Silent main character?

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patapi
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Post by patapi »

Moonbay wrote:What got me was--he was a silent character--yet his mouth was moving a LOT in the opening movie...LOL
Figures. He sure has a lot to talk about in Rhapsodia. He's only "silent" in his own game because of the game requirement, if anything.
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Moonbay
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Post by Moonbay »

patapi wrote:
Moonbay wrote:What got me was--he was a silent character--yet his mouth was moving a LOT in the opening movie...LOL
Figures. He sure has a lot to talk about in Rhapsodia. He's only "silent" in his own game because of the game requirement, if anything.
LOL

Maybe he lost his voice sometime between Rhapsodia and Suikoden IV and could only speak coarsely.....
Playing Suikoden III......
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Artificity
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Post by Artificity »

No, I did not play SIV but the topic seemed relatively general anyway.

The charm behind silent protagonists, especially in Suikoden, is that since they don't have any spoken dialogue, we can all safely assume that what they "say" is always the right thing to convince 107 other characters to band behind you. We don't get to nitpick what he says or even get the chance to think that what he just said was annoying saturday-morning-cartoon-perk-me-up drivel. Instead, we all just assume that he said something either awe-inspiring to drive the morale of all his men or the perfect yet succinct phrases that just seem to work magic. I don't think they do it for us to identify with him; they do it because every other character will want to, simply because what he says is right.

I've always thought that Tenkai's had that irrefutable charm that allows them to take control of destiny, but giving it an actual "Form" wouldn't give it any justice no matter how hard the writers try.
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Sagiri
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Re: Silent main character?

Post by Sagiri »

No, except for the dialogue boxes, the heroes don't speak. Personally, I think it's really hot that they're all so reclusive. Especially Lazlo, because he and everyone else has good reason.
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Heptade
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Re: Silent main character?

Post by Heptade »

I don't really have a problem with that. It's not like he's a mute; it's just that the player chooses every word he says. I would have liked the selected lines to be voiced, though...

I have more of a problem with Tir McDohl not saying anything in Suikoden II, actually.
RevKoden
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Re: Silent main character?

Post by RevKoden »

Unpopular opinion:
I never like the idea of silent protagonist. I'd rather see it like ST's Sieg, that was PERFECT IMO. I don't care if anyone disagrees with me.
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Re: Silent main character?

Post by Antimatzist »

RevKoden wrote:Unpopular opinion:
I never like the idea of silent protagonist. I'd rather see it like ST's Sieg, that was PERFECT IMO. I don't care if anyone disagrees with me.
In the time of voice acting in games, the silent protagonist just doesn't work anymore. The idea of the silent hero itself is debatable (I also don't like it and it doesn't really serve any purpose in story-heavy RPGs), but it's just awkward. Suikoden IV is a bad example of this. In Suikoden V, they tried to introduce more life with the prince, which is cool, but he should've just talked normally.
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Re: Silent main character?

Post by Algus »

RevKoden wrote:Unpopular opinion:
I never like the idea of silent protagonist. I'd rather see it like ST's Sieg, that was PERFECT IMO. I don't care if anyone disagrees with me.
Going back to when I was a kid and this was a huge aspect of Chrono Trigger, I never liked it and never got it. IMO there was never a time where the silent protagonist was a "good idea" in a heavily narrative based RPG (some dungeon crawler like Eye of the Beholder: whatever, the story isn't really that important there). I will say I like it in games with extensive dialogue selection, ex I felt it was fine in Persona (and assorted western RPGs, particularly from Bioware) as your character isn't really "silent" since you are constantly picking dialogue and such.

But how it was done in most of the Suiko games? Meh, Suikoden III is all the stronger for having its leads talk.

Looking back at most of this thread is kind of funny though. When OP made this post in 2005, I wouldn't have characterized the silent protagonist as particularly uncommon. He/she must have been new to JRPGs.
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Re: Silent main character?

Post by RevKoden »

Algus wrote:
RevKoden wrote:Unpopular opinion:
I never like the idea of silent protagonist. I'd rather see it like ST's Sieg, that was PERFECT IMO. I don't care if anyone disagrees with me.
Going back to when I was a kid and this was a huge aspect of Chrono Trigger, I never liked it and never got it. IMO there was never a time where the silent protagonist was a "good idea" in a heavily narrative based RPG (some dungeon crawler like Eye of the Beholder: whatever, the story isn't really that important there). I will say I like it in games with extensive dialogue selection, ex I felt it was fine in Persona (and assorted western RPGs, particularly from Bioware) as your character isn't really "silent" since you are constantly picking dialogue and such.

But how it was done in most of the Suiko games? Meh, Suikoden III is all the stronger for having its leads talk.

Looking back at most of this thread is kind of funny though. When OP made this post in 2005, I wouldn't have characterized the silent protagonist as particularly uncommon. He/she must have been new to JRPGs.
Exactly. But i don't think Persona is a good example, Persona also had quite a background and personality for the silent protag and yeah Prince has TOO much personality, i'd rather him talking.
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