Ever since I was just a kid, video games have always had a face for me. Super Mario, Sonic, Link, all the heroes who have accompanied me in the countless past adventures holding a controller have always had a well-defined image and personality. Whether they were knights in shining armor or space soldiers discovering unknown planets, which led me to fantasize about fighting alongside them even after turning off the console, it was precisely the iconographic impact that the videogame protagonist knew how to arouse. As with the protagonists of the books I read or the films I watched on television, video games also brought the peculiarities of the hero to the scene. Although even at the dawn of the 8-bit era there were titles that gave the player the ability to change the main character, the games that gave a face to their star are the ones we still remember today, those whose mascot still sells a lot, after so many years. For example, a sequel to the troubled Sonic movie is coming, and there are rumors of a Super Mario feature after that 1993 disaster.
The evolution of the technical sector then gave a huge sprint to the evolution of the protagonist. Those heroes I loved so much have stopped being just animated sprites, and they are become men almost in flesh and blood. They began to talk, to gesticulate, I could understand what their mood was even simply from their facial expression. And that definitely helped me to empathize with them even more. Therefore, identification. Yes, but with the same protagonist, or simply a disguised empathy, not for him but for the epic he was experiencing?
The videogame protagonist is you
If we think about it, especially in recent years, very few real "new" heroes are being born. Or better, the new heroes are simply and directly us. In a little less than a month, the long-awaited will arrive on store shelves cyberpunk 2077 and the latest chapter in the now ubiquitous saga of Assassin's Creed, Valhalla. Both, on the covers and in the commercials, have a very specific face; we start from Eivor. In a decade in which the Vikings have conquered the scene, from the series Vikings broadcast on History, until the new rebirth of God of War, Nordic mythology - and the whole universe that revolves around it - has now become very popular, and the creative team of Ubisoft he decided, wisely, to draw from this goose that lays golden eggs with both hands. And therefore Valhalla, and therefore Eivor.
Our fierce Viking has a well-defined face and physiognomy. But he is no longer a hero in the singular. The player can in fact choose whether to play as a male protagonist or a female protagonist. Not only that, the appearance of our Norse hero can be changed, from the face, to the hair, to the tattoos. Ubisoft, it should be pointed out, with a character editor certainly did not invent anything, far from it. Yet it is only one, albeit among the most important, examples of how the need for an immutable and static protagonist is no longer so strong. The video game sells, is known and talked about without needing a face that is perfectly recognizable. The video game has become a living being in its own right, which affects the gamer simply with the media force of his universe. Not only that, it is also an example of how the video game, as a medium, is increasingly meeting the needs of the public and the currents of cinema and television.
Video games and TV series. Two forms of entertainment that are increasingly merging with each other's insistence with our much-loved world of video games. We were talking about Cyberpunk 2077 before. As for Valhalla, the guys from CD Project Red they decided to abandon a strong and impactful protagonist as he could be Geralt of Rivia (which is also taken from a book, and has become the protagonist of a series Netflix) and moved to a fully customizable character, V. On the cover the hero is there, however, mind you. The game has not yet arrived on consoles and we already find merchandising, Funko pop, statues, books and comics around. An anime series has even already been announced for Netflix. Yet, and again, even here we will have a character that once our epic begins, will be generated from scratch and will be different from the one that will be born on the monitors of our friends ... and with V we went even further. Not only the choice between man or woman, but it will also be possible to modify his genitals. A hero whose background we will be able to choose, not only his future, but also the smallest part of his cyber-body.
From cinema to console
A new type of hero therefore seems to accompany the dawn of the new generation. A hero who has a defined face, who can turn into a mascot capable of filling the coffers of software houses, but also a hero who runs to meet the needs and that need for identification of the player. Man, woman, tall, short, straight, bisexual, human or cyborg, we will really be able to tailor ourselves in the most disparate videogame genres, and which also meets the world of cinema and TV series. Yes, because, remaining on the now upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, the face that is selling the title, and that is also making it known to those who have remained at Space Invaders, it's not V. No, is someone who comes from the cinema. By Johnny Silverhand, also known as Keanu Reeves, you can already find t-shirts, statues, music, and everything else that comes to mind. It was even he who introduced the game to the world, and to to attract to the video game as a medium those who would never have dreamed of taking a pad in hand.
A new hero, therefore, a new protagonist who addresses the players and who comes from the big screen. More and more characters, in fact, are no longer made from scratch, but through motion capture. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, in the first instance a technical necessity. Facial expressions have greatly benefited from it, as well as that identification we talked about earlier. But with the excuse, bringing a familiar face to the consoles does not hurt. Death Stranding it is the perfect example. Hideo Kojima, who has always wanted to make cinema without ever hiding it, has created the perfect hybrid. Sam Porter Bridges has the face of N, which convinced many to buy the game “with that of The Walking Dead". Fragile it is Lea Seydoux, There is Guillermo Del Toro e Mads Mikkelsen is the main villain. It's a game that has no characters, it directly has a cast. A new hero then, with a defined face and a clear iconography like that of Super Mario, but which is given to him by the factor "wow, but it's those of!", Rather than "wow, but what a character they came up with!" .
Identification or empathy?
It is up to us to decide. Identification or empathy? They were better Crash Bandicoot e Ratchet, or Sam Porter Brideges and yourself? Not only that, even those heroes who are still born today as exclusively videogame figures - let's think about Nathan Drake and Kratos - are disappearing. The first, after 4 sensational chapters of Uncharted, does not seem to be returning in a new adventure; the second will instead leave the scene to make way for a new protagonist. And the remakes? The mascots of the past continue to live, of course, but they are not "new". What do we prefer then, to love a hero and accompany him on his adventure, as happens during the screening in the cinema, or to be that hero, recreate him exactly as we are (or how we want to be), and directly shoot that film?
The world of video games, needless to deny it, it is treading new paths, and it is good that it is. That funny and somewhat incomprehensible 8-bit sprite of the past is evolving, and we are with it, and is the herald of this new path. A road that goes towards new media, and tries to absorb and learn from them as much as possible. And the video game, Kojima is certain, is the best way to condense the best of both aspects. And then we just have to believe in the power of identification, or in that of empathy. Or, why not, in both.
