The Smartest Characters In Gaming Ever

After six helpings of nonstop gaming buffoonery, it's time to rebalance the scales a little: introducing the smartest characters in gaming ever!
This series is all about characters who blew me away with their incredible intelligence, bestowing them the ability to complete tasks you would've thought were far beyond any AI and allowing them to dominate the game they're in by the power of their wits alone.
To qualify, characters don't need to have such advanced AI that they'll leave you worrying they're going to grow into Skynet, they just need to be smart enough to impress within the realms of their games.For this first (and possibly only) episode in this series, I've included the characters that have personally left me impressive with their superior AI...
None of these are probably as impressive as a human who knows what they're doing, but that's not the point of the video, we're here to gush about intelligent AI.
Smart Gruntilda artwork by Dragonfetus1.
Credit goes to World of Longplays and longplays.net for the Batman: Arkham City footage. (Played by Spazbo4)
The Dumbest Characters In Gaming Ever playlist: • The Dumbest Characters...

[@MasterKnightDH]

As soon as I saw that thumbnail, I knew you were going to talk about Grunty leading her fireballs. We need more of that.

[@Lewtable]

Honestly I thought the video was gonna be the smartest villains in theory and Gruntilda being considered because her first act in the sequel was to roll up at the protagonists house personally and kill the protagonist before he found out that she was back. Quite the gamer move for a cartoony game villain.

[@Neo-Metal17]

Same

[@solidzack]

​@@Lewtableon the other hand Banjo and Kazooie are some of the smartest protagonists out there, because even after Gruntilda gave up, forfeited Banjos sister and fled, they still went back to her lair to fight and finish ger for good, so that she may never retaliate. They willingly went for her head, just to prevent a future assault again

[@Grane1234]

​@@solidzack...only after being told to do so by his little sister

[@cypherdastro8105]

For story smarts, Fawful from Bowser's inside story comes to mind. He throws the mushroom kingdom into chaos, conquers both it and Bowser's kingdom, puts bowser out of commission, and actually acquires the dark star and it's power. Really, the Mario bros are the only reason Fawful lost and without their intervention that beanie might have actually won O_O

[@FelipeLima-j8z]

of course gruntilda is one of the smartest, she literally deletes your save file if you cheat

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

Plus, speaking in rhymes constantly. That means, she has a very solid grasp on language.

[@temuror3816]

Whenever i think of smart characters in video games, (Cheating ai not witstanding.) Bentley from the Sly series always comes to mind first, partly due to my huge nostalgia for the series. He comes up with every plan the cooper gang needs for the situation, and is able to hack practically every defense system or computer he comes across!

[@sonicANDtailsfan157k]

For me it's Tails and Dr. Eggman, they have IQ levels of 300 more intelligent then the combined brain power of Steven Hawking and Albert Einstein.

[@pirateraider1708]

Some of the other ones in the Sly series could be pretty smart as well.

[@Vaquix000]

@@sonicANDtailsfan157k Shows that IQ isn't everything. You'd think Eggman would get it into his big head that he needs a different approach if he wants to take over the world

[@sonicANDtailsfan157k]

@@Vaquix000 because I'm pretty sure there's a difference between intelligence and common sense

[@theraymunator]

grunty with a lab coat got me acting unwise and it's not even the game over version

[@QuiltedDusknoir]

TMI, pervert.

[@therealteddiefrompersonafour]

Same lowkey

[@xhoidlostblade3856]

I think Draco simply forgets about her gimmick of not spinning puyo pairs when evaluating her position. The AI probably considers the placements where spins are needed, but it simply does not play them.

[@NightSprinter]

That, plus keep in mind that Draco is quite literally the first opponent you face in the original Puyo Puyo. She's kind of MEANT to be easy to defeat, even on the hardest difficulty level.

[@valmanway1844]

2:00 she locked in

[@starshkr46]

I mentioned this in a previous comment a long time ago but the AI for the Skeletons in Castlevania 64 amazes me, the skeletons can chase you around the stage and jump around on platforms to reach you and know to start attacking you with bones if they can't reach you.

[@tricky2795]

2:45 Klungo 3 from Banjo Tooie also seem to employ something like this, but I saw someone cheesing it by spinning in a circle, making them throw his attack where the game thinks you would've moved to.

[@victorvirgili4447]

Generally, the spin technique can beat characters that take your movement into account when aiming. Smarter characters will randomly alternate between normal aiming and tracking to keep you on your feet (see: Arcane Odyssey mages)

[@ericb3157]

offhand, i can only think of one game i've played where a boss could aim "ahead" of you, an obscure old N64 game called "Armorines". oh, and those evil snowmen in Banjo-Kazooie had that knack too!

[@ericb3157]

this reminds me of an exceptionally annoying enemy in MK4...Quan Chi. if you throw a projectile, he gets you with his "teleport stomp". if you jump, he stomps you. if you block ANY of his other attacks, he stomps you. if you run toward him, he hits you with HIS projectile attack, THEN stomps you! the ONLY way to beat him is to use a teleport move of your own! for example, play as Scorpion and use his "teleport punch" when Quan Chi does his stomp. the scary thing is, he's NOT A BOSS! he's PLAYABLE! i have the PC version of Rayman Legends, and THAT one has you control Murfy with the mouse AT THE SAME TIME that you control the other character with the keyboard! tricky, but not too bad.

[@mattb6522]

Good video! As a kid, I don't think it ever dawned on me that Gruntilda was actually aiming her fireballs later in the fight. It made the fight that much harder! I have to give Rareware credit for adding that extra layer of deviousness to her fight. Trying to get those last Jinjo statues and Jinjonator to activate was a bit rough. Man, some Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 & 2 bosses kicked it into high gear on some stages. If you weren't prepared with Tetris or Puyo Puyo fundamentals, they would absolutely bury you! I find a lot of puzzle games have characters that are either braindead or that will completely overwhelm you in a manner of seconds. I think I've experienced this in so many different puzzle game series: Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble, Puyo Puyo, Tetris Attack/Puzzle League, Tetris, and Dr. Mario.

[@sonicmastersword8080]

Uncharted 1. The final boss actually destroys your cover-meaning if you do not play effectively, you will lose since he never misses his third shot if you are within his sight.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

The first AI that really surprised me was in Fire Emblem Thracia 776. Units will exchange weapons with each other, or even go buy some new ones if you end up stealing them. Even more impressive when compared to the precedent game, Genealogy of the Holy War, when units will stop in front of you to get slaughtered, and Generals retreat for new fresh meat for you to grind on.

[@BATCHARRO]

"Fools! Instead of shooting where I was, you should have shot at where I was GOING to be! Gwahahahahahahaha!" Seriously though a switch up like that with no warning in the middle of a boss with a shielded opponent while having to shoot eggs with pinpoint accuracy as a small target four times while getting pelted with missiles that make you fake them out is crazy expectations. That's doable but bullshit, it pulls at the four corners of the human brain.

[@penpenguin4767]

my biggest fear, when the enemies' projectiles have human-like aim 😨

[@user-unos111]

Funny you mention Age of Empires II, because in that game I found my eraliest example of inteligent enemies. To be specific: The AI knows how to micro ranged units. Simple and nowadays not so impressive, but it was a nightmare for kid me when my units were pelted by english longbowmen and were almost unable to reach them. Also, I remeber a commentary of a game developer that stated creating invincible AIs is actually pretty easy. Is making them vulnerable yet challenging the hard part.

[@Zerethos]

One particular example I can think of is the Alpha Splinter from Metroid Prime 2 Echoes specifically the light counterpart. Don’t get too dash jump happy as it *WILL* intercept your attempts at dodging, *plus* it will always reset back to the center of the battlefield so the best strategy is to hug the edge of the battlefield and circle around it. When it gets ready to tackle just change direction and it should miss.

[@phantomy2034]

I remember that bastard. It's funny how it "powering up" actually makes it _easier_ .

[@Zerethos]

@ The one thing against this sunovabitch is that it is the first boss in the game, encountered very early and even if it is your first game in the series you would already have dash jumping ingrained into your game play. On top of that, you don’t have the space jump boots to either dash further or juke it entirely, no joke I almost got a game over from this guy on hard mode (or hyper mode for those Prime trilogy players). The one saving grace is that it is one of the few bosses to incorporate this strategy, the only other I accurately recall is the power bomb guardian.

[@nadavvvv]

as for the aiming ahead thing, actually one of the ghosts in pacman does exactly that

[@MrEvilbyte]

The opponents in Unreal (as well as Unreal Tournament) can lead their projectiles like Gruntilda can (albeit not with perfect accuracy all the time). And in addition, they will attempt to dodge your projectiles as well (and not just by randomly moving erratically, they will actually zip out of the path of an incoming projectile). Unreal's ai was pretty much the smartest and most complex ai for it's time back in the day.

[@Red_Biker_Dude]

Just wait until he plays ultrakill and finds the Guttertank

[@cartoonfan9million468]

Ah, yes. Gruntilda the Witch she must have magic prophetic ability to shoot her fireballs where the bear and the bird are going, i guess she really upped her game when they rescued Tooty and foiled her plan of stealing her beauty so she wants to fry the bear and bird into well done ursine and nuggets. She was quite good for a final boss, too bad you can't fight her again after you defeat her in the final battle.

[@Free2Flay]

I'm with you on the Rayman Legends CPU. I played the Vita version and had the same experience. Having a platformer-AI actually STOP and WAIT was actually kind of refreshing.

[@DoctorNovakaine]

Good AI examples are pretty scarce, but it's neat to see them showcased. I'd certainly be interested in seeing more if they're found! It would be interesting to see a showcase of narratively genius characters, too. But that might even be harder - a lot of storylines have a lot of dingus behavior on both the protagonist and antagonist sides!

[@jvts8916]

There are two cases that come to mind: one I like and one I don't. Apollo from Crosscode is a parody of Ace Attorney and MMO players that take things way too seriously, so one could be forgiven for thinking he's all bark. On the contrary, his AI is designed to adapt to the player's strategy. By the third encounter, his stats are also adjusted to keep up with a player that farmed for the best equipment available (heavily implying he did just that), so he also rules out overpowering him through higher numbers. As revealed in the late game, it's because he's beaten the early access versions of the game before. This doesn't stop him from being *even better prepared* in the fourth encounter once the new content releases. Normally, most strategy games will restrict what certain units can do because the enemy benefits from it too much, like how FE Assassins do not equip Lethality. This is not the case for Thieves in Phantom Brave 1. They can and will attempt to steal those items you spent so much time and effort in obtaining and leveling up, at which point it can potentially be gone forever. I hate these enemies because of this.

[@gyppygirl2021]

Thieves in Fire Emblem will also steal items from you, they're just limited by what items can be stolen. And then those stolen items are lost forever if they leave the map. Hope you weren't too attached to that elixir!

[@sammer1097]

Wait, I'm confused. I played through Phantom Brave very recently and I clearly remember that items stolen by thieves are not lost forever, they'll still be there at Phantom Isle next time you come back and you just need to re-equip them. Whether your equipment is broken, stolen, or thrown out of bounds, it's _never_ gone for good. I clearly remember a thief stealing my snakish (which is a unique item, so I can't be confusing it for another one) and throwing it out of bounds, but it was fine when I got back.

[@MasterZebulin]

Robber Funguys

[@ekimmak]

The downside is that Apollo in battle plays way too well for a human to face directly. Perfect dodging against any ranged attack feels a bit cheap. I suppose it could be justified by them playing with VR headsets, but it means the actual player has to instead engage in defensive strategies if they want to beat the PVP matches.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

​@@gyppygirl2021Then there's Thracia, when Thieves can steal anything, but capture also exists. If you let your defenseless priests open, they'll be taken away, and all their precious equipment will be instantly transferred to the enemy's inventory.

[@C20521]

While its AI is not really that smart, Yian Garuga from monster hunter is canonically seen as a smart species, he is intentionally designed to be one of the most annoying fights in the game and most of the stuff he uses against you involves things that hunters are usually susceptible to (roars, wind pressure, etc.) which he can then follow up into other attacks, which is something that most monsters don't do that often.

[@IaMaB0T_RG]

Alternate Puyo Puyo section title: Draco was a mistake #5

[@AnxMa]

Had some xp with Motion Capture (was almost Leon in new RE games :) and gotta admit, even though Midway has always created a seriously fluid and accurate movement animations and fight choreography for MKs in general (they were using MoCap before it was industry standard) they outdid themselves with MK 3's gameplay: still very fluid and polished. Ages better than SF2 IMO. There's a pretty cool port of UMK3 on DS/3DS btw.

[@waynemidnight7454]

I feel like Emilie (and some of the other Party Members) from Crosscode have great AI. They attack or retreat accordingly, don't get lost while platforming, and they level up their own equipment throughout the game, and they'll use Elements that enemies are weak against. Other good AI has to be in Pokemon Puzzle League. Have you played Super Hard mode? The amounts of chains and combos they get coupled with the speed they have and relentlessly mixing up which combos they do with "!" Blocks to slow your progress in clearing the garbage blocks should be illegal...

[@tntmoxy9697]

Rare did that trick of aiming at the position the player will be in not only with Gruntilda, they did it before with the lava-spewing volcano from the first level of Battletoads in Battlemaniac 😮 that's very neat

[@infiniteraide1642]

The combine snipers are pretty similar with the fireball technique, they'll hit you if you keep moving on one direction and the only way to avoid them is through cover or by going sideways and stopping when they take their shot

[@qu1253]

The bots in Quake 3 on nightmare difficulty basically have aimbot. They will laser you down with near perfect accuracy. You pretty much have to get good at strafe jumping, rocket jumping, and controlling pickups because you will not beat the AI in a fair fight. I remember the second to last arena in single player taking me over 20 tries because letting the AI get the quad damage powerup (which is hard to prevent because of where it's placed) was basically a death sentence. On the flip side, there's the soldiers in F.E.A.R., who will set up firing lines to box you in, throw grenades to flush you out of cover, and send in small squads to flank you. It's really cool how it makes you feel like you're actually going up against coordinated squads of soldiers, and it never feels unfair. In fact, it's arguably a little too easy once you realize how busted your bullet time ability is. I can't wait for Selaco to finish development, since it's basically F.E.A.R. but in the Doom engine.

[@Neo-Metal17]

Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation was made for this series. It adapts to all of your behavior overtime. Hiding spots, how you react when it's nearby, it's insane.

[@ekimmak]

I actually know of one other final boss that does this: Reflux in Rayman 3. But it's easier to figure out what he's doing, because his lightning strikes have marks on the ground warning you where his attack will land.

[@bubblegumxo]

The thing about UMK3 (not sure about armageddon) is that if you retry a few times, eventually you will win if you just keep reusing the same jump in combo. This even applies to Shao Kahn and Motaro. Now try the arcade version of MK2, it's literally impossible if you try the same thing repeatedly. You HAVE to essentially break the AI and do a changing sequence of attacks so your moves don't get auto countered. It's such a joke, that its honestly hilarious, because of certain things like you showed ie: they stand there until you move, etc. 😂

[@qu1253]

I watched an analysis of MK2's source code once. Essentially, as the game goes on, an integer value gets incremented that determines how often the AI chooses the "correct" response to the player's input. After a certain point, it literally becomes impossible to win without cheating or cheesing the AI because it will always react perfectly to whatever you do. Until you lose, get a game over and continue, at which point the AI resets to a manageable state before steadily becoming more difficult. That's not even getting into how the AI straight up cheats and ignores the game's own rules, like randomly hyper armoring through the player's attacks, attacks coming out instantly with no startup frames - hell, I think the AI even just flat out *does more damage* with its attacks than the player.

[@geekdaparaiba]

Dragon Quest XI has one of the smartest bosses in the game: Dora in Grey. Loves charming her enemies, and is always aiming for Sylvando, considering that one of his skills (Sobering Slap) remove some negative status effects, including Charm.

[@Ren-bo7bj]

I love Tertis DS, it is my favorite version of Tetris. I still carry around a DS lite with a flash cartridge that I can load ro-errrr... dumps of all my games onto for compactness. It has saved me many an hour of boredom in waiting rooms and such when smartphone games would leave me mildly annoyed at all the ads and microtransaction crap.

