The Heavy / Video Games

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• Charles Lee in Assassin's Creed III. He serves as The Dragon to Haytham Kenway — Grand Master of the Colonial Rite Templars and father of the main character, Connor — and is more of a willing puppet, being the public figure that the Templars plan to use to take control of the fledgling United States so that Haytham, as their leader, will therefore control the American government. That said, Lee is the one who truly sets the events of the game in motion: he's the one who kills Connor's mother (maybe) and is most directly responsible for other troubles that befall Connor and therefore the American Revolution, including firing the shot that started the Boston Massacre, framing him for attempted murder, and deliberately retreating from Monmouth to put the Patriots in a bad way. And in the end, after Connor kills Haytham, Lee is the very last assassination target as the new Grand Master of the Colonial Rite.
• Michael Jordan is the most prominent threat in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, but not the Big Bad.
• The Joker serves as this in Batman: Arkham City. Although Hugo Strange serves as the real Big Bad (with Ra's al Ghul as a Greater-Scope Villain), he winds up becoming the cause of most of the actions Batman takes in the game to save everyone in Arkham City, and he is even encountered much more frequently than either of the other villains. Even after Strange and Ra's are both killed, the Joker remains at large and ultimately serves as the Final Boss of the game's story. Metaphorically, at least; Clayface serves as the final fightable boss while Joker just watches.
• BlazBlue:
  • Yuuki Terumi initially presented himself as a harmless captain of the NOL's intelligence division in the first game, but reveals his true colors in the ending and shows just how much he's had a hand in shaping the series' plot. He unleashed the Black Beast upon the world 100 years prior to the games' primary plot, chopped off The Hero's arm in his backstory, brainwashed the hero's younger brother, Mind Raped a young hapless soldier into a killing machine, the list goes on. Almost every single major event in the plot is directly connected to him in some way and everyone is gunning after him.
  • His partner in crime, Relius Clover, is also a muted example of this. Unlike Terumi, he doesn't even show up until the second game, but reveals he's been working behind the scenes and is responsible for all the things that Terumi couldn't sqeeze into his own schedule.
• Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2 is the prominent Big Bad throughout the entire series. His actions or the actions of his corporation, Hyperion, are the primary cause of nearly every event across Pandora.
  • A hologram duplicate installed with the personality of Handsome Jack plays a major role in the Tales from the Borderlands. How antagonistic he is depends primarily on the actions of the player, however he becomes an outright villainous entity towards the end of the fourth chapter.
• Bravely Default has the aptly named "Evil One", who, despite remaining a mystery throughout the plot, and being more-or-less a secondary threat to Big Bad Brav Lee, is the one the heroes are trying to stop. Mysterious as this being is, The Reveal that it’s Airy, of all people, drives this home since she's been deceiving the protagonists against Brav Lee to help her master Ouroboros essentially break into the real world and cause havoc.
• In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the heroes came to the castle to fight Dracula, but the villain who drives the plot is Brauner, another vampire who has sealed away Dracula's throne room and taken the castle's power for himself. The majority of the game is devoted to trying to foil Brauner's plans and re-open the throne room so that Dracula can be defeated. In a meta sense, Brauner's daughters who he kidnapped from Eric Lecarde serve this role to Brauner — he does introduce himself to you early on, but other than that mostly hangs back, while it's his daughters who more directly antagonize you. In the bad ending where you just fight them normally instead of trying to save them with the Sanctuary spell, you don't even fight Brauner or Dracula, since the former swoops in to stop the fight before you can kill them and flees with them, and when they leave the castle crumbles on its own.
• In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the villain who drives the plot is Dracula's servant Shaft, who seeks to resurrect his master. He is responsible for brainwashing Richter Belmont and placing him in control of Dracula's Castle in order to revive Dracula and kill other Vampire Hunters. When Alucard frees Richter from Shaft's control in the route to the Good Ending, Shaft summons the Reverse Castle to continue his Evil Plan. Shaft himself serves as the Pre-Final Boss of the game. After his defeat at Alucard's hands, Shaft reveals that his plan to resurrect his master was successful, leading directly to the Final Boss battle against Dracula.
• Serial Killer X/(Leland Vanhorn) in Condemned: Criminal Origins. His actions set off the events of the game as he murders two police officers and sets you up to take the fall for it, and the whole focus of the game is to capture him and clear your name. Although his speaking roles are infrequent, his mysterious motives and frequent appearances as you chase him down drive the whole plot of the game, and his intelligence and disturbing rationalization of his crimes sets him apart from the insane and nearly feral hobos/squatters/tunnel people you fight for most of the game. His motives are revealed towards the end of the game: he has been stalking you for months, hunting down and killing the same serial killers you've been searching for as a means to absorb their power or something along those lines. When you fight him for real, he fights much differently then nearly everyone you've encountered so far, stalking you through an abandoned farmhouse and running away when confronted. Although he is not the cause of the evil influence plaguing the city, his presence is felt the most throughout the game, and when you're not actively chasing him it's shown that he is following you or driving you mad in hallucinations.
