Top Ten Best Video Game Characters

I did a 10 worst characters list a while back so I felt I was overdue to talk about my 10 favorite characters. This is my opinion, not a definitive list so I'm sure some of your favorites won't be on here and some of my choices will make you go hmmmm... DEAL WITH IT...please.

I put a fair amount of thought into this and decided that I would use more story based characters so you won't be seeing Mario or Pac-Man on this list. It's not most iconic or popular characters...it's BEST characters as decided by me. My Beard is the law.

AS A WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN HERE.


10. King of All Cosmos - Katamari Series


      Who doesn't love the King of All Cosmos? One of the most flamboyant and ridiculous characters in video game history, the King of All Cosmos is responsible for losing all of the stars during a drinking binge one evening and tasks his diminutive son with rebuilding the night sky by rolling a sticky ball around Earth collecting objects. He is rarely satisfied with the work and usually has something snarky to say about it. What really makes The King of All Cosmos stand out though is his design. Gigantic and rainbow headed with a giant purple crotch bulge, the King of All Cosmos has nothing to hide...and we've had everything to gain from his outlandish behavior. 


QUOTES: 
"We broke it. Yes, we were naughty. Completely naughty. So, so very sorry. But just between you and us, it felt quite good."


"This sky is not pretty at all. It's rough and masculine. Possibly sweaty."


"We are moved to tears by the size of this thing."




9. Terra Branford - Final Fantasy VI


     It's my favorite game of all time so this list requires a character from it. I was torn on which to include, I thought about Kefka, Sabin, Shadow, Leo, etc... but in the end decided on Terra. She is the closest thing to a main protagonist the game has to offer. Born to a human mother and an esper father, Terra is considered a freak by some for her ability to naturally use magic. She is kidnapped by the empire and forced to do their bidding under the control of a slave crown, she encounters an Esper in the beginning of the game while working with Vicks and Wedge. The Esper kills them but leaves her alive after an odd connection between them develops. She spends the game confused about her self and her ability to love. Before the world is destroyed she learns of her half esper self and her ability to transform into an esper. She flies off in a terrified rage and is missing until after Kefka ravages the world. Later you find her in the care of a bunch of orphaned children and unwilling to continue the fight until her family is attacked by a monster released by Kefka's evil. She risks her life in the end, using the last of her power to save her friends. It's only after that she learns she will become completely human due to her attachment to the orphans she's grown to love.


QUOTES:
"Ewwww! Something's stuck to my leg!"


"Come with me. I'll lead you out with my last ounce of strength."


"It's strange, isn't it? The Empire used me, controlled my very thoughts...and now here I am, cooperating with the same people."


8. GLaDOS - Portal Series


    GLaDOS or Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System is one of the most well written characters you'll ever encounter, GLaDOS is a walking meme, a robotic quote machine, hilarious and evil at the same time. She spends the series tormenting the main character with traps, puzzles, and clever dialogue. The only robot on the list, GLaDOS has as much personality as anyone. She's oozing with it. She lives to test and torture the main character and makes damn well sure you know it. In the second game she gets tricked and ends up in a potato battery...everyone loved potatoes! She works along side you and some of her backstory is revealed. You learn that she was a human at one point, an assistant to Cave Johnson named Caroline who was uploaded into the machine. At the end of the game she regains her power and deletes the portion of her memory so that she can be a cold, calculating machine again. She still allows the main character to escape though since she's decided that you are too dangerous to keep around. Oh yeah...she sings too. 


QUOTES:
"Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test."


"Area and state regulations do not allow the Companion Cube to remain here, alone and companionless."


"There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend, the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come, either, because you don't have any other friends because of how unlikable you are. It says so right here in your personnel file: "Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner, whose passing shall not be mourned. Shall NOT be mourned." That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted, so that's funny, too."


7.  Augustus Cole - Gears of War Trilogy


     THE COLE TRAIN! Hell yeah! The big badass himself sits in the number seven spot on the list. He's here because he is a complete badass. Shooting the hell out of Locust and enjoying every minute of it. Before "Emergence Day" Cole was a world class Thrashball athlete, one of the most popular in the world. As he travels with your crew he is often remembered as such and still loved by the people. He rejects military promotion because he knows it won't change the number of locust he can kill. His finest moment comes in the third game, when he has a Thrashball flashback and using his athletic skills he risks his life to save the team and take down a horde of enemies. His energy and intensity are infectious, and you can't help but love listening to him talk. He wins out over the rest of the characters for just this reason. 


QUOTES:
"Hell yeah, baby. Everyone wants to see The Cole Train play!"


"Yeah! Wooo! Bring it on, sucka! This is my kinda shit!"


"Delta squad is your house, bitch! You hear that shit? You grubby-ass bitches are goin' down! Like way down-dead down, so down you ain't even goona know which way is up! Your asses are gonna be cryin' to your skank-ass queen, 'Oh, mommy, don't let the bad man hurt us!' Fuck you! We're gonna whup your mamma's ass. Woo!"


