We all know the characters this is about. Those characters who subsist solely on just how cool they are. It’s easy to forget what’s happening in a scene when you get pulled in by all the hype scenes until you take a step back and realise, wait, what was the point of all that? And the honest answer is that some characters just need a minute to look cool.
And it is absolutely worth it, too. Not everything needs to be perfect logic and years of pay-off. Sometimes, with just a little bit of moderation, it’s fine to let a character aura farm and become the main character who is more powerful and important than anything else in the world. Rules of the story be damned, these characters thrive when you get to have their hype moments.
If there was ever a gaming character that lived and died by hype, it’s Vergil. From his very first appearance in the original Devil May Cry where he didn’t say a single word, to his final appearance in Devil May Cry as a literal god of the Underworld, he can’t help but act cool. It doesn’t matter if it’s tonally incorrect because this is Vergil’s world.
Seriously, even his gameplay is based around how cool and composed he think he is. Just standing there and taunting makes him more powerful, and narrowly dodging attacks brings his concentration even higher to the point that he can destroy enemies with a single slash of his sword. The man is the definition of aura farming.
Shadow straddles a wonderful line between being over-the-top edgy and being a legitimately interesting and complex character. And neither of those exclude him from being at the centre of hype moments in a way that no one else in the entire Sonic series is. Shadow is just too confident in who he is, even when so much of his story is about the exact opposite.
I mean, Shadow fights an evil alien in his own domain by sprouting black wings while a song that chants the words ‘All Hail Shadow’ play in the background. It is stupid, is largely unearned, but it is also Shadow, and Shadow can do whatever he wants if it gets him some cool moments.
Raiden is such a fascinating character because he exists as a critique. With his introduction in Metal Gear Solid 2, he was the replacement for Snake, the fresh recruit who thought he was so talented and could conquer the world. Snake was a hero to look up to, but also surpass. But Raiden, well, was a bit of a loser whodidn’t have much of a personalityof his own.
Which makes his characterisation in Metal Gear Rising so much funnier. He was an over-the-top edgy character because that is how people viewed him after MGS4. And that became all he was. Of course, he can chop enemies into a million pieces. Yes, he can stop time to literally tear out their organs. He is always cool and collected. He swore he wouldn’t kill with his sword again? Well, then it’s very lucky this isn’t even his sword.
Agent 47 is a trained killer, a consummate professional. Someone who will, no matter what, get the job done. He can’t fail, so why wouldn’t he have some fun with it? You may choose the methods through which Agent 47 carries out his tasks, but you can’t decide what he’ll say. And he always has some kind of phrase for any given situation.
Oh, are you cooking a meal? Why it’s simply to die for. Escorting a guest along a hazardous path? Be careful, it’s quite the fall. Why it would surely be a shame if that golf ball were suddenly explosive, wouldn’t it? All Agent 47 ever has to do is land one bullet, a little bit of Fiber Wire. But no, he needs to spice up the workplace with some curated accidents.
Louis Guiabern stands out because they are actually much more thanjusthype moments and aura farming.Louis has a plan and a clearly-defined end goal, even if it is a rather extreme means to achieve a noble intent. But Louis is also very confident in his own abilities and how the world views him, so why not make a show out of it?
Louis did not, in fact, have to destroy the king’s sarcophagus to mark his entrance. He did not have to literally die just so he could be resurrected. He could, as he said in his own words, just kill his opponents. Oh no, he is just flamboyant and wanted to make a game out of this. Play the church’s game and win, as it were.
Fextralife Wiki
Jack Garland of Stranger of Paradise fame is an all-time hype moments connoisseur and aura farmer extraordinaire. From the moment the game begins until the second it ends, he is resolute in his goal - kill Chaos. Jack is frankly unstoppable. Chaos doesn’t stand a chance. It’s everything that comes before that. Not for Jack’s sake, mind. It’s the enemies that should be scared of what Jack will do to them.
Jack can seem like a character without any substance for a while. He mauls iconic Final Fantasy characters, he punches literally anything that even bothers trying to monologue. Jack just straight up doesn’t care. Story and logic be damned, he is here for one thing, and one thing only - to kill Chaos. The fist bumps are complementary.
When Elden Ring originally launched, Radahn became such a major talking point of the game. Corrupted by Malenia’s Scarlet Rot, he kept living in madness, somehow holding onto the smallest semblance of himself. And he was a giant, more than any of the other demigods. He could turn into a combat, and his arena was an entire wasteland. Hell, he even had a whole festival made to take him down.
But, of course, that wasn’t enough. Radahn held the very movement of the stars just to protect his horse. He was already heralded asthe hardest boss in the game, so why not make him even more? Why not turn him into a literal god even after he was already defeated? And of course, make sure he really is the most powerful being in existence this time.
Looking back at the origins of Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil, it’s hard to see him as the same character. The spooked officer who faced a zombie apocalypse on his very first day in the space of just a few years became a one-liner action hero who was personally reporting to the president of the United States of America. Frankly, he’s not really the same character.
And does that matter? Not a single iota. Leon is stupid, he is almost a comedy relief character. He does backflips, he jokes about infected villagers going to bingo, he has a hilariously large arsenal hiding in his pockets. Even the developers had to admit that Leon is too over-the-top to be brought back for a genuine horror experience.