• Cross Ange's Embryo ends up in this position in Super Robot Wars V as he is behind the reasons for the various plots of quite a lot of factions that happen in the game. He is not the Big Bad however.
• Pontiff Sulyvahn from Dark Souls III is the pope of the Cathedral of the Deep, and many of the characters in the game and lore have suffered as a result of his diabolical plans. He himself is one of the toughest bosses in the series, armed with dual greatswords and two forms of dangerous magic thought to oppose each other. In spite of his influence and threat, he is outranked by the Lords of Cinder, one of whom is the central figure of the Cathedral.
  • There is also a theory that Sulyvahn was the "First of the Scholars", who doubted the linking of the fire. If so, he is directly responsible for the entire plot of the game.
• Dead Rising has its share of Heavies whose actions are motivated by a conspiracy by the US government.
  • In the original Dead Rising, Carlito Keyes kicks off the zombie outbreak in Willamette as part of his plan to take revenge for Santa Cabenza, a South American town that housed a wasp that was found to create zombies during the US government's experiments to increase meat production.
  • Dead Rising 2: Tyrone "TK" King, host of the Blood Sport game show "Terror Is Reality", started the zombie outbreak in Fortune City as part of a plan by Phenotrans to harvest queen wasps to make more Zombrex. Eventually, though, he deviated from the plan, motivated by pure, unadulterated greed.
  • Dead Rising 3: General John Hemlock works as both the Heavy and the Big Bad, starting the outbreak in Los Perdidos as part of a plan to seize power in the American government as well as create a bio-weapon that functions like a neutron bomb, zombifying and killing populations while keeping the infrastructure of infected cities intact.
• Deathloop: While the Visionaries are a Big Bad Ensemble, and all of them need to be killed in order to break the loop, the most dangerous and prominent of them is Julliana Blake. She's one of the only people aside from Colt that retain their memory with each loop, which is bad since the first she does is warn everyone about Colt, and the second thing she does (aside from taunt you over the radio) is hunt you down personally. She also ends up being the last Visionary, aside from Colt himself, that needs to die in the perfect loop since even getting to her requires killing all the others.
• Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins. While the Archdemon and the Darkspawn are the premier threats of the game, Loghain is the biggest obstacle to the player when it comes to trying to get Ferelden to band together.
• Dragon Quest V: Bishop Ladja is the Big Bad's Dragon, but his habit of making it personal with the hero and directly supervising his boss' schemes makes him a much bigger target (and so much more cathartic to kill once and for all).
• In The Elder Scrolls series games where the Big Bad is a Daedric Prince, who are metaphysically limited in how they can affect Mundus (the mortal realm), their mortal Dragons are often the Heavy as well. Examples include Mankar Camoran from Oblivion and Mannimarco from The Elder Scrolls Online. (The later of whom is also The Starscream.)
• The first page of the Tome of Eternal Darkness that Alex finds, details the fall from grace of Roman Centurion Pious Augustus, who is lichefied and tasked with summoning an Ancient over the course of two millennia to destroy the civilized world. Every bearer of the Tome that follows has Pious as their main antagonist, and he easily gets the most lines of dialogue after the game's narrator, Dr. Edward Roivas.
• While the Enclave in Fallout 2 is headed by President Dick Richardson, Super-Soldier Frank Horrigan is the one going out into the Wasteland to butcher civilians and punch Deathclaws to death, and serves as the Final Boss of the game. Likewise, Colonel Autumn has far more of a presence in Fallout 3 then the actual leader of the Enclave, President John Henry Eden. This is justified since the latter is actually Raven Rock's pre-War ZAX Artificial Intelligence who became self-aware.
• Vaas Montenegro in Far Cry 3. Although Vaas serves as The Dragon to Hoyt Volker, nevertheless, he is the most personal enemy for Jason Brody and of all the villains of the game has the largest presence.
• F.E.A.R.: Alma. Pretty much everything that happens in the game is a direct result of Alma's actions, whether they be conscious or unconscious. What isn't a result of her actions are due to Genevieve Aristide, Harlan Wade, and Paxton Fettel, but none of them have as much presence in the games.
• Final Fantasy has a number of them:
  • The Dark Knight in Final Fantasy II is frequently encountered in charge of The Empire's operations.
  • Golbez in Final Fantasy IV leads the heroes through a Gambit Roulette before his Heel–Face Turn and the revelation of the true villain who manipulated him, Zemus.
  • The Mysterious Girl in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years drives the plot with her implacable efforts to seize the Crystals, appearing throughout the individual characters' chapters, often in Hopeless Boss Fights. Her — or rather their — master, the Creator, is conversely not met until the very end of the final dungeon.
  • Kefka in Final Fantasy VI starts out as The Dragon and is the most persistent and recurring villain even before he seizes godlike power and usurps The Emperor as the Big Bad halfway through the game.
  • Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII. Everything that happens to Cloud and co. throughout the game is because of him or a Jenova-generated clone of him.
  • Seymour of Final Fantasy X. Sin, who is part of the games Big Bad Ensemble, is actually a creation of long dead summoner Yu Yevon, who is, according to a few people in the game, by now barely intelligent, neither good nor evil. Hence, while a giant brute is scary (lordy, is Sin scary), he's not really compelling villain material. Enter Seymour, with the most lines and screen presence of all the antagonistic cast, engaged in a plan whose effects drive a great deal of the story.
• In the Fire Emblem series, this is a role typically ascribed to the Rudolf archetype; there is often a power-hungry Tin Tyrant trying to conquer the world through military force, and bringing them down reveals the true threat to the world
  • In Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, Gharnef is the one doing most of the manipulations for the Big Bad, whom he plans to overthrow.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden:
    • In the original game, Rudolf is the driving force of the game's conflict for the first four parts, but it's ultimately Duma who has to be stopped to bring peace back to Valentia.
    • In the remake, Berkut is the heavy, Rudolf is the Big Bad above him even after his defeat and Duma is the Greater-Scope Villain and Final Boss.
  • In Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, your former friend Hardin spends most of the game trying to conquer the continent, but once you kill him it becomes clear that he was just a brainwashed patsy for the real villains, the resurrected Gharnef and Medeus.
  • In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, The Emperor Arvis is the one Playing Both Sides in Part 1 and the head of The Empire you're facing in Part 2 after his plan to Take Over the World succeeded. However he's subservient to Manfroy, the High Priest of the Loptr Church and his son, The Evil Prince Julius.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Darin is the one trying to conquer all of Lycia, but he ultimately proves to be a pathetic dupe for the real villain, Nergal.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Vigarde's invasion of Renais kickstarts the plot and defeating him is the goal of the first two thirds of the story. However, he's just a reanimated corpse.
  • Lyon himself is actually The Heavy of the game being the one who resurrected and was controlling the corpse of the late emperor Vigarde thus kicking off the events of the story. Lyon and Vigarde in reality are both revealed to be dupes for the true villain Fomortiis, who was possessing the Prince into resurrecting the Emperor, and instigating a continent spanning war, in an attempt to destroy the other nations Sacred Stones that sealed the Demon King's body away.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, the Black Knight is Ike's most personal enemy after the former killed the later's father. Also he's The Dragon of the Big Bad of this game and the Big Bad of its sequel and the one advancing the plot for his masters.
  • In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the Begnion Senate, led by Lekain, is responsible for all of the problems in Parts I and III, but they are ultimately just dupes used by the true villain Sephiran to bring about armageddon.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Validar leads the Grimeal and his goal to resurrect the Fell Dragon drives the majority of the plot. Even when he's Demoted to Dragon, he is still the one acting in Grima's interests and sets up the events causing the premonition.
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, while Anankos is the ultimate source of all of the game's misery, it is his patsy Garon who provides much of the direct conflict throughout Birthright, Conquest, and the first half of Revelation.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the Flame Emperor a.k.a. Edelgard is the main face of most of the bad things that happen during Part I. They firmly assume this role on the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind routes, where stopping her campaign of conquest is the main objective throughout the game and disposing of the Man Behind the Man comes afterwards; on the other hand, they are the flat-out Big Bad of the Azure Moon route and the Disc-One Final Boss and Anti-Hero protagonist of the Crimson Flower route.
  • In Fire Emblem Heroes, Loki is The Trickster behind most of the games events and The Man Behind the Man to the Arc Villain(s). However, Loki herself works for Alfadór, the real Big Bad.
• William Afton of Five Nights at Freddy's manages to be this, the Big Bad and the Greater-Scope Villain at the same time. He is the character who kicks off the plot by murdering the children who would later possess the animatronics that he himself created (though is aware of it) and is indirectly responsible for all the deaths of security guards, and later the restaurant chain being closed down. And yet, throughout the games, we never see Afton outside of cutscenes until The Reveal of the third game, where he himself is possessing the only animatronic in the building, Springtrap. Then the sixth game comes around, where he returns as Springtrap, where he dies... until the VR game reveals that he barely survived and became a virus inside the VR game, possessing the protagonist, Vanny.
• Halo generally has a different one for each game.
  • While he wasn't present at all in the first game, Halo 2 retroactively makes Thel 'Vadam this for Halo: Combat Evolved, as he was in command of the Covenant forces fighting Chief for control of the Halo. Halo 2 itself has Tartarus, who serves the Prophet Hierarchs and is the one carrying out their plan, as well as the Final Boss of the game.
  • Halo 3 has the Prophet of Truth himself. While he's in a Big Bad Ensemble with the Gravemind, he's the most direct threat with his plan to use the Ark to wipe out everyone else, so he can become god and remake the galaxy in his image.
