The Silent Protagonist

"Your name is...'Pokemon Trainer?'  Um...do you have a first name?  .....hello?"

"It's a-me....Mario!" 

In 1996, Nintendo fanatics got their proverbial minds blown when they slammed Mario 64 cartridges into their brand spankin' new Nintendo 64's and heard their beloved mustachioed icon greet them in broken English via a glorified E3 face pulling demo.  Throughout the early 90's, we got to know him, not by his intricate dialogue, but by his tendency to squash critters and freak out on star power.  Why the sudden jump to speech?  What's the purpose of being silent?

Putting Mario aside for a moment, let's take a look at silent protagonists in general.  Video games are an interactive media, meaning people can project themselves into a simulated universe and do anything they wish within the confines of said reality.  Just like our brains control our functions, our hands utilizing our controllers manipulate the actions of our "other me" in the game world.

Having total control over our game avatars results in jarring confusion when other game world characters speak to ours.  Game designers go about this gap in reality in different ways: they make silent, semi-silent and automated protagonists.

Silent Protagonists

A silent protagonist, such as the tactician in the early Fire Emblem games, has absolutely no dialogue.  Other characters in the game world will have conversations with them, even responding to things that were not said, to give the illusion that the human player is actually conversing with the character.  I have not seen it firsthand, but I bet somewhere out there, someone is talking to their Gameboy out loud and feeling not so lonely.

Semi-silent Protagonists

Another way developers get around this gap is by having an otherwise silent protagonist who will speak in certain situations when the user is prompted.  Prevalent is nearly every Japanese dating sim it is done by way of multiple choice.  Being terrible at multiple choice questions in the past, I usually hated this method, as I always wished there was a "D. All of the above."  This is done to give the human a sense of freedom in adding their own personality to the character they are playing.  However, the freedom is an illusion because all of the choices are already pre-determined with several story arcs written into each game.

Automated Protagonists

The third main sort of protagonist is the automated one.  Characters like Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7, which have their own story and personality, give their own dialogue independent of the human playing the game.  While the user will control the character's movements and battle decisions, they are at the mercy of the character's own speech and attitude.  Despite being a hindrance to the aim of assimilating the player's mind into the avatar, this is done when the protagonist has their own backstory, wit, etc. that the story arc of the game depends on.

Which faction did Mario fall under?  In his early iterations, he was completely silent.  The story of Super Mario Bros. was sufficiently told through the now-cliche "Our princess is in another castle."  And, oh what tragic comedy it was!  After the first castle, we begin to feel the angst of our avatar as we again and again toil for the kiss of a princess only to be cock-blocked by mushroom dudes.  If Mario had any lines in the game, it would get in the way of that very real feeling!

1996 was a new year for Nintendo.  Things were changing.  Mario HAD to be in 3D, they must have decide.  Nintendo had the technology for speech and they intended to use every trick up their sleeves to combat the new player on the block - Sony.  What better way to make commotion then to have the, arguably, most iconic video game character leap into our ears as well as our eyes....and hearts?  

Since then, they've kept him tastefully quiet.  Certain things aside, he interacts silently with loquacious mushrooms and other fauna, only adding a "Woo-hoo" and a "Ha-ha!" where needed in his gymnastics.  In certain situations, he's a semi-silent protagonist, with peripheral characters discerning what he intends through his actions. 

Are there any other ways to get around the problem of dialogue with main characters?  Perhaps.  I'm more than eager to try them out.  Until then - "Thanks-a so much for-a reading my article."