Villainous Breakdown/Video Games

"Mengsk: YOU jackals think you can come here and question ME?"
 * In some games, the main villain is able to broadcast messages to the hero over the course of the game, and they'll eventually lose it and start broadcasting more and more desperate pleas/insults/bribes to you as you get closer to them.
 * BioShock (series) does this with both Andrew Ryan ("Does your master hear me? Atlas! You can kill me, but you will never have my city!") and ("I'm gonna splice, and splice, until THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO SPLICE WITH!!").
 * In the sequel, Sofia Lamb spends most of the game smugly lecturing the player on her superior ethics. By the end she's a bitter, broken woman, knowing that her own daughter has rejected her and her plan.
 * Bioshock's spiritual predecessor System Shock has something similar in the second game after the final boss fight, where goes from taunting and mocking the player to
 * Dr. Breen in Half-Life 2 ("Look, Gordon, look at what you are throwing away. Is it worth it?").
 * Another (albeit somewhat milder) Half-Life 2 example: In Episode One, the Vortigaunts manage to break through the G-Man's power and rescue Gordon, which somewhat intimidates the G-Man in response. ("We'll see... about THAT!")
 * GLaDOS in Portal ("Turn back now or I will kill you! ...I'm going to kill you. And all the cake is gone. You don't even care, do you!?").
 * "Stop squirming and die like an adult or I'm going to delete your backup. STOP! Okay enough, I deleted it. No matter what happens now, you're DEAD. You're still shuffling around a little but believe me you're dead. The part of you that could have survived indefinitely is gone. I just struck you from the permanent record. Your entire life has been a mathematical error. A mathematical error I'M ABOUT TO CORRECT."
 * in Portal 2, as you get closer to his lair and his traps fail again and again. The pinnacle is in the Final Battle after Chell (barely) survives yet another trap. ("What, are you still alive? You are joking! You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!! Well, I'm still in control. AND I HAVE NO BLOODY IDEA HOW TO FIX THIS PLACE! Oh, you had to play bloody cat and mouse, didn't you? While people were trying to work. Yes, well, now we're all going to pay the price, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL GOING TO BLOODY DIE! Oh, brilliant, yeah.")
 * A minor villain near the start of Mass Effect 2 gets increasingly frustrated at her troops as Shepard gets closer to her ("There are three of them. THREE! Anything can be killed if you'd just do your damn jobs!").
 * Bob Page in Deus Ex's final mission. ("Go ahead! Blow this place sky-high... You might get rid of ME, but you'll take down Aquinas, the power grid, the whole electronic infrastructure. Is that what you want? Are you completely nuts?")
 * It gets better. He goes from smugly taunting you to begging.
 * Nicole Horne in Max Payne ("What do you mean, 'he's unstoppable'?")
 * from Max Payne 2. ("What the fuck is wrong with you, Max?! Why won't you just die?!")
 * Umineko no Naku Koro ni: went through it several times.
 * The deity in Tower of Heaven ("How dare you... How dare you continue to live? Is it merely to spite me?")
 * By the end of Halo 3, the Gravemind has gone from calmly taunting the Master Chief with visions of Cortana and statements of his complete inability to stop the inevitable to rampant screams and roars of protest -- though it kind of makes sense, as the Chief is about to.
 * Even then,.
 * Gravy's breakdown actually starts in the previous level. He taunts the Chief as you move through a extremely Flood-infested High Charity, then goes to threats, then to demanding that you die, then to outright enraged yelling.
 * The Prophet of Truth also goes through this. As the humans and Elites (who are now working together) get closer and closer to beating him (having annihilated his forces over the course of the game) his preachings as the Chief and the Arbiter come closer and closer to his location get less religious and "ascending to godhood" to more "THIS IS ALL THE HERETICS' FAULT!!!". His last words are "I...AM...TRUTH! THE VOICE OF THE COVENANT!" after he's finally cornered with the Covenant completely destroyed and the Chief shuts down the Halo rings.
 * Neither Gravemind or Truth can compete for the "honor" of "The Best Villainous Breakdown of the Halo series" when facing . While both Gravemind and Truth started yelling around, they didn't do anything physically toward the player. however starts shooting lasers from his red, formerly blue, eye at the player and messing up his power-armour, while screaming "UNACCEPTABLE! UNACCEPTABLE!! ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!!!" or "THIS RING BELONGS TO ME!!". And he kills  in his fit of rage.
 * And of all places -- Kirby Super Star, as Kirby's systematic demolition of the Halberd is accompanied by running commentary from Meta Knight and his crew, with increasing alarm.
 * Not an entire game, but during Chapter 2 of Paper Mario, this happens with Tutankoopa as you progress further and further through the Dry Dry Ruins.
 * Subverted in Chapter 5 of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door; most of the dungeon has you hearing moaning messages from Cortez in the same vein as those of Tutankoopa (complete with a gradual breakdown), but.
 * Arcturus Mengsk in Starcraft II after


 * Kerrigan also suffers this during the final battle. In the beginning she's smugly taunting them, but as Terrans continue to hold off the Zerg, drive her back, and the artifact increasingly gains power she starts to scream angrily.
 * All of the villains from the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games. The expressions on their faces as you gradually tear apart their arguments and prove their guilt as the true murderers is part of the reward, as is their final breakdown and subsequent Motive Rant. It's so universal, in fact, that when one character DOESN'T have a spectacular breakdown Phoenix lampshades the tropes and begins to question whether they were actually guilty. (Which they weren't, at least for that particular crime.)
 * None of them broke down quite as spectacularly as . Especially when you get to rub in his face
 * Truly, the most spectacular breakdown is . No one else's breakdown involves their hair turning into lightning. Followed by six screens of him laughing insanely and clapping wildly once he's finally defeated.
 * How about You get to choose
 * Double Subversion: When you back into the corner during the burglary trial in Case Two of Trials and Tribulations, he pulls off a total nervous breakdown, complete with lapse into Talkative Loon status. He's faking it; ., he repeats the breakdown word for word - and this time it's real.
 * Apollo Justice has another satisfying one, involving

