Hm. That's tough. I'm not really head-over-heels about a lot of stuff. Even with gaming, I'm more a fan of third-party games in general than with anything first-party.
I guess I'd have to say Suikoden first. 1, 2, 3, and 5 were so awesome. They had so much depth compared to most other RPGs and without the trendiness and silliness a lot of other Japanese RPGs bring to the table. As a fan of fantasy books since I was a kid, I loved how intricate and connected the Suikoden universe was. The writing itself could be phenomenal, such as the Rashomon-type story of S3, and how the ending was so sad and beautiful that I was literally in tears during the credits.
Then, of course, there is Suikoden 4. It actually wasn't a bad game. I liked the whole ship/island thing, minus the travel itself. The problem was that it felt rushed and unfinished (some parts of the city ACTUALLY WERE unfinished and lacked detailed textures). After the epic feel of the other titles, S4 was small, limited, and disjointed. I can't even remember the villain. As its own thing, it would have been okay, but not as a numbered Suikoden game.
I'm also going to say Magik from the X Men universe. She is my favorite comic book character. A lot of it probably has to do with the timing, I realize that, but I think she'd still be one of my favorites regardless. I had a sister who was several years older than me. I wasn't allowed to touch her comic books when I was little but she ended up giving them to me when I was old enough to (kind of) read them. That made the first X Men comic I ever owned or read the one where she was kidnapped by a demon and then returned after spending several years trapped in a demon's world, even though moments had passed for everyone else back on earth. The way they did it was awesome and I loved the story. Past that, she was just simply the most interesting character in comics, having lived in servitude to a demon lord. She had a good side and an evil side, which meant lots of internal and external conflict.
Then, of course, she was killed off and I lost interest in comics. That's not what I hate, though. I mean, I obviously didn't like it, but I can accept that since she died for a noble reason. What I really hated was when they teased that she was coming back, when they announced a new MAGIK series, and then ... it was someone else. Yeah, that pissed me off so much.
