Summary
Villains are, oftentimes, a narrative necessity. Whether they are controlling or merely benefiting from a status quo that a hero wishes to undo, their continued existence or power is what tends to keep some stories going. Nonetheless, some villains just won’t die. In video games, the exact reason behind this fact can vary.
Oftentimes, a need to resurrect villains, ironically, stems from a status quo the developers impose upon the series. This is especially prevalent in certain genres of game, oftentimes ones where the villain is one of many playable characters in a consistent roster, who needs to both live and die to perpetuate the narrative.
Serving primarily as a crossover between bothDynasty WarriorsandSamurai Warriors,Warriors Orochishowcases the warriors from these two periods intersecting into a dimension of the titular being’s own creation. The various warriors rally together to fight Orochi, killing him and returning them to their respective time periods. This Orochi is not exactly the mythological Yamata no Orochi, but a composite entity that draws from various forms of mythology to establish its own lore. In each subsequent game, Orochi continually dies and is reborn in various capacities, first being reborn as Orochi X inWarriors Orochi 2.
Orochi is shown in various forms inWarriors Orochi 3, with his identity being assumed by the Hydra, a being that represents the raw will of the Orochi dimension. The Hydra is notably disliked by many of Orochi’s prior subordinates, with the likes of Da Ji, Keiji Maeda, and Masamune Date defecting to the coalition due to it not technically being the original Orochi. Shuten Doji, a demonic being who is also an offshoot of Orochi, joins the coalition, slowly remembering his past as Orochi, but desiring to carve his own path. Orochi’s own history as Yinglong, a mystic general, is also revealed in theUltimateexpansion ofWarriors Orochi 3. Yinglong was a heroic but brash mystic who ended up becoming Orochi after being exposed to a dark miasma, due to being tricked into believing the Heavenly Emperor secretly controlled the demons he was meant to banish.
Orochi briefly resurrects once again alongside Orochi X (who is once again a form assumed by the Hydra) inWarriors Orochi 4, with the two being reborn from Shuten Doji’s body. The pair eventually end up fighting each other, eventually dying at the hands of the coalition. After this, they revert into Shuten Doji, who presumably remains the current form of Orochi. Due toSamurai Warriors, one of the two primary series involved with the title being rebooted, the future ofWarriors Orochiis unclear, but if it does get another sequel, Orochi will likely be reborn once again, in some form or another.
Bowser is an ever-presentenemy of Mario, who serves as the boss in most conventional platformers of theSuper Mario Bros.series. Most of his defeats tend to be paired with less than desirable outcomes that would be otherwise fatal. Sometimes, he remains unseen after they occur, implying death. Nonetheless, he’s always ready to return, sabotage, steal, and even kidnap the princess on occasion.
Bowser’s frequent returns could be explained outside of resilience orsome level of immortality, by looking at the greater context of theMarioseries. Miyamoto likened the cast of characters to a troupe of actors in the vein of an old cartoon. Considering the exact roles these characters fill is determined by the game, whether it’s a platformer or a sports exhibition, the characters serve to fill out whatever role has been planned for them in the current script, rather than working off an overarching story. To this end, the many implied deaths of Bowser can be viewed as an extension of his “role” in each game. Perhaps the same can be said for Mario, considering his own multiple lives.
Fighting games are well-known for resurrecting their big bads. Seeing as they are often among the most popular playable characters in their respective series, fans tend not to want them dead for too long. One such villain isHeihachi Mishima, one of the many overarching villains in theTekkenseries.
Heihachi notably threw his son, Kazuya, off a cliff, the exact reason for why ranging from determining if he had the Devil Gene or if he was strong enough to become his heir. This made his son vengeful and led to him throwing his father off the very same cliff, which led to him being presumed deceased. Nonetheless, he survived and retaliated, throwing Kazuya into an active volcanic crater, which the younger Mishima once again survived. Heihachi himself would later get thrown into magma by Kazuya in retaliation. It was speculated that this had killed him for good.
However,Tekken 8DLCrevealed this to be a ruse, as Heihachi was rescued by the Tekken Monks, albeit with serious amnesia. The Tekken Monks believed him to be of sound body, mind, and spirit. However, after destroying a meteor, Heihachi regains his memories, and with them, his old sinister ways. He wiped out the Tekken Monks and now wishes once again to defeat Kazuya for good.
Vile is a reploid who is a continual thorn in the side of X. He was defeated by X and Zero at various points but ended up being destroyed by the titular X after their last fight inMegaman X. He returned as Vile MK II inMegaman X3after being resurrected and given a new body by Sigma. This would once again not be his last appearance, as he would return as Vile V inMegaman X8, sporting a new color scheme and an even more unhinged persona than he previously had. He once again appears as a recurring foe of sorts, before his proper boss battle, which ends in his defeat.
Outside canonical appearances, Vile is resurrected multiple times in theProject X Zoneseries, where he once again has an axe to grind with X, and takes him on alongside a number of video game characters, including even Heihachi Mishima fromTekken. The second game has him reborn as Vile MK II and appearing alongside Sigma, who was responsible for this resurrection in the canon material.
The expansiveCastlevaniaseriesfeatures the villainous Dracula as its final boss in the majority of its installments. His origin is revealed inLament of Innoncence. Chronologically, he was first a strategist named Mathias who tragically lost his first wife to an illness while he was involved in a campaign elsewhere. Her premature death caused him to curse God and motivated him to become an immortal.
This resulted in a cycle of deaths and rebirths, where he fought againstthe Belmont family across multiple lifetimes, with his former comrade,Leon Belmont, swearing his clan would challenge him every time. In the far future of the series, after his supposed final death, he is reincarnated into the heroic Soma Cruz. Nonetheless, Death, Dracula’s former right-hand, seeks to resurrect his master once more. Like every other past attempt, this revival ultimately ended in another defeat for Dracula. Further Castlevania games are likely to continue the life-and-death cycle of Dracula and his endless quest to defy God and destroy humanity, as Dracula believes their ills are what keeps him returning.
