Month of Characters Follow up: What Makes a Good Character?

Following my month of characters, I thought I might give some context to the lists and discuss what makes a good character and how so many writers and designers end up screwing up potentially iconic characters.

            First, let's start with heroes.  There are two basic types of heroes in video gaming that are very common.  The first are heroes who we find admirable, personable, or otherwise likable.  They are our avatars, but they are not us.  They have their own character, their own arcs, and their own agenda.  What makes a good hero?  Well, for starters, they need vulnerability.  The story may suggest that the hero can never die, however a hero is only compelling if the illusion of failure is hinted at through fallacies and weaknesses that the hero possesses.  For example, a personable hero having specific emotional triggers, phobias, or personality flaws is very humanizing, as we can often recognize those within ourselves.  These are sometimes the hardest to pull off in video game characters convincingly, because while a tragic past is rather easy to concoct, it can be difficult to make a hero vulnerable and weak, but still admirable and strong. 

Kratos is just not a well designed character from a story standpoint.  He's angry before his tragedy, he's angry after his tragedy and his back story barely ever comes up.  As a character, he's just a ball of rage with no reason to be but to kill.

            Kratos from the God of War series is an excellent example of a hero who fails to be relatable.  While he does have a tragic past, his personality is all rage, sarcasm, cruelty, and disdain.  He never shows signs of human weakness during battle or even during much of the plot.  And when he does attempt to show some weakness, it feels contrived because the character has not been built to actually support that weakness.  It is being jammed in where it is not wanted.  On the flipside of that, we have Ness from the Earthbound/Mother series.  Despite being a largely silent protagonist, Ness has several humanizing factors to him through game design.  Over the course of the game, Ness can come down with a number of status ailments that make it clear that he is, in fact, still just a kid and not some immortal super being.  Ness can get homesick and need to call his mother for support.  Ness can get the flu or a cold and need medicine.  Ness can get sick from allergic reactions and need homeopathic healing.  These small touches show that Ness is in fact a kid and vulnerable to childhood maladies, both physical and psychological.  It provides a nice perspective, showing that for all the new age hippies or knife wielding thugs you can take down with your psychic powers, you do still need a cuddle from your mommy or a teddy bear to start the day.  Watching a character act human is so much more relatable than a tragic back story.  If you are going to give a character a tragic back story, have it directly relate to their character and their vulnerabilities.  Dante, in the original Devil May Cry on the Playstation 2, lost his mother to demons.  While a great deal of information is not given, it comes out that this was a momentous event for him that shook him, through the story.  He takes a job from a woman named Trish primarily because of her resemblance to his mother.  When she betrays him, it hits the devil hunter very hard and after she is killed, he sheds tears for her.  His past directly relates to his character development in the game and it shows that he is vulnerable to being deceived because of his past.

Despite his cocky attitude, Dante has a tragic backstory that actually affects how he decides to act in the game, causing him to both grow and show signs of vulnerability.  This makes him a far more well rounded character than Kratos or your average shooter character.

        The other type of character is a power fantasy character.  Largely, these characters are avatars for the human players, with little to no personality of their own, allowing players to feel strong by playing the role of these characters in the game.  While this can lead to some interesting political, religious, or philosophical commentary, too often it is used for somewhat...reprehensible dreams.  A power fantasy character done wrong is where the game is built around appealing to the most base instincts of the human psyche, things like the desire to fornicate, the desire for wealth or power, the desire to kill in order to feel strong.  Modern warfare shooters appeal to players by allowing them to fit the stereotypical soldier, a walking death machine who kills without remorse in the name of the greater good(in the narrative at least) without consequence.  God of War, while not strictly a power fulfillment game as Kratos isn't a blank slate, does allow players to have sex with random women without consequence, and actually rewards the act.  Sexual games in Japan are also catered towards this style of play, allowing gamers to take on a character they can put themselves into as they either woo or abuse women for their own enjoyment.  These kinds of games do, sadly, fill the power fantasy requirement of giving characters the ability to make themselves feel strong, virile, or well off, however the actions that give off these feelings are, in my opinion, tragically flawed and can at times promote unhealthy views towards different races, genders, or the world in general. 

Ninja Gaiden 3 is power fantasy done very poorly.  It outright forces you to do acts that are horrific, even if they are empowering, without any set of consequences...they even reward you for it.  The infamous scene of Ryu killing a begging soldier, being forced to kill a begging soldier, is a sign of how flawed the game approaches making players feel tough.

            So, how do you pull of power fantasy heroes?  Well, there are a few good ways to do this.  The first is to supplant some of the more base desires and hit the itch to explore.  Power fantasies aren't just about base instincts, they are about being able to do in a game what you cannot do in real life.  Crafting a world or an environment that fosters exploration and rewards it, not necessarily with money or items, but with sights and experiences they cannot see elsewhere really helps grant players a reward for their effort.  Dark Souls does this quite well.  Though the world may be bleak and lonely, it offers a unique experience where the very act of exploring allows players to see things they could never hope to see in the real world, be it giant monsters, or unforgettable sights, such as crawling through a huge tree to reach an acid lake at the bottom.  Another good way to do power fantasy characters is to make the hero generally a good guy.  This allows you to not only enjoy the world that's been crafted around you, but also it allows some of those baser instincts to be sated without some of the guilt.  Adol Christian, for example, is an explorer and a swordsman who frequently makes romantic acquaintances with beautiful women the world over.  However, Adol does not take advantage of their affections as he is a character who acts with honor.  Adol is silent, so the interactions of those around him give us context to this effect, making the players accept the lack of ability to take advantage of those around us.  Also, Adol is a skilled swordsman and the combat in the Ys games is fast and enjoyable, allowing players to feel good about defeating monsters and protecting the innocent, rather than killing other human beings for some vaguely defined hyper masculine idea of patriotism.  Above all else, power fantasy should be about freedom, though.  Freedom to explore, freedom to challenge conventions, freedom to do as you wish.  This may lead some players to running over hookers in Grand Theft Auto, but a good power fantasy game does show that your actions have negative consequences, such as increased notoriety score and the possibility of being arrested or killed, and that while it is possible for you to hurt others for your own enjoyment...it's not the wisest idea.  In this way, they can subtly guide the player to a more fulfilling experience.  Power fantasy characters use the world and our own human impulses to affect us, often without our realizing.

While often cited as a highly adult game, Grand Theft Auto actually does do power fantasy very well.  You can do horrific acts to people around you, but it comes with consequences, like being arrested or killed.  In contrast, if you act like a good citizen, the game actually will award you money for saving people.

            Now, for villains.  Once again, there are two main types of villains.  Tragic villains and despicable villains.  Before we go into that, however, let me just say that in many games, villains are much easier to make than heroes.  If you do not have a villain who looms over the party for much of the game, you merely have to create a character at the end who has ties to the characters or the game world, has a view that is horrific or unjust, and who has a good reason to fight the main characters.  Final Fantasy Legend is a good example of this, in my opinion.  There are six main villains.  The four who guard the main worlds, Ashura, and the Creator.  The four who guard the main worlds are using their power to oppress the peoples of their worlds and/or block the way up the tower, as the higher up characters get, the stronger they become and are therefore more of a threat to these villains.  We don't have much prior contact to them, but the facts that they act in a manner that is clearly evil, that they don't replace someone more interesting or who we've had an investment in, and that they have a reason to want to stop us justifies these actions.  Ashura and the Creator are very similar in this regard.  However, they make ingratiating offers of the player, showing that while they have views that may be unjust, they are not entirely unreasonable, feral, or evil for the sake of being evil.  This shows some depth and allows the players to feel as if they have made a real triumph in refusing the offers these two make.

