Villainous Breakdown/Video Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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 Frank Fontaine ("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 SHODAN goes from taunting and mocking the player to attempting in vain to bargain for her life.
    • 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."
    • Wheatley 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'?")
    • Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Bernkastel 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 fire Halo right in his face.
      • Even then, when the Flood are about to be eradicated, Gravemind suggests that all the Chief will succeed in is delaying the inevitable.
      • 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 343 Guilty Spark. While both Gravemind and Truth started yelling around, they didn't do anything physically toward the player. Spark 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 Sergeant Major Johnson 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 when you arrive at Cortez's chamber, he says that he's sick of putting up that ruse, since "Pirates don't moan!", and starts showing his real personality - which is about what you would expect from a pirate king and hasn't been broken down at all.
  • Arcturus Mengsk in StarCraft II after Raynor broadcasts his controversial recordings to the Dominion

Mengsk: YOU jackals think you can come here and question ME?

    • 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 Von Karma. Especially when you get to rub in his face the fact that he never would have been caught for the original DL-6 murder if he hadn't been obsessed with getting revenge on Edgeworth by manipulating Yanni Yogi into the present day murder, therefore drawing attention to the original case and allowing Phoenix to solve it. Oh, and it's hard not to enjoy watching him ram his head into the wall.
    • Truly, the most spectacular breakdown is Damon Gant's. 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 Matt Engarde? You get to choose which verdict he receives, Guilty or Not Guilty -- but he's screwed either way, because you've just turned the assassin he hired against him. If you choose Not Guilty, Matt BEGS to go to prison. (Choosing "Guilty" eventually leads to a similar reaction.) Oh, and he claws his eyes out.
    • Double Subversion: When you back Luke Atmey 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; the burglary charges are his alibi for the murder he committed that night. Once you catch Mr. Atmey as the murderer in the case's second trial, however, he repeats the breakdown word for word - and this time it's real.
    • Apollo Justice has another satisfying one, involving Kristoph Gavin. He taunts you about your lack of decisive evidence, but when he's told that a jury is deciding his fate, he completely loses it and starts raving about how their inferior intellects can't decide his fate. Then you get to vote on whether or not the defendant is guilty or not. You later find out he was pulled from the courtroom, laughing like a madman.

"The record will show that when the verdict was announced, special witness Kristoph Gavin... laughed. A laugh louder than any ever heard before... or since. A laugh that echoed in the halls of justice, lingering for what seemed like hours."

