(Missed me? This was originally suppose to be a two-parter, but due to work and health issues, I merged both to make up for last week’s lack of update on my part).

Picking up a controller, one does wonder: do you control the hero, or does he control you? Do you feel like you are in control, or does it seem like as if the developers pigeonhole you to follow a certain path to complete a game, thus making the hero seem more like an icon rather than a real character? Good Playable Characters (or PCs) in a game make you resonate with his or her action and emotions. Not many developers can see this. Rather, they would treat a main character as a means to an end (i.e: a tool), rather than someone they can feel a connection with.

And we kissed, as though nothing should fall�

Making someone up to control isn’t as easy as you think. Poor designers have the tendency to take a template of an existing successful hero and making a carbon copy of it on their games WITHOUT even knowing what makes them tick in the first place. Back in the early 90s, for every Sonic out there, there was three to god-knows-how-many knockoff “animals with attitude”. Most of them just made a quick buck and then faded into obscurity: Aero the Acrobat, Captain Havoc, and Bubsy.

Ask yourself these simple guidelines when you have an itch to create main characters, both PC and NPC:

1) What are my PC’s motivations? Why am I doing this quest? Am I doing this for my personal growth or for the greater good? What is my justification for doing so?

Not all PCs follow the strict code of “doing good” and being selfless. Raziel’s (Legacy of Kain fame) motivation is his need to kill his leader. Why? Because he envy Raziel’s physical manifestation of his wings. Of course, this simple tale of revenge expanded into realms of time-traveling straight out of Back To The Future, only the hoverboards and Deloreans are replaced with cranky gods of Time and interdimensional demons. Despite the drastic deviation of the vengeance theme, one fact still remains: Raziel is compelling, from his un-life to his death.

2) Who are my companions (PCs or NPCs)? What is my emotional connection(s) with them? Am I in love with one of them? Will I have conflict with one of them? How will it happened, and what can I do to encourage/ stop it?

The Tales series from Namco is one of the few franchises which manages to perfect the whole team dynamic. Halfway in the recent Tales of The Abyss, a major catastrophe created by Luke made him be shunned by his team members, but thanks to Tear injecting a bit of perspective to Luke’s thick skull, he slowly, but surely, changed from spoiled dick to selfless-yet-unsure-of-himself hero. A symbolism of his change is when Luke gives himself a haircut to his untidy red mane of a hairstyle. The Ultima series also deserve credit for having a cadre of party members who would leave the party if you did not uphold your role as being the all-righteous Avatar.

3) Who is my enemy? Why is he/she my enemy? What does he/she want to do that makes the PC compelled to stop him/her?

Big bad warlords with delusions of ruling the world are one thing, but one with brains and a unique, psychopathic streak would set them above the rest of the pack. Take a look at Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. He made a huge impression to the heroes of part VI from “Bumbling Toady” to “Destroyer of the World” within the story’s duration. It’s a pity that Square-Enix couldn’t follow up with a villain as austere and impressionable as the clown-dressed despot. Instead, we get angsty white-haired pretty boys who want their mommies coddling them.

It’s lines like these that places Kefka above the rest.

4) Where is this story set in? What is the PC/ NPC/ Enemy’s connection with the world?

So far, PC RPGs seem to have game designers who are willing to create every little bit of detail for their game worlds to come alive. Most gamers remember the daily activities of the towns folks, the grim dungeons, the vast forests and carefully laid-out castles being abundant in the land of Britannica, the exclusive setting of the PC game Ultima VII. I believe that part VII is the richest in terms of details. Not many games can brag features such as having your party baking bread in a middle of saving the world or robbing a bank or jewelry store.

An industry trend that seems to happen frequently a few years ago was that every developer wants to turn their heroes forcefully into anti-heroes. This is the equivalent of changing Mario’s everyman image into a chain-smoking foul-mouthed duel-pistol wielding plumber. Case in point: Jak from the Jak & Dexter series. Jak himself followed the Silent Protaganist template created by Nintendo, but the creators teamed him up with a smart-mouthed Ottsel named Daxter. Yes, that may be a done-to-death formula, but in the context of the world crafted by Naughty Dogs, it worked just great. In fact, a lot of people found Daxter so endearing, that he starred in his own game for the PSP.

