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[Fury451]

Have you played the Silent Hill series?
The characters don't care at all.

Not totally true, there's usually reasons for that if so. I mentioned Henry before, as well as James having in-story reasons for their reactions, or lack of at times.

Heather and Murphy have perfectly normal reactions- Heather in fact is extremely human, but she's also pretty strong willed so it takes a lot to rattle her fully. Alex is a bit stifled, but again, there's a reason for that and he's otherwise reacting as expected. First game I don't remember much.

There's an unnatural quality about most of the side characters in the games that would explain their reactions as well- they don't seem quite right in many cases.

 

[pbayne]

Ethan sounded like he was out for a round of golf the entire time.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

One of the most infuriating examples is in Final Fantasy IV:

Spoiler

"Hey, so the little girl you vowed to protect and loved like a daughter? I saw her get eaten by a massive sea serpent."

"....Oh."

(sad head bow)

"Anyway! Back to the adventure!"

Doubly annoying that Rosa doesn't react to this at all.

I feel like almost every pre-PSX-era JRPGs are like this. I suppose the limited dialogue and lack of scene timing take away a lot of gravitas from emotional moments.

 

[royox]

I feel like almost every pre-PSX-era JRPGs are like this. I suppose the limited dialogue and lack of scene timing take away a lot of gravitas from emotional moments.

I never had that feel while playing FFVI or ChronoTrigger but had the feel that characters were not acting accordingly to what whas happening during the main events on FFXV. Heh...weird.

 

[Vegetable Lasagna]

*cough* L.A. Noire *cough*

 

[Waddle Dee]

The "intro" to RE7 (which is half a fucking hour long!) is garbage both due to it not making sense and because it's unskippable. Absolutely kills my desire to replay it after platinuming it.

Yoshi's Island is unrealistic since if Yoshi were real he would've tossed that baby to the shy guys.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

I never had that feel while playing FFVI or ChronoTrigger but had the feel that characters were not acting accordingly to what whas happening during the main events on FFXV. Heh...weird.

That's not weird at all because Final Fantasy VI actually went pretty hard with cinematic directions, as much as its art style would allow (the opera and the Celes-on-the-cliff scenes are notable examples). It's why I said "almost". Tales of Phantasia is also a good example of a SNES JRPG that tried to do more with its emotional scenes.

(Gau's "sad" event is so bad, though)

 

[LowlySmokeGuy]

One of my biggest complaints for RE7. For going "average joe in a shitty situation", ethan doesn't even give a fuck about what's going on outside a few instances. Go in or give me an excuse that he was an ex cop or something to justify his nonchalantness.

That isn't to say he'd need to be a big baby. But he needed more reactions than he gave. When later in the game he's fighting bosses like "I real tired of this", any sort of average joe angle was gone.

Despite what people think. He was an RE Hero character just without the Melee moves. Which is especially odd since he's nothing but a software engineer.

He was a software engineer? I missed that part. I thought there was a possibility he had some background with BOWs given the way he reacts, but I guess not.

 

[potatohead]

This stuff is very tropey of horror genre not sure what you guys are really discussing besides realizing this maybe hopefully?

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

RE7 was unrealistic the moment he didn't nope the heck outta there after watching the tape.

One thing I think people are overlooking is the fact that this was a first-person game with a lot of hype behind it as a VR experience. I think the game was definitely designed more to have the player put themself in the situation rather than Ethan being a discrete character. And after watching people play it in VR I think that was the right choice. Ethan the character might not freak out but that gives the player more of an opportunity to freak out in his place.

 

[Capra]

Upon replay it becomes pretty obvious that Ethan

Spoiler

knows a hell of a lot more about BOWs and Umbrella than we've been led to believe. Hell, he might even be an ex-Umbrella scientist himself.

With that in mind, it's not too surprising that nearly every reaction to the crazy shit unfolding around him is "Well alright, I guess this is happening now. Just roll with it Ethan this is the shitty madhouse world you live in."

 

[Luminaire]

"Haunting Ground" actually has that, not for minutes, but how freaked out the character, Fiona, is kept tracked of and if she gets completely freaked out you lose control of all but the general direction she runs/stumbles in for like half a minute to a minute.

It's one of the reasons why it's such a lovely game. The fact that you have a dog seems to help keep her from going nutso just wandering around doing stuff (in a narrative sense.)

I think Clock Tower 3 also has a panic meter that is affected by crazy stuff as well.

 

[Fury451]

Upon replay it becomes pretty obvious that Ethan

Spoiler

knows a hell of a lot more about BOWs and Umbrella than we've been led to believe. Hell, he might even be an ex-Umbrella scientist himself.

