme.
 * In the ever-changing Mega Man X backstory, some of the mavericks only joined Sigma's rebellion out of loyalty (though others joined because of The Virus or willingly out of less noble reasons). Particularly sad is Storm Eagle, who, depending on the continuity, fought against Sigma before being defeated, and either joined him out of some sense of duty or due to being forcibly converted by the virus (retaining enough of his old personality to be reluctant to do what he does), or (in the manga) was actually a double agent working for the Maverick Hunters but didn't drop the act until after X did irreparable damage to him.
 * In Mega Man X Command Mission, Epsilon, Scarface, and Ferham acted as Anti-Villains. Epsilon only orchestrated his big revolt so Gigantis could be a place just for reploids, free of human politics, and he simply had the humans leave the island without any casualties. And the whole purpose was to make reploids stronger. Scarface and Ferham, who were acting out of loyalty to him and belief in his cause, were the only Rebellion members he didn't keep at arm's length (even Botos, the other Cadre member, seemed to rank lower than them). Scarface only attacks other Reploids if the other reploids attack him first, and he even heals them upon defeating them. And after the Rebellion is defeated, Ferham pulls a High Heel Face Turn, taking away the Supra Metal fragment that let the true Big Bad,, absorb all damage.
 * The Guardians of Neo Arcadia in Mega Man Zero (especially Harpuia) are even more sympathetic.
 * Also, Craft, who was only a villain for two reasons. The first, because Weil controlled Neo Arcadia and could kill anyone he wanted with that power over the Reploids and humans. The second, so that Craft could rescue and protect Neige before Area Zero was destroyed. It ended up making him go Maverick and fire Ragnarok's laser cannon RIGHT AT WEIL.
 * The titular Evil Overlords of the Overlord games occasionally fit into this category because they are usually fighting people just as, if not more, evil than they are. The first game gives you the opportunity to play a Noble Demon who's taking down Fallen Heroes that have devastated the land. The sequel has you playing as his son, who, despite being even more potentially evil (there is no Noble Demon option), is still taking on the genocidal Glorious Empire that's attempting to destroy all Magic, and the endgame involves you.
 * Golbez is this in Dissidia Final Fantasy. He's downright polite when facing off against the heroes, saving the trash-talking for when dealing with the other villains in Chaos' faction.
 * In the prequel, Duodecim,  is very similar to Golbez. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he gets Brainwashed by Kefka via application of Fake Memories near the end, ensuring his full-on villainy in the original.
 * Cloud in Dissidia 012 also acted as an Anti-Villain, given that he was on Chaos' side, yet also harbored some concern for the warriors on Cosmos' side. He also teams up with fellow Anti-Villain Golbez in order to fight Lightning and Warrior of Light in Prologus, and also warns them that the previous villains (Garland, the Emperor, Kefka, Ultimecia, Sephiroth, and Cloud of Darkness), as well as Golbez and Cloud himself, were actually holding back their overall power. It's also heavily implied that his main reason for his concern was because a person he knew, Tifa, was on Cosmos' side. He eventually attempts to betray and defeat Chaos so Tifa will not have to experience the same pain he has to from his experiences in the wars, and ended up being spared and recruited to Cosmos' side.
 * In the first Dissidia, Jecht acted as an Anti-Villain, as he only ended up fighting alongside Chaos so he could find his son Tidus and go home with him.
 * Certain characters in Saya no Uta. Yeah, Fuminori has crossed the Moral Event Horizon at some point, and continues to Kick the Dog by regarding Yoh as his sex slave after Saya mutates him. Still, you gotta pity him when he loses his beloved Saya, the one person who comforted him. His condition he's had from before the story started. Can't really blame him for hating everyone other than Saya. Saya, for her part, just wanted to find love, but it is in her nature to die and mutate the planet's entire population, and she also meant it as a gift for him to make his life still worth living after her's ended. Meanwhile, Kouji and Dr. Tanbo are out to kill the two of them, but only to avenge Yoh and to save humanity, respectively. And let's also mention Yousuke, who only killed his wife and daughter, and then tried to rape Saya because of psychosis after Saya corrupted his brain earlier on.
