Like any narrative medium, video games have given us some fantastic characters over the years. We won't name names for fear of adding bias to your answers, but if you're here in the Just About Video Games community, there's no need to give examples.
It's a straightforward bounty, this one: simply tell us who you reckon is the best character in video game history - or at least whoever is your personal favourite - but be sure also to tell us why.
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Before Epic Games created Fortnite they had the coolest game on iOS called Infinity Blade. Unfortunately it's no longer available on the app store and they discontinued support for it.
In the game you played as Siris, a warrior trained from birth to duel the immortal deathless, 'The God King'. Siris is not supposed to win, he is their 'sacrifice' and the only defiance the people ruled by 'The God King' are allowed to express, whilst they live under his oppressive rule.
In the game, 'The God King' is a classic villain. However in the Infinity Blade books by Brandon Sanderson, he has so much more depth.
We learn that 'The God King' was once the son of a man named Uriel who was working on a project that developed a technology that was able to make immortality possible. When Uriel's son Jori was hit in a car accident, his father gave up his opportunity for immortality to save his sons life. Jori lost all his memories and was reborn as the Deathless Raidriar.
Unknowing of his own origins, Raidriar embraced his godhood and was corrupted by the power - compelled towards domination.
When Siris unexpectedly wins his duel and 'kills' the God King with his own weapon - The Infinity Blade. Siris then goes on a journey to eliminate the deathless and save the world.
As the story goes on, it is revealed that Raidriar didn't die, that he was containing a greater evil in the shadows that Siris ends up releasing. The two end up putting aside their mutual hatred to work together to stop the Worker of Secrets from destroying the world. In the end Raidriar sacrifices his own life to distract the Worker and give Siris a chance to succeed.
A lot of spoilers there, but the books are excellent with plenty of plot twists that get you to see this 'evil' character in a whole different light.
Had to think on this for a while, and in the end instead of some childhood favourites I've picked a recent one, Emet-Selch from Final Fantasy XIV.
Long story short he has an amazing character arch and is one of those epic villains who you love to hate and hate to love, who you can't help it but feel sorry for and understand him.
Spoiler warning, if you haven't completed Shadowbringers yet, you might want to skip my explanation why I think he's amazing.
Emet-Selch is the main antagonist the Warrior of Light (the player) has to face in Final Fantasy XIV's Shadowbringers expansion. He's an Ascian like the enemies we have faced before, but he's one of the few, who remembers the world as it was before it got split into 14 shards. Even though we know he is our enemy and he doesn't try to deny it either, he decides to join us on our adventure as an observer, and for a while even helps us from time to time... until at one point he reveals his plan and turns on us.
Through his tales we learn a lot about the history of the world and he also tells us why the Ascians are trying to rejoin the 14 shards, and make the world whole again.... even if it means destroying life on it as we know it.
His character arc and story takes us on such an emotional rollercoaster, as we doubt him, hate him for what he's done to one of our comrades, for what he wants to do to us.... yet when we walk through the illusion city he has built to remember the old world, realisation hits that he has lost everything and would do anything to see his loved ones again... and wouldn't we all do the same?
And even after we defeat him, he will appear a few more times and help us unexpectedly... and we have to get to the final chapters of the next expansion, Endwalker to understand why did he change his mind and deem us worthy to trust us with the remnants of his world.
There were a few scenes in this game which made me cry, I didn't expect his final words to be one of those scenes....
It's a tough question that I had to think about for quite some time. For me, Garrus from Mass Effect takes the crown, and there are multiple reasons for this beyond the fact that he's a grade A badass. Bioware had ample time to flesh out his character across the three games, provided you even recruit him in the first place. During my first playthrough, he was the only constant. Experiencing his growth through our shared adventures, eventually becoming my character's best friend, was a truly joyful experience. The genuine nature of their friendship shines through in their dialogue, and the shooting practice scene in ME3 depicts two best friends 'shooting the shit' quite literally (I always choose to miss on purpose; Garrus rinsing Shepard is never not funny to me).
On a more technical note, I believe Brandon Keener nailed his part as Garrus's voice actor, and Garrus's overall character design is sleek.
I sincerely hope he makes a return in the next instalment of the Mass Effect series—forever my wingman and best friend. xoxoxo
Great choice. "Raise your hand if you haven't been killed before." I always trusted I could pick the prickly Renegade responses with Garrus 'cos he'd always hit back unfazed.
Honestly, there are so many to choose from for a myriad of reasons ranging from iconic heroes from my childhood, cute companion animals, imposing villains or terrifying bosses.... and even narrowing down that list was difficult in itself!
There are a few characters who always come to mind but one consistent character for me is Balthier from Final Fantasy XII. I've loved the Final Fantasy series for years but XII was the first game in the series that I actually felt compelled to complete and didn't struggle too much with (I was 10 when this game came out so don't judge too harshly). Not only was the world of Ivalice beautiful and the story and soundtrack were engrossing and immersive, but the characters I absolutely adored. XII is one of the more underrated mainline FF games because of its vast differences in tone, mechanics and battling but different isn't always a bad thing. Sure, a lot of people were put off by the main character in XII being a teenage boy who had no clue about being a hero... but once you get past that introduction and start to meet some more of the party members, the suave and silver-tongued charmer that is Balthier enters the scene and his charisma dominates the game from then on! I do remember even having a little crush on him too! Balthier would always be the character I'd choose to play as because I just loved his personality so much. He's a very complex character with a troubled past but he never let said past define who he is now and, while sometimes flirting with the wrong side of the law, he has a good and noble heart... as any "leading man" should- of which he claims himself to be several times throughout the game. I, much like many others, also think he should have been the leading man as, with some mild story tweaks, the plot can work from his point of view due to his lengthy history with the warring empires. As the story progresses, you learn more about who he is and why he is the way that he is too... getting to see all of these depths to his character which his voice actor- the talented Gideon Emery, expresses extremely well. A lot of thought and care went into crafting Balthier as a character and that is what makes him so iconic to me; moreso than the actual main character of the game (sorry Vaan).
I always like Geralt. Sharp-witted, cynical, and has a more mercenary attitude than most big heroes in games. I always liked those kind of characters, almost mysanthropic, but still have their mission and place in the world.
My favorite character would have to be Trevor from GTA5! Sometimes I replay the story missions just for his bits. He’s hilarious and crazy and I love him for that lol.
