Don't get me wrong, grunting cavemen aren't very much fun to play as, but gender confused 12 year olds are even less so. I may have said it in another thread, but the best characters are the normal guys in extraordinary situations. Not some skinny teenager and not some hairy caveman in power armor. Games like Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and and Battlefield: Bad Company display this very well. Here is a character who, despite his flaws and obvious humanity, still manages to accomplish his goals and come away with a revised view on life (or death, if you went after the Monolith). They're very human, very easy to connect to, and they are a lot of fun to play as because you can put yourself in their shoes.

Give the choice, however, Caveman > 12 year old.

I don't mind either way. I play JPRGS as well as games from the west. I do usually find the J characters have a lot more depth and colour to them. The western characters are samey and /or just rip offs of previously existing characters from film etc.

You must understand anime and japanese culture to fully appreciate many things in Jrpgs. It's wrong to treat em as if they were culturally identical to USA-made games when their root is categorically opposite.

When i play a game i don't see myself as the hero i'm controlling so my masculinity isn't attacked by his feminine characteristics. (hell...i actually have long hair lol...i'm pretty assured in my gender identity to not need to be a testosterone barrel to feel straight) I play games to experience em like books, especially RPGs and a standard retarded spacemarine isn't nowhere near as interesting as your average anime character or rpg character.

Ok this is the ultimate character.
A very pretty musculated guy with a power armor so he can carry his big sword around wich he uses when he runs out of ammo of his fallus symbol of a gun.
Post him on a planet wich is invaded by the same aliens that murderd his parents and took away his sister.
The leader of these aliens is his long time rival who also must be avenged for killing their master
Make him so bitter that he cannot hide his anger but he refuses to show emotions because he has no time for that.
Let him say very little except for some grunts and make him think all kind of mushy and caring stuff.
the armor is made out of a traditional armor parts and strangly stylish clothing fabricated from a bullet repelling fabric made by ancient dwarve like aliens on a vulcano planet.
He would be known as "the nameless hero" and men and women would love him equally.
give him the ability to rule time, run and jump like an acrobat, survive heavy gunfights and the arcane art of elemental magic.

your standard anime/jrpg character possesses roughly as much charisma and force of will, as an overcooked potato.
No matter how excellent the plot is I can't bloody stand a protagonists who doesn't have any motivation.

a homophobe or a homosexual? hmmm....

i think i'll opt out on this question.

Being firmly against transhumanism and cybernetic bodily enhancements, and also being a fairly thin, girly-boy, I have to go with the big sword wielder.

Hawgh:
your standard anime/jrpg character possesses roughly as much charisma and force of will, as an overcooked potato.
No matter how excellent the plot is I can't bloody stand a protagonists who doesn't have any motivation.

you my friend have not seen anime have you. Take ash from pokemon he wants to be the very best. Naruto constantly trying to improve himself to protect the people he loves. and so on and so on...
as for Jrpg The cast of FF VI is willing to sacrifice their lives for saving the planet. And those kids in Golden sun or chrono trigger all traverse the world because of a thread of it's destruction without having a clue what lies ahead.

So yes maybe there are those with no apperent motivation but that's a part of character development. first they get thrown into battle, not knowing why they should be involved or whatever.
and could you tell me the motivation morgan freeman has? it's not like he talks about it.

The only characteristic and motivation I ascribe to Gordon Freeman is that he has the most developed survival instincts of the entire human race.

khululy:
I still think Earthworm jim is the best character in a super armor :P

Agreed. Earthworm Jim was the Don. Where oh where have all the Earthworm Jim games gone?

Ares Tyr:
Being firmly against transhumanism and cybernetic bodily enhancements, and also being a fairly thin, girly-boy, I have to go with the big sword wielder.

Unless it was made out of styrofoam you'd need cybernetic implants or superdense muscles to use such a weapon.

I just thought the irony was funny.

Eldritch Warlord:

Ares Tyr:
Being firmly against transhumanism and cybernetic bodily enhancements, and also being a fairly thin, girly-boy, I have to go with the big sword wielder.

Unless it was made out of styrofoam you'd need cybernetic implants or superdense muscles to use such a weapon.

I just thought the irony was funny.

And I appreciate the irony. Though personally I'd toss the sword and just use super sweet karate. I AM THE WEAPON!

PedroSteckecilo:

I bet your also one of those people who don't like "story" in your games right? *sigh* I don't know why I bother.

I think games should let the player control the story. If the player's avatar has too much "character", the player is forced to act as the character is expected to act. Perhaps Half Life is a bad example since the player is locked on a path to a degree they might as well be on rails.

My point is that a good game tells a story. A great game lets the player tell the story. If I wanted to be told a story I would watch a movie or read a book.

I prefer games where the men are men, and the women are women. In JRPGs, more often than not, the men and the women are both women.

i prefer power-armor the size of 4 brick sh1thouses.
i don't have to hear anxty whining or chase any cardboard love interests that way.
i just get to rake people with sheets of lead, and maybe some rockets ^_^

Johnn Johnston:
I prefer games where the men are men, and the women are women. In JRPGs, more often than not, the men and the women are both women.

I'm gonna give a very hard look at you and then point to Auron and Barret. And I'm not even a big JRPG fan.

Ares Tyr:

Johnn Johnston:
I prefer games where the men are men, and the women are women. In JRPGs, more often than not, the men and the women are both women.

I'm gonna give a very hard look at you and then point to Auron and Barret. And I'm not even a big JRPG fan.

That's why I added in the 'more often than not'. After all, the title of the thread doesn't account for those types of JRPG characters.

