>>1024848 How does this go there?

>>1024842 Armstrong was a compelling villain and Metal gear rising was a fantastic game.

>>1024859 While bombastic and fun he had the critical flaw of being an hypocricatal cunt : >I want a world where everyone has the chance to prove his strenght >nevermind me being born with a silver spoon meaning I had the opportunity to get the best augments money can buy Jetstream Sam is much more compelling as this tragic person who lost his way As for the vilains that win I'd say Joseph Seed because his rantings got kinda proven right (also love the easter egg the nukes come from Far Cry 4's country). Also Pagan Min got proven right by the two rebels factions being as destructive as he was

Pagan Min was absolutely right about the golden path and if you just wait for him he'll help spread your mother's ashes. Explain the situation for you and then the two of you go full /k/ shooting guns.

Final Fantasy VI. Kefka didn't technically win in the end but he got to destroy the world.

>>1024930 ONLY YOU.

>>1024930 The way you obtain strength is of no consequence to a social Darwinist. Winning is all that matters. People rarely bring up that he had the brains of children scooped out.

>>1024966 because kid brain was a mean to an end

>>1024966 I mean he wasn't just scooping them out like a serial killer or something. MGR is a world quickly transitioning into the cyberpunk dystopia of Snatcher anyway. It's obviously not a good thing to do but Armstrong is trying to unfuck shit. Raiden taking Armstrong's ideology but not his methods is probably the best possible outcome.

Technically not a villain, but if you eat up the game's narrative then he is hyped up as the main bad. In the "evil path" (the Devil path) you find out he was the real hero the whole time and you are just a wild card. For context, the game has 4+1 endings. Ending 1 - Suicide: Your death means nothing, he successed and save billions by breaking the cirlce of jewish exploiting the people. Ending 2 - Assault with a ragtag band: Same as the first, but this time you cause enough damage to speed up the liberation from the jews. Ending 3 - Assault with desert right wingers: Same as ending 2. Ending 4 - Side with the japan jews: YOU DOOM US ALL! Ending +1 - Pull a kamikaze run, but didnt die during it: Same as ending 2.

>>1024930 Far Cry 5 being so retarded that they wrote the evil white supremacist racist sexist demon villain as actually correct all along is hilarious. And Far Cry 4's TRUE ending being "you wait 10 minutes at the start of the game for the bad guy to come back, whereupon he tells you the truth about everything, reveals your allies in the game are actually amoral demons who hate you and are only using you, and he genuinely wanted you to have closure for your family's death; now let's go fight some baddies together" is equally brilliant.

>FFXII Vayne (and Venat) had two goals: Unite Ivalice under his banner and free humanity from the Occuria's control. He successfully completes the latter, but is beaten by the party before he can accomplish the former. Larsa and Ashe unite the world in his stead. >FE6 & 7 A retroactive example with a more minor villain. All King Desmond wanted was for Zephiel to die and have Guinevere take the throne. Which is exactly what happened in FE6.

>>1024930 >Armstrong is hypocritical If you're born strong, you try to become stronger. Armstrong doesn't want the destruction of family values, and he's not anti-tech. He wants people who can go up to go up, by any means necessary. Jetstream Sam, Sundowner, and the rest were drawn in by his ideology, the promise of a world where they, products of the war economy, can thrive in society. It's the message that Armstrong is trying to convey to Jack. He can never be normal (Rosemary) or continue by the paths others have tread before him (Snake). He has to become his own man his own way and reach the top no matter what to reshape the world in the way he believes is right. >Joseph Seed >Pagan Min The OP says the villain "technically won". The villain canonically or semi-canonically won in your examples.

A more interesting question: in what games should the villain have won in the end?

>>1025136 Wolfenstein new blood

>>1024846 Now I could be missing something because it's been years. I think the lesson at the end of Skyrim is that Alduin and the end of the World are inevitable and can only be delayed for so long. The dragonborn suceeds, for now, but someday Alduin will get his way. A while back I saw someone somewhere say that Tamriel is a "dead world" limping on, in the sense that it should've ended many eras ago, but its end keeps being delayed repeatedly. I like that.

>>1025151 IIRC, it's worse than that. The entire metaphysics of Elder Scrolls is that it's a dream taking place in the godhead. Each kapla is like a REM cycle. By pushing off the end of the world far enough, you risk waking up the godhead and zeroing out all pasts and futures. There was more to it than that though - specifically about the Dragonborn, but I'll have to dig out my notes.

>>1025041 I did an extremely casual playthrough of cyberpunk without paying all that much attention to the story. Who exactly are the jews in this?

