Heroic Mime: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
References in Other Media |
m update links |
||
Line 20:
Will often be paired with an [[Exposition Fairy]] who talks [[Stop Helping Me!|far, far too much]]. Is not the [[I Thought It Meant|opposite]] of [[Monster Clown]] or [[Enemy Mime]].
This trope occasionally crops up in other media, but it may be more difficult to pull off, unless done comedically.
They may or may not be an [[Audience Surrogate]].
Line 75:
== Fighting Games ==
* Taken to a ridiculous extreme in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl'''s Adventure Mode, where ''nearly everyone'' is a [[Heroic Mime]] plotwise. Even the villains. Even the characters who do speak in their own games. At times it seems like the characters are communicating telepathically. You had to [[All There in the Manual|read the official website]] just to find out what was going on. The only exceptions are Snake (who gets one line) and a few instances of [[Calling Your Attacks]].
** In the interest of fairness, the reason for the necessity of [[All There in the Manual]] is due to two scenes that were removed from the final version. ''Most'' of the plot and character interactions can be inferred from their actions... just not the most important ones.
* Def Jam Vendetta has four generic protagonists with the exact same story and cutscenes, and not one speaks a single word except for the occasional "Yeah!" or grunt. ''Very'' awkward, especially considering all the smack talk, threats, and jabbering dished out by everyone around them.
Line 107:
** Barney is an example that speaks when the player isn't controlling them, as he doesn't say anything in ''Blue Shift'' yet is quite vocal in ''Half-Life 2'' and ''Episode One''. If [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Adrian]] were ever to return to series (please?) it's most probable he would finally be able speak as well.
*** ''Blue Shift'' goes out of its way to make it clear that Barney is in fact speaking, but that we can't hear him.
*** The ''Opposing Force'' tutorial does the same with Adrian: "What is your name, soldier?!... '''[[Drill Sergeant Nasty|SOUND LIKE YOU GOT A PURPOSE!!!]]'''... Corporal Shephard, eh?" Unique from the others, not only we never hear Adrian speaking but we don't even see his face as he's wearing a gasmask during all of his screentime and no concept art exists either, except [http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Adrian_Shephard#Behind_the_scenes this pre-game image].
** Oddly, we ''do'' get to hear the voices of Gina and Colette in ''Decay'', though that might be because there are two of them.
** [[Affectionate Parody|Naturally]], this is mercilessly mocked and parodied in ''[[Concerned]]'', which states Gordon can command squads of [[La Résistance]] soldiers by ''staring hard enough in a certain direction''. When Frohman tries this however, it's just creepy.
Line 135:
* 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 "[[This Is Sparta|I! Am! Turok!]]"
* 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.
* Averted with Nomad in ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'', but played straight with Alcatraz in the sequel. {{spoiler|He suffered fatal injuries in the ''introduction'' (including his lungs and vocal cords) and only the Nanosuit is keeping him alive.}}
Line 163:
== Platform Games ==
* Various Nintendo characters, but especially Mario and company usually function as heroic mimes during play. The humorous extremes occurs in ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' for the SNES and ''[[Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'' for the GBA. They pantomime ''everything''.
** ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' actually took it one step ''further'', as (when he was pantomiming something) Mario would depict the other characters by literally turning into them. One example is when Mario's describing the actions of Bowser, ''and suddenly Bowser's standing there'', pantomiming everything. The catch is that everybody else can see Bowser as well, causing everyone to jump back and hide behind something.
*** ...and then he turns into the Princess (everybody comes out and runs toward Mario), and then back into Bowser (everybody runs and hides again)...
Line 253:
** The player characters do speak occasionally, as gathered from NPC's responses. Based on the [[Repeating So the Audience Can Hear]] nature of the responses, though, the PCs are [[The Unintelligible]] when they speak at all.
** Lampshaded again in ''HeartGold'' and ''SoulSilver'' - you can talk to your Pokémon and one of the responses is "[Pokémon name] seems nervous. Want to say something?". If you say "Yes" it responds, "Whoa! Your Pokémon seemed surprised!"
** In ''[[Pokémon Black and White|Black and White]]'', there are two instances of what ''might'' be Hilda/Hilbert speaking aloud to themselves, in which they express curiosity as to the source of the sounds coming from the top of Dragonspiral Tower. The messages are expressed in an unusually personal-sounding tone, and appear in unique text boxes at the top of the screen rather than the bottom. Their true nature, though, is ambiguous, as no other characters are around to "hear" them.
*** Also, while you are silent, there's a lot more implied talking than in other games.
** In the ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' games, the only times a message box comes up for your character are when they're thinking something to themselves and at the end of the main story. They do say things out loud occasionally, but this manifests itself as your character walking in place for a few seconds and a line of [[Repeating So the Audience Can Hear]] exposition from the target, or alternately a message box reading "[Name] told Character X about Event Y".
*** Except in the "Sentry Duty" minigame, where the PC is the one who shouts "The footprint is [Pokémon]'s! The footprint is [Pokémon]'s!"
