Power armoured marine or girlish boy with big sword?

[rossatdi]

Who are you more likely to play a game starring - a pumped up badass with a killer suit of armour and an attitude that would sour milk or... a tormented 'male' protagonist full of enthusiasm and a carrying an improbably weapon?

Just wondering. Personally I find the whole Japanese stereotypical hero character in games completely insufferable. Marcus Fenix is a dickhole but at least I've got some strong emotions about him.

 

[M0rp43vs]

personally,
-A dog whose world is a canvas
-a psychic acrobat who goes to a psychic camp
-A gruff man with a beard, a cig and in a skin tight suit and a lot of character
-A bald headed motorcyle and battle cruiser driving marine in green
-A mutated female telepathic super soldier who is now evil and ruler of a giant alien swarm
-A humanoid mouthless alien with an awesom psychic blade and a wispy cloak that makes him invisible
(Cookie to the person who figure's em all out)

And of course there are some relatively normal protagonists in games and it is those games that I usually play(even if they have girly like long hair) and I try to steer away from games with either kinds of protagonists on the cover because it screams of unoriginal unless they were trying to be ironic

 

[philman15]

Depends - Which of the games plays better?

I don't care, if a game sounds interesting and plays well, I'll buy it, regardless of the protaganist.

Even if that means she's a vegetarian PETA Activist who's flat as a wooden plank and has a unibrow. If said woman were, say, killing ninja zombie monkeys with blenders, swords, and a head of lettuce, goddamn, that'd be my friggin game of the year.

 

[philman15]

-A dog whose world is a canvas: Amaterasu, Okami
-a psychic acrobat who goes to a psychic camp: Raz, Psychonauts
-A gruff man with a beard, a cig and in a skin tight suit and a lot of character: Solid Snake
-A bald headed motorcyle and battle cruiser driving marine in green: Got me.
-A mutated female telepathic super soldier who is now evil and ruler of a giant alien swarm: Sigourney Weaver's character from Alien?
-A humanoid mouthless alien with an awesom psychic blade and a wispy cloak that makes him invisible: Predator?

 

[M0rp43vs]

Knew no one would get the last three.
Heres a tip, blizzards other rts besides warcraft

 

[Frybird]

personally,
-A dog whose world is a canvas
-a psychic acrobat who goes to a psychic camp
-A gruff man with a beard, a cig and in a skin tight suit and a lot of character
-A bald headed motorcyle and battle cruiser driving marine in green
-A mutated female telepathic super soldier who is now evil and ruler of a giant alien swarm
-A humanoid mouthless alien with an awesom psychic blade and a wispy cloak that makes him invisible
(Cookie to the person who figure's em all out)

And of course there are some relatively normal protagonists in games and it is those games that I usually play(even if they have girly like long hair) and I try to steer away from games with either kinds of protagonists on the cover because it screams of unoriginal unless they were trying to be ironic

Ameratsu - Okami
Raz - Psychonauts
Solid Snake - MGS
???
Kerrigan - Starcraft
???

so...close.....

Anyways, i like the "normal" or "mostly normal" People like Max Payne, April from TLJ, Niko from GTA IV, Alyx Vance and the Silent Hill Protagonists.

Some (Not Super-)Solider would be okay too, but putting the player in the role of a usual military guy seems like an excuse to give him no character at all.

 

[SargentToughie]

personally,
-A dog whose world is a canvas
-a psychic acrobat who goes to a psychic camp
-A gruff man with a beard, a cig and in a skin tight suit and a lot of character
-A bald headed motorcyle and battle cruiser driving marine in green
-A mutated female telepathic super soldier who is now evil and ruler of a giant alien swarm
-A humanoid mouthless alien with an awesom psychic blade and a wispy cloak that makes him invisible
(Cookie to the person who figure's em all out)

And of course there are some relatively normal protagonists in games and it is those games that I usually play(even if they have girly like long hair) and I try to steer away from games with either kinds of protagonists on the cover because it screams of unoriginal unless they were trying to be ironic

the first one is from Okami, Amairatsu or some thing like that
the second one is Raz
the rest illude me... but is the last one Alien Homaind?

as for me... I don't usually put much thought into what character I'd rather play as, more like which one I'd rather not play as... which would be the girly man

 

[rossatdi]

Oh shit, who are they... Raynor, the assassin/ghost lady Kerrigan or something?, one of the protoss(ers).

 

[captainwillies]

im a girlish boy with big sword

 

[khululy]

so. you just like big men who talk down on you, it's ok
marcus fenix wouldn't be any good in a game like devil may cry. He has trouble leaping over a slab of stone let alone perform super agile moves to evade enemy attack.

and aren't western heroes even worse...
Japanese heroes have at least a sense of style.
Marcus wears a suit of armor that make it only self explanitroy why these dudes are so hulking. It looks heavier than medievil plate armor.
Or take our comic heroes wearing mostly capes and spendex. Or like superman their underpants over their tights.
Even Solid Snake isn't as "manly" as markus and he is a good hero, right?
And on the other hand the prince of persia doesn't excreet testosterone from every pore he has.
So my conclusion you'd rather play a crap game with some cranky armored grunt than a great game wich happens to have "girly?" main character.
The thing is, it's concidered beauty to look that way in Japan. And also part of the popular Bishonen(meaning: beautiful boy) manga style.
in both cases it's a cultural thing and I have no problem with them at all. As long if the game is worth playing.
And I like both Devil may cry 4 and gears of war and the likes

 

[rossatdi]

and aren't western heroes even worse...
Japanese heroes have at least a sense of style.
Marcus wears a suit of armor that make it only self explanitroy why these dudes are so hulking. It looks heavier than medievil plate armor.
Or take our comic heroes wearing mostly capes and spendex. Or like superman their underpants over their tights.
Even Solid Snake isn't as "manly" as markus and he is a good hero, right?
And on the other hand the prince of persia doesn't excreet testosterone from every pore he has.
So my conclusion you'd rather play a crap game with some cranky armored grunt than a great game wich happens to have "girly?" main character.
The thing is, it's concidered beauty to look that way in Japan. And also part of the popular Bishonen(meaning: beautiful boy) manga style.
in both cases it's a cultural thing and I have no problem with them at all. As long if the game is worth playing.
And I like both Devil may cry 4 and gears of war and the likes

I don't particularly like Gears of War but Fenix is the most high profile example of the type at the moment. I know the Japanese thing is a cultural thing but I find it a nauseating concept that what is supposed to be a great deadly warrior has the physical appearance of a 12 year old girl.

Snake's not really a good example of a Japanese character seeing as he's Snake Plisken from Escape from New York but with added exposition.

My favourite in game character has to have been JC Denton from Deus Ex. I think the problem is I love action games, especially FP action games - so the 'character' of the suit is you. His appearance is the unique point. Very often have I thought "wouldn't it be cool to have power armour and be able to flip cars with one hand" very rarely have I thought "I don't think my hair is spiky enough."

Most stylish hero? Gordon Freeman - making the goatee and ginger beard cool for a decade.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Knew no one would get the last three.
Heres a tip, blizzards other rts besides warcraft

tsk, amateurs.

James Raynor
Sera Kerrigan (infested)
Zeratul

I prefer the buff dude in power armor, I don't see why every Japanese hero needs a sword nearly as big (if not bigger) than themselves.

 

[Death Magnetic]

Crash bandicoot, whatever that comes under.

 

[rossatdi]

Another idiot thinking he's smart by complaining about JRPG's steriotypical pratagonist, the next one who does it should get an instant-ban.

It's not a complaint its a question. Why do people seem to again and again enjoy playing these copy & paste heroes? Also its a legitimate question - same as the master chief, marcus fenix, crysis guy 'marine in a suit' character.

I was questioning both, not just one. Anyone who thinks someone is holding Marcus Fenix up as a bastion of character design must be a few zergs short of a rush.

 

[Zombie Badger]

I prefer a hero who has a real personality and emotions, for example Alyx Vance and Zoe Castillo.

 

[Eiseman]

I wanna know just how many Japanese heroes with gigantic swords YOU guys have seen, because as many JRPG's as I've played, I can count that many characters on one hand, and that's even if Cloud Strife counts twice.

But that's not the real point, I guess, but rather it's that they're girly-looking men. To that I say, grow up. It's not like the musclemen in Western games are any more tasteful. More importantly, there's a lot more to a character than what he looks like. In this day and age, developers put a lot more into their characters than just appearances, so stopping at the surface to go "jeez, how many steroids does that guy inject everyday" or "ew, that guy looks like a pussy" is superficial and just immature.

 

[Splitter]

I'm not really bothered either way as long as the games good.
My favourite protagonists are as follows:
Vaan from FF12
Sgt. Cortez from TimeSplitters
Tombi from Tombi
Spyro the Dragon
Max Payne
Link
Wanda from Shadow of The Colossus
Ratchet and Clank from... yeah
Sora and Riku from KH
Jin Kazama from Tekken
Abe from Oddworld
and of course the Prince from Prince of Persia Trilogy (and actually I liked him consistently)