Beyondthegrave07 Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 (edited) I was wondering what are some of your favorite silent protagonists throughout gaming? Also, what are your general thoughts of silent protagonists? Do characters need a voice nowadays to be an effective protagonist? Does characters NOT having a voice TAKE AWAY from a video game in your opinion? Discuss. Personally, My favorite silent protagonists are probably everyone's favorites. Link (Legend of Zelda) and The Wanderer (Shadow of the Colossus). I also love the traveler from Journey as well. I always thought the design of the character was really cool and how awesome it is to travel with others without ever saying a word. Lastly, I like Tomba (from the PS1Tomba games) as a silent protagonist. I always loved his grunt noise and goofiness of the character in general (if you haven't played those games, they are amazing!). I think silent protagonists are not bad to have in gaming, but they need to be done right to be a memorable character. In some cases, actions speak louder than words, and I feel that with any silent protagonist, this needs to be dialed up to 11. I think silent protagonists can be an effective protagonist if they can still show emotion and more importantly evoke emotions from their audience. Edited October 2, 2017 by Beyondthegrave07 Grammar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xylobe Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 Red from Transistor is definitely the best example of a silent protagonist that I know of. Her silence is given an actual narrative reason, and the combination of that, the prevalence of the 'silent hero' trope in games, and the heavily biased narrator character led to me fundamentally misunderstanding Red's own character and motivations up until the very end. Because of that misunderstanding, those final scenes were so much more impactful than they would have been otherwise, and the whole rest of the game was completely recontextualized for me. I don't know of any other game that uses a silent protagonist as such an effective narrative tool. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redgrave Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 I normally prefer it when characters talk but if done right, silent protagonists can work pretty well. I think it worked fine for Doomguy (even though I would have liked him to be like BJ in the new Wolfenstein), especially since he didn't really need to talk to be badass. Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodytears1666 Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 Spoiler I really like all characters who do what they need to do without questions. And this guy is that executive person I like the most and kinda learned something from this character. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristycism Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 I agree with Red from Transistor being a great silent protagonist, she was the first one that came to mind for me. And the traveller from Journey as well. And Crash also has to be mentioned, 'cause yknow...it's Crash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevengeancePrime Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 Doom Slayer is my favourite silent protagonist because he expresses more emotion through simple hand gestures than most characters with voices ever do. I also really like that the protagonists in the Soulsborne games are silent because it is very fitting for the atmosphere of those games. I don't mind silent protagonists if they're done right, or if giving them a voice completely ruins them. The best example that comes to mind is Fallout. 3 and NV were fine with my protagonist having no voice and me simply choosing dialogue options, but I absolutely hated the voice given to my character. It also didn't help that the dialogue options for this one were generally terrible. I also liked that Destiny 2 removed your guardian's voice because the voice just made the character even more bland than they already were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starcrunch061 Posted October 2, 2017 Share Posted October 2, 2017 I love silent protagonists. Back in the day, I was most immersed in games with silent protags. My favorite? I'll have to think about it; there are a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lava_Yuki Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Mine would be Ludgar from Tales of Xillia 2. Although the player had to make all his decisions in the game and choose all his responses (hence making it difficult to get an idea of his personality), I really liked his overall caring nature towards Elle and his brother despite what his brother did. I remember he also won most popular Tales character for the year the first time I ever went to the Tales Festival in Yokohama in 2014. They portrayed his character pretty well in the game despite him not saying anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leaderboards Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 (edited) Samus Aran She's awesome Metroid: Other M tho lol... Edited October 7, 2017 by TurdFlingingApe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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