Unlikeable Lead characters

[Vrex360]

Got to go with Duke Nukem. I can handle the wise cracks and the tired references to old pop culture jokes that haven't been funny in years, what I can handle less is his attitude regarding women (more on that in a moment) and his tendancy to take jabs at other games in a smug self satisfied way.
Say what you will about Masterchief Duke, but that guy managed to make an entire multi million dollar game franchise that spawned books, toys, comics and even an anime all in the time it took for you to make one shitty game. Yahtzee was right, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and Duke Nukem is in no position to make fun of any game franchise.

However I could forgive that if his game wasn't so bloody sexist, and it goes way beyond just simple 'silly sexism' when it reaches the Alien Hive section. What kind of protagonist quips when he sees two young women who have been raped, impregnated and are about to die from it???
I really don't know what the developers were going for there but it just made him look like a sick twisted fuck, and I don't like sick twisted fucks saving the planet from aliens. Send in Masterchief instead, sure he may not have much in the way of interesting personality (I truthfully much prefer the Arbiter) but I get the feeling he would actually respond in a more appropriate way in that kind of situation.

 

[faefrost]

Every FF. Except the VIII, i hated everyone there.

Yeah right, Cecil from FF4 is by far the best Final Fantasy protagonist..

Ot: Hope from FF 13 is the single worst character of all time... such an angsty, whinnig, annoying little turd I hate him with every fiber of my being... I know he's not the lead charafter but I was in such a blinding rage while playing that I completely ignored the rest of the characters...

Yep! I can't quite figure Square out with the FF games. They seem to go to extremes with the characters. They create some of the best ever. Or some that are surprisingly deep on one hand. (Tifa is a great example of this. And I will confess a mildly surprised fondness for Snow in FFXIII simply because he turned out to not be the typical FF arrogant jerkwad that we expected him to be.) But then they give us characters like Hope or Vanille or Cait Sith . (We will not speak of the typical Arrogant jerkwad fixation that they mainly have for male leads, such as Tidus or Cloud.)

A better question would almost be, which fully scripted fully fleshed out main game characters do we actually not hate? I think we would find that that list is far smaller and more exclusive. Classic deep characters like John Marsten in RDR or Solid Snake. Or failing that the only ones that we like are the silent protagonists that we can imprint our own stories on. Master Chief, Samus, Chelle, etc.

 

[Tsaba]

Shu, I hate him so much

 

[Tselis]

FFXII. Vaan could spontaneously combusted and collapsed in a sewage ditch and I wouldn't have cared at all. Now Balthier, I would have shagged him hard enough that he would have walked funny for a week ...and Fran too. Bosch was pretty cool too, and a sexy blonde. Penelo was sweet, and useful in a fight.

Also, Ashe could have joined Vaan.

I feel the same way about Vaan but did you noticed he's not the lead in FF12. His whole story was to find his brother's killer and still something out of the castle. Within a couple of hours he gets caught up in Balthier and Fran's Quest and later Ashe's Quest and he just tags along. He finds out that because of his stupidity Penelo got kidnapped, they go save her and he finds out Basch didn't kill his brother...end of his quest.

Ahem ...

Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo when the two characters were created later in development.[66] The development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a more effeminate one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered. With the casting of dorama actor Kouhei Takeda for the voice acting and motion capture, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat bright and positive".[66][67] Comments were made about the similarity between main character designer and background design supervisor Akihiko Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura, another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists, which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments.[67] The designers stated that non-human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game,[65] which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers.[63]

This is from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_12

So in conclusion, yes Vaan was the lead, and yes he sucked.

 

[GoAwayVifs]

Well, his only motivation is stealing the priceless artifact before the villain does it first. Oh, and his wisecracking is really annoying, especially since he does while ending the lives of those around him. But if you really want to know...There's a swimming pool at the top of the Hotel in the city level. Jump into it, and then out of it. Once you do, TRY to make it through the next 10 seconds or so without flinching. It's impossible.