"Vergil: Why isn't this working?!"
 * And the crowning moment of that particular breakdown came . It was completely unexpected, awesome, and probably the biggest "holy crap" moment in the entire game.
 * One of the most EXCESSIVE breakdowns is, and then, not in OR , no no no no ladies and gentletropers,  Ah jah. ... And the case goes further still, putting the character arc of a certain prosecutor to rest..
 * To be clear,  "The Reason You Suck" Speech
 * Winston Payne in his prime, though he's not exactly a villain. But he gets a mention here due to So much for being a "Rookie Killer"!
 * "My...hair...is...flying...AWAY!"
 * Happens in Ace Attorney: Investigations too, probably the best example being
 * On the other hand,  final breakdown is simply going to haunt your dreams for weeks to come.
 * The final boss of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 has a variation:
 * The Getaway: Charlie Jolson decides to pull a Taking You with Me after his plans are foiled and activates a bomb while he and all his enemies are still on board the ship the bomb's on. He then proceeds to sing Land of Hope and Glory, making no attempts to leave.
 * Dies Irae emotionally inverts this as the Big Bad Reinhard only gets closer to insane happiness As he is such a genius at combat, he has never felt how fun a difficult fight could be for him.
 * Final Fantasy has a long history of Villainous Breakdowns. Kefka Palazzo, for example, had his after having attained godhood, mercilessly tortured the world and its remaining inhabitants for a full year in an attempt to make them all realize the futility of Life, Dreams, and Hope. When the heroes finally confront him and proclaim that dreams will always be worth dreaming, life will always be treasured, and hope will always be there to keep them going, even through the hardest of times, he announces that he has just about had enough of their insolent persistance and intends to go for Apocalypse How, Class X and beyond.
 * Also, listen closely to Kefka when you actually fight his final form: He laughs even longer than usual (by about 5 seconds) after saying "Life... Dreams... Hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go...? Such meaningless things... I'll destroy them all!!"
 * In Final Fantasy VII, Professor Hojo starts off as a calm, composed and ruthless scientist. As the game goes on however, he gradually starts to begin more and more unhinged, ultimately culminating in
 * Each encounter with Seifer in Final Fantasy VIII shows him edging a few steps further along a downward spiral; he starts out proclaiming himself a heroic knight pursuing a romantic dream, and ends up, purely because by that point he felt like he'd gone too far to turn back. His slow breakdown is reflected visually by his long white coat, which starts off as a Badass Longcoat but is tattered and shredded by the last encounter. Unlike most villains, Seifer gets better; during the ending cutscene, Seifer's coat is back to the way it started out.
 * Final Fantasy IX's own White-Haired Pretty Boy Kuja spends a good portion of the final part of the game hopelessly insane with rage upon discovering he's mortal and will eventually die, and was just a temporary tool of The Man Behind the Man (and that .) Kuja ends up.
 * Final Fantasy XII has Vayne. After the rebel forces and his own brother Larsa beat him up, he goes One-Winged Angel and orders Larsa's bodyguard Gabranth to protect Larsa while he deals with the rebels: Gabranth decides to help the rebels defeat him instead. Beaten a second time, all Vayne has to say at this point is "BURN IN HELL, GABRANTH!" as he tries to strike him down. Vayne then limps away, bemoaning his plans and empire are crumbling around him.
 * Zexion of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, in both versions, though it's easier to see in the Remake, what with the better animation, new and modified scenes, and quite good voice acting..
 * Master Xenahort in Birth By Sleep is a completely composed Chessmaster who only raises his voice in joy at how well his plans are going and in battle is very laid back and not particularly aggressive.
 * Hades is known to snap if things don't go his way or when somebody insults him to his face. Usually, he often calms down immediately after his snappings, but in his final showdown against Sora he doesn't; when Sora, Donald and Goofy released Auron from Hades' mind control, and so saved Hercules' life, Hades went pissed but remained in control, but when his attempts to kill Hercules by throwing Meg into the River Styx failed, and the heroes laughing at Hercules' joke afterwerd, he began to screaming: "HOW DARE YOU GET A HAPPY ENDING?! HOW DARE YOU?!" and went ballistic on them by screaming and throwing fires everywhere.
 * Saix, while shown as a calm individual through most of the game, becomes utterly psychotic under the moon's influence late in the game, savagely attacking Sora and his allies during their final battle.
 * In Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, Kane is cool, calm, and absolutely collected throughout the entire game, mercilessly taunting GDI and generally seeming unflappable until . His response to this is to flip the fuck out and order the player to Nuke'Em. After he calms back down and resumes his usual magnificent bastardry.
 * Stalin in the first Red Alert game is like this as well, going from confident and snide to drunk and slightly unhinged, to breaking his subordinates' necks with his bare hands.
 * In Red Alert 3 the normally calm and collected Emperor Yoshiro of the Empire of the Rising Sun (who believes it is his divine destiny to rule the world) finds out that the Soviets went back in time to change their fate and that the Empire would never have existed if it wasn't for them. He then proceeds to throw a tantrum and loudly say that there is no divine destiny.
 * Anyone on Nod's side who isn't subtly assassinated gets one of these. Particular mention goes to Vega, Kilian, the Nod Warlord in Rio (real name unknown), Alexa, and CABAL (to a degree, he just went batshit crazy for no apparent reason in the last mission).
 * Director Boyle, the man in charge of GDI during Tiberium Wars, has one in one of the later missions. Normally he's a sly talking politician who gives off an air of both class and arrogance, but nearing the end, he meets with the commander secretly and discusses (read: rants) about how Granger is trying to take his political position.
 * Overlord Zenon in Disgaea 2. Zenon's starts with Etna thoroughly handing him his ass, and then peaks when
 * in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten starts off as a Magnificent Bastard, but his facade starts to crack Then he absolutely loses it
 * In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Brauner snaps when . "Snaps" is apropos, as part of the breakdown is that he presses his cane hard enough into the floor that it breaks.
 * And in Order of Ecclesia,  completely loses his shit after , starting the boss fight where he throws spells around randomly and chews away at the scenery with wild abandon.
 * in Aria of Sorrow is another possible example.
 * Myst IV: Revelation:
 * Saavedro of Myst III: Exile comes pre-broken due to being trapped on two small islands in Narayan and J'nanin for upwards of twenty years. He breaks again when and a third time when  "No! NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."
 * From End of Ages:
 * In Devil May Cry 3, through most of the game, Vergil acts as an Aloof Big Brother and Evil Twin to Dante, remaining menacing and softspoken even as he shoves a katana into Dante's gut. He then tries to open the portal to the Demon World with the Perfect Amulet and his own blood. When that fails, Vergil's composure cracks.
 * Saavedro of Myst III: Exile comes pre-broken due to being trapped on two small islands in Narayan and J'nanin for upwards of twenty years. He breaks again when and a third time when  "No! NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."
 * From End of Ages:
 * In Devil May Cry 3, through most of the game, Vergil acts as an Aloof Big Brother and Evil Twin to Dante, remaining menacing and softspoken even as he shoves a katana into Dante's gut. He then tries to open the portal to the Demon World with the Perfect Amulet and his own blood. When that fails, Vergil's composure cracks.

