Toejam and Earl.

The Iron Ninja:

Amnestic:
what did you want to be called again? I kept calling you Jimmy but you wanted a new name.

I'm not sure, I don't even remember you calling me Jimmy.
How about Smitty?
Smitty Werben Jegermanjenson.

^{and I am a cunning fox, though I wish it had linked to Wilsoncrazybed's comment at the end about why the thread was locked. Oh well.
Look at me! I have small writing!}

SPONGEBOB!!!!!! the hat episode

I like Conker

CmdrGoob:
The Nameless One!

How can you not love an immortal who has lived countless lives over hundreds of years, but thanks to his shattered existence has repeatedly lost all but a few fragments of the memories of who he previously was and how he came to be that way. Especially when his previous incarnations were so.. how to put it.. interesting.

Hell. YES.

I'm a personal fan of...woah, I just went through all my games and realised most of the rest are unlikable.

'Chelle from Portal is pretty ace, as is Kyle Katarn for all his "look at me, I'm an old Jedi" balls.

I'm thorn between Link and Jade from Beyond Good & Evil.
Link is just awesome but his character is rather flat, since he never talks.
Jade on the other hand had a lot of personality and was one of those characters you just have to love.
She was more than your typical girl with balls protagonist.

The Bard, from the Bards Tale.

Max Payne.

The graphic novel/comic scenes + the EPIC voice acting makes him one of the most interesting characters to play that I've come across.

Cortez from Timesplitters, just for the line "It's time to split!"

Well, Conker's kinda funky, I guess, but my favourite protagonist in a game has to be FFX's Auron (including his Kingdom Hearts 2 appearance). He has a giant, decent looking sword *glares at Cloud and his Buster Sword*, an awesome coat, brings some sort of uber-alcohol to battle and can spit said alcohol on his sword to shoot evil orbs from it. WIN.

Also, let's give a mention to the fantastic character of Raiden. Come on, I'm sure everyone agrees with me when I cross my fingers and say he was a brilliant, completely well fleshed out, witty character with a complete understanding of his situation and certainly no whiny voice at all.

Kane! No wait, he's an antagonist...

Cloud Strife? Okay, I'm just joking on that one...

You know what? I don't actually think I have a favourite protagonist.

Kreia (KotOR II) is the closest character I can come up with.

EDIT: I look a few posts above and he's sat there like the most obvious thing in the world!
Kyle Katarn.

Syntax Error:

Hurray Forums:
Shion from Xenosaga. She's in my favorite story, has an incredibly good voice actor, priceless facial expressions, deviates from the "standard" female roles in most video games, and built a murderous gynoid with a stomach that shoots laser beams. Only thing I really disliked about her was her fashion sense. I've played a lot of JRPGs so it takes a real disaster for me to even notice anymore let alone have it bother me.

I just got the feeling that she was being a major BITCH in episode three though, must be the result of Kevin's mindfuckery.

I counted that as a plus because most of the people she was a bitch to deserved it in my opinion. When she started talking about Kevin on her "date" with Allen to get revenge for sending the guilt trip email I about died of laughter.

galletea:

gantzsurvivor1:
Leon Kennedy. he is so bad ass

And he has a nice jacket, though he wants to be Dante, who fell out of my favour when DMC3 came along.

He does have an awesome jacket but i dont see how he is trying to be Dante. and yes all DMCs suck besides 1. 3 had better moves but i liked 1 better.

Sam n Max.

gantzsurvivor1:

galletea:

gantzsurvivor1:
Leon Kennedy. he is so bad ass

And he has a nice jacket, though he wants to be Dante, who fell out of my favour when DMC3 came along.

He does have an awesome jacket but i dont see how he is trying to be Dante. and yes all DMCs suck besides 1. 3 had better moves but i liked 1 better.

Well the jumping out of windows like an action hero, and the cheesy one liners he kept spewing just reminded me of DMC.

Solid Snake for FTW. He is the coolest bad ass in video games. Other for me include Dante Lara Croft, and Kratos.

Garrett from 'Thief' (because he's bad)
Phoenix Wright (because he's good)
Sly Raccoon (because he's classic)

Yeah, they've already been mentioned.

But the Nameless One is just plain awesome. There is nothing cooler, or more badass than him.

Garret, Threepwood and whatever the guy in Outlaws is called takes a nice second place.

I'm sure there's someone I'm missing, but most games have just awful protagonists. James, from Return to Krondor is almost worthy of a mention, far more personality than any games released nowadays. The problem with most games that have a "developed" protagonist is that they're not predefined. Fallout, Bloodlines, etc. It's your own character, and not a real protgonist, they can't really be judged like this.

I really would like to name another character, but I can't, both because the game hasn't even begun development, and because I can't say the name, but damn, that girl is awesome. :P

Really partial to Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and Yuri Hyuga from the first two Shadow Hearts games.

How do we count link? he has no personality, he has YOUR personality to be exact since he's a silent protagonist.

And in complete disregard for what I just said Persona 3's MC

Why? Dude literally tells the incarnation of death and destruction that he's going to kick it's ass anyway, despite the fact it's not ACTUALLY possible to destroy death, then uses his own soul to seal a being that brings death to the world. And then he manages to keep himself alive long enough through sheer willpower to keep his promise to his friends.

To repeat, he actually kept himself alive with no soul until graduation just so he could keep a promise to people who couldn't remember it.

If not him then RAND TRAVIS! Why? cause his giant robot has a giant fucking wrench! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZoybnGcUmA

Anyone who says Mario should... RECONSIDER.

Yes. Take that.

Mine is Ratchet!

