Big Bad/Video Games

"The ultimate villain of the story, who's causing the problem the heroes must solve."

Note that Big Bad is not a catch-all trope for the biggest and ugliest villain of any given story. The Big Bad is the one who turns out to be behind several other seemingly independent threats.


 * Marathon provides a rare, non-villainous (though certainly antagonistic) example: Durandal. Although he has his own goals and desires like any other being, Durandal was the one that set things up for the first game; he's ultimately responsible for everything that happened to the titular Marathon ship. Sure, he helps you halfway through, but only because it fits with what he was aiming for in the end.
 * In the second game, T'fear is introduced as the commander in charge of Pfhor Battle Group Seven, but he isn't even encountered, much less killed, and serves more as a Bigger Bad. Later in the game, Tycho is reintroduced, this time allied with the Pfhor, trying to kill Durandal and the humans (he has bad experience with both). Tycho, however, is killed about halfway through, and the rest of the game basically deals with cleaning up the mess.
 * The Big Bad in both Marathon Infinity: Blood Tides of Lh'Owon and Pathways Into Darkness is the W'rkn'cacnter, an Eldritch Abomination capable of destroying the universe. In both cases, the Jjaro help you stop it. In Infinity, Tycho thinks that he's the Big Bad, but he doesn't know the universe is being threatened and that he's essentially a wannabe, as the Jjaro are transporting you through space and time (although he does force you to go into another timeline, thanks to his capture of you).
 * Many Shin Megami Tensei games have fucking YHVH. As in, you have to go and kick down freaking GOD from his throne. Pity he can't be destroyed...
 * Blaz Blue has Yuuki Terumi, better known as Hazama, the most proactive and involved of its antagonists, and Relius Clover, his partner in crime ever since the start of the Dark War, 100 years before the start of the first game.
 * Blaz Blue's predecessor, Guilty Gear has That Man, who created the Gears, who in turn have wreaked havoc on the world. He's a pretty ambiguous guy (no one even knows his name) and not much is known about him or what he's planning.
 * Xenosaga: The Xenosaga game series (as well as Xenogears) makes particular use of Big Bads, specifically by using bait and switching the big bads multiple times. A routine of the Xenosaga games is that once a Big Bad has been "dethroned" from their role, their connections to the main characters are deepened and explained. This happens with Albedo and Margulis, among others.
 * The ultimate Big Bad of the Xenosaga series turns out to be, The Chessmaster par excellance who was manipulating  all the previous Big Bads (and pretty much every other character as well).
 * The ultimate big bad in Xenogears is.
 * As a overlooked factor,
 * The Kingdom Hearts series has the scientist turned madman Xehanort serving as the main Big Bad. While by the first game's timeline he is long gone, aspects of him serve as villains of almost every game in the series. There are others, of course. The list of villains in each game is as follows:
 * Ansem, Seeker of Darkness in Kingdom Hearts I.
 * Marluxia for Sora's story, and Ansem for Riku's in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.
 * Xemnas, leader of Organization XIII in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * It's up in the air who the Big Bad of 358/2 Days is due to all but the very end playing out like a Villain Episode. Xemnas again appears, but this time he's your boss, so (at least from the player character's perspective) he seems like a Good Is Not Nice Big Good, . There's also Xemnas' number-two guy, Saix, who appears more and causes you far more trouble. The last candidate is DiZ, leader of the faction opposing your group, except that, while he's incredibly unpleasant, motivated mainly by revenge, and probably going way too far, he's actually trying to.
 * In Coded, the Big Bad turns out to be
 * Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep.
 * He's the Big Bad again in Kingdom Hearts 3D, though does most of the legwork.
 * Tech Infantry has a variety of Big Bads, from The Bugs, to Rashid King, to Modred. Ultimately, the biggest bad of all is the Crapsack World nature of the universe itself.
 * The Final Fantasy series is famous for its Big Bads. Some of the most well-known, one in every game:
 * Final Fantasy I had The Four Fiends as the initial big bads, until it's revealed that.
 * Final Fantasy II had Emperor Mateus Palamecia as the big bad. He's also the notable exception in the franchise's Rogues Gallery in that he's the major antagonistic force through the entire game.
 * Soul of Rebirth, the sequel quest released with the Game Boy Advance and PSP remakes, puts an interesting spin on this. It's revealed that after the Emperor was killed the first time, his soul split in two, one half going to Heaven and one half to Hell. The Hell Emperor was the Final Boss of the original game. In this one, the party meets the Heaven Emperor... who is also a Big Bad who has upset the natural order of the afterlife and generally made a mess of things (apparently he planned this.) Yes, the Emperor is so evil that even his good half is evil.
 * Final Fantasy III had Xande as the big bad, who gets trumped by
 * Final Fantasy IV
 * The After Years has Creator, a nigh-incomprehensible alien being out to resurrect its long-dead race, no matter whose planet it has to step on to do so.
 * Final Fantasy V had Exdeath, who was the evilest tree ever.
 * Final Fantasy VI starts with Emperor Gestahl until he is usurped by Kefka, a Monster Clown who becomes a god by killing Espers and absorbing their souls.
 * Final Fantasy VII had Sephiroth, a Bishonen Super Soldier with mommy issues.
 * Said "mommy," by the way, is an Eldritch Abomination called JENOVA who was the Big Bad thousands of years before the beginning of the story. Though potentially dead all along, her legacy is felt through her son eons after her defeat. As for the more immediate backstory,  filled the role until Sephiroth descended into villainy.
 * Fittingly enough, Jenova and are Sephiroth's "parents".  in a literal case, and Jenova in a metaphorical case.
 * Before Crisis had Fuhito, usurped for the final battle by
 * Dirge of Cerberus seemed to have Weiss the Immaculate as its Big Bad, though it's revealed that he was actually
 * Crisis Core has Genesis Rhapsodos, who was indirectly responsible for pretty much everything wasn't.Sephiroth is also the big bad for the game's spin offs
 * Naturally, given how many of these guys are playing or attempting to play "higher power" to each other, a case can be made for pretty much all of them being the Big Bad of the entire Compilation. Or at least being a Big Bad for a exceptional period of time, though Genesis and Fuhito comes off as the weakest of the bunch.
 * Final Fantasy VIII had.
 * Final Fantasy IX had Kuja and Garland competing for the position, the winner being
 * Final Fantasy X had.
 * Final Fantasy XII had Vayne, the Well-Intentioned Extremist prince of Arcadia who
 * Revenant Wings has Feolthanos, the crazed self-proclaimed god of a long-lost race, the Aegyl.
 * Final Fantasy XIII has Primarch Galenth Dysley, who is actually
 * Dissidia Final Fantasy establishes that in the Final Fantasy multiverse, the evil god Chaos is the biggest Big Bad. He bosses around most of the people listed above, and the only ones who try to double-cross him are and Golbez who, as he was not the Big Bad of his game decides to help his, Cecil, in getting the crystal.
 * Though Chaos himself actually doesn't Boss or even order anyone around at "all". Most of the orders come from either the Emperor, or oddly enough....Kefka and Kuja.
 * Final Fantasy XI has several, although the Shadow Lord or may be considered one for the whole game:
 * Rise of the Zilart:
 * Chains of Promathia:
 * Treasures of Aht Urhgan:
 * Wings of the Goddess:
 * A Crystalline Prophecy: The Seed Crystal, creator of the other crystals which have been causing trouble.
 * Evil in Small Doses: Riko Kupenreich, Exhibit A as to why giving All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks cosmic power is a Very Bad Idea. Even if they are Moogles.
 * The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born: Shantotto
 * Final Fantasy Tactics had
 * The Grand Theft Auto series:
 * Catalina in Grand Theft Auto III
 * Sonny Forelli in Grand Theft Auto Vice City
 * Frank Tenpenny and  in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
 * Massimo Torini in Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories
 * Jerry Martinez and The Mendez Brothers in Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories
 * Dimitri Rascalov for most of Grand Theft Auto IV
 * Billy Grey in The Lost And Damned
 * in The Ballad Of Gay Tony
 * The Gradius series:
 * Bacterion is usually the Big Bad of the Gradius games
 * Gofer in Gradius II, IV and Nemesis III (not to be confused with Gradius III)
 * Dr. Venom in Nemesis II, Nemesis III,
 * Zelos in Salamander/Life Force
 * Doom in Salamander 2
 * O.V.U.M (Original Visions of Ultimate Monster)in Gradius Gaiden
 * The Saints Row series:
 * Alderman Richard Hughes in the first game.
 * Dane Vogel in the second game.
 * Phillipe Loren and in the third game.
 * Lou the Devil in the Guitar Hero series tries to get aspiring rock-stars to sign his contract so he would get possession of their souls, and also kidnaps the God of Rock in order to get an artifact to drain audiences of their souls.
 * Gary Smith in Bully.
 * Apsu in Sailor Moon: Another Story
 * Tekken has Heihachi Mishima (1, 3 and 4), Kazuya/Devil (2, and arguably 6) and  as Corrupt Corporate Executive, Chessmaster style big bads, Ogre (3) and Azazel (6) as demonic final bosses, and Heihachi's father Jinpachi (5) along with Devil (2) as both.
 * The Need for Speed series:
 * Eddie in Need for Speed: Underground.
 * Caleb in Need for Speed: Underground 2.
 * Razor in Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
 * Darius in Need for Speed: Carbon.
 * Ryo Watanabe in Need for Speed: Pro Street.
 * in Need for Speed: Undercover
 * The Ratchet and Clank series gave us a nice selection of Big Bads as well However the Most recurring is Dr. Nefarious
 * Ultimate Supreme  Executive Chairman Drek in the first game.
 * in Going Commando.
 * Dr. Nefarious in Up Your Arsenal.
 * Gleeman Vox in Deadlocked.
 * Emperor Otto DeStruct in Size Matters.
 * in Secret Agent Clank.
 * Emperor Percival Tachyon in Tools of Destruction.
 * and Captain Angstrom Darkwater form a Big Bad Duumvirate in Quest for Booty.
 * Nefarious again in A Crack in Time.
 * Artemis Zogg in the comic series.
 * in All 4 One.
 * Most Nasuverse works have one.
 * Roa/SHIKI (whoever is dominant at the time) in Tsukihime.
 * The Night of Wallachia, then White Len, in Melty Blood. It's taken over by the Dust of Osiris in Actress Again.
 * Kotomine and Gilgamesh in Fate/stay night (they didn't start everything, but are lying in wait).
 * They did it in Fate Zero too.
 * In Heaven's Feel, the Big Bad is Zouken (who is directly or indirectly responsible for everything bad that happens in the entire route), although both Kotomine and (eventually) could also be seen as this.
 * Araya Souren in Kara no Kyoukai. Notably, he was confronted about halfway through the series and never heard from again.
 * In Half-Life, and its expansion packs Decay, Blue Shift and Opposing Force the Big Bad would have to be The Nihilanth, the creature that was maintaining the rift all along. In Half-Life 2 and its episodes, it's Wallace Breen, former administrator of Black Mesa and the human ruler of Earth under the Combine. However, with
 * Portal: G La DOS. Not only does she place Chell in danger numerous times, half-way through the game she.
 * In Portal 2 G La DOS continues the role at first, but eventually,
 * Goldman in House of the Dead series. However, there is a Bigger Bad and it's the Mysterious Man.
 * No matter who starts the plot in each original Mega Man game, you can guarantee that Dr. Wily is behind it in some way. Same goes for Sigma in the X games (with three exceptions), and eventually, Dr. Weil in the Zero games. Even Mega Man Battle Network does this, with the villains of the 2nd, 4th, and 5th games being connected to -- you guessed it -- Dr. Wily.
 * Not only that, but we find out that prior to the Mega Man X series, then leader of the Maverick Hunters, Sigma, was infected with the Zero Virus after he fought the rampaging Zero, the last creation of -- yup -- Dr. Wily. Sigma eventually succumbed to the virus and turned maverick himself.
