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I want the main character as complex as myself. If the plot is driven for he/she alone, their perspective, I expect a full room to travel with him/her.
Well, describing my taste is much like describing myself. Shy, mysterious, smart, wavering common sense (naive). Another kind of MC I do enjoy is self-confident, cheerful, although naive as well, living without a map, exploring alternatives without a fixed mindset. That's hard, to build a consistent but unexpected personality.

For a unwanted MC, I choose the seeming deep character that really hasn't built interior. A second one could be, the overreacting kind of person, that tries so hard to engage you with his/her emotions but it fails flat when you are like me, asking yourself many questions.

To me it doesn't really matter that much as long as the MC's personality feels coherent to his background and the setting on the VN. Both the "cool and brave" and the "awkward and shy" protagonists, which are kinda cliche-ish, can be both great or awful depending to that.
For example, i hated Okabe Rintaro at the start of Steins;Gate, but I gradually apppreciated his obnoxiousness more and more as long as I got to "know him".
Also i'm not against the "blank slate" personality which get influenced by player's choices, but I think it's much harder for the writers to get it right.

I stand on position, that there is nothing like blank page character. Even in games it does not really comes out good if character have no background.

I like protagonist with personality becouse it is another character to entertain me. But still I feel the most connection with characters who just have good quality choices in moments where I would probably not agree with them. I was most angry whem my choice came out not to work becouse protagonist change her mind into first option. Fake choices should be made with enough care that I can feel like character actually follow what I am choosing.

French speaker here, so sorry for the repetitive creation of my sentence !

That's a really hard question... Because, there is, for me, to big line for creating à main character : one that is supposed to resonate with the reader (so, a hero or a very personal antihero) or one that is supposed to be what it is, not for the reader, but for showing something specific. Of course, in no way it's impossible to put these to way together. But... this create a big difference, because the first will probably make the reader to enter in the story more easily, while the second will want the reader to invest itself to understand what is going on with the MC.

In a way, I prefer the second type, one that show a message, an analysis that the writer is trying to make, and not only a character that is created to entertain more easily. That is why a certain Shinji Ikari is for me a perfect MC, while a certain Kirito is some boring MC. It's easy to like Kirito, but really hard to appreciate Shinji...

So, what is a good MC ? I think this question need to be answered by the MC writer itself. Because, the purpose of creating something is not only to pat the reader in the direction of its hair. If a MC is created to form a discomfort or a disgust, so be it. Even if it's always good to try to create empathy, I think it's a good thing too for trying to create a MC that is very far away from the comprehension of the reader...

For me, it's a big dilemma between these two, and maybe, if you want the more wide audience, it's necessary to find the perfect middle.

Personnally, I like main characters as long as the'yre not assholes
but it makes me think of something, what do you think about the kind of MC who is calm sarcastic and rarely smiles, but is kindhearted and quite determined ?
I'm writing a VN atm and this is this kind of MC

Salusava wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:17 pm Personnally, I like main characters as long as the'yre not assholes
but it makes me think of something, what do you think about the kind of MC who is calm sarcastic and rarely smiles, but is kindhearted and quite determined ?
I'm writing a VN atm and this is this kind of MC

This is literally the character archetype I've used for my last four games. XD

I dunno, I've liked characters like that in others' games. It seems to work best when that type of main character is teamed up with a cheerful, smiling character.

Another thing I forgot to add: Giving your character a clear motivation is also a good idea. Sometimes passive characters are hard to like and/or identify with.

Katy133 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:30 pm

Salusava wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:17 pm Personnally, I like main characters as long as the'yre not assholes
but it makes me think of something, what do you think about the kind of MC who is calm sarcastic and rarely smiles, but is kindhearted and quite determined ?
I'm writing a VN atm and this is this kind of MC

This is literally the character archetype I've used for my last four games. XD

I dunno, I've liked characters like that in others' games. It seems to work best when that type of main character is teamed up with a cheerful, smiling character.

Another thing I forgot to add: Giving your character a clear motivation is also a good idea. Sometimes passive characters are hard to like and/or identify with.

Well, nice to hear this haha, the character's best friend is a cheerful girl and he has a goal, it's nice to hear this !