I generally hate silent protags, in fact I think it is one of the dumbest trends in all of gaming. Every time I encounter a silent protagonist and watch their interactions with the world around them I roll my eyes or cringe and am immediately pulled from any immersion in the narrative.
Yet as I have LTTP'd Persona 5 Royal, after being a massive fan of the original release, I am realizing just how utterly cool and amazing Joker the silent protagonist is. And I think it's for a few reasons.
The big one is that you are constantly given response options. These choices aren't always meaningful in a game altering way (except if you're trying to score confidant points) but instead you have a way to shape your character's silent personality. You are given options in almost every interaction, texting session and social setup and you always have either a funny-cool, badass-cool or chill-cool option. A lot of the time when people are freaking out, you have the dialogue option to "calm down", in fact I am up to the 4th dungeon and I have had to tell each party member at one point during an escalated moment to "calm down"
The other interesting thing is that the game often provides an internal narration of what Joker is thinking. So even though he never speaks we are often told what he is thinking or feeling. I don't know of other JRPGs which really outline the internal monologue so thickly into their silent protagonists.
On top of that the initial overarching narrative is that you are a socially ostracized person slowly impressing everyone around you. This is similar to the fate of all recent Persona games, but this particular entry in the series focuses much more on being praised for doing impressive things.
All in all, I love roleplaying as Joker, I love my Joker who is never phased by the intensities all around him and is able to tell a witty joke or disarm most of drama with a smart reply. He's the first silent protagonist I've really felt had deep and frequent personality choices built in. So even though he does not speak, I am constantly inputting my little version of his voice and really feel like I know him just as much as any of the other characters who blab on for thousands of lines of dialogue. Even just that contrast of speaking infrequently in a group of chatterboxes adds to Joker's cool factor.
Yet as I have LTTP'd Persona 5 Royal, after being a massive fan of the original release, I am realizing just how utterly cool and amazing Joker the silent protagonist is. And I think it's for a few reasons.
The big one is that you are constantly given response options. These choices aren't always meaningful in a game altering way (except if you're trying to score confidant points) but instead you have a way to shape your character's silent personality. You are given options in almost every interaction, texting session and social setup and you always have either a funny-cool, badass-cool or chill-cool option. A lot of the time when people are freaking out, you have the dialogue option to "calm down", in fact I am up to the 4th dungeon and I have had to tell each party member at one point during an escalated moment to "calm down"
The other interesting thing is that the game often provides an internal narration of what Joker is thinking. So even though he never speaks we are often told what he is thinking or feeling. I don't know of other JRPGs which really outline the internal monologue so thickly into their silent protagonists.
On top of that the initial overarching narrative is that you are a socially ostracized person slowly impressing everyone around you. This is similar to the fate of all recent Persona games, but this particular entry in the series focuses much more on being praised for doing impressive things.
All in all, I love roleplaying as Joker, I love my Joker who is never phased by the intensities all around him and is able to tell a witty joke or disarm most of drama with a smart reply. He's the first silent protagonist I've really felt had deep and frequent personality choices built in. So even though he does not speak, I am constantly inputting my little version of his voice and really feel like I know him just as much as any of the other characters who blab on for thousands of lines of dialogue. Even just that contrast of speaking infrequently in a group of chatterboxes adds to Joker's cool factor.
