What makes a hero?

[Wrecking Ball]

You have to connect with at least one of the main characters in a game to fully enjoy it. Maybe they're the aloof, disdainful type who hide away their true feelings. Perhaps you like the lost character, searching for meaning to their life, or some other deep mystery.

So what makes a good hero or heroine for you? Do you always like the same sort of character, or does it change according to the game and story?

I find myself drawn to the ones with a quirky sense of humor. Loyalty also comes up a lot, the fun-loving but truly dedicated ones.

[Deepfake]

Honestly, I don't care if someone's a hero or not. As long as they're doing something. I get so sick of the feeling how, in most RPGs, you're just sort of walking around doing whatever.

[Heroine of the Dragon]

I don't really think of them as being 'hero/ines' as such... I just gotta connect with the character in some way to appreciate them more... perhaps they're cheeky (think PM:TTYD) or they have more to their story than you at first know (think FFIX/FFVI).

[Cravdraa]

I have to be able to like their personality. If I can't do that, I don't tend to like the game. I'm not actually that picky though, so I try to give pretty much all Heros and Heroines they're fair chance. I like variety because it would get boring if they were all the same.

[Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds]

I'm always drawn to the very loyal but playful ones. Eccentrics are always good. Like Zidane, Locke, uhmm... I can't think of anyone else right at this moment. But I don't tend to really connect with a lot of the main characters. Mysterious, reserved ones can be cool, and there's almost always one around.

A great deal of female characters are portrayed as things I don't really like much. Freya was a good one though, with such sorrow in her past all catching up...

[OcarinaMan]

Weird hair. Name the last RPG hero with normal hair.

[Ace Mercury]

Not in terms of the main character, but I like the active, spunkier characters. Characters like Yuffie, Selphie, Arche (Tales of Phantasia), Mint (Threads of Fate), etc. I suppose mainly because their behaviour is easy to stereotype, and thus many humourous situations can occur, especially with they play foil to a more serious character.

That being said, having an entire game with off-the-wall characters would probably suck, as this wackyness cannot exist in a vacuum. A well-rounded cast with different character types with well defined characterizations is key.

If you're just talking about the main character though, some RPGs make it so that you are the main character; the big tip-off is that your character does not speak (like in Half-Life, although that's not strictly an RPG per se). The archetypal example is Chrono Trigger, wherein the only thing you know about Crono is that he has a mom and some cats. If that's the case, the main character doesn't really have any personality himself; you are the character basically. In this case, it is hard to come up with a main character that you dislike. It could be that he has a terrible graphic design (I hate his hat! etc.) or that he ends up doing things that you hate. In having the main character not say or do anything, he steps aside and allows the other characters to take the limelight.

Other games have it so that the main character has a personality. FF7 is a good example, as Cloud is not strictly you; He knows things that you do not, until he reveals them to you. In this case, I like characters which have something that I can relate to; just like a horoscope, I suppose, in the sense that most people can relate to that character. Cloud had the wants-to-be-someone-but-then-faking-it sort of thing going that I can find within me. Squall had that I-don't-want-to-rely-on-people sort of thing that I get from time to time. Mint had that childish World Domination mindset that I would do if I had magic powers. There has to be a hook that makes me want to be that character in a sense, or otherwise want that character to succeed (and thus play the game). Otherwise that character just fades into the background like the previous hero type.

[Jonathan Good]

I like characters in Rocket propelled grenades that don't abide by cliches.

[Aqsol]

A hero is made if he has a really big sword.

Case closed

[Inferno Dragon]

honestly, as long as the person in question is willing to take up the fight against evil they are a hero in my opinion.

[Glyph Phoenix]

Pah. "Fighting evil"? Everyone knows that the hair and the sword make the hero.

[Cysma]

The main hero in an RPG could either be someone you can relate to and "become", or watch the story unfold from the perspective of a hero that has a character of his own.

I like it when the hero has no default name, and takes on the name of the player. That way, if you name the hero after yourself, you'll see your name being called out in the game and become more involved in the story. Since your brain responds in a reflex sort of way when you see or hear your own name, it will feel like you're IN the story, rather than watching it like a movie.

Of course, this specific hero may not have any specific script. Everything he says is determined by you, just as you would in reality. Your choices could also give the hero his own unique personality. Think of the Knights of the Old Republic games: Even when all of your dialogue choices basically say the same thing, you can respond in different personality types. Be it a simple response, a heroic one, or add a smart-alec remark and threaten your comrades. These choices will also determine your moral standpoint throughout the game, as good or evil.

[OcarinaMan]

Originally posted by Glyph Phoenix:
Pah. "Fighting evil"? Everyone knows that the hair and the sword make the hero.

Or swords.

[spooky scary bearatons]

I'd prefer a villian to a hero anyday, but thats just my opinion...

BUT! To stay on topic.. A mindless, strange and a ALLWAYS HUNGRY Hero makes the hero

Heroic Super Villian

Peace.

[Leinad]

a main heroine usually has to have smaller boobs than everyone else in an RPG, though am I the only one who noticed that? oh and masa, gutsman no like bumped up dead topics!

[spooky scary bearatons]

[QUOTE=dekugorozor]a main heroine usually has to have smaller boobs than everyone else in an RPG, though am I the only one who noticed that? oh and masa, gutsman no like bumped up dead topics![/QUOTE]
Trust YOU to find that out.. O.o
And it is oddly true, FFX for example Lulu's tits > Yuna's tits...
O_o


/bump

Peace.

(Is bumping agaisnt the rules, if so... oops sorry)

[Nomyt]

[QUOTE=MasaHiro]
(Is bumping agaisnt the rules, if so... oops sorry)[/QUOTE]
Yes it is, also read the faq. forums/faq.php

[spooky scary bearatons]

Thanks alot, I won't do it again. ^^

[Terrapin-Knight]

The absence of those characteristics that makes me dislike him. With the lack of any decent characterization for games of this genre, any protagonist without any outstanding traits that would make me dispise him is suitable. It's easy enough to like him if he's bland, and it's even easier to simply imagine all sort sof amorphous and appealing characteristics onto him if he has no character of which to speak.

In case you wonder what sort of traits I dislike, I hate stuff like psychosis, pseudo-Freudian complexes, misanthropy, the fighter-warrior ethos. Pretty much any main character from a major Square title on the PS1 has the first three characteristics I hate. For the last, see someone like Arngrim from Valkyrie Profile.

[Leinad]

the main hero almost always uses a sword, though usually it is altered, e.g. Gunsword, big sword.