You are given any and all options you can think of to craft your perfect video game protagonist, what do you come up with?
The perfect protagonist
- Thread starter MrDelicious
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Erm, "any and all options" how much is that actually? Can I give them, like, immortality, and the ability to summon dinosaurs? Or is it just things like good looks and troubled past?
Also, what do you mean by "prefect"? The most powerful? The most interesting? The best looking?
Also, what do you mean by "prefect"? The most powerful? The most interesting? The best looking?
there was at one time a game that involved the "hero" being completely incapable of fighting and the core game mechanic involved running awayZhukov said:
i'd prolly say a mix of the new lara croft - weak, soft, vulnerable turning badass with mcgees alice and a tad bit of batshit crazy
Yes! Just because you're the protagonist doesn't mean you have to be the hero. Can we have a game where your mission is to actually avoid the mission? As in run away from quest-givers and potential enemies and stuff like that while focusing on a more personal, capricious mission? It could be a stealth, survival horror-ish game. You'd be pretty capable of fighting for yourself the smart way, just... instead of running the obvious way, you'd be running the other way, if you get what I'm saying.Zhukov said:
Like this?Zhukov said:
It'd be nice to have a few more characters that were unashamedly non-badasses. Characters that were weak, knew they were weak, and we loved them because they were weak.
No such thing. Protagonist has to vary according to audience, theme and setting. However...
I feel most people's favourite protagonists are similar to themselves except more assertive and possessing supernatural powers of some kind or better intellect than most. That being the case, my ideal protagonist would be a very clever type- about as clever as a player has to be in order to figure out the weaknesses every enemy and boss in the average RPG- but not particularly powerful in their setting and sorely lacking in motivation to join any particularly idealistic cause like joining a rebellion to fight an evil empire or save a princess. Like Mr. Holmes, he/she would initially only become involved in the main plot when it gives him/her an opportunity to show their smarts and impress people. Growing out of this smug superiority and finding a cause worth fighting for is their character arc, though they will never truly grow tired of lording it over any villain they outsmart.
One I've written for an original fantasy story is similar but actually has a zealous devotion to their cause of correcting prejudice towards low-intelligence (and thus unable to use magic) humans in his society. He and the rest of his friends tried achieving a revolution to this end only for them to be betrayed by one of their number and sent to jail. Only the protagonist gets out after a 10 year sentence, and afterwards he's extremely leery of teaming up with anyone.
I feel most people's favourite protagonists are similar to themselves except more assertive and possessing supernatural powers of some kind or better intellect than most. That being the case, my ideal protagonist would be a very clever type- about as clever as a player has to be in order to figure out the weaknesses every enemy and boss in the average RPG- but not particularly powerful in their setting and sorely lacking in motivation to join any particularly idealistic cause like joining a rebellion to fight an evil empire or save a princess. Like Mr. Holmes, he/she would initially only become involved in the main plot when it gives him/her an opportunity to show their smarts and impress people. Growing out of this smug superiority and finding a cause worth fighting for is their character arc, though they will never truly grow tired of lording it over any villain they outsmart.
One I've written for an original fantasy story is similar but actually has a zealous devotion to their cause of correcting prejudice towards low-intelligence (and thus unable to use magic) humans in his society. He and the rest of his friends tried achieving a revolution to this end only for them to be betrayed by one of their number and sent to jail. Only the protagonist gets out after a 10 year sentence, and afterwards he's extremely leery of teaming up with anyone.
I think the search for the perfect protagonist is inherently flawed from the start, because everything in gaming is subjective.
I, Personally, hate Lightning from FF13, but lots of people love her. Whos "More right"? Neither of us.
Dont try to please everyone, because you cant. If you try to, you'll just make soulless products like EA does.
I, Personally, hate Lightning from FF13, but lots of people love her. Whos "More right"? Neither of us.
Dont try to please everyone, because you cant. If you try to, you'll just make soulless products like EA does.
I actually really liked Jason Brody from Far Cry III. He started off as this typical pampered, egotistical, privileged twattle-face... and then the jungle and crazy drugs happened.
He starts to slowly realise just how -awesome- he is at killing people.
Essentially, I like characters who start off small, but through hardships (that you play through) BECOME powerful and then REALISE their power. Playing a humble guy/girl for an entire game when you just ripped the spine out of an orc and beat an ogre to death with it seems to be missing the point of being able to rip out an orc's spine and beat an ogre to death with it.
He starts to slowly realise just how -awesome- he is at killing people.
Eventually he realises he is terrifying to others. He openly taunts, threatens and mocks his adversaries. He has the benefit of his opponents being evil cunts so his violence towards them is just deserts, otherwise he might appear quite psychopathic. Especially with the QTE against Hoyt as he alludes to how Jason won't be able to save his brother/friends if he keeps fighting. Jason - confident in his abilities to both kill Hoyt and save his friends - brushes it off and let's Hoyt know he can get to saving them once his immediate problem has been eliminated.
Kirito from Sword Art Online (anime) is close to a perfect protaginist for me
He goes through great development, has some decent obstacles
and hell - his motivations are good even though they change throughout the series
He goes through great development, has some decent obstacles
and hell - his motivations are good even though they change throughout the series
I always like the idea of a weak character being forged into a badass hero through an extreme situation. Like Jason Brody in Far Cry 3 (though i'd prefer a storyline without the mildly racist overtones).
The new Tomb Raider seems to be exactly the kind of character I'd like to see. I'm just hoping that we actually do see her character getting more powerful and gaining confidence. Some of the trailers make it seem like the game might just be Lara getting repeatedly beat up and victimized. So it could go either way, though I'm hoping for a good origin story.
The new Tomb Raider seems to be exactly the kind of character I'd like to see. I'm just hoping that we actually do see her character getting more powerful and gaining confidence. Some of the trailers make it seem like the game might just be Lara getting repeatedly beat up and victimized. So it could go either way, though I'm hoping for a good origin story.
Colton White from Gun. Classic Spaghetti-Western traits and he's voiced by Thomas Jane (who in my opinion is a phenomenal actor).
Not ANOTHER macho, perma-stubbled, short-haired, bulked up, gravely-voiced Space Marine Is You trope. What's the count now, 50 of those? 100?
So guys with hair.
So guys with hair.