Realistic Characters

[DerVVulfman]

An old Article I had for a couple years and
decided to post... I didn't write it.

Realistic Characters

Hey this Fitz Tayo with his first Article, on Character Realism.

Just so you know, this is about how some characters are unrealistic and how you can make them more, um realistic. If this gets posted I will make it a series on Character realism and personalities, and how to progress with them. In this first Episode, I will be covering the personalities and realism of Heroes.

Part I – Repeated Personalities:

First things first, you have your characters, and you want to give them personalities. Before this, when making your characters, you should have already decided what their personalities would be. Otherwise your game could be a bit unplanned, but we don’t know that, only the maker does, but forget it anyway. But when deciding on your characters personalities, you have to make them seem realistic. Unless you want a weird world where random people with the Alex CharSet pop up out of no where and run off to defeat an evil demon lord with the justification that evil must be vanquished. This would make a pretty unoriginal game. So you want to make them realistic right?

The following is a list of personalities that are unrealistic and repeated:

The natural Hero:

This character is so cliché that nearly everyone now hates them. He (Girls like this are rarely seen) will somehow have a strangely large sense of duty and will help any one in need of help and have no angry thoughts about it, just being nice, and not wanting anything in return for it but getting things anyway. I hate this person, they seem to care about nothing but saving the people of Earth or Gaia or wherever the hell they live. He always has no opinions of his own. Think is this realistic; make the character get angry at things other than thieves, monsters and evil things. You shouldn’t even consider using this.

The Chosen:

These characters are always variable. They have their set personalities, then they end up finding out they are a clone, or an alien, or they are chosen. They always end up better than the rest of the characters. Even if someone is a clone of the “Great Sephiroth”, they will still have weaknesses, everything does, and if it doesn’t, it should! Chosen people are just really annoying, if they were chosen, or were made to destroy a planet, how come they start off at Level 1 with about 100 HP? I have never seen a game where an extra character is chosen, or has ultra powers. Except for Chrono Trigger (one of the best games that ever lived!) with Frog, who was meant to have the Hero Medal and everything, and Crono is just an average Joe.

The Underdog:

These are people who have some sort of disability, whether it be a fear, or a physical injury. These people always end up having to confront their fears. I actually quite like this one, but it is starting to get cliché I like this character, it gives more realism to the character and it teaches a moral lesson. This is a less used cliché and I think it should stay that way because it is a generally good theme.

The Undead:

This is NOT a walking corpse. This is somebody who’s originally been destroyed by the Protagonist (The enemy). Then instead of a great story of sacrifice and confronting death… the other characters revive him by some twist of fate and the heroically destroys the final boss, usually brought back from the “Other Side” by a loved one. If you are going to use this character, instead of reviving them, give them trials to do in a sort of “Hell”. And give the player the option to fail and get stuck in hell while the other characters cope with the death and beat the protagonist, or let the hero/heroin escape hell and fight the protagonist with their allies. The substitute I just said is great for giving multiple endings.

The Loved One:

Not really the character, but what happens to them, you always find the character falling in love with somebody at some point in the game, which is a tragic love tale crossed with the destroying of a demon. But to be realistic, why not have the main character break up with their loved one or not have one at all. I know we all like a bit of romance in our games… and Romancing Walked is one of the best games in the universe because it gives choice and is realistic (apart from the whole monster thing). Why not have the hero/heroin have the chance to fall in love with one of a few characters or not at all, why not break characters up and get others together rather than just the hero or heroin. Just because you are playing as the main character and the story is centered on them, doesn’t mean others can’t fall in love but even get rejected. Give more variation and realism in your characters love lives!

Conclusion:

In Conclusion, try and give more variation and use some of the substitutes I put for each character, but remember, clichés can be a good thing, and can actually make the player feel more familiar with the game, just put the characters in different more interesting situations.

Ahgg… lots of typing for someone who hates writing. Anywho this is Fitz Tayo… um… bye.

---

Part II - Cliché allies come to the rescue:

This is Fitz Tayo with his second article on character realism. In part I, I covered over used heroes and some more realistic twists on the clichés. This time I’ll be doing it for your allies. I will cover the overused types of character and how they affect the game.

When making your main hero’s allies in the game, you have to get everything into 4 characters because of course you cannot be bothered to make a Character Change System, or you claim that you want only four playable characters. Wrong! When making your characters, if you only have four, chose the personalities that tie in with the game and you personally want them to act like. Don’t cram so much into few characters because you think your game will be unpopular if you don’t have a character that happens to be really slow and strong. But keep in mind, keep it realistic. A party of white mages without any attacking spells will probably have a smaller chance at beating an Ultra Demon Lord than a bunch of barbarians. Don’t think I’m uh… White Magist… or something. That seemed to have little to do with allies and their personalities, it just happens to be the ramblings of a crazed teenager. So here’s a list or the over used ally personalities and what you should do with them.

