Do you insert yourself into the protagonist's role when you play Pokémon games?

[Mialentia]

I saw this discussed briefly in another thread, and I thought that made for an interesting subject, so I went to make my own!

Do you put yourself in Red, May, Juliana, etc.'s shoes when you play through Pokémon games? I feel like people differ on that point. Personally, I always do, especially in the Sinnoh and Paldea games. Those feel like home to me.

In other games like the Persona or Fire Emblem series, I can't do that, but when it comes to Pokémon, I feel like the developers manage to strike the perfect balance between making the protagonist a blank, customizable slate, and giving them enough presence in the plot to make me want to be them. The two franchises mentioned above just make normal characters and let you slap your name on them, which is too unfitting a mold for me. Meanwhile, stuff like most of the Splatoon series or Fire Emblem 7 specifically kind of just... have you exist while the plot happens around you, which takes me out of the experience. But when it comes to Pokémon, I often find myself commanding my Pokémon out loud, or imagining myself interacting with my team and the characters.

What about you? Do you see yourself in those pixels on the screen, or do you always name the protagonist the default name? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

[beasttrash]

I'd say its a bit of a mix!

Maybe 25% of the time I'm playing for world building/headcanon reasons and I name the character after the protag and throw myself into their shoes rather then thinking of what I want. 75% of the time I'm naming the protag after myself and letting the wind take me wherever lol.

Although, sometimes I play the game and it ends up being more of a world building exercise then I originally intended. (Re: I replayed Crystal this year for myself and the in-game team I came up with ended up being my headcanon team for Kris. Same deal with a run of Platinum I completed last year that ended up blending into my PLA run lol.)

 

[lumineonite]

I always feel like I'm the protagonist in pokemon games, even if I try not to. I think theres just something about these games that just make you feel like you're on your pokemon journey as you play. I do have trouble with this in other games sometimes, for that reason it is hard to choose mean dialog options

 

[Suguri]

Oh yes, all the time! Especially when I start a regular playthrough. It just feels like a more wonderful and personal experience that way.

If I’m doing a different playthrough like a Nuzlocke run or I just feel like playing a game for the second time because I really enjoyed it, like with Scarlet, then I separate myself from the game and pick a different name for the player character. If I can’t play as the girl (which was the case with RBY and GS), I do the same thing. …Well, I prefer the remakes over the originals, but that’s beside the point. Otherwise, I always choose the female character and put in my name.

 

[ninazrdl]

I always TRY to. but when they did it terribly wrong, I don't want to do it anymore and I would just shut my emotions off.
Take SV for example. The player character is overreacting to almost everything and is stupider than ever. They eat dishes as if they've spent all their years eating roadkills or something and never had a proper meal in their entire life before. They go mad when the gym leaders want to take selfies of them. And BTW many gym mini games are pointless and silly...
I don't think anyone in real life would act like this PC, so I shut my emotions off. My SV game is just somewhere for me to hunt shiny pokemons now, or to hunt some rare pokemons to put on the GTS market. I don't feel any attachment to it. So unlike my other pokemon games, I actually loop farm in SV and hunt several Ogerpons for shiny trading.
The same with Legend Arceus. I didn't want to help the rude villagers so I just shut off and take it as "a part of a game, the system said so" instead of "my journey in a pokemon world"
but for the others, Sword Shield, Sun Moon, XY, DP, Let's go...I like them so I take them personally. I roleplay. I wear clothes like my own fashion, I build teams according to my taste.

 

[muddytracks]

No, they're ocs to me.

Sabrina (Violet Save, not to be confused with the kanto gym leader) and Alonzo (Scarlet save) are two different people. Possibly dating

 

[RichestAirPirate]

Sorta. I do have one character that's very much a trainersona of me but I sometimes play as other ocs of mine when I play the game.

 

[Eitarou]

No, I already play as myself every day in the game called life. I have no interest in self-inserting.