With that in mind, it's not too surprising that nearly every reaction to the crazy shit unfolding around him is "Well alright, I guess this is happening now. Just roll with it Ethan this is the shitty madhouse world you live in."

It's pretty heavily implied that you are correct, through his

Spoiler

marriage to Mia.

 

[Curufinwe]

Nathan Drake mowing through like 20 other pirates in a gunfight and then bouncing straight into charming, lighthearted quirky jokes right after. I guess kudos on him handling his PTSD really well?

He's 90% as shitty as the guys you're shooting in terms of his actions. Literally the only things that makes you root for him is his charm and how he usually kills in self defense, but he always goes out of his way to put himself in those situations just to get a bunch of gold. So dumb. His motivation was more believable in UC4 I admit, but not by much.

Pulp adventure. Look it up.

 

[SchrodingerC]

Henry from Silent Hill 4 counts.
Guy barely emotes beyond saying "what the hell" or says monotone lines when confronted with bizarre and horrific situations. Still like him better than the protags that came after SH4.

Have you played the Silent Hill series?
The characters don't care at all.

No that's not true at all. Heather reacts quite realistically throughout SH3; in fact, she's probably one of the most realistic in Silent Hill. Plus, her sassy moments are amazing.
I'll give you SH1 Harry though, he was basically a prototype protag. Though in SH3 his character is fleshed out a bit more through text.
I'll fight you if you're including any characters from SH2 & 3, or Lisa from SH1.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Despite what people think. He was an RE Hero character just without the Melee moves. Which is especially odd since he's nothing but a software engineer.

The fact that he has melee moves at all beyond "Flail with knife" makes him more badass than most RE protagonists.

But really, he's in the RE universe, where zombie outbreaks are more common than hurricans. I wouldn't be surprised if they taught zombie survival in schools.

 

[loganclaws]

Upon replay it becomes pretty obvious that Ethan

Spoiler

knows a hell of a lot more about BOWs and Umbrella than we've been led to believe. Hell, he might even be an ex-Umbrella scientist himself.

With that in mind, it's not too surprising that nearly every reaction to the crazy shit unfolding around him is "Well alright, I guess this is happening now. Just roll with it Ethan this is the shitty madhouse world you live in."

Finally someone addresses this. I didn't like the game but there is a reason why Ethan reacts the way he does. The ending also heavily hints towards this.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Many of Ethan's strange behavior can be explained

Spoiler

if he is in some way connected to Umbrella, probably one of their bigshots.

 

[You Pay This Much]

Yeah the RE7 intro is a mess in terms of continuity.

I played the intro with a friend and he said theres an explanation for why

Spoiler

Ethan is still alive and didnt die from blood loss.

I finished the game and still didnt see any explanation for any of it.

Oh also, Jack Baker

Spoiler

can cut your leg off and you can simply attach it back on by spraying some first aid on it.

I know its a horror game with its own rules but at least try to be consistent instead of making up magic shit as you go along.

So yeah OP, that bothered me too. The main character getting

Spoiler

all these fatal injuries and dismemberment

in the beginning and he just shrugs it off.

No spoiler tags? Kinda not cool.. I fixed it for ya!

 

[ActWan]

Ethan is

Spoiler

infected and probably not who we think he is (especially with that Umbrella promotional video at the ending)

.
Just look at how Clancy reacts to shit and compare them.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

No spoiler tags? Kinda not cool..

This is all in the first half hour of the game.

In a thread with "EARLY RE7 SPOILERS" in the title.

 

[You Pay This Much]

This is all in the first half hour of the game.

In a thread with "EARLY RE7 SPOILERS" in the title.

That is a perfectly valid point but the OP still went out of their way to tag some of that same info none the less, but since it's in the title I guess it doesn't really matter anyway

 

[Hibiki Kurosawa]

It wasn't meant to be realistic. I mean his hand is essentially stapled back on, which clearly makes no sense and the devs knew that. The original idea was to have Ethan's torso sawed in half and sewn back on, so I really think the devs were chalking that up to "campy horror."

 

[Eblo]

Within minutes of entering a fantastical underwater city, the protagonist of BioShock immediately proceeds to inject himself with a strange syringe he finds sitting in a dirty vending machine.

Spoiler

And no, Atlas doesn't ask him to do it. He just sort of... chooses to on his own.

 

[How About No]

"Haunting Ground" actually has that, not for minutes, but how freaked out the character, Fiona, is kept tracked of and if she gets completely freaked out you lose control of all but the general direction she runs/stumbles in for like half a minute to a minute.

Not sure if I really like that or not. I feel like the character I'm controlling should be in tune with my own feeling, so if I'm not panicking, why should the character be panicking?

