Games with black protagonists

[Dirty Hipsters]

There was SiN in 1998 and later SiN Episodes...which only got one episode before being cancelled. John Blade, the protagonist in those games was black. Also those games were really pretty damn good, the original particularly so after it got all the bugs patched out of it.

Eh? Blade isn't black. He had dreads, yeah, but he certainly wasn't black. At least, not in the original game he wasn't.

On the right.

Spoiler

What? He totally looks black to me. The lighting might be pretty off, so it gives him a yellowish skin tone, but he looks like a light-skinned black guy to me.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Does the kid from Limbo count? I mean, he is black after all:

I don't think insect counts as anywhere near a human

 

[CBanana]

Here's one that's easy to miss. Nilin from Remember Me is half-black.

 

[Fox12]

So, I was talking with a friend and we were trying to come up with a list of all of the games with black player characters. Here's what we came up with:

Saints Row
GTA: San Andreas
50 Cent
The Walking Dead (I think? I haven't played this but I've seen some screen shots)
Prototype 2
The Suffering
Crysis 3 (kind of)
Starhawk
Blade

...Now I might be crazy but there's seems to be a teensy bit of stereotyping there.

Not looking for a controversial discussion (I can't see how it would even turn into one with this), but what games am I missing? I'm hoping that this list is far less bleak than it's currently looking

EDIT: List has been updated. Also some clarification I'm mainly looking for games with the main protagonist being black, not including ensemble casts

I think the female lead from To the Moon is black, but I'm not sure. Sadly, even in indie games, the list is kind of stark.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

What? He totally looks black to me. The lighting might be pretty off, so it gives him a yellowish skin tone, but he looks like a light-skinned black guy to me.

Well, pictures aside, I don't remember him being black in the actual game either (and I played it many times in my childhood). Maybe he is black, but just incredibly light-skinned, which I guess would be possible. I would hazard the possibility of him being albino if it weren't for the dark hair.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Do you mean games where you can play a black character, or where the MAIN character is black? Also, do games with customizable protagonists count? Not including anything anyone else has mentioned so far:

GTA: Vice City Stories
Mass Effect Galaxy
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
Streets of Rage 1 and 2
Final Fantasy 7, 12, and 13
Team Fortress 2
True Crime: New York City
Final Fantasy 7 and 13
Tekken series
Street Fighter series
Mortal Kombat series
Dead or Alive series
Soulcalibur series
King of Fighters series
Borderlands 2
Men of Valor
StarHawk
Mercenaries series
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Devil May Cry 2 (hypothetically of course, not confirming that such a game exists)
Beyond Good & Evil (ambiguous though, according to developers)

Too frustrating to sort through: Wrestling, Sports, games featuring superheroes ensembles (i.e. X-Men), and the host of other fighting games I didn't go through (i.e. Virtua Fighter, Shaq Fu, etc.

Edit: Not sure if Torque from The Suffering counts. He's described as being of mixed ethnicity, which includes african american.

 

[Callate]

There was SiN in 1998 and later SiN Episodes...which only got one episode before being cancelled. John Blade, the protagonist in those games was black. Also those games were really pretty damn good, the original particularly so after it got all the bugs patched out of it.

Eh? Blade isn't black. He had dreads, yeah, but he certainly wasn't black. At least, not in the original game he wasn't.

On the right.

Spoiler

What? He totally looks black to me. The lighting might be pretty off, so it gives him a yellowish skin tone, but he looks like a light-skinned black guy to me.

Oh, he definitely was.

Images betwixt spoilertags.

Spoiler

[/quote]

It might not have been obvious in all parts of the game itself, but it's clear in the game completion cinematic, the anime, and the sequel that he was African-American. Sounds like "canon" to me.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Edit: Not sure if Torque from The Suffering counts. He's described as being of mixed ethnicity, which includes african american.

He counts according to Giant Bomb.

 

[lacktheknack]

While the "protagonist" of Starcraft is mostly Jim Raynor, there was an extended subplot in Brood Wars where the main character became Duran, a black ghost operative.

Other than that... I got nothing. "The Sims", maybe?

 

[thiosk]

...chess?

...chess is damn racist.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

snip

Hmm, I guess that settles it then. I've only ever played the first Sin. Just the first FPS game, nothing else, no anime, no sequel. And in that one game, he seemed pretty damn white to me. Must be mistaken then.

 

[SageRuffin]

And that's not to mention all of the games that have character creators that allow you to make a black character, and the games that don't really have "main characters" (like fighting games) which have black characters.

The part that I bolded is something I'd like to touch on...

Fighting games - those made in Japan anyway - aren't a very good example of ethnic diversity when you really look at them, not in terms of personalities and having the characters seem like actual people. By and large, the non-Japanese characters seem to fit within very specific design archetypes; looking past black characters for a bit (and we are talking "American" black, right?), lets look at the average American character as a whole. Who are they? A blonde, blue-eyed white person: Terry and Andy Bogard from King of Fighters series, Paul Phoenix from Tekken, Guile from Street Fighter, Sarah and Jacky Bryant from Virtua Fighter, Bass and Tina Armstrong in Dead or Alive... the list goes on. Do some extra research about characters from other countries and you'll find that there are few exceptions to those aforementioned character archetypes.

