Silent Protagonists

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

After just now finishing Fate stay night(well HFs true end, i’m not going to do the normal end since i’m completely satisfied with this ending and i don’t want my last memory to be a inferior ending), I was thinking to myself. “I liked how emiya had a voice actor, I really didn’t feel any less attached to him, if anything he was more of a character because of it.”

I know the reason the protagonist isn’t voiced most of the time because it’s supposed to allow you to talk over it, or rather impose your voice onto him. But isn’t that just a excuse? Most good VN’s allow character by character voice switching so wouldn’t it be possible to have the main characters voice just be a switch? That way people who are against it could turn it off? Is it because of a larger amount of dialogue(hes speaking in all routes) so they don’t want to pay for it, or is it time constraints?

Frankly After FSN it’s awkward to go back into ones i haven’t finished and have silent dialogue from the main.(mainly due to the length of this game, got used to it over these past weeks)

I understand the concept and wouldnt be bothered by it if it was like dragonquest 8 where the main character just never said anything at all, even no text. But it’s just gonna be hard going back to it. What is everyone elses opinion on the subject?

#2

Overall I prefer the protagonist to be voice acted.

However, at times (R.U.R.U.R comes to mind) the protagonist’s voice is so annoying, especially in the H scenes, that I have to disable it.

Here’s an alternate explanation for the reason the protagonist is often silenced, though: The protagonist often has the most lines of dialogue in any given visual novel - voicing the protagonist can be a significant added expense, and if the creators of the VN don’t believe it would add sufficient value (plus, unlike an OP movie and voiced heroines, it’s not something people have come to expect, so people rarely complain when the protagonist isn’t voiced).

Oh, and I haven’t got a PS2 and I haven’t played Realta Nua, so I have no idea what FSN’s voice acting was like, but it’s got a number of high-profile seiyuu so it’s probably excellent

#3

Generally, I’m not too concerned about voice acting as it gives me the opportunity to imagine what each character might sound like, plus it seems to make the story slightly more immersive. However, if an eroge does have voice acting then I definitely prefer it to be fully voiced, protagonist included (the only exception that comes to mind is Bagel [Beigel] from Leaf’s Megiddo for obvious reasons).

Off topic for the thread, but that ending is definitely worth seeing at some stage. I found it to be a much more satisfying conclusion than the true ending.

#4

To be honest since most eroge I play don’t give the protagonist a voice, I consider full voice acting in an eroge to be a good bonus. Still, I suppose it would depend on the game itself: if it’s something epic storywise like Fate/Stay Night or MinDead I’d prefer a voice actor. If it’s an average eroge, then I don’t care either way.

Actually fans made a voice patch from the extracted voice files of Realta Nua that could be applied to the PC version so everything except the ero scenes are voiced. The same thing happened when a translation patch for Utawarerumono was released.

#5

Overall I prefer the main protagonist to be NOT voiced.
I remember hating hearing Male-Kaoru in X change alternative. Thanks to this game I realized it’s really a turn off when you hear the male protagonist (which is supposed to be YOU) saying he is going to cum… :x because he hasn’t your voice.

Furthermore, I usualy skip all the non voiced dialogues just after reading it, and it usualy takes less time to read than to hear. If I don’t do that it’s too slow in my opinion.

#6

But the thing is, in the majority of eroges, the protagonist is NOT supposed to be you. The protagonist is a character.
I would never want to play an eroge where the main character is myself. That… sort of gets rid of the point of playing the eroge in the first place. =P

I agree with Ignosco here - the normal end is a far better ending than the true end. In fact, it feels a lot more like a true conclusion to the game.

#7

Well, male Kaoru’s voice was really a pain, but I guess that’s not the rule. If the voice is tolerable, I don’t mind the main character being voiced. Besides, sometimes it just feels awkward when, after a long voiced dialogue, silence suddenly falls because the main character has started talking.

Anyway, I don’t really care either way.

#8

regarding the ending

Since i played through without a walkthrough and no spoilers(except for ubw good but that doesnt really count). I don’t really know what happens. But I’m assuming either sakura and emiya end up dieing for realz and then everyone else moves on?

#9

Male or female, “I prefer him/her to have a voice” for sure.