 * Dr. Weil of Mega Man Zero fame seems to be following in Wily's footsteps. Not only is he the one who caused The End of the World As We Know It, he continues to plague the world, even after his and Omega's exile. Most of the machinations behind the series' first half can be indirectly linked to Weil. And, in Mega Man ZX, it was hinted that it wasn't Serpent, Master Albert who was the true Big Bad, but it was actually Model W, which is what remained of Dr. Weil's own consciousness.
 * Moreover, Weil was closely linked to Omega, who was what Wily's Greatest Creation was supposed to be, thus creating a distinct intellectual link between the two Big Bads.
 * The Kurain Village Arc of the Ace Attorney series eventually revealed that it had a Big Bad of sorts in
 * Two of the games had their own Big Bad.
 * In the first game, the Big Bad is
 * is revealed as the true criminal of the bonus case in the first Ace Attorney.  eventually states that   is responsible for   who in turn was responsible for "helping" Edgeworth with cases, which resulted in.
 * The third game has
 * The second game doesn't necessarily have someone as the Big Bad but each of the cases impact at least part of the story.
 * Apollo Justice has its own Big Bad as well in
 * Then Ace Attorney Investigations has
 * 'Ace Attorney Investigations 2'' has the distinction of having both a Big Bad and a Bigger Bad. The bigger bad is . The Big Bad however is
 * Mia Fey is implied to have had her own in
 * in Okage: Shadow King, who turned out to be surprisingly sinister.
 * Seiken Densetsu 3 puts an interesting twist on this: there are actually three different Big Bads: the Dragon Emperor, the Prince of Darkness, and the Dark Lich. The three fight among each other as well as against you throughout the first half of the game, but at the halfway point, one of the three will annihilate the other two and become the main antagonist for the second half of the story. Which one wins depends on which of the six characters you've selected to be your main character.
 * The Metal Gear Solid series is probably best known for its mind screwiness and Xanatos Roulettes, and every time you think you have an approximate idea of what's really going on, it turns out everything you thought you knew was an elaborate deception, set up by an Ancient Conspiracy, and there's still another Man Behind the Man. The big reveal comes in the end of Metal Gear Solid 4, when it turns out that
 * Colonel Volgin in Metal Gear Solid 3.
 * The Super Robot Wars games tend to have many Big Bads, due to the fact that they're made up of multiple mecha series in a single game. The result is that said game will (usually) have each and every Big Bad the series included did. And even still, they tend to add an extra-big Big Bad unqiue to that game, often the Final Boss. The greatest example in the series is Keisar Ephes, who  Not bad for a guy who never shows up until the final battle.
 * Mario usually has Bowser as the textbook Big Bad in the main series. While the original Paper Mario has Bowser as its Big Bad as usual, the other Mario RPG spin-offs featured original ones:
 * Super Mario RPG: Smithy
 * Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door: Grodus, usurped at the last minute by
 * Super Paper Mario: Count Bleck, usurped by
 * Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Cackletta the witch
 * Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: The Shroob Princess
 * Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Fawful, originally The Dragon to Cackletta, later usurped by
 * Wart took this position in Super Mario Bros 2, though since it was All Just a Dream... Also, there's Tatanga from Super Mario Land. Tatanga made one more apearance working for Wario, then disappeared off the map with Wart.
 * While Baby Bowser is the final boss of Yoshis Island, he just really wants to play with Yoshi; Kamek is the true antagonist.
 * The Donkey Kong Country series uses King K. Rool for the series' main Big Bad.
 * And Donkey Kong himself was the Big Bad in the earlier games with him vs Mario.
 * Not in Donkey Kong Jr., MARIO was the Big Bad!
 * Donkey Kong Country Returns has.
 * The textbook Big Bad for The Legend of Zelda series is Ganon/Ganondorf. Hell, Ganon's practically incapable of not being the Big Bad. There are exceptions, however:
 * Link's Awakening: Ganon only makes a cameo appearance as part of the Final Boss. The Big Bads here are the Nightmares plaguing the Wind Fish.
 * Majora's Mask has the eponymous mask, though it spends the majority of the game possessing Skull Kid.
 * Four Swords and Minish Cap both have Vaati as the Big Bad.
 * This goes as far back as The Adventure Of Link: there's no defined Big Bad, but rather Link must fight the remnants of Ganon's army and the guardians of the jewels.
 * Phantom Hourglass has
 * The Big Bad of Spirit Tracks, is Chancellor Cole..
 * He doesn't, except for the blue-ness.
 * Demon Lord Ghirahim takes the role in Skyward Sword.
 * The textbook Big Bad for the Sonic the Hedgehog series is Dr. Eggman/Robotnik.
 * Just as Sonic X features evil aliens with a separate Big Bad, in the games Black Doom acts as the Big Bad for Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Braid
 * From Sam and Max:
 * Conroy Bumpus in Hit The Road.
 * Mack Salmon in the TV series.
 * in Telltale Season One.
 * in Telltale Season Two.
 * in The Devil's Playhouse.
 * The Kirby series have many Big Bads
 * Kirby's Dream Land: King Dedede
 * Kirby's Dream Land 2, 3 and 64: Zero, the "core" of Dark Matter
 * Kirby Super Star: King Dedede in Spring Breeze, Dyna Blade in Dyna Blade Meta Knight in Revenge of the Meta Knight, in Milky Way Wishes
 * Kirby Canvas Curse: Drawcia
 * Kirby and the Amazing Mirror: Dark Mind
 * Kirby Squeak Squad: Daroach,
 * Kirby Mass Attack: Necrodeus.
 * Kirby's Return to Dreamland:
 * The Halo series had two Big Bads, the Prophet of Truth (the leader of the Covenant), and the Gravemind (the Hivemind of the Flood).
 * The first game has.
 * The big bad of Fable is the demon Jack of Blades. Fable II has Lord Lucien. Fable III has The Crawler. It is hinted throughout the series that  may be serving as a Bigger Bad, but this hasn't been outright confirmed by the plot yet.
 * Knights of the Old Republic gets is fair share, with the first having Darth Malak.
