Do you really belive Nintendo characters have no personality?

[themistermanguy]

This is a serious question BTW. I heard some people say that most or all Nintendo characters have no personality. But they only look at Mario & Zelda. It really just depends on the game. Of course a platformer like Mario doesn't require diverse characters with colorful personalities (unless it's a Mario RPG). But if its a more character driven game like Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Animal Crossing, Star Fox, RPGs, and even certain Zelda games, it's very important to have characters that are fun to watch and hear from. Hell, Luigi has way more personality than Mario, who is about as diverse as colorful as SpongeBob.

 

[Roxas1359]

Haven't you made this thread...like several times already?

Anyway, the reason people focus on Mario more is because he's the mascot for Nintendo. The mascot should at least convey some sort of personality as he is representing the entire company. Back in the day, this was no problem because of hardware limitations, but that problem is gone. And, as it has been said many times, it's been seen that other characters around Mario have been given loads of personality, Luigi being probably the best example. In the end, when you make characters more interesting and have more personality over the main one, then you'll wish you were playing as that character instead.

Take the original Halo Trilogy for example, all the people around Master Chief had way more personality than the Chief did, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather of played as Sgt. Johnson than Master Chief based on the original trilogy. The new Halo's are working on that now though, with Chief showing at least some personality.

Hell, Link even shows personality nowadays, way more than Mario. The games in which Link had the most emotional expressions were Wind Waker and it's sequels. So if Link, Luigi, and others can do it, then why can't Mario, Nintendo's mascot show more emotion? It doesn't even have to be complex, he could show things like worry, fear, pain, etc. But instead you're running through the Mushroom Kingdom, killing everything around you, with a smile on your face. You do not see how that can be seen as wrong?

Heck, you bring up the Mario RPGs, which show that Mario actually has a personality, yet those are too far and in between.

My main point is, no I don't believe that Nintendo characters have no personality, nor have I ever seen anyone claim that. What, I, and many others, have claimed is that Mario has no personality and at this point it feels better to play as other characters around Mario because they at least don't feel like blank-faced robots.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Nope.

Just most of them.

They can't let Mario change, because he's the face of the company, more or less. He's not a character; he's just a pudgy guy in overalls. He has no personality. Compare him to Luigi; Luigi is just a lot more interesting, as he's usually used as a vehicle to what Mario is suggesting, spiced with his own personality. He's also the "silly" character. Don't ask me how that works, I don't think it does.

Link is a whole 'nutha issue, because he's just a vehicle of ideas that represents many characters. While Majora's Mask/Ocarina Link was a shy and childish boy with a great destiny imposed on him, he eventually grows into a much more serious and determined person; this is evidenced in various scenes and dialougues through the games. Wind Waker's Link was also given a lot more personality to fit the stylised art (A really awesome art style that I'd like to see not on a DS, Nintendo... pwease?) and exaggarations that gave every character a dash of personality.

No other links have that. Except from, ugh, the Minish Cap Link... that's it.

Though, in the RPGs, Mario always had a personality... mostly due to a different team handling them, I think, but I'm not sure. The Paper Mario variation is my favourite; he's actually a character instead of... Mario.

So, answer? Yes. It's undisputed.

 

[themistermanguy]

Nope.

Just most of them.

They can't let Mario change, because he's the face of the company, more or less. He's not a character; he's just a pudgy guy in overalls. He has no personality. Compare him to Luigi; Luigi is just a lot more interesting, as he's usually used as a vehicle to what Mario is suggesting, spiced with his own personality. He's also the "silly" character. Don't ask me how that works, I don't think it does.

Link is a whole 'nutha issue, because he's just a vehicle of ideas that represents many characters. While Majora's Mask/Ocarina Link was a shy and childish boy with a great destiny imposed on him, he eventually grows into a much more serious and determined person; this is evidenced in various scenes and dialougues through the games. Wind Waker's Link was also given a lot more personality to fit the stylised art (A really awesome art style that I'd like to see not on a DS, Nintendo... pwease?) and exaggarations that gave every character a dash of personality.

No other links have that. Except from, ugh, the Minish Cap Link... that's it.

Though, in the RPGs, Mario always had a personality... mostly due to a different team handling them, I think, but I'm not sure. The Paper Mario variation is my favourite; he's actually a character instead of... Mario.

So, answer? Yes. It's undisputed.

What about the examples I gave, there's more to Nintendo than just Mario & Zelda.

 

[Roxas1359]

What about the examples I gave, there's more to Nintendo than just Mario & Zelda.

