Most-loved characters

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Kikki
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Help me out, guys! It feels like I fall for fewer and fewer characters, these days (not just in games, but this is a gaming forum, so let's stick with that.) I'd like to see people talk about the ones they fell for. Who, in video games, did you just love to see/hear/read about? Who could you not get enough of?

Genre of game doesn't matter, and whether it's recent or not doesn't matter. Who are your MOST-LOVED video game characters of all time?

I don't think I need to say that Sanjay is one of mine. Other characters I would think to name, like Shulk and Jude Mathis...I'm not sure if they're worthy of being on a list with Sanjay, because it may be their story that I loved rather than them. More recently, I really liked Zagreus (from Hades.) but then, Supergiant always does awesome characters, so it may just be that I love their style of writing people. Oh...Klavier Gavin! That's definitely another of my all-time favourite characters. (Also very fond of Ema Skye, from the same series. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Klavier's big bro, Kristoph, is a tremendously interesting character, too, as are many others, so that series also does character well in general.) I really liked Mel from Aveyond, too, though it's long enough ago now that I've half forgotten. I just remember that her personality was fun.

Link is also one of my favourite characters, even though he's silent. I feel like they always imbue him with the same soul (except in Wind Waker), and quiet guys are my thing anyway. :) Link in Twilight Princess on the Wii is what fully converted me into a console gamer.

And I'm not sure how to explain this one, but 'Cross' from Xenoblade Chronicles X. (Cross is the default name, and his default gender is male.) I create my own character with his own name, but I totally fell for that character. It's the ONLY time I have ever had such strong feelings for an avatar, but they represented all of humanity, for me. They were the concept of humanity and hope and endless tenacity. I never get tired of being that silent amnesiac.

How about you guys? Who do you love most? Or if not love, then who is the most interesting?
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Simply Unknown
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When it comes to characters in video games, I have a few preferences that I've found over time. I like characters with a sense of humor or wit, I like more roguish characters over the more traditionally honorable ones, a good character story will always pull me in, and if you're a redhead, I'm inclined to like you.

Zagreus is definitely a favorite character, as are Thanatos and Cerberus from Hades. Erik and Sylvando from Dragon Quest XI are also two of my favorites, both for being really well written and also for making me laugh a lot when they're onscreen, but for very different reasons. Felix, Claude, and Dorothea are my top three from Fire Emblem Three Houses, though Petra and Sylvain are also very close to the top. Trails in the Sky also gave me Estelle and Chloe, two of my favorite heroines from any game, and I love Maya and Pearl from Ace Attorney.

Breath of the Wild gave me Sidon, who I will always adore, and Mipha, my favorite champion with Urbosa close behind. Forte, Doug, and Leon from RF4 are top tier for me, though Doug is at the top for being so involved in the story. I'm also pretty fond of Zelos from Tales of Symphonia and Luke from Tales of the Abyss. I cannot play Trials of Mana without Hawkeye on my team, though I also love Kevin, Angela, and Riesz. And I have way too many characters I adore from Genshin Impact, though Kaeya remains on top as my favorite.
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First one that came to mind for me immediately is Ion from Tales of the Abyss. Name a better child pope, i'll wait. I thought he was an incredibly interesting and lovable character. I also really liked Natalia and Luke from the same game.

No surprise that I love Dimitri from FE:3H. Man has such an interesting backstory, a fantastic VA, and I LOVE his relationship with Byleth (F being my preference since F can marry him). I'm biased and like his route the best too.
FE: A was my first Fire Emblem game and Chrom and Morgan are some of my favs from that game. Specifically, Morgan as Chrom's son and Lucina's brother is my favorite combination.

I literally can't pick a favorite Ace Attorney character. I love Maya and Pearl equally.
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Rover from Animal Crossing, though as a child I didn't realize how much I really loved him, lol

"Butterfly" from Fantasy Life (won't put their real name in case anyone hasn't played it)

Krampy from Cattails.