      • And the crowning moment of that particular breakdown came when Apollo mentioned that Phoenix Wright planned the whole thing. His hair goes straight up, and he writhes about, screaming Wright's name. It was completely unexpected, awesome, and probably the biggest "holy crap" moment in the entire game.
    • One of the most EXCESSIVE breakdowns is Dahlia Hawhorne, and then, not in the first case where you essentially nail the final nail into her coffin OR the fourth case, chronologically the first where's she's up for potential murder, but she manages to slither away because of Walter "Terry" Fawles' suicide... IN COURT, no no no no ladies and gentletropers, case five in which she reveals herself to be channelled by Maya Fey, and Phoenix, Godot and Mia show her that for a Big Bad she's pretty pathetic, because every single last one murder she attempted to further herself in life eventually backfired in this massive Gambit Pileup, and that she never actually managed to kill anybody worthwhile personally.. the bitch FREAKS and gets sent to Hell screaming, with the Fey Magatama logo rising up in those Japanese style spirit flame things. Ah jah. ... And the case goes further still, putting the character arc of a certain prosecutor to rest..
    • Winston Payne in his prime, though he's not exactly a villain. But he gets a mention here due to his rapid hair loss after being defeated by Mia. So much for being a "Rookie Killer"!
    • Happens in Ace Attorney: Investigations too, probably the best example being Ambassador Alba seemingly losing entire portions of his face. Ick.
      • That's not the half of it. The already-old man ages about 20 years in a matter of seconds.
    • On the other hand, Shih-na's final breakdown is simply going to haunt your dreams for weeks to come.
    • The final boss of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 has a variation: instead of breaking down directly, he has a comparatively calm Motive Rant followed by a pathetic plea of "I didn't understand anything!" As this takes place at a circus, doing so sets off the nearby animals, who all line up and have a go at him.
  • 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 the hero, Ren, gets closer to beating him. 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 him going completely insane, willingly attempting to destroy Midgar to help Sephiroth, and goes so far as to inject himself with Jenova cells, fighting the party as a pseudo-Eldritch Abomination, all while giggling madly.
    • And as Dirge of Cerberus shows, death did not help his mental state. If anything, it made him worse.
  • 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 trying to sacrifice his former girlfriend to an insane sorceress in order to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, 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 the protagonist Zidane is essentially a far more advanced model of what he was supposed to be.) Kuja ends up blowing up one world and very nearly blows up another in quick succession.
  • 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. The deceptive Zexion, who hates getting his hands dirty, has been spending the game flinging his comrades before him to take the fall. He slowly grows more insecure as everyone else dies, and he completely loses it as Riku sees through his tricks and defeats him in combat. Being that he was rather something of a Smug Snake, this was a very satisfying lead-in to his demise.
    • 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. Until he finally takes Terra's body as his own and seconds later is attacked by a newly formed Lingering Sentiment. This is the first time in the game he's truly pissed "Even though you've been reduced to memories YOU STILL WISH TO DEFY ME!" and the resulting boss fight has him constantly pounding away at you in your face with no mercy as opposed to casually hanging back and flinging spells as before.
      • Though Xehanort's fury might not be so much an issue of Sanity Slippage as wanting to finish Terra once and for all. He was seeking to possess Terra before and probably consciously held back his more damaging attacks. Also, after being old for a while, he may have wanted to test out his new youth powers.
    • 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 Killian Qatar allies with GDI. His response to this is to flip the fuck out and order the player to Nuke'Em. After Killian's subsequent execution 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.
    • 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.
  • Both the fake and real Overlord Zenon in Disgaea 2. Fake Zenon's starts with Etna thoroughly handing him his ass, and then peaks when Axel broadcasts his location onto everyone in the multiverse, sending nearly every single Overlord to his front door, ready to rip him in two. As for the real Zenon, hers begins when Adell makes it clear that he has no intention of fighting her.
    • Nemo in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten starts off as a Magnificent Bastard, but his facade starts to crack after the Kazamatsuri family settle their differences (mostly) in a heartwarming scene. Then he absolutely loses it at the end of chapter 9, after his plan to destroy the Earth by crashing the moon into it fails, signaled by him going Laughing Mad.
  • In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Brauner snaps when Jonathan reveals to him that his daughters aren't really his. "Snaps" is apropos, as part of the breakdown is that he presses his cane hard enough into the floor that it breaks.
  • Myst IV: Revelation: "No, you fool! My performance was perfect!"
    • 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 the player manages to deactivate the outer ice shield that's isolated him from the rest of Narayan, allowing him to see that at least one city has survived and possibly his family with them, but he can't get to them without the player's help and a third time when the player stabs him in the back and traps him between the two ice shields. "No! NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."
    • From End of Ages: "You ... IDIOT! Moronic lump of filth! You are nothing! Puh! AHHHHHH! I needed the power! I needed it! D'ni needed ME! You threw it away to this witch and her legion of scum, the demon slaves! You have released the slaves as masters! You've turned the small to great! Curse the Maker..."
  • 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 since Lady's blood is also needed, something Arkham left out on purpose, Vergil's composure cracks.

Vergil: Why isn't this working?!

