What is the most unlikeable protagonist you have played as?

[spookyheart]

zero from drakengard 3 and haseo from .hack gu.

[Acrux]

Myself when I play a self-insert.

[rusty_shackleford]

oh right, I played the horizon game for a handful of hours and hated aloy

[Manny V]

oh right, I played the horizon game for a handful of hours and hated aloy

Why would you torment yourself like that

[rusty_shackleford]

oh right, I played the horizon game for a handful of hours and hated aloy

Why would you torment yourself like that

I thought it was going to be something similar to Bethesda's Fallouts.

[Ilovecheezecake]

Male V was ok. Also corpo background had a shitton of dialogues

[Eyestabber]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

I remember being quite peeved about that too. That's the lady in the castle you stop at right after escaping Skallitz at the start of the game, right? I was just kind to this lady and then there is a sex scene, when all I wanted to be was kind. I was also peeved that I took a walk with Theresa, and then Henry has casual sex with Theresa in the barn, when they hadn't decided they were going to get married.

[Irenaeus]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

I liked him when I played KCD1 but that was before finding out that he's gay - now I HATE him!

Honestly, I'm getting old or something, I can't remember another protagonist I didn't like other than that emo ****** Nico Bellic from GTA4 (the last GTA I played or ever will play). I think I just don't play many games with a fixed protagonist, surely not ones that I know I will dislike from reading about it or trailers... Only games I'm surprised with the bad story, for example Mass Effect, but I don't particularly dislike Shepard as much as the writing, particularly the council, Saren, some companions (the blue girls), etc. There are a lot of unlikeable protagonists out there, I just never played as them, just saw them on TV.

[dagal]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

I remember being quite peeved about that too. That's the lady in the castle you stop at right after escaping Skallitz at the start of the game, right? I was just kind to this lady and then there is a sex scene, when all I wanted to be was kind. I was also peeved that I took a walk with Theresa, and then Henry has casual sex with Theresa in the barn, when they hadn't decided they were going to get married.

I can't recall in KCD1 a single exemplary family, with a virtuous, masculine leader husband and an equally virtuous, femenine helper wife.
Traditional values are never displayed in a good light.
The subversion was subtle, but it was there nonetheless.

Then again, at least I didn't let Henry fornicate. More trouble than it's worth.

[Oyster Sauce]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

I remember being quite peeved about that too. That's the lady in the castle you stop at right after escaping Skallitz at the start of the game, right? I was just kind to this lady and then there is a sex scene, when all I wanted to be was kind. I was also peeved that I took a walk with Theresa, and then Henry has casual sex with Theresa in the barn, when they hadn't decided they were going to get married.

Tism

[Eyestabber]

There are a lot of unlikeable protagonists out there, I just never played as them, just saw them on TV.

yeah same. Most games I play are strategy anyway, so there's no protagonist except "the Commander".

[rusty_shackleford]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

did you consider just not visiting her?

[Eyestabber]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

did you consider just not visiting her?

Her castle is the very first "base" the game gives you so how could I not?

[rusty_shackleford]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

did you consider just not visiting her?

Her castle is the very first "base" the game gives you so how could I not?

Just… don't?
You're not forced to talk to her

[gerey]

A Plague Tale

She gets even worse in the sequel.

"Why don't I bring my little **** of a brother, who is a walking rat-baiting apocalypse, to a very populated city, what could go wrong?"

"I refuse to kill my brother, my unwillingness to do so leading to thousands of innocents dying in the most horrific way imaginable, even though everyone else, and all the lore in the game, explicitly say there is no other way to stop the rats"

She was a genuinely evil and selfish person, the kind of obnoxious, self-righteous **** that you see in Netflix shows, written by liberal, urbanite women that wrote her to be their self-insert.

V in Cyberpunk comes across as a complete imbecile, with the most ******** dialogue options imaginable. Why did CDPR think people wanted to play a moron?

Protagonist of Bully - manlet, ginger, inbred.

CJ from GTA:SA - annoying, whiny, hypocritical, moralfagging protagonist that will never stop bitching. Also, basically every other Rockstar protagonist after San Andreas.

[dagal]

did you consider just not visiting her?