Shane from Stardew Valley.

Surprisingly can't think of anyone in particular from any Pokémon games, but it's been years, up to a decade or more, since I've played the older ones through, and I have no childhood memory anymore lol.
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Kikki
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So far sounds like the Ace Attorney characters are well-written, since only 4 people have responded in total and 3 of them have PW:AA characters on their list. :) And from the look of things, you seem like a dedicated life-sim player, Sprites :) Sanjay and Nadi are my favourite characters from life sims. I have to play Fantasy Life again because I no longer even remember any of the characters. Though I don't think you could form actual relationships in that game...maybe that's why I don't remember them.
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iLoveSprites75
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Sadly, no, I don't believe so. Would love marriage in that game! Also sadly, I believe Level 5 is no longer making games / exists / etc :(

I do love life sims, it's mostly what I play. Occasionally I'll get something else, and don't forget I have a massive backlog with plenty of non-life sims :'D
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I tend to categorize characters I like in either 'daughters' or 'husbandos'. Daughters are female characters that are usually either very adorable or I get an extreme desire to protect them. Characters that qualify are Katie/Fumi from the Yokai Watch series, Diona and Sucrose from Genshin Impact, Ionasal from Ciel/Ar Nosurge Okuni from Samurai Warriors, Dawn from Pokemon Platinum(and her ancestor from the new prequel game), Kris, Emma, Tiki, and Flayn from Fire Emblem, Sofia from Dragon Quest IV, Totori from Atelier Totori, Tataru from Final Fantasy XIV, and Tressa from Octopath Traveler. Honestly all of them are too pure for the world and I love looking at their cute designs. I will protecc. Like, if you show me a cute and well designed anime girl, my brain just oozes dopamine. Big bonus if they're written well, but they don't have to be!

Husbandos is a bit more broad and any male character I tend to get really attached to fall under this category, human or not. Attachment usually happens via their writing or if they happen to fall under what I consider 'attractive' in fantasy characters. Big ones are 9S from NieR Automata, Tokitsugu from Toukiden 2, Swaine from Ni No Kuni, Nero from Final Fantasy XIV, Hanneman, Yen'fay, and Gunter from Fire Emblem, Elliot Craig from Trails of Cold Steel, Daruk from Breath of the Wild, Lancer from Fate/Stay Night, Griffin and Soseki from Harvest Moon, Cid from Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and Ricardo from Tales of Innocence. Their designs and ages don't really overlap a lot, but pretty much all these characters have either good plot/characterization backing them, or they look nice looool.
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greensara
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There are many characters I've liked in games over the years, but which ones have I just totally loved? Hmm, that's a bit harder. Let's see..

Malroth - DQB2: He made that game one of my all time favorites. I starting shipping him with the builder my first playthrough before I had even finished Furrowfield, lol. Totally got blindsided by Moonbrooke the first time too. :( Post game I built him a dragon style castle. :heart: In my second file I actually shipped him with Lulu and made them a little cottage with a dead forest and poison swamp. That really worked well too as they bicker like an old couple, lol.

Other significant characters could include: Mipha - BOTW and AoC, Pete - HM3/FOMT, Steven Stone - Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, Mr. Drippy - Ni No Kuni, and of course Luigi for all the years I was stuck as player two.
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Hmm...with video games I tend to enjoy either overly pure/adorable characters or ones that aren't irredeemable, but are very complex, round characters.

Over the top adorable ones are more like Toon Link, or the Bard from Wandersong. Not complex or anything but they make an enjoyable game more enjoyable with their presence. (Toon Link in particular is the only incarnation of Link I ever felt rose above the 'silent protagonist' shtick. I don't really get silent protagonists being labeled 'cool'. It feels like projection more than anything.)

