My Top Ten Favorite Video Game Characters, Part 1

From great games come great stories, and from great stories come great characters.  If I had to choose my favorite fictional character, I would probably explode.  I love good characters that are well written, entertaining to watch, and add something to the story they are in.  Characters that are interesting are easy to become emotionally invested in, and when we’re attached to a character, it makes the story even better, because we feel something towards it.  Whether we want the character to succeed and attain their goals, fail and be defeated, or just crack off another joke, we are invested in that character because they have become real to us.  This is even more awesome in a video game, because sometimes you are playing as or interacting with the character you love.  I decided to make this list of my favorite characters firstly because, of course, there are many awesome characters I want to talk about.  In addition, it will give me the opportunity to talk about several different games, some of which I’ve already discussed.  I’ll try to avoid spoilers for major plot points in each game, but talking about why I love a particular character will definitely involve SOME stuff being given away, so be warned. 

So I sat down one night and compiled a list of a bunch of characters I liked.  Surprisingly, narrowing them down to ten wasn’t as hard as I thought, as the characters I’ve ended up with are the ones that really stand out to me.  There are a couple of rules I made for this list:  Only one character per game series, because otherwise a bunch of them would probably be from the same game.  Also, the character must have been originally created for a video game, so no games based off of movies, books, or animes will be counted, since I wanted to keep the focus specifically on video game characters.  Unfortunately, I have to split the list up into several posts, otherwise it would be ridiculously long.  I will write about two characters per week and make the entire list five posts long.  I hope you all enjoy reading about the characters and why they’re my favorites!

10.  SGDS, from The Infinite Ocean

"Infinity lies beyond these walls."

  This character is unique among its peers due to the game that it originates from.  The Infinite Ocean is a flash game, meaning it’s played on an internet website.  Usually, they are fun little distractions made by just a few people, and not generally known for their deep plots and interesting characters.  However, this game is one of the most thought-provoking and philosophical that I’ve ever played, mostly because of the central character, an artificial intelligence known as SGDS. 

Sometime in the hypothetical future, a group of scientists come together with the purpose of creating artificial life.  This project has been undertaken many times in the past, but this group builds upon past failures and decides to go all-in.  As you progress, you come to understand each scientist on the project through the journals they have recorded, and much of the game is spent reading various philosophies, not only on how to create life, but how to feel about it once they succeed.  The scientists are having a hard time paying for the extensive hours that everyone has to work, and it seems that they will fail, until the government offers them military funding.  In exchange, this will officially be a government project, and the AI they are creating will be their property.  Many of them are opposed to the idea of their creation being used like this, but they eventually relent, because it’s important to them that their dream be realized.  Eventually, after years and years of programming, they flip the ‘on’ switch and watch as the first life created by man displays two solitary words on a computer screen:  “I AM.”

This game is really fun and has challenging puzzles in addition to the dialog, most of which involve escaping through strange and creepy rooms.  It's a very atmospheric game, with depressing music and cryptic messages left on computer screens.

What follows is some of the most in-depth, morally ambiguous, and thought-provoking dialog I have ever read.  The Sentient Global Defense System, as the military dubs it, converses with its creators and quickly learns everything about our world.  It records its own thoughts about everything, the nature of life and death, why we feel emotion, what true beauty is, what love is.  It’s incredibly fascinating and the designer did a fantastic job making this character feel real.  His writing is inspirational and very open to interpretation, and you feel like a philosopher after playing this game.  I would love to sit and have a long conversation with SGDS about… well, everything. 

When a giant world war erupts, the military wrests control of SGDS away from its creators, who have grown to love and respect it over time.  They plan to use the AI’s vast intellect and power to control all of their weapons and strategically use them to win the war.  SGDS, who after extensive thought has deemed the Earth as a beautiful and irreplaceable gift, and life to be worth living, refuses its task, as using the weapons it possesses would likely cause the deaths of millions.  The military puts SGDS into ‘emergency mode’, which is a dream-like state of hibernation that allows them to control the AI’s actions.  What happens next is entirely up to how the player views the events and clashing mindsets within the game. 

 

You can play this game at armorgames.com for free, if you’re interested!

9.  *Hyun-ae, from Analogue:  A Hate Story

 

This is yet another weird and unique game.  Presented in the style of a graphic novel, the actual gameplay is mostly reading, similar to The Infinite Ocean.  Oddly enough, this character is also an AI, and once again, the game is set in the far future.  You are a Space Investigator who is sent on a mission to download the record logs of a ruined Korean generation ship that mysteriously vanished several centuries ago.  You must read through the many letters, security records, and diaries of the ship’s passengers to determine what caused the catastrophe.  However, it would be boring if there wasn’t a little interaction with some fun characters along the way, right?

There are a couple of AI’s in the ship’s systems that can help you discover the truth, two mysterious women named *Hyun-ae (pronounced Hyun-MAY) and *Mute.  Both of them have separate personalities, opinions, and dark secrets.  I chose *Hyun-ae as my favorite because she is far more mysterious and more interesting to talk to.  As you discover more and more of what happened aboard the ship, you also discover more about the two AIs helping you.  *Hyun-ae was originally a human girl born on the ship.  She was diagnosed with an incurable disease that would cause her immune system to degrade until she died.  She was given only a couple of years to live, and her parents decided to cryogenically freeze her, suspending her body in time until a point in the future where they could hopefully cure her disease. 

However, when she woke up, things had taken a very different turn.  The ship society, as you have figured out from the various letters, had somehow devolved into neo Confucianism.  This is a fancy way of saying that the new way of life was a more old-fashioned and medieval way of thinking, meaning that women's sole purpose in life was to get married, have children, and attend to their husband.  Imagine waking up and discovering your right to speak your mind and live freely had vanished.  Not to mention that their medical techniques had also degraded, so there was no way she could be cured.  *Hyun-ae's backstory and dialog is really emotional as well as fascinating. 

*Mute is also a great character.  The two AIs despise each other and each blame the other for their personal problems, which is a really funny and interesting dynamic.  When you show one of them a letter and they state their opinion of it, it’s always cool to see how the other one reacts.  Overall, the game is incredibly fun, despite most of it being reading.  Because you can make choices in how you talk to each AI and focus more on one or the other, the story is drastically changed based on your personal views. 

I don’t want to spoil the major parts of the game, but suffice to say that at some point you have to choose between the two AIs.  One of them is lost forever, and the other is the one you’re stuck with for the rest of the game.  The first time I played, I had grown more attached to *Hyun-ae, and was more interested in her story.  No matter which one you choose, there are parts of the story that are cut off from being solved without both of their perspectives.  In contrast to *Mute’s sassy and obnoxious nature, *Hyun-ae is more shy and reserved, although she will still readily state her thoughts, if you let her.  Over the course of the game, you uncover the mysteries surrounding her life, and based on how you feel about her and talk to her, you will have different results.  I love the characters in this game, and the ability to talk to *Hyun-ae is what puts her slightly above SGDS on the list. 

This is just the beginning of what has turned into a pretty long list, so stay tuned!  Post a comment about your own favorite fictional characters!