Game protagonists who show weakness

[sethisjimmy]

This just in: OP has actually never played a video game.

Seriously though, if you think about it for more than five seconds, almost all main characters have weaknesses, unless they're Duke Nukem.

 

[alphamalet]

Morrigan-Dragon Age Origins
Lighting-Final Fantasy XIII
Solid Snake-Metal Gear Solid
Nathan Drake-Uncharted
Silent Hill 2-James Sunderland


There are a ton of them.

 

[Valis7]

Naked Snake/Big Boss From Metal Gear Solid 3

Spoiler

The entire game he struggles accepting the fact that a true soldier follows orders until the end no matter what - even if it means killing his closest friend/mentor - even if it means dying as a scapegoat for your country (The Boss). Years after the game's finished he still cant truly accept that.

 

[Terminate421]

Crysis 2 had Alcatraz show weakness at several times throughout the plot, mainly because, as Yahtzee put it "he's basically a collection of beef stew, and the suit is a combination of wheelchair and iron lung and is the only reason that he's still vertical" For pete's sake, you even have to use an automated defribulator on him after a helicopter crash, and when you're suit runs out of power, you're basically screwed, you can even run back to cover.

I loved that moment where the Ceph STEP on you while your trying to defibrilate yourself.

Batman from Arkham games is a definite choice.
Isaac Clarke in the first two Dead Spaces, yes even Dead Space 2. (Better equipment + Experience can mean that it does not = No Weakness)
The Dovahkiin is Mortal
Noble 6, despite being a Spartan isn't invincible. He definitely shows this and even then still has a stunning personality (Seriously, not a blank slate).

 

[luckshotpro]

Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes)
Captain Walker (Spec Ops The Line)

 

[CaptainKoala]

The Longest Journey with April Ryan.

'The Exile' (Player character!) in Knights of the Old Republic 2.

'The Nameless One' in Planescape: Torment, hell the entire games plot is based around his weakness in a way.

There are plenty of games which feature a protagonist showing weakness, it's just generally not a primary character trait. For example in Mass Effect 3 it's possible to play Shepard just breaking down mentally and taking it out on Joker. It's not central to the plot and players can even ignore it or not have it happen, but it's a possibility and I liked that the game gave me that option.

Which part was this? Are you talking about Joker's joke after the Thessia mission?

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Yeah I'd have to go straight for Dark Souls once more.

Your player character shows weakness by being about a tenth of the size of major opponents, about half the size of more or less regular opponents and by dying an awful lot until you can empower him/her by focussing on the part that really matters: surviving... and NEVER leaving the room you're playing in for a snack, a pee or some idle chitchat while the game is running, for it will come after you.

Also, never do such a stupid thing as putting down the gamepad while, say, looking at or pointing at a vital NPC, as your character is bound to just plain murder death kill stab poison or at the very least annoy said NPC if you're not careful, so your player character shows a severe lack of restraint and absolutely no common sense. Since NPCs will remain pissed of or dead once you've attacked them, the game will just get even harder, and being yelled at buckets of unpleasantness by folks you relied on just a moment ago just isn't a very fun experience. Sure, you can go pay the crazy guy playing Jesus up in the church tower, since he's on speaking terms with the guys that handle karma, but that would just add yet another weakness to our player character: Making mistakes and not going through with them.

Other than that, how about Bioshock? Isn't your player character the most gullible, easily manipulated ignorant little tool in the whole underwater shed?

Or how about Black Ops' main dude, he's well off his rockers - and he's been so for years.

Then there's Alice in American McGee's only title worth mentioning - she's cute and interesting and quite charming, but she's definitely quite insane.

Or take the pumpkin in Cauldron II - come on, he's a pumpkin. No legs, no arms, just the ability to bounce in a castle that enjoys having no stairs, fatal drops and lots of spooky objects that are normally inanimate intent on killing you dead, dead, dead. That's a pretty weak spot to start an adventure on.

