I refuse to play Ratchet and Clank, and it makes no sense.
It's rated really well. I'm looking for good PS3 games. It seems like a quality franchise from what I can tell. The graphics are good. The gameplay is first-rate. Hell, I even enjoyed playing the demo to Tools for Destruction. And yet still, I am disinterested.
My apathy revolves totally around the characters of Ratchet and Clank. In playing the demo, I really felt like Insomniac was trying to make me like them more than the gameplay actually inspired. And while I understand that this method works for generating iconic figures in video game lore, I found myself resenting the implication that I had to buy into the icons before I enjoyed the game itself.
I've seen this in other genres as well. I do not find the Worms characters to be charming or humorous, and yet that franchise seems hell-bent on making sure I laugh at their lame efforts at humor. The game seems to delay actual gameplay in favor of further developing the character of these fringe elements to my enjoyment. I end up feeling like I'm at some party that I can't seem to leave, and some drunk guy keeps rewinding the same Family Guy joke because he's sure I just don't get it yet.
In sharp contrast to this, I find Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series to be worth every cut scene he's in. I could watch Jim Raynor drown his sorrows under Tychus's derisive insults for hours on end. And I can't stop being charmed by Mario and his ridiculous bee suit. It's not that forced interest in tangential elements is inherently bad... It's just got to be done the right way. And for every rule of success, there seems to be an exception that breaks the rule.
So what is it about a game character that makes you invest in it?
What are your favorite game characters, and do you identify with them?
What iconic imagery from games has stuck with you, making you more or less likely to play that game?
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The TF2 classes are my favourite characters. They all have distinct personalities that you can attach to at least one. The characters define the gameplay while not getting in the way of it. The game doesn't force you to like the classes, but there are no annoying traits about them. They're more of a tool to the game than an actual part of it. I may have lost track of what I was actually saying, but I think my point still stands. Or whatever's left of it... On a sidenote, my other favourite character is the Minecraft guy. It's not really, but I just want you guys to talk about Minecraft.
Pikachu, or maybe Squirtle.
If only Samus didn't have that crappy Wii game.... *sigh* I guess I would have to as Raz from Psychonauts. Honestly I related to the character cause it seemed believable to me, even with all the psychic powers and brain machines, it was a story about a boy who went against his father in order to pursue his dream and ran away from home in order to do it.
what makes me invest in a character is when I understand why there fighting or I personally make them. My favorite characters are Etzio and the lone wanderer from fallout 3. And if a game makes a character do something cool or look cool I'll probably play it more
My favorite character would have to be Miles Edgeworth, from the Phoenix Wright games. Although at first I despised his emo-ish attitude, as the game went on it gave you pieces of his past until the climatic case which explained the tragic events that plagued his childhood and made him into what he is in the present. I believe that this kind of method of unveiling a character, that is, giving us tidbits of their past, letting us guess what happened to them, and finally showing us how they became the person they are today, really help me connect with the character on a more emotional level.
My favourite charter is actually Rachet and Clank this is probably because it was the first game i ever played one a console at the age of 7. I believe this is properly true the first video game that you play that has a proper detailed charter you'll fall in love but that's just my opinion.
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