Best characters of 2021

My runners up that did not make the list are Drax the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy, Rivet from Rachet and Clank Rift Apart, Duckie from Life is Strange True Colors, Toshi from Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Cody and May from It Takes Two, and a spoiler character from Psychonauts 2 (the best villain of the year).

My 5th place pick is Selene Vassos of Returnal. 4th place goes to Steph Gingrich of Life is Strange True Colors and especially the DLC Wavelengths, where she is the protagonist. Third place goes to Kena from her game Bridge of Spirits.

My top runner up is Raz from the should have been GOTY Psychonauts 2, who may actually be one of the most underrated video game characters ever. His character development in the sequel actually makes the original a better game and completes his arc.

And my winner.......

Alex Chen from Life is Strange True Colors......the best written, best directed, best performed, best designed, most cliché and stereotype busting, and most emotionally complex character of the year. Life is Strange simply put is one of the top, if not the top, franchises at characterization right now. It showed with Max, with Chloe, with Sean and Daniel, its numerous support characters, and it shows here with Alex.

And really, my top 4 are all emotional healers, go figure.

You and your life is strange

The moment I saw who made this thread, I already who the winner is gonna be.

Not that I necessarily disagree. There had been a rather distinct lack of well-written narrative-driven games last year. It's either gonna be GOTG, Life is Strange or Psychonauts. YMMV, but all valid picks. I'd personally pick Psychonauts myself, but I'm biased.

@texasgoldrush: master chief in infinite. He had a ton of cringe lines but man the guy is so bad ass I forgive all of it. It works because he's silent most of the time, so when he speaks, it hits you harder than you thought. Right from the beginning, the pilot is screaming at chief saying the gun only has one bullet left, what will he do against an entire army with a single bullet. MC just says, its enough and jumps off the ship.

Later on the pilot asks chief what he's fighting for since he doesn't have anyone he loves no relationships, no family. Chief just says it's all he's ever known and that's it.

This thing

Its Agent 47.

Actually It Takes Two, Forgotten City, Sable, and some more all have very good stories.

Psychonauts 2 is my GOTY actually, and it has an excellent story, with art and level design being tied to the storytelling.

But Life is Strange is on another level with its narrative and especially, it's characterization, even its best seller comics excel in this department. The key is that they make their characters as human and realistic as possible and it simply put, works.

Milf. Boobs. 9 foot tall.

Any character that didn't interrupt my games with more than 30 seconds of dialogue is the best character of 2021.

Death by Snu-snu?

I might be mistaken but I don't remember any good waifus in 2021.

Selene in Returnal.

Here's a hint:

Alcina Dimitrescu is the Waifu of the year 2021. I'm really surprised you didn't notice this and at the beginning of the year, Lady Dimitrescu took the world by storm, Capcom hit a goldmine on this character. Her daughters were just a bonus.

As someone who likes Gothic stuff, Lady Dimitrescu is an actual Gothic I personally like and her Castle was the best thing in the game followed by House Beneviento.

@davillain- said:

@pc_rocks said:

I might be mistaken but I don't remember any good waifus in 2021.

Here's a hint:

Alcina Dimitrescu is the Waifu of the year 2021. I'm really surprised you didn't notice this and at the beginning of the year, Lady Dimitrescu took the world by storm, Capcom hit a goldmine on this character. Her daughters were just a bonus.

As someone who likes Gothic stuff, Lady Dimitrescu is an actual Gothic I personally like and her Castle was the best thing in the game followed by House Beneviento.

She was more in the marketing material then in the game. She was what for 10 mins in the game?

@pc_rocks said:

@davillain- said:

@pc_rocks said:

I might be mistaken but I don't remember any good waifus in 2021.

Here's a hint:

Alcina Dimitrescu is the Waifu of the year 2021. I'm really surprised you didn't notice this and at the beginning of the year, Lady Dimitrescu took the world by storm, Capcom hit a goldmine on this character. Her daughters were just a bonus.

As someone who likes Gothic stuff, Lady Dimitrescu is an actual Gothic I personally like and her Castle was the best thing in the game followed by House Beneviento.

She was more in the marketing material then in the game. She was what for 10 mins in the game?

Maggie Robertson basically has an 18 minute performance, so around that mark.

She is not even the best character of the game and not even the best boss character.

Lady Dumbetru shows how stupid the game industry and the media actually is.

lol

This is true, but she has big honkers.

I really liked the Lady Dimitrescu character myself. Heisenberg was also great as well. Even Moreau had his moments as well. Resident Evil Village had a pretty solid cast of characters overall.

Its the second boss that is the most memorable, Beneviento.

The real problem are that their just another boss, another villain, nothing memorable in the long term. And no antagonist in RE8 compares to a Nemesis or even Wesker.

@texasgoldrush: Nemesis and Wesker are certainly very good characters as well but I also found the ones in Village to be enjoyable also and memorable in their own right, at least for me. It doesn’t have to be one or the other though. 🤷‍♂️

Nothing compares to Pyramid Head though in the horror genre.

And really, my problem with Lady D does not stem for the the role in the game itself, but the disgusting marketing and player reaction to her. She may be a good series character, but character of the year with far more deserving characters and fleshed out protagonists like my top 5 I listed??? No way.

