Characters Who Never Talk, Then Suddenly Do

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TaboriHK

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DishonoredElderSouls said:
I don't know if this really counts, but the BioShock series featured silent protagonists in its first two installments and then brought in the talking Booker DeWitt for Infinite, though Infinite is the weakest installment in every way, so I wouldn't bother.
In the first Bioshock, the character does talk in the very beginning...and then never again.
 

Segadroid

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I'm surprised no-one mentioned him yet.



Hilariously enough, this speaking version of Link predates the grunting/shouting Link from Ocarina of Time.
 

Mikejames

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Segadroid said:
I'm surprised no-one mentioned him yet.

Hilariously enough, this speaking version of Link predates the grunting/shouting Link from Ocarina of Time.
Well, ExcuuUUUuuse Me Princess.
 

Eve Charm

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Mega man from captain N "Shudders" But ya a lot can be said about most 8 bit/16 bit characters getting voices later games made.
 

chocolate pickles

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Not sure if it counts since it wasn't actually in the game, but Chell was originally going to speak in portal 2. Only one word though : "Yes"

Source from Rock, Paper, Shotgun "One versio saw an incredibly anticlimactic finale, fighting the corrupted Wheatley, in which turning the machine off involved uttering the word ?Yes?. Chell was to speak! Just one word, but a word that would end everything. ?And it sucked,? said Wolpaw."
 

Zeterai

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Alexei F. Karamazov said:
krazykidd said:
Speaking soley for videogames .Yu Narukami from Persona 4 didn't speak if i remember correctly. Then he did in Persona 4 Arena . Plus he has a name !

I think Samus from metroid didn't speak until Metroid: other M, but i'm not sure.

This isn't the kind of a thing i notice.
Aside from the occasional grunt of pain in the Metroid Prime series, she was never voiced until Other M. She did speak a bit in Metroid: Fusion, but that was all text. Aside from that, she's been silent.

OT: The only instance I can think of is the jump from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption to Other M, and I think enough has been documented about the astounding success of THAT alteration...
Samus also narrated the intro sequence for Super Metroid on the SNES. Zero Mission was a retelling from her perspective, and also somewhat narrated, at least in parts. Jennifer Hale did her pain sounds in the Prime trilogy, but no, she never had an actual voice until Other M. But then, a voice actress thrust upon a previously mostly-silent protagonist is the least of that.. game's.. worries.

I don't know if the "The Last Metroid Is In Captivity: The Galaxy Is At Peace" part of Super Metroid was meant to be a character speaking or just overall narration. I suppose it could be argued that it was possibly Samus speaking, which would have been the first time she had an actual voice, but it's a bit sketchy. It was the first spoken words in the series though, that I'm aware of. Second would be.. the Luminoth noises I guess? Was there voice acting for the NPCs in Corruption? I can't recall.
 

Segadroid

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Mikejames said:
Segadroid said:
I'm surprised no-one mentioned him yet.

Hilariously enough, this speaking version of Link predates the grunting/shouting Link from Ocarina of Time.
Well, ExcuuUUUuuse Me Princess.
Oh yeah, that guy!



Sorry, I kinda forgot about him. I didn't grow up with American television. Did I miss much?
 

IFS

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Gordon Freeman is fully voiced in half life 3 :p

Others have pointed out Saints Row, which is probably my favorite example considering they not only became voice acted but got a choice of a number of different voices (exact number depending on the game).

For a non-game character Longshot from Avatar the Last Airbender only speaks in one episode long after his introduction if I remember right.
 

scorptatious

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Mikejames said:
Anyone remember when Donkey Kong had that animated series?

The 90s were stranger times..
Bleh... I remember that show.

Also, where is his teeth?
Segadroid said:
Oh yeah, that guy!



Sorry, I kinda forgot about him. I didn't grow up with American television. Did I miss much?
In terms of that show?

 

ThatDarnCoyote

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John "Soap" MacTavish from Call of Duty. He is silent in the first Modern Warfare, and doesn't get a voice until the second game, where he is (mostly) an NPC.
 

Scarim Coral

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Does Gold Sun 1 and 2 counted?

In the first game you played Issac but in 2 you played the other character Felix and his group. When you are reunited with Issac group he can talk since you're not playing as him in 2 so it was quite werid having him being able to talked. Ok this also in turn make Felix one talkable in 1 to being the silent protagonist in 2.
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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Savagezion said:
I thought Sonic did, but can't say for sure. It was weird watching them talk in the Sonic cartoon.
Nope, Sonic did indeed start off as silent, then start talking. In the voice of what I can only describe as what I'd imagine Vanilla Ice would sound like if he'd inhaled the contents of a helium balloon. Seriously, WHY?!!

