If you have not already listened to the podcast of this category, this is the final results, so this will spoil the course of the discussion on that podcast! Be warned!
We feel really strongly about characters around here, if you didn’t get that impression already. As writers ourselves, and also as readers and dreamers, a well-realized character captures our imaginations and our hearts. I realize I’m like two sentences away from saying something about “laugh, cry, live” or something so I’m hardcore aborting this intro. Here are our winners.
The Winner
Andreas Maler (Pentiment)
It turns out, letting writers just make their own game is a pretty good idea. I oversimply for effect, I don’t mean to downplay the talented programmers, designers, musicians, and more that worked on Pentiment, but Andreas is a character born of letting your writers take off their limiters for a bit. Pentiment has little gameplay that isn’t just dialogue, and so you get to hear a LOT of Andreas, how he treats others, how they react to him, and how he thinks of himself.
The ultimate picture is a man who is self-absorbed but not self-centered. His obsession with his own (relatively minor, compared to those around him) problems doesn’t distract him from trying to help others, in his own misguided way. And… wait this isn’t a spoiler-tagged piece. Ok well the way the game engages with that and where it goes from there is really interesting XD sorry gang, play the game please!
The Runners-Up
Testament (Guilty Gear -Strive-)
Sometimes you just connect with a character. For all of us, there are fictional characters that have a large place in our hearts- perhaps larger than the work they come from. It’s a rare work that inspires them, of course, but when it happens, they just… stay with you. You carry them with you, you think about them, you empathize and imagine other versions of yourself through them.
Testament is that sort of character for Kyrie. And I think part of what is so special about Testament is what is so often looked past- the spectrum of queer experience. Sure, we get gay characters, we get bi characters, we get trans characters. But so often, they’re these versions that don’t feel like us. They’re these glamorous, perfect pedestal queers who look pretty as a picture- literally, you’d expect they are posing for a stock photo. “This is what a trans girl looks like.”
Obviously, I’m not saying Testament isn’t a beautiful character, stunning in appearance and presentation. But through writing and voice acting, Testament defies simple characterization. Testament’s queer identity is complicated, with multiple pronouns and mixing various stylistic signals of different genders. It isn’t confusing- we know lots of people like this. Our friends are like this, we’re like this. But it’s a reality games so often try to oversimplify. Testament revels in the complexity, decorates themselves in the specifics of queer identity. And she does so in a leading fighting game franchise, a big budget title. You’re gonna see him at EVO. That’s a kind of public acceptance that just… hits different.
Alice Kuonji (Witch on the Holy Night)
Like a lot of the best things in Witch on the Holy Night, you’ve seen Alice Kuonji before. She is a quiet reserved anime girl with a lot of power but also a lot of ignorance about the world. You can’t call it a novel concept. But Witch on the Holy Night is a game that embraces tropes of anime, and especially visual novels, and just… does them better.
At times, Alice is intimidating. The game’s writer, Kinoko Nasu, isn’t the sort to just kill a protagonist halfway through the game and have you continue forward as someone else- there’s little risk of that. But would he maim a character? Would he give them an injury that they carried with them for the rest of their life? Absolutely. And so the tension of her murderous malice is palpable, as she sics her fairy tale phantasms on you, transforming the very ground into her servant. That tension eases, and you live with her- but she doesn’t want you here, and the ways she makes you feel unwelcome keep the threat of what’s come before in your mind.
And then she starts to make… different expressions. You see her sulk, you see her intrigued. You see her flabbergasted, or content. And this tightly wound persona opens up just enough to see a girl who isn’t good with people- and genuinely does dislike them. We’re not doing the “actually she just wants to be loved” bit, that’s too trite. But the people she is willing to relax at least part of her guard around see a girl who is immature and petty, but protective and steadfast. And damn, she is really really funny. What a great character.
Now, what would happen if we had to pick between our Best Anime Character and our Best Game Character? Best not to think about it. Instead, look forward to Wednesday, with our Best Moment category! It was a really great discussion this year, and it ended with a list that better embraces the year than I think we’ve managed before.
we’d probably pick Andreas
Our art for the Gimmick Awards 2022 is a commission from @inkopolis on Twitter.
