Gaming has come a long way in terms of storytelling. Deep and complex stories have been created within these vast simulated universes. However, the best stories are the ones with the best characꦜters. When players experience a🌜 story, they tend to remember the ones that affect the characters they love. This, of course, extends especially to the main protagonist.

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These bad boys don't know any better.

Some of these protagonists are just straight-up likable people that are almost ꦍimpossible to hate. Others are just so well-developed and their journeys are some of the best the medium has to offer. Regardless of why they're held in such high esteem, these are the best protagonists in video game history.

Updated January 24, 2024, By Ben Jessey: The video game industry is filled with great heroes of all different kinds. Some save universes, others cities, while several just save the people they care about. Nevertheless, they're all heroes, and we created this list to give the best ones a bit of the spotlight. In this update, we've added a few more to the list.

The characters made the list based on how he𒈔roic, iconic, and interesting they are.

30 Mario (Super🌠 Mario Series) 🧜

Mario and a man walking on the streets of New Donk City.

Mario is the most famous ꦰvideo game hero of all time. T🌟his is mainly because he's been around for many, many years. In that time, he's not said many words. Yet, it's still easy to appreciate the small Italian plumber. After all, he's the classic underdog.

The regular guy goes up against all sorts of creatures and villains. His main nemesis is far bigger than him and can breathe fire. However, this doesn't stop Mario. Not only does he fling himself into dangerous situa💦tions to save princesses an🎀d entire kingdoms, but he also always succeeds. That's a great hero.

Link holding the master sword inside a dungeon.

Most of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda games task Link with going on a long, treacherou𒉰s adventure to save Zelda, the Kingdom of Hyrule, or both. He never complains, though. In fact, he doesn't speak at all.

He is a silent protagonist who uses a mix of weapons, items, and strategic thinking to succeed in hisꦓ world-saving effo♛rts. Despite his lack of speech, he has stolen the hearts of many gamers. This proves that you don't need to be a dialog-heavy hero to be likable.

28 ✤ 🔴 Max Caulfield (Life Is Strange)

Life Is Strange Screenshot From Episode 1 Of Max And the Storm.

Physical strength or fighting ability isn't a prerequisite for someone to be a hero. For instance, Max Caulfield from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life Is Strange isn't some great combatant, but she is a hero. She proves this throughout Life Is Strange when she uses her newly found rewind power to save people and attempt to save her entire tow𒊎n.

You're partially responsible for how many people she saves during the game 🦹since Life Is Strange features player choice. Regardless of what you do🐷, though, Max throws herself into life-threatening situations in an attempt to help people. Plus, she also happens to be very captivating and one of the most iconic main characters in recent gaming history.

27 Gordon Freeman (Half-Life Series) 𒁃 𝓡

Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance from key art in Half-Life 2.

The lead protagonist of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Half-Life games is Gordon Freeman. He's a silent p𝓰rotagonist who never utters a single word, but tha🧸t makes him effective in projecting yourself onto him. The person completing all of these important tasks for the sake of saving humanity is you all along.

It feels similar to a power fantasy, and the moment when you re⭕turn to City 17 later on in the second game is a great example. You've seen people being treated like slaves at the beginning, but♒ now they're full-on revolting and see Gordon as their resistance leader. The moment they tear down Breen's huge monitor, you realize this world is truly changing. Due to how Gordon is handled, he has to be one of the best FPS game heroes.

26 Ryu Hayabusa (﷽Ninja Gaiden Series) 🐽

Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden 2.

Ryu Hayabusa from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ninja Gaiden is a young ninja in his prime entrusted with the Dragon Sword passed down through generations. Ninja Gaiden 2004 is essentially an origin story for the hero Ryu, who is on a path of revenge to kill Dokﷺu after he steals the Dark Dragon Blade and kills an old friend of his Kureha.

In Ninja Gaiden 2, he's a full-blown Super Ninja who goes on a globe-trotting adventure to stop the resurrection of the Archfiend. In this title, the developers gave Ryu some sex appeal, which was still pretty rare in 2008 for male game characters. Ryu is like John Wick in that he's not a big talker, but when he talks, his words matter. He's focused and brutal, and out of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:all the ninjas in gaming, there's nওo denying that he's the one true ninja.

25 Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuꦛza Series) ♒

Kazuma Kiryu from the Yakuza series with a serious face

When you think of the Yakuza series, the first character to come to mind is the Dragon of Dojima himself, Kazuma Kiryu. In a series known for its masculinity, Kazuma goes through seemingly endless brutal fights but often does so for the people he loves and cares for. He has tremendous willpower and is able to fight despite the most di🦹re of circumstances.

A good ꦅexample of this is the final boss of Yakuza 5, who he fights despite being badly injured. Kazuma doesn't have many serious love inღterests, which is a rarity in this type of series. This makes him very unique, and his legendary status throughout the series makes him not only one of the best heroes but one of the best Sega characters of all time.

24 Guybrush Threepwood (Monkey Island Series) 🐓

Return To Monkey Island Campfire Scene With Guybrush Threepwood

One of the best heroes in all of the adventure games has to be Guybrush Threepwood from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Monkey Island. Guybrush is a pirate, which is incredibly fitting for a point-and-click adventure game. What is one of the core things⛎ you do in those types of titles? You steal stuff.

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Two decades and still going strong.

Monkey Island takes thes𝔉e core common elements in adventure games and uses them to hilarious effect. Guybrush destroys and screws up many things in the process of completing his quests, and combined with this being an adventure title; it makes him so likable.

23 Solid Snaꦚke (Metal Gear Series)♒

Metal Gear Solid 4 Solid Snake Making His Way Through PMC Troops

Few gaming heroes have been around as long as Solid Snake. After all, he made his debut in the late '80s. However, he's grown a lot as a character since those days, especially in the more story-focused 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metal Gear Solid titles.

Snake is best described as a gruff but compassionate man. And he's certainly a hero, as he spends all of his adult life trying to save people. Even when 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:he's old and grey due to accelerated aging, he still t💞ries to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, he feels a fair amount of self-hatred, so he sees himself more as a killer than a hero. This makes the character even more captivating.

22 🎃 B.J. Blazkowicz (Wolfenstein Series) ཧ

BJ Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein 2, holding a firefighter outfit.

B.J. Blazkowicz has been around for a long time. Yet, the series only really explored his character from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The New Order onwards. In those Bethesda games, his difficult upbringing is revealed. It turns out the man had an abusive and raci🔯st father who made their family's life a living🦩 hell.

Thankfully, B.J. is nothing like his dad. He is an honorable man who is willing to fight against ꦏall the odds to loosen the Nazi's grip on the world. In fact, he's a big problem for the Nazi regime, as Blazkowicz is a one-man army.🐼 Not only is he a great combatant, but he can also survive things most people can't.

21 Ellie (The Last O🐽f Us Series)

Ellie sites and plays the guitar while singing Take On Me, Dina sits on the floor and watches

In the first 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Last of Us, Ellie serves as a secondary char🎃acter behind Joel. Yet, in♌ the Left Behind DLC and TLOU2, she becomes the main character. Labeling her a hero is perhaps controversial. After all, it isn't like she attempts to save the world, as her story revolves around survival and revenge.

Yet, she usually tries to protect the people she loves. And if 🉐it's been her choice, she may have given her life to cure the virus that wiped out civilization. It isn't her fault that she lives in a broken world where there aren't many chanceᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs to be heroic. She does her best, though.