• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Silent Protagonists

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
We've played Zelda games so we're all familiar w/ this idea, the character may occasionally react to certain things in the world, but for the most part, they never really say anything or give their own input. This is a big thing in games that were meant for the player to put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, but how much does this jive with you nowadays? Especially w/ characters that do indeed have their own names.
 
Silent protags have never really gelled with me outside of Samus, who was always alone until Sakamoto ****ed her up the ****ing ****. Gah!!

Characters like Link who have actually conversations with people and offer no response come off as jank and ignorant and socially inept and mentally deficient at worst.

There's a pretty egregious example of this in Tales of Xillia 2, Xillia 2 is a mess of a game and it ruins most of the characters established in the first game and didn't need to exist at all but... Tales games are well known for their good character writing, but in Tales of Xillia 2 they make the main protagonist basically a mute and it wrecks so much.

Especially since in New Game Plus he actually has more spoken lines and his voice actor is pretty good. What the hell?

But yeah, no, I don't jive with silent protags outside of exceptional cases.
 

MapelSerup

not actually Canadian
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
It depends on how it’s used. While some people see it as trying to make you feel “in the shoes” of the character, I’ve always seen it more as you personifying the character. They speak to others however you feel they should. It calls back to a time where more imagination was required to give games meaning.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
There's a pretty egregious example of this in Tales of Xillia 2, Xillia 2 is a mess of a game and it ruins most of the characters established in the first game and didn't need to exist at all but... Tales games are well known for their good character writing, but in Tales of Xillia 2 they make the main protagonist basically a mute and it wrecks so much.

Especially since in New Game Plus he actually has more spoken lines and his voice actor is pretty good. What the hell?
wait what, that doesn't even make sense
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2020
Location
United States
I think it's fine. Like any other type of character, they work better in certain games as opposed to others. Characters like Link should never ever be given a speaking voice. Video games are not strictly a story telling medium. They excel at bringing you into worlds like no other form of media can. Silent protagonists are one way you can make the player feel like they're in another world and not just watching someone else's story. Sometimes it's better to just let the player use their own imagination.

In Fallout 4, one thing Bethesda seemed excited to reveal was a voiced protagonist. This was a horrible decision for the franchise. Not only did it drastically reduce the amount of dialogue options (making it bad from a game design perspective), it made it way harder to role play in a damn role playing game. Your character sounds exactly like everyone else's character. Want to make a different character? He sounds exactly like the old one, so good luck getting immersed. Bethesda games would be so much better if they didn't have "main" quests and stopped giving specific back stories
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
It depends on how it’s used. While some people see it as trying to make you feel “in the shoes” of the character, I’ve always seen it more as you personifying the character. They speak to others however you feel they should. It calls back to a time where more imagination was required to give games meaning.
I know there's some people who'd rather the character be their own person, or they'd be way more immersed if the protagonist actually did interact w/ other characters, and seeing them not react to what's going on around them even takes them out of the story, so it can work both ways
 

MapelSerup

not actually Canadian
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
I know there's some people who'd rather the character be their own person, or they'd be way more immersed if the protagonist actually did interact w/ other characters, and seeing them not react to what's going on around them even takes them out of the story, so it can work both ways
I agree, it depends on people’s opinions. The worst thing to do is give a previously silent protagonist a voice. For example, if some Zelda game had Link talk, there would be outrage. People have determined Links personality for themselves, and by giving Link an official one, people would lose touch with the character.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
I agree, it depends on people’s opinions. The worst thing to do is give a previously silent protagonist a voice. For example, if some Zelda game had Link talk, there would be outrage. People have determined Links personality for themselves, and by giving Link an official one, people would lose touch with the character.
on the contrary, it worked out fine w/ Jak & Daxter, granted Jak 2 went on a pretty different direction entirely
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2020
Location
United States
on the contrary, it worked out fine w/ Jak & Daxter, granted Jak 2 went on a pretty different direction entirely
Jak had one game and was not anywhere near as established as Link. You can get away with making drastic changes to a new series with one game in it a lot easier than you can to a franchise that has been one of the biggest names in games for over 30 years.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2019
I think it can work depending on the game & the series. One of the easiest ways to get past it is to give your characters dialogue options via text box as opposed to voiced clips. Paper Mario TTYD did this well enough giving you a choice of what to say in certain conversations.

Never really bothered me in Zelda as Link being silent has been the status quo forever. However in Fire Emblem 3H given the game was fully voiced in almost all cutscenes & support conversations, having the silent protag was slightly irksome.

Never bothered me enough to stop enjoying the game but there were times during certain points of dialogue where a silent blank stare as a response just felt awkward & given that character customization isn't an option & everyone calls you professor/teach giving you the freedom to name yourself whatever, maybe a voiced protagonist would've worked better (again huge nitpick the game is still great despite this).

It's most likely gonna be a trial & error thing for each game individually.
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2013
Location
Australia
Silent protaginists work when their place in the story is also silent.
Take Diablo as an example. In all 3 games, your character you choose never speaks anything meaningful. Who you choose doesn't matter to the story. The story is very well told by everyone around you. Such that your playable character is not important at all to the story, you're just not that important in the larger scheme of things. Outside of being "a nephelam who defeated Diablo" you don't really matter to the story.

