Villains in video games should be captivating and memorable. If their devious schemes, plots, and related powers aren’t compelling enough, the game that they feature in can feel flat. Some iconic villains wield the power and technology of mind control, the effects of which can remain memorable to players long after the end credits roll.
Some of the mind control featured in video games can have terrifying implications. The villainous characters’ skills can range from large-scale puppeteering to individual brainwashing. The ability to control others and break down their autonomy adds an extra layer to some characters’ ominousness, and it can be particularly effective for a game’s narrative if they can make a heroic protagonist bend to their will. Some villains in TV and gaming aren’t impervious to mind control themselves, such as Loki and the Mind Stone in The Avengers.
8 Balder - Bayonetta
Balder is the main antagonist and the father of Bayonetta in the self-titled Bayonetta game series. He controlled the former Umbra Witches Heiress and best friend of Bayonetta, Jeanne, who is also playable in Bayonetta 3. Five centuries after aiding Bayonetta during the Witch Hunts, Jeanne was captured by Balder.
Balder used his powers to put Jeanne through mental reprogramming, in order to use her to reawaken Bayonetta’s Left Eye as a part of his plan to resurrect Jubileus the Creator. Jeanne was able to break free from this mind control and aligns herself again with Bayonetta.
7 Kerrigan - StarCraft
Sarah Kerrigan from one of the greatest space operas,StarCraft, showed an insane aptitude for psychic powers from a young age after killing her mother and damaging the brain of her father. She had a record-breaking PSI score during her years in the Ghost Program as a child.
Kerrigan captures the Matriarch Raszagal as a means to convince Zeratul to kill the Overmind. It is revealed by Kerrigan to Zeratul after Overmind is killed that Raszagal has been in her control, and she was used as a puppet to get rid of the Renegades on Shakuras.
6 Poison Ivy - Batman: Arkham Asylum
Poison Ivy uses her allure to make men obsessed with her. With the power of Pheromone Manipulation, she produces a pheromone that makes men bend to her will. In Batman: Arkham Asylum, a game with similarities to the Die Hard movie, the patient interview tapes reveal that Poison Ivy used her pheromone control powers to seduce and take over Dr. Kellerman’s mind.
The Warden found Dr. Kellerman barely alive a while later, and Poison Ivy expressed no remorse for her actions. She would do anything for her plant babies, and controlling the minds of seduced victims is just a small part of her agenda.
5 The Thorian - Mass Effect
New players to Mass Effect after buying the legendary edition will encounter Species 37, and some hidden secrets, in the storyline. Species 37, otherwise known as the Thorian, is a long-lived ancient plant being with a knack for mind control and telepathy. The Thorian creates thralls of its victims by releasing spores into the air like a mushroom, causing those who inhale the spores to become mind controlled.
The Thorian was located in Feros in the first Mass Effect game. The spores that the Thorian released after its hibernation controlled the minds of most of the Zhu’s Hope colonists while ExoGeni let it happen.
4 Sovereign - Mass Effect
The mind control that the Reapers use in the Mass Effect trilogy is called indoctrination. Those who fall within the range of a signal emitted by a Reaper, or a Reaper artifact, can be brainwashed into doing their bidding. The victim can eventually lose all autonomy and individual thought.
Matriarch Benezia and Saren were indoctrinated by Sovereign, one of the main antagonists in Mass Effect and the first Reaper that Commander Shepard encounters. Sovereign used Matriarch Benezia and Saren to further the agenda of the Reapers.
3 Jov Leonov - Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
After an accident left him blind and with the power of mind control, Jov Leonov was recruited by the Soviet Government. Jov Leonov had a victim at his side constantly to use as a pair of eyes during the game.
Jov Leonov was recruited to The Movement - led by William Kreiger - after the Cold War and became the director of the ‘Meat Puppet Program’ that turned victims into mind-controlled puppets. Leonov used Nick Scryer’s former team members to create more Meat Puppets, and tried to use them against Nick to kill him.
2 Frank Fontaine - Bioshock
In the first entry of the Bioshock franchise, the main character Jack is guided through the underwater and deceivingly utopian city of Rapture by his unlikely ally, Atlas, in order to stop Andrew Ryan. Atlas politely asks Jack to complete these tasks with one question: “Would you kindly?”.
This simple question was revealed to be a form of mind control. Atlas was Andrew Ryan’s rival, Frank Fontaine, all along; and the phrase was created as a trigger to control Jack’s mind. Jack was given as an embryo to Frank Fontaine, aged rapidly, and turned into a puppet assassin to access Rapture’s systems. Being the illegitimate child of Andrew Ryan, Jack and his genetic code was manipulated to help Frank Fontaine win against Ryan.
1 Zemus - Final Fantasy 4
In the Final Fantasy series, after the Lunarian's attempts to wait for a time of peaceful coexistence with the humans on the ‘Blue Planet’ (Earth), Zemus decided that the Lunarians deserved the Blue Planet for themselves, and wished to eradicate the humans.
Zemus was able to use his telepathic powers despite his forced slumber by Fusoya. Zemus was able to control the mind of Theodor, the orphan of Fusoya’s younger brother Kluya, and with this control, he shaped Theodor into what suited him. Theodor was renamed as Golbez by Zemus, and Zemus used him to gather the eight crystals needed to bring the monstrous Giant of Babil to Earth to eradicate the human race.