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In a game where the protagonist has a custom name, but the game is voice acted, how should you deal with spoken lines that contain the character's name?
Is it better for the protagonist to have a set name in a game with voice acting to avoid this dilemma?

For example:
The line says: "Actually, (player's name), I have something else for you."
The voice actor says: "Actually, ???, I have something else for you."

What would they say in place of ???

I think I remember in the visual novel Starry Sky, the voice actors would replace the heroine's name with "you". But that doesn't work all the time, like in the line above. I imagine the voice actor would just skip the name, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of customizing the name, doesn't it? It could also seem awkward depending on the line.

What do you think? Should I just give the protagonist a name that can't be changed?

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Well, you could just leave the name entirely out there:

Actually, I have something for you.

Generally, when a game contains voice acting, they use nicknames in the place; like leader, or partner, or pal if they have to.

Hope this helps!

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Most of the time, the name is just skipped in the spoken dialogue. This can be very effective depending on how the dialogue is written.

Or you could go the Mass Effect route, and give the player a set last name or nickname, and allow the player to choose their own first name or real name. Then, in spoken dialogue the player can be referred to by the last name, title, or nickname.

There's also where if you choose to stay with the default name, the characters will say the name. I find this the most interesting one out of the other choices.

You're right, I could leave the name out in that line, but there are quite a few lines where the name is important.
Take this one for example:
"Class, this is (player's first name) (player's last name). She'll join our class from now on."
Really I have no idea what to do about lines like that. The voice actor would have to say something entirely different!
Do you think it's awkward for the voice actor to say something different than what is written in the line?
Using nicknames is a good idea though!

The other ideas are interesting. My main worry with those are that it could be hard on the voice actors, since they'd have to record the same lines multiple times (record once for if they're going to skip the name, record again for if they're going to say the name, and again for if they're going to say the nickname instead, etc...)
I want to make it easy for everyone, you know?

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well you sue one of 2 routs for the game.

First you refer to them as he/she/him/her/I through the game
OR
You give them a Last name and use it. Like Mass Effect

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They did the "omit the name" thing in Persona 3 and 4. I forget what happened in 3, but in 4 they humorously sidestep the issue with the teenager-hating homeroom teacher being such a jerk, he just tells the class with a disgusted tone that there's a new transfer student, and by the time he gets around to telling the protagonist to introduce himself, the protagonist just has the option of stuff like "..." or talking back to him. (Although, in P4 the protagonist doesn't speak his lines; only things like grunts and battle sounds are voiced.) In P4 sometimes the party will refer to the protagonist as "leader" (nickname).

I've seen games where the dialogue is something like, Teacher: "This is our new transfer student. I'm sorry, what was your name?" Player: *picks name* which is assumed to be spoken.

You can go watch some Let's Plays of games like that so you can see it in action.


Yeah, I think that's a valid concern.

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This is also how I'd handle this situation. You don't need to be perfectly realistic or formal with things like this. Simply having the teacher state:
"Class, I'd like to introduce our new student. I'm sure you'll all make her feel welcome."
Most players won't even notice the cop out, and most will just accept the implication that the name has been spoken in between those lines. You could always have the voice actor say the above line, and then have the text show:
"Class, I'd like to introduce our new student, [Player Name]. I'm sure you'll make her feel welcome."

Most players accept limitations like this, because they've been playing games for years. The new South Park game handles this by having all the characters call you "new kid", which hilariously works because that IS how most kids refer to new students. I believe I saw a trailer where "you" try and introduce yourself to Cartman, and just as you are about to speak your name, he interrupts you and starts referring to you as "new kid". Which is both in-character and avoids the voice acting issue in one stroke.

edit: just realized my post is somewhat the same as the above

From the games I've played so far, the name just gets left out and, indeed replaced with a "you", "darling" or something... or otherwise a *gasp* or just *silence*.

Like:
"Class, this is our new transfer student *silence* . She'll join our class from now on."
But the text appears as:
"Class, this is our new transfer student (player's first name) (player's last name). She'll join our class from now on."

And for things like:

"(player's name), I have something to tell you..."
you get a *weird soft gasp that always makes me wonder whether they're about to choke on a peanut*, I have something to tell you."


As a player, I have no problem with the name being omitted like that...
So, the only difference is that the written lines still have the name, but the spoken line doesn't.

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Even commercial VNs from famous companies doesn't really care about this and just use substitute or simply skipping the name, so I suggest that you don't force yourself too hard ^^.

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Thank you for these ideas, everyone! It's all very helpful!
It seems like simply omitting the name is the best thing to do. That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure if people find that awkward or not.



Haha, don't worry - I'm not really forcing myself or anything. I was just curious if I needed to make edits to my script to accommodate the voice acting or not.
I simply wanted to hear people's opinions on the matter ^^

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To name another game, Final Fantasy 10. The script was crafted in such a way that the characters avoid mentioning the Tidus' name.

From what I remembered, the characters mostly talk among themselves and Lulu and Auron served as the exposition character. When exposition was necessary, they would simply walk up to Tidus and rattle on. It fits their character well too since Lulu is cold and sultry, and not referring to Tidus by name highlights her dark sexiness. On the other hand, Auron is stoic no-nonsense guy and not mentioning Tidus by name highlights his serious man-of-a-few-words nature.

Set the tone of the story as well. Make characters rarely mention names so that when it comes to the protagonist, it won't seem too out of place. When characters need to talk to the protagonist, simply have them walk up to him / her start talking. Or when that characters were already in a discussion, have the protagonist walk up to them and have the characters include him / her in the discussion without missing a beat.

As a curve ball,

If it's a comedy / nonsense story, you can try bleeping out the protagonist's name. Include a scene of rapid fire f-bombs for absurdity.


Some random thoughts and ideas. Hope it helps.

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I think in some games, they just have the voice actors use the 'original ' or 'canon' name.

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I think for some statements, maybe, they can be more powerful when a character directly calls out to the player, and the player feels it because the name the character uses could only be them. Like maybe the mc has a girlfriend who gets kidnapped and he hears her shout his name over the phone and that's the last thing he hears. Something like that can be powerful.

But you can still do this if you make the character very used to being called a nickname that relates to their character traits rather than their specific name, so they still know that that name could only be them. Leader is a good example from Persona because though it doesn't sound natural at first, especially if you haven't played the game, that's kind of good. It's not a common nickname like Onii-chan. In Persona, there's only one "Leader" and that's you!

Some non-games use that as well. In Fruits Basket, when you hear someone say "Orange hair did that?!" You know they're talking about Kyo, the only orange haired character in the series who is often called directly by that trait alone.

Just some random thoughts from late at night. xD I hope it helps!

Oh, I second that !

Names give that little extra to certain phrases, especially ones with emotional charge in them so using a nickname of sorts could definitely work well in these cases.

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