The calm smart one:

These are characters that have seen the world, and are very knowledgeable. They tend to act as a leader to the group who is guiding them on a certain journey (e.g. Auron from Final Fantasy X). Strangely, these characters are always smarter than the hero, and the hero never pulls one over the smart ones eyes or surprises them. I think these are quite over used, and they always end up dying one way or another at some point in the game. This is realistic, but just annoying, because they happened to take the last bit of information about the Last Bosses weak spot to the grave with them. Oh darn, now the heroes have to head out on another quest. A good way to lengthen your game, but doing things like this a lot can aggravate the player. Another point I want to make about these characters, they usually are Black/White Mages or some fighter with amazing sword abilities. And what’s really annoying is when the character has traveled the world and gained amazing strength, but starts a few levels higher than the hero did, and the hero will be at that level by the end of the first dungeon. How realistic, one good aspect you can use, whether the smart guy is going to be a permanent character at the end of the game or not. Make them a lot stronger than the hero and make him join the hero early on the make the user more accustomed to the battles and game. Then have the smart guy leave and come back later when the hero is at a similar level. I know this is very unrealistic, but being realistic with this would make the game too easy. If it was realistic, the strong person would stay with the hero for ages, and if they did leave and come back later, they are bound to be twice as strong as they were. I’ve blabbed on about this character for long enough so just as a last comment, this character is over used way too much, but is a very good addition to any game because it gives the hero the opportunity to learn how to play the game without going to a black screen and having a moogle explain it.

The Cocky one:

These are those characters that are arrogant, but not usually as great as they say. For some reason when ever a game stars a thief, this happens to be their personality. Except in Three the Hard Way (Great Game!). Usually these characters learn a moral lesson before the end of the game and end up being nice and friendly but this rarely happens in real life, just In TV shows. There are two types of this character, the one who is really actually good, but probably an utter ass hole, these are very realistic, or there is the one who just wants to be that great, who are usually ass holes too in my experience. If you are going to star this character as a thief, remember, most thieves are quiet, sly and actually good at what they do. Not some arrogant loud mouth who fails to steal from an enemy most of the time, and who never steals from passers by or from shops. Be realistic, if you have a cocky character in your game; make them actually good at what they do, otherwise the other party members would get rid of them at some point. Even if your party is one of those, we need all the help we can get, a total useless idiot who annoys them and probably the player as well isn’t even going to end up joining that squad of monster busters are they? Have these in your game, but try to make them actually good at something or as NPCs or the villain. But you have to have this type of character somewhere in the game. Unless your characters live in a world devoid of cockiness in those who aren’t almighty villains.

The Innocent one:

These are those innocent, naïve people who have a crush on the hero, which is very realistic (I like! I like!). Seeing as these are usually girls, they are either the heroin, who refuses to be with the hero, then some miracle happens and they fall in love, or they are the younger girls who fall in love with the hero at first sight, but learn that the hero and heroin are becoming an item. Another point to add this character being the heroin that refuses the heroes advances (If any), they are usually some princess or some person with higher authority over the hero. On the few occasions this character is a boy, they are usually a young black mage or summoner (Why do I never see male summoners in games?). A good example is Vivi from Final Fantasy IX (I’m a big Final Fantasy Fan, that’s why lots of examples are from Final Fantasy Games), he is a young, naïve boy with a tendency to trip over. These are already realistic points, the naive characters are usually young, or older but in a place of authority so they are ignorant of the outside world. The characters could even be isolated somehow. Being already realistic it’s hard for me to say much on them, they are rarely seen in games, save for the naïve princess or noble which is becoming overly cliché. But for the younger naïve characters, who seem to always be black or white mages, unless they are a certain species that can learn certain magic faster than others, older and more experienced characters have a better chance of learning Ultima than the black mage. To make these characters join the party, they need a damn good reason, why would two swordsmen and a monk who deal 500 damage a turn want a puny naïve black mage who deals 150 damage with a low fire spell? To make it more realistic, make the characters become forced to work together or have VERY similar goals. Another great idea is the have a while of the game played as a black mage weak against the magical attacks, and a while of it played as the hero’s party (Unless your hero is a black mage). Later, when the mage has better spells, have the two teams meet and join forces.

The Different One:

These are usually the silly ones which are a different race from every one else in your party, or they are an idiot. They usually have speaking impediments and are stupid or ignorant and unable to learn, though it could offend some people who actually know someone like this or is someone with a mental incapability, many people find these really funny. And though it is really harsh, if your game is comical, one of these is pretty much a must do. These are mainly for comic value, and are defiantly not bad at all, but if you want your game to be taken more seriously, I wouldn’t add one of these, maybe an NPC one that you encounter several times, but not a PC. Though very realistic, I get annoyed sometimes because people say a stupid character was put in the game for comic value, yet it’s very realistic, I know some people who are VERY physically capable, yet are quite slow. Why, I ask, why there is never a serious person with incapability as a hero or heroin. The reason is because, unless it’s for comic value, gamers would rather play as a generally cool person, but never an idiot. So if you want to have some very original characters, have a mentally slow person as a main character who is serious, not comical. I have played no games where this has happened. Though I do get offended it’s hard not to find these funny because they always say the right things at the right time to annoy or question someone and their motives. These people are actually a lot smarter than we think, they are simple minded, like a small child somewhat, and children and mentally incapable people have a simpler view on life. They never understand why someone kills, or why people fight, and in a midst of a war say, why don’t they just stop, which is a damn good philosophy, they are only fighting over land, leave it they way it was or split the difference. Very smart, and all others say, you don’t understand, they can’t stop, and when they ask why, the wiser person claims they just can’t. Using this in a game will raise awareness of this wise philosophy thought up by children or the mentally incapable. And people will like the character if they manage to stop a war through shear logic, even if they are mentally challenged. I hope someone does this in a game, to help spread this thought, it may not be realistic for a child to stop a war, but it will make a point that the logic they hold is a lot smarter than people who think carefully about strategy or math do.

