The second path is the hero. The hero is a separate and memorable idol that not only represents the player in the game, but represents the game to the player. The game’s aesthetic is personified and realized in this one protagonist. Years after the game fades into memory, this character will be what players remember.These characters are the hardest to create. Not only do they require an incredible sense of visual zeitgeist, they also require the ability to sum a world’s aesthetic up in a single character. The character must show their history on their face and their body. When the player looks at them for the first time, they must understand who they are and where they’re from, whether that history be shrouded in mystery or not.

Square Enix character designer Tetsuya Nomura has created his fair share of characters. Some have been incredible hits, while others have been less than successful. Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud was incredibly successful. Not only was his design not overly outlandish for the most part, it still benefited from memorable imagery (the oversized buster sword and the spiky hair). The small strange touches to the character made him endearing and fantastical. When people remember Cloud, they remember his sword more than anything. It’s these individual articles that make a character more iconic and lovable.

Devil May Cry 4’s Nero has his Devil Bringer, Metal Gear’s Solid Snake has his bandanna, and Far Cry’s Jack Carter has his hawaiian shirts. It’s these small and consistent differences from the norm that ties these characters to their world and their universe, without making them too strange and bizarre that they alienate the player.

Nero is in fact an excellent example of attempting to create memorable imagery in a character. Nero shares a lot of traits with Devil May Cry mainstay Dante: long white hair, a sword and gun combination and stylish clothing sense. What sets Nero apart is his Devil Bringer; a demonic right arm that allows him to throw enemies or snatch them out of the air from a distance. It not only plays into the gameplay mechanics to make them fresh and new, but the player automatically remembers Nero as a separate entity from Dante.

Not only does he have a symbolic and aesthetic difference from Dante but this same symbol changes the way the game is played, and how players interact with the world. By the time the player finally gets Dante back near the end of the game, they start to miss using Nero’s abilities, despite his relative weakness.Devil May Cry developer Capcom obviously learned from the mistakes of Metal Gear Solid 2, which did much the same thing, replacing a beloved action hero with a green horn.