Unlikeable Lead characters

[LadyTiamat]

nowe from dragongard 2 (mary sue without propper excuse for angst)

 

[Hides His Eyes]

I think a genuinely unlikeable character like Seifer from FF8 or Morrigan from Dragon Age (at least until you get to "know" her ) is highly preferable to a character who has no personality whatsoever, like, hmm, let's see, almost every single character in almost every single game.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

I'm waiting for a really well-marketed game to come out and be the next big thing, where the main character is a potted plant. People will say "but that's stupid, the main character's a plant" and the fans will respond: "well if you'd played the game you would know that he was turned into a plant by the evil wizard, so how could he not be a plant?"

 

[setting_son]

I hate the lead character in Fallout: New Vegas.

I am such a dick.

 

[Yosato]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

In that case I take it back - that's just a terrible premise. To me that just sounds like an excuse the writers used so they didn't have to write an interesting or complex character.

 

[Tentickles]

I just finished playing Dead Island and I have to say by the end of that game I utterly HATED every single character.

Especially Jin the girl mechanic.
You see the story sort of shouts at you "She was raped!" but doesnt tell you too your face. So after that point in time you spend the rest of the game dealing with HER SHIT all the time.

I get it. Rape is bad.
I just dont want to deal with it in a video game!

I bought Dead Island to chop head off zombies... not listen to a girl whine.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Final Fantasy 12, Vaan irratated me by being sucha bland character who had very little impact on the story, he basically had no duty being the main character of the piece when it was Ashe, Basch and to a lesser extent Balthier who drove the story onwards, Vaan is just along for the ride.

Whatever bad can be said about other Final Fantasy main characters they each had an actual role in their respective stories.

Kratos, in the first God of war he made sense in a crazy way, typical Greek tragedy and all that jazz but after that game they made him into the most ridiculous obnoxious and childish twat I've ever seen as a main character. He acts like a tool in God of War 2 (just like Ares did in the original) and gets killed by Zeus for it. Then in the third game he just causes the god damn apocalypse because Zeus killed him for being a destructive twat, I don't care how horrible they try to paint Zeus, Kratos was the villain all along.

Kane and Lynch, shit game with completely unsympathetic characters, go watch Heat and notice how you can not compltely hate Deniro's character and Val Kilmer especially, they made them into actual human beings who also robbed banks.

Finally Spiderman: Web of Shadows, in this particular Spiderman game the voice acting was at an all time low, whenever Spidey talked at all it was so whiny I wanted to stab his eyes out with an ice pick.

 

[Michael Hirst]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

In that case I take it back - that's just a terrible premise. To me that just sounds like an excuse the writers used so they didn't have to write an interesting or complex character.

Okay so they're not supposed to have emotions but that doesn't defend making a poor character, look at Terminator 2, in that film the Terminator can't feel real emotions ever and even after he's learned a lot about human behaviour still can't truly express it but they still develop his character and make him interesting unlike Master Chief who is so "badass" that he doesn't need to develop.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

For me I'd go with Master Chief. THIS is the guy with not a single iota of emotion. He's probably the blandest most generic character I've ever seen whose only mildly original feature is that we never actually see his face, which is no excuse for him having zero personality.

well of course he's doesn't show emotions none of Spartan II show emotions. Thanks to their training and augmentations those were suppress so the Spartans can think without letting emotions get in there way. With the Exception of Kurt who some how was able to connect with his other fellow Spartans but the ODSTs etc.. and now for Spartan IIIs they bit more of lose cannon set on suicide missions they show much more emotions than Spartan IIs

In that case I take it back - that's just a terrible premise. To me that just sounds like an excuse the writers used so they didn't have to write an interesting or complex character.

Exactly. People often don't seem to understand that game designers have control over the premise. Stating that it's ok for Master Chief to be a personality-devoid cardboard cutout instead of a real character because the story demands it ignores the fact that the game developers wrote the damn story and they didn't have to write it like that.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Tidus (FFX): I didn't really pay attention to him after I got the whole cast. He seemed like the least useful character in the group.

Vann (FFXII): Same as Tidus, but he shows more of his midriff (which does -10 to his manliness).

Sora (KH1 only): He means well, but in KH1, he was always the last one to get anything that was going on in the game. Compared to himself in KH2, Roxas in KHays, and all the leads in KH:BBS, he was by far the least likable.

Shion (Xenosaga: Ep. 3 only) Headstrong, confident, and fearless, Shion was probably one of the most consistently well developed characters in the Xenosaga trilogy. Then, she realizes that one of her enemies was her first love. She follows him to the dark side, ceases to be in your party towards the end of the story, and actually fights against you. She really was one of my favorites in this game; well, KOS-MOS still rocks.

 

[Delsana]

Macho tough guys, idiots, and chain-smokers.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I ended up having more empathy for Marcus by the end of GoW3.

However, the one "protagonist" I can't stand is Kratos. I know he's supposed to be a bastard but he is loathsome in every aspect. I can't find one redeeming quality, and if that's what the developers were going for then mission accomplished.

 

[Mysticgamer]

FFXII. Vaan could spontaneously combusted and collapsed in a sewage ditch and I wouldn't have cared at all. Now Balthier, I would have shagged him hard enough that he would have walked funny for a week ...and Fran too. Bosch was pretty cool too, and a sexy blonde. Penelo was sweet, and useful in a fight.

Also, Ashe could have joined Vaan.

I feel the same way about Vaan but did you noticed he's not the lead in FF12. His whole story was to find his brother's killer and still something out of the castle. Within a couple of hours he gets caught up in Balthier and Fran's Quest and later Ashe's Quest and he just tags along. He finds out that because of his stupidity Penelo got kidnapped, they go save her and he finds out Basch didn't kill his brother...end of his quest.

Ahem ...

Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo when the two characters were created later in development.[66] The development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a more effeminate one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered. With the casting of dorama actor Kouhei Takeda for the voice acting and motion capture, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat bright and positive".[66][67] Comments were made about the similarity between main character designer and background design supervisor Akihiko Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura, another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists, which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments.[67] The designers stated that non-human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game,[65] which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers.[63]

This is from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_12

So in conclusion, yes Vaan was the lead, and yes he sucked.

I didn't know that I've got to check out the article. It makes sense from a business point of view because I know almost nothing about Vagrant Story except the character was named Van too. Well, I hope they make a proper sequel (Other than revent wing) Where we get too see Al-Cid's country.

 

[Mysticgamer]

FFXII. Vaan could spontaneously combusted and collapsed in a sewage ditch and I wouldn't have cared at all. Now Balthier, I would have shagged him hard enough that he would have walked funny for a week ...and Fran too. Bosch was pretty cool too, and a sexy blonde. Penelo was sweet, and useful in a fight.

Also, Ashe could have joined Vaan.

I feel the same way about Vaan but did you noticed he's not the lead in FF12. His whole story was to find his brother's killer and still something out of the castle. Within a couple of hours he gets caught up in Balthier and Fran's Quest and later Ashe's Quest and he just tags along. He finds out that because of his stupidity Penelo got kidnapped, they go save her and he finds out Basch didn't kill his brother...end of his quest.

Ahem ...

Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo when the two characters were created later in development.[66] The development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a more effeminate one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered. With the casting of dorama actor Kouhei Takeda for the voice acting and motion capture, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat bright and positive".[66][67] Comments were made about the similarity between main character designer and background design supervisor Akihiko Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura, another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists, which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments.[67] The designers stated that non-human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game,[65] which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers.[63]

This is from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_12

So in conclusion, yes Vaan was the lead, and yes he sucked.

I didn't know that I've got to check out the article. It makes sense from a business point of view because I know almost nothing about Vagrant Story except the character was named Van too. Well, I hope they make a proper sequel (Other than revent wing) Where we get too see Al-Cid's country.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution...The main character has only ONE single vocal range and it consists of a low semi-raspy tone with little to no emotion even when getting mad or being happy.

 

[nukethetuna]

Ahem ...

Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo when the two characters were created later in development.[66] The development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a more effeminate one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered. With the casting of dorama actor Kouhei Takeda for the voice acting and motion capture, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat bright and positive".[66][67] Comments were made about the similarity between main character designer and background design supervisor Akihiko Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura, another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists, which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments.[67] The designers stated that non-human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game,[65] which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers.[63]

This is from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_12

So in conclusion, yes Vaan was the lead, and yes he sucked.

Yeah, Vaan tops my list, as well. Look at it this way, Squeenix switched the main character to an androgynous, immature, teenage pretty-boy with no real relevance to the plot (Vaan) from a bad-ass disgraced Knight Captain (Basch) because they thought that the target demographic would relate to him better.

Squeenix thinks that if we can relate to a person in a fantasy game, it's the unsure, androgynous tag-a-long teenager... rather than the mature, honorable even in disgrace heroic knight.
They... don't think much of their target demographic in retrospect.

 

[MisterDyslexo]

You mean anybody who clearly isn;t a sociopath or clearly a "bad guy" (Kratos, Kane & Lynch, dude from Prototype)?

Pretty much every royal I've ever played. Pompous asses. Pretty much almost every game where you've played one, at a later time in the IP's universe, they turn into power hungry dictators or just plain psychos.

 

[DEAD34345]

If every answer isn't "Tidus" from Final Fantasy X then I will be greatly disappointed.

*Checks* Eh... close enough. He's mentioned multiple times on every page of this thread.

I can't believe I gave that douchebag my name.

 

[dagens24]

Unrelated to video games but Nancy Botwin from Weeds.

 

[dickywebster]

Honestly, with most games with a preset lead (not games like fallout 3 where u can make your own) i tend to like one of the support chaps or chapettes more, especially when everyone has such a thin backstory and all...