Her castle is the very first "base" the game gives you so how could I not?

Just… don't?
You're not forced to talk to her

But how was he supposed to imagine that agreeing to take his shirt off in front of a sex deprived woman with a freudian daddy fetish, in a closed room without her husband knowing, could lead to such outcome?

[Demonic Fate]

V in Cyberpunk comes across as a complete imbecile, with the most ******** dialogue options imaginable. Why did CDPR think people wanted to play a moron?

All three V are canonically dumbasses who get pressured into joining Jackie in a precarious life of crime when their previous life falls apart. It's very clearly shown that the only smart choice in Night City is to GTFO.

As a player new to the setting, you're supposed to get caught by the glitz of the neon lights and cyber-superpowers and eventually get disgusted by 99.9% of Night City people being assholes until you just want to give the middle finger to everyone - the non-Devil endings letting you choose how - just like V does in-game.

As a player already familiar with the setting, you're supposed to see the trainwreck coming and look forward to it. Not unlike, say, a Warhammer 40k RPG where you know your PC isn't going to have a happy time because <insert intro blurb here>.

If anything, it was a faux pas on CDPR's side to let the player actually answer Dexter's "die as a young legend or as an old nobody?" question, because a V who answered the latter would never have joined the Heist and there would be no main plot. To let you roleplay a smarter V, you should have been kicked out of the Limo, pissing off Jackie, and be dropped into an open roam Night City to do low-street-cred sidequests and nothing else.

(They actually did this exactly right in Phantom Liberty, where you can just say 'nah, this sounds like a horrible trainwreck of a mission, I'm out' and it just ends the main quest, but you can still explore Dogtown and do side quests.)

[gerey]

All three V are canonically dumbasses who get pressured into joining Jackie in a precarious life of crime when their previous life falls apart. It's very clearly shown that the only smart choice in Night City is to GTFO.

I've grown to despise subversive, deconstructive narratives like the one in Cyberpunk 2077, specifically because they're written by subhuman liberals wallowing in their own filth, ****, nihilism and self-loathing. There's nothing deep or poignant about suffering through a *****'s struggle session.

Games are about winning, overcoming the odds and beating the challenge. Having the gay communist writer then rugpull you and say "nuh uh, can't have you feel powerful and accomplished" is ******* ********.

I don't give a flying **** about "thematic authenticity" or the story trying to ram a ********, liberal message down my throat. If I can tear Adam Smasher a new ******* that means I won the setting, and there should be nothing else that can bring you down.

Ending of Cyberpunk 2077 should have been V taking all his cash and flying out of Night City to live the good life someplace else.

[Demonic Fate]

All three V are canonically dumbasses who get pressured into joining Jackie in a precarious life of crime when their previous life falls apart. It's very clearly shown that the only smart choice in Night City is to GTFO.

I've grown to despise subversive, deconstructive narratives like the one in Cyberpunk 2077, specifically because they're written by subhuman liberals wallowing in their own filth, ****, nihilism and self-loathing. There's nothing deep or poignant about suffering through a *****'s struggle session.

Games are about winning, overcoming the odds and beating the challenge. Having the gay communist writer then rugpull you and say "nuh uh, can't have you feel powerful and accomplished" is ******* ********.

I never said that you have to lose, quite the opposite. V being a dumbass who accepts a crazy mission because he has Tony Montana dreams is a necessary hook to fully dump him into the city, as the lowest of the low - discarded pawn #456789 in a plot between manipulative bastards. But you have the rest of the game to make him rise and learn.

If you're thinking of the famous quote "There are no happy endings in Night City", the emphasis in that quote is on "in Night City". Which brings me to:

I don't give a flying **** about "thematic authenticity" or the story trying to ram a ********, liberal message down my throat. If I can tear Adam Smasher a new ******* that means I won the setting, and there should be nothing else that can bring you down.

Ending of Cyberpunk 2077 should have been V taking all his cash and flying out of Night City to live the good life someplace else.

That's the Nomad (Star) ending, which is broadly agreed to be the best ending by far.