Didn't really like this in games like Penumbra or Amnesia, which also have fear-based sanity effects. I feel like the game should make strides to make ME feel scared (and fumbling with the controls nervously on my own terms!) than have a meter fill up to make the game play worse on its own, and that meter fills up from things I don't necessarily have any emotional reaction to, but still effects the game

Seb had one scene in Evil Within which was definitely in tune with the players. After narrowly surviving a fight with a giant zombie dog, Joseph drops his glasses, and he won't leave without them. So the player has to go back to grab them before being mauled by the huge ass zombie dog. He hands them back and Joseph says, "Without these I can't be myself."

Cue the player and Seb going, "What the fuck Joseph," since those dogs were basically bosses and take a lot of ammo to kill.

Lol I forgot about that

 

[Fury451]

Within minutes of entering a fantastical underwater city, the protagonist of BioShock immediately proceeds to inject himself with a strange syringe he finds sitting in a dirty vending machine.

Spoiler

And no, Atlas doesn't ask him to do it. He just sort of... chooses to on his own.

Uh,

Spoiler

Atlas is already talking to him at that point. I don't recall if he said the phrase, but he definitely instructs you on the importance of doing it to survive. And considering that the main character is basically programmed to trust him at that point, he doesn't really do it on his own.

 

[Teggy]

Within minutes of entering a fantastical underwater city, the protagonist of BioShock immediately proceeds to inject himself with a strange syringe he finds sitting in a dirty vending machine.

Spoiler

And no, Atlas doesn't ask him to do it. He just sort of... chooses to on his own.

Yes, this is a great one I forgot. They don't even really put any hesitation in the animation or anything.

It would be so easy for a lot of these cases to be resolved with a little extra dialogue, but the writers don't bother for some reason.

For example, when Ethan

Spoiler

drives a hatchet into his girlfriend's neck, maybe just animate him kneeling by the body and have him apologize. Then have him say that this is insane and he needs to find help.

Then the game continues. As the game keeps going it's perfectly fine for the character to calm down as they settle into the situation.

 

[TheEndOfItAll]

Dragon Quest: the Thread.

 

[SOLDIER]

I feel like almost every pre-PSX-era JRPGs are like this. I suppose the limited dialogue and lack of scene timing take away a lot of gravitas from emotional moments.

It's even more annoying that they don't expand on this at all with the FFIV Remake.

Anyway, I forgot about the all-time reigning champion of this: Cave Story.

The game features no shortage of cruel and brutal acts in the game, yet nobody ever stops to react or even acknowledge them. Even setting aside the fact that

Spoiler

the main character is a robot

None of the other characters have anything to say either.

Spoiler

Toroko in particular got a really brutal end, but not only is this never mentioned by anyone besides a grave shot during the credits, they even go to befriend one of the villains that killed her in the first place like no big deal.

 

[SOLDIER]

Another big example is Diablo III, which is hampered even further by how the majority of that game's story plays out like a bad 90's cartoon:

Spoiler

Adria is betrayed by her mother and becomes the vessel for Diablo. Eventually she's killed (?) as the final boss.

Your party barely mentions or reacts to this beyond a couple of lines. It's an incredibly cruel moment happening to a major character, yet it gets no gravitas or much acknowledgement at all.

Basically, any game that does this ends up in my permanent shot list (yes, even Cave Story, much as I enjoy playing it). If you aren't going to commit to your narrative because "it's a game, no time for that", then don't bother with a story to begin with. If the characters aren't engaging with what's happening in front of/to them, then I can't either as the player.

 

[kodecraft]

Realistic? In a Game?

I would have driven up to the point where you see the house, then not gone in. I would have called the police and left.

This, if we're supposed to be realistic about it.

 

[Teggy]

Playing a little further, I did see that Ethan's reaction to crawling through a tight space filled with bugs was pretty accurate, and I commend the writers for that.

"FUCK....FUCK....FUCK!"

 

[chadtwo]

As someone else mentioned, it's that ludonarrative dissonance.

This amused me very much in Fallout 4. Within minutes of waking up in a hellish nuclear wasteland after having just witnessed the murder of your wife and kidnapping of your son, you remain unfazed and ready to kill/crack jokes/take a new lover. It's downright sociopathic and it makes me chuckle to think about.

 

[John Kowalski]

Bros check your thesaurus, that's not ludonarrative dissonance

 

[Ahasverus]

Videogame writing is really bad. The worst part is that it's gotten better. I have no idea how we survived the first 30 years.

 

[plagiarize]

Eh. He hasn't seen her in years, and then

Spoiler

she goes all exorcist on him and he has to 'kill' her in self defense.