Bowser is fine as a simple villain.  He opposes Mario and wants to rule the Mushroom Kingdom.  Simple and to the point.

            Now, that said, that kind of template only works for the most basic of villain.  Really interesting and memorable villains are those with nuance, who you develop an emotional attachment to, and who are iconic in their own right.  Tragic villains usually have a back story that is depressing or has altered their view points so that they are acting in a manner that seems evil, but which is justified to them.  Like characters with tragic back stories, for these villains to really succeed, you need to interweave their current actions with their past, otherwise they become stock villains.  Evoland is a game which charts the history of adventure and role playing games in a satirical fashion and the main villain, who comes out of nowhere, is revealed to have a tragic backstory of his race being hunted for some reason, despite never mentioning it, hinting at it, or showing and trace of bitterness or regret until the final battle.  This is the definition of a stock villain, and Evoland created him in that way to parody the RPG stock villains of past and future.  A tragic villain with some bite is one who knows that what they are doing may not be justifiable, but still believe it is best for them or those dear to them.  Kato from Shadow Hearts: Covenant is this kind of villain.  He carries himself with an air of melancholy and early on he and Yuri discuss the loss of his love.  This melancholy and reference to his tragic past carry on throughout the game through his interactions with his superiors, who he has contempt for, and his resurrection of his lost love, albeit without her memories.  In the end, Kato decides to try and alter fate for the sake of love.  While he recognizes all the people he can and likely will hurt through these actions, to him it is justified because of all that he has lost.  This is a really well defined villain that players feel for and grow attached to.  They are lucid, reasonable, likable even, and are not deluded about the course of actions they have chosen to take.  A good way to mess up writing a tragic villain, apart from a stock backstory that is only mentioned once for the sake of pathos, is to have them be unreasonable, petulant, and whiny about their tragedy.  I honestly believe that Luc, from the Suikoden series, is a rather poor villain because he not only does he have immense power, but he has fought on the side of justice before and has a stern, but loving teacher and girl friend.  He should be perfectly content with his life.  However, the source of his power, his "true rune" of wind, which grants him mastery over wind and eternal life, seems to cause him distress as he believes his destiny is not his own.  So, he seeks to free himself from this burden by destroying the true rune, in an experiment which could wipe out an entire country.  Really, this is like saying "Wah!  Wah!  My whole life, people have made choices for me, I never got to live MY life!"  The truth is, Luc HAS lived his life, has made choices, and even if it felt like his destiny was being controlled, it was still ultimately up to him.  We all have choices.  But this attitude makes him seem whiny and ungrateful.  A sharp contrast from his previous appearances.

Kato is an excellent tragic villain, having his tragic backstory shown in the original Shadow Hearts and explained fully in the sequel.  His back story affects his actions and he sees what he is doing as justified, even if he has to commit horrors to do it.

            Despicable villains can be a bit more fun than tragic villains, as they're not meant to be liked.  They are meant to be hated for their actions, which are still justified in their eyes.  Despicable villains do what makes them happy or what advances them without care for others, so they can be pretty shallow character wise.  However, their actions can speak great depths about the kind of person they are and give them some memorability.  Going back to Suikoden again, in Suikoden 2, Luca Blight is the main villain for most of the game.  He has his father poisoned and wages a bloody war across the country to spill as much blood as possible to empower the "beast" rune inscribed in his castle.  However, he really just likes killing.  Luca is a textbook case of an anti-social psychotic who gets enjoyment out of bloodshed.  Yet, he's not an impotent villain who just loves killing because it makes him feel big.  He's trained his whole life as a warrior and can hold his own, frequently taking part in the killing himself.  In fact, to bring Luca down it takes a squad of six soldiers against him, after he's been wounded, a barrage of arrows, and a final duel against the enemy commander while he is near death, bleeding out, and pumped full of holes.  This kind of villain is memorable because of how despicable he is.  Same for Kefka.  He's insane.  He wants power for his own sake, so that he can do as he pleases and takes great pleasure in causing suffering.  He's not afraid to fight on his own, but he's memorable for his quirky personality, something Luca was rather missing, and his unique visual appearance, resembling a harlequin.  Despicable villains can be well spoken or thoughtful as well, such as Grahf from Xenogears musing on the nature of human existence or on the darkness and evil which resides within us all, even though he freely kills his subordinates and wants to destroy all.  So, how do you destroy a good despicable villain?  Make their plan not make sense within the context of the world or for their character.  Barthandelus from Final Fantasy 13 is a good example.  Despite having a memorable look, his plan is very, very stupid.  He wants to reduce the entire world to nothing.  Now, you could argue that this is stupid, and I have, because he acts as a god, lives in luxury, and his children basically rule the world.  But, devil's advocate, let's say he's gone insane and wants to reduce the world to nothing.  Why doesn't he do it himself?  He is a god after all.  Why does he need to rely on proxies to do it for him?  And why does he think destroying the world will bring his creator/father back when there doesn't seem to be any evidence it will?  Why does he, if he wants himself to die to, fight and hound the players?  See, a despicable villain does not have to be terribly deep, but their plan needs to make sense from a certain perspective.  Luca likes killing, so he starts a war.  Simple.  Kefka wants power and is selfish, so he weasels his way into a position of power and then turns himself into a god of magic.  A bit contrived, but sensible.  Barthandelus wants to reduce the world to nothing, so he and his organization actively try and stop the people he manipulated into becoming the tools for the end of the world...wait, what?

Luca Blight is an excellent despicable villain who simply has a deep rooted need for slaughter.  He is absolutely reprehensible, but very memorable because, as he said, it took hundreds to bring him down, but he killed thousands with abject glee.

            Aside from a poorly realized master scheme, there are two final pratfalls to avoid when writing villains.  The first is comparison.  If you are going to have a really impressive villain in your game, one who follows the outlines set up above, you don't want to create something more impressive or more dangerous or more interesting than them.  This will leave the audience feeling cheated, as they invested time in believing your important villain was important, but then something bigger, cooler, and more evil comes along.  This is why you don't have a giant evil demon boss BEFORE you have your human trying to force people to act a certain way for the greater good.  The taste of the villain sours after you've had something bigger and more impressive.  Second is supplanting the main villain.  Especially with tragic villains, we, the audience, grow just as attached to the bastard we want taken down as we do to the heroes.  So, if we spend most of the game hating and fighting and preparing to fight one big villain, only to have him be replaced by a lamer, stupider, less powerful/intimidating villain, it will really sour the games taste.  Seymour Guado in Final Fantasy 10 should've been our final final boss, but he was replaced by Yu Yevon, who was barely alive to begin with.  Satan killed the Lord of Necromancers in Castlevania: Lords of Shadows because "Evil muahahahahaha!"  Look, I get that you want a twist, but you can do better.  Replacing an iconic villain like Vaz in Far Cry 3 will just make us call bull shit.  The only time when this can work is if you have a villain we are equally familiar with, either masquerading as a hero or hiding in the sidelines where we still know he exists but he's not the top priority, come out and one up our main villain.  The twist in the original Bioshock where Andrew Ryan is replaced is one of the more subtle and brilliant plot twists in modern gaming.  It can be done, but it takes finesse, proper scripting, and good pacing.  Not to be tried by amateurs and not to be used for shock value.  You will only piss off your audience if you throw in a twist just for the sake of having a twist.

