Character-less Voice Acting

[Ausir]

Well, I know a Romanian girl who learned to speak perfect idiomatic Polish with no accent in just a couple of years of living in Poland.  Romanian and Polish are nothing alike (Romanian being closely related to Italian, French etc.), and Polish is one of the most difficult languages to learn, let alone to master. Do we know how long Sagani has been traveling through Dyrwood and its surrounding lands?

Edited February 28, 2016 by Ausir

[why]

Putatively, Romanian is most alike to Latin of the Romance languages. I don't know, not having heard much Romanian.

 

As far as Sagani, I get folks beef. It wasn't offputting to me that she lacked an accent because I didn't even notice it. Even now, when I recognize that she lacks an accent, it doesn't really bother me, but I can see where it would cause a disconnect for some folks. I'm not much for immersion arguments, but I suppose the voice over work for Sagani would be a stronger 'immersion' argument than most, especially in light of the fact that Pellegina clearly has an accent from the Republics. However, I don't really hear a pronounced difference between the Dyrwoodians and the Glanfathans either. Hiravias seems to sound just any other Jo Blow to me. The Adyerans apparently have a more or less British accent, which builds into the whole correlation of the Dyrwood colonies claiming independence. I just chalk it up to one of those suspension of disbelief things.

 

The accents might be offputting for some folks, but I think the refrain of "Moar like BG" to be a kind of strange mantra at this point. Not that I mind, really. All good.

[Abel]

The fact is, since i'm french, each and every character in Pillars does have an accent (always the same). I bet that if the game was voiced over in french, i would be the same as you: i may never have noticed the accent matter. But since for me, every thing that is said in the game is said with an accent i'm not used to, the accent matter became obvious to me. And now, if i look at things this way, i start to understand why one who is really used to US accent never noticed the matter with Sagani and several other NPCs.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Abel

[HawkSoft]

As far as Sagani, I get folks beef. It wasn't offputting to me that she lacked an accent because I didn't even notice it. Even now, when I recognize that she lacks an accent, it doesn't really bother me, but I can see where it would cause a disconnect for some folks. I'm not much for immersion arguments, but I suppose the voice over work for Sagani would be a stronger 'immersion' argument than most, especially in light of the fact that Pellegina clearly has an accent from the Republics. However, I don't really hear a pronounced difference between the Dyrwoodians and the Glanfathans either. Hiravias seems to sound just any other Jo Blow to me. The Adyerans apparently have a more or less British accent, which builds into the whole correlation of the Dyrwood colonies claiming independence. I just chalk it up to one of those suspension of disbelief things.

Once I got used to US English being the local language instead of the more usual (and generally awful) Olde Inglish I found the companions accents to be pleasantly subtle and appropriate with the exception of Sagani.

 

I thought Sagani had a North Eastern USA city accent (I was wrong) but might be appropriate to describe her bland US style accent as NBC English.

Whatever you describe her accent as it's an educated city accent, not a country or wilderness one, also she speaks too quickly and makes Eder sound like a village yokel by comparison.

[Brimsurfer]

Was it a thread only about companions?

No.....not just companions........but any significant characters in the game........

[Campylobacter Jejuni]

I'm perfectly fine with the voice acting here. Don't tell me Durance lacks character!

Oh I wish he did... what a weirdo. And I say this as a proud weirdo myself... good lord.

[Stoner]

While voice acting in this game is VERY good, especially of companions, and that gives them real character, but still, I think any voices shouldn't be in this game, text only. Maybe shout/short replics during combat, but that's it. I'm always tempted to turn off voices, and I think once I'm done with WM2, I'll do that on latter playthroughs.

 

Really hope PoE2 won't use any voice acting in game, but uh... somehow I know this won't happen though it would cut down game budget, allowing them to concentrate on more important things...

[Koth]

While voice acting in this game is VERY good, especially of companions, and that gives them real character, but still, I think any voices shouldn't be in this game, text only. Maybe shout/short replics during combat, but that's it. I'm always tempted to turn off voices, and I think once I'm done with WM2, I'll do that on latter playthroughs.

 

Really hope PoE2 won't use any voice acting in game, but uh... somehow I know this won't happen though it would cut down game budget, allowing them to concentrate on more important things...

Wow really? I mean you're definitely entitled to your own opinion (of course). But I would say exactly the opposite. I love the VA in this game and my only complaint is that I'd like more of it. The only thing I find jarring is when there's a line of spoken VA, mixed with narration in the text, followed by more voice acting. Only way I can see around this would be to have a generic narrator speaking the non-speech lines of text, but this could get out of control fast.

[why]

 

I'm perfectly fine with the voice acting here. Don't tell me Durance lacks character!

Oh I wish he did... what a weirdo. And I say this as a proud weirdo myself... good lord.

 

I like Durance quite a bit, but I did laugh when I read this.

[asnjas]

isnt minsc cherry picking? i dont remember other voices being that memorable. they just fit the character. minsc had a great character theme and the voice went well with it. its more like minsc was justa memorable character.

