The title of “lone wolf” is ambiguous, both in how it is defined and how a lone wolf is perceived. Characters who bear this moniker may not always travel alone, in fact, they often travel in parties, but it is their silent, stoic, and mysterious demeanor that emotionally isolates them from other people.
These lone wolves are the ones who intrigue us, who we secretly pretend to be when we want to feel cool. The mysteries surrounding their pasts and the shroud of cold indifference draw us to them. These are the characters we find all the more interesting by what they don’t say rather than what they do say.
10 Master Chief
He has no family, no connections, nothing to tether him to others, no weaknesses. John-117, better known as The Master Chief, is the ideal military leader. As a result of a government program (not unlike Soldier, the Kurt Russel film), Master Chief was perfectly bred for combat.
That perfect pedigree leaves Master Chief as nothing more than an instrument of warfare and a tool of democracy. He knows only combat and has no other desires outside fulfilling orders. Master Chief’s lone wolf nature is the same nature embraced by many who live the life of a soldier.
9 Alucard
Being a lone wolf as a vampire just seems to come with the territory, but as the half-human son of the world’s most famous vampire, Alucard is just about the loneliest of vampiric society.
Constantly battling his nature as a vampire, his destiny as the son of Dracula, and even straight-up battling Dracula, has led Alucard to live a lonely life where few others can sympathize with his struggles.
8 Dante
Killing demons isn’t easy, and it doesn’t help when everyone wants a shot at you because you just so happen to be the son of one of the most well-known demons. This would all be manageable if your brother wasn’t also gunning for you too.
To his credit, Dante at least tried keeping a day job by offering his demon-slaying services to others, but he soon discovered it was a thankless and lonely lifestyle. Cheesy one-liners and cool guy quips aside, Dante has lost a lot over the years and stays estranged from most of his friends and family that aren’t already dead.
7 Auron
Choosing a stoic, lone wolf character from a Final Fantasy game is as hard as choosing a Final Fantasy song that isn’t by Nobuo Uematsu. Nearly the entire cast of both Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 are comprised of such characters, but it’s Auron who stands out and steals the entire show of Final Fantasy 10.
Similar to Alucard, Auron has, on multiple occasions, been asked to complete a task that most others could not accomplish. He is a stoic and silent character with deep-seated pain and trauma preventing him from getting close to those around him. It’s the way that Auron chooses to put the pain of the past aside and help his friends that makes him a lone wolf we love.
6 Scorpion
Many characters in the Mortal Kombat franchise could be considered lone wolves, but it’s the tragic backstory and silent rage that drives Scorpion that makes him one of the best.
Losing his family and clan in a horrific slaughter at the hands of Quan Chi, Scorpion lives as a spirit of vengeance like Batman, but with all the brutality of The Punisher.
5 Ryu
The life of a nomad is one of inherent loneliness. With no other purpose than to find the world’s best fighters and occasionally stand up to Akuma after he’s wiped the floor with everyone else. Ryu has all he needs with him in one duffel bag and the same tattered gi he’s worn since 1987.
Sure, Ryu has friends and training partners like Ken, but he prefers the traveling lifestyle as the Don Quixote of martial arts. This compelling personality is just one of the many reasons Ryu is the recommended character of choice for newcomers playing Street Fighter.
4 Solid Snake
Capturing the machismo and loner vibes of some of the best lone wolf characters of the 80s, Solid Snake is steeped in lone wolf tropes. Being frequently involved in missions centered around espionage creates an environment for Snake where secrecy and silence are a necessity at all times.
Over the course of each game, we see Snake’s unflinching loyalty to duty and his uncompromising bond to seeing each mission through. Even the best in the field of espionage know rule number one: sever all ties to anyone who could become a liability.
3 Doomguy
No words, just bodies. Doomguy is a lone wolf, and he likes it. Doom’s silent protagonist would rather be “knee-deep in the dead” than speaking or interacting with anyone he can’t “rip and tear.”
To be fair, when a man looks the way Doomguy does when picking up a chainsaw, people tend to avoid you anyway, but after seeing all the hell and horror Doomguy has, there aren’t a whole lot of people you’d want to or be able to talk to.
2 Asura
Asura alone stands up to the very creators of his world in utter defiance. Not many people are willing to go through literal and figurative hell to save their daughter, but Asura does it all with an undying rage and determination.
During his journey, Asura meets many old and new acquaintances, each of which he meets with the same callous disdain and disregard. The god of wrath has one concern and lets nothing and no one stop him on his way to achieving it.
1 Samus Aran
The quintessential lone wolf, Samus is stoic, silent, and gets the job done with cold, calculated, and terrifying precision. Samus’ past is still rather unknown. Although we get short glimpses, Samus keeps things short and sweet in the dialogue department and gives us little exposition on events past or present.
Instead, the space bounty hunter would rather lay to rest entire alien races and blast space pirates in ways that would make Doomguy blush. She is perhaps one of the most intimidating and enigmatic protagonists in all of gaming – and that is what makes her so beloved.
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Henry Shaw (11 Articles Published)