I was reading blog http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/521017-characters-in-most-video-games-suck on how badly written characters in video games are and tried to remember when was the last time I was really impressed with the quality of a character or story in an RPG or any other genre for that matter. I'm completely fed up with what current game designers come up with.
Even recent games praised for their characters and stories seem completely infantile and not belivable to me. And by belivable I don't necessarily mean realistic BTW. Take The Witcher 3 for example. I'm not saying that the game was bad, it's just that most of the characters in it are a complete cliche including two main characters in the game: Geralt and Ciri. Don't event get me started on Yarpen, Triss, Yennefer or Eredin... Dialogues, with exception of a few funny lines copied from the book, are just artificial. Actually, anyone who has read the books would notice that Geralt was completely butchered by CD Projekt Red as a character. SC2 story and characters were a huge joke, almost felt like a slap in the face from Bliz. Pillars of Eternity, the "spiritual successor" of Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, wasn't a bad game but the story and all the characters were completely forgettable. Compare that to BG1 and BG2- everyone that has played them probably to this day remembers Minsc, Jaheira or Imoen. Another "spiritual successor"- Planescape: Tides of Numenera was a total disaster. In my opinion on the brink of a scam. It doesn't hold a candle to Planescape: Torment in any department. Since Colin McComb worked on both games this is hard to understand and I'm beginning to wonder how much of the success of Torment can be attributed to Chris Avellone who wasn't on ToN's team.
I was always impressed by the writing and characters created by Avellone. Never was a huge fan of Star Wars but Kreia in my opinion is the best written character in all video games. After playing KOTOR 1 and 2, I revisited all the movies, read a few Star Wars books and played TOR for a bit and I can't enjoy any of it as Mr. Avellone *destroyed* everything that was created in that universum. The level of anything else is not even close- he made a black-and-white universum a grey one and it made it so much better.
Thanks to Chris Avellone we also have other great characters like Mr. House and Caesar in Fallout New Vegas, The Nameless One, Ravel and basically all NPCs from Planescape Torment. Really hope he managed to come up with something good in Divinity Original Sin 2 as the first DOS was rather a disappointment.
Is anyone impressed with a game that hit after 2005 as far as story and characters go? What are your favourite characters that the game designers came up with recently?
Bioshock and to a lesser extent Bioshock Infinite. Those are about as good as they come.
People will bring up Mass Effect too but that was always very starchy, low-bar kind of stuff in my opinion. The overarching narrative was weak, and some of the characters were cookie-cutter. It was definitely better than average, though.
Wolfenstein: The New Order was an overachiever in this category as well. Better than expected narrative and writing. Nothing out of this world, and not in the realm of Bioshock, but it had fun camp and excellent 80s-style one-liners.
TBH I don't play a lot of games these days, but...
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons had amazing characterization in my opinion. Cliche? Sure, a bit, but once you've consumed a certain amount of media almost everything feels cliche, and the central characters in this story had a lot of personality and overall the story was just very concise / well done.
The Banner Saga had great characters imo, in fact I think I didn't enjoy the gameplay as much as the story. There are many characters that have interesting relationships that develop in a very interesting landscape. Rook himself is a little bland for my taste but his relationships with Iver, Alette and Oddleif (who are all interesting characters in their own right) were all unique and interesting.
I do think what you might be saying though is that AAA titles are having worse characters. I think AAA titles cost so much money that companies are afraid to take risks with them so they're sticking to the things they know work instead of trying to innnovate. The problem is they end up using too much cliche - which I think is like adding too much spice to a dish, eventually its just too strong and you can't stand it anymore. I can't really think of any recent AAA game that had a captivating story, although I think a lot of them end up being PS / XBox / Wii exclusive so as a PC only gamer I'm sure I miss out on quite a bit (Last of Us comes to mind as one I heard great things about). DA:O and ME1 (and I guess 2?) had somwhat interesting if cliche characters and stories, and I recently started playing Tales of Beseria which so far has been surprisingly good although it's a JRPG so I'm not getting my hopes too high lol.
