Characters Who Never Talk, Then Suddenly Do

[StormDragonZ]

Are there any games out there that involves having the main character starting off as a silent protagonist, then somehow gaining a voice of their own? It could be in the same game, or later in the series, or in a spin-off, etc...

I want to say Jak from the Jak & Daxter series started off as silent, then suddenly got a voice actor in the second and so on games.

Any other examples?

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Tatsuya from Persona 2 only spoke in dialogue trees during Innocent Sin, then gets his own dialogue in Eternal Punishment where he's no longer the player character. Maya does this in reverse; she has her own voice in Innocent Sin but is controlled via dialogue options in Eternal Punishment.

 

[Savagezion]

I thought Sonic did, but can't say for sure. It was weird watching them talk in the Sonic cartoon.

 

[Mikejames]

Anyone remember when Donkey Kong had that animated series?

The 90s were stranger times..

 

[krazykidd]

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.

 

[Alexei F. Karamazov]

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...

 

[Mikejames]

Anyone remember when Donkey Kong had that animated series?

Not only that, the voice actor was REALLY bad and poorly matched.

If a catchphrase like Banana Slamma didn't win you over I don't know what to tell you.

 

[lacktheknack]

Anyone remember when Donkey Kong had that animated series?

The 90s were stranger times..

Best picture I've seen all month. Still giggling. Thx.

OT: Uh.... Sonic?

Really, ALL franchise characters from before the era of voice acting (Sonic, Mario, Samus, etc) have done this.

 

[Simonator7]

Isaac Clarke never spoke in the original Dead Space, only did the odd pain grunt, frightened shout etc. Then from Dead Space 2 onwards he suddenly had a voice and an actual personality I guess.

 

[FPLOON]

Spoiler

Your character from Stick of Truth... and it's only one line before the show credits start rolling, mind you...

OT: Mario?

The MC of Persona 3?

...I don't know why I'm drawing a blank with this... Maybe it's because the answers I'm thinking of were already said before...

 

[Risingblade]

The MC from Saint's Row, those rare times he did talk were pure gold.

 

[Objectable]

Soundwave in Transformers Prime, for two entire seasons, said no words, simply standing there, being all intimidating. In the third episode of season 3, he speaks.
Can you guess what he says?
<youtube=Scc71AXR2ao>

 

[Fsyco]

The Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files comes to mind, but that was because they had no idea the actor they hired could, well, actually act. They just hired him to look creepy and smoke cigarettes, but then they let him speak and he became an extremely iconic villain.

All the video game ones I can think of have been claimed already. Well there was that one girl in Yakuza 3, but that was more of a 'really shy, traumatized person finally says something' variation than just suddenly letting a character talk.

Also, gonna call it right now, Quiet in The Phantom Pain will be given a voice and say a thing toward the end.

 

[GeneralBigG]

The MC from Saint's Row, those rare times he did talk were pure gold.

I came here for The Protagonist (official name, before they/you become The Boss), and I did not leave disappointed. His burn against Tanya on the way up to fight her was awesome.

OT: The Protaganist from Saint's R......


Mar....


Son...


Link? Do various grunts and exasperations count as a voice?


Mostly, the older characters who started who started on like NES, SNES, Master System, Mega Drive, etc. I would guess.

 

[mechalynx]

The MC from Saint's Row, those rare times he did talk were pure gold.

I came here for The Protagonist (official name, before they/you become The Boss), and I did not leave disappointed. His burn against Tanya on the way up to fight her was awesome.

OT: The Protaganist from Saint's R......

His name was Playah, IIRC.

I really can't think of any other examples, not already mentioned. Rygar, perhaps? He didn't speak in his first game, which, granted, was for NES, but then he did for his second on PS2.

 

[GeneralBigG]

His name was Playah, IIRC.

I really can't think of any other examples, not already mentioned. Rygar, perhaps? He didn't speak in his first game, which, granted, was for NES, but then he did for his second on PS2.

Playah was just the slightly-punny nickname given to the PC (player character. Playah. See?..... Yyeaah). All the "literature" refers to the PC in the first game as The Protaganist, and then the rest of the games as The Boss/The President/

Spoiler

Supreme Leader of the Zin Empire

Only Kinzie knows The Boss's real name....


But still, yeah.


Carry on.

 

[DishonoredElderSouls]

As Simonator7 mentioned above, Isaac Clarke of the Dead Space series is a really good example of this. It fit the series' storytelling; he begins in the first game as just a "worthless" stormtrooper-esque engineer that, in other series, would be used as gore-bait in cutscenes and such. But throughout the game they flesh out his personality with his body motions, and in the second game he really comes into his own as the most capable, least stormtrooper-esque character in Dead Space 2. I would recommend not playing the third game largely because of him, though, because the writing disgraces him by turning him into a beefy, sailor-mouthed super-soldier type who happens to have a handful of engineer skills.

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.

 

[DarksideFlame]

The nameless dimwit you play as in System Shock 2, though calling it talking might be stretching it a fair bit but I say it counts. I guess they wanted to surprise the player with that cutscene and it worked but when I beat the game I was hoping for something more than that and a bloody cliff-hanger

Edit: Post #250, Wo-hoo!

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

I want to say Jak from the Jak & Daxter series started off as silent, then suddenly got a voice actor in the second and so on games.

Jak was the first to come to mind when I saw the thread title. With him though I didn't mind it. The Precursor Legacy feels so disconnected from its sequels to me that eventually it just becomes a matter of "Well why the fuck not?" I guess.

Speaking of Naughty Dog's abandoned franchises, Crash after Radical got their grubby paws on him for awhile was an offender of this. He shouted "PANCAAAAAKES!" at the end of Crash of the Titans, but even before that they made him borderline talkative by blathering like an idiot throughout the game in response to other characters. Eurgh...those games made me almost glad when Radical Entertainment went under.

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).