Question: Will there be complete Voice Acting?q

[Zahnfee]

Hello!

 

I've had the opportunity to play the Backer Beta of Pillars of Eternity from a Friend and i've noticed that there is no Voice Acting for Dialogues and everything else. My Question is: Will you add that, later or will the Game be released without? That would we some kind of "no-go" for lots of Players, i think in modern Times. Just reading and klicking around with a Party, its not such a good Experience without voice & common Localisation.

[MasterPrudent]

Hi Zainfee, as was mentioned during the kickstarter and multiple times during development the game will not be fully voiced. It will however feature voice acting for narration and key lines as in the IE games. I think the success of Shadowrun Returns and Divinity: Original Sin shows that for many players it's not an issue at all.

Edited September 6, 2014 by MasterPrudent

[TheisEjsing]

You are right Zahnfee. The lack of full VO will be a no-go for some players. But many things in PoE will be a no-go for them, so it's not gonna be a big deal. And like MasterPrudent said, many other players are cool with limited VO.

[Zahnfee]

You are right Zahnfee. The lack of full VO will be a no-go for some players. But many things in PoE will be a no-go for them, so it's not gonna be a big deal. And like MasterPrudent said, many other players are cool with limited VO.

Yeah, a Game withoud Sound, like Baldurs Gate 20 Years before.... Some Games have it that way, and i deinstalled them 5 Times,, only installed them because anybody said they were epic... Which i think they are not.

 

Ok.... Good RPGs will come back somtime.. Im sure

I just have to wait once more

[Sedrefilos]

Question: Will there be complete Voice Acting?q

 

No. Just in a few spots. Like the IE games.

[Death Machine Miyagi]

Ok.... Good RPGs will come back somtime.. Im sure

I just have to wait once more

 

Part of the reason they aren't going for full voice acting isn't just budget. It's that full voice acting limits both how much content you can add and your ability to change content down the road, not to mention making things a pain for modders. 

 

You can't have everything. Either you have an RPG with an enormous budget that allows for full VO and other such expensive extras, but which then necessitates the game be more streamlined and watered down to appeal to the biggest audience possible, or you have a niche RPG with a smaller budget which is highly detailed and has lots of content but lacks bells and whistles. If you want the former, Bioware will always be there, but I'm glad to see we're getting more of the latter.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Death Machine Miyagi

[Tamerlane]

"Partial voice acting", though a small thing, was one of the elements of the Kickstarter pitch that got me the most excited for PE.

[Zahnfee]

 

You can't have everything. Either you have an RPG with an enormous budget that allows for full VO and other such expensive extras, but which then necessitates the game be more streamlined and watered down to appeal to the biggest audience possible, or you have a niche RPG with a smaller budget which is highly detailed and has lots of content but lacks bells and whistles. If you want the former, Bioware will always be there, but I'm glad to see we're getting more of the latter.

 

 

Hmm a good RPG is just Good.

Some modern RPGs dont have a Free World - I dont Play them like what happened from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2 and Gothic 1-3 to Risen

Some RPGs dont have Sound and exciting Gameplay - So.. same thing

 

Good Games have Deep Gameplay, a Free World AND.. Good Gameplay. because of that they are Good

 

And I hoped that crowdfunding will do that, but err.... Not really what happened to it all.

[Azrael Ultima]

 

You are right Zahnfee. The lack of full VO will be a no-go for some players. But many things in PoE will be a no-go for them, so it's not gonna be a big deal. And like MasterPrudent said, many other players are cool with limited VO.

Yeah, a Game withoud Sound, like Baldurs Gate 20 Years before.... Some Games have it that way, and i deinstalled them 5 Times,, only installed them because anybody said they were epic... Which i think they are not.

 

Ok.... Good RPGs will come back somtime.. Im sure

I just have to wait once more

 

Voice acting isn't what makes games good. Besides, VA is hella expensive to do properly. That's just not possible with PoE's budget, and i'd rather have more game than more voice.

[Leferd]

I only need the voice over to provide a baseline of characterization to get a sense of the character. My imagination will handle the rest. The old Infinity Engine games was perfect in this respect.

 

Besides, this game will have a lot of words. A lot. Seems like a waste of resources if most people will just cut off the dialogue after skimming over or reading the text and waiting for the audio to catch up.

[Silent Winter]

^yeah, I like having a voice to put to the words but beyond an opening line, I find it distracting.
I can read (even with 'in-head-voice' and full atmosphere) a lot faster than the lines are spoken.

[Sedrefilos]

Partial voice-over is a bit annying imo. I'd prefer either a full voice-over or the DOS style: no voice in any of the dialogue, but full voice of npc around you, monster taunts etc

[Quadrone]

This is bait, isn't it?

OP is just trying to be a master ruseman, right?

[PrimeJunta]

Yeh, I'm not thrilled about voice acting either. For one thing it's usually really bad. Even in games where it's better than average.

 

Try playing one of the Mass Effects some time, and close your eyes during a dialog. A few exceptions aside, they sound wooden, exactly like a highly professional but bored actor reading lines into a mike in a studio.

 

Actors are only human; they get bored too, and when they do, you hear it. Having only very partial voice can actually be better, because there are fewer lines to read. As much as I detest most of the writing in BG2 and especially Minsc, I gotta hand it to whoever voiced him -- he sounds lively and funny. Even more so with Planescape: Torment, and I do not want to imagine how dull and droning those voices had gotten if they had had to read every line of their dialog.

 

So yeah, partial voice FTW. More is not always better.

