Well, what can I say? One, she's hot. Anyway, joking aside, Aqua is a character I highly sympathize with especially after what we happen to her at the end of BBS. *cough* spoilers *cough*. Though something that sort of keeps her from being higher up on the list is that her overall role is minuscule compared to Ven and Terra (the other two playable characters in BBS), but that's not to say she has no relevance to the story. As far as her powers go let's get a record of her feats:
-Defeating Vanitas while he was wielding the ultimate weapon, Kye-blade (x-blade)
-Defeating Terranort
-Defeating Hades and a Ice Titan clone both at once
-Surviving in the Heartless homeworld for 10 years (possibly more considering some of the cutscenes we see)
I'll be fair and give Sora an honorable mention for this spot.
9) Little Mac
Little Mac does count. Why? Much like most heroes he is willing to go up against foes much bigger and heavier than himself to prove that even though he may be small but he's not helpless. Now in truth the Punch Out games don't really tell a story about a hero who has to save the world or rescue a princess but rather it is more of tale of inspiration.
8) Samus Aran
Samus Aran is a silent, strong female protagonist. Ya, forget about the terribly crafted story of Other M (Though the gameplay of that game was fun). Most people would probably agree when I say Samus is just plain awesome and defines what space bounty hunter should be; strong, fearless, and up to any challenge.
Samus' backstory is that her colony was killed off by space pirates and Ridley had killed her parents but she manages to escape it all thanks to the Chozo. The Chozo had adopted her and infused her with their DNA, particularly Grey Voice. The Chozo have trained her to be quick, nimble, and masterful in close combat. The Chozo had also created a power suit designed to specifically be for human use and Samus certainly shows her ability to use it to it's full potential and then some.
Her feats:
-Defeated countless monsters ranging from bite-sized nuisances to 60 feet Gargantua.
-Defeated the space pirate army on multiple occasions and even defeated them on their own homeworld.
-Managing to survive some of the most hostile situations on minimal to virtually no equipment Little Mac
7) Megaman
Let's put aside Crapcom's currently outdated and terrible business practice and just talk about their mascot. Megaman is essentially the younger, male version of Samus. Like Little Mac, Megaman is often forced to face foe's of greater size and strength than that of himself (for the most part). What Megaman has that Samus doesn't have is that his upgrades are embedded into him as opposed to where Samus' upgrades are imposed onto her power suit which is not permanently attached to her so...ya. Also, I'm the kind of person who likes more light-hearted characters.
6) Bang Shishigami
Oh boy. Bang Shishigami is just a fun character in how much a stereotypical hero he can be and just how funny he can be. Don't be fooled though he is not one to back down from someone who is a threat to love and justice and is considerably powerful and skilled ninja fighter. In the BlazBlue games, most all the characters are in the grey area when it comes to good and bad with rare exceptions (Bang being the only character who on the good side while Hazama and Relius Clover are the only characters with actual evil intentions). Also Bang has THE funniest Astral Finish in all of BlazBlue, oh man all I can tell is just look it up. Though while he is the most entertaining character of the game he is also one of the most tragic. We learn in his story in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger that his entire clan except him and a small handful of nameless shinobi was destroyed and his master/father figure was killed by Jin Kisaragi and yet he is not one to try to go completely for revenge (assuming that bad endings are not the canon ones...ehhh who knows, specifically in Continuum Shift). As a show of his heroic disposition and his love for Litchi, he stands and fights to protect both her and Arakune from the clutches of Hakumen. Bang is truly worthy of his self-proclaimed title of hero of love and justice.
5) Kirby
Ain't he just adorable. Kirby shows us that heroes can come in all shapes and sizes. Much like other characters on this list, Kirby is often faced with numerous peons and has quite the family of large foes. Kirby has the power to suck in enemies and absorb them to gain specific powers (though not always the case) and is easily the very thing about Kirby that has made most of his games interesting. A cute little pink puffball with the ability to have a wide variety of abilities and conquering many foes small or large and tremendously weak or stupidly powerful.
4) Spyro and Crash
Playing as a Dragon with attitude and the Tazmanian Devil of the video game world...where could ya go wrong? Okay ignoring titles of the last oh we'll say 6 or so years. I really don't have much to say about these two except they are two of the best of videogame animal kingdom.
3) Mario
Oh Nintendo who would've guessed that a 4 foot plumber and 200 pound gorilla would be what made Nintendo the gaming juggernaut that it was and still sort of is. Forgetting about his jarring, fake Italian voice Mario is a hero with some major conviction and loyalty. Even though his girl is kidnapped for like the 10 millionth time Mario is willing to rescue her again from the same overgrown turtle tyrant. Mario has not only rescued the Princess countless times but has also saved the universe twice, a feat shared only by one other on this list (though in truth she's saved the universe like 20 times at this point).
2) Cecil Harvey
Now as one may have noticed with the majority of the characters on this are overall light-hearted. Aqua, Samus, and #1 are not the case however. With Cecil in particular, the story of his game is one of tragedies, betrayal, friendship, love, and too many fakeout deaths to count. Okay being serious now, Cecil is character that goes through the most development of any Final Fantasy character and is one of the biggest factors of FFIV being my favorite game of the series. As for Cecil's development, he goes from being a dark knight who only obeyed his king (though it turns out he was an impostor) to full-fledged paladin who can make his decisions and stays strong for those he cares for. I was seriously considering putting Kain or Cloud, but in the end Cecil is the one who truly stands out among them.
1) Link
As with my villains list, I truly apologize for being so predictable. Link is everything that embodies a true hero. He helps everyone from trivial chores to relationship related issues to rescuing Princess Zelda. In each LoZ game, it is never the exact same Link but a different incarnation of the hero. He has many titles such as the Hero of Time, the Hero of the Wind, the Hero of Ages/Seasons, and dozens of others that I can't particularly remember. Link's greatest weapon is not his sword, but the Triforce of Courage which is what allows him to face off against any and all odds even against a Dark Lord possessing godlike powers. He is also one of the most skilled warriors in videogame history being able to use not only a sword and shield but a wide arsenal of weapons such as bow and arrows, a hookshot, a hammer, and much more. In the end, Link stands out as the #1 video game hero of this list.
With that, I bid thee ado. What the hell does that mean?
No comments:
Post a Comment