The silent protag is such an interesting trope because, generally, I find it tiresome, but like you listed, there are a number of interesting instances of the character where I find myself attached to them regardless.
Joker and Yu are great examples. I also became more attached to Yuki with Reload, when in the original P3 I had a harder time since it felt like he was really Chameleoning through every interaction he had.
Link is a weird case because as the games go on he gets more and more of a personality. The Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom duology, especially taking Age of Calamity into consideration, give us one of the most defined incarnations we've ever had and hint as a lot of depth and trauma and just-- really solid things that I really appreciate as a long time fan.
The protagonist from Digital Devil Saga is silent, but the second game in the duology does some really interesting things with it that I don't wanna spoil. It's a lot of fun though.
Overall, I feel about protagonists in games as I do about romance options. I'd prefer the plot to develop these things over having a more barebones "it's what you want" scenario, but when done well, I'm here for it. But I think a silent protag has a much steeper hill to climb to make me care about them, opposed to if they had literally anything else going on.
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Joker and Yu are great examples. I also became more attached to Yuki with Reload, when in the original P3 I had a harder time since it felt like he was really Chameleoning through every interaction he had.
Link is a weird case because as the games go on he gets more and more of a personality. The Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom duology, especially taking Age of Calamity into consideration, give us one of the most defined incarnations we've ever had and hint as a lot of depth and trauma and just-- really solid things that I really appreciate as a long time fan.
The protagonist from Digital Devil Saga is silent, but the second game in the duology does some really interesting things with it that I don't wanna spoil. It's a lot of fun though.
Overall, I feel about protagonists in games as I do about romance options. I'd prefer the plot to develop these things over having a more barebones "it's what you want" scenario, but when done well, I'm here for it. But I think a silent protag has a much steeper hill to climb to make me care about them, opposed to if they had literally anything else going on.