Four Reasons You’re In Love With That JRPG Character


The word “compelling” has become something of a buzzword in today’s gaming industry, but it’s a fitting adjective for great gaming characters. A good character is interesting, relatable, sympathetic, entertaining and just all around badarse. Even the silly ones.

But what makes a character resonate with an audience? Why do we care about the people we play? What makes us want to pretend we’re them, even when we’re away from our television screens?

Here are four potential explanations for what makes a JRPG character compelling.

(And, yes, these reasons can apply to all games, not just JRPGs. But this is a JRPG column. So.)

They’re Really, Really Good At What They Do

As a general rule, human beings are attracted to skill. We’re drawn to people who are capable of feats we can’t accomplish, whether that’s climbing up mountains or sorting through tax code. We’re even willing to forgive or ignore a character’s more despicable traits, if he or she is remarkable in some way. It’s why we fall in love with the superstar thief, the hardened killer. The criminal mastermind.

Maybe that’s why I used to dig Final Fantasy VI‘s Shadow oh so much. He might have been a coldhearted, nasty piece of work (who would “sell his own mama for a nickel,” according to another character), but he was one hell of an assassin. He knew his shit.

Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII) is in a similar boat. He’s whiny. Often annoying. But damn if he isn’t one hell of a mercenary, capable of all sorts of near-impossible acrobatic moves and tricky sword techniques. He’s got balls. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals, even if that means dressing up like a woman to do it. Why wouldn’t any RPG fan want to be like him?

And there’s that whole save-the-world thing. (Even if he couldn’t save Aeris.)

They Have Genuine Flaws

We fall in love with characters we can relate to. And we relate to characters who share the same flaws and weaknesses that we do.

Look at Junpei, the bumbling goofball (and overall terrible student) who serves as one of your closest friends in Persona 3. He plays both comic relief and actual human being, showing the type of fear, humour, lust, and overall laziness that we can imagine we’d feel if we were in his situation, forced to battle demons after school every day.

Suikoden II‘s Jowy is as flawed as a character gets. His misguided beliefs about the inevitability of war wind up triggering a bloody, multi-year brawl that costs tens of thousands of lives. His mistakes cause nothing but heartbreak for your protagonist and everybody around him. But by the end of the game, we can forgive Jowy for what he did. We can forgive his transgressions because we see part of ourselves in his decisions — we totally understand that he plotted to take down an empire and stick himself in charge because he thought it was the only way to maintain peace. We can relate.

They Make Us Laugh

It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with Estelle Bright, the peppy protagonist of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. She’s the type of character who always has something amusing to say, no matter how dire the circumstances. She’ll crack jokes in the face of dangerous bosses and insurmountable obstacles. You’d want to hang out with her.

Final Fantasy XII‘s Balthier, one of the most beloved characters in RPG history, is an all-time favourite because he knows how to make you laugh. He’s a constant waterfall of charm, always offering some sort of witty quip or harmless sexual barb. You might not want him around your girlfriend (or boyfriend), but you’d definitely share a beer or three.

The minds behind the various Mario RPGs have also mastered this idea, peppering their characters with warm humour that never gets old. Although the plumber himself never talks, his pantomimes and bizarre movements are as entertaining as it gets. You wouldn’t mind sitting in an audience and watching him goof around for hours on end.

As in real life, we fall for JRPG characters who know how to keep us amused. We love them because we’d love to chill with them.

They Don’t Have Voice Acting

Seriously.

Look, I went to film school. I’ve seen student films. I know how tough it is to bring a character to life with nothing but a voice. And I know how many people fail at it.

But as disconcerting as it is to play a game without voice acting nowadays, a bad piece of vocal work does more harm than good. Grating, unappealing voices are a good way to turn an audience against a character and even a whole game. Just ask Infinite Undiscovery. Even when it’s tolerable on the ears, voice acting drowns out the awesome tunes and tracks that make JRPGs really special.

Bad vocals can undermine just about every other aspect of a great game. They can make a game hard to sit through, embarrassing to play, and all-around unpleasant to experience. In many cases, characters might be at their most loveable when they just shut the hell up.

Random Encounters is a weekly column dedicated to all things JRPG.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


10 responses to “Four Reasons You’re In Love With That JRPG Character”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *