Too much VO

[Starwars]

I could've done with less VO also. Like it's been pointed out, it kinda clashes with the descriptive text at times (and I would *much* rather have the descriptive text in a game like this) and the way some nodes are voiced, and then some silent... and then voiced again is kinda jarring I think.

Would've liked it if only the more "key scenes" were voiced entirely/almost entirely. The stuff with the antagonist for example, I think it works really well there. And the VA for him is really good too of course.

[Archaven]

Obsidian just make the game you want. If you make too less VO you going to upset the people that loves it. If you make too many you upset people like this thread poster. You will NEVER satisfy everyone.

 

I think the VOs in this game is about right.

[Nis Randers]

I would like to disable voices only in the dialog-boxes.

[Irrevenant]

I'm really loving the voicework in this game, especially the companions. Matthew Mercer is pretty great as Edér(and Aloth, that surprised me), and Patrick Seitz as Kana Rua.

I'm also liking the Grieving Mother, but I'm not sure who's voicing her.

[Tuckey]

There could be a third way...

 

Have a narrator voice the descriptive text so everything fits together with the character voice. Bigger budget required through obviously.

[Anaphyis]

I turned the voices off completely after playing for 20 hours.

 

So you've found an answer to this conundrum of yours already but were a bit slow on the uptake. Thanks for sharing.

 

You have an option. Use it. Don't pretend to talk for some nebulous majority and then campaign for taking that option away from others under the pretense of caring for Obsidian's budget. I'm sure a game with even less voice acting will do wonders for said budget in a market where enough people are already complaining about having to read stuff.

[Molcho]

The existing VO is very well done, in my opinion. The thing that bugs me is that it is so inconsistent, e.g. the first sentence of a dialogue is voiced, then the next 2 lines are not and line 3 and 4 are voiced again, because they are somehow more important. Just voice the whole conversation.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Molcho

[axan22]

The VO is awesome, and adds emersion 10 fold, and I would have preferred a lot more, but maybe they could make it a toggle for those people who don't like it.

[apolloooo]

Turn down the voice slider in audio menu to zero. Voila

[Kveldulf]

I don't think an accent change for the Dwarven hunter would have fixed that problem; female Dwarven as a character pretty much flushes immersion for me. Often I try to forgo any female characters in my group unless they actually have a non token vibe, which is rare.

[Hatred]

I'd have liked it if there was more flavour voice and less reading for me. I liked the way in old games how you would associate a few sound bites with someone and be free to read at your leisure. I was a little sad that you didn't have minc's voice in the video from you tube you linked. Now I miss his voice and will have to go and find some recordings.

[hulahoptereyaglıballıekmek]

I am not satisfied with the voice acting mostly because of american/south american accents.

A feodal lord speaking like a country singer from texas sounds ridiculous.

Hire some european va cast next time like game of thrones did. They act better and they sound better.

[Bix Copperblast]

Me temper's bad enough, without ye botherin' me!

 

I right-clicked more than one NPC before I realized it was fruitless. Probably better that way, as the VO work really is underwhelming. It's not so much the accent as the lack of personality.

[Dee-Jay]

There is room for improvement but most of the VO was actually pretty good when it was there. 

 

My only gripes were:

 

a) VO is somewhat inconsistent. Some things an NPC says will be VO, then other parts won't be. It's a bit weird when you have to read something in your internal voice, only to have it jump back to VO. I can see why this happened, it's still a bit weird.

 

b) the PC rarely speaks. In fact it was so uncommon I was actually so surprised when it did happen that I had to check the companions if it didn't come from them.

 

c) More variety might have been nice. But it always is.

[Zwiebelchen]

I agree with the VO being distracting at times.

 

Especially if you use any of the localizations, the english voiceover is very distracting and forces you to read the same text at least twice.

 

 

I wished there was an option to disable voiceover on dialogues only. If I reduce the voiceover volume to zero, I also lose all other voiceover, like the character responses or warcrys.

[Jimmious]

I like the amount of the VO, would even go for more, but I would like a bit more... "flavour" or "character". Some voices just seem too...generic. I'd love more weird and special accents a la Minsc for example or Aloth's..."second voice" :D

[luzarius]

Too much voice acting? Man, I will never understand how you guys bring yourself to read so much. I find the lack of voice acting discouraging, making me not want to play the game.

