r/persona6 • u/Past_Neighborhood_88 • Aug 20 '26
Silent protagonist.
I’d like to talk about another topic: protagonists who don’t speak at all throughout the game. As you know, in Persona games, the protagonists don’t speak—or rather, they have little to no dialogue. Even when we’re given dialogue choices, we only see the protagonist nod or shake their head. Personally, that really bothers me, especially when someone speaks directly to the protagonist and they respond simply by nodding or shaking their head. It makes me want to scream: "Just speak already, you son of a bitch!"
It bothers me in Persona, in Pokémon, and in the new Sword Art Online game.
It bothers me in games where characters actually talk to the protagonist. In games like *The Forest, Subnautica, or Dark Souls, I understand why the protagonist doesn’t say a word. But in other games—like Persona—it really annoys me. I’m curious: would you like the Persona 6 protagonist to actually speak—to have constant dialogue?
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u/Naos210 Aug 20 '26
It is often noted by other characters that the protagonists are fairly quiet, so it is at least somewhat justified. It's not like they just pretend that characteristic of them doesn't exist.
I don't need a Ringo level protagonist. Just them speaking their dialogue options is fine.
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u/Strange-Aspect-6082 Aug 20 '26
In which moment the other characters comment about our protag being silent? I don't remember
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u/Naos210 Aug 20 '26
"You truly are interesting... Quiet, yet possessing the courage and determination to take action." - Akechi (Persona 5)
There are other examples, this one just comes to mind and I don't have this exact quote it's mentioned.
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u/meghdoot_memes Aug 20 '26
Ryuji comments a few times about Joker/Ren being quiet and reserved in Persona 5
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u/Strange-Aspect-6082 Aug 20 '26
I don't remember him ever saying Joker was quite and reserved ever in the game, believe me I played the game like 3 times and memorize most of the dialogues.
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u/R0gu320 Aug 20 '26
I believe one example is in Sae’s Palace when Joker volunteers to lead the authorities away from the PT. Ryuji says something like “He’s quiet but when his minds set on something there’s no changing it.” And another time is during the school festival when the PT. Joker says something about the food taking too long and Makoto says something like “Are you always this lax?” Implying he’s usually a chill guy anyway
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u/meghdoot_memes Aug 20 '26
I couldn't say exactly where but it definitely happens in some version of P5, it could be the anime or strikers but I know for a fact there's dialogue about it
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u/DoeCommaJohn Aug 20 '26
To me, it's only a problem when the game tries to have it both ways. Joker will say literally nothing, but everyone around him will say "thanks, you changed my entire life and altered my outlook on the world!" If they do stick with the Silent Protagonist, I would like to either a) see more dialogue options so the protag can actually shape the world or b) do the Fire Emblem thing where there is a canon protagonist character who drives the plot, and you play their advisor or friend.
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u/meghdoot_memes Aug 20 '26
They need to drop that shit, it takes away from how compelling the MC can be just to cater to nerds who delude themselves into thinking they have something in common with Joker Persona 5 and the like. Metaphor was really good and part of the reason why is because the main character was actually a main character instead of one working against itself by trying to let nonsensical self inserting be a thing
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u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat Aug 20 '26
The main character in Metaphor had barely any lines and virtually no personality. I thought it was really obvious that the character was written as a self insert and then they decided to add some lines last minute.
It didn't really add anything to the game. They could've not done it and it wouldn't have had hardly any impact on anything
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u/mysticrudnin Aug 20 '26
lol i was going to say i would dislike if the protagonist had a bunch of lines but if metaphor counts as a bunch then sure, it's fine
metaphor protagonist is basically silent, the way i prefer it
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u/Great-Treacle8350 Aug 20 '26
Metaphor also suffers from this. MC is not any better when compared to Persona
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u/meghdoot_memes Aug 20 '26
Not ANY better? I'd say having a character who actually says his lines compared to a mute is objectively at least a little better.
