Voice acting in Pillars @

[Maziga]

Sorry if this has been gone over a few times before, but will there be full voice acting in Pillars 2? Like Divinity 2 style? 

 

Also, some of the characters voices' in Pillars 1 were a little flat. Unemotional. I'd really like for everyone, including that random monk who's hiding up a tree eating bird eggs (actually, especially that random monk who's hiding up a tree eating bird eggs) to have, you know, personality in their voice. 

 

 

[Night Stalker]

Sorry if this has been gone over a few times before, but will there be full voice acting in Pillars 2? Like Divinity 2 style?

 

There will not be full voice acting. However, the voice acting budget has been doubled (I don't have a quote, but I doubt this will translate directly to twice the amount of voice acting), and the writers have gotten better guidelines on how to mix voiced and non-voiced sections - there should be no more "[voiced bit] [unvoiced descriptive text] [voiced bit]".

Edited March 15, 2018 by Night Stalker

[bonarbill]

 

Sorry if this has been gone over a few times before, but will there be full voice acting in Pillars 2? Like Divinity 2 style?

 

There will not be full voice acting. 

 

Actually, we don't know yet.  Even Josh sawyer said on a stream months ago that he wasn't sure yet.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/205646747?t=19m51s

Edited March 15, 2018 by bonarbill

[VincentNZ]

Yeah but doubt that it will be full. Not with the amount of text and the budget they have. But one can surely expect more VA and I thought it was on a really good level, too. When I think about it Eder's voice still sticks in my head.

[huang]

 

 

 and the writers have gotten better guidelines on how to mix voiced and non-voiced sections - there should be no more "[voiced bit] [unvoiced descriptive text] [voiced bit]".

 

 

I'm so happy about this. I mean it wasn't a dealbreaker or anything this severe, but I never liked this. Always great to find out more people disliked the same thing.

[Enduin]

It would be a very strong selling point if they could say everything was voiced, but it is a pretty substantial investment. Kind of hope the positive reception over D:OS2 being fully voiced pushed Obsidian to do the same. That said I would be thrilled if everything but Tasks and random dialogues were fully voiced; all companion/sidekick dialogue, all main and side quest dialogue. That alone would be a huge improvement. 

[bonarbill]

Yeah but doubt that it will be full. 

 

I thought so at first, but after the success of DoS2, I think it's likely that were considering it.

[SonicMage117]

I would love full voice acting for a game like Deadfire, seems this is the type of game that would actually benefit most from it and usher in a new audience due to broadening the accessibility.

Edited March 16, 2018 by SonicMage117

[Yosharian]

Full VA is not needed

[TheisEjsing]

I don't care for full VO in Deadfire one bit personally. I don't think this game should go for a broader audience if it compromises the soul of the game. The IE games were for people who actually like to read, and so were PoE. Full VO is waste of money, that could be spent much wiser. 

That said, I'm afraid that D:OS II has set a standard for reviewers. I fear it will impact Deadfire's reception, if it doesn't have full VO.

[Mannock]

It's funny how one of the selling points for PoE was not doing full VO, which would mean more text and more flexibility ("if you don't like to read, it's not a game for you").

 

And here we are, seeing lots of talk about VO. Even if it isn't full VO it's still much more than when the franchise was originally pitched.

 

Personally, I see the production benefits of having limited VO. So I was hoping for that, but it looks like it will be going in the opposite direction.

[jf8350143]

i don't know, on one hand voice everything will be very expensive and kind unnecessary, on the other hand it will prevent  one of the problems I have in PoE 1, aka 'if this NPC didn't talk with a voice he/she is probably not important".

 

My expectation is they will have every companion fully voiced and maybe most of the major NPCs, and that's it.

Edited March 16, 2018 by jf8350143

[Messier-31]

Reading lots of text is somewhat backbone of these series. I imagine that full VO would be too expensive and a dubious effort, because of the amount of text. This issue was discussed before, and it really bothers me when I think about hearing the same voice-actor/actress over and over again, because every line has to be VO'd. What about the descriptive text between the dialogues? That should be dubbed as well? Because if you want a travesty, this is how you get a travesty.

