My favorite has to be Jim Raynor from Starcraft. To one regime, he lost his son and wife (as a result of her grief from the former) and a new ladyfriend to another that had big implications for the sector. He seems like the character that despite his past (Confed Marine and later, outlaw), always tries to do what he believes is right.
My least favorite has to be Tidus from FF10, a whiny bitch and this:
My favorite would probably be Abe from the Oddworld series.
Love that blue-green goofball.
Some honorable mentions include Naked Snake from MGS3, Zidane from FFIX, Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, Klonoa from... well Klonoa, and The Nameless One from Planescape: Torment.
Least favorite is a bit tougher for me to figure out as I haven't played too many games where I outright dislike the main character. I guess Bubsy? Dude seems pretty annoying.
I'm going to pick my nominees from point'n'click, not only because I think the characters matter the most in such a writing-heavy genre, but also because puzzle adventure games managed to truly spark my passion with games when I was in, like, fucking elementary school. And I couldn't even read English (until a few months after I picked up The Curse of Monkey Island.)
My least favorites come neck and neck towards the finish line:
Kathy Rain from her titular game (and I wouldn't even remember her name otherwise)
and
Deponia-series' main character Rufus.
The tie is broken by Rufus for being such a fucking shitty motivator that I actually stopped playing within the first game of the series. I checked in from someone I knew played more than the one game and they confirmed that it wasn't readying up for a twist, the character was always going to be a complete dipshit with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Rufus can go fuck himself. Kathy Rain just barely loses only because I managed to finish the game while shaking my head at how pathetically glassy her character was. It was also a shorter game, and I was so confused by her tazing a homeless man that I sort of glazed over the part where she was ranting about gun statistics to someone threatening her with a loaded weapon.
Sorry, I think I digressed there for a second. Moving on.
My favorite character nominees are going to most definitely be Fran Bow and Rosangela Blackwell
Fran because it was one of the few times where nonsensical puzzles made perfect sense because I was (arguably) playing a schizophrenic person and it was fucking creepy cool.
Rosangela because she's just the right kind of respectable underdog in a mystery-solving setting (and she did it without ever tazing homeless people, Kathy.)
I'm gonna pick both because fuck you it's my disturbingly obsessive post (and because I'd feel really fucking bad for not picking the other. That's how much I liked the characters.) See you next year!
I like Core and Legends Lara Croft. She's basically the 90's "attitude" personified. I also love Edgar, Sabin and Terra from FF6, Raziel from Soul Reaver, and Heather from Silent Hill. Dan Fortesque is underrated. I generally get bored by point and clicks but I love Guybrush Threepwood, Larry Laffer, and Gabriel Knight.
As for dislike? I hate nu Lara Croft with a boiling passion. She spent most of the reboot either whining, screaming in pain or breathlessly muttering "I can do this". Probably doesn't help that I felt the game was mediocrity masquerading as AAA. I also dislike Titus from FFX (and everyone except Auron and Lulu), pretty much every Silent Hill protagonist after the 3rd game with Alex as the worst. Gabriel from Castlevania LOS I just found really hard to care about.
Not outright protagonist, but playable in a multiple character choice title: Jim Chapman from the Outbreak series. Now this guy's a wimp. He's tied for second worst speed AND second worst health in the whole roster. And yet thanks to his lucky coin and completely invulnerable dodge move he's one of the strongest characters in the game. His characterization also portrays him as very much in over his head in a zombie apocalypse, but figuring out how to survive to the best of his ability. His observations are usually the smartest, too. A pretty relatable guy.
Just to keep it Survival Horror on PS2, I FFFFUCKING HATE Mamoru Itsuki from Forbidden Siren 2. Now this game was a EU only deal, (Outside of Japan of course.) so you beautiful AMURIKANS probably couldn't try it, but he's all the worst parts of a western horror flick protagonist combined with some very terrible Japanese ones. He's emotionally dead, boring, almost completely incompetent in anything related to violence, very easy to manipulate, and excruciatingly dumb. He packs more punch beating you with a fucking broomstick than a lead pipe. He also frees an ancient monster from the Underworld. TWICE. And doesn't catch on either time. I just don't think a character that makes you want to yell at him is all that great.
Aditionally, I must at least give a honorable mention to Niko Bellic for really selling the Serbian sadsack genuine experience that was GTA IV. I won't go too deep into this one, since GTA is what everyone and their dog plays and most people already know what makes him a good character.
