One of my favorite things to do while playing games, but primarily RPG’s, is see how the developers manage to characterize the playable cast through their gameplay. It may seem obvious that they would do this, but I always think it’s really cool to make these connections and what these connections say about the characters overall
For example, an obvious example is Bowser, specifically from Mario and Luigi, Bowser’s Inside Story. Usually in Mario and Luigi games, you play as the titular brother duo, who attack via bros attacks, making use of various items or their athleticism to creatively attack their foes. With Bowser’s Inside Story having Bowser being playable, he needed to differentiate himself somehow, and they did so by having Bowser utilize his minions. This falls in line with his characterization in the Mario and Luigi franchise, where Bowser, while described as a princess kidnapping dictator, is also someone who genuinely cares about his minions, beyond the ones that are literally his children. This level of care is reciprocated, with Bowser’s minions utterly adoring their tyrannical overlord not just in the RPG’s, but throughout the entire franchise. And thus, Bowser’s minion attacks reflect the trust he has with his minions, and vice versa, using their impeccable teamwork to defeat anyone standing in their way
Next, Persona 5 has a large cast of playable characters, and naturally, they each play somewhat differently. Ann is a fire attacker with status effects and debuffs, Makoto is a hard hitting nuclear attacker that can also sustain the team with her teamwide heals, and Haru is an attacker that specializes in gun and psychic attacks while also being able to buff all the stats of any member of her team. Of the cast, Yusuke and Ryuji are the most similar, both being primarily physical attackers with a focus on ice and electricity respectively, and it’s in their differences where their personalities shine. Yusuke is an artist, dedicated to finding beauty in everything, whether it be women or simple sea life. As such, he can buff the parties accuracy and evasion, reflecting on his observant nature by allowing his teammates to become more conscious of incoming attacks and enemy positions. In contrast, Ryuji is an impulsive, aggressive, but overall passionate delinquent, who has a tendency to think before he acts, especially if it’s for people he considers his friends. As such, he has the ability to raise the entire pirates attack, allowing them to take a page out of Ryuji’s aggression and strike down the enemy as hard as he would
Lastly, Honkai Star Rail is quite a bit different than Mario and Luigl and Persona 5, in the sense that the combat system has far less options available to the player. Additionally due to its nature as a gacha game, Hoyoverse has to prioritize screentime, meaning only the most recent or most important characters get any substantial development, leaving most of the other characters in the dust. Despite this, I do still think that Star Rail follows the trend of reflecting a characters personality through their gameplay, even for the more simple characters. My favorite example is Gepard Landau, captain of the silvermane guard of Belobog, and someone who, evidently in his gameplay, is first in the line of fire, and the last man standing. Gepard inherently has a higher taunt value in his base kit, and his signature lightcone also gives him this, meaning that he’s going to be targeted by enemies more often, which is to his benefit because getting hit be enemies is how Gepard charges his ultimate, giving his entire team a shield when activated. Combined with his revival skill to full health when he is downed, and it’s rare to have a fight in Star Rail where Gepard isn’t the last man standing, should he be your chosen sustain unit. Gepard is honestly one of my favorite characters in the entire game despite how little attention he gets from the story, and it’s solely because of how much his gameplay says about him as a character
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