Round characters are a lot harder to find in video games. Off the top of my head...the best example I can give is Arthur from Red Dead Redemption 2. I didn't play the game (wouldn't enjoy the gameplay) but it was nice to watch streams of. Wouldn't say it had a great/complex story either, but absolutely top notch character writing. Some very complex, ugly characters. As for Arthur it's the "not irredeemable" part that makes him beloved. He may not be a good guy, but he's not a bad one either. It's hard not to root for him...at least a little.
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greensara wrote:Steven Stone - Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
I see you're someone after my own heart. :lol:


I get super attached to characters rather easily; they're my primary source of interest (yes, before plot!) in almost any media with a story. I'll try to keep my reasons for liking them fairly brief because I could talk about this topic all day!

Persona series: I really like the characters in the Persona series - they're always super interesting and one of the main reasons I love the series so much, which makes sense when half of the gameplay of the modern games is befriending characters and learning more about them to help you on your quest. Yusuke Kitagawa, Futaba Sakura, and Goro Akechi from Persona 5 - long story short, I've been through somewhat similar life experiences as the first two (though not quite so serious) and I find Akechi fascinating to think about from a character analysis standpoint. From Persona 4, my favourite is Yosuke Hanamura because I really like the way they do his friendship with the main character (and also his VA!), but honourable mention goes to Naoto Shirogane as well (I like detective-like characters apparently - I'm also a huge Sherlock Holmes fan lol). In Persona 3, I liked both Shinjiro Aragaki and Akihiko Sanada a lot. The Protagonists of P3-5 also have a ton of personality despite being more-or-less silent protagonists, more so than any other game I can think of, which I find really neat. There are a lot of minor characters I really liked in those games as well (Akinari Kamiki from P3 comes to mind, as does Sophia from P5 Strikers), but I don't want to go on forever so I'll stop here lol.

Pokémon: I was especially invested in Pokémon characters around middle school, and some of them are still quite important to me. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Steven Stone from Emerald is a huge favourite - I just thought he was so cool when I was a kid. Honourable mention goes to Red from Red/Blue (but especially his later appearances in the series because I find it fascinating that they chose to keep him as a canonically nonverbal character to honour his silent protagonist origins), Wallace, Archie, and Maxie (also Emerald - can you tell it's my favourite game in the series?), Volkner and Cyrus from Platinum, and N from Black/White.

Farming games: From the Bokumono series, Cliff (specifically his HM64 iteration) and Agate from SOS1 are some of my favs, and I was honestly surprised at how much I liked Brandon in SoS:FoMT. The whole cast of ToTT is also very special to me, with special mention to Cam, Oracle, and Mikhail for being some of my favourites. In Stardew Valley, I was a huge fan of Shane and ended up marrying him despite having originally planned to go for almost any other bachelor.

Other series: For the requisite Ace Attorney character I'm going to have to go with Miles Edgeworth - I've only played the first game, but I liked him a lot! In Bravely Default I was a big fan of Ringabel, as well as Jackal (more so in Bravely Second for him). I also have to mention River from To The Moon because she's one of the only examples of a canon autistic video game character that I can think of. I like a lot of Fire Emblem characters, but I have to mention Niles from Fates in particular because it was literally the first time I had played a game with a s/s marriage option and that was important to me. Like some others in this thread, Zagreus and Thanatos are my two picks from Hades, though honestly I like hearing from all the gods and minor characters in his game as well - it's super addicting how they dole out tiny tidbits of backstory the more you meet them. I also really like Maguro from Puyo Puyo Tetris, mostly because I enjoy his smug voice lines when I beat my friends. :lol:

That's all I can think of for the moment, and I think I got most of the main important ones. If I were to point out any general trends, I tend to like quieter characters with nerdy or unconventional interests (bonus points if that interest is some sort of artistic pursuit) that struggle a bit with relating to others, perhaps because I see myself in them. I also have a huge soft spot for characters with silver/white hair, as my friends like to tease me about (just look at the characters in my "other series" section lol).
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Kikki
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It's interesting how you guys are able to characterise the type you always end up falling for. I can't do that, beyond recognizing that the majority of characters I fall for are introverts. Always the quiet guys. I'm not sure if that's also my type in girls or not, though. I think I like fun, silly girls more, with a sparky-yet-dorky attitude.