Vaz is the face of evil in Far Cry 3...so why isn't he the final final boss?  Why waste such a good character?!

            And so, that's my follow up to the month of characters.  Aspiring designers, script writers, or storytellers, take notice.  I've given you the secret to making good heroes and villains on a silver platter.  It amazes me how, even to this day, poorly written characters just get a pass.  We, as gamers, demand better from our heroes and villains.  We want them to be memorable, but not for how bad they are.  So, I hope this has given a little bit of context to why I did the month of characters in May.

Month of Characters Continued: Top 10 Villains I Love to Hate

A good villain is one who is both intimidating, yet admirable to a degree.  Not admirable in that you want to be like them, but you can respect their power, or their motives, or they are relatable, in that you find something about them in yourself.  These villains are ones we love because we hate them.  They are the perfect opposing force for our heroes.  And here's a tribute to the 10 villains I love to hate the most.  Needless to say, there will be spoilers.

SPOILER WARNING!!!

Kefka (Final Fantasy 6)

I bet everyone knew this was coming.  Kefka, the psychotic clown.  Of course he makes the list.  There's something undeniably scary, but also silly about Kefka.  Despite wielding immense magical power, he never really does much with his life besides kill.  And normally, this would be horrific, but he's so gleeful and childlike at times that it's hard to chastise him.  Kefka laughs and rhymes and makes terrible jokes and is garbed in harlequin's makeup.  Despite being a truly evil villain, he's one of the silliest characters in all of Final Fantasy.  What makes Kefka more intimidating, however, is that despite being silly and childish, he's ruthlessly clever, cunning, and unconstrained by morals.  He'll poison an entire population just for fun, kill his master to serve his ambition, and all the while seem like an unassuming fool.  Kefka literally becomes a god halfway through Final Fantasy 6, merging with the three mystic forces that created the world to take full control over them and become a god of magic.  The world is turned inside out and Kefka watches it burn with unprecedented glee.  For all his malice, though, Kefka seems like he's lacking.  He finds no use or purpose in life and so wants to end all of it.  Nihilism at its core.  Even becoming a god didn't cure him of it.  While he is maliciously evil, Kefka has a kind of charm to him, with his horrific acts juxtaposed by his crazy personality and clown-like appearance.  Also, while most villains seek to control or destroy the world but are always thwarted, Kefka managed to do both and was only stopped years after he'd become a god.  Perhaps what is most interesting is that Kefka's death is almost like a middle finger to the heroes, as all their magic is now useless without him, the god of magic.  If they want to live, he's forcing them to do it the hard way.  For how irredeemably evil, yet undeniably fun and funny he is, Kefka remains a favorite of mine even years after I first saw his goofy face and heard him proclaim "You son of a submariner!"

The fool dances to his own tune, creating and destroying in equal measure.  He is totally self involved, unaware that all his sound and fury ultimately signify nothing.

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy 7)

I know some people are going to roll their eyes at this inclusion, but hear me out.  You see, when I first played Final Fantasy 7 in 1996, Sephiroth wasn't the overpowered, momma's boy, bishounen that he eventually became thanks to media overexposure and what not over the years.  My first encounter with Sephiroth was when I had escaped the prison in Shinra tower and discovered that all hell had broken loose.  The tower was decimated, countless guards were dead, and the president of Shinra had been impaled on a sword.  I went in with about four guys and had to sneak, battle, and work my way up to the top, but one guy utterly destroyed the place.  For a little bit, I was actually scared.  Sephiroth created an atmosphere around him throughout much of the game that made him scary, because chaos and death were always on his heels.  He goes to Nibleheim?  Town is burned to the ground and almost everyone dies.  Follow him to the Ancient City?  One of your team permanently dies.  What impressed me the most, however, was the Midgar Zloom.  It's a giant snake that's easily ten times your size and which can casually annihilate your party when they first meet it.  When the party cross the Midgar Zloom's marsh via chocobo, they see a Zloom impaled upon a giant tree trunk by Sephiroth, as if it were nothing.  That is power, cruelty, and terror.  Sure, he's had a bit too much exposure lately, but Sephiroth was true fear for a while, creating an atmosphere more in line with survival horror than a JRPG.  That's one of the reasons I still love him.

The devil spreads death and chaos wherever he goes.  He is fear made manifest and his cruelty extends to all things, good or evil.

One man did all this.  No...not a man.  A monster.

Grahf (Xenogears)

Words do not describe the sheer oddity or the sheer terror that Grahf inspires.  Grahf is, in a nutshell, a split personality of an ancestor of our hero, Fei Fong Wong, that became a parasitic psychic entity after he lost his most cherished friend and lover.  This entity became obsessed with power and would frequently body snatch those close to his reincarnated self, as his body and spirit had died, but this facet of his personality lived on.  Grahf seeks ultimate power for the purpose of destruction, reducing all those around him to ash.  Yet, he is also a cautionary tale about how absolute power corrupts and will ultimately destroy us.  Grahf is constantly watching Fei Fong Wong in Xenogears for the purpose of using him, as he is another reincarnation of Grahf's previous form and Grahf believes Fei will lead him to the ultimate power he seeks.  Fei, possessing a similarly destructive split personality, is both at odds with and subservient to Grahf, as his evil persona, ID, was trained and manipulated by Grahf from childhood to adulthood.  Perhaps Grahf's most signature trait is that he possesses the ability to give others extraordinary power.  Power that is so intense that it will literally burn them out, leaving them naught but a withered husk of their former selves.  The real kicker?  Grahf needs a body for his persona to attach to and when he makes his final stand against Fei, it's revealed that the body he took was that of Fei's father.  Grahf has no redeeming qualities, but is interesting for his aesthetic, resembling something like Darth Vader if he were more dramatic and monstrous, and for his situation, being a psychic entity which has walked the earth for centuries seeking the power to purify it in flames.  While a bit one note at times, Grahf is an interesting look at just how out there a villain can be while still being taken seriously.  In spite of his odd back story, Grahf stands tall as a villain, acting as both the catalyst for Fei to overcome his own weakness and as a cautionary tale of how power and loss can corrupt even the best of us.

The seeker is forever in search of power, freely giving or taking with no regards for those hurt in his quest.  This power will consume him and all the world.  Knowing this, he continues on, for he has nothing left to protect.  Only things to destroy.

