Topic: Games and Characters You Relate to & Why

A discussion in another forum topic brought up the subject of how we relate (or can't relate) to characters in video games. Thinking this may be an opportunity to talk about how we connect with this shared hobby of ours, I figured I'd make a post.

I'm pretty firmly in the camp of "can't relate to video game characters". They're usually too incongruous for me. However, when I was a kid and I was playing Earthbound it meant a lot to me (in ways I probably didn't even understand at the time) that Ness never saw his Dad. It's not played for drama, it's just a normal thing that he only talks to his Dad on the phone. My parents divorced while I was really young and I ended up being raised by my maternal grandparents, Dad moved out of state and so only talking to him on the phone was just a normal thing for me.

How about you guys? Do you have any special connections to games? Any conversation is deeply appreciated. Thank you.

I rarely find myself relating to characters. I find myself getting attached to characters more and becoming fond of them. Ace Attorney is probably the best example for me. The end of the third game was sad because one of the main characters left, and you watched her grow throughout the entire series. The same thing happens in books and shows. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a great example of this. I don’t feel a connection to Byleth but relationships with my students grow in which I feel like I’m actually their teacher. Byleth isn’t a character to relate with, but an empty vessel in which you can become one with the world and characters you get to know.

I hope all of that made sense😂

I can't relate to ANY game character Most of them have tragic fates and experiences.

It is awesome!

@Blooper987 I was hoping you'd mention Ace Attorney (love your profile pic btw). There's something about the characters in Ace Attorney that is very relatable. They have jobs, watch anime, and eat "hamburgers". In spite of the supernatural stuff that happens, it was very easy for me to feel like I was part of their group.

Player insert characters are weird. Like you said about Byleth s/he isn't much of anything despite being deeply important to the story. They are a great tool for the player to build relationships with the other characters and making you feel like you have a place in the game.

Even though he's not a character originating in games, the one character in any pop culture medium I have related to more than anyone else is Spider-Man. He's the quintessential every man hero and really highlights the difference between Marvel's and DC's characters, as the latter are mostly gods who try to cope with a civilian lifestyle and integrate themselves into a larger society, while Marvel's characters are predominantly commonfolk who have their powers thrust upon them unwillingly. Peter's human struggles like not always being there to support the people he considers close to him, sometimes not being able to work things out in a relationship with someone like MJ who has a different walk of life, struggling to maintain his academic integrity and having to constantly carry a burden of guilt into adulthood is what makes the character practically timeless, and it's why the writing in the PS4 game is so well done and an easy plus for that game. Next to ITSV, I consider Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4 the most comic accurate depiction of the character period, and it's why I honestly relate to characters in that medium more than any particular strict video game characters.

@Zuljaras Yeah when a game puts me in the role of a super powered space marine fighting space demons from Hell I"m not like "Finally a game that gets me".

Technically I work customer service, so there are some similarities.

@Losermagnet “When something smells, it’s usually the Butz.”😜

Yuna - Final Fantasy X

I was intrigued by Final Fantasy X storyline.
So many things was very religious related and at some point it was arrousing my mind to questioning what was the purpose we have been created.
I was impressed for someone who could create a fictional religion (Yevon teaching) with all the history behind it, the gesture of saluting, sending ritual, the fayth concept and the ancient words of Yevon. It was like i really facing with realistic ancient religion.
And the fayth concept that people will be chosen to give their life to become Aeon by sealed their body on the chamber of Fayth was really questioning my mind especially when Bahamut's fayth said that Tidus and the Spira was a part of dream from fayth, so i was wondering at some points what if our world also have some similarity like FF X world.

And to see Yuna as summoner, as i played the game, i found summoner job was really cool to able to summon mythological creatures from Fayth but also very ironic as Rikku found the reality of summoner's pilgrimage was actually a ritual to sacrifice summoner's life. And thus Rikku kidnapped Yuna to save Yuna's life for being sacrificed as Final Aeon.
To imagine her job was very dangerous and very sacrificial, i couldn't fathom of Yevon teaching that required one summoner to sacrifice their life to become Final Aeon to defeat Sin..... for temporary time. And then Sin will took over the Final Aeon's body and reborn as the new Sin. The life cycle of Sin was repeated and never ended.
To see Tidus was a part of Fayth's dream and try to break the Sin's life cycle was like human challenging the God.

