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Why male protagonists in most 18+ games have no voices?


[Hun]Lepto

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1 minute ago, MaggieROBOT said:

What guys above said. It's the same reason sometimes they barely have a personality or a face.

I have no idea how can someone see those souless husks without eyes on CGs and not get creeped out.

I see, so it's basically the general idea I had. It really makes it hard to choose a VN, the only tag that helps at VNDB is "Protagonist with a face", but even that doesn't tell me whether the protag has a self-insert personality or not. While I don't like feeling like the protagonist, I do want to feel like I'm merely just an observer and influencer through his eyes.

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3 minutes ago, [Hun]Lepto said:

I see, so it's basically the general idea I had. It really makes it hard to choose a VN, the only tag that helps at VNDB is "Protagonist with a face", but even that doesn't tell me whether the protag has a self-insert personality or not. While I don't like feeling like the protagonist, I do want to feel like I'm merely just an observer and influencer through his eyes.

You could try the tag Proactive Protagonist as well, as those usually have more of a personality (I filtered out untranslated, added "Protagonist with a face" and sorted by rating).

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15 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

You could try the tag Proactive Protagonist as well, as those usually have more of a personality (I filtered out untranslated, added "Protagonist with a face" and sorted by rating).

Well, you could say that being proactive also means having a personality already, though that also filter out protagonists with more laid back personalities. But yeah, thanks for the recommendation, I may look for something with these filters when I want to read something.

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It is a relic from the early years, when most protagonists were meant to be self-insert, to the point where you could name them.  However, as SOL VNs evolved, it was found that people were more likely to purchase VNs if you couldn't name the protagonist and the protagonist actually had a personality of some sort.  Later, the lack of VA for the protagonist was just a relic of the past that happened to coincide with the convenience of being able to cut the cost of one character's worth of voice-acting (the one that most likely has the most lines, at that).  

I should note that most trap protagonist VNs now have protagonist voices, as do many chuunige.  However, these are niche/minority games even amongst non-nukige...

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13 minutes ago, Clephas said:

It is a relic from the early years, when most protagonists were meant to be self-insert, to the point where you could name them.  However, as SOL VNs evolved, it was found that people were more likely to purchase VNs if you couldn't name the protagonist and the protagonist actually had a personality of some sort.  Later, the lack of VA for the protagonist was just a relic of the past that happened to coincide with the convenience of being able to cut the cost of one character's worth of voice-acting (the one that most likely has the most lines, at that).  

I should note that most trap protagonist VNs now have protagonist voices, as do many chuunige.  However, these are niche/minority games even amongst non-nukige...

I see, even though I don't support the idea itself (though I can understand looking at it like profit), it's good that there's an actual explanation.

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Saving the cost should be the most obvious reasons, and I think only the VN that was well known that have the MC voiced (Male one obviously, not female and trap MC). On the other hand, having the MC voiced didn't mean that the VN will be good (See Shera My Witch, which to be fair it's only a nukige). Well in the end, it's depend on the company whether to add the voice to the male MC or not.

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The protagonist has the most voiced lines in the whole game usually, since he is present in all routes, and 99% of all scenes. So, voicing him would cost a truck load of money, on top of the cost of the female VAs doing the heroines. Then add in the fact that a lot of people who want to self insert mute the male MC anyways, and you have a very cost inefficient system. 
So just leaving him un-voiced is a quick fix to save costs without really losing much interest from customers, as a lot of them want him un-voiced anyways. 

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Souless husks as maggie puts it so perfectly shouldnt be prioritized. Financially i can understand it from the standpoint on smaller firms, but its an embarassment if big companies with popular vn's or other games have to cut protag to cut costs.

 

Edited by Stormwolf
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I feel you, I am also fairly new (have read less than 6 or 7) and don't like how vn tries so hard to hide their faces and they have no voices most of the times. I usually tend to avoid those kinds of vn.

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As long as it's just some run-of-the-mill self-insert protagonist, I don't really mind if he's unvoiced, but I think it becomes a problem when it's one with a strong, established personality, like Yuuji in Grisaia. I much prefer if a protagonist like that is voiced, and I think the only counter-argument I'd (reluctantly) accept is if it has to be cut for budget reasons.

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Then there are a few protagonists that I actually would prefer unvoiced. The first one that comes to mind is Makoto in School Days. His pathetic moaning during h-scenes still haunts my mind to this day. I didn't realize until after I was done with that VN that I could've probably turned his voice off in the sound options.