 * from The Pitt DLC of Fallout 3. Based on what you hear and learn about him as the story goes on, he seems like a textbook Evil Overlord. Then you meet him yourself, and find out that By this point, it looks like  is the good guy and  is the true villain. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that  main servants are Raiders, he wouldn't even count as a villain.
 * Also, to some degree, Colonel Autumn. While he seems to be just as ruthless as his superior, in the last encounter, he reveals that
 * President Eden himself could also count, as he genuinely believe his own PR and thinks that what he is doing is for the good of the people. He has heroic goals (restoring humanity/America and providing the whole world with food/clean water/safety) but has been misled to He is arguable redeemable if.
 * The best example was probably The Master from the original Fallout. He wants to forcibly turn every living human on the planet into super mutants, however, he has a very good reason. He believes that humans will just tear themselves apart fighting unless they are all one race, which you can't really argue with since you live in a nuclear wasteland precisely because humans fought, and because he believes super mutants are better at surviving, which, once again, is really solid because they are stronger than humans and are completely immune to radiation. He also holds no ill will against humans as a whole; in his new world order, humans would be allowed to live the rest of their lives safe and under the protection of his army, though he wouldn't allow them to breed. However, you can reveal to him that this plan won't work because his mutants are sterile (and not very bright), and he'll do something few other villains ever do: realize his plan won't work and just stop. That's it, not even a fight. He'll realize that everything he thought he was doing for the greater good was actually not good for anyone, and will be so stricken with grief upon realizing this that he'll kill himself and destroy the mutant army. It's sad, really, as he's probably the most sympathetic character in the entire game.
 * in Fallout: New Vegas DLC Old World Blues. While you're told by the Think Tanks that he's going to doom them all, the true story is that When you finally meet him,
 * In Knights of the Old Republic II, Darth Revan was given almost exactly the same treatment as Thrawn up in the Literature section. Even though, both Kreia and Goto refer to Revan as something of an enlightened despot, and that his master plan, whether he won or lost his initial campaign, was to leave the galaxy strong enough to take on an even greater threat from outside the galaxy.
 * Some hints are dropped that the outside threat is the Yuuzhan Vong. Because the game postdated the New Jedi order books, this was intentional.
 * Although some suspect the huge Empire in the unexplored regions run by the original Sith might have something to do with it.
 * With the upcoming MMORPG, it's confirmed that the threat was the 'True Sith' spoken of by Kreia near the end.
 * Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Epic Mickey. He wants to kill Mickey, but this is fueled by his feelings of neglect, Mickey's popularity, the fact the guy is responsible for the decaying of his world, and the fate of his "common law wife" Ortensia. Type II.
 * Saavedro from Myst III: Exile. Spending twenty years trapped in four uninhabited worlds while his people - including his wife and children - were stuck in dying world waiting for help that would never come didn't do much for his sanity. By comparison, he's much less evil than those that had come before him.
 * Depending on how you play the game, Heavy Rain's  counts.   Ah, the wonders of Grey and Gray Morality.
 * And,  he is so impressed with   tenacity that
 * Like with Xenogears above, the oddly similar Wild ARMs 2 has numerous villains, some of whom are antivillains.
 * Cocytus member Ptolomea is A Father to His Men, and has a strong streak of honor to him even as he's cooperating in committing acts of terrorism.
 * Liz and Ard have ulterior motives for working with Odessa, in that they believe it will help them.
 * Before The Burning Crusade derailed his character into a one-dimensional madman, Illidan Stormrage of Warcraft spent much of Warcraft III as one of these after . He goes through the rest of his appearances using increasingly-dangerous and morally-questionable means to fulfill his goals,, and before being stopped by Furion and Tyrande. And the reason why? He wanted to prove to Tyrande and his brother that he had been rehabilitated and wanted to help, but kept thinking he needed just a little more power to do so. In addition, his sympathetic backstory as the Cain to Malfurion's Abel helps cement his status as an antivillain. No matter how well intentioned or well thought out, or even if he accomplished his goals, he was always considered a "failure" compared to his brother during the events of the War of the Ancients.
