Games Where The 'Antagonist/Villian' Wins (Or Was Right)?

[Tanis]

-EDIT-
Kind of screwed up the title, so hopefully I've fixed it to make myself clear.
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I know this is rare, and it's usually given a twist some how...but I was wondering how many other there the community has played.

I recall...

FF6 with the whole 'World of Ruin' at the half way point, but it didn't last.

Nier where you turned out to be a mass murdering douche bag.

Final Fantasy Tactics where, even after you beat Evil-Female-Jesus...history is written in a way to make you look like the baddies.

UnderTale, if you play in a traditional way.

Any more?

 

[Tanis]

MGSV I guess, because Venom is meant to be a villain and his actions in the game enable his villainous actions in MG original.

In God of War Kratos' actions only lead to misery for mankind and he ultimately destroys the old world all for petty revenge.

Spec Ops: The Line, Walker's team turn out to be the aggressors, he always started combat first and it turns out the 33rd are defending themselves against him.

EDIT: After some thought, I kind of forgot as I was writing that the title of this thread was "Games where the villain wins". In Spec Ops, whilst Walker is in many ways villainous, saying he 'won' isn't quite true. At the very least, everyone lost in that game.

 

[StatusNil]

Mass Effect trilogy. Goes from a somewhat oppositional stance towards omnicidal killing machines for 99.95% of the series to "Where do I throw my wretched carcass to fulfill your Grand Plan, Master?" in a totes epic twist.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Prince of Persia (2008 video game)

The villain win was a suprising one.

It wasn't like the villain killed the heroes and start taking over the world, it was just that the woman sacriface herself to seal the villain (her father) away. The Prince however cut down the tree inorder to bring her back to life but in turn release him again.

Also the epilogue didn't end on the two sealing or killing him again but rather they both escape alived.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Tie Fighter, though the game tries its darndest to spin the Empire and your actions in a positive light.

C&C series if you play the Nod/Soviet campaigns.

Orc campaign for the original Warcraft (it's the canonical one, too!).

God of War series.

Dark side playthroughs for Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy and KOTOR.

Evil path in Fable.

The "bad ending" for XCOM: Enemy Uknown that XCOM 2 picks up from.

Any Warhammer 40k game, because there are no "good" factions in the grimdark future.

 

[Saelune]

In the first Two Worlds, the bad guy asks you to join him...and you can. In the sequel, it turns out you didn't join him OR kill him (you lost and he puts you in his dungeon), so canonically, the bad guy won the first game anyways.

 

[Potjeslatinist]

Yeah, the answer you're gonna get repeatedly is that in lots of games with evil choices, such as for example KOTOR or Bioshock, you get to win as the bad guy, but I suspect this isn't what you mean - you want to know in which games the antagonist wins, right?

There's a version of this in the Witcher 2.

Spoiler

In the epilogue, before you leave Loc Muinne, Geralt gets to confront Letho, Foltest's assassin. You get to decide whether to fight him, or to let him go. Now, the only choice that makes sense to me, is to let him go. First, because you kinda owe him - he took care of Yennefer while you were missing. And on top of that, you can't stop him anymore. He's accomplished his mission. Nilfgaard crosses the Yaruga and invades the North. Apart from revenge, there's no reason to kill him. And even revenge is a pretty weak reason, Geralt is neutral on principle, it isn't like Foltest was a personal friend or anything. So Letho wins, Emhyr wins.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

The entire Kingdom Hearts series is essentially the heroes playing into the villain's hands. Although it probably wasn't the intention right from the get go since the series smacks of the writers making it up as they go.

 

[Pseudonym]

In the first Two Worlds, the bad guy asks you to join him...and you can. In the sequel, it turns out you didn't join him OR kill him (you lost and he puts you in his dungeon), so canonically, the bad guy won the first game anyways.

Something similar was up with XCOM 2. In the original XCOM you can win or lose but XCOM 2 went with humans lost. There are some other games which you can actually alltogether lose. FTL has that as well, for example and then the rebels just win.

Invisible Inc had a betrayal and winning bad guys at the end.

There are some games where you play the bad guys, like overlord for example.

Some RPG's allow you to go full bad guy too, or have ways to lose at the end.

 

[Chessrook44]

Less "Villain wins" and more "Everyone including you loses".... an old indie game called Nethergate (Or Nethergate: Resurrection).

You can play as either side in the situation: The Romans, or the Celts, in a valley containing all the mystical and mythical creatures of the region, around the time of Boudicca's Rebellion. If you play as the Romans, your goal is to find out what the Celts are planning, stop it, and subjugate them. If you're playing as the Celts, your goal is to help the Fae complete their plans, and gain something that will allow you to destroy the Roman Empire.

