Villains may frequently be my favorite part of any good story, but there has to be a protagonist capable enough to face them, right? Listed below are my ten favorite video game heroes, and a few reasons why they made such an impact on me.
10) Melia – Xenoblade Chronicles
Barring one specific, spoilerific, exception, Melia is the last member to officially join your party in Xenoblade Chronicles. Nonetheless, she’s absolutely the one who made the biggest impression on me in my first playthrough. It helps that, immediately after joining your team, she receives an entire arc of the story dedicated to her home, family, and personal growth. It also helps that she’s voiced by the inimitable Jenna Coleman. Her sleek, angelic design is also striking.
Melia is the crown princess of the High Entia people, and she carries herself with the poise and grace one would expect someone of that station to hold. At the same time, she’s only half High Entia, a fact in which many of her subjects continuously demean her for. She’s painfully aware of the careful balancing act she needs to maintain in her life, and she is also painfully aware that her affection for fellow party member Shulk is not returned (I think you’re awesome, Melia). She suffers much over the course of the game, but keeps her head held high, as she learns to trust more in her companions instead of shouldering so much burden alone.
9) Elma – Xenoblade Chronicles X
Elma was there when humanity was obliterated by warring alien forces, and she was instrumental in helping a few select groups of humans board a massive spacefaring vessel and escape earth’s destruction. She stood strongly by humanity’s side as they reached the planet Mira and settled down to carve out a new existence for themselves. She even co-founded the military protection group BLADE. It’s impressive that she did all of this, because she is not even a human.
This is a very late game reveal, but Elma has been an alien lifeform the entire game. She uses an enchanted disguise in order to avoid being found out, because she worries how humanity might think of her after the death of billions in an intergalactic war. The relief she feels when the main character and friends tell her that they don’t care at all how she looks on the outside is palpable. She is able to continue on being the absolute hero that she is, dutifully following orders, completing missions, and taking down monsters, all while being effortlessly cool.
8) Rean Schwarzer – Trails of Cold Steel
Rean is a one-of-a-kind JRPG protagonist. On the surface, he’s extremely similar to many other sword-wielding, dark haired anime boys. Underneath, he’s struggling with the shocking revelations of his heritage, the loss of those close to him, his feelings of self-doubt, and the mounting pressures thrust upon his life. In the full course of this four-game series, you really get to explore ever facet of his character, and it’s awesome.
Rean is your average nice-guy protagonist, the kind who can’t help but aid every single hapless citizen in need, who rushes recklessly to the rescue of his classmates, and who is so dense that whatever you say to him (especially a confession of love) is bound to be misinterpreted. Even still, he’s earnest, sincere, surprisingly funny, and played brilliantly by his actor, Sean Chiplock. The emotional baggage settled upon him is picked away, layer-by-layer, by the caring friends and familial bonds he forges through the 200+ hour journey. It helps that he’s also unequivocally the best party member!
7) Alicia Melchiott – Valkyria Chronicles
Alicia certainly makes an interesting first impression. A member of the local town guard, she apprehends the main hero, Welkin, because she mistakes his nature journal for secret spy codes. Extremely capable, immensely caring, and aghast at the sudden imperial invasion, Alicia takes arms to fight back. She signs up for the war effort and distinguishes herself from the other soldiers with her insane combat ability (both in-universe and actual gameplay). All the while, her relationship with Welkin deepens.
And then it’s revealed she’s a Valkyria, a one-in-a-million girl born with overwhelming destructive power, whom everyone wants to make use of. Alicia’s capability for devastation, and the growing push from many around her to use that power, takes its toll on her, to the point where she considers suicide her only way out. Her scream of “I never wanted this” is chilling every time I listen to it. Even still, Welkin and the other members of her squad stick by her and support her, bringing her back from the brink. She survives the war and faces the new day, finally completing her lifelong dream by opening a bakery.
6) Poppi – Xenoblade Chronicles 2
If you had told me before I played that the single greatest character in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was going to be a seemingly emotionless little robot girl, I probably would not have believed you. I would then have been proven wrong, because Poppi is amazing. From her introduction, to her action-packed fight scenes, to the adorable little dance she does as part of her idle animation, Poppi steals the show.
Poppi is introduced as a fairly typical, monotone robot companion, though she shows signs of occasional snark and glib remarks at her creator’s frequent foolishness. Over time, her emotions grow and grow, until she’s forming genuine bonds and making her own decisions. She hits her stride when she gently soothes a distraught Rex (the main character), and peaks in the climatic final moments of the game, wherein she has to hold Rex back while another character sacrifices themselves to save the party. Poppi’s voice cracks as she cries to Rex, and it breaks my heart everytime. She is one of the few gems of a character in this game, and I’m so glad she exists.
