Character Muteness

[Chaco]

Ever since Suikoden 1 every main charactre except Thomas was mute, but they could say things that the player would allow (like choices such as "Join our team") however I feel this charactre "muteness" in a sense has allowed us as players to develope a personality for the character freely, like I might think Tir as badass and awesome but someone else might think him as shy and kind. IMO I hope the next main character doesn't say a thing except the options like the previous games.

[Mio]

uhh... you forgot the question

[Chaco]

Oops, I figured you'd figure it out, uh do you agree that the next main hero should be "mute" or should they have dialog like Hugo did.

[Tsharr]

The silent protagonist is an RPG cliche that will probably be something that exists in every game until the end of time. It allows the player to insert the personality that they feel the character has without having to conform to what the writers feel the PC should act like.

Being as that is, I prefer the silent protagonist. It allows me to say "I think this character is a bit more of a pansy that gets tougher, or a nice guy all the way through."

Mind you, it doesn't allow for the cool one liners and soliloquy that you get from the other PCs, but that's okay to me.

[Mio]

Suikoden got away with the mute hero in SI - SIII; everybody's talking thru text

but when people around the mute hero started talking

it kinda became awkward and a party pooper everytime the hero delivers his line thru text

especially when its the moment to lay siege to the enemy's main castle

everybody yelling 'TO BATTLE' and nothing but silence and crickets from the hero

i mean i wanna hear some roaring from the leader who has fought 40-60 hrs of gameplay

and all i get is some lousy text and prolly some fancy gesture?

wth?

[Oppenheimer]

I know I've talked about this somewhere in the recessess of the forum, but I can't find it. Anyway, I've said before that I think that a protagonist with a personality is vastly superior to a silent protagonist. That is one of the drawbacks of Suikoden in my opinion is that they usually have the young male silent protagonist thing going. It's just silly in my opinion. I liked Suikoden III because Chris, Geddoe, Hugo and Thomas all had personalities and weren't silent.

[Mio]

if i were to settle, i 'd say put in a protagonist with his own voice which he shoul use for every dialogue choice

oh and choices for dialogue should remain

i would still like to manipulate the character of the hero so i would have to say no in giving the hero his own personality

[Author]

Suikoden 3 focused a lot on the story and since each character has their own chapter and are linked to one another, it's almost impossible to have a mute protagonist (not especially when you can choose who). Unlike the other Suikoden installments, there is only one protagonist and they're all mute.

[Chaco]

I thought about everything said so far, I think having a silent protagonist isn't a weakness at all, but it needs to be done right, thye need to have the other characters sort of "mend" the way the charactre is, like having a character be all like "Hey are you okay, you don't look so good" or "This persons death must be hard for you, cheer up!" but I hate when they are like "Oh you think we should do that to Hero!?" but the hero never said anything that's always annoying, maybe having more choices throughout the game from the hero would be good.

[Kagiya]

I prefer main characters to have personality and speak. The advantage of the silent protagonist is that they are hard to hate and you can control their actions without corrupting the character's personality (since it hasn't been developed). However even in the cases that I hate the protagonist I prefer that over silent.
Perhaps a middle ground would to still have controllable protagonist with a small number of lines but give him a voice.

[Runemaster]

I agree with Mio's idea. Let the gamer choose the dialogue and the protagonist lets a voice out of it. And the protagonist must talk every now and then, not only in decision matters like "let's wait a bit" or "prepare the troops". I hope he/SHE(?!?!) also express his ideas when planning the strategy or some other events. And to avoid picking dialogues all the time, I think those lines that doesn't need selection should be spoken by the hero without any boring, time-wasting choices.

[JanusThePaladin]

Greatest Silent protagonist ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZ4dXrQ ... re=related

[Runemaster]

Greatest Silent protagonist ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZ4dXrQ ... re=related

The video reminds me of Courage (the cowardly dog)!! haha a big lol for that!

[Chaco]

In truth the greastest Silent Protagonist ever was Chrono. I really felt a connection with him after playing, him and Tir Mcdoul.

[Tsharr]

I dunno, Mario in Mario RPG was pretty damn sweet. His pantomime was hours of fun.