One thing I’ve always been interested in when it comes to video games is what goes
into making a likable character.
And by that, I don’t mean what makes them compelling or complex, although those things
can play a factor; I simply mean what makes players like them?
In the past, I’ve talked about some of the ways video games get players to like companions
and villains, and now I want to look at the 3rd piece of the puzzle and talk about what
goes into making a likable hero.
With companions and villains, the focus is on the player forming a relationship with
someone else.
With heroes, there isn’t that same kind of separation.
It isn’t a character the player is interacting with—it is one they are interacting as.
And being put in control of a character inherently changes the way a player will look at them.
Due to video games being an interactive medium, players will always have some sort of influence
over how the playable character thinks.
This might be in the way they approach the story or combat or puzzles or any other element
of the game, big or small.
No matter what the player is a part of the protagonist.
However, this connection can be tricky to maintain.
The general concern a lot of developers seem to have is that if players become detached
from the hero for any reason, then they’ll be less invested in the game as a whole.
When considering that potentially millions of people may play any given title, it makes
sense that they would want to play it safe.
So, in response to this, a lot of developers opt to create heroes with either no real personality
or a relatively muted one—the idea being that players can project themselves onto the
character.
Some games do this through a silent protagonist, others allow players to create their own character,
and a lot end up having heroes with defining traits that are generally inoffensive.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t video game protagonists with likable personalities,
it's just that more often than not they end up being a little more on the reserved side.
It is okay for an NPC to be over-the-top, because the player will have limited interactions
with them, but if the protagonist goes too far in any one direction, it can become grating
because the player is constantly with them.
So, we end up getting a lot of safe protagonists.
They’re funny but in a quiet and sarcastic sort of way, they’re heroic but not so heroic
that they come off as self-righteous, they’re attractive but forgettably so...they’re
Nathan Drake but usually with even less flair.
These kinds of heroes have a decent enough personality to set the base for a likable
character, but there isn’t really enough there to push them to the next level.
Fortunately, a character’s personality is not the only thing that makes them likable,
and given the interactivity of games, developers have some unique tools to build that connect—the
most effective of which arguably being how it feels to control the character.
Given that this is how players engage most with the protagonist, it plays an important
role in shaping how they view them.
If the player is constantly wrestling with controls or getting frustrated at the character’s
movement speed or having inputs not work consistently, they’ll become justifiably annoyed, and
part of that frustration will most likely be directed at the playable character.
However, if a their movements are fluid and precise, this will build a positive connection
A character who players are excited to play as is one who they’ll end up liking more.
Consider, Spider-Man from Spider-Man.
Web-slinging around New York City is exciting and fast-paced.
Moving from combat to traversal feels seamless, and I found myself so impressed with how good
it feels to be Spider-Man, that even after beating, I boot up once every few weeks just
to swing around.
I enjoyed how it felt to be Spider-Man, and I liked him more as a character because of
it.
On the other hand, a character like Sonic has a long history of feeling terrible to
control.
So I hate him.
In a similar vein, a character’s animation also affects how players feel about them.
A lot can be understood about a character from the way they move around an environment
and interact with their surroundings, and when done right, it can make them far more
endearing.
Whether it be the way Nathan Drake absently puts his hands on walls when walking close
to them or how Luigi creeps down corridors with a shiver in his step in Luigi’s Mansion
or the various expressions shown on Link’s face in Wind Waker, these little touches add
a surprising amount of depth to these characters.
It is a way to inject personality into them while not pulling the player out of the experience.
Where hearing the same voice lines over and over again can become grating, small visual
touches never really do, especially if they don’t interrupt the action.
Honestly, just being able to see a character has a major influence on how likable they
are.
The limited perspective of first person titles doesn’t offer as many opportunities to show
off the protagonist's personality.
Players may get some dialogue from the hero either filled with thoughts of what is going
on or quippy one-liners, but a lot about a character is lost when the only input from
them is their voice.
Personally, I find when first-person games have cutscenes that show the protagonist,
I end up liking them a fair bit more.
Even though it is still limited, it helps give a sense of what they are like based on
how they look and physically interact with the world around them.
One of the more effective examples of this is BJ Blazkowicz from the Wolfenstein series.
Based on his character design alone, he comes off as a monster of a man who could crush
you with his bicep, but through cutscenes and his inner-monologues, it is clear that
he is a tender and thoughtful individual.
There is something endearing about the combination of these seemingly contradictory traits, and
that would be lost if players never had the chance to see him in third person.
