is a character in Dead Rising, an action-adventure video game series created and published by Japanese company Capcom. He first appeared as the protagonist in the 2006 video game Dead Rising. In the series, West is a freelance journalist. The character has been well received by video game publications as well as by the fans, mainly in the West, leading Frank to appear in several more games in and outside the Dead Rising series. Concept and design Keiji Inafune, producer of Dead Rising, wanted the main character Frank West to be different from the usual Japanese main character, a young and beautiful protagonist. In the beginning, the staff considered making the character ugly and fat. However, the American branch of Capcom said he was too ugly; Inafune then wanted to create an everyman that looked average rather than beautiful or ugly. His conception as "rough, tough, gritty character" was aimed primarily to attract the Western audience. Appearances In Dead Rising series Introduced in the first Dead Rising game, Frank West is the player character, a famed freelancer photographer and photojournalist who has covered many world events, wars, and other big stories. Lately, however, his career has begun to fizzle out. Looking for the next big scoop, he stumbles on to some strange events happening in the small town of Willamette, Colorado. There, he winds up in a barricaded shopping mall and attempts to rescue a host of human survivors from the zombie hordes and violent psychopaths laying siege to the mall, while also covering the story. Frank makes a return as the secondary protagonist of Dead Rising 2: Case West and fights alongside Chuck Greene after rescuing him from Fortune City as they tackle Phenotrans at one of their facilities. In the end, Frank escapes the facility with Chuck, though Isabela Keyes was kidnapped by Dr. Mallon, he has successfully retrieved evidence to help clear Chuck's name in the Fortune City disaster. Frank reappears in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, which is an alternate version of the Dead Rising 2 storyline in which Frank is the protagonist. In this version of the story, Frank became an overnight celebrity for his actions in exposing the Willamette incident. Cashing in on his success, Frank released a memoir, hosted a talk-show, and used his fame and money to treat his zombie wounds from Willamette with Zombrex (among other perks). Unfortunately, between his