Who are your Favourite Characters of all time?

[Aladyyn]

Kreia
Guybrush Threepwood
G-Man

 

[tacogeoff]

Geralt of Rivia (Witcher)
Trevor Phillips (GTA V)
John Marston (RDR)

HM
Cloud (FF)

 

[Cush]

HK-47 (KOTOR 1 & 2)
Kasumi (Mass Effect 2)
Viconia (Baldur's Gate)

 

[saluki]

Heh it is John Marston, isn't it.

I've been writing John Marsten on message boards for a while now and nobody ever corrected me. lol

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

1) Jetstream Sam - Metal Gear Rising
2) Yamazaki - Capcom vs. SNK 2
3) Sabin - FFVI

HM’s: Laharl (Disgaea), Mr. Torgue (Borderlands)

 

[Unholy Diver]

Andrew Ryan - Bioshock

John Henry Eden - Fallout 3

Nathan Drake - Uncharted series

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

another vote for Kreia

Past all the plot nuances and Star Warsy stuff, the big advancement this game made was to create the best written female character in a game ever. This is even a greater accomplishment if you consider that the writing staff, judging from the credits, was all male.

Have any games before or after this tried to write in the protaganist's mother as a deep, main character? You of course have miles and miles of paternal icons scattered everywhere, to the point where it's clichéd (for exhibit A, see progenitor unit Gandalf), but the feminine point of view is utterly lacking. Part of this is a function of the demographics of the developers working in the game industry I guess, but you'd think a shockingly simple idea as writing an in-depth maternal figure would have gotten more mileage elsewhere.

Kreia has gone through 3 names, 2 costumes, and countless lies at this point, but you always get the sense that she's stayed true to her own character throughout. That's good writing.

 

[Kevin Musto]

Connor McDavid in NHL20. Strongest character in the game.

 

[flyingkiwi]

GLaDOS - Portal 1 & 2. By a mile. I loved Wheatley and Cave Johnson in 2 as well, but the overall writing and development of GLaDOS across both games is just fantastic.

Picking a second and third favourite is hard, they come and go.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

John Marston gets another vote

 

[Pay Carl]

Arthur Morgan AINEC

 

[Maverick41]

I'll just take my 3 favourite games/series and give you the Top 3 for each and the number 1 from each combine for my top 3 overall.

Neverwinter Nights 2:
1. Khelgar Ironfist
2. Sand
3. Neeshka

Mass Effect:
1. Jack
2. Tali'Zorah
3. Urdnot Wrex
This was so dificult and I had to leave off a number of characters I really liked (some have been mentioned by others like Mordin and Garrus). I am still not sure if I should stick with these three.

Dragon Age:
1. Varric Tethras
2. Leliana
3. Morrigan

Ranking my top 3 would look like this:
1. Varric Tethras
2. Jack
3. Khelgar Ironfist

I will add some reasons why I like each character so much later this week when I have a little more time.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

John Madden

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Honestly, even though I just gushed over it, I'm not sure...

Even after the restored content update, it suffers from it's janky development and technical issues. It's sort of haphazardly slapped together, and it hasn't dated all that well on the technical side either.

I still go back and play it every once in awhile, but it's also hard to recommend for that reason.

However, it doesn't hurt to give it a whirl. There's a lot to forgive, but there's also a lot of reward.

I played it on Xbox, so no chance of the mods to fix the game. I literally played all the way through to the end, but because I didn't make the right dialogue options I never actually found out what had happened to cause the planet to be destroyed. I had to search on the internet to go "oh, so that was what caused it"

Having said that, HK-47 is an incredible character.

I'm going to throw in the leader everyone loves to hate, Queen "would you like a trade agreement with England?" Elizabeth from Civ 5.

Finally, Annah from Planescape: Torment. A wonderfully written character, tough and brash on the outside, unbelievable broken and vulnerable on the inside.

 

[filip85]

Jim Raynor - Starcraft
General Carville - Red Alert Retalitation/Red Alert 2
Captain Price - COD
Mason - Black Ops

 

[Commander Clueless]

Having said that, HK-47 is an incredible character.

Ever so narrowly missed my list, but I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Cheddabombs]

So many of my favourite characters come from Fire Emblem lol

The Black Knight/Zelgius - Fire Emblem PoR/Radiant Dawn (favourite no question)
Caineghis - Fire Emblem PoR
Lyon - Fire Emblem Sacred Stones

 

[CartographerNo611]

Author Morgan followed by Geralt of Rivia.

 

[Shareefruck]

I tend to find myself severely disliking and being unable to take seriously how the grand majority of Western AAA game protagonists are traditional gruff, cold, hardened, ruthless, man's man, capable tough guys who are built to kill but eventually wrestle with the morality of their actions. While there are different nuances to each of them, they all feel like basically the same guy to me, who may as well be voiced by the exact same voice actor (and I imagine in many cases are).