While all of these touches can highlight likable traits about a protagonist, there are some
approaches that aim to build a deeper link between the player and hero, and they typically
center around how the playable character is framed within the story.
Consider Firewatch.
The opening section of the game presents the player with a series of choices that chronicles
the relationship between the protagonist, Henry and his wife, Julia.
Through this section players see him fall in love, plan for a future, and then lose
it all as Julia develops early-onset Alzheimers.
Players feel connected to Henry not only because they made choices for him, but also because
they witnessed the best and worst moments of his life, and regardless of who he is,
experiencing that with him is endearing.
Firewatch uses empathy to get players to relate to and like Henry, and as it turns out this
is one of the most effective ways to build a connection.
When done right, it doesn’t even really matter whether or not the hero has a likable
personality; it just matters that players see them from a certain perspective.
Take Joel from The Last of Us.
While he has a bit of that good ole southern charm and does act as a protector for other
characters players care about, it is hard for me to call him likable.
He’s cold and distant, and he also brutally kills a lot of people, many of whom don’t
deserve it.
However, I found myself endeared to him throughout the majority of the playthrough.
And that’s because within the first 20 minutes of the game, I witnessed the worst moment
of Joel’s life.
I liked Joel because I thought I knew Joel; I experienced his loss alongside him, and
felt like close to him because of it.
This led to me excusing a lot of his actions in the name of his trauma, so much so that
it wasn’t until near the end that I realized, “oh yeah...this is very not good.”
The game is set up in a way where players will have a lot of patience for Joel.
They’ve seen what he’s gone through, they’ve seen how he has changed because of it, and
throughout the game, they see that there is hope of him becoming a better man.
Which, yeah, doesn’t happen, but all of this did get me to like him up until the point
where it became clear that he couldn’t be redeemed.
Of course, the effectiveness of this approach really depends on how well it is presented.
The God of War series has been trying to get players to empathize with Kratos since the
first game, but given the depth of his depravity along with him be pretty terrible even before
anything happened to his family, the series’s early attempts always kind of missed the mark.
With that said, this did set a good foundation for God Of War 2018, which starts off with
him losing his wife; only this time, instead of seeking a way to unleash his anger like,
he sets out with his son to fulfill her final request.
For players new to the series, he’s endearing because his grief is relatable, and for players
who are already familiar with the character, this shift in the way he responds to loss
shows his capacity for change, helping to reset the effects of his indiscretions in
the past.
While it can certainly run the risk of aggravating a portion of the audience, redemption is another
solid way to get players to like a protagonist.
It makes it so that the hero can be a little more rough around the edges, but also give
people a reason to root for them.
For example, Lee Everett from The Walking Dead and John Marston from Red Dead Redemption
are both characters who have done terrible things in their past and the player is introduced
to them at a time where they are forced to confront those things.
While both games allow players to decide how these characters find redemption, by leaving
room for them to become better people, it gives players the chance to grow a connection
with them and be endeared by their change.
Most of what I have talked about so far are ways that games aim to make protagonists likable
to a wide audience, but I think it's worth mentioning that some of the most likable heroes
are the ones who aren’t meant to appeal to everyone.
People connect to characters who they relate to, and while there are plenty of ways to
present a character so that they appeal to more people, there is something to be said
for a protagonist who only appeals to some.
Characters like Max from Life is Strange whose indecisiveness manifests as a game mechanic,
or Mae from Night In The Woods whose lack of drive continually gets in her way, can
be irritating to people who don’t relate to those pressures, but as someone who very
distinctly does, both of them are extremely endearing to me.
Specificity has the potential to create the strongest bond between a player and protagonist,
and while I understand why a lot of games opt to have heroes who are for everyone, those
kinds of characters won’t have the same kind of profound relatability because they’re
too general.
Ultimately, what matters most about a hero isn’t if they’re likable or not; what
matters is if they improve the experience of the game.
Some titles are written in a way that benefits from having a nondescript hero while others
would make no sense without a predefined protagonist.
While I personally prefer when games create playable characters with distinct traits that
won’t be relatable to everyone, I imagine I will mostly have to stick to indie games
for that.
With that said, I respect why a lot of developers aim to make heroes that will appeal to the
largest amount of people.
At the end of the day, they are trying to make money, so they want their games to be
easy to get into for as many folks as possible.
Given that the protagonist is how players interact with a game, that sometimes means
having a hero that appeals to the lowest common denominator, I just wish that so many of them
weren’t so boring.