Haters Gonna Hate: A Brief Look At The Motivations of Villains in Video Games.

In the spirit of Halloween, I've been saving this post for a while and after a few additions, changes and alterations, I feel it's ready for public eyes.

I started Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation a month back while awaiting the return of my computer charger (which was left in SoCal) and like a lot of JRPGs, the game started with the player controlling a teenage boy with spiky hair in a small mountain village.  As was the case with Secret of Mana and Paladin's Quest, I half expected to do something to piss off the town elders that would get me kicked out of town with my so-called close friends abandoning me upon my being exiled.  That was not the case at all thankfully.  There were, however, murmurs of an evil being somewhere out in the world threatening the rest of humanity with destruction/domination/desolation/dismemberment, basically any evil word starting with "D."

This is what I actually wanted to talk about today.  The ultimate bad guy (final boss) in video games and their motivations.  In a lot of JRPGs, the ultimate goal of the main antagonist is world domination either with or without destroying the rest of the world in the process.  This article will not be all encompassing as I have not played against every type of villain ever created, so there is going to be some unintentional bias on my part.  But in the meantime, let us look at a few games and the motivations of the main villains.

Dragon Quest/Warrior:  In the first game, the Dragonlord simply wants to take over the known world.  I do not recall there being much else in the way of motivation.  The Dragonlord hates the Orbs of Light, steals them and you have to get them back.  It is a pretty simple story line, complete with rescuing a princess from a dragon; although that happens about a third of the way through the game.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: In this game, the main antagonist, Ganon, is already dead (spoiler: killed at the end of the first Legend of Zelda), but it is the threat of his return that propels Link forward to complete his quest.  The enemy correctly believes that if they sprinkle/pour the blood of Link over Ganon's ashes, that he will return to continue his plan of ruling over Hyrule that he had began in the first game in the series.  And while not needing to rescue Princess Zelda, she is under a sleeping spell that will only be lifted upon . . . you know I forgot.  I know Shadow Link is the final (pain in the ass) boss and maybe something to do with combining the Triforces together.

Final Fantasy VI: This game has multiple main antagonists with Emperor Gesthal being in the forefront for the first half of the game and Kefka taking over right before the beginning of the second half.  For Emperor Gesthal, he wants unlimited power as a ruler, for every civilization on the planet to be under his rule.  Kefka on the other hand just "want[s] to see the world burn."  He is a true socio/psychopath.  He does not care about ruling the world or enslaving the world population, he simply wants to destroy everything, himself included if need be.

Portal: Moving away from JRPGs (for the moment), Portal changes the role of the main antagonist, GlaDOS, away from world domination to just wanting to continue to do the role she was programmed to do: conduct tests.  Yes, I know there is more to it than all that, but those are the basics.  And yes, it is true that GlaDOS does exhibit some typical sociopathic behaviors.  GlaDOS sees what she is doing is not wrong, but necessary to continue testing of test subjects.  Left to her own devices, she might run out of test subjects, or maybe she will learn how to artificially inseminate her stock of female test subjects and create a constant supply of growing subjects.  This outcome is hinted at in the Portal 2 co-op portion of the game, but it is hard to believe anything that GlaDOS says.

Dead Space:  One thing I love about this game is that there is no official main boss.  Sure there is the hugely giant tentacled Lovecraftian creature that came out of who knows where because why not!?  The majority of the game is spent repairing parts of the USG Ishimura so that you can escape all the horror that is happening on board.  The stereotypical villain here is more of the presence and influence of the Red Marker, but in this case is somewhat similar to Sauron as an overseeing enemy that has no direct contact with the main character but exudes its will against them.  Yes, there is Doctor Whatshisname who keeps trying to unleash the constantly regenerating brutish thing upon Isaac, but that creature functions more as a mini-boss.  The appearance of the final boss at the end seems very rushed and unclear by the end of the game, which is when it makes its first and only appearance.

Super Mario Bros.:  Let us take a step back to 1985 and take a quick look at Bowser and his Koopas.  They have invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, turned all of the citizens into bricks and plants and have kidnapped Princess Toadstool, thereby preventing the Princess from reversing the spell.  So why did Bowser want to invade the Mushroom Kingdom in the first place?  The manual is not clear as to Bowsers motivations and although Wikipedia expounds upon Bowsers frequent kidnapping of Princess Toadstool/Peach, these motivations are never stated.  Sure he wants to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, but what then?  What are his long term goals?  Marry the Princess (because his first wife died after giving birth to the seven Koopalings?) and rule the Kingdom.  Simple I guess.