 

[Dfskelleton]

*There are a lot of horror games built around the weakness and inability of it's protagonist, and their futile struggle against something they cannot hope to truly defeat (Clock Tower, Amnesia, the original Alone in the Dark, Penumbra, Eternal Darkness, CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth, Silent Hill to some extent, etc., etc.)
*Martin Walker from Spec Ops: The Line. His greatest expressions of his weakness are those where he attempts to cover it up. He attempts to remain professional and cool, even though he clearly understands what he has done, and that his men (and he himself) are falling to pieces as their journey grows darker.
*Jackie Estacado from 'The Darkness' is frequently faced with the inability to achieve his goals and save the people he cares about (to say more would go into spoiler territory)
*Jack from Bioshock is also afflicted with a severe hindrance/disability towards the later portion of the game (once again, abridged to avoid spoilers)
*While Isaac Clarke may seem like an unstoppable killing machine, the Dead Space games always have one point or another that reveals how human and fragile he truly is. This is without even mentioning most of the death sequences (kept seperate from the top 'horror' category because Isaac is usually very skilled at dispatching his enemies.)
*A lot of old adventure games played upon the protagonist's physical weakness or inability, and how they must instead use their cunning and wits to overcome the obstacles they are faced with.

There are a lot of other examples that I won't write down because they've been mentioned before, but a lot of games feature protagonists who have shortcomings. There are a lot that feature unstoppable badasses, too, but the weaker ones do exist.

 

[Loonyyy]

This just in: OP has actually never played a video game.

Seriously though, if you think about it for more than five seconds, almost all main characters have weaknesses, unless they're Duke Nukem.

Pretty much this. Old school shooters had the compulsory NOW WE TAKE AWAY ALL OF YOUR WEAPONS sections. New ones now have the obligatory dying protagonist. RPGs are all about managing weakness. Any game with a story will almost inevitably have preset moments where you lose.

Ocarina: Ganon takes the triforce and Zelda. You lose.
CoD4: You get nuked and die for nothing.
Far Cry: You get captured and lose all your weapons
Far Cry 2: You periodically collapse from exhaustion due to Malaria.
Fallout 3: You get locked out of a room where important plot stuff is happening (You lose).

Games are full of setups to show that you're weak so that you can progress and feel empowered, or to engender anger towards the antagonists. If you don't know of many of those, then you probably haven't played any games bar the original Mario (The Princess is in another castle isn't really a failing of Mario's).

 

[risue]

in reference to the OP, I tend to agree with you, not many protagonists show much of weakness. I'd like to say ive played a good bit of games, and it is rather difficult to pinpoint a protagonist that does a good job of penetrating that sense of weakness. I see all the examples that are being mentioned and i disagree with most of them, mainly cause i view a difference between a character showing "weakness" and being "flawed". Characters that are flawed in their personality or have something hanging over their heads aren't necessarily weak. Shepard in ME3 for example, has the whole "dealing with knowing that not everyone can be saved" bit that shows up and can potentially shape how Shepard deals with things throughout the story, but that's not weak, when you play you're still the combat powerhouse source of empowerment.

The way i see it, for a protagonist to show weakness effectively, its got to be reflected in how the game-play works. For example, in Dead Space 1, at the beginning, Isaac is weak. Lost, alone in some nightmare unsure of anything with nothing but a tool used for cutting rocks to keep him alive. The weakness was seen in the story, dialogue, and game play. It was great. The second half of the game he literally could use more guns than he could carry, he wasn't nearly as weak anymore. You might say oh, but that's the point of the game right? to get better, stronger, beat whatever challenges. well yes true, but by the end of the game, that sense of venerability was gone. had you still been able to grow stronger as a character but never lost that sense of venerability it would have been a lot better.

