Thoughts on Silent Protagonists

[Nester the Lark]

I'm wondering how you guys feel about silent protagonists in video games. Specifically in regards to instances like Link from The Legend of Zelda, who is more of a loosely-defined character rather than a generic player-created avatar.

So, basically, the intention behind having a silent protagonist is that, in theory, it allows the player to identify with their in-game character more easily -- to imagine themselves in that character's place and decided what their personality is like -- without it being dictated to them by the game's narrative, thus increasing the player's immersion in the game world.

This seems to be a slight point of debate among some players, and I fall into the category that it's actually counterproductive to what it's intended to do.

My rational is that I am human, and I naturally identify and empathize with other things that act human or show emotion. When that is decreased, it weakens my connection (or "link", so to speak). Furthermore, when you have a main character who rarely speaks, then it's up to other characters to drive the narrative, and that can make the "main" character feel more like a bystander who's just doing other people's grunt work. This further takes me out of the experience.

This is why I prefer more the portrayal of Link from Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. He seems to have just a smidge more of a personality in those games, especially in Skyward Sword where he has pretty explicit emotional motivation. This was scaled back in Breath of the Wild, where they brought him closer to a blank avatar, and I felt less connection to this version of Link (although some people interpret the funny menu choices as literal dialog, hinting at him having a rambunctious personality). Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, on the other hand, made him more expressive, and even his blank stares make it look a lot more like he's thinking (and thus more "alive") than they did in Breath of the Wild.

(And yes, I realize that Link's stoicism canonically is his personality in Breath of the Wild, based on what Zelda writes in her diary, but I'm struggling not to let my analysis here spiral out of control. I'm just trying to give examples.)

Another example I want to bring up is Adol from the Ys series. He's generally a silent protagonist similar to Link, but in recent games, his character has leaned more into having a personality rather than away. Adol has some minor voiced dialog, but it's restricted to short samples during combat ("Let's do this!") or an occasional "yeah" during cutscenes. He is also given actual dialog choices during cutscenes. They don't affect anything besides other characters' immediate responses, but I think it goes a long way towards making Adol feel like an actual participant in the story while still allowing the player to create their own impression of his personality.

This is a bit controversial among Ys fans, with some feeling he should be entirely silent, but I personally like this approach.

Of course, there is a fine line between a loosely-defined character and a fully fleshed-out one, but people's individual preferences will have different sweet spots. (Even I was surprised by the English launch trailer for Ys IX, in which Adol actually narrates the beginning of it.)

I could say a lot about this topic because there are a lot of nuances, but I don't want to ramble on more than I already have. I'd like to hear what you guys have to say if you have any thoughts about it.

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EDIT: I want to clarify that I'm not implying that I wish Link were portrayed more like Adol. I was just bringing up two similar yet different examples.

[nocturnal YL]

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the title "Thoughts on Silent Protagonists" was that I was weirded out when I saw Adol not speaking, but yet has some level of dialog in certain places.

I'm generally not a fan of silent protagonists. That character is not me, and should not reflect me, especially in fixed-story video games. (Other types of play like online roleplays and tabletop RPGs are whole different things, and ones that I've never tried.) Unless other characters also don't speak, such as if the game is not story-oriented, or the story is narrated in third-person.

But at least I'm used to silent protagonists, having played enough games to feature one. Well, the ones where it's just the player who doesn't speak, anyway. Mario is a particularly weird one on this, as he's silent even if he's not the player character, and even if the same game features Luigi and others in a speaking role (Super Paper Mario, Mario Golf series, Mario Tennis series).

And then there's Adol. In Ys VIII, he's usually silent, until he suddenly speaks in complete sentences and I was like "wait, he's not silent!?" That took me by surprise. It feels a bit weird since most conversations go on without him audibly speaking, but he'd break the pattern once in a while.

And naturally, I like non-silent protagonists the most. Even better if the games don't try to draw any parallel between the player characters and actual players.

