Game protagonists who show weakness

[N3squ1ck]

I have never played that particular Call of Duty, but it sounds like the protagonist gives his life for his country. Becoming a martyr for whatever cause he fought for. When a soldier dies on a battlefield no one thinks less of him, indeed quite the opposite people respect or even admire that. That doesnt seem like a weakness to me.

Basically the loading screen then shows his name among with all the other ppl killed and he is just becoming an unimportant number in a statistic. So yeah...

Also:
The Guy from CoD Blops, I forgot his name, is

Spoiler

Seeing his dead friend and getting crazy

The Guy from Hotline Miami

Spoiler

gets almost killed and has to escape the police in the hospital while passing out every so often, also is seeing people weirdly, possibly drugged, and he dies with one hit

Gerald from the Witcher can't remember half his life and keeps trying to learn what happened

The Guy from Spec Ops: The Line. Do I even have to say anything about that?

The Kid from Limbo can't fight and is killed by everything.


Sorry for my horrible memory for names, I can't remember the guys from CoD and Spec Ops

 

[thejackyl]

Joe Capeli from Resistance 3 - After the train sequence
Jackie Estacado from The Darkness (Mainly at the end of the games first "Act")
Murphy Pendleton from Silent Hill: Downpour, before his fight with "The Boogeyman"
James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2
Heather from SH3 - When she gets home.
You from Demon's Souls/Dark Souls - No matter what you do/how you build your character you can still be killed by nearly everything in the game. I will admit, I was running around at level 300 and ended up getting killed when I ran into a horde of hollows (The easiest enemies in the game). Right after the Boar in the Undead Burg/Parish. And every boss has a way to either one-shot you or combo you to death

 

[Beautiful End]

There's plenty of characters so I don't know what you're talking about or what games you've been playing.

Hell, even CoD has a couple, though I admit they're not exactly meant to bring tears to your eyes. The characters in those games are soldiers so they're kinda meant to be strong and reliable.

The ones that come to mind right now: Nathan Drake from Uncharted (I believe even Yahtzee acknowledges it), most of the characters in Odin Sphere...actually most RPGs, everyone in Heavy Rain, even Jak and Daxter...man, it would take me hours to list them all up.

It all goes back to the kind of game you're playing and how much you can relate to the character you're playing. Most characters show some sort of weakness, some are better developers than others. I could sit here and try to explain how Solid Snake is flawed and weak and someone else might come in and contradict me with a good argument that could be as good as mine. It's a matter of opinion.

 

[Tallim]

I cannot think of a single protagonist in a videogame who shows weakness, which may be one the primary reasons why games tend to be terrible at character and plot development. The lack of a interesting and believable protagonist will hold back any story no matter how good.


My theory suggests that in an attempt to my the player feel empowered, game designers have severly inhabited there protagonists from acting like people with faults and weaknesses.


Can you name a game protagonist who has weaknesses and contradict my theory?

You mean other than:

Spoiler

and many more....

Yeah, I wondered if you actually play any games with characters in them or not...

Aw no Laharl and his incredibly amusing weakness.....


OT:
Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain have them in various ways, both emotional and physical weaknesses.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Assassin's creed when altair begins as a deluded blind follower.

Not only that, he couldn't eve swim. That's a pretty big weakness for an assassin.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I cannot think of a single protagonist in a videogame who shows weakness, which may be one the primary reasons why games tend to be terrible at character and plot development. The lack of a interesting and believable protagonist will hold back any story no matter how good.


My theory suggests that in an attempt to my the player feel empowered, game designers have severly inhabited there protagonists from acting like people with faults and weaknesses.


Can you name a game protagonist who has weaknesses and contradict my theory?

Seriously? Not a one?

I guess if you mostly play games where the developers treat writing the same way arachnophobes treat spiders that sort of thing could happen.

Lee from The Walking Dead
Max from Max Payne 3
Vincent from Catherine
Leo and Ladius from Record of Agarest War
Ezio from Assassin's Creed 2
Nico from GTA4
John from Red Dead
Kratos from God of War
James from Silent Hill 2
Monkey from Enslaved
Dust from Dust: an Elysian Tail
Frank from Dead Rising 2 OTR
Cole Phelps from L.A. Noire
The Prince from Sands of Time
Shepard from Mass Effect 3
Hell, even Batman from Arkham City

And those are only the ones who's names I remembered off the top of my head.
It sounds to me like you just need to play some better games.

 

[SoranMBane]

CoD4: MW also had a brilliant moment of weakness, where after clearing out half a city's population worth of enemies a nuke comes down whilst you're on the air and the radiation poisoning slowly kills you as you crawl out of the downed chopper. It really grants a sense of danger and completely changes the face of the game after that.

I don't usually play the campaigns of those games so I don't know the particular scene your are talking about. However, it sounds like the protagonist gives his life for his country becoming a martyr for whatever cause he fought for. When a soldier dies on a battlefield no one thinks less of him, indeed quite the opposite people respect or even admire that. That doesnt seem like a weakness to me.

Believe me, that scene is not a heroic sacrifice at all, just a tragedy. Nothing good or constructive comes out of the protagonist's death, and while he does die attempting to save a fellow soldier, that attempt just ended up getting them, you, and the rest of your squad all killed (not to mention the 30,000 other Marines all throughout the city that also died in that blast). The message is pretty clear; in war, the universe doesn't care if you're the "hero" or not, because it'll snuff you out just as easily as anyone else, and when it does, your death will be just another meaningless statistic. Sgt. Jackson is a name only the player will ever remember, and it's a sad memory, not a proud one.

