Above all else I. AM. A. GAMER! and I figured what better way to help you get to know me than by sharing some insight as to why this artform has captured my imagination since the early age of 4. To put it simply it's the imagination involved. Its this entire fabric of another reality spun infront of your eyes that holds me so raptly. And the foundation of that expierence for me is the characters. A game can be poor im most other fields but if it has strong characters then it has my heart. It took hours but I finally narrowed down my top 10 favorite video game characters but making this list made me realize I don't like pure heroes. I like characters they are far more than black and white. I like a good anti-hero or a purely evil villain. So on to the good stuff.......
*********WARNING THIS LIST HAS TONS OF SPOILERS.**********
(10.) Lt. Nathaniel Hale (Resistance 1 and 2)
Image source: https://goo.gl/images/JGeQrH
almost from the get go he has a finite amount of time before he turns evil and with the culmination of the second games finale he had Akira level mind powers and was exploding chimera with his mind and then turned and was immediately executed by his only remaining friend.
(9.) Agent 47 (Hitman)
Image source: https://beagamecharacter.com/2016/11/14/how-to-become-agent-47/
A man who never knew the innocence of youth or even had a real name. He is a master of disguise, deception, and murder. He doesn't compromise and he is always two moves ahead of everyone. His greatest moment being when he faked his own death to lure out all his enemies and rose up(seemingly from the dead) at his own funeral to execute every enemy all in one fell swoop all during the games end credits.
(8.) Lee Everett (Telltale's The Walking Dead)
Image source: http://playstationallstars.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:CRUDLuVER/Here_Comes_a_DLC_Challenger:_Lee_Everett!
You first meet Lee as he's being escorted to prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. So from the onset you know he's complicated. But as things progress he realizes his true purpose is to do everything in his power to protect Clementine, a young girl who he has no ties to other than that she is living. He fights through hell to rescue her when she's kidnapped and in the end is bitten but still pushes to save Clem. He was so determined to protect her that in a final attempt to harden Clem and prepare her to keep herself safe when he was gone he instructs her to kill him before he turns and in form befitting her mentor she obliges him.
(7.) The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)
Image source: http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/The_Boss
for someone that you only get limited exposure to in a single game she made such a lasting impression on me. She Betrayed the country she loves under orders of that country as an attempt to infiltrate her enemy then fought her best friend and student in an attempt to maintain the deception. Ultimately giving her life to her best friend in a final battle. She had one of the most unique ideologies of any character ever and helped to invent a style of hand to hand combat that became a battlefield standard. At her peak she didn't just disarm her opponent, she dismantled his gun while he aimed it at her.
(6.) Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System or GLaDOS (Portal 1 and 2)
Image source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/v9VA
This one was the oddball of the bunch. While the rest are troubled heroes or sadistic madmen, this one is whimsical. Still mad as a hatter but in a comical and often hilarious fashion. A secretary turned twisted AI GLaDOS is great at subverting your expectations in that every time you think you have her pegged she shows you a new layer of her personality. Besides spawning one of the most well known catchphrases in all of gaming history she was turned into a potato and partially eaten by a bird. If that isn't special, I don't know what is.
(5.) Wanda (Shadow of The Colossus)
Imahe source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/v9VA
A silent protagonist isn't new and wasn't when he first hit the scene but what was new was the absolute lack of necessity for the characters motivations to be explained. He rides in with his love already dead and he is willing to do anything to get her back. right away he goes to work as he is tasked with killing ancient race of Gods. Somewhere along the way you (and thus him) realize that you are killing beings that have as much right to live as him or his love for that matter but having gone as far as he has he finishes his task damning his soul in the process. True love.
(4.) Jack/Big Boss (Metal Gear Solid series)
Image source: http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Boss
For his very first mission he is tasked with killing his best friend and mentor. He fails completely. Then he goes on to kill her only to discover that they were both on the same side and it was all subterfuge. He was escalated to national hero status but the disgrace of what he had done never left him. It had already tainted his soul. He adapted his mentor's ideologies into a set of his own and was forever loyal to them from that point on. So much so that he allowed himself to be made into a global super villain in a multigame spanning plot in a successful effort to direct global events away from nuclear catastrophe. He was one of the greatest leaders the world had ever known. His own son ended up killing him as he explains to him that neither of them can or will ever leave the battlefield.
(3.) Vaas Montenegro (Farcry 3)
Image source: http://www.darkstation.com/reviews/far-cry-3-2
The ill fated Vaas is one of the best written characters of all time. His speech about the definition of insanity sold the entire game. Not to mention that he doesn't even make it to the second act of the game. His intelligence is only matched by his sadistic nature. Moreso he didn't just rule his men with fear or cleverness but a keenly sharpened combination of the two. The man shoots your brother right in front of you and as he dies in your arms Vaas tells you to run so as to heighten the excitement he will get from hunting you down and murdering you.
(2.) Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy Dissidia)
Image source: https://gematsu.com/2016/06/dissidia-final-fantasy-arcade-adds-kefka-palazzo
I love him so much that should my next child be a boy his name will be Kefka. A clown in appearance, Kefka was anything but. A man so evil, so twisted, so malevolent, so mad that not even his Emporer was safe from him. He killed every man, woman, and child in the kingdom of Doma just to end a siege. Kefka murdered his leader, usurping his throne. He stole the very essence of the gods and at his height of power ended the world as the inhabitants knew it, changing the face of the globe itself. I often sight him as my favorite villain of all time.
(1.) Detective Scott Shelby (Heavy Rain)
Image source: https://www.giantbomb.com/scott-shelby/3005-12114/
In a list of characters the are all either evil or straddle the line between good and evil, Detective Shelby is right at home. As one of the main protagonists in the game he is on the search for the elusive origami killer. While on the case he befriends the mother of a victim and even rescues her in a action packed cinematic fist fight. All along the way he gets closer and closer to death and danger but always manages to survive. Until in possibly the greatest twist in gaming history, it turns out that he is in fact the origami killer and is on some misguided search for a father who would sacrifice himself for his son like his own was unwilling to do when he was a child. The game has multiple drastically different endings including him getting away, him being arrested, and even one where he ends up romantically involved with the mother of one of his victims unbeknownst to her. Never before or since has there been a game where you were in fact the final boss you sought all along and what's more is while you may not agree with his methods, it's very hard not to feel sympathy for him when you discover his tragic origins from his severely scarred childhood. In a game built around the finality of choice and the gravity of decision he stood out as what originally appeared to be a beacon of altruistic good only to turn out to be a truly evil psychopath.
There you have it. That list took a lot of soul searching because I take my games very seriously. Now I want to hear from all of you. Who are your favorite videogame characters and why? How have they moved you? What have they done that left an imprint on you? I look forward to seeing what you all have to say.
Now get out there and have a spectacular day fellow Steemian!
Image credits all belong to their respective games of origin. The first image was my photoshop work but all characters used in the image belong to their respective games of origin.