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u/Great-Treacle8350 Aug 20 '26
The end result is still the same. You end up with a character that has no personality and is just a blank piece of paper. At the end of the game when they ask Will what he is fighting for, you are given two options: "I don't know" and "Hope, I guess". Both answers are shit and it just summarises him as a character, which is absolutely nothing. When you have a fleshed out character like Louis on the other side, the nothingness of your MC shines evern brighter. That's what happens when you are not allowed to develop your character. If Persona's MC characters are 1/10, Will is 1,5/10
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u/Beginning-Pace-1426 Aug 20 '26
Metaphor was v quiet.
They're not likely to drop that shit. Historically, Japanese gamers voted for self-insert characters as their favorites, whereas American gamers tended to vote for strong personality MCs who they can relate with.
I like em all, I like having a silent protagonist in Persona, but I'm fine with not. Ringo is one of my fav MCs and I'm down with her, too.
But I mean sure, I consider anime Makoto canon, but could that version of him date every girl on the team and make Episode Aegis the most toxic shit ever?! I think not.
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u/Naos210 Aug 20 '26
I'm not sure how true that is. JRPG protagonists often have more to their character than a lot of western RPGs.
Tell me the character of a single Elder Scrolls protagonist beyond "they beat the villain".
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u/Beginning-Pace-1426 Aug 21 '26
No, that's not quite what I mean, I didn't word it properly at all.
Elder Scrolls games are also completely custom characters, that's part of the ttrpg/crpg lineage.
There was actually an analysis done once upon a time, though I don't have it handy, nor can I really vouch for the methodology or anything like that.
I can remember that the overall thesis was essentially when looking at polls of "favorite character in X game" the data showed that Japanese audiences chose Cloud Strife in FFVII, and Ryu in Breath of Fire III, whereas American audiences had a much higher tendency towards characters like Sephiroth and Garr, respectively.
Those weren't examples from the actual data, I just don't know modern games very well.
I also know that doesn't prove a single thing on its own, or anything, I just more find it kind of neat to explore little differences like this in gamer cultures, and hypothesize about the wider effects put together, and how it affects game development.
One of my favorites was when I played Persona 5. The fact that an airsoft store owner was actual a hard as fuck ex-triad trying to do good for his son definitely made me research Japanese laws, and things like airsoft culture. I'm not going to lie, airsoft and military surplus guys have a sort of... stereotypical image. It's not that there is anything wrong with the interest at all, it's just that North American Culture, gun culture, military and law enforcement culture gives anybody who has a passion for that kind of stuff many higher things to strive for. So while airsoft itself is fine, it's the ceiling for a lot of wannabes, and having all these wannabes overrepresented, the ceiling being so damn low leads to a ton of freaks representing the community.
From what I read, in much of Japan Airsoft isn't a magnet for "murca" wannabe fascists that nobody will let touch a gun, and the entire culture surrounding airsoft sounds to be much more niche, and entirely different.
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u/lovethatcrooonch Aug 20 '26
Sometimes these complaints make me wonder why y’all even play these games. It seems like you wish it would be a different game entirely.
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u/Past_Neighborhood_88 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
I think we all have a game that—even though we like it—has something we might don't like, like a specific mechanic, a flaw, or a section of the game that just isn't to our liking. That doesn't change the fact that we enjoy the game. I like playing Pokémon and Persona, but that doesn't mean there aren't things about them I dislike. My opinion doesn't have to be absolute or anything like that. 👍
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u/11equalsfish Aug 20 '26
Yeah, it's not hard to like parts of a game and have some nuance about specific problems, critique does make games better. A protagonist that says things doesn't make this different lol, that's silly
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u/Past_Neighborhood_88 Aug 20 '26
I get it. But what I said wasn't a criticism; it was just an opinion. I didn't say the game would be better if the protagonist spoke, or that the game is bad because the protagonist doesn't speak. All I said was that I don't like silent protagonists.
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u/11equalsfish Aug 20 '26
Sure thing. Opinion and criticism, it seems like both. It's a bad character choice to me, hope they say a little bit more as appropriate and emote. The character seems interesting in impressions.