Line 265:
** The protagonist of ''[[Persona 3]]'' is a borderline example who is more of a heroic [[The Quiet One]] than a [[Heroic Mime]]. He makes sounds in combat, including [[Calling Your Attacks|persona invocations]], and the player must make him respond to other people's dialogue, but he never speaks more than one sentence at a time. Around SEES, he's generally rather quiet, sticking to one-on-one conversations with the rest of the cast, causing Shinji to lampshade his general quiet; he ''does'' talk outside the player character giving him lines (small talk and discussions with Social Links/other SEES members), but the player never sees these lines. (This is not so much the case with the alternate female protagonist, whose personality as indicated by her dialogue prompts is considerably more energetic, but her conversations with characters aside from player-chosen prompts are similarly glossed over.)
*** Ditto with the protagonist of ''[[Persona 4]]''. Some personality can also be gleaned from the dialogue options. In P4, for example, the option of telling people to 'calm down' comes up repeatedly - almost to the point of it being a bit of a running joke.
**** Persona 4 is an odd case. The addition of full team control means that the protagonist is actually telling each character what to do in real time, even though the player never hears them. Also, in a number of group situations and meetups, the protagonist is seen talking among the group quite casually and easily. While spoken dialogue is almost non-existent, in-universe he's reasonably chatty.
*** ''[[Persona 2]]'' has a variation of the trope. The main characters of ''Innocent Sin'' and ''Eternal Punishment'' (Tatsuya and Maya, respectively) are party members in the other's game. So in the game one is the protagonist, he/she will be mute; in the other game, he/she will be able to talk. Anyone who played both versions can confirm the strangeness of hearing a previously mute character talk, which is quite interesting.
**** Stranger with Maya, who in the first game is established as being chatty and scatterbrained, but doesn't utter a peep in the second. Tatsuya always maintains his calm, cold personality, even when he starts talking.
Line 272:
*** Serph does have a few text options that are more than Yes or No. One of them even prompts hilarity from Heat.
** The Protagonist of ''[[Strange Journey]]'' is actually quite talkative, and in fact this is a major gameplay aspect for recruiting demons, but all of his dialogue must be chosen by the player. While out in the field, with few people to talk to, all his lines occur in Demon Negotiation unless he's receiving instructions from other Strike Team members in the area; during plot scenes, he will restrict himself to choosing from several [[Character Alignment|alignment-defining]] options, but is otherwise [[The Stoic]] as far as the crew is concerned.
** The Protagonist of ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' is this as well; however, he has many [[Dialogue Trees|dialogue options]], some that can even influence events that take place. His default characterization seems to be [[The Stoic|stoicism,]] however.
* Averted in ''[[Fable]]'': the hero has no dialogue, but he says single words (such as "Follow" or "Shit") when you use certain commands, and {{spoiler|mouths "Mum!" when his mother is killed right in front of him.}}
** The Hero of Fable II has no speaking lines aside from grunts and screams and the occasional "Yeah!". These mostly appear when performing expressions. The Hero of Fable III however has several lines of dialogue though they are few and far between.
Line 288:
== Shoot 'Em Up ==
* In the first ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star
* Subverted in ''[[Hydorah]]''. About two thirds of the way through the game, [[Always a Bigger Fish|something]] happens that is so random that the usually mute protagonist blurts out "What the hell was that".
Line 297:
** ''Ace Combat'' in general is populated by a parade of extremely heroic and extremely silent [[Ace Pilot|Ace Pilots]] 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]].
Line 309:
** Interestingly, they give him several lines of dialog in the sequel.
* Played straight and averted in ''Metro 2033'' game. Artyom, the protagonist, never speaks during the game itself (besides uttering ''Fuck'' during one accident), even if on multiple occasions other characters speak to him or even ask questions (which is also lampshaded few times). On the other hand, Artem is narrating the story during the loading screens.
** Artyom can be seen as a quiet, introverted person. In his room, in the beggining of the game, he is seen daydreaming about the world before the war. He also has an extensive collection of books, like "On the origin of species"
* Jennifer in ''[[Rule of Rose]]'' isn't entirely mute, but she never takes part in any conversations, just passively listening to the other characters, probably to show how detached she is from the rest of them. She only speaks to call for her dog...until near the end of the game when she's [[Berserk Button|finally had enough]], and tells exactly what she thinks about the "Aristocrats".
* The Lauras from the D Trilogy (''D'', ''[[Enemy Zero]]'' and ''D-2'') are all mute characters. But E0's Laura subverts this trope, by grunting, gasping, screaming, sobbing and talking in several occasions. (when you load the game and when you beat the game)
Line 323:
== Turn-Based Strategy ==
* The main characters of the ''[[Shining Force]]'' games are [[Heroic Mime|Heroic Mimes]]. It's taken to the point of absurdity in the third game, which rotates the viewpoint through three main characters. Each one has scenes where he's implied to be saying something, but all that displays is [[Visible Silence|"..."]], and the other characters get [[Repeating So the Audience Can Hear]] lines to show the player what the main just said. And then there are the scenes where two main characters talk to each other - despite the fact that there's a script for both characters, and everyone in the scene reacts as if both of them are talking, the main character's dialogue just displays ellipses, meaning you have to play through the same scene twice just to hear what ''everyone in the game'' can understand fine both times.
** Max actually does speak in the first game (at least, in the GBA Remake)? He only becomes mute because of plot circumstances.
** Bowie, the Hero in ''Shining Force 2'', is not ''entirely'' mute, either. His lines are few and far between (sometimes hours of gameplay apart) and mostly gratuitous, though.
| |||