Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
You can have conflict while "doing good for the sake of doing good". Case in point: Marche Radiuju. He spends the entire game just wanting to do what's right. Yet he's constantly conflicted because he just wants to stay in Ivalice (let's face it: who wouldn't). He's also thrown into conflict with his friends because they want to stay as well. Personal and interpersonal conflict. All because Marche wants to do what's right for no other reason than that it is right.

Done properly, this is almost always the case. It always leads to inner conflict, because what is right is rarely what is pleasant or pleasurable. Desire conflicts with morality. For a hero, morality wins that battle. For villains, desire triumphs (or they're just insane, but that's less fun).
I don't interpret Marche's actions as "doing good for the sake of good" he does good cause he understands that Dream Ivalice is harmful to his friends, the whole point of the Lotus Earter Machine Trope/Platonic Cave allegory is that is it better to face the harsh reality than to live in an illusionary one that stunts the soul and minds ability to grow. The whole cast was running away from their problems and selfishly perpetuating a fake existence at the cost of others (the real people of St. Ivalice) from their lives to fulfill their own selfish needs. Marche is propelled to take action to save his friends from themselves... and a living magical codex.

The character I am actually thinking of is Isaac from Golden Sun because it is him and his parties goody-two-shoe personality that kind of killed the game for me. Dragon Quest has a similar problem but luckily the whole cast tend to lack any real characterization to make it easier to ignore it most of the time.

I need characters that have needs and desires because that is human. Desire is not a trait of villainy it is a trait of humanity itself which is why villains often tend to be more complex and interesting than valiant heroes cause the storybook heroes lacks the traits that allow me to relate to them. I'm not going to save the world for the sake of it, maybe I don't give a damn about it. I'm an adherent to psychological egoism so I can't put much stock in altruism of any kind; so it is up to the writer to explain to me why my characters would care to save the world. I often find that heroes save the world more for selfish reasons, with the actual world-saving part being just a nice bonus to save their friends, get revenge, or make their desires into reality.

To quote a more complex hero.
Quote Originally Posted by Squall Leonhart
Right and wrong are not what separate us and our enemies. It's our different standpoints, our perspectives that separate us. Both sides blame one another. There's no good or bad side. Just two sides holding different views.