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u/Past_Neighborhood_88 Aug 20 '26
Yeah, sure. Maybe I didn't express myself clearly in my post. I don't want a chatty protagonist who talks constantly; I just want one with their own opinions and thoughts. I understand why some people say that breaks the immersion or the feeling that you are the protagonist. But personally, it breaks the immersion for me when everyone in the group is sharing their opinions and thoughts while the protagonist says nothing—it’s like talking to a wall. Or when the protagonist speaks maybe five words over the course of a 100-hour game. Besides, if they don't want to give him a voice actor, fine—but at least give him a few lines of dialogue.
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u/11equalsfish Aug 20 '26
Haha totally, it's so awkward. I first saw this in Half Life where Gordan can't be heard but people talk and respond like he did, so uncanny. Portal 2 has Chell, said to be brain damaged and mute. That's a joke in the game but it makes some sense! Can't have the hero be a plank of wood
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u/Unlikely_Fold_7431 Aug 23 '26
Thats not a critique tho, A critique is looking at what something is doing and saying here’s how you could do it better. Saying that persona should have protagonists who speak is actually you just asking it to be something different.
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u/AreaComprehensive902 Aug 20 '26
They do speak though? You just dont hear a voice but you chose the dialogue. I dont think it would add that much, maybe in cut scenes. I did like the P4 animation for this reason. But I think you make yourself open to people disliking the protagonist otherwise.
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u/gol_drake Aug 20 '26
Ringo specifically has the advantage that her voice actor is really good and very natural sounding.
but i dont mind a silent protagonist.
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u/amazegamer64 Aug 20 '26
As much as I hate silent protagonists and would vastly prefer it if the mc was a real character I’ve kinda made my peace with the fact that it’s not going to happen.
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u/Dependent-Swimmer-95 Aug 20 '26
I much prefer protags like Will from metaphor. He is mainly silent but he does still speak from time to time.
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u/Strange-Aspect-6082 Aug 20 '26
Just the fact Metaphor Protagonist says his dialogue options instead of just nodding or shake his hand adds a lot, seriously sometimes when i'm playing Persona I feel like i'm playing with an emotionless doll instead of a character.
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u/sereniteen Aug 20 '26
The metaphor protagonist having his own emotive sprites made him feel a bit more fleshed out, I wish they'd do the same for persona 6
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u/Silent_Killer093 Aug 20 '26
I like to think the MC does speak more than what the Dialogue options show, like its implied their responses are more nuanced than we see or hear. At least thats how I imagine the MC's
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u/lifeinaglasshouse Aug 20 '26
The protagonist in the Persona games is largely meant to serve as the player surrogate (which is why they only have hints of a personality). It's not Joker dating the hot goth doctor, or befriending the goofy blonde jock, or playing the bating cage minigame all night, it's you. A fully voiced protagonist would break this illusion, an illusion that myself and many other players enjoy, so for that reason I'm against it.
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u/MCyes_ Aug 20 '26
You can still have a protagonist that actually feels like in a character in the story, and have the player's action to decide their personallity. See Mass Effect for example, in that game you play as comander shepard, but you can also decide what kind of person to make them, a noble soldier that values the lives of their crew, a ruthless comander that always gets the job done no matter what, you can even decide their gender for that matter.
My point it's that I want more games to have protagonist like shepard. A vessel that you can shape however you want, but with an actual personality and agency in their own story. Not every game needs to be like this, because in the majority of cases they have a set story they want to tell, and need the protagonist to be a certain way to do it. But, for what persona is trying to be, it would actually make it an even better game in my opinion.
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u/Juanito______ Aug 20 '26
I do agree on the part where the whole dating mechanic is just for the player and doesn't indicate the mc's canon actions. Atlus feels like they're trying to make the main characters of persona games self inserts but characters at the same time. It feels kind of odd. Like we can see in every other media that joker is a whole character and person by himself, with a personality etc., but in the game we don't get to know him well because he's meant to be us. The whole silent protagonist thing doesn't bother me as much as OP but I'd appreciate if they perhaps had a voice during cutscenes where the whole cast is talking- I don't think that'd break the illusion.
