Summary
Graphics have come a long way. We’re at a point where developers can simulate the pores in a person’s skin when we once settled for polygon shapes that vaguely resembled a human face. We’ve never had games so hyperrealistic.
ButDragon Questcreator Yuji Horii argues that the closer to life games become, the more uncanny things get (as reported byAutomaton, viaDenfaminicogamer).
“As game graphics evolve and grow increasingly realistic, if you make a protagonist who just stands there, they will look like an idiot,” Horri jokes. “That’s why the type of protagonist featured in Dragon Quest becomes increasingly difficult to depict as games become more realistic. This will be a challenge in the future too”.
Out With The Gordon Freeman, In With The Nate And Nora
Most games these days have voiced protagonists, but RPGs are a little more varied.Fallout 4tried to step into the new world with a more defined character inNateand Nora, but drew backlash and controversy as it shattered the immersion of creating your own character with a personality and moral compassyoudefine.
As Horri puts it, they are a “symbolic protagonist” that are supposed to let you imagine how they would react, projecting your own emotions onto them. Fallout 4 lost that, but mods that remove the voice acting leave a strange, empty shell who feels out of place in cutscenes. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least, so maybe Horii is right.
Half-Lifegets away with it since you’re always in first-person, meaning that you never have to look at Gordon’s mug when people are talking to him, something that even the newerDoomgames have continued with. But as the genre gets more and more cinematic, that approach is becoming a rarity.
But maybe that’s the solution, hiding away their hyperrealistic face so that you don’t have to watch them stand there blankly glaring into the soul of whoever is talking at them. Or you can go the way ofBreath of the WildandTears of the Kingdomand embrace how it makes our protagonist look like a himbo.
