8 of the Greatest Videogame Protagonists

[RealRT]

Unless there's a good reason for it and there is. The design is bland not because the developers couldn't do better.

I understand your reasoning, but you don't understand me at all it seems.

I'll just ask you; is Walkers design bland to you?

Maybe.

Going back to your original point, good design doesn't mean squat if the writing is bad. Writing is what characters live and die by.

Lol, I was expecting a no from you.

Bad writing can kill anything, but that's not really problem for the well designed till they have a milked out a sequel that expands beyond what it should. Writing isn't the only entertainment in video games, it's not even half. It's also design, game play, their abilities, and other things that make people enjoy their company.

I can see somewhat your main interests now, but I'm not like you RT. I actually try to see the strengths each game/developer has instead of just reflecting my own specific views only.

Yeah, well, again, if a character is a complete and utter twat, I can't spend an entire game with them no matter how powerful and cool-looking they are. The Assassin's Creed series is a prime example. Also, do play Spec Ops.

For fuck sake man! I've played Spec Ops. Yahtzee made a big deal out of it so how could I not.

And I agree with you with Assassins Creed too, not the type of character I care about.

I must ask, can you enjoy a game with little story and/or a silent protagonist?

A lot of my favorite games have silent protagonists... but when comparing protagonists, a non-silent protagonist will always take edge over a silent protagonist.

 

[Nazulu]

Unless there's a good reason for it and there is. The design is bland not because the developers couldn't do better.

I understand your reasoning, but you don't understand me at all it seems.

I'll just ask you; is Walkers design bland to you?

Maybe.

Going back to your original point, good design doesn't mean squat if the writing is bad. Writing is what characters live and die by.

Lol, I was expecting a no from you.

Bad writing can kill anything, but that's not really problem for the well designed till they have a milked out a sequel that expands beyond what it should. Writing isn't the only entertainment in video games, it's not even half. It's also design, game play, their abilities, and other things that make people enjoy their company.

I can see somewhat your main interests now, but I'm not like you RT. I actually try to see the strengths each game/developer has instead of just reflecting my own specific views only.

Yeah, well, again, if a character is a complete and utter twat, I can't spend an entire game with them no matter how powerful and cool-looking they are. The Assassin's Creed series is a prime example. Also, do play Spec Ops.

For fuck sake man! I've played Spec Ops. Yahtzee made a big deal out of it so how could I not.

And I agree with you with Assassins Creed too, not the type of character I care about.

I must ask, can you enjoy a game with little story and/or a silent protagonist?

A lot of my favorite games have silent protagonists... but when comparing protagonists, a non-silent protagonist will always take edge over a silent protagonist.

Favourite Games! Didn't expect that. Definitely expected the answer that followed it though

Well Super Metroid is my favourite, and I loved Samus because of it. Not because she didn't talk, but because of her amazing playability, functions, and her unique abilities. She's become a character I wanted to use more often (well, used to). A company I prefer over every non silent protagonist I've ever played.

Thing about writing is the characters 'writing' has to be well executed before it's even worth anything, and I usually find that isn't the case with most popular characters. A character having an interesting back story doesn't automatically make an interesting character, neither does being in an interesting story. Even if the game/movie/book is an epic, doesn't automatically make any of the characters 'good' even.

One game many people look to for an interesting story's/characters is Majora's Mask, and you know what? There is not one section of writing or dialogue that I care to come back to in the whole thing. Same with Chrono Trigger. Same with Mass Effect. All boring as sewer levels. So please, show me a character that's actually fun or amazing to listen to, because I haven't found that many.

 

[RealRT]

Unless there's a good reason for it and there is. The design is bland not because the developers couldn't do better.

I understand your reasoning, but you don't understand me at all it seems.

I'll just ask you; is Walkers design bland to you?

Maybe.

Going back to your original point, good design doesn't mean squat if the writing is bad. Writing is what characters live and die by.

Lol, I was expecting a no from you.

Bad writing can kill anything, but that's not really problem for the well designed till they have a milked out a sequel that expands beyond what it should. Writing isn't the only entertainment in video games, it's not even half. It's also design, game play, their abilities, and other things that make people enjoy their company.