Silent protaganists don't work when the story is 100% centred around that character who has very few meaningful ways of advancing the plot off their own actions. Samus was mentioned above here. She's fine because in almost all of the Metroid games there's literally no one to talk to. Also there's no real story progression either. All you get in the Prime games is lore tidbits you scan in, to bulk up the backstory to make it much deeper. You travel to the planet to do one thing. You get it done and leave. That's the whole Metroid story. Doesn't need chit chat to accomplish that. Also the gameplay fits the lack of chitchat as it makes the game feel a lot more mysterious, like it's an uninbanited planet or is it? Great for exploration based games like this.

Link being Link also doesn't matter to the Zelda games in terms of story. He's just "the hero who saves Hyrule". Over and over we get different heroes, as in different Links getting the job done. It fits in with the gameplay too as it's more action oriented and outside being the ganon killing hero he doesn't affect the story at all.
The issue with Breath of the Wild, is not the fact that Link doesn't add much to the story, it's the fact there isn't much NPC driven story there either. Most of the time Link is just doing his own thing with no one else around. People are used to Link moving from one important NPC to the next, all of whom push the story forward.

I also agree that randomly giving silent protagonists a voice is a bad idea. Though my reasoning for this is different. Giving them a voice doesn't add anything to the story. These games are designed around the playable character reacting to the story going on around them, not contributing to it. You are just "the hero" who saves the day. Nintendo just likes to give this hero a name in their games so the players can have some attachment to the hero. Helps to sell more copies of future installments of these games.

As a side note, the Dragon Quest series has done this quite well. You are literally just another hero in each game. Sure there is a specific name floating around (DQ fans know what I'm referring to) but even that doesn't matter to the story. It's your party members who push the story along and you're just along for the ride.

If you think about it, you can compare this to old stories. As in real life stories. Stories from hundreds or thousands of years ago, many of them, we don't know the name of who did what. Just that someone accomplished something amazing and it made everyone's lives at the time better. It really doesn't matter who did the thing. The important part is that the thing was done. That people are capable of amazing things and we can also be just as amazing, and do something which can help others around us.
 

twilitfalchion

and thus comes the end of an era
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Location
Crossbell State
I'm generally not fond of them. If the lead character is meant to have their own thoughts and feelings, then limiting them from expressing them by not allowing them to speak seems counterintuitive.

Easy example, I know, but Link is the first instance of this that I think of. You have notable exceptions like Wind Waker where his expressions are so dramatic that he can convey emotion well enough without speaking, but despite that I'd still rather have the lead character offer their thoughts on what's happening. Some short musings here, small talk with townsfolk, etc. - it all goes a long way in characterization, instead of just having them standing there and only emoting when no good reason is even given for them to be doing so.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
ZD Legend
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Location
Iowa
Gender
Lizard
I don't like silent protagonists.

I don't mind when a protagonist's dialogue is confined to text chat in a game that otherwise features a fully voices cast, but I don't like protagonists who express no strong opinion or emotion. A good example would be the protagonist of Baldur's Gate 3, whose dialogue is handled almost through text boxes and selections. While they have some verbal jabs (such as when you have them attack enemies, cast spells, or move to specific areas), but almost everything is handled sans any sort of voice acting.

That being said, I do think the totally silent protagonist can be done well, such as how it's written in the 2017 video game Prey.

Prey is effectively System Shock, but on new hardware. It's a suspenseful scifi title about adventuring around a very lonely and mostly consumed space station. Your character does not talk during gameplay. You don't even get dialogue choices. Every choice you make it handled organically through gameplay.

But you do hear your character talking in the occasional audio log. You can find audio recordings of your character throughout the station whereupon you discover that Morgan Yu, protagonist of Prey, was... kind of an asshole. They were egotistical, cold, and willing to condemn people to death. They were not a good person. The version of Morgan Yu the player controls has amnesia, so Morgan's characterization during the game is decided by organic gameplay decisions.

However, there's one moment of gameplay that stands out to me:

Mikhaila is mentioned in game to have been the lover of Morgan Yu before one of the mind wipes. Protagoinst Morgan Yu doesn't seem to possess any of those memories.

But when you (optionally) encounter and save her at a time when she desperately needs medication to treat an a chronic illness (that will kill her if you don't return with it), there's a moment exchanged between her and Morgan. Intimate touch.

1629434658031.png
(I swear the models look better in motion).

Morgan gently places a hand on Mikhaila's neck. Mikhaila leans into it. Characterization of a silent protagonist.

I'm not saying an emotionally charged totally silent protagonist isn't possible, but I haven't seen it done satisfactorily.
 
Last edited:

Mikey the Moblin

sushi is a suspicious hello
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Location
southworst united states
Gender
Dude
The hate for silent protagonists seems a little unjustified to me especially in the context of player characters
Does anyone here really have a problem with the Pokemon protag? dark souls? skyrim (yeah they shout same diff) ? I would hope not
Having an expectation for characters like these to talk is ridiculous
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom