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Games dragged down by bland protagonists
- Thread starter The Masked Mufti
- Start date
As much I hate to say this, since Kiseki is one of my favorite series. Rean (at least in CS/CS2) I've read that he gets a lot better in CS3 so that's good.
Man, I couldn't stop thinking about that once it happened. He obviously had a personality, what's the point of a self insert character now?
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Evie and Jacob? 😂
With the way they set up Jacob to be a gang leader, I don't know why they didn't draw from the wealth of gang leaders in film and TV. We could have had a Thomas Shelby type (but good instead of evil).
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Basically any story-orientated and/or dialogue-heavy game featuring a silent protagonist. All games suffer from a blank slate main character who does nothing during cutscenes but stare in a gormless fashion at their infinitely more interesting supporting cast while occasionally nodding their head to show the player they still have a pulse.
Yes, you get your protagonists where the devs attempted to inject them with some personality and yet they still end up being massively bland, like Aloy for instance, but hell... at least they tried! Which is more than you can say for any team that still leans on the outdated and just downright jarring silent protagonist trope in this day and age.
Maybe the only worse candidate than a silent protagonist is the entire cast of Final Fantasy XII with the exception of Balthier.
Yes, you get your protagonists where the devs attempted to inject them with some personality and yet they still end up being massively bland, like Aloy for instance, but hell... at least they tried! Which is more than you can say for any team that still leans on the outdated and just downright jarring silent protagonist trope in this day and age.
Maybe the only worse candidate than a silent protagonist is the entire cast of Final Fantasy XII with the exception of Balthier.
I personally put Ethan on the same level as Chris, for me Chris is a dull, cow eyed meat head who's so bland they have to re invent his design every game. It's probably not a popular opinion but I probably think Ethan is more enjoyable than Chris for me. Looking forward to seeing what they do with Ethan in RE8.
Not sure, it also resembles a "list of some-of-the-greatest-games-ever" thread.
Also not seeing how these "bland" characters drag down the games. Most of these games seem to float these characters just fine.
Oh hell yeah I'm going with this. All of his attitude and snarkiness from the PS2 game is gone
They didn't redesign him for nearly a decade, just modified the RE5 design as he aged. Even in Vendetta, which came out right next to 7, he had an altered 5/6 design. Before 5, he only showed up like twice in the series and looked the same both times. He's had 2 redesigns, and only one was out of necessity for RE engine.
At least Chris HAS designs and isnt a disembodied voice vaguely reacting at events around him
Have to agree with Aloy. I really like her design and Ashley Burch. The character is just too plain though and she didn't really have depth to be interested.
To go with a non-silent Protagonist answer:
Cole McGrath from inFamous. He was better in 2, but in 1 he was incredibly bland and boring and seemed like cookie cutter gruff voice bald protagonist.
And for a controversial answer:
Shepard from Mass Effect.
This is probably just me, but I never play a human character in a fantasy/sci fi setting, if it has other races. Shepard is a boring void of a character, and I think Bioware games have taught me I have zero interest in ever playing a character where you can "make" their personality through your actions. Give me a good character with a set personality and write around that.
Shepard being a human who becomes the first Spectre or whatever doesn't appeal to me, and no matter what I tried to do to define my Shepard, I never cared at all about their relationship or interactions with others. I would enjoy characters like Garrus or Legion or Thane, but the moment Shepard had to interact with them, it was like they were talking to a brick wall.
Cole McGrath from inFamous. He was better in 2, but in 1 he was incredibly bland and boring and seemed like cookie cutter gruff voice bald protagonist.
And for a controversial answer:
Shepard from Mass Effect.
This is probably just me, but I never play a human character in a fantasy/sci fi setting, if it has other races. Shepard is a boring void of a character, and I think Bioware games have taught me I have zero interest in ever playing a character where you can "make" their personality through your actions. Give me a good character with a set personality and write around that.
Shepard being a human who becomes the first Spectre or whatever doesn't appeal to me, and no matter what I tried to do to define my Shepard, I never cared at all about their relationship or interactions with others. I would enjoy characters like Garrus or Legion or Thane, but the moment Shepard had to interact with them, it was like they were talking to a brick wall.
And yet that still has no sway on my opinion to say Ethan is a better character than Chris.
The bland character was actually the least of FF XIIIs problems considering how horrible the rest of the cast was.
Reinvent his design every game? He looked more or less the same until RE5, then they used that look in RE6, Revelations, and a few other games. His redesign came with RE7... which was on an engine that every character is being redesigned for. As for the opinion that Ethan is more enjoyable than Chris -- woof.
What's your favorite Resident Evil protagonist? You can paint any of them as "bland" if you try hard enough, really. Leon has had the same haircut since the 90s and his story almost always contains elements of him chasing after Ada for the billionth time.
Lara Croft in the recent Tomb Raider games. One moment she's a caring person, next she's murdering people, then you're supposed to feel for her cause she's in so much pain from falling 500 meters down a cave. It's just non sense. I just forget about her and try to enjoy the puzzles and settings. i could have replaced her with Mario and it would have been the same.
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I think the dragged down part of the thread got lost a couple of posts in. (I still stand by my view that DE:MD was worsened by Jensen though.)
The protagonist twins in Astral Chain are currently boring me.
I'm surprised at the Aloy comments, I think she's great.
I'm surprised at the Aloy comments, I think she's great.
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What's bland about Tidus? Unless you mean Yuna, which I can see that.
Tidus is a fantastic character and has one of the best developments of a main character. Only elevates the game by having the best ending.
It's come up a lot in other threads so I am thinking about it but Zack from Crisis Core is this as well; take a decent character idea and then tropify it to the point of no return. He is a bland in a game full of bad and bland characters, which is almost fascinating in and of itself.
I generally dislike 'make your own character' more than a bland one because i don't want to create the player and developers have even more narrative limitations trying to fit it in a plot heavy game.
For example the Avatar in the recent FE was ok until Byleth(?) he/she sucks. It git more and more prominence over others
For example the Avatar in the recent FE was ok until Byleth(?) he/she sucks. It git more and more prominence over others
He works on RE7 setting against the Baker family and at least he is not Chris Redfield, imagine playing the campaign as Chris instead 🤢This blando from RE7.
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Sam had a lot of the same issues that Venom Snake had, which makes me think that Venom being boring was more Kojima than Konami (I've seen people shit on Konami for it).
I don't think Zack was too bad. I agree he was troped big time; he's essentially every anime protag. The rest of the characters were shit though including Sephiroth. Don't even get me started on Genesis. (I loved Crisis Core and want a remaster/remake)
I didn't want Chris or any other RE superhero as the main protagonist of a game with 7's direction, I'm cool with an average Jim Bob... it's just that Ethan is as bland as they come.
He hardly even reacts when he finds out that Mia is alive and on the helicopter at the end of the game.
Oh god, she was so rubbish. How do you go from Max Payne (one of the all time greats) to... whatever her name was.
I mean, the fact that he is "essentially every anime protag" is what makes him bland, lol. He could literally be anyone. You could play as Naruto in that game and it would make structurally no real difference.
He's not great as a character, but then again, this is Halo we're talking about. Master Chief himself was almost completely devoid of character until 4, and even then there's not a ton.
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In my defense, I was around 14 and really into anime when I played it. 😅 (Still I found him to be better than Cloud)
FFXIV suffers from this so much. It's an MMO so I get that they can't have a fixed protagonist, but they could still do more to let you inject some personality into your character.
I don't agree that all silent protagonists are bland, in fact I enjoy them in games where they have their place. Link for example, makes sense to me to be silent.
This is a great example of a bland character when you compare him with the rest of the game.
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This reminds me of Monster Hunter World too much. It's either shocked face or happy face and that's about it.FFXIV suffers from this so much. It's an MMO so I get that they can't have a fixed protagonist, but they could still do more to let you inject some personality into your character.
Talion is like Thor before Thor 3.