The Quiet One:

These characters are either one of two things, quiet and calm, they are sometimes the wise one, but usually aren’t. If they are the calm sort, they are usually knowledgeable but not as much as the wise one. Another use of this is the sort of quiet, I don’t care type. The loners of the game. They usually join the party for some crap reason, where the better choice if having to pay them to stay in the party. This is very realistic and a great way to make your game less linear. If you don’t pay them for different parts of the game, they will appear later and you can get them then, and only if you pay at some points and don’t pay at others could you find out more of the plot. Though to do this you need to give the player more reason to loose hard earned money just to find out more of the story, make the hirable character a good one in battle, or give the characters some side quests to earn some more money from them if they are a mercenary for hire. As for realism within a calm quiet one, if you already have someone like this who is important to the plot, I wouldn’t have another. I want to see this mercenary business in a game, because it would be really, really a great aspect of the game, but the players may get annoyed loosing all their money, so give them chances to earn it back. Please put a hirable mercenary in your game please.

The Rash one:

Usually a fighter or knight, this character sort of comes in with the cocky one, though they are generally not thieves at all, otherwise they’d be a suck ass thief. This isn’t used all that much, but there is usually one character in the game who want to go off and do something stupid in a rush of anger. There is not much to say about realism in this because there aren’t many opportunities to see a person running off to kill someone because they hurt some one close to them in real life. Though about this character, if you want a less linear game, this gives you more option. Have the main character end up with the choice of whether you’re going to barge into the enemy’s or sneak in through the sewage pipes. Another example is Final Fantasy VII when infiltrating the Shinra Headquarters, you have the option to sneak up some stairs that are conveniently placed near the entrance (No realism there at all) or barge in and bust open some heads and take a lift. Though this doesn’t affect the game too much, you can make these decisions affect yours considerably. This is also good for making an attraction system, where if you take one choice, the person who suggested it’s attraction towards the hero goes up, and the person against its attraction goes down. These are the only reasons to have one of these characters in your game, unless they tie in with the story you just want one of these for some comic value of rashness or to make your game less linear.

The Happy-go-Lucky one:

Also can tie in with the cocky one, but rarely does, these are usually thieves or a heroin of some sort who drags the hero out on some date for fun. There is very little to say about these characters, having one of these is a good excuse to drag to hero off to some place, then get in trouble, then it leads to a whole other bunch of fighting and crap. These characters have some realism, but have some major flaws; usually happy-go-lucky people in real life are just faking it or something. I have met some people who rarely care what happens and just go with the flow, but they are far and few between. And in a game with these, they tend to stick around the party for some reason, and get annoyed when the party leaves them behind, not tying in with the characters personality at all. What usually happens is this:

H-G-L(Happy-Go-Lucky): Thanks for saving me back there!
Hero: It was nothing, are you feeling okay
H-G-L: Oh I’ll be fine. I would’ve died if it weren’t for you!
Hero: No problem. Let’s hurry on though; we need to catch up to (Insert Antagonist’s name here)!
H-G-L: Hey wait! I’m a bit tired.
Hero walks off screen.
H-G-L: Hey wait up! (Runs after hero)

When really this is what should happen:

H-G-L: Hmm, that was a close one, oh well.
Hero: You nearly died back there, you okay?
H-G-L: Huh, what me, I’m fine, how you feeling?
Hero: Really, let’s hurry and catch (Insert Antagonist’s Name here)
Hero leaves screen.
H-G-L: Hmmm, I’m slightly tired, I’ll catch up later, I’m gunna go rest.
H-G-L walks off in other direction.

Happy-go-Lucky characters in game that are truly Happy-go-Lucky rarely care if they are left behind. This is a quite smart idea for your game where you have tons of characters available but only end up with say 4 at the end of the game: Have the option to leave the H-G-L behind, and pursue something else, and maybe end up with a different character, and maybe have the H-G-L have their own quest to find extra items for the group and then give the character the option to join the group again later on in the game. Or stay behind and wait for the character and keep them as a character and active a side-quest in a nearby town only available with that character in the party. Rarely realistic in games, if you are going to use this character, have them stick to their personality, don’t make them change randomly in the game and change back in the next scene. Unless a major life changing event takes place to them, don’t change their personality.

The Dark Mysterious one:

These are the sort of dark, strange characters with the unknown past, that through side-quests end up viewing a scene of their past that some how leads to them finding an ultimate weapon. For some reason these characters usually are good at magic and only slightly good at attacking, or vise versa. The magical ones are usually strange entities born from demons, half-Wizard half-demon combo. The stronger ones are usually the same, but are human instead of wizards. These characters usually have something wrong with them, they can have diseases, they could be a different race, or they could be some sort of clone or genome or some sort of human experiment gone wrong. If you do choose with this character personality, don’t just make them the only one of their kind. Unless they are a sole-survivor of some sort. If they are a half-demon, make them show up in some demon town, even if they are the sole survivor there would still be town ruins right? Give them more background rather than, they used to work for a scientist, the scientist experimented on them while they slept. They became inhuman and started to lead a secluded life. If this is the case, wouldn’t there be more failed experiments around, and where is that ultimate experiment that worked, also a great idea for one of those one-on-one bosses that aren’t very hard to fight as a group, but one-on-one are a pain in the butt. They could be some sort of optional boss to get that final magic spell or ability. Oops, sorta drifted off onto other subjects there. Anyway, all you need to do to make these characters more realistic is make more of them, there isn’t going to be just one failed- experiment-inhuman-thing living alone in the ENTIRE world, or universe in some science-fiction games.