Spoiler

It turns out the Fae's plan was to, effectively, leave the world, leaving a way to destroy the Roman Empire in the hands of the Celts. The Romans, of course, need to find the three items the Fae need to complete their ritual. Which they do.... only to fail to stop the Fae from getting it. You'd think this means the Celts win, but in actuality, the Romans manage to destroy the weapons that the Fae were going to give the Celts, and they sabotage the ritual... slightly, resulting in the gate sending all the Fae to different times and locations in the other world, instead of all through at once. In the end, one of the most powerful of the Fae casts a curse on the Roman Empire, declaring that their borders shall never go past where they currently are.
In the end... The Fae completed their ritual, but are scattered throughout time and space in their new land.
The Celts helped the Fae, but failed to get their weaponry to destroy the Roman Empire.
The Romans stopped the Fae ritual, but here and now is where the Roman Empire begins to fall.

As it is, nobody really wins except the Fae, and it's a phyrric victory either way. And the Fae aren't a playable faction.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

Divinity 2:TDKS. One of the best gaming endings & twists ever, & the villain gets the last laugh.

 

[Hawki]

Excluding games where you can play an "evil" path or whatnot:

-Army Men: Sarge's War (in that Lord Malice got what he wanted)
-Assassin's Creed 3 (in that Minerva is free)
-Command and Conquer: Tiberian Twilight (though whether Kane is a villain at this point is debatable)
-Diablo
-Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (sort of - the Patriots get what they want, sort of, and Ocelot gets what he wants, sort of, though whether Ocelot counts as a villain here is iffy)
-Mortal Kombat reboot (Quan Chi is in a position of strength after Earthrealm is left devastated, and Outworld is left without a leader)
-The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (though Malefor's victory is undone by the end of the next game)
-StarCraft: Brood War & Retribution & Insurrection (the zerg come out on top in all three expansions)
-Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

 

[Landwalker]

In the universe of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the antagonist (Chaos, duh) achieves the goal of destroying the entire plane of existence.

If you want to get snarky with it, Papers, Please. Most of the endings are not in the "protagonist's" favor, and at the end of the day the only real winner is crushing bureaucracy (or anarchy).

 

[Erttheking]

Dark Souls, depending on your perspective.

Spoiler

To be frank, nearly everyone manipulating things from behind the scenes can qualify as a villain. And whether you reignite the Bonfire or let the Abyss wash over, someone is getting what they want.

 

[DoPo]

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - The main character, Kain, starts off as an innocent man who gets murdered and then resurrected as a vampire, and given a chance of revenging himself. As the game progresses, he is led to accomplish other deeds after his vengeance is complete. And throughout the game he slowly transforms - in the beginning, he shows disgust at what he has become only to later on slowly start turning into a blood thirsty fiend in a more figurative sense. At the very end of the game, he is given a choice - sacrifice himself to save his world, or not, which leads to ruin and him taking over as a monstrous tyrant. Kain chooses the latter, canonically, which spawns the entire Legacy of Kain series.

Dungeon Keeper - you play as one of the and your opponents are the good heroes who try to stop you. You also win there. War for the Overworld is a spiritual successor to the DK games.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - you can join up with the evil faction around 2/3ds (or 3/4ths?) into the game or so. You can also not, but then decide to help the bad guy in your final confrontation.

Tyranny - it's an upcoming game [http://www.tyrannygame.com/] developed by Obsidian, published by Paradox Interactive where the premise is that the war between good and evil is over and evil won. You are now in that world.

Black Closet - lets you play as the head of the school council. The said council can use threats, bullying and other not-quite-good tactics. And while the council itself is not evil, throughout the entire game, you are being exploited and a shady conspiracy tries to recruit you to join their ranks. You could refuse and try to expose them or join them exploit all your advantages and become one of the behind-the-scenes movers and shakers of the world.

EDIT: That Which Sleeps - still in development [http://www.kingdinosaurgames.com/] and no actual release date announced. At any rate, you play as an evil deity which wants to awaken and do bad stuff to the world. You have to command your cult to prepare for your arrival and awaken you.

 

[meiam]

I guess the legacy of Kain games, sorta. Kain does turn out to be a villain.

In breath of fire 4 you can join the villain at the end of the game and wipe out humankind to restart the world (you even have to kill your former team).

 

[kenu12345]

Hate to be a picky one, but isn't that antagonist one who simply opposes the protagonist, the main character, thus any game where the main character is evil and wins still doesn't mean the antagonist won. Either way, first thing that popped in my head was Shadow of the Colossus

 

[MCerberus]

Golden Sun - Villains light the tower. They're dead, but yah. Then in the sequel turns out they were right all along.

 

[Joccaren]

Warcraft 3, the Frozen Throne. Even after you 'win' the final mission and defeat Arthas's armies, the now mad and evil king takes Frostmourne and duels with Illidan, who while overall a morally grey character is at this point essentially fighting to save the world [Even if his actual reasons are more "Don't let the demons kill me and they want their servant punished"]. Arthas wins, Illidan is almost killed, and the fallen Prince ascends to become the Lich King. Evil wins the day. Even in Reign of Chaos, evil won against the human realms in the end. Lordaeron is fallen, and the survivors have fled to Kalimdor to rebuild. Yeah, overall they defeated the demon invasion at the end, but that's only one faction of evil, and while the demons were defeated, throughout WC3 the undead win again and again.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Bioshock Infinite..

Yeah, that was technically cheating. I'll see myself out.