Who are your top 5 best and worst video games Protagonist?

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Hello,

In this thread we talk about gaming top 5 best and worst protaonist and heres mine

Best

1. Agent 47 (from hitman)
2. Tommy Angelo (from Mafia 1)
3. Max Payne
4. JC denton (from original deus ex)
5. Artyom (from Metro series)

So they are my top fav. agent 47 is coolest gaming character i have ever seen he is neither bad nor good but he is agent and urban legend who know how to do his job done. tommy angelo is most well written gaming character i have ever seen. thanks to how incredible writing was in mafia 1. max payne was iconic character. artyom may not have much of character but the story in metro series make him excellent character imo. JC denton is also one cool and badass protagonist who run from both terrorist and goverment organization in the world. but imo Agent 47 is most badass and manly gaming character i have ever seen

Worst

1. Lara Croft (post reboot)
2. Jason Broody (far cry 3)
3. Ezio (from assassins creed 2)
4. any of resident evil protagonist as they are all shallow imo
5. Faith (from mirrors edge)

Lara croft reboot one is undoubtly worst main character in history of gaming i have ever seen. she is just terrible. I like far cry 3 but can stand jason broody. he is so annoying.

 

[Hawki]

Alright, fine, one entry per franchise, has to be a playable character, list is entirely subjective, made off the top of my head, plenty of honorable mentions belong in the "best" section, but I'll nominate:

BEST

5) Samus Aran (Metroid)

There's plenty of characters I like more than Samus, and to be frank, I'm not that enamored with Samus as a character. Still, looking at her cultural relevance (female protagonist in a male dominated era), combined with her record of getting shit done, along with the 'badass' factor, she gets a place.

4) John-117 (Halo)

Similar to Samus, gets a place for the same reasons. However, I'm putting John above Samus because when all's said and done, his backstory is far more detailed, and he has an observable character arc over the games, whereas Samus is far more of a blank slate (barring Other M, but, well, people don't like talking about that)

3) Commander Shepard (Mass Effect)

More on the conceptual level, because Shepard combines the best elements of pre-written characterization with player customization.

2) Solid Snake (Metal Gear)

Similar to John - has the 'badass' factor, but also a discernable character arc. Also has the advantage of being "badass normal" in the setting. In case you're wondering, I'm fine with characters being 'badass' provided that there's more to them than that. So, given how screwed up the Metal Gear setting is, I like how, at the end of the day, Snake is a fundamentally good person. Big Boss is arguably a more developed character, but I feel Solid Snake gets the top spot as he's the 'face' of the series, and again, while Big Boss went down a darker path, Snake hangs in there until the end.

1) Link (The Legend of Zelda)

Link is a bit iffy since the amount of personality he has varies, and even at his most expressive (e.g. Wind Waker), he's not the most deep of protagonists out there. Still, I feel he deserves the top spot. He's an avatar of hero fantasy, a brave little guy who'll always save Hyrule, will always do the right thing, and will always triumph no matter the odds. Like I said, Link is a simple character, but there's an earnestness and 'purity' to him that I appreciate. In a way, given how his traits and setting differ while still retaining the core of the character, he's a bit more dynamic than some of his contemporaries. So, yeah. Sometimes the world just needs a hero.

WORST

5) Doomguy (Doom)

As I said above, I'm fine with characters being 'badass' provided that there's more to them than that. Doomguy however, doesn't have any of that. He's a meathead. Plain and simple. The most fleshed out he's ever been is in Doom 2016 (discounting novelizations), and even then, his character begins and ends with killing demons. I'm not discounting his iconic status, but again, I'd rather have a protagonist with some actual depth to them.

4) Hero of Oakvale (Fable)

Really not fond of Fable. And there's something about the Hero of Oakvale I find offputting. Hard to say, but, well, yeah.

3) Ranger (Quake)

He's here for every reason Doomguy is, except he's even less fleshed out, and even more of a meathead.

2) Big the Cat (Sonic the Hedgehog)

"SHUT UP BIG!"