As a side note, I think to a large extent it kinda depends on how you play games too, I sometimes get super into charater for games like XCom, Rimworld or Battle Brothers so even though there isn't a pre-made story / character that is incredibly captivating the game acts as a kind of story generator for my imagination to create a story, background, personality ect for my characters.
Also, at the end of the day I just have to say I dont think "real" Games will ever hit as good of characterization as books if that's what you're comparing them too. Books have a much easier time letting you see into a character's thoughts and feelings, to not only see their actions but also why they made them.
Radiant Historia's main character Stocke was done very well. Game has a lot of story building due to how you progress.
Sure there are a few moments where the story is meh (or lol what moments, like watching a fire -.-). I think it is very good compared to most of the newer games in story telling. Very well paced and most of the characters have good growth throughout the game.
On April 09 2017 21:23 Arrian wrote: People will bring up Mass Effect too but that was always very starchy, low-bar kind of stuff in my opinion. The overarching narrative was weak, and some of the characters were cookie-cutter. It was definitely better than average, though.
Legion was a wonderfully written character in ME2. It's a shame the writers lost the balls to follow their original template, and turned him into another Pinocchio.
I adore Bioware writing in general, I haven't ever seen anything that outdoes it. I think another problem is that gamers remember things through the eyes of nostalgia; I replayed Baldurs Gate 2 and it's expansions and while there are a few good things there it's not really that good. We remember things being better because we were younger and stupider, the memories of those games feel good because we felt a genuine rush because we got excited by lame jokes, stupid clichés and overacting because we were children and children are idiots.
On April 10 2017 19:40 Heartland wrote: I adore Bioware writing in general, I haven't ever seen anything that outdoes it. I think another problem is that gamers remember things through the eyes of nostalgia; I replayed Baldurs Gate 2 and it's expansions and while there are a few good things there it's not really that good. We remember things being better because we were younger and stupider, the memories of those games feel good because we felt a genuine rush because we got excited by lame jokes, stupid clichés and overacting because we were children and children are idiots.
I thought nostalgia may have blinded me but I recently replayed Planescape Torment and KOTOR2 with Restoration Mod and both were as amazing as I remembered them to be. But there is some truth in what you say- I also replayed BG1 and it wasn't really that great. BG2 and especially PT aged quite a lot better.
BlaineMono you raise a good point about KOTOR2. It's definitely got great characters. Kreia in particular was pretty sweet because she talked about a balance of light and dark in a universe which is typically defined by light/dark.
On April 11 2017 02:48 QuanticHawk wrote: Bloody Baron in Witcher 3.
Hell yes. Incredibly well-written character.
I also liked Geralt a lot through Witcher 1, even though I'll side with OP in that he became blander in the following episodes (though I'm not sure I'll buy the "cliché" tag).
Aside from The Witcher and Mass Effect, I haven't played a character-based video game in forever, so... I guess I don't know?
Blaine the Mono is himself a very good character which is repeatedly showcased in SC2. If you are at all familiar with the galaxy editor you will see that the Monorail receives a very extensive treatment.
This is not the original monorail video but you can see it is an attempt to recreate the feels.
On April 09 2017 21:23 Arrian wrote: People will bring up Mass Effect too but that was always very starchy, low-bar kind of stuff in my opinion. The overarching narrative was weak, and some of the characters were cookie-cutter. It was definitely better than average, though.
It wasnt. Mass Effect story was cliche to the max. Liara's "By the Goddess. It was incredible Shepard" was so retarded, that I dont know why do everybody is upset about "My face is tired" line. And Shiala's reaction when you decided to kill her is so artificial and unbelievable that I dont know what everybody had in mind by saying "good writing".
You want good writen video game characters? SHODAN from System Shock 2. Aken Bosch from Freespace 2. Bad Guys from Far Cry series in general.
I recently bought a ps4 (4yrs late, lot of catching up to do) and have been pleasantly surprised with the small handful of games I've completed over the last 2 months. Being a fiction writer myself, I was a bit disappointed with most of the ps3 era games. As far as story and characters go, none really left an impact or pulled on my emotional strings that much. There were many great games, but even in those, the plots and chars seemed cookie cutter at best. (I was a huge Final Fantasy fan growing up on snes, ps1, and even liked FFX to an extent. Part XIII was the first i couldn't even finish, being i just didn't care about what was going on. Maybe I'm just getting older? I'm sure that is a factor, but i can notice a lack in writing/story quality.)