    • Likewise Arkham after hes defeated by Dante and Virgil and left severely wounded. He comes across his daughter, Lady, and rants about he should have the power of a demon and that what Sparda did was no different from his actions (namely sacrificing a human woman. However, Sparda did it out of reluctance since he loved his sacrifice, and she went with it willingly and it was for the good of mankind. Arkham did it purely for his own selfish ends). He begs Lady to help him and she responds much to his shock by putting a bullet in his head.
  • Another Capcom example in Resident Evil 5, when Wesker's overconfidence allows him to get injected with an overdose of the virus he uses to control his superhuman abilities, causing him to lose control and composure. When the heroes stop his scheme at the last minute, he exposes himself to the Ouroboros virus, mutating into a menace full of one-hit kills and screaming "CHRIS!" with vindictive rage. As Wesker had been a Magnificent Bastard for something like nine games to this point, it was quite a remarkable breakdown.
    • Wesker's breakdown arguably started when he found out he was just a manufactured sock puppet of Ozwell Spencer. He goes from being an enigmatic Man Behind the Man subtly aiming for power in the shadows to declaring himself to be a god and inflicting a bio-organic weapon on the entire world.
    • 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 the King of Hyrule snatches the completed Triforce from right in front of him and uses it to sink Hyrule once again. Ganondorf's response is to let out some insane Evil Laughter, afterwards mocking the King's wish to "give Zelda and Link a new world", and proceeds to attack Link and Zelda.
    • Which is even more insane when you consider that without the Triforce of Power (which left him to form the Triforce), there is no doubt he is going to die. If Ganondorf had defeated Link and Zelda in the final battle, then he would have drowned with Hyrule.
    • 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 being denied the throne to the Twili Kingdom, 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.)
    • Link's Awakening features the Nightmare flipping out upon its destruction and the triggering of the Dream Apocalypse.

This island is going to disappear...our world is going to disappear...our world...our...world...

  • 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.

Irenicus: I... I do not remember your love, Ellesime. 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!

    • 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:

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!!!

  • 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:

Caulder: N-no... NO! What have you done?! I'm...I'm dying... I'm DYING! I have killed so many clones, but I am different! I am unique! I am ALIVE! Help me! Please! Someone! Help me! I don't want...to die...

  • 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:

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?!?

    • Sonic's wonderfully calm response was to correct Erazor that he was in fact a hedgehog, not a rat.
    • In Sonic Colors, Eggman, who for the first time in the 3D series is the Final Boss, suffers from one right before the Final Color Blaster. It's notably the first time he's been reduced to complete incoherence in the games.

Eggman: "You. You... You!... Yooooouuuu!! YOU HORRID LITTLE HEDGEHOG!!!"

  • Ramirez, Skies of Arcadia's Dragon, really doesn't take it well when his boss, Lord Galcian, bites it.
  • Prince Lacroix of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines suffers breakdowns in four of the five available endings.
    • In the Anarch or Lone Wolf endings, after being slashed half to death by the PC and left for dead in his penthouse suite, he finally opens the Ankaran Sarcophagus with the key that the PC was kind enough to leave him. However, when the lid sides back, he discovers that the Sarcophagus has been filled with explosives, all set to detonate in ten seconds; Lacroix has just enough time to let out a long drawn-out burst of maniacal laughter before he vanishes in a fireball.
    • And in the Camarilla ending, the PC refuses to give him the key; after Lacroix's attempts at dominating you fail, he falls to his knees, begging and sobbing for you to give him the key, raving about the imminent destruction of all vampires in Los Angeles. He eventually falls silent when your new Camarilla allies arrive to arrest him.
    • And finally, if you side with the Kuei-Jin, he completely snaps, ranting and raving at the PC long enough to keep him from opening the Ankaran Sarcophagus before your new "allies" arrive and give both exactly what they deserve.
    • 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.

"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!"

  • Oh man, Sakaki of .hack//G.U.' goes through this TWICE.
    • I guess doesn't help that he's really a kid pumped full of AIDA, 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.
  • Sakura 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, when Tohsaka without having the power of the Grail to draw on still effortlessly matches her, she freaks even more than she was before. In a manner of minutes while Tohsaka casually blasts all the shadow giants she makes one by one, she's reduced to an incoherent screaming wreck about how it was pure chance that made it her that lived among the Matou and not Tohsaka. Her will to fight is seconds from vanishing utterly when Tohsaka eggs her back into fighting spirit. She gets better.
  • 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:

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!!!

    • 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 Joker throwing a tantrum and accusing Batman of 'spoiling my fun!' when Batman refuses to succumb to the Titan strain that Joker has infected him with and become a monster.
  • 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 Sindri betrays him.
  • 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: "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!

    • And when you do managed to defeat him, he has this to say.

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."

    • Plus this, once the player defeats/captures Giratina.

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!"

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."

