Critical Role, Meet Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

[The Crimson]

Ashley voiced Ellie from The Last Of Us, comparing Ellie to how Ydwin seems to be, makes me think she's a very versatile voice actress

[Sallo]

I'm pretty excited about this. It's always fun to recognize someone's performance when you're enjoying a game.

[Progressive_Stupidity]

I'm kind of disappointed by this. I mean, I get that the fans of Critical Role are very passionate and number many people who work at Obsidian. However, this feels like nepotism to me. I don't know what the sort of process that goes into selecting voice actors, so maybe its normal to hire cadres of actors from a single pool. However, I'd like to think the selection process is more meritocratic than that. These actors are undoubtedly talented. I'm not saying otherwise. Why just give them all  the main roles in the game though? Why couldn't we have other people attempt for these roles?

 

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but personally I would have liked to see a more open process (which I can only assume from looking at this roster that it absolutely wasn't) with actors who aren't voicing someone in every game. I like Laura Bailey. I have the Lucina amiibo on my desk. She's good at her job, but she's almost like Troy Baker or Nolan North. When you are like "Oh, that's person X" the performance loses some of its charm. You stop recognising the character as an independent character and instead start viewing them as an extension of the actor. Like every Tom Cruise movie. I don't even bother learning his characters names anymore. I love Tom Cruise movies, but I don't go to them to be immersed in the story telling.

 

This is all a bit rambling and I'm sure I'm in the minority here. I just feel that this is going to lessen my enjoyment of the game. Just saying my peace.

 

I'm definitely a bit concerned that they may have basically forced a square peg into a round hole with some of the castings just to make what is, essentially, a marketing ploy work, but that said Serafen sounds really good and hearing him instantly made me more interested in his character.

[M4xw0lf]

what I'm gathering from this is that Eothas joins the party

Class: priest of Woedica! dun dun duuuuuuun

[algroth]

Did Ydwin get upgraded to full companion? I thought she was a sidekick who had the stats and voiced dialogue, but wasn't fully fleshed out

I don't think so... However her mention here as well as Rekke's makes me wonder what is up with Konstanten and Fessina, actually - neither of them have recieved nearly as much attention as the other two in the content shown so far, and it'd be nice to get a little more on them in the near future.

Edited April 13, 2018 by algroth

[InsaneCommander]

I thought Ashley Johnson looked familiar from somewhere. Blindspot.

So, if we can't solve a quest or find an npc all we have to do is go talk with Ydwin on the boat?

[PneumaticFire]

Yeah, even before this and seeing the character voice actors/bios, I definitely see a strong possibility of Eothas joining the party.  It could make for very interesting conversations between Eder, PC Eothasian Priest and Eothas himself.

Eder: "So.... about trying to kill you... let bygones be bygones right?..."

 

Reminds me how Sarevok joins your party in BG2 after being the big bad guy in part 1.

[Mannock]

Reminds me how Sarevok joins your party in BG2 after being the big bad guy in part 1.

Whoa! Spoiler alert!

 

:D

[fortuntek]

Pallegina?

[AndreaColombo]

Pallegina?

 

She's voiced by her original actress Mela Lee, who is not a member of the Critical Role crew.

[Katarack21]

I didn't know anything about Critical Role before this announcement, so to me this is just a sudden influx of talented voice actors.

[Silent Winter]

^Same here - I've since checked out one of their streams and I'm confident we're getting a good cast

[kyrt]

For anyone skeptic of the critical role crew check out behindthevoiceactors to see everything they've done. All of the cast have a multiple number of voices at their disposal that they could pick from but sometimes they also like to do new voices and adapt voices to the characters. They are professionals at what they do and they've probably done some characters you never would have thought them capable or that you couldn't recognize without knowing who played them first. The reason most people are skeptical is simply because they are well known and are good at what they do. We are in good hands.

 

Now that said and all it probably wouldn't go amiss if we got a teaser of the voice acting (not just for the crit role crew) before the game released to quell some of the fears.

[nightcobra]

Yeah, even before this and seeing the character voice actors/bios, I definitely see a strong possibility of Eothas joining the party.  It could make for very interesting conversations between Eder, PC Eothasian Priest and Eothas himself.