I just finished a few naughty dog games: Uncharted 4 and Last of Us remastered. The former was amazing fun, and although far from original, the story and main chars kept me engaged, enough anyway. Last of Us i really liked. The whole "broken man who lost his daughter meets troubled orphan teen, who he is reluctantly forced to protect and bond with through a hellish journey toward saving mankind" thing was the perfect framework for the survival horror/post apoc. setting and game play. The ps2 game "Ico" is one of my favs, and while not nearly as artistic/unique, Last of Us still has a similar vibe.
Witcher 3, Skyrim, and other rpgs I've played the last several years were fun, but there was something hollow about them all, hard to explain. It seems what linear games lack in freedom, they make up for in storytelling, whereas huge open world rpgs put the pen in the player's hand, but this usually amounts to just sequential variations of the same horde of lifeless trophy quests, with the main plot taking a backseat (which can be good, being they typically are beyond generic.)
On April 10 2017 19:40 Heartland wrote: I adore Bioware writing in general, I haven't ever seen anything that outdoes it. I think another problem is that gamers remember things through the eyes of nostalgia; I replayed Baldurs Gate 2 and it's expansions and while there are a few good things there it's not really that good. We remember things being better because we were younger and stupider, the memories of those games feel good because we felt a genuine rush because we got excited by lame jokes, stupid clichés and overacting because we were children and children are idiots.
I thought nostalgia may have blinded me but I recently replayed Planescape Torment and KOTOR2 with Restoration Mod and both were as amazing as I remembered them to be. But there is some truth in what you say- I also replayed BG1 and it wasn't really that great. BG2 and especially PT aged quite a lot better.
Lets be honest for a moment - the only character worth remmembering in BG 2 was Irenicus and it was more becouse of excelent voice acting than a writing itself. Otherwise than that, he was typical evil schemer sorcerer from countless stories. Jahaira and Imoen worth to remmember? Are you kidding me? If you didnt recall the former I would not even think about her, and Imoen is just a walking plot excuse more than anything else. Whatever other main characters I try to think about - are either cliches or bland. Korgan/Minsc/Edvin were fun, but again - they are actualy infantile and it was one thing you described as something that tired you.
Edit: also, Sarevok and his lover were kinda cool characters. Looks like writing interesting bad guy is easier than writing interesting good guy.
Purpose, Relevance and Elegance in filling out that role with its constellation of purposes aesthetically and optimally = Memorability of a character.
Starcraft was designed story-wise to give superlative emphasis to Sarah Kerrigan.
the Terran arc needed a female who would get down with the gang, play ball and be forsaken for her angelic loyalty
the Zerg arc needed her to cast an attractive light on the otherwise filthy maggotry of the hive's ways, crystalizing in the fact that the Overmind sought to impregnate her potential with power, and ordered the cerebrates to protect her at all costs, which was the finest act of leadership seen in the franchise (whereas Terrans had an egocentric, machiavellian bastard, and the Protoss had a clan of pompous farts ruling their race, the Zerg were the only race with flawless leadership, and Kerrigan was introduced here to emphasize that)
and the Protoss arc needed someone to take over the leadership role once the Overmind has been dealt with (more of a utilitarian supporting role)
Kerrigan just makes everything look good. She is the center of aesthetics, gravity and utility for the story, shining in all her undertakings, and is therefore superlatively memorable. You can't really say that about any other RTS game character.
A good example of a well written playable, and thus dynamic character is the hacker from Uplink Agent Hacker. Based on the methods to gain money and hardware, and on the side one ultimately winds up on whilst fighting in the internet war the character gains elegance, relevance and purpose within the pretty cool narrative.
On April 15 2017 23:45 N0 wrote: Kerrigan just makes everything look good. She is the center of aesthetics, gravity and utility for the story, shining in all her undertakings, and is therefore superlatively memorable. You can't really say that about any other RTS game character.
Guys from CnC would argue that the most memorable character from RTS is Cain.
EPT
