Favorite rendition of elves in videogames?

Elves are a fantasy staple in media and are often found any swords and sorcery type setting. Videogames have longed used elves but several put their own spin on the classic elf archetype. What are some of your favorite renditions in gaming? They can be how the elves are portrayed in the game's setting themselves, their designs, or even just particular elf characters you like.

Well I feel like I'm not alone in saying how The Elder Scrolls does their elves, to me it feels like they have the most thought put into making them feel unique from other Fantasy settings. The Altmer,, Dunmer, Bosmer(my favorite post Skyrim) and a unique case where the orcs(Orismer) and dwarves(Dwemer) themselves are "elves" each having their own history and quirks to set them apart. It's all rather well done and my favorite thing about the ES world next to the daedric lords.

Kingdom Under Fire also has elves, although the vanilla "pure" elves are pretty much standard fare and not all that interesting, the dark or self proclaimed "high elves" are hilarious and awesome(well the women are, most of the guys are dorks or wimps). While they're definite examples of shameless male pandering appearance wise(seriously just look at their battle attire), they have the most entertaining campaigns and character interaction in the game, the most interesting history, and are a hilariously bitchy army of cheesily accented hot amazons that still manage to kick butt and get the player rooting for them. They just have this great HBIC attitude that you can't help but end up loving(or find offputtingly sexist if you're no fun) in what could be considered the antivillains of the series.

And guys, Link/zelda are not elves. They are Hyrulians. I know, I wanted to put them too.

edited 12th Jan '15 9:49:44 PM by Vertigo_High

Would badass individual elves count? Or are you looking for racial depictions, not just one particular individual?

I've come across a few portrayals of elves in the games I've played, but it's hard to say which exactly is my favorite.

Elves in Mabinogi are typical pointy eared fare, but they live in a desert, and due to a curse that a goddess placed on the land in which they and giants hail from, they (the non-player Elves, that is) are doomed to someday become some manner of skullfaced revenant that meanders the desert. Also, though exploration you can find Lost Elves in sand coffins and escort them back to the village. They're a forgetful lot, especially considering that at some point in the lore, they had their memories stored in a magic stone construct of sorts.

And then elves in the Tales Series. Live for a hell of a long time, secluded in a forest, half-elves are a thing, but there's also racial stigma between elves, and half-elves.

Oh, I love the Dragon Age elves. Because they tend not to be smug at all. It's refreshing.

In the Elder Scrolls, I rather like Bosmers as a whole, and I loved Morrowind so much I can't hate Dunmers, but Altmers ? They are everything I hate elves for. And already were back in Morrowind, before the whole Thalmor thing. Orcs I rather enjoy too, but them being elves is more of a subvertive lore element than truly them being "elves".

Harry Potter's elves I like too. But any time I have to deal with LOTR-like elves, I tend to ready my axe, or whatever weapon my character is holding at the moment.

Tales Of Symphonia had some very interesting elves showing quite a few sides to em.

"Subvertive"? Even the original Tolkien Orcs were Elves. Corrupted by dark magic or somesuch, but still elves.

Subvertive if you stay on the surface, I mean. For most people, elves are elves and orcs and orcs, if you do not dig, they are separate races, and it would be hard to consider Tolkien's orcs as a "rendition of elves". Especially since came the much common depiction of fallen elves that are the Drows/Dark Elves/Dunmer.

TES' orcs have zero trope commonly associated with elves. They do not live longer, are not seen as "beautiful" or "gracious" and on the opposite have tusks, they are the opposite of frail and extremely physically-enclined while being resistant to magic - as a whole they are smiths, not wizards (except for Urag gro-Shub)...they are more dwarves than elves. The only elflike element they have is living in orc-only communities (then again, it is a staple of many fantasy races).

I don't have a favourite elf depiction in video games. I'm quite happy to kill all types of them, I'm fully elf agnostic.

On a more serious note, I don't play as an elf unless it's the only race the game offers, and I'm more into playing the game than getting angry at such a limited selection of avatar races.

Elf Bowling.

I like the concept of Warcraft's Night Elves. Not its execution.

Also they are kind of the elves of that world, so why not throw in Guild Wars 2's plant people. There is also the Dark Eldar. Because hedonism. Why not.