Topic: Three Dimensional Videogame Characters (Read 3526 times)

Friday · « **on:** May 31, 2009, 03:20:06 PM »

No, not that kind of 3D. Lara Croft doesn't count.

What I mean is complicated, well rounded characters with believable motivations, goals, history, and behavior. Or at least believable in the world they live in.

There are oodles of characters from books and movies who fit that description, so obviously I'm looking for characters in video games.

They can be villains or heroes, or just a character featured prominently. A character who only shows up for a brief period is probably not going to count, a good 3D character needs time to develop.

I'll start by offering Delita (Final Fantasy Tactics) as an example.

Despite the rest of the storyline and the horrible translation, Delita is a very interesting character. He starts out as a good person fighting for justice with his friend, Ramza, but all that changes when his sister Teta is killed by Albus, a royal cocksucker.

He blames the class system and seeks to abolish it by becoming King. He is ruthless and manipulating to achieve his goal, and eventually, by basically killing anyone who stands in his way, manages to place himself, a peasant, on the throne.

But at the end, past the credits, he finds that because of his actions, nobody trusts him, not even his wife, Ovelia, whom he manipulated into marrying him so he could be king. Though he brings her flowers in an attempt at a peace offering, she assumes he's hiding a weapon, and tries to kill him with her dagger. Forced to disarm Ovelia and kill her, he now stands at last unopposed, having killed everyone who knew anything about his plots. But despite his "victory" he feels hollow, forced to live alone. His attempts to fix his problems didn't work: He still feels lonely since the death of Teta and loss of his friendship with Ramza. With some of the last lines of the game, he asks what Ramza got out of it all...

(That answer being: Not much. Simply the right to live with his sister in exile, forced to flee forever as a heretic from the church. But despite this, Ramza is happy; he saved his sister, while Delita's efforts of course could not reverse Teta's death.)

Anyway, feel free to post other examples (please give a summary as I have done, as not everyone will have played the game) or discuss examples already posted.

Defenestration · « **Reply #1 on:** May 31, 2009, 03:23:14 PM »

First you say

Quote from: Friday on May 31, 2009, 03:20:06 PM

No, not that kind of 3D. Lara Croft doesn't count.

but then you say

Quote from: Friday on May 31, 2009, 03:20:06 PM

well rounded

James Edward Smith · « **Reply #2 on:** May 31, 2009, 03:24:07 PM »

Any player character that I play and through which I am immersed into the role and has no backstory of his own but instead takes on my characteristics and grows through the course of the game as I do.

LaserBeing · « **Reply #3 on:** May 31, 2009, 03:52:55 PM »

in b4 james sunderland

I think FFXII's Basch would qualify, or at least he might if the stupid story actually focused on him to the extent that he deserves.

Liquid Snake is pretty god damn cartoonish but as far as action game villains go he has at least some depth. Here's a guy who has basically been lied to and manipulated his entire life, purposefully instilled with an overblown sense of his own destiny and then cheated of that destiny, spends 4 years in an Iraqi prison camp and then is rescued just in time to see his allegedly "superior" brother save the world. If all that isn't enough to give a guy a complex, I don't know what is. He's certainly a "bad" guy but he also (at least when alive) seems to have at least some morals, and his mission isn't entirely self-serving.

And of course, The Boss is probably an even better example.

Mothra · « **Reply #4 on:** May 31, 2009, 04:01:41 PM »

Half-Life 2's Alex Vance always felt pretty lifelike, I thought, especially in Episodes 1 and 2. You don't get a lot of her talking about her personal philosophy or anything, but she acts and reacts like a thinking, independent-minded person would - she seems to feel fear, she gives elated banter and excited praise in battle (the rooftop fight against the hoverbug), gets embarassed by her dad, makes awful zombine jokes not because it's particular funny, but because the situation's there and it's too tempting not to. I suppose there isn't a huge amount of depth to her history besides what her father mentions, but like everything Half-Life, there's a story untold but clearly present. That she behaves the way she does, believably, makes it feel like there's something to her.