The Old Wise one:

A small variation of The Wise one, these are just the older characters that the player only gets to control for a while, and they always seem to be more powerful than they let on. To the hero’s dislike these characters tend to disagree or rebuke the hero every time they make a mistake. And even worse, they always get killed by the antagonist a small time into the game, but right before they die, they cast some amazing spell that weakens the enemy enough for the heroes to banish them from the game for a short while. This is annoyingly over used and very un-realistic. As these characters are always stronger than they let on, why don’t they help the party out in a particularly hard random battle? We just don’t know, why do they have less HP than every one else, but somehow withstands the enemies death spells and manage to cast Meteo? Because they are REALLY UN-realistic, any game that repeats this mistake I shall brand the maker a complete idiot until they change it. If you are going to have these characters, either do NOT make them cast some amazing spell on their death-bed, or make it possible for them to cast it in a game over situation alongside the message, “I was going to save this for (Insert Antagonist’ name here), but I’ll have to use it now, and end the battle with all characters at 1 HP. This could also change the plot somehow with the hero exclaiming something like “Wow, why didn’t you tell us you could do that?” after the battle. To be really realistic, if you make it so they cast the spell in a random battle, they should die after the battle, or at least drop a few levels because they are so weak. This could vary your story greatly, or not greatly, it’s up to you. But don’t make this character unrealistic any more. It pains me to see idiots making such cliché games.

That’s all for now, next time I shall be writing about the enemies personality and motives alongside realism. That will be Episode III. So look out for it. You will have noticed this is considerably larger than the first one. Well, I spent a lot more time on this, wow 3481 words. That’s a lot of writing, well, seeya soon.

Fitz Tayo.

---

Part III – Enemies are hit by Realism:

Warning – This Article may contain spoilers in examples used by games.

This is Fitz Tayo, again with Part III of my Realistic Character series. This time I’m going to cover the Enemy character’s realism. I will cover the enemy and some of their motives to destroy the world. I shall also cover those minor bosses such as Pirates or Golem Guardians that you keep running into at the end of dungeons, surely the entrance would be a better spot for a Guardian?

First I’ll start off by going on about lesser enemies and then rising up to your evil villain.

Hard to start off with, so I’ll go on about Minor Bosses such as random guardians or demons in a cave.

Right, I have to say. These suck! Who in real life wanders into a random cave somewhere for some reason, then works his way through it fighting monsters (So far so good). And then at the end finds a dinosaur or some huge mother like that at the end of it that so happened to survive of eating other monsters, yet you still fight them in the cave. How many large creatures wait around at the very end of the cave, where it is most likely to get ambushed and killed? Honestly… the things these idiots do. How many times have you walked anywhere a fair 5 minute walk away, and suddenly encountered a ferocious wolf ready to eat you? I ask these questions so you think about it. Think before you place a monster right bang at the end of a long hike through mountains or anything. Put the monster somewhere towards the middle or some place where it can actually live. You always see these games where the hero’s have to cross a mountain that homes a particular breed of dangerous dragon or troll, and there are not even any caves or nests for these monsters, yet the hero’s never encounter one through their entire journey, except at the end of the mountain. How stupid! Think first! When placing particular monsters in a dungeon, give it some background information! It’s not all that hard, see, if you have a one of a kind monster appear in your everyday cave, how did it get there? Where would it’s parents be? Surely there would be others? Saying things like it must have wandered into the cave can be a bit tedious, but it can work. But don’t be an idiot and say it must like the dark or something, to return with; it must have wandered in here during the day we were out. Key Word: Day! Not so dark in the day time is it? To be realistic, have the cave go deeper, and say it wandered in from there. But have the heroes not wanting to head down there in case they have to face a dozen more of these monsters. Simple solution, no? And for the mountain pass, where the heroes are passing through “Shark filled Waters” as such, instead of encountering one at some random point. Maybe make a mini-game where you have to avoid being seen by some trolls or something, adding better game play, and also a chance to increase some custom variable that alters your game, like sneakiness value or something, which decides some other event later. I’m just full of ideas aren’t I?

Moving on to other minor bosses, that may have some relevance, it depends on the story. One of my biggest complaints is having to go to the back of a cave, to retrieve an ancient artifact or something, and when you get to the end of the cave, and nab the artifact, the room shakes and what’s this? Some one has shouted “It’s coming” for some reason and then you fight some boss. It’s understandable if the enemy was sealed away there some time in the past, or it’s a guardian, but just being there is plain wrong. This moves on to my next point, why are guardian bosses usually at the wrong end of the dungeon? Guardians should be outside waiting to stop who ever tries to even enter, despite the realism in this, it can annoy the player to waltz into a boss fight, then be forced to THEN go through the dungeon, unless they are smart and back track to a safe place. Guardians must be the most unrealistic thing I’ve seen in games. Who put them there, how in god’s name do they survive on just air? And when you defeat one, then return later in the game, why isn’t another one there? With guardians, think of them much more like terribly strong bouncers out side a club. Somebody must have put them there, and they must have some reason to stay, being paid or something, and when one bouncer is beaten up, doesn’t another show up to help? How about at least hiring more than one bouncer? What about hiring a new better one, who shows up later when/if you return to the place. Maybe even a secret boss for your game. You may also want to add Messages to random battles, to add realism, I’ve encountered tons of games where the monsters happen to all be mute but a few have messages in them, even the random battles. You may be wondering why I am asking lots of questions, answer is, I think this is the best way to prove my point here.

