Okay, whilst this would be a very funny and weird character to have as "the face" of this game, I can see them being responsible for all the fighting. But who is this mysterious, malevolent master of puppets? Well...
Job #1:
Character Name: Mahamata Gandhi, Ruler and King of the Indians.
Character Origin: Sid Meyer's Civilisation
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Okay, I understand the immediate concern - Gandhi is a real person. However, this specific interpretation of the very icon of peace worldwide is based on the infamous glitch in Civilisation II, which has become an enduring joke (and eventual meme) to the point that every following Civilisation game has added this as an actual feature, due to the absurd nature of Gandhi being a warmongering nuclear powerhouse. Oh, and we're taking this to the logical extreme.
I'd say that Civilisation is also quite an interesting place to start in terms of representation. Whilst PCs are well known for their plethora of genre-defining FPS titles, from Wolfenstein 3D to Half-Life, another particularly important PC genre in the past has been the strategy genre - with titles like Total War, Worms, and of course Civilisation itself. However, whilst the absurd and hilarious nature of the Worms came very close to making me submit them, the idea of the background of the box art being a colossal Gandhi, looming over the rest of the cast like a ****ty 80s movie villain and surrounded by mushroom clouds, is just too amazing for me to miss out on.
Not to mention, I think we could actually have Gandhi as a very interesting character here. I picture him having a wide variety of inspiration from different sources - be it Cold War-era media such as
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb, or even Indian history, folklore and culture, Gandhi would have a very wide pool of potential in how he'd actually play, as well as acting as a very natural, chaotic villain for the game.
Admittedly I came close to submitting either a Worm as I mentioned earlier, or Reimu (given that Touhou's origins were on the PC-98) but I didn't really think anyone else would submit Gandhi, and like I said, he feels like a very natural villain.
Job #2:
I'm going to suggest simply
Keyboard Khaos. It's a little like Mortal Kombat in some ways but represents the keyboard, the main way of playing titles like this. It is, after all, a PC title.
Job #3:
I'm... going to say 32 characters, base roster. As much as I considered 64 (to get in on some of that Commodore action) I think 32 is a solid place to start, giving us lots of breathing room in the base roster as well as plenty of space to expand in DLC perhaps.
I should admit that, for context, I'm not a massive PC player - but I'm always willing to research, and I'll probably be one of
those people who keeps suggesting some older picks as well as newer ones. Windows is all well and good, but I think it'd be vital to get some reps for more obscure and interesting PC releases - like how I mentioned Reimu as a pick earlier. Sorry in advance, I guess!