#10

There’s an old Ed Wood movie called Orgy of the Dead where Criswell says, “Nobody wants to see a man dance.” And that’s how I feel about voiced protagonists. It’s only the girl’s voices that matter, after all. I prefer to create the sound of the male protagonist’s voice in my head. It helps me identify closer with the character and gives me a layer of control over the game. That being said, I was nonetheless amused by that scene in Snow Sakura wherethe gang make a movie starring the hero, and when they show it you hear Yuuji’s voice on the screen.

#11

While that scene in Snow Sakura was definitely good, I rather liked the scene that happens before that when you make choices leading to Misaki’s route where Misaki is scared and a half asleep Yuuji helps Misaki find the restroom.
As for whether the protagonist should be voiced or not, I really don’t care either way. Since I am still learning Japanese, it would be useful to be able to hear and see the text for all “spoken” lines (as opposed to thoughts of the protagonist, though I suppose those could be voiced as well, with proper audio effects for something heard from within), especially since I’m planning on starting to tackle untranslated titles.

#12

I prefer protagonists with a voice, too.

Sometimes, just read the text to understand about how the protagonist is feeling is not enough. You need to listen him/her voice to understand better his/her feelings at the emotional moment.

I remember how much i enjoyed to play PHANTOM OF INFERNO (despite the awful DVDPG interface) because the thoughts Zwei was sharing with the player during the emotional bits. Or how much i enjoyed to play DEMONBANE because the protagonist was allways complaining about his bad luck. :smiley:

I like Studio Ego games because of that, too. To play eroges where everyone, even the protagonist, is voiced make me feel even more like i’m watching an anime show.

Of course, bad voices can destroy our enjoyment, but we can allways just turn off the voice of that lousy character who is pissing us, right? :wink:

#13

Do you ever played any eroge with a voiced protagonist? :lol:

A GOOD eroge, that is.

#14

Awwwww… :frowning: :cry:

Well, then let me tell you that I understand you perfectly - I just don’t share your opinion! :stuck_out_tongue: :twisted:

Seriously: Some of my favorite games wouldn’t be the same for me without the almost devine voice of Hokuto Minami, so total silence (=no voice acting at all) is entirely out of the question for me!

#15

Yin Yang XCA. I can not find any other title with talking protagonist, yet it is above average IMO.

Agree. I can not picture myself taking Kengo Inui’s role while playing Virgin Roster :mrgreen:

#16

I Dont have a real inclination either side, and I am talking about all genres. Remember GTA III?
But yeah I would like the protagonist to have a voice.
Specific to eroge, yeah a lead guy with voice is better, if its possible

#17

Eroges that I’ve played with a voiced male protagonist (that immediately come to mind):

  • Ayakashibito (definitely beneficial here)
  • Bullet Butlers (definitely beneficial here)
  • Kusari (definitely beneficial here)
  • School Days (ehhh- could probably have been muted. Muting his breathing in the in-game options makes it a little more bearable in the H scenes, I guess =p)
  • Summer Days (same story as School Days. same protag, after all)
  • R.U.R.U.R (wasn’t too bad, but I did want to mute him occasionally, especially during H scenes)
  • Scarlett (beneficial, sure)
  • Swan Song (definitely, especially for normal end - it heightened the emotional impact of that scene)
  • Sekai de Ichiban NG na Koi (could have gone either way, but probably beneficial)

Actually, there’s a bunch of other titles with a male voiced protag that I’ve played, but for some reason they aren’t coming to mind right now. Oh well.

#18

I prefer silent protagonists in both B games and mainstream RPG’s. I hold true to the motto, “in the moment of action remember the value of silence…” obviously the action depends on what type of game I’m playing :smiley:

#19

I prefer my good galgames to be unvoiced.

I personally consider HF’s normal ending to be the better ending. With everything that happens in HF, a happy ending just feels forced and out of touch. In fact, I hold HF’s normal ending as the most beautiful and poetic ending I’ve ever read in a story, may it be a novel or a galgame.

As a note, I wouldn’t even consider playing F/sn voiced. >_<

Now, now, while I do agree on the divine voice of Hokuto Minami (Hokuto Minami fans, raise your hand!), and would admit my love for Nagasaki Minami, Kaibara Erena or Torii Kanon’s voice acting (YUUHI!!!), my few tries with playing a serious mood game voiced and unvoiced still make me maintain my preference for unvoiced.

#20