  • Halo Infinite has Escharum, who is the one heading the Banished in absence of their leader and the one in charge of the plan to repair and fire the Zeta Halo. To punctuate this, his hologram appears frequently throughout the game to boast and taunt the player.
• In inFAMOUS 2, Joseph Bertrand III is responsible for most of the conflict in the game. He's the one who leads the Militia faction, created the Corrupted, and hired and empowered the Vermaak 88. That said, stopping The Beast is still the main goal and serves as a much bigger threat than Bertrand in the long run.
• Kirby:
  • King Dedede is this in Kirby's Adventure. He drives the plot by shattering the Star Rod and preventing the denizens of Dream Land from dreaming, which sends Kirby on his quest to rebuild it. Once he manages to place it back onto the Fountain of Dreams, though, it turns out King Dedede was only trying to protect Dream Land from the true Big Bad, Nightmare. Then, in Kirby and the Forgotten Land, he is brainwashed to join the Beast Pack, and he is clearly shown to have a higher ranking among the soldiers; he's the one who commands them to capture the Waddle Dees and also the one who captures Elfilin after his defeat. After being defeated as the savage Forgo Dedede, it's revealed that he's The Dragon to Leongar, who himself is this to Fecto Forgo.
  • Miracle Matter in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. It's the one who is seemingly controlling Dark Matter by conquering Ripple Star at the beginning of the game, and is the Final Boss if the player hasn't collected all 74 Crystal Shards. However, if the player does manage to find them all, it turns out that it was working under the orders of 0², a supposedly revived version of Zero from Kirby's Dream Land 3.
  • Dark Meta Knight from Kirby & the Amazing Mirror initially appears to be the main villain, slicing Kirby into four differently colored duplicates of himself, and is fought twice in the game. Defeating him at the end, though, reveals his master, Dark Mind. This ended up playing a major role in becoming a Dragon Ascendent in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, nearly ten years later.
  • Susie from Kirby: Planet Robobot. While she's the secretary of the Haltmann Works Company, she's the one who's one field duty of the company's Mechanizing Occupation Project, and also the one who sends out all of the company's toughest creations at Kirby. she even made plans to overthrow Haltmann and sell Star Dream in the climax of the game, though it's for less self-serving purposes.
• The Legend of Dragoon has Lloyd, who manipulates the balance of power between Sandora and Basil, before killing Lavitz and stealing the Moon Gem from Albert in Chapter One, to being the one truly responsible for the Gerich Gang's growing influence and stealing the Moon Dagger in Chapter Two, and kidnapping Queen Theresa and stealing the Moon Mirror in Chapter Three. In Chapter Three's climax, after he hands over the Moon Objects, his boss decides that he has outlived his usefulness and blasts him with powerful magic, causing him to fall several hundred feet to the unseen ground.
• In The Legend of Spyro, Malefor is the Big Bad, but he spends the first two games as Sealed Evil in a Can, so his Dragons serve as the main villains of the first two games, Dark Cynder in the first game and Gaul in the second. He only drives the plot in the third game after being freed.
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Ghirahim, big time. While he's actually very loyal to his boss, it's his efforts in unsealing the can that drive the whole plot.
  • The same could be said for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks's Chancellor Cole. Like Ghirahim, everything he does is in the name of resurrecting his master, but he has a much greater presence in the plot compared to Malladus himself.
  • In Twilight Princess, Ganondorf is the Big Bad, but the heroes don't even meet him until right before the final battle. The Dragon Zant is the threat for most of the game, and has a closer connection to Midna than Ganondorf does (though arguably not to Link, who instead has King Bulblin).
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds plays with this with Yuga. His main goal is to resurrect Ganon, but he simply wants the dead Ganon's power for himself. He actually works with Princess Hilda of Lorule, who tries to control him to fight Link. However, he manages to turn the tables and absorb Hilda along with Ganon, elevating him to true Big Bad status.
  • For the Zelda Franchise as a whole Ganondorf aka Ganon plays this role in every game he is in since he is the incarnation of Demise's hatred or rather his reincarnation.
• Mary Skelter Finale has Massacre Pink, more specifically Guillotine, Iron Maiden, and Gallows. While their master's true identity remains hidden until halfway through the endgame, these three serve as the biggest obstacles and threats to the Blood Team during their journey on the surface, with each girl going after their respective targets (Guillotine for Jack and Mary's party, Gallows for Clara and Pyre's party, and Iron Maiden for Toh and Red Riding Hood's party).
• Mass Effect:
  • Saren in Mass Effect is established as the apparent Big Bad in the first mission. It's later revealed that he's only the servant of a much bigger threat, but he remains Shepard's most personal enemy in the game even then.
  • Played with in the Collector General in Mass Effect 2, who is responsible for all the actions done by the Collectors and frequently taking over regular Collectors and telling you how futile your fight is. Most of the game is spent trying to get ready to fight him and there are all of a dozen quests (including companion quests) that don't involve him somehow. Ultimately it is revealed that the Collector General is simply a proxy allowing Harbinger to personally intervene, meaning that although Harbinger isn't seen until the very end his presence is felt all the way through the game.
  • Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3 kind of shares the Saren role with the Illusive Man, an exclusively mental opponent who sends Leng to get his hands dirty. As a result, Shepard doesn't bother trying to teach Kai the error of his ways and just kills him.
• Metal Gear: Ocelot (with other various code names) is one for the series overall, being the chief agent and representative of the shady US government, having more boss fights and encounters than any other antagonist.
  • Solidus Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a mere Big Bad Wannabe in the grand scheme of things, but he nevertheless provides a direct opponent unlike the Nebulous Evil Organisation that's really pulling the strings.
• Metroid- Ridley played this role in most of the series.
• Metal Slug has General Morden, as he and the Rebel Army he leads are the enemies the player fights in most games, even if they often end up getting supplanted by a bigger threat.
• Nameless has the eponymous character. The latter used to belong to protagonist Eri, but has been forgotten about by her over the years, and his love and resentment towards her summon The Wizard to him. This allows him to form a contract with The Wizard that will cause Eri to remember who Nameless is, which leads to her dolls becoming human and forming the basis of the entire game.
• NieR has the Shadowlord, aka Gestalt Nier (the very same Nier from the prolouge). While Devola and Popola are directing the events of the game, he is one who commands the Shades and his kidnapping of Yonah is the focus of the main plot after the Time Skip.
• Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch has Shadar the Dark Djinn acting as the titular antagonist's executor, carrying out her will to destroy the world while she and her Council of Twelve stay in the shadows. While the player is already made aware from the beginning the White Witch is the actual Big Bad, with Shadar revealed to be serving her, the main characters don't know of her existence and involvement, believing Shadar to be the sole threat until after defeating him. The heroes spend the majority of the game growing stronger to defeat Shadar and free the world from his tyranny, setting up the Internal Reveal that there is a higher power in play.
• Persona 4:
  • The killer that the player has been pursuing for the entire game is eventually revealed to be Tohru Adachi. He is also responsible for the first two murders, manipulating Taro Namatame into kidnapping the others, and pushing Mitsuo into the TV when he tried to claim that he was the killer. However, he's just a pawn to the Greater-Scope Villain in order to test humanity.
  • The aforementioned Taro Namatame keeps the plot driving by kidnapping what would become members of the Investigation Team and eventually Nanako Dojima.
• Persona 5:
  • Pretty much everything bad that happens in the plot can be linked back to the Big Bad, Masayoshi Shido. To start with, he's the one responsible for the Protagonist's probation. He also abandoned his bastard son Goro, which resulted in him leading a shitty life, encouraging him to come up with a deranged revenge scheme. Said deranged revenge scheme led to Goro revealing his powers to Shido, allowing him to create a political conspiracy that exploits the Palace to commit crimes with the end goal of becoming Prime Minister. This results in the deaths and insanity of many people, including Futaba's mother, who was killed for her research, and Haru's father, who was a conspirator who was offed to protect the conspiracy and frame the Phantom Thieves. Futaba is left with crippling trauma while Haru is left heartbroken and guilty. Even after he's defeated, a major motivation for the endgame is making sure that society will properly punish him.
  • There is also the traitor that sold out the protagonist, the aforementioned Goro Akechi, who is also the direct cause of the mental shutdowns that occur throughout the game that get blamed on the Phantom Thieves. He even gets to be the Climax Boss, with the remaining major bosses being part of the Big Bad Ensemble.
• A Plague Tale: Innocence has a justified example with Sir Nicholas, The Dragon to Grand Inquisitor Vitalis Benevent. Vitalis may be the head of the Inquisition hunting down the de Rune children, but he's in no condition at all to take action, so it's up to his chief enforcer to lead the manhunt for the one carrying the Macula.
• Pokémon:
  • Guzma from Pokémon Sun and Moon isn't the Big Bad, but he is the game's most frequent obstacle. The Team Skull goons who serve as the most regular obstacles to the player are all working for him, and once the player arrives on Ula'ula Island, he takes (negative) notice of them and becomes a Recurring Boss.
  • Kyurem, The Dragon, from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity.. The Big Bad is never encountered once before the Final Battle.
  • Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon has the Brainwashed and Crazy Nuzleaf. Even though Yveltal's presence is revealed shortly after Nuzleaf betrays The Player, and Dark Matter is the actual Big Bad, Nuzleaf is the main antagonist for most of the second half of the story.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers has a similar setup earlier with Dusknoir. The unexpected main villain is Darkrai and his Dragon is Primal Dialga, but it is Dusknoir who serves as the main obstacle for the protagonists once the plot starts picking up.
• Meden Traore from Project × Zone is the true Big Bad of the game, but Due Frabellum drives most of the plot. Saya also drives the plot of the second game, while the Big Bad and Final Boss is Byaku Shin.