Donkey Kong:  I am referring to the original arcade game from 1981 for this, the last character in today's article.  In this game, Donkey Kong is the main villain with Jumpman (aka Mario) attempting to rescue Pauline.  But why does Donkey Kong have Pauline?  The story behind the game states that Donkey Kong belonged to Mario/Jumpman, but Mario mistreated Donkey Kong so DK retaliated by kidnapping Pauline.  So what is DK's endgame then?  I believe that DK does not have a final plan as to what to do with Pauline, although Miyamoto has said that the game originally began as a love triangle Popeye game, but changed the characters when they could not acquire the license.  So maybe Donkey Kong is in love with Pauline but that premise would be absurd, right?  I would like to think that he lashed out at being abused too many times and Pauline was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I am going to leave this painfully short list of villains and main antagonists now as even attempting to do an all encompassing list is the very definition of time consuming.  I also do not get paid enough to take on such an endeavor.  From this abbreviated and biased list, it would appear that the motivation behind the majority of known evil is world domination.  I guess that would be the simplest motivation to write a story around with a clear and cut ending.  Just something to think about.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Temple Theme" - Zelda II (NES)

Title: Palace / Temple Theme
Game: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Developer: Nintendo
Release: 1987
Platform: NES/Famicom
Composer: Akito Nakatsuka 

I have payed tribute to Zelda II before on this blog-  Zelda II, the ignored stepchild of the Zelda series.  It was so formative, yet somehow not uniformly appreciated across the fandom.  For me, this game was an important part of my developing appreciation for the medium.  This was a game embraced by older members of my family, that validation resonating with me as oriented myself toward my future identity as #1 video game player in my home.

In my many hours I've played of Zelda II, I have heard the Palace theme rotate through countless times.  This song is something like one of those big singles from your childhood that triggers memories.  Songs like 'Born to Run' or 'Changes' or 'Back on the Chain Gang.'  But really, the Zelda II Palace theme is more like that particular Christmas recording my Mom always played.  The difference is the circumstances.  It is far less likely for me to run into Zelda II dungeon theme throughout my life.  I've heard those Top 40 Rock singles from my childhood a bunch of times in the intervening years.  But a lot of these video game singles not so much.  They were played on repeat for a period in my childhood, and then rarely revisited.  And then only by choice.  They weren't piped in at the mall or the bar.

I love this song.  I always think of going deep and deeper into a dungeon and not being sure if I'll make it out.  As I imagine the song- even without playing the file on my computer, I can hear different sound effects from the game:  The high-pitched, wobbly sound of Links blade striking something it can't hurt: a brick wall or the shield of an Iron Knuckle.  The low grinding sound of the Palace elevator, or the satisfying crunch of an enemy being destroyed, followed by the happy little trill of an item appearing.

-D

To Zelda too.

1980s Link is frustrated that his Franchise has become stale

I started this post on a day I called in sick-- paid sick days were a perk to my previous place of employment.  And, wouldn't you know it, after a crashing into a nap, post sick-call, I woke up with the earnest desire to play Zelda II:  The Adventure of Link.  Then it occurred to me: there is a very good chance that I stayed home sick from school at some point in my childhood and played Zelda II.  That's neither here, nor there, but I have been thinking about the game since getting up.  

Zelda II is often seen as an aberration in the series, the experimentation with side scrolling and RPG elements being too much for some people.  But I loved this game.  It was a family game and I've played it a bunch of times throughout the years, but I've only beaten it a couple of times.  I made similar claims of favoritism regarding Zelda I and those claims are true; but Zelda II occupies a different and very special place in my memory.

I think it's important to note that the clay had not hardened on this game series when Zelda II came out. Hell, it was only the second game in a series that by now spans over a dozen.  There was no reason to think that each sequel would be the same as the last.  As a matter of fact, it occurs to me that Mario 2 (Mario USA) was also radically different from Mario 1.  However, unlike Mario, we had to wait until a new console system came out to get a third installment of the Zelda theme.  

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Zelda III choosing to be another top-down game.  Even though that game is probably my favorite game ever. And in retrospect, it was certainly an impactful decision for the whole franchise, as the next in the series, Link's Awakening, was also top down, and every subsequent Zelda game for a portable system has been a top-down design.  

But back when Zelda II was still relatively new, it was a great game.  I loved the side scrolling, I loved that you got to use Magic and I loved the RPG elements.  Raising levels and an overworld map, two important RPG innovations.  Basically, Zelda II is a completely different game than Zelda I was, and there is no need to compare them.  I think this variation between sequels is great, I wish more game series were like this.  Zelda II was also a true sequel  - the story picks up chronologically after the events of the first game, and Ganon is dead.  

The side-scrolling, overworld map and RPG elements were abandoned after Zelda II, and frankly, I think to the detriment of the series as a whole.  I wish Nintendo had been more willing to branch out and experiment with this series.  I don't mean to sound bitter, but in my humble opinion, the Zelda franchise has grown stale and over-marketed.  I think this can be shown by the release schedule of Zelda games.  In the 1980s, two games were released.  The decade of the 90s saw four games. The 2000s saw seven Zelda games released.  I believe it was during the decade of 2000-2010 when Nintendo missed its opportunity to branch the series in a new direction. But, you know, maybe it's never too late.   

