So, this is a bit of a weird one, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the different videogame characters that have inspired me from a writing perspective. If any of you don’t know, I’ve written three novels at this point, and writing is one of my favorite things to do in my free time (hence this 100+ article-long blog). As such, I felt like taking this week to look at some of the best written characters I’ve come across in gaming, and briefly touch on why I think so for each one.
Without further ado, let’s jump in!
(Also, please forgive me for the mini UICS written for the #1 entry on this list. I couldn’t help myself.)
10) Uendo Toneido ~ Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice
As per Contrarian Corner tradition, we’re coming in swinging with a really unexpected pick, but one I’m prepared to defend.
Uendo is the central witness (but not killer) of the fairly inconsequential fourth case in Spirit of Justice, but BOY HOWDY does the game push him to the fullest. He lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and is actually one of the most accurate portrayals of said disorder in video games (it helps that he isn’t demonized or treated inhumanely by the writing quality or the other characters). Each of his personalities is wholly distinct, and it’s wonderful to interact with them and psychoanalyze each one. They play off each other great too, and Uendo ends up having huge impact on the case as a whole. It’s great fun across the board!
9) Monika ~ Doki Doki Literature Club
Monika has been mentioned several times across my blog by now, so seeing her show up shouldn’t be a surprise.
Whether it’s as the main antagonist (of the main game), or as the leading protagonist (of the what-if side story), Monika is effortlessly and endlessly enjoyable. There’s such a wonderfully clever, anxiety-inducing charm to her manipulative teasing during the main game (like when she berates you for ‘leaving Sayori hanging‘, on the same morning that Sayori…yeah…). It’s also great to see the incredible girl she could’ve been without the corrupting knowledge of sentience she’s burdened with in the main game, and it’s really easy to root for her building fun little literature club. She really feels like a person you’d want as a friend (the non-crazy version of her, of course), and getting to hear her with voiced dialogue during the credits is the icing on the cake.
8) Odin ~ God of War: Ragnarok
I’ve always been a much bigger fan of subtle villainy than the over-the-top clichéd baddies that are (thankfully) fading out of popularity. Odin is a perfect example of subtle villain.
It’s fitting, I suppose, given that Odin is the Norse God of Knowledge and Wisdom, but we’re so used to seeing Odin portrayed as a war-mongerer (or former war-mongerer, like in the MCU), or as a bombastic bruiser (like in Smite). Ragnarok swings in the opposite direction, presenting an almost mobster-like Odin who lies just as easily as he breathes, and has the entire world (and our main cast of heroes) wrapped up in his false promises and machinations for the majority of the game. Similar to Monika, it’s so much fun to analyze each and every word out of Odin’s mouth, and some later twists lend some heavy foreshadowing to earlier appearances you might not have noticed at first. He’s a greatly nuanced villain, whose end goal isn’t wholly one-note either.
7) Elro ~ Iconoclasts
Elro is the textbook definition of a character that you despise with every fiber of your being, and yet that feeling serves as the exact reason why he’s such a well-written character.
Genuinely, Elro might hit near the top of the charts if I ever did a ‘Top 10 Most Hated Gaming Characters“, but that really speaks to the ingenuity of his character and the quality of his writing. He’s a man whose own selfish actions have cost him everyone he loves except for his younger sister, and so now the only thing he cares about his keeping said sister safe. The issue is that he wholly fails to realize that this is still selfish, because he’s both denying Robin her own agency, and denying the world-at-large of their eager, selfless savior. Each time Elro seems to be growing, something reminds him of the family he lost and he regresses again, leaving his friends to pick up the pieces of this broken man. In a game bursting with amazingly written characters, my hate for Elro (carefully and intentionally cultivated by the developer), elevates him to the top.
6) Rise Kujikawa ~ Persona 4
This one is admittedly more personal to me than some of the others on this list, but seeing as how it is MY list, I couldn’t exclude my favorite character from the Persona franchise.
