Intelligent characters in video games

[Jolly Co-operator]

Professor Layton. Solving batshit-insane cases without losing your composure requires quite the intellect, especially when everything around you revolves around puzzles.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Link. He solves puzzles that most people in his age wouldn't be able to comprehend if their life depended on it. Especially true for the Oracle of Seasons/Ages Link.

For a less meta example, most of the Cids in Final Fantasy are the only ones smart enough to be able to use airship technology, or some other mystical mcguffin as seen in FFXII (also the only character to build and operate a machine gun).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Jade from Beyond Good & Evil always seemed to me to be extremely intelligent and level-headed. Strong, capable character with a quiet, very mild sense of humor. One of my favorite characters by a long shot.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Dayamn straight, though I was never interested romantically. More like an awkwardly adorable sibling. She was a permanent addition to my party once she joined though, which I'm told is fairly rare since she's so late-game. I mean come on, all death skills and all non-elemental skills, plus magic boosting action? Cold blooded killer.

The problem that I found with Naoto wasn't that she joins late-game; it's that she's an SP hog and is unable to go for a long time without a recharge and/or the Chakra Ring. Moving past that, she was great against random encounters, but had next to no viability against bosses because her Magic stat is too low for Almighty skills to deal significant enough damage to warrant the SP cost or the use of a Chakra Ring on her, even while Mind Charged, and Tempest Slash, with her Strength stat, is weak compared to Yosuke's Kitchen Knife-boosted Brave Blade, Kanji's Primal Force and Chie's God's Hand. Plus, she has no support options, like healing or buffs. Even after she got buffed in Golden with every Dyne-level spell, Angelic Grace, Invigorate and Heat Riser, her damage output and SP cost are still highly impractical for boss fights. I prefer to keep the Chakra Ring for myself or give it to Yukiko so she can spam Salvation (and if I'm playing Golden, Mind Charged Burning Petals) and use the slot I normally use for Mediarahan for something else. I usually handle the light spells myself, with Daisoujou's Samsara and Alice's Die For Me.

OT: For all the ragging on Naoto as a fighter as I did, I came here to suggest her as an intelligent character, as well. It seems I've been beaten to the punch. By multiple people...

 

[Mikejames]

Agent York from Deadly Premonition.

The guy's crazy, and lacks a lot of basic social cues, but he could appear surprisingly intelligent when he wanted to. Plus, who doesn't love a photographic memory for random movie trivia?

I'd also add Legion from the same games. I'd say Liara is pretty intelligent as well.

Pretty much everyone on the crew who wasn't a powerhouse was brilliant in some way.

Jade from Beyond Good & Evil always seemed to me to be extremely intelligent and level-headed. Strong, capable character with a quiet, very mild sense of humor. One of my favorite characters by a long shot.

I think Pey'j may have gotten more of a chance to be established as the brainy one, but Jade still came across as competent and perceptive. Very enjoyable lead.

 

[The]

Crazy Dave from Plants vs Zombies, being a specialist in bio weapons and zombie defense. He's intelligent, but on a level you can't comprehend.

Captcha: taken aback.

Basically everyone's reaction.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I'm going to go with Professor E. Gadd:

I mean, who else can create a Vacuum that eats Ghosts, a Paint Brush that creates goop that spawns monsters, a portable water cannon/jetpack, and a successful series of Video Game Consoles? No one but E. Gadd!

 

[Secondguess]

The narrator from LittleBigPlanet...

 

[Austin Howe]

Pretty much everyone in Metal Gear. Something I always enjoyed about the series.

 

[Fractral]

Well I have to mention Naoto in Persona 4. Her efforts on solving the case gave the Investigation Team so much traction so quickly because y'know is actually a detective.

Also she has a sweet hat and an awesome voice. We all know I can't resist women in sweet hats.



Swaaaaaaaag

To this day my deepest regret is that I was already dating Yukiko when Naoto's social link became avaliable.
The second is that we never found out her breast measurements. Why do you tease us so Atlus!

I know, I was the same with Chie... The bastards introduce her into the game under the guise of a male character then suddenly BOOM NEW ROMANCE OPTION! HA! YOU FOOLS!

Got my options decidedly open in my newest playthrough just for Naoto :3, except somewhere along the line I must have drunk some bleach or something because I picked up my playthrough again after a few weeks hiatus (I must have ragequit because my save was at the boss door without the key item to get in :/) I opened the S. Link screen to remind myself and apparently I was going out with "Who wants to help me overcome my self-esteem issues?" Ayane... Oh man, what? I am still shocked at myself for such a grievous error...

My dog must have pressed the button without me noticing. Yeah. Gonna go with that.

Oh god, Ayane. I was spared her (couldn't find the band first time so went with drama) but god was she annoying second playthrough. I never did get very far with her anyway, maybe she gets better later on. At least Yumi starts off bearable, whatever she becomes later on -I failed almost all of her conversation options because she was so wierd.
It was about the time that all the girls started throwing themselves at my feet that I started second guessing my choice to date Yukiko. When Rise did it I had to get my sister to press the button for me.

 

[Silverbeard]

^^
Kreia and Dakkan. Also, a bunch of characters from The Witcher 2.

The only truly intelligent character from that game is Letho. Everyone else is a drooling simpleton by contrast. Everyone.

What about Radovid or Philipa? But ya, Letho is like a genius.

Spoiler

The Nilfgaardians are pretty smart, the whole thing was their idea.

Can you include Geralt? He is pretty smart.

I would not consider Geralt intelligent, specifically. He is smart, as you put it, not really intelligent in that deviously crafty way that makes the player giggle with delight.
He was very intelligent in the books- specifically in Last Wish- but that does not seem to have translated very well into the games we have so far.