What's in a name? In real life, nothing. You can't know much about a person by just their name. However, in media, writers can use a name to tell you a lot about a character before they even have to say a word. Nathan Drake sounds like a swashbuckling adventure, Kazuma Kiryu sounds like steely-eyed Yakuza, Joel Miller is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the most dad name in history, and I don't know about you, but Sephiroth sounds a little evil to me.
However, not everyone is blessed with a name or chooses to go by one. That doesn't make them any less interesting; it just tells us something different about them. For some of them, it's that they are mysterious enigmas, and they'd like to keep it that way, for others, it reflects that they could really be anyone, and for some, it just highlights the fact that their friends couldn't be bothered asking.
11 ♈ The Courier - Fallout: New Vegas
None of the Fallout protagonists are not much into the idea of giving their names to strangers. Yes, you do pick a name when you create them, and Fallout 4's husband and wife and canonically called Nate and Nora. But all the wasteland survivors usually chose to just let people call them what they want.
The first game starred The Vault Dweller, Fallout 3 followed The Lone Wanderer, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:New Vegas sees you take control of The Courier. The reason this one feels the most important though is that this title actually conveys your character's one-track mind for the game's open as you try to figure out who set you up. It gets even more development in the game's final DLC, Lonesome Road, as you start 🐼to 🦂find out what being a courier actually entails.
10 🃏 The Adventurer - Shadowgate
Oh, the poor, put-upon adventurer. The embodiment of a nameless video ℱgame protagonist, despite having no name y♔ou are the only one that could possibly succeed in this perilous quest.
Not having a name like this might be a sign of disrespect, but that actually lines up well with the rest of Shadowgate, as this early adventure game was famed for the numerous (and often ridiculous) ways your nameless hero could die. Yes, it's tragic we never knew the name of the poor man traversing Castle Shadowgate but at least he died as he lived: interacting with every object in a room until one of them triggered a trap door.
9 Zer0 - Borderland﷽s 2
Most of the playable characters in the Borderlands series are given both a name and class title that people tend to refer to them by. Roland the Soldier, Lilith and Maya the Sirens, or Salvador the Gunzerker. But Zer0 is a little different. Their big katana, penchant for turning invisible, and proficiency with snipers make it pretty clear they are the team's Assassin in Borderlands 2, however, they are never actually given a name.
Instead, they just get nicknamed Zer0, thanks to it being the most common of the holographic emoticons they project from their helmet. Even Angel, the all-knowing siren-AI doesn't know Zer0's real name, or if they even have a real name.
8 The Prisoner - Dead Cells ꦅ
The main character in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dead Cells gets called a few names. The Fallen One tells us the most about themඣ from a lore point of view. The Beheaded is just needlessly mean. However, The Prisoner feels the aptest.
This isn't just because the tower you are stuck in is a literal prison, but because they really are trapped in this game. Damned to a roguelike eternity of runs through these towers, never to escape. No matter how many enemies you slay or bosses you kill The Prisoner isn't escaping.
7 New Kid - South Park:𒀰 The Stick Of Truth
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:South Park: The Stick of Truth, like any good RPG, lets you choose your character's name when you create them. However, also like any other good RPG it totally ignores that and refers to you with a nickname and title of sorts.
Lots of RPGs will call you something like "The Chosen One" or another equally important-sounding title, but not here. You can protest it all🍌 you want, but the kids of the town will always refer to this new kid as "douchebag".
6 ♈ The Villager - Animal Crossing 🏅
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You know, in most places, to run for mayor you have to be at least a certain age and fulfil a bunch of other requirements. Despite that, somehow The Villager in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing who has just sauntered into town from who knows wh🌠ere, with no name and laden with debt manages to become t༒he mayor.
Maybe they just have dirt on all the other village creators and that's why they all greet us like a friend every time we meet. Maybe they are actually afraid of this mysterious stranger that now runs their village having never been even been elected. Truly terrifying.
5 Jacket - Hotline Miami 🌳 𓆏
Speaking of terrifying, maybe the only video game character more terrifying than The Villager and Tom Nook, is Jacket from Hotline Miami. We know next to nothing about this man, all we know is every night he gets a phone call asking him to deliver something to a certain address, he goes there, he does bad things, and then 🦩he ♑goes to a store afterward for payment.
Of course, his lack of an actual name and personality is all a small part of the game's larger message highlighting how gleefully a player will enact violence without questioning their motives simply because a quest giver tells them to. So it is somewhat of a shame that in the years since he has become seen as cool by fans. Instead, we'd argue that this character is much more successful as a haunting indictment of our willingness to commit digital atrocities without a second thought.
4 🎃 𓆏 The Boss - Saints Row 4
Cure cancer or solve world hunger? The Boss in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Saints Row has the make the hard decisions as president, but that doesn't mean they won't do what is necessary. Especially if what is necessary includes beating up low-level gang members with a dildo baseball bat or time travelling.
It's a real testament to Volitions' writing in these games despite the larger-than-life presences of characters like Johnny Gat, Kinzie, and Keith God-damn David, the nameless boss manages to be so memorable in their own right.
3 ﷽ 💜 The Kid - Bastion
The Kid doesn't speak much. They leave that to168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Bastion's equally iconic narrator. Instead, they traverse the game's crumbling world letting their actions speak louder than words.
The Kid might not talk, but we learn all that matters about their character as Bastion p♋lays out. They are independent and stro൲ng, but they are also trying to rebuild a small world around them with the help of others.
2 Chosen Undead - Dark So𝔍uls 🐻
FromSoftware loves to have you play as "a chosen one" character. Especially one that is just another ordinary cursed nameless person left in the wake of warring gods. The Bearer of the Curse in Dark Souls 2, The Ashen One in Dark Souls 3, The Tarnished in Elden Ring. and the Chosen Undead afflicted with the Darksign in the first 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dark Souls.
All of these nameless characters are great because they are just yet another one of the poor souls left to deal with the ruined world handed to them by the powerful squabbling forces above them. However, what all these nameless characters have in common is that when they are cursed even fu💜rther they do not lose hope like everyone else around them, instead they go on great journeys to try to change the world as it slowly decays.