Heroic Mime: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Resize Wizard-1.jpg|link=Half-Life|frame|[https://web.archive.org/web/20120315130601/http://makani.deviantart.com/art/why-gordon-dosen-t-talk-90365172 One possible explanation].]]
{{quote|"''Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.''"|'''[[Mark Twain]]'''}}
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== Action Adventure ==
* Link from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series never says anything, Some fans have often put forth the possibility that he's a mute. [[The Silent Bob|though other characters sometimes react as if he had]], meaning that his dialogue is possibly meant to be imagined by the player. (In later games, he often has an [[Exposition Fairy]] that speaks in his stead during cutscenes, asking questions and so on.) In ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', there are a few cutscenes that show Link and another character chatting, but none of the words are texted or vocalized. In ''[[The Wind Waker]]'' he would say "Come on!" to a companion NPC in some dungeons as a command to make them return to him, but that was it. Lampshaded in ''Twilight Princess'', when {{spoiler|Midna, when her true form is revealed, notes his silence by saying "What? Say something! Am I so beautiful you've no words left?"}}
** Link can sort of speak, when the player is given decision of "Yes or No" questions, the quantity of supplies he or she want to buy, and etc. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4elLuTGg3Yw Easily explained]
** This became amusing when Link appeared in ''[[Soul Calibur]] II''. Ivy can taunt him with "You're all talk!" ...when he hasn't even said a word.
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** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|Skyward Sword]]'' Link can be seen "speaking" (with mouth movements) during some cutscenes, but the game displays no text to show exactly what he is saying. Presumably the developers intended that the player would understand the gist of what he was saying, since you would have already seen what he was talking about. Miyamoto and Aonuma have actually stated that the reason the game didn't have voice acting was because they thought having voiced characters would clash with having a Heroic Mime.
** It has since been [[Word of God|confirmed]] that the Hero's Shade from ''Twilight Princess'' is the Hero of Time incarnation, so his dialogue counts.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild|Breath of the Wild]]'' Link has no recorded dialogue, but does have scripted statements chosen by the player while addressing NPCs, most of them brief. He can even sneak up on one and shout "BOO!" if the player desires.
*** ''Breath'' actually gives an explanation for Link’s silence, [[Gameplay and Story Integration]] making him [[The Silent Bob]] as well. Supposedly, he was far more talkative as a child, but once he realized his calling and the heavy burden placed upon him, he felt remaining silent and stoic was the best way to put up a strong front while facing his foes.
*** [[Word of God]] has also stated that Link's silence and his androgynous appearance in this era of games is done so the player can identify with him (as the player's avatar) making it easier to relate to him and become more immersed in the story.
** Quite possibly the biggest reason for the failure of ''[[The Legend of Zelda (animation)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' cartoon was because fans liked Link ''much'' better when he ''didn't'' talk.
** Zelda has, much like Link, been silent in most of her appearances in the franchise, though this trend ended in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild|Breath of the Wild]]'' where she was given a voice actress and quite a bit of dialogue. [[Broken Base| Fan reaction was split.]]
* ''[[Cave Story]]'' and its silent robot protagonist, {{spoiler|Quote}}.
** Inverted in the [[Wii Ware]] port: {{spoiler|Curly Story gives Curly Brace several lines where Quote had none previously. Quote is still mostly mute (scenes involving him have Curly speak for him), except for one situation in the Plantation; performing a sidequest required to access the [[Bonus Level of Hell]] actually gives Quote a couple of lines.}}
* Not really a hero (unless you go for the not-so-evil ending), but the new overlord in ''[[Overlord]]'' never says anything either. This continues in the sequels and prequels, with none of the Overlords ever speaking
* Amaterasu in ''[[Okami]]'' never says anything, being a wolf. Instead the sidekick, Issun, [[Voice for The Voiceless|acts as her mouthpiece]]... at length. Ammy's own emotions generally get expressed in appropriately canine ways, including gnawing on Issun when he gets too rude.
** Often, and amusingly, Issun will interpret Ammy's intentions even when she shows no outward indication of a response, particularly when accepting a quest when she is usually just panting and looking around nonchalantly.
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* The protagonist of ''[[Alundra 2: A New Legend Begins|Alundra 2]]'', Flint, is a mute and he only communicates by [[Going Through the Motions|hand gestures]].
