Summary
- Metaphor: ReFantazio fans are debating whether the Persona 6 protagonist should be voiced
- Arguments are relatively split down the middle, with arguments for a silent protagonist focusing on immersion and self-insertion.
- Fans in favor of a voiced protagonist believe it can add a more fleshed-out personality, and point to Metaphor’s Will as a perfect example.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is one of this year’s best games – the best RPG entirely if you put any stock in The Game Awards – though now that it’s been and gone, all attention turns to Atlus’ next game. Given that Sega has claimed in the past that it wants to make Persona a yearly franchise, many assume that we’ll see Persona 6 launch at some point in 2025.
We don’t know what Persona 6 will look like at the moment, with some hoping that it sheds the high school setting for something a little different, and Metaphor: ReFantazio has proved that Atlus fans are ready for a new Persona experience. One of the big debates right now is about the game’s main character, and whether they should be voiced.
In a post on the Persona subreddit earlier this month, a user called AnimeGokuSolos put the question to fellow fans. Turns out, there isn’t one straight forward answer to this one, as many fans put forward their arguments about why Persona 6’s main character should talk, and why they should remain silent.
We’ll start with Team Silent, which includes users like JaxTru. They argue that a large part of the Persona series is the life sim elements, and that having a protagonist remain silent allows them to “feel more immersed in the game”, and that having them remain silent would make them inserting themselves in the story a lot easier. Another user called Ccip_OvO also thinks Atlus has managed to nail the ability of giving silent protagonists actual personalities.
Related
Metaphor: ReFantazio Didn’t Tie Into Persona In The Ways I Thought It Would
My feelings and theories on Metaphor: ReFantazio after playing the preview turned out to be very different from what the full game delivered.
Then we have Team Talk, who mostly point to Will from Metaphor: ReFantazio as how to do it perfectly, as he does talk, but not too much to ruin any self-inserted fantasies. Another user called Exboi would prefer the main characters to talk so they could get a more “fleshed out personality and clearer arc”, with other users fed up with having the blandest character in their parties.
There’s quite a lot of variety in the answers given, though it is ever so slightly leaning towards having a voiced protagonist. Whatever Atlus chooses, I just hope it’s both a banger, and launches at some point in the next millennium. Please no more Persona 5 Atlus, I beg of you.
Persona 6 is an unconfirmed mainline entry in the long-running RPG series from Atlus.