I'd like these games more if....

[Syn]

.. the protagonist wasn't always a generic Kirito guy.

Seriously. Stop being boring. Kirito sucks. Sorry SAO fans, it's true.

[REBirthTheEdge]

Originally posted by FluffyPotato:

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

Multiple endings mean some basic choices and consequences, and see how different the worlds might be after the ending.
I will always preset character with a cool design over custom preset ones.
The protag definitely has personality, and I don't find him boring either, he has the typical japanese polite but actually kind of heart and courageous attitude.

I have been playing for a fair bit now and the choices in the game don't seem to matter at all, a lot even have identical responses irrelevant of what you pick. The game outright doesn't let you choose things it doesn't want, for example before and after the first battle with the bald religious elf. There's even not much voice acting for the protagonist. Also, yea the protagonist has the most generic JRPG main character personality so far as in, not much of one. God Eater games had a protagonist with more personality and those were fully customizable. Having a custom character here wouldn't have changed a thing so far, just improved the experience.

The game itself is pretty good though, the companion characters are at least interesting.

JRPG would lose their individuality if they become custom character IMO.

A part of the appeal of the genre is the unique character design.

[Lucius]

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

Originally posted by FluffyPotato:

I have been playing for a fair bit now and the choices in the game don't seem to matter at all, a lot even have identical responses irrelevant of what you pick. The game outright doesn't let you choose things it doesn't want, for example before and after the first battle with the bald religious elf. There's even not much voice acting for the protagonist. Also, yea the protagonist has the most generic JRPG main character personality so far as in, not much of one. God Eater games had a protagonist with more personality and those were fully customizable. Having a custom character here wouldn't have changed a thing so far, just improved the experience.

The game itself is pretty good though, the companion characters are at least interesting.

JRPG would lose their individuality if they become custom character IMO.

A part of the appeal of the genre is the unique character design.

Yeah, JRPGs have this thing about giving you these highly stylized protagonists with their own look, personality, and zero customization options. I get it, the appeal is that the character design and story are tightly integrated—part of what gives JRPGs their charm. But man, sometimes you just want to throw in some personal flavor, you know?

I mean, I loved Mass Effect for that very reason. My Femshep? Asian ponytailed brunette, kicking ass across the galaxy. It felt like my story, not just one I was following along with. In Metaphor (and JRPGs in general), I sometimes feel like I'm playing a role in someone else’s movie—cool, but I miss that sense of ownership you get when you can mold the character to your liking.

Sure, the protagonist in Metaphor is the classic polite, heart-of-gold JRPG hero, but imagine how much more immersive it could be if you could tweak their appearance and personality a bit more. I’m not saying I need full-on Skyrim sliders, but a little customization wouldn’t hurt! Wouldn’t change the plot, but it would make it feel more personal.

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

JRPG would lose their individuality if they become custom character IMO.

A part of the appeal of the genre is the unique character design.

Hmmm ...

Yes, JRPGs are traditionally "themepark RPGs" in which you have a fixed ("chosen") character whereas western RPGs tend to be more about creating your own experience.

That being said we're now decades into videogames and both sides have tried themselves on their respective tropes so asking for stagnation is also not the way to go in my opinion.

In the case of ATLUS games you wouldn't loose a single thing if the characters weren't Mary Sues ... nothing about any of them is memorable. The main prot. of Metaphor is by far the blankest slate there is. The only thing that justifies him being that set character are the anime cutscenes.

[REBirthTheEdge]

Originally posted by Lucius:

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

JRPG would lose their individuality if they become custom character IMO.

A part of the appeal of the genre is the unique character design.

Yeah, JRPGs have this thing about giving you these highly stylized protagonists with their own look, personality, and zero customization options. I get it, the appeal is that the character design and story are tightly integrated—part of what gives JRPGs their charm. But man, sometimes you just want to throw in some personal flavor, you know?

I mean, I loved Mass Effect for that very reason. My Femshep? Asian ponytailed brunette, kicking ass across the galaxy. It felt like my story, not just one I was following along with. In Metaphor (and JRPGs in general), I sometimes feel like I'm playing a role in someone else’s movie—cool, but I miss that sense of ownership you get when you can mold the character to your liking.