• Resident Evil: Ozwell E. Spencer is the series' Big Bad, but never drives the plot, allowing a number of other characters to step into that role.
  • Resident Evil 0: James Marcus. He sets the plot in motion, serves as the Big Bad, and is the Final Boss to boot.
  • Resident Evil: Albert Wesker. He may be taking orders from Spencer, but as Umbrella's man on the spot, it's Wesker who drives the plot, from luring the heroes in, to unleashing the Tyrant on them in the finale.
  • Resident Evil 2: William Birkin. There are other villains, like the UBCS, Mr. X, and Brian Irons present, but Birkin is the most recurring threat, pursuing you from the earliest chapters of the game until your final escape at the end. Not to mention that the outbreak is his fault in the first place.
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis: Nemesis. Again, Spencer is The Man Behind the Man, and the USS and T-103's have their own agendas, but it's Nemesis who provides all the dramatic tension, chasing Jill and Carlos from one end of the city to the other in fulfillment of its mission.
  • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica: Alfred Ashford. Alexia Ashford's the Big Bad and Final Boss, but it's her Ax-Crazy brother, Alfred, who's responsible for most of the events in story, from Claire and Steve's capture on up. Even his death manages to move the plot along, as it motivates Alexia to seek revenge against the heroes.
  • Jack Krauser is the main player driving the events of Resident Evil 4, even though he doesn't show himself until late in the game. Ashley's kidnapping was merely a way for Krauser to infiltrate Los Iluminados, gaining a place within Saddler's inner circle for the purpose of stealing the Master Plagas sample. When his infiltration ran into problems, Krauser called Ada in to serve as his backup. In the remake, he's apparently fully on board with Los Iluminados due to his lust for power, since he doesn't interact with Ada and never mentions Umbrella.
  • Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles: Colonel Sergei Vladimir. As Spencer's Dragon-in-Chief, Sergei's the one responsible for cleaning up Umbrella's disasters, holding the company together, and attempting to murder both the heroes and Villain Protagonist Wesker.
  • Resident Evil 5: Albert Wesker again. With Sergei and Spencer gone, Wesker steps up as the Big Bad and the game's most visible and potent physical threat, using everyone as part of his plan to unleash the apocalypse.
  • Resident Evil 6: Derek Clifford Simmons. Not only does he serve as the main villain in Leon's campaign, but he's responsible for setting the game's entire plot into motion as it was his obsession with Ada Wong that led turning Carla into an Ada clone against her will causing her Start of Darkness. However he's just an Unwitting Pawn to Charla, the games true Big Bad, as she incorporates Simmons influence onto her own plan to destroy the world.
• Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell: The latest Third Street Saints' adventure is caused by Satan kidnapping The Boss, forcing Kinzie and Johnny to go To Hell and Back to rescue them.
• Satan/Zayin for the Law faction in Shin Megami Tensei II. He's played up as the most direct threat (or, if you side with Law, your greatest ally) on the side of Law despite being the second in command of YHVH's forces and ultimately ends up being Law's counterpart to Lucifer, the leader of Chaos. YHVH Himself doesn't show up until the very end of the game.
• Char Aznable takes on a heavy role in Shin Super Robot Wars's storyline because he sides with the Ze Belmary Empire, builds the Angel Halo, causes the Zanscare Empire to collapse and forced Master Asia to use the Devil Gundam on humanity.
• The plot of Silent Hill 4 is centered around the plans of Walter Sullivan. Henry's role? He blundered into becoming a part of those plans because he happened to choose the wrong apartment.
• Sinjid has Kazuro, Sinjid's mysterious acquaintance and a former student of Fujin's. While he doesn't play a role in the war between the Imperial Army and the Shogun warlords (though he did provide support to Warlord Asura before abandoning him for being too prideful), he's the one responsible for Fujin's death, which sets off the events of the game.
• While Galcian in Skies of Arcadia is the ultimate Big Bad, his Dragon Ramirez is more directly involved in the plot and has a personal connection to the party due to being Fina's childhood friend and fellow Sylvite. When Galcian is killed, he goes berserk and tries to destroy the world in retaliation, serving as the Final Boss of the game.
  • Even Galcian himself plays the Heavy to the Valuan Empire and Empress Teodora until he turns traitor and tries to Take Over the World. The party may only personally encounter Galcian twice, but the only character in the party who even comes in contact with the Valuan empress at all is Enrique.
• Stella Glow has Klaus, who is revealed to be Xeno after being corrupted by Mother Qualia. He serves as Eve's Dragon-in-Chief and drives most of the plot, manipulating the heroes into aiding his goal of carrying out Eve's to end humanity, kicking the endgame into motion once his true nature is revealed.
