Don't care as long as it's good

I want it to star Yu Narukami.

Hitting on the heated debate that's sprouted within this thread... whether you give the main character a voice or not, he's going to be that impossibly likable guy -- unless they completely change social links. As it stands, that gameplay system revolves around becoming everyone's BEST BUDDY to power up your Personas, and the character is made out to be a particularly appealing person to facilitate that. It's irrelevant to the character's ability to speak of his own accord.

That said, I wouldn't mind of they tried a different approach to social links, but I'd hardly object to more of the same either. I could go either way on the speaking thing too.

Though, I think I actually prefer the silent protagonist in this case. I reject the notion that they are devoid of personality -- I think they are in fact chock-full of it. It's just presented differently. I always saw the P3 guy as a shy introvert who kinda had weird rage issues, who starts off kinda anti-social and reluctant to accept the role placed upon him, but grows into it as the adventure proceeds. While the P4 hero is more outgoing and has natural leadership qualities, who has a somewhat quirky personality and takes whatever comes at him in stride... as he applies his dry humor to practically any situation. And he's maybe a tad vain.

I could be filling in the blanks a little too actively, but that's part of the fun too. Funny as it might sound, I'd really like to see what they do with their next blank slate. We can have talking characters any day!

@RedCream said:

@AlexanderSheen said:

@PenguinDust said:

@RedCream said:

I prefer him voiced but I'll be the one choosing his dialogue ala Mass Effect...

This. It doesn't have to be an either silent protagonist or pre-written hero choice. It would take more time to record all the dialogue, but it's certainly feasible to store it all on a PS3 blu-ray. There has to be a way to keep the conversations flowing more fluidly than the current "Press X to advance to the next page". I want to hear him talk, but I want to be able to pick if he says yes, no or maybe.

Having said that, I'd trade a talking MC for the ability to pick between a male or female one as in P3P.

How about Alpha Protocol instead of Mass Effect. You choose the tone of the next dialoge the MC gonna say while there is a timer ticking. In this case, there would be fluidity, options and voice acting at the same time.

Yeah that would work better plus to make it more ambitious your MC's dialogue decisions should have meaningful effect on the main story or at least on that particular social link you are working on. That would add infinite replayability if the social links have branching paths.

This suggestion works for me, too. If they use a dialogue wheel, though I want them to randomize where the good, bad and indifferent responses are placed. I'm bored with "upper-right is good" and "lower-right is bad". I admit I have fallen into routines where if I know I am playing as a good character, I click to the top-right even before reading the choices.

 (On that note: BRING BACK CONTACTS.)

@mutha3 said:

@Video_Game_King said:

(On that note: BRING BACK CONTACTS.)

*insert barf noises*

I like the way it is, you get to choose how your character behaves and interacts with others, and I think imposing your own personality on a game about friendship is pretty cool. I wouldn't mind if the character was voiced though; Catherine was basically the social elements of a persona game without the RPG and I found the characters compelling. I just think if the character is voiced you exclude the player from a lot of decision making as they will behave according to their own personality, rather than conform to how you as a player feel they should behave. And I think that if you're gonna go down that road, you better make the character really fucking good, or just eliminate player choice entirely as you're never going to satisfy anyone.
 
Anyway a thought that's just occured to me is that your character has a personality imposed on them from how the other characters view him/her, and from that alone you as a player have a feel for his identity, and yet you are given the freedom to carve your own path, which is a pretty great system. For example the P3 MC is a silent teen who everyone seems to be in awe of/ looks up to, and Narukami is the coolest of a group of friends, a ladies man, and a generally good guy. But from the small amount of choice you get to make, you can still feel like you really own this character, which I suppose is why every Persona game feels like a different personal experience to each individual who plays it.

Silent protagonist all the way. So the rest of the characters can shine.

The Yu Narukami from P4 The Animation is probably the best character of that show.

I'd like a similar amount of MC dialogue as in Persona 4, but have their lines be voiced when the rest of the characters are voiced.

@Terramagi said:

Not in P3. You either had sex with EVERYBODY who didn't have a Y chromosome, or your social link stalled. P4 was the one with split S. Link trees.

Except Maiko and Maya (as in the MMO social link).

@Juno500 said:

@Terramagi said:

Not in P3. You either had sex with EVERYBODY who didn't have a Y chromosome, or your social link stalled. P4 was the one with split S. Link trees.

