Who needs a name when you’re The Chosen One, a demon-slayer, or just a guy with a cool jacket?
What does a name mean? Nothing in real life. A person’s name doesn’t tell you much about them. But in the media, a character’s name can tell you a lot about them even before they say a word. Nathan Drake sounds like a swashbuckling adventure, Kazuma Kiryu sounds like a steely-eyed Yakuza, Joel Miller is the most dad name ever, and I don’t know about you, but Sephiroth sounds a little evil to me.
But not everyone has a name or wants to be called by one. That doesn’t make them less interesting; it just gives us a different piece of information about them. For some of them, it means that they are mysterious and they want to keep it that way. For others, it means that they could be anyone, and for others, it just shows that their friends didn’t care enough to ask.
The Courier – Fallout: New Vegas
None of the main characters in Fallout like the idea of telling strangers their names. Yes, you give them a name when you make them, and the husband and wife in Fallout 4 are named Nate and Nora. But most of the people who lived through the wasteland just let people call them what they want.
The Vault Dweller was the main character in the first game. The Lone Wanderer was the main character in Fallout 3, and The Courier is the main character in New Vegas. This one seems to be the most important, though, because it shows how focused your character is at the start of the game as you try to figure out who set you up. It gets even more interesting in the last DLC for the game, Lonesome Road, when you start to learn what it means to be a courier.
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The Adventurer – Shadowgate
Oh, how sad for the poor adventurer. You are the protagonist of an unnamed video game, and even though you don’t have a name, you are the only one who could possibly complete this dangerous quest.
This might seem like a sign of disrespect, but it fits well with the rest of Shadowgate. This early adventure game was known for the many and often silly ways your nameless hero could die. Yes, it’s sad that we never found out the poor man’s name as he walked through Castle Shadowgate, but at least he died the way he lived: by touching everything in a room until one of them opened a trap door.
Zer0 – Borderlands 2
In the Borderlands series, most of the characters you can play as have a name and a class title that people usually call them by. Roland the Soldier, Lilith and Maya as Sirens, or Salvador the Gunzerker. But Zer0 is a little different. In Borderlands 2, their big katana, tendency to turn invisible, and skill with snipers make it clear that they are the team’s assassin, but they are never given a name.
Instead, they are called “Zer0” because that is the most common holographic emoticon that comes out of their helmet. Angel, the all-knowing AI siren, doesn’t know Zer0’s real name or even if they have one.
The Prisoner – Dead Cells
In Dead Cells, the main character gets called a few names. From a story point of view, The Fallen One tells us the most about them. The Beheaded is just mean for no good reason. But The Prisoner seems to fit best.
This isn’t just because the tower you’re stuck in looks like a prison, but also because they really are trapped in this game. Damned to run through these towers forever and never get out, like in a roguelike game. The Prisoner will never get away, no matter how many enemies or bosses you kill.
New Kid – South Park: The Stick Of Truth
Like any good RPG, South Park: The Stick of Truth lets you name your character when you make them. But, like any good RPG, it completely ignores that and gives you a nickname and something like a title.
In a lot of RPGs, you’ll be called “The Chosen One” or something else that sounds just as important, but not here. No matter how much you protest, the other kids in town will always call this new kid a “douchebag.”
The Villager – Animal Crossing
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You know that most places have rules about how old you have to be and what else you have to do to run for mayor. Even so, The Villager in Animal Crossing, who has no name and a lot of debt and has just walked into town from who knows where, manages to become the mayor.
Maybe they know something bad about all the other village builders. Which is why they always treat us like friends when we see them. Maybe they are afraid of this mysterious stranger who has taken over their village without being elected. This is really scary.
Jacket – Hotline Miami
Speaking of scary things, Jacket from Hotline Miami might be the only video game character scarier than The Villager and Tom Nook. We don’t know much about this man. All we know is that every night he gets a phone call asking him to deliver something to a certain address. He goes there, does bad things, and then goes to a store to get paid.
The fact that he doesn’t have a real name or personality is, of course, just a small part of the game’s bigger message, which is that a player will do violent things without questioning their motives if a quest giver tells them to. So it’s kind of a shame that fans have come to think of him as cool in the years since. Instead, we’d say that this character works much better as a scary reminder of how willing we are to do terrible things online without thinking twice.
The Boss – Saints Row 4
Cure cancer or end hunger in the world? As president, the Boss in Saints Row has to make tough choices. But that doesn’t mean they won’t do what needs to be done. Even if what is needed is to use a dildo baseball bat to beat up low-level gang members or go back in time.
Even though characters like Johnny Gat, Kinzie, and Keith God-damn David are bigger than life. The bosses in these games are just as memorable. This is a real testament to Volitions’ writing skills.
The Kid – Bastion
The Kid doesn’t talk a lot. They leave that to the game’s narrator, who is just as famous. Instead, they move through the broken world of Happy Wheels game by letting their actions speak for themselves.
Even though The Kid doesn’t talk, we learn everything important about them as Bastion goes on. They are strong and independent, but they are also working with others to rebuild a small world around them.
Chosen Undead – Dark Souls
FromSoftware loves it when you play as a character who is “the chosen one.” Even more so if they are just another cursed, nameless person left behind when gods fight. Dark Souls 2: The Bearer of the Curse, Dark Souls 3: The Ashen One, Elden Ring: The Tarnished. And Dark Souls: The Chosen Undead with the Darksign.
All of these nameless characters are great because they are just another poor soul stuck in a broken world because the powerful forces above them can’t get along. But these nameless characters all have one thing in common: when they are cursed even more, they don’t give up hope like everyone else. Instead, they go on great journeys to try to change the world as it slowly falls apart.
Doomguy – Doom
Even though Doomguy doesn’t have a name, he tells us everything we need to know about him with just a few face sprites and a shotgun. In fact, he was so mysterious when he first started killing demons at the UAC. That they made a science cult around him during his break and called him “The Doomslayer.”
Even though he has a voice in Doom Eternal, he doesn’t talk much. But we know everything we need to know about him. He’ll tear and rip until the job is done.