[@qu1253]

Why not put a DS emulator on your phone so you don't have to carry around a separate device? (Unless you're on iPhone where emulators aren't a thing)

[@Dimondium]

@@qu1253 They're actually becoming a thing; a recent app store policy change now allows emulators on the app store.

[@VitaEmerald324]

I will riot if Mr. Freeze from Arkham City is not on here. 9:02 I recognize that song. That’s some good taste!

[@brightestdud2430]

You can leave your pitchfork at the door

[@JNJNRobin1337]

i had to check to confirm its specifically the one from arkham city, yeah its them

[@raziyatheseeker]

It's kinda great that an evil super-genius who invented a freeze ray and power armor is actually intelligent in his boss fight, adapting to how Batman pummels him to not get caught by the same trick twice. You'd think that would go hand-in-hand, but it's never a given in games where smart enemies in-lore are actually smart when fighting them.

[@WhiteFangofWar]

'Oh, la ti da...' They call it 'MK Walker' for a reason. I remember Tetris Attack having excellent AI that can quickly combo you to death, especially on Very Hard mode. Definitely try that game out if you can, and see if your Puyo Puyo skills carry over. One of the things Metroid Dread's developers allegedly put the most time into was the AI for the EMMI robots, making them much harder to outsmart than their predecessor, the SA-X. Almost too much so, in fact. EMMIs in the late game are incredibly frustrating to get past, especially when you're slowed by water and they're not. - On the other side of Wild Arms, one of my least favorite bosses in the 3rd game were the Huskarls- a band of knights who the game even specifically says are designed to counter your moves. If one of them is damaged, one of them will use healing. if you use a buff or a debuff, they will dispel it. And if you DON'T do any of these things, they start using instant death moves on you. The secret is to LET them counter your actions- because there's 3 of them and 4 of you, you can tie up all their actions and out-damage their healing. Unfortunately this means the fight takes a very long time unless you are overleveled, and there's more than one fight against them. Nice idea, just a little too tedious.

[@qu1253]

"especially when you're slowed by water and they're not" **Laughs in getting the gravity suit early by sequence breaking and trivializing the last EMMI**

[@jakemclean7563]

20:00 EHHhh?! No this is coffee in this thermos I was just about to drink not orange pekoe tea I swear!

[@PlaystationMan-e3p]

F.E.A.R enemies are considered to be top notch ai in gaming history.

[@grunchchristmas]

watching this was very funny. i thought the rayman ai was the flying bug dude for a WHILE

[@gavout1511]

I just KNOW you’re going to cover the Mastermind from AAI2 at some point with this type of video.

[@Toothache42]

As much as people may bash on Persona 3 FES for having AI controlled characters besides the MC, the Tactics command can allow for some sophisticated responses from the characters after you learn to use it, even feels like the characters get smarter as the game progresses

[@aureliodeprimus8018]

Since i haven`t seen anyone mentioning it, every other version of Rayman Legends turns the Murfy Levels into regular jump-and-run levels with Murfy as an extra-button action when needed. So all these complaints about "bad AI" are just people being too stupid to solve basic puzzles. That is also the reason, why i consider the WiiU version of Legends the "true" version of the game.

[@ShadeMeadows]

*GRUNTY!!~* 💚💜

[@ClayAdams]

Wild Arms is one of my favorite RPGs, great game

[@Flashlight237]

This certainly looks like a topic that is based on how one wants to look at it. Olimar immediately comes to mind as Olimar seems quick to gather biological information about the many creatures of PNF-404 just by coming across them through happenstance. On the AI department, though..? In Ribbit King, the final boss is Gumbah Goo, and from my personal experience, the AI of Gumbah Goo always seems to figure out how to one-up the player in a game that is essentially what you get if you mix golf with a target practice obstacle course. I only won against him by either playing his game or just getting plain lucky.

[@thevideogamehit9016]

There's always a Sherlock Holmes type of character in investigation video games

[@azimmeme9994]

I played the Playstation version of Rayman Legends, and even I think Murphy is good.

