A villain by any other name is just as evil, but sometimes the more mysterious route is the way to go. Games have come a long way since the days of Mario and Donkey Kong, and the relationships between protagonist and antagonist have evolved a great deal since then. Sometimes, it's not even a single entity or individual causing the problems.
Whether they're a massive corporation, a spiritual manifestation, or a cosmic horror, not all villains need the standard monikers to identify themselves, usually relying on names consisting of "The" somewhere in the titles. Sometimes it's something as simple as Halo's Flood or Resident Evil's Mr. X. Either way, vagueness can play a major intimidation role.
Getting the most obvious contenders out of the way, anything with the word "Nameless" in its title essentially fits the bill. The Nameless King in Dark Souls III is an optional boss that represents the very image of what a Souls boss should be. Massive and fully armored, he's just one of the monstrous threats the player can encounter in this brutal title.
Armed with a massive spear and riding atop a vicious wyvern, the Nameless King is essentially a massive storm elemental who dishes out deadly lightning strikes for anyone foolhardy enough to challenge him. If a player can survive both his Storm and Nameless stages, they will be greatly rewarded with a wealth of souls.
Since Salt and Sanctuary is often considered the 2D Dark Souls, it makes sense that it would feature its own nameless entity. Case in point, the Nameless God from the final stages of the Metroidvania. Where the Nameless King was an optional encounter, the Nameless God is the game's end boss.
This is the fight for all the marbles, essentially. If a player can make it this far in the twisted 2D world, they'll have to contend with a massive hooded figure who wants nothing more than to see them dead. The Nameless God is like the Witch-King on steroids, and that giant meat cleaver he sports certainly won't be making anyone's life easier.
There have been several entities in the realm of fiction to bear the name "The Doctor," but the one seen in Cave Story is exceptionally sinister. Enslaving a race of rabbit people and using them as an evil army to attack the surface world is a plan that makes the likes of Doctor Robotnik sound like Mr. Rogers.
Corrupted by the Demon Crown, the doctor's plans for world domination come at the price of his sanity and the lives of the Mimiga. Like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story, the Doctor evokes horrific forces and corrupts the minds of the innocent to enact his horrific scheme. Fortunately, Quoth is there with blaster in hand to stop his nefarious and nightmarish plot.
Codename: S.T.E.A.M. is a tactical strategy game that takes heavy influence from the XCOM games, complete with a race of hostile aliens who want to conquer the planet. The game's characters and enemies all come from works of classic literature, and the deadly alien force comes from Lovecraft's collection of cosmic horrors.
The Great Shoggoth is the primary antagonist, but the race of tentacled beings the player's party encounters are all simply nameless aliens. Aside from their class names, they don't have much in terms of identifying features, appropriate for something out of H.P. Lovecraft's terrifying works.
Sometimes a game doesn't need one singular bad guy to get the point across, sometimes a mysterious energy or force of nature is more than enough to make for a memorable and dangerous threat. The Bergsons in Children of Morta have the responsibility of fending off the corrosive energy that unleashes a race of monsters upon the land.
Corruption is a common theme seen in many fantasy titles, and this game is no exception. The true villain of the dungeon-crawler is the force of darkness itself, represented by the creatures that crawl from the black sludge. So long as there's a monstrous threat, the Bergson clan will be called into action, making for more replayability.
While it's easy to assume the game's cast of powerful killers like the Trapper, the Wraith, the Hunter, and even the likes of Freddy, Ghostface, and the Demogorgon are the villains of the terrifying Dead By Daylight, they are all but puppets used by a malevolent force known as "The Entity." The Entity is an evil spiritual energy that feeds off of the anguish of the victims, and it's bigger than any psychotic slasher.
Best described as the cosmic embodiment of evil, the Entity is more of a force of nature than a villain with an actual face and personality. That's why it relies on nightmarish creatures to enact its horrible acts of murder and carnage.
Sometimes the forces of evil come in the form of natural corruption, spiritual forces of malice, and sometimes it comes in the form of a deadly plague. While Blasphemous has more than its fair share of hideous demons and warped creatures and humans, the true source of evil is a deadly plague known simply as "The Miracle."
The Miracle is a combination of plague and supernatural manifestation that affects the mortal population of this horror-based Metroidvania, at times turning them into hideous monsters. Needless to say, it's truly a disturbing and stomach-turning blight.
Not all player characters are the hero, sometimes it's fun to play the monster. In Carrion, players take on the role of an alien life form simply called "The Monster" who only has one mission, get out and survive. Like any mindless mass of tendrils, the player has to consume and destroy to escape the underground facility.
Like something out of a John Carpenter movie, the Monster is a nameless force of writhing destruction with a hunger for human flesh. The more it grows and evolves, the more dangerous it gets. This could easily be worthy of a Thing spinoff.
