Does a Lackluster Cast Necessarily Ruin the Experience?

[Mido]

Sometimes, the main cast of a video game series does not resonate with us in the way we would have hoped. As a result, the experience's quality wanes, and in the worse of cases, becomes unable to be salvaged. In genres such as RPGs that traditionally possess main cast ensembles, this issue can prove deadly. Nevertheless, other elements of the experience could very well compensate for the cast's perceived shortcomings and deliver a decent experience, whether it is through the story, the gameplay, side characters, or other aspects of the game in question.

Considering the matter, do you think that games with a lackluster main cast can still emerge as strong experiences? Why or why not? Do you have any examples of both success and failure on this front? What do you think?

 

[Spirit]

I fear i may give a middle ground reply here and not say much of worth but there are a few ways I look at this;

If a series is known for strong character writing like the Tales series then a strong cast of playable and supporting characters is very important and a few dull characters can often spoil the overall enjoyment of the game in question.

If you have a fighting game like Tekken or Street Fighter then you aren't really going to find any deep character progression but a varied roster is still very important and their designs and hooks have to be well thought out enough to attract you.
If you have a fighting roster of unremarkable/tacky/knock-off looking characters then you're probably not gonna catch many eyes and no one will be compelled to play as any of the characters.

Then you have compilatiom games like Fire Emblem Warriors, a mechanically sound game celebrating an age old series but the cast pissed a lot of people off because it was used mainly to advertise the newer readily available games. The lack of legacy characters put a lot of people off.

So i guess it depends what you're playing but as a gamer who plays for story and enjoys colourful characters a bad cast can spoil a game for me despite the quality of the game in question becuase i just wont care enough to play it.

 

[the8thark]

Final Fantasy 15 is a good example of this. The 4 main cast here are quite terrible. They have stupid names, don't do much and do not evolve at all over the game.
Do they ruin the overall experience of the game?
I think the answer is maybe. If you really like what FF15 is overall, then this will not stop you from enjoying the good parts of the game. However if you are on the fence, this will be the tipping point, pishing you away from liking the game at all.

So I don't think a bad cast kills a game. However I do think it pushes away those on the fence about a game.

***

Fighting and racing games are a whole different thing though. Both genres are all about the cast. That's why people buy the games. The cast in racing games are the vehicles you get to drive. If one of these games has a terrible cast, it totally kills the game. People buy these games for how much they relate to the cast of characters or vehicles and how well they perform in game. Literally nothing else matters in terms of choosing to buy these games.

So for fighting and racing games, a bad cast totally kills the game out right. Dead on Arrival.

I would also lump Musou games in this pile as well, as apart from DW8XL, every Musou game I've ever played (and I've played a lot) all have terrible stories. It's all about the characters and how well they play in game that matters. A terrible cast kills most Musou games also. Quite Dead on Arrival.
Note well - a bad Musou cast is not the number of characters, it's how well they play and how much nostalgia factor exists. Warriors All Stars has tons of characters in it, but they all play like pants and all the nostalgia from them is gone. However all those characters in their original games are so much better as they feel more fun to play, have more nostalgia factor and actually play better.