Monday, December 12, 2011

30 Days of Gaming: Day 12

Day 12 - Favorite Protagonist


Oh, dear.  Another tough call.  As has been the case with the last few, this will have POTENTIALLY MASSIVE SPOILERS.  You've been warned.

I think any of my previously mentioned characters would really count and fit this prompt.  Folks like Nathan Drake (Uncharted) and Commander Shepard (Mass Effect) are no brainers for great protagonists.  Same with folks that I identify with, like Alan Wake (Alan Wake).

But, there are others that I enjoy.  Here they are, in no particular order:

Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet): How can you not love the endlessly customizable Sack-person.  The mascot from the LittleBigPlanet series is whatever you want him/her to be!  Filled with silly expressions, the adorable little mite runs through the wondrous worlds Media Molecule created, and the endless supply of fan-created lands.  I love the three flavors of each expression, too.  The happy face in particular going from a smile to a goofy grin to full-blown tongue-wagging hysteria always makes me smile, too.  The expressions are one thing, but just watching Sack-person run through levels and moon jump about is adorable.  All of this with a seemingly endless supply of outfits, hair-styles, materials and accessories means that my Sackgirl doesn't look a thing like anyone elses'.  Overall, a great and fun character to adventure with.

Everybody say "D'awwww"

Sean Devlin (The Saboteur): OK, so he's an Irish stereotype that spouts ridiculous one-liners and says phrases that make no sense at all ("It's a piece of piss."  O.o ).  But, he's so much fun to play as that I ignore these things.  Running about occupied Paris during World War II and planting explosives on Nazi fuel containers is made better by Sean's silly antics.  His chuckles, his drinking and his hilarious "Top o' the mornin' to ya" really put him up there with Arnold and his action-movie swagger.  Honestly, it was just so fun having this Irish action star that the sheer silliness of it stopped being bad and started being awesome.  I loved being Sean.

Sean Devlin, Irish stereotype and Nazi killer

Ramza (Final Fantasy: Tactics): Last one.  Ramza is a classic Squaresoft hero: he's young, he's honorable and he does what's right.  In a story filled with intrigue and double-dealings, Ramza is straight-forward and honest.  He gets duped, sure, but he always works for the greater good.  I loved how we got to watch him grow from school-boy knight-in-training to full-fledged warrior and hero.  All of this is made better by the story starting off saying that Ramza was the "true hero" of the Lion War, but had been forgotten by history in favor of his friend Delita.  This meant that the entire game, your efforts would ultimately go unheralded, but you wanted Ramza to succeed against the villains that being forgotten was fine as long as they failed.  Ramza is a great "goody goody" hero, but he's still awesome.

Ramza Beoulve, hero of the Lion War

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