Best scripted characters in a video game?

[celedhring]

I don't know about Loghain, he comes across so easily as an asshole, that it's hard to empathize with his motivations. His portrayal could have been a bit more nuanced to make it more difficult to "hate" him. Although I guess they went that route in order to play the redemption card at the end of the game, but it didn't feel too compelling to me.

[Valmy]

I don't know about Loghain, he comes across so easily as an asshole, that it's hard to empathize with his motivations. His portrayal could have been a bit more nuanced to make it more difficult to "hate" him. Although I guess they went that route in order to play the redemption card at the end of the game, but it didn't feel too compelling to me.

He is a pretty heroic figure in all the times he appears before and after DA:O though.

Which makes him drop kicking babies in DA:O a little weird.

[Pedrito]

Almost all of the cast of Planescape:Torment is really great, but I have a soft spot for Hannah and Ravel.

L.

[Valmy]

Almost all of the cast of Planescape:Torment is really great, but I have a soft spot for Hannah and Ravel.

L.

Ravel and Kreia are actually variations of the same character Chris Avellone always puts in his games. Great example of a repeating trope done right.

[Oexmelin]

It's so true. The same way Meitzen puts characters who transforms utterly, physically, into the embodiment of hubris, and others who will betray everything for the sake of vengeance. 

Syt's suggestion is also one I have heard elsewhere. Though I have not played the game, it was enough to make me interested. I had heard that the lead writer of Far Cry 3 also had ambitions to question the violence inherent in this type of video game. Though I saw what he wanted to achieve, I was disappointed with the result. Again, I do not know if it was the French translation that made the hero's friend such superficial and horrible people, but the pacing of the game made the hero's descent into violence tacked on (kudos, however, to the actor who played Vaas, in both French and English).

[11B4V]

Witcher 3 impressed me.

Red Dead Redemption was also superb

[viper37]

Jim Raynor in Starcraft and #2.
Alarak in Starcraft #2: Legacy of the Void.  Much more interesting the the other heroes who tend to be boring.
Kerrigan had her moments in Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.
Kreia in the extended Kotor II.
Iron Bull in DA:I.
Oghren and Morrigan, especially their interaction in DA:O.

EDIT: Tychus Finlay from Wings of Liberty.

[Valmy]

Iron Bull? Morrigan? Huh.

I guess you didn't like Solas as much as I did

[viper37]

Iron Bull? Morrigan? Huh.

I guess you didn't like Solas as much as I did

No, I really did not like that brooding elf.

[Valmy]

No, I really did not like that brooding elf.

At least he had a good reason to be brooding

[Razgovory]

I also often wonder about older games vs newer ones, where actors can make all the difference in the world. I have only played Borderlands 2 at my parents (!) when I visited, and found Handsome Jack insufferable in French. By opposition, I am still amazed at how the ensemble cast of Planescape Torment, with just of few lines delivered by actors, could inflect the reading of all that dialog in really touching ways: scratching through the surface of Dakkon, Anna and Morte with only the grain of their voice in mind was quite a feat. 

Oh yeah you got that right. How could I not mention the PS cast? I think the fact that the Transcendent One was rather unmemorable hurts that game a bit.

I remember how interested I was even in characters who died before the game started, like the blind archer.

Planescape was probably the best-written PC game I ever played.  There were several scenes that are not acted out but simply dialogue which I found really memorable.  I liked the scene where the Nameless one actually learns his own name (though the player does not), and a scene where you meet an old man who talks about his father disappearing and you have a flashback where you remember killing the man's father.