No, seriously, who thought this was a good idea? I love Sonic Adventure. I still like Sonic, and you can bet I considered putting him in the top five. But Big? Ugh. The only good thing I can say about him is that he's one of the most useful characters in Sonic Chronicles, but who the hell played Sonic Adventure and said "yes! More fishing stages!"

1) Private Green (Army Men)

He's a little green man that shoots little tan men without doing anything other than that, or saying anything, or having any kind of character at all.

...that's really all I can say.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Ok, I'll bite, but I'm not going to number them because I (dis)like each of these characters for very different and unquantifiable reasons, making hard to put one over the other:

The Good
- The Prince (PoP Sands of Time)
- Garret (Thief trilogy)
- Solid Snake (Metal Gear)
- Guybrush Threepwood
- Joel (The Last of Us)

The Bad
- Kratos (God of War, post 1st game)
- Squall (FFVIII)
- Emil (NIER)
- Sonic (post Sonic Adventure)
- Baby Mario (anything he's in)

I didn't include character like Doomguy, Gordon Freeman and every Bethesda rpg protagonist because they aren't character, they're mannequins holding weapons you can pretend are characters.

Also, Final Fantasy is lucky I only do one per franchise. Otherwise, add Hope, Vanille, Zell, Rikku, Tidus, Snow, Lightning, Vaan, Yuffie and Serah. Also, Sonic's entire legion of buddies. I like playing Sonic, I despise hearing any of them talk.

 

[Hawki]

I didn't include character like Doomguy, Gordon Freeman and every Bethesda rpg protagonist because they aren't character, they're mannequins holding weapons you can pretend are characters.

Bethesda I pretty much agree with considering their characters are mostly entirely player generated, but I still consider Doomguy and Gordon to be characters. They're arguably avatars for the player, but the player doesn't take any part in their actual creation or actions. Technically, Doomguy does have a personality, even as early as Doom 1 (he likes killing demons and getting weapons, as his facial expressions show), while Gordon is entirely a blank slate. A blank slate with a personality, but I'd be damned if I could actually tell you anything about the type of person he is. Heck, I'd argue that Chell is more of a character than he is.

And I get it, Gordon's meant to be an avatar for the player, but he's an avatar that has a lot of narrative dissonance in that I'm meant to believe an MIT scientist can outgun everything from special forces to alien invaders. A scientist is a change of pace from the space marine archtype, but Gordon still does everything that space marine archtype does, so what's the point apart from some lines poking fun at this in HL2?

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Best

1: Jimmy Hopkins (Bully)
2: Mike Haggar (Final Fight)
3: Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3)
4: Patrick Galloway (Undying)
5: Martin Brown (Hotline Miami 2)

Worst

1: Arioch (Drakengard)
2: Ace (Space Ace)
3: Custer (Custer's Revenge)
4: Issac (Binding of Issac)
5: Lester (Lester the Unlikely)

 

[jademunky]

Best:
Guybrush Threepwood
Ben (From Full Throttle)
James Sunderland (Silent Hill II)
Clementine (Walking Dead)
Namless One, in all his incarnations (Planescape: Torment)

Worst:
Marcus Fenix
Nathan Drake
Lara Croft (Pre-reboot)
Duke Nukem
Sonic the Hedgehog

 

[Chewster]

Depends on how you define "best" but here are some that were memorable for me, though I'm probably forgetting a lot from my earlier days of gaming.

Best...

Delsin Rowe (Infamous Second Son)
Earl (Toejam & Earl)
Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes)
Kat (Gravity Rush)
Artyom (Metro 2033 & Metro: Last Light)

Worst...

I don't know, most silent protagonists come to mind since they are just there as an avatar to represent the thoughts and feelings of the player and usually have no personality of their own but storytelling in gaming has evolved since then so I don't really count them. Games with silent protagonists are usually arcade-y type games these days.

But a few with voices that I hated...

Trevor (GTA V)
Aiden Pearce (Watch Dogs) (the whole cast of Watch Dogs 2 are also pretty insufferable but Pearce wins out)
The FizzCo Guy (Sunset Overdrive)
Emo Prince (Prince of Persia: Warrior Within)
Rico (Just Cause series)

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Best:

Max Payne
Max Caulfield

my friend, its kinda strange and funny that there are 2 Max that are exact opposite of each other. one Max is iconic, poetic and badass who suffer pain and kill everyone on his way. Other Max is high school teenage girl who solve mysteries.