Sure, the protagonist in Metaphor is the classic polite, heart-of-gold JRPG hero, but imagine how much more immersive it could be if you could tweak their appearance and personality a bit more. I’m not saying I need full-on Skyrim sliders, but a little customization wouldn’t hurt! Wouldn’t change the plot, but it would make it feel more personal.

Sure, but that isn't a JRPG thing.

JRPG main characters are usefully defined characters, you just happen to control 'em.

The mixing of genres can mean more homonization which I don't like IMO

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

Sure, but that isn't a JRPG thing.

JRPG main characters are usefully defined characters, you just happen to control 'em.

The mixing of genres can mean more homonization which I don't like IMO

Sry mate but I think you're wrong.
The JRPG main character is normally a fixed person - but that person also normally has a backstory to justify their journey.
As I pointed out a post ago: The protagonists in ATLUS game are blank slates. They have almost no backstory which isn't how the JRPG trope usually works so well. The only defining feature blue-haired-boy has is that he's an Elda and he is friends with the prince ... so the story would loose nothing by letting us customize an Elda character. I was almost shocked that this time the main character is actually voiced because it shows how little it changes about his personality.

[CloudKira]

The protags are silent so that every player can imagine him as he/she wants.

Most non silent protags are either goody two shoes types, oblivious chick magnets or edgelords nowadays.

[REBirthTheEdge]

Originally posted by Swimfan:

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

Sure, but that isn't a JRPG thing.

JRPG main characters are usefully defined characters, you just happen to control 'em.

The mixing of genres can mean more homonization which I don't like IMO

Sry mate but I think you're wrong.
The JRPG main character is normally a fixed person - but that person also normally has a backstory to justify their journey.
As I pointed out a post ago: The protagonists in ATLUS game are blank slates. They have almost no backstory which isn't how the JRPG trope usually works so well. The only defining feature blue-haired-boy has is that he's an Elda and he is friends with the prince ... so the story would loose nothing by letting us customize an Elda character. I was almost shocked that this time the main character is actually voiced because it shows how little it changes about his personality.

The protag in this game has a fixed backstory, you can choose his dialogs to be more brave or snarky but his personality ultimately represents the japanese ideal, quiet, kind, polite, courageous and never giving up.

I think that is fine IMO.

[Hi.standard]

Originally posted by Syn:

.. the protagonist wasn't always a generic Kirito guy.

Seriously. Stop being boring. Kirito sucks. Sorry SAO fans, it's true.

totally agree. Protag is literally always a 17 year old short bowl cut hair kid who is boring asf.

[Neru]

Hes acting stoic to resist all these racist provocation. If it was irl i bet most people would do the same beside crying like a ♥♥♥♥♥ ofc

[REBirthTheEdge]

Originally posted by Serotonin:

Hes acting stoic to resist all these racist provocation. If it was irl i bet most people would do the same beside crying like a ♥♥♥♥♥ ofc

He's quite a man.

[Syn]

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

Originally posted by FluffyPotato:

That would be great if they had a personality but the vast majority of these games the protagonist has the personality of an AI generated stick figure. Like Tales of Berseria is the only JRPG that comes to mind where the protagonist had a personality.

The SMT protags are usually silent protags where you can choose dialog options, in this case, it's the same.
I think the characters are only boring if you are boring.

The design is boring.
Because it's overdone.
Every single one of these protagonists-

- Short dark hair.
- Male
- Late teens/early 20s
- Stoic
- Often look exactly like Kirito

If you're really lucky their hair might be longer. If exceptionally lucky they might be a shade of hair other than black, blue or brown.

None of these traits is bad by themselves (aside from looking like Kirito), but they are so overdone at this point that it's extremely boring.
That they are silent isn't the issue, nor is it them being a template that players project themselves onto. The problem is that this template is so often the same, and boring. I don't want to project myself onto characters like this, frankly.

[Clown Reemus]

Originally posted by Syn:

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

The SMT protags are usually silent protags where you can choose dialog options, in this case, it's the same.
I think the characters are only boring if you are boring.

The design is boring.
Because it's overdone.
Every single one of these protagonists-

- Short dark hair.
- Male
- Late teens/early 20s
- Stoic
- Often look exactly like Kirito

If you're really lucky their hair might be longer. If exceptionally lucky they might be a shade of hair other than black, blue or brown.

None of these traits is bad by themselves (aside from looking like Kirito), but they are so overdone at this point that it's extremely boring.
That they are silent isn't the issue, nor is it them being a template that players project themselves onto. The problem is that this template is so often the same, and boring. I don't want to project myself onto characters like this, frankly.

You are so extremely wrong I can just tell you you don't understand the Japanese cultural convention on protagonists. Because the main character is just statistically so unique and un-characteristic of Japanese tropes, it's the only redeeming quality of the whole setting. And there is a very good reason for his design, story-wise, which you definitely don't know or you wouldn't be putting all this misguided bashing out here. Once in a while, we got a non-escapist manifestation protagonist, and he gets this treatment from you, Joe.

I agree with everything you say about Kirito as a trope only, not as a character, since Kirito still remains the most decent version of "Kirito" in Japanese media, but your comparison between him and the main character here is just incredibly off the mark.

And let's be honest, games and stories like these don't suck because of the main character being a trope. Everything else is a trope, too. I'd like these games more if the writers put just any effort into creating some original content, not just a miniscule, lazy half-degree shift on the formulaic adventure stories in Japanese media.

[SKINLESSHEAD]

Originally posted by Syn:

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

The SMT protags are usually silent protags where you can choose dialog options, in this case, it's the same.
I think the characters are only boring if you are boring.

The design is boring.
Because it's overdone.
Every single one of these protagonists-

- Short dark hair.
- Male
- Late teens/early 20s
- Stoic
- Often look exactly like Kirito

If you're really lucky their hair might be longer. If exceptionally lucky they might be a shade of hair other than black, blue or brown.

None of these traits is bad by themselves (aside from looking like Kirito), but they are so overdone at this point that it's extremely boring.
That they are silent isn't the issue, nor is it them being a template that players project themselves onto. The problem is that this template is so often the same, and boring. I don't want to project myself onto characters like this, frankly.

Weird hill to die on. Especially since you're just wrong. The main character looks nothing like kirito.

[MeanMothercyka]

Originally posted by Swimfan:

Originally posted by Syn:

.. the protagonist wasn't always a generic Kirito guy.

Seriously. Stop being boring. Kirito sucks. Sorry SAO fans, it's true.

The main character is the definition of a blank slate which is by far the best way to make the player emphasize with him. If he had more personality, he'd be WAY more devicive (and looking at how long this game is that could seriously ruin the experience for some).

Choosing "boring" over "risky" is sadly very adivsable in this situation.

This isn't true. A lot of people can't empathize with a blank slate. No personality, no defining features. I mean I guess you could empathize if you see yourself as a bot, lacking in any emotion or real motive. One of the reasons rpgs like Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, and BG3 did so well is because they are character-driven stories. The more the character is developed, the more you can see yourself reflected in their actions and values. Witcher 3 will make you empathize with Geralt because even if you don't agree with his actions, you can understand where he's coming from. DQ11 protag, on the other hand, is about the most generic blank slate I can think of in recent memory. No talking, no personality, a dumb look on his face whenever someone says something to him. I have no reason to like (or dislike) the character because they don't really do anything besides move the equally generic story along.

[REBirthTheEdge]

Originally posted by Syn:

Originally posted by REBirthTheEdge:

The SMT protags are usually silent protags where you can choose dialog options, in this case, it's the same.
I think the characters are only boring if you are boring.

The design is boring.
Because it's overdone.
Every single one of these protagonists-

- Short dark hair.
- Male
- Late teens/early 20s
- Stoic
- Often look exactly like Kirito

If you're really lucky their hair might be longer. If exceptionally lucky they might be a shade of hair other than black, blue or brown.

None of these traits is bad by themselves (aside from looking like Kirito), but they are so overdone at this point that it's extremely boring.
That they are silent isn't the issue, nor is it them being a template that players project themselves onto. The problem is that this template is so often the same, and boring. I don't want to project myself onto characters like this, frankly.

It is OK for japanese protags to look japanese.

And I prefer the stoicism, too many character nowadays are hyperactive instead of taking times to think before they act.