Least Favorite Protagonist

[ninjaRiv]

I'm playing Persona 3 for the first time right now (recommended by an Escapist poster, wouldn't you know!) and I don't understand the hate for the main guy. I like him!

I can't think of any protagonist I don't like but the Silent Hill ones (as much as I love the series) could do with freaking out a bit more. Their acceptance of ROADS DISAPPEARING is a little annoying. "Oh, hey, the road is gone and now there's only a bottomless, foreboding hole. Guess I'll go around."

 

[SecondPrize]

Who, in your opinion, was your least favorite person to play as in a video game?
Jeez, who do you think my be the worst protagonist in a game?

I'm tempted to say Joel from Last of Us, just because

Spoiler

of the disgusting ending to the game, what with the lies and selfishness (good ending, hated that it happened)

But I think that my least favorite character I've played in a game would be any character in the original Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games (Before Pacific Assault and Modern Warfare, respectively)
I'm also tempted to say Rochelle from L4D2.

But let's keep this interesting: a player you have played as, not any game character.

Not Frank West from Dead Rising 2. I can't remember his name, but this guy was just an unlikable douche. It didn't help him that I was pissed they took out my photo minigame but even on his own, he sucked. In summary, whatshisnuts: Douche face, douche jacket, douche attitude, douche character. Also, anyone in Dead Island.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

But srsly tho, Minato would have been fine if his character had developed even slightly out of the antisocial loner archetype. Nope, full Dickhead Mode forever. What even is a game revolving around magical friendship powers?

I don't know, I still believe you're being unfair to him. I mean, yeah, Yu is definitely more likable than Minato, no questions here. But, my opinion of Yu fully formed only after Persona 4: Animation that managed to give him some sort of a character. Yu also had his share of possibly dickish answers, but just like Minato, you're never forced to pick it.

You know what really gets me though, the fact that whenever something important happens I.E a party member gets a new Persona by serious character development, it will cut to your main character standing around in his room having nothing to do with it.

Well, this is also just a matter of perspective and overall narrative in games. Persona 3 focused on its characters being more independent or reliant on each other, rather than on their leader. And, I actually liked it more. In Persona 4 none of your teammates, except Teddie, will get their resolve unless you help them, in Persona 3 some event and encouragement from teammate basically forces them to do it! Yukari helped Mitsiru, AKihiko helped Ken, Natsuki helped Fuuka, and everyone helped Aigis.
So stop bashing on Minato god damn you! He's a nice guy and basically Jesus! Although he does LOOK a little douchy, I'll give you that.

Probably Kratos, especially in God of War 3. Completely despicable character with stupid motivation who is basically a teenage boy in a powerful body. URGH!

And the thing is, they could've very well made this work if they simply outright turned him into the villain. I mean, he's basically already fucking up the world and everyone in it. But then the game tries to turn him into this tragic character who releases...*ugh* hope into the world, and Zeus is the real bad guy...

Worst part is the scene where he uses a poor slave girl as a doorstop, who gets brutally crushed to death as a result, which is immediately followed by Kratos being all worried about Pandora. Yeah, my heart bleeds for you, Kratos, you fucking asshole.

Yup, that part was when Kratos dies for me as a character. What gets me in that whole segment is just how fucking unnecessary evil it is! Kratos goes out of his way to drag and protect that innocent girl just to use her as some sort of doorstop! Are you seriously telling me that he couldn't use any of numerous corpses laying around?!

 

[TheRussian]

So much hate for Kratos. He's an antihero, not a protagonist. ;(
-snip-

From Wikipedia:

A protagonist, meaning "one who plays the first part, chief actor") is the main character (the central or primary personal figure) of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, who ends up in conflict because of the antagonist.

You play as Kratos. He is the protagonist. He can be a hero, villain, anti-her, anti-villain, but his repulsive persona just doesn't work for me, and for many other people it seems.

On the subject, I'd probably go with Galen Marek (Starkiller [sub][Seriously, "Starkiller? FFS"][/sub]) from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Everything from his sloppy design to his Marty Sue-esque abilities ruined whatever fun the game could deliver.

 

[boradis]

I came here just to sing my scorn of Kratos, and I'm glad to see I was beaten to it. From the moment I realized in the opening level of GoWI that murdering your own guys gave you health my dislike was kindled. It eventually blossomed into full-grown hate when he/I had to drag a caged prisoner onto a blast furnace to solve a puzzle. What the hell, developers?

And what's worse, he has no character arc ever. I've seen walk through of other entries in the series and he never changes as a person. He's a flat, sour one-note character. In fact, calling him a "character" is giving it too much credit. He's a combination of button-mashy gameplay wrapped in a scowl and the doofiest double jump in gaming.

