Narrator voice and vocabulary

[InBetween]

I have two gripes about this game.

 

1, I have hard time maintaining coolness while listening to the narrator's raspy voice. It literally irritates my stomach and threatens my sanity. I did not think it would be possible to get this uncomfortable just by hearing a person's voice. Is it both not professional and ethical to hire a heavy smoker or strep throat patient for a voice-acting job?

 

2, English is not my first language. Overall I comprehend the meaning of the writing but every so often there pops up a word that could be replaced by a more common word that conveys the same meaning so I don't have to go through the trouble of looking up the dictionary.

 

2 is just a rant but 1 is truly my personal hell. I know zero about game development but I do wish the narration be changed to a more soothing variation.

[aktivb]

As far as personal hells go, I suspect you got off easy.

[Loren Tyr]

I don't understand where you're getting 'raspy' from, let alone 'heavy smoker'. I just listened to a bit of the narration, and I can hear nothing particularly raspy about her voice.

 

About the second point, I would imagine that is a matter of style. As a rule even words that are (roughly) synonymous don't really have the exact same meaning, tone and connotation, so they're not necessarily that easy to replace in that regard. Do you have any particular examples, though?

[aksrasjel]

Huh, why people do hate on Ashley Johnson's performance so much? She's not *that* bad - hell, I'll take her narration over Laura Bailey's southern-belle peformance as Xoti everyday. I understand that she was horribly miscast - she's a more of a drama "character " actress first and formost (incidentally, she really sells her performance as Ydwin) and asking her to read a dry narration is like asking BRIAN BLESSED to calmly recite a phonebook - this won't work in any way shape or form. You can actually hear her trying to dramatically "act out" a narration in a few places. But c'mon, I've heard much worse performances in that game by far.

[AFA]

Huh, why people do hate on Ashley Johnson's performance so much? She's not *that* bad - hell, I'll take her narration over Laura Bailey's southern-belle peformance as Xoti everyday. I understand that she was horribly miscast - she's a more of a drama "character " actress first and formost (incidentally, she really sells her performance as Ydwin) and asking her to read a dry narration is like asking BRIAN BLESSED to calmly recite a phonebook - this won't work in any way shape or form. You can actually hear her trying to dramatically "act out" a narration in a few places. But c'mon, I've heard much worse performances in that game by far.

 

If they wanted a legendary video game voice actor to do the narrations, then they should have written a check to David Warner. Or, since they had to give every damn job to somebody from Critical Role, at least let Liam O'Brien do it with his full Grimoire Weiss voice.

 

Being from Texas, Xoti (and the other Readceras characters) sound like Foghorn Leghorn, but Bailey adds just enough sexy charm that I find it cute.

[Parasol_Syndicate]

Fair point. I probably would not enjoy Xoti narrating the game, either. 
As a veteran of the first POE, the narration feels particularly forced amd lackluster because the first game had a good narrator attached to it. 

 

"And the divine attributions are just murder on the syntax" Parasol_Syndicate says.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Parasol_Syndicate

[Celan]

The OP is hyperbolic, but I do think Ashley Johnson's talents could have been better used elsewhere. Her narration sounds forced, overly dramatic and it gets in the way of the scene.

[AFA]

If they wanted full ham, the guy from Darkest Dungeon would have been good

[SerenityHarkness]

Unpopular opinion time!

I like the narration for the most part. My only real complaint is it's too slow for me but I know I read much faster than your average person.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

"And the divine attributions are just murder on the syntax" Parasol_Syndicate says.

 

Perfect 

[aksrasjel]

The OP is hyperbolic, but I do think Ashley Johnson's talents could have been better used elsewhere. Her narration sounds forced, overly dramatic and it gets in the way of the scene.

I do agree that the Narrator would not be my first choice for Ashley Johnson - she definately seems to struggle with dry narration at times. She definately would be much better suited for voicing a companion/NPC. She seems to have fun with voicing Ydwin. But given what she has to work with, I'm not finding her particularly atrocious. Is she miscast? - absolutely. Is she the worst of the worst? I don't think so.

[Aranduin]

I like the narrator I hope listen more narrator in future DLC or PoE3

[the_dog_days]

Unpopular opinion time!

I like the narration for the most part. My only real complaint is it's too slow for me but I know I read much faster than your average person.

 

I agree. I think most who don't like the casting have played Last of Us. I haven't.

[Night Stalker]

There is a mod that silences the narrator's audio (though it has only been tested up to version 1.1.0).

Edited July 7, 2018 by Night Stalker

[try2handing]

I'd also take Ashley's narration over Laura's accent for Xoti any day. No idea why Laura decided to go with that accent, instead of her normal one - was it her decision alone, or developers'? I don't know. But Xoti's voice drives me nuts (that "Yeah?" when you select her OMG). At least you can mute the game when the narrations come up and just read through them.

[aksrasjel]

I'd also take Ashley's narration over Laura's accent for Xoti any day. No idea why Laura decided to go with that accent, instead of her normal one - was it her decision alone, or developers'? I don't know. But Xoti's voice drives me nuts (that "Yeah?" when you select her OMG). At least you can mute the game when the narrations come up and just read through them.

I am pretty sure it was a concious voice direction on the developers part - every Raedceran has to speak with a thick sothern accent for one reason or another. Laura Bailey just happily obliged. And similarly to Ms. Johnson as Narrator, she was working with what script she was given. And the script doesn't do the character any favors. I know this is just my feeling, but Xoti sometimes seems to be written to be as childish and obnoxious as possible - campy southern accent just magnifies that. But as a the result I simply cannot take this character seriously.

And to be honest, how campy/realistic Xoti's accent really is, I have no idea - being Eastern/Central European most southern US accents sound similar to me - whether it's from Texas, Alabama or Arizona. It just doesn't work for me.

Edited July 7, 2018 by aksrasjel

[WHW]

Hm. I actually really liked the narrator and was somewhat  dissapointed that we didn't get to hear her more often. 

[xzar_monty]

2, English is not my first language. Overall I comprehend the meaning of the writing but every so often there pops up a word that could be replaced by a more common word that conveys the same meaning so I don't have to go through the trouble of looking up the dictionary.

 

Why not take it as a good learning experience? If English is not your first language, I don't think there's much room to complain here.

 

The writing is decent and not particularly difficult in any way. Try Gene Wolfe if you want to know what challenging English is like.

[handsomenat]

English isn't my first language either. I remember playing WarCraft3 as a kid, writing down new words (sometimes phonetically haha) and checking in a dictionary. It improved my vocabulary and was a fun way to learn a language. I don't mind it.

 

I'm a fan of Ashley Johnson and I like her voice. It's also nice to hear a woman's voice narrating a game. But I agree that she reads kinda slow.

Edited July 7, 2018 by handsomenat

[Boeroer]

I guess a narrator is always too slow for 99% of people who learned to read in school.

 

And nobody can seriously expect that authors dumb down their writing and reduce vocabulary so that some non-native speakers can follow. You would never ask an author of a novel to not use so many sophisticated words because you don't understand them (at least I hope you wouldn't).

[Tagaziel]

Unpopular opinion time!

I like the narration for the most part. My only real complaint is it's too slow for me but I know I read much faster than your average person.

I n+1 that.

[mammasaura]

I like the narration, it relaxes me.

[Lord_Mord]

I like her, too. And I'm convinced there is no objective reason not to. You just don't like her, that's all.

As for dumbing down the writing: Seriously? Just enjoy that you have the chance to learn some vocabulary. When I came from school my english was so bad, I couldn't even fully understand a Simpsons episode. Nowadays I can watch foreign movies, even complicated ones and get 90-100% of what's going on depending on the movie. All of that because I just did it again and again and looked everything up, that I couldn't understand. Unfortunately, it doesn't improve my speaking or writing very much.

[Celan]

I agree. I think most who don't like the casting have played Last of Us. I haven't.

I haven't played it, and don't care for her narration.

[asnjas]

I loved the narrator's voice. It was serious and strong without being masculine. It fit well with the setting of the game. Man you guys are seriously crazy.