My Favorite Characters To Play As

You could say that this is an intended foil to the character customization list. But it’s really just another blog/list idea I’ve had in my head for years (in parallel with other ideas) of which I finally feel like setting aside the free time to make into an actual thing given that my whims are more oriented with Photoshop, video editing and playing games. But regardless, here’s another thought salad with some stipulations again:

• This is an unordered list, so you can read from top to bottom as usual.
• Blank slate characters are at a minimum. The point is to try to talk about characters that I like because of what they bring to the game, not those like Skyrim's Dovahkiin where you just impart your various preferences and mannerisms to that character. But with that said, in-between characters such as Charlie Tunoku can be exceptions if your interactions with other characters feels meaningful.
• Depending on the game's genre, temporary control of a character doesn't count, but of course this doesn't apply to fighting games since you're incentivized to try every character.
• Adding a character from one game to another using mods doesn’t count.
• Having a character from one game to another as guest DLC or a timed events count.
• And, up to two characters per franchise.

So, in the voice of DJ Khaled, another one.

List items

• 

  Franklin Clinton

  To be honest, I feel as though I have more of a likeness with Michael in terms of being snide and disgruntled, though not so much the robberies, murders and infidelity because my life is nowhere near that exciting. But at least for the early game, Michael looks at his wife and kids in the same way that I look at talking to people on the internet, which is why he’s probably my favorite of the three GTAV protagonists.

  …But, Michael has more of a talent shooting while Franklin’s racing side activities momentarily turn the game into Midnight Club, and I really like Midnight Club LA, therefore Franklin is the more enjoyable character for me to actually play as. But not to be dismissive of GTAV, his rags to riches storyline is a bit more impactful after taking a similar path with GTA Online. Also: Lamar is a riot. I also don’t like Stretch. I feel little to no agency in replying to Tanisha’s text. I’d also regret being at the back of a Burger Shot with Tonya. I like Dodge Challengers. And I’m looking forward to interacting with him in GTA Online with The Contract expansion.

• 

  Vergil

  I know that I said earlier that as much as I like Trickster, I wouldn’t want to play though all of a Devil May Cry game with only using Trickster. Vergil kinda makes me a liar in a sense, because Vergil, both as bosses and playable, have been the hypest shit of Devil May Cry since 3; even DmC Devil May Cry’s Vergil can have some swag in the right hands.

  But unfortunately, Vergil as a playable character is a double-edge sword. I wasn’t big into gaming forums in 2005, but I imagine that him becoming playable via DMC 3 Special Edition was a pleasant addition to an already great game. With DMC 4 releasing in 2008 and no Special Edition within a year or two after its release, I figured that playable Vergil was just a one-time thing for DMC 3. …until it actually happened seven years later. (Skipping DmC and Marvel Versus Capcom 3 since I’m not too attached to those games.) And with DMC 5; definite club banger of 2019 and arguably the new apex of the series, but I’m pretty sure that many people were asking “but where’s Vergil?” until the DLC dropped in late 2020. So hopefully I’m just overthinking and that future DMC releases won’t be predicated on waiting to play as Vergil, but it is understandable since Vergil is that fuckin’ cool.

• 

  Sora

  Jaded adults gonna hate, but Kingdom Hearts was a pretty big deal for me during the PS2 days. It’s one of the few friendship-fueled shonen adventures that I was the exact right age for at the time while having the right amount of nostalgia towards the Disney movies I have on VHS. Also, the series had me question what exactly a JRPG is in terms of gameplay; given that my assumption at the time is that they all had to be turn based due to my familiarity with Final Fantasy X, Xenosaga, and what I saw of Suikoden and Dragon Quest. So at the time, Kingdom Hearts 1 broke the mold for me by introducing me to some character action elements in a genre that I learning about, Kingdom Hearts 2 became a more refined, more acrobatic and even more flashy iteration of what I was getting accustomed to, which was and still is fun to play.