 

[Manji187]

Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. Just a gravel-voiced meathead with no real substance to him.

That is unfortunately a failing on behalf of the games writers. In the extended universe they explain a lot more about him, and he does actually have a fairly deep personality.

Not that it's an excuse, because games shouldn't rely on outside media for character development and back story. It's one of my most hated things about the series overall. The games atmosphere tries to be serious and deep, but the writing turns it into a B Movie with cheesy dialogue. If they'd kept the same atmosphere in the games as they had in the books, it'd have been a lot more liked, rather than being seen as yet another bro-tastic" shooter.

Doesn't the extended universe more or less run before and in between the games? So it may very well be that you have these bro-tastic game writers unleashing the brocalypse while novelists and comic book writers take what little is available (characters/ settings etc) and work hard to put some sophistication/ subtlety/ depth into it. And then the brosephs at the development studio do nothing or very little with it, because EGO. It's their project, their "imagination" is law and hell will freeze over before they admit they suck at writing and should have been taking notes/ classes from novelists and comic book writers.

EDIT: In other (less ranty) words, I believe that the reason for the game writers not keeping the atmosphere of the novels/ comic books is pure unadultered ego.

 

[Roxas1359]

OT: Though FF XII is my favorite Final Fantasy game I do not like Vaan. I wish they would have just gone with their original plan and made Basch the main character...

Yeah. Vaan was just another one of those ascended(read: completely unnecessary to the plot) side characters getting too much screen time like Tidus from FFX or Shia Labouf in Transformers. The story should've starred Basch or at least my preference, Balthier, 'cuz he's the Leading Man'. The story could've skipped from Ashe's fall from royalty straight to the scene where Balthier and Fran break into the castle and the plot would not have suffered one bit.

Sad thing is that Vaan and Penelo were tacked onto the story because the writers thought that Basch was too old of a character to relate to, which I find stupid. Hell the story focuses way more on Basch, Balthier closer to then end mainly when Manufacted Nethicite is introduced along with Cid, and Ashe is a connecting character. Oh well, all this talk of FF XII makes me want to put in my International edition and play it, sadly I'm at work. T^T

 

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Neku Sakuraba from "The World Ends with you"

It is not because he is an Emo, but because within the first hour of the game:

Spoiler

{he kills a random girl just because some "Rocky Horror Show"-reject whom he just met for the first time says: "Do it!"}

People like that deserve to be pile-driven into misery.

 

[TeaCeremony]

Frankly im fine with most protagonists, but i seriously hate silent ones.

like Ramirez, hate that guy. RAMIREZ DO THIS, RAMIREZ DO THAT... seriously wanted him to say, "No, how about YOU go pick up that rocket launcher while i wait here in cover?"

Or Artyom, its like he is the only person left in existence who is capable of doing anything... and hes a mute at least in-game, so that makes him incredibly shy which then begs the question... how did he become a ranger?

Silent characters just bring up more questions than the silence resolves

 

[MysticSlayer]

The Prince from either Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. In Warrior Within, they literally got rid of everything that made him appealing in the first game and just tried to make him as dark and vicious as they possibly could, completely failing to show how he developed from his character at the end of The Sands of Time (which went in the completely opposite direction) to where we found him in Warrior Within. Well, there was him losing Farah before being chased by the Dahaka for a few years, but it's still hardly established as the reason for the character shift, at least not until The Two Thrones. Of course, the issues with The Prince in this game largely stem from how he just doesn't fit when you consider The Sands of Time, but his whole "my depression fills me with rage" character is hardly likable in it of itself.

I guess I also have to mentioned Booker DeWitt from BioShock Infinite. Though his character wasn't thoroughly unlikable in the same sense as The Prince was, he was completely bland as a character. By the time I reached the Hall of Heroes, I realized that I just didn't care about him as a character, and any attempts to make us sympathize with him or get us to laugh as his occasional sarcastic comments just fell flat. Not to mention, it's annoying to make a comment about something only for him to make a similar one two seconds later. I don't mind that in most games, but in first-person games, where they generally go out of their way to make it feel like you are the protagonist, it just doesn't fit. It just made me appreciate the silent, blank-slate protagonists more. Oh, and his whole "Kill Comstock! Smother him in his crib!" rant at the end just made him even worse.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Frankly im fine with most protagonists, but i seriously hate silent ones.

like Ramirez, hate that guy. RAMIREZ DO THIS, RAMIREZ DO THAT... seriously wanted him to say, "No, how about YOU go pick up that rocket launcher while i wait here in cover?"

Or Artyom, its like he is the only person left in existence who is capable of doing anything... and hes a mute at least in-game, so that makes him incredibly shy which then begs the question... how did he become a ranger?