"This island is going to disappear...our world is going to disappear...our world...our...world..."
 * Another Capcom example in Resident Evil 5, when, causing him to lose control and composure. When the heroes stop his scheme at the last minute, he
 * breakdown arguably started when . He goes from to.
 * Ramon Salazar in Resident Evil 4. Though his calm and jovial demeanor is intimidating at first, eventually, after repeatedly being foiled in his attempts to kill Leon, he snaps when Leon saves himself from the pit trap in the throne room, and shrieks at one of his lackeys to "KILL!"
 * The Crusader games feature two different versions of this.
 * In No Remorse, the Silencer's continued reversals of most of The Mole's early successes results in The Mole challenging the Silencer, a bona fide Super Soldier, to single combat. (It doesn't matter that the deck is stacked, because anyone rational would have seen the character had just walked through ten levels of decks that aren't nearly as well-stacked.)
 * In No Regret, the Resistance strikes a major blow after the sixth mission. The LMC strike back in the next mission, but not as effectively as they'd hoped. Chairman Draygan decides to bring in an entire troop carrier of elite soldiers...and the Resistance shoots it out of the sky. He then tries to blow up the Lunar base, while he's on it. The Resistance stops the reactor overload, and he's told by the WEC's President that he's not getting off the moon until he gets the situation back under control...so he pulls all troops back to the headquarters, leaving the majority of the Lunar base under Rebel control, and starts fortifying. He then tries to take the Silencer on in single combat, which worked about as well for the bad guys as it does in the first game.
 * Ganondorf is surprisingly calm and calculating in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker; killing Link isn't even a priority for him anymore. This all changes when Ganondorf's response is to let out some insane Evil Laughter,  and proceeds to attack Link and Zelda.
 * Which is even more insane when you consider that
 * Zant goes through a rather sudden breakdown when you battle him in Twilight Princess, changing from a very calm Evil Overlord to a spastic, shrieking mess in the blink of an eye. He went through something similar in the game's backstory, after, which may explain the sudden breakdown when you face him; it was always there and he was just holding it in (which wouldn't be that hard to do, since everything was going his way and he had no need for a breakdown...until Link and Midna storm his palace and break down his front door, that is.)
 * His breakdown can be observed during the battle itself. His fighting style (when he's not mimicking other bosses) is already rather crude and childish, but it grows more and more frantic each time he gets hit. By the end of the fight, his Teleport Spam and sword swings are wildly unpredictable.
 * Link's Awakening features the Nightmare flipping out upon its destruction and the triggering of the Dream Apocalypse.
 * Link's Awakening features the Nightmare flipping out upon its destruction and the triggering of the Dream Apocalypse.

"Irenicus: I... I do not remember your love, . I've tried. I've tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory. But it is gone... a hollow, dead thing. For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory. And then nothing. The Seldarine took that from me, too. I look upon you and I feel nothing. I remember nothing but you turning your back on me, along with all the others. Once my thirst for power was everything. And now I hunger only for revenge. And... I... Will... HAVE IT!"
 * Skyward Sword could almost be called Villainous Breakdown: The Game. Watching Ghirahim slowly go from toying with Link to hating him utterly is something to behold.
 * Near the end of Baldur's Gate II the protagonist finally learns what happened to Big Bad Jon Irenicus and what his plan entails. After being foiled he comes face to face with his former lover and loses control for the first and only time in the entire game.