6.  Scott Shelby - Heavy Rain


     Heavy Rain is a very polarizing game. Seems like everyone either loved it or hated it. I'm very much on the loved it side of the spectrum. One of my favorite games of all time, Heavy Rain was less about action and more about story. The player switched between controlling a few different characters as they all hunt for the mysterious "Origami Killer" a person kidnapping and murdering children. Scott Shelby is an ex-marine and retired police officer working as a private detective on the hunt, a little portly, relatively plain looking, he's an everyman, the kind of guy a lot of people can relate to. Shelby has asthma which plays a role in the game on several occasions. As Heavy Rain progresses you learn more and more about Shelby. He had an abusive father and a brother who died at a young age due in large part to their father's drunken negligence. Drowning at a construction site because their father wouldn't come rescue him from a drain pipe slowly filling with rain. it drove Shelby slightly mad. It's at this point we learn that the detective who is seemingly hunting the Origami Killer is actually the killer himself.  He's kidnapping children and putting them in the same situation that killed his brother, trying to find a man who can do what his father could not. He's cold and calculating and the reveal is a pretty serious twist. Heavy Rain wasn't without it's problems, but it's one of the few games that really tries to tell an excellent story and Scott Shelby is the central character throughout.


QUOTES:
"Goddamn Asthma. Can't breath when it rains. "

"My name is Scott Shelby, I'm a private detective. The families of the victims of the Origami Killer asked me to investigate the murders."


"I've been looking for a long, long time Ethan. Looking for a father, that would be able to do what mine could not do: sacrifice himself, in order to save his son. Oh, I searched, searched and searched... And then, I remembered you"


5.  Ezio Auditore da Firenze - Assassin's Creed 2 and sequels.


     Ezio Auditore has been the main protagonist of the last 3 Assassin's Creed games. We've watched him live out his life and grow as an assassin. He's a ladies man, a good looking, smooth talking, Italian Stallion. He was only 17 when we first meet him and completely unaware of his assassin background. He witnessed he hanging of his father and two brothers and learned of his true fate after fleeing with his remaining family. He trains as an assassin to gain vengeance on the Borgias who ordered the hangings. On the way he is involved with many famous people including Colombus and DaVinci. He uses his skills as an assassin to help them and many others, battling the templars and spreading the ideas of free living in Italy. His story comes to a conclusion at the ripe age of when he dies of a heart attack. It's a complete story about a true badass that everyone can love. 


QUOTES:
"I heard your name once before, Desmond, a long time ago. And now it lingers in my mind like an image from an old dream. I do not know where you are, or by what means you can hear me. But I know you are listening."


"It's over Rodrigo. No more tricks, no more ancient artifacts, no more weapons. Let's see what you are made of, old man!"


"I thought... I thought I was beyond this. But I'm not. I've waited too long, lost too much. Requiescat in Pace, you bastard!"


4.  Lara Croft - Tomb Raider Series


     The boobalicious one herself. Sure, she may be most famous for the gigantic set of knockers her designers decided to give her, but there is a lot more to her character then just a pair of sweater puppies. Her character has changed a bit over time, but one thing never changes...she raids tombs. Her British accent is as iconic as her lovely lady lumps, and recent games have gone a long way to adding depth to her character. She's a female Indiana Jones essentially, and who doesn't love Indiana Jones? She's a badass with a take no crap attitude, a gun toting, tomb raiding, tea drinking, bad guy shooting British lady. 


QUOTES:
"It seems father was full of surprises."


"I need Thor's belt to get to his hammer, and I need the hammer to kill a god."


"Don't you think you've seen enough? "


3.  Solid Snake - Metal Gear Series


     I've realized I've used the word "badass" a lot in this countdown so I'm a little hesitant to use it again. However, if there was ever a video game character that personified the concept of "badass" it would be Solid Snake. I'm not even going to try to cover the story here (I don't have all day) but Snake is the main protagonist throughout the majority of the series. Even when you are forced to control another, he is in the story doing badass stuff in a badass way.Depending on how you play the games he's either a mass murderer, taking down bad guys with neck snapping precision, a gun toting maniac, mowing down enemies with automatic weapons, or he can basically be a ninja, sneaking and maneuvering undetected through enemy territory. Usually not far from his cigarettes he has the grizzled voice of a veteran soldier that has seen more then most people could ever imagine. He takes down giant nuclear missile robots for breakfast and defeats robot presidents for lunch. Dinner is usually a light salad...a grizzled light salad.


QUOTES: 
"Unfortunately, killing is just one of those things that gets easier the more you do it."


