Current Events > Why do we still have silent protagonists in nintendo games

(+) Yeah! (+)

or at all

People say it's so we could self insert, but I feel that only works for characters we can't really see the face of.
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Not every character needs a voice. Their motivations can be represented through gameplay for example.
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You were supposed to be Chrono. Your thoughts as the player were his dialogue.
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Darmik posted...

Not every character needs a voice. Their motivations can be represented through gameplay for example.

This.
I never want Link to be fully voice acted. The occasional "Huh" and "Hyah" are enough. And the "meow" from TWW.

Video game voice acting tends to be awful more often than not. Y'know who my favorite FFX character was? Kimahri. Because he kept his mouth shut most of the time.
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Because writing good characters is hard.
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Having a voice acted player character worked great for Fallout 4.

>__>
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Remember Other M? Yeah...
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Something, something, immersion.
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Octaivian_Rex posted...

Having a voice acted player character worked great for Fallout 4.

>__>

Yeah voices for custom characters generally feels way more limited to me. A silent custom protagonist can be anyone you want. A voice means they have a defined personality and not everyone suits that voice.
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When I was a kid, Tails was liked as a character. As an adult, I hear he's gotten a reputation as a shitty character because of the voice and personality they've give him.

Sometimes, less is more.

Skye Reynolds posted...

When I was a kid, Tails was liked as a character. As an adult, I hear he's gotten a reputation as a shitty character because of the voice and personality they've give him.

Sometimes, less is more.

Everyone in Sonic now has a shitty reputation thanks to voice acting.
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Darmik posted...

Octaivian_Rex posted...

Having a voice acted player character worked great for Fallout 4.

>__>

Yeah voices for custom characters generally feels way more limited to me. A silent custom protagonist can be anyone you want. A voice means they have a defined personality and not everyone suits that voice.

So, what's your opinion on the previous Fallout games where your character wasn't voiced, but you had much more freedom in choosing what they say and their personality.
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oskman888 posted...

So, what's your opinion on the previous Fallout games where your character wasn't voiced, but you had much more freedom in choosing what they say and their personality.

Yeah that's a similar sorta thing. They generally give a bigger variety of stuff to choose from. The lack of voice acting also means you don't get an unexpected tone in the response.

Every game is different obviously though. I'm not really meaning this as a positive or negative.
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Nobody is playing Mario or Zelda for the story, and tbh I'm glad Nintendo gets that and doesn't force it beyond some super basic progress the game type thing.
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I remember reading a Cracked article that said that silent protagonists were archaic and dumb and called the shooting mechanics in HL2 outdated
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Darmik posted...

Not every character needs a voice. Their motivations can be represented through gameplay for example.

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Octaivian_Rex posted...

Having a voice acted player character worked great for Fallout 4.

>__>

It would've if the script wasn't garbage
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thompsontalker7 posted...

Octaivian_Rex posted...

Having a voice acted player character worked great for Fallout 4.

>__>

It would've if the script wasn't garbage

No

Fallout doesn't need a voice actor, and it is in fact toxic to the type of immersion Bethesda games are supposed to provide.
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Isn't there a VA crisis going on?
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LinksLiege posted...

Darmik posted...

Not every character needs a voice. Their motivations can be represented through gameplay for example.

This.
I never want Link to be fully voice acted. The occasional "Huh" and "Hyah" are enough. And the "meow" from TWW.

Video game voice acting tends to be awful more often than not. Y'know who my favorite FFX character was? Kimahri. Because he kept his mouth shut most of the time.

Lolololol
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This is clearly a case of shooting an arrow and painting a target around where it lands.

"Silent protagonists allow you to become more immersed because ___insert bullshit reasons here"

Silent protagonists work in extremely few circumstances, in almost all cases it's just lazy writing and storytelling.
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SwayM posted...

This is clearly a case of shooting an arrow and painting a target around where it lands.

"Silent protagonists allow you to become more immersed because ___insert bullshit reasons here"

Silent protagonists work in extremely few circumstances, in almost all cases it's just lazy writing and storytelling.

weak bait
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Doe posted...

weak bait

You don't have an argument. That's okay.
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I'm not gonna reply to your bait just because you asked me to
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Paragon21XX posted...

Remember Other M? Yeah...

I didn't find the voices to be a problem there for the most part. It was the writing.
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Doe posted...

I'm not gonna reply to your bait just because you asked me to

I really don't care what you do.
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Banjo2553 posted...

Paragon21XX posted...

Remember Other M? Yeah...

I didn't find the voices to be a problem there for the most part. It was the writing.

Proving that Nintendo should stick with silent characters as they can't write compelling dialog worth shit.
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Paragon21XX posted...

Proving that Nintendo should stick with silent characters as they can't write compelling dialog worth shit.

They can do it if they try. Kid Icarus Uprising's dialogue is fantastic.
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