Compare the frequency of how often games with characters of those titles are released to the others and you see that Mario and Zelda are still released more frequently than the other ones. Star Fox hasn't had a game since the remake of Star Fox 64, Kid Icarus isn't getting a sequel or possibly any game for a while, Fire Emblem isn't released often, and Animal Crossing usually gets only 1 console and 1 handheld game a generation.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

After Kid Icarus Uprising happened, there's no way in hell that argument could stand up. Even other characters give plenty of personality. People like to pick out the ones who don't have personality. Then again, these days, with little to no limitations... There isn't any excuse for those who don't

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think it all depends on the character and even in the games that they're present in. Link is a blank slate in his early games but then there are games like Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and, Skyward Sword that reveal Link is actually kind of a dweeb.

Luigi is another great example of a character with a really great range. Not just a dweeb but also a coward, a goof-ball, clumsy, a bit of a story-teller...and you get this within the narratives of not only Luigi's Mansion and Dark Moon but also in the Paper Mario games wherein you get these second hand stories of Luigi leading his companions into certain doom.

I'm sure the Fire Emblem series is another great place to find a wide variety of characters but I've only ever played a couple of those games and not to completion...then there's Kid Icarus Uprising which seems to structure itself like a 10+ anime where the characters are more character-types who speak in bad puns...so you could call those people dweebs too.

 

[krazykidd]

No they don't!

Donkey kong
Diddy kong
Kirby
Mario
Link
Samus

See i can make lists too! Your point is invalid

[small] seriously people, stop making checklists to prove your point. [/small]

 

[Hero of Lime]

I feel like the argument could only be brought up for the main characters like Mario, Link, Samus etc. Yet, the side characters in Nintendo games have lots of personality. It was already mentioned, but the Mario RPGs have characters that just ooze personality, even if Mario still retains his blank-slatedness.

Fire Emblem, Star Fox, even Metroid can claim having personalities with their main characters along with the side ones. Though it could be argued that the main characters still have some semblance of personality, and in the case of Link you can project whatever personality you want on him. Plus, there are multiple Links, so you could assign different personalities on each one to fit his actions.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I don't think that no Nintendo characters have personality so I don't really need to post here, but I will say that Mario and Link having no personality isn't necessarily a bad thing. They're vehicles for experiencing their games. That's all, and that's fine. Kirby was actually in his entirety a placeholder for what was going to be an actual character before the dev team got attached to him. Same deal. In the gameplay-oriented games you don't need good characters.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Nintendo's characters have personality, but it's a very one note personality with little depth or variation. It's like they each have their one gimmick and that's about it. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing as it fits Nintendo's games well enough.

 

[Vault101]

well there was samus but....yeah

I happen to know Dixie Kong is conflicted over her relationship with Diddy Kong and wonders really if following her boyfriend to the ends of the earth for He and donkey kongs ongoing feud with K Rool is really something she wants to be doing but she doesn't leave him because her mother warned her about him and if anything she does not want to validate her mothers constant backhanded insults

 

[The Lunatic]

Nintendo's characters tend to have as much storyline as is needed for their intended audience.


It's pointless to over-complicate things when the audience in question isn't going to get much of anything from it.

 

[Something Amyss]

Many major Nintendo characters have minimal personality. That's not to say "none," but when you look at guys like Mario, they're just "generic protagonist guy" with an Italian plumber skin in Mario's case.

There's a reason for it, though....

Take the original Halo Trilogy for example, all the people around Master Chief had way more personality than the Chief did, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather of played as Sgt. Johnson than Master Chief based on the original trilogy. The new Halo's are working on that now though, with Chief showing at least some personality.

To some extent, though, that's because people want relatively blank slates. People want to self-insert themselves on the badass template of Master Chief. This is the main reason Gordon Freeman is so damn beloved. I know people argue that he inspires the people around him and blah blah, but I think at the very best, this is a case of telling and not showing.

A lot of people used to self-insert on Link, too.

I's not always a bad thing, but it sometimes strikes me that gaming is kept on the level of fanfic simply to make it more marketable.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Some don't, like Mario

Some do, some of the time like Peach and Link

while others, for better or worse have no such issue with a lack of personality, like Samus or everything Fire Emblem.

It really boils down to who is penning the script/planning the game as to who ends up having personality or not for that game. But over all, no, I do not agree Nintendo's characters have no personality.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Of course not. That would be way too much of a generalization. A lot of their most popular characters don't though. However, it's not like you play Mario for the story or characters. You play it for the tight platforming.

 

[Scarim Coral]

No and even then is it a bad thing if the character has no personaility? I mean just look what they did to Samus in Another M but I guess it boiled down to whoever in charge at making the game.

 

[LaoJim]

A lot of these characters evolved in the 8 bit era, what personality they have could only really be implied by their visual design, so it's probably better Nintendo doesn't try to retroactively impose a new jarring personality on what are already beloved characters.

For evidence of why this is bad, please see Sonic the Hedgehog.