Talking/non-talking main characters in RPGs.

Let's see... which do your prefer out of your main character in an RPG? Do you prefer him to never have any dialogue or do your prefer him to?

There are positives and negatives on both sides. If he never speaks, you get to fill in fill in the blanks yourself, which really enriches the role-playing experience. However it seems somehow more... empty, I guess would be the word for it? If your character does have dialogue it definitely stops the conversation from seeming to thinned out and one-sided, but on the other hand it's totally killing the role-playing aspect and it's really nothing more than a book on your TV screen where every once in a while you run around and achieve some goal to read the next set of text. That can pretty boring. (Xenosaga... zZzZzZ...)

I prefer them talking with choice making that determines what you learn of about other characters and such.

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Originally Posted by Starlight Angel

I prefer them talking with choice making that determines what you learn of about other characters and such.

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Yeah that's the best.

I liked KotOR. Your character was fairly verbose, but you got to pick every single line you said.

But in something like Chrono, it's really off-putting, because the main character just says NOTHING.

They talk enough, but learn to shut the hell up.

Monologues over how they realised the importance of friendship does not equal a fun game when it's in pretty much EVERY freaking game at some point anyway.

That and the choices in Star Ocean made it good because you could affect all the endings.

The hundreds of possible endings.

I hate it when the main character is completely silent. I don't really look for a grand role-playing experience when I play a game---I like the whole interactive-novel feel. :p I want to get close to these characters; that's not really possible when they don't say a word (I'm talking only about the main character).

Although I do enjoy where you get to pick your lines, every once in a while. That makes it a little less...monotonous, maybe.


:D

What's bad is when your character is completely silent, and yet NPC's react to you as if you responded. Happenned a lot in the Chrono series. You would simply nod or gesture, and the NPC would go off on a tangent about your feelings on the matter. It would've been easier to just have the main chr talk.

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Originally Posted by Doomgaze

I liked KotOR. Your character was fairly verbose, but you got to pick every single line you said.

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Yeah...American-style (D&D-esque, I guess?) RPGs let you do that a lot, and it makes it a lot more fun. Lets you actually be the character.

I think it works with different games. If the hero is just that - a hero, then all he'd ever say is heroic things which we've all heard a hundred times already. Crono is basically a nice guy who wants to save the world, and his opinion will always be one of a good guy, saying that evil is bad, good shall prevail blah blah etc etc. What annoys me is it's like an episode of Lassie, with one character always repeating what the hero says.

More complex characters, like Fei from Xenogears, need the dialogue. His refusal to pilot Weltall wouldn't work if he just kept shaking his head, instead of explaining why he refused to pilot it. His reactions to events are almost as interesting as the events themselves.

It's much better when the main character talks a lot and is very well-developed. Cuz let's face it, in order to really build your own character (beyond stats) you need real human interaction a la "real" RPG's (D&D, Vampire, etc), both with other PC's and with NPC's. A video RPG can't hope to simulate this so what's the point of pretending? I'd rather have my VRPG present a novel/movie/etc than *attempt* to give me control over character development.

Side note - this is why I think FF4 (and, to a lesser extent, 6) is one of the best... they used game events to develop characters in ways that are not possible in the "everyone is in your party all the time" style of game. Sure there's a bit less min/maxing available to you, but you care so much more about the characters when they enter/leave your party at crucial moments.

Second side note - Crono is actually a pretty well-developed character in CT1; the no-talking thing was just a gimmick really. His actions and "words" define his character. Much more so than, for instance, many of the Enix RPG's (dragon warrior, etc) or even FF1 where you are literally a generic faceless hero that is _nothing_ but a collection of numbers.

I like it when the main character is completely silent. I like it because it is a whole different perspective. Other characters discribe what you said and that is their interpertation of it instead of how you really feel. You only get the outshell and never the real complexities of the character which are shown through the actions of the character.

Its how people view the character vs how he acts. When the character talks you never get that type of view because you know what he is thinking. Its just not as interesting.