Replacing the Villain: Pratfalls of Making Twist Final Bosses

Greetings!  This is going to be a blog dedicated to examining issues in the video game industry, from pitfalls people fall into to how companies which are failing can be improved.  I know blogs like these are a dime a dozen on the internet, but I feel that I have a few things to say that others haven’t.  I’ll try to be mature about this though, so this doesn’t degenerate into nonsensical ranting.  That said, these posts will often include spoilers, so fair warning.

Replacing the Villain: Pratfalls of Making Twist Final Bosses

(SPOILER WARNING for Final Fantasy 4 and The After Years, Ninja Gaiden, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow)

            A common trope of the video gaming world is replacing the final villain of a game with a “hidden” enemy that no one saw coming.  These types of bosses are meant to shock and screw with a player’s expectations.  While this kind of trope can be used to great effect, one must be incredibly careful when replacing the established villain.  The main bad guy in most video games is the cause of a hero being called to action.  The player can be a hero of prophecy who must save the world, a youth in search of revenge, an honor bound soldier, or just someone who’s being obstructed by the final villain.

For all heroes there must be obstacles to growth.  In video games, these usually take the form of villains

This creates a personal link between both the character and the player with the final boss.  The whole goal of the game from start to finish, once a final boss is known, is to become strong enough to take this ultimate foe down, as he is usually immensely powerful and could wipe out the characters if not for a few contrived events.  The players grow with the villain, learning about him and their own characters, coming to either sympathize to a degree with the villain or hate him for his barbarity.  However, all this growth, all this characterization, and the ultimate goal is rendered ultimately meaningless when this boss, that we have expected from the start, is replaced out of nowhere.

Heroes and villains grow together.  It hurts the story for this relationship to be disrupted

This kind of twist CAN be used to great effect if properly planned out.  It can create a sympathetic supporting character out of villains or at least add something to the story.  However, when poorly implemented, it leaves the player scratching their heads at just what in the hell the developers were thinking, at best.  At worst, it will leave the players angry and pissed off that some no name idiot came and replaced the person they were expecting to be the boss.

Wait, you're the final boss?!  Who or what are you?!  And why should we care?!

Over the past two decades, this idea has been used in video games a bit more than necessary and each time it is used it becomes more and more clumsy.  This kind of storytelling is easy enough to plan out before the actual work on the game starts, so it is baffling as to why people continue to make these same mistakes.  Let me show you three examples of this trope.  How it can be done effectively, how it can at least be used to help characterize someone or resolve their growth, and how it can be used to disastrous effect.

Final Fantasy 2/4 does an excellent bait and switch for the final boss

The first game we will be examining is Final Fantasy 4.  Final Fantasy 4, released to the U.S. as Final Fantasy 2 in 1991 for the Super Nintendo, is an excellent example of the villain being replaced at the last minute done effectively.  The main character, Cecil, learns a few hours into the game that his home, the country of Baron is being manipulated by the wicked sorcerer Golbez.  Worse yet, Cecil’s best friend, Kain is under the sorcerer’s mind control.  Golbez’s goal is to gather crystals from around the world, which he ultimately does.  However, just as he initiates his plan to use the crystals to power a doomsday weapon, a new character that Cecil discovered after finding his way onto the moon reveals that Golbez was, himself, under mind control.  And that he is Cecil’s brother.

You really can't choose your family, can you?

This offers several new dimensions to the story.  Suddenly, the main villain is seen as a victim and he ultimately aids the heroes in trying to stop the NEW main villain, Zemus.  He is not forgiven for his cruel actions and willingly exiles himself onto the moon to pay for his crimes.  He acts in a very human manner.  More than adding new dimensions to the plot, however, the transition to a new villain is handled excellently.  The introduction of mind control with Kain is subtle and it is hinted at that his own jealousy and dark impulses are the reason why he was able to be swayed.  In subsequent remakes of Final Fantasy 4, scenes are added showing that Golbez also suffered from jealousy of his younger brother, making him a prime candidate for manipulation.  Golbez is also shown to not be all powerful.  He is defeated several times before the reveal about Zemus is made.  He is defeated in a cutscene at first by the sage Tellah, then in battle by Cecil and his friends, severely undermining his threat.  If he isn’t strong enough to beat the main characters, then it can be assumed there might be someone stronger.  The bread crumbs are laid and when the reveal is made it is believable.  What’s more, in the sequel, the After Years, Golbez’s former henchman comment on how, even though the players saw him as evil, the only one who cared about them was Golbez.  The four fiends of the elements are shown to be sorrowful at being made to fight their former master.