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You can also look for Protagonist with voice Acting on VNDB, just finished Little Witch Romanesque and really liked the voice acting there. It's a bit sad, but having a voiced protagonist can be kinda seen as a mark of quality, in a going the extra mile sort of way.

ChuableSoft seems to take an approach where they only have their protagonists voiced during strong character scenes and that is kind of effective in a way too, while still keeping costs low.

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On 02/04/2020 at 3:38 PM, [Hun]Lepto said:

I see, so it's basically the general idea I had. It really makes it hard to choose a VN, the only tag that helps at VNDB is "Protagonist with a face", but even that doesn't tell me whether the protag has a self-insert personality or not. While I don't like feeling like the protagonist, I do want to feel like I'm merely just an observer and influencer through his eyes.

I am the same, though even with self-insert protagonists I don't see myself as them. There are reasons for that, one is that I cannot imagine myself as another person, at least in terms of personality. I don't have the exact thoughts as the main character either.

In any kind of media, I can relate to the protagonists but I am always the observer. I second the tag recommendations.

You will probably want to stay away from "Hetare" and "Boke" as well. "Hetare" are the classic spineless MCs that people complain about.

I'm another newbie - I've known VNs for ages but read very little so far.

One thing I've seen is a protagonist with a face in CGs but no voice, and in H scenes he is faceless or does not appear.

Edited by supercar
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1 hour ago, supercar said:

in H scenes he is faceless or does not appear.

I imagine it's because most players aren't very interested in looking at a dude in those situations. For the same reason, they often make the protagonist silent in h-scenes, even if he's voiced in the rest of the game.

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2 hours ago, Seraphim88 said:

I imagine it's because most players aren't very interested in looking at a dude in those situations. For the same reason, they often make the protagonist silent in h-scenes, even if he's voiced in the rest of the game.

Yeah, that's probably why. I've heard similar things about real life porn.

Since I don't fit the main demographic for eroge, I actually like to see the protagonist in H scenes.

Geh, I agree the moaning is awkward, especially if the scene is long. Doesn't matter if it's the girl or the boy, it's weird seeing a static CG and hearing non-stop moaning.

Regarding Makoto's voice, yeah, it's a bit grating. I don't know why, but he sounded different to my ears in Shiny Days too. Like, really bad.

Edited by supercar
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Well, it doesnt help that japanese women sounds horrible in bed either. I'm not sure if it's a widespread pedo thing to sound squeaky and young, or if it's just how they sound naturally. I feel bad for my cousin if it's the latter.

Edited by Stormwolf
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13 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Well, it doesnt help that japanese women sounds horrible in bed either. I'm not sure if it's a widespread pedo thing to sound squeaky and young, or if it's just how they sound naturally. I feel bad for my cousin if it's the latter.

I've gotten used to it at this point. I believe it is how they actually sound - their natural voice.

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I'm usually not very bothered by unvoiced protagonists, as long as the VN is in ego perspective, since I'm pretty good at self-inserting and letting my imagination do the job. However, if the protagonist appears on screen the whole time, it can be a bit awkward though. Because that's a 3rd person view then and I'm more 'accompanying' the protagonist instead of 'being' him myself in that case. Personally (as a guy), I usually prefer the former for male protagonists and the latter for female ones, for obvious reasons. If you have a protagonist like 2B from Nier: Automata, you just HAVE TO see her! :P

Anyway, as said before, the main issue with voiced protagonists are probably the costs. And trying to keep the costs low by just hiring a low level voice actor can do more harm than good, because most people wouldn't be able to endure that voice through the whole VN.
I mean, getting a voiced protagonist sounds great if you can get someone like Fukuyama Jun, who voiced Zero in Code Geass and Maou in G-Senjou, or Tsuda Kenjirou from Hakuouki or Nightshade. But unfortunately, with Bishoujo VN's who spend there main voice budget for female voice actressess, you're usually stuck with three basic types of male voice actors: idiot friend, whiny wimp and scum villain. And that's pretty much like comparing rotting food to a five star menu - better pass on that meal completely if that's all you can get.

Edited by ChaosRaven
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A self created problem to trick people into cutting costs with no backlash. As in, not really a problem they've just made people aware that voiced protagonist is more expensive than unvoiced. They can handle the costs just fine

Edited by Stormwolf
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