The Nomads are intended to be as the positive ray of hope that has resisted the degeneracy of Night City. They have families, a tight-knit community, and actual survival skills - the opposite of the hustling, backstabbing, and prostitution that rules NC. They solve their conflicts face-to-face. They're kinda naïve, especially when dealing with corpos and gangs, but you can help them with that.

The ending is one of the far too few moments where Cyberpunk actually gives you a true RPG choice. You started the game as a fixed level 1 dumbass who drank all the Kool-Aid and got shot in the face for it. Now, eighty hours later, after you've met and dealt with gangs, nomads, corpos, Japs and Yanks, revolutionaries and tyrants, celebrities and losers... Who is your V? Is he still a dumbass who believes in the promises of fame, wealth and immortality (Sun / Devil endings)? Is he a tired, disillusioned cynic who just wants it to be over (Temperance / Tower)? Or has he recognized the rot for what it is, and chooses to GTFO with the few decent people he has met?

[Finarfin]

► Show Spoiler

I don't really care if people are butthurt about the ending but when the Addon came out I took up the offer to save V from dying. Only caveat was him never being able to get all the over the top cyber implants (Normal ones are fine iirc, but not the stuff he was having ingame) and well no more contact with Panam but Vic is still there and sweet Priscilla I mean Misty

[Sweeper]

Niko Bellic.
The quintessential diasporoid.

[Irenaeus]

Niko Bellic.
The quintessential diasporoid.

Don't know about diasporoid, but was he a whiny *****.

[Sweeper]

Don't know about diasporoid, but was he a whiny *****.

Same thing.

[DrSneed]

Henry from KCD1.

I had dialogue with lord what's his face's wife and she offers me a shirt and I'm like "sure, I'm a poorfag, I'll take a free shirt". And then the game goes full XXX from that point onwards and I'm like "Henry, please, lord whatshisface was nice to you, leave his wife alone. HENRY, STAAAHHHPPP". And the game fades to black and the old ***** gets, WAIT. She is like 40 or something, I got ******* GROOMED in that game.

Jesus Christ be praised!

did you consider just not visiting her?

You can just refuse the shirt and you don't **** her.

[gerey]

I never said that you have to lose, quite the opposite.

I do apologize if I came across as hostile. The vitriol was not aimed at you.

I was just voicing my frustration at the increasing prevalence of downer endings in media. And it's not just sad endings, but endings specifically made to spite the audience.

A good indicator is how Max Payne handled its endings. 1 and 2 are by no means happy, but at the end the player can feel satisfaction, Payne got his revenge, gets the girl (if you fulfill the necessary requirements) and all is as well as can be in his world.

Ditto for GTA 3. Claude tracks down the **** that betrayed him and kills her, and is now free to spend all his ill-gotten gains.

Now compare it to Max Paye 3, where Max is a sad sack of ****, and the plot keeps further beating him down. At the end of the game all I could feel was disgust, both at Max, and myself for ever bothering to finish the game.

CJ in San Andreas also allows Sweets to drag him back into the ghetto, erasing all the progress the player made. Niko is not much better, and Rockstar titles have only gotten progressively worse since then.

[traxtan]

Main protagonist in Atomic Heart, he never shuts the **** up and that game sucks.

[traxtan]

Deacon from Days Gone is a liberal's idea of a tough guy, he's such a soyboy it hurts.

[Bertram_Tung]

I never said that you have to lose, quite the opposite.

IA good indicator is how Max Payne handled its endings. 1 and 2 are by no means happy, but at the end the player can feel satisfaction, Payne got his revenge, gets the girl (if you fulfill the necessary requirements) and all is as well as can be in his world.

Ditto for GTA 3. Claude tracks down the **** that betrayed him and kills her, and is now free to spend all his ill-gotten gains.

Now compare it to Max Paye 3, where Max is a sad sack of ****, and the plot keeps further beating him down. At the end of the game all I could feel was disgust, both at Max, and myself for ever bothering to finish the game.

Max Payne 1 and 2 is noir so anything but a downer ending would feel inappropriate or inauthentic

i never played Max Payne 3 and from what I've heard I don't have any interest

Boy I wish there were more games with atmosphere like the first two Max Paynes

[LemonDemonGirl]

Christof Romuald. Didn't help that the game was broken as ****.
Also, everyone from FFX-2.