Frank West

Francis Algernon West, more commonly known as Frank West, is the main protagonist of the Dead Rising franchise.

Frank is an overly zealous freelance photographer and photojournalist.

Originally coming to Willamette for the "scoop of a lifetime", Frank at first thinks that an incident he witnesses with a helicopter pilot is a simple riot. However, he quickly discovers the truth is far worse. Throughout the game, Frank attempts to uncover the truth behind the zombie outbreak by investigating recent events and questioning characters that he finds trapped in the mall.

Normally an "Average Joe", Frank is forced to take on the role of hero and rescue the many people trapped within various sections of the mall.

Appearance
Frank usually wears a black jacket with a white button-up shirt, green pants and brown shoes. His appearance can also be changed by visiting various stores around the Willamette Shopping Mall, ranging from suits, dresses, hats, sunglasses, masks and more.

Personality
Frank has an unusually deep sense of determination to find the next big story, taking big risks in order to achieve his goals. His personality is such that he would rather visit dangerous places to satisfy his desire for adventure than out of any sense of journalist curiosity. A loose cannon who doesn't like working for, or with, others, Frank's research style, articles and photos are all unregulated and sold to the highest bidder. While he's not the most polished and professional person in his field, he is strong, genuinely kind and decent, and always operates on instinct.

Not the typical journalist, Frank is quite capable of handling himself in combat and is very keen to help other survivors to safety. He sees the town of Willamette, Colorado as his "next big scoop" when he is first introduced in Dead Rising. By spending time in Willamette, he manages to get the story of a lifetime after covering the first known zombie outbreak in US history.

Abilities
As far as it's shown, he has no true combat experience. Regardless, he is capable of surviving multiple king-sized zombie outbreaks, going toe-to-toe with the utterly insane, and besting a Marine in hand-to-hand combat. Best shown in  Off the Record, when he can go up against gas zombies and even a Giant Mecha and come out on top.

Trivia

 * Frank West became available as a playable character in the PC version of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, which was released on July 16, 2007. If the player desires, Frank can also be fitted with the armor of Mega Man X or in a pair of gold-trimmed blue boxer shorts (the colors of the Capcom logo).


 * Frank also appears (with a Servbot head and his Mega Man X's suit) in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars as a playable character. He even has a hyper combo called 'Dead Rising', which shares the name of his original series, and also uses guns in another hyper combo to reference the Wii remake of the first game.


 * Like in the originals, Frank was a hidden character in Lost Planet 2 and a playable character in the DLC-only Dead Rising 2: Case West. He is featured as the protagonist in Off The Record, which envisions the events of DR2 from his eyes.


 * Frank also appeared in the crossover SRPG game Project X Zone as one of the playable characters. He is paired up with Chinese zombie Hsien-Ko of Darkstalkers fame.


 * Frank was originally deconfirmed for the original Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds after his character silhouette was seen in several trailers. His character was deep in development, but was taken out due to unexpected extra work, presumably due to lag problems online caused by his Level 3 Hyper Combo. Producer Ryota Niitsuma said, "We felt we could direct our resources to better use, so we took Frank out". Frank does however appear playable in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, in said game, his alternate outfit is again Mega Man X.


 * Frank returns as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.


 * Designer Keiji Inafune wanted Frank West to be an average person instead of the usual Japanese characters which are young and beautiful.


 * In the original Dead Rising, when asked by Jessica if he knows how to use a gun, Frank utters his famous line, "I've covered wars, you know". This line (which has become a meme) is considered the most famous line in the series and has been referenced both within and outside the series.


 * Frank is the only character to appear in all the Dead Rising games in one way or another. Even though Frank doesn't appear in the original Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 3 (being only mentioned numerous times), he does appear in the non-canonical Off the Record remake and the canonical Case West DLC story of the former game, and as a DLC character in the latter game.


 * Frank's weapon of choice seems to be a baseball bat since he is usually seen holding one in most of the artworks he appears in.