Boring or unremarkable Protagonist

[hell lover]

I have been playing games for many years now and i always thought it was always a bit of an annoyance but i always thought the protagonists in western games tended to be boring and/or just plain. I have also noticed this trend in most western erotic games as well.

For instance. The protagonist in Roundscape possibly can have a interesting personality but i always found that he/she looks boring compared to the other main characters in the game.

Another Example is Legend of Queen Opala, where even though you play the main character you are the most dull character in the entire story. Honestly playing either Osira or Opala would have been much more exciting and enjoyable.

I found this extremely infuriating in the latest couple of Bioware games where the main characters is the most dull and boring of the entire game and the game depends on the secondary and minor characters personality to drive the game.

A recent example i just hate was in the new VN Demonheart which is a remake from a module for Neverwinter Nights. In the Module the Female Protagonist is always stated to be beautiful (and big breasted if you set her body to be like that.) but in the remake she is horribly plain with her only noticeable feature is that she has red hair.

I guess this might be the reason why i have always preferred Eastern games.

What do you people think? I'm all right if people don´t agree with me, i just found it weird.

 

[RanmaChan]

I think that sometimes it is either just bad writing, or, they are trying to use the sort of 'blank slate hero' template. That is where, because the character is plain, you can imprint yourself/your personality onto the character, thus, in a sense, allowing you to be the character. I haven't played any of the games you have talked about though, so I can't really say for certain what those games are doing or what their problems are. Or, I may be completely wrong.

 

[hell lover]

I understand what you mean but i have always found the blank slate hero to be a un creative way to write a protagonist. I have never believed the concept of imprinting myself into a character since i find it makes the reactions that the character has in the game rather dull since the characters should have a stake in the game but instead they make the protagonist act that uninterested and/or uncaring about the situation. Like for example in the bioware game even though you pick the choices that say you have a good morality, your characters still shows dull reactions to important events.

 

[RanmaChan]

I love the Half Life series, and I always thought it worked in those. I think some games can do it right.

 

[hell lover]

I guess but that's a little different example since in that game your characters completely drives the plot with the other characters having the purpose of pointing you to the next destination instead of stealing focus.

 

[Noob Salad]

I hate imprinting myself because I'm boring as fuck. In the wise words of Mr. Plinkett, the audience really needs what's called a "pro tah gone ist" to connect and relate to, to guide them on a journey of adventure and shit. Voiced over silenced, backstory over blank slate, etc. It's more interesting to see someone with their own hopes and dreams overcome obstacles and reach their goals. If I wanted to be a hero myself I'd join the military or something.

 

[Ormael]

In game like CoC blank slate is somehow helping but in games that not allow so deep customization and sandbox pay it's good to have clear defined MC. Eastern games or novels sometimes also fall to amke it in a way generic like super cool always 5 steps ahead rest oh his peers. Sometimes it's just getting boring too. But then I just switching LN. In western realm it would be much harder with less diversity of titles.

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

I assume we are mostly talking RPGs and non-linear plots,so:

The Witcher series, especially the third game, stands as a mighty case for having a pretty established hero, if there is still enough room left by the devs to allow player's decisions to matter.

Planescape: Torment shows how, with some clever writing cheats, you can have the upsides of both an established character and a blank slate, without most of the downsides.

However, the thing about established characters - they can turn people off from otherwise great games. I've recently been told by some birb that they'll likely never play the Witcher trilogy because they don't want to be a monster-hunting, wise cracking, gravel voiced and gruff guy.

Therd is, however, another way; one I like the most, used by most great cRPGs and that haven't been mentioned so far because most people in the thread are fucking weebs with shit taste prefer Eastern style of game-development. The Toolbox Chargen. When done right and properly accommodated by the game's story/gameplay, it is by far the most enjoyable and varied of all the options.

 

[Zavos]

Fallout 4 has the most shit protagonist I've ever played. Blank slate + baggage.

 

[hell lover]

Lol Yeah the protagonist in Fallout 4 sucked. I'm ok with Gerralt from The witcher series.