I'm not saying his reaction that having done that is how I would have reacted, but I don't pretend to know how I'd have reacted in that situation. Honestly, I thought it was refreshing that he didn't go all weepy.

Spoiler

It's also why I picked Zoe too as someone else said. Dude clearly didn't give a fuck about Mia.

And really, it's hard to even blame him given the situation. Oh for sure he needed to know what happened to her, but that doesn't mean

 

[Kinyou]

Does BJ Blazkowicz count? I know he's supposed to be this total badass and can survive almost anything, but I don't really buy him just being able to straight up go back to full soldier mode immediately after spending 14 years as a vegetable in a wheelchair.

I guess the game sorta justified it by implying Blazkowicz got his willpower back after holding a gun, but it's still a little farfetched.

That's just Blazkowicz for you. Killing Nazis is like breathing to him.

 

[How About No]

Playing a little further, I did see that Ethan's reaction to crawling through a tight space filled with bugs was pretty accurate, and I commend the writers for that.

"FUCK....FUCK....FUCK!"

Centipedes are cool tho

Now, if that wall space was filled with house centipedes...

 

[Rhaknar]

its videogames. Hell, and movies. Suspension of disbelief s a thing that one has to use.

 

[Nori Chan]

Well Ethan is also an

Spoiler

umbrella scientist

so he might be used to crazy shit as well

 

[Bronetta]

its videogames. Hell, and movies. Suspension of disbelief s a thing that one has to use.

Which most of us do use but when the writing in question keeps straining that suspension of disbelief it can be jarring.

I know its a video game, Im supposed to play along but sometimes characters say or do shit which is so unbelievable it takes me out of the experience.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I always thought Link never showing any sign of fear was odd as hell. Especially playing the intro of ALTTP as a kid.

 

[Keinning]

"Haunting Ground" actually has that, not for minutes, but how freaked out the character, Fiona, is kept tracked of and if she gets completely freaked out you lose control of all but the general direction she runs/stumbles in for like half a minute to a minute.

The kid in siren play like that too. You have to make extra sure to never run into weird shit or she gets scared, and go hide away somewhere while sobbing loudly and all you can do is mash the keys and pray for it to end before a shibito finds you

 

[How About No]

I always thought Link never showing any sign of fear was odd as hell. Especially playing the intro of ALTTP as a kid.

That falling anim and scream tho

 

[Jake2by4]

The only time Ethan had a solid reaction was to the first molded besides the bugs

 

[Keinning]

Speaking of Siren, the characters in that game do react to strange things happening but they needed to do more because damn if the weird things in siren arent extra weird

mamoru for instance didnt react anywhere near as shocked as i did when he saw

Spoiler

the face boobies

 

[semiconscious]

So this thread isn't too dangerous I'll put spoilers in tags. If you're putting in spoilers and you're unsure how sensitive the info is, please do the same.

I'm playing RE7 for the first time, and at the start of the game the main character

Spoiler

(seemingly) kills his girlfriend

and just really doesn't seem all that shook up about it or try to do anything about it. Shortly after

Spoiler

she cuts off his hand

and that point he seems kind of...just...pissed? Finally, he

Spoiler

he wakes up with his hand sewn back on and working

and doesn't seem to notice at all.

I know there are other games that have made me feel this way, but this is the one that made me make a thread. It just makes me think more about why the character is reacting so unrealistically than what's going on in the game. And it would have been easy to fix with a little animation and dialogue.

so, you'd prefer a character who reacts realistically to what's clearly, obviously completely unrealistic? ...

welcome to the 'charm' of resident evil vii, which even outdoes the charm of the original. it's the aspect of the series that i've always loved most (& have missed when it hasn't always been there) - the incredibly flat, inappropriate responses by the 'heroes' to some of the craziest shit in video gaming. no series has ever done it better, & it never fails to either make me smile, or completely crack me up ...

 

[John Kowalski]

I always thought Link never showing any sign of fear was odd as hell. Especially playing the intro of ALTTP as a kid.

Well he does have the triforce of courage

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Many writers have problems having characters behave as sentient beings with wills of their own, (or barring at all, keeping that up). This is why you get characters that burble up exposition as if they're a ventriloquist doll for the writers, people swinging in and out of strong emotions, or clamming up in situations they as a person would NEVER stand for continuing to play out that way.

I always thought Link never showing any sign of fear was odd as hell. Especially playing the intro of ALTTP as a kid.

Then there's these characters that basically have no fully-faceted "self". Link is here to swing a sword and kill monsters and anything else is ancilliary goof stuff or ephemeral facial expressions. To add weight to him would invite my first paragraph.

 

[How About No]

Well he does have the triforce of courage

but you have to be scared to show courage