    • In Pokémon Black and White, Ghetsis undergoes one of these after the player has caught the legend and defeated N - Ghetsis's very manipulative plan all hinged on N beating the player, and making everyone give up their Pokemon as N was raised by him to believe that they should be separate. The truth is, Ghetsis just manipulated him all his life, just so he could be the only person to have Pokemon and be able to rule Unova. He calls N an inhuman monster, which is called out by Alder and Cheren, who noted his hypocrisy. He gets even worse after you beat him.

Ghetsis: "I AM PERFECTION!!!"

  • 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.

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..."

  • Sly 2: Band of Thieves has a very nice example in the form of constable Neyla. All through the game she plays everybody off of everybody else in order to get what she wants. The more you foil her plans and gather the Clockwerk parts for yourself the more short tempered and less composed she becomes until the grand finale she's screaming with rage, swearing to hunt you down and kill you in your sleep. 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 snap and drive into a shipment of Dark Eco in an attempt to kill Jak. He then comes back as an Omnicidal Maniac bent on destroying the world.
  • Mithos Yggdrasill in Tales of Symphonia combines this with Laughing Mad when his older sister Martel 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, Nyarlathotep 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.

"I WON'T ACCEPT IT! INVINCIBLE! INVINCIBLE!"

  • Adachi 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.
  • Teryn Loghain in Dragon Age Origins slowly loses it throughout the game, but really flips out if you turn the Landsmeet against him. He calms down again after you kick his ass and is even willing to accept execution since he now believes that the Grey Warden really can defeat the Blight.

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.

  • 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, Mother Petrice (the Chantry priest who believes the ends justify the means to get rid of the qunari) tries to set you up for killing the viscount's son. When you kill the fanatics she sics on you, she brings in the Revered Mother and tries to spin it to make you a monster. The Revered Mother will have none of her shit, quietly calls her out, and tells Hawke to fetch a guard. The look on her face as she realizes that the Chantry as a whole does not support any actions necessary to oust the qunari is wonderful. Then a qunari kills her. And everything goes to hell.
    • In the Templar path, Orsino snaps, sacrifices his fellow mages to use their corpses for Blood Magic and indulges in a bout of maniacal laughter right before he uses the bodies to turn himself into a Harvester golem. In the Mage path it's more of a Despair Event Horizon.
      • However, Orsino's moment of mania can be ruined if Bethany is in the Circle and Hawke convinces her that Orsino supported the man who killed their mother.
  • 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, and one of them was forced to perform a Heroic Sacrifice. 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, Helio has a breakdown himself. While not as rabid as some other examples, he breaks his cool demeanour long enough to scream his head off at Ethan and inject himself with Psycho Serum during the aforementioned (Villainous?)Heroic Sacrifice.
  • 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, Shepherd's plan goes perfectly until Soap and Price escape the trap he laid for them at the boneyard. Cooperating with Makarov, the two find Shepherd's hideout and go on a rampage through it, thwarting every attempt made to stop them, Shepherd finally resorting to BLOWING UP THE BASE with his soldiers still inside in order to kill them.
  • 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 Sovereign, and this station is MINE!" This is the machine-Cthulhu who gave Shepard and those with him/her that drippingly contemptuous and arrogant lecture earlier about the inevitability of its plan succeeding. Sovereign is, at this point, on the cusp of victory when Shepard denies it access to that final, endgame-starting console. Three measly, puny, chatty organics have thrown the Spanner in the Works of the millennia-in-the-making plan where nearly everything before worked as expected. Sovereign is furious. It also helps that Sovereign 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.

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!

    • In the Paragon ending for the Overlord DLC, Doctor Archer desperately and frantically tries to justify putting his brother through the titular horrific experiment. When Shepard angrily rebukes it and states that he/she intends to take David away so he can get treatment, Archer finally snaps and pulls a gun. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
      • The real kicker is Dr. Archer has been arguing that David should remain with him so Archer can look after him. What does he shout when Shepard tells him he's taking him away to be treated? "No! Stop! He's too valuable!"
      • One could argue that the Overlord DLC as a whole is an Antivillainous Breakdown on the part of David.
    • In Lair of the Shadow Broker, the Shadow Broker has an excellent breakdown when Liara taunts him with information about his past despite him being unknown to everyone else in the galaxy. He picks up his desk and throws it at Liara, Shepard, and whoever else is there with them.
    • In "Arrival," Harbinger, who is generally unflappable even when you're about to blow the Collector Base, actually becomes aggreived.

