Gamer Peak

Ursula – Greatest Disney BBEG?

“Life’s full of tough choices, isn’t it?”

A Bad Guy that makes deals is always a fun concept for a Table Top Roleplaying Game. A hag making a promise with a handshake, a genie ready to twist the words of a wish, a devil being devilish with the details. It’s always going to lead to fun, nervous roleplaying, and often with long lasting ramifications.

Combine that with a half-octopus form, shapeshifting powers, evil eels, Poseidon’s trident… and we’re looking at a true contender for Greatest Disney Big Bad Evil Guy.

Gehrman: An Unskilled Guide

There’s no way around it, this addition to the guide is going to show me up as hypocrite.

You see, when I got to Gehrman… I did… I’m ashamed to say… Git (a little bit) Gud.

I know. I know. The point of this guide is that anyone can take on Bloodborne because I managed it and I’m neither skilled, nor am I quick, nor am I attempting anything except hacking-and-slashing. The more you play a game, the better you will get, but my Soulsborne experience has lacked any finesse until I got to Gehrman.

So, this unskilled guide is going to talk about parrying. But it’s okay. This is the only time I ever parried on my first playthrough, which meant I only had to figure out his moves. And Gehrman makes it quite obvious when he’d like you to parry.

Scar – Greatest Disney BBEG?

You don’t have to be a bad guy to the the bad guy, but it helps. So many villains, Disney or otherwise, have a loveable side, misunderstood in some way. If you want to be a true contender for greatest Big Bad Evil Guy, you really need to have that in your core.

For instance, someone who is ready to commit fratricide, nepiticide, abuse of multiple family members, a hostile takeover that leads to the breakdown of an entire ecosystem… well… they’re gunning for the number 1 spot.

Grand Councilwoman– Greatest Disney BBEG?

I’m not going to rant about the live action Lilo & Stitch. I’m not going to rant about the live action Lilo & Stitch. I’m not going to rant about the live action Lilo & Stitch. I’m not going to rant about the live action Lilo & Stitch…….

…but where was Gantu?! You can argue Dr. Jumba Jookiba is the main villain (if you didn’t actually watch the original movie properly) but not having the big guy show up at the end was one thing in a pile of niggling things I didn’t like about the remake.

But, like I say, I shan’t rant.

Regardless, if we’re looking at Lilo & Stitch from the perspective of a TTRPG adventure, neither Gantu nor Jookiba are the overarching villain. They are henchmen that ramp up the danger level in the 2nd and 3rd acts, but they are both in this story because of a supreme leader. The Grand Councilwoman is the first character on this list that is not explicitly her movie’s Big Bad, but if any character fits the BBEG role, it’s her.

Ebrietas: An Unskilled Guide

Get behind them. It’s a common piece of advice for Soulsborne bosses. But for Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, it’s especially true.

You can face her head on, there’s a way to do it I’m sure. Yet, for a clumsy oath of a gamer like me, getting to the blind spot of this boss is essential.

And I don’t just mean standing behind them. I mean you need to get really behind them. At the risk of being vulgar, one needs to be so close to the back of Ebrietas that you can see the inside of the character model.

Shere Khan– Greatest Disney BBEG?

So I’ve skipped Inside Out. Following my guide alphabetically, that leads us to The Jungle Book. You know, unless we want to look at Rage as the antagonist, and I don’t personally find that healthy…

Now this being an animal bad guy, in an animal based world, we might need to postulate a very particular kind of TTRPG for this to work. A group of humanoid D&D heroes taking on sentient snakes and orangutan might be fun, but tonally jarring. Perhaps The Jungle Book would play well as a solo campaign where you play as Mogli, or a the players take on the rolls of the animals getting him to safety?

Regardless, Shere Khan must be measured alongside all those that have come before, and measure equally. Sorry to say, but I don’t think he’s going to make the campaign villain Top 10 at this stage.

Mergo’s Wet Nurse: An Unskilled Guide

Most advice on how to beat bosses in FromSoftware games falls into one of three camps. Camp One: Accurate, but very technical, assuming the reader has accrued some amount of skill. Camp Two: “Git gud”. Camp Three is the most nuanced: “What-are-you-talking-about-that-boss-is-easy!”.

With the exception of the Witches, who I repeatedly beat by running around in circles and swinging carefree, I will always acknowledge that all bosses will be difficult to someone. Flukes happen, different attack patterns suit different play-styles, etc.

However, Mergo’s Wet Nurse initially had me rolling my temporarily-smug little eyes. It took two goes to beat a late game boss and with very little stress. Thankfully, I played the game again and she showed me what she can really do. Turns out, she’d been holding back.

Incredibles – Greatest Disney BBEG?

I hope you’d agree with me that a TTRPG set in the Incredibles would be amazing. Super heroes abound but heavily controlled, scrutinized and often ostracized. Retro-futuristic vibes. Good grounds for a superb adventure.

The villains in Disney I’ve scored so far tend to perform well on Presence (because they are great characters) but fall away on being an actual villain. The bad guy in the first Incredibles movie is a brief part of the story with very little time to brood or boast around the heroes, but his setup is very powerful.

I’m being vague about who the villain is because I don’t like spoilers. The villain of Incredibles is the worst kept secret, but someone is always watching a great movie for the very first time and its a nice twist.

Micolash: An Unskilled Guide

Not every Soulsborne boss is a winner. So are straight forward because they are teaching you how to play the game. So bosses have a gimmick that once solved makes the fight feel redundant. In the case of Micolash, we have something tedious.

When a boss beats us into the ground, we have to run back to the battle site from the bonfire/checkpoint. It’s a pain, but we soon figure out the quickest route and it gives us time to mentally prepare for the next round. In the case of Micolash, most of the fight is running around, rather than actually fighting the epitome of a ‘glass cannon’.

Frollo – Greatest Disney BBEG?

A great deal has already been said about Judge Claude Frollo. He’s not the mightiest or the scariest, but he’s in contention for the most troubling of all Disney villains.

His main motivations are “I am going to rid Paris of an entire group for God or burn the city down trying”, “I need to kill this woman so I don’t lust after her” and “I’m going to shut this baby in a tower after killing his mother because I have righteous works to complete.”

What we are therefore looking at here is a very dangerous villain. Not just because he enjoys executions, but because he is a tyrannical, zealous lunatic.