            This is the best way to handle replacing the main villain near the end of the game.  It helps to characterize both the heroes and the villains while giving new directions for the story to progress.  It is not entirely surprising, as the clues are left behind and finally make sense once the reveal is made, but it is hidden well enough that no one expected this.

One of last generation's hardest games has a deep, dark, secret

             Moving on, the next example is Ninja Gaiden, released in 2004 for the Xbox.  Ninja Gaiden handles switching villains with less finesse, but it at least adds some characterization to the story and explains the hero’s actions at the end.  The game focuses on Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja whose clan is charged with guarding the Dark Dragon Blade, a weapon of supreme power that is cursed and very dangerous.  Suddenly, Ryu's village is attacked and the blade is stolen by a fiend working for the Vigoor Empire.  Ryu fights his way through the Vigoor Empire, becoming cursed along the way, before coming face to face with the Vigoor Emperor, a demonic being who now holds the blade.  The Emperor’s death is the only thing that can cure Ryu of his curse and the only way he can secure the blade.  However, once Ryu finishes off the emperor a masked man steps out of the shadows and takes the Dark Dragon Blade.  This is the final boss.  A person Ryu has had almost no encounters with for the whole game.

The true villain!  Whom Ryu has...never even met...

            This is frustrating, however it does serve a purpose and it doesn’t come completely out of nowhere.  The start of the game features a character training Ryu who laments that the Dark Dragon Blade cannot be used, as it is incredibly powerful and elegant.  Then, throughout the game, the masked man and his assistant are occasionally cut to during cinematics where they are watching Ryu and monitoring his progress.  The masked man’s assistant even contacts Ryu to help him.  After Ryu destroys the Vigoor Emperor, they step out of the shadows to take hold of the Dark Dragon Blade, revealing that the masked man was Ryu’s mentor.  He kills his assistant, becomes possessed by the blade, then charges at Ryu.  This replacing of the main villains is annoying, but it does show how dangerous the Dark Dragon Blade can be and justifies Ryu’s decision to destroy it at the end of the game.  It is hinted at that there is someone in the shadows, however they have no real emotional attachment to the characters or players throughout the majority of the plot.  However, the final boss does at least justify Ryu’s actions.  There is a purpose to this switch up and it does not ruin the experience, especially since the difficulty of facing Ryu’s mentor in the first stage is redoubled for the final battle with his demonic form.

While superfluous on the surface, Murai's transformation into a demon shows just how dangerous the Dark Dragon Blade is

            While this method of switching villains is not ideal, it serves a purpose and even though it may annoy players, it will not alienate them from the plot.  It does not feel entirely like a cop out just to make the game harder or to throw in a new boss for no good reason.

Disappointment, they name is Lords of Shadow

            The final example in this little study is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, released in 2010 for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.  This game features what is easily the most pathetic and contrived attempt at replacing the main villain in recent memory and shows an incredibly flawed effort at shocking players to set up a sequel…and the most disappointing part of this is that the shock ending wasn’t even necessary for a sequel.  In fact, it is head scratching that the developers chose to do this.  All right, before I get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning.

            Gabriel Belmont has lost the love of his life and fights against evil in an attempt to find a way to revive her.  He finds that, through a powerful mask which has been split into three pieces and held by the most evil creatures in the world, the Lords of Shadow, he may revive his beloved.  To retrieve these mask pieces he must fight the lord of werewolves, the lord of vampires, and the lord of necromancers.  Throughout the journey, we find mysterious deaths and strange visions plague Gabriel and all the while he is guided towards his ultimate goal by Zobek, a warrior who works for the same order as Gabriel.  Zobek narrates the story and guides Gabriel to kill the lord of werewolves and the lord of vampires, gaining two pieces of the mask.  Then, foreshadowing begins.  We see more visions of Gabriel wearing an odd and demonic mask, while Zobek’s dialogue starts to hint at a hidden agenda and he appears to kill some of the people Gabriel encounters after he leaves them.  Finally, when Gabriel reaches the lord of necromancers it is revealed to be…Zobek!  Zobek manipulated Gabriel into killing his beloved through a demonic mask and has given him a dark artifact early on which Zobek can control, forcing Gabriel to wound himself while Zobek takes the mask.  Zobek has planned all this to gain the power of the divine mask and now, as the final boss, he is ready to take over the world.  Until Satan pops out of the ground and kills him.  No.  You did not misread that.  SATAN comes out of the ground and kills the final lord of shadow.  You, the player, DO NOT FIGHT ZOBEK.  No.  Your final boss is Satan.

