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Most Memorable Video Game Characters

Most Memorable Video Game Characters

The Video Game Characters We Remember

Sometimes it’s not the game itself that’s worthy of people’s hard-earned money. At times, it’s the characters involved that make or break the game. Here’s a look at some of Cheat Code Central’s favorite and most memorable characters.

Link (The Legend of Zelda)

The Legend of Zelda's Link
The Legend of Zelda‘s Link.

The reason behind this is simple. Link embodies the true hero in every sense. He represents loyalty, self-sacrifice, determination, courage, and power. He starts the game in humble beginnings, living in a small village, leading a simple life, when things go horribly wrong seemingly overnight. In spite of this, Link always rises to the challenge and sets off on an adventure that would make even the most daring thrill-seekers tremble with fear. Even though he knows nothing of what is going on, he always defies the odds and sets out to restore order to the world. 

As time goes by, he gains in strength and gathers better equipment to bring down increasingly powerful enemies leading to the climax, where he brings down the monster that has been the cause of the upheaval of peace in the land. He does whatever he can to help others and he never falters, even when things seem as though they could not be worse. 

Eon (Granstream Saga)

Eon Granstream Saga
Granstream Saga Eon cover art.

He starts out as a typical video game hero but is blessed with a special bracelet that gives him incredible powers at an early age. Eon was a hesitant hero who battled evil in order to save others’ lives, but it’s interesting how he views life once he learns the secret about this bracelet. He realizes that he’s probably killing the same amount of people that would die anyway if he hadn’t fought for anyone. He questions whether it is best to kill or just let people die. Eon decides to preserve good in the world he lives in and begins to accept the deaths of his enemies.

He struggles with his relationships with two women and whom to side with. He tries to keep both close to him, even though he knows that he cannot be with both. When he learns of his occupation in his former life, he is shocked. He can’t believe that he brought so much death and destruction before, but he realizes he has the power to do so. It is learned that he brought destruction to the world because he stopped believing in the power of love.

He wants to show the world love but realizes he must focus on the path of carnage in order to preserve the goodness in the world. At the end of the game, when he faces the new destroyer, he must choose to sacrifice the soul of one of the women he cares for. It turns out that if you sacrifice the pirate’s soul, you can return the world to its former self, therefore, giving you a chance to change the past.

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

Sephiroth Final Fantasy
Sephiroth is everyone’s favorite character.

It’s the one and only Sephiroth, who first made his first appearance nearly a decade ago in Final Fantasy VII. Many people are genuinely obsessed with this guy, and there are several fan clubs out there that meet on a regular basis to talk about how cool this guy is. And although we all talk about our individual reasons for thinking that this guy is the ultimate in videogame personalities, there is one thing we all agree on about why Sephiroth is so great to so many people. He’s got the best character development and progression in the entire Final Fantasy universe. 

Even tykes who only know him as the badass from Kingdom Hearts like the guy. And it’s because he is tragically flawed. The Phantom is a self-proclaimed bad guy, and he appeals to players. Sure, the phantom is a mass-murderer who kidnaps a soprano less than half his age, but on some base level, players identify with his struggle, and his character endears itself to them. Now look at Sephiroth. Sure, he plans on bringing death and destruction to everything in sight, but he wasn’t always that way, and players understand how he feels. 

Liu Kang (Mortal Kombat)

Mortal Kombat Liu Kang Character
Mortal Kombat Liu Kang Character.

In a world ridden with evil and absolutely horrid creatures, it is extremely relieving to find someone with enough honor, enough bravery to defend Earth against all the wickedness of Outworld. Hopping through dimensions and taking part in tournaments in some of the darkest, most terrifying settings imaginable, there has always been one person we as humans could confide in to defend our realm: the fearless Liu Kang.

To face such evils as Scorpion and the massive four-armed Goro in the debut Mortal Kombat game in 1992, Liu Kang sacrificed everything he had in the name of protecting Earth realm, which made him an instant hero to children and any Mortal Kombat players. Kang’s swift moves and Chinese Shaolin fighting style made him the ultimate human warrior. After becoming champion in the debut Mortal Kombat game, he soon turned into the face of the series and one of the biggest and most well-known heroes in gaming at the time.

In the game, his moves were memorable and effective. His high and low fireballs plus his signature bicycle kick, which has become one of the most popular moves of any fighting game in history, made him one of the deadliest weapons in the Mortal Kombat series.

Final Notes

These four characters have made video games worth buying and playing over and over. It doesn’t matter if the game is a pixelated RPG or first-person shooter; these characters are ones for the books. Gamers should check them out for themselves, they will see what we are talking about.


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