What defines a character's importance to the plot of a game?

[Blazey Firekitty]

Does it simply need to be "likes Sonic and doesn't want Eggman to take over," or does there need to be more of an explanation? The most discussed example of this, to the best of my memory, has been Knuckles, as there seem have been many, many debates as to whether or not the status of the Master Emerald needs to be explained for Knuckles to out on adventures.

[Nepenthe]

For me, it comes down to an easy litmus test: If you can take a character out of any existing story without significantly altering the plot as a result, odds are that character's unnecessary. Amy in Unleashed is a fine example; none of the major plot threads depend on her existence.

Justification for why a character shows up to is nice as well, but it doesn't ensure a character will stay useful in the long run. For example, we know why Knuckles shows up in Sonic 06- he's introduced via a task given to him by Eggman in the form of delivering a message to Sonic. But again, he doesn't do anything beyond that worth contributing to the overall narrative.

[Mr. Awesomest]

To the plot? Throughout the story, does a character change the events of a story? As in, more than one occasion, in more than just the beginning or the end? If so, they are an important character. If a character only has one moment to shine throughout the whole story, they aren't a character in the story so much as they are a plot device or someone riding along everyone else's coattails.

[batson]

As long as a playable character delivers fun gameplay, i really dont care that much about how much he or she brings to the table in terms of story.

Though of course, the best case scenario is where every notable character in the game gets to shine for at least a moment in one way or another, either by doing something important to he story, showing some personal development, or just being plain entertaining.

Edited November 6, 2011 by batson

[Diogenes]

Oh boy, Knuckles topic.

A character's importance to the plot can be estimated by how much the plot would need to be changed if they weren't there. This includes both literal events (ie, Shadow needs to be in SA2 because of all the stuff he actively does in it) as well as themes and the like (ie Tails and Knuckles need to be in Heroes because it is a game about teamwork and having Sonic work alone doesn't jive with that, even though there's nothing in the story that couldn't have been done without them).

That's not to say that a character must be required for their inclusion to be valid. Amy really does not need to be in Unleashed; her contributions are minor and certainly not necessary. But her interactions with Sonic are contributions, and the game would be less (if not by much) without her.

The main issue with Knuckles is that he has a duty to attend to that should come before showing up "just because". It's not really hard to work around (and with) this duty, but it does require acknowledging it and making some effort towards justifying his appearance and paying respect to his character.

[Sega DogTagz]

Appropriateness.

It doesn’t matter to me if a character makes a massive contribution to the overall story. As far as I’m concerned, for the most part, in that light there are only a small handful of characters that important to the majority of stories.

What I am more concerned with seeing is that when a character is put into a situation, their existing personality (or any growth) are a part of the impact of the story at that moment in time. If Cream pops ups for a few minutes to cheer her friends on, even if is for no other reason than just to boost morale, then I believe her role is justified and important because that is one of the things her character was designed to do. I think people often put too much emphasis on face value contribution to the story. Sometimes the biggest roles are the smallest ones. What characters can do on the fringe sidelines from time to time is also important when it comes to good storytelling.

So yeah, appropriate is important to me.

Edited November 6, 2011 by Sega DogTagz

[Kuzu]

Oh joy, a Knuckles v. Master Emerald topic again, because these are so much fun.

It depends on what's needed for the plot, I mean if the plot takes place in another location that isn't related to another character, there's really no reason for them to appear outside of maybe a scene or two. Knuckles in 06 is a good example, he's completely unrelated to the plot, and only serves to deliver a message to Sonic, after than he should have left and returned to his home instead of tagging along.

While I don't think Knuckle's appearances need to be justified all of the time, there should be a reason for why he would be away from doing his job most of the time, rather than just being thrown into a game for the sake of it.

I guess it depends on what their contributions to the plot are, Knuckles doesn't really need to be in every game and story but that doesn't mean he can't contribute regardless.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Oh joy, a Knuckles v. Master Emerald topic again, because these are so much fun.

Even more interesting how I didn't even start it this time...

