I really dislike silent protagonists aswell. Also played Astral Chain and noticed it instantly, it's just straight up awkward and distracting.

My favorite game of all time Suikoden 2 had a silent protagonist, it worked better due to no voice actors. Once gaming evolved and added voice actors to games it just breaks immersion for me, they end up looking like a retarded mute.

As think-man said, silent protagonists worked a lot better before extensive voice acting was the norm. Now when every characters dialogue is voiced and your character isn't it's a bit weird.

I don't hate games with silent protagonists, but I generally prefer games without them. Horizon Zero Dawn is a great example of a game that would be vastly worse with a silent protagonist.

Having said that adding full voice acting to a very established character such as Link would be a mistake in my opinion. Mainly because he's a character that's been around 30 years and if they did give him a voice there's sure to be a lot of people that don't like it.

Story is my least favorite aspect in all of gaming. I game to play, not to watch. Point being, the fewer people who talk, the better.

I have to strongly disagree.

Story is very low on my list of priorities in a video game, so I’m fine with a mostly silent experience. In fact I’d argue a mute protagonist allows you to exercise your imagination more than a chatty one.

In general I’m more of a “show, don’t tell” guy when it comes to games, so I prefer less dialogue, fewer cutscenes, and more oblique, environmental storytelling—stuff you absorb where engaging mechanically with the game.

*fist bump*

Do the player characters in Bethesda games like Skyrim and Fallout count as silent? They have no voice acting aside from grunting but have a ton of dialogue options.

Also, a game like Metroid is probably better off with Samus remaining silent. Prime 3 had voice acting, but not a single line from Samus, and it worked so much better than Other M. The isolation and first-person perspective make it that it is the player behind the visor.

Include a voice for the protagonist in every game, add an option in the game menu to make the protagonist silent.

Then everyone is happy.

I hear ya, silent protagonists is one of my biggest pet peeves in games. It always seemed like a lazy or cost cutting thing To me rather then “empowering the player” garbage.

I disagree with you entirely.

Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Shadow of the Colossus, Chrono Trigger... just to name a few silent protagonists.. all superb games.