I hate Itsuki from Tokyo Mirage Sessions so much. It's incredible the games main cast is all so loveable, genuinely all of them are some of my favorite characters.
And then the player character is like if you gave a silent protagonist dialog in an attempt to make him even more unlikable.
In 99% of story scenes you can just not read what he says and nothing is missed. In side stories there's almost always another member of the cast that makes more sense to be part of it, if not actively one there while he third wheels it
The only trait they gave him is dense anime protagonist. It's to the extent that not only is he fucking clueless when women like him
BUT HIS LITERALLY ACTUAL BEST FRIEND
Touma says "thanks for always being here for me, you're such a great best friend" and this mother fucker is like "wait we're friends?"
Not to mention the whole point is the entire cast having careers in the entertainment industry as talent. Where usually they focus on one or two different things rather than doing everything
In the story Itsuki isn't shown doing ANYTHING good at all and yet he actively does a bit of everything alongside Tsubasa who might as well be the actual protagonist anyway.
And yeah, it ends with him being a manager instead of talent, but Maiko exists, that's not a role that needed to be filled.
It's absolutely incredible how they combined the worst part of silent and spoken protagonists.
Gods, I'm already deep into this so let's keep going.
Let's look at other FE and SMT protagonists.
I feel WAY more attached to Demifiend as a character who quite literally gets no characterization in SMT3. Because at least that let's you portray your own experience onto him, and give him the associated personality with whatever route you're doing.
And then look at like, Joker Persona 5. Someone else I don't like. He's a silent protagonist in the "I have dialog options" way. Which at least then, sometimes I hate all the options given to me and there's a semblance of character. And it's obviously not meant to be important and more a way to give the people reading a way to stay engaged and make sure they're paying attention (because clearly that fanbse needs it). Even if ultimately both are useless filler dialog
Then there's weird cases like Byleth. Where not speaking much is built into their character, but that's handled much better in Three Hopes as opposed to TH where they're the main character. Regardless, they're probably the best of these that actually talk at being a player insert above all else. And not being an active hindrance on the games plot. Though it is unfortunate having the silent protagonist actually be an important player in the story, instead of basically an observer to it that gets to meddle like Demifiend.
Then there's cases like Flynn Megami Tensei who actually manages to get the vibes of a real character dispite basically talking as much as Demifiend. Even before he's allowed to talk in SMT4:A. Just listening to how other characters talk about him has that impact.
SOMEHOW all these different approaches, even the bad ones, turn out better than Itsuki. And what's fucked up is that he's NOT a silent protagonist, but if I compared him to any character that actually speaks it would immediately become obvious what an absolute failure he is.
One last thing. He's also the only problem with the game gameplay wise. Since you can't remove him from the Party of 3, meaning you want your team built around a sword always being there. Limiting what cool combos you can do. While also kinda making the last party member more underwhelming since to use them you need to be willing to have two swords in your party of 3 instead of covering more weaknesses. And you're just not allowed to take him out until New Game Plus
I didn't mean to go on for that long, moral of the story is fuck Itsuki. He's the only thing wrong with TMS#FE and that somehow manages to cover everything wrong with the story, gameplay and pacing.
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