  As for Sora himself, well, with me being a rather jaded, calculating and “rational” adult these days, it doesn’t feel fair to pass judgement on a bright-eyed and naïve shonen protagonist since I am now far from the target audience for a 2000’s era shonen anime, such as the first few seasons of Naruto and One Piece. So not to get too sentimental, he is a bit of a reminder of the simpler times and minimal responsibilities of my teen years, so having him in Smash Ultimate is great as a reminder of simpler times.

• 

  Commander Shepard

  Specifically female Shapard in Mass Effect 2. Mark Meer got enough of the points across with my Boy Scout and loose cannon playthroughs of Mass Effect 1, while Jennifer Hale was more or less the same for me. But it’s the second game where Jen Hale adds some extra sass with the renegade options that convinced me to mainly play as female characters when given the option. I’m sure that Mark has his moments that are as entertaining as Jen. But that might involve some YouTube searching because playing as the female character has been my new normal over the past 13 years.

  Outside of that salient detail unfortunately, I don’t think I have much else to say about Shepard. In addition to not having played the games in years with, I’ve also haven’t done a complete run of the trilogy due to not having DLC when I first finished ME2. The Mass Effect Trilogy release for seventh generation consoles and Origin didn’t include much of any DLC, and I didn’t want to deal with BioWare points until each game’s DLC was packaged normally. But based on what I’ve seen, including watching Mass Alex as a podcast, I have a pretty good feeling that Fem Shep will have some amusing quips as I make one decision or another, especially with a romanced Liara in ME1 and going into Shadow Broker in ME2.

• 

  The Boss

  No matter how you configure the Boss of Saints Row games between the game’s various options, they live their life in accordance to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper, which is exactly what I aim to do games, so it’s perfect synchronicity between the character you are in the games you’re playing. …give or take Saints Row 2 where the Boss was a bit more than just a puckish rogue.

• 

  Yu Narukami

  Charlie is going to be my “blank slate” pick because I ride so hard for Persona 4. I’m usually not very moved by most characters in games, but I’ve been almost always been emotionally engaged with interacting with the main party members and some of the secondary and tertiary characters. At the start, I don’t remember Charlie having too much to work with in terms of giving interesting replies in conversations where a certain minimum rank in a specific social stat is needed to give a more desired or daring response. But when those requirements are met, hilarity ensues where Charlie can embrace the Chad “Broswagonist” persona (of which many fans have assigned to him after the anime adaptation) as one character or another gets flustered and embarrassed when picking the right dialogue choice. …of which Erin Fitzgerald probably does a little too well.

• 

  V

  Bearing in mind that the different dialogue choices a player pick can change the perception of V’s personality, I like how I played V similarly to how I’ve piloted Female Commander Shepard: Kind to the characters of whom I wanted to be on their good side, like Judy. Snarky, if not outright threatening to those who didn’t deserve any niceties. Varying levels of diplomatic for the character in between. And choosing to either accept or keep attempting to reject Johnny’s influence.

  I’m sure there’s an argument for V being a blank slate because the choices a player makes as V are just self-insertions of what the player wants to do, which is true for games where the player’s character has more flexibility in terms of thoughts, feelings, and actions compared to a Nathan Drake, Solid Snake or a Marcus Fenix where everything about them is established by the developers. But it’s moments like V opening up to either Angel or Sky at Clouds where I get the sensation that V’s thoughts and feelings, specifically their fears, on merging with Johnny are their thoughts and feelings that are not influenced by the player. So because of moments like that, it feels like I’m playing though V’s story as their own character even though we as the players are allowed to influence them in one direction or another, which seems like is a really tough balancing act to achieve in a game given my experience with either blank slates or thoroughly defined characters.

• 

  Asuka Langley Soryu

  And here begins the part of the list where genuinely I’m surprised that Giant Bomb acknowledges these characters.

