"..." - The Silent Protagonist

[Kotowari]

"In video games, a silent protagonist is a character, often controlled by the player, who does not speak for the entire duration of the game except sometimes an interjection or short phrase. A silent protagonist may be employed to lend a sense of mystery or uncertainty of identity to the gameplay, or to help the player identify better with them. Silent protagonists may also be anonymous." -Wikipedia

In a time where full HD graphics, orchestrated music and high quality voice acting seem to become the norm for video gaming, there are those that stay awfully quiet about it all. As per definition the silent protagonist does not speak, besides perhaps a few random sounds here and there.
But what do you think about this kind of character?


Some questions to think about:

• What do you think about a Silent Protagonist?
• Is a Silent Protagonist something outdated?
  
• Do you respect developers' choice to deliberately not give the main character a voice?
• Are there some Silent Protagonists you wish had a voice? (written or spoken)
• Are there some voiced characters you wish were a Silent Protagonist instead?
  
• Does an absense of voice equal an absense of personality?
• Do you consider a Silent Protagonist mute (often inspiring recurring jokes in the fandom) or do you consider him/her to have a voice of their own?
• Does being able to fill in the Silent Protagonist's thoughts any way you like, make you connect more with the story/characters?
• What do you think when in-game characters note how the main character doesn't say much? (like in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn)
• Text-based conversations (+noises) (e.g. Legend of Zelda, Pokémon), nonsense language (e.g. Ôkami) or full voice acting?
  
• What's your favourite Silent Protagonist?
• etc...

And now they're all joking about how I am mute and all that..!​

 

[Oryx]

I really don't enjoy silent protagonists, just because the way they convey information is just so dumb. Like there usually will be a pause, and then the character your protagonist is speaking to will repeat the information ("The ninjas are in the building?!") so you're aware of what s/he said. I understand the logic of being able to put yourself into the character if they don't have a distinct voice, but I'd rather have another fully-developed character over a silent shell.

Unless the silence is part of his character and people notice the silence and such. Then it's an interesting characterization. If not it's just...boring.

 

[Cello]

Bahh, I can't answer all those questions 'cause I need to get my lazy arse up and mow the lawn, but i'm OK with the silent protagonist. It's better than them actually having a voice and being annoying or a complete ass, making the player hate the game because they hate who they have to play as.
It's just as you said in the main post, it helps the player to better identify with the character, or at least that's the way I always felt about games with a silent character.


Every time somebody says "I think Link needs a voice" I try to help them to imagine what he'd sound like by giving him a bombastic teenager voice, constantly saying "Dude..." and "Radical!"

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I don't mind it. With the Zelda games, I'd like it if everyone but Link had voice acting since they already have dialogue, but Link just shouldn't speak. Just... out of tradition.

The original reasoning behind it was that you're Link. He doesn't even have dialogue to read because his thoughts are supposed to be yours. However you shape him in your head.

But, I don't think that argument is valid anymore. Can you play through the Mass Effect series and claim that your Shepard isn't your Shepard? He (or she) has dialogue and a voice, but every decision was your own. You formed the character as you saw fit.

What is extremely annoying is that now rather than just leaving Link silent with the exception of a telling expression, now Nintendo seems to poke fun at it. Like with Skyward Sword, he's clearly saying something. His mouth is moving. But nothing comes out. And there is no dialogue to read. It's just stupid.

If you're going to have a silent protagonist it should be like Link circa OoT and MM. I don't know why, but you just feel more of connection with Link there then you do in Skyward Sword.

 

[Renyui!]

I definitely prefer it, especially in RPGs or Adventure/Puzzle games like Zelda. Take, for example, the newest installment in the series, Ys Seven. When I played it, and haven't played much Ys games, I expected a fairly modest, non speaking protagonist, and instead I was given this showy, outgoing, jerky dude. I think a lot of what makes people prefer silent heroes is the voice acting. Some protagonists that have speech, but no acting, are a lot more tolerable.

 

[Kotowari]

Haha, Cello, no one's obliged to answer all of the questions. It's just to give some seeds for discussion.

As for me, I don't really mind silent protagonists, as the majority of games I play have silent protagonists as main character. It's been that way since I started playing games with Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. I'm very picky about voice acting, specially English Voice Acting. I often get the feeling that the original personality is lost with dubbing, and that dubbing voices often sound bland. I don't know, but I'd rather have some nonsense language with written dialogue than bad dubbing.

I think it has a certain charm to have silent characters. I love being able to imagine characters' voices and fill in the missing dialogue.
It shouldn't be a sectret that my favourite (not just Silent Protagonist, but in generally as well) is Link (TP, SS, OOT) and I don't mind him not talking. I was quite amused with how Skyward Sword Link <finally> got something to say, or how the player had the option of choosing some replies. I would have loved to be able to have more of these options, but the ones provided are just one of the reasons making the game worth replaying.

I think Link is just one the characters that manages to express himself quite well through his expressions, though sometimes I wish he'd do /more/, but that doesn't have to do anything with his voice. I think it's fine in his case.