"Shepard....you have become an...annoyance."

    • Speaking of Arrival, Amanda Kenson 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, the Illusive Man has one after Shepard and Anderson make him realize that he's indoctrinated. He goes from calmly trying to persuade Shepard of the virtues of controlling the Reapers to...

"NO! I'm in control! No one's telling me what to do!"

  • 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:

Kael: "My demise accomplishes nothing! The master will have you! You will drown in your own blood! The world shall BURN!" *screams*

    • 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.

Ragnaros: "No, nooooo... this was to be my hour of triumph..."

    • 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: You have done NOTHING! I will tear your world APART!

    • After defeating all four tentacles...

Deathwing: I AM DEATHWING! THE DESTROYER! THE END OF ALL THINGS! INEVITABLE! INDOMINABLE! I! AM! THE CATACLYSM!

Kel'Thuzad: No!!! A curse upon you interlopers! The armies of the Lich King will hunt you down! You will not escape your fate...

    • 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:

Anub'Arak: This Cannot Be!...Look to your defences Death Knight! Fight as you have never fought before!

    • Arthas has a reverse breakdown at the end of Wrath of the Lich King when Frostmourne is shattered and his own soul is released along with all of the others the blade stole. He regains his sanity right before dying in the arms of his father's ghost.
  • Heavy Rain employs this trope if Ethan doesn't show up at the warehouse of the final chapter, but Madison and Norman do, either together or separately. The Origami Killer flips since such a scenario goes against all of his plans.
  • 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, Should you not have John Henry Eden self destruct, taking the whole base with him, then, during the very last quest, if you tune in on the Enclave radio station, the "stress" (If A.I.'s can get stressed that is.) of the Brotherhood of Steel having just launched an assault to retake Project Purty from the Enclave with the Brotherhood's most elite squad, as well as a giant practically indestructible robot, has caused the normally calm, almost Affably Evil "President of the Enclave, President of the United States, President of your hearts" into an even more sinister voice. Just read the transcript.

Eden: We stand now, at the precipice. A great nation once more threatens to crumble, to topple into the sea of lawlessness and despair that have ruled us all for over two hundred years. In short, my dearest America, we. Are. At. War. Even as I speak these words, fearless Enclave soldiers are fortifying their positions at the great water purifier. Bracing for an inevitable assault. The Brotherhood of Steel, in their arrogance, has claimed Project Purity as their own. They would steal the Enclave’s work. Steal America’s water. It’s only a matter of time before the traitors march on the purifier, and attempt to take it by force. Let them come. Wave upon traitorous wave will crash upon the Enclave’s walls. The Brotherhood of Steel will fail. All those who oppose the Enclave will fail. I am President John Henry Eden, and this is my pledge: No one, NO ONE WILL TAKE THIS GREAT NATION AWAY FROM ME! *Eerily calm* God Bless the Enclave. God Bless America. And it just repeats over and over again.

  • 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 kill his four bodyguards at The Tops, resulting in a priceless Oh Crap and his fleeing in desperation. He gets another if you have him crucified by the Legion.
    • 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. Also, if you bust into the control room and confront the real Mr. House, all he can do is rage helplessly and ask you why you would destroy Vegas' last hope.
    • Father Elijah from the Dead Money questline also has a very impressive Villainous Breakdown if you seal him in the vault forever.
  • Sequences 8 and 9 of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood are essentially one long breakdown/HumiliationConga for Cesare Borgia. He loses all his supporters, kills his father, the Pope, and is betrayed by his sister, causing him to lose the Apple of Eden to Ezio Auditore, the mastermind behind his family's decline. Then the remnants of his army are destroyed with the Apple-wielding Ezio and his fellow Assassins, while the Cardinals - whose appointments Cesare had paid for - turn their backs on him, backing a family rival to succeed his father as Pope. He's finally driven out of Rome by Ezio's supporters and arrested by a general whose family he'd pressed into service, then dragged away by his former elites -- they're the Papal Guards after all. He escaped a year later and made an attempt at a comeback in Spain, under the command of a relative in France, but Ezio followed him -- thanks to the Apple -- and fights through his entire army alone, then manages to finally defeat Cesare in personal combat. At this point, all he can do is rant and rave about how no man can kill him, so Ezio leaves him in the hands of Fate...by dropping him off the castle wall.
    • 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 Lucrezia reveals that their father had poisoned him, this being after his father talked down to him for starting the whole mess and denied him access to the Apple of Eden or funding to continue his military campaign in Romagna. 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 he'd learned from the Apple/Piece of Eden that there was no afterlife.
      • 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 Iris gets a Villainous Breakdown in the form of laughing madly as she finally figures out where Spiritia got all the energy she destroyed her Iris Machine with. While Lilli wonders what's wrong with her, this is also where Tia hits her with a You're Insane!: "Iris, have you lost your mind!?"

