Written by Amber Ahlborn
Outside of puzzle and simulation genres, games tend to be very character-centric. As such, character development can be important to games with some detail to their stories. Alas, games are still typically lightweights as literary pieces and cliches abound. Currently the antihero is popular; a cheap way to add depth to a character is slapping on a tragic back story and injecting them with a bad attitude. Sometimes this works out and sometimes it simply ruins a good thing. Two characters who beautifully illustrate these extremes are Jak and the Prince.
Happy Jak, meet Angry Jak
The original Jak and Daxter was rather like Crash Bandicoot meets Mario Sunshine, a nice looking me-too platformer with some fun hop-and-bop mechanics but lacking a stand-out personality.
The titular Jak started off as a silent, happy-go-lucky kid partnered with a wisecracking friend named Daxter. They lived in an idyllic village and roamed around the land spin-kicking bad guys and collecting MacGuffins. Jak was cute. Then along came Jak 2 and this sleepy little series was slapped wide awake.
Between the first and second games, Jak put on a growth spurt, hit puberty, and started to speak, articulating a lot of anger. His new personality was not fresh or original, but it was engaging all the same, a vast improvement over the blank slate he'd sported previously. His harsh outlook on life made sense in the context of the evolving story and his attitude reflected the hostility of the strange, post-apocalyptic world he found himself in. Best of all, Jak continued to subtly evolve. By the time Jak 3 concluded, his character had gracefully arced from a simple angry youth into an adult matured by experiences hard, sorrowful, and joyous.
Prince Charming Smolders with Generic Rage
The nameless Prince from the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy also made a personality jump between game one and game two. Unfortunately, his transformation was not quite as graceful as Jak's. In Sands of Time, the Prince was revealed to be a charming if snarky fellow. He was noble, brave, and willing to put everything on the line to correct a terrible mistake and save the lives of the people he'd accidentally doomed. Through clever in-game narration, we came to know Prince reasonably well and even like him. All of that character building got flushed down the crusty toilet of grit-and-dirt “maturity” with the sequel, Warrior Within.
Haggard and hard-bitten, this Prince bared little resemblance to the refined nobleman of the original. Hunted by an immortal foe, he was willing to commit murder to save his own neck. He came off as harsh, selfish and crude; utterly at odds with his prior personality. This transition had no authenticity and the new Prince was unlikable hard to sympathize with. Thankfully, the third game fixed this character misstep with aplomb.
As games delve deeper into plot and narrative, developing good characters gets harder. It can be difficult to create a personality that's genuinely engaging and the temptation to go with whatever is popular is strong. Antiheroes can be powerful archetypes or weak stereotypes and need to be handled with care. Ultimately, if you already have a solid and interesting character, it's probably best to not fix what isn't broken.