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Shradow

Who is your favorite video game protagonist and why?

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Just something I was thinking about and so I figured I'd make a discussion about it.

For me there are a lot of protagonists I enjoy, but if I had to list a favorite I think it'd be Adam Jensen, from Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Mankind Divided. I really like his character. He's a stoic badass, an interesting mixture of a cynical realist and an optimist who still believes in justice, and he's humorously sarcastic at times while not without his own character quirks, such as his penchant for sugary breakfast cereal. His games have a fair degree of choice to them, and I feel like whether you go for a stealthy pacifist run or kill all your enemies guns blazing or anywhere in between, it still works. He's not a complete blank slate of an RPG protagonist where you dictate basically every aspect of his character, but he has enough of an ingrained character that you get to explore as you play through the story and explore the world of his games.

He's definitely not lacking in the aesthetic department, either. He's good looking  with kickass augments and his fashion is awesome, I love his jackets. And it's also really cool that his voice actor, Elias Toufexis, is using his natural voice when voicing Jensen.

Edited by Shradow

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That's a very good question. It's difficult for me to think about for a number of reasons, the biggest one being the ideal candidates were from games that I might've played a while ago that I don't really remember all too well, and even for games that I've played more recently, my brain is usually just turned off while I'm playing them and it's usually all a blur.

The one that comes to mind right away is Geralt from Witcher. That kind of memorability from protagonists just comes with the environment of roleplaying games with premade protagonists that you play as because as you play, everything you do and every character you interact with reveals bits and pieces about the character that you either come to appreciate or take into consideration for certain moments. With all the time I have playing Witcher 3, I've learned so much about that particular character that their acknowledgment is so much deeper to me than that of other characters.

However, just because I know more about a character than others doesn't necessarily make them "better" because we also have to consider the fact that Geralt is basically just a sociopathic mercenary that will do pretty much anything for money, mainly killing targets by request of the payer. Sure, you'll often have the option to not do that out of either sympathy or indifference, but the point lies in the nature of their trade. He has so much experience doing this type of thing that he is basically numb to it, which to me docks a couple points in terms of personality.

This also applies to other action RPGs, since the whole "blood-thirsty mercenary" thing is pretty common in those types of games. Take Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, for example. Both games you're exploring the world, accepting missions for money and experience, and mixed between all that is a story that they want you to follow to progress. Either way, regardless of how different they try to make it, it's usually the same general idea.

So with that out of the way, back to the original question: Who is my favorite game protagonist based on character quality and not just from how much I know about them? Taking that into consideration, I find myself thinking of characters from platformers like Ratchet & Clank or Crash Bandicoot. The latter seems kinda shallow, cause I mean... he's Crash Bandicoot. He's literally just a brainless bandicoot running, jumping, and spinning to survive. Hell, he can't even speak (at least his original design couldn't, then he was sold off to people who had to change him for the sake of changing him, but that's beside the point.) Ratchet, however, is more interesting because he is actually fairly intelligent while being particularly goofy and charming at the same time, so he makes for a good contender.

(Though you might realize that I excluded both Spyro and Jak from the subject, and that's because I inversely don't find them as interesting as their rivaling counterparts.)

Another good one that comes to mind is Tak. Just some aloof kid exploring the world and learning it for himself, but in a time of need learns to use various abilities given to him by his guardians as well as communicating with them for help, all while respecting the nature of his surroundings and taking out anything that threatens it.

Nothing else seems to come to mind, so putting up Ratchet and Tak back to back, my choice would be Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank, mainly because of his skills with mechanics and various application of technology. Tak is great, but magic doesn't necessarily strike me as "interesting" when put up against clever (if not also goofy) engineering.

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I like Ratchet, though I feel like including him without Clank is strange since they've got that whole duo and the interactions that come with it. I enjoyed his character arc throughout the first game, and he's a pretty cool dude. I'll agree with Jak as well, since in the first game he was just a silent protagonist with not much too him, most of the character was in Daxter, and starting with 2 he became angry edgelord elf which I don't find interesting.

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15 minutes ago, Shradow said:

I like Ratchet, though I feel like including him without Clank is strange since they've got that whole duo and the interactions that come with it. I enjoyed his character arc throughout the first game, and he's a pretty cool dude. I'll agree with Jak as well, since in the first game he was just a silent protagonist with not much too him, most of the character was in Daxter, and starting with 2 he became angry edgelord elf which I don't find interesting.

I suppose you could include Clank, because technically you play as both of them. So yeah, Ratchet & Clank, not just Ratchet.

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