All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players. Today my role is reviewer, for a game where the leading male actor plays the role of an undercover agent, who then assumes the role of a young actor, so he can infiltrate a drama college and expose nefarious individuals. What role will you play?
Protagonist《主角》is a well put together third-person FMV game that mixes romance with drama, focusing on the performance arts. It remains interesting, has great characters, and exploits its themes to provide a unique narrative style.
Lu Sheng’s sister got seriously injured not long after she graduated from an exclusive Master Class at Jinglin Academy. Believing there was foul play, Lu Sheng plans to infiltrate the class by pretending to be a newbie actor. He is assisted directly by a covert female partner, who joins the school but not the class. As Lu Sheng, you get close with three young actresses, each with their own problems and aspirations. You also meet a goal-orientated teacher, an idealistic director, and a femme fatale producer.
The narrative remains interesting and is paced well. The progression from a newbie into this secretive class feels earned. It also leverages the theme to provide subtle meta references to the movie industry, which grants it natural depth. Early on, the game plays around with reality nicely; Lu Sheng acts beside classmates, but is it all an act? Life imitates art, after all. It is a pity these layered abstract moments did not persist longer. Characters are consistently strong, with deep personalities that rest closer to a quality drama than a simple romance game.
There are seven love interests, but their screen time is not equally balanced. The director, Gu Ying, is wasted as she is mostly isolated to one chapter. Even the producer, Xia Meng, comes late but gives a captivating performance that deserved far more lines.
So the romantic depth gravitates to the fellow student actresses—Zhou Ruonan, Lin Ranran, and Tang Zhi–and your concealed partner, Cheng Jin, since they appear early and stay involved. These heftier romances have good and bad endings, which are usually satisfying despite their brevity. Unfortunately, the endings for the teacher, Yan Zhi, are flat.
Occasionally, the game uses first-person angles, more commonly in the finales, and it leverages this intimate perspective almost as well as The VIG. Video quality and directing is high standard, with most audio taken from live on-set. Although the plot is a bit too linear, it still takes about 8-9 hours to see everything due to side paths and endings locked behind affection levels.
Protagonist is one of the better releases this year, mostly because of its theme, acting, and general narrative polish. Players that prefer direct romances might find that some characters needed more time on stage, but they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.
Best Romance
Cheng Jin
Funniest Moment
Tang Zhi meeting
Best “Acting”
Zhou Ruonan
Rating: Great 
Length: 4 hrs
100%: 8-9 hrs
Positives +
- Story
- Theme
- Characters
- Presentation
- Romance
Negatives –
- Somewhat linear
- Romance imbalance
Steam Store Link
Well, my take on this game is quite different from yours. I feel like it’s trying too hard to be edgy or profound but falls short of the mark. The “dark side” of the casting or film industry isn’t a new theme—and this game fails to generate the kind of social buzz that *Revenge On Gold Digger* did. The opening made me think it would be an intriguing “mission,” but it turned out to be rather simplistic.
There are a few things I’d criticize about *The Protagonist*. First, that very attempt to appear “edgy” makes the dialogue and plot confusing—right from Chapter 1, overly complex meanings and metaphors bog it down. Even the acting sequences aren’t convincing; I couldn’t understand why a character in a scene would face the player’s camera rather than their classmates, who were watching from behind. How were the classmates supposed to guess what role was being played? The dialogue choices felt forced, too.
Second, the male lead’s acting is truly terrible and stiff. His expressions don’t suit someone on a mission; he fails to convey genuine emotion, smirks at inappropriate moments, and won’t stop running his mouth about the mission itself. And that’s not even touching on his looks… He’s easily among the worst-acting male leads I’ve seen in a third-person FMV game.
Third is the ending. The concluding scenes for each female lead are too brief and forgettable (and as you noted in your review, Fung Ruohan gets a pitifully small amount of screen time…). The villain talks too much and lacks any real presence or conviction.
Combined with other issues—like disjointed scene transitions and a fragmented plot—I don’t rate *The Protagonist* highly. It might pass as a drama, but it fails as an entertaining game or one that truly resonates with the player.
Thanks for posting your thoughts, it’s always good to hear a differing perspective as it allows me to reconsider aspects of the game. I did see a few reviews on Steam pointing out the same issues as well. Definitely wish the endings were longer, as is the case with 95% of FMV games.