You can't really take points away from a wisecracking protagonist if they crack wise after murdering someone... because that's part of what you do in a game, or read about in comics, or see in movies. Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & clank, Spider-Man, John McClane, and even Batman (sometimes) all crack wise after, or shortly before, murdering someone. And those are just off the top of my head.

And it's been a while since I played Uncharted 1 or 2, but I'm pretty sure he had other motivations. It might've been his initial motivation (you know, because he's a treasure hunter), but if someone saves the world, can ya really call them a douchebag just because their initial intentions were to steal something? People change, and that makes Drake all the more believable.

Seems to me like you're grasping at straws for reasons to hate him, but to each their own.

Oh, and sorry for going off topic...

First, his motivations are more pure than stealing it before the bad guys get it:

Spoiler: Uncharted Spoilers! :You have been warned:

In Uncharted 1, he found the location of the treasure, the bad guys followed him. He gave up on the treasure halfway through. At that point, they were just trying to leave the island. In the end, he sacrificed the treasure to save himself and Elena. Saving Elena and Sully and getting off the island was priority 1 in the last half of the first game. Elena was more about finding the treasure than Drake was.

Uncharted 2, was about beating Flynn to the treasure for his betrayal. Drake knew Flynn wasn't that good - even with Chloe. (Who he suspected was in on the betrayal.) Drake knew he was better and so did Chloe and Flynn, otherwise why would they ever need him? That isn't cockiness, it is justified confidence. Again, in the village Nate gave up seeking the treasure claiming it wasn't worth it. (As he did in 1) But the monk talked him into exploring the cave to find the remains of his men or something that went looking for the stone before. He returns to the village to find it under siege and the monk kidnapped and he goes to save him while they are busy looking for the treasure. Again a rescue mission turns into "a battle against the secret behind the treasure". (Not a fight for the treasure) Again, Drake leaves empty handed from the expedition.

Both games, the bad guys were trying to get the treasure before Drake. When the danger level got too high, Drake bowed out claiming it wasn't worth it. In which a rescue mission was the final part of the game. In the first game, he had to find a way off the island himself anyways. In the second one he could have been a douche and left the monk up to his fate but he didn't.

A lot of people think Drake is a douche. I can't see it either. He doesn't wisecrack all the way through the game. Most of what he says is "Oh shit" or "Oh no, no, no, don't..." or "Not this again". That isn't wisecracks. That is reactionary response. He does make wisecracks here and there but not to the degree everyone makes it out to be. There is probably a good 30m-1h of play between his actual wisecracks. Some of which are actually worth a chuckle.

To be fair he does occasionally say things like "That's your neck" in an almost gleeful manner when stealth killing mooks. That being said I don't get the hatred for Drake, he is a silly over the top character just like the games. They are not mean to be taken seriously, they are basically old pulp action/adventure movies/books/whatever in video game form. Also to the people getting mad about Drake tossing the museum guard off the roof, if you look carefully after he hits the water he starts swimming away. So he didn't out right murder the guy in that scene, calm down.

Moving on to the topic at hand: Travis Touchdown. Fucking shit what an unlikable douche-****.

 

[alm96]

The main character of essentially every JRPG I have ever played. Well, I guess they don't count, because I end up hating the entire cast of poorly-dressed idiots by the end of the game.

 

[Moeez]

As soon as I read the thread title, the words "NATHAN DRAKE" began to endlessly and uncontrollably repeat in my head. It's still going.

EDIT: I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the games. Some of my favorites. But it's hard to deny that Nathan Drake is a GIANT DOUCHEBAG.

This definitely for me, he's insufferable during gameplay but drops his douchebag mode only in the cutscenes and just has snarky mode on. Weird narrative discrepancy.