Anyway, a character's importance to the plot with me is their contributions and reason for being there in the first place. If a character like say Shadow just so happened to be in the area just for the lulz, that's not much adding to him being necessary. And if his contributions lack, then it's a wonder why they were even around in the first place.

The stronger of the two can usually override the weakness of the other, but it helps of there's a combination of them both to make it air-tight for the character to be necessary. It makes a hell of a lot of sense to have Knuckles involved in ShTH mainly because the entire world is at war for it's very survival from an outside force invading it, but it makes less sense for him to have been around in Sonic 06 when there wasn't anything that could've been done by another third party. Then there's Generations. Regardless it's suppose to be a 20 year milestone, questioning his existence in Generations falls along the line of stupidity, because it would be disregarding the fact that Blaze and Silver of all characters (or even Metal Sonic) were present and they reside in a completely different state of existence compared to him and is completely biased to boot among other things.

[Salamander]

That's not to say that a character must be required for their inclusion to be valid. Amy really does not need to be in Unleashed; her contributions are minor and certainly not necessary. But her interactions with Sonic are contributions, and the game would be less (if not by much) without her.

I think this is a pretty important point. Without any other series regulars in Unleashed, I'm not sure the epic scope of the premise would've been realised. Especially coming after the character-heavy '06, stripping the anthropomorphic cast down to Sonic, Tails, and the one-off Chip, all of whom are travelling together, would've seemed like it was reducing the scale of Sonic's whole world. Amy may not affect the plot, but she does illustrate the fact that other Sonic characters still exist, are still affected by the plot, and are still interested in Sonic. And there are ways you can do that with her which you can't with other characters; in addition, she has, if you like, less baggage than characters like Shadow and Knuckles, whose role in the story would probably have to be quite important if they were in it. (Weren't they announced, at one point, to actually be in Unleashed? Although I suspect someone got confused with Black Knight there.)

Here's a little conundrum that occurred to me while reading this thread. There's the question of whether Unleashed would've been less if Amy wasn't in it, okay. But would it have been greater if she actually influenced the plot directly and was relevant? I think having her as a bystander sort of character was absolutely the best way to include her or indeed any of Sonic's other friends. She doesn't dilute Sonic's role.

Generations, on the other hand, looks a lot like an example of how not to do this. It's a series anniversary and you absolutely have to bring lots of characters in to celebrate them, but having them stand around doing nothing except cheering Sonic on in the final battle isn't terribly effective. Maybe Time Eater should've imprisoned them again after knocking the Sonics out as a means of giving a real limit to their interaction besides "we don't want them to actually do anything." Colours DS did a pretty good job of this; other characters were around, and they were even doing things, but they didn't pop up in the final battle and they weren't standing around on the hub constantly reminding us that they could interact with the setting.

[DistantJ]

Also remember that a character can exist purely to benefit a more important character's development. If Amy hadn't been in Unleashed, would we have known that Sonic was embarrassed about being a werewolf? Prof. Pickles talks about how he seems to be enjoying it, and he doesn't seem all that traumatised, until Amy doesn't recognise him, at which point his confidence takes a hit, and he keeps avoiding her from then on. I found that quite interesting and it also added weight to the moment that dark gaia was removed from him at the end.

Also look at Orbot and Cubot, or just Orbot (aka "Ergo") in Unleashed. Without them, who does Eggman tell his plans to, so that we can know what he's up to? Their input doesn't change the outcome of the plot but it certainly helps them to tell the story to us.

Outside of Sonic, in the world of GOOD storytelling (lol) characters often exist to help flesh out more important characters too. A character's ex girlfriend may show up, for example, to give us an idea of how the protagonist deals with the past, what kind of a person he used to be, etc. These kind of characters, in a truly great story, will often have their own development alongside things, and even their own resolution, think about Travis in the movie Clueless (a re-interpretation of classic novel 'Emma') as a brilliant supporting character in this way.

So the whole 'importance of a character' thing, it's much more complicated than people make out.

Edited November 9, 2011 by DistantJ