Shepard started off kinda bland, but they definitely grew into their own character more and more with each game. Frankly by the second they became a memorable and iconic character in their own right. I agree that Obsidian has done a great job with this. I will continue to say that Pillars of Eternity is one of the best crpgs ever made, certainly one of the best of the more modern era. I will also continue to say that the breadth of characters you can make is exceptional. To date I have made three vastly different characters in full playthroughs (not to talk of partial playthroughs) who could not be more different, and the game even gave me the space to give them meaningful character arcs where they started one place and changed by the end. Even on my very first playthrough, I reached a point in the middle of the game where I just realized "oh wow. No, this moment is going to deeply and fundamentally change my character and her motivations" and I played that change and it was one of the moments that really, truly taught me how much games could actually do in terms of roleplay. In WotR, I played two angel characters that were both vastly different, with the first one having an arc of struggling against internalized rage and frustration that growing up as a tieflign inflicted her with, and learning to channel that rage to productive, beneficial ends. And that's not even touching on all the numerous other mythic paths I've played. Basically what I'm trying to say is that blank slate characters can really work if the developers put the work in. And thus far it doesn't seem as though Larian has put the work in.
My problem is that the game kinda signals that it's trying to be Dragon Age, with its free and open protagonist, as opposed to the more defined Mass Effect and Shepard. I think it ends up taking the worst of both worlds frankly.