>>1025151 >Tamriel is a "dead world" limping on, in the sense that it should've ended many eras ago, but its end keeps being delayed repeatedly. Just like Dark Souls.

>>1025183 Corporations. Every single nation is owned by mega corps. Militech is technically the USA (or what is remained). Kang Tao is China. Arasaka is Japan. There are more but these three the main players in the video game. Japan currently trying to break free from Arasaka and Yorinobu trying to help them. If you side with Arasaka you can see in Yorinobu's room how Arasaka own half the EU, some cities in the US and other countries. I didnt played Phantom Liberty yet, but the president of the United State is literally the president of Militech (if memory serves right). Just image Google owning the White House and stop pretending how they didnt.

>>1025105 Although I'm not really sure that really worked out well for Ivalice in the end what with St. Ajora and the Lucavii and then what happens as a result.

>>1025191 Isn't in the tabletop you have a Soviet Union that "survived" into the 21st century, and is nominally still communist, but is also just owned by corporations. SovOil, I think?

>>1025105 Speaking of FF, Caius from FFXIII-2 won in pretty much everything he wanted

>>1025223 Yes. Its mentioned in like 3 side quests. If i remember correct they try to sabotage a deal with the chinks. The tabletop is old as fuck, so most of the corpo relations are reflect the 80's geopolitics.

>>1025041 Wish cyber man's sky actually explored the implications of copying information from someone's brain onto a computer instead of just treating it like some vodoo soul transfer.

>>1025359 Yeah, the bare minimum you get is some banter with Johnny how even he thinks he isnt the real Silverhand, but just some algorithm apeing the real thing. But again, you need to be in good term with him to open up (but not suck him up and his bullshit).

>>1025343 That's bad character design for an evil genius, because of his small and sloping cranium. It's proven geniuses tend to have a large and bulbous cranium.

>>1025359 Pirate Xenoblade Chronicles X if your computer isn't shit, it actually explores the implications of copying information from someone's brain onto a computer.

>>1025655 My best friend liked that game. He doesn't understand why it's the only one in the franchise that hasn't been remade for the Switch.

>>1025667 It's a likable game. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 haven't been remade, they first released on Switch. Only Xenoblade Chronicles got a Definitive Edition. Takahashi revealed why Xenoblade Chronicles X didn't get a Definitive Edition in an interview: that it's a massive game and recreating it would be really difficult because Monolith Soft just didn't have the money. The world of X was much more ambitious than Wii's Xenoblade Chronicles. However, financial data has since came out showing Monolith Soft's doubling of profits year-over-year. Since Takahashi wants to make one, a Definitive Edition for Xenoblade Chronicles X will probably come to Switch 2.

Let It Die, kind of. I mean, his original plan didn't go through, but he canceled it himself because he was having too much fun. It was a win-win for everyone.

Nyarlathotep pretty much won his bet in Innocent Sin, even though he cheated to do so, he did get mankind to destroy itself.

>>1024842 Shenmue.

>>1024842 Chrono Trigger's bad ending. >>1026623 Low-key might very well be the best villain in the history of video games because there is no way Shenmue as a franchise will ever be completed in our lifetimes or ever period. Lan Di not only won but its most likely he will never be defeated. Even Lavos can be defeated since the bad ending is only one of many different endings.

>>1029269 >Chrono Trigger's bad ending. Also if you want to be technical, Chrono Triggers good endings too, which is why you need Chrono Cross's good ending to finally fix it.

>>1029310 No, and fuck you.

>>1029311 No fuck you leatherman!

Divinity 2

>>1029370 That's only true if you don't play Flames of Vengeance, in which you kill Damian's waifu/groomer and The Divine goes free.

Isn't the ending of Arc the Lad 2 (which is a direct continuation of the first game to the point of having direct import of character stats) that the ancient evil reawaking still flooded and wrecked the world even if you killed it before it could do worse? I suppose that's more than a technical victory though. Golden Sun may not count because you wind up learning the bad guys really had the right idea and wind up finishing their plan for them. The final boss is spawned by some ancient protector construct just following its programming and isn't really a villain since it eventually comes to realize your method is the only way to actually save the world. Alex does get most of the power of the Golden Sun and (according to DD) isn't killed so he does count I guess. Valkyria Chronicles 3 is an interesting one if you've beaten the first game or played the second. You know from their introduction Calamity Raven will actually be preventing their main goal from happening if their plans succeed, and only by ensuring their plans fail do you see their goal achieved. It's an amusing little detail that makes them a more interesting antagonist than just a band of mercs.