 

[Pandabearparade]

That's the point you blithering idiot! It's to show that for all Hawke's combat prowess and silver tonged words s/he still can't stop her own city from falling into ruin.

The problem isn't that you couldn't stop it right then and there, the problem is that there were extremely obvious preventative measures Hawke could have taken years beforehand to stop it. You're not allowed to because Hawke is a plot prop with a bad haircut that gets railroaded from one faux choice to another without ever having even an ounce of agency to prevent the game's pre-baked outcomes.

 

[Austin Howe]

Uhm, Squall Leonhart anyone? Raiden maybe? "We're out here, we bleed, we die!" That man is scared.

 

[Syzygy23]

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.

 

[Starik20X6]

Luigi. His weakness being the conflict between his cowardly nature and his desire to help.

 

[Jessta]

I cannot think of a single protagonist in a videogame who shows weakness, which may be one the primary reasons why games tend to be terrible at character and plot development. The lack of a interesting and believable protagonist will hold back any story no matter how good.


My theory suggests that in an attempt to my the player feel empowered, game designers have severly inhabited there protagonists from acting like people with faults and weaknesses.


Can you name a game protagonist who has weaknesses and contradict my theory?

Fei Fong Wong (Xenogears), Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII), Ashley Riot (Vagrant Story), Ramza Beoulve (Final Fantasy Tactics), Denam Pavel (Tactics Ogre), Lenneth Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile), Dante and Nero (Devil May Cry), Ragna the Bloodedge and Noel Vermillion (Blazblue), Aya Brea (Parasite Eve), Samus Aran (Metroid), etc. Common element between these: they're all from Japan. I might be able to pull one or two from Western devs, but most of them are just wish fulfillment dolls. This is why I've never bought that the West writes better stories because they RARELY try to write protagonists as a character and not some ego trip for the player.

I remember hearing somewhere this is because while most JRPGS are focused on the protagonist and their journey western rpgs are focused on the setting and it's wonders.
Also about half of those are square enix titles which is reknowned for their characters being sort of 'emo angst' buckets with a mess of personal problems.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I cannot think of a single protagonist in a videogame who shows weakness, which may be one the primary reasons why games tend to be terrible at character and plot development. The lack of a interesting and believable protagonist will hold back any story no matter how good.


My theory suggests that in an attempt to my the player feel empowered, game designers have severly inhabited there protagonists from acting like people with faults and weaknesses.


Can you name a game protagonist who has weaknesses and contradict my theory?

I don't know what kind of games you play, but they must be pretty different from the norm. I'm the opposite, I can't think of a game that actually has characterization that doesn't have a flawed, weakness filled protagonist that has to conquer these weaknesses in order to survive the game.

 

[immortalfrieza]

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.

...And how are those things Yopaz mentioned NOT an impediment?

 

[Evil Smurf]

the protagonist from Pokemon only never sees his father and if he chooses the grass type he loses all the battles.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

I'm surprised no one's brought up Wander from Shadow of the Colossus yet. He's so determined, and one could even say desperate, to bring his girlfriend back from the dead that he does everything some voice from above says at the promise of reviving her. And in the end...well, let's just say it doesn't work out too well. I'd say Wander's failure to come to terms with death is a general weakness, for starters.

Also I'll throw BioShock's protagonist out there as well seeing as he has no control over his circumstances for the majority of the game and is forced to rely on other people telling him what he should do. Weakness of that nature only becomes more apparent the further into the game you get.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Raziel - Legacy Of Kain: There are many moments and I am pretty sure at one point or another every character has their low points even the Jaded bad ass Kain.
but the one that really stands out to me is "History Abhors a Paradox"

EDIT:And I don't know about you but my Shepard has many weakness and has showed it quite a bit in my play throughs.

 

[hazabaza1]

CoD4: MW also had a brilliant moment of weakness, where after clearing out half a city's population worth of enemies a nuke comes down whilst you're on the air and the radiation poisoning slowly kills you as you crawl out of the downed chopper. It really grants a sense of danger and completely changes the face of the game after that.

I don't usually play the campaigns of those games so I don't know the particular scene your are talking about. However, it sounds like the protagonist gives his life for his country becoming a martyr for whatever cause he fought for. When a soldier dies on a battlefield no one thinks less of him, indeed quite the opposite people respect or even admire that. That doesnt seem like a weakness to me.

It's not really like that.
Basically, you're getting out of the city, and a friendly chopper goes down, and only the pilot survives. Your CO basically says the good old "no one left behind" line and you and a bunch of other guys go down to save the pilot. You get to her, get her in the chopper, get flying, and boom goes the nuke.
Next thing you know, you're playing as a stumbling dying soldier who can only observe the massive devastation around him before dying a slow (and probably painful) death for no good reason.

 

[Vault101]

Shepard..in a way

in ME3 you get the whole thing with the dreams and can see the stress is starting to show (not to mention that whole thing at the end)

I was actually seriously hoping for this...I couldnt have imagined going through the galaxy burning with shepards ususaly "we can do this if we work together!" shtick

 

[deserteagleeye]

I think it's waaaaaaay harder to find a protaginist with no weaknesses. Yes even in RPGs where your character is a blank slate. That just means he's either weak at everything or the skill points you don't assign to whatever area of expertise is your weakness. There's really too many characters with weaknesses you can name.