That’s those minor bosses pretty much covered, to make them more realistic, give them just enough background to make the player feel like the maker didn’t just feel like placing a random obstacle because there was a dungeon. Not all caves have to have a large monster at the end!

Now onto more interesting enemies, those ones relevant to the story. All of your enemies should be like this, no matter how relevant or irrelevant, whether it’s connected to the main story line, or even just one of your allies. They should all add a tiny detail to the story, even if you have to have a certain character or particular characters in the party. Doing this will also add replay value, but not every one will find the secrets unless you hint to them about it or telling them about in a game manual or something like that. There are however, exceptions where you can add enemies without any back ground. Side Quests, where you go off helping someone for a reward, that usually involves running into some dungeon and beating the crap out of a monster for a memento of the person you’re helping. Though not realistic, every one loves side quests, and lots of them! But don’t add unnecessary bosses to them when they are perfectly fine when you run around trading items for an hour. But adding more bosses, how ever unrealistic, helps force the player train his party and maybe use some characters they wouldn’t usually use. This makes the player feel the game is less of one of those train for hours then do something then go train again games. I’m getting side tracked. Another point I’d like to make is Motivation! Give you’re enemies motivation for attacking the party, I know it’s complicated to program this, but a bunch of thieves aren’t going to attack a bunch of characters strolling along with no items or money on them are they? Most games miss this very important factor out, making the enemy seem like a complete idiot, unless it’s a comedy game, or the enemy is a complete idiot, the maker also comes off looking like an idiot. And if you make a game, do you want to look like a complete idiot? I doubt it.

Onto more motivational reasons and methods. The following is a list of tasks performed by enemies (Not including taking over the world, more on that later) and what should motivate, and how to put this across.

Robbing the Player’s Party:

Again I come back to this, because it’s so, well annoying. I know this is realistic, and there are many, many muggers and bands of thieves out there all hiding in bushes waiting for us to innocently stroll past so they can steal our wallets. But back to that point I made before, thieves don’t steal from people with nothing, unless they are idiots and don’t know what you have on you. Also muggers rarely do this, muggers usually barge past people, knocking them over and stealing something then running off, not attacking from the front against a group of four with a bunch of weapons and magic spells at their disposal. So why don’t you bother making your game less linear, and give the players whose parties are too weak a warning by being attacked more often in certain areas in stead of having a big message saying, “You are too weak to enter this area and survive, do you want to continue?”, because if you do that, they’ll probably think the game is too linear and set. Also, I have to say, how come the player never gets robbed by a half decent thief who is actually good at stealing, and somewhere in a shop have the hero exclaim “My wallet was stolen”. This can also lead to more side quests and a more realistic believable game. Hard to speak on motivation here, as we all know people steal from people to get money or items. Unless they are being forced to by some malevolent annoying ass hole, otherwise known as the villain. This is sometimes seen in games, where a heroine (Spelt it right this time, eh?) steals a special pendant or item from the hero and the hero finds out some greater power forced her to or something. Enough on stealing.

Kidnapping the heroine:

I’ve seen this happen tons in old games, and quite a few times in newer ones. This is very cliché, and the person who does it, rarely has any motivation to do so except to make the heroine their bride to be and or to extract some ancient magic. Which in fact, are the only times I’ve seen it in games; I’ve never seen an enemy kidnapping the heroine or some princess and demand a ransom. How dumb are these enemies, as dumb as the maker as the game, so remember, the game reflects you. And if so, why does the King or whoever the ransom is sent to, send four warriors off to get the kidnapped one, instead of being smart and realistic, and pay up. This is realistic, but also can bore the player, unless you made too many dungeons and they are bored of the game by now. This can also make your game less linear and add replay value, by making a variable for the King’s trust for you, and if it is high enough, he’ll let you chose what to do with the money. Brilliant, more side quests! There are few reasons to do kidnap the heroine or an important figure in a game, because whatever happens, with kidnap, it usually has to tie in with the game, so it depends all on the game. All I can say here is; think before making something.

Attacking A Village:

I’ve seen this happen, not so often, but with good reason, when the player walks into a ravaged burnt village with few living people who say the evil demon king destroyed the village or something. Unless the village is under control of some evil king, and they refused to pay taxes, so he destroyed the village, there is little reason for an enemy to do this, unless they are the old crazy psychopath with extreme power and they felt like showing off by destroying the small peasant village in the middle of no where. If they are a crazy psychopath with such a power, and they want to show off, have them destroy a place of significance to the game, not like the hero’s/heroine’s old farm hick town in the middle of no where. Which is strangely a coincidental place to chose, you think? Unless they are trying to aggravate the hero/heroine. Really there are only two possible situations where this should happen, apart from the crazy psychopath going on a killing spree. First is the evil king who destroys the village for disobedience or something. Second is an advancing army willing to destroy a rival country, so they take the village for tactical position, or they destroy the village to engage some plan of enraging the opposition. This rarely happens in games and should stay that way.