As i saw the ending of FF X where all the Aeons disappeared due to fayths stopped dreaming and no more Sin reborn, it was very eye tearing to see Tidus will also disappeared as he was a dream of fayth. As Yuna tried to stop Tidus to walk away and found he was already a ghost, it was very sad to say goodbye after a big fight against Sin.

FF X maybe didn't have very European looking as previous Final Fantasy but the Yevon teaching, Fayth concept and Summoner's pilgrimage were something that questioning my mind about our reality life. It was pretty great fictional religion and it inspired me to create my own fictional religion for my Anthromorphic Animals that live together with human as i played Animal Crossing.

Whilst not a true video game character I have strangely identified myself with Wreck It Ralph. I'm 6'5, built like a tank and covered in tattoos so I'm fairly intimidating to people whether I intend to be or not so I found Ralph very relatable since he's thought of as this big monstrous bad guy and has to go on a quest to prove he's not to people.

@TheFrenchiestFry I'll have to give Into the Spider Verse a shot. I've heard amazing things. Would it be a good place to start for someone who doesnt really know much about Spider Man? I generally don't care for super hero movies.

@Losermagnet Spider-Verse is one of those rare comic book based films that transcends the genre it's attached to. While there are winks and nods to things relating to Spidey's comic and even movie history in the film, it does such a good job of catching up people who aren't familiar with the other Spider-Men that you don't really need to be an afficianado in comic book knowledge to understand who they are. This is the one Spider-Man film that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone no matter how familiar they are with either the comic books or other films

Just don't go into this film expecting it to be the Peter Parker show. Despite the title and supporting cast, this is very much an adaptation specifically of Miles Morales' story and he's the character who is given the most screentime and development in the film.

@Losermagnet Spider Verse is a great film, especially the animation style but it's not really the quintessential Spider Man story. It's about the kid who takes over from Spider-Man, it's newbie friendly and doesn't require knowing Spider-Man inside out but you may miss a lot of Easter eggs.

@jump Damn, I assumed you looked like Professor Layton I guess haha. That's touching though, thanks for sharing that.

This thread has made me realize I look like Larry Butz. Not sure how I feel about that.

@TheFrenchiestFry @jump Thanks for the recommendation, I"ll check it out. Sounds like a respectful soft reboot to Spider Man that's also a well made movie.

Madeline from Celeste comes to mind immediately. While maybe not one to one, the parts of her that remind me of myself hit the nail on the head. Especially the difficulty of being a normal person when you kinda want to simultaneously be both overly vulnerable and a jerk when dealing with difficult people or situations. At least that's what I got out of a decent chunk of the story...

Seto from Fragile Dreams and Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite come to mind too. Also Commander Sheperd from Mass Effect, who is probably my favorite example of a pre-written, established character that still reacts according to your choices.

@Losermagnet I wouldn't call it soft-reboot. It's kind of just like another franchise that can co-exist with the tentpole MCU Spider-Man films in case Sony's whole plan for a shared universe with Venom and Morbius the Plasma Vampire flunks

Just to add in, it's explained within the film it's an alternative dimension type thing rather than being the current version of Spider-Man. It will be more confusing trying to explain it than actually watching (as the film does a great job of doing it) but basically it's not a Peter Parker (the traditional Spider Man) story, it's a Miles Morales story who is a character in his own right and also happens to be called Spider Man too.

@jump Yeah to add to that the version of Peter Parker in Spider-Verse is also meant to be based considerably more faithfully on Earth 616 Spider-Man as opposed to how MCU Spidey is like a mish mash of Ultimate Peter and Miles Morales. In addition to that they do set up distinctly in the film each dimension does have its own Spider-Man and that Miles actually starts off in a very different place similarly to the comics.

@TheFrenchiestFry Thinking about it if Bendis had just called him Spider-Boy instead this would be so much simpler

@jump Hell you can literally apply that to every film version of Spider-Man except ironically the animated one

The only live action Spider-MEN we have had so far are the one from that 70s show with the clone that threatened to shoot him and the Megazord summoning one

@TheFrenchiestFry You make it sound like the 30 something Toby Maguire and Andre Garfield actually passed off as a teenagers

I remember watching Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield in their high school and thinking to myself they looked more like teachers than students.