I just watched a Youtube video to see some of the expansion pass content for Breath of the Wild. It had commentary from the player, and he said a couple things that made me think.
There was one scene where you find out that one of the character loved Link (though you kinda already know that from the main story). And the narrator said, "Aaw, she really loved me." And then at a different point with a different character he said, "wow, he really hated my guts."
It occurred to me that I never think of Link as being "me." Even though I've played pretty much every game of his. Maybe because in the Zelda games, my choices don't change anything. The story remains the same whatever I do. Plus Link is an established character. Even if you never... really... hear him talk.
But the reverse is true for Pokémon. I almost always think of the playable character as being me. I think that must be because you can personalize the Pokémon games so much. After all, you're putting together and training a team. You get very attached to your little digital Pokémon. And while many of the playable characters have names and stories in the manga or anime, they don't have a lot of personal information available in the games. And more recently, you can change the design of the main character, which makes it even more like playing as myself (But still your choices don't affect the events of the game).
Plus, in my Pokémon fanfic, I link all the games in the different story arcs. I've since found myself playing the games with the fanfic in mind.
Sometimes when I start a new game and there's a cameo of an old character, I'm surprised that they treat me like a stranger. There's a moment where I think, "wait a minute! We already know each other. Why are you acting like you don't know me?" Even though it's a whole new save file... (This is especially true in the Pokémon Masters game, with all the sappy friendship stuff).
I won't even go into the stuff about Undertale and Delta Rune. In which they blatantly call out the control you have over the playable character, and you choices can have dire consequences. Even restarting the game. Let along corrupting certain characters, and thus your entire game no matter how often you restart it.