"No... no, stay back... what do you want?! Stay away from me! I said STAY AWAY! Don't touch me-- AH, YOU BIT ME, YOU LITTLE BASTARD, YOU AAAAAAARGH NOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH!!!"
 * Notably, in Irenicus' subsequent appearance in Hell itself, he is once again calm, if not altogether there.
 * For the first time, there's also a hing of uncertainty in his threats before the fight begins, given that by this point you've already thrashed him in battle a couple of times.
 * Sendai in Throne of Bhaal has a rather amusing sequence where she sends villain after villain after the protagonist, growing steadily more freaked out as no matter what she does she can't seem to stop the protagonist.
 * NSE Director Hanson has one at the end of Second Sight: normally a self-assured and frustratingly patient villain, he begins to lose his cool when John Vattic manages to infiltrate his underground base, to the point of snarling "I'm tired of picking through this crap!" when asked to review Project Zener's files again. This is taken a step further into near-megalomania while observing the battle between Vattic and base security, as he is clearly very excited about the demonstrated uses of psychic powers. However, the final stage of his breakdown is when he realised that Vattic and the other psychics have managed to kill every last soldier at his disposal, and when he discovers that while the window he's hiding behind is bullet and psi-proof, the frame supporting it isn't. In a matter of seconds, he goes from a smirking, self-satisfied manipulator to a frightened and helpless tourist surrounded by mutated psychic children who want to eat him alive. His last words say it all:


 * Done by Caulder/Stolos of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict, pleading for help as he dies in the destruction of the Owl's Nest. The NA Version makes the breakdown even more apparent:

"Erazor: Shahra, I know you're there! Please, stop him! We can start over, the two of us! I swear it! I swear it...! THE WORLD IS MINE! I CANNOT BE DENIED BY THAT FILTHY RAT! WHHHHHHYYYYY?!?"
 * In the ending of Sonic and the Secret Rings, Erazor Djinn taunts Sonic about his immortality and how he can come back again and again... Until Sonic pulls out his lamp, reversing Erazor's grin. After Erazor is forced to bring back Shahra and reverse the damage he's done via two wishes, Sonic makes the third wish, to seal him in his lamp forever. This is where Erazor REALLY breaks down:

"Eggman: "You. You... You!... Yooooouuuu!! YOU HORRID LITTLE HEDGEHOG!!!""
 * Sonic's wonderfully calm response was to correct Erazor that he was in fact a hedgehog, not a rat.
 * In Sonic Colors, Eggman,, suffers from one . It's notably the first time he's been reduced to complete incoherence in the games.

""I will do it myself, if I must... and you, you will be purified. It is the blood he is speaking through, the blood of all the pawns... IT ALL MUST BE PURIFIED!""
 * Ramirez, Skies of Arcadia's Dragon, really doesn't take it well when
 * Prince Lacroix of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines suffers breakdowns in four of the five available endings.
 * In the Anarch or Lone Wolf endings, after.
 * And in the Camarilla ending,.
 * And finally, if you side with the Kuei-Jin,
 * Andrei the Tzimisce suffers his own breakdown when the PC meets him for the second time, ranting and raving about Gehenna and accusing the PC of being a puppet, before transforming into a monstrous war-form and attacking in a frenzy.

"Cross: You had the most wanted street racer in Rockport in your hands... and he got. Away? (turns to his partner) I want everyone after this guy. Partner: ...everyone? Cross: EVERYONE!!!"
 * Oh man, Sakaki of ''.hack//G.U.' goes through this TWICE.
 * , but he had it coming.
 * Rugal Bernstein of The King of Fighters fame has a healthy helping of TWO of these, in 94 and 95. In 94, beat him and in a rage, he blows up his own aircraft carrier with himself on it. In 95, beat him and as the Orochi power consumes him, he screams in indigation at his fate (compounded by Iori telling him he wasn't of the bloodline so he couldn't control it).
 * "Even with my new power I lost. What? My body.....????? NO! To meet such a fate! But I'll be back... YOU JERKS!
 * Goenitz in 96 subverts this in almost all of the endings, even when he's beaten, he retains a Smug Snake demeanour. Its played straight in the Kyo/Iori/Chizuru ending, however, when Kyo and Iori deliver the coup de grace on him, he screams out, wondering why there's no wind blowing.
 * Then there's Clone Zero in 2000. Once beaten, he tries to kill everyone in his hideout with the Zero Cannon....,which isn't working. He's constantly asking why it won't work, all while hammering the activation button repeatedly.
 * Igniz in 2001 + defeat = Indignant rage + A God Am I = Colony Drop
 * And finally, Saiki in XIII. Once he's beaten whilst in control of Ash Crimson's body, he tells Ash they can start over and tells him to go through the gate of time...only for Ash to do absolutely nothing whilst Saiki is telling him to go through, degenerating into screaming at him and when the gate finally closes, Saiki's begging for his existence, crying that he doesn't want to die before he vanishes, a victim of a Time Paradox.
 * In the backstory of Diablo, King Leoric is possessed by Diablo and effectively starts having a Villainous Breakdown while he's still a good guy. He doesn't remain good for long when that happens. He starts getting increasingly paranoid and less sane, until finally when Diablo leaves him, unable to take over completely, he's a raving madman who has to be killed by his own most loyal knights.
 * in Fate/stay night. Going from zero self esteem up to being able to say A God Am I justifiably did give a major confidence boost. Yet,
 * At the end of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Cross, the cop who's been after you for the whole game, gets one (even though he's not really villainous). Bonus points for being a Shout-Out to Léon: The Professional:

"Cyrus: "Why should I run and hide from the world and have to wait quietly? My aim is to rid our world of the vague and incomplete thing we call spirit. By freeing ourselves of that, our world can be made complete. That is my justice! No one can interfere! I won't lose! Not to that shadowy Pokemon! Not in any worthless world!"
 * In fact, he then calls you in the middle of the ensuing chaos (you're being chased by every police unit in the city with no chance of proper escape) to rant about how he's going to take you down, and it's surprisingly not at all calm. In the sequel, Carbon, he ends up quiting the police department to become a bounty hunter, just so he can take you down.
 * In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Riddler goes from insulting you to accusing you of cheating to threatening to blow up Gotham as you solve more and more of his riddles. Also, the Scarecrow panics as Batman manages to shake off the effects of enough fear toxins to drive 10 men insane. The climax also stems from
 * As if the Soulstorm expansion to Dawn of War weren't horrible already, as the Chaos stronghold mission progresses, Carron, supposedly a powerful Chaos Lord of the Alpha Legion, actually breaks down crying as his shrines are destroyed and the enemy advances, culminating in him snivelling and whining some nonsense about flowers and fleeing the battle. Contrast with Eliphas, who remains serene and mocking throughout, Crull, who remains psychotically insane throughout, and Bale, who merely gets angry when.
 * Although there isn't much room for it in the Metroid series (outside of possibly Prime's Pirate logs), the 1994 Super Metroid comic features one of these later on, when Ridley is informed of Samus's progress. He actually leaves the planet and abandons his command, telling his informant that they should all just listen to Mother Brain instead.
 * Cyrus in Pokémon Platinum might apply, especially in the Distortion World. He spends half the game saying he's disregared all emotion, seeing them as weakness and useless. One can't blame him for losing it, being dragged into that world by Giratina.
 * There's this, which he says before he utterly demolishes your team in the Distorion World:

"Cyrus: "... Don't think that you can defeat or capture that Pokemon. This bizarre world is none other than that Pokemon itself! Capturing it or defeating it will make this world disappear! Very well! Do what you will! Rather than repairing the world, you're going to destroy it for me! Do it. You inherit my legacy.""
 * And when you do managed to defeat him, he has this to say.

"Cyrus: "That Pokemon... That shadowy Pokemon was captured/defeated?! Your doing so means that this irrational world will remain in existence! Does that make it impossible for me to create a new world? Even if I made new Red Chains, the new world can't be made! Why?! What compels you to protect the two worlds? Is spirit, a vague and incomplete thing, so important to you?! Silence! Enough of your blathering! That's how you justify spirit as something worthwhile?! That is merely humans hoping, deluding themselves that they are happy and safe! The emotions broiling inside me... Rage, hatred, frustration... These ugly emotions arise because of my own incomplete spirit!""
 * Plus this, once the player defeats/captures Giratina.

"Cyrus: "...Enough. We will never see eye to eye. This, I promise you. I will break the secrets of the world. With that knowledge, I will create my own complete and perfect world. One day, you will awaken to a world of my creation. A world without spirit.""
 * What makes his growing insanity even more apparent here is the fact he says 'Silence! Enough of your blathering'. Even if the hero wasn't always silent, he/she didn't say a thing.
 * And finally, we have this last bit of cold fury after the initial Motive Rant and Villainous Breakdown. It can't only be described as cold fury, as it implies that he is threatening the player character to A Fate Worse Than Death.


 * In Pokémon Black and White, undergoes one of these after the player   He gets even worse after you beat him.

"Overlord GAIA: "I... am the most powerful... the most powerful... the most powerful... the most powerful... the most powerful..." Akira: "Is it still capable of fighting?" Overlord GAIA: "I... am ultimate... I... ultimate... I... ultimate...""
 * Comrade Black from de Blob. He really starts to freak out near the game's end.
 * Overlord GAIA from Digimon World 2. He was able to (though not perfectly) form coherent sentences when he is first encountered. However, he seems to break down after Akira defeats his first form.

""I WON'T ACCEPT IT! INVINCIBLE! INVINCIBLE!""
 * Sly 2: Band of Thieves has a very nice example in the form of Even provides the quote for the page!
 * Erol started the second Jak and Daxter game as Baron Praxis' cruel and confident Dragon. However, his creepy obsession with Jak caused him to.
 * Yggdrasill in Tales of Symphonia combines this with Laughing Mad when tells him he was wrong to try to find her a new body, and that she was horrified and saddened by the things he'd done.
 * After spending two entire games as a masterful, unflappable manipulator, from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment starts to lose it after the party penetrates the numerous illusions and mind games he scatters throughout his lair. He's reduced to incoherent screaming by the end of his boss fight, still convinced he's unbeatable.

"Howe: It seems you have made something of yourself after all. Your father would be proud. I, on the other hand, want you dead...more than ever now."
 * in Persona 4, despite being both a Smug Snake and a Complete Monster, manages to keep his cool right up until the protagonists find him. Even then, he manages to remain composed enough to berate and mock them. However, when he is repeatedly called out for being nothing more than a criminal, he finally breaks down and starts cursing and yelling at the protagonists, telling them "[They] have no idea of what kind of shit I've had to go through!" And then he summons his persona and the boss fight begins.
 * in Dragon Age Origins slowly loses it throughout the game, but really flips out if . He calms down again   and is even willing to.
 * Arl Rendon Howe has a very subtle one (unusual for someone voiced by Tim Curry) if you had the Human Noble Origin. When he tries to taunt the Player Character about how he slaughtered his/her family and erased their names from history, the Human Noble can strike back saying that it has made him/her stronger and that he can't hurt him/her anymore. This pisses Howe off to say the least.