Arthur Morgan, Kratos, Joel, Dewitt, even the more interesting Geralt, to some degree. They all have their individual quirks and some of them have a lot of depth, sure, but even when they're well written, I find myself not remotely caring because of this. It's just not a very interesting character dynamic in general, I find.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I tend to find myself severely disliking and being unable to take seriously how the grand majority of Western AAA game protagonists are traditional gruff, cold, hardened, ruthless, man's man, capable tough guys who are willing to kill but eventually wrestle with the morality of their actions. While there are different nuances to each of them, they all feel like basically the same guy to me, who may as well be voiced by the exact same voice actor (and I imagine in many cases are).

Arthur Morgan, Kratos, Joel, Dewitt. They all have their individual quirks and some of them have a lot of depth, sure, but even when they're well written, I find myself not remotely caring because of this. It's just not a very interesting character dynamic in general, I find.

Pretty much, went from overly buff GI Joe action figure with a gruff voice and dark backstory... To slim skinny jean wearing guy with a gruff voice and dark backstory

 

[HanSolo]

1. Geralt of Rivia: I mean what needs to be said exactly that @Nizdizzle didn't already say? The Witcher 3, as far as narrative strength goes is one of the best games of all time. And there's no shortage of deep and lovable characters but the game is special in large part because of Geralt's journey. No matter how you decide to play the guy in conversations be it a gallant moralist or a dangerous rogue, his journey through the main game and the DLCs is my favorite element of the game and it makes TW3's Geralt not just my favorite video game character of all time but one of my favorite popular media characters of all time. There hasn't been any other game where I reached the point that I'd completed all story content where I felt downcast that I didn't get to spend more time with a character. Geralt is the only exception.

2. Arthur Morgan
3. Nathan Drake

 

[Fixxer]

Locke Cole - Aka - The Treasure Hunter (Final Fantasy VI)
Link - (Legend Of Zelda)
X - (Megaman) or Crono (Chrono Trigger)

 

[NyQuil]

I tend to find myself severely disliking and being unable to take seriously how the grand majority of Western AAA game protagonists are traditional gruff, cold, hardened, ruthless, man's man, capable tough guys who are built to kill but eventually wrestle with the morality of their actions. While there are different nuances to each of them, they all feel like basically the same guy to me, who may as well be voiced by the exact same voice actor (and I imagine in many cases are).

Arthur Morgan, Kratos, Joel, Dewitt, even the more interesting Geralt, to some degree. They all have their individual quirks and some of them have a lot of depth, sure, but even when they're well written, I find myself not remotely caring because of this. It's just not a very interesting character dynamic in general, I find.

Meanwhile, in Eastern AAA titles they literally are the same person.

 

[TheDoldrums]

1. Vivi - Final Fantasy IX

You meet Vivi and he just seems like a shy, awkward little mage. As the story unfolds his character development poses really interesting philosophical questions and an incredibly emotional arc. It's always resonated heavily with me.

2. Lucca - Chrono series

She seemed like the most vibrant character in Chrono Trigger, her personality and look was so evident even with 16-bit sprites. Her actions set everything in motion. Because of the lore and deeper backstory, she also hangs like a ghost over Chrono Cross. She even made a cameo in Xenogears!

3. Otacon - Metal Gear series

Yes, I know Snake is infinitely cooler. But that's why I connected more with Hal. He's a brilliant man who has to watch helplessly as his loved ones die. He's afraid. He's very human in a series with larger than life anime-esque heroes and villains.

 

[Shareefruck]

Meanwhile, in Eastern AAA titles they literally are the same person.

Beauty standards, sure, but I wouldn't say all of these have the same character traits (although they lean into the stoic emo thing too much as well)-- they wildly jump around a lot more-- you're also focusing on one developer that is generally considered very hit or miss and widely known for being guilty of some really lame tropes in general.

I also mentioned Western because most beloved AAA titles that get brought up tend to be Western, not necessarily to suggest that Eastern was necessarily an exception (although it does strike me as less of an issue).

When I think of Japanese AAA developers (can't think too many, to be honest), it does feel like each one does their own thing, though. Nintendo is very different from Square Enix is very different from Capcom is very different from From Software when it comes to how they handle protagonists. There also aren't THAT many critically acclaimed, character focused and story-driven Japanese games to begin with, it seems. Obviously the mediocre ones should be expected to be uninspired and follow the same tropes. When I think of the bigger protagonists from top-drawer Japanese AAA games, I think of things like Mario, Jill Valentine, Cloud, Solid Snake, and things that are completely non-applicable like Pokemon and Street Fighter.