>>1025191 Google does own the White House. https://www.wired.com/2015/08/googles-search-algorithm-steal-presidency/ >In other words: Google’s ranking algorithm for search results could accidentally steal the presidency. "We estimate, based on win margins in national elections around the world," says Robert Epstein, a psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and one of the study’s authors, "that Google could determine the outcome of upwards of 25 percent of all national elections."

>>1029441 >Valkyria Chronicles 3 is an interesting one if you've beaten the first game or played the second. You know from their introduction Calamity Raven will actually be preventing their main goal from happening if their plans succeed, and only by ensuring their plans fail do you see their goal achieved. It's an amusing little detail that makes them a more interesting antagonist than just a band of mercs. Can you expand on this? I've played all the VC games but I'm not following the logic.

>>1029384 THere's an expansion?!

FEAR kinda. End of the game she is set free. At the end of the first expansion she blows up the entire town and kills everyone. Sure you survive and kill paxton but that barely does anything in the long run. Even if you want to include the sequels she gives birth and lets pointman have the antichrist child. Unless paxton wins but then its just a different villain winning.

>>1029674 I still cant see Alma as a villain, shes a victim of armacham if anything.

>>1029619 Yeah, I'm not seeing it either. Wasn't Calamity Raven's goal to use a massive Ragnite or Valkyrian (whatever, "Atomic") missile and use that in order to force the Empire and Federation to carve out a Darcsen home state? The Darcsen never got their Israel, though they were more accepted in Gallia due to the Royal family being a bunch of filthy darkhairs.

>>1029647 Yes, it comes with the developer's cut or the dragon saga editions. It's better than the base game imo, just not as funny iirc.

>>1029680 >>1029619 >though they were more accepted in Gallia due to the Royal family being a bunch of filthy darkhairs That's it. Them succeeding at breaking Gallia for the Empire would actually have had the the opposite effect of their dream. The reveal the Valkyria were bad people and the dark hairs the fall guys they would have stopped if they succeeded wouldn't have hurt acceptance outside of Gallia either. > Wasn't Calamity Raven's goal to use a massive Ragnite or Valkyrian (whatever, "Atomic") missile and use that in order to force the Empire and Federation to carve out a Darcsen home state? I think the ending was them planning to actually destroy Europa, not hold it hostage. That's why you're trying to prevent the thing from starting.

>>1029269 Exactly. The mismanagement of the Shenmue games (made even worse by the fact that Yu Suzuki was exposed basically a hack/ideas guy with no actual skills) ensured that the story will never be concluded. The villain did what he wanted, and the protagonist didn't get his revenge at all. And the funniest thing is that nobody knows what the deal was to any of it, since the plot wasn't explained, nor expanded. So, the guy came in, killed the protagonist's father for some vague revenge reason, went back to China, and that is it. The end.

>>1029679 The ends don't justify the means in this case. She killed a ton of innocents, including her half sister and father to get her revenge, she's just a minor villain compared to Armachan.

>>1030690 Didn't mean to imply Harlan was innocent Alma just killed a ton of people in gruesome ways, many who did and many that did not. She's a supernatural monster created by a corporate monster.

>>1030690 Its not like she has much of a clue of whats going on other than being dead, looking for her baby, and REALLY Angry, also, Harlan had it coming, hes the worst of them all.

>>1030692 >>1030693 Just a raging bull that got out of it's pen really.

Alma also didn't technically win, she was technically justified in her psychotic reaction to her circumstances but she still lost.

>>1030737 >Got her revenge >Armachan in shambles and their secrets discovered F.E.A.R 2 didn't happen, fuck that shit

>>1030736 >>1030737 She just wanted a hug man...

The Drakons in Geneforge manage to secure an independent state and a radical reform of shaper law even in the hardline shaper ending.

>>1031051 >Spidweb games Yo this anon FUCKS

>>1029680 Who cares. Just gimme Silveria and her giant tits tbh.

>>1029759 I mean, I'm not going to take a firm stance on it because I can't read nip and I'm just relying on an unpolished translation - but the way I read it, Calamity Raven only had access to one or a few of those weapons. They couldn't take out the whole of Europa, though those weapons were what was used in the Great Calamity which had destroyed Europa before. I can't really see Gusurg betraying your unit to join Calamity Raven if their goal was just to fuck everything up out of petty revenge. He was fighting for an ideal. So yeah, I wouldn't count VC3 as the villain getting what they wanted. Dahou was more of a Malcom X type motivation of just fucking off and making a Darcsen ethnostate since nobody else wanted them around - and he needed the power of the Valkyrie WMDs to ensure nobody fucked with them - Outer Heaven style. The actual ending to VC is more of a MLK type vision where Darcsen are accepted as equals in existing societies without prejudice. That's two pretty different goals. Also, there was some VC3 content in one of the animated series, but I never watched it - so I might be missing context. >>1031108 Sylvaria's giant titties are definitely nice, but she's too much of an ice queen bitch for my taste. Lydia would be a much better fuck because she's got that playful, mischevious personality, and would probably be slightly sadistic in bed. Blondes have more fun