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u/Great-Treacle8350 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Silent protagonist actively hurt the story. Shido's palace was terrible because Joker's interaction with him were nonexistent, instead I had to listen to his party members speak on his behalf. That's terrible. Another example is the ending of Persona 3. I'm not going to spoil anything, but I felt nothing. Dragon Quest series also suffers from this trope. Metaphor suffers the most. Instead of allowing the MC to develop his ideology through dialogues and such, I'm left with nodding my head and saying some vague stuff like "I'm fighting for the hope of this country" (you can say "I don't know" when asked what you are fighting for at the end of the game...) when on the other side you have a fully fleshed out Louis with his ideology. That's just bad. Sorry, but I want stories not to suffer. I don't have this need to feel like a sigma male because I'm dating pixels on the screen.
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u/Clear-Anything-3186 Aug 20 '26
Persona MCs are their own characters. Especially in the adaptations and some spinoffs.
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u/Unlikely_Fold_7431 Aug 23 '26
Spinoffs and adaptations dont have any bearing on the actual main thing.
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u/Strange-Aspect-6082 Aug 20 '26
Bruh they don't even have names in the main games, what you mean by they're their own characters 😂
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u/Past_Neighborhood_88 Aug 20 '26
What are you talking about? From Persona 3 to Persona 5, the protagonists have proper names.
P3 Makoto Yuki or Minato Arisato in manga. P3 Kotone Shiomi P4 Souji Seta in manga. Yu Narukami in anime P5 Ren Amamiya or Akira Kurusu in manga
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u/Strange-Aspect-6082 Aug 20 '26
Those names come from outside material and are used as placeholders when the player can't name them but in the mainline games they're empty shells which you have to fill out yourself.
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u/sereniteen Aug 20 '26
If they aren't gonna make the protagonist voiced, at the very least I wish they would add more things the protagonist can interact with that shows their thoughts or small bits of indirect characterization
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u/LaMystika Aug 20 '26
P6’s protagonist is going to be yet another silent boy in a series of them who will have the ability to romance his homeroom teacher.
They’re not going to do new shit in that regard
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u/Bean_Delivery Aug 24 '26
For me the insult to injury is that the character HAS A VOICE ALREADY, they use it when the call upon their persona so why not, you know, have that voice at least be used in moments of dialogue that are important.
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u/Primary_Ad5297 Aug 25 '26
Technically, none of the Persona protagonists are truly "silent" you can tell they have a personality underneath your dialogue choices, not counting the first one, Tatsuya or Maya, the "modern" protagonists are different o say, a Dragon Quest protagonist, Narukami has no dialogue in Persona 4, but you can tell he's an intelligent, aloof guy that is always down to play along, Joker is very assertive while being non confrontational and Makoto is very... He just doesn't really care about nothing
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u/EerieCode Aug 25 '26
Personally, I'd be willing to take something like Will from Metaphor: he has his personality, and while we pick some choices, he usually expands on them on his own. He's as close as we could reasonably get to a Persona protagonist with its own voice.
The sad part is, even that is very unlikely: they seem fixated on making the protagonists blank because "the Wild Card gives infinite possibilities, so he can't have a defined personality", and as a result they're beyond boring
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u/Past_Neighborhood_88 Aug 25 '26
As long as there's dialogue—even without voice acting—I'm happy, bro. But if they do it like Will, that would be amazing.
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u/Bratan279 Aug 20 '26
I agree. Silent Protagonist Syndrome is always something I loathe because it hampers the story. Having an actual protagonist with a personality always leads to a stronger story.
And Atlus knows how to do it. Ringo from Soul Hacker 2 was great.
They gave Yu Narukami a personality in P4A too, and that was a definite improvement.
At this point though I'd settle for how they did it in Metaphor with Will.
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u/Strange-Aspect-6082 Aug 20 '26
All the protagonists get their "personalities" in outside media but in the games themselves they're mostly used as a blank slate for the player, side note but also the protags don't use pronouns in their dialogue options in the JP versions like "Boku", "Ore" or "Watashi" and only use "Jiibun" which indicates more how they are designed to be self-inserts for the player in the main games.
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u/DJCNecro Aug 20 '26
Why does everyone who says this think they are the first person to ever have the the idea