Kato (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)

In a game series full of tragedy, where the bad endings are frequently canon, Kato appears as a most unlikely villain.  A special forces agent for Japan at the turn of the 19th century, Kato has unlucky metaphorically stamped on his forehead.  He lost the woman he loved due to internal fighting and betrayal and became jaded about his own weakness, especially after seeing his friend Yuri Hyuga defying fate.  So, Kato did what many men in the series did and set about trying to change his destiny.  He used forbidden necromantic documents to revive the woman he loved in an artificial body, though she held no memories, created artificial super soldiers, and tried to make Japan strong by enslaving a biblical demon from Europe.  Yuri and his friends had to stop him, but Yuri and Kato understood one another, both having lost their true loves.  Yuri had to stop Kato because he knew what would happen if that power ran amok.  And Kato tried anyway, out of love.  In the end, Kato lost his love a second time and tried to change fate directly, meddling with time itself, in order to settle things.  However, even as he and Yuri squared off, there were no hard feelings.  They both knew that there was no turning back.  And that's why I like Kato.  Honorable, true to his friends and his convictions, and a romantic at heart.  He started the Shadow Hearts series as a weak incidental character but improved himself and made himself strong.  All for the sake of love.  Kato is the perfect sympathetic villain, as you both feel sorry for him but cannot allow him to continue, for the greater good.  Over the course of the game, players even get a chance to control Kato's super soldiers and work with him, endearing him to the audience, despite his goals, and his introduction was early enough that the players probably didn't see him as becoming the main villain, even though it makes perfect sense when he does.  It seems as if Kato is meant to suffer, but his drive is a force to be reckoned with.

The soldier is supposed to work for the betterment of his country.  Must he then sacrifice all he holds dear to achieve this?  Or shall he defy fate for a chance at happiness and redemption?

Lezard Valeth (Valkyrie Profile series)

There has never been a more obnoxious, arrogant, and hilarious bastard in Midgard or Asgard than Lezard Valeth.  He's a sorcerer with immense natural talent, an inquisitive mind, and no moral qualms about furthering his research.  He's Shakespearean in his wording and loves to analyze and argue points.  He's charming, despite being a tad insane, and he's madly in love with the warrior goddess Lenneth Valkyrie, who he's trying to build a mortal body for.  Lezard, despite being really, REALLY, evil, is too silly, crazy, powerful, and...human, to dislike.  In fact, to further his goals of attaining his love, he actually helps save her from death by putting her into one of the artificial bodies he made.  Later, he warps back in time to try and kill Odin, lord of the gods, and usurp his position.  And he does it with ease.  Coupled with all that, Lezard possesses the philosopher's stone and was the only human not under the protection of Lenneth Valkyrie to survive the end of the world, Ragnarok.  Even if his schemes are evil, horrific, or morally questionable, there's always a sense of fun with him.  Lezard is both respected by his colleagues and victims, but also the butt of many jokes, as a classmate of his frequently teases him and calls him a freak with a lolita complex despite his immense power.  Perhaps what's scariest about Lezard, however, is that even though he has a fun loving, inquisitive, and enjoyable demeanor, he can be ruthlessly cunning and totally amoral.  When he warped into the past, he lied and hid his true nature to become an apprentice to three sorcerers and got close to another Valkyrie named Silmeria.  No one suspected a thing until he was already ruling Asgard.  He also outright admits that the majority of his plan to take control of Asgard and alter history was just to lure Lenneth into a situation where he could control her.  It is only through the intervention of the other Valkyrie and their allies that he is stopped.  However, even if he is a villain, Lezard is just fun.  He laughs frequently, tells lewd jokes, and just enjoys life, even if he's the only one having fun at the time.  What's not to love about Lezard Valeth?

The magician revels in knowledge and power, feeling no sacrifice is too great or compromise too unlikely for the sake of his experiment.

Galcian (Skies of Arcadia)

Galcian is a fascinating villain for all his nuances.  He's the leader of an evil empire's airship armada, skilled with a blade to the point where he's almost untouchable, stealthy enough to manipulate his empress and his enemies while cunning enough to appear on the level to both, and surprisingly loyal to his comrades, all things considered.  Even those he turns on, he treats with some degree of honor and respect.  Galcian once had to kill an old friend of his for letting a group of sky pirates escape him and they fought.  Galcian won, but warned the guards to take care of the body, for it was worth far more than any of them.  His most trusted assistant, Ramirez, held the key to ultimate power in his body and would have sacrificed his life so that Galcian could remove it.  Instead, Galcian found another way, in order to spare the life of his associate.  Nothing seems to phase Galcian, as he is prepared for all outcomes in a battle, even if it is a loss.  The single time he shows any manner of shock is right before his death, and that was likely due to the way he died.  Galcian shows no favoritism to allies and only respects those who are useful, which is quite refreshing as one of the minor villains of Skies of Arcadia is a snobby, but incompetent, aristocrat who acts as an airship captain.  He lies and cheats his way into the army's top brass and frequently makes excuses, but Galcian doesn't take any of it and disciplines and demotes him regardless.  Even though he acts without remorse, Galcian's vision of the world is almost one people can get behind, with his armada acting as a police force.  People would be welcome to live in peace and without fear so long as they obeyed his will.  True, it would be totalitarian, but compared to the empire he would be replacing, it'd be much more desirable.  Galcian's ambitions are to destroy his corrupt empire and conquer the world for his own sake.  And he believes he can do it.  Everyone believes he can do it.  That's what makes him so dangerous.  And, to top it off, he has a beautiful woman for a girlfriend who also commands a battalion of airships for him.  Bonus.

The emperor holds dominion over all he surveys.  Strong, just, confident and utterly ruthless, his greatest flaw is putting his ambition before his heart. 

Gannondorf (LoZ Twilight Princess)

With Gannondorf, I'm kind of being selfish, because he's not a well rounded villain, a well spoken villain, or even a very deep villain.  But I admire his power and his aesthetic.  Gannondorf is gifted with the Triforce of power, because he desires power over all things and this strength of his is what allowed him to reach out from beyond the Twilight realms and corrupt the false king, Zant, thus starting the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess proper.  He is able to control others, turn into a giant beast, summon a horse and riders to support him and when facing a monster formed of ancient and destructive twilight magic, Gannondorf shrugs it off and crushes its head.  Gannondorf is not very nuanced, but his power makes him pretty bad ass.  And it's not just that he has power which makes him cool, but rather, the way in which he uses it.  For example, he could fight Link head to head, but instead amuses himself using Zelda as his puppet and fighting through her.  Or, as a show of irony, uses the sword which impaled him as his personal weapon.  Even if few words pass Gannondorf's lips, it's plain to see that there's something's going on behind those cold eyes.  Apart from that, Gannondorf just looks like a conquering king, with his tied back dreadlocks almost forming a crown, his pitch black armor, and his ability to ride and fight on a horse.  Gannondorf, to me, also wins this spot for his role in Super Smash Brothers Melee and Brawl, where his obscene power is enough to punch people beyond the realm of the screen and kill them with very little effort.  He takes skill to use, but he is a fun villain to have on my list.  Gannondorf is power and style, all wrapped up in a nice little package.

The usurper is power made manifest.  Nothing can stop him.  Not royalty, not sages, not death.  He turns his pain into power and fights without fear.

