Summary
Dead Risingfans have been discussing who they think is a better protagonist out of Frank West and Chuck Greene, but it might surprise you how one-sided the debate has been so far.
After spending the last eight years six feet under the ground, Dead Rising isfinally coming back this year with a near-remake of the first game called Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster. Now that the series has finally re-emerged,the Dead Rising community is back in actionand asking the questions that everyone was far too depressed to ponder before.
Beyond deciding what the most iconic Combo Weapon in the series is, one of the biggest questions that has faced the Dead Rising community over the past decade is whether Frank West from the first game or Chuck Greene from Dead Rising 2 is the better protagonist. I would expect a fair amount of discourse from such a big topic, but it turns out that Dead Rising fans are near-unanimously in agreement.
The “debate” was started over on the Dead Rising subreddit by Redditor GoldenDestiny1983, who shared an image of Frank and Chuck (which appears to be a mod for Left 4 Dead) and asked fans who they thought was the better protagonist. While Frank has appeared in more games than Chuck and does seem to be the defacto Dead Rising mascot, the Combo Weapon connoisseur was praised for his character in DR2.
With that in mind, you might expect it to be a fairly even argument between fans. That isn’t the case, though, as the thread is a landslide victory for Frank West. One of the top comments simply says, “Frank. It’s not a fair comparison”, which seems to be what most fans agree with on the post.
Redditor QuantumObfuscation38 had a more detailed answer, pointing out that both are good protagonists but that Frank is more interesting since he evolves over the course of Dead Rising and slowly gets less selfish. Another fan says that “Frank’s the most popular for a reason” and points out that Chuck works better in a group or as a side character.
Even the fans who have something good to say about Chuck (which is most of them) mostly agree that Frank is the better protagonist overall, such as Waylander312, who says that they’re biased since Dead Rising 2 was their first game, but that Frank still has more “intrigue” surrounding him.
While I’m sad that Dead Rising 3’s Nick Ramos isn’t even getting a shoutout on the thread, it’s fair to say that he doesn’t quite measure up to Chuck and Frank.
There are a few comments calling out Chuck Greene as the better protagonist overall (or suggesting that both are as good as each other), but it’s still a very clear victory for everyone’s favourite photojournalist. Here’s hoping Chuck gets a bit more respect on his name if Dead Rising 2 ever gets a deluxe remaster.