[Nester the Lark]

Feb 4, 2021 10:31:17 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

And then there's Adol. In Ys VIII, he's usually silent, until he suddenly speaks in complete sentences and I was like "wait, he's not silent!?" That took me by surprise. It feels a bit weird since most conversations go on without him audibly speaking, but he'd break the pattern once in a while.

One interesting detail about Adol is that in Ys: Memories of Celceta (which I have not actually played, myself), he has amnesia, and he regains memories of his childhood throughout the game. In the cutscenes for his memories, young Adol has full dialog (not voiced, but in text).

This makes for another coincidental comparison with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where Link also has amnesia and needs to find his memories. Except he's just as silent in his memories as he is anywhere else. (The closest Link ever gets to having dialog is in Princess Zelda's diary where she writes that Link once explained to her why he's always so stoic.)

But yeah, Falcom is much less strict about Adol as a silent protagonist. He's had minor dialog as early as the intro to Ys II.

Feb 4, 2021 10:31:17 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

And naturally, I like non-silent protagonists the most. Even better if the games don't try to draw any parallel between the player characters and actual players.

I guess I'm kind of the same way. I'm OK with silent protagonists, but I prefer to think of them as separate from myself. I tend to take things at face value, so I "read" a silent protagonist as simply being a stoic character, but it can take me out of the experience sometimes is they seem too detached.

Although, Link is still one of my favorite game characters. Maybe even because he's quiet. It makes him seem very easygoing.

[nocturnal YL]

Getting back to this because I've been thinking about Byleth, a largely silent protagonist who's from a series with talking protagonists up until this point. (There are silent options in Awakening and JP Fates, but they feel like extra options while the default is to speak.)

To be honest, I don't like this. Byleth has a few fixed traits that results in a rather nonchalant character. Just look at the Byleth/Seteth C support. Questions from Seteth about Byleth's background got non-commital responses like "probably" and "don't know". While there are reasons for this, I also get the impression that Byleth acts this way as the result of being a player-controlled protagonist.

There are a few occasions when Byleth does speak up, but it's just generic stuff like level up quotes. In the Japanese version, if one does not take the dialog choices as literal responses(*), we wouldn't even know their first-person pronouns, and the dialog choices use the rather impersonal and unusual "自分" jibun (roughly "myself"), which adds to the thought that these aren't actually uttered. And if those dialog choices are their actual words, that paints a rather blunt character who can't pick up social cues… which actually describes Byleth well, since they never lived with anyone outside of Gerald and his mercenaries. …How can someone like this become a teacher and get praised by students?

Heroes Byleth also doesn't talk much besides being a humble but committed teacher.

Byleth, as a character, didn't really "communicate" to the player much. We don't really get to see why did Byleth make specific choices, although I'm under the impression that Byleth simply is a really committed teacher, to the point that the first thing they do after the 5-year slumber is to rush back to the monastery, never mind there's a continent-wide war going on. Other factors like their unusual origin don't seem to motivate them as much as simply wanting to support the students.

It's nice of Byleth, but I still prefer having someone who actually convert their thought process into full paragraphs.

(*) I actually do think those are the actual responses. While unusual and somewhat robotic, they're perfectly grammatical as literal replies.

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On BotW Link, I think he's only silent to the player. Everything from the system menus to the action and dialog choices suggest a not-so-serious character, especially when things like peeking into Paya's diary can happen. I read from elsewhere that the reason he's remembered as stoic is because of his job requiring him to, and after Hyrule fell and there's no official duty to speak of, Link started showing some of his funnier side.

[Nester the Lark]

I think Byleth is a little like Link in Breath of the Wild because they're canonically stoic. Other characters make note that Byleth doesn't show a lot of emotion, and didn't even cry when they were born.

But it does make the marriage proposal at the end of the game seem a little funny.

Contrasting Three Houses with The Blazing Blade, though, I think playing as the silent "strategist" was more immersive for me. I think it's because I'm not being represented on screen by a character (except for the icon on the map) who has to impact the narrative. I'm just me, and I'm mostly just an observer whom the characters occasionally speak to or refer to. But it was done in a way that made me feel like I was part of the team.

I don't think that really counts as a silent protagonist, though. I just like the way it was handled.