"Illusive Man: Strength for Cerberus is strength for every human. Cerberus is humanity! I should've known you'd choke on the hard decisions, too idealistic from the start! Illusive Man: Don't turn your back on me, Shepard! I made you! I brought you back from the dead!"
 * Knight-Commander Meredith in Dragon Age 2 has a moment of doubt near the end of the final battle in which she questions whether she is doing the right thing, but quickly shakes it off.
 * During the second chapter,
 * In the Templar path, snaps,  and indulges in a bout of maniacal laughter right before he  In the Mage path it's more of a Despair Event Horizon.
 * However,
 * In the freeware RPG Last Scenario, the Big Bad's whole motive is being powerful enough that he doesn't need to rely on other people, since he was helpless to protect his hometown from being destroyed. When the heroes defeat him for the first time, he takes it so badly that he loses consciousness for days. When he wakes up, he learns that he only managed to get away thanks to the Villainous Valor of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, Not helping, guys.
 * Actually, it's the second time you beat him that he has the breakdown. He takes it in stride the first time because he was holding back and didn't count it as a true defeat.
 * Speaking of the spoiler,  has a breakdown himself. While not as rabid as some other examples, he breaks his cool demeanour long enough to
 * The two villains from the Modern Warfare series have both done this. In the first game, Imran Zhakaev tried to start a global war, starting in the Middle East. After his son commits suicide after you have him cornered, he tries to NUKE THE EAST COAST as payback. In MW 2,
 * Colonol Volgin of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater becomes increasingly erratic and paranoid as Snake progresses. By the end of the game, he's degenerated into a full-blown ranting lunatic, driving the Shagohad through his subordinates and laughing maniacally.
 * It gets better: up to that point in the game, he'd occasionally mutter 'Kuwabara, kuwabara' to himself (being a superstitious chant to ward off lightning storms). Cut forward, and he laughs in the face of a brewing storm. Guess how he met his end?
 * Mass Effect: "I am, and this station is MINE!"  It also helps that  is a real Smug Snake (albeit an unusually competent one) up to that point.
 * At the end of Mass Effect 2, you have the option of majorly screwing the Illusive Man over. In the conversation with him afterwards he reveals his true colours and abandons any notions of being Affably Evil.

""Shepard....you have become an...annoyance.""
 * In the Paragon ending for the Overlord DLC,
 * One could argue that the Overlord DLC as a whole is an Antivillainous Breakdown
 * In Lair of the Shadow Broker,
 * In "Arrival," Harbinger, who is generally unflappable even when, actually becomes aggreived.
 * In "Arrival," Harbinger, who is generally unflappable even when, actually becomes aggreived.

""NO! I'm in control! No one's telling me what to do!""
 * Speaking of Arrival, starts panicking after Shepard wakes up, and only gets worse as Shep tears through the Project guards, eventually becoming a shrieking mess once Shep confronts her at the reactor core.
 * In the endgame of Mass Effect 3,

"Kael: "My demise accomplishes nothing! The master will have you! You will drown in your own blood! The world shall BURN!" *screams*"
 * How many characters from The Witcher? The Reverend, The Professor, and the hammiest of all, Jacques de Aldersberg.
 * World of Warcraft gives us a memorably subtle example in the form of Algalon The Raid Destroyer. Algalon, while not exactly a villain spends most of the fight explaining with a polite and calm voice why the planet must be destroyed. As for what happens when you defeat him... well, you may as well read it on the Quotes section. Let's just say the monotone flies out the cosmic window.
 * Kael'thas Sunstrider, who managed to hold onto his compousure through one defeat and disfigurement, finally snaps when you defeat him for the last time in the Magister's Terrace:

"Ragnaros: "No, nooooo... this was to be my hour of triumph...""
 * Ragnaros, the Elemental Lord of the Firelands, is quite confident that he'll be burning down all of Azeroth until a dozen or so plucky adventurers come in and start kicking him around.

"Deathwing: You have done NOTHING! I will tear your world APART!"
 * Deathwing the Destroyer has one of these at the end of Cataclysm, in that after having his protective armour torn off and shot through the chest with the Dragon Soul, followed by falling into the Maelstrom, he begins to break down and fall apart, sprouting molten tentacles from all over his dissolving body. Alongside this, he loses the last vestiges of sanity completely, devolving into a screaming, raving monstrosity attempting to destroy anything near him.

"Deathwing: I AM DEATHWING! THE DESTROYER! THE END OF ALL THINGS! INEVITABLE! INDOMINABLE! I! AM! THE CATACLYSM!"
 * After defeating all four tentacles...