 * The second game has Darth Traya, but Nihilus and Sion get their share of screen time as well.
 * Star Warsthe Old Republic certainly seemed to set the Sith Emperor up as its Big Bad, but he leaves the galaxy before the game even starts. The jury is still out on it, but it's likely that it'll either be Darth Malgus or someone from the Dark Council.
 * Rogue turian Spectre Saren Arterius serves as the Big Bad in Mass Effect.
 * And in Mass Effect 2 we have the Collector-General,
 * In Mass Effect 3,
 * The Diablo series has a Big Bad tag-team-trio: the "Prime Evils" Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo.
 * City of Heroes has a number of especially powerful and influential bad guys that compete to take over the world.
 * Lord Recluse, the Evil Overlord who rules an island nation with an iron fist, said nation being where City of Villains is set.
 * Nemesis, Magnificent Bastard who may or may not be behind darn near everything in the game. It's all a Nemesis plot.
 * Tyrant, the Dimension Lord of the Mirror Universe, Evil Twin of the game's biggest hero Statesman. (the Big Good?)
 * Rularuu the Ravager, somewhere between Eldritch Abomination and sentient dimension that eats other dimensions with a bad case of Split Personality.
 * The Center, the mysterious leader of the fascist paramilitary group (ie, I Can't Believe Its Not Cobra) known as The Council.
 * In the Metroid games (at least, the original 2D ones) and the accompanying official manga, the original Big Bad is Mother Brain, but for a few of the games, it's Ridley, the leader of the Space Pirates. It turns out
 * The Metroid Prime games start having Ridley as a vague big bad (he is leading the Space Pirates, at least), although the final boss
 * Gorea in Hunters.
 * Dead Space has two, Mercer and . The situation is unique as you fight neither of them, though you do fight what may or may not be considered as the third Big Bad, the Hive Mind. Well, you do fight Mercer.
 * As a normal enemy, if you're daft enough to let the Infector get through necromorphing his corpse.
 * Considering it's puppeteering the other Necromorphs and is the final boss, yeah, I'd consider the Hive Mind to be a Big Bad. Hell, Mercer even talks about "...the Hive Mind's gift", suggesting he considers himself to be it's servant.
 * All three Sly Cooper games feature Big Bads though they where not always how they appeared.
 * Sly 1 featured Clockwerk, an owl that traded his flesh and feathers for robotic immortality, all to wipe out the Cooper family.
 * Sly 2 saw the return of Clockwerk, but in pieces, so it disqualifies him from Big Bad status. Arpeggio was resembling the Clockwerk pieces to reform the mechanical bird and fuse with him to gain immortality,.
 * Sly 3's Big Bad is a Mad Scientist named Dr. M who has his own vendetta against Sly the Cooper family.
 * Metal Slug has General Morden, although he's constantly upstaged by the Mars People or some other threat. In Metal Slug 6, both Morden and the Mars People are forced into an Enemy Mine situation by a bunch of aliens who eat Mars People.
 * Sargeras is the ultimate Big Bad of the entire War Craft universe, but because he's usually on his throne or out of commission, his various minions tend to take over the roles. Out of several characters, Gul'dan and Medivh probably counted as a Big Bad Duumvirate during the First War (or game), while Gul'dan took over the role alone for the Second (since he was using the orcs and fighting the humans). In the expansion, the job got handed off to Ner'zhul. In the Third War, Sargeras's Dragon (well, one of two), Archimonde, filled the role, while the other Dragon Kil'Jaeden and the Lich King both held it in an Evil Versus Evil situation in the Frozen Throne expansion. For World of Warcraft Big Bads, see that entry below.
 * Used (and not used) variously in World of Warcraft.
 * In the original game, there were multiple story arcs, not all of which tied together and some of which had their own Big bads, such as VanCleef (the final boss of one of the first dungeons), the Diabolical Mastermind behind the Defias who were behind just about everything until then in the human quests, right from the kobolds at the beginning. The closest to an overall Big bad was arguably C'Thun. Everything in Kalimdor was very obviously leading up to the Battle of Kalimdor, with the Silithid being woven in through multiple quest lines, culminating in the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain. Note that C'Thun wasn't quite the final boss before the first expansion.
 * In Burning Crusade, the initially hyped final boss Illidan didn't really have a lot to do with much of what was going on (after all, it was called "The Burning Crusade", not "Illidan Is a Bit of a Jerk"), but this trope was fulfilled satisfactorily later on when a patch added the new final boss, Kil'jaeden, the acting leader of the Burning Legion who are behind that whole Crusade thing.
 * In Wrath of the Lich King, as the name implies, it's very clear who the Big Bad is. The Lich King is a typical Evil Overlord bent on world conquest, and makes sure to appear several times along the story (unlike Illidan).
 * Somewhat subverted in Cataclysm; though we know Deathwing is responsible for the rearranging of Azeroth, it is heavily implied that something else is behind the scenes that even Deathwing himself is working for, making Deathwing LITERALLY The Dragon rather than the Big Bad.
 * In the Dept Heaven series, while "the biggest villain" is, each game has its own Big Bad.
 * Riviera the Promised Land:
 * Yggdra Union:
 * Knights in The Nightmare:
 * In the Legacy of Kain series, while the morality of pretty much all of the characters is somewhat difficult to determine, by the end of Defiance, it seems to be firmly established that the big bads of the series are and.
 * Actually,
 * Mother, aka Earth Bound Zero has Giegue.
 * Giegue returns as the Big Bad in the sequel, Mother 2, aka Earthbound, though in the American game he's called Giygas.
 * Porky Minch, who
 * In Mother 3, is revealed to be the Big Bad in the final chapter.
 * Captain Syrup in Wario Land 1 and 2.
 * Rudy the Clown in Wario Land 3.
 * The Golden Diva in Wario Land 4.
 * The Shake King in Wario Land: Shake It!
 * The Street Fighter franchise have M.Bison.
 * The Resident Evil franchise has the Umbrella Corporation, led by Ozwell Spencer, as the overarching Big Bad for the entire series. The individual episodes have individual Big Bads:
 * Resident Evil has Albert Wesker.