Funny thing about Estern games when i thought about it. The main protagonists in Eastern video games tend to be interesting and/or stand out from the rest of the cast while in Eastern Novels the Main character is never shown and is often stated to be uninteresting and/or plain. For example like in the kansen series and many more that i have seen. I guess Fate stay night is an exception since Shirou has a personality and a clear goal to work towards do unlike most novel protagonist that just go through the story.

 

[SarenSoran]

I guess Fate stay night is an exception since Shirou has a personality and a clear goal to work towards do unlike most novel protagonist that just go through the story.

good lord, i wouldn't have thought to find someone who thinks shiro has purpose ^^

 

[Noob Salad]

Shirou has...a personality, sure. I mean yeah, you're not wrong.

He's just kind of...boring. And it's so much worse if you read the visual novel. I mean, those sex scenes, ugh.

 

[hell lover]

Never was able to get into that novel or anime since i found the main characters to be less interesting than the heroic spirits.

 

[PerpetuallyAmiss]

Fate Zero is a must watch in my oppinion. The dub is pretty amazing if thats your thing aswell.

 

[Ethereal Dragon]

The dub is pretty amazing if thats your thing aswell.

Gah I cannot handle dubs, makes me grind my teeth whenever I found out dubs were done, english voice actors that do anime generally can't voice act as good as the original voice actors even if they're in another language.

 

[Noob Salad]

Right because you clearly have a doctorate in sound engineering, are fluent in both English and Japanese, and have years of experience in acting yourself. 2weeb

Even the creators of Cowboy Bebop, for example, have admitted the dub was better. Next you're gonna tell me you're one of those people that tries to watch RWBY and Korra in Japanese.

フランク先生、俺たちを助けろ。

 

[Ethereal Dragon]

Right because you clearly have a doctorate in sound engineering, are fluent in both English and Japanese, and have years of experience in acting yourself. 2weeb

Even the creators of Cowboy Bebop, for example, have admitted the dub was better. Next you're gonna tell me you're one of those people that tries to watch RWBY and Korra in Japanese.

フランク先生、俺たちを助けろ。

Never watched RWBY, watched Korra but not in Japanese. I made my last post due to the fact that all the anime's I've watched up to this point are much better in the original language than in the dub version. Also they leave a ton of stuff out of dialogue when it gets transferred over to dub.

 

[RanmaChan]

To be honest there are very few dubbed anime anime that I can stand watching. (Kill la Kill was good, but I watched both the dub and the sub, cause overall it is amazing.) To be honest though, I bet that if I were able to understand Japanese fluently, at lot of anime would probably sound pretty shitty.
Also, they leave quite a lot out in the subtitles too, remember that. It is also fun to watch the same anime subbed by two different groups, one good, another one not so good.
I kinda stopped watching RWBY, just trailed off after season 3.

 

[Noob Salad]

I bet that if I were able to understand Japanese fluently, at lot of anime would probably sound pretty shitty.

Not shitty, just silly. It's hard to explain.

 

[hell lover]

Never liked Dubs except for perhaps Dragon ball original.

 

[Orange Juice Jones]

Shirou was a good character sure he could be slow on the uptake sometimes/all-times but at least he had depth

An example of a unremarkable protagonist was the main dude in Deardrops I couldn't deal with how pompous, boring and limp wristed he was so I ditched the game

The problem with some dubbs for me is the lack of variety in voice actors

 

[Dragon]

I understand what you mean but i have always found the blank slate hero to be a un creative way to write a protagonist. I have never believed the concept of imprinting myself into a character since i find it makes the reactions that the character has in the game rather dull since the characters should have a stake in the game but instead they make the protagonist act that uninterested and/or uncaring about the situation. Like for example in the bioware game even though you pick the choices that say you have a good morality, your characters still shows dull reactions to important events.

You literally just answered your own conundrum here, open world rpgs especially those based on of DnD models such as never winter are literally about writing your own character backstory and then letting the player build that character' personality. That is why games like Bauldur's gate was so great. A lot of Eastern Protags are just as unremarkable because they tend to follow a formula that has been done a thousand times before and thus leave nothing to the imagination. Now, this isn't always a bad thing in regardless of whether it an eastern or western game. I mean games like thief series and witcher series have a protagonist who follow a formula used a thousand times but they are done in ways that still make the story enjoyable.