How long are you willing to put up with an RPG character sucking before they hit their character development?

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

FF8 disc 1 has a bunch of... just terrible characters. Just super unlikable. They develop later on, but it reminded me of this ProZD skit and made me think about the sheer amount of time in RPGs. So, how long are willing to put up with a character being horrible so the game can build them up later?

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I have almost zero patience for bad character writing. If a character makes a bad first impression, I never forget that. Especially if it's because they're some ridiculously stock cluster of dumb cliches.

 

[Lord Vatek]

I was able to make it through Tales of the Abyss and ended up liking Luke so... pretty long, apparently.

 

[Łazy]

Some games dont need basic character development. Sometimes they're just good enough to be followed through the game without specific change in their behavior or motivation.

 

[fiendcode]

As an EO fan, I'm pretty happy with zero character development.

 

[Weiss]

"Character development" for bad JRPG characters usually mean they just become generically friendly, so basically never.

Squall's great though. Just no patience Zell and Rinoa's bullshit.

 

[HK-47]

Depend on how long, if them being "bad" is understandable or makes sense and how good the writing in the rest of the game is. If the rest of the writing is good, then there is more reason to hope for good character development later. If not, imma peace the fuck out.

 

[Sou Da]

About uh, Carver long. So like 1 whole ass DLC.

 

[Quinton]

Generally I have a lot of patience for this sort of thing but there are a couple of JRPG archetypes that are harder for me to get past. "Troubled youth completely fucks you over multiple times and monologues about how much adults suck on several occasions until one day they remove their snot-covered fingers from their nostrils, sniffle away the tears, and become your cheerleader instead" is a particular weakness of mine.

 

[RingoGaSuki]

Depends on the game style honestly. FE characters, I'll look at all their supports before judging since that's where so much of their character is fleshed out (like hating Ferdie and Lorenz, but then growing to really like them), in regular JRPGs (FF, DQ etc.) I give it ~5 hours.

I'm pretty forgiving with character development if the game itself is great though. Only game I've ever quit due to characters being completely and utterly terrible was YIIK (and that was after like an hour)

 

[Mr. Genuine]

I tend to focus on the overall narrative of games more than individual characters. I've never really thought about characters being "likeable" as necessary for me to enjoy stories. I mean, it's a plus when it happens, but it's also very rare for a character to make a strong "likeable" impression on me.

Squall is a good example. He's a very interesting character from a narrative perspective because of his social anxiety, but I wouldn't really consider him "likable" in the same way as I do Phoenix Wright for example. However, I would consider Squall is still a "better" character than Phoenix Wright, because of how his traits are used to make the story of the game more compelling. (I know this is an apples and oranges comparison, but I'm just using it to make a point).

 

[Mekanos]

Characters don't necessarily need development to be enjoyable.

As long as they're entertaining and make me want to see what they do next, then that's fine. And I can deal with sucky characters if the others are good.

 

[Master Chuuster]

As long as there are other good characters to keep me engaged, I can tolerate other bad characters forever.

 

[Velezcora]

I was able to make it through Tales of the Abyss and ended up liking Luke so... pretty long, apparently.

Click to shrink...

I tried really hard to tolerate Luke but after 20 hours I was done. People claim Tales has the best characters but my god all the ones I played were obnoxious as hell

 

[Mekanos]

I tried really hard to tolerate Luke but after 20 hours I was done. People claim Tales has the best characters but my god all the ones I played were obnoxious as hell

Click to shrink...

Berseria is the only Tales game I've played, but I really enjoyed its cast.

 

[piratethingy]

As long as there are other good characters to keep me engaged, I can tolerate other bad characters forever.

Click to shrink...

Yeah exactly. At a certain point they're just the heel characters that I'm enjoying hating anyway.

 

[MegaSackman]

DQXI took a really long time to develop its characters and give explanations on why in their right mind would they even come with you.
The thief character reveals his reasons just really close to the end, up until that point it barely makes any sense for him.