Dialog, best seen and not heard?

[teknoman2]

they already said that they will not have all dialogs dubbed. they want to write the story and dialog the way they want not the way the money for the actors permit. so it will be partially dubbed and only important parts. if they have money for it, they will add more speech lines, if not it will be the minimum necessary for the atmosphere

[Avantre]

Voicework isn't a complete waste of money - would Minsc be remembered as well for his "go for the eyes, Boo!" line based totally on the text and not the voice actor's voice adding nuance to it? BG2 did it best by having the opening paragraph/introduction of a character voiced, as well as combat and movement acknowledgement text being voiced - it gives enough for flavour without completely tieing the game to the expense and limitations of full voices.

[Guts]

Voicework isn't a complete waste of money - would Minsc be remembered as well for his "go for the eyes, Boo!" line based totally on the text and not the voice actor's voice adding nuance to it? BG2 did it best by having the opening paragraph/introduction of a character voiced, as well as combat and movement acknowledgement text being voiced - it gives enough for flavour without completely tieing the game to the expense and limitations of full voices.

 

"A den of STINKING evil!"

 

"A SKULL-BREAKER!!"

 

Agreed. Voices add personality to characters. Korgan or Minsc wouldn't be half as funny or memorable without the voice actors' contributions for the game.

 

I also think cutscenes could be scrolling text only with a good narrator reading it and some nice painted pictures, again like in BG2. Don't need any cinematic videos.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Guts

[Freddo]

Ken Rolston, game designer for a bunch of games and more recently Oblivion and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning feel that voices are horrible for RPGs.

“…Let’s talk in the abstract about the worst thing that ever happened to role-playing games is recorded audio for dialogue. I happen to believe that was the death of my joy. Because that limits… that causes production things… the content has to be nailed down at a certain point.

 

“So [voiced] text is not easily revisable. As I play, text is easily revisable; audio isn’t. As I play, I want to make tiny little changes to the tone, to the feel of things, but you can’t do that when you have all this audio — oh my god, all the audio that we have to record! So what I’m going to say is: for what the audience wants, we are forced to create these things that are very brittle, that cannot be revised.

 

“Whereas in the happy old days of Baldurs Gate and things like that, I thought you had the best of both worlds. You could have a little snippet of dialogue that would give character, but then you would get in text trees which you could easily scan and click through. For page, that’s the important thing; dialogue pace. In a good old-fashioned role-playing game, the user controls the pace, where unfortunately in both video and recorded audio, you can’t scan it and you can’t backtrack in it. “

[agewisdom]

Maybe they could prioritize. Major NPCs, companions and quest givers that you interact with on a regular basis should have voices but not speak every line.

 

Those NPC that are there for flavor might not need any voice overs. Rather, ambient sounds like those in PST would sufice.

[jellydonut]

Voicework isn't a bad thing in itself, but I don't see how they could possibly have voiced NPCs and actually create the kind of game they want to. When the biggest, most funded titles in the industry are still restricted by it, how would it work here?

 

I'd rather have text-only dialogue, and more of it, than voiced NPCs. Even if that means sacrificing all voiceovers.

[Erlioth]

There are good voice actors who don't charge much.

 

Witcher 2 in my opinion did good with VO, but that's a whole different style of a RPG. You're basically playing a game where the main character isn't you, but already an established person with history and such..so it was fitting to have VO there.

 

Main character shouldn't have voice AT ALL. It takes too much away from imagination and building your own character. Companions should probably have some lines, and other important NPCs as well. But only a couple as to capture their essence. Irenicus in BG2 is the prime example of this.

 

Less is more!

 

in the past though they have given options at the start of the game for what your character sounds like, if they increased the options, would that be ok?

[Kai]

Make it like it was in PS:T, tons of dialogue with various options that are not voiced, then have important parts of the game voiced, and some banter and reactions to commands etc.

[Darkpriest]

Make it like it was in PS:T, tons of dialogue with various options that are not voiced, then have important parts of the game voiced, and some banter and reactions to commands etc.

 

This is what I would approve... if there are ever some cinematic expositions and narrative, those should be voiced as well

[LucyZephyr]

Replaying Fallout 1 recently (yaaaay GoG.com) made me long for something like that: specific characters who are vital to the story being voiced while the majority of the game world isn't = perfect compromise for me.

 

And obviously the MC shouldn't speak. That's just common sense.

Edited September 26, 2012 by LucyZephyr

[Parhelion13]

I think the most important thing as far as voice acting is narration. Provided Project Eternity is the kind of game that will support narration (I hope so), I think this is far and away the best place you could put your voice acting budget. Bring back Kevin Michael Richardson!

 

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the level of voice acting done in games like BG, BG2 and P:T. Some important scenes and characters are voiced, as are emotive responses, but the majority of dialogue relied on text.