Attacking a Large City:

Very realistic prospect, if used with the right reason. This can be done by many people, though weaker ones are usually in comical games. I’ll just quickly cover them all:

Evil Psychopath – These characters usually attack cities for fun, because they take pleasure in destruction, or they attack it because to prove their power to the people of the world. Though you never see an Evil Psychopath with the power to destroy an entire city holding one ransom and getting lots of money or followers out of it. I say followers, but I mean they forced people to bow down to them. Think about it from a different point of view, if you had limitless power, and no one would do anything you said, and you were generally evil, wouldn’t you take control of the world and make people treat you like their god for the next eternity? Better yet, tell them you are god, and make them worship you for the rest of eternity. But never, ever just make the villain or power crazed person go round destroying things randomly and yet maintaining sanity, that just really, is a stupid and idiotic thing to do in a game. But beware of doing this, if it’s generally nice city, the graphics, the shops, houses etc. then destroying it can change the player’s feelings also, it can either make them get angry at the maker for destroying a perfectly good city, or get angry at the person who did it, E.G. the villain.

Evil Emperor (Maybe being controlled) – These are very cliché, and unrealistic, especially if they are being controlled by some other force. Either way, these people have no sense of logic whatsoever, they always believe the best way to control the world is by taking over places by brute force, you never even see an emperor making peace with a country to drop it’s guards then attacking it while it’s back is turned. Going back to the mind control thing, this is very much overly used, and you have to wonder, if they can control the mind of the king, why don’t they control the minds of all the nations and do whatever they want? Unless they can only control one mind at a time, which would be a pretty useless thing because people tend to up rise against crap leaders. If they aren’t being controlled, you need a reason other than, they are greedy, even if the players start off by thinking that and it turns into some deeper plot, I mean, if they are greedy, how the hell did they become the emperor without being overthrown?

Thief Gang – Sort of like, if the Mafia took over New York, you know they could probably do it some how. Just in game form, a private crime gang takes over the city through an intricate network of crime. Not really attacking, the city, just controlling it. This is realistic, and probably true in quite a few cities, if you use this in a game, have other gangs too, otherwise it’d just seem stupid. And if they literally attacked a city, well they wouldn’t be a very good crime gang would they? They’re supposed to be subtle. This also adds originality to the game, because there aren’t many games with Gangs and Cults, (The Way does, it’s brilliant!) I can’t say much more on these, um, so I won’t.

Hordes of Monsters – Well unless monsters are going on a rampage and this city happens to be the closest, monsters have little reason to attack the big cities. Usually when this happens, how ever rare in games, the monsters are being controlled by some even greater force, which could probably destroy the city on its own but doesn’t feel like wasting time with its master “plan”. This helps the person controlling them look two things, either cowardly and unwilling to fight themselves, or like they feel that a capital city of a huge nation is not even worth their time and presence. This can make the player get pissed at the enemy even more so. Which is what you want, right? I always see that instead of the player’s party defending the city, they always arrive late to beat the crap out of monsters, or arrive when everything is destroyed. How about making your story less linear and giving the player a chance to save the city, and give perks to either option though you can do this with any of the above also. Good idea, I think…

Just to finish up on attacking large cities.

Manipulating the King – I said things on this somewhat in the Attacking a Large City thing paragraph above, just saying. Overly used, but not completely bad, and can make a brilliant story. Yet it is getting very cliché.

Allying with the Heroes:

Many times I see a game when some strange person joins the party and later on they turn around and say to the party, “Haha! Now I can achieve perfection!” Then they knock the party out. Which is really unrealistic, because if they are very strong anyway, they should have killed the party when they had the chance, they wouldn’t knock the hero’s party out, they’d kill them, and they wouldn’t even need the parties help in the first place. Unless they are pretty weak to begin with, which is quite realistic, but it would be more threatening to have an amazingly strong person gain even more power. And we all want our enemies to seem bigger and scarier without trying? Don’t we? Though this does give the player a glimpse of the enemy’s power, but we can still get game over, and they can still be killed. And when we fight them eventually, they are eight times as strong… which is just plain wrong. Give them exactly the same stats if they haven’t improved somehow, or just make their stats so good that the battle would be hard even if they had low HP. Very realistic, no? Any way, we’ve all seen this done, and now people can just predict it using some strange sixth sense they’ve picked up by playing too many games, so your game may be predictable if you do this. This can also be tied to controlling the hero or one of the main characters, like in Final Fantasy VII, where Sephiroth controls Cloud. This can be used to get what they want, and to affect the characters in some way, forcing them to change or anything. But yet again, I have an idea to make your game less linear by using this. Have some resisting Mini-Game, that if you complete, you get to keep the rare artifact the enemy wants and in turns activate some event relevant to the game, or you can lose and change the story appropriately. I do love non-linear stories you know… I’m just enforcing them… Any way, you have to think, if they are strong, they shouldn’t need the hero’s help, unless they aren’t strong, or there is some evil sealing devise upon which they desire, so think again, just like mind control or allying with the party.

Wiping the Hero’s/Heroine’s Memory/Senses:

This one usually takes place before the game, and is usually more of a whole storyline. Or happens sometime in the middle of the game, where the enemy wipes the main characters memory and the hero or heroine has to help them remember or help them stop being an ass hole. Undoubtedly it is very unrealistic, because usually people rarely remember everything in such a rush, and they are less likely to remember if a spell was cast on them. This can also be used to enforce a love between two characters, E.g. The Heroine loses her memory thanks to the enemy towards the end of the game, and she is under enemy control. Then the Hero tries to make her remember despite the fact she’s kicking his arse, then finally the hero makes her remember, and they fall in love, or one of them dies… you know, you can chose. That’s if there is romance in your game, and you don’t want a soppy ending. But to be realistic, the end would probably end up with someone dying, because people rarely survive things like that. But yet again, main characters dying towards the end of the game is becoming more and more frequent in games, but you could also have alternate endings for a less linear game. (Surprised I’d say that?)