----------------------

Zelda RPG anyone?

Esuna and Kamil - How about Zelda and Link?

And since I'm in love with my own ideas, I want to talk about my old idea for a Zelda RPG.  This was inspired by playing 'The 7th Saga' by Enix on SNES,  something I did a lot of as a teenager.  This was sometime after Zelda III came out, but long before Ocarina of Time.  While playing as Esuna, whom I always played as, I had a moment when I imagined Princess Zelda casting the ice spell.  When playing as Kamil,It wasn't too hard to imagine Link there, sword and shield in hand,  and suddenly I want a Zelda RPG with battle style identical to 7th Saga.  

Now take these two characters above and re-imagine them as Zelda and Link.  Not hard to do eh? Just put a green hat on Kamil and pretty much leave Esuna the same.  At least it wasn't hard for me to imagine in 1996. I thought it would be so cool to play as Zelda and Link fighting side by side.  Mario RPG came out at around this time, and I thought it was a fantastic and innovative game.  In that game, I enjoyed being able to play as Princess Toadstool or Bowser, and I longed for a chance for the Zelda Universe to expand in a similarly clever way. 

It's too bad that we've made it this far without a proper Zelda RPG.  I really think Nintendo dropped the ball on that one.  By Zelda III, the world was lush and full, ripe for development in an RPG style.  The series featured two top-down games and a side scroller with RPG elements.  Further expansion of the series into a multi-genre franchise seemed possible then.  By now, I worry that it may be too late.  Or, is it never too late?  How about it, Nintendo?  

-D

Zelda-- I mean Esuna casting an ice spell.  

Many thanks to:

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=38230

for exactly the image I was looking for.

Family Fun Time

got this image right off the Nintendo website

Growing up with my Family, I was the undisputed #1 fan of video games.  I'm not sure when this was clear, but I do recall working hard to prove this point, even if no one particularly wanted to compete with me for the title.  I just knew that video games were for me.  When my family bought a new TV, I insisted that the old TG&Y piece of crap TV go into my room.  And even though I had to use a pair of pliers to turn it off and on, I was a rich child- I had what I wanted.  

I moved one game system, and eventually all game systems into my room, whereupon I held dominion over them.  I don't remember asking permission, I simply remember exercising Manifest Destiny over our family's NES and SNES.  After all, hadn't it been *I* who had badgered my parents, non-stop, for what seemed like years-- to buy a Super Nintendo?  And wasn't it me who saved up his own money to buy a Nintendo 64 the day it came out?  I deserved those systems, and that was all there was to it.  My younger sister Samz may have protested. After all, she played the most video games after me, and was a stalwart co-op game ally.  But I was insistent in my role as #1 game player of the household. 

It wasn't always this way.  There was a period when video games were for the whole family.  I can't quite place it, but it was a time before the Super Nintendo, but after the Original Nintendo.  My parents tended to drag their feet about buying me new toys, they didn't seem to understand that Nintendo was the greatest thing there was, and really, the best use of their money, as far as I was concerned.  Our Atari 2600 carried us through the first couple of years after NES was released, and we finally got a Nintendo with the Super Mario/Duck Hunt cart.   I can barely remember when this happened, but I know my age was still in single digits.

Anyhow, during the time before I  took over all matters of video gaming in our house, there was a golden period of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, where we all would play games, sometimes together, as a family.   Except my Mom - my Mom never got into any games at all, and I have a fuzzy memory of her holding a controller with a dumbfounded and annoyed look, like it was something the cat dragged in:  "What am I supposed to do with this thing?"    

My Dad would definitely do the funny move-the-controller-to-make-the-car-turn action that everyone does at some point when they're new to video games.  Action games weren't really his thing.  He and my older sister Emz both showed a preference for RPG and Adventure games.   Dad and Emz didn't play many games but they did play a few pretty seriously.  And when they got involved, then it was on!   

I have to tell you, having my Dad play video games with us was probably the coolest thing in all of gaming.  I had all the enthusiasm for gaming, I wanted to play NES more than anyone, and I dedicated the most time.  But I think fondly of the group effort that resulted whenever my Dad got involved.   I experienced that wonderful balance that many of us know- between playing the game, and watching others play it, and feeling involved all the time.  I miss that.

My Dad brought in other elements of his own.  The one that stands out most in my mind was mapping.  He broke out graph paper and a ruler, and proceeded to map every dungeon in Zelda II,  and also every dungeon in Ultima Exodus.  This allowed those of us who weren't playing to participate in a significant way.  And since I was pretty young at the time, it helped me to work on the new skill of cartography (after a fashion). 


Below, I'm going to say a little bit about the games that stand out to me as Family Games.  
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