Rise almost feels like a character indicative of the all-consuming and mentally draining world of streaming, celebrity obsession, and low attention span entertainment that we live in today. Online, she’s one of the world’s most popular idols, but offline she despises her idol career, the fake persona (get it?) she has to adopt onscreen, and the total destruction of her privacy and peace thanks to greedy producers and rabid fans. And yet, there’s also a tangible love of acting and expressing herself that Rise can’t wholly deny being an idol grants her, thrusting her into an impossible, unwinnable situation. Is she the person she pretends to be around others, or is she the person she truly is when alone? It’s captivating stuff, and I can’t tell you how hard I cried during her social link.
5) Nathan Drake ~ Uncharted
If you’ve never written any narrative material before (whether for fun or for work), it can be extremely easy to underestimate the difficulty in writing believably human characters.
Almost as if by magic, Nate manages to accomplish this incredible feat across five entire games, never once losing his humanity in the process. He isn’t some over-the-top action hero performing superhuman feats all without getting a scratch. He’s just a regular guy with a thirst for adventure and a bad-luck streak a mile wide, that constantly gets him into sticky situations. You probably know someone just like him, and that’s a real testament to just how impeccable his writing (and vocal talent from Nolan North) really is. He takes hits, he makes mistakes, he reacts realistically to situations, and he deals with some heavy stuff…all like anyone would if put into his shoes.
4) Sasha ~ Tales from the Borderlands
On the topic of believable characters, Sasha might very well by one of the most grounded romantic partners I’ve seen in a game, which is incredible given the crazy sci-fi story (or the fact that it’s a BORDERLANDS game).
Sasha ticks every single box imaginable for crafting an incredible, complex, believably-flawed, and captivating romantic lead and protagonist. Chiefly, she exists outside of some sort of contained box of love-interestness. She has her own life, her own very strong beliefs and moral code, and her own dreams and aspirations. She’s witty and funny as heck, and a competent fighter and negotiator in a pinch. She’s fiercely loyal to her sister, and takes betrayal from trusted allies really roughly. Her and Rhys don’t get on at all upon first meeting, but they have just the glimmer of hope they need to foster that animosity into something greater. It’s wonderful seeing their relationship develop, and it’s doubly satisfying due to just how great of a character Sasha is.
Plus, this being a choose-your-own-adventure game, you (as Rhys) can mess up your relationship with Sasha beyond repair, so you genuinely have to be a great person to deserve even getting the time of day from her.
3) Shania Reid ~ Xenoblade Chronicles 3
To the bewilderment of absolutely no one, Shania is on the list, as if the 30-min reading length UICS article about her a few months back wasn’t clue enough of how much I love her. I’ll try not to repeat myself too much.
Shania claims the title of the best-written antagonist in any video game I’ve played through her expertly crafted and presented role in our main party’s quest, with much praise going to just how much screen time the developers gift Shania to work with. Despite not showing up until Chapter 5 (of 7), Shania instantly makes an impact on the story with copious cutscenes to metaphorically strut her stuff, and the philosophical debate she brings to the table about the nature of Aionios and reincarnation is an extremely interesting one. Then her tragic, multi-layered backstory comes swinging in with the weight of a truck, and you realize you’d need a full scientific breakdown and dissertation to even begin dissecting the complexly-woven fabric of incredible writing poured into this character.
Which, of course, is exactly why I need a novella-length article to cover her!
2) Komaru Naegi ~ Danganronpa Ultra Despair Girls
Komaru won top honors on my Top 10 Favorite Gaming Protagonists article, so of course I had to feature her again near the top of this list. She is, after all, my favorite lead character in any video game.
Komaru is one of the single best portrayals of a character facing down death and despair in the face, and still holding onto a sliver of hope propelling her to keep moving forward. To say that Komaru is put through the wringer over the course of her journey is not doing justice to just how much this determined high-schooler suffers by the time the credits roll. And yet, she maintains an incredible and enviable level of consistency and relatability in her writing. She falters through her initial peppy optimism, becomes more and more jaded and cynical, teeters on the edge of a full mental breakdown, and then figuratively blossoms into an overwhelmingly confident and self-assured woman who takes charge and ends the tyranny of the most vile villain in all of gaming. Her story is equal parts depressing and inspiring from start-to-finish, and her writing is just top notch.