 

[bugfacts]

It depends, in the more customization-forward games (XY, SM, SV) I’ve definitely often defaulted to doing a bit of a self-insert. Not exactly me, but somebody who could be me in another time in another life, you know?

this isn’t like an inherent preference of mine or anything, though, I kind of prefer using the games as an opportunity to further characterize and understand the “canon” protags, but Pokémon Crystal and Sapphire were huge turning points for me in my journey w gender presentation and overcoming dysphoria and the ability to really fully pay that off in the customization heavy ones is simply too much of an appropriate-feeling throughline for me to consider not using it for self expression! I feel like I owe it to younger me, haha.

 

[Juliyet]

I'd say to an extent, especially with the customizable ones. Doesn't hurt that I already have trainersona that I'll try to replicate within the customization, so they're hard to see as somebody other than me lol.

Though even with the non customizable ones, it's still prevalent, especially when I go out of my way to name them after myself anyway.

 

[NumberOneSpinelApologist]

Yep. I do.

Immersion, self expression and after that, exploration are my top "gamer motivations". I want to roleplay as the adventurous trainer.

In general, If I cannot find a way to relate to the game protag, even in a small way, i won't play the game at all.

 

[pilosophos]

I used to, as a kid. I'd always use my screen name, too. Then at some point, as I got older, it got weirder and weirder to see all the NPCs refer to my character as "PILOSOPHOS" among all the Youngster Jimmys and Hiker Erics and the Bug Catcher Dougs, and I just started letting the game give me a normal, default name, like Barry.

Then again, you sometimes get NPCs like Psychic Future, and I'll be damned if I meet someone named Future IRL...

 

[bugfacts]

I'd always use my screen name, too.

I also did this until it started bothering me, haha. I hit the difficult window between not wanting to use my name anymore for dysphoria reasons and not feeling like an online handle was a proper name lol.

I'll be damned if I meet someone named Future IRL...

this is really really funny to me having come from living in a city with a LOTTTT of gay and trans folks. We have fun names a lot of the time lol ^^

 

[pilosophos]

I also did this until it started bothering me, haha. I hit the difficult window between not wanting to use my name anymore for dysphoria reasons and not feeling like an online handle was a proper name lol.

For me, I think it was kind of like my "gamer name," since I had to set up a gamer tag on Xbox Live, and everyone would call you that on voice chat. I'd spent many hours weathering insults in Halo lobbies under the name that it became a point of pride. And of course, Pokémon's a game, so I'd better use my Gamer Name™.

Now, I guess I'm not that much of a capital-G Gamer anymore, so it was easier to dispense with that.

this is really really funny to me having come from living in a city with a LOTTTT of gay and trans folks. We have fun names a lot of the time lol ^^

I also live in a city like this, although maybe because I'm not embroiled in the local LGBT culture that I don't get a lot of exposure to weird names. But aside from an enby with a particularly odd spelling of a normal name, it's mainly been common names. I shall keep an eye out for any Futures in the future.

 

[bugfacts]

I'd spent many hours weathering insults in Halo lobbies under the name that it became a point of pride.

This is so funny…. a truly powerful name forged in the crucible of multiplayer lobbies and live chat….. battle-scarred but gleaming LOL

I really admire the tenacity to not let all of that sour your feelings on the name, I think I’d have been quick to dispose of it at that point. Good on you for owning it and not letting the gamer toxins erode what it meant to you.

I shall keep an eye out for any Futures in the future.

I hope you meet one and they rule! ^^

 

[WholesomeCryptid]

typically not really these days, the pkmn protags are all kiddos to me and i feel less and less connected to them as "me" the older i get. however, i identified very heavily with Lyra when i was a kid and i think im always going to see my younger self in her.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Almost always.

 

[Daren]

To some extent in the first few gens, but the characters actions feel a bit too scripted later on for me to do so.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I did when I was actually the protagonists' ages. Nowadays I imagine completely unique personalities for them.

 

[Croconaw]

I always do this. It makes the games that much more fun.