I can see somewhat your main interests now, but I'm not like you RT. I actually try to see the strengths each game/developer has instead of just reflecting my own specific views only.

Yeah, well, again, if a character is a complete and utter twat, I can't spend an entire game with them no matter how powerful and cool-looking they are. The Assassin's Creed series is a prime example. Also, do play Spec Ops.

For fuck sake man! I've played Spec Ops. Yahtzee made a big deal out of it so how could I not.

And I agree with you with Assassins Creed too, not the type of character I care about.

I must ask, can you enjoy a game with little story and/or a silent protagonist?

A lot of my favorite games have silent protagonists... but when comparing protagonists, a non-silent protagonist will always take edge over a silent protagonist.

Favourite Games! Didn't expect that. Definitely expected the answer that followed it though

Well Super Metroid is my favourite, and I loved Samus because of it. Not because she didn't talk, but because of her amazing playability, functions, and her unique abilities. She's become a character I wanted to use more often (well, used to). A company I prefer over every non silent protagonist I've ever played.

Thing about writing is the characters 'writing' has to be well executed before it's even worth anything, and I usually find that isn't the case with most popular characters. A character having an interesting back story doesn't automatically make an interesting character, neither does being in an interesting story. Even if the game/movie/book is an epic, doesn't automatically make any of the characters 'good' even.

One game many people look to for an interesting story's/characters is Majora's Mask, and you know what? There is not one section of writing or dialogue that I care to come back to in the whole thing. Same with Chrono Trigger. Same with Mass Effect. All boring as sewer levels. So please, show me a character that's actually fun or amazing to listen to, because I haven't found that many.

I predicted you'll get all this Nintendo stuff out that I neither have nor want to play because I had a Mega Drive and then the PlayStation and all those Metroids and Zeldas and whatnot only irritate me to no end.
You wan't a character who's got great writing, great design and great voice acting? Have two. Enter: Kain and Raziel

The vampire emperor of Nosgoth and his former vampire lieutenant (as in: both former vampire and former lieutenant) from the now-forgotten but nevertheless awesome Legacy of Kain series. Two amazingly voiced protagonists of the pentalogy whose favorite pastimes are monologuing in pseudo-shakesperean speech, fighting fate and drinking blood/eating souls. Voiced by the ever-awesome Simon Templeman, Kain is one of the best anti-heroes to originate from a video game and Raziel, voiced by Michael Bell is no slouch himself. These two are just a delight to listen to. I mean, they made five games with these two bad mo-fos monologuing all the way and nobody got tired of that.

 

[Nazulu]

I predicted you'll get all this Nintendo stuff out that I neither have nor want to play because I had a Mega Drive and then the PlayStation and all those Metroids and Zeldas and whatnot only irritate me to no end.
You wan't a character who's got great writing, great design and great voice acting? Have two. Enter: Kain and Raziel

The vampire emperor of Nosgoth and his former vampire lieutenant (as in: both former vampire and former lieutenant) from the now-forgotten but nevertheless awesome Legacy of Kain series. Two amazingly voiced protagonists of the pentalogy whose favorite pastimes are monologuing in pseudo-shakesperean speech, fighting fate and drinking blood/eating souls. Voiced by the ever-awesome Simon Templeman, Kain is one of the best anti-heroes to originate from a video game and Raziel, voiced by Michael Bell is no slouch himself. These two are just a delight to listen to. I mean, they made five games with these two bad mo-fos monologuing all the way and nobody got tired of that.

Ha! I actually got most of the Legacy of Kain series on a Steam special not too long ago. I'm going to put them higher on my list now because of this convo. The first game is perfect to start the series you reckon?

As for 'Nintendo stuff', how on earth can you be irritated by something you haven't experienced? What ever you may say, you are missing out on Super Metroid.

Edit: I'm going to bed, but I'll be back soonish.