The final boss is...the Devil.  This is never hinted at, never mentioned before or after, and is ultimately a waste of what was a brilliant setup

            This reveal comes out of nowhere, is never hinted at, and, worse, destroys all the foreshadowing done earlier in the game.  Zobek’s cryptic dialogue, his dark word choices, his mysterious appearances alongside Gabriel’s strange visions all make perfect sense…and yet, he is killed by Satan in the last five minutes of the game.  This makes absolutely no sense.  The setup was brilliant, with an ally turning into an enemy, giving the final battle a personal touch, and putting Gabriel at a disadvantage, as he knew and trusted Zobek, only to be betrayed and revealed to be a murderer, not just of his wife, but of others, through Zobek’s manipulation.  However, Satan appears and destroys this setup.  There is absolutely no reason for this switch up and it cheats the players out of their revenge.  Worse yet, the supposed “reason” for the change was that Satan granted Zobek his power…which actually runs counter to the idea that Zobek is a darker version of a holy warrior in heaven, which the game goes out of its way to establish.  And the purpose of this switch up, to hint that the army of Satan is moving against Gabriel, who has somehow become a vampire and immortal in the epilogue, could easily be avoided, as Zobek is revealed to be alive.  He could have come to challenge Gabriel or any other enemy could have done things to the same effect.

            This is the most head scratching uses of swapping the main villain.  It adds nothing to the story and in fact cheats the players of their vengeance.  It contradicts the in game logic and really has no purpose in the game.  It is completely pointless.  There was no build up, no hinting that Satan was the mastermind, nothing…it was something that was pulled straight from the scriptwriter’s ass for no good reason other than “Satan is cool, people will love to fight the devil.”

            This is a problem with writing in video games in the modern age.  They constantly feel the need to shock or surprise the player, so they will often create twist ending villains who the players have no real attachment to.  It shows a type of laziness to plot out an adequate twist that would be laughed out of even the most rudimentary creative writing class.  When a major villain will be replaced, it needs to be hinted at, serve a purpose, and it needs to make sense within the context of the world which the game has created.  To simply shove a villain onto the stage for the “Coolness” factor or to make the player do a head turn is lazy and will ultimately alienate players from the story of the game and possibly the franchise as a whole.  While Final Fantasy 4’s twist actually makes for an interesting bit of characterization that is elaborated upon in the sequel and which actually makes a sequel possible, Lords of Shadow is a twist that is lazy, comes out of nowhere, and may actually alienate people from returning to the game out of pure frustration.  Ninja Gaiden’s twist is at least self contained and justified, so that it does not offend and ultimately adds to the experience even if it was unnecessary to the plot.

            It’s been suggested that ultimately, game developers and movie writers aren’t reading books when trying to write scripts.  They are watching movies and trying to emulate them.  I can understand this and it frustrates me to no end.  For a piece of fiction to be taken seriously, it must be properly laid out and make sense in context, which is a cornerstone of even the most basic writing courses.  People who keep writing these contrived and annoying shock villains and endings need to take a refresher course in basic plotting.  The games industry does not need shock endings that come out of nowhere.  People may not expect it, but nor do they want it.  Just tell a good story.  If a twist happens that makes sense, run with it.  But don’t shove in a character, villain or no, for the coolness factor or to appease the corporate side.  It will only hurt your final product.

All images used were appropriated for use under the Fair Use Act and is not meant to infringe on any copyrights.  If there are any complaints from the owners in regards to the use of pictures in this post, please contact me and I will remove them immediately.