Favorite Characters

[Ges]

The RPG genre has always been known for having more character interaction and development as opposed to maybe some other genres. Everyone has a favorite, I presume. Who are yours?

Were there any characters in your playthroughs you thought were particularly well thought-out? Have a favorite bad guy or main character from anything?

I'll get to mine a little later.

[LunarGriever]

I always loved Emerelda from Xenogears as a character. Sure I wish they could have taken the time to give her the development she deserved, but what is most interesting about her is her design. She, IMO, might be the most unique character in video game history. I mean come on she's a freaking nanomachine colony built with the DNA of her parents.

Other than her most of my favorite characters come from either Lunar or Grandia. Justin, Feena, Alex, Jessica, Hiro and of course Luna.

[Void]

Most of the characters from Final Fantasy X, Tales of Symphonia and Digital Devil Saga. Sadly, I can't think of any recent games that have left a good taste of characterization in my mouth. I would like to say Oblivion and Fallout 3, but that would be bullshit. The characters in those games have the worst personalities ever, and I pretty much have little to no feelings for any of them.

[Evil]

Yuri from Shadow Hearts & Shadow Hearts Covenant. Because he's awesome.

Rei from Breath of Fire III. Because... he's awesome too...

[Sibek]

Geralt from the Witcher. His awesomness can only compare to this man:

SIUEHsyt54I



Also, Argilla from the Digital Devil Saga games.

[Luisfe]

You could simply say "the cast from Planescape: Torment"

[Sushi_b]

I always loved Emerelda from Xenogears as a character. Sure I wish they could have taken the time to give her the development she deserved, but what is most interesting about her is her design. She, IMO, might be the most unique character in video game history. I mean come on she's a freaking nanomachine colony built with the DNA of her parents.

Other than her most of my favorite characters come from either Lunar or Grandia. Justin, Feena, Alex, Jessica, Hiro and of course Luna.

I'm in a similar boat. I like a fairly large number of the characters from the Game Arts library.

I often find that I like pairs of characters. Ones that compliment each other well. Some of my favorites include Kyle and Jessica (Lunar:SSS), Justin and Feena (Grandia), Mareg and Tio (Grandia II), Frog and Magus (CT), Main Character and Dawn Star (Jade Empire), Etna and Flonne (Disgaea). Probably others I can't think of.


For just non paired characters, Garrus is a character I really enjoyed a lot from Mass Effect. Gerhalt from Shining Force II was another favorite since I was a kid. As was Raja from Phantasy Star IV.

[Devil King]

Kuja from FFIX because he's an effeminate girly-boy that has the coolest laugh in RPG history.

Kefka, too.

[Void]

I want to add the cast of Mass Effect. WRPGs usually are slacking in the area of protagonist, but not so in Mass Effect. It's not like most BioWare games where alignment has a huge effect on the universe, but they still manage to do a good job at capturing his personality, even through the choices (where most 'tons of choices' games don't really change the character's personality at all). I was kind of disinterested with Tali and Garrus, but now that I'm replaying the game and actually using Tali, I'd have to say she's a pretty good character as well.

I also want to rescind what I said concerning Fallout 3. The characters can actually illicit some sort of emotional response from me, but no character in the main storyline actually interests me, with the exception of Eden and Sarah Lyons at times.

[King Zeal]

Hmmm . . .

In no particular order:


1) Frog (Chrono Trigger): The only reason Frog makes this list and not Crono is because you could literally replace Crono with almost any silent protagonist in any other RPG. Frog, however, had an epic backstory, great character development, a great design, and even a cool Shakespearean accent.

2) Vyse (Skies of Arcadia): Okay, Vyse isn't too different than your usual goody-goody, "don't-know-the-meaning-of-the-word-quit" adventure types. What makes him stand out to me, however, is his ego and one-liners like: "Impossible is just a word people use to feel good about themselves when they give up" or "The reason no one's ever succeeded is because I've never tried." and many others. Plus, Vyse is a pimp. For a while, there was even an imaginary RPG "rule" called "Vyse's Law", which stated that every female character in the game is destined to fall in love with the protagonist. Vyse set the standard; that's just how badass he is.

3) Kuja (Final Fantasy IX): He's been mentioned already, but I'll expand on it by stating that Kuja still remains my favorite villain of all time, even almost a decade since I played the game. The reason for this is that Kuja is the only villain in any story I've encountered whose reasons and actions I wholeheartedly agreed with. To me, everything Kuja does in the game is justified. Kuja was, from the day he was "born", put into one of the worst situations imaginable and simply did what he had to do to escape it. Were his methods . . . extreme? Yes. Did he develop a god complex? Definitely. Would I have done the same thing in his place? You bet your ass.