 

[RealRT]

I predicted you'll get all this Nintendo stuff out that I neither have nor want to play because I had a Mega Drive and then the PlayStation and all those Metroids and Zeldas and whatnot only irritate me to no end.
You wan't a character who's got great writing, great design and great voice acting? Have two. Enter: Kain and Raziel

The vampire emperor of Nosgoth and his former vampire lieutenant (as in: both former vampire and former lieutenant) from the now-forgotten but nevertheless awesome Legacy of Kain series. Two amazingly voiced protagonists of the pentalogy whose favorite pastimes are monologuing in pseudo-shakesperean speech, fighting fate and drinking blood/eating souls. Voiced by the ever-awesome Simon Templeman, Kain is one of the best anti-heroes to originate from a video game and Raziel, voiced by Michael Bell is no slouch himself. These two are just a delight to listen to. I mean, they made five games with these two bad mo-fos monologuing all the way and nobody got tired of that.

Ha! I actually got most of the Legacy of Kain series on a Steam special not too long ago. I'm going to put them higher on my list now because of this convo. The first game is perfect to start the series you reckon?

As for 'Nintendo stuff', how on earth can you be irritated by something you haven't experienced? What ever you may say, you are missing out on Super Metroid.

Edit: I'm going to bed, but I'll be back soonish.

Yes it is!.. and it's sadly not on Steam due to ownership rights for the PC version being a bloody mess. I'm talking about the original Blood Omen from 1996. You can get it on PSN. Soul Reaver 1 is also a good jumping on point, even though you are going to miss on one fine game in BO1. By the way - they also got the late great Tony Jay (judge Frollo from Humpback of Notre Dame, The Transcendent One from Torment and a plethora of other great roles) in 4 games out of 5 (3 out of 4 of the ones you have).

This is exactly why I'm irritated: constant HEY YOU REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS and when I start remembering the good old days of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage and Comix Zone and Sonic they continue with YEAH MARIO AND ZELDA AND STAR FOX AND METROID and all other words that are meaningless and hollow to me and they are constantly zealotly worshipped like holy grails of everything and everything else is garbage and only Nintendo did it right because HEY REMEMBER GOLDEN EYE (fuck no, I played Medal of Honor) and it only makes me resent them even more.

 

[Nazulu]

Yes it is!.. and it's sadly not on Steam due to ownership rights for the PC version being a bloody mess. I'm talking about the original Blood Omen from 1996. You can get it on PSN. Soul Reaver 1 is also a good jumping on point, even though you are going to miss on one fine game in BO1. By the way - they also got the late great Tony Jay (judge Frollo from Humpback of Notre Dame, The Transcendent One from Torment and a plethora of other great roles) in 4 games out of 5 (3 out of 4 of the ones you have).

This is exactly why I'm irritated: constant HEY YOU REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS and when I start remembering the good old days of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage and Comix Zone and Sonic they continue with YEAH MARIO AND ZELDA AND STAR FOX AND METROID and all other words that are meaningless and hollow to me and they are constantly zealotly worshipped like holy grails of everything and everything else is garbage and only Nintendo did it right because HEY REMEMBER GOLDEN EYE (fuck no, I played Medal of Honor) and it only makes me resent them even more.

Oh fuck! You're right. It's not on Steam, and I don't have it, but I will. Mentioning Tony Jay has given me the inspiration to go far.

Also for why you're irritated, you didn't really explain why except that I think you don't like popular opinion. Now I get it, because Super Metroid was never the system seller, and the later Metroid games have been more popular because of the graphics or sexual revealing (fucking sell outs), so it shits me up the wall. But some of those old games are really worth it. Don't let rabid fan boy's paint them ugly. I never do.

Also, I don't see much 'Nintendo only did it right', more they brought in some original elements (or made them function better) so games like Golden Eye and Ocarina of Time are a big deal for that. But I don't think there are many here that just believe Nintendo is the king of all. But again. Don't let stupid people ruin anything for you! They are every where on every side and can make anything look terrible. Ignore them and experience your way.

 

[RealRT]

Yes it is!.. and it's sadly not on Steam due to ownership rights for the PC version being a bloody mess. I'm talking about the original Blood Omen from 1996. You can get it on PSN. Soul Reaver 1 is also a good jumping on point, even though you are going to miss on one fine game in BO1. By the way - they also got the late great Tony Jay (judge Frollo from Humpback of Notre Dame, The Transcendent One from Torment and a plethora of other great roles) in 4 games out of 5 (3 out of 4 of the ones you have).

This is exactly why I'm irritated: constant HEY YOU REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS and when I start remembering the good old days of Golden Axe and Streets of Rage and Comix Zone and Sonic they continue with YEAH MARIO AND ZELDA AND STAR FOX AND METROID and all other words that are meaningless and hollow to me and they are constantly zealotly worshipped like holy grails of everything and everything else is garbage and only Nintendo did it right because HEY REMEMBER GOLDEN EYE (fuck no, I played Medal of Honor) and it only makes me resent them even more.

Oh fuck! You're right. It's not on Steam, and I don't have it, but I will. Mentioning Tony Jay has given me the inspiration to go far.

Also for why you're irritated, you didn't really explain why except that I think you don't like popular opinion. Now I get it, because Super Metroid was never the system seller, and the later Metroid games have been more popular because of the graphics or sexual revealing (fucking sell outs), so it shits me up the wall. But some of those old games are really worth it. Don't let rabid fan boy's paint them ugly. I never do.

Also, I don't see much 'Nintendo only did it right', more they brought in some original elements (or made them function better) so games like Golden Eye and Ocarina of Time are a big deal for that. But I don't think there are many here that just believe Nintendo is the king of all. But again. Don't let stupid people ruin anything for you! They are every where on every side and can make anything look terrible. Ignore them and experience your way.

Oh, by the way, they also got Anna Gunn of the Breaking Bad fame. Really, the whole voice cast is quite spectacular.

Since I'm from the other side of the Great Console War, it's always quite teeth-grinding to me to see my Sega's 16-bit legacy, which made the same amount of impact if not more (remember, they were the first ones to actually rival Nintendo) either unmentioned, underrated or outright denied in favor of all that stuff that's really alien to me and it only serves to alienate me from it even more.
TL;DR: The fanboys are the problem. It's the same problem I have with Morrowind: I love Morrowind, it's great, but I also love Oblivion and I really think Oblivion did improve on Morrowind in several areas like combat, world interaction, world travel and how the quests are organized, but Morrowind fanboys which deny the very idea of Morrowind not being perfect and ***** about Oblivion and Skyrim not being Morrowind I hate to no end.

 

[Nazulu]

Oh, by the way, they also got Anna Gunn of the Breaking Bad fame. Really, the whole voice cast is quite spectacular.

Since I'm from the other side of the Great Console War, it's always quite teeth-grinding to me to see my Sega's 16-bit legacy, which made the same amount of impact if not more (remember, they were the first ones to actually rival Nintendo) either unmentioned, underrated or outright denied in favor of all that stuff that's really alien to me and it only serves to alienate me from it even more.
TL;DR: The fanboys are the problem. It's the same problem I have with Morrowind: I love Morrowind, it's great, but I also love Oblivion and I really think Oblivion did improve on Morrowind in several areas like combat, world interaction, world travel and how the quests are organized, but Morrowind fanboys which deny the very idea of Morrowind not being perfect and ***** about Oblivion and Skyrim not being Morrowind I hate to no end.

Yeah, I can't imagine a game failing with this kind of cast. Never heard so many for one game before.

Anyway, It's funny to me. I had always preferred Mario, but not until 3 years ago I've started to see Sonic as the more ambitious and extreme one. Thanks to a lets player called Clement, I've been looking through the Sonic history because I honestly knew fuck all about him, and now I know heaps.

I absolutely loved Super Mario World as a kid, it was my favourite plat-former, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is really something. I already started to prefer Sonic just for S3&K, and it didn't take me long to start defending it from Nintendo fanboy's I used to be somewhat a part of. It felt strange suddenly defending the poor hog, but many Nintendo fanboy's really classed Mario way above Sonic and I needed to say something because Sonic's had a interesting history.

Looking through, as you said, the other side of the console war, I noticed I missed a fuck load of special games, and I'm currently trying to catch up, as well as others I'm interested in. Nintendo had a lot to offer in their golden days, but I admit I was blind to everything else. What can you do? There was just so much great stuff back then.