@texasgoldrush: Well I certainly prefer many other characters in the horror genre over Pyramid Head myself but to each their own. 🤷‍♂️

I didn’t find any of the marketing or player reaction to Lady D disgusting myself, found it quite entertaining to be honest. 😅

@texasgoldrush: You're just as pathetic as Ghost when it comes to creating the exact same threads over and over and over again...

It just dumbs down the game industry and furthers toxic male behavior, that's the problem I have with it.

Lady D herself, an average character, good for her game. Her level was good, and her performance was good for that type of character, but she is an icon through marketing and fetish, not true merit. At least Nemesis was marketed as this big threat in RE3 and he delivered.

I think it's because the western media got so used to characters like Abby just proves everyone forgot how hot a character like Lady D can be without the whole woke stuff.

@texasgoldrush: Nothing wrong with some “dumb” fun though. Can’t say that I ever really experienced any toxic reactions from players myself towards her but I didn’t really go looking for it either. Regardless though, that’s a problem on them and their behaviour towards something. Like you said, the character herself is fine. No sense in demonizing a character over what reaction some people may have had.

Yea, i'm leftist myself, but got really tired of these far-far left gender studies twats in game media trying to dictate what I consume.

I'm guessing because she's A) older B) Not really wearing revealing clothes they are having a hard time thinking of excuses to act like babies.

You know whats funny?

These idiots think they are enlightened, but they not only are basically the arm of a corrupt industry who they advertise for, they actually struggle with dealing with racial issues, and really fail to show solidarity when it is needed, preferring to virtue signal themselves, for example that "blackout" of coverage for Black Lives Matter after the killing of George Floyd.

But what you expect from coastal elite mostly white techie liberals?

The problem is that she has less merit than many of the other characters this year.

And yes, the sexual female domination fetish of this character is real.

@texasgoldrush: Perhaps she has less merit then others for you but not for me.

Oh I certainly know of the domination fetish thing for her but I don’t consider that to be a “toxic male behaviour” thing myself.

@texasgoldrush: What toxic male behavior exactly? It sounds more like you're just trying to cleck off as many woke (aka nonsense) bullet points as possible.

Who the **** plays life is strange.

If we're talking RE8 characters, I would choose half aborted fetus monster. If only the rest of RE8 had that tone and atmosphere.

Its still the objectifying of women and "imposing" your view in how a woman should be. Its not sexist in a way you normally think about it, but it is still sexism, and it is still toxic masculinity.

Win by default in a shitty gaming year isn't really worth gloating about, but I guess when you have to shill for a franchise you'll go for anything.

Anyway this is wrong besides, because the best character this year is Amber from Behind the Frame.

@texasgoldrush: Well can’t say that I agree with that.

No, this year has been great for games, with many games having high acclaim with its playerbase. It may actually be better than last year.

And no, Alex Chen doesn't "win by default". Her character has universal acclaim from both critics and gamers.

You don't have to agree, it is what it is......this behavior is another form of objectifying women.

Its not a problem with Lady D herself, we can have seductress characters that use their sex appeal for evil, the problem is the behavior of gamers celebrating this.

There are plenty of gamers who do not like the hype that surrounded her.

Its a toss up between

@texasgoldrush: Ok? You previously said that you didn’t like the character of Lady D because of how some people reacted to her and now you’re saying the character itself is perfectly fine being a seductress and using her sex appeal. Picking a “best” character is about the actual character and how they are actually portrayed in the game. It’s not about some made up memes or fantasies that some people may have created about them. None of those were actually things that happened in the game.

@texasgoldrush: with all respect, you're not going to have a sexy character without at least SOME people reacting to it. You can't say it's fine to have a seductress as long as nobody is seduced. That's nonsense. Some on here will remember I'm fairly vocal on the not-objectifying-women issue, but the fact is some women and men are more attractive than others, some like to show it off or even use it to their advantage, and that's going to come up from time to time in games and other media. There's a difference between criticizing an exploitative culture or taking advantage of girls vs. telling everyone nobody can look sexy ever or - as you're now arguing - if a character looks sexy you have to pretend they aren't. It's just puritan

Not to be an asshole, but should be aware that aesthetic design is "character".

In the case of gaming, arguably the most important aspect. Esp in the early days.

Look at the most well known characters, Mario, Sonic, pretty much any SFII character, it's not the intricate writing that makes them stand out but strong visual design giving them character.

Generally speaking, a strong indicator of good character design is something you can identify simply through silhouette.

Lady D, even if you ignore the obv sex appeal, and the fact it's more realistic in design 100% fits that strong design aspect.

That is not my point. Its not about look, its about behavior. Its about finding her traits desirable and worth celebrating instead of being atrocious. And you are trying to refute arguments I didn't make either. Of course she can seduce other characters, but thats not what I am talking about.

There is an erotica idiocracy culture about Lady D, its that culture that is more objectifying than the character herself could ever be, and this goes beyond the pale. That's my problem. More so than I believe Lady D is an overrated character in an overrated game being the problem.

And this is why I picked Alex Chen, she is the best character who basically carried the game.

Lady D does not, she carries stupid memes and erotica instead

@texasgoldrush: Well you choose whatever characters that you enjoy and I’ll stick with mine. 😁

Master Chief of course.

I guess Master Chief

People like boobies. Character development is cool and all, but it's not boobs.

And dude. To be fair, only thing more sexy than a big lady with big honkers is a big vampire lady with big honkers. Yum.

Easily one of the best gaming moments of the year.

Thats a game?