10 Video Games Where The Villain Had Better Abilities

And now we have perhaps the most hilariously deflating example of this in video game history, with the Shenmue franchise's overarching antagonist, Lan Di.

Since the start of the series, protagonist Ryo Hazuki has been pursuing Lan Di for murdering his father, and though we haven't seen much of Lan Di throughout the franchise, he's nevertheless been shown to be an extremely powerful combatant in his brief appearances.

And this is most evident in Shenmue III's outrageous anti-climax of a final boss battle, in which players finally get to fight Lan Di after 20 whole years of waiting.

But the "boss battle" is really just 30 seconds of trying to hit Lan Di while he effortlessly blocks every single one of your attacks and then absolutely bodies you in the following cutscene.

After three games of build-up, seeing Ryo get his ass handed to him by Lan Di was both deeply funny and incredibly depressing, especially as it doesn't seem hugely likely that a fourth game will ever made to actually, you know, finish the story.

A quarter-century (!) into this saga, Lan Di is still just plain better than Ryo, and if Shenmue IV never materialises, then that isn't going to change.