[Death Machine Miyagi]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but there is another thing I like a lot about minimal voice acting: the dialogue can be customized to all sorts of different characters. In all these fully voiced games, your character has to have some base common denominator by which they're identified so that the voiced dialogue has something to call you. For example, Neverwinter Nights 2 had everyone identify you as a Harborman, or the Kalach-cha, or the Knight-Commander, or whatever. Ultimately this has reached the point of...say, Mass Effect, where your first character and every character thereafter will always be a guy/gal named Shephard.

 

With simple text, you go back to having your own name and your own background, circumscribed only by what the writers can write rather than by the audio. CHARNAME lives!

 

Give me either no audio or a minimum of it for flavor. Either works fine by me. But for this kind of game, fully voiced is a waste of both resources and flexibility.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Death Machine Miyagi

[Stiler]

In a perfect world they'd be able to write all they wanted and have it all voiced. If they can't for budget reasons though I'd hope they at least do have voices for major dialogue/story elements and other bits here and there.

 

If they have it limited perhaps only the companions you get + major story npc's speak and your usual npc's (quest givers, town npc's, etc) don't and just use text as normal.

[rf5111918]

You know,

I sometimes think a certain amount of imagination is sacrificed whenever a story or dialogue is spoken or translated into the movies.

When you are listening to the radio, you are able to imagine what a character looks like in your head.

When I read dialogue, I usually already have an internal voice in my head. And sometimes, when the voice acting is different from what I expected, be it high pitched or lower pitched, it actually makes the immersion more difficult.

[Redwulf]

I personally am willing to sacrifice nearly all voice work. However, I do still like to hear the occasional line from a major player in the game. It does help me to feel more like I'm in that world. Still it isn't the most important thing, and I could live with reading every line in silence if that is the way it had to be. Still, I can even now hear the voice of the opening character in Icewind Dale and it gives me a warm feeling and an urge to walk the snowy depths even now. So, truthfully, I believe voice work enhances the experience of an RPG like this if done right, and I think Obsidian of all people can do this right.

[nikolokolus]

I think vital NPCs should have some portions of their dialogue done with VO, and little snippets of sound for companions is a nice touch, but I really hope they skip VO for mouse clicks like Baldur's Gate and Planescape did it; hearing "as you wish" and "let it be so" when you are moving around the map is distracting.

 

All in all, something like a 50:1 or greater ratio of text to speech seems reasonable ... hopefully.

Edited September 27, 2012 by nikolokolus

[Sensuki]

I like the Baldur's Gate style the best. A line or few and the random comments as you walk by.

 

A bit more voice for NPCs and Main characters in the story.

 

but I really hope they skip VO for mouse clicks like Baldur's Gate and Planescape did it; hearing "as you wish" and "let it be so" when you are moving around the map is distracting.

 

You could turn that off in the options. There were 3 options for select and move. Always, Seldom and Never.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Sensuki

[Minttunator]

I'm fine with no voices at all. Like most people here, I'd prefer the old IE style, though - partial voicing for important characters/important lines of dialogue. Every random NPC doesn't need a voice saying "I saw a mudcrab the other day".

Edited September 27, 2012 by Minttunator

[cyberarmy]

Also, with text, the NPCs can now refer to the PC by name.

 

This.

IE games style voiceover is enough for me.

[Totottoro]

Would I sacrifice VO for better and deeper dialogs? Ofc.

 

Would I like to have the major plot lines etc. being voiced and the rest not? Hell Yes

[SanguineAngel]

I think the old IE games of old struck a perfect balance. Hearing the first line of important dialogue added character but didn't limit the conversation in any way. I'm sure someone already mentioned this.

[moridin84]

I think the Infinity Engine games got it right. Almost all of the dialogue was presented through text, but most of the conversation starters, pivotal lines, and lines that would start a battle were spoken. I love that. It makes lines very iconic and memorable without requiring an ungodly expense to voice 3 novels worth of text.

Yes, something like that is good.

 

Though I'm thinking of Neverwinter Nights 2, and Neverwinter Nights 2 : Mask of the Betrayer. In those games it came off as pretty natural to me and I didn't think it as weird that some lines voiced and some weren't. I think it always switched the viewpoint for voiced lines though, I assume as an isometric game Project Eternity won't be doing that.

Edited September 27, 2012 by moridin84

[imajasjam]

Go the BG/PS:T style of voice acting.

 

Good written dialogue is more immersive then bad voice acting, cheaper too!

 

That being said, I like fully VA'd RPGs when the voice acting and the script are both done well.

[Kira]

Go with the classic style, hell if not, at least like Dragon Age Origins, were the MC doesn't have a voice actor, but more options to pick from.