Beautiful Male Protagonists

[Vergil]

What are some good games where the protagonist is an attractive/beautiful/bishonen guy?
Genre doesn't particularly matter but that comes with the caveat that I don't consider visual novels or card "games" to be games either
Here are some examples of what I mean





I'm not gay btw

[Oyster Sauce]

Is this the just ok thread or the really good one?

[Vergil]

Is this the just ok thread or the really good one?

The just okay one.

[J1M]

The men you like look like women.

[Vergil]

Can't believe he's forever locked in a dead franchise and will likely never get another sequel

[rusty_shackleford]

Can't believe he's forever locked in a dead franchise and will likely never get another sequel

Even worse, they made him gay

[Vergil]

Can't believe he's forever locked in a dead franchise and will likely never get another sequel

Even worse, they made him gay

90% of the plot of the Soma Cruz games is saving/protecting his girlfriend.

[Faceless_Sentinel]

Another gay topic from Vergil, who would of thought!

[Vergil]

Every character I've posted is canonical hetero.
I'm genuinely seeking recommendations here

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm genuinely seeking recommendations

That's going to many if not most JRPG protagonists. Problem is that often they are modelled to have samey looking teenager/young 20s boyish anime faces without much definition, so I probably would not bother listing them.

Kaim from Lost Odyssey has unusually rare definition and a large mouth for a JRPG protagonist.




Leaning on the more anime side with less definition:

Welkin from Valkyria Chronicles 1.





Oshtor from Utawarerumono and Monochrome Mobius. Unfortunately, Monochrome Mobius was Aquaplus' first attempt at making a big 3D JRPG (as opposed to the first three SRPG/Visual novel hybrids which had sprites or chibi models for the gameplay sections), and the characters look badly modelled and lit, particularly compared to the earlier musou action game spinoffs, ZAN, which IIRC were outsourced.


Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception


Monochrome Mobius VN scene


Monochrome Mobius 3D model


ZAN 2



Spoilers for the Trails series.

► Show Spoiler

Lord Rufus Albarea becomes a main protagonist in the fifth Trails of Cold Steel game, Trails into Reverie.

Harder to find Western examples. Maybe Anduin Wrynn from World of Warcraft, the main Alliance character for the past decade, but his appearance varies greatly, even within WoW he gets new models quite often that look very different from each other. Mainly thinking of his MoP and BFA era appearances.

[Reichspepe]

Wolf from Sekiro




Nathan Drake from Uncharted



Chad Commander Shepard from Mass Effect



Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2




Will post more later when I've got time.

[Kitsune]

Something tells me that you like twinks, my dude.

[Finarfin]

Wolf from Sekiro




Nathan Drake from Uncharted



Chad Commander Shepard from Mass Effect



Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2




Will post more later when I've got time.

I wouldn't say they are beautiful, more like handsome/attractive.
(except Vanderloo he is objectively beautiful. )




Still looks very attractive for his age and his son is what I would call beautiful.

[Reichspepe]

I would still call them that @Finarfin

But I guess it does depend on your own definition a bit. Also, Vergil did mention "attractive".

[Vergil]

Kaim from Lost Odyssey has unusually rare definition and a large mouth for a JRPG protagonist.

This one looks potentially interesting. It being locked to the hexbox means emulation will have to be relied on which is always 50/50 but it definitely seems the most in line with what I'm looking for.

Oshtor from Utawarerumono and Monochrome Mobius. Unfortunately, Monochrome Mobius was Aquaplus' first attempt at making a big 3D JRPG (as opposed to the first three SRPG/Visual novel hybrids which had sprites or chibi models for the gameplay sections), and the characters look badly modelled and lit, particularly compared to the earlier musou action game spinoffs, ZAN, which IIRC were outsourced.

I actually don't think the models really look too bad honestly (assuming I'm understanding the screenshots right). Looking into it I'm a little confused as to where to start the series but considering I'm not particularly worried about it I might just jump into "Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten" since it's on Steam.