Xehanort: All Incarnations (Kingdom Hearts series)

I find something positively enchanting about all incarnations of this Kingdom Hearts villain.  Despite his role as ultimate evil, a greedy, selfish incarnation of how a good power can be turned wicked, Xehanort remains pretty engaging as a character, in my opinion.  In the first Kingdom Hearts game he is a very dramatic, almost Shakespearean figure, using his words and his mere presence, which at that time was without physical form, to manipulate Riku, best friend to our hero, Sora, before ultimately possessing him.  Xehanort only evolves from there, going from a shadow of his former self to a being gifted with power over the darkness in hearts, which grants him near limitless strength, as all hearts contain at least some darkness.  He uses this power to continue his pursuit of knowledge and the ultimate heart, Kingdom Hearts.  Even after his defeat, he lingers within Riku, tempting him with offers of power but also helping the boy to grow into his own.  After all is settled in Kingdom Hearts 2, the prequel story, Birth by Sleep, reveals the truth of Xehanort.  A grim, jaded old man who despite his frail appearance is one of the strongest Keyblade masters to ever live.  His search for the truth of the heart and for knowledge led him to become cunning and deceptive, so that he could corrupt and manipulate a youth named Terra before stealing his body.  Xehanort is interesting because while he will not hesitate to manipulate, corrupt, fight, or lie to achieve his ends, he is a scholarly individual, musing on the nature of good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong, and constantly seeks knowledge for his goals.  He's revealed to not be entirely heartless either, such as when he managed to aid Riku and encourage him, or when after hurting his own apprentice, he returned him to the islands he grew up on so the apprentice could rest.  While his plans can be a bit too elaborate at times, he's interesting for his scholarly pursuits and because there are shades of a time when he was actually a warrior for the light, before his obsession and fear surrounding death and heartlessness jaded him.

The scholar quests for answers within the darkness.  He cares not for those hurt by his goals, he cares only for truth.  No act is too cruel, no betrayal too great, so long as he finds answers.

There was a time when the scholar sought answers in the light.  However it blinded him and he became jaded.  Thus, he turned to the dark.  The scholar is corrupted, but wise.  Demonic, but not without a human heart.  He is selfish, but shades of a hero remain.

Creator (Aquaria)

Children are selfish.  Children act without thinking.  Children are almost always sure they are right.  And the Creator in Aquaria is a millenia old child.  Formed when a child falls from a city in the sky into the ocean and merges with a god-like power, the Creator is one of the most despicable, but also tragic villains I've ever met.  He lost his home and his mother and spent his eternal life trying to recreate her under the sea.  And each time he failed to make her "Perfect" he destroyed the civilization that had been created by his "mother."  This means the Creator of Aquaria has singlehandedly committed genocide almost 12 times, sparing only the mother figures, usually, out of some misguided form of love.  He hounds Naija, the hero of Aquaria, throughout the game, constantly seeking her mother, Mia, his "perfect" creation.  And yet, in the end, he was just a child given power he never wanted.  He only desired to return home and be with his mother.  And when Naija defeats him, his final request is that she sing him to sleep with the lullaby of his mother.  The Creator is an interesting look at both the psychology of a child and how gods can be very much like children.  You see, children only develop ideas of right and wrong after a certain age when their brains become advanced enough to understand morality.  But the Creator never seemed to understand what was wrong with his actions, following the logic of, "I created it, it is mine, I can do with it what I please."  This draws a nice parallel to other gods in myth and religion because while they always act like they are right, they can at times be petulant children.  They will punish their creations on a whim and call it just because they are the ones who made them.  They lack basic ideas of morality or willfully ignore them for their own pleasure.  The Creator is an interesting look at how pathetic a god can be when brought low...and also how tragic they can be, since despite his power, the Creator could never have what he truly wanted.  He only found peace when Naija sang him to sleep.

The child thinks himself a god.  He sees no consequences of creation and no wrongs in destruction.  Without a guiding hand, he will continue to spread misery until it engulfs him entirely.

Creator (Final Fantasy Legend)

The Creator from Final Fantasy Legend was something of a tossup, since I only had 9 villains who absolutely had to make the list.  But, let's just say that the Creator is kind of beautiful in shock value, symbolism, and in how his actions affect the players.  You see, in Final Fantasy Legend, heroes must climb a tower that reaches into the sky, fighting fiends and monsters on each floor they arrive on and seeing all manner of sights, from an ocean world, to a cloud kingdom, to a dystopian nightmare.  However, when they get high enough, they fight Ashura, who offers to give them worlds of their own to rule.  When they refuse and beat Ashura, they are deposited back in the first world and, with no further fiends above them, reach the top of the tower, where it is revealed that the entire tower and the worlds below are merely a game for the Creator, the god of the world.  In essence, he created the tower, Ashura, and the worlds as a game, creating everything for the purpose of entertainment.  He was amused by the heroes efforts to reach paradise, at the top of the tower, and watched them every step of the way.  He is the designer of this world...a game designer.  The Creator sees nothing wrong with what he's done, since to him the characters are little more than bits of data, but the heroes are horrified at having their lives and the lives of their friends manipulated by this callous god.  So, they defeat him and are presented with an opportunity to see behind the Creator's door, to enter his world, a place none have ever seen, possibly the paradise they have been seeking.  And they choose to go home instead.  Even if their world was just a game, it had become something real to them.  I love this villain because you never saw it coming, but it kinda makes sense in a metaphysical way.  His actions and thoughts likely mirror our own, making both designer and player kind of the villain here, but it also shows that constantly moving forward isn't the only way.  Sometimes, when the adventure is done, it's nice to return home and spin your stories around a campfire.
 

The god sees all the world as a game.  For his own amusement, people fight and die.  However, is is only when the god is brought low that he realizes his folly.  The world is far more than just a game.

 And those were the greatest villains I've discovered.  They each have something special about them which endears them to the audience, which is important, but are also unapologetic about their actions which seek to hurt countless innocent lives.  It makes sense for the heroes to stop them, no matter how charming they may be.  And in my opinion, that's what makes a good villain.  They are likeable, even understandable, but also unapologetically evil, doing either malicious or selfish acts for their own personal gain.  They aren't evil because "Wooooooo the plot needs a bad guy!" they're evil because it serves their needs.  That's understandable.  That's human.  And that's scary.

May, the month of Characters: Top 10 heroes I admire

May, the month of Characters:

This is sort of a personal project for me since Video Game Growing Pains is not just a blog about the industry and how change can help, but also a personal blog looking at my journey through the world of gaming as it stands.  And, inspired by the works of Doug Walker and the Blisteredthumbs.net Characters With Character panel, I decided that I would do a bit of reflection on characters that mean a lot to me.  May is going to be the month of characters, with 4 separate lists about characters I think truly make gaming wonderful, or deplorable, and the reasons why.  Hopefully, people can use these characters as baseline comparisons when crafting their own heroes or villains.  Or they can just enjoy the list.  So, let's start with a few heroes.  Here are the 10 heroes I most admire, in no particular order.

Top 10 heroes I admire:

Many people would argue that there aren't enough heroes in the world.  I say it's all about where you look.  In gaming, while we do stray too far sometimes into the generic RPG hero, the fun but ultimately flat platformer heroes, or the often morally bankrupt heroes of shooters, there are times when heroes are born that can move you.  And this is a tribute to the heroes who've moved me the most in my life.  Needless to say, there will be spoilers.

SPOILER WARNING!!!

Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy 7)

A lot of people will sigh or roll their eyes at this inclusion, but Cloud Strife, as both an image and as a character, moved me when I was a kid.  He was different from other heroes.  Larger than life with his five foot tall buster sword and his hardened persona, which seemed self serving but which ultimately did what was right, Cloud was different from the RPG heroes I'd grown up with.  Underneath the more gritty persona, however, Cloud was an engaging character who, for me at least, embodied courage.  True, most of the game sees him chasing after his rival, Sephiroth, for answers, only to be revealed to be a puppet in a greater plot and a failed clone of Sephiroth, but it is how he deals with these situations that makes me say he is courageous.  Cloud will not hesitate to fight for his friends, even if the odds are stacked against him and even if his magic has been stolen.  But more than that, Cloud, with the help of his childhood friend Tifa, has to come to terms with the fact that he was, and is, a failure.  He identified himself as a member of Soldier, an elite group of warriors, when he repressed the fact that he actually failed to gain entry into Soldier and it was a friend of his, Zach, who became a Soldier.  He even inadvertently caused Zach's death, because Zach died trying to protect him.  Cloud had to accept his own weakness in order to get beyond it.  To truly become himself and not a copy of Zach or Sephiroth.  But even before this realization, Cloud showed boundless courage when trying to save those around him.  Before the main game started, it is revealed that Sephiroth burned Cloud's home down and that no one, not even Zach, could stop him.  Sephiroth was truly a monster, capable of slaughtering dragons and other giant beasts with his bare hands.  But after seeing everything he loved in flames, Cloud took Zach's fallen sword and fought Sephiroth, managing to defeat him and toss him aside, though he fell unconscious from his own wounds.  He did this partly out of revenge, but Tifa and Zach had been injured and would have been killed if Sephiroth was not stopped.  So, for their sakes, Cloud fought him.  Even against a monster like that, Cloud didn't turn away when it came time to protect others.  This is especially important because Cloud knows by the end of the game that there may not be any way to save the world.  Sephiroth is trying to drop a meteor onto the planet and even if he is defeated, it may not stop.  But for those he cares about and those who have fallen before him, Cloud does not give up.  However, grim determination isn't all there is to Cloud.  Throughout the game, he's shown to have a softer side, one more open to humor and wackiness, such as crossdressing or participating in plays, and even though he deals with some self loathing throughout his growth as a character, he always faces his fears and fights for those who cannot protect themselves.  Now, Cloud's been interpreted many different ways, from the boring emo character to nothing more than a tool of the plot, but I disagree.  The first time I played Final Fantasy 7, I saw courage in his actions.  And I cannot help but admire the strength he wields in facing his inner demons.

Swathed in black and wielding a giant sword, this warrior's piercing eyes are full of courage.

Fei Fong Wong (Xenogears)

Kindness, madness, denial, and self loathing.  These four words describe the four unique personalities that exist within Fei Fong Wong.  Truly a remarkable character in his own right, Fei has dissociative personality disorder, giving him, at the start of the game, three split personalities.  Near the end of the game, Fei splits himself even further when he realizes some of the atrocities he's unwittingly committed as some of his other personas, giving him four personalities.  But, on his own, Fei is one of the nicest people in gaming.  A martial artist and a painter of sorts, he trains only for self advancement, until war comes to his tiny village, leaving a stranded giant robot and enemy troops coming up around him.  Fei takes the robot and pilots it...only to destroy half the village in an uncontrolled burst of energy, killing two of his oldest friends and ostracizing him from the other villagers.  After which, he sets out on a self imposed exile, accompanied only by an old friend and his self loathing.  Fei is a character with boundless capacity for good, but who fears his own power, especially after what happened to his village.  And with good reason.  Dwelling within Fei is a destructive split personality that can rip humans and robots alike to shreds with his bare hands.  You see, when Fei was a boy he had terrible experiments performed on him, in which his child self went into hiding in the back of his mind, cherishing the good memories, and leaving only a bitter husk of anger behind.  When he was finally subdued and freed from those who would use him, Fei contracted amnesia and, because of that, his current persona of the kind and dedicated martial artist became dominant.  And for Fei to come to terms with all this is one hell of a trial.  Fei meets reliable friends who are fighting for independence, salvation, or just basic human rights along the way and despite his quirks and how dangerous he proves to be, they all care for him, helping Fei to cope with and accept his nature.  He even falls in love with Elly, a young woman who caused the calamity in his village by stealing the robot in the first place.  She too is afraid, but more so of weakness, failure, and a loss of control.  They meet in a forest shortly after Fei leaves his village and end up strangely close, despite Fei's frustration and anger and Elly's bravado.  The next time they meet, Elly's been drugged up on a performance enhancer which increases aggression.  It's up to Fei to save her, having experienced his own form of lost control and knowing what it can do to yourself and others, Fei is able to snap Elly out of her blood rage.  Fei understands pain and is able to empathize and help others better because of it.  By the end of the game, it is even revealed that he and Elly have been brought together through reincarnation countless times throughout history, only to be separated by tragedy each time.  Once Fei is able to merge his separate personas into one, he is able to save Elly from being absorbed by a psychic entity which takes her over and return to their home planet together, thus breaking the cycle of tragedy.  Even though he only wanted a peaceful life, Fei's empathy, kindness, will, strength, and his drive to save others helped change the world, freeing it from a corrupt nation lording over it and helping to establish global peace after a calamity.  Fei Fong Wong is unbelievably complex and nuanced, but at heart, he's just a man trying to help others and do what's right.

His own worst enemy, despite the earth shattering power he wields, this man's kindness is his true strength.

Lenneth Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile)

Valkyries are choosers of the slain in Norse mythology, who ride down to humans who die worthy deaths in battle and take them to Valhalla to feast and fight for all eternity.  Lenneth is a different kind of valkyrie.  She serves Odin, the all-father, at first, but has an unbelievable capacity to empathize with mortals about the situations revolving their deaths.  More than once, she is asked by these mortals to take their lives so that others might be saved, thus earning her approval.  Lenneth also cannot abide people profaning the dead or attempting to use dark power to hurt others and will strike them down if she sees them.  Why does a god have such empathy?  Because when Lenneth is not choosing the slain, she lives as a human, bereft of her divine memories, to experience life as they live.  This is where the story gets interesting.  Fearing Lenneth might rebel against the gods for the sake of humans, or that she would be unable to do her job, Odin sealed her memories and used her as a tool.  But at one point, Lenneth's memories are awakened by a man she knew as a human, after he has been killed by a traitor to the gods named Loki.  This sends Lenneth into shock and leads Odin to try and put her back to sleep, awakening her crueler sister, Hrist, and nearly destroying Lenneth in the process.  Ironically, her empathy for humans is a two way streak, as those she has chosen from the dead to be her allies save her and help restore her to power, with some assistance from a sorcerer who has been stalking her.  Together, she is able to rise above Odin and is given the ability to create and protect.  A plot by Loki disrupts the balance of Asgard, leaving Odin dead and his toadies in a panic.  Lenneth walks through them and fights Loki, for revenge and to protect others.  Loki causes the end of the world, but with her new power, Lenneth causes the world to be reborn, and protects all the living souls within it.  Lenneth's story is not merely one of love, but also one of rising above patriarchal bonds.  Odin decides what is best for Lenneth, but like many in power, his obstinance and assurance that he is correct blinds him.  The other two valkyrie under his command are treated just as carelessly.  Lenneth's younger sister Silmeria is imprisoned for being too empathetic to humans and her elder sister Hrist is cruel to them, using humans as tools, like Odin.  Lenneth finds the balance between the two and ultimately proves wiser than Odin by putting her faith in humanity rather than power or sacred objects.  What amuses me most, however, is that while Odin claims himself to be lord of the gods, father of all, etc. etc. Lenneth and her sisters, when combining their power, can change fate, making them his superior.  A patriarchal figure suppressing a woman out of fear only to have the tables turned on him?  Deliciously ironic.  Lenneth shows detachment at first, but grows to love and respect her human allies as she tries to understand their sometimes irrational actions.  In the end, she is rewarded by being reunited with the man Loki slew, who she now realizes she loves.  Lenneth is an admirable female figure in her own right, made all the more impressive by her boundless ability to care for others and her wisdom in dealing with the trials thrown her way.

Chooser of the slain, her empathy and wisdom allowed her to stand above even the gods.

Chrono (Chrono Trigger)

Chrono is not deep at all.  He's another silent RPG protagonist.  Yet, that doesn't mean he has no character.  Chrono has a unique look, tons of reliable friends, and a loving family life, all while being skilled with the katana.  And when one of his friends is sent back to the past and stranded by a time machine, Chrono embarks on a journey to save her.  In so doing, he discovers that several hundred years after he will die, the world will be destroyed by an intergalactic entity called Lavos.  Even though he need not fear it, Chrono sees the devastation and the hopelessness that engulfs the world after Lavos appears and, with his faithful friends, decides to fight against this evil, even if the odds are stacked against them.  Chrono cares about helping others no matter the time or the place because he is a good hearted soul.  He's also very lucky, too.  At one point in the game, Chrono is outright slain and wiped from existence by Lavos.  However, his friends go back in time to the moment of his death and swap his body out for a cheap clone they were able to find, effectively defying fate to save him.  With Chrono back to life, he is not shaken by fear or the realization of what very nearly could have happened to him, but redoubles his efforts to save others from Lavos's power.  Along the way, he and one of his friends, Marle, develop a close bond.  Eventually, they fall in love.  Marle was the one who saved Chrono, after all.  Chrono is an avatar of the player to some degree, but even if silent, he still maintains a unique personality through his body language and the actions he chooses to take.  I suppose what I love most about this character is his perseverance.  Despite the odds, Chrono never gives up and will fight on.  Even after dying, his memory inspires the others and eventually ends up having him resurrected.  He may not say much, but for the sake of his friends and for the sake of people everywhere, Chrono will travel to the ends of time itself, fight dinosaurs, robots, and monsters, and do it all while having the time of his life.  Chrono never gives up.

A timeless hero, he shall traverse the ancient past and the far off future to protect the innocent.  Even in death, he perseveres.

NiGHTS (Nights into Dreams)

What could be more admirable than a character who embodies dreams and protects others from nightmares?  Nights is a spirit who was originally created to cause nightmares, but broke free of his master's control to enjoy and protect pleasant dreams.  Dreams are hope.  Nightmares are despair.  And when children in despair come to the world of dreams, Nights can help them to find their own strength.  Courage gives Nights power and with that power, Nights helps children recover control of their dreams.  Nights is hope in despair.  Neither male nor female, Nights is a fragment of dreams and imagination that is playful, free spirited, and perhaps most interestingly, vulnerable.  Nights is unable to fight the nightmares without the aid of children who doubt.  Because courage is not something that can be taken from you in the world of dreams.  Even if hope is lost, courage remains.  And it is the courage of children that grants Nights the power to fight.  Nights helps people find the strength within themselves, the strength they always had but were unable to see.  That's why I can't help but admire Nights.  Nights fosters self improvement and hope in people, showing them that if they believe and keep moving forward, then they can face their fears, their doubts, and all the horrors of the real world and their nightmares.  Through Nights, we realize our own power.

The playful dreamer offers hope in despair, showing us the strength within ourselves.

Terra Branford (Final Fantasy 6)

Terra's one of my favorite characters ever.  I first met her when I was just a child, playing Final Fantasy 6, so part of this is nostalgia.  But there's more to it than that.  Terra is a character who goes through a remarkable journey and immense personal growth to overcome a lifetime of slavery and oppression.  You see, Terra was taken from her parents as a baby, raised by a totalitarian empire that saw her as only a weapon, and made to kill and slaughter against her will.  When she is freed from their control, she is horrified at her actions.  Terra is a warrior with great power, but underneath it all is a scared girl who wants to understand who and what she is.  The child of a magical being called an esper and a human, Terra begins without the ability to control her vast stores of power and is a danger to those around her.  But through her friends, she is able to find joy and acceptance, even learning to make peace with her two different lineages.  Terra, despite doubting herself, decides to fight for others, joining a resistance movement to fight the empire at first, and when the world is destroyed, Terra devotes herself to raising and protecting children in a tiny village.  The children even give her the strength to fight to save the world in the end.  Terra acts as a mother without children, seeking to find meaning in her own life.  That's why I admire her.  Even with all her doubts, even with being horrified at her actions, and even with being torn by her very blood, she always finds a way to fight.  To protect.  Her kindness and innocence coupled with her immense power juxtapose nicely with the Kefka, the main villain, who is cruel, self serving, insane, and in possession of godlike power.  When the Kefka asks her what the point of life is, why people live, even when all that remains for them is pain, Terra has finally found the answer.  We take pride in our small victories.  In kindness.  In protecting others.  In hope.  We find our own reason to live.  Terra knows these struggles more than anyone else, being born into slavery and having to discover her own purpose for being alive.  Once the game ends and Kefka is dead, Terra too starts to die, as magic and the espers which spawned her cannot exist without Kefka's power.  However, she chooses life and embraces humanity fully, remembering that she has found her reason to live and will continue to exist, even without magic.

The girl struggles with her two lineages, but ultimately finds her reason to live.  Armed with this reason, she fights to save the world.

Vyse (Skies of Arcadia)

Everyone loves pirates because of their swashbuckling spirit.  The search for adventure, the exploration, the threat of the unknown, the magic...it's why even today we look back nostalgically at pirates and the age of exploration.  Vyse takes that to the next level.  He's a sky pirate.  In a world made up of islands and continents which float in an ocean of clouds and air rather than water, he soars the skies with his trusty crew of pirates seeking adventure and fortune.  However, Vyse is no Blackbeard.  Vyse is a kind, noble individual.  He's a member of the blue rogues, a group of pirates who are noticeable for sparing the innocent, only robbing the rich, and basically being good hearted people.  He saved a girl named Fina when she was in trouble and together with his childhood friend, Aika, they go out of their way to help Fina recover six ancient artifacts to prevent an evil empire from taking over the world.  Along the course of his journey, Vyse gets stuck working for an old sailor and a ladies man, is forced to sneak into a prison to save his family and friends, and is wrongfully accused of being a thief and a villain.  However, he never loses his good nature, his humor, or his sense of wonder.  No one is bound by their circumstances according to Vyse.  He strikes out on his own with naught but his friends for support and he frequently encourages others to do the same.  He shows an old sea captain that revenge may not be the answer.  He offers a young prince the chance to do what he believes is right rather than what is expected.  He even convinces several of his enemies to pursue their true goals, be it love, honor, or to become pirates themselves.  Vyse defines freedom and choice. Everywhere he goes, he finds undiscovered lands and treasures and visits ruins and people who were lost or isolated from the rest of the world.  In fact, the wonder of exploration and his friends are why he goes out of his way to save the world.  Vyse's ultimate goal is to have his own pirate ship and sail the endless skies.  And he can't do that if the world's destroyed.  He wants to see everything that he can and experience as much of the world as possible.  Vyse is a strong fighter, a reliable friend, and a capable captain, but above all else, he's an explorer, charting the skies of Arcadia, free as a bird.