Eder: "So.... about trying to kill you... let bygones be bygones right?..."

 

Reminds me how Sarevok joins your party in BG2 after being the big bad guy in part 1.

 

Eothas: A soul similar to yours fought among my own...were you at least properly welcomed home?

 

Eder: well...they baked me a cake, tried to kill me afterwards but man that was a good cake.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Yeah, even before this and seeing the character voice actors/bios, I definitely see a strong possibility of Eothas joining the party.  It could make for very interesting conversations between Eder, PC Eothasian Priest and Eothas himself.

Eder: "So.... about trying to kill you... let bygones be bygones right?..."

 

Reminds me how Sarevok joins your party in BG2 after being the big bad guy in part 1.

 

 

Eothas joins your party *as your ship*

 

He floats on his back and you just attach the sails to his . . . . arm

[molotov.]

Great cast!

 

Now it’s time for ... SAMPLES! :D

 

On an unrelated note—have Aloth’s and Xoti’s portraits changed since they were first shown?

Yes, they appear to be younger now and they have also changed Ydwin portraits 2 times by now... uh... a lot of work for a sidekick don't you think?

[Boeroer]

You mean she will eventually be upgraded to roundhousekick?

[Aramintai]

Yes, they appear to be younger now and they have also changed Ydwin portraits 2 times by now... uh... a lot of work for a sidekick don't you think?

Xoti and Ydwin probably got changed because of prettied up 4chan versions of portraits debate and man-chin hate in portraits thread. New portraits, especially Ydwin, look much better now, so it's all good whatever the reason.

Edited April 17, 2018 by Aramintai

[PneumaticFire]

 

Yeah, even before this and seeing the character voice actors/bios, I definitely see a strong possibility of Eothas joining the party. It could make for very interesting conversations between Eder, PC Eothasian Priest and Eothas himself.

Eder: "So.... about trying to kill you... let bygones be bygones right?..."

 

Reminds me how Sarevok joins your party in BG2 after being the big bad guy in part 1.

Eothas: A soul similar to yours fought among my own...were you at least properly welcomed home?

 

Eder: well...they baked me a cake, tried to kill me afterwards but man that was a good cake.

 

[Voices of Nerat]

Ashley Johnson

[Karkarov]

 

Great cast!

 

Now it’s time for ... SAMPLES! :D

 

On an unrelated note—have Aloth’s and Xoti’s portraits changed since they were first shown?

Yes, they appear to be younger now and they have also changed Ydwin portraits 2 times by now... uh... a lot of work for a sidekick don't you think?

I kind of agree this is very strange.  For one thing we know there was a major push to make Ydwin a full companion, and there has been multiple points on the forums where people were confused about the difference between a sidekick and companion and said things like "why even use a sidekick if you have full companions or full custom?"  It was like they were a so so middle ground.

 

Meanwhile Obsidian is using this as a big announcement and to push more sales, which it seems to have worked.  We don't know how well it has worked, but it has definitely had a positive effect.

 

So if Critical Roles inclusion is such a big deal, and good enough to be an actual selling point for the game... why would you give a smaller sidekick role to two of them?  Also why is there so much focus on Rekke and Ydwin who both have actually had almost as much coverage as full companions at this point.  In fact, didn't Ydwin get a full on character reveal, before some of the "full companions"?

 

If this were Denmark I would definitely be smelling the fish market, if you feel me.

[algroth]

 

 

Great cast!

 

Now it’s time for ... SAMPLES! :D

 

On an unrelated note—have Aloth’s and Xoti’s portraits changed since they were first shown?

Yes, they appear to be younger now and they have also changed Ydwin portraits 2 times by now... uh... a lot of work for a sidekick don't you think?

I kind of agree this is very strange.  For one thing we know there was a major push to make Ydwin a full companion, and there has been multiple points on the forums where people were confused about the difference between a sidekick and companion and said things like "why even use a sidekick if you have full companions or full custom?"  It was like they were a so so middle ground.

 

Meanwhile Obsidian is using this as a big announcement and to push more sales, which it seems to have worked.  We don't know how well it has worked, but it has definitely had a positive effect.

