The Four Types of Adventure Game Heroes

[Datadog]

I was discussing the four temperaments with a friend earlier, and something about the discussion got me thinking about adventure game heroes and the recurring trends we see in their personalities. So I broke them down and came up with a short list of the four types of characters we always play as in these games, along with a few examples of each. I noticed some characters, like Roger Wilco and Gabriel Knight tend to differentiate between personalities as sequels progress, so I'm not calling this an absolute list. It's just something for fun. For the best examples, I wanted to pick at least one major character out of four different game companies.

The Dutiful Hero
Willing and Lawful
The dutiful hero knows their mission from the get-go and is ever committed to their quest. While adamant in their resolve, they still have a strong conscience and will attempt to play by the rules first. When acquiring items, they will first attempt to barter or trade goods and services rather than swipe anything that isn't nailed down (unless dealing directly with villains). In the face of crisis, they almost always go on the defensive, opting to run, hide, or make peace - but aren't afraid to rise against a challenge.
Temperament: Sanguine
Phrase that sums them up: "I must save the princess!"
Best Example: King Graham
Other examples: Sonny Bonds, Prince Alexander, Torin, Bobbin Threadbare, Commander Boston Low, Roger Wilco (SQ1,2,3,4)

The Trickster Hero
Willing, but Unlawful
Tricksters share a similar sense of resolve with the dutiful hero, but lean more towards having a flexible moral compass. Often portrayed as a comic character, tricksters use humor, sarcasm, and general sneakiness to solve problems, while often over-looking potential consequences. They lie, cheat and steal whenever convenient and are often driven by their own desires for adventure, justice, or other needs.
Temperament: Phlegmatic
Phrase that sums them up: "I wanna to be a pirate!"
Best Example: Guybrush Threepwood
Other examples: Leisure Suit Larry, Princess Rosella, Laura Bow, Sam & Max, George Stobbart, Indiana Jones

The Reluctant Hero
Unwilling, but Lawful
Unlike the dutiful hero, a reluctant hero never immediately accepts their destiny or wants to leave their comfortable lifestyle for an adventure. Nevertheless, they feel compelled to tread further and further until they're well in over their heads. While a reluctant hero's moral compass can be made flexible in a pinch, their conscience always encourages them to make friends and allies whenever possible, and a lot of their puzzle-solving relies on support from others. Many female adventure game heroes seem to follow this archetype, and they always find themselves battling progressively higher stakes than what they signed up for.
Temperament: Melancholic
Phrase that sums them up: "I can't believe I'm doing this."
Best Example: April Ryan (Longest Journey)
Other examples: Grace Nakimura (debatable), Queen Valanice, Kate Walker

The Anti-Hero
Unwilling and Unlawful
Anti-Heros don't go looking for trouble; trouble finds them. Anti-heros tend to follow their own selfish needs first before a twist in the story has them re-evaluate their priorities. Private eye characters tend to follow this archetype often, as they'll stick their neck on the line for a few bucks, break into a few offices, steal some important documents, and even become a suspect in a case that only they can solve. As mentioned, they aren't afraid to bend the rules for their own needs, but will develop over the course of a story in thanks to a love interest or common goal that has them fighting for something more important.
Temperament: Choleric
Phrase that sums them up: "I'm only in this for the money."
Best Example: Tex Murphy
Other examples: Gabriel Knight (GK1), Ben (Full Throttle), Manny Calavera, Lewton (Discworld Noire), Simon the Sorceror

And I lied in the header... there's actually a fifth type.

The Neutral Hero
Neutral heroes are usually custom-made characters or present in first-person adventures. Generally never given dialogue or motivations, neutral heros are blank slates who just go around solving puzzles until the story is over. Even in third-person adventures, these characters remain unquestioning in their efforts, and need not be provoked to take on or refuse any challenge.
Temperament: All/none of the above
Phrase that sums them up: "..."
Best Example: Pretty much Myst
Other examples: Prince of Shapeir, Klaymen (Neverhood)

[Akril]

Hmm, this is a very interesting list. Nice work!

