Why I think the main character doesn't emote.

[dmolken]

I don't know if this has ever been discussed before, but I may know why the main character doesn't show emotion.

At the beginning of the game, you are asked what you look like (If you are a boy or a girl), and you are also asked for your name. The reason for that is because this character is supposed to be you, the player. The reason why the main character doesn't emote is because the game doesn't actually know the player playing the game and the generic expression on his/her face is used as a placeholder for how the player really feels.

I know that in some cutscenes the main character does actually show emotion which seems kind of odd when you consider what I said above but hopefully this was something interesting for you.

I don't know if they're going to make the main character show emotion in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[drizku]

that's pretty sweet. Very observational, keep it up :)

 

[L'Belle]

Still no reason to not emote the player's faces. Do they picture us as soulless beasts?

 

[dmolken]

Still no reason to not emote the player's faces. Do they picture us as soulless beasts?

I don't think that's the intention. What I am saying is that the game doesn't know if the player is feeling happy or sad so they use a generic expression as a placeholder for how the player actually feels. For instance, at the beginning of the game when you go through the cutscene to see if your starter pokemon will actually accept you as a trainer, the player could feel many different feelings, they may feel excited or confused. Since the game doesn't actually know how the player is going to feel, they use the default expression so that they don't have to cater to only one group of people.

Maybe this isn't what they were thinking when they decided to not make the character show emotion but it's interesting to consider anyway.

 

[pkmin3033]

Still no reason to not emote the player's faces. Do they picture us as soulless beasts?

Well, when you've been playing the franchise since Gen I and have experienced what is essentially the same game every time, and had your hopes for something better slowly stripped away by the monotony and style-over-substance approach the games take, sapping your will to live away as you plough through again and again, maybe that's not too far from the truth...but then, maybe that's just me.


Let's face it: the player character isn't important in the game any more anyway. It's all about the bland, underdeveloped, highly intrusive NPCs carrying the "story" of the game whilst you just watch with that blank expression on your face like a mindless automaton.

 

[BronzeHeart92]

Well, it does look like the Devs simply didn't bother to add any emotion. When the next games goes live, hopefully you will have emotion by then. At leasy in some situations.

 

[raichu_bae]

Same derp smile during the most intense moments in the game. lol

 

[Hikamaru]

I feel it's because the protagonists were always meant to be a blank state whose personality was meant to be projected on by the player's own feelings, and having that one expression happening all the time may be to show what the player may be thinking. It does unfortunately ruin good scenes like Lillie's goodbye, and the encounter with Nihilego.

 

[blue]

I just can't forgive the protag for not showing an ounce of emotion when Lillie left at the end. I couldn't keep it together at that point yet there's my character smiling away?!

 

[Kartanaheart]

I'd like to think the main character doesn't know a lick of whatever language the other characters are speaking and is just staring at them completely blankly because they have no idea of what's going on

 

[Hikamaru]

I dunno. I don't really buy this. I don't think it'd be particularly that difficult to make the player character show the emotion that players are most likely to feel. Why didn't my character frown or anything when Lillie left at the end of the game? Why didn't my character make an angry face or anything at Guzma? These are all emotions that players are most likely to feel, and as such it would make logical sense to include them in these scenarios.

Heck, even if Game Freak were to be off-base in emotion portrayal in the protag, that would still be better than having no displayable emotional at all.

This is totally what I agree with. That scene where Lillie tells the protagonist she is leaving for Kanto was meant to be an emotional moment of the game, and the fact the protagonist didn't even react ruined all its emotional impact.