Favorite protagonist has got to be Sonic. When he’s written correctly like in Adventure 2, Unleashed, and SATBK, his coolness and maturity are hard to beat. Only character that ties with him is Nathan Drake.

Asura (Asuras Wrath), William (Nioh), Noctis, and Gene (Godhand) are close behind. All in that order.

Favorite antagonist is EASILY Owl from Sekiro. After him, Ardyn Izuna and Virgil. Most games I don’t play don’t give the antagonists much come to think of it

Preestsblished characters like Spider-Man and Naruto are cheating obviously

Big Boss and Ocelot are maybe the best protagonist/antagonist duo in gaming history

And big boss also doubles as a great antagonist for most of the series

Top 5 no order
Arthur
Ellie
Lara
John
Link

Favorite antagonist: Saren

Protagonist: Jin from GoT, Commander Shepard, Katos, Batman

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Real for Noctis, that boy really rose to the occasion despite everything in his way.

Kazuma Kiryu my favorite protagonist & i think Shadowlord from nier replicant is my favorite antagonist although it's a lil tricky here lol story is insane

We don’t respond to Kroniic bait

You know I was really close to putting loud. He might not have made my favorites list, but he’s one of the most iconic video game protagonists in history for sure. Anyone who loves video games will know who Cloud is.

leon s. kennedy
naked snake (venom snake too)
cloud
noctis
dante
sonic(shadow too)
sora
mario
link
samus
fox mccloud

I've loved FF7 since I was a kid so it feels wrong not listing him

Venom Snake loved that guy by the end of MGSV. I prefer him to Big Boss tbh. Pretty tragic character in the grand scheme of things.

GOW 5's version of Odin is top 5 villian in ALL of fiction period

So much nuance & underlining to Odin.

S*** is like the best aspects of a book n a movie char put into one.

And probably the only game so far that literally has subtle char expressions and body language that tells a lot without saying anything, literal movie scene genius level s*** thay only gets more telling the more you replay and it even extends into real gameplay outside of cutscenes like when "Tyr" goes on a tyraid killing the elves but blames it on something else instead of the real issue.

S*** is so good.

My fav protagonists tho are:

Arthur of RDR2

Geralt of Witcher series

Kratos of God of War series

Snake of Metal Gear series

Joel of Last of Us series

Abe of Oddworld series

Regina of Dino Crisis series

Ryu of Ninja Gaiden series

Banjo + Kazooie of Banjo series

Spyro of Spyro series

General Shepard of Mass Effect series

Master Chief of Halo series

Kain of Blood Omen series

Stranger of OddWorld: Stranger's Wrath

Conker of Conker's Bad Fur Day

Goro Majima of Yakuza series

Spidey the goat across all mediums

My other fav antagonists:

Andrew Ryan of Bioshock 1

Genichiro & Owl of Sekiro

Dr. Kirk of Dino Crisis series

Wesker of Resident Evil series

Shadow of Sonic series

Sephiroth of FF7 & Crisis Core

Mollock of OddWorld series

Gherman of Bloodborne

Darth Malak of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1

G-Man of Half Life series

Shao Khan of Mortal Kombat series

Gravemind of Halo series

Team Aqua/Magma of Pokemon Gen 3

Goro Majima of Yakuza series

Arthur Morgan who's both

THE GOAT

Gonna try to not mention one’s already listed.

Jak & Daxter both the homies

SHODAN the GOAT villain
The illusive man aka Martin Sheen which is a little unfair since Sheen Goated already
Reapers
Gwyn from dark souls
Majora more threatening than Ganon to me
SA-X from Metroid fusion