Games where you're not the protagonist

[Talby]

The main character of the entire C&C franchise is KANE. You can either chose to be his bitch or a minor nuisance to his plans, but KANE is the protagonist, not Commander/Anton Slavic/Whoever.



KANE LIVES IN DEATH!

EDIT: MANG, I can't look up Tiberian Sun on YT w/o watching the entire story. Slavic's unyielding fanaticism combined with Kane's megalomaniac sociopath charisma makes for THE best C&C as far as story/cutscenes is concerned.

 

[Cael]

God fucking dammit.

In vidya, you are always the protagonist. Protagonist = prōtos (first/most important) + agōnistēs (actor(according to the root of the word combatant)). And, when Greeks said actor, they didnt refer to no bloody Tom Cruise or film diva, they referred to the guy who acts. Ie the guy who is the source of the action. Thus, the protagonist is always the main source of action, the one from whose perspective you see the world, while antagonist is the main source of counteraction. Plain and simple. In Wizardry 4, you (Werdna) is the protagonist, and the antagonists are the the heroes from previous games (and yes, protagonists from previous games.) The main source of action is naturally the character from whose perspective we see the story develop, the main character - the protagonist. This goes double for vidya, where action is often very literal. Thus, your character is always the protagonist - you are always the protagonist.

What you folks are talking about is a central figure/key character. Yes, Revan is the most important character in the fictive world of Kotor 2, but for you, the player, the Exile is the most important character - he's the one from whos perspective you see the story, hes the main source of action, and its his god damn story. To use Russian formalist terms, Revan would be in the center of the games fabula (the story as it happened) but Exile is the center of the games syuzhet (story as its told). Thus, Jedi Exile is the protagonist of Kotor 2.

There could be some extreme cases where you arent playing the protagonist (or there are multiple protagonists/protagonist+deuteragonist+tritagonist), but for a huge majority of shit, it works as i explained.

Dude, the HBS game in the OP's list still fulfills the criteria of your character not being the protagonist... The Disney Princess is.

 

[Mark Richard]

God fucking dammit.

In vidya, you are always the protagonist. Protagonist = prōtos (first/most important) + agōnistēs (actor(according to the root of the word combatant)). And, when Greeks said actor, they didnt refer to no bloody Tom Cruise or film diva, they referred to the guy who acts. Ie the guy who is the source of the action. Thus, the protagonist is always the main source of action, the one from whose perspective you see the world, while antagonist is the main source of counteraction. Plain and simple.

In the strictest possible terms, sure. But I'm talking about games where you're the protagonist in name only, and a candidate far more suited to the role walks a path parallel to your own. They're the protagonist by every basic law of storytelling, generally receiving far more development and hitting all the narrative beats of a classic hero's arc while your own character is very limited by comparison.

I agree about KotoR 2 though. Just because The Exile has to deal with the mess caused by Revan's prior actions, doesn't change the fact that its his/her personal story.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Pillars of Eternity 2.

Spoiler

It’s all about Eothas.