The pirate flies free as a bird through the skies of Arcadia, ever seeking new treasures to discover.

Naija (Aquaria)

There is something wondrous about Naija.  Every new vista she sees and strange sight she encounters causes her to gasp at the beauty around her.  Naija is a girl who loves to explore and the thrill of unknown waters washing over her fins is what constantly pushes her forward.  Naija is interesting because she still retains a sense of child-like wonder and awe at the world despite having to learn to fend for herself, frequently killing others for meat or power in order to survive the dangerous waters of Aquaria.  Even though she must kill to survive and find answers as to why she is alone, she never forgets to stop and smell the kelp flowers or ride a seahorse for fun, or sun herself on the beach.  Even love is all about exploring and experiencing new things to her, which leads her to fall for a human diver named Li.  These feelings of wonder are precious to Naija and she protects them ferociously, dolling out punishment to those who would defile the world or harm her love.  I find something unbelievably beautiful about this creature who started out young and fragile, only to become hardened and tough, while still being able to be moved by the beauty of the world around her.  This is especially true, considering that her mother stole her memories from her.  The one complaint I have about Naija is that her story is not complete.  We only know half and may only ever know half.  It's a bit depressing.  Still, for the half we do know, Naija is someone I admire because of her ability to be moved by all that she sees.  The wonder of exploration is Naija in a nutshell.

The child of the sea truly knows she is alive when uncharted waters wash over her fins and new vistas appear before her.

Gwendolyn (Odin Sphere)

When people say games are inherently misogynist, Gwendolyn is the character I point to that breaks that rule in every way possible.  Gwendolyn is a valkyrie, a warrior woman whose greatest joy is battle and whose greatest fear is marriage and subjugation by a man.  Despite this, she is a respectful daughter and will do anything to make her father, Odin, happy, even if it means she must suffer.  While this could make people think she's a straw feminist with daddy issues, Gwendolyn comes off as surprisingly human, questioning her own motives and thinking some pretty horrible thoughts from time to time.  When she meets her much more beloved half sister, for example, she thinks, "If she's dead, I'll be daddy's favorite.  I'll be all he has left."  However when faced with the chance to let her sister die at the hands of one of her father's generals, she slaughters the general and frees her sister, telling her to run.  And when her father confronts her about her actions, she accepts his punishment, believing she has done what was right in protecting the child he loved.  At first, Gwendolyn never strays from her duty, doing all that she can to grant her father victory in his war with the fairies, even going so far as to betray the trust of someone who loves her.  However, she is not blind to what happens around her and starts to learn that duty is not all there is to life.  Slowly, she starts to change, following her heart rather than her duty as a soldier or a daughter or even as a wife.  She always tries to do the right thing and in the case of saving her sister, her father enchanted her to love her bitterest enemy, the shadow knight, Oswald, as punishment for her betrayal.  Only...Odin didn't.  He didn't enchant her and counted on her loyalty so that he could get a special ring the knight had bequeathed her as an engagement gift.  Gwendolyn didn't know and out of respect for her father, she retrieved the ring for him and saved him from being killed by a traitor.  When she realized afterwards that Oswald killed the king of the dragons to get that ring, which he gave to her as an engagement present, she started to wonder about her feelings and sought to protect Oswald.  She saved him from being slain by another dragon and when her ring was stolen from her father, she fought through a small army to get it back.  When Oswald learned she had given it away, he fell into despair because he knew that she was not enchanted to love him and had tried to win her love through his devotion and actions.  As soon as he learned of Gwendolyn's betrayal, however, he felt that she had chosen not to love him and died from sadness.  Gwendolyn refused to accept this and went into the netherworld itself to retrieve him, killing the queen of the netherworld to save her husband and standing up to her father, at last, for herself and for the sake of her love.  Gwendolyn is a character who is very human.  She is conflicted about her choices quite often and ultimately ends up hurting people she loves.  However, she accepts her mistakes and tries to make amends.  She is strong willed, refusing Oswald's advances at first, even though she believed she had no choice, and strong in body, routinely battling dragons and huge beasts.  She's a romantic and loyal to her dear friends.  Gwendolyn moved me for being exactly the kind of female protagonist I wanted.  Strong and capable, but not just a man with breasts...she was flawed and human, facing very real concerns about being a woman, such as the fear of childbirth and subjugation in a male dominated world.  She and Oswald made a good pair in that regard, as he would never treat her as an object.  I suppose what I admire most is the love Gwendolyn and Oswald share, even though they grew up as enemies.  They respect and care for one another because of all that they have gone through to be together.

The valkyrie faithfully does her duty, until love makes her realize her true duty is to her heart.

Yuri Hyuga (Shadow Hearts)

Poor, poor, Yuri.  He's suffered all his life, lost his mother, father, his lover, his friends, his soul, and eventually his life.  Yet, for all that, he's pretty bad ass.  Yuri is sarcastic, snarky, and lives everyday with purpose, whether that means getting into a fight for fun or just trying to make the voices in his head quiet down.  He's an honest and kind young man underneath the tough street punk that was born out of his mother's death.  In fact, if it weren't for his ability to fuse with demons as a harmonixer, he might well be the star of a dozen different action movies.  Yuri is cursed by his demonic powers and is filled with malice that must constantly be purified, lest he lose his soul.  He doesn't really know compassion till he meets his beloved, Alice, and she gives her life to save his.  Despite the loss, Yuri continues forward, protecting her grave and any people he finds with his power.  Yuri even goes so far as to try and revive her from the dead with his friend, Roger Bacon.  It fails and all he's left with is Alice saying she loves him before she dies once again.  Depressingly tragic, Yuri never lets his misfortune get him down too much.  While he laments Alice's death, he has friends he can depend on, even among the enemy, and tries to make the most of his time, which is sadly limited due to a curse.  When all is said and done, though, Yuri manages to defy fate and return to the moment he first met Alice, this time, sure that he can save her.  Yuri is a survivor.  He keeps on moving no matter what is thrown his way and will protect those who can't protect themselves.  This attitude earns him the respect of his friends and enemies alike.  No one is too high and mighty for Yuri, who isn't above smacking a god with his brass knuckled fists for causing trouble.  What I find most endearing about Yuri though is his romantic streak.  Never having known love besides his mother, he cares so deeply for Alice that he seeks to revive her from the dead.  And when that fails, he defies fate in order to try one more time.  Yuri Hyuga.  He makes even fate quake with fear.

The harmonixer is without fear.  For his love, he will stand against fate itself and emerge triumphant.

Well, that's the top 10 characters I admire, in no particular order.  These heroes are my favorite amongst all the hundreds of games I've played.  Tune in next week for my top 10 villains I love to Hate.