9 Video Game Heroes Who Turned Evil In The Sequel

one of the advantages of any long-running video game franchise is the player can grow attached to the characters over a whole bunch of time this level of investment is somewhat unique to gaming too as in each game we're then spending upwards of 10 20 hours or more with each set of characters and we really really care when a developer decides to change things up while a series will likely stick to a familiar formula for both story and gameplay some love to break the rules and toy with players emotions now and again beloved characters get killed off rip Eli bands and the heroes can really be put through the emotional ringer if a games creators really want to mess with you though they'll turn a hero into a villain if this switch is done right it can be unexpectedly emotional having to deal with a character you've grown to love suddenly turning to the dark side in gaming it's super easy to just not put the time in story wise for these things to feel all that believable but when it works that stuff becomes gaming Legend I'm Scott from whatculture.com and these online video game Heroes who turned evil in the sequel number 9. Jill Valentine Resident Evil 5. Jill Valentine is a beloved character in the Resident Evil Universe having been the lead character in many cases and being just an all-round cool lady when Resident Evil 5 tried to convince us that she died during a mission we didn't even see nobody was buying it but chances are we didn't expect her to be involved with weska's evil schemes either the twist is pretty shocking blood Capcom quickly undoes any lasting damage by revealing that she's been brainwashed and is under the control of a mechanical spider chest thing attached to her because video games after it's ripped off she returns to normal and redeems herself by helping put an end to weska once and for all sure she'll still have to live with the guilt of helping kill thousands of innocent people and she'll likely suffer post-traumatic stress for the rest of her life but she can just blame it on the spider thing that's what we would all do if we caused a whole bunch of Carnage trying to take one down number eight Salem army of two are the Devil's Cartel a bro-tastic series of co-op games that never really took off the way EA would like the way that makes them boatloads of money with microtransactions and games as a service the army of two titles can still be a blast with a willing Co-op partner in tow I mean come on there's a button that lets you air guitar together like freaking Wayne's World after clearing a room of goons what's not to love sadly the series stalled completely because of the last game The Devil's Cartel an unpolished and flat shooter that made the baffling decision to sideline franchise Stars Rios and Salem turning the latter into the main villain part of the charm of the first two titles was The meat-headed Chemistry Between the pair and while it could have been an interesting twist to see one turn bad these guys are mercenaries motivated solely by money after all Salem's leap to head bad dude felt like cheap shock value and fans of the series were less than impressed true he does have severe abandonment issues after his partner was forced to leave him behind during a mission but it's a Twist that never quite feels right it's too bad that they're probably won't ever be a way to redeem his character or the franchise overall number 7. kazuya Mishima Tekken 6. kazuya Mishima was introduced as the hero in the original Tekken having entered the tournaments to defeat his evil father heihachi heihachi also ran a powerful Corporation involved in various nasty Deeds so kazuya appeared totally justified in wanting to beat the living hell out of him which he then succeeded in doing throwing him into a volcano for good measure turned out in the sequel though that he made a deal with the devil to help secure this Victory and when he took over the corporation he was even more ruthless than his father heihachi returns to get revenge on his son eventually tossing his body into another volcano that should be the end of that but kazuya's body is retrieved in the fourth game and then the storyline becomes hopelessly Tangled but a whole bunch of fun it was a bit of a shock for series fans to realize the hero of the original was really a bad egg the whole time and while he's jumped from anti-hero to villain a few times and back again he's ultimately just as evil as big old heihachi I still love you kazuya you're still all right by me number six Robert Baxter Time Crisis 5. nobody played Time Crisis for the story or the character development at least they shouldn't but there's a certain goofy charm to all of them Richard Miller will forever be the protagonist fans love the most but Robert Baxter and Keith Martin oh God these names from Time Crisis 2 got a bunch of love as well until the fifth game this game initially makes you believe that Keith has turned but only to learn that Baxter has been the real traitor all along it's a pretty surprising twist to have a former hero Go full on evil he's also responsible for the death of Christy Ryan Keith's girlfriend and the agent that they were sent to rescue in the second title old Keith even got a douchey makeover for the fifth game in contrast to his clean-cut appearance in Time Crisis 2. it's not the most logical of twists and the Baxter in the fifth game feels like a completely different character but Namco does deserve some tiny amount of credit for at least trying to spice up the story side of things in this series number five Lucan Mortal Kombat 10. like Tekken on most other fighting game storylines the original string of Mortal Kombats were convoluted and ridiculous and something I take a bizarre pride in knowing like the back of my hat seriously if you ever want to pass some time just look up the history of the Kami dogu anyway with so many nouns terms and rules to adhere to a reboot was inevitable or Rich the