Villains/antagonists or otherwise.
I’ve been watching some Fable 3 lets plays and was reminded of how much I absolutely hated Reaver. You can tell Lionhead was really going for someone that you would “love to hate,” but every scene with him in it is miserable. Absolutely ridiculous that you can’t kill him.
For a character from an actually well written video game, Eric in Tony Hawk’s Underground. Hitting the last line in the game and watching your character punch him out in a cutscene afterwards is extremely cathartic.
I think the writers may have read the feedback afterwards. There’s a nod to it in Split Fiction (much better game), where the same elephant can be found on one of the early levels. If you destroy it, you get an achievement called Rose’s Best Friend with the caption “You made her cry”.