"Kel'Thuzad: No!!! A curse upon you interlopers! The armies of the Lich King will hunt you down! You will not escape your fate..."
 * It happened to Deathwing a bit earlier, too. In the time between Day of the Dragon and Cataclym he went from a Magnificent Bastard who infiltrated kingdoms as a human noble to an Omnicidal Maniac, because of the Old Gods whispering at him.
 * Kel'thuzad has one

"Anub'Arak: This Cannot Be!...Look to your defences Death Knight! Fight as you have never fought before!"
 * In the Frozen Throne expansion for Warcraft III, Anub'arak has a little one when he and Arthas get confronted by the Forgotten One. He gets better, and then he and Arthas kill it:

": And it just repeats over and over again."
 * Arthas has a reverse breakdown at the end of Wrath of the Lich King when Frostmourne is shattered . He regains his sanity right before dying in the arms of his father's ghost.
 * Heavy Rain employs this trope if The Origami Killer flips
 * General Adams from Killzone has one when one of his lieutenants informs him that the player's squad has destroyed an important bridge, leveled a supply base and killed an entire platoon. He then introduces the lieutenants head to his desk. Repeatedly. And not very subtle.
 * In Fallout 3,

": Ah... I get it now! So that's what's going on! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
 * In Fallout: New Vegas, Benny is completely smooth and calm throughout most of the story (although his VA just makes him sound weirdly bored), until you He gets another if you
 * Similarly, if you completely deny Mr. House the Platinum Chip, he flies into a rage about how far he's come and he's not letting some random courier screw up his plans. He'll then tell you that you don't have to fear him, just the Securitrons in the room.
 * Father Elijah from the Dead Money questline also has a very impressive Villainous Breakdown if you
 * Sequences 8 and 9 of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood are essentially one long breakdown/HumiliationConga for Cesare Borgia. He loses all his supporters,.
 * Even his would-be Badass Boast of "If I want to live, I live. If I want to take, I take! If I want you to die... you DIIIIIIE!" counts, since it's declared when . Depending on how much side content the player has done before this point, you get to see more of just how badly things had fallen apart for the Borgia regime, yet Cesare is just finding this out now.
 * Rodrigo Borgia also has this after Ezio defeated him in a fist fight and the Vault had not opened for him. Rodrigo simply screams "THIS IS MY DESTINY!!! ME! I AM THE PROPHET!!!!" only to request that Ezio kill him when his so-called destiny is denied, but Ezio chooses instead to leave him alive with the knowledge that he was defeated and that his decade-long plot was for naught.
 * The first game had Sibrand, a Templar who'd become homicidally paranoid as his fellow Templars were felled by an Assassin's hand, particularly since.
 * This game also had Warren Vidic, starting out smug only to later rant when Assassins attempt a break-in of the Abstergo facility and accusing the player character Desmond of having orchestrated it, despite Desmond having been estranged from the Assassins for a decade.
 * In Rosenkreuzstilette gets a Villainous Breakdown in the form of laughing madly as she finally figures out where Spiritia got all the energy she destroyed her  with. While Lilli wonders what's wrong with her, this is also where Tia hits her with a You're Insane!: ", have you lost your mind!?"


 * In Rosenkreuzstilette Grollschert, the game's alternate mode, she also gets one when Grolla gets to confront her in battle again in the final stage. gets an Oh Crap look on her face and says "...Impossible. There's no way a simple commoner can set foot here..." Grolla asks her how special she thinks herself to be and that's where she finally reveals that . Grolla doesn't care if she's a god, a human, or even an insect - her blade is telling her to spill her blood anyway, and she's compelled to comply. She infers that she's always willing to rip her apart just the same.  doesn't take that too well. "You pompous maggot...! I shall show you the limits of a commoner!"
 * In Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, completely loses all composure at the very end of the game, after  Despite the insanity displayed by this character throughout the series, that is the only time we ever see such a complete loss of control.
 * , IT WAS YOOUUUUU!!")
 * ("Lenneth's spirit, ugh Lenneth's soul, IT ALL BELONGS TO MEEEE, NOW DIE, YOU DAMNED HUMAN!!")
 * Malefor from The Legend of Spyro has a rather subtle one at the end of Dawn Of The Dragon. His final confrontation with the heroes has him being Faux Affably Evil and toying with him, taking great joy out of manipulating their emotions with his Hannibal Lecture. But then, The result is Malefor getting enraged for the first and only time in the entire series. Throughout the rest he's been a calm, cunning, and extremely effective Chessmaster who is always in control. The first time it changes is the first time he loses his cool and gets angry.
 * Dragon Fable's Sepulchure has been quite the Obviously Evil Magnificent Bastard throughout the RPG, having everything go according to plan and never getting mad. Then comes the part where.

"Sepulchure: FOOL. YOU CANNOT KILL WHAT IS ALREADY UNDEAD. Drakath: My mistake... (flies at Sepulchure, forces his hand into his chest, and rips out his heart) Sepulchure: I AM DARKNESS! I AM DOOM... NO FORCE ON THIS WORLD CAN DESTROY WHAT I AM! LONG UN-LIVE THE SHADOWSCYTHE!!! (lashes out at Drakath)
 * And finally, it's possible that is what led to Sepulchure's grand finale courtesy of Drakath himself in Adventure Quest Worlds. Drakath has been consumed by the power of Chaos and has evolved from a completely incompetent half-wit into a badass, chaorrupted, incredibly powerful possible Magnificent Bastard, and uses the power of Chaos to greatly damage Sepulchure and cover his armor with signs of the Chaos infection. Sepulchure remarks that Drakath can't kill what's already undead, which tempts Drakath to outsmart him by ripping out his heart of darkness. Before Drakath kills him, Sepulchure gets in a Badass Boast and makes one last lash at Drakath - who crushes his heart, causing him to fall apart and finally destroys him in a massive explosion -- that to both the horror and despair of his daughter Gravelyn.
 * And finally, it's possible that is what led to Sepulchure's grand finale courtesy of Drakath himself in Adventure Quest Worlds. Drakath has been consumed by the power of Chaos and has evolved from a completely incompetent half-wit into a badass, chaorrupted, incredibly powerful possible Magnificent Bastard, and uses the power of Chaos to greatly damage Sepulchure and cover his armor with signs of the Chaos infection. Sepulchure remarks that Drakath can't kill what's already undead, which tempts Drakath to outsmart him by ripping out his heart of darkness. Before Drakath kills him, Sepulchure gets in a Badass Boast and makes one last lash at Drakath - who crushes his heart, causing him to fall apart and finally destroys him in a massive explosion -- that to both the horror and despair of his daughter Gravelyn.

