Favorite Silent Protagonist in a JRPG ?

#1 Edited by envane (1078 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

this is just my personal fav , and thats Ryu from the breath of fire games. but others like Cecil, Cloud, Crono and the the persona main characters are definately strong candidates , juyst looking back at bof2 as my first real jrpg i cant help but feel nostalgic.

Whos your favorite ?

#2 Posted by Morningstar (1087 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

Brono.

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#3 Posted by Video_Game_King (29261 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@envane said:

others like Cecil, Cloud

They were never silent. They weren't even close.

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#4 Edited by Excast (393 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

I always liked Zidane Tribal.

#5 Posted by Excast (393 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

I guess this also depends on what ya mean by silent.

No voice actor or that the player chooses all dialogue options?

#6 Posted by Nightriff (2879 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

Charlie Tunoku motherfuckers!!!!

#7 Posted by envane (1078 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@video_game_king: well yeh especially crono with that fucking split personality section ooooohmg .. its been a while since i played ff4 tho but i thougth alot of the exposition was thru other characters , eitherway both chars play like a traditional silent protag "most" of the time.

also i just thought of MAX , from shining force (pretty sure that was the default name) he doesnt even get to say yes/no he just nods and shakes his head

also .. subcategory of most annoyingly unsilent protagonist goes to tidus

#8 Posted by Video_Game_King (29261 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@excast said:

No voice actor or that the player chooses all dialogue options?

I have to imagine the latter. Otherwise, any character before the Sega CD would count as silent.

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#9 Posted by DaMisterChief (657 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

That one dude from that one JRPG, aren't the majority of them silent

#10 Posted by envane (1078 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@excast: yeah .. yes/no choices , or personaish abbreviated answers etc ...but the character is otherwise silent , the best usually use some combination of sweatdrops and question marks as their only form of communication.

#11 Posted by T4RTERS4UCE (53 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

My favorite would be from the Shin Megami Tensei offshoot Digital Devil Saga. They do a pretty neat twist on the whole silent protagonist thing in that game

#12 Posted by Video_Game_King (29261 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@envane said:

@video_game_king: well yeh especially crono with that fucking split personality section ooooohmg .. its been a while since i played ff4 tho but i thougth alot of the exposition was thru other characters , eitherway both chars play like a traditional silent protag "most" of the time.

You're confusing characters at this point.

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#13 Posted by MentalDisruption (1315 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

Charlie Tunoku

#14 Posted by envane (1078 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago
#15 Posted by Video_Game_King (29261 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@envane:

Now you're just fucking with me.

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#16 Posted by Captain_Felafel (1309 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago
#17 Edited by Animasta (12758 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

My favorite would be from the Shin Megami Tensei offshoot Digital Devil Saga. They do a pretty neat twist on the whole silent protagonist thing in that game

oh yeah I'm totally on board with this.

#18 Posted by envane (1078 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@envane: hmnz whats confusing now ..

#19 Posted by Soapy86 (2424 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

. . .

#20 Posted by Aetheldod (2477 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

the main dude in Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne

#21 Edited by Clonedzero (2072 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

uh, the protagonist in P4 isn't silent. you have dialogue options all the time in it....

#22 Posted by JasonR86 (7685 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

Charlie. The main character in every Persona game.

#23 Posted by NyxFe (225 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

I was always a big fan of Adol Christin (Ys) though it could b argued that he's not really silent. He never actually says anything (until the later games where he makes sounds like link) but there is an increasing amount of [Adol explained his unwavering resolve] and such as the series progresses. I also can't confirm that he doesn't speak in Celceta no Jukai as I am playing in JP, but you definitely make dialogue choices and the "green text" (a description of what adol is doing/explaining in the series) is far longer than any of the other games.

Then again I assume most "silent protagonists" aren't actually considered to be silent in-universe (barring Gordon Freeman perhaps).

#24 Posted by Sooty (6694 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

how can you really have a favourite silent protagonist? Unless you mean in terms of fun options you get to choose? In which case probably Persona 4's.

#25 Posted by Oscar__Explosion (1382 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@envane: I think you are seriously confusing yourself to what a silent protagonist is. Cecil and Cloud have lots of dialog, Crono is actually a fully silenced character (save for one line in one of the endings) and the Persona 3/4 MC’s are somewhat silent (they have no dialog per se but the do communicate with others)

So like somebody else said do you mean silent as not having any VO or not having any text lines at all?

#26 Posted by envane (1078 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

@oscar__explosion: no im not confused ... i mistakenly thought that cecil had none , just attributed all the exposition to the other chars , and i say cloud acts like a silent protaganist except for certain points , but the qualities im looking for are things that the developers managed to do with the limited interaction available that makes you feel immersed. i dunno , not the sheer amount of activities you can do with them.

#27 Posted by Sparky_Buzzsaw (4919 posts) - 2 months, 26 days ago

I'm becoming less and less of a fan of the silent protagonist archetype, but I am fond of Rudy from Wild ARMs. He might not have said anything, but his back story was pretty all right.

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#28 Edited by Jagged85 (65 posts) - 2 months, 24 days ago

The nameless protagonist of Dragon Quest V is one of the best examples I've seen of a silent protagonist. Without saying a single word, I felt like I could sympathize with him far better than most of the talking protagonists out there. And the reason is because we observe him growing up from childhood into adulthood, in times of happiness and sadness, giving us an idea of how he might be feeling in certain situations without ever hearing a single line of dialogue from him.

#29 Posted by Ubersmake (686 posts) - 2 months, 24 days ago

Adol. He kinda just bumps into things and stabs them.

#30 Edited by Cathryn (444 posts) - 2 months, 23 days ago

Minako/FeMC from Persona 3 Portable

#31 Posted by TooWalrus (11807 posts) - 2 months, 23 days ago

It's Persona 3 Protagonist AKA Minato Arisato. Why? Can't explain why.

#32 Edited by believer258 (7839 posts) - 2 months, 23 days ago

@excast said:

No voice actor or that the player chooses all dialogue options?

I have to imagine the latter. Otherwise, any character before the Sega CD would count as silent.

I don't know if I can consider having dialogue options as "silent"; your character is obviously saying something if you pick a dialog option and people respond to it. It would just be repetitive to pick an option and then read the text of whatever the character says. If they're voiced, it's a slightly different story.

#33 Edited by Pr1mus (2420 posts) - 2 months, 23 days ago

Ness.

He took down an entire police force.

#34 Posted by beardfish (104 posts) - 2 months, 23 days ago
#35 Edited by Fredchuckdave (1705 posts) - 2 months, 23 days ago

Silent protagonists are terrible in JRPGs (and most other games to be fair), Crono's character design may be endearing but that doesn't solve the game essentially not having a hero to speak of as a result. Chrono Trigger would be an incredible game if Frog was the main character, or if Magus was the main character, or Lucca (makes the most sense), or Robo, or possibly even Marle (tough sell), but with Crono the narrative is just so disjointed and disparate.

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