Voice acting in Pillars @

[Wormerine]

Why hire an actor if you will just have him/her read text that is meant to be read? They are voiceators, not lectors. If you go for a voice actor, than write with that in mind. If you write for it to be read, there is not need for someone to read it aloud. It just doesn’t add anything while costing a lot.

[The Sharmat]

So if the voice acting added nothing to your enjoyment, absolutely nothing at all...how can you say it's good?

[Wormerine]

So if the voice acting added nothing to your enjoyment, absolutely nothing at all...how can you say it's good?

If it doesn't add anything than its not good.

[Enduin]

So, take it with a hefty grain of salt but we now have at least two gaming news outlets recently reporting that Deadfire features Full VO.
 
First via IGN on March 27th:
"In fact, every single NPC has voiced dialogue and a hand-drawn portrait to really lend a sense of intimacy to every situation." - If I'm not mistaken the second half of that statement has previously been confirmed by Obsidian for a while and is already evident in the Beta.

Then via USGamer April 5th:
"The entire game's conversations are voice acted, which considering the amount of choices and things that can be shifted—like killing an integral NPC and seeing the game be affected by that singular choice—is pretty astounding."

 

So I'm curious if that's one of the "one or two announcements" they'll be making on tomorrow's live stream from PAX East. 

 

Again though, large grain of salt. I wouldn't put it past the press getting their facts wrong and it turns out to be only the main quest or something similarly limited being fully voiced and not the entire game.

Edited April 7, 2018 by Enduin

[Mannock]

So, take it with a hefty grain of salt but we now have at least two gaming news outlets recently reporting that Deadfire features Full VO.

 

First via IGN on March 27th:

"In fact, every single NPC has voiced dialogue and a hand-drawn portrait to really lend a sense of intimacy to every situation." - If I'm not mistaken the second half of that statement has previously been confirmed by Obsidian for a while and is already evident in the Beta.

 

Then via USGamer April 5th:

"The entire game's conversations are voice acted, which considering the amount of choices and things that can be shifted—like killing an integral NPC and seeing the game be affected by that singular choice—is pretty astounding."

 

So I'm curious if that's one of the "one or two announcements" they'll be making on tomorrow's live stream from PAX East. 

 

Again though, large grain of salt. I wouldn't put it past the press getting their facts wrong and it turns out to be only the main quest or something similarly limited being fully voiced and not the entire game.

 

In my book that would be worthy of a big announcement. My bet goes on full VO.

[The Sharmat]

I think they'd have said that by now if they were going to do it. More likely it's just gaming journalists being idiots, as they are wont to do.

[Mannock]

Seems like full VO was the thing (for critical characters).

[Sedrefilos]

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

[Wormerine]

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

I know of Critical Role, because I liked Matt Mercer in PoE. So in my case, it's an advertisement the other way around, if I like their work in Deadfire. 

 

Meh

[Progressive_Stupidity]

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

 

Never heard of it. Are they actually voice actors or is this a Felicia Day type promo stunt?

[Sedrefilos]

I don't know who that is out of their teens will be ecited by such an announcement :D

Anyway, hope they announce something to the lines of "vull VO with this one" as one of their "many new announcements in the week to come".

[daven]

Other than Eder, the VO in Pillars is pretty weak. That Orlan in The White March part 2 outside Durgan's Battery.... I had to mute my speakers. 

 

I don't mind Durance but i'm pretty sure the same voice actor does nearly every NPC so it kind of detracts from it.

 

Also... I know a lot of people are against this nowadays but I much prefer the good old English accents, American really sounds out of place in fantasy games. I guess i'm just old fashioned.

Edited April 7, 2018 by daven

[Sedrefilos]

 

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

 

Never heard of it. Are they actually voice actors or is this a Felicia Day type promo stunt?

 

They are some people gather round playing DnD and stream/upload it. That's about it

[Ethics Gradient]

 

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

 

Never heard of it. Are they actually voice actors or is this a Felicia Day type promo stunt?

 

They've all been doing VA for ages.  Most of the cast members have a decade or so of VA on their resume.

[Enduin]

That's some big talent they've got in the game, nothing to sneeze at there, but still anti-climactic for me expecting a Full VO announcment. I'm like 85% of the belief now that the IGN and USGamer articles citing full VO are a mistake now. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Enduin

[Aramintai]

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

I don't know who those people are and don't really care. This got overhyped pretty bad though, people were waiting for something really grand on Twitter and Twitch.

Personally, I was simply waiting for a long overdue backer update...

Edited April 7, 2018 by Aramintai

[Sedrefilos]

That's some big talent they've got in the game, nothing to sneeze at there, but still anti-climactic for me expecting a Full VO announcment. I'm like 85% of the belief now that the IGN and USGamer articles citing full VO are a mistake now. 

Maybe their involvement has to do with it. Obs guy said they'll announce more stuff regarding this next week.

[Progressive_Stupidity]

 

 

They just announced that the entire Critical Role team will make voice-over in Deadfire. OK I don't care much tbh (if at all) but many will be excited (i... guess...).

 

Never heard of it. Are they actually voice actors or is this a Felicia Day type promo stunt?

 

They've all been doing VA for ages.  Most of the cast members have a decade or so of VA on their resume.