Iris: Ah... I get it now! So that's what's going on! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    • 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. Iris 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 she's a reincarnation of Rosenkreuz, blessed with absolute power and unparalelled brains, claiming to be a child of God himself. 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. Iris doesn't take that too well. "You pompous maggot...! I shall show you the limits of a commoner!"
  • In Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, Lezard completely loses all composure at the very end of the game, after Alicia absorbs the three valkyrie spirits and becomes the Valkyrie herself, taking Lenneth's spirit beyond his reach. Despite the insanity displayed by this character throughout the series, that is the only time we ever see such a complete loss of control.
    • ("The Lenneth Valkyrie I sought is no more and it was you who killed her, 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, Cynder manages to break free of his control thanks to The Power of Love she has for Spyro. 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 Drakath becomes The Starscream to him by piercing right through his body with his own Necrotic Blade of Doom. Then he starts absorbing the power of the Ultimate Orb and becomes very happy about the magnificence of using the Ultimate Orb's power to grow more powerful. Sepulchure, on the other hand, is not happy about that and starts losing his cool and getting extremely furious, boasting that he will watch Drakath's body burn and then spit on his ashes. Drakath calls to Fluffy and Sepulchure screams as his fortress becomes destroyed in a massive explosion after which Fluffy burns it down.

Drakath: I will not be denied my kingdom again.
Sepulchure: Cough. You think this will stop me, fool?! I will not be killed by the likes of you, worm...
Drakath: Perhaps it won't stop you, but it gives me a head start. (starts absorbing energy from the Ultimate Orb) It-- It's magnificent!
Sepulchure: Your living body cannot handle the power! I will watch you burn and then spit on your ashes!
Drakath: Fluffy! To me!
Sepulchure: NO! AARRGGHHHH! (a blast explodes and his castle is destroyed)

    • And with that, Drakath becomes a dragon, intent to rightfully claim his throne. Sepulchure is extremely pissed off at Drakath for going Starscream on him and attempts to attack him, but due to having absorbed the Ultimate Orb and fused with Fluffy to become the dragon he became, Drakath is proving too powerful for both him and the hero until they team up as the hero summons his/her dragon. Just when we think it's over after Sepulchure deals a near-fatal blow to Drakath, the Mysterious Stranger shows up and reveals that Sepulchure was just an Unwitting Pawn before pulling off a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on the Doomknight himself, just before bounding himself to Drakath's body as part of his plan to rid the world of what he calls "the corruption of light". As Sepulchure faints from the stranger's attack, he says something about his lost love, Lynaria, whom he was trying to bring back with Doom weapons.
    • And finally, it's possible that the breakdown he had in Dragon Fable 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.

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)

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!

    • 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.

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.

      • 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, Popola from NieR goes from a calm Chessmaster to shrieking, batshit crazy when her sister dies.
  • 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 xj unit 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 Trilby escapes
  • 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 storms her throne room. However in the third game she has lost her composure after being pushed to the brink of extinction, sneering and taunting Marcus at every opportunity.
  • In Thief: Deadly Shadows, the Hag breaks down weeping and begging the Keepers surrounding her to stay away after Garrett activates the Final Glyph and destroys all Glyph magic, reducing her to a powerless old woman.

Gamall: Back...back with you!...Old...so old...(breaks down weeping)

  • 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.
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