► Show Spoiler

Lord Rufus Albarea becomes a main protagonist in the fifth Trails of Cold Steel game, Trails into Reverie.

I've seen the trails series pop up from time to time in my searches but there's so many it's kind of hard to dig through to figure out what's good or not. Is this character a protagonist from the start of that game or do you unlock him later on?

I would still call them that @Finarfin

But I guess it does depend on your own definition a bit. Also, Vergil did mention "attractive".

To be fair I did clarify beautiful and bishonen with examples of the particular aesthetic I was interested in but I appreciate the recommendations nonetheless

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Looking into it I'm a little confused as to where to start the series but considering I'm not particularly worried about it I might just jump into "Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten" since it's on Steam.

It can be a little confusing. The first game in the series, Utawarerumono, got remade as Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen. However, it is set in a different country called Tuskur and is about a different cast of characters and protagonist than what the sequel duology and Monochrome Mobius are about, of which Oshtor is the protagonist of and is set in Yamato. Monochrome Mobius is a prequel to Mask of Deception, and is the start of a new storyline that will be continued in an upcoming game and will include Tuskur characters from the first game. The usual recommendation is that you play the series in chronological order starting from Prelude. I think you could play Monochrome Mobius as a standalone game, but it was not a super standout JRPG on its own merits and depends upon your investment in the characters and the setting and the aesthetics. I did preorder Monochrome Mobius and beat it on launch week and gave it a positive review, so I think it was overall worth it.

I've seen the trails series pop up from time to time in my searches but there's so many it's kind of hard to dig through to figure out what's good or not.

The Trails series is divided into four arcs, each of which is set in a different country.

• The Trails in the Sky trilogy is set in the medium sized kingdom of Liberl.
• The Trails to Zero duology is set in the small city-state of Crossbell.
• The Trails of Cold Steel pentaology (four Cold Steel games + Trails into Reverie) is set in the Erebonian Empire.
• The current arc, Trails into Dawn, is currently three games (two Kuro no Kiseki games + Kai no Kiseki, no English title for Kai yet) with at least one more coming in 2025, and is set in the Calvard Republic.

It can be a little confusing because lately they have begun changing up titles during an arc (ie, Cold Steel V being called Reverie, or the third Calvard game being called Kai).

Games within an arc can end on a cliffhanger, but each arc has a beginning, middle, and end, and gives you a complete story about its characters. So while Cold Steel 1 ends on a cliffhanger, you don't need to have played the prior arcs. If you are just interested in the Cold Steel games, then you can just play through that arc.

My opinion is that the Cold Steel games are the best (most interesting setting and aesthetics, best soundtracks, most engaging turn based combat and character building, likeable characters, etc), followed by the Sky games. Crossbell and Daybreak are kinda middling.

Is this character a protagonist from the start of that game or do you unlock him later on?

Reverie is the first game in the franchise where it rotates between three POV protagonists (as opposed to just following one protagonist for most of the game). He is the third POV you unlock about 10 hours in.

[Vergil]

[fkirenicus]

I think you forgot Taash.

[fkirenicus]

The men you like look like women.

This.

[Vergil]

I think you could play Monochrome Mobius as a standalone game, but it was not a super standout JRPG on its own merits and depends upon your investment in the characters and the setting and the aesthetics.

The aesthetics seem pretty good and I've certainly trudged through worse for less. I did play Persona 2 to completion after all

My opinion is that the Cold Steel games are the best (most interesting setting and aesthetics, best soundtracks, most engaging turn based combat and character building, likeable characters, etc), followed by the Sky games. Crossbell and Daybreak are kinda middling.

I'll keep that in mind then. I guess I can understand the naming convention since they're all in the same universe but it does make it seem brutally complicated and not worth deciphering on first glance so I just kind of ignored them.

Reverie is the first game in the franchise where it rotates between three POV protagonists (as opposed to just following one protagonist for most of the game). He is the third POV you unlock about 10 hours in.