Sprites, no worries...Level 5 is still making games :) Though lately they do seem to be putting most of their chips in on mobile gaming. I still hope that someday they'll make a proper Fantasy Life 2...an actual console game.
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greensara
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I was debating on including Link in my original post since I don't know which iteration is my favorite, but I am a huge LoZ fangirl. Considering I have more memorabilia from his games (clothes, figures, nearly all the Link amiibos, etc) than any other video game franchise, I suppose it's fair to say Link is also a favorite of mine, despite not being able to pick a single one (OoT and BoTW are pretty high ranked though). Other people have picked up on this as my little sister gave me an awesome manga-style drawing of BoTW Link, which I have framed and displayed on my dresser. :) (That girl could honestly work as an artist when she finishes highschool, not joking.) Lol, my husband teased me when I got that, asking if he needed to be jealous or not. He wasn't too worried though, as he surprised me with a chocolate triforce cake for my birthday. :heart:
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Riesenraddieb
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Hm, Fantasy Life. That one game I love but never finished ... maybe I can play it during vacation because I also don't remember a single character out of it!

As for favorites: I'm having a big problem with red-heads. They are alsways my favorites, don't know why. Even if they aren't that well written or have minimal screentime and a totally irrelavant for the story.
Best and mostly favorite example is Gerome from Fire Emblem Awakening. I'm not even sure why I like him in the first place but he is on of my alltime and mostly beloved characters. Yes, I would die for my Wyvern son! Even without much screentime, badly written background and no addition to the story at all - besides timetraveled child and that plothole-stuff. Sadly not so much merch for him otherwise I would role in piles of that stuff - but my best friend send me a keychain for christmas and I totally adore it and love it and ... <3

Also good example and way way older 'crush' is Brynjolf from Skyrim. I'm totally lost when it comes to him. And no of course he is not my mobile or iPad background. I would never do that! *hides both devices* And also again: I'm not sure why I love him. I do it but I can't pinpoint what it is exactly. Besides the fact he is a thief and had this mischief aura around him which kinda also seems like to attract me.

Other red-heads but better written but not so much loved: Zelos from Tales of Symphonia - even go a figurine of him! Shanks from One Piece. Diluc from Genshin Impact - my big ol' jealous firebirb! And best FF-villain in my opinion Ardyn from FFXV.
Axel from Kingdom Hearts used to be on the list too but I kinda fall out of love for him? I like him but don't love him.

And last but not least, not a red-head this time but also one of my alltime-favorites since I played the game:
Dorian from Dragon Age Inquisition.
He is such a good written and refreshing character with honestly one of the best designs I ever saw - I guess you can't dislike him. At least I don't know any DA-fan who totally hates him most are at least 'okay' with him.
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Well I always have to mention Alyx from Half-Life 2 when discussing this. Her personality, voice acting, just the character in general was just so endearing to me. Unfortunately nothing but implied interest with one another ... and then the way HL2 ended ... :(

Farm sims games, would have to go with Rosalind from RF2. I just went in expecting her to be that spoiled rich girl, and instead she turned out just being the sweetest thing. I kept expecting her to change or show her other side, but in the end she was just nice through and through.

Fire Emblem Three Houses, Bernadetta. A lot of interesting characters there, but none grew on me more than Bernadetta.
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LeBurns
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Kikki wrote:SNIP I have to play Fantasy Life again because I no longer even remember any of the characters. Though I don't think you could form actual relationships in that game...maybe that's why I don't remember them.
I really liked the game, and you could build and decorate houses, and such, and there were several men and women available you could have formed bonds with ... but no. No you couldn't have any kind of relationship. Which really bites. The one big issue I had with an otherwise near perfect game.
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