Then Jak 2 happened.

Not wanting to be left behind the Grand-Theft-Auto-style-of -gameplay bandwagon, Naughty Dogs reworked the Jak & Daxter universe away from the fantasy-like world to an alternative bleak post-apocalyptic zone full of buildings and slums. Never mind the fact that the game screams derivative, but Jak himself turned all gruffy, angsty and was given the gift of speech. It just felt tacked on for the sake of sales (the head of Naughty Dogs admitted that Jak 2 was following the GTA 3 fad to boost sales).

He used to be such a nice boy…

The Prince from Prince of Persia also got a bit of a 180 spin on his personality, and definitely not for the better. The once arrogant-yet-loveable smart-mouthed prince from the first game suddenly started sporting facial hair, tunes in to Godsmack, and smolders himself in generic rage in the second installment, fighting off goth chicks wearing a next-to-nothing metal bikini and thong set. This was a move done by Ubisoft of Montreal to drum up sales for Warrior Within, since The Sands of Time didn’t do so hot sales-wise.

It also helps to hire ACTUAL writers to partake in creating a lush-filled story. Bioware, famous for creating Knights Of The Old Republic and the Baldur’s Gate series, has been critically acclaimed for their well though-out plotlines and their huge conversation trees embedded in their games. This not only bolsters replay value, but also opens up alternative scenarios and other tidbit conversations that flesh out both PCs and NPCs.

In short, players want:

1) a PC that they give a damn about

2) a PC that they can relate to, realistically

3) a PC that awes us with every step they take

A well-told tales of adventure isn’t complete without a well-made character. Most game designers would rather make a cheap knockoff of an existing character just to make quick buck, and that is a sad fact.

We can beat them, forever and ever�

Here are a few of my picks on the heroes that I find intriguing; past and present.

The 5 heroes of Odin Sphere (Odin Sphere)

The ambitious daughter of a cunning tyrant trying to win her father’s love. A fledging princess taking after her dead mother’s footsteps. A knight’s tormented soul yearning for freedom and love. Are these reminiscent of epic stories carved on the back of a Gilgamesh stone tablet? Far from it; these are the modus operandi of the heroes from Vanillaware’s PS2 title. Apart from lively storybook graphics and an epic soundtrack, Odin Sphere boasts a tale of intertwining plotlines, heading towards a boiling melee-grande of conclusions. It’s Pulp Fiction infused with Norse-influenced mythologies, only without the pointless dialogue in-between action sequences (I still love your movies, Quentin Tarantino, but that shit has got to stop).

Link (Legend Of Zelda, all of them)

So far, Nintendo seems to be one of the earliest developers to adopt a silent protagonist. Link is you; you are in tune with him, you control his actions as if you are interacting with Hyrule itself. You’d think that being the only one to stand up to rescue the princess for the umpteenth time would make Link jaded. But he perseveres on, incarnation after incarnation, saving the world from the evil Ganon and restoring balance to the realm. All of this while getting paired up with irritating fairies and talking boats; that’s a lot to take for a hero.

Jade (Beyond Good & Evil)

She balances a good deal of both the terms “optimism” and “mysterious”. Whereas Lara Croft started the line of “main character of a different gender to be taken seriously”, Jade seems very well to perfect that role. Among the Hylian race, she’s the only one capable of snapping photos and sneaking around in army bases filled with death-giving robots and soldiers, as well as finding time snapping pictures of the wildlife for some petty cash. And when the situation gets way hectic, she’s got Paige, a wrench-wielding pig and Double H, a soldier of sorts, watching her back. Between a well-endowed spelunker wielding twin pistols and fending off wolves and bears, and a staff-wielding journalist exposing the truth about aliens invading her home world, I’ll pick Miss Jade over Lara Croft anytime.

So readers, who are your favorite videogame heroes? What is your argument that backs up the credibility of that hero?

Technorati : beyond good and evil, hero, jade, legacy of kain, link, odin sphere, raziel, tales of the abyss, ultima, videogames, zelda