Instances of Ballsy Character Design

[DustyDrB]

Jimmy Hopkins from Bully, I suppose. Pug-like doesn't even begin to describe his appearance.

I've got a rubber band ball with your name on it.

I have a Go-Kart with 'DustyDrB Crusher' written on the front.

Dammit! I've been out-bullied!

 

[Super Toast]

Jimmy Hopkins from Bully, I suppose. Pug-like doesn't even begin to describe his appearance.

I've got a rubber band ball with your name on it.

I have a Go-Kart with 'DustyDrB Crusher' written on the front.

Dammit! I've been out-bullied!

+1000000000 awesome points for having played Bully, by the way. It pretty much defines the term 'Needs More Love'.

 

[Vault101]

chell from portal

not that her charachter design was really a big issue but first game she looks like she hasnt slept in years...or HAS been sleeping for years

 

[zehydra]

I'd have to say L4D. The first game for having normal people. The second for not only having normal people, but having the only human female be ugly.

First or second?

If it's first, I dunno, Zoey isn't bad looking

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Right off the bat? Therazane the Stonemother in WoW. Because while idealization isn't necessarily a bad thing, the occasional angry boulder can be a refreshing sight.

...oh, and every fat bahmi dude in Rift.

 

[Yokai]

I'd have to say L4D. The first game for having normal people. The second for not only having normal people, but having the only human female be ugly.

First or second?

If it's first, I dunno, Zoey isn't bad looking

And, depending on your viewpoint, Rochelle isn't ugly either, just a bit average-looking. Which is still several steps up from the hypersexualized women of most games.

Borderlands had relatively interesting character design. Sure, there was Brick, big, scarred meathead that he was, but Mordecai was a skinny bastard with a strange chinbeard and greasy dreadlocks, Lilith wasn't exactly conventionally attractive, and Roland was black, which, oddly enough, is still a rarity for protagonists these days. And they were all dressed like hipsters, so there's that.

All the really adventurous instances have already been mentioned.

 

[iblis666]

Nier head a lot of balls. Badum tish.

yeah, was thinking the same thing having one of the main characters be a hermaphrodite was a very ballsy choice on their part even if a large portion of their audience is in japan

 

[No One Jones]

Have you seen the protagonist for Soldier Of Fortune?
Dude looks like an Australian outback pornstar.

Hes loosely based on a real guy named John Mullins who was some sort of spec ops person.

 

[No One Jones]

Games like Amnesia, where your character is mentally frail and physically helpless. Taking that control away, suddenly eliminates illusions of badassitude from the already generally overcompensating gamer population. Its nice to be told you can shoot someone, and its nice to think you've gotten quite good at. But take away even the possibility...

 

[ColeusRattus]

I think Lara Croft is one, excuse the word, "ballsy" main character. I know she's quite mainstream, and well know, and basically the arch type heroine now, but back when the first Tom Raider was developed, I think it was a bald move to go for a female main character in a media that was then dominated by adolescent boys.
Of course, you might argue that staring at the bottom of a well built woman (and positioning her to walls so the camera would allow a frontal view of... two pyramids) does sell to that demographic, but then you could've always gone for a sexy female sidekick for a male protagonist, which would have been easier to identify with in the target demographic.

So thumbs up for the original Lara Croft!

 

[Danceofmasks]

Super meat boy?

 

[Furious Styles]

Spoiler: BY AZURA

You knew what this was going to be

The most awkward and creepy face zooms I have experienced in my life. HERSHEY KISS HEAD!

I led that guy into the wilderness and killed him so many times, but he just kept reappearing.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

The shorts that Nintendo makes the new Pokegirls wear are basically the underlayer in jean or fluff form.

 

[Sixcess]

Femshep has, I think, the smallest breasts of any major female character in video gaming, and wears armor that completely covers her from neck to toe.

Ironic really, given how sexualised the Mass Effect series in other ways.

 

[Wuggy]

Basically all characters in Team Fortress 2. They're cartoony and colorful which is very unusual for a multiplayer fps.

 

[Sonicron]

After Resident Evil pretty much had the market cornered in terms of growing horror game franchises, I think the Silent Hill games went for pretty ballsy concept and design by making their protagonists regular people fearing for their lives instead of combat-trained muscled slabs with a doombringer's arsenal. Nowadays it's become a more accepted model, but back then it was a pretty unconventional move, especially considering RE's popularity.

 

[plugav]

Ninja'd by the OP, The Nameless One and Raziel were the two I immediately thought of when I saw the thread.

I might add Kain as he appears in SR 1&2 and Defiance:

Add to that his joyful laughter when he impales an enemy.
Legacy of Kain is noteworthy for letting us play characters who are not only ugly, but also completely amoral at best.

Femshep has, I think, the smallest breasts of any major female character in video gaming, and wears armor that completely covers her from neck to toe.

Ironic really, given how sexualised the Mass Effect series in other ways.

I'd give the "smallest breasts badge" to Jack, but that's only because they're so exposed. Getting the tank top's a good reason to do her loyalty mission, without it she'd probably catch a Collector cold an die.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Raziel reminds me of another character from the Legacy of Kain; Kain himself. I mean this both from his appearance in the original Blood Omen when he looked human and from the Soul Reaver/ Defiance age. Hell, he was always ugly, and as a character he only got more arrogant and morally suspect as time went on.

I was going to include Kain in the OP, but I felt it was already long enough. But yes, Kain is a fucked up looking dude.