Enslaving the World:

This can also be the main plot, but it isn’t destroying the world so I put it here. This is when the enemy enslaves a country or the entire world because they want to control it all, like a god somewhat, with followers and things. It’s hard to note this down as realistic, because if a rebel alliance of a few thousand people can’t defeat the enemy, what says four people who have an abnormal sense of friendship are gunna do any better. This should only be used if the characters have some special chosen power or they are chosen, or the entire rebel fraction help out in weakening the enemy and the player strikes them down. Otherwise, this could be considered unrealistic… yet people who play these do not question or believe it unrealistic if it is a good game in general, well in my knowledge. So if you are going to have an enemy do this, you better make it realistic or hope it’s a damn good game.

The rest have to be all relevant to your game, unless I missed some, if so, inform me. Just a lasting note, think before creating things and ask yourself is it realistic.

Now, onto the main enemies and last bosses of the games. As always I shall list the personalities and their realism, then I’ll move onto their motives. I do start talking about story-lines in the following paragraphs because the main enemy usually connects with the story-line pretty much all the time. One last thing I have to say adding a last strange boss that you’ve never heard of right at the end of the game is quite… stupid really. Who wants to fight some random evil looking thing that popped up out of no where saying they are the bringer of death… I mean who actually does that in real life… think about it people!

The Crazy Psychopath:

I’ve mentioned this a lot in this article. These characters are quite realistic, yet they miss one tiny detail, if the enemy is truly crazy, they’d have just blown up the world strait away through sheer bewilderness. The realistic part however, is that they couldn’t handle some great power they obtained some time in the game which caused them to go crazy. But they have to obtain the power in the game, otherwise people would have known there was a crazy nutter with eternal power on the loose and destroyed it already. One thing I have always wondered with these sort of characters, is that if they are crazy, why do they always want to destroy the world, why aren’t they some inept person like the sort you get in mental homes? Surely they could become any type of person, which is a good idea for a comedy game. Having your power drunken enemy turn out to be an insecure wreck who needs a blanket. A bad point in this personality is that sometimes the player will assume you couldn’t be bothered to do much with the enemy’s personality, which again reflects on you, the maker. Their reasoning for destroying the world, well, they’re complete nutters who do whatever they feel like. I think you should only use this personality for your main enemy if you have given everything else such detail, and given all other characters personalities. A good way to come off using these characters, is giving them a personality that people quite like or find amusing before they get “drunk with power”, this makes the game more emotional a good story, because you’d end up making the player kill off a character they liked. This actually involves the player more, and actually creates real emotion, rather than ones just shown by the characters in the game that can seem fake and unreal. Hmm, enough said about the psychopath character.

The God wannabe:

These are the sort of characters who would destroy tons of people to do something like collect their souls and absorb them into themselves to become a god-like figure. Well could be an interesting story, but then the whole story would end up centering around the fighting and destroying of the god-like person, with only a few spare bits where life is normal. But we’ve all seen this story done before, and then the god-wannabe tries to save time and creates some final light or something to destroy half the world, and then collect souls or whatever. Perfect example of this is Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, where he tries to wound the planet with a huge meteor, and then he’d absorb the spirit energy gathered to heal the planet and use it to turn into a god. That’s the stupid thing though, if they can cause damage like that normally, they wouldn’t waste time on something as big as becoming a god, unless they are a complete moron. Also if you produce a game with that story-line, any one who’s played Final Fantasy VII will think it is just a complete rip of it and therefore think they’d rather play the original. This is because on many levels, you probably are ripping from another game, even if you don’t know it. But the most frustrating this with this enemy, is that in some games they become like a god, yet the player can still beat a god, with more ease than some random creature created by some evil scientist. And now that you think about it, it makes no sense, doesn’t it? Their reasons for destroying the world, is usually they have a grudge against everything, or they don’t, but they would in the course of becoming a god, which makes the enemy look like an idiot. And both can make them look like a crazy psychopath who doesn’t realize what they’re doing, which would have the same effects as I said in the Psychopath paragraph. So to rap up on God Wannabes, don’t use them if you want your game to be seen as original, unless you put your own half decent spring on things or you have better ideas than those already used.

Powerful person with a grudge:

This is also connected to the psychopath somewhat, and this story is overly used. A person with a normal life to lead, something happens to them, somehow they end up hating the world, then they obtain unfathomable power, then they aim to destroy the world. And usually, the maker doesn’t give them enough background to explain why they want to, I mean, getting divorced wouldn’t want to make you destroy the world would it? Unless you’re a nutter. To make this character in a game more interesting, show the world from their point of view, and show how they got round to hating everything. Show their thoughts and feelings so the player can actually understand why they want to destroy the world, and not just commit suicide like normal people who hate their lives. In the sum of it all, we’ve all seen this, some good takes, many bad, it’s an okay story-line if you want to settle for being a game that has no effect on anyone. If you want to stir people’s emotions and thoughts with your game I would make a very good game in general or not chose this story and personality.

