Ah, now what does that mean – best non-player character in a video game? Because that could technically refer to villains. I mean, just so long as the player can’t play as them, right?
If the Merchant from Resident Evil 4 does not at least get another mention then that will have been a crime. Just as criminal as Capcom having ignored one of their most iconic characters for so many years. You could almost accuse them of making him… a stranger! Huh? Huh? Do ya geddit?
I also loved Professor DJ K from the Jet Set Radio series. I don’t believe he has a real doctorate, nor is he the man to go to for advice if you should ever have a cockroach infestation, but that fool sure does play some sick tunes. Yeah, that’s right – sick.
But my absolute favourite goes to Sheogorath, your boss in the Shivering Isles expansion for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It’s cheese for everyone as you meet the Prince of Madness in his paradise for the insane and save it from turning into a grey, crystalline wasteland. Why, he’s so happy to see you that he could tear out your intestines and strangle you with them!
A slightly more benevolent version of the Joker – you hope – with the powers of a god, you feel he might at any time chop off you head just to see the expression on your face. To paraphrase another lovable, psychotic tyrant (Queen Elizabeth I, Blackadder II).
I can never wait to return to him to receive my rewards, my faint praise and veiled yet hopefully empty threats to my life. What an amazing character he is, you only had a small taste of him in the parent game – which was so bland and generic. But suddenly, the Shivering Isles comes along and you have humour, a world and people I actually want to save from harm, and a genuine feeling of belonging after drifting aimlessly through Cyrodill.
An amazing achievement, and still my favourite DLC expansion – though I haven’t played Citadel from Mass Effect 3. Just never got round to buying it. Though I doubt that it can compete with Shivering Isles, which was a whole new world to explore – and a fantastic one at that.
DMR
