10 RPGs with Overshadowed Protagonists

Every RPG needs a hero. Someone to hold the sword, carry the world's fate on their back, or serve as the lens through which the player experiences the story. But sometimes that lens is so transparent that the player doesn't even notice it exists or realize that everything around them is more fascinating than whoever is at center screen.

Weak protagonists don't always ruin a game. Some of the most memorable RPGs of the last few decades suffer from this flaw and remain acclaimed as wonderful experiences. But in those cases, you can tell the developers invested so much time in worldbuilding, supporting characters, or villains that the hero ends up left behind — sometimes accidentally, sometimes by a design choice that didn't pan out.

Below, we present ten cases where the protagonist is, by far, one of the least interesting elements of their own game.

Vaan — Final Fantasy XII

Vaan is the classic case, the most recognized by RPG fans. Final Fantasy XII tells a story of war and political intrigue that's almost a blend of Star Wars and Game of Thrones, and it places at its center a street orphan from Rabanastre whose biggest personal conflict is wanting to be a sky pirate.

Around him, Ashe seeks to reclaim her throne and decide between vengeance and diplomacy; Basch is a disgraced knight betrayed by his own brother; Balthier has more charisma in one cutscene than Vaan accumulates in the entire game, and not by accident, he proclaims himself "the leading man" on multiple occasions.

Vaan only works as the lens through which the player follows the events without direct involvement in most of the plot. His role is to witness history being made from the perspective of the commoners most affected by war, but as far as participation in the story goes, Vaan practically doesn't exist.

Kliff — Crimson Desert

Kliff has as much charisma as a door and the depth of a puddle. He dies, comes back to life without explanation, has his throat cut but keeps talking, and moves forward as if none of it matters because, in practice, it doesn't. Crimson Desert treated its plot as a pretext to push the player through the world, and Kliff is the most basic vehicle possible for that job.

Pywell, on the other hand, is beautiful and full of secrets. Biomes vary, lighting changes between regions and times of day, and every corner of the map rewards curiosity. When the most interesting game Pearl Abyss has created has a protagonist whose personality boils down to "sense of duty," it's clear where the development team prioritized their budget and where they didn't.

2B — NieR: Automata

2B works as the protagonist of NieR: Automata's first run. She's stylish, combat with her is satisfying, and she projects the image of an android following orders. Her goal is to kill robots, so the player kills robots. When she needs to save her companion, she saves him. The heroine's development during the entire first run boils down to what we don't know about her rather than what we do.

After the credits, when NieR asks you to play again, you control 9S — and he's a much more interesting character. 9S is curious: from the first minute of the second run, we discover that his hacking ability also lets him investigate data and explore the emotions robots feel. 9S questions things, and by questioning, he deepens the plot in ways that an inattentive player would only suspect if they happened to follow the story only through 2B's lens.

This isn't a knock against 2B. She has a purpose and important motivations — including the reason she's so reserved — but NieR: Automata admits, through its very story structure, that the real story begins when she steps out of focus.

V — Cyberpunk 2077

V is whoever the player wants them to be. They can be an ambitious mercenary, an idealistic terrorist, or something in between or beyond. Regardless of the version the player chooses, V shares their head — literally — with Johnny Silverhand, and he overshadows anything V might want to be.

Silverhand is arrogant, self-destructive, ideologically radical, and so charismatic that he turns V into a supporting character. Cyberpunk 2077's best moments belong to Johnny, from his memories to his past. Keanu Reeves's performance helps, but the writing deserves credit too.

The Inquisitor — Dragon Age: Inquisition

The two previous Dragon Age protagonists had identity: the Warden carried the Grey Wardens' death sentence and the urgency of the Blight, and Hawke had a family tragedy in Kirkwall that escalated with the city's politics and followed the player through an entire decade of events. The Inquisitor is some random individual who got a green mark on their hand and earned a title.

It's not enough. Several other characters in Dragon Age: Inquisition have far more interesting arcs. Not to mention the characters — including protagonists from previous titles — who show up in the main story with much richer histories.

Meanwhile, the player is stuck with a hollow protagonist. Someone capable of shaping the world's fate and closing the Breaches through magical power, but who has absolutely nothing relevant to tell.

Byleth — Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Three Houses is considered one of the best games in the Fire Emblem franchise, and Byleth is considered its biggest flaw. The game invests in making every student and every NPC at Garreg Mach feel like a complete character, with storylines that unfold across chapters, and the choice between the three houses works as a game mechanic because the three leaders are well-built characters capable of justifying the player's different decisions.

Byleth ends up overshadowed by them, even as the main character. They have little personality, little customization, and no notable reaction to the events happening around them. Compared to the franchise's previous avatars/protagonists, Byleth is a step backward in a game that took several steps forward in every other aspect.

Jude Mathis — Tales of Xillia

Tales of Xillia offers two playable protagonists at the start: Jude and Milla. The community has historically favored Milla, and the reasons go beyond aesthetics. Milla has presence and an arc that carries the game's plot, while Jude is a medical student who gets involved in the events because he decides to follow Milla. And that's all he does for the entire game.

Jude is reactive to the plot events from start to finish, while Milla practically carries the story. The game itself seems aware of this dynamic by giving players the option to choose which character at the beginning, letting them prioritize the more interesting protagonist and leave the more generic — or more realistic, as some suggest — one aside.

Alphen — Tales of Arise

The Tales franchise has a pattern of idealistic protagonists, and in Arise, Alphen is the most sanitized version of that mold. He's brave, determined, and wants to free the oppressed. He's everything you'd expect from a shonen hero. That's all he offers.

Unlike Jude's case, it's not that Shionne is the character who shines because Alphen is overshadowed; she's well-written, and her motivations stay ambiguous long enough to keep the audience interested, but rather that the worldbuilding in Tales of Arise doesn't match Alphen's character development well, to the point that even his resolutions feel too generic, as if he were designed with a checklist of everything an anime hero needs.

Noctis — Final Fantasy XV

Noctis is an interesting character, and his arc is good, but it takes way too long to happen.

The prince of Lucis needs to mature in the face of a tragedy that took his kingdom and his father, but for most of Final Fantasy XV, we don't see him develop anything in relation to the events: Noctis remains a reserved, introspective young man throughout the entire first half of the game, while his companions, Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto, do the heavy lifting of giving life to the journey.

The three supporting characters have much more personality and serve almost as crutches for Noctis to move forward: Gladiolus confronts him, Ignis teaches him, and Prompto humanizes him. Not to mention Ardyn, a villain so well-constructed that every scene with him makes the protagonist look like a toy in his hands. Together — and with Lunafreya, also overshadowed due to lack of screen time — the protagonist's companions and the villain build the fearless king that Noctis becomes in the game's final act. The issue is that he only shows up in the final act.

Sora — Kingdom Hearts

Sora doesn't lose to one specific character or to the world; he loses to the plot of the game he starred in for two decades. In the first Kingdom Hearts, Sora was a boy on an adventure through Disney worlds, and the protagonist's simplicity matched the lightness of the story.

Then came several supplemental games, parallel timelines, reincarnations, replicas, data versions, and a plot that requires a notebook and a PowerPoint to follow. Kingdom Hearts became one of the most labyrinthine titles in gaming, and Sora remains the same boy from the first game.

Over thirteen games, he hasn't matured and hasn't gained any complexity that didn't come from other characters in other games, indirectly connected to him. While Roxas or Aqua can carry entire arcs or full games and live up to a story that has evolved and expanded to the point of demanding more complex heroes, Sora stayed in the same place.