4) Luke fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss): Luke has replaced Tidus on this list, because he pretty much does everything Tidus was intended to . . . but better. Luke starts out as an arrogant, sheltered, ignorant asshole . . . and I don't mean "asshole" in the Ryudo (from Grandia 2) or the Squall (from FFVIII) sort of way. Those two were good guys who had a bit of a hard time expressing their true feelings. Luke was just a pure dickhead. Luke had little empathy for the suffering of others, thought the world revolved around him, and went out of his way to basically belittle others. For the first third of Abyss, I hated Luke with a passion. But, all of that changed during the point in the game when Luke reaches his absolutely lowest point. After causing the deaths of thousands, dooming the world, and subsequently being abandoned by his entire party, Luke comes to realize that he has fucked up royally. He vows to change . . . and I don't mean in the "oh, I'll just avoid making the same mistake in the future" sense of change. Luke's personality takes a complete 180-degree turn as he dedicates himself to putting his deeds right. But the thing that makes this cool is that the other characters don't forgive him immediately--for relatively 90% of the remaining game, the rest of the party still hates Luke's guts. Even so, he still moves forward, showing not only incredible will, but that anyone can make mistakes and then learn from them.

5) Ashley Williams (Mass Effect): Ashley, in my opinion, is the best character in Mass Effect by far. She has far more personality traits than any character in the game. She's arrogant, she's tough, she's xenophobic, she's religious, she's feminine, she's horny, she's . . . well, you get my point. But, rather than making the character seem like a disjointed mismatch of conflicting character traits, it actually serves to make a pretty convincing human being. Now, to prove my point, let me just sum up what I remember fairly quickly:

"Ashley's grandfather was disgraced decades ago, and so she eagerly throws herself into near-suicidal situations in order to redeem her family name. Further showing her commitment to her family, Ashley always goes to visit her mother and sisters while on shore leave, and she constantly quotes various lines of poetry as taught by her father. She believes that her father has gone to heaven, since she's implied to be a Christian, and resents the fact that people have abandoned most forms of human religion simply because extraterrestrial civilization has been discovered. This viewpoint fuels into her dislike of aliens, whom she overall distrusts but works with because of her duty to Commander Shepard. Also, if you make Shepard and Ashley an item, they have the kinkiest lines in the game. Such as this post-coitus gem:

"Well, that gives new meaning to the phrase, drop and give me twenty, hm?"
"You still sassin' me, soldier? I think you need more physical training."
"Tsk. Now, Skipper, what will it take to prove that I'm in prime condition?"

I rest my case. Ashley is the most fleshed-out character in the game, period.

[twerp]

4) Luke fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss)


It's funny you bring him up because I always thought while playing that game, "I've never seen the entire party turn on the main protagonist like this before." Luke's development was the only thing about that game I actually liked.

[Atlas]

Locke from FFVI always comes to mind when I think about who's my "favorite." And as lame as it might sound, Zidane was pretty kickass too. And the Lunar cast can never be forgotten.

[Cyrus the virus]

Thanks for the reasons, Atlas. Jeez.

[Atlas]

Reasons? I've no time for that.

[Void]

He has reasons! They are simply short and abrupt! Yeah. Both of those at the same time. Crazy, eh?

[Atlas]

If I'm being mocked by a guy who sings songs about nutmeg, God help us all.

[Void]

There is no God.

[Atlas]

Exactly.

[eniosus]

As brought up before, Game Arts does a good job in bringing characters to life. so I hand it to them. most my fave characters come from their games also. but man.. Laguna from FF8.. I always could relate to that dude.. Luca Blight.. to me he's just the best villain I've seen in a game. Bart from Xenogears.. That guy has a big dick. It's been so long since I've played these games that I'm sure I'm missing a lot of people. I'll update this once I remember. =D

[Mark]

I have a few favorites, here I go

Flik (Suikoden) - Flik is one of my favorite characters of all time simply because of his sense of Justice. Strong willed and above all else does everything for the good of it. His development from when you first meet him through the progression of the game shows a big change, and he definitely is a truely honest character who can get through anything. His Love for Odessa really brought out the personality of him after her death.

Dias Flac (Star Ocean 2) - Dias was a true badass, and skilled better then anyone with a sword. He always remained calm and kept his cool in any situation, and he would always come out victorious because of it. Its bullshit that he was so much better then Claude at first, but later in the game his stats don't grow as much, and Claude eventually passes him. if his stats went up through out the whole game he would by far be a much stronger, and better character.

Locke Cole (FF6) - what can I say about this Thief...er Treasure Hunter. you have to Love Locke. His goals, his personality, his sea sickness. he was comical, smart, fast, and always got the job done!

Laharl (Disgaea/just about every NIS game after it) - what can I say I love this silly little Sadistic Overlord. He is fucking Crazy.

Cloud Strife (FF7) - Yeah yeah I know what you are all thinking. however the thing I have to say about Cloud is this. He is one of my favorite characters of all time, because of the fact that he thought he was someone else. the guy see's his Hero Burn down his home town, shes the women he loved get slashed, fights his childhood Hero and beats him almost dying in the process, gets experiment on in a research facility, ends up in a sort of comatose state and see's his friend Zack get gunned down right in front of him, and takes his over his Persona, in his super drugged up state. starts liking Zack's Ex, see's her get killed, shit I can go on and on. he is an amazing character. and that is that.