Oof, your rule cuts like the top 3-15 out of my list. Most of my favorite characters come from just a handful of franchises. I think it'll be more interesting this way, though.
10. Clementine (The Walking Dead)
Clementine was a fine character in the first few Walking Dead games, but she didn't become one of my favorites until The Final Season. Seeing her grow from someone who needed protecting to someone who could protect others herself was an incredible thing.
9. Eddy Raja (Uncharted)
I love his relationship with Nate. He takes such delight in taunting Nate and gloating over him, only to go totally nuts when Nate or Elena pull some ridiculous trick to get the better of him. It's wonderful. His death is probably the saddest moment in the series for me.
8. Jodie Holmes (Beyond: Two Souls)
There's something really intense in Elliot Page's performance as Jodie. Jodie's always stuck in her own head, never completely present in the moment—which I guess is apropos for someone who has a ghost stuck inside her head. But it's not even just about Aiden. Even when she's in what should be a happy situation, the emotions she displays are always more complicated. She carries the sadness of her early life with her throughout the entire game, even if your choices take her to a happier place in the end. It's tragic, but riveting.
7. Goro Majima (Yakuza)
When you meet Majima in the first Yakuza game, he's pretty much just a cackling madman who seems to have a bit of a thing for Kiryu. He's hilarious and terrifying in equal measure, and I really didn't know what to make of him at first. But as the series progresses, you get to see more sides of him, and he somehow turns into a rich, layered character, while still retaining the wild insanity of his first appearance. You see someone who joined the yakuza to escape the restrictions of everyday life, only to feel frustrated and constricted by internal yakuza politics. Someone who, after being betrayed, inexplicably doubled down on his loyalty rather than seeking revenge. Someone who's nuts enough to drive a truck through the side of a building when he absolutely could have just walked through the front door, yet also has enough honor and courage to protect an innocent person he's been ordered to kill. Majima is an enigma, and I love him for it.
6. Rachel Amber (Life Is Strange)
When I played the first Life Is Strange, I found the mystery of Rachel Amber to be far more interesting than the whole time travel bit. When I was in high school, one of my classmates died in eerily similar circumstances. We weren't close, but I knew her well enough that Chloe's emotional journey throughout the game was all too familiar to me: first worry about her disappearance, then that fear crystalizing into dread as the weeks stretched by, and finally horror when her body was finally discovered. Because of that connection, Rachel Amber managed to have an impact on me even before she made an on-screen appearance. But I never expected that her death would be the least tragic part of her story. In Before the Storm, Rachel seems to have everything going for her: money, looks, grades—she should be happy. But she's not. Even before she learns of her family's secrets, she seems... well, lonely. Lonelier than you'd expect for the most popular person at Blackwell Academy. But throughout Before the Storm, she doesn't actually appear to have any friends. In fact, the only person she confides in is Chloe—someone she literally just met. And in one of their first conversations, Rachel suggests they play "two truths and a lie," a game that's really just a not-so-sneaky way to learn Chloe's tells and protect against future betrayal. Rachel Amber is someone to whom trust does not come easy, and that inability to trust keeps her at arm's length from everyone. Even after Chloe proves herself to be loyal and trustworthy, Rachel ends up pushing her away, too. Rachel Amber chooses to be lonely, and that is nothing short of heartbreaking.
5. Vette (Star Wars: The Old Republic)
Vette is put in a number of difficult situations in this game. She's initiallly a slave to the Sith, and even if you choose make her a paid member of your crew instead, she's pretty much pressed into service to the Empire. But though Vette is rarely the master of her own destiny, she never allows anyone to break her spirit. She has quips for every occasion, and she gleefully makes fun of anyone who claims to have power over her. Though she's often in dires straits, she's ever optimistic about the future, even when the situation seems completely hopeless. She always finds a way to take back a small sliver of control even when she appears completely powerless, something I only wish I knew how to do. I greatly admire her strength of spirit.
4. Ellie (The Last of Us)
I liked Ellie fine in The Last of Us. Her sense of humor never failed to land with me, and watching her grow over the course of the first game was interesting. And I liked her even more in Left Behind. She displayed a vulnerability with Riley that video game characters rarely get to have. It was really sweet, and it made Riley's off-screen death more devastating than many of the on-screen deaths in the series. But it was the events of Part II that made her one of my favorite characters. I don't think I've ever been so upset at a character's choices than I was by Ellie's in that game. It was almost like I was in some kind of hell, having to guide her on this mission of carnage and death. But throughout it all, I found myself captivated by the pain she was feeling. I've been lucky enough that I haven't yet lost anyone that I'm close to, so it's difficult for me to fathom what it would be like to have someone you love taken from you like that. But through Ellie, I could imagine what it might be like. Though it was a horrifying experience, it was one I value deeply. Death and grief are a vital part of the human experience, and Ellie's journey of revenge gave me the chance to explore them without the pain of experiencing them firsthand.
3. Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy)
This should be a surprise to absolutely no one. I mean, you can see my avatar, right? I absolutely adore Lightning. She's antisocial, impulsive, and arrogant, but her heart's in the right place. I'm autistic, and it's always kind of bothered me that the characters in stories who share my inability to relate socially with others usually end up either as the villain or in some sort of sidekick role. So I love that someone as aloof and cranky as Lightning got to be the hero of an entire trilogy. She might have a negative emotional intelligence score, but she moves heaven and earth (quite literally!) to save the ones she loves. I very much aspire to have that ability to help those I care about, even if I can't always say the right thing or show empathy in the way others can.
2. Morrigan (Dragon Age)
Morrigan is one of the most fascinating characters in video games. On the surface, she appears to be incredibly powerful, arrogant, and cold-hearted. And, indeed, she is all of those things, at times. But if you delve a bit into her past, you find out that those traits mask a deep insecurity, an overwhelming fear, and an intense need to be loved. If you manage to get her talking about Flemeth (her mother) in Dragon Age: Origins, she'll tell you that Flemeth taught her to always be afraid of losing her power. She taught Morrigan that the whole world was out to get her, that she could at any time be betrayed by people she might trust—which isn't entirely untrue for a mage in a world where mages are feared and imprisoned. But Flemeth also treated Morrigan like a tool, just a convenient pawn for her own gain. She made Morrigan feel worthless, taught her that no one could love her more than they would fear her, and that the only way to survive was to constantly seek greater knowledge and power. You'd never know any of this if you spent more time fighting darkspawn than chatting quietly in the camp, but that's part of what makes her so interesting: her story isn't force fed to you, you have to seek it out and work to uncover it.
1. Samantha Greenbriar (Gone Home)
I didn't really have much of an adolescence. I wasn't diagnosed with autism until my 18th birthday, so when, at the age of 13, I suddenly found myself inexplicably unable to communicate with my peers, I had no idea that it was because while they were all developing new and more complex ways to communicate, I was stuck trying to relate to them like we were still 7 years old. I spent the entirety of junior high and high school pretty much mute—scared, confused and alone because I just didn't have the capacity to understand what was going on. So when I played Gone Home just after I graduated high school, Sam Greenbriar was like a mythical being to me. Her story, one of teenage love, striving for acceptance, and learning about who she wanted to be was almost completely foreign to me. Through Sam, I got a glimpse of some of the things I imagine my peers experienced during that time: playing video games together at arcades, tentative first kisses at parties, going to rock concerts and discovering passions. It was like looking into another world, one I'd always existed alongside but never been a part of. It was absolutely magical. On top of which, Sarah Grayson's performance is incredible. She plays Sam with this sense of wonder, discovery, and vulnerability that made it feel as though Sam was in as much awe at her own story as I was.
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