Silent protagonist aren't IT anymore

[Heromanz]

After playing fire emblem and astral chain I can safely say that silent protagonist need to be left in the past. It just gets Goofy with something serious happens and all your character does say nothing absolutely nothing. It's even worse when you have long cutscenes we're clearly the player character and another character are having a conversation but one person just talking . Especially in something like fire emblem where they have a voice actor for the main character but never use them for some reason I don't know. It just doesn't really work in story-based games.

 

[Alvis]

For some games it works, but yeah, in Astral Chain it looks pretty ridiculous

 

[TheStebe]

Me personally there is always room for both a silent protagonist and a fully voiced one, but i agree that it can gripe some people

 

[ara]

For more cinematic games like Astral Chain I wholeheartedly agree

 

[ggdeku]

Let Link talk. I'm ready.

 

[VISION]

But you do have dialogue options in fire emblem

 

[Datajoy]

It still works beautifully in some games, like BOTW for example.

 

[Alien Bob]

I am pretty much the silent protagonist of my own life so I'm gonna have to need this to continue to be a thing, okay?

 

[TheGreatDirector]

I need a Mario monologue.

 

[KillLaCam]

Depends on the type of game for me. If its something like Fallout or Elder Scrolls that is RPG focused then I'd prefer no voice

 

[Deleted member 10737]

mama, not only are silent protagonists the tea, the whole tea, and nothing but the tea, they're the whole goddam starbucks.

 

[benzopil]

Works perfectly fine for me, FE included

 

[NotLiquid]

Silent protagonists are fine.

 

[Kanann]

No, just shit up.

Not you OP, the characters, don't dare think or say anything without my permission, never!

 

[Heromanz]

But you do have dialogue options in fire emblem

Click to shrink...

That's not really the same though.

 

[SofNascimento]

Thinking of modern, cinematic RPGs I agree 100%.

 

[Kain-Nosgoth]

really depends on the game for me, but yeah it can be annoying

 

[Gold Arsene]

Depends on the game.

 

[Zyrox]

I agree. We just had a big thread on that, complete with poll in case you missed it:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/do...al-chain-with-latest-notable-examples.138371/

 

[Eppcetera]

It works sometimes, but I generally believe that silent protagonists become less effective and more annoying if a series becomes more story-heavy. I don't need someone like Mario to spout a lot (or any, really) dialogue, and his silence is funny in games like Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi, but I was pissed off by the silent protagonist in Xenoblade X (no other Xeno game has one), and I view Byleth as inferior to the lords with actual dialogue.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Didn't we just have this thread yesterday?

https://www.resetera.com/threads/do...al-chain-with-latest-notable-examples.138371/

 

[ssnick37]

It still works beautifully in some games, like BOTW for example.

Click to shrink...

I mean its not awful in BOTW. I am not sure I would say it works beautifully.

 

[Charamiwa]

Voiced protagonists ruined most western RPGs. It's way better without it.

 

[¡ B 0 0 P !]

If the game places heavy emphasis on the story and has long cutscenes silent protagonists are lame as fuck. They only serve to distract from the story.

 

[bunkitz]

There's already a thread on this same topic, which even brings up the same two recent examples. Please use the search function first prior to creating a thread to see if a thread on the same topic already exists.