Thoughts on silent protagonists?

[NightmareFarm]

I really dislike them. No matter what facial expressions they make or what grunt sound effects are used, it doesn't replace the need for actual dialogue. I have zero interest in silent protagonists and because of that the overall plot as a whole can suffer if I don't care about the main character. It just never works for me, even in the few games that I enjoy the plot with a silent protag, the MC is the worst part of it. It's just laziness disguised as "tradition" or "quirkiness". 

Edited August 19, 2022 by NightmareFarm

[Clasher]

You didn't make reference to any game in particular so I don't really understand what you mean by silent protagonist.

Some bosses or opponents in quite a good number of games like God of war don't talk only making grunts and noises, protagonists in human characters might make a few interactions with you and even some zombies you encounter in dying light don't make any conversations only coming at you pretty fast to devour you.

 

[NightmareFarm]

34 minutes ago, Clasher said:

You didn't make reference to any game in particular so I don't really understand what you mean by silent protagonist.

Some bosses or opponents in quite a good number of games like God of war don't talk only making grunts and noises, protagonists in human characters might make a few interactions with you and even some zombies you encounter in dying light don't make any conversations only coming at you pretty fast to devour you.

 

Here's a few examples of silent protagonists: Link from Ocarina of Time, Samus in Metroid Dread, Byleth in Fire Emblem Three Houses, Nahobino in Shin Megami Tensei V. Characters that don't have any dialogue. 

[Shagger]

18 minutes ago, Clasher said:

You didn't make reference to any game in particular so I don't really understand what you mean by silent protagonist.

Some bosses or opponents in quite a good number of games like God of war don't talk only making grunts and noises, protagonists in human characters might make a few interactions with you and even some zombies you encounter in dying light don't make any conversations only coming at you pretty fast to devour you.

 

 

I thought it would be fairly self explanatory, but @NightmareFarm is referring to are games with protagonists (The main character(s), usually the character(s) you play as) who don't speak. Doom and GTA3 quickly come to mind as examples. Games such as Fallout 3 or Skyrim the protagonists are not voiced, but they do have dialogue, so that's not the same thing.

 

It's not something that is very common now, but I'm not really a fan of the idea either. Just using the two examples I came up with already, in Doom it's OK because what few expressions the character does have to make are done successfully through action and gesture, so that works, but didn't realise how big of a problem this was in GTA 3 until I played Vice city. It can make understanding and relating to the characters actions and what they're going through much more difficult, especially if the game is not an RPG where you only control the character's actions in gameplay rather than thier role in the story. So games like Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur don't suffer much because your characters place in the role play well established through your actions, but I do believe the protagonist's vague and limited dialogue that lacked personality didn't do those RPGs any favours. Going back to Fallout, especially the earlier Fallout games, you see the difference it makes.

[Clasher]

7 minutes ago, NightmareFarm said:

Samus in Metroid Dread

I was about to make a comment on Samus before seeing the comments @Shagger made.

Well samus  doesn't really need to be voiced and I see that as a true reflection of who she is, been in isolation for such a long time as other metroid dread games revealed and isolation would actually have an effect on someone and how much they talk.

And besides there are times when Samus makes a statement and when she does you know it's for a worthy reason.

Imo that character is actually okay and enjoyable Just the way it is programmed.

[NightmareFarm]

15 minutes ago, Shagger said:

 

I thought it would be fairly self explanatory, but @NightmareFarm is referring to are games with protagonists (The main character(s), usually the character(s) you play as) who don't speak. Doom and GTA3 quickly come to mind as examples. Games such as Fallout 3 or Skyrim the protagonists are not voiced, but they do have dialogue, so that's not the same thing.

 

It's not something that is very common now, but I'm not really a fan of the idea either. Just using the two examples I came up with already, in Doom it's OK because what few expressions the character does have to make are done successfully through action and gesture, so that works, but didn't realise how big of a problem this was in GTA 3 until I played Vice city. It can make understanding and relating to the characters actions and what they're going through much more difficult, especially if the game is not an RPG where you only control the character's actions in gameplay rather than thier role in the story. So games like Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur don't suffer much because your characters place in the role play well established through your actions, but I do believe the protagonist's vague and limited dialogue that lacked personality didn't do those RPGs any favours. Going back to Fallout, especially the earlier Fallout games, you see the difference it makes.

Now that you mention it, Doomguy is the only silent protag I like but his actions are much more expressive than most other silent protags and the doom series has a small priority for the story anyway. 

 

[Withywarlock]

I can take them or leave them. I tend to read dialogue bubbles or subtitles faster than the voice actor can speak them so I prefer to read at my own pace. There's also some lines of dialogue that sound better in my head than spoken aloud, and sometimes I prefer the idea of my own voice reading things aloud or internally rather than an actor's. @Shagger mentions the older Fallout games and there's some dialogue in those that would be pretty cringeworthy to listen to by a spoken voice. I for one do not particularly want to listen to the Chosen One on the subject of becoming a porn star in Fallout 2. I do however wish that the voice actors of Baldur's Gate had full voice-acting: the guy who said "YA GOT THIS COMIN'!" as one of the attack voices was always a pleasure to hear. Having him yelling about the iron crisis would've been a hoot.

