Video Game Protagonists You've More or Less Hated

[Treeinthewoods]

Treeinthewoods: To each his/her own. I'm curious, though. Do you like the character from the original Doom? He has about the same amount of growth as a character. It's a common FPS issue, that's only really started to improve. It's also a problem with 90% of all RPGs, with their silent protagonists and all.

Anyway. Only one I really, truly hate. One that make me cringe whenever I see or hear them. Tidus. I mean, really? He acts like he's 4 years old, is completely stuck up, and dresses (as all Squenix games) like a girl. Sure, he gets less stuck up as the game goes on, but included in the bundle are a pile of OTHER characters that suck. So why even play that far?

No, no I don't think "Space Marine" is a compelling character at all. I do think DOOM was an incredibly well paced game filled to the brim with intense action though. I never cared about "Space Marine" because I was too busy enjoying myself. Half Life has the same character development as DOOM but is a plodding march of boredom with terrible driving.

And in RPG's the character can be silent because I made them. In Dragon Age I create a character using the spec/style I want and it effects how I play the game. I can even choose how my silent character interacts with NPC's. In Half Life I never have any say in what kind of avatar I control and the game doesn't change based on whether I use a down syndrome voice or an evil Voldemort hiss to fill in my own dialogue. You are Gordon Freeman, you just don't know who Gordon Freeman is.

And you know what? Even if we disagree about Half Life we both know Tidus is a giant tool. Have a cookie.

 

[Unesh52]

The new Prince from the PoP reboot (the cell shaded one where you couldn't die). Honestly, none of the characters were very strong, but he just annoyed the hell out of me. He's not a prince. And as far as I can tell, he's not even Persian. But the thing that REALLY got on my tits was right at the end when

Spoiler

after spending the whole game doing nothing to make me give a shit about either main character, and after a wholly tedious and frustrating couple of boss fights, the game has the audacity to ask me to walk right back in there and undo the machinations of the entire game so I can save the girl. And I'm pretty sure it was her fault shit had gotten that way in the first place, so I really can't think of any reason to do that very, very stupid thing.

Least satisfying ending since Indigo Prophecy. I honestly think that in order to make that decision, the "prince" would have to be seriously fucked up on something -- which might actually explain the whole Technicolor dream-scape and thinking he's a royal Persian.

 

[Mister Six]

See I don't really understand all the hate for Tidus, I mean okay some of it may be justified, but from what I understand his attitude and knowledge, or lack thereof, is warranted. Besides all the potential drama and obvious trauma from his childhood and the effect it would have on anyone's mind look at what he goes through in the beginning of the game. He goes from being a world-famous sports player, someone who has a steady stream of fans and glory, which would lead to several issues in and of itself, namely self-entitlement and general apathy towards others, to being an unknown stranger in another world where you have to be able to take care of yourself or you are likely to be dead by nightfall. This compounds with several of the events that happen early in the game that could potentially cause some serious issues, namely being taken hostage at gunpoint or attacked by large monsters. Honestly I thought the whole character was done quite well from a sociology and psychology standpoint, though the voice actor and the troubles of making the voice match the animation which wasn't adjusted for a non-japanese script didn't help.

tl;dr, Tidus is a pretty damn good example of a fish out of water and the effects a fantasy world would have on a 'normal', but voice acting, script, and technical issues were counter-productive.

 

[squidbuddy99]

Dante from Dante's Inferno. He was supposed to be a tragic hero with many flaws to overcome. However, he had so many flaws that he became unlikable. Plus, on his way to save his beloved girl (that he got sent to Hell for swearing ON THE CROSS to remain faithful and bonking an Arab chick the instant he gets to Crusadin') he pretty much destroys Hell. He kills Death, thereby damning all of humanity, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for him?

 

[kannibus]

Gonna take a lot of flak for this one, but the first few iterations of Lara Croft also kinda got on my nerves. She was just, well, evil. Though I love the new Lara, she's a much more likable character.

Tidus is one of the few. His voice acting was simply douche-tacular. Actually, you know what? A LOT of the male leads for the Final Fantasy series got douche-tacular. Have any of them gotten past puberty?

 

[Woodsey]

I don't care what kind of excuses Valve lovers make the fact remains that he is a noncompelling, non-entity who could be replaced by a broom and you wouldn't know.

It's not an excuse, it's a fucking narrative device. It's not like Valve were the first people to invent it.

Like I said, if you don't like the way they do it then fair enough, but there's no point in arguing that a person purposefully designed to not be a character is not a good character compared to those that are designed to be proper characters.

 

[Vrex360]

John Forge in Halo Wars.

I cannot for the life of me work out what made me hate this guy so much. Maybe it was the fact that his quips were so brainless even Duke Nukem would cringe if he heard them, or the fact that he was merely another in the long line of 'humanity hell yeah' kind of protagonists who is infallibly awesome and badass while all the aliens were turned into cookie cutter blarging monsters, or maybe it was because he was a piggish arrogant moron. I couldn't tell exactly what it was that drove me to murderous hate like that but seriously every single time he was on screen he said or did something that annoyed me.
His crowning moment was when Ripa Moramee had Ellen Anders hostage by the throat and he decided that that exact moment was the right time to call Ripa a 'freak'. Yes, insult the easily angered giant hunk of reptilian flesh and muscle that is right now well and truly capable of flaying your girlfriend apart and indeed has been known to do so on multiple occasions. That should go down well.
And of course this had to happen after he picked up a piece of scrap metal and suggest that she put it in her 'scrapbook'.

But still when I saw the Arbiter beating the ever loving hell out of Forge within an inch of his life all I could do was cheer. I was seriously hoping, desperately might I add, that the Arbiter would smash the smug grin right off Forge's face until all that remains is a splinter maw of broken bloody teeth and mutilated puffy flesh. It's funny because I hated the Arbiter from Halo Wars. Even though he was cool he was also an overdone evil villain who compromised the good humanized look of the Covenant by being a one note angry bad guy who beats up his subordinates, insults people, shows a complete disregard for honor and wants nothing more than to enact mass slaughter on a galactic scale.
(I admit though I like how he makes for an interesting contrast from the much friendly Arbiter from the main trilogy)
And yet I still rooted for him over Forge and suddenly I realized that Forge had actually made me want the Covenant to succeed. Sure, Ripa Moramee might have been a complete arrogant monstrous sociopath who fittingly died in a shameful honor-less way but at least he never made a 'scrapbook' joke.

I 'know' that Masterchief has a lot of these other characteristics but perhaps the fact that he knew when quips were appropriate and when to 'shut the f*ck up' and when he did the one note badass thing it was still more believable and a little less in your face. But I still can't be sure, after all while I don't hate Masterchief I still don't think he holds a candle to the Arbiter.
At the end of the day though, all the heroic traits the Masterchief had didn't bother me nearly as much as Forge's did.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

No one is allowed to say Drake.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Nathan Drake.

5 minuites of Uncharted 2 at my freinds was enough one liners to make me want to stare down the barrel...

 

[BlackKraken]

I couldn't stand Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, such a complete asshat it made me want to intentionally get him killed.

At least that was my excuse for dying a lot...

 

[Confidingtripod]

Vinery or something from rise of leginds, you protect him for two wars and get him turned half alien in a third just so he can commit suicide.

 

[Darth_Dude]

I hate Gordon Freeman, he is not a character he is a floating camera.

You know you say that, and I think you think you're somehow being witty, but it was done like that on purpose; it's not like he's a poorly developed character, he's been made as a non-character.

Fair enough if you don't like the concept, but by comparing him to two actual characters where the writers have taken a different approach just makes you look like an idiot. [small] And yes, I'm aware you were implying they were still poorly-written, yet Freeman makes them look good.[/small]

Uh... it's throw back to the Mafia vs. GTA argument.

Also Lora Croft. Yahtzee is right, she is the worst archaeologist ever.

I hear that Lara Croft's not a very good one either.

OT: Gah, I know there was someone but I seem to have blanked them out.

Oh no buddy, I'm not being witty in the least. I'm being honest.

I don't care what kind of excuses Valve lovers make the fact remains that he is a noncompelling, non-entity who could be replaced by a broom and you wouldn't know.

