Do Silent Video Game Characters Make For Better Immersion?
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- Why do some video game developers choose to intentionally keep their protagonist silent?
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#gaming - Ігри
When it comes to the 'silent protagonist' trope, I absolutely love how CrossCode made Lea come across initially as the "silent protagonist" due to her a problem with her speech synchronization. However, over the course of the story, she becomes her own character. Even though she is nearly mute, her face and gestures emote and convey her feelings so well (there's a certain point in the story that really hits hard in the feels). It takes the silent protagonist in most RPG games and flips it on its head. If you haven't played CrossCode, I can't recommend it enough 👌
The problem is that she's not completely silent. Manages to say some words here and there, as Sergei puts some programming on her. The plot is lent to justify her lack of speech; most of these games in video (or directly all of them) just are not.
The only time I am bothered by a silent protag is when that protag is constantly being talked to and they just have to sit there and nod. Monster hunter world does this and I love that game more than anything but that part annoys me
Persona 5 and other jrpg's are notorious for this.
The Metro series is the worst at this, because our protagonist Artyom has a voice during loading screens, but apparently whenever people are around he can't talk, making it very awkward.
Agreed, you should only be silent if you rarely talk to others, or if you instead have dialogue choices like in fallout etc
Agreed, all games should talk not just text base dialogue.
another example would be far cry 5. far cry 3 and 4 both had voiced protagonists where their character was of great importance to the plot. far cry 5 tried the "you make your own protagonist" approach, but just like homefront, some situations really call for words of any sort to be said. sometimes your protagonist feels like a sack of potatoes just because they don't want to give them a voice.
I think giving characters a generic male/female sounding voice would simply solve this issue.
I like cyberpunk's approach, having the choice between multiple voices at characters creation. It's probably the most expensive option though
I like it when silent protagonists are also explained why they’re silent
Link for instance in BoTW is explained to be silent because he has a lot to shoulder and a lot of people that look to him so he feels the need to not outwardly express himself and just silently bear it (something like that). Granted he still talks in the sense he has text response options but I imagine they’re delivered in a laconic manner, they mostly exist to give us the players options.
No, they never gave such a reason, and his lack of talking was one of the biggest problems with the game's story. Link is being openly insulted, and instead of giving a "well excuuuuuuse me, Princess!", he just stands there like a braindead idiot!
@@otaking3582 Its actually a journal entry from Zelda.
"Bit by bit, I've gotten Link to open up to me. [...] When I finally got around to asking why he's so quiet all the time, I could tell it was difficult for him to say. But he did. With so much at stake, and so many eyes upon him, he feels it necessary to stay strong and to silently bear any burden. A feeling I know all too well... For him, it has caused him to stop outwardly expressing his thoughts and feelings. I always believed him to be simply a gifted person who had never faced a day of hardship. How wrong I was... Everyone has struggles that go unseen by the world... I was so absorbed with my own problems, I failed to see his. I wish to talk with him more and to see what lies beneath those calm waters, to hear him speak freely and openly... And perhaps I, too, will be able to bare my soul to him and share the demons that have plagued me all these years."
@@thacoolest13 That's a copout.
@@otaking3582 Umm.. You said it wasn't explained in the game and I pointed you to a journal entry that was in the game? Just the messenger dude. Just because you don't like the explanation doesn't mean its not there.
To be honest I generally don't like the whole silent protagonist shtick. I don't find that the immersion of making me "feel" like _I_ am the character is all that strong but rather it just makes the character just seem like a socially awkward person by never talking to anyone.
Credit where it's due, I find that Dragon's Dogma kinda pulled it off by having the camera go into a first-person perspective when talking to NPCs - so that way you're not looking at your character just standing and staring at the person talking - and by writing the dialogue in such a way that it doesn't feel like the player-character should necessarily be responding all that much.
I find that it depends on whether you created the character or not. It never made sense to me in f.e. Pokémon that the protagonist is meant to represent me as I have never looked like the little sprite that represents the player and it’s not a character I created myself so I don’t find myself to be “roleplaying” as this character, it’s just some kid in the world of Pokémon that I’m controlling and them being silent just makes me feel like the character doesn’t care about the adventure they’re experiencing. Granted, this has been alleviated in newer games when they introduced character costumization but you get my point.
Dragon's Dogma 2 :D
This was a great video! You guys always make really good videos, keep it up. I never fail to learn something in these videos.
Best game-doc channel on YT!
Love your vids guys!
The Traveller in Genshin Impact in my opinion the worst Silent MC you have to listen to a long dialogue and when you are presented with a choice no matter the choice the outcome will be the same
so you don't like paimon?
