Not in terms of the main character, but I like the active, spunkier characters. Characters like Yuffie, Selphie, Arche (Tales of Phantasia), Mint (Threads of Fate), etc. I suppose mainly because their behaviour is easy to stereotype, and thus many humourous situations can occur, especially with they play foil to a more serious character.
That being said, having an entire game with off-the-wall characters would probably suck, as this wackyness cannot exist in a vacuum. A well-rounded cast with different character types with well defined characterizations is key.
If you're just talking about the main character though, some RPGs make it so that you are the main character; the big tip-off is that your character does not speak (like in Half-Life, although that's not strictly an RPG per se). The archetypal example is Chrono Trigger, wherein the only thing you know about Crono is that he has a mom and some cats. If that's the case, the main character doesn't really have any personality himself; you are the character basically. In this case, it is hard to come up with a main character that you dislike. It could be that he has a terrible graphic design (I hate his hat! etc.) or that he ends up doing things that you hate. In having the main character not say or do anything, he steps aside and allows the other characters to take the limelight.
Other games have it so that the main character has a personality. FF7 is a good example, as Cloud is not strictly you; He knows things that you do not, until he reveals them to you. In this case, I like characters which have something that I can relate to; just like a horoscope, I suppose, in the sense that most people can relate to that character. Cloud had the wants-to-be-someone-but-then-faking-it sort of thing going that I can find within me. Squall had that I-don't-want-to-rely-on-people sort of thing that I get from time to time. Mint had that childish World Domination mindset that I would do if I had magic powers. There has to be a hook that makes me want to be that character in a sense, or otherwise want that character to succeed (and thus play the game). Otherwise that character just fades into the background like the previous hero type. |