* In ''[[Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg]]'' Billy is completely speechless (if you exclude his occasional "ok!" and "good morning!").
* Hat Kid in ''[[A Hat in Time]]'' never vocally speaks in a way the player can interpret, although her diary shows her personality quite a bit through her writing.
== Action Games ==
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** The fan remake of the second game has an onscreen image of your character baby talking to Simba. The kid shuts you up with a complex commentary about poltergeists.
* In the case of ''[[Angel Devoid]]'', your [[Player Character|PC]] literally [[The Speechless|CAN'T talk]], since you've been given surgery to make you mute and look like the [[Big Bad]] before being dumped into the [[Vice City|mean streets]]. Your "dialog" choices consist entirely of two buttons that allow you to act either intimidating or receptive in response to conversation.
* ''[[
* Roger Wilco in ''[[Space Quest]]'' started out as one; starting with ''Space Quest IV'', he has since been given regular dialogue.
* The protagonist of ''The Crystal Key'' is a [[Featureless Protagonist]], so he / she initially seems to be one of these. However, this is [[Hell Is That Noise|horribly, horribly]] subverted if he / she is caught by the villain and [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortured to death]], although the resultant inhuman screaming contains no words and can't be identified as male or female.
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*** Also that he was radioactive, and how that can't be good.
*** He also informed a Cyberdemon that it was huge, and therefore extrapolated that it's guts must be similarly huge.
*** [[
* In ''[[Quake 4|Quake IV]]'', the protagonist, Matthew Kane, never speaks, not even when reacting to other characters.
** It's possible that he may not even be able to talk normally after [[Nightmare Fuel|what happens to him]] after being captured. This doesn't explain why he's silent before that, of course, and why when he's rescued he doesn't even nod or shake his head. People talked about him basically every time they saw him before or after, and sometimes asked him questions.
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* In a strange semi-subversion of this trope, ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' has wormholes that you can walk through that allow Cortez to interact with his past or future self. While future-Cortez throws out a multitude of one-liners during these segments, and when you play as the future-Cortez he never talks, but the past-Cortez does instead. It gets especially confusing when {{spoiler|Cortez gets backup while hacking a terminal from ''two'' future Cortezes, requires you to play all three, one after the other, muting the Cortez each time.}}
* In ''[[Geist]]'', player character Raimi, who was separated from his body and ended up on a game-long [[Body Surf]], doesn't speak even when he's trying to convince a friend that he's Raimi. Instead he gives the friend a secret handshake, and somehow all relevant information is transferred; Bryson knows that the nurse is Raimi, who is a ghost, who is going to get him out of there. Raimi's not actually mute, though - late in the game he makes a parrot say "Die!" and a dog trainer say "It's okay boy!"
* ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'' in the first two games, where the only words he says are "[[
* Present in ''[[Unreal]]'' but avoided in ''[[Expansion Pack|Return To Na Pali]]'' where you character has audio logs between missions. ''[[Unreal II: The Awakening|Unreal II the Awakening]]'''s main character John Dalton speaks quite frequently.
* Averted in ''[[Strife]]''. Being an early FPS/RPG, the Mercenary talks to other character via dialogue windows. All the player ''hears'' him say are grunts, screams, and "Nope" when trying to use things that can't be used.
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== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]] ==
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has a really [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|strange]] version: Communication is vital for players, so everyone is able to chat. Story-wise, however, you're essentially a Heroic Mime, only given dialog choices ''that are never actually spoken in the story, anyways.'' While different NPCs will infer that you have said something, you never see your character say it in the storylines. [[Plot Induced Stupidity|You normally have no choice in HOW to respond, either.]]
* Averted in ''[[Aion]]'', where you can choose your character's voice and they actually do have lines in voiced cutscenes.
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== Puzzle Games ==
* Chell from ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'', another [[Valve]] game. Mind you, she doesn't have anyone to talk to but a [[
** It's [[Lampshaded]] by GLaDOS, naturally. Chell's lack of response to her monologues leads her to say {{smallcaps|"Are you even listening to me?"}}
** One explanation may be because of the Material Emancipation Grill, "which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth."
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** It's actually strongly implied that it is Parker who provides the [[Narrator|Narration]] between missions, but as far as gameplay itself is concerned, he's a Mime through and through.