Except Maiko and Maya (as in the MMO social link).

Yeah, well, that one would've been pedophilia.

I don't really like having voices for my main dude when I have choices to make. In Dragon age I liked my Grey Warden more than Hawke. I'm in the middle of playing P4A and it is always weird when Yu is voiced, and I think Johnny Young Basch has a cool voice, it fit in fights in P4, but having him talk to Yosuke about stuff just seems weird to me. I would't mind it if during the rare anime cutscenes if the main character had a voice but in normal gameplay I want to be in control and do some roleplaying. A Mass Effect style dialog wheel would be the worst. It's one of the things I really dislike in all the Mass Effect games.

Hitting on the heated debate that's sprouted within this thread... whether you give the main character a voice or not, he's going to be that impossibly likable guy 

Voiced character, but more like Vincent in Catherine or Lee in The Walking Dead than like how the MC acts in P4A.

Give them a voice. What's the point of not if they're probably just going to end up doing it in an anime anyway?

Not voiced. Many awesome games have a protagonist without a voice. Chrono Trigger, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Persona 4, Portal, Dead Space, Bioshock... Of course if the character is done right he can be totaly awesome but it will be always hit or miss. I like to concentrate on the rich personalities around me, and not my dude, like I cared for Liara and Garrus in Mass Effect 2. Shepard? I don't think about him when I remeber Mass effect...

Don't forget Half-LIfe!

@mutha3: I absolutely agree with you there, and would certainly be happy to see them take that approach, but that point's irrelevant to the character being voiced or non-voiced. A character doesn't suddenly become less of a Mary-Sue when their vocal chords function. I need but point to the legion of speech-capable Sues out there -- all of them more insufferable than our humble, quiet Charlie.

I'm just splitting hairs here, I admit, but that was the point I was trying to make before I started into an impenetrable dead-end ramble. The solution to your problem has less to do with voice and more to do with fundamentally how they tackle the role of the main character. That is, everything you're asking for in that post is something they could accomplish with a silent protagonist as well, if only they -- as you say -- put more of an emphasis on the player's choices making lasting effects and shaping other characters' opinions of you.

That's how I feel, anyway. Ho hum.

@mutha3: The solution to your problem has less to do with voice and more to do with fundamentally how they tackle the role of the main character. That is, everything you're asking for in that post is something they could accomplish with a silent protagonist as well, if only they put more of an emphasis on the player's choices making lasting effects and shaping other characters' opinions of you.

That's how I feel, anyway. Ho hum.

@mutha3 said:

@Superkenon said:

@mutha3: The solution to your problem has less to do with voice and more to do with fundamentally how they tackle the role of the main character. That is, everything you're asking for in that post is something they could accomplish with a silent protagonist as well, if only they put more of an emphasis on the player's choices making lasting effects and shaping other characters' opinions of you.

That's how I feel, anyway. Ho hum.

None of my posts were actually saying giving the protagonist a voice would fix my issue with the current Persona protagonists, y'know? :P It was just a little off-topic discussion. I agree that Charlie would have been way more insufferable if he talked.

But what if Jeff or Vinny voiced him

@mutha3: Not tryin' to beat you down or nothin', especially seeing as how I largely agree with you. Just clarifying where I was coming from. Seems I wasn't quite sure where you were coming from either though, heh. (I read this like a whole week ago!! What do you take me for!!!?)

So, uhhh... NOW WE'RE EVEN?

It was just a little off-topic discussion. I agree that Charlie would have been way more insufferable if he talked.

Did you play Arena, by chance?

Savagely Johnny Yong Bosch'd!

I like a good silent protagonist

@mutha3:

It was just a little off-topic discussion. I agree that Charlie would have been way more insufferable if he talked.

Did you play Arena, by chance?

Savagely Johnny Yong Bosch'd!

@mutha3 said:

@Superkenon said:

@mutha3: The solution to your problem has less to do with voice and more to do with fundamentally how they tackle the role of the main character. That is, everything you're asking for in that post is something they could accomplish with a silent protagonist as well, if only they put more of an emphasis on the player's choices making lasting effects and shaping other characters' opinions of you.

That's how I feel, anyway. Ho hum.

None of my posts were actually saying giving the protagonist a voice would fix my issue with the current Persona protagonists, y'know? :P It was just a little off-topic discussion. I agree that Charlie would have been way more insufferable if he talked.

