Why the Suikoden hero has not been well received

[Mad Mage]

There have been a lot of complaints about the dullness of Suikoden 4's hero, and I have to agree. But why do we pick on him when Tir and Riou are mute as well? It seems only natural that a character who says nothing would be unattractive, so why is Hero4 singled out in our complaints?

Because despite not saying anything, the first two Suikoden heroes managed to portray a personality. They have pasts. In Suikoden 1 and especially in 2 we see a long history of our heroes life, he how he lived and how he was raised. If you talk to people in their respective hometowns, they will comment on the hero. In Suikoden 4 our hero is a knight with few acquaintances and no past, that's all we know.

In Suikoden 1 and especially 2 you are given loads of dialog options. You get to make important choices such as whether people should be executed. In many situations you may chose a comedic option of dialog (remember "100 lashes for Hauser!" I laughed so hard). And often the choices you pick change the game, and at the very least they provoke different responses from the people you talk to. In Suikoden 2 your dialog options go so far as to allow you to run away from your responsibilities, allowing imo one of the most dramatic rpg scenes ever. In Suikoden 4 we have recorded voice overs for the first time. With limited cd space and recording time, adding separate dialog tree options can not be so whimsically done. As a result, more often then not the few times you are given a say, the person your talking to will react exactly the same regardless of which choice you pick. If they do react differently, it's usually just adding one sentence and then resuming their speech. I know this because I've played through the game twice. I never wanted voice acting to begin with, but to see how much it has damaged Suikoden 4's plot is saddening. But that's a tangent.

In Suikoden 1 and 2 you have great friends. Verbal friends. The kind of friends who don't hesitate to speak for you on a moments notice. People wondering how the young master feels? Cleo is more than happy to speculate! Hey, they know you're mute, so you should be thankful they speak for you so much! The colorful conversations your companions make throughout the games help establish who Tir and Riou are because they are a part of the group. Speaking with Gremio, Cleo, Nanami, and Jowy really does reflect on our hero's self. Hero 4 has friends. Sad, dull, robotic friends. It may be partially because you pick two to take on a preset roll for most of the game, but that's no excuse for how generic and lifeless they act. If they ever do say anything it's a few mundane lines about how they want to go back to Razril someday.

I think Suikoden 1 and 2 were carefully crafted to make you feel a symbioses with the hero, while not damaging the hero's personality. It's not easy to do; Chrono of Chrono Trigger is as stupid and boring as they come. Part of why Suikoden 1 and 2 have more interesting heroes is because we all may see those heros differently because we play them differently and read different things into their actions, they have depth, but of a personal kind. I think Suikoden 4's team did not realize this, or at least didn't care to try and implement it.

What do ya guys think? I really hit the nail on the - what is it I'm trying to nail again?

[Beecham]

I disagree. Strongly. We're coming off a game where we see how great it is for our heroes to speak. I think that fosters disappointment in his mute condition. I know I was extremely confused by the option, upon starting the game, for Hero Voice A and Hero Voice B. "What, they had two people record voice for him? Wow, that's sort of different." And then I started playing, and it quickly became obvious that he wasn't going to say anything, in a spoken dialog scene or otherwise. It was a huge disappointment.

Then I decided to take the game for what it was, instead of comparing it, and enjoyed myself a whole hell of a lot more.

[Agahnim]

I think the hero looks rather weird. Tiny shorts and a tiny waist coat make him look a bit silly. His colour coordination isn't too bad though, and his weapons are pretty cool. Not too bothered about the fact that he doesn't speak.

GD
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"The strong manly ones in life are those who understand the meaning of the word patience."

[Beecham]

I dunno, I shrug off people's outfits in this world as an odd cultural thing. They'd be out of place here, but they seem to fit just fine in their own world, so more power to them.

[RubiRubi]

I was mad because you have to pick a voice but he dose'nt talk anyway :?

[Lunarblade]

Voiceless heroes are a relic from the 8 and 16-bit eras. It was forgivable, almost, in the 32 bit era, but it is not forgivable now. If Suikoden V doesn't have a character who speaks, I might not end up buying it, because I was IMMENSELY disappointed by this game.
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[RubiRubi]

Were sorry to be losing your business.

[Milan Fiori]

The only reason 3's talked was because of the Trinity System if it followed the normal Suikoden tradition the hero would not have talked. They do this to make it feel like the Hero has your personality. You can't say you didn't like his personality because you gave it to him.
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[Daniel Blackhand]

I personally liked the hero and the lack of a voice did little to make me not like him. I liked his fighting style and the way he countered attacks.
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[Carabbit]

I think it would have been neat to give the Hero a voice and speaking lines...but the voiceless Hero gave me a lot of entertainment, trying to fill in his lines for him.
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Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

[Thief]

I consider the way this Hero was depicted in fact was deliberately planned, and definitely not a mistake. He is not meant to be a clone/rip-off of either Hero I or II, so if that's what you are looking for in him, then be prepared to be disappointed. For starters, being a servant to the Vingerhut household puts him in a very distinct position compared to, say, McDohl who was a Young Master to a noble's household and thus the center of attention of his entourage. And, unlike Hero II, he doesn't even have mischievous choices in his dialogue choices.

There certainly is a distance between the trainees and himself. In fact, no one really seems to be very close to him from the get-go (this is what you get when you don't have a Gremio or Nanami figure, right?). And, the person who is apparently the closest to him, Snowe the Young Lord Vingerhut, betrayed him earlier on.

IMO, his character radiates not a warm personality like the previous Tenkai, but instead this is what you get when you cross a silent protagonist with the ever popular "mysterious character with an unknown past" stereotype (think Geddoe). But unlike our True Lightning bearer, he doesn't come with a team of people with awesome chemistry.

Who knows. Maybe I am wrong after all.

[Beecham]

No, Thief, I think you hit something there. I just don't see it as a bad thing [and I'm not sure whether you do yourself; your post was well written and neutral biased, which adds weight to it in my opinion]. He's... I don't know, I got the impression that he's cold, playing the game. That he might not have been at first, that he was simple alone, but when betrayed by Snowe and chosen by a Rune that he knows will kill him [whether or not it does, I don't know, so please don't spoil this; I'm only going on what -he- knows], that he became a lot harsher than he might have been. Despite this, he has a charisma that is in an odd sort of way born by that aloof attitude. It's an attitude that can be seen by his followers as an air of confidence, not the pain that it very likely is. I cannot imagine living through not only the physical agony of the Rune but also betrayal of my one and only friend and not becoming cold and aloof myself.

[Mad Mage]

[Noot]

Probably the reason he seemed so distant is because the designers only gave him one face. How is he expected to portray such non-verbal emotions with only one P.O.'d face to express himself? In SII, there was a cool little thing hey did--putting the little blurbs over the 2D characters heads (like the tear/sweat drop, exclamation points, etc). Even though Riou rarely had a line, he was able to convey emotion through those blurbs.

I think if the designers had given Hero4 different expressions for certain scenes, it would definitely make him more likeable. Oh, and longer shorts. :)
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[LadyNite]

I prefer talking hero than mute .... why ? Because it seems your hero looks dumb in the game ( heheheheh ) And his expresion is very...very plain , actualy doesnt have one