Drakath: (crushes Sepulchure's heart and causes him to fall apart and explode)

Gravelyn: Father... NOOO!!!!!!!

Drakath: Sepulchure has a daughter? Amusing... (blasts down Shadowfall and sends it crashing into a nearby mountain range) The battle between Good and Evil is over. Now begins, the AGE OF CHAOS!"

"Kitsune: I can see that hero is more of a problem than I first thought. I cannot allow anything to interfere with my plans. The rift must be re-opened... but first I have to deal with this LEGENDARY DRAGON myself."
 * Vath, the 3rd lord of Chaos, is a Smug Snake and Complete Monster who enslaved the dwarves to have them forge enough Chaos Gemeralds to hatch the Rock Roc. Then when the hero points out that the dwarves were already freed by him/her and are winning the war against his drow soldiers, Vath loses his cool. Cue Red Eyes, Take Warning.
 * And after the battle, he's pissed at the hero for a reason why the dwarves chose him/her as their champion. Thinking he/she's overconfident, he stands back up, calls his Chaos Dragon Amulet, and angrily attempts to command Stalagbite, his dragon that he enslaved, to get to his feet and destroy him/her. The hero uses this as his/her chance to use Accidental Aiming Skills to throw the Legendary Sword of Dragon Control at his Chaos Dragon Amulet, destroying them to Vath's sudden despair. Stalagbite regains control of himself and proceeds to attack Vath. Cue Oh Crap from Vath himself.
 * Kitsune, the 4th lord of Chaos, counts as well. He's a Magnificent Bastard who's a Shout-Out to the Shredder, cares deeply for his Yokai brothers and sisters, is rarely cruel, and uses his Chaos powers to place Daisho under a spell and claim Yokai Island for the Yokai and restore it to its former secluded sanctuary. Then, the hero uses the Hanzamune Dragon Koi Blade to seal the rift pouring a waterfall of Yokai flooding the island out back up, which is something Kitsune didn't expect. He sees the hero as more of a problem than he first thought and decides to re-open the rift after dealing with the hero himself.

": Back...back with you!...Old...so old...(breaks down weeping)"
 * After the battle, the hero points out that the residents of the island still respect and honor the Yokai while Kitsune himself got greedy. Kitsune boasts that his Yokai brothers and sisters have always been superior to humans and starts running around invisible. The hero, while rapidly swinging the sword around, at one time accidentally tears open a rift in front of Kitsune to his horror, and he screams "No! Not like this! It can't end like this! I won't go back to the Yokai world!", lets loose a Big No, and gets sucked into the rift after which the hero closes it back up.
 * Ledgermayne, the seventh lord of Chaos, isn't too happy that the hero is interfering with its plans to sap all magic from Lore by destroying the Mana Golem. It attempts one last time to convince the hero to return to his/her home and trouble it no more and not attempt to fight it with the Supreme Arcane Staff with the shards of the Chaos Focus Gem that it shattered earlier accepted into it. The hero points out that Ledgermayne left a few shards of the gem behind and shows it the staff itself. Ledgermayne sees it as fascinating and realizes that the hero can't be dissuaded from the self-destructive course as it called it. It decides that the hero must be dealt with as the hero challenges it to a fight. After the fight, the hero prepares to use the staff to finish off Ledgermayne. When the staff doesn't work, Ledgermayne decides it's wasted its time on him/her and attempts to kill him/her with one last attack, but Drakath appears and focuses his Chaos powers into the staff, replacing the shattered gem allowing it to blast Ledgermayne. Ledgermayne lets out a Big No and becomes converted back into the raw mana from which it was made.
 * Though the "villain" status is somewhat questionable,  from Nie R goes from a calm Chessmaster to shrieking, batshit crazy when
 * The final boss of Trilby The Art of Theft. First he smugly taunts you about how he's going to torture you and how you'll beg to give to getting slightly scared after you hit the first wire to desperatly begging for you to stop and surrender to angrily yelling about how Trilby killed them all
 * Tobin from In the 1st Degree. If you, the prosecutor, did a very good job playing the game, then Tobin will called to the stand. You are trying to drive Tobin into this. There is some trial and error involved, but if you do it right, you get to watch Tobin completely lose it in front of everybody right there in the courtroom. When that happens, you know you have won.
 * in the Gears of War trilogy, Myrrah suffers this in the third installment. In the first two games she is a detatched, enigmatic figure. Always cool and collected even when Marcus  However in the third game she has lost her composure after, sneering and taunting Marcus at every opportunity.
 * By the end of the game, she goes from just taunting Marcus, to a
 * In Thief: Deadly Shadows, the Hag breaks down weeping and begging the Keepers surrounding her to stay away


 * In Star Fox 64, the alternative way to beating Mechbeth in Macbeth has the pilot desperately trying to stop the train. He loses it when he's about to slam right into the supply depot, causing the depot to explode along with the train, obviously killing him.