10 Recent Video Game Villain Deaths That Made Us Cry

Did anyone have "Poison Ivy makes the save" on their bingo card?

poison ivy batman arkham knight
Rocksteady

Storytelling in video games has come quite a long way in the past decade or so, huh?

Sure, while every generation has one or two great examples of telling a story, the increase in technology available to even indie creators has allowed for more detailed characters, deeper world building, and of course, more threatening antagonists. But sometimes threatening isnt the only vibe you want to have for your villain, maybe you want your villain to be more sympathetic.

Maybe they have a point, or maybe there are extenuating circumstances forcing them into being this way. Or maybe they're just REALLY pretty.

Either way, when it comes time to finally put down your villain, making them more sympathetic is a great way to leave your players in tears as you rip out their hearts and stomp on them.

Only rule here is that they have to have been released in the last 10-15 years. Oh, and obviously, MASSIVE spoilers ahead.

10. Baldur - God Of War (2018)

poison ivy batman arkham knight
Sony

Baldur was a psycho when we met him at the beginning of the game, but across God of War, we find out that - like most men with severe issues - it's mostly mommy's fault.

See, like in the original myth, Frigg received a vision that her son would one day be murdered. So in order to prevent that from happening, she made her son impervious to all forms of harm save for the seemingly harmless plant Mistletoe.

Where God Of War adds in its usual dark twist to the mythology is that this spell also took away any and all kinds of feeling, taste, touch, or smell. A sensory deprivation that ended up driving her son mad.

As well as set in motion the events that would lead to his death that she tried to hard to prevent. When Baldur leaves Atreus with no choice, he decides to live up to the true name his mother gave him, and shoots the bastard with an arrow made of Misteltoe.

At least before he died, he got to feel the sweet cold of snow one last time.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?