As much as I like them...

Auron is a Samurai Stereotype and Barret is basically Mr. T

This smells greatly of two of yahtzee's typical gripes combined. Way to be original.

Meh. The only reason FPSes feature big men in huge suits of armor is that the concept and gameplay of most FPSes makes absolutely NO sense without them. In real life, people are generally out of the battle, or at least seriously inconvenienced, after getting shot. Even a non-lethal shot kinda hurts. So you need either a really tough military type, or some kind of crazy armor that makes gunshots not so scary anymore, or both, in order to keep with the modus-operandi that is "you need to get shot like 5 or 6 times before you really need to start worrying. Or just 2, if one was a headshot."

I generally call JRPG swords "compensation swords", but that's mainly because I think Marth was a cheap fuck in Melee, and I think that Cloud looks hilarious. But seriously. It's the style. In Japanese games, things need to be larger than life, especially in JRPGs. If we can suspend our disbelief long enough to accept that when combat happens, both sides line up and take turns hitting each other, or that it is reasonable for 2 wyverns and a grizzly bear to set aside their differences and join forces to take you out, then we can accept a sword the size of a small municipality. If it's fun, there shouldn't be a problem.

In other news, I've spent long hours accepting a mushroom-eating plumber who occasionally eats a flower so he can summon fire, or a carrot to become a were-rabbit, or a striped mushroom to become a Bee. After that, a Zanbato isn't too much of a stretch, especially in a world where ostrich-chicken is the primary method of transportation.

All in all, this whole topic screams "Fanboy bait"

Sly Copper is pretty good character, also Nathan Drake if it wasnīt for his crapy name.

I like playing as nameless, faceless cannon fodder fighting in a huge war he doesn't understand.

the first guy to fight in a war he didnīt understand was Solid Snake

dannydamage:
LI feel that the desperation to buy a game because the main character looks like he has a big cock is someone saying they're missing something in their life..............

It's funny because it's true.

There are some decent JRPG characters out there that don't really fall into the "girly man" category, don't judge EVERY game by Final Fantasy...

Yuri Volt Hyuga
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Shadow_Hearts_2_Yuri_Hyuga.jpg
I suppose he fits the Japanese Male standard of not being "uber manly" but he's not whiney at all, he's awesomely sarcastic and swears alot.

Fei Fong Wong
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/xenosaga/images/thumb/2/24/Fei_Fong_Wong.jpg/180px-Fei_Fong_Wong.jpg
The main character of Xenogears, he's an amnesiac, but he's a badass Martial Artist, he's not girly and he's not that whiny about his amnesia.

Shion Uzuki
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/xenosaga/images/thumb/b/b9/Shion1.jpg/150px-Shion1.jpg
Now granted Shion IS girly, but that's because she's a girl, and a scientist, and pretty awesome as she uses clever gadgets instead of strength to fight.

Geddoe
This is Geddoe, he's one of the 3 main characters of Suikoden 3, he's an alchaholic Mercenary... and not remotely a girly man.
http://scythecastle.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/s3-geddoe.jpg

Chris Lightfellow
Another one of the main character's from Suikoden 3, she's a general and knight, and incredibly badass.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3500/chrislightfellow01nw6.jpg

Chrono
Here's a classic, oh yeah, he's definately a girly man... right...
http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/crono.jpg

Laharl
Now keep in mind that he is supposed to be still a kid, definately not a girly man though.
http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/disgaea/art-001.jpg

That's all I've got for now, but I'm pretty sure there are more.

I think I sum up my feelings with the following:

FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

You cant really start a discussion wit this because youll end up with all the bloody sony fanbois banging on about how much "depth" and "style" JRPG characters have, and lashing out like children at anyone who disagrees.

And that's worse than "JRPG characters are GHEY! You're GHEY for liking JRPG'S! If it doesn't have GUNS and SPACE MARINES and SHOOTING it's GHEY!"?

Both sides have their idiots Tom, JRPG fans just feel more oppressed on this forum 'cause Yahtzee hates JRPG's with an unreasonable fervor.

Well, yeah, but the group that goes on about "ghey"ness etc will be considerablely smaller than the PS3 fanboi lineage, thanks to those generally not being smart enough to last a day on a forum without being treated with the banhammer for the stuff you were on about, and since the whole JRPG thing has always been SONYs fallback option nearly all PS3 fanbois are all for it. Personally neither are my bag, myself being mainly into western rpgs where you get to at least make the hero diffrent and its less like sitting throgh a really long movie with you dieing turning into commercial breaks. And I havent seen any opinions like you were mentioning on this page yet (at least not as obvious as you said, with them usually giving reasons for it), yet a lot of the comments here are the completely "unbiased" opinion of the PS3 fanbois. Im not saying your wrong or anything, I was just saying that this thread will be overrun with the PS3 crew massif because its sonys thing and there are a lot more of them.

--

But I whilst Im here Ill point out The Darkness had a girly looking man (mortica adams jokes etc.), but he tunred out to be possessed and went on a shooting spree, so theres an exception to the rule on the shooter side of things anyway.

For the record Tom, I'm not a "Sony" fanboy, I own all three consoles and currently get the most play out of my 360 where I play *gasp* JRPG's! Currently the 360 is actually WELL outpacing the PS3 for JRPG releases, what with Infinite Undiscovery, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia whereas the PS3 currently has Enchanted Arms and Folklore, Folklore being a very non-traditional RPG that just happens to be from Japan.

God, tough choice. I suppose the Japanese character is the lesser of two evils.