Xerosch:

Sly Raccoon (because he's classic)

You mean Sly Cooper, I remember playing that as a bright-eyed kid with my brand new PS2.

NO PIE FOR
Gordon Freeman
Link
Master Chief
Leon Kennedy
the lame action-hero types

CHERRY ON THE TOP FOR
Trilby (come on people! I thought this forum had its priorities!)
Threepwood
Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth
Jade
Cid (sure, everyone hates the FF series for its emo protagonists. But supporting protagonists, like Cid in FF7 are pure awesome, and pure vulgarity)
The Demoman and The Heavy
D0G (fits in pretty well with the speechless R2D2/Wall-E crowd)

Raziel from Legacy of Kain. He has an energy sword implanted in his arm and he eats souls. You just can't compete with that.

The Iron Ninja:

Amnestic:
what did you want to be called again? I kept calling you Jimmy but you wanted a new name.

I'm not sure, I don't even remember you calling me Jimmy.
How about Smitty?
Smitty Werben Jegermanjenson.

^{and I am a cunning fox, though I wish it had linked to Wilsoncrazybed's comment at the end about why the thread was locked. Oh well.
Look at me! I have small writing!}

wtf... r u 6 or somethin? quoting spongebob...

as for my fav char Im gonna have to say the chick from Portal, she never talks which adds so well to the twist in the end. Her and Crash Bandicoot, idk y,i just think he fucking awesome lol.

Oh and the team from battlefield bad company, lmao the quotes in the game r the best ever.

StickManRampage:

wtf... r u 6 or somethin? quoting spongebob...

as for my fav char Im gonna have to say the chick from Portal, she never talks which adds so well to the twist in the end. Her and Crash Bandicoot, idk y,i just think he fucking awesome lol.

Oh and the team from battlefield bad company, lmao the quotes in the game r the best ever.

If you're going to hate the great and powerful spongebob, at least have a follow up statement that doesn't make you look like an illiterate moron.
Way too many acronyms.

Can we Auto-Disqualify the Character if he's Mute, cause you don't HAVE a personality if your Mute, it's like how everyone works Link up to be this Bad Ass who takes shit from no one etc. When he's just Silent, Characters like Crono are Silent, there YOUR personality.

How about Spike from Ape Escape

darktheif28:
How about Spike from Ape Escape

Oh dude! He was badass.

Richard Groovy Pants:
Master Chief.
^[/facetious]

(Oh boy, hope no one calls me out on that one!).

lol i know you're joking but GOD even to joke and call him a real character...
Keanu Reeves has more character in his left toe, and everyone knows Keanu reeves has the acting personality of a plank.

I think even samus has more personality than Master chief :P

P.S how quickly do you think i would get banned if i start up a MC vs Samus thread? tbh i am actually interested how it would fare on Escapist, because the majority of people here arent blind idiotic fanboys (I think)

oh, and i haven't played it, but i heard the main character from Disgaea is hilariously great.
As for my own character...lets get exotic and go for V.I Gorky from original war. Yeah, lets see how many people even know what frickin game i'm talking about!

Mute characters are fair game.

Personally, I reckon Marcus Fenix from GOW is the best protaganist because I can really relate to his struggle to exterminate the Locust hordes.

...

On a more serious note, I think the fantastical settings of most video games often unfortunately prevents alot of empathy and connection between the gamer and the protaganist. And really, how I see it, the best measure of a protaganist is his/her ability to conncect with the gamer.

It is therefore unsurprising that good protaganists are most often found in plot-driven adventure games in which the gamer and the protaganist are experiencing the same sense of...adventure.

Something like that.

Professor Layton.

JBarracudaL:
Really partial to Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and Yuri Hyuga from the first two Shadow Hearts games.

Beat me to it! :-) Except Yuri first, then Jade! (cos, y'know, Yuri...............)

ChromeAlchemist:

Richard Groovy Pants:
Master Chief.
^[/facetious]

(Oh boy, hope no one calls me out on that one!).

lol i know you're joking but GOD even to joke and call him a real character...
Keanu Reeves has more character in his left toe, and everyone knows Keanu reeves has the acting personality of a plank.

I think even samus has more personality than Master chief :P

P.S how quickly do you think i would get banned if i start up a MC vs Samus thread? tbh i am actually interested how it would fare on Escapist, because the majority of people here arent blind idiotic fanboys (I think)

oh, and i haven't played it, but i heard the main character from Disgaea is hilariously great.
As for my own character...lets get exotic and go for V.I Gorky from original war. Yeah, lets see how many people even know what frickin game i'm talking about!

Nice Top-Cat avatar.

Surprised no one has said Duke Nukem. Surprised anyone remembers Kyle Katarn. Surprised no one mentioned "THE GODDAMN BATMAN." Etc, etc.

I don't know who my favorite is, as I don't even know what my favorite game or games are. Perhaps I'll go with Jake Logan from Tachyon: The Fringe. Or perhaps Christopher Blair from Wing Commander. (3 and 4 specifically, though it is implied he's also the guy from the first 2 but when you actually played those, there was no indication of this.)

T260G from SaGa Frontier was pretty damn cool. A robot who doesn't know anything about himself.

I'd probably choose between Marty Alencar from Far Cry 2. (A Spanish badass who has balls big enough to remove a bullet from his arm with nothing but pliers, a knife, fuck loads of matches, and his own two fingers.)

Or Doomguy from Doom (Simply because he can carry a massive load of ordinance and run a marathon, and one of those guns is the BFG 9000)

Then I would give the third place to my character from Fallout 3, because I can wreck anyone's shit with my Tesla Cannon.

Then there's Soap MacTavish...