Morally Ambiguous Protagonists

[Mac Sirloin]

First up: Marche from FFTA.

Look at it this way: You're a crippled child with little to no prospects when you suddenly get transported to a place where you can move those sickly little legs and all of your friends problems are fixed. Then one of your friends is butthurt about having to obey the laws of this fantasy land works his way up to you and ruins EVERYTHING.

Second up: Link from Wind Waker.

Don't get me wrong-Link IS a good guy, and everything he's told points to Gannon being this ultimate evil unless you ACTUALLY READ HIS DIALOGUE. It goes like this: Gannon is pissed that he has to keep going through the rigamarole of this 'hero of time' crap and simply wants to go to Hyrule and live the rest of his life out without getting stabbed in the dick with the master sword. So he plans to find Zelda and expects Link to come to him so that he can live the rest of his days out in peace and break th cycle.

Of course the King of Hyrule is NOT HAVING THAT SHIT and screws everything up for everyone.

[Strike Witch]

Marche is awesome.

[Anonyman!]

I lol'd at Link.


I would have to say Jack from Bioshock. Well, as long as you harvested. What started as simply trying to survive becomes killing little girls then drinking their insides. Really great game.

[Laser]

Mario is morally ambiguous

[Strike Witch]

Why? He just saves the girl from the evil kidnapping Turtle monster.

[Wings of Fire]

But to do this he takes drugs, destroys the environment and beats up children.

[Bullet Magnet]

How about: every single monster raising/fighting game in existence? They all involve taking innocent, sentient and in many cases sapient beings, often from the wild, and after forcing them through rigorous, strict and abusive training regimes, pitting them against each other in a bloody fight, in some cases to the death. Jade Cocoon is probably the worst for this: although you are morally absolved from the capturing, training and battling parts with some very clever backstory details, your only source of income requires the spinning of your creatures into oblivion in order to sell the silk of the cocoons that their spirit is sealed within.

All these creatures seem to accept this lifestyle as it is presented to them quite happily, and their loyalties change like the wind, but by Jove, if they don't have any other career options once the humans turn up.

Still fun, though.

[Wings of Fire]

James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2.

If you get the bad ending he kills his wife because he's sexually repressed, if you get the good ending he euphanises her because he cannot bear to see her suffer, if you get the REALLY bad ending he commits suicide because he is far too cowardly to live with his actions.

A metaphysical representation of his penis roams around raping breasted monsters and repeatedly murdering his sexually wish fulfilling anthropomorphic projection of his wife, who he falls for while he believes his wife still alive. He meets two schizophrenic people, one of which he refuses to help through fear of her, eventually letting her die, and the other he brutally murders because he (Eddy) finally gained some self esteem.

He steals from apartment blocks, chases little girls through back alleys and into darkened hospitals and in the end; he killed his wife. There is absolutely nothing good he does for anybody except himself in this game (The demons he defeats are HIS personal demons) and his actions do not even have a tiny effect on Harry's fight against Silent Hill.

He is an opportunist and a selfish coward, he only cares for himself and the prospect of finding his wife, and only helps others to try and make himself feel better about killing her.

He is the most flawed protagonist the gaming world has ever seen.

Wall of spoilers crits you for massive damage.

[Anonyman!]

Pyramid Head.
Pyramid Head.
Pyramid Head.
Best Villain Ever.

In the case of flawed Protags I got nothing, but how about a flawed antagonist? Silent Hill brought this up. Sure, 4 is the worst one, but it's villain was incredible if you paid attention.


Ok, this guy was born in a hotel room, which the emotionless tard protagonist currently lives. Only problem is his parents leave soon after, and he is placed in an orphanage in the city of Silent Hill. Another problem, this orphanage is home to a cult (oops). So he taught in their freaky deaky ways. He eventually forms the idea that the room he was born in IS his mother. And because of his frightening, metaphorical Oedipus complex he wants to become one with his mother again. To do this, he must kill 21 people or some shit to complete the ritual.

He starts with some members of the cult, then progresses to many citizens, marking each with a number. He was careless, even sometimes signing his work. He was caught, put it prison, and eventually killed himself with a spoon. His body was found with one of the numbers written on him postmortem. His body is then found missing from the grave, and the murders continue. You, the protagonist are his final victim, and he's two away from you, your neighbor being just one person unlucky.

Your magically forced to stay inside your apartment because of freaky chains that were placed from the inside of your apartment, you crawl through a hole in your bathroom, and then journey into a strange alternate dimension. This is a break from the other games, as the monsters are based off of the antagonist's demons, as opposed to the protagonists. After gathering various items needed to kill poor antagonist, you fight him off as your neighbor, hypnotized, journeys to her doom. Four endings...

SUPAH GOOD- You kill Walter and his mommy, neighbor is all good.
GOOD-Same as above but some minor difference.
BAD-You live, Neighbor dies, you get all angsty. Walter and mommy still die.
SUPAH BAD-Walter and mommy lives, he reunites and is happy. You and neighbor die.

Now, normally, the good or super ending are supposed to be the happiest and best right? Except in this, you basically force a mentally ill individual simply wishing to see his mommy to never achieve his goals. This is even sadder because you never bond with protagonist or the neighbor, as they're not very fleshed out. Very disheartening.

Plus he was a creepy looking motherfucker.

[used:)]

How about: every single monster raising/fighting game in existence? They all involve taking innocent, sentient and in many cases sapient beings, often from the wild, and after forcing them through rigorous, strict and abusive training regimes, pitting them against each other in a bloody fight, in some cases to the death. Jade Cocoon is probably the worst for this: although you are morally absolved from the capturing, training and battling parts with some very clever backstory details, your only source of income requires the spinning of your creatures into oblivion in order to sell the silk of the cocoons that their spirit is sealed within.

All these creatures seem to accept this lifestyle as it is presented to them quite happily, and their loyalties change like the wind, but by Jove, if they don't have any other career options once the humans turn up.

Still fun, though.

Except Katia and Tara from Lost Kingdoms. All they do is evoke the essences of creatures, not the creatures themselves, including a Doppelganger which changes depending on the Runestone bearer.

I definately agree with you on everything else though.

I guess morally ambiguous could be Alice form American McGee's Alice. It's all in her head, after all.