I mean, I absolutely loathe Sonic's contemporary Dynamite Headdy. (Haven't heard of Dynamite Headdy? There's a reason for that.) But as obnoxious as he was, at least he was MEANT to talk. Sonic is meant to do two things: run fast and look awesome. The moment you give him the voice of an overconfident brat, you just kill the character stone dead.
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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FootloosePhoenix said:
DishonoredElderSouls said:
I don't know if this really counts, but the BioShock series featured silent protagonists in its first two installments and then brought in the talking Booker DeWitt for Infinite, though Infinite is the weakest installment in every way, so I wouldn't bother.
I don't consider Booker to be a bad character, but oddly enough, I found Jack and Subject Delta to be infinitely (no pun intended) more engaging and likable than him, especially Jack. Though in general I seem to develop a deep fondness for silent protagonists over the course of their games. Even though silent protagonists exist these days almost chiefly so that the player can project themselves through the avatar for further "immersion" in the game's world, I find it natural to bond with them instead, as if they are indeed a real person and we're sharing the experience together. The same applies to Minato Arisato of Persona 3, though I don't consider him to be a "true" silent protagonist (your dialogue choices are his speech and he does have some very basic lines during battle).
I thought Booker was a well-designed character, as far as his personality goes. My problem with him is that he's constantly making decisions that I don't agree with and have no say in. Yet I'm supposed to empathise with him. So yeah, I absolutely agree with you guys on the subject of the Bioshock games.
 

Shiftygiant

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Samus, I suppose. She only talks in Other M, which was something of a surprise when I first played it. Not helped by her having a monotone voice and the pretentious inner-monologue.

That said, I always wanted to hear what Claude sounded like. I imagine he had a really strong French accent.
 

Zeterai

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TheMadDoctorsCat said:
Savagezion said:
I thought Sonic did, but can't say for sure. It was weird watching them talk in the Sonic cartoon.
Nope, Sonic did indeed start off as silent, then start talking. In the voice of what I can only describe as what I'd imagine Vanilla Ice would sound like if he'd inhaled the contents of a helium balloon. Seriously, WHY?!!

I mean, I absolutely loathe Sonic's contemporary Dynamite Headdy. (Haven't heard of Dynamite Headdy? There's a reason for that.) But as obnoxious as he was, at least he was MEANT to talk. Sonic is meant to do two things: run fast and look awesome. The moment you give him the voice of an overconfident brat, you just kill the character stone dead.
The games were fairly awful, true. I've got something of a soft spot for Sonic Adventure, but SatAM Sonic was more than worth watching. Thing to remember is, yes, Sonic did start out silent, but then Archie Comics got hold of the rights and produced an entire line of comics about a massively extended universe that's.. pretty much ignored by everything but that one cartoon. Pity, really.
 
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I'm going to cheat a tad and go with Nathan Hale from the Resistance series.

In the first game, he (almost) never talks. The story is told in an aftermath style with the female operative reading her reports of the various battles. It's atmospheric, effective, and chilling.

Then suddenly the second game comes around and Hale won't shut his damn mouth. The cool narration is nowhere to be seen and the character is the one telling the whole story.
 

McMarbles

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Spoilers for a twelve-year-old game, I guess...

In the first Golden Sun, Isaac was your typical silent protagonist, whose self-expression was limited to emotes and answering the occasional yes/no question. In the second game, a different character becomes the party lead, and suddenly Isaac won't shut up.
 

Alexei F. Karamazov

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Zeterai said:
Alexei F. Karamazov said:
krazykidd said:
Speaking soley for videogames .Yu Narukami from Persona 4 didn't speak if i remember correctly. Then he did in Persona 4 Arena . Plus he has a name !

I think Samus from metroid didn't speak until Metroid: other M, but i'm not sure.

This isn't the kind of a thing i notice.
Aside from the occasional grunt of pain in the Metroid Prime series, she was never voiced until Other M. She did speak a bit in Metroid: Fusion, but that was all text. Aside from that, she's been silent.

OT: The only instance I can think of is the jump from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption to Other M, and I think enough has been documented about the astounding success of THAT alteration...
Samus also narrated the intro sequence for Super Metroid on the SNES. Zero Mission was a retelling from her perspective, and also somewhat narrated, at least in parts. Jennifer Hale did her pain sounds in the Prime trilogy, but no, she never had an actual voice until Other M. But then, a voice actress thrust upon a previously mostly-silent protagonist is the least of that.. game's.. worries.

I don't know if the "The Last Metroid Is In Captivity: The Galaxy Is At Peace" part of Super Metroid was meant to be a character speaking or just overall narration. I suppose it could be argued that it was possibly Samus speaking, which would have been the first time she had an actual voice, but it's a bit sketchy. It was the first spoken words in the series though, that I'm aware of. Second would be.. the Luminoth noises I guess? Was there voice acting for the NPCs in Corruption? I can't recall.
WAIT, REALLY??!?!

FemShep and Samus are voiced by the same person?! That's crazy! I mean, sure it's a bit of a minor role, but still, I never would have suspected that in an alternate universe, Samus still manages to save the world from Space "Pirates!"