 * Resident Evil Zero has
 * Resident Evil: Code Veronica has
 * Resident Evil 4 has Osmund Saddler
 * Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles has Sergei Vladimir
 * Resident Evil 5 has
 * 5 ultimately ends with, so it remains unknown who the Big Bad of any future installments for the series will be. However, a likely candidate would seem to be.
 * However, The Most Recurring is Albert Wesker.
 * Many people argue the AI Director itself in Left 4 Dead is the big bad behind every possible bad thing that happens to the players, especially on Expert difficulty where all it does is punish players for doing badly and slaughtering them for trying to be good.
 * Doom 2's big bad is the Mook Maker, the one who spawned all the enemies in the first place. Considering that it only appears once in the game, and its destruction damages untold miles of Hell's surface, we can assume that the big static face we call the Icon of Sin is the big bad of the game.
 * Adam from Trauma Center: Under the Knife and its remake, Second Opinion.
 * Under the Knife 2 has
 * New Blood has Kidman, who shows up about halfway through the game, though only to be killed in the next chapter and revealed to be working for
 * Trauma Team has the Raging Bomber in Naomi's storyline.
 * Maple Story seems to be angling to have the Black Magician as the Big Bad. He sure fits it. He forced a knight named Killian to make a very sadistic choice and kill himself, just to get a damn Warlord, had a guy frozen in ice for a while, chased the people from continent to continent, and is willing to do it all twice.
 * The Big Bad of Epic Mickey is the Phantom Blot, retooled into an Eldritch Abomination made of paint and thinner. Oddly enough, he was created accidentally by Mickey Mouse himself!
 * From Jak and Daxter:
 * Gol and Maia for the first game.
 * Baron Praxis and for the second game.
 * Count Veger and for the third game.
 * in Daxter.
 * for The Lost Frontier.
 * The Dragon Quest games have their fair share of Big Bads:
 * Dragon Quest I had the Dragonlord.
 * Dragon Quest II had Hargon who attacks Moonbrooke and.
 * Dragon Quest III had.
 * Dragon Quest IV had Psaro the Manslayer, aka Necrosaro.
 * Dragon Quest V had.
 * Dragon Quest VI had Murdaw, also known as Mudo
 * Dragon Quest VII had Orgodemir, the Demon Lord who sealed most of the continents of the world to prevent God from defeating him.
 * Dragon Quest VIII had Dhoulmagus until it turns out.
 * Dragon Quest IX had
 * from the .hack//G.U. games.
 * I don't think you can really call the big bad as he's really sort of the bigger bad that results from the big bad's actions.
 * The true Big Bad here is probably AIDA: it's the root cause of all the problems that are happening and it is the primary antagonist for 90% of the games.
 * Nene in Blue Dragon.
 * Dark Cloud has the Dark Genie. The sequel, Dark Chronicle, had Emperor Griffon/ story wise, though.
 * in Psychonauts.
 * Arguably, father-issues in general.
 * Lord Doviculus in Brutal Legend
 * Persona 4 has Though, it turns out the true villain who has been   Even later, if you
 * The Big Bad of .hack// could go one of two ways: Cubia, or Morganna, although you never really fight her directly. She simply uses the phases to interact and fight for her. Once
 * Fatal Fury gives us Geese Howard.
 * The Banjo-Kazooie series has Gruntilda.
 * The King of Fighters varies away from it from time to time, but overall, the major villain of the series is Orochi.
 * The Super Smash Bros series usually had a Big Bad in the form of Master Hand,
 * Runescape has several, usually at least one in each of the various milti-part storylines:
 * The Plague City series has Lord Iorworth and While nominally a Big Bad Duumvirate, each thinks they're using the other. Before this, there were two Red Herring Big Bads: Iban and.
 * The Morytania series has Lord Lowerniel Vergidiyad Drakan, a vampyre said to be so horrible we've never actually seen him. His influence is felt mostly through his Vyrewatch commander, Vanstrom Klause.
 * The Dwarf series has Director Hreidmar.
 * The Gnome series had General Khazard for the tree gnomes and Glough for the city gnomes,
 * The Pirate series has Rabid Jack. Like Drakan, we've never actually seen him, but since both of the series's big villains so far, Captain Donnie and Mi-Gor, have been stated to be under his command, there's little doubt who the final foe is.
 * The Temple Knight series has Mother Mallum.
 * The Goblin series has H.A.M., led by Johannes Ulsbrecht and Sigmund.
 * And finally, the Mahjarrat series, which ties together the Desert, Dagon'hai, Defender of Varrock, Black Knight, etc. storylines into one huge Myth Arc that is probably the closest thing to a main story this very open-ended game has, has a particularly impressive example. Once you steal, there's really no stopping you. To a lesser degree, the other Zamorak-worshiping Mahjarrat qualify, including Zemouregal, Enakhra, and Hazeel, but it's clear Lucien is really the king here.
 * All Guild Wars campaigns have Big Bads of some sort, except perhaps Prophecies (which has several evil groups.). The Nightfall campaign also
 * The Man in Glasses from Twelve Thirteen
 * Although the player's goal in the Pokémon series is to become Champion, the leader of each generation's evil team serves as the Big Bad, as they are the ones responsible for whatever troubles are occurring in each region.
 * Pokémon Red and Blue/Yellow: Giovanni (Team Rocket)
 * Pokémon Gold and Silver/Crystal: In the originals, there is no nominated leader of the regrouped Team Rocket; the final Team Rocket Executive fought in the Radio Tower is the closest the organization has to one. The remakes gave the Rocket Executives names, and so the aforementioned Executive was finally given an identity: Archer.
 * Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire/Emerald: Maxie (Team Magma) and/or Archie (Team Aqua)]], depending on which version you are playing (Magma for Ruby, Aqua for Sapphire). Notably, the other team leader will actually assist you in stopping the Big Bad; however, both leaders are Big Bads in Emerald.
 * Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/Platinum: Cyrus (Team Galactic)
 * Pokémon Black and White: The game wants you to think that  is the Big Bad. At the last second though,
 * Then there's the spin-off series, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky:  If that doesn't qualify as a Big Bad, I don't know what does.
 * In another pair of spin-offs, Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD, the villainous organization Cipher is the main antagonistic body (and since Cipher is much more competent than any of the main series' Teams, there is no Gym Challenge or Championship to aspire to; you fight Cipher and that's it.) The leader of Cipher is the Big Bad and differs in each installment; in Colosseum it's Nascour, and in the sequel it's
 * Atticus Thorn in The Haunted Mansion.
 * Adventure Quest Worlds has Drakath, the Champion of Chaos, who is sending out thirteen Lords of Chaos to terrorize the land of Lore, and who killed, who was the Big Bad in most of Artix Entertainment's other games.
 * Batman Arkham Asylum has Joker.
 * Chrono Trigger has Lavos, whose influence is felt in every time period and who is ultimately responsible for not one, but two The End of the World As We Know It events (extinction of the Reptites and start of a long ice age in 65,000,000 B.C., and the destruction of the magical Kingdom of Zeal in 12,000 B.C.). The heroes are trying to prevent a third which will occur in 1999 A.D.
 * Lavos' actual role as the Big Bad is debatable, as it is not necessarily in control of all the plots; they just tend to happen due to different tribes, such as Zeal, worshiping it or its own natural instincts for world destruction.
 * Twisted Metal series has Calypso.
 * The Baldurs Gate series:
 * Sarevok in the first game.
 * Irenicus in the second.
 * Amelissan in the expansion to the second game and the last part of the story.
 * For the series as a whole, Bhaal might count, but in each individual installation, he's the Bigger Bad.
 * Two thirds of the Ultima series had Big Bads:
 * In Ultima I it was Mondain the Wizard, who was using the Gem of Immortality to take over the world.
 * In Ultima II, his lover Minax tries to take revenge.
 * Ultima III had their offspring/creation Exodus take its turn at world conquering.
 * Ultimas IV - VI had no Big Bads. A case could be made in Ultima V for Blackthorn, but you can go the entire game without ever encountering him.
 * Ultima VII - Ultima IX had The Guardian as their Big Bad, trying to conquer Britannia from without.
 * The Might and Magic series has had a number of Big Bads over its very long run.
 * Might and Magic 1 to 5: Sheltem, a rogue Planetary Guardian, one of many created by The Ancients, who went a little bonkers and decided the best way to protect his own planet was to destroy all the other ones that were created by the Ancients.
 * Archibald Ironfist was the Big Bad of Heroes of Might and Magic 2, being the evil contender in the titular Succession War. He seems to be set up as this in Might and Magic 7, after being released in 6, but ultimately is upstaged by his Terran advisors, who themselves fail to reach this level by virtue of not causing most of the problems the heroes must solve.
 * Might and Magic 6 and Heroes of Might and Magic 3: The Kreegan, the ancient enemies of the Ancients, although their leadership changed quite frequently due to consistently being killed by the games' heroes. M&M 6 had the Kreegan Queen and HMM 3 had Xenofex and, after Xenofex gets killed in M&M 7, Lucifer.
 * Might and Magic 8: Escaton the Destroyer causes, directly or indirectly, most of the problems the heroes must face. As opposed to Sheltem, however,
 * Might and Magic 9 and Heroes of Might and Magic 4: These two games mainly suffered from Canon Dis Continuity due to 3DO games pretty much crashing and burning at the time they were made.
 * Heroes of Might and Magic 5 and Dark Messiah: The Demon Sovereign, Kha-Beleth.
 * The Tales Series has its fair share of Big Bads, although in many of them you don't learn that they are the Big Bad until much later in the game.
 * Tales of Phantasia has Dhaos
 * Tales of Symphonia, the distant prequel, has
 * Tales of Destiny 2 has Elraine at first, with Fortuna as the Bigger Bad.
 * Tales of Eternia alternates it, initially pointing to
 * Tales of Graces has Lambda for the main story, along with Fodora Queen in the Future arc.
 * Tales of Legendia switches it up a bit, with Vaclav as the Disc One Final Boss during the first half. Maurits takes over the spotlight, but he's subordinate to the Nerifes, the real Big Bad. Afterward, the Character Quests' overarching plot involves the black mist, and Schwartz, the one generating it.
 * Tales of the Abyss has
 * Tales of Vesperia has, though the last act of the game involves cleaning up his mess.
 * The Tale of Alltynex trilogy have the titular Master Computer Alltynex OS where almost everything that goes wrong in the series can be traced back to it..
 * Yo-Jin-Bo has Harumoto, upstart clan-leader wannabe and would-be murderer of Hatsuhime.
 * In Skies of Arcadia, the Valuan empire is led by Empress Teodora, although
 * While not the actual final fight, serves this role in Eien no Aselia. Not the most powerful enemy faced, either. Just the one who was in charge all along.
 * Graf Michael Seppein of Rosenkreuzstilette, soon usurped by after his defeat. He organized for a rebellion against the Holy Empire and made a Deal With the Devil, becoming a vampire and commanding an army of monsters, demons, and the undead, and even bringing back Raimund Seyfarth as The Grim Reaper.
 * Faulkner of Vanguard Bandits. From his very first appearance in the story, to the endgame fight against in every ending. He isn't hesitant to head out to battle himself multiple times earlier on to lay a massive-sized beatdown on any poor fool who gets in his way.
 * Uka Uka from Crash Bandicoot. While Dr. Neo Cortex seemingly was behind all the events in the first two Crash games, it was eventually revealed that he did everything under Uka Uka's orders. However,
 * In FEAR, it's a toss-up between humongously powerful psychic Stringy Haired Ghost Girl Alma and Corrupt Corporate Executive Genevieve Aristide. While Alma has undeniably been wronged, her revenge is... rather extreme. As for Aristide, she just wants to keep her job, and to hell with anyone who has to die in order for her to do so. Events would never have gotten as hellish as they did if either one of them wasn't in the picture.