>>1031344 They only decided to activate it when backed into a corner. Their initial plan was a Mount and Blade tier raise money/troops>make nation with acquired resources (theoretically possible but very difficult and likely to get them invaded by everyone even if they managed to take land). They only got the doomsday weapon after killing the pope for the key.

>>1031361 Right, but they weren't an independent group trying to conquer their own bit of land amid the chaos. They were working with the Empire, because the Empire promised them a homeland amid the conquered territories - which they'd then ship their Darcsen citizens to. It wasn't until after Maximillian was defeated in VC1, and the seemingly inevitable defeat of the Empire, that Dahou decided to betray the pope and take drastic measures to ensure the outcome he had been fighting for. Lydia was basically their handler to make sure they stayed in line.

>>1031344 >blondes have more fun Nah they don't. Most of the natural not airhead oens though I'm talking about women hue don' have fun. This is coming from someone who's mother & sister were natural blondes. were they dye their hair

>>1024930 >>1025128 What I think is interesting about Armstrong is even if he's a hypocrite he LOVES people like Raiden and Sam, especially Raiden. People who are strong, and are using their strength to get what they want. He truly believes what hes saying but maybe, at least thematically, its because of that hypocrisy that he loses. Raiden at the end says "he has his own war to fight" so I think that maybe Raiden takes on some of that ideology and evolves it into something better.

>>1032122 Raiden agreed with alot of Armstrong's ideology but couldn't agree with the methodology used by Armstrong. At the end of the game Raiden decides to apply Armstrong's ideology but with his own methods instead.

Oh, the absolute irony of the story in this fucking game in comparison to the Marxist religion that Ubishit is currently peddling.

>>1033353 That a ruthless killer realizes that he and his fellows have been manipulated by a self-serving religious leader into taking a dangerous artifact from another self-serving religious leader? I don't get it.

>>1033485 One being a globalist secret order that now runs the world is where I think he was coming from.

>>1033506 The IRL order is hardly secret.

>>1033353 >>1033485 >>1033506 Also the game's overarching narrative is downright wild when you sit back and analyze everything: >Be a simple Templar doing your job >Keeping Pilgrims and their money safe >A Muslim leader comes to you with talks of peace >Introduces you to a magical device that completely refutes your faiths and beliefs <Come to the realization that everything you know and understand about the world is a lie <Realize that all the wars your people and the enemy are fighting and killing each other over are pointless >Proceed to spread this knowledge to other leaders with the inttention of creating peace >Even get several of the enemy leaders on your side as they come to the same realization >Begin to make peace in the Middle East a reality <Suddenly your closest allies begin to start dropping like flies >Investigate the murders and discover that said Muslim man who introduced you to this revelation is behind it >Realize that his goal was to keep strife and conflicting happening in the Middle East for his own personal gain >Watch as the cities and settlements that were becoming peaceful and hospitable through your actions slowly decend into dens of theives, drunkards, and the mentally ill <Come to the reasonable conclusion that you continue with your plans of peace in the Middle East because that's the only way to end this pointless war >Manage to bring together the Christian and Muslim leaders for talks >Even convince the assassin who killed your friends that he is the villain all along <Still killed and labelled as a traitor because you lost a fucking duel "decided" by a God who doesn't exist >Conclude that whenever you deal with Assassins, you lose each and every time >1000 years pass <"But the Templars were REAL the villains all along." The Templars didn't do a single damn thing wrong!

>>1033552 >Even convince the assassin who killed your friends that he is the villain all along When did that happen? The first game is the only one i played, it was about ten years ago, and I don't remember this.

>>1033549 Do rich people actually care or buy Forbes?

>>1033657 The entire mission to assassinate Robert de Sablé is Altair realizing that he's been used the entire game to clean up Al Mualim's crimes.

>>1033660 Naw, thats what servants are for. They just read them on private jets.

>>1033549 Yeah but how many people pay attention to the Davos confrence in Switzerland?

>>1033552 I should really replay it as when I first did I was 15 and I was too busy stabbing to actually pay attention to the game. All the same the templars went from promoting peace to enforcing it with some sort of Anunnaki slave sphere.