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What has happened to memorable characters.

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
Remembering the games of the last generation, especially the Survival Horror games, we had a cast of characters that we recognize at first glance and know their personality. Many like the following characters.

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From the Silent Hill Saga, Resident Evil, Rule of Rose.

Now the characters or cast are often so generic and awful.

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For example, with the characters in the last Silent Hill, who cares who they are and their story? Silent Hill Ascencion is so generic that neither the characters are important, nor do they attract attention.

I think Silent Hill Short Message has a good character but not up to par with the classics of the series.

Now there are almost no memorable or special characters in this generation.

There are few times that we will see a cast as unique as if it were part of a great story or a story from a very good movie.
 
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Klosshufvud

Member
Character design went to shit. Just look at Tekken 8 and SF6. I have no idea what the hell they were smoking with those new characters. And even old characters brought back have been made worse in design. I think a part of it is that art work is being outsourced and no longer by an in-house character artist like once was.
 
I think it would have been better if you specified "memorable horror game characters" (In your title)

Either way, I agree, when it comes to horror games.
Recently, besides Resident Evil 8, I can't think of any other series putting effort into making memorable or colorful characters...

In general, memorability is subjective, I think.
Someone mentioned Kiryu here, and I completely disagree.
For me, there's no difference between Kiryu and a bland, factory written Shonen Anime Protagonist. Just add stoic to the factory mix.

For me, he is memorable due to his popularity, but not as a character.

So memorable can mean many things...
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Current generation has no artistic vision when it comes to Survival Horror games.

I prefer Fatal Frame and more recently DreadOut myself.

Silent Hill and older SH games are either niche or not very memorable. And Silent Hill IMO started to die out with Silent Hill 4.

Most memorable characters in the genre is probably Elster from Signalis.
 

kunonabi

Member
I mean peak Capcom/Konami horror designs was never going to be matched by anybody out there today. Those were also 3 generations ago. At least the Wii360 era had Francis York Morgan, Bayonetta, Travis Touchdown, and Frank West as the big highlights.

I'm currently running a blank on great characters from this gen and last outside of the chick from The Good Life.

Lol at the silent hill short message chick. She's such a goblin that it would be a miracle if she didn't get bullied.
 
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Beer Baelly

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Nobody remembers those characters lol.
James for sure. Same goes for Chris and Leon. Even Isaac from Dead Space.
 

Fbh

Member
But can you recognize those characters without seeing their face and only seeing a third of their body?
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I bet you can't. But everyone reading this knows which game this image is from.

Current gen wins
jeff goldblum checkmate GIF
 
Baldurs Gate 3, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Psychonauts 2, It Takes 2, Control, Tears of the Kindgom, Alan Woke 2.. Tons of examples. If you mean what happened to "memorable" characters in genre's you like... Well, that's between you, Odin, and the developers of said genre to figure out.
 
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2B is one of the most memorable characters in modern games
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if you tell me she is memorable just because “sexy” we had plenty of sexy design in Japanese games but most of them never became as popular as 2B.

It's funny how SquareEnix are still making money off of her due to the crossovers. But they tried so hard to push Lighting down our throats. That really must make some of people working at SquareEnix triggered lol
 

Beer Baelly

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Baldurs Gate 3, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Psychonauts 2, It Takes 2, Control, Tears of the Kindgom, Alan Woke 2.. Tons of examples. If you mean what happened to "memorable" characters in genre's you like... Well, that's between you, Odin, and the developers of said genre to figure out.

Alan Wake Jump GIF by Xbox
 

ssringo

Member
Just want to see if I remember all these characters.

Picture 1 is Silent Hill 1-3
Harry Mason, his wife?, his daughter Cheryl, Claudia, Cybil, the asshole doctor?, Lisa

James Sunderland, Mary, Eddy, little girl who was friends with Mary, suicidal woman who was sexually abused and said "mama", Maria

Heather Mason, cop who helps her, Claudia again, only one I can't remember at all

Never played Rule of Rose but have definitely heard about it.

Picture 3 is Haunting Ground (modern release please for the love of god!)
Debilitas (sp?), Daniella, Hewie the dog (also in RE4), Fiona (RE5 Jill), Ricardo and Lorenzo (might have them backwards)

What're ya buying?

These games were formative parts of my teenage/early adult years.
 
Literally the only character from the OP that I know is the RE4 merchant.

I can post pics of Kratos, Joel, bunch of Elden Ring shit, Ellie, etc. that people would all recognize immediately. There are dozens of examples. Think you're way off base OP
 
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