Series w/ different protagonists: Does it bug you?

[mαrkαsscoρ]

You see this w/ a lot of RPGS like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Tales of and so on. Each games have a separate protagonist and isolated stories from the rest of the series. Hell even Zelda technically has this w/ there being like a million different Links, w/ some overlap here and there. Does it ever bother you that some series don't have a single main character to follow throughout the games? We're able to identify the main characters of Mario (duh), Metroid, God of War, Uncharted, Devil May Cry, and so on so forth, but we can't do that w/ Dragon Quest or Shin Megami Tensei b/c there isn't one. Of course w/ these type of games, they gear more towards having an original storyline and as such, different characters. But in a general sense, would you prefer a series to have single main character in the same world? Or does the idea of each game always starting a new not bother you at all?

 

[Spirit]

Not really. Having different protagonists in the same series allows you to tell different stories at different points in time different worlds and universes within the same continuity.

With characters that stick around, Master Chief or Ratchet and Clank for example, theor history gets messy the more games they're a part of. They'll soon become a chosen one or the last of something etc... ways will be invented to keep them around for games on end. This means that world and lore can suffer greatly.

So i prefer a series with different protagonists because it can ofteb ne way less messy and cliche and less harmful to the character's integrity and history.

Zelda is a good way to do it since we have repeating characters, they arent the same but we'll always be Link and we know what to expect from the chosen hero.

 

[Turo602]

It depends on the series and how well it's handled. Grand Theft Auto and Assassin's Creed for example tell isolated stories about a different protagonist each game, and that's kind of the fun of it as it allows for new story telling opportunities, settings, and time periods to be explored without being hampered by one continuous protagonist.

But on the other hand, you have a series like Resident Evil that switches between a cast of characters every installment, which would be fine if the games released more consistently and the cast rotated more regularly. But instead, we're left with huge gaps between games that leave characters ignored for long periods at a time. Though, the series has been quite directionless for a long time now so I guess that series has bigger problems.

Regardless, while franchises like Mario, Halo, and God of War all follow one protagonist, or in Halo's case, should follow one protagonist (looking at you Halo 5: Guardians), I don't think it's necessary for every franchise, especially if it's not the point of the series to begin with.

 

[Princess Niki]

It depends on the series but if it works it keeps the series fresh and alive. There is an anime series I watch called Pretty Cure where the cast is different in all but 4 different pairs of seasons with seasons 1 & 2 and 4 & 5 being the pairs. I think that would have ended by now and same with Final Fantasy if they didn't do this.

 

[Mido]

Usually multiple protagonists in a game do not bother me assuming the game is large enough in content scope that which multiple protagonists can receive some sort of satisfying character arc. If the game is not large enough to accommodate multiple protagonists, then the presence of more protagonists I think becomes an issue. If I had to choose my own preference, I would lean towards single protagonist games as to be able to experience a more intimate narrative because the focus is kept narrow.

With characters that stick around, Master Chief or Ratchet and Clank for example, theor history gets messy the more games they're a part of. They'll soon become a chosen one or the last of something etc... ways will be invented to keep them around for games on end. This means that world and lore can suffer greatly.

I agree with your take on the downside with single-protagonist-driven stories that last some time, although I also think this can occur in narratives with multiple protagonists that span a certain length. I think the Ace Attorney series fell into this trap with some of its later main series titles by having three playable characters in a set narrative. As a result, each of these characters are subject to jockeying for more focus and development which leads to one or more of the protagonists left out of the picture (if I'm understanding your response right).

 

[Dizzi]

if the same protagonists are leading the story then of the game has a timespan of 100 years then they're gonna be all ancient in infirm... so different ones pass the story down...

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Usually multiple protagonists in a game do not bother me assuming the game is large enough in content scope that which multiple protagonists can receive some sort of satisfying character arc. If the game is not large enough to accommodate multiple protagonists, then the presence of more protagonists I think becomes an issue. If I had to choose my own preference, I would lean towards single protagonist games as to be able to experience a more intimate narrative because the focus is kept narrow.

kinda looks like you're talking along the lines of gta5 or kingdom hearts birth by sleep w/ multiple main characters, I'm more so talking about how something like the final fantasy series has different main characters per game, so you can't point out a main character unlike kingdom hearts for instance, where you can easily say the main protagonist is sora
hmm, guess a better title for the thread would be do series w/ isolated stories bug you....yipes

 

[Mido]

kinda looks like you're talking along the lines of gta5 or kingdom hearts birth by sleep w/ multiple main characters, I'm more so talking about how something like the final fantasy series has different main characters per game, so you can't point out a main character unlike kingdom hearts for instance, where you can easily say the main protagonist is sora
hmm, guess a better title for the thread would be do series w/ isolated stories bug you....yipes

Oh, I see! It seems I misread your OP!

But to answer the actual question, I don't think a series with multiple protagonists switching from game to game bothers me if mainly because the series that do this often place callback elements within the games that are familiar to returning players but do not alienate necessarily new players (mostly like how the Tales series has implemented their game formats).

 

[Cfrock]

I have no problem with a series having different protagonists. My favourite franchise is Resident Evil and using different protagonists is one of its strengths. It gives the world room to grow without getting things too messed up by focusing on one character. Events, themes, ideas, and development can be spread around, certain characters can come to represent certain concepts, and meaningful relationships can be created that deepen the resonance of stories as the series goes on. Doing it this way can give each game a distinct 'flavour' and identity. It also makes it easier for the torch to be passed to newer characters, as the audience is used to new faces popping up as time goes by.

I agree with @Spirit that sticking to one character is fine as long as they aren't around too long. You can only get so much mileage from one character before you have to start bending the universe around them. Master Chief is a good example. His story was over with Halo 3. Halo 4 could have gotten away with it if the whole thing had just been a simple story of Chief trying to get back to Earth with Cortana and having him deal with her unavoidable death, but they had to make him a chosen one figure and have a hologram wizard use literal magic to change his DNA so he wasn't human anymore (not a joke). Halo 4 was a step too far and would have benefited from having a new protagonist at the start of a new story. ODST did fine. Ditto Reach. There was room to move on from Chief, but they just couldn't resist and they had to literally rewrite the entire universe to accommodate a bunch of bull**** in an attempt to make Chief relevant again. The franchise has suffered as a result.

 

[Castle]

There are benefits and drawbacks to both. A series can build itself on a series "mascot" as the main protagonist. But this can also be done for series with multiple protagonists such as Moogles and Chocobos in Final Fantasy or Slimes in Dragon Quest. Even with multiple protagonists a series can still build brand recognition off its characters. Claire, Ava, Leon, Chris, and Weskler are all well known to the Resident Evil series and lend the franchise a lot of name brand recognition despite its large cast.

Some series really don't need multiple protagonists, such as Tomb Raider where there is really no sense to play anyone other than Lara. The name of the game is tomb raiding. Lara Croft is the Tomb Raider. It's what she does. If anyone else does it just as well they'd just be doing the same thing as her anyway so it might as well be Lara.

It makes sense for games to feature multiple protagonists when you want to provide a different play style compared to the new character's predecessor or if you want to tell the story from a different perspective. This can be a challenge for players who get attached to a character and want to see em return and are disappointed to find someone else standing there or if they're not as fond of the new guy's play style. It can be difficult to get audiences to love a new protagonist, especially if they were fond of the first. I'm looking at you, Raiden.