 

 

Ah, ok. Just looked them up. Well that's something, at least. Still, it feels like a very overhyped and niche announcement. They could have at least had a series of videos where they talk about their characters or something for those of us who had no idea who they are.

[algroth]

Other than Eder, the VO in Pillars is pretty weak. That Orlan in The White March part 2 outside Durgan's Battery.... I had to mute my speakers. 

 

I don't mind Durance but i'm pretty sure the same voice actor does nearly every NPC so it kind of detracts from it.

 

Also... I know a lot of people are against this nowadays but I much prefer the good old English accents, American really sounds out of place in fantasy games. I guess i'm just old fashioned.

 

I liked Wengra myself, though I can agree that the VO in Pillars was somewhat spotty. Still, for the most part I enjoyed the major performances, barring a few here or there like the GM or Maneha.

 

Re: Critical Role, I'd add another vote to non-plussed about the announcement (especially considering Matt Mercer's been confirmed in the sequel for a while now), but generally I don't recognize many voice actor names and to those more in the know it could be a pretty major revelation. I would like to see who else might be starring in the game however.

Edited April 7, 2018 by algroth

[Enoch]

Here's the announcement video.

[AndreaColombo]

Critical Role is a fairly popular show and the cast members are pretty good. I understand why people who aren't fans of the show aren't hyped, but I also understand why Obsidian are and why the announcement was hyped the way it was.

[Frog Man]

I view it as a smart business move. Hiring the entire cast should certainly get some crossover interest from Critical Role fans who haven’t played pillars.

 

As a purely Obsidian/Pillars fan, I still love it because you can see the resumes of those folks and they are really good. I think Obsidian paid for some high quality talent for this one.

 

Should be fun! Excited for the next backer update.

[Enduin]

 

That's some big talent they've got in the game, nothing to sneeze at there, but still anti-climactic for me expecting a Full VO announcment. I'm like 85% of the belief now that the IGN and USGamer articles citing full VO are a mistake now. 

Maybe their involvement has to do with it. Obs guy said they'll announce more stuff regarding this next week.

 

That would be great, I'm still hoping for it but not expecting it at this point. They've had a some pretty good opportunities already to announce it like when the game was delayed or two weeks later with the Official Features Trailer and now here at PAX.

 

The delay announcement would have been a great time to do it in order to blunt that news with something pretty big and unexpected. Or announce it here at PAX while all sorts of press is around, do some followup interviews where you drop some big numbers on how many words, lines and NPCs are in the game and number of VAs that are involved and you'll see dozens of articles all over the internet about the game popup talking about how big and impressive a feat this is. 

 

Obviously it's not that easy and there's a lot of ground work involved with any of these announcements, but just look at all the coverage Larian got with their VO announcement vid. They got tons of press articles talking about it and how impressive it was for a game like theirs. So that leads me to thinking they simply don't have Full VO to announce and instead it's still partial like it was in PoE.

 

My only guess as to why they might hold off is if they are still putting together the Audio Backer Update to present this with all the bells and whistles and/or they're holding it back till closer to release to generate a bunch of hype that lasts to release. But either reason seems a bit risky and foolish to me. Critical Role is a very talented group of people, but they're still pretty niche/unknown even among cRPG and Role Playing fans. They would have to have realized that announcing full VO in conjunction with that would be far more meaningful to the larger audience than just Critical Role alone, if that was something they could in fact announce as well.

[Sedrefilos]

 

 

That's some big talent they've got in the game, nothing to sneeze at there, but still anti-climactic for me expecting a Full VO announcment. I'm like 85% of the belief now that the IGN and USGamer articles citing full VO are a mistake now. 

Maybe their involvement has to do with it. Obs guy said they'll announce more stuff regarding this next week.

 

That would be great, I'm still hoping for it but not expecting it at this point. They've had a some pretty good opportunities already to announce it like when the game was delayed or two weeks later with the Official Features Trailer and now here at PAX.

 

The delay announcement would have been a great time to do it in order to blunt that news with something pretty big and unexpected. Or announce it here at PAX while all sorts of press is around, do some followup interviews where you drop some big numbers on how many words, lines and NPCs are in the game and number of VAs that are involved and you'll see dozens of articles all over the internet about the game popup talking about how big and impressive a feat this is. 

 

Obviously it's not that easy and there's a lot of ground work involved with any of these announcements, but just look at all the coverage Larian got with their VO announcement vid. They got tons of press articles talking about it and how impressive it was for a game like theirs. So that leads me to thinking they simply don't have Full VO to announce and instead it's still partial like it was in PoE.

 

My only guess as to why they might hold off is if they are still putting together the Audio Backer Update to present this with all the bells and whistles and/or they're holding it back till closer to release to generate a bunch of hype that lasts to release. But either reason seems a bit risky and foolish to me. Critical Role is a very talented group of people, but they're still pretty niche/unknown even among cRPG and Role Playing fans. They would have to have realized that announcing full VO in conjunction with that would be far more meaningful to the larger audience than just Critical Role alone, if that was something they could in fact announce as well.

 

Pax is agood place to announce such geeky stuff I suppose

[Progressive_Stupidity]

So, for those who ARE familiar with them and their work, any speculation on who might be voicing who (assuming at least some of them are cast as companions/sidekicks)?