 

[EternallyBored]

Best protagonists, by protagonist I am interpreting it only as playable characters, as for most silent or create-a-characters characters, I generally don't consider them good or bad just blank slates to watch or sort of interact with the real characters, so while I like Gordon Freeman and Chell, they don't hold a candle to Glad0s or Alyx so none of them would make a top 5 protagonist list for me, same for Shepard, the Vault Dweller, or the Warden, they are there to play off the more interesting companions and characters.

so in no particular order, here goes,
best:
1. John Marston (Red Dead Redemption)
The emblematic cowboy character, cool, sometimes explosive, and ultimately tragic, the mix of outlaw and family man worked well, and its one of the few video game character arcs to ever make me genuinely tear up.

2. Joel (The Last of Us)
Ok I swear these all aren't going to be tragic father figures, but Joel has some of the most well acted voicing and animations in video games today, almost every scene serves to advance a character arc and he gets lots of downtime and its one of the few video games I've seen where a character is a bitter asshole but you still understand why he's an asshole and even see the edges smoothed over the course of the game. While I'm not super stoked on how the ending played out it did a good job at displaying just how human and flawed the character is without making you hate him.

3. Amaterasu (Okami)
So technically a sort of silent protagonist, but has a great story and a lot of reactions that uses the character Issun as sort of a mouthpiece, probably one of the best examples of giving a silent character emotion and a character arc, as much as I love games like Metroid and LoZ, Ammy takes the cake for silent protagonists for me.

4. Geralt (Witcher)
He starts out pretty generic in 1 with some interesting twists, gets more interesting in 2 with the political intrigue, and 3 brings it all home. Perhaps cheating, but his best characterization is probably in the expansions for Witcher 3, it really does feel like one of the most satisfying epilogues ever constructed for a character.

5: Snake, just Snake
Across all iterations, from big boss, to venom, to the interactive movie that is MGS 4, Snake is a character that kind of transcends being a single person and becomes a sort of lineage, while sometimes fucking confusing, or mediocre, he's a character that kind of defines a genre at this point.

Special mentions go to new Lara Croft and Nathan Drake for having annoyances but damnit if I don't want to see where their stories and character arcs go. Also JC Denton and guybrush Threepwood for being pleasant nostalgia bombs from my past.

Worst:

1. Aiden Pierce (Watch Dogs)
Annoying sociopath that acts way too self righteous for the amount of shit he pulls. Basically fucks everything up then gets generic revenge by giving an elderly mob boss a heart attack.

2. Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic games)
technically he's only the main protagonist in one game but he's playable in other games, so fuck it, he counts. The guy is like a parody if early to mid-2000's edgy teen nonsense, the Shadow the Hedgehog game is like something you would come up with to make fun of sonic the hedgehog games.

3. Lightning (Final Fantasy 13)
If only she wasn't waifu bait for one of the SE execs we might have gotten another game in Ivalice or something more interesting than a bland female Cloud that spends way too much of the game vascillating between pretending not to care about anything, being an asshole to everyone around her. and being whiny about her sister.

4. Gex
Probably one of the worst of the mascot platformer characters, his schtick is basically just making bad 90's pop culture references, mostly movies, and not even in a funny way, just delivered as one liners constantly. One of the lowest effort cash-ins from people trying to get a piece of the Mario/Sonic pie at the time.

5. Dante (DMC reboot)
Not as bad as some of the others, and the game probably gets more crap than he deserves, but he just isn't as good as old Dante, while I can see positives and negatives in say new Lara Croft versus old lara croft, there is just no reason I would choose another game with new dante versus old dante.