It's weird saying I'm fine with no voice work for a protagonist because my dream job is to be a voice actor. In the meantime I can just do silly voices for my D&D session recaps, so they can sound what I want them to. 🤷‍♂️

Edited August 19, 2022 by Withywarlock
Correction.

[Yaramaki]

Yeah i tend to agree with most that has been said here even tough silent protagonists that and the main character losing their memory are a stable of a lot of jrpg's  , i'm currently playing trough dragon quest 11 and you know the silent protagonist or hero/luminary whatever you want to call him it would add much more dept to the character if the hero had a voice.

I think nintendo is guilty with a lot of their franchises to be honest why the fuck does Link never say a word and while i'm busy let's slam the recent pokemon games why on earth aren't any pokemon games even have voice overs. Is it that hard to give the npc's a voice in the game instead of just the text we get now, it's 2022 for gods sack stop being lazy and always chosing the easy route with pokemon games.

The first two fable games also had a silent protagonist if memory serves me right. While it could have add much more to the character, fable real strength was the beautiful world and humour somewhat half decent quests and story. They changed it up with the third game which many people consider the weaker entry so i don't know really.

Don't know what else there is i could possible add, for older games and lower budget games it's tolerable and maybe text heavy games i could give those a pass but for games anno 2022 you would expect a little more while i don't mind playing as a silent protagonist as long the hero has a strong personality i'm fine with them not saying a word and there lies the problem it's very hard or damn near impossibe to give a silent character a likeable personality. Hell many devs fail to come up with interesting and likeable characters despite being fully voiced, let alone they could come up with good silent ones.

 

[Withywarlock]

1 hour ago, Yaramaki said:

I think nintendo is guilty with a lot of their franchises to be honest why the fuck does Link never say a word and while i'm busy let's slam the recent pokemon games why on earth aren't any pokemon games even have voice overs. Is it that hard to give the npc's a voice in the game instead of just the text we get now, it's 2022 for gods sack stop being lazy and always chosing the easy route with pokemon games.

I've already said enough times this week how much 'lazy' as an argument irritates me, but putting that aside for the moment, what's the problem with an unvoiced character? Indeed, what would a voiced protagonist bring to either of those games, especially with dialogue like "I like shorts; they're easy and comfortable to wear" or whatever that line from the first game was? Do the stories suffer from not having a voiced characters responding to things that are already happening in the environment? In either the case of The Legend of Zelda I can't think of anything the characters would have of interest to say to NPCs; it's more the world and supporting cast that do all the legwork in that regard.

1 hour ago, Yaramaki said:

The first two fable games also had a silent protagonist if memory serves me right. While it could have add much more to the character, fable real strength was the beautiful world and humour somewhat half decent quests and story. They changed it up with the third game which many people consider the weaker entry so i don't know really.

See that's my thinking for Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda: the protagonists, a blank block of tofu, absorbs the flavour of the world. On their own you're right, they're not very interesting but they're more vehicles for getting you through the interesting bits of the game.

~

I appreciate it may be too early to divert attentions to this idea, but what do we think of the Banjo-Kazooie school of voice... acting? That's to say characters making noise, but the written dialogue that still needs to be read to be understood. Do people want to actually listen to spoken words, or do they just want to hear something when they read subtitles?

[Heatman]

No matter how some people felt that what the developers did with making Issac Clark a silent protagonist in Dead Space, after giving him a voice in the first two games was a good design development, it's a complete turn off for. It was as if the game was incomplete for me by all standard. 

[Kane99]

I prefer when the the main character speaks. I don't mind it in some games, like when you have to make a custom character. Because it works better to not have a voice. I know some games will allow you to select a voice, but I never care for the voice options. 

GTA III did the silent protagonist well, but even then I kinda wanted to hear him speak. I think it was done because they wanted you to feel like you were Claude. Kinda like when we can make our own custom characters. 

[Heatman]

1 hour ago, Kane99 said:

 

GTA III did the silent protagonist well, but even then I kinda wanted to hear him speak. I think it was done because they wanted you to feel like you were Claude. Kinda like when we can make our own custom characters. 

Just like exactly what they did with Jack in Bioshock. It's believed to have a more psychological impact on the game's player which pumps up the game's intensity. To a good extent, it makes a player feel like he's a big part of the story. 

[Kane99]

26 minutes ago, Heatman said:

Just like exactly what they did with Jack in Bioshock. It's believed to have a more psychological impact on the game's player which pumps up the game's intensity. To a good extent, it makes a player feel like he's a big part of the story. 

Yeah, the point is to make you feel like you're that character. When they include a voice for example, it implies that is a different person. I like having the option to have a custom character, but if it's a character made by the studio, I think I'd rather they speak at least. 

I don't remember much about Bioshock, but wasn't the main dude named Booker or something? 

[Heatman]

11 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Yeah, the point is to make you feel like you're that character. When they include a voice for example, it implies that is a different person. I like having the option to have a custom character, but if it's a character made by the studio, I think I'd rather they speak at least. 

I don't remember much about Bioshock, but wasn't the main dude named Booker or something? 

It's Booker Dewitt. He's the main protagonist in Bioshock Infinite. He's a private investigator and before he arrived in Columbia, he was a former soldier and a Pinkerton agent. Although, he's not a silent protagonist like Jack in Bioshock. 

[Grungie]

I’ve been playing JRPG’s and Zelda for years, so it never really bothered me.