  Originally from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Asuka has made a timed guest appearance in Honkai Impact 3rd; a free-to-play, hack ‘n’ slash, gacha action game from the people who brought you Genshin Impact. Based on my memory of her since I’ve last watched Evangelion, she’s competitive, head-strong, loud, obnoxious, egocentric, emotionally damaged, and exactly the type of girl that I would have dated back in high school. But weird waifu shit aside, I champion her for being the fire among the rest cast.

  In Honkai Impact 3rd, she’s a fucking beast. Where some of the original characters might lack damage output, Asuka can cleave though them like a hot knife though butter. Like, seriously, she’s a crutch, and it’s kind of a bummer that she’s completely unavailable to those who didn’t get in during the Evangelion event early last year. Under normal circumstances, I would let mobile games, especially gacha mobile games, fly completely under my radar because they aren’t nearly as fulfilling as full-fledged PC and console releases. But miHoYo found a way for me to care by adding in one of my favorite characters.

  Touché motherfuckers.

• 

  Ryofu Housen

  Another character of whom I’m surprised is in the database.

  Though Ikkitousen does have a PlayStation 2 and two PlayStation Portable games to its gaming resume, which were also developed by Tamsoft and produced by Kenichiro Takaki, I’m mainly talking about Ryofu’s inclusion in Senran Kagura: Estival Versus as guest DLC. Without getting too much into lore and avoiding spoilers: Amongst the fairly large roster of Battle Vixens (and gentlemen) who are loosely based on historical figures of the Three Kingdoms (perhaps the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel to be more accurate), Ryofu is best described as the seductress who, despite being aligned with an antagonistic faction of the series, she just wants to live her best life and not be tied down to her destiny as a fighter, where she is the series’ incarnation of Lü Bu. This is pretty well realized in her inclusion in Estival Versus with her dialogue referencing her anime and manga counterparts. And in addition to her being regarded as the strongest character in the series, she’s also the best character in the game due to her high speed and crowd control.

• 

  Kanu Unchou

  Another one.

  Also originally from Ikkitousen, Kan’u is also a guest character in some of the Senran Kagura games. Her Three Kingdoms counterpart is Guan Yu. Her niche among the Three Kingdoms warriors is her being considered the most feared fighter of the roster. …which is almost completely undermined in Great Guardians, but the duality between badass and lovestruck goofball works pretty well for me seeing as how Satellizer el Bridget (from Freezing) is also in my top five.

  As for Kan-san’s inclusion in Estival Versus, Ryofu is still the more fun character to use because Kan’u lacks crowd control by comparison and some of her attacks can completely whiff. But in Peach Beach Splash, even though you can pair which ever character with which ever weapon you want, she starts with a sniper rifle, which causes The Faceless to intensify.

• 

  Katsuragi

  Though I’m pretty sure that I’ve established that started paying attention to Senran Kagura because of Ikkitousen, it doesn’t mean that I put the Senran characters in a corner due to the DNA they share, so I’m not including a Senran character out of obligation because the cast is pretty enjoyable as well.

  For me, Kat is the most fun to use in Shinovi Versus because her breakdance move is reminiscent of Bayonetta. And even though I’m not the man of culture that I used to be in my 20’s (currently 32), I still get a sensible chuckle out of Kat being Takaki-san’s mouthpiece in regards to tits being life and ass being hometown.

• 

  Makoto Itou

  School Days (and anime adaptation) is a fucking riot. I knew about the “nice boat” beforehand, but seeing everything in between break down in the most absurd ways, and also being either sympathetic if not full-on empathetic towards Kotonoha’s slow descent into yandere madness… I seldom got much excitement out of anime since first watching the medium in 2006. But when first watching this in 2012, my excitement towards those moments is why I’ve held the anime in high esteem; but of course while maintaining full awareness that the anime is not for most people; same for the visual unless you like eroge/hentai/anime porn/naked cartoon pussy.

  …Anyway, my intent with playing it was to avoid getting a nice boat ending and my first (and currently only) run, and I was successful. This incidentally makes for another blank slate pick, but, whatever. I win. GG. No re. And no logs were flogged.