Silent characters just bring up more questions than the silence resolves

agree with this.

there is no point in the person being there when they don't add to the plot, like ever. (if the game is remotely plot driven that is)

i hate being a floating camera with a gun/weapon, if i'm not adding any kind of input to the game then i just couldn't care less to take one more step in it, which annoys me to no end if i have to be that douchemonger who is silent/never adds to anything.

 

[ISearchForTraps]

So much hate for Kratos. He's an antihero, not a protagonist. ;(

My choice would be Tidus, of obvious reasons. He wasn't that annoying when I was 12, but when I replayed the game recently all I could think about when I heard his voice was vicious murder.
Snow from FFXIII would be a very close second.
Also Hope.

Actually, most JRPG protagonists are my least favorite.

Technically Kratos is both, a Protagonist is just the character that the story is about, things happen from their perspective. Kratos IS an Anti-Hero, but he's also the Protagonist because we follow HIS story. He's still a horrible person though, he ends the world for petty revenge. He avenged his family at the end of God of War 1, after that it's destroying the entire Greek Pantheon for being dicks to him. He wasn't exactly the most noble God of War at the beginning of God of War 2.

 

[DanielBrown]

So much hate for Kratos. He's an antihero, not a protagonist. ;(

Apparently you don't know what the word "protagonist" means. The protagonist is the main character of the story. He/she can be a hero, villain, anti-hero, or anti-villain. It doesn't matter, as long as he/she is the main character of the story and it's his/her struggles around which the story revolves.

So much hate for Kratos. He's an antihero, not a protagonist. ;(
-snip-

From Wikipedia:

A protagonist, meaning "one who plays the first part, chief actor") is the main character (the central or primary personal figure) of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, who ends up in conflict because of the antagonist.

You play as Kratos. He is the protagonist. He can be a hero, villain, anti-her, anti-villain, but his repulsive persona just doesn't work for me, and for many other people it seems.

Yes, I'm well aware. I was in a rush and messed up with the editing... Thanks though.
Anyways, my original point was that he's not the usual goody two shoes character, which is why many don't relate to him. I love him myself, and think it's refreshing to have a main character who isn't a reluctant hero or a teenager off to save the world, but I agree that some(well, most) of his actions are quite repulsive.

Lets see how many more will point this out. People love finding something to pick on, but skimming through the thread to check if anyone already caught it isn't as fun.

So much hate for Kratos. He's an antihero, not a protagonist. ;(

My choice would be Tidus, of obvious reasons. He wasn't that annoying when I was 12, but when I replayed the game recently all I could think about when I heard his voice was vicious murder.
Snow from FFXIII would be a very close second.
Also Hope.

Actually, most JRPG protagonists are my least favorite.

Technically Kratos is both, a Protagonist is just the character that the story is about, things happen from their perspective. Kratos IS an Anti-Hero, but he's also the Protagonist because we follow HIS story. He's still a horrible person though, he ends the world for petty revenge. He avenged his family at the end of God of War 1, after that it's destroying the entire Greek Pantheon for being dicks to him. He wasn't exactly the most noble God of War at the beginning of God of War 2.

Hello, people!

 

[HellbirdIV]

Sarah Kerrigan from StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. While for the most part the Antagonist, the first game and its expansion kept switching the playable protagonists, even within the same campaign, so I'm classifying Kerrigan's playable sections as marking her as a Protagonist.

After she becomes Infested, she immediately becomes an insufferable, screeching harpy - and one who then proceeds to destroy everything good that the OTHER protagonists have tried to achieve, not through skill and cunning, but by being the most obvious, most ridiculously fake "chessmaster" I've ever seen. Her only successes are attributable to her enemies being too stupid to realize she's going to betray them, after she's already betrayed them multiple times.

I actually liked her a lot more in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, because she regained enough humanity - and thus, some basic common sense and decency - to actually be a proper Anti-Hero, rather than just an obnoxious Villain Protagonist.

 

[The Wykydtron]

But srsly tho, Minato would have been fine if his character had developed even slightly out of the antisocial loner archetype. Nope, full Dickhead Mode forever. What even is a game revolving around magical friendship powers?

I don't know, I still believe you're being unfair to him. I mean, yeah, Yu is definitely more likable than Minato, no questions here. But, my opinion of Yu fully formed only after Persona 4: Animation that managed to give him some sort of a character. Yu also had his share of possibly dickish answers, but just like Minato, you're never forced to pick it.

You know what really gets me though, the fact that whenever something important happens I.E a party member gets a new Persona by serious character development, it will cut to your main character standing around in his room having nothing to do with it.