"He's supposed to be you" my ass, every game character is an avatar that represents you. It's just that a good avatar should have a little something interesting to keep drawing you back. I enjoy God of War because Kratos is a badass, which means that when I play the game I am a badass.

If your character is silent you better make gameplay intersting enough to draw me back. Halo has a boring protaganist but it's fun to play. Half-Life has a boring main character and is not fun to play.

And Valve fanboys can take long walks on short piers for all I care. I've played many Valve games (Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, TF2) some of them when they lauched (brother got Half-Life 2 on release) and I hate every single game. They are boring, boring, boring to me.

You don't see me getting pissed in every "I hate Halo/CoD/Oblivion" thread because I know different people like different games. No sense bitching about it right? Why would a Valve fan be different?

-shocked gasp-
Surely you can't be serious??
.....

......

You evil ,evil person...

 

[stiborge]

Marcus Phenix in the Gears of War series. God, I couldn't stand him. Alek Mercer from Prototype was a cock too. I hated the game anyways and that character didn't help thing... Maybe i'm remembering it wrong because I put that game on my shelf to be left and forgotten. Kratos was an ass too but seeing as the developer didn't really try to get you to like him I didn't take it as bad. I wasn't a fan of Master Chief but that was just because he was uninteresting. I wouldn't say I hated him or anything. From what i've heard I can only assume I would hate Nathan Drake as well although I never bothered with the Uncharted series, I love Indiana Jones so I may have to play it eventually but it's certainly not at the top of my list.

Most of the Final Fantasy leads

except Cecil from 4

Tidus, Cloud, Squall - all Final Fantasy leads. On that note, whoever was the lead character from Kingdom Hearts. Sora? Something like that.
I don't know how Square Enix makes so many unlikeable twats into main characters, but they manage.

Non-JRPG: Starkiller from Force Unleashed. Never before have I seen levels of cutscene retardation this massive.

You know. People keeps saying that the Final Fantasy leads were all whiney as all fuck.... and that is true for the most part. I normally don't mind it, Tidus was a bit much though. But I think that a poorly written hyper masculine douchebag is worse then a character that is really whiney and teen angsty but I suppose that boils down to personal opinion.

 

[Delock]

No one is allowed to say Drake.

Nathan Drake.

5 minuites of Uncharted 2 at my freinds was enough one liners to make me want to stare down the barrel...

It's like you two planned that.

Anyways, on a different note, I'd say Hakuman from BlazBlue. Up until I finally understood how to fight with him, I hated him more than any other character I can remember. Why? Arcade Mode Ragna (one of the first few things I played in the game). He is harder than the final boss, can unleash a move that takes off half your health after a few seconds into the match, and can use it again later, his power is blocking attacks and countering instantly, his longass sword gives him the ability to strike from further than most characters can, and in the default options, you have to beat him twice for it to count. Playing as him was extremely different from the other characters and I was frequently being pummelled into the dirt because of it. It also seemed that storywise, he was a bit of an asshole.

However, once I learned how to play as him, and saw some extra background material online, I actually began to like him.

 

[Skoldpadda]

I like Mass Effect and its sequel, but Shepard is a complete Mary-Sue.

 

[EatPieYes]

Very anonymous protagonist in Dark Sector is very anonymous. And boring. And hard to control.

 

[Danzaivar]

Pretty sure no one will agree on this but Shepard from Mass Effect, I just don't like, he's too perfect...-_-

Paragon Shepard is too perfect (Hence 'paragon'). He's an incredibly flawed Jackass if you take the Renegade route tho.

Spoiler

 

[Hosker]

Big Boss from MGS3....kidding

Pretty much the entire ff13 crew, as the playable character keeps changing

 

[tharglet]

Ezio from Assassin's Creed 2. He was annoying, especially at the start.
Yes, I did throw him off a few buildings and things to his doom.

Alex Mercer didn't really annoy me (apart from when controls conflicted with each other... PICK THAT CAR UP YOU... YOU...) but I think that's more because I didn't really get into the game as much as I would for other games.

 

[Suicidal Hobo]

Mario. Luigi is far superior then his fat sibling.