@@thadex454 you understood me wrong paimon talks and she explains further but the Traveller just nods and does nothing to elevate the talking experience since no matter the choice the player will do the outcome is the same or worst they give you the choice to talk but only 1 option like why?
@@f5m520those dialogue choices in this game just feels like they are being shoehorned in and i really think that those shouldnt even be there if the outcome is a same no matter what choice you picked.
I don't even agree with the Metroid example. The most compelling Metroid game is Fusion where we get to see/hear Samus introspect or take in her surroundings occasionally.
If you are making a character for a game, you need to make *a character* otherwise you should just to another bland-Nintendo-style mascot.
Homefront could have justified Ethan being mute if they said his larynx was damaged during the tortur session.
Put link on the thumbnail but not in the video he’s always the first when you think of silent protagonist for me at least. As you are playing a character not you are the Character like in Skyrim etc
Hey woah if Akshon is getting into the game design biz I might have to come back haha
I think it depends on the game and why you're having one. If it fits in the overall theme and narrative of the game (i.e. a condition prevents them from talking) then sure, it can work. If you're doing it cause of things like tradition or it's easier/less time-consuming then it's harder to justify or excuse it. SMT and its spinoffs are an example of the latter as at one point in Digital Devil Saga the characters Serph and Gale were originally intended to be one character but were then later split just so Serph could continue the Silent Protagonist tradition for the MegaTen series.
good work branching out.
Dark souls just solidified it for me. Cod Cold War was a good one too
Tav in BG3 has tons of spoken lines, literally constantly chatting. Didnt do your research for that game apparently.
how else imma self insert
A silent protagonist is fine most times, but the more cinematic or narrative a game is, the more a voice is needed. Baldur's Gate 3 for example is a great game but the expressive dialogue is ruined by your character randomly getting cut out of the scene like a dumbass.
Gordon is a highly trained professional he doesn't need to hear this
don't have to pay another writer if the character never talks hehe
Money
Suikoden
I'm not sure if I would qualify Skyrim or Baldurs Gate as 'silent protagonist'. Yes, they have no voice acting, but you are choosing dialog option and thus talking. I expected comething more like Link, who doesn't even talk in text.
But Link does talk in texts. The prompts you are given when asked by an NPC are his.
Link also moves and reacts during dialogue scenes that implies he’s speaking, we just don’t hear him. So he’s not fully silent and it seems more like a stylistic choice as an homage to the series’ history.
Your character literally talks all the time in baldurs gate, when you're moving around the world and during combat
No, they break immersion entirely because the character isn't saying/doing what I'd want them to.
is tav really a silent protagonist, though? not only do they canonically speak quite a bit in dialogue scenes, they literally have a voice actor that says things constantly while you’re playing
Yeah they talk a lot
Link should have a voice. In BG3 your character is pretty boring compared to Astarion and the rest when they talk.
I never really do the whole "self projection" schtick with my games. I always think of my characters as someone I need to keep an eye on and take care of. That said, silent protagonists do nothing for me except for watching over a main character and a game that fumbles over itself trying to make the whole thing work. At least when done not so well like in the God Eater games, where your character feels tacked on, just like a super minor character acting second fiddle beside the "true" main characters.
Though of course, there are still uses for them like for super dialogue-choice heavy games or games where the main character doesn't even really need to speak so might as well save the budget somewhere else.
Hate silent MCs
Cap
I'd rather just play a (group of) characters with their own name, face, background, personality and relationships
Never cared for immersing as that character or character creations (especially since I picked up on the whole gratification thing some games try to do or how some MMOs storytelling tries to tell a single player RPG story in a multiplayer game so you end up with everyone being the chosen one)
I'm ok with having silent protagonist but what's stupid is when these non characters makes people's top characters in video games. Link, Gordon Freeman or Samus. They're all self inserts. Doomslayer is silent but he's one of the few that has a personality in that he actually reacts to things happening
Sometimes silence speaks louder than words.
Why Do Games Have Silent Protagonists
Cause they don't have talkative Protagonists
Otherwise the talking protagonist would have marvel style writing.
I'd take that over the silence tbh...
@@Idkwgo1 That just happened.
I'll take silence than an annoying mc.
Or worse like Forspoken.
this isnt esports
Because not every game needs 10 voice lines per SECOND?
This is cool and all, but what does this have to do with Esports?
I feel like this kinda topic doesn't fit on this channel.
If y'all what to talk about things outside of an esports/competitive context, then yall need to either make a separate channel or change the name of this one, to be more broad.
nah