But what if Jeff or Vinny voiced him

I wouldn't mind the MC talking, just as long as I could choose what he/she says.

@Nux said:

I wouldn't mind the MC talking, just as long as I could choose what he/she says.

What if you just talk in real life and pretend he's the one saying it?

@Hunter5024 said:

This thread got me thinking about how the whole theme of Persona is about the different Persona's you display around others, and discovering the identity you have beneath those facades. So while giving the main character a personality may create a narrative that allows those themes to be brought forward as a more central part of the story, I wonder if maybe sacrificing the ability for the player to choose the facades you exhibit during your interactions with people, may take away from the aspect of the narrative that makes it such an interesting gamestory rather than just an interesting story.

Also I think maybe you duders are overestimating what a playboy the MC was. You could just be friends with most of the girls. Maybe you shouldn't have played as such slutty guys?

I think you hit the nail on the head. The Persona series has become about using personas in every sense of the word.

Also, a lot of people interpreted P3 and P4 as if the MC had a distinct personality which was not player-driven - however, it is very arguable that this is never the case. In fact, even though all movement generally leans towards him/her being "good" or "courageous" or just plain possessive of a hero-complex, aside from this the player literally chooses nearly all of their decisions (and in some cases can do what one could describe as evil).

Anywho, I voted for No for these reasons - P3 and P4 is the type of role playing I like (along with P4 I generally point towards Mass Effect as my top role playing games of all time).

I really like the way the main characters were set up in P3 and P4, so I'm going to say no on a non-silent personality. Main character doesn't need to talk imo, just give me some options to choose from every now and then and I'll imagine him to be however I want.

Definitely want him to have a personality and some voice acting on some parts,however we still get to choose majority of options when talking.

Tatsuya from P2 has a way stronger and imposing personality than Blue Jesus and Brotag. But now that I think about it he only uses his voice in demon dialogues and there's way fewer dialogue choices.

Still, the filled in backstory makes him a much better character. I'm not going to say that P3 and P4 protags are entirely blank slates because they definitely give off some vibe of what they are supposed to be but that's nothing compared to Tatsuya.

I just wish P2 was more fun to play so I could get through it. Those characters and story are so darn great.

Voted yes, meant to vote no. I like that his personality is what you make it.

I love the Persona approach thus far: there are some dialog choices, but most of the time the game is all like, "You decided to do this. No, you totally did. Just go with it." It allows for both choice and direction, which is a nice change of pace from the hyperbolic promises of some devs in regards to how much a player can influence their world (Mass Effect, Fable). The two examples do all for great amount of variety, but I appreciate a directed narrative that I know will be good or at least deliberate.

Based on how awesome Charlie was in the Persona 4 anime, I think these people can write characters who, in my opinion, are really cool. Then again, I've always been a fan of cool-as-ice, deadpan motherfuckers in pretty much any entertainment media, as well as in real life interpersonal interactions. I'd be friends with Keanu Reeves if I could.

I think what I'm saying is, I don't know if you can do a "cool-as-ice deadpan motherfucker" again and make it work, but based on the anime, I'd like to see them try either that or something entirely new. Because as it stands, like most of the dialog choices you make in Persona 4 result in identical or very similar responses from the surrounding characters, save for the ones during S. Link events that give you "Affection Points" or whatever. Still doesn't feel like I am really giving much character to Charlie, except for the dumb ones like when Teddie bites your hand and you can say "I think I might die" or something.

And yes, before you ask, I have conditioned myself to read/hear "Yu Narukami" as "Charlie Tunoku." In fact, I had to have a friend type out his name from the anime there, because I just keep seeing it as "Charlie Tunoku."

I'd be OK if the protag was similar to Lee Everett or Commander Shepard, in that (s)he has a voice and has a history in that universe but was still malleable to the player's choices. I'm just sick and tired of silent protagonists when everyone else is able to talk. Unless they're going to do something as interesting as with Sigma in Virtue's Last Reward, I want the person I'm controlling to be able to talk at the very least.

I would prefer if all characters had a voice.

I would prefer if he has a voice. Not that it would have a predefined personality, or that personality would not be malleable (think Lee in Walking Dead); but I find it distracting when everyone talks but me, yet they respond to my "answers".