 

sagani just seems down to earth simplistic country type. isnt she from the small hunting village? durance and minsc are high passion. maybe its not interesting or cool but her voice fits.

[Lord_Mord]

 

I also think it's pretty impressive that Eder and Aloth are voiced by the same actor but I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't now.

 

Just googled that guy. Somehow he manages to look like both of them.

[FlintlockJazz]

 

I'm perfectly fine with the voice acting here. Don't tell me Durance lacks character!

 

Way to cherry pick from the 11 Companions one of those whose voice acting is excellent. 

 

Let's ignore that Sagani is bland as vanilla.  Or Maneha sounds like a petite girl, not a big burly Aumaua barbarian.  Or Aloth, who while not horrible, could use some more edginess both to his character and voice.

 

Zahau, Durance, Pallegina, Kana, and Eder are fine as is.  Devil of Caroc, while the Devs did a good thing (I suppose) by making her voice sound like it's in a tin can or something, her underlying voice (echo-iness aside) also seems rather bland, though I suppose that since she's from the Dyrwood, a neutral-ish American accent isn't all that far wrong.  Maybe a little more rustic flavor to her voice would have been nice, since she does supposedly come from an out of the way place.  I suppose that GM's voice is ok, but given that I don't particularly like her character, her voice does little for me.  And I'll give Hiravias a pass, given that I almost never have him in my party, because I just don't know how to play druids well, and find that they take the slot of a character type I'm more comfortable playing (i.e. a priest or wizard, or even a cipher).

 

And how many characters were there in BG1?  And how many of them were memorable?  People tend to quote the same four or five characters out of the 20+ characters there were in that game, usually the comedy characters, with Minsc usually being the one way out in front who, love him or loath him, is a character whose success as comic relief in gaming even his creators have failed to replicate satisfactory.

[HawkSoft]

And how many characters were there in BG1?  And how many of them were memorable?  People tend to quote the same four or five characters out of the 20+ characters there were in that game, usually the comedy characters, with Minsc usually being the one way out in front who, love him or loath him, is a character whose success as comic relief in gaming even his creators have failed to replicate satisfactory.

 

Minsc, comic relief?

First game I played the nutter attacked me because I wouldn't go and rescue his dratted witch

I was very wary about having him in the party after that.

[FlintlockJazz]

 

Minsc, comic relief?

 

 

First game I played the nutter attacked me because I wouldn't go and rescue his dratted witch

I was very wary about having him in the party after that.

 

He breaks the fourth wall quite a bit, especially in the first one, and was kinda like a commentary on certain types of tabletop roleplayers (and in fact was one of the developers' tabletop characters from a Spelljammer campaign I believe).  His unpredictability and over the top behaviour all stems from that, including his attacking other players' characters.

[Ineth]

I'm perfectly fine with the voice acting here. Don't tell me Durance lacks character!

 

Well, Durance is not a representative example - he's the best of the litter.

 

Eder is fine, and several of the minor roles are great as well (e.g. the Steward in Caed Nua).

 

But overall, OP has a point.

 

(And the player soundsets which we can choose for the Watcher and hired companions, are especially bland.)

[Tennisgolfboll]

Best NPC and voice acting ever:

 

Korgan Bloodaxe

 

 

But the VA in POE is really good

[julle]

I love the voiceacting of Thaos. Just the way he says "Creitum" makes it sound like a real place, with meaning, instead of a town in Russia he recitates from a paper.

[Ymarsakar]

They should have highlighted all the emotional lines and had the Voice actors do those. Instead of what Pillars did, which was to make all the important intro lines, quest intro and content lines, voiced instead.

 

It was more about the Plot Arc and its significance then about using voice actors in the right place. For example, GM had a reaction qip to something important to the main line plot and her own background. It wasn't voiced. Even though to her, that was the most important event up to then. That's partially because Chris Av wrote a lot for her and it probably capped out the voice actor budget allowance for GM.

[kvaak]

Most of the voice-acted characters are rather personal in my opinion. I can certainly hear the crazy Russian priest's (no, he doesn't actually have a Russian accent) rambling in my head just as well as Minsc inspiring me by charging... BLINDLY OOOOOON.

 

Okay, not Minsc. He was something else.

 

Some lines being voice-acted and others not on the same character feels rather random at times but I don't find it too awkward in PoE. E.g. Wasteland 2 on the other hand completely butchered their VA with the director's cut, not only do characters still have voiced and unvoiced lines randomly but the additional voiced lines they added in the DC have clearly higher volume from the original ones. It's horribly inconsistent which, among with the awkward camera angles, made me never play WL2DC past the first mission. The base game I finished thrice.

Edited March 1, 2016 by kvaak

[Ymarsakar]

The Japanese are very good at helping voice actors in their industry visualize and obtain a context for the roles they play, using visual and story props.

 

I wonder how the recording for the intro lines of Planescape Torment was done. When the player was introduced to the ghost, that became an important character later on. Her voice had an extremely broad range, from tsuntsun and yandere, to deredere soft depending on how the conversation went. At the time, it was kind of scary because I thought there was going to be a combat scenario at any time, like in Icewind dale or BG2.

