Smartest video game protagonists?

^^ So that proves he knows how to do something he did 25 years ago, but it doesn't prove he's thought to, you know, do anything, at any point, ever, to stop it happening again.

edited 6th Jan '11 1:34:23 AM by Indigo_Dingo

I'd nominate Commander Shepard; even as a homicidal prick, he's somewhat effective.

I nominate Nathan Drake.

For a "Semi-illiterate hick" John Marston is pretty smart...

I second Professor Layton.

I also was about to nominate Nathan Drake. He's very knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects, mostly related to geography, history and literature, very clever and resourceful, and basically a Badass Bookworm. Granted, in gameplay we see more of the Badass than the Bookworm, but in plot he shows off a lot of his knowledge, and when you push the select button in Uncharted 2 and read his journal, you see a lot of the bookworm in the form of his writings and observations, and the maps and information he's collected.

Some of Drake's friends are also pretty smart too. Elena knows more than one language, and Sullivan seems to have a good amount of knowledge of some of the same things Drake's interested in, just not as much as Drake does.

edited 6th Jan '11 1:29:52 PM by BonsaiForest

I'll go with Nathan Drake too. He's one of the few examples I've seen that I'll actually agree with.

How about Chell? Some of those puzzles are just ridiculous.

To the Mario thing: What can he do about it? Bowser's proven himself to be as good as invincible, so even if Mario hunted him down he'd probably just come back in a week or something and kidnap Peach again. He fell into a black hole once and fought Mario again literally ten seconds later.

Speaking of what can he do. What's wrong with a video game protagonist being a "Xanatos Sucker" if there is nothing to suggest a larger gambit. Okay, after 6+ games, you'd expect Solid Snake to know better, but Alex Mercer, so what if he walked into a couple traps or let loose a terror upon the city. he's an amnesiac, he does pretty well for not knowing anything about the situation.

Yeah, I'd say most puzzle player characters required to solve complex puzzles are exempt from the "dumb protagonist" label, which is a large number of action and adventure characters.

Phoenix Wright is pretty smart, considering his perfect record.

As much as I like Phoenix... I think Edgeworth is better suited for this. I mean cmon, Phoenix is cool and all (I even like him better than Edgeworth), but he really is kinda lucky and that, along with some deduction helps him win most of the times. but if it werent for the luck... I dont think he could win as often.

Seriously, he even has magic on his side! (Specifically, the Magatama as his "Special power")

And the "Special power" of Edgeworth is friking LOGIC. He dosnt needs any sort of extra help. And he actually thinks before acting. So I say he is better for this. (On a side note, while I like Phoenix over Edgeworth I like Edgeworth as well :D )

I fourth Nathan Drake and second John Marston for most of the game. He loses some of my respect for not hightailing it out of the country after reuniting with his family.

Tails.

What? He has Tails Adventure.

Regarding Bowser: pretty much, yeah. Honestly, they do this "trading Peach back and forth" thing so many times that I'm not really convinced they mean it anymore. Now it's just foreplay.

I can't believe nobody mentioned Revan.

^^ If tails was so smart, why would he hold his chaos emerald out in the open where Robotnik could just snatch it?

edited 7th Jan '11 8:40:49 AM by storyyeller

I think nominating a character because he's a protagonist in a game with difficult puzzles doesn't make sense. Gameplay and Story Segregation I call.

I think a lot of nominations don't make sense. Nominating a character because he has the informed ability of being super intelligent in the backstory but still falls into all the same pratfalls as any other protagonist doesn't make sense either.

It is possible to be super smart and intuitive and still be mislead by people you trust. And in more hectic games the protagonists might be too busy surviving the mess they are in to think out why things keep going wrong. I mean as the audience we have the benefit of being outsiders looking in. We aren't actively being pursued or running through an actively hostile environment.

edited 7th Jan '11 11:58:43 AM by Alkthash

Oh, it's entirely possible. I'm just saying, what are we really looking at here? Are we comparing their backstory IQ, their Genre Savviness, their Protection From Bullshit, their ability to out-Xanatos the Xanatos...what definition of "smartest" are we going with?

Whatever informed abilities they have outside the story, I don't think we should be paying attention to. If we do, then my Alakazam is the smartest video game protagonist because it has an IQ of 5,000, so top that; this has no bearing whatsoever on the actual role as protagonist.

edited 7th Jan '11 12:48:49 PM by TobiasDrake

They should do something in the game that demonstrates that they are smart. Being a badass doesn't mean you're smart, it just means you're a typical videogame hero.

^Agreed. Remember that you might only be succeeding primarily because of being a Player Character.

I'm going to go with Edgeworth as well. He knows what he's doing, his powers of thought alone makes his victories (not luck or blindly supposing something), and he certainly doesn't confront villains in a fashion such that they can steal his evidence.

I'd say that they have to do something in the actual story that proves they're smart. All There in the Manual and Gameplay and Story Segregation don't count.