Unlikeable Lead characters

[genericusername64]

I gotta say that every iteration of Hawke in Dragon Age II is completely unlikable. At least without a voice, there was some ambiguity in the delivery and I could make it up as I went.

Thats the problem with the dialogue wheel, You don't get to make the character, bioware does.
You could play as a Whiny *****, a sarcastic douche, or 'roid rage personified

 

[virus_2049]

Jack Marston. After "the event" and having to play as Jack Marston, I didn't want to explore anymore, only because he was so damn annoying.

 

[virus_2049]

deleted.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

Ah yes, THAT problem with Mass Effect 2... If I'm honest Cerberus should have had next to no hold on you after a few missions since "We resurrected you" as leverage should only get them so far.

Off Topic: Is it ever explained why Cerberus knows about the Reapers but basically nobody else does?

Well its obviously because no one else has the foresight and genius IQ to believe a mentally taxed, possibly PTSD suffering soldier who openly admits to having hallucinations that we need to drop everything to prepare our army to face a threat he still has absolutely no idea how to actually fight.

Then again, we have on multiple occasions had physical evidence of the existence of the reapers and their technology. He *had* it, because the only 2 choices offered to us has been to either destroy it or leave it entirely to the stupid and inept terrorists who have not yet actually had a successful cell operate without going rogue or killing themselves. He *had* a fully intact Reaper that we could have flown a citadel team to investigate from a safe distance. But our grand plan was to destroy it because "its evil!" is a valid enough excuse to sacrifice indisputable proof of the existence of a life scouring race of robo-crabs.

So really, no one should even believe Shepard under the current circumstances, and the reason Cerberus does is just because the plot demands it.

 

[WonderWillard]

So, I see some people bitching about Shepard not walking away from Cerberus. There are two very logical reasons he stays with Cerberus for the duration of Mass Effect 2:

Spoiler

Well, as you can recall, Shepard DIES at the beginning of the game. Cerberus spends a fortune to bring him back. Shepard kind of owes Cerberus now, even if he wanted to leave, the Illusive Man is the only reason he's alive at that point. And if Shepard tried to just walk away, the Illusive Man would probably try to have him killed

and

Spoiler

The Collectors are blowing through human colonies, and the Alliance and the Council are doing nothing about it. The Illusive Man gives Shepard a new ship, options for a new crew, and the information he needs to stop the Collectors, well, Shepard has to make the best out of a bad situation.

Seriously, of all the things to ***** about in Mass Effect 2, this seemed pretty damn retarded.

I still don't like Cerberus, then again, they're a necessary evil. They're still more reliable than these three drooling and bubbling idiots.

If only we had the option to join the STG, now there's a badass group that never f*** s*** up!

That would be badass indeed... Option for post-ME trilogy game? But yeah, necessary evil definitely. I don't think anyone who played all of the first Mass Effect, after mowing through countless Cerberus experiments gone wrong, will like Cerberus. I mean I sure as hell don't. but I understand that we have to side with them in Mass Effect 2. Besides, sticking it the council when you visit the Citadel is just oh-so-satisfying.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

Batman never crack wise
And Batman and Spider-man don't kill anybody (in the recent comics anyway, for Batman).
Sorry about the nitpicking...

I think he cracked wise once or twice in the Dark Knight movie. Which is what I was goin' by. And he (And Spider-Man) have killed a few people. Hell, Batman snapped a guy's neck--with his foot.

 

[Panzervaughn]

Cryptosporidium137 - Destroy All Humans "What? You want me to go over there?! Outrageous! Sexual Innuendo!, violent Outburst! Violently Sexual innuendoburst!! Okay i guess i have to, sorry sir."

 

[Mr. In-between]

Chrono Trigger has Magus.

 

[Jazoni89]

Cole Phelps from L.A Noire

He has less charisma than a old wooden brush.

 

[No_Remainders]

So having just finished Gears 3 I found myself watching the end cut scene and thinking to myself 'Marcus Fenix is as likeable and charasmatic as a damp sponge'

You're talking about a series which had no real story until mid-way through the second one when we found out about Dom's wife, and even then, story took a back seat.

What did you REALLY expect here?

 

[Yopaz]

Zelos and Kratos from Tales of Symphonia. Not that I hate Lloyd, I love Lloyd, but both Zelos and Kratos are great characters that I really love in that game.

 

[Savagezion]

Well, his only motivation is stealing the priceless artifact before the villain does it first. Oh, and his wisecracking is really annoying, especially since he does while ending the lives of those around him. But if you really want to know...There's a swimming pool at the top of the Hotel in the city level. Jump into it, and then out of it. Once you do, TRY to make it through the next 10 seconds or so without flinching. It's impossible.