 

To translate, she went from mad with rage to a softer more feminine tone. Feeling wise, it's like the spooky voices near the Gwea spirit in Pillars. Except it was an NPC with its own motivations/backstory, that was crucial to your central story/backstory/plot as well.

 

Setting the background music/SFX and mixing it properly with the voice volume is a big deal in Japan as well. I've often noticed that the sound effects are mixed better with voice audio over there. In the US, the soundfx and music is so loud, I can't even understand what the voices are saying unless I read subtitles in movies and what not. The mix is very different.

Edited March 1, 2016 by Ymarsakar

[Abel]

Quite agree with you. Don't know if Deïonarra was a Tsun, Kuu, Yan, or even if she could really be classified in one of the -dere thing, but it's true that her voice was great. This plus the Deïonnara music theme gave me a huge thrill, goosebumps and so on. The Deïnonarra theme even became one of my key musics afterwards, because of that. I will never forget the moment i first saw this ghost, eard her voice, and listened to this music... It's one of my very best gaming moment, very fond to me.

 

Agree too about japanese voice acting. But it's obvious. Because, there is nothing like the "seiyu" thing in other countries. Doubling anime or games characters is a job as a whole. There are courses for it, it's a well know job, very competitive. It's not just anybody who can become a renowned seiyu and voice act for a living. That's why watching a japanese masterpiece in subtitled VO and dubbed is nothing near the same. And obviously, you're exactly right about mixings and sound volumes, too. But you know, regarding these kinds of things, US is all about... well... take-this-in-ya-face. That's probably the same reason why blockbusters scenarios are so... well thought, Blockbusters action scenes and visual effects so... believable, and blockbuster actors so... convincing, AND gorgeous... lol

Edited March 1, 2016 by Abel

[Ymarsakar]

Quite agree with you. Don't know if Deïonarra was a Tsun, Kuu, Yan, or even if she could really be classified in one of the -dere thing, but it's true that her voice was great. This plus the Deïonnara music theme gave me a huge thrill, goosebumps and so on. The Deïnonarra theme even became one of my key musics afterwards, because of that. I will never forget the moment i first saw this ghost, eard her voice, and listened to this music... It's one of my very best gaming moment, very fond to me.

 

Agree too about japanese voice acting. But it's obvious. Because, there is nothing like the "seiyu" thing in other countries. Doubling anime or games characters is a job as a whole. There are courses for it, it's a well know job, very competitive. It's not just anybody who can become a renowned seiyu and voice act for a living. That's why watching a japanese masterpiece in subtitled VO and dubbed is nothing near the same. And obviously, you're exactly right about mixings and sound volumes, too. But you know, regarding these kinds of things, US is all about... well... take-this-in-ya-face. That's probably the same reason why blockbusters scenarios are so... well thought, Blockbusters action scenes and visual effects so... believable, and blockbuster actors so... convincing, AND gorgeous... lol

 

Their culture helps provide stability and ability as well. They try to keep nepotism down as well, since that produces stupid talent in a few generations for short term benefit. They post test scores in public, for everyone in the school to see, including peers.

 

What I found most surprising and critical is that the voice actor for one character is stable across all mediums. It's like they have a copyright or stake in the character, Right of First Refusal. It provides amazing stability and "branding", much the same reasons why Simpsons was popular. Same voice actors, that people only saw recently that is.

 

Japan capitalized on that human branding, the fact that humans could recognize voices and faces very easily, it takes up a different bandwidth channel in the brain.

[Abel]

Yep, it's true. If you take a look, you'll see that even "DB Super" uses the same voice actors for the cast than the eighties and nineties series. Even though some voice actors have past 80 by now . But it may too be the consequence of some kind of cultural sense of responsibility, maybe. Once you take a role, you have to fulfill it for the sake of the fans. But maybe i'm mistaking. It's just very so japanese . Still, it would be great if voice acting became of the same importance in our countries. Many supports would benefit from it. Well, i'm definitely fan of japanese voice acting. There are scenes than i can see over and over again because the flavour of the acts are so impressive that the whole thing becomes heart throbling for some reason. The exact same than with Deïonarra.

 

There is much to say about japanese cultural differences. I guess some are to their benefits, some are not. But it's a whole different (yet interesting) topic.

[Ymarsakar]

US or Anglosphere voice acting is inconsistent. Until people understand why that is, I don't think they can improve upon it. From a technical standpoint, the English voice actors have the skill for it. They are professionals and for anime like Journey to the West, they did a great job of it. Some of them even became VAs because of anime in their childhood.

 

Yet something is missing, beyond the legal contract issue. Until people find that something, it'll be a black hole for some time.

[Abel]

I guess that something is all about culture. The culture of animation i mean. It's not of the same importance in Japan and in western countries. And while animation is often looked like child matter in our countries, it's much more widespred in Japan. Unless we get some "animation culture", things won't change.