In no particular order
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/suiko/suik2/art/suik2-021.gif
Georg Prime
Suikoden II/V
Loyalty is paramount to Georg, and after seeing the events of Suikoden V unfold, it’s understandable why he is so distant and somewhat of a pariah in Suikoden II. Due to events in Suikoden V, it’s clear how loyal he is to his friends and I respect that.
The Black Whirlwind
Jade Empire
Loud, rash, slovenly and drunk can describe The Black Whirlwind well… but there is method to his madness. Powerful and deadly, and shows that you appearances can be deceiving.
Yuri Hyuga
Shadow Hearts/Shadow Hearts Covenant
Initially meet him as a cold, aloof and rude individual (He’s even known as Rude Hero when you first control him) but over the course of the journey in the first game, we find out how strong he is mentally and then in the second, his determination to keep moving forward.
Bleu
Breath of Fire 1/2
Very powerful sorceress who (of course) knows more than she seems. Another one who has loyalty to their friends (in this case, the player character Ryu).
HK-47
Knights of the Old Republic I/II, Star Wars Galaxies and (hopefully) Star Wars The Old Republic
What can I say about this guy? Saracastic, homicidal and knowledgeable in a whole manner of ways to kill anything. The banter between him and T3-M4 in the KotOR games, is imo, based off the similar banter between Threepio and Artoo in the Star Wars movies.
Bleu
Breath of Fire 1/2
Very powerful sorceress who (of course) knows more than she seems. Another one who has loyalty to their friends (in this case, the player character Ryu).
HK-47
Knights of the Old Republic I/II, Star Wars Galaxies and (hopefully) Star Wars The Old Republic
What can I say about this guy? Saracastic, homicidal and knowledgeable in a whole manner of ways to kill anything. The banter between him and TK-47 in the KotOR games, is imo, based off the similar banter between Threepio and Artoo in the Star Wars movies.
Any sorceress who is a naga/lamia is an automatic win in any game for me. 😉
As for HK-47, I think you really mean he bickers with T3-M4 – as a KOTOR fan you should know better! 😉 For shame! Go stand in the corner and think about what you’ve done. :p
as for me…
Fayt Leingod from Star Ocean 3
The main character from Dragon Quest 5
Link from the Zelda series. Yes I know it’s not really an RPG, but fuck it, I calls it an RPG sometimes.
that’s all I got…
My favourite character is Nina from Breath of Fire 2. I wish that the game had more character interaction, because Nina’s personality and backstory in the game are quite interesting.
Also: black wings. That is all.
I can’t think of many others.
Elly from Xenogears maybe, but I can’t think of any more offhand that I really liked.
Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7
Jun from Valkyrie Profile
1 Sephiroth
2 Magus
3 Joachim Valentine
4 Nei
5 The Demi-Fiend
……………..
It appears that even with the above in BOLD and ITALICS, people still list FF characters in a NON FF thread…. /sigh
Oddly enough, its actually a good thing if RPG characters don’t stand out too much, because that usually means they work better with the rest of the cast, fit well into the story etc. Characters that really stand out (either as Ensemble Darkhorses or as The Scrappy), tend to dwarf all around them, shrinking the story to the size of what they themselves are doing and saying.
But if push comes to shove, I guess I’d go with:
1) Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2).
2) President John Henry Eden (Fallout 3).
3) General Radi Jaeger (Valkyria Chronicles).
4) Kreia/Darth Traya (Knights of the Old Republic 2).
5) Mr House (Fallout: New Vegas).
That list would obviously be quite different if FF games were allowed, and as I said, it leaves off quite probably hundreds of characters that I really love, even if they only have very small roles and/or who appeal because they excel in their role in whatever game they are in etc.
1. Alex (Lunar Silver Star Story)
2. Rikku (Kingdom Hearts)
3. Tidus (FF X)
4. Yuri Lowell ( Tales of Vesperia )
5. Lightning ( FF 13)
the demi fiend – just plain cool
Ashton Anchors – whats not to love about having two dragons attached to your back?
Tai Ho – Spear wielding, drunk fisherman with some of the best attack power
KOS-MOS
2. Commander Fucking Shepard – Mass Effect Series. Nothing like decking a dumbass reporter in the face and realizing that your main character just did that.
3. Yuri – Shadow Hearts Covenant – Got style. Got swag. Got skills. Also can transform into a beast, demon mother fucker and run shit. So cool.
4. Chris Lightfellow – Suikoden 3. Gotta love a woman in armor. Her story, art, and stance was sick.
5. Ayla – Reppin the Prehistoric Dance from 12000 BCE sup.
1 Joachim Valentine
2 Nei
3 Tidus
……………………
2 Dorilietes
3 Grimm
4 Nafrat
5 Lug
are my favorite characters.
…………………………..
Ike — Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (and Radiant Dawn)
I can’t explain why I like Ike. He’s modest, he’s quite brash, and he’s kind of a badass (I don’t see how he’s particularly cold) as well as a complete determinater. It helps that he’s the first main character in the series that isn’t of noble birth (at least, it seems that way starting out); I mean, his promoted class is Lord. It also helps a lot that his unpromoted class is Hero in FE10, and his promoted class is Vanguard; Vanguard is basically the Hero class from previous Fire Emblem games (it helps that the caps are very similar in scale — the Str/Spd are around the same with Skill being at the max).
Yuri Hyuga — Shadow Hearts&Shadow Hearts: Covenant
I can’t be bothered to go into too much detail; I never thought he was particularly cold either, but he was rude as hell and he pretty much molested Alice the first couple scenes of the game. If not for Koudelka then he wouldn’t have done shit. Even still, Yuri’s a great protagonist for a series, rather refreshing for a JRPG protagonist as well, and frankly he is one of the few JRPG protagonists I can say got the happy ending they truly deserved (assuming the Train ending to the Covenant, as opposed to the Curse ending).
Senel Coolidge — Tales of Legendia
I liked Legendia a lot for its simplistic and barebones gameplay, on top of a plot that I thought delivered quite well and lovable characters. Of course, people may vehemently disagree with that statement… and I love the protagonist. At first I thought he was a completely short-sighted asshole, and he doesn’t so much defrost as realize he’s not the center of the world (at least I think I’m interpreting this statement correctly); I thought he was a fantastic character myself, and he is actually more refreshing than Yuri Lowell was as far as Tales protagonists go. I didn’t even like Yuri Lowell that much.
Father Nier — Nier
I liked Nier as a character also; he’s a father who pretty much would do anything for his daughter. He’s snarky and would go out of his way to get money to help his daughter recover. I haven’t beaten Nier yet (I haven’t beaten Legendia either) but I love his character so far.
Tidus — FFX
Sadly I only ended up doing protagonists here… but this slot was a toss up between Tidus and Auron. Auron is too cliche, so I went with Tidus (which can be cliche but…) simply because no one else likes him. People who talk about the laughter scene can go fuck themselves because that had some subtext that was just lost in translation and whatnot, and its a 2 minute cutscene in a 50 hr game on top of the fact that they start genuinely laughing afterwards too.
That’s beside the point. He’s cheery, sunny (lol), and optimistic and honestly he doesn’t exactly try to enforce his burden on others… especially shown by the ending, where he knew he was going to disappear but went ahead with killing Yevon regardless of this. In the entire series he committed one of the greatest acts of altruism in the series and provided one of the saddest endings I’ve seen in a video game (especially because of the build-up, and the second time through is much sadder as a result of this). He may whine sometimes about father issues, but he always did it with either Auron, inside his own head, or once or twice to Yuna to the point where it didn’t entirely define his character.
As much as I like Tidus, I hated the fact that they revived him in FFX-2. It ruined the beauty of the ending of FFX on top of the vagueness of Tidus coming up to shore.