Comments on: Putting the RP in RPG

By: Dan Bruno

Dan Bruno — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:31:51 +0000

I enjoyed the subplots as well, William, though I have to admit that all of the characters didn’t resonate with me equally. I didn’t much care for Ayla’s backstory, for example, but Lucca remains one of my favorite RPG characters. I especially enjoyed the various ways Magus’s story can play out depending on your in-game actions and the ending you get. There’s a lot to love in Chrono Trigger!

By: William

William — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:21:48 +0000

I think my favorite part of Chrono Trigger (truly the golden age of SNES RPGs) was the multitude of single character subplots. Marle was a little short, I felt, but every single other character had their own subplot which was not only extended and fun, but fed back into the main plot in a significant way.

Seven people is just large enough to have a true Squaresoft Party RPG, but just small enough to avoid selling anyone significantly short.

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:25:20 +0000

I know! It’s crazy! Clearly it’s time to give CT another try.

By: Dan Bruno

Dan Bruno — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:05:03 +0000

You forgot about the main character’s death? I mean, I’m biased because I liked the game a lot, but that seems like quite a plot point to miss! :-p

You make a good point about the variation in how we prefer our protagonists. Combined with the emphasizing/identifying vs. role-playing distinction I made above, we could probably go a long way towards analyzing why certain characters resonate with some gamers and not with others.

Thanks for the Gee recommendation. I have a while list of game-related books I want to read, but sadly I haven’t made time for them yet. One day!

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:43:13 +0000

Good point! It’s weird, but I don’t even remember this plot point from Chrono Trigger. This reflects poorly on me, for sure, but maybe it also points at some natural variation in the levels of “silence” that we require from our protagonists. For me, Crono is too much of a blank slate to evoke much emotion even at that crucial moment, apparently. On the other hand, the voice-acted, motion-captured characters of Final Fantasy X and onward leave too little to the imagination… for my taste. I guess the happy medium for me is somewhere around FF2-9, where the text-only dialogs allowed just enough space for me to interpret characters more or less sympathetically.

(And finally, because I’m apparently the Citation Bitch these days, James Paul Gee has a must-read discussion of this in /What Video Games Have to Teach Us…/. He calls it “Projective Identity.”)

By: Dan Bruno

Dan Bruno — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:52:08 +0000

Dave: Yeah, that’s the argument. I’ve always felt like the silent protagonist was counterproductive — any ability to project oneself onto the character is offset by the awkwardness of his one-sided relationship with others. That’s where I think Half-Life loses its immersive quality.

As with literature and film, it’s easier for me to identify or empathize with a protagonist who has opinions and desires than one who is a blank slate. In the domain of video games, though, role-playing someone may be easier when that character is silent.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:23:48 +0000

This is why silent protagonists are silent, right? To make it easier to project yourself onto them?