I'd add Alex Mercer, but it makes sense with the plot twist.
http://images.wikia.com/powerlisting/images/e/e6/Videojuegoblog_alex_mercer02.jpg

 

[LadyTiamat]

nowe from dragongard 2 (mary sue without propper excuse for angst)

 

[Hides His Eyes]

I think a genuinely unlikeable character like Seifer from FF8 or Morrigan from Dragon Age (at least until you get to "know" her ) is highly preferable to a character who has no personality whatsoever, like, hmm, let's see, almost every single character in almost every single game.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

I'm waiting for a really well-marketed game to come out and be the next big thing, where the main character is a potted plant. People will say "but that's stupid, the main character's a plant" and the fans will respond: "well if you'd played the game you would know that he was turned into a plant by the evil wizard, so how could he not be a plant?"

 

[setting_son]

I hate the lead character in Fallout: New Vegas.

I am such a dick.

 

[Yosato]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

In that case I take it back - that's just a terrible premise. To me that just sounds like an excuse the writers used so they didn't have to write an interesting or complex character.

 

[Tentickles]

I just finished playing Dead Island and I have to say by the end of that game I utterly HATED every single character.

Especially Jin the girl mechanic.
You see the story sort of shouts at you "She was raped!" but doesnt tell you too your face. So after that point in time you spend the rest of the game dealing with HER SHIT all the time.

I get it. Rape is bad.
I just dont want to deal with it in a video game!

I bought Dead Island to chop head off zombies... not listen to a girl whine.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Final Fantasy 12, Vaan irratated me by being sucha bland character who had very little impact on the story, he basically had no duty being the main character of the piece when it was Ashe, Basch and to a lesser extent Balthier who drove the story onwards, Vaan is just along for the ride.

Whatever bad can be said about other Final Fantasy main characters they each had an actual role in their respective stories.

Kratos, in the first God of war he made sense in a crazy way, typical Greek tragedy and all that jazz but after that game they made him into the most ridiculous obnoxious and childish twat I've ever seen as a main character. He acts like a tool in God of War 2 (just like Ares did in the original) and gets killed by Zeus for it. Then in the third game he just causes the god damn apocalypse because Zeus killed him for being a destructive twat, I don't care how horrible they try to paint Zeus, Kratos was the villain all along.

Kane and Lynch, shit game with completely unsympathetic characters, go watch Heat and notice how you can not compltely hate Deniro's character and Val Kilmer especially, they made them into actual human beings who also robbed banks.

Finally Spiderman: Web of Shadows, in this particular Spiderman game the voice acting was at an all time low, whenever Spidey talked at all it was so whiny I wanted to stab his eyes out with an ice pick.

 

[Michael Hirst]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

In that case I take it back - that's just a terrible premise. To me that just sounds like an excuse the writers used so they didn't have to write an interesting or complex character.

Okay so they're not supposed to have emotions but that doesn't defend making a poor character, look at Terminator 2, in that film the Terminator can't feel real emotions ever and even after he's learned a lot about human behaviour still can't truly express it but they still develop his character and make him interesting unlike Master Chief who is so "badass" that he doesn't need to develop.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

In that case I take it back - that's just a terrible premise. To me that just sounds like an excuse the writers used so they didn't have to write an interesting or complex character.

Exactly. People often don't seem to understand that game designers have control over the premise. Stating that it's ok for Master Chief to be a personality-devoid cardboard cutout instead of a real character because the story demands it ignores the fact that the game developers wrote the damn story and they didn't have to write it like that.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Tidus (FFX): I didn't really pay attention to him after I got the whole cast. He seemed like the least useful character in the group.

Vann (FFXII): Same as Tidus, but he shows more of his midriff (which does -10 to his manliness).

Sora (KH1 only): He means well, but in KH1, he was always the last one to get anything that was going on in the game. Compared to himself in KH2, Roxas in KHays, and all the leads in KH:BBS, he was by far the least likable.

Shion (Xenosaga: Ep. 3 only) Headstrong, confident, and fearless, Shion was probably one of the most consistently well developed characters in the Xenosaga trilogy. Then, she realizes that one of her enemies was her first love. She follows him to the dark side, ceases to be in your party towards the end of the story, and actually fights against you. She really was one of my favorites in this game; well, KOS-MOS still rocks.

 

[Delsana]

Macho tough guys, idiots, and chain-smokers.