Also, here in Australia, Sega and Playstation were usually seen as the cool persons consoles, so I don't know how you got 'unmentioned, underrated or outright denied' because I actually copped shit for following Nintendo, but there you go. Aggressive fanboy's suck in general.

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As for The Elder Scroll games and their fans, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, and that was before I had played any of them. I own them all now and so I can see the strengths of Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, and it doesn't surprise me the fans root for them like sports teams. Unfortunately, that's a curse that will stay with Bethesda and all the fans forever because they keep putting more detail into different parts of the game each time they release a new one. Of course fans of the previous games want it more like the last.

Unfortunately there will always be the extreme fans that like heat up every debate, but I find the best thing to do is just find reasonable people to discuss with and finish it there, then laugh at those who make a big whiny deal out of it. And if you can't do it that, ignore 'em.

 

[RealRT]

Oh, by the way, they also got Anna Gunn of the Breaking Bad fame. Really, the whole voice cast is quite spectacular.

Since I'm from the other side of the Great Console War, it's always quite teeth-grinding to me to see my Sega's 16-bit legacy, which made the same amount of impact if not more (remember, they were the first ones to actually rival Nintendo) either unmentioned, underrated or outright denied in favor of all that stuff that's really alien to me and it only serves to alienate me from it even more.
TL;DR: The fanboys are the problem. It's the same problem I have with Morrowind: I love Morrowind, it's great, but I also love Oblivion and I really think Oblivion did improve on Morrowind in several areas like combat, world interaction, world travel and how the quests are organized, but Morrowind fanboys which deny the very idea of Morrowind not being perfect and ***** about Oblivion and Skyrim not being Morrowind I hate to no end.

Yeah, I can't imagine a game failing with this kind of cast. Never heard so many for one game before.

Anyway, It's funny to me. I had always preferred Mario, but not until 3 years ago I've started to see Sonic as the more ambitious and extreme one. Thanks to a lets player called Clement, I've been looking through the Sonic history because I honestly knew fuck all about him, and now I know heaps.

I absolutely loved Super Mario World as a kid, it was my favourite plat-former, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles is really something. I already started to prefer Sonic just for S3&K, and it didn't take me long to start defending it from Nintendo fanboy's I used to be somewhat a part of. It felt strange suddenly defending the poor hog, but many Nintendo fanboy's really classed Mario way above Sonic and I needed to say something because Sonic's had a interesting history.

Looking through, as you said, the other side of the console war, I noticed I missed a fuck load of special games, and I'm currently trying to catch up, as well as others I'm interested in. Nintendo had a lot to offer in their golden days, but I admit I was blind to everything else. What can you do? There was just so much great stuff back then.

Also, here in Australia, Sega and Playstation were usually seen as the cool persons consoles, so I don't know how you got 'unmentioned, underrated or outright denied' because I actually copped shit for following Nintendo, but there you go. Aggressive fanboy's suck in general.

Out here in Russia the only places in which you could hear the word "Nintendo" was around Moscow, the rest of the country didn't even know Sega had a rival. Same with PlayStation, nobody even knew N64 or Saturn existed before the internet.

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As for The Elder Scroll games and their fans, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, and that was before I had played any of them. I own them all now and so I can see the strengths of Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, and it doesn't surprise me the fans root for them like sports teams. Unfortunately, that's a curse that will stay with Bethesda and all the fans forever because they keep putting more detail into different parts of the game each time they release a new one. Of course fans of the previous games want it more like the last.

Unfortunately there will always be the extreme fans that like heat up every debate, but I find the best thing to do is just find reasonable people to discuss with and finish it there, then laugh at those who make a big whiny deal out of it. And if you can't do it that, ignore 'em.

Hell, I even played Arena and Daggerfall and I was kinda like those Morrowind zealots because I played Oblivion first and then Morrowind and then I went whole zealotry and why did you make it like LOTR and all and then I played Arena and Daggerfall and the amount of little details and continuity nods and all and the fact that they pretty much went back to their roots in-story won me back over. That and growing up and starting to have more of my own opinion and remembering how much joy I got out of Oblivion. I love all five games and... well, fuck those guys.