Silence!

[Jiro]

We have these threads every so often. What's your opinion on silent protagonists?

I've been playing White Knight Chronicles and I'm less than pleased to find my character silent. Despite this, I still have to pick a "grunt" voice. What the fuck is the point of that?

I didn't mind silent protagonists so much in games like Golden Sun. But when you have a fully voiced cast sans the person who you're supposed to relate with the most, it kind of falls flat.

Discuss Silent Protagonists.

[f f freak]

I didn't mind silent protagonists so much in games like Golden Sun. But when you have a fully voiced cast sans the person who you're supposed to relate with the most, it kind of falls flat.

This. It works in games like Chrono Trigger because no one is voiced so it doesn't seem strange, but when you take other games, like Dragon Age: Origins for example, it seems really awkward when you choose a response but the character doesn't actually say anything and then the person you're talking to responds to what you chose. It's almost like they're having a conversation with themselves.

[Agent Proto]

I'm on the fence on silent protagonists. I don't think it really bothers me, but if the game requires the protagonist to have a voice, having a silent one could potentially ruin the game.

[qwertysaur]

Atlus makes the silent protagonist work when everyone else has a voice. :p

It varies from game to game, silent protagonists can vary so much depending on the game. :p

[Jessweeee♪]

Persona 3 and 4 are really the only games where I've been happy with a silent protagonist. A silent protagonist is usually one without any personality, and that bugs me at times. Usually you're trading personality for customization or other options, so it's not a totally loss.

I think Mass Effect handles it best in that regard; you customize appearance and you choose pretty much every line of dialogue, but everything is voiced and accompanied by body language, so Shepard is Shepard no matter how you decide to swing it. He or she is as alive as the rest of the cast, and it makes a big difference. Also none of that awkward avoidance of saying the character's name, since no matter what you choose as a first name, everyone uses the last name Shepard. You get options without having to sacrifice personality!


As for silent protagonists in a game with voice acting vs. a game without, it doesn't really make much of a difference to me. Usually when I play a game it's because the story interests me, and as with any other game voice acting helps the story telling quite a bit. It pulls me out of it every time the hero is awkwardly called something like HEY YOU, STAR OF THE ZANARKAND ABES just because they let you choose a name though, so it evens out.

[Raistlin]

Silent protagonists can be powerful, but they have to be executed right. They need some well-developed characters to be around the protagonist a lot to basically speak for him. Suikoden I and II are great examples of this. A bad example is Suikoden IV. I haven't played many other games with a silent protagonist.

However, I would be highly skeptical of a game with voice-acting and a silent protagonist.

[Jiro]

If there is some sort of justification for the characters being silent, it's a lot easier to swallow.

[blackmage_nuke]

Crono from Chrono Trigger and Chell are amongst my favourites.

What I really love is when you've been controlling your silent protagonist for the entire game and then the game takes control away from you for one powerful moment of emotion
Crono Dying, guy in Suikoden 1 saying ".........." after Gremio's death
and you feel that much more sympathy.

[Pete for President]

Ace Combat games have silent characters all the time. Then again, the story is usually never really about the playable character, but more about the context what the war is about, what your wingmen go through and the like.

It does however create a mystery about you. As your character is always in a plane you don't what he looks like. He doesn't have a voice. All you know is that it's you; an awesome pilot changing the tides of war. That's justification right there I guess.

[Remon]

I can only tolerate silent protagonists that are given choices during conversations.

[G13]

In certain games I think it's done well and others I just don't like it. Link, Gordon Freeman, Chell, Isaac and Felix, Crono, I think they're all done well, but then you get to the games like Dragon Age and KotOR (wtf BioWare!?) and I think it's just awful.

I agree with Jessweeee♪ in that Mass Effect was done really well. Shepherd's not exactly a silent character, there is an actual response from the character and body language to accompany it, but the interaction is supposed to reflect what you would do, make you feel like you're the character or whatever their goal is, just as many of the new "silent character" games are going for.

[VeloZer0]

Like many have said, it depends on the game. In Chrono Trigger I didn't ever notice it as off that Crono never spoke, I probably didn't notice at all until a good way into the game.

That and if a protagonist never speaks there is a far lower chance I will grow to dislike them.

[*Devore*]

White knight chronicles silent hero isnt really the hero because he's not the white knight, he's just a character for online use. Him/her being silent was rather annoying though.

Does Link from Zelda count? Nobody really has voices, but everyone except Link makes some kind of noise and produces a speech bubble. For me, Link being silent works.