 * Kael'thas Sunstrider also counts pre World of Warcraft, where he was also derailed into card carrying villainy, considering he was left with no other apparent option to save his people during the events of Warcraft III.
 * By the end of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift,
 * Conversed about in Persona 3 Portable. Junpei doesn't like anti-villains, because they're not as satisfying to beat.
 * Pokémon Black and White has
 * The Ur-Quan. Especially the green Kzer-Za. Sure, they enslave other races and they're merciless to those who disobey them, but that's all due to their Freudian Excuse, which they will explain once you learn the Arc Words. In addition to their sympathetic backstory, they also seem to have a sense of honor; if you surrender to them, they promise to spare your crew. They are also willing to let you peacably leave their space (once) if you warn them about the return of the cause of their Freudian Excuse, regardless of you still being their enemy.
 * Their genocidal brethren, the Kohr-Ah, are less sympathetic...but since they share the same background, they may still qualify.
 * Arcanum has
 * In Neverwinter Nights 2, Ammon Jerro is the King of Shadows. He commands an army of baatezu and tanar'ri, murders three men and a member of the Neverwinter Nine to recover a MacGuffin, and is canonically Neutral Evil.
 * Mask of the Betrayer has . She inflicted the player character with a terrible curse, and set in motion a chain of events that threatened the very fabric of the multiverse, all to save her lover from a fate more horrible than death. It is hard to consider her a villain, despite everything.
 * In the 2008 Prince of Persia, the Warrior might count. He was the king of a pacifistic people besieged by enemies, and sold his soul to the dark god Ahriman to fight them off. Ahriman turned him into an invincible hulking monstrosity; the Warrior destroyed these enemies and then left to serve Ahriman, knowing he had become something anathema to all that they were. Of the four Corrupted the Prince and Elika face, he's the one saying he doesn't want to kill them, they should run, no one can win against a god. Elika thinks his last act before dying in a burst of light, hurling her and the Prince away, was Redemption Equals Death. The Prince doesn't share her opinion.
 * The Prince himself may count. He spends the entirety of the game as the Hero until
 * King Logan in Fable III is revealed to be one. While he is directly responsible for many terrible things (such as deforestation, making Reaver in charge of industry, and abandoning Aurora) he is revealed to
 * Big Boss in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake probably qualifies as one. When fighting Kyle Schneider, he reveals that Big Boss was the one who saved his resistance from the Outer Heaven bombings commenced by NATO (in case you're wondering why this is notable, it's because Schneider was opposing Big Boss's group, Outer Heaven).
 * Not just him, but his mentor, The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, counts as well. She was branded as a traitor of America even though
 * Solidus Snake created a terrorist group to oppose the Patriots, but he only intended to do so because the Patriots were trying to eliminate everything America stood for (Liberty, for one thing), and he also took in people no one else wanted (eg, Ocelot and Olga, who ironically [and unfortuately for him] turned out to be Patriot agents, although the latter was an unwilling agent), and not out of any desire for power. It's also hinted before the mass RAY battle that although he intended to kill Raiden, he was saddened to have to do so, especially when the Patriots essentially brainwashed Raiden.
 * Assassin's Creed has Templars, the main antagonists of the game who murder innocent people and attempt to conquer the world. The catch? They have exactly the same goal as the protagonists - world peace - except that the Templars would rather be quick about it and use Another example of an Anti-Villain would be Rodrigo Borgia, who, after his
 * Debatable, since Rodrigo isn't so much softened up as more Properly Paranoid of Ezio, preferring to just be left alone and quietly consolidate his power. He's still a viciously evil bastard. However, other Templars may count, considering that people like Winston Churchill, FDR, Oppenheimer, and others were members.
 * The Frog Prince, in the second Dark Parables game, falls into this category. He's been causing disappearances in the Black Forest of Germany, and threatens the player character more than once...
 * Speaking of BioWare, Dragon Age features Loghain, who crosses that Moral Event Horizon several times early in the game, but chiefly because he pathologically fears a re-invasion of a foreign country that had enslaved the land within most adults' memory. He didn't believe that a real Blight was occurring, just a surge of Darkspawn. When he finds out the Archdemon really is coming, he tries his best to resolve the situation. You can even have him atone by.
 * Another example would be Ser Cauthrien, Loghain's bodyguard who, despite being disturbed by her lord's actions, follows him out of duty. Luckily, it's possible to talk your way out of having to fight her.
 * Half Life 2 has Dr. Breen. He surrendered Earth to the Combine, and is now their administrator on Earth. Breen has presided over an Orwellian regime that has (among other crimes) prevented humans from reproducing, raped and despoiled the environment, turned dissenters into mindless servitors, and used biological warfare on a regular basis. However, Breen himself is a rather affable character. He seems to honestly believe his own propaganda that the Combine is offering humanity a chance to evolve into something new. He refers to the rebel leaders (most of whom are former employees of him) as "old friends" and, . However,.
 * Some of the creator commentaries and conceptual artwork for Half-Life 2 suggest that Breen's Deal with the Devil really did save humanity, even if it reduced the survivors to slaves.
 * However, Breen is also an arrogant puke whose mask of affability slips considerably as you get closer to his inner sanctum. By the time he's, you're really, really ready to crush his guts for good. And his  . He's just a really well-adjusted, banal, completely evil dude.
 * Wander, the main character of Shadow of the Colossus, fits in well with this trope throughout the entire game. While his motives are pure (he wishes to bring his lover back to life), in order to achieve them, he makes a pact with a dark god (and the dark god warns him of the consequences of his actions and tries to dissuade him from his course) that involves going out into the world and slaying sixteen creatures (the colossi) who, up until his arrival, had lived in peace.
 * Though he has crossed over through antihero and into full blown hero by the end of the series, Kain of The Legacy of Kain fame fits the bill during Soul Reaver and Blood Omen 2. He crosses into antihero-dom somewhere during Soul Reaver 2.
 * Though he believes himself to be The Hero, it turns out that Raziel, by virtue of being an Unwitting Pawn, is actually an anti-villain.
 * From Silent Hill (of all places), we have Walter Sullivan. Sure, he's an insane, quite possibly clinically socipathic Serial Killer, who wants to kill 21 people to resurrect his "mom" (actually the apartment room where he was born)...and then you discover the long, long, long, LONG list of grievances he has against the world. In short, he has a Freudian Excuse that actually holds water. By the end of the game, you want to kill him as much for wanting to kill you as to put the guy out of his misery.
 * Also, from Silent Hill 2, we have, murderer, sexual predator, and all around sympathetic guy.
 * Commander Vladimir from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle doesn't even realize that he's in a deathmatch with Travis when the two fight. He's just returned to Earth after twenty years in outer space and has no idea about the fall of the Soviet Union. Throughout the battle, he frantically tries to contact his defunct mothership, defending himself as best he can from Travis using his Kill Sat. By the end of the battle, when Vladimir finally catches on, even Travis feels sorry for him.
 * The Kurvasz Special Ops from Solatorobo. In addition to being able to find pictures of them goofing off, After you defeat Bruno, they  Béluga counts as well, as
 * Albus from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
 * Yasha in Asura's Wrath who despite following the cause, starts to question weather the other Demi-gods way of trying to stop vlitra via  is the right way..
 * Dragon Fable: Vayle  joined Noxus  . She notably is not at all happy with the PC and Artix  . Later got an upgrade into near-full hero status.
 * Xan is also motivated by more than simply killing stuff with fire.
 * Kratos is a Type II Anti-Villain, when he's not a Type V Anti-Hero.
 * Arantir from Dark Messiah was determined to
 * A straight up playable example from the Grand Theft Auto series. Carl "C.J." Johnson from San Andreas.
 * Niko Bellic as well in GTAIV.
 * Arantir from Dark Messiah was determined to
 * A straight up playable example from the Grand Theft Auto series. Carl "C.J." Johnson from San Andreas.
 * Niko Bellic as well in GTAIV.