Board 8 > Who are the most unlikeable video game protagonists?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zidane (FFIX)

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Im glad the people who like them like them. :)

However

No way, XIV has a great cast! Yshtola and Alphinaud are easily among the better FF characters.

OK listen I fully recognize FFXIV almost certainly has an excellent cast and story once it gets going, but FFXIV fans really gotta stop acting like it's just another entry in the series, and that people should just play it.

I played 50 hours of FFXIV and there was nothing! I am not committing more.

Lightning Strikes posted...

Yshtola and Alphinaud are easily among the better FF characters.

no way

Emet-Selch, Gosetsu, and Estinien are where it's at
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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I played 50 hours of FFXIV and there was nothing! I am not committing more.

I totally admit the beginning is poor, it's before they really hit their stride in storytelling and before the really good characters are introduced. It's why I hesitate to rec it to people (or do so with disclaimer). But after 50 hours you've gotta be pretty much over that hump. Totally worth continuing at that point.
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Inphyy (N3)

It's easy to forget Ninety-Nine Nights even exists, but man is the protag of that bad.

Oh, and if we're allowed to name more leads of bad games, I'll also throw out Capell from Infinite Undiscovery, where only one character (Aya) has any redeeming value.

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Teedus
Zidane
That really fucking annoying wise cracking douche from that Xbox 360 RPG about the immortal protagonist who's name escapes me

cerna_zelva posted...

That really fucking annoying wise cracking douche from that Xbox 360 RPG about the immortal protagonist who's name escapes me

Are you talking about Lost Odyssey? Jansen? I don't think he counts for this...

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Jansen's great though. He's like a Bruce Campbell character by way of a JRPG.

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Mythiot posted...

Altair from Assassin's Creed I.

AC1 might be the most unlikable video game.

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Murphiroth posted...

Jansen's great though. He's like a Bruce Campbell character by way of a JRPG.

Now I want an alternate reality where Bruce Campbell was Auron instead....


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Alphinaud fucking sucks.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I played 50 hours of FFXIV and there was nothing! I am not committing more.

This is why the ARR story skip is mandatory, even if they are streamlining it in the next patch.

Heavensward is good, Stormblood sucked, Shadowbringers is a top tier FF

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A.I. (NBA 2K19)

so self centered I couldn't stand him

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Marche is the first one to come to mind. Shion from Xenosaga was also terrible

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Dude from yiik

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Oh my god. I forgot Edge Maverick.

All my votes to Edge Maverick.

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ninkendo posted...

A.I. (NBA 2K19)

so self centered I couldn't stand him

oh yeah good call

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Adding Not Important from Hatred though I suppose that was kind of the point.

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Xeno 2 changes half the voice cast (includioNG SHION AND KOSMOS YOU STUPID IDIOTS WHY). Shion mostly suffers as a "sister hating her brother" complex and little else interesting. The game was about Jr. And Albedo...so bleh.

Ep. 3 bring the good actress back, and she nails the mood, but let's just say they course corrected WAY too fucking much to give her every piece of major screen time and plot relevance, but turn her into a tragic heroine who bitches, moans, gets lost in crazy plot twists so dumb, it makes SO3 look good...and...yeah.

Ep. 2 and 3 do NOT do Shion the character any favors, even if the actress in 1 and 3 (Lia Sargent) plays her about as well as one could.

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Johnny Gat

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Albedo (and Ziggy) was the best part of Xenosaga though

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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Oh my god. I forgot Edge Maverick.

All my votes to Edge Maverick.

I'm "glad" I could remind you of him.

If I had no choice but to pick a single character out of all the ones named in this topic, it would probably be him.

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Strife2 posted...

Xeno 2 changes half the voice cast (includioNG SHION AND KOSMOS YOU STUPID IDIOTS WHY). Shion mostly suffers as a "sister hating her brother" complex and little else interesting. The game was about Jr. And Albedo...so bleh.

Ep. 3 bring the good actress back, and she nails the mood, but let's just say they course corrected WAY too fucking much to give her every piece of major screen time and plot relevance, but turn her into a tragic heroine who bitches, moans, gets lost in crazy plot twists so dumb, it makes SO3 look good...and...yeah.

Ep. 2 and 3 do NOT do Shion the character any favors, even if the actress in 1 and 3 (Lia Sargent) plays her about as well as one could.

I still like Shion, but I have to admit (episode 3 spoilers) that when she is reduced to whining Kevin!!!111 before actually turning on the party, it's pretty darn bad. I like the subversion of typical genre clichs with Allen being a love interest without being a combat-focused character or party member. I suppose it's more of an inversion of gender than subversion though.

voltch posted...

Johnny Gat

You'll pay for this.

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I'm not really a fan of young shonen-type heroes because they tend to make shitty generic Gary Stus.

Like Dean Stark from Wild ARMs 5, for example. Pretty much after WA3 the characters in each game became worse and worse. This guy had absolutely zero bearing on the plot. He's just some young fanboy and do-gooder who helps the damsel out of the goodness of his heart and somehow that warrants him having the main character role. Other than his relationship with his idol, he never really evolves. The extent of his character development is "You never know unless you try!" and "I can never give up!" These lines are repeated several times over the course of the game and seem to be enchantments, because every time those lines are said everyone in the party all of a sudden cheers up, the music becomes heroic, and the heroes can do no wrong. (the enchantment part is sarcasm)

I'd like to think these types of protagonists are no longer a thing but we had Xenoblade Chronicles 2 recently and Rex absolutely sucks. Again, no bearing on the plot (other than being connected to Azurda), he just happened to be at the right place at the right time and became a Driver to a powerful Blade. He's a young dumb kid who spouts off feel good lines all game and has an even more annoying voice. Not that the voice acting in this game is anything to write home about. All of the playable Drivers in this game have very little to do with the main plot, though, but Rex is a special kind of challenged.

It breaks my heart starting to know shonen tropes to see otherwise great stories ruined by them.

Tom Bombadil posted...

Dude from yiik

This one for me. It's one thing to be an asshole(Brad in LISA the painful is a decent enough example of a likeable asshole from the same sub-genre of JRPGs YIIK is usually classified in), but to be one and then have an half-assed development of being better despite NOTHING being done in the story that indicates this character wanting to be better outside of just saying for all intents and purposes, "I'm a better person now guys!" is a slap in the face. Don't get me started on the fact you can have one of the party members commit suicide and said person's ghost blames himself instead of Alex being an asshole to him if you go down that route. That pissed me right the fuck off compared to everything else he did.

Also can Sarah Kerrigan from SC2 count from a "They butchered her character from Brood War so badly" standpoint since she technically is the protagonist in the Zerg campaign and at the end of the Protoss? I didn't mind what happened with Kerrigan in WoL in a vacuum, but everything not involving Mengsk and the Terrans was... not good to say the least. The story with her ventured into KH 3D levels of insanity with that twist at the end with Tassadar and everything that happened after that.

What a fall from grace for an iconic villain.

KingAshnard posted...

I'm "glad" I could remind you of him.

If I had no choice but to pick a single character out of all the ones named in this topic, it would probably be him. I envy most people here for not knowing who he is.

I think in order to qualify as a bad protagonist you need to be noticeably worse than a large percentage of your cast. The game is full of characters worse than Edge.

He is terrible though.

Alex Shepherd (Silent Hill: Homecoming), if people want a less controversial choice than Tidus.

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Tidus always surprises me in topics like this, since it's kind of the point that he starts out as an annoying brat. I suppose that doesn't mean people have to like it though.

colliding posted...

I think in order to qualify as a bad protagonist you need to be noticeably worse than a large percentage of your cast. The game is full of characters worse than Edge.

He is terrible though.

I disagree with this.

Being the shiniest turd in the bowl doesn't make you any less a turd.

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Sora. Definitely Sora. Cannot stand any aspect of his character, from his design to his personality to his predictablity.

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Voxwik posted...

Tidus always surprises me in topics like this, since it's kind of the point that he starts out as an annoying brat. I suppose that doesn't mean people have to like it though.

Tidus has a GREAT character arc, but people don't understand that sometimes a great arc requires a character to be off-putting in Act 1.

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TheArkOfTurus posted...

Patroklos (Soul Calibur V)

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edge maverick

fucking Eliwood man

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Corncob was already said.

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. Uh, see that Caim guy get mentioned? Same =exact= dude, except when he's all of a sudden not because one dude dies. He's Caim, but with bad character development. At least with Caim, he's just crazy, and doesn't turn on a fucking dime to not be crazy because "reasons".
AND he's Mr. Status Quo Protector Number 1 in a setting where you're being beaten over the head with "THIS SHIT SUCKS", and his route? Redundancies (Yeah, AM and VW ARE getting docked for HAVING THE SAME EXACT MAP, SAME EXACT MISSION, SAME EXACT TACTICS USED TWICE in one run) and shared maps. Lovely! And the story of his route is some pointless personal bullshit in a game where the scope is otherwise far grander.

He sucks, his route sucks, and to top it off, he gets the Chromatar plebs wanting his dick. Fuck that guy.

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I liked Caim :(
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Dimitri is awesome

Blue Lions forever
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Edelgard is awful

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Drakeryn posted...

I liked Caim :(

Ditto. I was fine with him and he was the best part of D2. Besides, the guy had reasons for why he was full on murderhobo. Also didn't Yoko Taro make him that way as to go against the standard jrpg hero along with making the party a bunch of psychopaths to the point where the pedophile is somehow one of the most noble characters in the game.

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IIRC, Taro said a driving force behind the creation of Drakengard was his interest in the fact that in many JRPGs the heroes tend to kill hundreds or even thousands over the course of the game.

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Speaking of murderhobo I started Condemned 2 at some point and was like "This is the most '00s intro for a newer edgier version of a character who wasn't particularly developed in the first place."

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KamikazePotato posted...

The praise that people heap on Luke's character development is concerning. I'm not why transitioning from "spoiled, petty asshole" to "abuse victim with no sense of self" is interpreted as a positive thing.

Then you probably didn't really understand the entire point of the game's story.

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plasmabeam posted...

Tidus has a GREAT character arc, but people don't understand that sometimes a great arc requires a character to be off-putting in Act 1.

The reason I always say him has nothing to do with him simply starting out bad.

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It's easy to play it safe with mutes like Link. He wins character contests but is just an avatar.

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TheArkOfTurus posted...

Patroklos (Soul Calibur V)

You must be a malfested as well. I will show you... the price of JUSTICE!

I think the "clueless character that the rest of the party explains things to in order to deliver exposition" role was done best with Vivi. It isn't a great fit for the main character because it can make them seem dumb. Tidus and Vaan suffered from that.

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