 

So if Critical Roles inclusion is such a big deal, and good enough to be an actual selling point for the game... why would you give a smaller sidekick role to two of them?  Also why is there so much focus on Rekke and Ydwin who both have actually had almost as much coverage as full companions at this point.  In fact, didn't Ydwin get a full on character reveal, before some of the "full companions"?

 

If this were Denmark I would definitely be smelling the fish market, if you feel me.

 

 

Mere speculation from my part, but whilst I believe the chances for them to have been secretly expanded into full companions is extremely low, I could see more content being planned for them come the DLCs, which might better make use of those cast members. Also I don't think these roles cover the extent of the Critical Role cast in the game so maybe their relatively small role as sidekicks could be balanced out with a beefier NPC role the likes of a faction leader? Some thoughts.

[The Sharmat]

 

Yes, they appear to be younger now and they have also changed Ydwin portraits 2 times by now... uh... a lot of work for a sidekick don't you think?

Xoti and Ydwin probably got changed because of prettied up 4chan versions of portraits debate and man-chin hate in portraits thread. New portraits, especially Ydwin, look much better now, so it's all good whatever the reason.

 

I dunno. Xoti looks better now I think, and not just because she's younger and prettier but because they fixed a perspective error with her hood and cheeks. But if they were just following the 4chan version she'd look a lot more Caucasian, and be wearing makeup. If anything, she seems to have turned into an (east) Indian. And didn't steal the 4chan version's lipgloss.

 

Kind of a shame for me though, the only 4chan version I thought was an improvement over the official one was Pallegina's, and hers hasn't changed.

 

And yeah I'd be shocked if these characters were the only ones the Critical Role cast are voicing. Pretty sure the Woedican paladin in that one stream was Laura Bailey, for one thing.

Edited April 19, 2018 by The Sharmat

[molotov.]

 

 

Great cast!

 

Now it’s time for ... SAMPLES! :D

 

On an unrelated note—have Aloth’s and Xoti’s portraits changed since they were first shown?

Yes, they appear to be younger now and they have also changed Ydwin portraits 2 times by now... uh... a lot of work for a sidekick don't you think?

I kind of agree this is very strange.  For one thing we know there was a major push to make Ydwin a full companion, and there has been multiple points on the forums where people were confused about the difference between a sidekick and companion and said things like "why even use a sidekick if you have full companions or full custom?"  It was like they were a so so middle ground.

 

Meanwhile Obsidian is using this as a big announcement and to push more sales, which it seems to have worked.  We don't know how well it has worked, but it has definitely had a positive effect.

 

So if Critical Roles inclusion is such a big deal, and good enough to be an actual selling point for the game... why would you give a smaller sidekick role to two of them?  Also why is there so much focus on Rekke and Ydwin who both have actually had almost as much coverage as full companions at this point.  In fact, didn't Ydwin get a full on character reveal, before some of the "full companions"?

 

If this were Denmark I would definitely be smelling the fish market, if you feel me.

 

Ydwin was the only sidekick to have a full body reveal - it's on Pillars of Eternity facebook -, and also Josh talks a lot about Rekke on live Q&As. He stated, on his last Q&A, that we will get to know the reason to why Rekke is the way he is and, to me, that was quite strange, why give a closure or a character development this huge for a sidekick?

 

Have you guys realized that the other two sidekicks don't even get mentioned by Josh or the team that much and none of the critical role artists are making V.O. for them?

 

The plot tickens...

[Skazz]

Ydwin was the only sidekick to have a full body reveal - it's on Pillars of Eternity facebook -, and also Josh talks a lot about Rekke on live Q&As. He stated, on his last Q&A, that we will get to know the reason to why Rekke is the way he is and, to me, that was quite strange, why give a closure or a character development this huge for a sidekick?

 

Have you guys realized that the other two sidekicks don't even get mentioned by Josh or the team that much and none of the critical role artists are making V.O. for them?

 

The plot tickens...

 

 

Not to knock on Rekke and any potential arcs that he may have, but I was under the impression that he was supposed to be Deadfire's Chewbacca.

 

And by that, I mean that it's much easier to write extra material for a guy who literally cannot communicate with the rest of the cast.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Skazz