Same goes for Eli, and Barney to a lesser degree.

LaserBeing · « **Reply #5 on:** May 31, 2009, 04:16:03 PM »

I would argue (and in fact, I have) that Alyx Vance is not actually three-dimensional but is rather a two-dimensional character shown from such angles so as to appear three-dimensional.

Mothra · « **Reply #6 on:** May 31, 2009, 04:37:05 PM »

Granted, she's a little too perfect to be entirely believable, but as far as video game characters go, I was sold that there was something more to her than a robotic bullet hose shouting out one-liners. The bar's kind of low with NPCs, but I think the fact that her emotional reactions felt genuine is huge. The closer they can get to characters whose motivations you can physically read, as opposed to gleam from the dialogue, the more three dimensional they're going to be.

I wanted to like some of Halo's bantering marines in the same way, Johnson in particular, but the fact that they're always idling with their heads lowered, guns drawn, necks stiff and eyes fixed forward makes that a bit tough to swallow. I did, however, always like how whenever you died in their company, they would believably continue on instead of standing there dumbfounded. In the first game Johnson would occasionally mutter "Someone get Cortana out of there" to another marine when surveying your corpse; thought it was cool the way your presence didn't seem required for them to act. They had a mission to do, whether you were there or not.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #7 on:** May 31, 2009, 04:50:30 PM »

Urdnot Wrex from Mass Effect immediately springs to mind. At first glimpse he seems little more than an evolution of characters like HK-47 or Black Whirlwind -- little more than a wacky badass.

But then you get to chatting with him. You find out that he's a guy who both loves and despises his own people. He feels immense pride in his warrior heritage, but hates that that's all that his species aspires towards. And although he abandoned them a long, long time ago, he'd sacrifice his life a hundred times over to save them.

yyler · « **Reply #8 on:** May 31, 2009, 04:54:08 PM »

I almost typed out a reply about how Cloud is a pretty deep character, but I am in so deep that I don't even know if I would be trolling. If that's something you want to read regardless, I'll write it. But I just thought you guys should know I'm reigning myself in at any rate.

Kazz · « **Reply #9 on:** May 31, 2009, 05:19:43 PM »

Arthas

King Klown · « **Reply #10 on:** May 31, 2009, 05:20:20 PM »

Raziel from Legacy of Kain series.

Raziel is first introduced as a vampire who is loyal to the head vampire of the land, Kain. Raziel undergoes a metamorphosis of sorts, developing bat like wings on his back. Presenting himself to Kain and his fellow vampires, all who evolved differ---

For fuck sakes, I'm going to have to write a paragraph for him and [spoiler]spoiler most of it.[/spoiler]

Raziel comes from loving Kain, to hating him, too really hating him, to becoming his literal right hand and saving him and all of the rest of humanity despite his right to be exceedingly pissed. This development comes over the course of three games, I believe.

Spram · « **Reply #11 on:** May 31, 2009, 05:26:32 PM »

LOOK AT THEM POLYBUNS!
Sorry, couldn't resist. :(

Kayma · « **Reply #12 on:** May 31, 2009, 05:38:40 PM »

Jowy from Suikoden II. Tries to unfuck the government from the inside, succeeds, but is so totally changed by the experience that he loses his initial reasoning. Also, bags a major hottie.

Alex · « **Reply #13 on:** May 31, 2009, 05:47:46 PM »

I'd say Jowy isn't too different from Delita.

Friday · « **Reply #14 on:** May 31, 2009, 06:05:27 PM »

Quote

Arthas

Oh, right. Kerrigan and Raynor. (Starcraft)

Raynor's resilience in the face of repeated loses, his first insistence that Kerrigan isn't nothing but a monster, and then his final decree that he will be the one to kill her after she kills his friend Fenix, because he finally realizes she IS nothing more than a monster at this point.