In fact, to go even further into the pool of fighting game characters, you'll notice that most non-Japanese characters in Japanese-made fighting games aren't so much characters as they are caricatures - the Dead or Alive series suffers the most from this as almost every character who's not a ninja can be summed up in simple one-off phrases. I'd give examples but this is getting lengthy enough as it is.

Keep in mind, this isn't a dig at fighting games. I've been playing them almost religiously for the past 10 years and I don't see myself slowing down anytime soon (DoA5U and SCIIHD are gonna be awesomesauce). But in this day an age, the character concepts - the black, the white, the red and the brown, the purple and yellow[footnote]If anyone can pick up on this reference, you'll get all of my love and affection for eternity.[/footnote] - need some work.

 

[SageRuffin]

I am a bit confused on how a character who is "written...white and then just colored black" would act. Is the behavior of most black people so different from that of whites as to be noticeable?

If we're talking in the US, then yes, there most likely will be a noticeable difference. In fairness, it's largely a "nature vs. nurture" thing; most blacks, nay, most people would have radically different personalities depending on the environment where they grew up. It just so happens that for most black Americans, they grew up believing that anything remotely "not-black" is frowned upon.

Some quick examples: I'm black, and how I'm typing here is analogous to how I physically talk to people. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked why I talk so "proper." Furthermore, I can't begin to describe the amount of bizarre looks and questions I get whenever I where this outfit [http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x326/SageRuffin/Katsucon%2017/SageWinduwithSaber-1.jpg], even if it's to a convention or if it's Halloween.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

And that's not to mention all of the games that have character creators that allow you to make a black character, and the games that don't really have "main characters" (like fighting games) which have black characters.

The part that I bolded is something I'd like to touch on...

Fighting games - those made in Japan anyway - aren't a very good example of ethnic diversity when you really look at them, not in terms of personalities and having the characters seem like actual people. By and large, the non-Japanese characters seem to fit within very specific design archetypes; looking past black characters for a bit (and we are talking "American" black, right?), lets look at the average American character as a whole. Who are they? A blonde, blue-eyed white person: Terry and Andy Bogard from King of Fighters series, Paul Phoenix from Tekken, Guile from Street Fighter, Sarah and Jacky Bryant from Virtua Fighter, Bass and Tina Armstrong in Dead or Alive... the list goes on. Do some extra research about characters from other countries and you'll find that there are few exceptions to those aforementioned character archetypes.

In fact, to go even further into the pool of fighting game characters, you'll notice that most non-Japanese characters in Japanese-made fighting games aren't so much characters as they are caricatures - the Dead or Alive series suffers the most from this as almost every character who's not a ninja can be summed up in simple one-off phrases. I'd give examples but this is getting lengthy enough as it is.

Keep in mind, this isn't a dig at fighting games. I've been playing them almost religiously for the past 10 years and I don't see myself slowing down anytime soon (DoA5U and SCIIHD are gonna be awesomesauce). But in this day an age, the character concepts - the black, the white, the red and the brown, the purple and yellow[footnote]If anyone can pick up on this reference, you'll get all of my love and affection for eternity.[/footnote] - need some work.

OP didn't ask for good black characters, he just asked for black characters.

Furthermore, you say that all the characters who aren't japanese are caricatures, but you don't seem to realize that almost all the japanese characters in fighting games are also caricatures. Think about the different japanese characters in games, chances are most of them fall into the categories of

1. school girl
2. ninja
3. karate champion wearing a karate gi
4. old martial arts master

 

[immortalfrieza]

True Crime New York City is one that has a black protagonist, but I don't think they go too far into being stereotypically black with him. I mean, it's there, but for the most part I think that Marcus could have been a white guy instead and it wouldn't have made much of a difference characterization wise.

 

[SageRuffin]

Snippage.

OP didn't ask for good black characters, he just asked for black characters.

Furthermore, you say that all the characters who aren't japanese are caricatures, but you don't seem to realize that almost all the japanese characters in fighting games are also caricatures. Think about the different japanese characters in games, chances are most of them fall into the categories of

1. school girl
2. ninja
3. karate champion wearing a karate gi
4. old martial arts master

Okay, you got me on that one. I completely forgot about that.

I've been playing a lot of Dead or Alive 5 recently. Maybe that's why it slipped my mind.

 

[silver wolf009]

Soul Calibur 3's plot centered heavily around Zasalamel, who is black.

While he is an antagonist to basically everyone else in the entire game, since it's a fighting game, he does have his own story, where he is a good guy. And antagonist or protagonist or whatever, he's an awesome character. He manipulates EVERYBODY. The two swords of good and evil, their wielders, good seminarians, evil monsters, kingdoms and empires, time itself, all just so he can get what he wants.

You know, I was legitimately upset with the Soul Calibur series for jettisoning Zasalamel into space in five. He is a really rare example of a Fighting Game Xanatosian Bastard who comes off fucking sympathetic.

Soul Calibur 5 jettisoned about half of their characters into space, and replaced them with their whiny seventeen year old kids. Fuck Soul Calibur 5.

 

[Xisin]

Hmm, maybe Eternal Darkness? The "main" character is Alex, who is not black. But you play through a ton of different characters, several of which are black.