Anyway, I would probably change some of these if I really thought about it as I tend not to rank things like this, but that's what I got off the top of my head.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Earl (Toejam & Earl)

Ok, didn't expect to see him in this thread. What about Earl appeals so much to you? No sarcasm meant, just genuine curiosity.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Best:
Frisk (undertale)
Chrono (Chrono Trigger)
Red (Pokemon Red)
Doom Guy (DOOM 2016)
The Arbiter (Starcraft)

...ok, I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. Now for realsies, in no particular order:
Best:
Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn)
Captain Titus (Warhammer 40k: Space Marine)
Paper Mario (Paper Mario And the Thousand Year Door)
Balthier (Final Fantasy XII)
B.J. Blazkowitz (Wolfenstein: The New Order)

Worst:
Ryder (Mass Effect Andromeda)
Talon (Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor)
War (Darksiders)
Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII; Lightning Returns)
Firaveous Carron (Dawn of War)

I don't quite really know if Firaveous Carron counts as a protagonist, but his god-awfulness is why I never played Chaos in Soulstorm. What mother-fucking Khornate Champion RUNS FROM BATTLE AND USES WARP MAGICS TO RENDER HIMSELF INVULNERABLE SO LONG AS HE NEVER MOVES FROM HIS BASE TO ATTACK THE ENEMY? A fucking disgrace is what.

 

[Chewster]

Earl (Toejam & Earl)

Ok, didn't expect to see him in this thread. What about Earl appeals so much to you? No sarcasm meant, just genuine curiosity.

Umm...I think it is because the first game remains one of my favorites from when I was a kid. Genesis was my first system (unless the C64 counts), and I remember reading about it in one of my video game tip books I bought at a school book fair and everything about it sounded so incredibly cool. Oddly enough, I pictured something more the style of the second game (which was also enjoyable but for different reasons) but I still loved the first and I thought Earl was a cool, laid back and goofy foil to Toejam's more cocky, serious character. Plus he had more health which was good for me when I was a kid and didn't know what I was doing.

I must have rented that game a dozen times from the local video shop before finally beating it. I eventually saved my money up and bought a used copy from the flea market on the edge of town.

 

[laggyteabag]

You know who I hate? Silent protagonists.

I don't get the appeal. I really dont.

Characters like the Rookie from Halo 3: ODST, Gordon Freeman from Half Life, or the Doomguy from Doom. They aren't characters - they are cameras with guns.

Most of the time when there are silent protagonists, they are supposed to allow the player to better relate to them, and to put yourself in their shoes... but, thats dumb. Isn't that what dialogue choices are for? Branching story paths?

Silent protagonists are lazy. Playing through these games, and everytime someone asks the player character a question, and they just stand there, gawping and silent, whilst someone answers for them, it just doesnt make sense to me, and it really brings me out of the experience.

There is one particularly memorable scene in Halo CE, on the level 343 Guilty Spark, which is the franchise's introduction to the race of space zombies known as the Flood. On this level, after they have been released from their containment, they spill out into the rest of the facility that you are in, and into the surrounding jungle. Once the Chief is back on the surface, he recieves a radio call from the pilot that flew him in, asking what was going on, and that she lost contact with him when he first entered. The Chief proceeds to not say a word.

Besides, how can I pretend to be a character like Gordon Freeman or John-117, when they already have names, an assigned gender, Gordon has a face, Gordon is a scientist, and John has been a soldier since the age of 6, and they have both had lives before the games start. Were they both mutes their entire livees? They already have character traits, so by bother stopping there?

Dumb dumb dumb.

 

[Worgen]

5) Doomguy (Doom)

As I said above, I'm fine with characters being 'badass' provided that there's more to them than that. Doomguy however, doesn't have any of that. He's a meathead. Plain and simple. The most fleshed out he's ever been is in Doom 2016 (discounting novelizations), and even then, his character begins and ends with killing demons. I'm not discounting his iconic status, but again, I'd rather have a protagonist with some actual depth to them.

I would have to disagree with doom guy. I mean your mostly right, most of all he does is kill demons but we see bits of something deeper in what he does. Like when hes destroying the mirrors that funnel argent energy, we see that he does put some thought into it before deciding "fuck it" and kicking the crap out of them. But the part that really adds more to him as a character is when hes shutting down the ai core but instead of just deleting the ai, he copies it to a storage medium and takes it with him. I'm not saying this makes him some great character, but it gives him a bit more depth then most silent characters and makes him a bit more than just a meat head.