financial reality of Midway going bankrupt being brought up by Warner Brothers and needing to reboot but either way it totally worked this new version of Mortal Kombat retold the story of the first three games in one Fell Swoop ending with Earth realm being merged with netherrealm most of the heroes dying and Lucan cursing Raiden with his dying breath about how he screwed everything up it was pretty good in business still this was a surprise to see Lou come back for the next game as an enemy but given his grievances with how things pan out we should cut him some slack lukang becomes Quan Chi's minion and causes the hero's considerable grief fighting Jax and Raiden during the story mode after Quan Chi meets his demise Lou becomes the new ruler of netherrealm setting him up as the main villain of any future games Liu Kang is my personal favorite character so it was pretty Bittersweet to see the moral compass of the series fall so far number four Gabriel Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2. Castlevania Lords of Shadow positioned itself as a reboot of the classic franchise where players took on the role of Gabriel Belmont while he took down some evil forces this including Satan so that you knew he was really badass The Twist the developers managed to hide throughout the game's development is that Gabriel eventually turns into Dracula the antagonist of the whole series Gabriel has a crisis of Faith throughout the story eventually cursing God and becoming the ultimate Evil after one heartbreak too many leading to him becoming a full-fledged vampire in the sequel It's a clever subversion of series formula and some purists were upset with the changes that the Lords of Shadow Saga made to the franchise overall nobody wanted QuickTime events infecting their Castlevania games with Gabriel though the developers managed to craft a likable hero whose tragic downfall actually feels organic and the twist feels more than earned number three Alex Mercer prototype 2. it would be a mistake to label Mercer as a quote-unquote good guy since he was ultimately the one responsible for unleashing the virus that all but destroyed New York in the first game plus he does eat random people to heal himself Mercer struggles with this monstrous nature though and he eventually stopped Manhattan from getting nuked so maybe he bounced things out somewhere between the first and second game he gave up on mankind though and Unleashed another outbreak in New York we'll call it sequelitis there is no Redemption for Alex this time around our new hero James Heller spends the whole game tracking him down to seek revenge for the death of his family Heller grows to be just as powerful as Mercer and finally kills and consumes him in the final battle it's doubtful that anyone will feel too sorry for Mercer's fate with the whole attempting to wipe out Humanity thing but he did make for a damn good first game honestly I would take a prototype 3 but I don't think that's ever going to happen number two big boss the Metal Gear Solid series anybody with a half decent knowledge of the knotted mythology of metal gear knew that naked snake would eventually become big boss but the prequel game Snake Eater Peace Walker and ground zeros let fans see how he changed from idealistic Soldier to the ultimate villain of the franchise now hideo Kojima doesn't always get that much credit for his writing abilities instead it tends to be more conceptual or holy crap he just designed a really cool action sequence and to be fair he comes up with a lot of nonsense still if there's one thing we can Champion it's a real sense of progression for the characters across all the games especially after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3 snakey death there is a palpable sense of loss as he gradually loses his faith in the government and becomes a gun for hire in a lot of ways big boss is a more interesting character than Solid Snake and even after he makes the leap to villain he remains sympathetic the final scene between him and snake in guns of the Patriots is one of the best narrative climaxes in all of gaming and boss realizing after everything that I can connection with his son is the most important thing he should have strived for is just phenomenal you know what I take it back Jima you might just be one of our absolute best and number one Kane Legacy of Kane Soul Reaver Kane is the anti-hero to end all anti-heroes he began Life as a nobleman who was viciously murdered by assassins before coming back as a vampire to seek his revenge slaying anybody who stood in his way and having some of the best damn voice acting in gaming history when searching for a cure he gradually adapts to this new existence and when he learns that there isn't a cure he just decides that staying as an evil vampire will do nicely Kane then becomes the main villain in the sequel Soul Reaver where new hero Raziel seeks revenge on Kane for ripping off his wings and generally being a terrible boss the rest of the series switches control between these two protagonists but even at his most despicable Kane remains insanely cool and somewhat understandable in the end Kane found some Redemption towards the end of last game to Defiance way back in 2003 sadly ending the series on an epic Cliffhanger that's yet to be resolved of all the franchises that I've ever talked about Legacy of Kane is the one that I want to come back more than ever although for now that is a bunch of Heroes that turned evil in the sequel let me know your favorites down in the comments below and please check out the walk culture gaming podcast for now I've been Scott from whatculture.com and I'll catch you soon foreign [Music]

Channel: WhatCulture Gaming

Views: 329,541

Keywords: Gaming, Games, Video Games, PS4, Xbox One, Next Gen, E3, ps5, playstation, xbox, sony, microsoft, nintendo, switch, series s, series x, summer game fest, future games show

Id: VtNeGQyJ2-M

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023