Favourite protagonist in terms of personality has to be Max Payne. That man has this twisted pathos and poetry in his soul that's just beautiful when it's turned into full on revenge anger. Max Payne 3 ended his story beautifully, too and Rockstar hit that one out of the park and then some. You have baleful, cynical late middle-aged Max in this vibrant beautiful Brazillian landscape and you get to just see how broken and truly fucked up he is. Glorious.
Least favourite is a tie, I think. I despised Aiden Pierce from Watchdogs. I absolutely hated his motivations for revenge and there are times when he is genuinely the villain in that game. Like, when he's in a sex slave auction I was convinced he was gonna free these poor women and help them escape BUT NOPE not ol' Aiden Pierce, friendo. He just LEAVES after getting a beat on the guy he's tracking and chases him. Like...the fuck.
My second dislike is Billie Lurk. That entire side game should have been Daud's last adventure and Arkane knew it.
My favorite is hard to chose. Very few game characters are interesting as characters, so I would probably end up just picking the leads from my favorite games. But I'll go with Harry Mason (the real one, not that spectacled faggot from Shattered Memories). Everybody's a superhuman in games, and that's boring. It was nice to see a "real person" and a dad as the protagonist. Second place goes to Ryo from Shenmue, the autistic but brave young hero we all wish we were. And third goes to all of Grasshopper's Suda-written game characters. Travis Touchdown is a complete loser but you love him and think he's kinda cool anyway, which is quite an accomplishment.
My least favorite is also a tough call, but the first name that leapt to mind is Jude Maverick from Wild Arms 4. I fucking hate what that game did to the series (though 5 is a slight return to form despite that), and the story was total dog shit on top of it. It's all exemplified in the main character, an obnoxious stereotype from the deepest pit of anime Hell. And it's not like WA is that grounded anyway, but that game was just too far for me. I don't expect good stories from JRPGs, but I do expect good characters, and WA4 couldn't even do that.
Of course none of that matters now, because the next WA game will be a mobile gacha piece of trash, and then the series will be as dead as Breath of Fire
Favourite protagonist in terms of personality has to be Max Payne. That man has this twisted pathos and poetry in his soul that's just beautiful when it's turned into full on revenge anger. Max Payne 3 ended his story beautifully, too and Rockstar hit that one out of the park and then some. You have baleful, cynical late middle-aged Max in this vibrant beautiful Brazillian landscape and you get to just see how broken and truly fucked up he is. Glorious.
They really did do Max Payne right. I resisted for a long time because I respected so much what Remedy did with the series, but I got it on sale and was blown away. Rockstar is one of the best devs in the business, and they did exactly what a totally new dev should do with a beloved franchise: you don't insult the fans by trying to imitate what came before, you get the soul of it right while you do your own thing.
I've got quite a few favorites so I'll just name several. One of them is definitely Walker from Spec Ops because of just how broken he is psychologically, and how much his perspective colors the game you're playing, and you don't realize that until the end. He's the character you follow, but not the one you sympathize with, and few games have the balls to do that.
Kratos in the first God of War game also comes to mind. He's not an angry machine of death like in the sequels, he's a remorseful soul who has no idea how to let go of his guilt. The scene where he attempts suicide when he realizes he'll always be tormented by his sins remains one of the most powerful scenes in the series, and perhaps gaming.
I also love the Doomslayer in the 2016 reboot, partially because of how fucking pissed off he is, and yet his characterization is beautifully subtle. You get a sense of who he is entirely through his hand and vision movements, but the game never forces it down your throat.
Now as for least favorite, it would probably be Joel from The Last of Us for just how unlikable he is. Maybe that was the point since he was a bitter and broken man, but I really did not enjoy playing as him. He doesn't have the interesting psychology of Walker for me to want to play as him. And while I'm talking about TLoU, I also really hated Ellie since she came off as an irritating little brat.
Favorite? Kain, from the Legacy of Kain series. It's just so fun to be the villain, saving the world just so you can conquer it later. Plus a great script and voice acting.
My favorite has to be Jim Raynor from Starcraft. To one regime, he lost his son and wife (as a result of her grief from the former) and a new ladyfriend to another that had big implications for the sector. He seems like the character that despite his past (Confed Marine and later, outlaw), always tries to do what he believes is right.
Honorable mention to Broodwar era Kerrigan. She was a fun bitch.
Least favorite? Any character you create yourself in a story driven or open world RPG. Because they're always totally bland and the story is just written around the assumption the player will self insert into some dumb waifu filled power fantasy. I'm looking at you, Bioware.
