Not So Main

When deciding what I was going to right about today I had quite a few things I was thinking about. I was thinking how Nolan North's voice acting is often taken for granted and the latest example being his work as David in The Last of Us. This then got me thinking of those characters in games we take for granted of how amazing they are because they are not the hero or heroine or the "main" character. So this post is my top non main characters.

5. Victor Sullivan(Sully)

He found Nathan at a young age and raised him as if he was his own. He may not be the greatest role model, but he always has words of wisdom or answers or questions you don't want to hear. Most of all he is their for Nathan whenever he is needed no matter what it entails.

"Here's the thing kid. We don't get to choose how we start in life. Real "greatness" is what you do with the hand you are dealt."

4. Luigi

The often forgotten brother who no matter how many times Princess Peach gets captured is always there to help. Sure he has had some of his own games over the years, but that is only because so many screamed for this forgotten brother to get some of his own attention.

"What? Stay home and take care of the house? Man, that's not exciting at all!"

3. Balthier

Sky Pirate always looked down upon, but it is he who saved everyone in the end. There really wasn't a true main character in FFXII, but if you had to choose I don't think anyone would say Balthier. He had the wit and the charisma that he was a guy you just wanted to cheer for. Besides he was a cool pirate before Jack Sparrow was.

"Princess! No need to worry. I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man. He never dies."

2. Leonardo da Vinci

The one who was always there when Ezio needed him. To craft whatever was needed at the time, and at other times ideas that seem so far fetched that they worked. Even when forced to worked for the opposing side he never wavered in his loyalty to Ezio. Truly a man of principle.

"Ezio! I think I've figured out how to make a man fly!"

1. Vivi Ornitier

This was never really even a competition. Vivi is by far the best non main Character in any game without a doubt in my mind. He is the one everyone wants to cheer for. He is struggling with the idea he could be dead tomorrow. He knows nothing about himself or where he came from a scary parallel to Zidane when you think about it. He turns out to one of the wiser characters without even knowing much himself. He was voted #3 in all time Final Fantasy characters only behind Cloud and Sephiroth. His face has turned into a symbol around the globe one that is recognizable by gamer and non gamers alike. He truly is on a completely different level

 "Mr 288 told me that I understand what it means to live and to die... But it's only because I thought stopping was different from dying... I don't think I really understand what it means to live or to die. Where do we come from...? Do we go back there when we die...? If that's what it means to live... I wonder where I came from... Where will I end up when I die...? Why am I shaking? What is it I'm feeling...?"

There you have it. Some I thought about putting on the list Illidan Stormrage, Snow, Nightmare, and Dekard Cain. Agree or Disagree tell me about it.

Character Customization

So the Ask the Devs questions for armor and weapons became available and one question, which I have talked about quite a few times came up.

Q: Is it possible to let the players create/edit their own looks? - Zed Loft (Taiwan), Vysha (NA/ANZ), Ráchel (EU
German)


A: As we said in an earlier Q&A, we definitely hear loud and clear from players that they want more customization for their character. This is something we want to provide, but we want to do it in the right way. Consider the Barber Shop feature. It lets you change your character's hair, but there's not a lot of gameplay to it. We're not sure that feature really added a lot to the game in retrospect. Is WoW more fun for you now that you have a Barber Shop? Are you more likely to keep playing because of it? Maybe, but it wasn't a cheap feature to add in terms of development time. Dumping a bunch of dyes on the game might have a similar effect, where some players might have fun playing around with the system for a bit, but a lot of players might change their colors once or twice and then forget about the feature after that. Now, not every aspect of the game needs a ton of depth and a lot of interesting decisions, but we tend to attract more players to a feature the more robust the feature is.

We also think it's fair to argue that the game just needs more armor and weapon art. As we said above, we deliver a lot of art these days, but we also produce an enormous number of new items every expansion or patch and it's understandably disappointing whenever items use the same art. It would be really cool if not every mage or priest converged on the same look after a given expansion or patch.

So...

What I don't agree with in this statement is they are comparing armor set customization to the barber shop. Why do you ask? Well for the simple reason is you don't get a new head every tier level. Many people use the barber shop once or twice and are done with it. Others use it multiple times and I agree that is a few and far between. So that comparison I think is the wrong one to use.
 
The only reason I would be against dyes is a simple one. Even if you have so many colour choices it comes down to the fact that they don't want everyone picking the same colour for everything. As you have seen in LOTRO there are so many people in black it is stupid. This is why I think my idea of reusing old sets would be the best course of action. It keeps the art design useful that has been made in the past and we won't have screenshots where we have a sea of single coloured toons.