10 Video Game Characters Who Were Secretly The Villain All Along

Ever since the eighth gym leader in Pokémon Red and Blue turned out to be Giovanni, the leader of the evil Team Rocket, it's safe to say a fair few gamers developed trust issues.

Or at least, trust issues with video game characters, because in any given series there's a good chance that anyone from your best friend to your dog could turn out to actually be the bad guy. And, admittedly, there's something about this constant mystery that is absolutely delightful - which is why franchises like Ace Attorney have such passionate fanbases.

However, it's a fine line between a fantastic reveal, and a totally cheap one. Having your childhood buddy rip of a mask and declare "It's me, Austin!" simply isn't enough sometimes.

And that's where many of these surprise villains come in. It takes real work to have a character that you've known the entire game, and have them both not be suspected by you, and yet also have plenty of moments that you think back on and realise were total red flags.

Between evil robots, cruel classmates, and secret war criminals, here's a selection of characters who likely made your trust issues just that touch worse. Never trust a kind robot ball, we guess - lesson learned.

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Note: Spoilers within

Naturally, a game that contains seven detective murder mysteries rolled into one has to have a suitable surprise for the mastermind.

And a suitably impossible to realise surprise, as well, given that you're sure to spend most of the game trying to guess who has secretly been responsible for trapping you and your friends into a game where you have to try and kill one another.

Masterfully, the absolute last person you could possibly suspect of all of this is Junko Enoshima, who you may have already worked out is the exact culprit, given it's in the title of this entry.

Junko is absolved of guilt by the player because we see her die in a brutal spike trap at the beginning. Or, rather, we see what appears to be fashionista's death. What we actually witness is the murder of her sister, Mukuro Ikusaba, who is disguised as Junko to excuse her absence while she schemes.

Only, Junko decides to kill her sibling instead, realising that this way she can mess with her classmates even more. And, for almost the entire game, this goes off without a hitch - proving that a spot of tactical sibling murder can be a great addition to spice up any plot.