 

I desperately want to mod the game and add voice acting for all the npc's and all the clever writing.

[Rosveen]

Man, I will never understand how you guys bring yourself to read so much.

Force of habit, I've been compulsively reading everything I can get my hands on since I was 4.

 

I like limited VO, though. Not full, because it inevitably means dialogue won't be as complex as it could be (especially if the main character is voiced), but some VO given to important NPCs helps define their character and makes them more memorable. Pillars' main problem is inconsistency, sometimes the first sentence is voiced, the second isn't and then the rest is again. This should be avoided. Well, and descriptive text is an issue, but I don't think it can be easily fixed short of using a narrator to read the descriptions, and that probably isn't financially viable.

[Malcador]

Too much voice acting? Man, I will never understand how you guys bring yourself to read so much. I find the lack of voice acting discouraging, making me not want to play the game.

 

I desperately want to mod the game and add voice acting for all the npc's and all the clever writing.

I can't understand how someone can flinch at having to read a lot.

 

Anyway, for the OP and Sagani - how should she sound ? We don't know what a Dwarf from the north should sound like for it be sensible.

[Raz415]

The VO was quite good. Good voice acting adds a lot to a game. I would never, ever suggest that they have less of it. If I'd be displeased with the quality, I'd turn it off. I think that I have enjoyed KoToR 2 so much in part because of the voice acting. I must have completed that game 12 times by now and I still do not skip the dialogue (unless it's aliens talking).

 

I pay attention to the VOs, and in this game too I have enjoyed it. Aloth is pretty boring (when he is being his normal self, at least), but Durance and Eder are quite nice. I also enjoy Pallegina's voice and dialogue. Grieving Mother had amazing dialogue, but the VO wasn't quite there imo. Even so, nothing that would make me want to disable sound for any of them.

 

I hope that for future work more actors will be used (and some of the really good ones too). The people that worked on KoToR 2 would be nice to bring in if possible, and I absolutely would not mind John DeMaggio (he was awesome in Vampire Bloodlines)

[dorkboy]

I would like to disable voices only in the dialog-boxes.

Yeah, that seems like one feasible solution to the issues with VA in conversations - while still keeping the VA for companion barks and RTS style "affirmatives". 

[Marceror]

Too much voice acting? Man, I will never understand how you guys bring yourself to read so much. I find the lack of voice acting discouraging, making me not want to play the game.

 

I find comments like this disturbing. In the "olden days" we didn't have fancy games that try to be movies, and we would open these ancient devices called books for entertainment. The entire thing required reading.

 

We weren't discouraged by this. We were thoroughly captivated. Apparently the younger generation has lost touch the concept of reading for fun. Yep, disturbing.

[Shadow_Arms]

I am not satisfied with the voice acting mostly because of american/south american accents.

A feodal lord speaking like a country singer from texas sounds ridiculous.

Hire some european va cast next time like game of thrones did. They act better and they sound better.

So you wish to have Kain of Nosgoth(a.k.a Simon Templeman), Coleen Delany(Lydia) and Paul Dobson voicing PoE expansions and maybe an awesome companion?

 

and i have nothing to say about the VO of this game, its pretty awesome, its a bit far better than the most RPG's lately with cliche lines and script

 

eder, kana, sagani and aloth are my favorites, and pallegina for some reason reminds me of Gabriela(formely Gabriel) from Blood 2

[Nukenin]

I think the voiced dialogue combined with the descriptive narrative works wonderfully.  I understand some are discomfited by it but I honestly can't grok that.  Perhaps the pacing could be better, and when a page of narrative describes the NPC chuckling, but the chuckle either doesn't happen or prefaces the dialogue as read on the subsequent page. yeah, that should've been handled better.

 

When I come to a chunk of dialogue for an otherwise voiced NPC that isn't voiced, I'm like, "Well, I guess THIS wasn't the right option!" or "This wasn't important, was it?"

[Raz415]

Simon Templeman? Yes please  

 

Also, I wanted to mention that I think it works just fine to have *most* things with VOs. Durance for example has a lot of dialogue with no VO, but I keep reading it in his voice anyway. Magic I totally approve of this method if it means having the desired amount of dialogue options without upping the costs too much.