"Yeah. I do. I think at any time, any place, people can fall in love with each other. But if you love someone, you have to be able to protect them. "


"We can tell other people about - having faith. What we had faith in. What we found important enough to fight for. It's not whether you were right or wrong, but how much faith you were willing to have, that decides the future. "


2.  Shepard - Mass Effect Series


     The Mass Effect series is probably the best story driven game series ever made. Spanning three chronological games, you're brought along for a hell of a ride, starting off as the first human Spectre(an agent given great power and responsibility by an interstellar council of races) then moving on to uncover the approach of a swarm of machines bent on the destruction of all life, then finally culminating in the battle to try and save the universe. The game itself is designed in a way that I can't really talk about the character too much. The player is given choices on how they wish to proceed. Mass Effect did a great job giving the player choices actual weight since they effect the story in later games as well. You can play Shepard as a "Paragon" a "Renegade" or something in between. No matter how you choose to play the story is unfolded and you feel like you are directly responsible for the progression. It's a rare feat for games. Most games guide you along a path and you just play along. Mass Effect is one of the few games that gives you the control to act as you please, to carve out the story with your choices, and Shepard is always at the center.


QUOTES:
"I'm sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you- I'm getting a lot of bullshit on this line."


"What sound will you make when you hit the ground? You think you'll hear it before you die?"


"And I'm going to do what you brought me back to do. I'll fight and win this war without compromising the soul of our species."


1. Nathan Drake - Uncharted Series


    Here we are at number one. My all-time favorite video game character, Nathan Drake. He's good looking, witty, fearless, and romantic. The ultimate ladies' man and a balls out adventurer, Nathan Drake is responsible for the death of at least a million evil henchmen through the course of his story. Claiming to be a descendant of the famous Sir Francis Drake he sets out on an adventure to find El Dorado. He travels all over the world and battles baddies in all sorts of locales, from rainforest to ruins to palatial mansions. His greatest attribute, and the reason he is number one on this list, is because he is so believable. Obviously he can take more bullets then the average human ever could and he heals by hiding behind cover, but he runs and stumbles through the jungles, barely making jumps and struggling at times to climb over objects. He's physically impressive, but he's not Superman, he makes mistakes just like any of us. He's the video game equivalent of Indiana Jones with a better sense of humor and there's nothing wrong with that.


QUOTES:
"Great, power's out, and a girl's trapped. I swear to God, if there's a Zombie around the next corner... "


"Man only interested in the climax. You must be a real hit with the ladies."


"Y'know, people are always telling me how lucky I am. But the truth is, everything I touch turns to shit."

Tales of Tony Hawk...He's got THE RUNS

Started playing 3 games since my last Game Beard update. Based on the title of this entry you might be able to figure out that those 3 games are Tales of Graces f, Tony Hawk HD, and Need for Speed: The Run.

Tales of Graces f (I'm not typing the little f anymore after this) has been dominating most of my playing time as of late. I love me some Tales games, always have. Tales of Symphonia, Vesperia, Abyss...loved them all. Loved them for their flaws and for their strengths. I'm happy that as games keep changing, the Tales games basically stay the same. It's refreshing to know what to expect before I even start playing.

The downside to this is the Tales games rarely surprise you, and Graces isn't much different. They do make minor changes to the way character advancement works but overall, if you've played one Tales game you've played them all. This isn't a condemnation of the series by any stretch of the imagination, each iteration has been a solid if not amazing experience so I'm perfectly happy with them changing very little from game to game.

I'm about 25 hours in at this point (which is usually about halfway in my experience) so I've still got a lot of game left to play. Therefore, I'm not going to judge the game too much yet. As of right now, I'm loving it. It's everything I wanted and expected it to be. With a lack of JRPG's these days, Tales of Graces is like a breath of fresh air to this tired, old gamer.

Speaking of tired, old gamers, I was 18 or 19 when the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater debuted and I played the ever loving poop out of it and its sequels. Therefore, to say I was excited when I heard they were remaking it in HD and releasing it on XBLA would be an understatement. Now that I'm finally playing it, it's like eating a glorious sandwich with lettuce, mayo, tomato, and nostalgia on 2 thick slices of sourdough...well, sourdough might make it seem bad...but I did say delicious...whatever...it's great!

It's seems to be a perfect port, same levels, same controls, just better graphics...AND YOU CAN USE YOUR AVATAR! As much as I used to play it, I'm surprised by how much I've forgotten. It's almost like a new game to me. I vaguely remember the levels, remember the basic controls, but the details are a little blurry. It's great figuring something out and having that flash of nostalgia though. Like when I remembered to grind the helicopter to open up more area on The Hangar. If you were ever a fan of Tony Hawk games, you owe it to yourself to buy this.

Last game on my agenda this evening is Need for Speed: The Run. I've really barely scratched the surface, finishing one chapter out of ten, but so far I'm definitely enjoying it. The basic premise is you are running a race across the country from San Francisco to New York City. You play it out in short racing sections where you either need to make up time by reaching checkpoints, or pass so man competitors within a certain amount of time. There may be more variety but like I said, I'm really still in the early stages.

Good games going on around here. I've still got a couple sitting on the shelf waiting to be played. Darkness 2, Kingdoms of Amalur, Vanquish, etc...I plan on finishing Tales of Graces before I start up anything else though.

Look forward to more opinions in the future, gentle readership. Until next time...Stay bearded.