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Legend11 on 21 October 2007
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Rath said:
Legend11 said:
Kasz216 said:
Link in many games has no personality.


I find that with a lot of Nintendo games not just with Link and I think it's part of the reason why I find it very hard to get into their games other than just in a pick up casual way. I mean when I played Ocarina of Time the atmosphere was brilliant but Link seemed to have no personality and it was hard to identify with anyone in the game because they all seemed so one-dimensional. Take the Mario games as well, do you ever really know what Mario is thinking or even what kind of personality he has? Has there ever been a time in any Nintendo game in which you felt real anger or sadness like in Final Fantasy 7 with it's famous scene that shocked gamers and made them feel horrified, angry, and grief?

I think a lot of it is because of Nintendo's philosophy of wanting their games to make people feel happy all the time they're playing them and also because they're aimed at everyone (which includes children) which makes it basically impossible to have characters with any real depth to them.


Really? I have always found Zeldas (Marios much less so, but as a platformer they require far less character depth) to have a sort of abstract depth to them, rather than forcing a personality on the protagonist they let you sort of propel yourself into the character. I always have found games with silent protagonists to be kind of deep on that level, as long as there is a story going on around them.

Personally I can't stand games with rigid characters because I feel like I'm not really playing a game but more prodding a very boring movie along.

I'm probably just weird like that though XD


My favorite ones are those that give you a real choice on how to play the character and where your actions influence events in the game.  For example I just finished Neverwinter Nights 2 yesterday and depending on how you played your character (good, evil, etc) some characters will treat you differently (even the ones in your party) and events can unfold differently because of your choices.

This is in contrast to many Japanese rpgs in which it feels like you have to play the character exactly the way the developers want and that it's basically just a book in which you as a reader have no say in the story.  It may be an amazing story but it's far more interesting to see how the story unfolds if the main character had made different choices.  It's true that Neverwinter Nights 2 is still a scripted game only with many different branches but it does open up the possibilities of what a game might be like in the future if all the characters have incredible AI and events literally did unfold in unscripted and unforseen ways.