My favorite is Cloud. I like that he's a sassy asshole. He's also a trap.
I guess my least favorite would be Amy from Sonic? But she's fun to play as and isn't annoying in the Adventure Games so IDK. She's really only annoying in the shows or comics.
My favorite is Cloud. I like that he's a sassy asshole. He's also a trap. View attachment 545416
I guess my least favorite would be Amy from Sonic? But she's fun to play as and isn't annoying in the Adventure Games so IDK. She's really only annoying in the shows or comics.
My favorite would have to be Shulk. He really changed my view of what a jrpg character could be. He doesn't brood and go all emo. He's optimistic and just wants to get shit done no matter what. Plus he has his own motivations and really drives the story, unlike many jrpgs which would have the protag be some semi-mute weirdo.
Worst would be Donte for being a huge fuck you to anyone who likes Devil May Cry.
Worst? probably Nowe from Drakengard 2. very few protagonists have the distinction of breaking the world due solely to following a pair of tits.
Best is a bit harder. First one that comes to mind is Solange from Code of Princess. It sounds sappy. but there just something about a protagonist who's always smiling, happy and willing to believe the best in pretty much everyone she meets that just makes me smile. Even if everyone she meets wonders why she doesn't wear enough clothes. But Atlus in general is really good at writing characters.
Simple, skilled, takes no shit, gets a reasonable amount of pussy. Fuck those Gears of War meat tanks, this is a true male power fantasy.
Broke:
Leonard is a retard, his heart is in the place but he is not cut out to be a hero, literally everyone else in the party has a better grasp on being a hero than him. And it's infuriating because he's the leader and the chosen one so he calls the shots.
Leonard is an exceptional individual, his heart is in the place but he is not cut out to be a hero, literally everyone else in the party has a better grasp on being a hero than him. And it's infuriating because he's the leader and the chosen one so he calls the shots.
Don't forget the princess getting kidnapped 4 times from him in the course of 1 game and all the innocent people he doesn't save because he keeps forgetting he can turn into a giant War robot.
Cloud was perfectly fine in the original game. He was a guy who wanted to be badass, was a loser in his initial attempts to tryhard his way to badassery, but grew a pair, got his mental shit sorted out in the process and became a badass in all the ways that actually mattered by the end.
All the sequel shit just had to undo parts of that and return him to the mentally messed up fuckup he used to be because some idiot thought character development was less important than milking melodrama he should have gotten past.
Simple, skilled, takes no shit, gets a reasonable amount of pussy. Fuck those Gears of War meat tanks, this is a true male power fantasy.
Broke:
Leonard is an exceptional individual, his heart is in the place but he is not cut out to be a hero, literally everyone else in the party has a better grasp on being a hero than him. And it's infuriating because he's the leader and the chosen one so he calls the shots.
Fang is a great example of the kind of guy who isn't trying so fucking hard to be a badass and just gets shit done. Hell, he's just a normal dude who is thrust into power and responsibility above his weight class very early on and while he's understandably annoyed with having all that dropped on him, he sucks it up and decides to just do what he can.
He is a really good example of an everyman type of character as he is just a normal guy who became a lawyer. He has rather great development, and used to be reliant on others but soon comes into his own over the course of the first game from an average joe to a competent lawyer. He actually gets shit done, and will solve a case no matter the odds stacked against him. Though he does make really dumb decisions like
when he showed evidence that incriminated the culprit of Turnabout Goodbyes straight to their face
, however this makes a bit of sense since Phoenix is a naive rookie who soon actually learns from his mistakes. Overall, Phoenix is a truly good protagonist since he is a relatable guy, and has a great character arc which continues in the next 2 installments..
Least Favorite: Makoto Naegi (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc)
This guy is truly the most bland character I have probably ever seen. He is essentially a dating sim protagonist that was given an attempt at being a character and fails miserably. He never really develops as he remains a naive, and optimistic boy till the very end of the game who has to have his hand held by more intelligent characters to progress. While he is intentionally bland, that makes it worse and his blandness is extremely unrealistic since he basically likes whatever is popular at the moment which takes out the relatability factor the developers intended for him. Doesn't help that he is credited for saving the day when
the main villain basically let him win just so she could feel what failure is like
, so him winning isn't some great feat like the series tries to portray in the spinoff game, and the anime sequel, Danganronpa 3. He is so bad that the protagonists in the future games basically go against his ideals which are portrayed as a major good. Doesn't help that he is basically a Gary Stu with little flaws, and the flaws that he does have actually make him endearing to other characters which benefits him.