I see, so would starting with Reverie be a bad idea without playing the Cold Steel games or would I still be able to at least enjoy them/know what's going on?

Also while I have been playing FF7 Remake it's kind of up in the air whether or not I'll be continuing with it. So far I dislike every single character besides Cloud and it has so much awful ******* minutiae. If the game doesn't pick up the pace soon and stop all the forced walky-talky sections I'm gonna have to drop it.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I see, so would starting with Reverie be a bad idea without playing the Cold Steel games or would I still be able to at least enjoy them/know what's going on?

You would be able to understand most of what is going on. It is not a part 2 to a game that was cut in half due to Falcom's promise to the shareholders to push one game per year out of the door whether it is ready or not, which has resulted in four Trails games getting pushed out the door unfinished and ending on a cliffhanger that requires a second game to conclude the story. Reverie is a self-contained adventure. However, a lot of the story rides on your investment in the characters who were built up in the prior games. Only three party members in the 3rd POV's group are brand new characters introduced in Reverie, everyone is an old returner with history. You could start at Reverie, but I think you would get more enjoyment from having played the prior Cold Steel games first. If you do play Reverie first, there is a text brief synopsis/recap of the prior games and current geopolitical situation in the main menu, and also read the 7 & 9 short story as that sets up the 3rd POV.

[Vergil]

@Val the Moofia Boss do you know anything about the game "Ys X: Nordics" or the franchise in general?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

@Val the Moofia Boss do you know anything about the game "Ys X: Nordics" or the franchise in general?

Ys is Falcom's other franchise besides Trails. Used to be their flagship franchise up until Trails of Cold Steel exploded in the mid 2010s and Falcom switched their attention to pushing that as their main thing. Falcom began taking notice from Trails' success, and starting with Ys 8 started pushing the Ys as story heavy games like Trails. The Ys games take place in the same setting but do not have an overarching storyline with subplots running from game to game like with Trails. There is a chronological order in which each game takes place but it really does not matter at all. The first two games (another two parter situation where the first game was unfinished so a second game had to be made to complete the story, the PSP remake on Steam is as a bundle that includes both) features unintuitive "bump" combat where you deal damage to mobs by running into them along their side, like grazing them (if you face them head on they will deal damage to you). They then became traditional action combat for a while but you still play as one character, and then the last few games had multiple different playable party members.

Nihon Falcom is one of the forgotten grandfather of the JRPG genre. Probably their biggest contribution was raising the bar for the quality of videogame soundtracks, and other devs began following suit investing money into their sound teams as well. Unfortunately, Falcom made a few really bad business decisions that kept them from attaining household name status like their peers. During the development of Ys 3, chairman Kato refused to give raises and much of Falcom's staff quit. Kato then prohibited staff (ie art people, writers, boss battle designers, composers, etc) from doing interviews (only president Kondo talks), and tried to prevent composers from getting credited for their tracks on the OST albums, probably out of fear that fans would start latching onto the names of these artists and giving them "clout" which could give them more leverage at the company like what happened with Kojima at Konami. And then in 2015, Kato botched relations with Kadokawa (who helped with merchandising, doing concerts, providing voice actors for audiobooks, anime, etc). So Falcom wound up getting a bad name in the Japanese games industry that made it difficult for them to attract talent (what composer or artist wants to work at a company and then not be allowed to claim and show off their work?).

The biggest issue though is that Falcom stuck to developing their games for PC up through the 2000s while the rest of the JRPG market was taking off on console. The company nearly sank in the 2000s and then went public, did their "one game out the door per year whether it is complete or not" promise, and began developing for console, but by then it was too late and the market conditions to make humongous household names like Star Wars or Harry Potter or Final Fantasy was over. And now Falcom is once again late to the party finally developing games for Switch, long after Playstation's decline in Japan and after the JRPG genre achieved market saturation on the Switch.

[Oyster Sauce]

[Vergil]

You have any clue how long I waited for this "youtube link" to load?