Embedded Files
You play as them (most of the time), you suffer with them, and you've died with/as them repeatedly over and over again. Horror game player characters are some of the hardest working PCs in the indsustry. ...For the most part, where suffering is not just an inherent Buddhist mechanism of cleaning your karma, its a part of your gaming experience.
I want to celebrate some of the hard workers, and invite some thought towards thoe special gals and guys trying to surivive and taking it to 11 in th sainthood department.
Note there are major spoilers for every game mentioned so reader beware.
Miku Hinasaki
Games: Fatal Frame 1, Fatal Frame 3, Fatal Frame 5
Miku is, as I've mentioned, a cradle to grave member of the core cast of the series, appearing in nearly all of the games, excluding the spin off Spirit Camera, and the second and fourth installments. Her tragic story doesn't end in her first foray into the game, where she ends up repeating the survivor's guilt of that first game in subsequent installments. I disagree on the notion that western fans give, where she "doesn't deserve" the trajectory of her life tragedies; I do grant that Miku has done nothing to invite or attract the misfortunes that marks her life. Her only connection is the fact she was born into a very unfortunate bloodline, springing from her long-distance familial connection to the cursed village of Fatal Frame 2 (her great-grandmother was Yae Kurosawa, last of the twins born to seal the darkness of Minakami Village), and through no fault of her own, Miku's spirit related powers come from this wellspring.
She doesn't deserve it by being an innocent bystander of her bloodline, but that's an inherent part of every heroine and hero in the entire franchise, and indeed a part of the supernatural/paranormal views of the Japanese. Spirits and holes to hell just simply are a part of the landscape, and while humans can make rituals to stop or seal them, they're merely stopgaps of a temporary nature. The thin walls of the spirit world breaching is simply a part of nature ad people tend to blunder into them through no fault of their own. Its a very familair territory for most j-horror fans, where its no more obviously demonstrated by the legend of horror manga Junji Ito.
Miku being a "participant" of not one, not 2, but 3 sealing rituals makes her one heck of a survivor. Avoiding her sacrifice as a Rope Maiden in the first game (a plot point much more obvious in the light novel based on the first game), she sadly falls into the thrall of the Tattooed Curse curse of the 3rd installment due to her survivor's guilt, where she eventually must rely on Rei to defeat the curse when she succumbs to it. By the time of the 5th game, she has given up the last of her will to be "reunited" with her brother, an action that has far reaching effects to her daughter Miu.
Miku carries a heavy weight; the game's creators mention that the tragedy of Mio was killing the person you are chasing/trying to save, whereas Miku faces the tragedy of watching the person she hs been chasing die in the first place. Its a unique feeling of helplessness that feeds into her story arc in the third game, and one that shows her intense feelings of connection to the singular person who most understood her. While she was unable to make that connection with Miu early, I feel they reconciled it enough in the "good ending" for Miu, where Miku decides to stay with her until her inevitable death, however short that may be.
Her character arc of longing is very palpable, almost as strong as Mio and Mayu's connection, and while she stumbles on her road, she continuously tries to move forward, when her desire is pulling her to the past. You want her to be happy, even if her idea of happiness is contrary to most peoples' ideals, but in the end, the person who knows best, who has suffered horrors we can only imagine and play through, is Miku herself.
Ethan Winters
Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil Village(8)
What I really mean is Ethan's hands. Ethan's hands are the real MVP. I thought Nathan Drake's hands were incredible for the grip strength along, but Ethan blows him out of the park.
Let's talk about Horror Husband MVP. Risks literal his life to save his wife (whom has--under the terrible influence of the Molded--done some divorceable damage to said body XD), someone he could have given up for dead in the 3 year interim, but like James Sunderland, had come on the beckoning she could be out there. And come he did, and he paid the ultimate sacrifice.
Unlike James, Ethan is great husbando materal. Now let's talk about ideal dad material. Chasing after the lords of the village to save his daugher, continuing even after finding out she's been dismembered; that's some Harry Mason devotion going on there. And that's what I liked about Ethan. He's just some rando Joe Blow sys admin who keeps moving forward because he has no other choice. Lesser men would give up, but not Ethan. There's nowhere else but forward, even if forward leads to self-sacrifice. A father whom thinks the world of his kids and would do anything for them is best dad in my book.