[@EveryoneDisagreesWithPJ]

If your gonna make a part 2 for this, you should add the general from kaiser knuckle, he’s one of the smartest AI I’ve seen

[@alexstidham4612]

I think for smart CPU AI, you should look into stuff like the Xenomorph in Alien Isolation or the old human AI in the original Stalker which was so good it could beat the game on it’s own

[@OwGash]

Been like 3 years since i saw this chan. Good to see it didnt change. And yeah I remember the early Mortal Kombat AI. That s*** was so annoying. Input reading was often a problem with older fighting games anyway. Mostly boss chars (kof 98 rugal at max dif, ugh) Or DOA ultimate where they ''countered'' like 99% hits 13:10 dnno about that, most turn based rpgs dont have ai 0o at least not back then

[@floofycupkim1197]

Tbh i was thinking tails and mephiles on this list. Tails because he fixed up tech and is capable. Mephiles because he chose the hard way instead the smart way all because he wanted to entertain himself. Also he is HALF OF A SUN GOD! ik he chose the hard route yet did that to flex.

[@JojoJere]

2:29 Same like terry in terrydactlyland. But you ca sike both by spazzing and banjo and kazooie

[@vrturboprincessrescuercubed]

Looking for another Worst Level Ever? Boy, have I got one for you: The Water Shrine in Valis 3. You do this level right after unlocking the third party member, and it's a lengthy and infuriating level. It doesn't start out so bad, but in the second segment (of two), you'll need to use your Ice Magic to freeze enemies so you can use them as platforms. It's barely possible to make it across them with a very well-positioned slide, but underneath is a death pit, so freezing enemies is by far your best bet. Doing so takes MP, and you also need to figure out which of your three characters (one of which you only just unlocked) is optimal for it (since their magic effects are different for each one). And since the game is obsessed with showing off the Turbografx-CD's hardware, there are quite a few enemies at a time, including the supremely bothersome arrow-shooting enemies most likely to easily knock you off the pillar platforms. You can hit their arrows to stop them as well as freeze them, but they're small and fast, so you need to be precise. Checkpoints are sparse, so losing a life puts you at the very beginning of a segment by the way. Forgot to mention: you're supposed to have the Blue Wand for the ice power, but there is a possibility of enemies dropping a different one, which you have to make sure not to collect. Same goes for the boss as well. Not only that, but you need a decent amount of MP saved up for the boss, where you have to hit a bell numerous times while being assailed by regular enemies, as it becomes much easier if you can freeze them and stand on them to reach the bell. Also, you can't switch characters during the boss, meaning you're stuck with whoever you enter the room with- and they can also lose their fully-powered-up regular weapon upon dying, meaning you lose out on one character's advantage of being able to shoot upwards if you enter the room with not a whole lot of health and die before getting your bearings. There are more challenging ones later on, but this is when the difficulty spike in Valis 3 happens, and it was so bad it was almost entirely taken out of the MD version. This is coming from someone who recently beat Diamond Sands in Blast Corps/Dozer and finds it to be FAR more tolerable than the Water Shrine.

[@mehdara4134]

dude clementj64 straight up stole all of your creepy bad endings videos

[@ARandomTrout356]

7:52 Oh yeah. Don't even bother with Level 5 Push. I tried. I failed.

[@ls190v2]

'Bout. Dang. Time.

[@spyjack69]

Hugo strange Arkham city

[@acesamm]

Speaking of AI that improved in a later version, how do you feel that Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will improve it? Probably not DR2 smart, but hopefully not brainless. I’m sorry for asking this question since as far as I’m aware, you don’t have a next gen (I’m still calling Gen 9 that) console, but I also dunno if your PC can handle it.

[@OnlineVideoSurfer]

You want to make Gruntilda dumb again? Just spin around in circles like an idiot? She can only lead you like you're moving in a straight line, so those fireballs will go in strange directions. Same deal with the Snowmen, a lot of enemies in Banjo Tooie, and even some other games where there are leading projectiles like the original Silent Hill.

[@PAINNN666]

Lucca

[@9w8suxjehsoxjznw]

Easy! Any mortal kombat ai because they are psychic