Video games can be as serious as stopping a nuclear holocaust from happening in a war game to planting trees and developing houses in a simulator. It’s why the medium is one of the best out there because of the creativity within. It’s also okay to get weird with games, even the serious ones, to help provide players with some relief from all of the drama.
RPGs are notorious for putting players through ridiculous situations that may not make complete sense tonally. Even if that’s the case it’s best to sometimes roll with the punches. These examples offer a wide breadth of fun activities that the main characters are put through in their adventures.
8 Vaan
A staple of Final Fantasy is making the main characters act like idiots. There are too many examples from the main entries alone to go through. Vaan from Final Fantasy 12 sticks out the most though since his protest mini-game was immortalized in a Mega64 video.
In the game, players have to shout at NPCs to get them to believe in their speeches. Shouting “I’m Captain Basch fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca” or “Don't listen to Ondore's lies” has become a meme on the Internet. A close second would be Cloud dressing up in Final Fantasy 7.
7 The Luminary
Characters in this series rarely have proper names besides “the hero” or some equivalent to that. The Luminary is the nickname in Dragon Quest 11. Like Final Fantasy, there are many examples to point out in this series. There are two good ones to discuss from the latest entry.
One has players dance in a parade around the world to boost humanity’s spirits. The other is when players get turned into a fish. Both of these examples put the hero in odd scenarios for comedic purposes and do so to great effect.
6 New Kid (Douchebag)
The two Ubisoft RPGs based on the South Park cartoon are all about making the character do silly things. These include creating mystical farts to travel in time and giving dudes lap dances to blend in with a club. It’s all nonsense but it fits with the comedic and absurd nature of the cartoon.
Many of these examples are like homages to other big RPGs. The lap dance could be a nod to the aforementioned Cloud scenario from Final Fantasy 7. Bringing up any more examples would spoil the fun of these RPGs.
5 Ichiban Kasuga
Ichiban Kasuga replaced Kazuma Kiryu as the main character of the Yakuza series. He’s also good in a fight but Ichiban is a goofier character and wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s put through many silly situations to advance the plot such as running for a political position to beat out some anti-mob protesters.
One of the funniest moments happens early on in Yakuza: Like a Dragon wherein Ichiban has to hide in a tiny box. What happens after will remain a secret and is one of many reasons that the game is worth checking out.
4 Big Boss
The Metal Gear Solid series is one of those aforementioned franchises that draws a fine line between serious plot lines and goofy situations. Solid Snake is put through a lot, but his father Big Boss might have one of the most awkward moments in the series.
Toward the end of Snake Eater, he has to dress up as an enemy soldier, Major Raidenovitch Raikov. To blend in with the army better, players have to allow Colonel Volgin to grab Big Boss’ “private area” for inspection. It takes a lot of guts to go through something like that for one’s country, making Big Boss a genuine hero.
3 The Boss
Another “big boss” hails from the Saints Row series. Players are known as The Boss in those games because they can choose their gender. Saints Row The Third is where the series took off from being considered one of the better GTA clones to something truly remarkable.
One of the weirdest moments in the game changes the player’s avatar from their custom-made Boss to a toilet via a Matrix-like event. It is a literal toilet that shoots guns which is both hilarious and badass somehow.
2 Yu Narukumi
The main character in Persona 4 did not have a canonical name in the original. However, the media that has come after, including the anime, has dubbed him Yu Narukumi. Now, toward the middle of Persona 4, Yu and his fellow male colleagues are tasked with entering a cross-dressing contest.
Everyone seems shy about it except for Teddie, who shines brightly as he always does. This moment is referenced with a song and dance routine in the later spinoff, Persona 4: Dancing All Night. In a series filled with weird moments, this is up there.
1 Agent 47
Agent 47 is the master of disguise. There is no one moment in the Hitman series that can be pointed out as “the one” situation that makes the main character go through something silly. It’s an everyday occurrence for Agent 47 with the scenarios getting the most ridiculous in the recent reboot trilogy.
From impersonating a detective to solve a murder so that he can murder someone else to becoming a drummer, he has done it all. If a studio ever decides to take a stab at another movie, they should embrace the wilder side of this assassin.