 

[mjcabooseblu]

I cannot think of a single protagonist in a videogame who shows weakness

Ethan Mars: Depressed, with a loosened grip on reality.
Ezio Auditore: Plagued for much of Assassin's Creed 2 by immaturity.
Alcatraz: Physically wrecked, entirely dependent on his suit to live.
Solid Snake: Old as shit, due to planned obsolescence.
Jack Ryan: There's a big one, but it's a hefty spoiler.
Cole Phelps: Haunted by his unsavory actions as a soldier.
Atrus: Too absorbed in his own work to pay attention to his family, often bringing misfortune with him.
Daniel: Physically incapable of combat, mental state easily shaken by disturbing sights.

There's plenty.

Do I win by virtue of only posting protagonists? I'm seeing a lot of mentions of secondary characters here, so I feel like some more protagonists are needed.

Marcus Fenix: Had no proper childhood, never learned responsibility, barely shows signs of maturing until he finds his father, and even then he still acts childish.
Commander Shepard: Touched by the Reapers.
Billy Blaze: A child, possibly hallucinating the entire series.
Richard Watson: Being used, both by his allies and his enemies, without full knowledge of the situation he's in.

I could come up with more, but I'll save it. Your move, OP.

 

[Yopaz]

Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia.

Spoiler

After escaping from The Tower of Salvation he realize that he risked dooming the world simply to save a friend and feels like a selfish hypocrite

Yuri from Tales of Vesperia

Spoiler

He got trust issues and has sees how the poor and powerless suffer from corrupt leaders so he acts in ways that are illegal to set things straight.

Luke from Tales of the Abyss. He's spoiled douche who snaps at everyone.

Batman in Arkham City

Spoiler

He's sick most of the time

Oh, and Kingdom Hearts, full of flawed protagonists.

He's sick most of the time? Then how the hell is he kicking SO MUCH ASS?

What we need are characters with flaws that are ACTUAL impediments to either them, their team, or their family/friends.

Seriously, I did put a spoiler tag on that thing for a reason.

Spoiler

He's on the brink of death and at some point he passed out due to the disease, he falls into the Mad Hatter's trap because of this disease.

Tales of the Abyss

Spoiler

Luke's spoiled nature nearly caused the death of one in his team and did cause the deaths of hundreds when he caused the destruction of an entire village.

A lot of the problems the protagonists of Kingdom Hearts have is what allows the evil forces to exist.

How are none of these actual impediments?

Edit: Tales of Symphonia

Spoiler

Lloyd abandoned the lives of an entire world

Tales of Vesperia

Spoiler

[Yuri commit several murders which made him and his party criminals

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

That's just ridiculous. I really hate it when writers try to hard to make characters too much of an utter badass. I mean, it works for Dante, but more serious stories need realistic characters who aren't characters at all, but people. I need to believe that the person as whom I'm playing is a person with a life outside the plot; the best way to do this is by showing us their humanity.

The problem is there's nothing wrong with a character being badass, but you have to understand that it's one of the most SHALLOW traits you can give somebody. Even Dante had depth to him with his complex relationship with his brother, his knowledge of his father's deeds and infamy, and his nature of being born of two worlds. Most Western RPG protagonists I've seen are just boring, ego-boosters for the player. Anyone who's ever written ANYTHING would look at heroes like that and (rightfully) LAUGH at them

 

[albedo]

Cloud from FF7? He rewrote his own memories and lived in complete denial because of how painful one event was and how he never accomplished his own dreams.

 

[blackrave]

There's tons of games with flawed/vulnerable protagonists, there's just very few with good ones.

Weirdly enough, now that I think about it I reckon my favorite examples of such characters in games are Alcatraz from Crysis 2 and Artoym from Metro 2033, probably because they never speak in game and therefore don't piss me off.

Actually that is my issue with Metro2033
They muted Artyom and that was just wrong
Hell, the guy have numerous moments where he is the weak one
Even one mental breakdown in the middle of the book
My favorite moment of him loosing faith in humanity was when he offered as a gift full clip to a boy and this boy's mother then offered half an hour with that boy
His reaction and further inner monologue was something.

Commander Shepard: Touched by the Reapers.

