Favorite Video Game Leaders

For me, the most obvious choice would be Commander Shepard, mostly because of her ability to take every disparate alien species in the galaxy, and bring them together to fight off the Reapers and thus save the galaxy. However, I'd rather go out of my way and mention Urdnot Wrex and Tali'Zorah vas Normandy as my other favorite leaders.

Now, granted, the way they became leaders of the krogan and quarians, respectively, was mostly the result of Commander Shepard's actions and choices. For example, Shepard spares Wrex on Virmire, and Wrex unites every krogan clan under his own as their leader in the next two Mass Effects. As for Tali'Zorah, the only way she could become admiral of the quarian flotilla was for her to be exonerated at her trial in Mass Effect 2.

However, that still did not excuse the fact that Wrex and Tali had all the makings of leaders, like Shepard. Wrex, being a krogan, possessed courage and tenacity, while Tali, being a quarian, had intelligence and ingenuity.

Delita from Final Fantasy Tactics, Shu from Suikoden II (who's basically Zhuge Liang), Zhuge Liang from every Koei game ever, Cao Cao from every Koei game ever. Fame Douglass, obviously. Celes from Final Fantasy VI, Margulis from Xenosaga. Zhuge Liang equivalent from Tactics Ogre. Captain Walker from Spec Ops: The Line. Napoleon from some game in the future that has Napoleon as a main character.

Wasn't Margulis a genocidal, religious zealot?

@oldenglishc: Yup. He was good at motivating the troops and such, that's what is important for a leader. The thread isn't "Favorite video game Gandhi." Delita manipulated the shit out of everyone (ultimately bringing peace to the land and power to himself) and he's easily the best character in any game ever. Conversely if you look at someone like Guildenstern who's undoubtedly a great character he kind of just fucks over everyone in his own squad so not a good leader in my book.

Of course in the case of Walker it's more of a "here's a realistic portrayal of what actually would happen in video game scenarios with leaders."

@fredchuckdave: I always saw Margulis as a guy who lucked into finding a powerful group of crazies that were broken enough to buy into his shtick. I couldn't agree more with Delita. He might be the most perfectly written protagonist ever.

I need to play through the Xenosaga games again. It's been several years.

@oldenglishc: Well they always seemed like the most determined opponent in the (literal) universe of Xenosaga who were wholly committed to the cause, I guess I just attribute that to Margulis' leadership skills. Outside of tactical RPGs there are very few scenarios in games where you could actually find out how good of a strategic and/or tactical leader a certain character was so you kind of just have to surmise based on the supporting information; though there might be something in the in-game database about him winning XYZ battle against all odds or what have you.

In the case of Commander Shepard his/her strategy just seems to be "send in a squad of 3 guys to get the job done now!"

Luca Blight

Captain Price.

The Boss from MGS3...pretty much every leader character from a Metal Gear game.

Peace Walker Big Boss. He runs this club house for soldiers where they spend all day playing soccer, putting on concerts and researching the latest in Walkman technology. When he does decide to send somebody on a mission it's usually something super dumb like taking a picture of a ghost or playing a real life version of Pooyan.

• The Boss
• Liquid Snake
• Me (XCOM EU)
• Darunia

Six more leaders I would have liked to add would include Jim Raynor (leader of Raynor's Raiders) and Sarah Kerrigan (Queen of Blades) from the Starcraft series, King Alistair, Queen Anora and the Inquisitor from the Dragon Age series, and Saskia the Dragon-Slayer from The Witcher 2.