Mute Point

December 27, 2005

What is the deal with mute protagonists in video games? Does Crono never saying a word make Chrono Trigger better? Isn't the freaky bug-eyed Link even freakier when he doesn't say anything?

Let's take Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City. In one corner, hailing from Liberty City you have the king of all mutes Claude Speed and in the other corner, another former Liberty City boy now making his home in Vice City Tommy Vercetti. Does the single fact that Tommy speaks over Claude make Vice City better, I think so. But then again the fact that Tommy is voice by Ray Liotta makes it even better than that.

Look, even if you're not going to use actually audio voice overs for the characters, at least give them written dialog. This pantomiming crap is so 1975.