[Yosharian]

DOS2 is hard as dense, story telling-wise, as PoE. I think DOS2 is great, and a big improvement over the first one, but it's nowhere near as heavy as Pillars.

[Wormerine]

I'm so happy about this. I mean it wasn't a dealbreaker or anything this severe, but I never liked this. Always great to find out more people disliked the same thing.

It was a common gripe with how writing was setup in PoE, and it’s something Obs was aware of - according to Josh Chris Avallone pointed this problem out, however there wasn’t enough time to rewrite the whole thing. Notice, that White March doesn’t suffer from the issue of mixing voiced and unvoiced lines in a same window.

 

If they announce full VO, I would be happy as I enjoyed VO in PoE1 a lot. But it’s not needed. Well written text is sufficient, and I would take no voice acting over poor voicacting (too many repeating voice actors, little variety in voices). The key to me, is to focus on writing first and then deciding how much of it can be voiceacted. Following once again the Bioware route of confining RPGs more and more for presentation sake is not what I hope to see from the current revival of RPGs.

[Tarlonniel]

I like partial voice acting. I don't need an actor to read me two full paragraphs of NPC backstory, even if they're a good actor. And I especially don't need one showing up to make awkward sex scenes even more awkward (D:OS2 ).

[VincentNZ]

Yeah it is true, IE games are naturally quite heavy on text and I surely do not ind reading. However the more voiceover is done the more immersive it gets. When your companions really talk to you you are drawn in much deeper into the lore. Plus of course your are more inclined to listen than to read and stuff just stick in your head more.

[Tigranes]

It's funny how one of the selling points for PoE was not doing full VO, which would mean more text and more flexibility ("if you don't like to read, it's not a game for you").

 

And here we are, seeing lots of talk about VO. Even if it isn't full VO it's still much more than when the franchise was originally pitched.

 

Personally, I see the production benefits of having limited VO. So I was hoping for that, but it looks like it will be going in the opposite direction.

 

I don't think not having full VO was ever a 'selling point' for anybody, but for sure, VO costs so much and it really isn't very important in my opinion.

 

But it's just going to be a constant demand for every game that doesn't have it.

[huang]

Wasn't "full VO" what killed this type of game in the first place? The reason stories and dialogs became more and more shallow in games, was that you can't have such a massive text dump in spoken form. It would be like an audio book. :D

 

I absolutely prefer it if most of the stuff is just text and only certain important parts are VO.

[VincentNZ]

Wasn't "full VO" what killed this type of game in the first place? The reason stories and dialogs became more and more shallow in games, was that you can't have such a massive text dump in spoken form. It would be like an audio book. :D

 

I absolutely prefer it if most of the stuff is just text and only certain important parts are VO.

Hmm I do not know if you can say this is the reason for it, or if it is just correlation. I would say that it has been a natural process to have less text in a medium that by nature gets more and more visual. Twenty years ago immersion was mostly doable by setting the mood via textboxes. 30 years ago computer games were as close to books as modern games are to movies.

 

It is very true though, that full voice acting is a really costly product and something that not many companies can afford on a broad scale. Also bad VA is something that sticks in minds and can kill any immersion.

[Daled]

I think we would already know if it had full VO by now, it is a big selling point marketing wise.

 

I'm not excluding they could announce it in the next marketing round though, and that will probably start with the trailer we know they are making.

Edited March 16, 2018 by Daled

[SkySlam]

Regardless of the extra costs of production, I personally dislike full VO.

Not only the full VO limits the possible dialogue branches, but it also limits my imagination. Partial VO is perfect for this kind of games: it gives you an idea of the characters, leaving you free to imagine the tone of their non-voiced speeches.

[SonicMage117]

I love to read but reading can be a pain when you're super tired after a long day at work. Even moreso if you spend all day on the phone/computer or in an office.

[Enoch]

Didn't they say that the next update would be about audio?  I'd expect more information then.

[illathid]

I really hope they don't go with full VO. I always find it distracting and it takes me out of the game.