** Taken slightly further with the ''Soviet Assault'' counterpart Lieutenant Romanov, who never even is present for the cutscenes.
* The [[Blood Ravens]] Force Commander in ''[[Warhammer
** While the first campaign was ambiguous on the matter, ''Chaos Rising'' made certain that he was a "talks but isn't heard by the player" variation, as he makes frequent inquiries during the mission briefings. ''Retribution'' moved away completely from the trope however, as every character except The Ancient speaks and this is due to a vow of silence he made.
* The original commanders in ''[[
* In ''[[Pikmin]]'', Captain Olimar provides exposition and comments on the Pikmin and their properties. In ''Pikmin 2'', this role was taken over by the Hocotate Ship's AI, leaving Olimar (and his new sidekick Louie) silent.
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== Role-Playing Games ==
* ''[[Growlanser]] I, III, IV, V'', and ''VI'' feature a silent protagonist. The player can select many dialogue options, but there is no voice acting for them nor do they speak in cutscenes.
* Crono from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' is the big one -- so big, in fact, that this is lampshaded in one of the endings (his first and only line of dialogue is met with a surprised "Crono talked!"), though a ghostly version of him in ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' did speak.
** The main character in ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' actually has the title "Silent Protagonist" in his status window. {{spoiler|When the he switches bodies with the false antagonist Lynx, Lynx begins talking through Serge, with Serge's mugshot accompanying. A few party members will point out that Serge had, up to that point, never said a word, but still remain entirely fooled. Of course, Serge never says a word as Lynx.}}
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** Isaac's first speaking appearance in ''The Lost Age'' shattered quite a lot of notions fans had about him from the first game—up until that point he'd been presumed to be a total [[Nice Guy]] from his actions, so it was a little startling for him to start ''snapping'' at people.
** [[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn|Matthew]] is as silent as his father and uncle, with ''lots'' of [[Lampshade Hanging]]. Also like his uncle, the American version makes [[Precision F-Strike|one noticable exception]] late in the game. Though we're not told exactly [[Symbol Swearing|what he said]].
* Rudy Roughknight, from ''[[Wild
** He does have one other line, where he apologizes to Calamity Jane for {{spoiler|saving her life.}}
* The main character in ''[[Legend of Mana]]'', who is given a yes or no option (although some of the variations have quite the attitude in them). It is even parodied in the quest ''Gilbert: School Amour'', where the hero/heroine tries to convince the kids to return to school. One states that "Adults are boring and they only answer questions with a yes or no. I bet you're no different, aren't you?" Your only responses are "Yes" and "No".
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{{quote|"Raidou explained the circumstances of the investigation to * insert name here* "}}
* Ari, the protagonist in ''[[Okage Shadow King]]'' is perfectly capable of speaking, but is so unimpressive that no one pays any attention to what he says anyway, literally overshadowed by his own shadow. Also every dialoge choice aways offer a choice of "......" or a line in that's only spoken in his head.
* The Avatar in the ''[[Ultima]]'' series. The series [[
** The play actually makes fun of "hi", "name" and "job" being the only three lines that the Avatar speaks, or at least that he uses over and over.
* The player character Trainers in the ''Pokémon'' series don't talk a lot, although there's a short and very confusing conversation with a mimic in ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue]]'' in which the player character does say a couple of lines, asking the mimic girl if she likes imitating people. It's also lampshaded in ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Gold and Silver]]'', which ends with fighting Red, the protagonist of the last game, who only speaks in [[Visible Silence|ellipses]], although the dead-serious delivery of it definitely makes it a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for the series.
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*** Except in the "Sentry Duty" minigame, where the PC is the one who shouts "The footprint is [Pokémon]'s! The footprint is [Pokémon]'s!"
*** In the second installments of the ''Mystery Dungeon'' series, if your starter character is a member of your rescue squad while in a dungeon (but not the leader), s/he will speak in ellipses when the player-controlled leader talks to him/her.
** Downplayed in ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]''. Wes is usually as quiet as any other protagonist, except during Pokémon Battles when the player uses the Call command, a game mechanic unique for this game. Most often this is used to make a Shadow Pokémon snap out of the rage it tends to fly into due to the dark corruption that Shadow Pokémon are cursed with. When this happens, Wes simply shouts the Pokémon's name.
