Fresh from picking the best games of the past decade, we decided to do a deep dive and make fond remembrance of the characters we liked the most. It’s been an incredible decade for character design, in which facial capture technology has helped burnish excellent performances by actors and voice actors. The quality of writing in games, in terms of dialogue, characterization, and plot, has improved immensely. Writers have begun to move on from two-dimensional action heroes, clumsy sidekicks, and offensive caricatures to paint convincing people who inspire empathy. The Polygon team picked these favorites based on various criteria, including characters that are transportive, convincing, funny, original, moving, or unusual. We have only allowed one character (or duo) per franchise, but it’s worth mentioning that many of the games listed below have more than one memorable character. We’ve mixed together original characters as well as some who’ve been around for a while, but who made an especially interesting contribution in the last 10 years. The list is presented in alphabetical order. Please feel free to post your favorite characters from the past decade in the comments below. Alex (Oxenfree) Alex is a teenager who, along with a small group of…