10 Video Games Where You Play As The Villain

Whilst most people don’t play fighting games for the story, if a studio can make the plot easy enough to follow game-to-game then that helps to get players engaged. As it stands, some of Tekken’s plotlines are pretty easy to follow. Generally speaking, the leading star of one game usually takes down their enemy and then goes on to be an even bigger jerk themselves in the next game.

Obviously that’s a little facetious and light on detail, but it’s definitely a trend and one that kicked right off with Tekken 2. Whilst we’re fully aware you can play as Heihachi in the original game, where he’s positioned as the main antagonist, his role completely changes in the sequel.

With Kazuya having taken down his Father and wrestled control of the Mishima Zaibatsu Corporation, Tekken 2 framed the journey of Heihachi as that of an anti-hero. He looked to reclaim his seat at the head of the table from his son that had been corrupted by power.

It was a truly interesting left turn for the series to take, showing that fighting games could have depth in their character interactions beyond "the good guy" and "the bad guy" and has become a trend for the franchise.