Weirdest Characters in Games

[Selfsurprise]

(There isn't much happening in the games subforum right now, is there? I hope nobody minds if I leave this small and inconsequential topic here for your worthy consideration.)

 

I think it's safe to say that we've all come across the occasional character, minor or major, friend or foe, that has made us pause and wonder what manner of aberrant mindset would of conceived of such an individual. I always have a soft spot for obscure game characters with bizarre appearance, strange personalities and memorable voice acting. Would you kindly rack your brains and share some of the more peculiar people you have stumbled upon in computer games from any era or system you like. I'll share two examples of the kind of outré weirdness I'm fond of, but don't let my particular taste for monstrous and decidedly non-human characters deter you - anybody who just seems a little off and strangely articulated is welcome on this thread too.

 

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The aptly titled Yellow Monkey from Ape Escape 2 is an acquired taste, but one I can't help loving in some perverse and utterly unspeakable way. There's something inherently appealing about a furiously mincing simian sumo wrestler with an almost offensively camp accent - the sort of accent that might've raised eyebrows even in the Carry On... films - who describes himself as "the sparkling gem of the freaky monkey five" to the game's protagonist. You're watching the European version of the game where the characters have noticeably British sounding voice actors. There is an equally fabulous American version of Yellow Monkey but to my English ears he sounds more Sean Hayes and less Kenneth Williams, so it might just be national bias on my part but I prefer the Yellow Monkey in the video provided. There's also something irresistibly repulsive about the way he seems to be constantly fondling himself. If I knew anything about modding PC games I would have made a Fallout 4 dialogue replacer for Super Mutants in order to give them YM's boss battle lines.

 

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I'm not sure why I'm so forgiving of awkward overacting in games, maybe the medium is just more conducive of the sort of unreal personality quirks that you rarely see outside of the most autistically inspired fiction. When I was first beset by the unnervingly animatronic owl-headed character called Olcadan from the Soul Calibur games, I almost died of a chuckle induced cardiac event upon simply seeing him. Then he spoke, spoke with that unnaturally generic "man hero" voice that one could easily overlook if it were emitted from another more mundane character. Other than the more obvious fact that Olcadan was one of the series stock "character who has the other characters moves" option for players, I genuinely don't know what Namco were trying to achieve or express by creating him - though I'm ineffably and inexcusably pleased that they somehow felt the need to. I'm looking forward to the day he gets his own spinoff open-world RPG.

 

P.S. Why isn't Olcadan a meme yet?

[TheTron852]

Take one look at Zeno Clash's characters. That will be enough.

...Although Corwids take the cake there

[Psychotic Ninja]

 

Who the hell wears a thong as pants?! I mean many design choices in games by Square are weird, but I think Kuja takes the cake.

 

 

Also, if you want weird abstract design, look at Psychonauts.

[Meelis13]

Niko Bellic.

Now, i dont mean that from looks, but how Niko is depicted. I liked the story even if it wasnt GTA-ish, but it made Niko look like person with deep scisophrenia. I mean in story scenes he doesnt want violence but he doesnt know what else to do, but in gameplay... usual GTA.

 

The ancient guy with dragons (or he himself turned into dragon) in True Crime: Streets of LA. That whole spot of missions was so out of the blue... Up until that point, story was more or less grounded, at least no mystisism. And then out of the blue you have to find that guy who is apparently centuries old & has/can turn into dragon. And that was also the only mission where mystisism was involved. I last played it many years ago (i believe it might've even been as far back as 2009), but even back then it was weird.

[Freestyler]

Hmm weirdest... i think DK and Bowser in Mario Kart are weird... i mean. Tiny cars and giant drivers, who picks them??

[Selfsurprise]

The ancient guy with dragons (or he himself turned into dragon) in True Crime: Streets of LA. That whole spot of missions was so out of the blue... Up until that point, story was more or less grounded, at least no mystisism. And then out of the blue you have to find that guy who is apparently centuries old & has/can turn into dragon. And that was also the only mission where mystisism was involved. I last played it many years ago (i believe it might've even been as far back as 2009), but even back then it was weird.

That is legitimately weird. I've not played this game myself, is there some of secret world/magic realist sub-narrative that I'm not aware of in the titles lore? Is it an in-game nightmare of one of the characters or something?

[Meelis13]

The ancient guy with dragons (or he himself turned into dragon) in True Crime: Streets of LA. That whole spot of missions was so out of the blue... Up until that point, story was more or less grounded, at least no mystisism. And then out of the blue you have to find that guy who is apparently centuries old & has/can turn into dragon. And that was also the only mission where mystisism was involved. I last played it many years ago (i believe it might've even been as far back as 2009), but even back then it was weird.

That is legitimately weird. I've not played this game myself, is there some of secret world/magic realist sub-narrative that I'm not aware of in the titles lore? Is it an in-game nightmare of one of the characters or something?

 

None whatsoever. It follows cop during his investigation of local bombings, triad and disappereance of protagonists father. And then said mission- its actually part of investigation. No nightmare sequence, no logical explanation whatsoever- its like devs tought "fuck it, we want some dragons in it" and didnt even bother making it a nightmare sequence

[Selfsurprise]

The ancient guy with dragons (or he himself turned into dragon) in True Crime: Streets of LA. That whole spot of missions was so out of the blue... Up until that point, story was more or less grounded, at least no mystisism. And then out of the blue you have to find that guy who is apparently centuries old & has/can turn into dragon. And that was also the only mission where mystisism was involved. I last played it many years ago (i believe it might've even been as far back as 2009), but even back then it was weird.

That is legitimately weird. I've not played this game myself, is there some of secret world/magic realist sub-narrative that I'm not aware of in the titles lore? Is it an in-game nightmare of one of the characters or something?

 

None whatsoever. It follows cop during his investigation of local bombings, triad and disappereance of protagonists father. And then said mission- its actually part of investigation. No nightmare sequence, no logical explanation whatsoever- its like devs tought "fuck it, we want some dragons in it" and didnt even bother making it a nightmare sequence

That's almost impressive, just lobbing a dragon in without context or even a pretext for subverting said context. The devs were probably like "WE ARE ARTISTS! WE LIVE BY DIFFERENT RULES..."

[Meelis13]

That's almost impressive, just lobbing a dragon in without context or even a pretext for subverting said context. The devs were probably like "WE ARE ARTISTS! WE LIVE BY DIFFERENT RULES..."

here, some let's play i found of this section (note that this ancient Wu wasnt even mentioned before that): 9G0lhVgNsmQ