Anyone who has read my personal narrative works knows that I am a huge fan of heroes who suffer great tragedies but still hold onto their hope and overcome their losses, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see why I love Komaru so much!
1) Brigitte “Rosie” Stark ~ Valkyria Chronicles
Rosie is far from your traditional pick, but for reasons I just fully can’t explain, she’s always the character that I come back to whenever I think about the excellent writing quality of Valkyria Chronicles.
Rosie is, on the surface, your standard ‘racist/bigot learns to change their ways’ type of character, but there is SO MUCH MORE to Rosie than just that. The problem many of these characters have is that their bigoted behaviors either aren’t treated as seriously as they should be, or said character’s eventual repentance feels unjustified, unsatisfying, or unearned. This isn’t the case with Rosie.
Rosie is hostile to the player character’s younger sister from the get-go. Isara, the aforementioned sister, is a Darcsen, a marginalized race in this fantasy world. Rosie wastes no time in berating and insulting Isara every chance she gets, and she’s called out for it by nearly everyone around her. Even then, Rosie clings to her bigoted views, refusing to acknowledge Isara as someone worthy of respect.
But, of course, Isara just keeps showing off her value to the team time after time, and even Rosie has to begrudgingly admit Isara is talented. The fiery redhead certainly isn’t happy, however, when the next mission involves liberating a Darcsen concentration camp from the militant Empire occupying it. Rosie is pretty annoyed by a precocious Darcsen girl who keeps wanting to show off her little doll. But, Rosie’s a soldier, and so she’s going to do her job.
The rebel squad manage to repel the Empire, but in a supreme act of cowardice, the fleeing Imperials burn the concentration camp, killing over a hundred innocent Darcsens…including the little girl who had tried to befriend Rosie. Rosie is utterly blindsided by this devastation, and she spends longer than anyone else helping to pick through the rubble for survivors, for reasons she can’t even fully reconcile with yet.
This isn’t the first attack like this that Rosie has faced. The Empire used to launch Darcsen Hunts in Rosie’s youth, and it was one of those very hunts that first sparked Rosie’s hatred of Darcsens. Erroneously believing a Darcsen to be nearby, a mercenary hunting group ransacked Rosie’s village and killed her parents, little Rosie barely surviving. Rosie then grew up blaming the Darcsens and their mere existence for the loss of her family…and not the true enemy responsible. It’s likely she couldn’t handle the trauma well all on her own.
After the concentration camp attack, Rosie recognizes that she needs to come to terms with all this, and apologize to Isara. However, when the chance arises, she falls right back on her old insults purely out of reaction, pushing Isara away. Her teammates berate her for this, and Rosie angrily snaps that she’s trying to improve, but her body just won’t let her.
This leads to, genuinely, one of the best written lines of character work in anything ever, and a line that has truly inspired my own writing for the past six years:
“I know, alright? I know! I’m trying! I just…I can’t just change overnight, okay? I’m…not that big of a person.”
Tragically, Rosie never gets the change to show Isara her steps towards growth, as Isara’s life is claimed by an Imperial sniper in the very next mission. She dies in Rosie’s arms right as the two were beginning to make amends. Understandably, Rosie is emotionally destroyed by this, no doubt plagued by the flashing thoughts of the innumerable ways in which she could’ve been a better friend and person to Isara.
This leads to brilliant moment of Rosie singing a eulogy at Isara’s funeral, calling back to Rosie’s earlier career as a songstress that gets teased in her backstory. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking scene, and it marks not only the official end of Isara, but also the death of the bitter, resentful, and bigoted Rosie. It also marks the birth of a newer, tolerant, boundary-defying, culturally-uniting Rosie.
Which, of course, caps off in a brilliantly cathartic mission where Rosie leads a team to ‘hunt’ down the remaining Darcsen hunters once and for all.
All this to say, I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that Rosie is realistically the greatest written character in all of gaming, but she’s absolutely up there. And for everything her and her character mean to me personally, she more than deserves the top spot on this list!
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 