Though, I have to agree with Triforce here. Ocarina Link is one of the Link who's silence actually suits his character pretty well. It's not hard to get into his head, allowing the player to make the story as dramatic as possible. OoT creates that possibility more than Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, where the story line is more developed in-game.

I hope Link never truely gets a voice, but more than that, I hope he never looses his facial expressions. They're such a huge form of amusement throughout the game.
I would like The Legend of Zelda to try to expand more on the idea of the nonsense language that Midna and Fi use. The nonsense language worked very well in Ôkami, but it fits the art style as well. I don't know how much a nonsense language would work with a semi-realistic style as the Legend of Zelda tries to achieve. But then again I don't know how much I like the idea of a fully dubbed Legend of Zelda, but I deffinitally think that the soundless movement of mouths, specially with the characters that do speak, sometimes looks a bit odd. I'm just gonna let Nintendo do what they go good and give Link a voice in my head. |D;;

 

[Timbjerr]

I hope Link never truely gets a voice, but more than that, I hope he never looses his facial expressions. They're such a huge form of amusement throughout the game.
I would like The Legend of Zelda to try to expand more on the idea of the nonsense language that Midna and Fi use. The nonsense language worked very well in Ôkami, but it fits the art style as well. I don't know how much a nonsense language would work with a semi-realistic style as the Legend of Zelda tries to achieve. But then again I don't know how much I like the idea of a fully dubbed Legend of Zelda, but I deffinitally think that the soundless movement of mouths, specially with the characters that do speak, sometimes looks a bit odd. I'm just gonna let Nintendo do what they go good and give Link a voice in my head. |D;;

I've actually seen people suggest that future Zelda games should feature voice-overs...in Hylian. I feel that that would induce a certain realism to the games by giving all the characters voices to go with their text boxes and by having them speak their in-universe language. It would be...interesting to say the least. XD

I don't mind silent protagonists at all, but I prefer the ones that strike somewhat of a balance between being silent and being introspective, such as Samus. While she spends most of the time in any given Metroid game being quiet, she has had a few monolgues, mainly for exposition or backstory. I'll admit that they went overboard with this in Other M, but at least she wasn't as bad as others out there.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I've actually seen people suggest that future Zelda games should feature voice-overs...in Hylian. I feel that that would induce a certain realism to the games by giving all the characters voices to go with their text boxes and by having them speak their in-universe language. It would be...interesting to say the least. XD

Then... in some games they'd speak English and in others Japanese. That's all Hylian is (language-base changes with the game) but with different characters

 

[Kotowari]

That would be interesting. |D I know about the Japanese (OoT) and English (TP) based Hylian script, but that doesn't take away that for voicing, they might actually invent a language that still uses the script but is not quite Japanese or English.


I don't know if anyone played Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS), but Matthew, the main character, is also silent throughout the game. I found it quite funny when a NPC asks Matthew a question.
Then one of his friends jumps in and answers, appologising for Matthew's silence by saying he's a shy one. |D

 

[U.Flame]

i'm fine with most silent protagonists. But I like the games with a main character with personality. Snake for example. I think Link can still pull it off, but it's weird that still no one else actually voices their conversations in Zelda.

 

[Nina]

I personally like silent protagonists, because sometimes heros are completely buttholes or idiotic. While silent protags often take the same actions, they seem less stupid because you can reason for them.

And personally for Link, him just making faces and noises is pretty cute! It gets his base character down without impeding on what the players make him out to be.

I think silent protags are a subset of shell characters that allow people to "fit" into them while in a story. So they will always be relevant, even if we have things like voice acting in almost everything, I think it's a good choice. It's that or Bella Swan types that are completely empty. I'd rather have a character I can guess at so I can fill their shoes, rather than an empty one that I'm 'supposed' to project my own feeling into them.

 

[Azumi]

It depends what kind of games it is, really. I like visual novels with characters having a... "character" (lame joke half-intended), but for games like Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, Shin Megami Tensei, I prefer having silent protagonists.

Link does have voice grunts and expressions (OoT faces I am looking at you xD) but he doesn't say anything other than that. I like that about him - to the point that I get peeved reading fanfics of him because it feels weird when he's given lines...

 

[sherreamethyst]

LOL, as soon as I saw this thread I thought "LINK!!"...

He is definitely my favorite silent protoganists and a lot of other people's as well. I wish he had a voice though. I've always imagined it to be real hot to go along with his good looks...

The "GAHHHH" when he's falling and "Hwuah!" when he's sword fighting, satisfy me somewhat, but if he spoke more I would instantly fall in love, unless he sounds like a girl or something. o_O

Oh! And in Skyward Sword when he was sitting on his bed telling the headmaster about Zelda, I was like "..." 0_0 He was freakin moving his mouth but you just don't get no sound coming out of it! wth....

 

[Kotowari]

You guessed it, this thread it actually a secret fanclub for Link

Well, it's no first timer for the characters of the Legend of Zelda to speak without sound. In Twilight Princess, for instance, Zelda's mouth moves when she's not speaking, (but is text talking). I know it's not the same, but... I thought it was strangely odd that way. I'd rather have it like Link in Skyward Sword where the talking is up to you to imagine, then the fish-mouthing.