phersu Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 It's so you can pretend you're the protagonist. But, hey, at least they get faces in the anime adaptions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 How can you pretend you’re the protagonist when the story tells you who your character is, what you’re thinking, what you’re saying, and what you do? More than a ‘faceless protagonist’ is required if they want to achieve this imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 I think the idea is basically personal interpretation, like in Half Life Gordon doesnt talk as you are supposed to interpretate the character whatever you want. That being said it really depends on how much you want to feel like the character, in my case i need to be able to name them or them being silent otherwise they dont work for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchytaco Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 I remember reading once about this is a Kotaku article. Usually third person, protagonists with a full identity are what sells in Japan. Western games and stories like to put the players directly in control and create sand box characters with little to no personality. I've gotten used to both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decay Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 That's true for story focused games, like RPGs. Westerners like RPGs with lots of choices where they're put in the shoes of the protagonist, like a D&D campaign or something. Oldschool western RPGs had little focus on character personalities and the player created the personality for their characters. Even in action games, this was sort of true with most western action games having main characters with little to no personality trait, even in story focused ones like Half Life. Of course, even that is falling out of favor amongst western gamers. Now they prefer character driven stories with strong protagonist personalities, like Uncharted, The Witcher, and so on. In Japan, I don't think the trend has changed too much by and large. In VNs, it has, VNs used to be predominantly story focused and had protagonists with stronger personalities but nowadays eroge are by and large far less story focused and have the faceless, personality-less everyman as the protagonist. But outside of VNs, as far as I can tell, it seems like the trends for protagonists in Japanese games are much the same as they were 15 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 I disagree with what has been said about it, i mean Link Gordon Freeman Crono Mario Samus Adol Christin every Dragon Quest Hero and many more have been far more popular than many well developed characters and most of them have little to no Personality. You can still make great games with a no personality MC and still make a great story. What happens around the character is what is more important and what stays more with you. That being i think Japan would benefit more from making more no personality characters if they arent going to give him/her its own character since as of now most MCs are too developed to be player inserts and too underdeveloped to stand as its own character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Of course, even that is falling out of favor amongst western gamers. Now they prefer character driven stories with strong protagonist personalities, like Uncharted, The Witcher, and so on. As a fan of strong narratives in games I would love for this to be true, however the biggest franchises in Western RPGs are Elder Scrolls and Diablo by a long way. And I believe the recent launch of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Destiny far surpassed the wildest dreams of any narrative based game. Don't get me wrong the Witcher 2 sold well, and stories are becoming a bigger part of games in general, but it was easily surpassed by open choice games. The same goes for Uncharted and even Tomb Raider. The adventure genre being practically dead in the West should give you a hint regarding the overall health of narrative based games in this part of the world. Furthermore no narrative game is on the list of the highest selling games of all time, but GTA is, so is the Sims, Diablo and Skyrim are probably on it, along with a bunch of of shooters and party games. And Mario stuff probably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decay Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Compare GTA5 to the earlier titles, it's a huge difference. In the first two games there were practically no story and your character was a nobody. They were basically raw, twisted wish fulfilment games. In 3 there was a basic story but your character was still a nobody. In VC there was more story stuff and your character had some personality but didn't actually speak ever. Ever since San Andreas they started taking that series into a more narrative driven direction, with GTA4 and 5 being even more story based and character driven. This represents the trend in western game and story design perfectly, in my opinion. Even the Elder Scrolls games are a bit more linear and narrative driven than they used to be, but those are kind of old standbys that will never change. There will of course always be those, such as Diablo as well (although Blizzard nearly ruined D3 with their asinine story that was practically forced on the player...). But those are exceptions that don't disprove the trend. There's also a resurgence of oldschool RPGs lately like Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity, but I don't think this negates the popular trend in major western AAA titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Indeed that games have been inplementing more complex stories as of late however even for JRPGs the gameplay is what sells the games and wich will allow these stories to be experienced. However VNsare known for the lack of any gameplay element besides hitting the next button and making a choice every now (Wich is why Date Sims are an slightly more profitable genre just look at Tokimemo and Love Plus) and then wich is why the genre will not come out of its niche, more when most of them have sexual content (Even when they dont need it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchytaco Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 But those are exceptions that don't disprove the trend. There's also a resurgence of oldschool RPGs lately like Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity, but I don't think this negates the popular trend in major western AAA titles.Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewy Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Wasn't it so that you can pretend to be the protag or something like that? Also, isn't it easier on the anime creating folk because they can make it however they want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funyarinpa Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 three words: (spoiler for the game inside, don't open if you aren't confident you know which game it is) Virtue's Last Reward Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okami Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Just wondered, since Kyousuke from G-senjou not having a face is kinda bugging me. Kyousuke does have a face it is just not shown all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 Kyousuke does have a face it is just not shown all the time. Yeah, I noticed that right after I posted the topic. Guess you missed the edit. I assumed that he didn't have a face because it hadn't been shown until then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beato Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Kyousuke's face only being shown once really bothered me as well. Especially since Sharin which is a much earlier game of theirs had a protagonist with a face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Kyousuke's face only being shown once really bothered me as well. Especially since Sharin which is a much earlier game of theirs had a protagonist with a face. Exactly. Ken's face was shown so many times that it's impossible to not think about it when you think of Sharin no Kuni. His face, at least for me, is forever associated with Sharin no Kuni. I don't find that to be a bad thing; I mean, it's supposed to be a story about Ken, right? I'm a little biased, I have to admit, but I like feeling like I'm an observer watching events unfold when I read stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heizei_koukousei Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I feel like the same principle that applies to hentai continues over to VNs. Nobody is in it for the guy when it comes to sexual content Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 One problem with that line of thinking is that to tell a good story, the protagonist has to be a 'round' character, even if he isn't a 'dynamic' character. Making protagonists visually faceless is one thing, but the tendency to not give them a real personality in a lot of moege drives me insane, because it ruins otherwise enjoyable VNs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinalChaos Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I have hardly ever tried to think of the protag as myself, so having a protag with a face is always appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkshine Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I don't really care cause you play the story through the MC's eyes and so you don't see their face often. Although I prefer that the character has a face to identify himself with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratoscar2008 Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 I think it would be a little less ankward if they didnt show his head, like dont show anything above the kneck and you are Golden. I have played some eroges with MCs with face and i have noted that most of the sex scene dont show the MC face (Like eiyuu senki) so maybe the artists dont know how to portray expressions with the male characters. Also you dont need a MC with personality to make a great story, Mitsumete Knight has one of the deepest story of any date sim and the MC doesnt talk besides dialogue choices. Sure with VN is a little different but if proper games can do it why not VNs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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