Video games are so full abused stereotypes that any deviation from the norm is a breath of fresh air. I may not be able to pin down exactly why I find Travis to be a good character, but I know I like him, and I know it has something to do with how I’ve never met anyone like him before.

And yes, Suda should either get into film or just never make a sequel to anything ever again.

I first have to admit that I’ve only finished the first game, not the second all the way through but so far it seems his motives are purely selfish (besides avenging his friend in the 2nd). A log of his dialogue seems to contradict itself (which isn’t necessarily bad). He doesn’t care but he still wants to win.

I dunno, perhaps I have to finish the sequel because the first didn’t offer much besides strange characters (the singing guy at the baseball stadium being my favorite).

It was also refreshing for the boobox boss to have an irish accent instead of just making him ghetto. Suda really needs to tackle anime because he could do great things as long as gameplay isn’t attached to it.

As for Travis, I like him because there aren’t many heroes like that. I can’t stand the typical “I fight for good and that’s that” kind of characters. Travis is terribly flawed, but he’s also compassionate and complicated. He’s not as simple as he first appears to be, and that’s something refreshing that more games need.

I think that leads to two major types. First are people who love fighting in games, no matter how awful, tiring, and tedious it is. The second group are people who enjoying that a game takes itself so lightly, pointing out cliches and such.

Its frustrating to see that this man is still in charge of gameplay when it hasn’t really improved. His talents for writing (though bizarre) are refreshing, satirical, and humorous. I think we all need to be willing to accept and understand where our true gifts are.

Another example is Hideo Kojima. Over at Kotaku the other day they had an article where he sort of brags that he makes up the entire story. But is that something to brag about? Sure the characters are amazing and standout against the general fare but the storyline is overly complicated and wonky at best. But he’s to a place where his artistic choices are not questioned, which in turn lead to a game with more cutscenes than there were gameplay.

There’s several questions I want to propose as I haven’t been able to strike up a dialogue at the Brainy Gamer.

1. Is this just a problem in Japan? If not, what are some examples of game creators elsewhere?

2. Now this puzzles me the most. Why do we care about a character (like Travis Touchdown) when there’s nothing redeeming about him. As far as I can tell there’s no pathos within either game and yet its so amusing. Is it amusing because there’s no point to it? I don’t want to make the comparison of Tarantino and Suda because Tarantino still gives his characters purpose and pathos. If you’ve ever seen the anime Hellsing in Japan (again is this a Japan thing?) the character has no redeeming qualities, is a psychopath, can’t be killed, etc. By all writing reasons I would not think this character would make a good story but it does. Why?