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While some series don’t have any top-tier heroes, others have multiple fan-favorite characters nestled among their rosters, clearly demonstrating that they’re much much more than just one-hit wonders. These popular video game franchises boast some of the best video game heroes of all time and are infinitely more enjoyable as a result.
5 Grand Theft Auto
Whether or not the protagonists of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series can really be classed as heroes is perhaps a matter for debate. That the likes of Niko Bellic and CJ are fascinating and well-realized characters almost certainly isn’t though, with most in agreement that the series boasts some of the most interesting and most complicated playable characters in video game history.
The 3D Grand Theft Auto games have a little bit of everything, from traditional mobsters like Tommy Vercetti to out-and-out psychopaths like GTA 5’s Trevor Philips. There have been some phenomenal voice performances over the years too, and though some are definitely more interesting than others, they’re all really well-written and tend to exhibit real growth throughout the course of their respective games.
4 Resident Evil
Given the intimate nature of Capcom’s Resident Evil series, it’s only natural that players would empathize with the games’ playable protagonists and even come to care for them over the course of the series. Coming up against seemingly insurmountable odds together is a surprisingly effective bonding exercise and it’s one that the players are very much a part of.
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Though Leon and Jill tend to be most people’s favorites, the Resident Evil games boast a wide and varied cast of playable characters, all of whom have their own unique backstories. Even characters like Tofu are good for a laugh, which is more than can be said for some of the heroes in some of the other long-running video game franchises that are out there.
3 Assassin’s Creed
Not every Assassin’s Creed protagonist is a great hero, but most of them are once all’s been said and done. The likes of Altair and Ezio got the series off to a flying start, which paved the way for a whole host of wonderfully well-realized characters like Bayek and Kassandra to continue their and the series’ legacy.
While the franchise itself has at times floundered, it’s very rarely the result of a poor protagonist. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that some of the Assassin’s Creed games are saved by the strength of their main heroes, as was the case with Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate with Evie and Jacob Frye. These characters are often a lot more memorable than the games in which they feature, which is usually the sign of a top-drawer protagonist.
2 Red Dead Redemption
Much like the playable characters in the mainline GTA games, the Red Dead Redemption series’ leading men are not exactly what one imagines when told to picture a hero. That’s not to say that they’re not worthy of the title though, with both John Marston and Arthur Morgan ranking highly on most people’s lists of top-tier video game characters due to the complexity they display throughout the course of the series.
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Both men are incredibly flawed, but this actually helped them to be far more relatable than any cookie-cutter hero who sees everything in black and white could ever be. Life is complicated, after all, and was even more so in the old west, so to condemn John or Arthur for doing what they needed to do in order to survive would be incredibly unfair. Sure, neither of them is perfect, but then who really is? Besides, it’s arguably their many imperfections that help to set them apart from other, more generic video game heroes.
1 Final Fantasy
Owing to it being one of the longest-running video game series of all time and its apparent aversion to direct sequels, the Final Fantasy franchise has seen its fair share of heroes over the years, with some being a lot more memorable than others. For the most part, though, the developers tend to get things right, with the likes of Cloud, Lightning, and Cecil all among the best video game heroes of all time.
Of course, it’s important to note that these are only the series’ main heroes, with each game featuring a party of heroes made up of anywhere between four and fourteen characters. Once the likes of Tifa, Auron, and Sabin enter the equation it becomes a lot more one-sided, with no series able to compete with Final Fantasy when it comes to the sheer volume of incredible characters it has introduced over the years.
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