Your most memorable game character of 2017

[Starling]

I've been thinking about Lara Croft lately. Why is she an iconic video game character? Why do so many characters in modern video games go unnoticed? There's plenty of Lara Croft type characters in modern games. Why don't they become iconic and long remembered even after their game series has ended like Beyond Good and Evil's Jade or Thief's Garrett? I think the main reason why Lara has become an icon is because she was one of the first female solo protagonists. Not to mention her longetivity with plenty of games featuring her over the 23 years. Her latest form in reboots is honestly not as strong (in spiritual sense) and iconic as her confident and bold old self. But that hasn't diminished her overall icon status.

But in modern times a lot of characters don't become icons, they just have some limelight but then fizzle out. I'm here to remedy that even if a little.

My most memorable character was in a game which's story mode was largely ignored (and for quite a few good reasons). She is For Honor's Apollyon. There's a few good reasons why she was so memorable. First is her distinctive look of black armor and intimitating helmet but second and more importantly is that you hear her a lot in the game because she also narrates the story and tells the lore when you interact with collectibles. Meaning, you not only learn a lot about the world through her, you also learn about herself. She comes off as wise and unbiased in a world where everyone is biased and yet she carries her evil purpose with confidence that very few characters have ever carried. She is as worthy of main villain title as the best of them across great many franchises.

Also her voice actress Catherine Kidd is brilliant and has great voice. When I think of Apollyon I still hear her voice in my head. That's how powerfully Catherine Kidd delivers her character.

Apollyon, I salute you. You left quite an impression.

 

[NegFactor]

I guess if we're going by 2017, my vote goes to 2B.

If we're talking about why Lara Croft is an iconic character, it's because she has a franchise built around her first with some solid (for the time) TPP platforming adventures, then some terrible ones, then a rebirth of her into an entirely different style/personality and some extreme love and care offered to graphics and gameplay. Tomb Raider 2 was an awesome game for its time, even though we can all agree that the PSX blockiness was a hot mess to look at and simply served its purpose for the time. That original trilogy was enough to get two very bad movies with Angelina Jolie in them and that's around the time we started getting some terrible iterations that were more enjoyable for their bugs than for the game itself. The reboot saw a lot of attention because a lot of people tried to paint it as misogynistic before the game even came out for a few reasons that fell rather flat later -- the end result was a game where she was a truly empowered heroine who had to overcome some bleak odds at the start when everything went to shit. It ended up having a fun enough story and solid enough gameplay that everyone wanted to eat at the table that was Rise of the Tomb Raider -- and it didn't disappoint in cranking things up a notch.

All that being said, I don't think you need a legacy to make a good iconic character. I think you just need a game that carries a solid enough story coupled with a character (or characters) with enough personality to invest your time into them. Lots of games make passable characters who don't bring a lot to the table, but few games truly invest you in those characters. For me, I felt like Nier: Automata did its job with 2B -- enough so that I was willing to go see all the endings, regardless of how silly some of them were.

 

[Master_Craig]

My favourite character of gaming in 2017 would definitely be Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd love to say "Link" from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but at the end of the day, Link didn't have that much of a personality because he's deliberately designed to essentially be a self-insert of the player who controls him.

Aloy has a wicked design (the long, braided red hair reminded me of a lion's mane) and she's a bad arse. Cunning, brave, resourceful, intelligent and witty, I liked Aloy because she easily stood out among the characters in Horizon Zero Dawn. Granted, she is the protagonist, so she is supposed to, but in some games, other characters are just as likable, if not more popular than the primary protagonist.

I also think it's great that Aloy is a female character that isn't primarily designed to showcase sex appeal (note: I know a lot of female characters/protagonists are not like classic Lara Croft, which is great, but it still happens, happens with male characters too, of course).

Aloy is also voiced by Ashley Burch, who is best known for her classic "Hey Ash, What'cha Playin" web series, as well as voicing Chloe Price in the first Life is Strange. I used to watch "Hey Ash, What'cha Playin" when I was younger, and I liked Chloe Price in Life is Strange... not at first, though.

I'll make a separate post about Lara Croft and why I think she's "iconic".

 

[Master_Craig]

I've never been a big fan of Lara Croft. I think to be honest, it was because as a child, I was a huge Nintendo fanboy, and my closest friend at the time had a Playstation and was a huge Sony fanboy, so we were constantly having childish (no pun intended) bickering matches about what was better, Nintendo or Sony.

Lara's iconic though because she was one of the first female protagonists of gaming. She was a bad arse too, physically capable, ran around dual wielding pistols (and getting other guns later), doing crazy flips and shit while shooting at bad guys with guns and Goddamn T-Rexes. Controlling Lara though was honestly like trying to steer a staggering cow, but that's beside the point.

Then there was Lara's sex appeal. She was essentially the stereotypical "male fantasy". This appeal was also controversial, and you know what they say about negative publicity? Any publicity is good publicity. More and more people knew about Lara Croft and probably for the wrong reasons. I mean, bloody hell, look at the box art below.

She also just kept appearing in games. Over the course of the last twenty two years, Lara Croft has been in seventeen games. On top of that, she's also been seen in films and played by Angela Jolie.

With the new games, I love the direction they've taken, but I honestly didn't enjoy Rise of the Tomb Raider. I thought the 2013 reboot was awesome, but Rise of the Tomb Raider was ultimately to me, a disappointing experience that felt like a chore to play.

 

[NegFactor]

I never really watched HAWP because I wasn't a fan of Anthony Burch in the first place, so skipping HAWP just made sense to me. I have a lot of bias against Ashley because she utterly wrecked the voice for Rise when they had her come in on Dancing All Night. That being said, her acting for Zero Dawn was fine -- nothing too bad, nothing amazing. If I had gotten further into Zero Dawn, I'm sure I would have been fine with her down the line, as Aloy seemed like a fun enough character in general.

 

[NegFactor]

I thought the 2013 reboot was awesome, but Rise of the Tomb Raider was ultimately to me, a disappointing experience that felt like a chore to play.

Them's fightin' words. Now you're out of my Will. Thankfully, you're forgiven because you enjoyed 2013's reboot, so you're back in my Will again.

 

[Master_Craig]

Them's fightin' words. Now you're out of my Will. Thankfully, you're forgiven because you enjoyed 2013's reboot, so you're back in my Will again.

It's disappointing because to tell you the truth, I was really looking forward to Rise of the Tomb Raider. I enjoyed the first one so much that I was absolutely psyched to play the sequel (I've finished the first one three times, once on PS3, once on PC and again on PS4).

I had to wait until 2016 though, as I have a PS4 and the PS4 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider didn't release until late 2016, due to the timed exclusive deal that Microsoft had for the X-Box One.

Graphically, Rise of the Tomb Raider was insane, but I didn't like some of the design choices, especially in upgrading equipment. While most of the difficulty was challenging, some parts felt downright unfair, and I did experience some bugs that forced me to restart from my latest auto-save as said bugs prevented me from progressing forward. Slowly, as I got closer to the end, the game just felt like a chore to me. :/

 

[NegFactor]

I feel you on the upgrade system. I never had an issue with bugs, though. In my case, I didn't even get to play Rise of the Tomb Raider until last year because I had a huge backlog and like you, I was on PS4. I actually haven't finished it yet -- not because I didn't like the game for any reason or wasn't having much fun, but rather my wife took such a keen interest in the two games that I set it aside for her to play after she finishes the first one. She watched me play through the first one almost entirely and she had a great time with watching and wanted to jump in there, herself.

 

[used44]

Hard Agree with Craig on 'Rise of the TR'. I played through the first reboot twice but couldn't finish Rise.

 

[Master_Craig]

It is a shame. I was so pumped for Rise of the Tomb Raider and I was really looking forward to it. When I played it, I wanted to enjoy it and I tried to, but in the end it just turned out to be... well, not what I was hoping for, I guess?

 

[Jason Faulkner]

For me the character of 2017 had to be Kazuma Kiryu. I had heard great things about Yakuza, and even owned a few I never got around to playing, but going back to the PS2 to start the series from the beginning was a little too daunting for me to ever pull the trigger. When Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami released on PS4 though, I was hooked and it's one of my favorite series now.

Kiryu is such a strange character. He's embodies the traditional Japanese tough guy image and somehow completely subverts the trope by being an incredibly selfless and caring dude. The games themselves also exemplify the gangster movie/game genre while also being a huge parody with the ridiculous side quests and activities you can take part in.

There were a lot of other great games in 2017, but I don't think any of them had as much style and punch as Yakuza 0 and Kiwami. A close second would be Persona 5, but none of the characters left an impact quite like Kiryu did. I'm excited to finally play Yakuza 6 soon since it looks like the controls, graphics, and animation might finally be at the same level of quality the rest of the package is.

 

[Starling]

Man, I'd really like to play a Yakuza game as I ever only hear good things about them but I don't intend to get a Playstation anytime soon or ever. I guess the closest I can play is Sleeping Dogs but that takes itself so seriously there are no fun sidequests to have. I'd love to see closer what Kazuma Kiryu is like. There is a slim chance that Yakuza games could be ported to PC but it is quite slim. Atlus has been bringing a lot of games over but no sight of Persona or Yakuza yet.

I guess if we're going by 2017, my vote goes to 2B.

/.../

All that being said, I don't think you need a legacy to make a good iconic character. I think you just need a game that carries a solid enough story coupled with a character (or characters) with enough personality to invest your time into them. Lots of games make passable characters who don't bring a lot to the table, but few games truly invest you in those characters. For me, I felt like Nier: Automata did its job with 2B -- enough so that I was willing to go see all the endings, regardless of how silly some of them were.

2B was definitely one of my favorites. The game served her as a pretty dynamic character that's mission focused and disciplined but also has a softer side to her that quite often shone through the cool and collected exterior. She also was loyal to the cause even when she questioned it and found it lacking she didn't abandon it. Quite admirable character trait. I hope she'll appear in Soul Calibur 6 as a guest character, she would fit in so well.