Now Shepard, show me on this doll where Reapers touched you

 

[SpaceCop]

Abe of Oddworld fame. He's a hapless, clumsy, cowardly, gross, unlucky schmuck. In addition to being portrayed as such via cutscenes and backstory, he plays that way too: his gameplay centres around avoiding enemies and running the hell away from things. He becomes saviour of his people by being savaged by wild animals and falling on his head a lot.

Dead Rising's Frank West is a glory-hungy egocentric blowhard who saves the day--kinda--only because other people make him. His potential to become a zombie-murdering machine is matched only by his potential to become a gluttonous transvestite mall-walker who thinks snuff photography is "fan-TASTIC." Even if you play him as badassily as possible he's still a hairy, chubby, middle-aged tabloid journalist who doesn't manage to save anyone he has a fully-voiced conversation with.

Not to mention that despite their noble airs, somewhere in the realm of 100 goddamn percent of RPG protagonists are lying thieving kleptomaniacs. Commander Shepard? Oh yeah. It was super heroic when he shepherded my life savings right the fuck out of my secure storage locker.

 

[razor343]

Hmm...Prototype 2? Colonel Rooks is basically built up as a villain second only to Alex Mercer, then when Heller finally has a chance to kill him he catches him talking to his wife and finds out that he also has a young daughter. He ends up sparing him and showing some...uhh...Human emotion for probably the first time in the game.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia.

Spoiler

After escaping from The Tower of Salvation he realize that he risked dooming the world simply to save a friend and feels like a selfish hypocrite

Yuri from Tales of Vesperia

Spoiler

He got trust issues and has sees how the poor and powerless suffer from corrupt leaders so he acts in ways that are illegal to set things straight.

Luke from Tales of the Abyss. He's spoiled douche who snaps at everyone.

Batman in Arkham City

Spoiler

He's sick most of the time

Oh, and Kingdom Hearts, full of flawed protagonists.

Huh, the only protagonist with a flaw/weakness I can think of in KH is Riku, his struggle with his darkness and his ultimate acceptance of it was interesting.

As much as I like Sora, he really is just a typical anime hero with no real flaws apart from his occasional naivety.

Then again I havent played the spin off games so Xion, Roxas, Ventus, Terra or Aqua could be different.

Uhh anyway for my contribution Ill raise you a Commander Shepard, an Ezio, a Niko Bellic, a John Marston, a Solid Snake (especially in 4) and probably a lot of others that I've missed

 

[hermes]

Cole Phelps: Emotionally insecure. Tries to hide it by bulling others when he gets the authority.
That is only an example, there are others: Shepard, Nike Bellic, Jim Raynor, Max Payne, John Marston, etc.

Not to mention the current king of flawed characters:

Spoiler

 

[Falseprophet]

The problem is there's nothing wrong with a character being badass, but you have to understand that it's one of the most SHALLOW traits you can give somebody. Even Dante had depth to him with his complex relationship with his brother, his knowledge of his father's deeds and infamy, and his nature of being born of two worlds. Most Western RPG protagonists I've seen are just boring, ego-boosters for the player. Anyone who's ever written ANYTHING would look at heroes like that and (rightfully) LAUGH at them

Totally behind this. I remember when the Sacred Ashes trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5St9phiHHE] for Dragon Age: Origins first came out. Four minutes of snarky badasses killing 50 darkspawn without showing any fear, worry, or concern. Then at the end, they charge a dragon without hesitation. I thought, why would I care about these people's struggle? They certainly don't seem to care much about it themselves. They seem to get more joy out of killing itself than the reason they're killing in the first place. So why would I care about a bunch of irreverant sociopaths who slaughter armies without breaking a sweat, then stop for breakfast?

Luckily, a combination of good reviews and a convenient sale had me pick up DA:O anyway, despite my misgivings, and I found out these characters were all human (or elf, or dwarf, or qunari) with drives and passions and fears and flaws. And that game ended up being one of my favourites.