People with different Purposes:

This is actually a great story-line, as I’ve seen it once in the game Tales of Phantasia. WARNING SPOILERS – Where Daos is actually from another planet and is in fact just trying to save his own planet. Doing something like this can give you the opportunity to make two games in one, one where you follow the people of the planet being attacked, and one where you follow the character from the other planet trying to save their own planet. I loved Tales of Phantasia, one of the reasons is that it’s very original. I have not seen another game that has the main enemy trying to actually save something close to them, so in many ways you force the player to wonder if what they did was wrong. Though one of its faults was I didn’t want to play it again for a LONG time, yet having two story-lines can add to replay value. Or you can have one story-line that switches between the two, and in the final confrontation you can chose who to play as. You can see them from two points of view, a good person trying to do something good that destroys something as a side effect, or an ass hole for trying to destroy your planet. There is little much else you can do with this personality, except I came up with one idea, which can also change the story of the game. The enemy is actually trying to resurrect an even greater force, yet the player has the opportunity to stop them, yet if they fail, the player has to train harder to destroy the even greater force. This is a very original character personality, which is rarely done and realistic enough to seem believable. I hope someone who reads this article makes a game with one of these characters.

Evil Bringer of Death:

These are less main enemies, but more the sort of last minute show up and fight enemies who want to destroy the universe for whatever reason. They usually are made because of some spur of the moment impulse from the maker in a feeble attempt to deepen the plot. Though undoubtedly, using this makes the maker look like they couldn’t be bothered to come up with a half-decent final boss. Nothing to say about their personalities as they are all maniacs trying to destroy things. Most people I know get disappointed when one of these shows up, it sorta affects what we think of the entire game. Because unless they have a background that turns out they were controlling all the bad guys so far for their own malevolent needs. Even a little background helps, though it still seems pieced together and random. I think the world would be a better place with less of these.

Evil Emperor:

There are two types of these characters, The cliché over used emperor who is being controlled or generally greedy then comes round in the end right before death, and the underused mad sorta king who believes they are creating a new world order, or a utopia with what they are doing. The latter is the way to go with this one, as the first has been seen too many times in pretty much everything. With the second is also more realistic and a generally less evil character, who actually appears to have some sort of personality and belief system. Where the first just seems flimsy and unfinished. Though truly the actions they perform are based on the story, but they are usually the same, especially in the first. The first usually is a kingdom waging war against a country and they attack it, breaking all laws and treaties. Being basically annoying and stuff. The second, is doing less predictable things, but usually with the same goal; destroying the world in order to make peace with the motto if there’s no one to wage war there has to be peace, taking control of all kingdoms in a hope to create peace under one ruler, or destroying all but one nation in order to make “Peace”. Things generally like that, though deemed crazy and stupid, they have back grounds and beliefs that they stick to through madness. These are reasonably realistic and easy to comprehend as an enemy, note I am not talking about the first, controlled emperor person, but the second. These make good story-lines and can make your world seem like a more believable place to exist in, rather than some world with dumb ass kings who entrust the fate of the world down to 4 level 1 heroes.

The Sealed one:

These are your average sealed away overlords of death that somehow managed to get sealed away by 4 magical warriors. The game would always start leading up to their resurrection, then their control, then the way to beat them, then beating them. Final Fantasy V is a perfect example of this, yet despite being a good game is at a loss of realistic ideas. SPOILER ALERT - Galuf, one of the persons that sealed X-Death away, starts the game at Level 1, which makes you think. Why can’t we all seal this X-Death away again at level 1? Who is X-Death, wear did he come from, everything like that is important. If you have a sealed character, do not just give them a background of; they were once a powerful evil force, but we sealed it away, now it’s back. Give it more, like, when and where was it born, how did it get sealed away? You have to explain these in order to make your game not look like some shamble story made up in a few minutes. This character was very Cliché in the past, but is becoming less and less because it was cliché, but that’s no reason to use it. You have to think very carefully about choosing the enemy personality, because this one is usually set, and they always turn out to be this evil enforcer who loves death and pain and things as such. Only use this character if you are willing to give them enough background to make them believable and realistic.

The rest are all based on the story of your game, and I’m sure there are hundreds more personalities I could cover, but they are all too similar and are usually based on the above. They all seem to be based on craziness or insanity, or they seem to be devoid of logic and in thinking ahead to what will happen to them if they destroy the universe. So here are some final Points on all your enemies, again starting from less importance to more importance.

Lesser Enemies:

• Give them all a background, if your game has a library, have information on enemies and monsters.
  
• Give them a reason to do what they do, random battles included. Things don’t attack you for no reason
  
• Where did they come from? Things to not pop up out of thin air.
  
• Things need to eat to live, how do they survive off just air?
  
• Give things a reason to exist, don’t place things there purely as an obstacle.
  

Important Enemies:

• Give these ones backgrounds too, but more than lesser enemies.
  
• Try and make things realistic, hundreds of weak rebels have more chance of beating one than four strong ones.
  
• Make sure they do things for a reason, not because you want to have at least one fight with them so you change the entire story.
  
• Try not to make them too predictable, people love twists and people hate knowing what will happen.

Main Villains:

• Give them as much background as the main characters.
  
• Do the same as the Important Enemies.

That’s all for now, next time I will be covering Non-Playable-Characters or NPCs. Wow, this is long… how did I write all that…? 6100 words!

Fitz Tayo