 

[Hawki]

I would have to disagree with doom guy. I mean your mostly right, most of all he does is kill demons but we see bits of something deeper in what he does. Like when hes destroying the mirrors that funnel argent energy, we see that he does put some thought into it before deciding "fuck it" and kicking the crap out of them. But the part that really adds more to him as a character is when hes shutting down the ai core but instead of just deleting the ai, he copies it to a storage medium and takes it with him. I'm not saying this makes him some great character, but it gives him a bit more depth then most silent characters and makes him a bit more than just a meat head.

That's true, in of itself, but if I'm treating Doomguy as an aggregate of the Doom games as a whole, the Doom Slayer isn't enough to offset the characterization of the games prior to Doom 3. If I only had to rank the Doom Slayer, he probably wouldn't get the place. He's still a meathead, but it's meatheadness that's directly relevant to his characterization. Similar to how I think silent protagonists can be engaging if their lack of dialogue is relevant to their character (e.g. Chell and Jack) rather than the more awkward attempts that characters like Gordon Freeman and the Rookie have.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

5 each is excessive so off the top of my head I'd go

Best:

Spoiler

(finally official)

Worst: Any (mostly) silent protagonist and

Spoiler

Because there's turning over a new leaf and then there's a leaf blowing in the wind. Watching his coup de grace was actually gratifying after all the stupid quests I had to endure while listening to his horribly grating western accent complaining about it.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Best:
1. Myst
2. Riven: The Sequel to Myst
3. Myst III: Exile
4. Myst IV: Revelation
5. Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

Worst:
1. Dark Souls
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
3. Half Life 2
4. Bioshock
5. Planescape Torment

 

[maninahat]

Best protagonists?

1. Tommy Angelo from Mafia I. The game does a great job of convincing you that a man who kills hundreds of people is still somehow a nice guy who cares about what his mum would think if she saw him.
2. The protagonist (you) from the Saints Row games. You're character is a complete dick, but also one who knows he's a dick and doesn't pretend otherwise. They also are a fan of Jane Austin and Burt Reynolds - so they still have some good in them.
3. Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango. Charming, smart mouthed little guy who says he's in it for himself but actually has a heart of gold.
4. Lee, from The Walking Dead. 4/5 all of these actually deserve to be Telltale Game characters but for the sake of variety I'll just use the best. It's a close call between Lee, Bigby Wolf and Max.
5. Dude, from Full Pipe. Dude is wonderfully expressive, without ever saying a word. The dancer from Bound similarly is able to convey a lot just through physical expression and movement.

Worst protagonists?
1. Cole Stone. I actually made that name up, but he represents the many protagonists of Call of Duty, Tom Clancy and Sniper Elite games. They'l loudly complain about the "footballs", or "taking out that son of a *****" in a gruff mr American man voice, but will otherwise have no serviceable personality. Aggressively boring, and super serious about it.
2. Old Dante. Try hard wannabe badass who resembles some very dated ideas about what looks cool. He's like an aged hipster who's crashed a teenager's disco, only instead of the games being smart enough to play off of this, it totally believes he is that cool.
3. Connor from Assassins Creed 3. His dad is basically Colonial era James Bond. Connor however is a po-faced, all business misery guts who sits on the periphery of every major event in the founding of the US, and yet somehow never leaves a mark on history. Are the founding father's racist, or are they simply sick of his constant moping around like a hormonal teenager?
4. Max Payne in Max Payne 3. Speaking of misery guts, in previous titles Max Payne was a depressed guy who still had a wry joke to crack once in a while. In Max Payne 3, all he does is groan and gripe, complaining about everyone around him whilst he drinks on the job and fails to achieve anything meaningful. Such a downer.
5. Ray McCall in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. So in Call of Juarez there is this really cool character called Ray McCall, who's half psychopathic preacher, half cowboy beeftank. In the prequel he's this grumpy, epithet spouting, lumbering moron. He can fuck right off.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Best:
1. Myst
2. Riven: The Sequel to Myst
3. Myst III: Exile
4. Myst IV: Revelation
5. Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

Worst:
1. Dark Souls
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
3. Half Life 2
4. Bioshock
5. Planescape Torment

Ahh, The Stranger. Interesting choice, and I guess I see where you're going with this.