* In ''[[Earthbound]]'', whoever is the current party leader (which varies between chapters) won't utter a peep, but will promptly start speaking once the leader role changes. Ness is only heard once, through a magical mind-reading screen.▼
** This is again lampshaded in ''[[Pokémon Sun and Moon]]'' when the player meets Red and Blue at the Battle Tower. As usual, Red doesn't speak, Blue telling the player that he doesn't talk much.
** Inverted completely in the manga adaptation, however, where Red talks as much as any other Shojen hero - meaning he never shuts up.
▲* In ''[[
** Also done in ''[[Mother 3]]'' where the character the player controls never talks, but will once the player is controlling someone else. One scene, which takes place at the start of Duster's chapter, is a repeat of a scene from Flint's chapter, with Flint actually saying something this time around, to symbolize the role of player character moving to Duster, who doesn't speak for the rest of his chapter.
** The same thing happens in ''[[Legend of Legaia]]''. Noa, the second of three main characters, is a Heroic Mime when you play her alone, but when she joins full-time mime Vahn, she immediately becomes a [[No Social Skills]] [[Genki Girl]].
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* Gogo in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' is a '''literal''' heroic mime, who talks to you a couple times. He ([[Ambiguous Gender|or she]]) can imitate anything the other characters can do right after it is done.
* In ''[[Lufia]]'', the GBA installment ''Ruins of Lore''. Eldin reacts a lot, and vocalizes a lot of "..." and "?" and the like, but only gets one speaking line: "I'm [[Hello, Insert Name Here|Eldin]]."
* Played with (and possibly [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]]) in the [[No Export for You|Japan-only]] ''[[Digimon]]'' video games for the Wonderswan. Ryo Akiyama starts off talking normally, but Taichi notices that he stopped responding to people once he reveals that the D-1 Tournament was actually just an elaborate [[Training
* Indie RPG ''[[Breath of Death VII]]'' ruthlessly parodies the concept with the mute skeleton hero Dem. Other characters constantly go against his desires and suggestions since he can't express them, and the one character who can understand him, a mind reader, ignores his opinions anyway.
* Russel, the protagonist of ''[[Dubloon]]'', also [[Silent Bob|speaks inexplicitly]]. [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|When you take control of Riley and Ricky]], you can talk to Russel to get the [[Visible Silence|"..."]] response.
* The main protagonist in ''[[Dark Cloud]]''. Altough the game is text based he is never seen speaking more than an occasional Ellipsis or two. The other playable main characters do speak during cutscenes and other times, while playing as them in a dungeon they are silent save for a few attack noises.
* Indie RPG ''[[Hero's Realm]]'' takes this [[Up to Eleven]] by having sixteen heroes… with not one line between them.
* The Fateless One in ''[[
* The New Kid in ''[[South Park|South Park: The Stick of Truth]]'' and the sequel, ''South Park: The Fractured But Whole''. {{spoiler|He says one line at the end of the first game, to tell Cartman and Kyle, [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here| "Screw you guys, I'm going home"]].}}
== Shoot 'Em Up ==
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** He apparently speaks enough for one character to be able to recognise his voice.
** ''Ace Combat'' in general is populated by a parade of extremely heroic and extremely silent [[Ace Pilot]]s as in the last five games in the universe the leads have yet to utter so much as a grunt...
*** Completely averted in ''[[Ace Combat: Assault Horizon]]'' with all three of the playable pilot characters (Colonel William Bishop, Major Janice Rehl, and Doug Robinson) speaking in both cutscenes and gameplay, although the AC-130 gunner Spence plays the trope straight. Unlike previous ''Ace Combat''s, they're [[Featureless Protagonist|also named and have their faces shown]].
* Protagonists in ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' rarely speak aside from "Yes" or "No" answers. They do appear to speak at times, but no dialogue boxes are shown. Recently some games give [[Inner Monologue]].
== Stealth-Based Games ==
* Even the iconic, richly-characterised Solid Snake of ''[[Metal Gear]]'' fame used to be one of these, back in the original game, ''[[Metal Gear
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== References in Other Media ==
* ''[[Cracked.com]]''{{'}}s Mark Hill calls inexplicably mute player characters in plot-heavy games the #4 [http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-video-games-still-have-terrible-stories/ Reason Video Games Have Terrible Stories].
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Silence Tropes]]
[[Category:Normal People]]
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