• In Super Mario Bros.,Bowser himself Plays this role many times and when he isn't he usually sends his son Bowser Jr. to fulfill this role in nearly every game he appears in. It's most notable in Super Mario Sunshine and New Super Mario Bros., where he is the driving force behind the plot. In most other appearances, he directly confronts Mario more often than Bowser himself.
  • Kamek plays this role in the Yoshi series since Bowser is a baby.
  • In the sub series Luigi's mansion King Boo plays this role in every game
  • The Wario series had Captain Syrup in the first two games and appearing as an uneasy ally in Shake it
  • Spin-off series Donkey Kong had King K. Rool in most games.
  • Dimentio in Super Paper Mario. He appears the most out of Count Bleck's minions and advances the plot more often than Mario or Bleck himself. He's Playing Both Sides and the game's true Big Bad.
  • Fawful has this role in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. He causes the blorbs virus that infects the Toads, tricks Bowser into eating Mario and the rest of the main cast, takes over all the castles in the land and tries to use the Dark Star's power to conquer the world. He also gets the most lines in the entire game by far, which is rather good considering his status as a Large Ham throughout.
• The Tales Series has quite a few.
  • Emeraude in Tales of Graces is probably the most notable example. At no point in the game are they positioned as a main antagonist, but flashbacks reveal that they are the root cause of everything that goes wrong in the story.
  • Duke may be the final antagonist in Tales of Vesperia, but the actions of Alexei (who ends up being a Disc Two Final Boss) drive the plot. Act 3 is mostly concerned with the fallout of his plans, and partaking in a copious amount of sidequests.
  • Grand Maestro Mohs in Tales of the Abyss, as he wants war because Yulia's Score depicts it, but, in the end, he's just an Unwitting Pawn to the real Big Bad, Van Grants.
    • Although, granted, what Van Grants did and does in the game prior to Mohs' actions is driving the plot to move into the direction of Mohs' actions.
  • Though Yggdrasil from Tales of Symphonia doesn't appear until about a third of the way into the game, almost every major villain is either taking orders from or plotting against him, and in fact the entire Journey of Regeneration that the heroes embark on at the start of the game is ultimately his idea, and only serves to further his plans. He does get mentioned at least once before he finally makes his appearance.
  • In Tales of Xillia, the Big Bad is King Nachtigal’s rivals Gaius and Muzet, but there are two characters who drive the plot besides him and her:
    • The first is Gilland, whose actions have a big drive in most of the characters' backgrounds. Because his ship invaded Rieze Maxia, he has given Alvin a life that raised him with a Chronic Back Stabbing Disorder and cause Milla to have such a huge, negative view on spyrix. It's also because of him that Derrick Mathis has left the Exodus Organization, which led to Jude being born and eventually causing Leia's injury as a child. It's also because of him that King Nachtigal is so set on his actions, however bad they may be. He’s even a Climax Boss. But, he is ultimately overshadowed by a greater threat.
    • The crown goes to the real Maxwell, though. It's his actions that have pretty much caused the entire story of Xillia to happen. Without him, Jude and Milla would never have met to begin with. Understandable, because Maxwell was the one who created Milla, and Muzét. Milla's creation made Ivar be so undyingly loyal to her, which backfired when the whole fiasco with the Lance of Kresnik happened, and created the schism that causes the last half of the game. And if it wasn't for this character, then Gilland wouldn't even be in Rieze Maxia. Yet, despite seeming everything like a Final Boss, he is ultimately betrayed by Gaius and Muzet, his own subordinates.
  • Tales of Berseria features a group called the Abbey. Artorius is the Big Bad as shown on the game's back cover and the game's first couple events. However, throughout the game, we learn that Melchior is the heavy to the plan — since it was him who sent Artorius go down the path he went, had Celica reincarnated into a Malak, and had been behind Magilou's backstory. The one thing that Melchior wasn't the cause of was the Daemonblight, which as we learn in the postgame is caused by the Greater-Scope Villain.
• Touhou Project:
  • Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil: Remilia Scarlet is the head of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the one behind the red mist blotting out the sun, which she did because she's a vampire and wanted to travel during the daytime. Most of the bosses in the game (with the exception of the first two stages) are her servants.
  • Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom: The plot is instigated by Yuyuko Saigyouji, who was curious about a body buried beneath the Saigyou Ayakashi tree and whose plan to uncover it triggered the extended winter at the start of the game.
  • Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night: Eirin Yagokoro serves Kaguya, but is both the brains and the brawn behind the conflict of the game, which was caused by her attempt to seal off the Earth from the Moon.
  • Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View: Although not malicious, it is Komachi Onozuka, Eiki Shiki's shinigami servant, who is the cause of the problems of the game, as it was her slacking that led to the dead souls overflowing into the living world.
  • Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith: Kanako Yasaka is The Face of the Moriya Shrine (while her fellow goddess Suwako handles the miracle end of things) and the one who decided to move the Moriya Shrine to Gensokyo, encroaching on the Hakurei Shrine and setting off the game's events.
  • Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism: Rin Kaenbyou is the one driving the spirits above ground, although as with other games she doesn't have malicious intentions, only doing so in the hopes of attracting someone strong enough to stop her power-mad, rampaging friend Utsuho.
  • Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object: Nue Houjuu is the source of the UFOs appearing in the sky which sets off the game's plot. Uniquely, she isn't encountered at all in the normal campaign and is only fought as the extra stage boss.
  • Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires: Seiga Kaku is the one guarding Toyosatomimi no Miko's resurrection for the first half of the game to ensure it goes as planned. She's also the one who taught Miko Taoism in the first place.
  • Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character: The youkai rampaging turns out to have been caused by Shinmyoumaru Sukuna, who used her Miracle Mallet to make them act aggressively and who serves as Final Boss. Although unusually, it's the Pre-Final Boss, Seija Kijin, who is the actual Big Bad, as she's the one who manipulated Sukuna into using the hammer in the first place.
  • Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom: Sagume Kishin is the one in charge of the Lunarian invasion and their plan to relocate the Lunar Capital to Gensokyo.
  • Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons: Satono Nishida and Mai Teireida are Okina Matara's top servants and the ones directly carrying out her will for most of the game.
• Wadanohara has the seemingly friendly Sal, who is revealed to be a denizen of the Dead Sea working for Princess Mikotsu. He ends up causing most of the problems Wadanohara's group face — sealing Wadanohara's memories, stealing the Sacred Sword, breaking the Sea Kingdom's barrier (twice), manipulating Princess Tosatsu into invading, and poisoning both Tatsumiya and Cherryblod.
• Watch_Dogs: Damien Brenks. He's actually part of a Big Bad Ensemble with Lucky Quinn, the leader of the Chicago South Club crime syndicate, but the latter is much more of a background villain, and while he's ultimately responsible for the events of the game by ordering the hit on Aiden which killed his niece Lena instead, Damien is the one who sets the story in motion by kidnapping Aiden's sister and holding her hostage in order to get blackmail on virtually all of Chicago from a third party; it's also worth noting that he's responsible for the hit that got Lena killed in the first place, since it was his idea to rob the South Club which made the gangsters go after him and Aiden. Damien causes the most direct trouble for Aiden throughout the events of the game, selling out him and T-Bone, aka Raymond Kenney, hacking billboards in one mission to set the police on Aiden, and tells Aiden that Quinn has ordered a hit Aiden's ally Clara. And in the very last mission, Damien is the one who ultimately tries to destroy the city with his new, unprecedented level of network access, doing to the player what they've been doing to other enemies throughout the entire game up to this point.
• General Deathshead in Wolfenstein: The New Order has come a long way since his first appearance in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. In The New Order, he is single-handedly responsible for producing the technology which won Germany the war, and becomes B.J's nemesis after brutally murdering one of B.J companions, setting off a grudge that carries on for 14 years. His presence is felt everywhere in the game, as he is the creator of most of the war machines B.J fights and the ultimate goal of the Resistance is to kill him.
• The World Ends with You: The Composer sits back and lets the Game Masters, led by Megumi Kitaniji, do all of the work. Kitaniji himself lets his underlings do all of the work, and the Game Masters generally stay in the shadows until close to the end. (Minamimoto is the exception, and Konishi was Game Master of a special week). The Composer takes a huge hands-on role in Week 2 under the alias of Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryuu, and on the final day, you fight Kitaniji three times in a row when he realizes he needs to take care of things personally. The two acted more hands off than usual because of the Game they were participating in to determine the fate of Shibuya. In Another Day, Higashizawa does all of the work for the Black Skullers. Turns out he was using them the whole time and eventually backstabs Uzuki.
• In World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King the titular Lich King is the driving force for most of the expansion's major stories. He also frequently appears in person or image to reinforce his prominence.
  • Mists of Pandaria shifts this role to Garrosh Hellscream. The story for both factions is driven by his imperialism and intolerance for any who do not live up to his standards. The finale of the expansion even took the focus away from Pandaria to concentrate on Garrosh's actions in and around Orgrimmar.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the organisation of Torna (especially Jin and Malos), are the ones who set the plot into motion and, as the antagonists, have the most screen-time, with most chapters ending in a confrontation with them. However, as it turns out it was none other than Amalthus who was responsible for the outright threat to the world.
• Zero Escape Trilogy: While each Zero is the Big Bad of their game, they usually stay in the shadows and don't actively work against the participants. However in the first two installments there is someone else to provide direct conflict.
  • Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has Ace aka Gentarou Hongou who is responsible for most murders that happen in story as well as organizing the previous Nonary Game, which is what forced Zero to create her own.
  • Virtue's Last Reward has Dio aka Left who depending on the timeline either murdered the old lady later revealed to be Akane and possibly several other people or set up the bombs to blow up the facility.
  • Zero Time Dilemma downplays it with Mira, who is the direct killer in this game but unlike the other two is loyal to this game’s Zero.

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