 * The Elder Scrolls series has a different Big Bad in each game, although they're often in the service of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedra Lord of Destruction, who serves as the Bigger Bad of the setting.
 * Elder Scrolls 1: Arena, had traitorous Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn, who was secretly in league with Dagon.
 * Elder Scrolls: Battlespire, a spin-off game taking place during Arena's time period, had Mehrunes Dagon himself leading the Daedric invasion of the Imperial Battlespire.
 * Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall has several different faction leaders, but the Underking is the one most directly tied to the main quest line (and also the guy on the front cover of the game). Also, Lord Woodborne is the one who turns out to be behind the murder of the King.
 * In the end, the game doesn't really have a Big Bad. The Underking turns out to be not all that far from a good guy, Lord Woodborne, while directly responsible for the King of Daggerfall's death, is not an independent operator...
 * Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, another spin-off game which tells a smaller-scale, more personal story, has Imperial governor Admiral Richton as the main antagonist.
 * Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind has the A God Am I supervillain Dagoth Ur.
 * Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion has Mythic Dawn cult leader Mankar Camoran, but his master Mehrunes Dagon makes an appearance at the very end.
 * Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has Alduin, the Nordic dragon god of destruction.
 * The Fallout series:
 * Fallout 1: The Master
 * Fallout 2: President Richardson
 * Fallout 3: Colonel Autumn, with President Eden as a Bigger Bad.
 * Fallout: New Vegas: Caesar (a little trickier since there's an ending path where you join him, but he's still obviously the central figure in the main conflict). Aside from him the DLC all have their own Big Bads:
 * Dead Money: Father Elijah
 * Honest Hearts: Salt-Upon-Wounds
 * Old World Blues: Dr. Mobius,
 * Lonesome Road: Ulysses, who is arguably the Bigger Bad of the DLCs.
 * In Famous has Kessler.
 * Bertrand in the second game.
 * Prototype has Elizabeth Greene for the Infected, and General Peter Randall for Blackwatch.
 * The true antagonist is . Too bad you won't confront him.
 * The second game would have Alex Mercer.
 * Dead Rising has Carlito Keyes, though he's more of a Big Bad Wannabe.
 * The Overtime mode introduces Brock Mason, the second Big Bad of the game.
 * Dead Rising 2 has TK throughout the entire game, although the true mastermind behind the outbreak is revealed to be, or
 * The Case West DLC seems to reveal the series' Bigger Bad in the form of the Director of Phenotrans.
 * In The Witcher, we are lead to believe that Azar Javed is the Big Bad of the game..
 * In The Witcher 2, Letho serves as the main antagonist, with other major antagonists varying depending on whether or not he sides with either Vernon Roche or Iorveth.
 * In Dragon Age: Origins, Loghain acts as your standard Big Bad for a large portion of the game, until he's upstaged by the Archdemon. The sequel then goes on to deconstruct this trope: in the end, every party involved in the games' climax is partly to blame for how things turn out, whether by design or simply being a bit too close to the fire.
 * Dragon Age II: Deconstructed. Cassandra tries to find out who the Big Bad was, but there is only Grey and Grey Morality and Well-Intentioned Extremist characters.
 * in Bio Shock. Sophia Lamb in Bio Shock 2.
 * Each game in the Homeworld franchise has a pretty clear-cut example:
 * The Taiidan emperor from Homeworld. Spends most of the game in the shadows, but according to the backstory for Homeworld: Cataclysm, he was a twisted, ruthless mess of a ruler who managed to stay on his throne by cloning himself, and who ordered the destruction of an entire planet  mostly as a publicity stunt.
 * The Beast infection is the primary antagonist Homeworld: Cataclysm, and towards the end of the game it is controlled by . It even has it's own Dragon in the.
 * The nomadic Vaygr from Homeworld 2 are led by Makaan in their attempts to conquer the galaxy. Unusually for a Big Bad, he's
 * Dead or Alive series:
 * Raidou in the first.
 * Tengu in the second.
 * Omega / in the third.
 * ALPHA-152 in the fourth.
 * The demon Varalys in the Hydlide series.
 * The Fire Emblem Series is home to quite a few per game.
 * In the first game and its remake (Shadow Dragon), we have the Big Bad Duumvirate of Earth Dragon Medeus and Demon King Gharnef.
 * The second game has the dark god Doma.
 * Medeus and Gharnef return in the third game.
 * The fourth game has the evil deity Loptous, though he's a very impersonal opponent,, with most of the direct villainy being done by his high priest Manfroy and his human vessel Yurius.
 * The fifth game, a "midquel" to the two halves of the fourth, has the dark priest Veld, though he's actually Manfroy's second in command.
 * Fire Emblem: Fuin No Tsurugi, the 6th game, had King Zephiel as the main Big Bad.
 * Fire Emblem: Rekka No Ken (simply Fire Emblem in the English version), the 7th installment, first focuses on Lundgren, as he's trying to kill Lyn so he can rightfully ascend to the throne of Caelin, but he's just the villain in the prologue. After that, there's a decoy Big Bad in the form of Lord Darin, but the actual wirepuller is the Dark Druid Nergal.
 * Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones features The Demon King, Formortiis, as the main enemy. He had been defeated by the five heroes many years ago, but he has been revived due to . While indirectly responsible for Grado's military ambitions, and all that followed it, he is directly responsible for the appearance of monsters across Magvel.
 * Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance stars Ashnard, king of Daein, as the primary antagonist. He desires a world in which the strong dominate the weak, and he seeks to use Lehran's Medallion to awaken a Dark God and gain power. He is the final boss, and most of the earlier bosses are working for him. This includes the Four Riders, most notably the Black Knight.
 * Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is divided into four parts, each part having its own big bad. In Part I, the primary antagonist is Jarod, a Begnion general who seeks to supress the Dawn Brigade's uprising in Daein. In Part II, it is Lord Ludveck, who wants to displace Queen Elincia as ruler of Crimea. Part III is unique, in that you alternately play as opposing armies; it could be considered Micaiah, or Ike, but it would better be considered . In part IV, the big bad is Goddess Ashera, who seeks to destroy the world, which she has deemed irredeemable,.