5) Nathan Drake – Uncharted
The best thing about Nathan Drake is how real he feels. A large part of this has to do with the fact that every single Uncharted game is fully motioned captured, so Nathan was literally filmed as a real person before being digitized. His actor, Nolan North, also does an outstanding job portraying Nathan across all four (five, I suppose) games in the series, and the character progression that Nathan follows from start to finish is nothing short of incredible.
Nathan, by his very nature, is the kind of character who refuses to slow down to stop and think. He lives his life at a million miles an hour, because if he were to stop, he would have to confront things about himself that he doesn’t like. His broken childhood, his rocky relationships, and his anxiety of commitment and attachment, and his fear of losing all of that. Having to come to terms with it all is rough, but his stalwart friend Sully and wife Elena are in it for the long haul with Nathan, every step of the way. By the final game’s credits, he earned his happy ever after.
4) Lara Croft – Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider
Lara Croft has been a gaming icon for decades now, but not…really for the right reasons. It took until Crystal Dynamic’s 2013 reboot of the franchise for Lara to truly shine as a realistic, believable, competent survivor. Over the span of a trilogy, Lara demonstrates what true strength is like, as she fights against overwhelming odds time and time again. She never loses sight of who she is, even as she grows from frightened survivor, to capable explorer, to a true hero.
Lara has to put up with a lot in this trilogy, and it’s a pretty viscerally raw experience since you control her yourself. Every wild animal attack, every mercenary shootout, every mountain climbed. They all leave their mark on Lara, molding her into the tomb raider she’s destined to become (this trilogy is a prequel, of sorts). She never puts herself on a pedestal either, as she cherishes the few dear friends that she has, and is desperate to always try and see the good in people. If anyone on this list is a realistic role model, it’s her.
3) Lucina – Fire Emblem Awakening
Lucina lives a heartbreaking existing for the majority of Fire Emblem Awakening. Everyone she ever loved or cared about died, including her family. Her world was burned to ash, and she only barely was able to escape into a rift in the universe and travel to a different version of her world. There, she dons a masked disguise and wanders the continent, doing what she can to avert the disaster that ravaged her old life. She asks for nothing in return.
Of course, it is only inevitable that her father, even though he’s younger in this new world, would recognize her. When he does, the walls crumble down, and Lucina breaks apart from the stress of it all. Her father holds her, promises that everything will be fine, and that everyone in this new world will fight with her to change the future. Lucina reaffirms her resolve, dedicated to ridding evil from the world. Her character is further enhanced by support conversations with your other army members, who all perished in her own world. Your player character, a customizable avatar, also has amazing interactions with her, as you can both marry her, or marry her father (thus technically being her mother). Time shenanigans aside, Lucina never disappoints, as much as she fears she may.
2) Shulk – Xenoblade Chronicles
I loved Shulk after my first playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles, but it was after a few repeat playthroughs that I realized just how amazing he is. As I’ve touched on the aspects of his character that are so good in my Xenoblade article from last week, I’ll keep this spot here as brief as I can. I will also not hesitate to mention again that his actor, Adam Howden, is incredible in every single way with his performance.
Shulk’s progression is so atypical for a JRPG protagonist. He’s motivated by blind revenge, pushing forward with violence without slowing down. Even then, he’s still so kind and compassionate to his friends and the citizens of the world. As he matures, he recognizes that violence isn’t the answer, and that the big bad villain he’s been fighting is almost the same as him. Shulk decides to instead push for peace, and even convinces that villain to do the same. His earnest heart is in the right place, but he never loses that passionate fire of conviction.
1) Komaru Naegi – Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls
Who could possibly oppose the greatest video game villain of all time, but the best protagonist? Komaru is the megaphone-blasting heroine of Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls, and the amount of suffering she endures through the course of the game is nothing short of staggering. Even still, she comes out the other side all the better for it, forging through the fires of despair in a character arc so extremely well written it remains unmatched by anyone else from the Danganronpa series (a series with notoriously good characters).
Komaru is the dictionary definition of naïve and blissfully optimistic as the game starts, even amidst the carnage of a bloody, all-out, children versus adult war. As she is faced with increasingly traumatic darkness, her hope doesn’t waver. Instead, it is supplemented by a stoic resolve to keep pressing on and fighting against evil, no matter the cost or sacrifice. At her darkest moment (realizing her own parents have been murdered), she’s pulled back from the brink by her best friend Towa, and the two form an unstoppable pair against Monaca’s tyranny. The horrible events of the game force Komaru to grow up fast, but she doesn’t become a stone-faced cynic. She realizes that a reassuring smile is often the greatest weapon against fear.
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 