Would you play a pokemon game with an established character?

[Zumi]

As much as I like the silent protagonist because it gives you the chance of putting yourself in their shoes as you go through an adventure, if the protagonist is well written, has proper character development and doesn't have some cliché concept used a million times before as their backstory, then I'm perfectly fine with having an established character as a protagonist.

In Pokémon games it's a bit dangerous since they usually have a silent protag, but if you can turn that trope around without ruining the story or feel of the game, then I'd say go for it.

[Debojit97]

For me what actually matters is the story of the game....I love catching and training different Pokemons and completing the game enjoying the story with them..It doesn't really matter 'who am I?' , not when I have Pokemons by my side and pokeballs in my bag.

[Phi-Bi]

It depends on the backstory of the character which is really difficult to accomplish. Having established character make the protagonist felt more important to the story so that's nice.

Personally, I'd like to see 'pseudo-talking' protagonist. The protagonist is as bland as the simple protagonist so you can put yourself in your shoes but the given dialogue options is not as bland as simply "yes" or "no" but more interesting phrase options like "absolutely yes!" or "ugh..ok" for "yes" options or "ugh...that sucks i don't want it" or "no, thanks" for "no" options. After choosing your dialogue options, then you see the protagonist speak out your choice. This way the protagonist is not as silent but self-insertion is not as ignored.

Of course, this way there are more options for certain response and choosing many dialogue options can be quite tedious from gameplay perspective so be wary about that. However, because there are many ways to response to certain dialogue (in this example, many ways to say "yes" or "no"), it'd be better to incorporate reputation system with this kind of dialogue options so the way you said "yes" or "no" affect your reputation for certain character. A polite character prefers if you answer them either "yes" or "no" in a manner while a roughneck prefers the otherwise. It'd interesting to see that the protagonist has to respond in different manner for different people so the protagonist is not as silent but still customisable.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Sorry if that's not clear, I'm really bad at explaining things...