[prodigydancer]

Hi Zainfee, as was mentioned during the kickstarter and multiple times during development the game will not be fully voiced. It will however feature voice acting for narration and key lines as in the IE games. I think the success of Shadowrun Returns and Divinity: Original Sin shows that for many players it's not an issue at all.

 

The complete absence of voice acting in SRR was regrettable but tolerable because NPCs had nicely written dialogs that were fun to read. Voices could add more depth but at least we got well-painted portraits.

 

D:OS on the other hand is an example of how voice acting can make things worse. When the quality of writing is bad enough, you don't even want to read the dialogue text let alone listen to characters actually talking. And voiced looping NPC chatter is one of the most annoying features of D:OS. I had to mute sound every time I was shopping in Cyseal because it was really driving me crazy.

Edited September 7, 2014 by prodigydancer

[Sensuki]

Not much VO means better writing and branching dialogues can be achieved. This is a good thing.

[archangel979]

 

 

You can't have everything. Either you have an RPG with an enormous budget that allows for full VO and other such expensive extras, but which then necessitates the game be more streamlined and watered down to appeal to the biggest audience possible, or you have a niche RPG with a smaller budget which is highly detailed and has lots of content but lacks bells and whistles. If you want the former, Bioware will always be there, but I'm glad to see we're getting more of the latter.

 

 

Hmm a good RPG is just Good.

Some modern RPGs dont have a Free World - I dont Play them like what happened from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2 and Gothic 1-3 to Risen

Some RPGs dont have Sound and exciting Gameplay - So.. same thing

 

Good Games have Deep Gameplay, a Free World AND.. Good Gameplay. because of that they are Good

 

And I hoped that crowdfunding will do that, but err.... Not really what happened to it all.

 

Except BG2 is still better than all those "good" games and does not have full voice acting. And the amount it has is 10x better than for instance Skyrim. 

[Sedrefilos]

At least this time they have bigger font size
Took them 15 years to realize it

[JosieNutter]

I would think that most fans of the games that helped inspire this one wouldn't be too put off by partial VO.

Unless the voice actor is amazing, I'd rather leave VO up to my own imagination a lot of the time, anyway.

[Tuckey]

Definitely prefer the partial voice acting as opposed to the full. When there is full voice acting I tend to click through it a lot because I read quicker.

[Leferd]

Full VoiceOver really only should be used in games where a cinematic presentation is at the forefront of the game design. Obvious examples are KotOR and Mass Effect.

 

With an isometric perspective, our imagination is already at work, as we subconsciously play out interactions in abstract form. Just like a book.

[Bryy]

 

 

You can't have everything. Either you have an RPG with an enormous budget that allows for full VO and other such expensive extras, but which then necessitates the game be more streamlined and watered down to appeal to the biggest audience possible, or you have a niche RPG with a smaller budget which is highly detailed and has lots of content but lacks bells and whistles. If you want the former, Bioware will always be there, but I'm glad to see we're getting more of the latter.

 

 

Hmm a good RPG is just Good.

Some modern RPGs dont have a Free World - I dont Play them like what happened from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2 and Gothic 1-3 to Risen

Some RPGs dont have Sound and exciting Gameplay - So.. same thing

 

Good Games have Deep Gameplay, a Free World AND.. Good Gameplay. because of that they are Good

 

And I hoped that crowdfunding will do that, but err.... Not really what happened to it all.

 

....

 

Just because it's through crowdfunding does not mean they can do whatever they want. There is still a budget.

 

Sometimes I honestly wonder what the hell people think the financial goal means.

[Messier-31]

OP, I pity you. You're either shallow, or a poor fella limited to TES.

[Marceror]

 

You are right Zahnfee. The lack of full VO will be a no-go for some players. But many things in PoE will be a no-go for them, so it's not gonna be a big deal. And like MasterPrudent said, many other players are cool with limited VO.

Yeah, a Game withoud Sound, like Baldurs Gate 20 Years before.... Some Games have it that way, and i deinstalled them 5 Times,, only installed them because anybody said they were epic... Which i think they are not.

 

Ok.... Good RPGs will come back somtime.. Im sure

I just have to wait once more

 

There is this ancient and all but forgotten art form known as reading. It's not so bad. You should give it a try.

 

And if that's not for you, play Dragon Age 3. I hear even the main characters will be fully voiced this time. Just like playing a movie. But that's not what people who love the IE games and PoE are generally going for. Big budget crapola? No thanks.

[C2B]

 

 

You can't have everything. Either you have an RPG with an enormous budget that allows for full VO and other such expensive extras, but which then necessitates the game be more streamlined and watered down to appeal to the biggest audience possible, or you have a niche RPG with a smaller budget which is highly detailed and has lots of content but lacks bells and whistles. If you want the former, Bioware will always be there, but I'm glad to see we're getting more of the latter.

 

Hmm a good RPG is just Good.

Some modern RPGs dont have a Free World - I dont Play them like what happened from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2 and Gothic 1-3 to Risen

Some RPGs dont have Sound and exciting Gameplay - So.. same thing

 

Good Games have Deep Gameplay, a Free World AND.. Good Gameplay. because of that they are Good

 

And I hoped that crowdfunding will do that, but err.... Not really what happened to it all.

 

....

 

Just because it's through crowdfunding does not mean they can do whatever they want. There is still a budget.

 

Sometimes I honestly wonder what the hell people think the financial goal means.

 

I.... I don't get it.

 

It's not always a question of finances. There's no theoretical super-rpg that would come with independence+money. Sometimes the design is just different.

 

I would strongly argue Zahnfee's argument that a good game needs to have/or even wants to have a *free-world* for example.