Well, this is also just a matter of perspective and overall narrative in games. Persona 3 focused on its characters being more independent or reliant on each other, rather than on their leader. And, I actually liked it more. In Persona 4 none of your teammates, except Teddie, will get their resolve unless you help them, in Persona 3 some event and encouragement from teammate basically forces them to do it! Yukari helped Mitsiru, AKihiko helped Ken, Natsuki helped Fuuka, and everyone helped Aigis.
So stop bashing on Minato god damn you! He's a nice guy and basically Jesus! Although he does LOOK a little douchy, I'll give you that.

But all of Minato's responses throughout the entire game were dickish... They were just varying degrees of dickishness XD

To be sort of fair to him, I did play Persona 4 first so I was expecting him to have more of a role in character development to begin with. I am trying to play Persona 3 again, or at least an LP of it to try to see him in a better light... Not going so well really. I was looking for an excuse to like him during my first playthrough too. Never fuckin' found it!

I WANT to like him but I just can't. Singlehandedly ruined the entire game because I just couldn't figure out why he wasn't just walking out the door and fuck all this friendship lark. He clearly has no interest in it. Every other character was awesome but this little emo prick is just overshadowing everything else.

Anyway, Yu's (going to disassociate any of my player characters from that name before the Yu in P4A makes me hate them all. Damn you XBL online playerbase.) BroSwagtagonist's dickish answers die out pretty fast and are few and far between. Hell I even like picking them at the start sometimes. It's understandable, he's going to be in this town for only one year so making friends is only going to make him sad when he inevitably has to leave. Even when you pick the dick option the game tries to dissuade you half the time.

> Help out

> Be an ass and leave

Gonna move away from Persona 4 before I start to rag on the new bad ending which has no place in the fucking game I don't care how you try to justify it fuck off no Atlus why T_T

And yes, Minato looks like the biggest douche I have ever seen. Worst messiah ever. As much as I hate the guy, him dying made me even MORE pissed off at him. Nice new robot friend you got there man... Be a shame if you went and died on her after helping her find a soul, leaving her in a state of grief she has never known before and eventually leading her to be the player character of a shit expansion.

Just realised i've blamed the entire existence of The Answer on Minato too... Oh dear.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Frankly im fine with most protagonists, but i seriously hate silent ones.

like Ramirez, hate that guy. RAMIREZ DO THIS, RAMIREZ DO THAT... seriously wanted him to say, "No, how about YOU go pick up that rocket launcher while i wait here in cover?"

Or Artyom, its like he is the only person left in existence who is capable of doing anything... and hes a mute at least in-game, so that makes him incredibly shy which then begs the question... how did he become a ranger?

Silent characters just bring up more questions than the silence resolves

Actually Artyom says "fuck" the one time. A mine cart falls on him. So he's not a legit mute, he's just shy. Hence why you can't barter in the clearly barter-friendly towns. All the markets in Metro are definitely the sorts of places where people would spend half an hour haggling over the price of a shotgun, Artyom is just too shy to speak up so he pays the original "i'm expecting you to haggle this down" bullshit prices as they are.

That would make Gordan Freeman so much better though. Could you imagine him occasionally swearing when taking a load of damage?

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Adell from Disgaea 2. God, I cannot stand the guy ("that's just my style" is probably the most annoying line I heard in the series, especially since he can't make up his mind as to what he wants), bring back Laharl, he fit perfectly into the wacky series Disgaea is, rather than stupidly serious Adell.

 

[TeaCeremony]

Frankly im fine with most protagonists, but i seriously hate silent ones.

like Ramirez, hate that guy. RAMIREZ DO THIS, RAMIREZ DO THAT... seriously wanted him to say, "No, how about YOU go pick up that rocket launcher while i wait here in cover?"

Or Artyom, its like he is the only person left in existence who is capable of doing anything... and hes a mute at least in-game, so that makes him incredibly shy which then begs the question... how did he become a ranger?

Silent characters just bring up more questions than the silence resolves

Actually Artyom says "fuck" the one time. A mine cart falls on him. So he's not a legit mute, he's just shy. Hence why you can't barter in the clearly barter-friendly towns. All the markets in Metro are definitely the sorts of places where people would spend half an hour haggling over the price of a shotgun, Artyom is just too shy to speak up so he pays the original "i'm expecting you to haggle this down" bullshit prices as they are.

That would make Gordan Freeman so much better though. Could you imagine him occasionally swearing when taking a load of damage?

Well artyom does narrate the loading credits so he cant be a pure mute. That said... if he actually you know... talked to the people who are literally crying he might be able to make things better. Instead of worrying about it in the loading screens, he can give a few bullets here and there to people. Thats why i sort of dont really care about artyom, he acts like a nice guy but ignores everyone else when it comes down to it.