I find the good dad motif in games is really important. God of War did a great service to that. Stories of great moms are also really important, and the children having good relationships with them is just as important. I just really like good families trying to stay good people, and Ethan is that. His dogged determination to do right by his wife and kid is pretty admirable an remarkable.
But goddamn do I feel bad for those hands, yo.
Heather Morris
Silent Hill 3, technically Silent Hill Good Ending +
Formerly Cheryl, Heather is one badass chick. Despite the fact she's been on the run from the crazy cult that made her, she also has a no nonsense attitude about making her needs known, which is namely killing their God because they killed her father. I appreciate a young woman who has her priorities straightened out.
Heather has always known Harry's love for her, despite finding his journal where he details his contemplation of ending her life for reason we'll get into in another section. This was the man who could have thrown her away and yet he chose to raise her. And its obvious that despite her young teen actions of defiance like underaged smoking, she still has a very close relationship with her father.
As a young woman on the cusp of becoming an adult woman, her story of growing up and encountering things like bearing children can be a scary point in her life to navigate. This isn't too dissimilar to a "normal" girl coming into her own. Its just that Heather's coming of age tale is a lot more terrifying and visceral than most heroine's. Her strength of will is really empowering for a female character.
Also, she has a magical girl henshin with a move called "Sexy Beam" and uses the light sword item like Space Sheriff Gavan.
I am leaving out Shattered Memories as 1) it does operate on a completely independent universe and works well as a stand alone, and 2) it does do a great disservice to my girl and our boy Harry. A real pity.
If you're looking for a strong female protagonist, Heather is your girl. Any girl who can henshin in a shithole like Silent Hill is one hell of a girl.
Harry Mason
Silent Hill, SIlent Hill 3, Half the UFO Endings
You've heard him mentioned in the Ethan section but I feel we wouldn't have the high bar for MVP horror dads without him. An everyman writer thrust into the foggy world of Silent Hill in a search for a little girl, short black hair....uh, well you get the point. Harry is one of the best OG Horror Dad MVP, literally willing to cross hell itself to get back his daughter. And the best part of it is that she isn't even his biological daughter; she was found outside the town and he and his wife adopted her. Accepting her wholly and then fighting for her so hard really spoke to me.
By the time you get to SH3, you hope to see him but the tragedy of te story is that he's gone by the time you get there. It sets up Heather's real motivation for the latter half of the game. You want to take that revenge with her because--if you had played the first installment--this is the MAN. Claudia isn't gonna get away with merc'ing the best guy of he series. Yeah, Decon and I feel our man Harry was done dirty, robbed of the character development we could have had.
By the time you get to SH3, you hope to see him but the tragedy of te story is that he's gone by the time you get there. It sets up Heather's real motivation for the latter half of the game. You want to take that revenge with her because--if you had played the first installment--this is the MAN. Claudia isn't gonna get away with merc'ing the best guy of he series. Yeah, Decon and I feel our man Harry was done dirty, robbed of the character development we could have had.
I'm again leaving out Shattered Memories because I do feel the game had written Harry to be a bad parent, a terrible one at the worst, and a neglectful or spineless one at best. And both of those options are such a disgrace to the wonderful and strong hearted Harry we'd come to love from 1 and 3. I appreciate the basic structure of the game, with the psychological changes and the twist, but in the end I feel it was a disservice to use characters in the first game and rewrite them. It should have been a separate game, but I digress.
One more amazing thing about Harry is his roles in the first UFO endings (past 4, which didn't have one), where he goes from victim to ally, and eventually had command of a fleet to blow up the town of Silen Hill. The lattermost is the ending for the third game, which is obviously my favorite, which includes him breaking a board in the hands of a rando lurking James. I don't know whay it exisits but I'm glad it does.
In short: Harry Mason is the chaddest horror game dad ever. Period.
--Dio (10/24/21)
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse