Games where you're not the protagonist

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[HansDampf]

You aren't saving the world in Bloodlines. But if you are not the protagonist, then who is?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[80Maxwell08]

White Knight Chronicles is basically this, though that game appears to be shit from a LP I read a while back. The 12th Fire Emblem is kind of this, though your character gets some development. Basically, your character decides that they need to become a footnote so that Marth, the protagonist from the first game, can take all the credit and become a hero in legend so everyone has faith in him.

 

[RK47]

You aren't saving the world in Bloodlines. But if you are not the protagonist, then who is?

take your pick. Caine?

I don't think you're saving the world in Bloodlines.
You're just looking out after yourself after being embraced.
If you made the bad choices, well...it goes badly for you in the end.
If you made the good choices, you made it out alive and (un)life goes on.

 

[laclongquan]

You aren't saving the world in Bloodlines. But if you are not the protagonist, then who is?

take your pick. Caine?

Arguably Jack.

I am more of the opinion of the entire thing was controlled by Jack in the background

 

[The Great ThunThun*]

Seriously, no one mentioned Witcher 3 yet? There is a dialogue in the *game* pointing it out to the player that they "are the just a Witcher, silly" and that Ciri is the chosen one who must save the world.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

You aren't saving the world in Bloodlines. But if you are not the protagonist, then who is?

take your pick. Caine?

Arguably Jack.

I am more of the opinion of the entire thing was controlled by Jack in the background

Nah, the real brains of the operation is the blood bank dude. By keeping the vampires in a state of conflict, he was keeping demand for blood up.

 

[Ovg]

Easy and cheap shot: Dishonored DLC Knife of Dunwall. You play as one of the main campaigns assasination targets.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Lemmings.

You guide the protagonists from place to place as you try to ensure their survival. While the game itself doesn't provide any specific set pieces for romance interests, character development or a plot, the game does provide ample opportunities for you to add them into the gameplay yourself.

Which is your favorite Lemming, and why? Discuss!

How long can you keep the lead Lemming alive?

 

[Jason Liang]

Shadowrun: Dragonfall/ Hong Kong feels like this since your PC is weaker and less interesting than the NPCs on your team.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance feels like this since you are basically working for Nick Fury to take down Dr. Doom.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Which is your favorite Lemming, and why? Discuss!

My favorite lemming is whichever one I'm blowing up at the moment.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

There's also the GBA Fire Emblem game, where you're literally a no-name "tactician" helping the Protagonists of the story achieve their goals.

FYI: The GBA Fire Emblem is also known as Fire Emblem 7. They removed the 7 in the English release because it was the first Fire Emblem to be localized.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Experience 112
you guide the protagonist around, give suggestions on where to go and what to do, but you do almost nothing yourself.

 

[Talby]

The RPG Codex.

 

[Valestein]

Halo: ODST

You play as a nobody ODST newbie that spends the course of the game investigating what happened to the rest of your team after a failed space drop. When you find clues as to what happened to them, you end playing as them in a sort of "flashback". Towards the end of the game, the team is reunited and said newbie plays second fiddle to them as they fulfill the objective of capturing a Covenant engineer, which has importance but isn't exactly a war winning move.

It's low key plot and how the player character is a supporting character makes my fave Halo plotline.

 

[taxalot]

Princess Maker 2.

 

[Mark Richard]

Dragon Age - Alistair is more important than The Warden technically.

Alistair also fits neatly into the

Spoiler

'royal bastard unaware of his bloodline' archetype and has the death of a mentor to avenge.

On paper he's a perfect protagonist, but eschews the responsibility due to his lack of confidence. Meanwhile The Warden is an unwilling recruit in most of his/her origin stories and it's debatable how motivated they'd be to continue with the mission after everything goes to shit. If given the option, my character would've skipped town and headed straight for the Ferelden border. There's nobody left alive who knows my identity as a Warden, except Alistair, and he could slip and tragically break his neck at any moment. The swamps are a dangerous place.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Okay but Mary-Kate & Ashley: Spear of Destiny was the greatest RPG of the past decade don't @ me

 

[Atomkilla]

To the Moon

An fairly simple adventure game where you portray a pair of doctors who are tasked with fulfilling a dying man's last wish. In reality, you spend most of the game traversing through old man's memories and discovering details about his life.

 

[Edward The Mediocre]

To the Moon

An fairly simple adventure game where you portray a pair of doctors who are tasked with fulfilling a dying man's last wish. In reality, you spend most of the game traversing through old man's memories and discovering details about his life.

It's a fucking walking simulator made in rpg maker. If you're going to count that as a game then gone home fits with the thread as well since the "story" is about find out why your family isn't at home.

 

[Atomkilla]

To the Moon

An fairly simple adventure game where you portray a pair of doctors who are tasked with fulfilling a dying man's last wish. In reality, you spend most of the game traversing through old man's memories and discovering details about his life.

It's a fucking walking simulator made in rpg maker. If you're going to count that as a game then gone home fits with the thread as well since the "story" is about find out why your family isn't at home.

I don't know anything about Gone Home, but I have a hard time talking this post seriously.
To The Moon is very simple, true, and there's little challenge to it, but it is most certainly a game whether you like it or not. What else would it be?

The fact that it is very limited in its scope doesn't undermine its quality as a video game. You may not like it and that's fine, and not even consider it a game if that suits you, but in the end it's not very relevant in the context of OP's question.

 

[Icewater]

The RPG Codex.

Speak for yourself, man.

It is my sacred quest to slay the DarkUnderlord!

 

[Eyestabber]

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.

 

[v1rus]

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.