To an extent, it reminded me of a short sci-fi story called "The Humours" wherein a schizophrenic man has his mind "cleaved" at a young age, with the extremely violent, temperamental, unpredictable parts of his personality separated from him, leaving him the embodiment of the Melancholic humour of Water, a cautious, nervous, predictable, self-absorbed human being, and essentially a living stereotype. In his adult life, he eventually grows tired of such a monotonous existence and decides to seek out the missing parts of his personality (which have been placed into androids and relocated to different planets to live out lives of their own) and reintegrate with them in the hopes of becoming a "complete" person, regardless of the consequences. Unfortunately, until he finds all of his missing pieces, he has to "share" his mind with the personalities of the ones he has become integrated with.

The funny thing is that when he meets the first missing piece of his personality, the Sanguine humour of Fire, the guy is an immoral, egocentric jerk, and when the protagonist has to make a perilous journey up a river surrounded by nothing but jungle, Fire eventually revolts and takes control of the protagonist's body, wanting to turn around and head back to civilization. However, when he realizes that there's no way he can survive in a wild, unpredictable, dangerous environment like the one he's in, he begs the protagonist's Melancholic personality to take the reins again.

(This temperament-switching idea might actually make for an interesting gimmick for an adventure game, now that I think about it...though I suspect it might have already been done in some form.)

[Expack3]

(This temperament-switching idea might actually make for an interesting gimmick for an adventure game, now that I think about it...though I suspect it might have already been done in some form.)

You would be correct, Akril; Westwood Studios' Legend of Kyrandia: Malcom's Revenge uses this idea as a gameplay mechanic. I haven't played it enough to tell you whether this made the game better, though.

[Akril]

(This temperament-switching idea might actually make for an interesting gimmick for an adventure game, now that I think about it...though I suspect it might have already been done in some form.)

You would be correct, Akril; Westwood Studios' Legend of Kyrandia: Malcom's Revenge uses this idea as a gameplay mechanic. I haven't played it enough to tell you whether this made the game better, though.

I've played the game, and I think the personality-switching idea didn't actually appear until about 2/3rds into the game -- you choose whether you want the protagonist to be good, evil, or a mix of the two, and you're stuck with that "setting" for the rest of the game. I was thinking more about a game dynamic where you could switch a character's personalities on the fly (e.g., only a certain personality could solve a certain puzzle, while some puzzles could be solved one of two ways, depending on which appropriate personality was selected).

[MusicallyInspired]

I wouldn't call Roger Wilco entirely lawful. He broke the slot machine in SQ1 (by cheating in the remake), stole matches in SQ4, cheated at Stooge Fighter 3, impersonated a woman he had just saved to clean out her entire bank account, etc. I also see him as a reluctant hero. He was always swept up into drastic situations he had to solve with zero help. And nobody cared about him most of the time beforehand.

[MrFlibble]

Nice! Reminded me of all the Hero Tropes as described by TVTropes

[Datadog]

I wouldn't call Roger Wilco entirely lawful. He broke the slot machine in SQ1 (by cheating in the remake), stole matches in SQ4, cheated at Stooge Fighter 3, impersonated a woman he had just saved to clean out her entire bank account, etc. I also see him as a reluctant hero. He was always swept up into drastic situations he had to solve with zero help. And nobody cared about him most of the time beforehand.

In that respect, he'd probably be more of an anti-hero, but Roger's priorities have always shifted through the games. In the earlier games, it was always adventure and heroism first. In later games, he develops a sense of arrogance and even starts trampling people on the way to the top. And once he got demoted in SQ6, most of the adventure had been kicked out of him. But while he hasn't always been the more lawful of characters, at least his earlier situations had been desperate enough to warrant his behavior. Although SQ4 might have been the tipping point where Roger finally threw his hands up and said "that's it! No more Mr. Nice Guy! I'm kicking over your bikes!"