Kerrigan, on the other hand, goes through a betrayal by her lord that leads to her capture and assimilation by the Zerg. Following the destruction of the Overmind at the Hands of Raynor and Tassadar, she regains her free will... but has discovered she enjoys the power. Manipulating her old friends, convincing them she isn't a monster anymore, she gets them to do her dirty work... until such time as she find them no longer useful. Brutally backstabbing them and killing Mengsk's second in command, Duke, Mengsk (the lord who originally betrayed her to the Zerg when she was human) patches in and berates her for being a murdering bitch. She laughs off his attacks, pointing out that HE was the one who created her, and as such, deserves what he gets. (Not to mention Mengsk is a total fuckwad besides.)

However, upon her slaying of Fenix, she isn't quite so ready to defend herself against Raynor's final loss of belief in her; though she mocks Raynor's decree that he will be the one to kill her (Big words, cowboy, they don't suit you) Raynor remains resolute.

His words, after all, do seem to have an effect on her. At the mission's end, given an option to slaughter the rest of the forces she has at her mercy, she declines, stating that, oddly, for the first time, she tires of the killing.

Looking forward to how these two are developed in SC2. Most likely, since they are popular, their flawed and interesting dynamic characters will give way to larger than life cliches.

But for now, at least, they are surprisingly well rounded characters.

So well received, in fact, that Blizzard decided to do the exact same fucking character arc again, only this time, instead of a badass ninja assassin, they turned a whiny spoiled prince paladin into a whiny spoiled prince death knight.

Then they turned him into a walking cliche. Which honestly is a step up from what he was.

Catloaf · « **Reply #15 on:** May 31, 2009, 06:08:00 PM »

Most of the cast of Persona 4.

Etna and Flonne, although sometimes more so than others.

I want to mention a few Touhou characters, but most if not all of their personalities are officially given outside the games in comics which are often but not always officially recognized by ZUN.

Zaratustra · « **Reply #16 on:** May 31, 2009, 06:20:20 PM »

Quote from: Spram on May 31, 2009, 05:26:32 PM

LOOK AT THEM POLYBUNS!
Sorry, couldn't resist. :(

Duke Nukem is a fairly well-rounded character. He has two objectives at cross-purposes (kick ass, chew bubble gum) but is limited by external forces (being all out of gum). In this way, the character mirrors our own free will being reduced by the lack of resources to act upon our options.

SCD · « **Reply #17 on:** May 31, 2009, 06:24:25 PM »

One of the unsung characters comes from Farcry 2.

The Jackal is said to be the primary antagonist in the game.

[spoiler]However, ubisoft creates a character who's morality is strong - just not in North American terms. He doesn't show it off at the first, but it slowly starts showing, both through occasional encounters, and through the tapes of him being interviewed by a journalist.

And then the predecessor tapes..

You learn a story of a man who you once believed responsible for creating a destructive civil war, to a man who became a lightning rod in the hopes of vanquishing "TIA" (This is Africa), the playground of mercenaries.

[/spoiler]

The following videos contain the tapes of the jackal, then the predecessor. Spoilers, watch at your discretion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCJBOZC7XdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1-h59E8KJY&feature=related

Guild · « **Reply #18 on:** May 31, 2009, 08:00:48 PM »

Quote from: Wiseman on May 31, 2009, 05:20:20 PM

Raziel from Legacy of Kain series.

Raziel is first introduced as a vampire who is loyal to the head vampire of the land, Kain. Raziel undergoes a metamorphosis of sorts, developing bat like wings on his back. Presenting himself to Kain and his fellow vampires, all who evolved differ---

For fuck sakes, I'm going to have to write a paragraph for him and [spoiler]spoiler most of it.[/spoiler]

Raziel comes from loving Kain, to hating him, too really hating him, to becoming his literal right hand and saving him and all of the rest of humanity despite his right to be exceedingly pissed. This development comes over the course of three games, I believe.

so hard.

Bongo Bill · « **Reply #19 on:** June 01, 2009, 12:12:44 AM »

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.

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Author Topic: Three Dimensional Videogame Characters (Read 3526 times)