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[King Klown]

True, but you have a hard time conveying a good story with a main character like Duke Nukem.

  Tits over there.
  Save me!

A good story rounds characters out like a rock tumbler.

[Catloaf]

Now I'm wondering how many fully 3D characters there are that you are given almost no information about.

The only one's I can think of right now are Ico and the guy from Shadow of the colossus.  Maybe Yorta too, but she does fall into the helpless princess archetype so damn well.  In any case, all the characters in those games are given a sense of having a deep story behind them that you're never explicitly told.

EDIT:  Hell, they all fall neatly in to archetypes, but I guess the mood of the games really makes me want to think that they're more to them.

[King Klown]

Princess Peach! 

[Mothra]

Luis Sera from RE4 had a pretty good backstory, it felt, and he behaved like he had just come across you in his own, independent attempts at sabotaging Saddler, and used you to survive. That he never personally feels the need to tell you what he's all about or why he's doing what he's doing (I don't remember him doing this, at least) makes him feel like he's out for his own ends, has his own ambitions, and that they overlap with yours in a number of places is just dandy for the guy.

If memory serves, the only concrete info you get on the guy is through reading his journals, which I've always liked. The information is there, but you have to choose to read it.

[jsnlxndrlv]

Problem with this is that all but the wordiest of games seem to have difficulty actually conveying whatever characterization might actually be present.

Dimensionality of character is not the same as the severity of the character's inner conflict, nor the elegance of the storytelling surrounding them.

This. I could post characters from Torment all day long, but I'm not sure it would benefit anyone.

Similarly Galatea.

[Disposable Ninja]

Dragon Quest VIII's whole damn crew was pretty impressive, especially crude dude Yangus. I applauded when he recounted to Jessica his first encounter with the hero. And Angelo's relationship with his step-brother was almost too good. Hell, Jessica was pretty cool, too.

[François]

I could post characters from Torment all day long, but I'm not sure it would benefit anyone.

I was just about to mention that. Lots of characters qualify, but Dak'kon and Morte basically top the list.

[Romosome]

Mahbu from Jade Cocoon.

I'll just sit here and wait to see if anyone else even knows who that is before babbling about it.

[Bongo Bill]

I think I have heard of Jade Cocoon.

[Disposable Ninja]

Jade Cocoon was great. It's like Pokemon, but instead of storing your mons in a computer, you torture your wife. It was interesting seeing Mahbu's dialog portrait shift from happy and easy-going, to skittish and unhappy, to covered in veils. You know, to hide the burn scars.

[Romosome]

And that's what I meant.  Her characterization not only was realistic and believable for someone in an arranged marriage, but the situation slowly took its toll on her even though she did her best to be cheerful through the game, all the way up until spoilers.

That's the strength of it is that she had conflicting emotions, something a bit too rare in a lot of characters.

[Esperath]

  Ur-Quan Kzer-Za.  They became so much more interesting when you eventually found out that they weren't straight-out dagnasty evil.

Also, hi.

[Brentai]

Dizzy.  Rather than the standard whiny pacifist who somehow ends up committing near-genocide anyway anime archtype, Dizzy is really a person with a fairly normal aggression level who happens to be junctioned to a pair of horrifying monsters.  Also, she's two years old.  Her reactions to stuff are generally complex and believable, which unfortunately when submerged into a cast of dumb cartoon characters just comes off as quirky and oddball.

[DestyNova]

 Yuri Volte Hyuga from Shadow Hearts

[Spram]

Ganon in the Wind Wanker at least had a reason to be "evil". Hopefully the next Zelda game tries to make him more human (Hylian? Gerudo?) in the next game instead of making him crazy Zant's crazy "god".

Maybe he will cry.

He was also nice enough to not kill Zelda in the last battle and instead sheaths his swords, smacks her and takes it out again. The Zelda wakes up and he loses. Hitting children instead of decapitating them, that's why he lost (even thought I think he had no problems swinging his swords at Link).  I wonder how that last Wind Wanker battle didn't earn the game a T rating.

[Kazz]

He has Falcon Punch.  He has Falcon Kick.

But will he ever find Falcon Love?

[Smiler]

He only will when Captain Falcon does.

[Fortinbras]

Harman Smith

I was considering bringing up Legacy of Kain and Shadow Hearts, I'm glad someone got to them first.

Shadow Hearts: For a set of games whose writing ranges mostly from parody of other RPGs to just earnestly silly (in a kind of good way) Yuri (and Gepetto) in the second game manage to be some of the better and more subtly represented RPG characters I've ever seen.  Protagonist's internal conflict is mostly actually internal and he doesn't bang on about it or get all mopey.  Also he evolves slowly, realistically and in ways that don't have to be Exposition'd about.  Gepetto gets comparatively little screen time and they use it so well, slowly laying out a tragic, dignified old guy with a lot of untold history.

LoK: Bunch of characters with conflicting, complicated motivations and they actually act in ways that are meant to further their motives.  That's a fucking rarity right there.  The paths of all the characters are shaped visibly by the actions of others and Kain's most of all, which is a pretty cool thing in a series whose main semiphilosophical trope is destiny.

I feel like I`ve played something recently that hasn`t been mentioned and had a really interesting character in it but I might just be thinking of Persona 4.