You can't really take points away from a wisecracking protagonist if they crack wise after murdering someone... because that's part of what you do in a game, or read about in comics, or see in movies. Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & clank, Spider-Man, John McClane, and even Batman (sometimes) all crack wise after, or shortly before, murdering someone. And those are just off the top of my head.

And it's been a while since I played Uncharted 1 or 2, but I'm pretty sure he had other motivations. It might've been his initial motivation (you know, because he's a treasure hunter), but if someone saves the world, can ya really call them a douchebag just because their initial intentions were to steal something? People change, and that makes Drake all the more believable.

Seems to me like you're grasping at straws for reasons to hate him, but to each their own.

Oh, and sorry for going off topic...

First, his motivations are more pure than stealing it before the bad guys get it:

Spoiler: Uncharted Spoilers! :You have been warned:

In Uncharted 1, he found the location of the treasure, the bad guys followed him. He gave up on the treasure halfway through. At that point, they were just trying to leave the island. In the end, he sacrificed the treasure to save himself and Elena. Saving Elena and Sully and getting off the island was priority 1 in the last half of the first game. Elena was more about finding the treasure than Drake was.

Uncharted 2, was about beating Flynn to the treasure for his betrayal. Drake knew Flynn wasn't that good - even with Chloe. (Who he suspected was in on the betrayal.) Drake knew he was better and so did Chloe and Flynn, otherwise why would they ever need him? That isn't cockiness, it is justified confidence. Again, in the village Nate gave up seeking the treasure claiming it wasn't worth it. (As he did in 1) But the monk talked him into exploring the cave to find the remains of his men or something that went looking for the stone before. He returns to the village to find it under siege and the monk kidnapped and he goes to save him while they are busy looking for the treasure. Again a rescue mission turns into "a battle against the secret behind the treasure". (Not a fight for the treasure) Again, Drake leaves empty handed from the expedition.

Both games, the bad guys were trying to get the treasure before Drake. When the danger level got too high, Drake bowed out claiming it wasn't worth it. In which a rescue mission was the final part of the game. In the first game, he had to find a way off the island himself anyways. In the second one he could have been a douche and left the monk up to his fate but he didn't.

A lot of people think Drake is a douche. I can't see it either. He doesn't wisecrack all the way through the game. Most of what he says is "Oh shit" or "Oh no, no, no, don't..." or "Not this again". That isn't wisecracks. That is reactionary response. He does make wisecracks here and there but not to the degree everyone makes it out to be. There is probably a good 30m-1h of play between his actual wisecracks. Some of which are actually worth a chuckle.

OT: I probably have to go with Tidus from FFX. He is a whiny entitled prick who is full of himself. THAT is a douche. Also, Ezio from Assassin's Creed. I can't put my finger on why completely but he seems a bit of a dope for one thing.

 

[hazabaza1]

You know what? I'm just going to say EVERYONE voiced by Nolan North. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but every single on of his characters make me want to murder puppies.

Go and play Alpha Protocol right the fuck now.

OT: Though I've never played it myself, I'm going to nominate every single character from Magna Carta 2.
God they all fucking sucked.

 

[Vrex360]

Got to go with Duke Nukem. I can handle the wise cracks and the tired references to old pop culture jokes that haven't been funny in years, what I can handle less is his attitude regarding women (more on that in a moment) and his tendancy to take jabs at other games in a smug self satisfied way.
Say what you will about Masterchief Duke, but that guy managed to make an entire multi million dollar game franchise that spawned books, toys, comics and even an anime all in the time it took for you to make one shitty game. Yahtzee was right, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and Duke Nukem is in no position to make fun of any game franchise.

However I could forgive that if his game wasn't so bloody sexist, and it goes way beyond just simple 'silly sexism' when it reaches the Alien Hive section. What kind of protagonist quips when he sees two young women who have been raped, impregnated and are about to die from it???
I really don't know what the developers were going for there but it just made him look like a sick twisted fuck, and I don't like sick twisted fucks saving the planet from aliens. Send in Masterchief instead, sure he may not have much in the way of interesting personality (I truthfully much prefer the Arbiter) but I get the feeling he would actually respond in a more appropriate way in that kind of situation.

 

[faefrost]

Every FF. Except the VIII, i hated everyone there.

Yeah right, Cecil from FF4 is by far the best Final Fantasy protagonist..

Ot: Hope from FF 13 is the single worst character of all time... such an angsty, whinnig, annoying little turd I hate him with every fiber of my being... I know he's not the lead charafter but I was in such a blinding rage while playing that I completely ignored the rest of the characters...

Yep! I can't quite figure Square out with the FF games. They seem to go to extremes with the characters. They create some of the best ever. Or some that are surprisingly deep on one hand. (Tifa is a great example of this. And I will confess a mildly surprised fondness for Snow in FFXIII simply because he turned out to not be the typical FF arrogant jerkwad that we expected him to be.) But then they give us characters like Hope or Vanille or Cait Sith . (We will not speak of the typical Arrogant jerkwad fixation that they mainly have for male leads, such as Tidus or Cloud.)

A better question would almost be, which fully scripted fully fleshed out main game characters do we actually not hate? I think we would find that that list is far smaller and more exclusive. Classic deep characters like John Marsten in RDR or Solid Snake. Or failing that the only ones that we like are the silent protagonists that we can imprint our own stories on. Master Chief, Samus, Chelle, etc.

 

[Tsaba]

Shu, I hate him so much

 

[Tselis]

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.

 

[GoAwayVifs]

Well, his only motivation is stealing the priceless artifact before the villain does it first. Oh, and his wisecracking is really annoying, especially since he does while ending the lives of those around him. But if you really want to know...There's a swimming pool at the top of the Hotel in the city level. Jump into it, and then out of it. Once you do, TRY to make it through the next 10 seconds or so without flinching. It's impossible.

You can't really take points away from a wisecracking protagonist if they crack wise after murdering someone... because that's part of what you do in a game, or read about in comics, or see in movies. Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & clank, Spider-Man, John McClane, and even Batman (sometimes) all crack wise after, or shortly before, murdering someone. And those are just off the top of my head.

And it's been a while since I played Uncharted 1 or 2, but I'm pretty sure he had other motivations. It might've been his initial motivation (you know, because he's a treasure hunter), but if someone saves the world, can ya really call them a douchebag just because their initial intentions were to steal something? People change, and that makes Drake all the more believable.

Seems to me like you're grasping at straws for reasons to hate him, but to each their own.

Oh, and sorry for going off topic...

First, his motivations are more pure than stealing it before the bad guys get it:

Spoiler: Uncharted Spoilers! :You have been warned:

In Uncharted 1, he found the location of the treasure, the bad guys followed him. He gave up on the treasure halfway through. At that point, they were just trying to leave the island. In the end, he sacrificed the treasure to save himself and Elena. Saving Elena and Sully and getting off the island was priority 1 in the last half of the first game. Elena was more about finding the treasure than Drake was.

Uncharted 2, was about beating Flynn to the treasure for his betrayal. Drake knew Flynn wasn't that good - even with Chloe. (Who he suspected was in on the betrayal.) Drake knew he was better and so did Chloe and Flynn, otherwise why would they ever need him? That isn't cockiness, it is justified confidence. Again, in the village Nate gave up seeking the treasure claiming it wasn't worth it. (As he did in 1) But the monk talked him into exploring the cave to find the remains of his men or something that went looking for the stone before. He returns to the village to find it under siege and the monk kidnapped and he goes to save him while they are busy looking for the treasure. Again a rescue mission turns into "a battle against the secret behind the treasure". (Not a fight for the treasure) Again, Drake leaves empty handed from the expedition.

Both games, the bad guys were trying to get the treasure before Drake. When the danger level got too high, Drake bowed out claiming it wasn't worth it. In which a rescue mission was the final part of the game. In the first game, he had to find a way off the island himself anyways. In the second one he could have been a douche and left the monk up to his fate but he didn't.

A lot of people think Drake is a douche. I can't see it either. He doesn't wisecrack all the way through the game. Most of what he says is "Oh shit" or "Oh no, no, no, don't..." or "Not this again". That isn't wisecracks. That is reactionary response. He does make wisecracks here and there but not to the degree everyone makes it out to be. There is probably a good 30m-1h of play between his actual wisecracks. Some of which are actually worth a chuckle.

To be fair he does occasionally say things like "That's your neck" in an almost gleeful manner when stealth killing mooks. That being said I don't get the hatred for Drake, he is a silly over the top character just like the games. They are not mean to be taken seriously, they are basically old pulp action/adventure movies/books/whatever in video game form. Also to the people getting mad about Drake tossing the museum guard off the roof, if you look carefully after he hits the water he starts swimming away. So he didn't out right murder the guy in that scene, calm down.

Moving on to the topic at hand: Travis Touchdown. Fucking shit what an unlikable douche-****.

 

[alm96]

The main character of essentially every JRPG I have ever played. Well, I guess they don't count, because I end up hating the entire cast of poorly-dressed idiots by the end of the game.

 

[Moeez]

As soon as I read the thread title, the words "NATHAN DRAKE" began to endlessly and uncontrollably repeat in my head. It's still going.

EDIT: I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the games. Some of my favorites. But it's hard to deny that Nathan Drake is a GIANT DOUCHEBAG.

This definitely for me, he's insufferable during gameplay but drops his douchebag mode only in the cutscenes and just has snarky mode on. Weird narrative discrepancy.

I'd add Alex Mercer, but it makes sense with the plot twist.
http://images.wikia.com/powerlisting/images/e/e6/Videojuegoblog_alex_mercer02.jpg