 * In the Web Game The Colour Tuesday, Officer Maxwell is the closest seen in the only released installment. The closest seen.
 * While the original Spyro the Dragon series normally had a stand alone Big Bad each game, the new The Legend of Spyro trilogy had the Dark Master Malefor as it's main villain. His Dragons Dark Cynder and Gaul serving as the main villains in the first two games due to their master being Sealed Evil in A Can they're trying to free at the time, but it's ultimately Malefor manipulating everything from behind the scenes. He's finally let out at the end of The Eternal Night and pretty much causes havok and destruction for three years while the heroes are Sealed Good in A Can before serving as the direct villain of Dawn Of The Dragon.
 * The Stellar 7 series presents Gir Draxon as the Big Bad.
 * Oddworld:
 * Abe's Oddysee has Molluck the Glukkon.
 * Abe's Exoddus has the Brewmaster.
 * Munch's Oddysee has Humphrey and Irwin with Humphrey as the dominant Big Bad.
 * Stranger's Wrath has Sekto.
 * Lady Margaret, as the queen of the Magog Cartel is the Bigger Bad behind Molluck, Brewmaster and all the other Glukkons, however she hasn't appeared in a game yet.
 * Lady Margaret's grandmother is the Bigger Bad behind Lady Margaret, and is supposed to appear in Squeek's Oddysee.
 * It was heavily implied in several interviews that the ones really in control of the industry will not appear until the end of the Quintology.
 * Septerra Core. Doskias is the Big Bad, right from the beginning of the game.
 * Dracula in almost every Castlevania game. The Japanese title is Demon Castle Dracula for a reason. There are exceptions, however:
 * In Castlevania Bloodlines and Castlevania Portrait of Ruin, while he does appear, he's out of the picture until the very last boss fight, meaning he's more Bigger Bad this time.
 * The Big Bad in Bloodlines is Elizabeth Bartley, and in Portrait Of Ruin it's Brauner.
 * In Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, the Big Bad is the Cult leader and self-proclaimed Anti Christ, Graham Jones.
 * in Deadly Premonition, who caused most, if not all of, the problems in the story . It's even to the point he's responsible for.
 * Mizar, a.k.a., in Jet Force Gemini.
 * There are three in Okami: Orochi, Ninetails and . It's later revealed that.
 * Jasper Batt Jr. in No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle. In almost every other game by Suda 51, including the first No More Heroes, whether or not there's a villain, let alone WHO, is up to interpretations.
 * Bruno Dondurma, whose chase after the medallion to awaken Lares is the major conflict of Solatorobo.
 * Drazil in Soul Nomad and The World Eaters fit's the bill.
 * The Devourlord in the demon path however manages to oneup Drazil in every way. The kicker?.
 * There are 2 of them in Asura's Wrath, Lord Deus and The Gohma.
 * Each Golden Sun game has one:
 * The first game has Saturos and Menardi as a Big Bad Duumvirate, though Saturos is the dominant of the two.
 * The second game has and it's implied that he was manipulating Saturos and Menardi in the first game.
 * Golden Sun Dark Dawn has Arcanus,
 * The Old One in Demons Souls is the source of the world's demons. Even worse, it's also the source of the setting's magic called soul arts
 * Demons Souls Spiritual Successor Dark Souls notably doesn't have a real Big Bad. The reason behind everything going wrong is simple entropy. does try to manipulate you in a bid for power, but he's ultimately a minor player -- he's not even a required boss fight.
 * Max Payne has Nicole Horne in Max Payne and  in The Fall of Max Payne.
 * In the sequel, Max Payne 3, we have
 * Silent Hill:
 * Dahlia Gillepsie in the first.
 * Claudia Wolf in the third.
 * Walter Sullivan in the fourth.
 * in Downpour.
 * Those Wacky Nazis serve this role for most of the Call of Duty games, excepting Black Ops, where the Big Bad is Soviet General Nikita Dragovich.
 * Modern Warfare Big Bads:
 * Call of Duty 4: Imran Zakhaev.
 * Modern Warfare 2: At first you think it's Makarov, but it turns out to be
 * Modern Warfare 3: Makarov's the real deal this time around.
 * The Viewtiful Joe series has one, mentioned at the end of the second game being responsible for everything...but the third game doesn't seem to be coming out any decade soon.
 * Nine Persons Nine Hours Nine Doors plays with this in a surprising way. The Big Bad ends up being as the person who set everything into motion, but the current Notary Game is actually being run by, who are trying to
 * Neverwinter Nights series:
 * The creator race queen Morag in the original. She seeks to restore the reptiloid dominion over the Sword Coast.
 * The medusa Huerodis in Shadows of Undrentide. She wants to raise the fallen Netherese city of Undrentide for unknown reasons, and manipulates you into delivering a mythallar to do it with. No word on what the next bit of her plan was.
 * The archdevil Mephistopheles in Hordes of the Underdark. After being bound on the Prime Material Plane by a powerful drow priestess called the Valsharess, he manipulates you into destroying her armies and attacking her, weakening her enough to break free. He wants to Take Over the World.
 * The King of Shadows in Neverwinter Nights 2. This is a Pure Magic Being that seeks to uphold the laws and protect the descendants of the ancient empire of Illefarn. Problem is, Illefarn is long gone due in large part to the King of Shadows' origin story, and the King is corrupted by Black Magic. See this page for full details.
 * Akachi the Betrayer in Mask of the Betrayer. Sort of. He was transformed into a curse of elemental hunger that is slowly killing you.
 * In Storm of Zehir, the yuan-ti House Se'sehen, led by an avatar of Zehir, the yuan-ti god of poison. They want to Take Over the World.
 * Jade Empire plays with this trope:
 * Akachi the Betrayer in Mask of the Betrayer. Sort of. He was transformed into a curse of elemental hunger that is slowly killing you.
 * In Storm of Zehir, the yuan-ti House Se'sehen, led by an avatar of Zehir, the yuan-ti god of poison. They want to Take Over the World.
 * Jade Empire plays with this trope: