The voiced narrator is really distracting.

[Ulicus]

The performance itself is fine but I find it horrifically distracting and really wish there was some way to switch it off.

The only time I ever want to hear the narrator is during the opening of each new chapter.

If the voiced narration works for other people that's great but it's never going to do so for me.
 

Edited May 9, 2018 by Ulicus

[Stoibs]

Not just the Narration but also the choice to go full 100% voice acting is *VERY* distracting and offputting when you're trying to read ahead (obviously much faster than these VA's can speak).

 

Back in the days of Baldur's Gate we had a simple introduction sentence or maybe certain paragraphs of great importance voiced, and it was great. You got a sense of what the character sounds like and their general demeanor yet it wasn't so overtly intrusive and in your face for literally every dialogue like it is here.

 

At the very least I'd love a keyboard shortcut or something so that we could fade voice on or off manually (Because I assume going back through the entirety of the game and making it so only the first line for every dialogue/event is way too big of an undertaking) or some sort of user mod to eventually address this.

If not then I guess I might have to play with Voice volume set to zero just to make it infinitely less distracting and annoying, as unfortunate as that is.

 

This is Divinity Original Sin 2 all over again whereby the devs apparently thought that Everything Voiced automatically = better.

[ser_renely]

It is weird, she has a nice voice, and can voice act, but the cadence is too exaggerated, slow. Her pause for commas is almost enough to go get a drink. I am still not sure what I think overall, as I don't want to over react like 99% of people.

Also the audio quality of it, doesn't sound good compared to the other voices.

It seems they are going for a slightly raw, maybe stressed sounding narrator. If that is the case then they got what they wanted and maybe we will find out why.

It is much better than the POE 1 narrator, imo.

[Artaios]

Is it Laura Bailey who does the voice?

[CAlmond]

 

Not just the Narration but also the choice to go full 100% voice acting is *VERY* distracting and offputting when you're trying to read ahead (obviously much faster than these VA's can speak).

 

Back in the days of Baldur's Gate we had a simple introduction sentence or maybe certain paragraphs of great importance voiced, and it was great. You got a sense of what the character sounds like and their general demeanor yet it wasn't so overtly intrusive and in your face for literally every dialogue like it is here.

 

At the very least I'd love a keyboard shortcut or something so that we could fade voice on or off manually (Because I assume going back through the entirety of the game and making it so only the first line for every dialogue/event is way too big of an undertaking) or some sort of user mod to eventually address this.

If not then I guess I might have to play with Voice volume set to zero just to make it infinitely less distracting and annoying, as unfortunate as that is.

 

This is Divinity Original Sin 2 all over again whereby the devs apparently thought that Everything Voiced automatically = better.

 

 

For some people, it is better. At the end of the day, they can't please everyone.

[hevymac]

Solved the narrator issue! 
Just go into your PoE 2 folder 

Pillars of Eternity II Deadfire\PillarsOfEternityII_Data\StreamingAssets\Audio\Windows\Voices\English(US)

And then Move or delete the "narrator" folder! Solved!

[tinysalamander]

 

For some people, it is better. At the end of the day, they can't please everyone.

 

Actually, in this particular case they can. It's called options.

[Skazz]

Better yet, bring back the first guy

 

Speaking of which, do we even know who the first guy was? Do we have a name?

Edited May 9, 2018 by Skazz

[Mannock]

I thought the narrator voice was nice.

 

In any event, it's just there for the beginning of the game and on a few major plot points later on in the game, according to Josh on twitter.

[Kromzor]

I don't care for her voice, and it would've been nice to have an option to toggle narration.  Even if I did like the narrartor's voice, its still weird hearing 3rd person narration in-between the character dialogue, they're almost talking over each other.  And simply muting the VO sound means you wont hear anyone.  Maybe they thought it would go over like a GM table top experience, but somehow it just doesn't work in this medium IMO, there is a certain human interactive experience there that just cannot be replicated in a video game.

[tinysalamander]

I thought the narrator voice was nice.

 

In any event, it's just there for the beginning of the game and on a few major plot points later on in the game, according to Josh on twitter.

 

Do you realize that for some that means at major plot points their immersion will be broken?

[CENIC]

Having toggles for individual voices would be AMAZING.

 

I tried editing Xoti's voice files to change it to one of the female player character's voices, but it bugged out some of her scripted conversations.

[Mannock]

 

I thought the narrator voice was nice.

 

In any event, it's just there for the beginning of the game and on a few major plot points later on in the game, according to Josh on twitter.

 

Do you realize that for some that means at major plot points their immersion will be broken?

 

Yeah, this is one heck of a game for all the snowflakes out there.

[Sedrefilos]

It's ok. Thankfully it's not all the time there just in main plot stuff. The problem with this voiced narrator is that it's just a voice narrating the written in-between stuff. In DOS2 (which I assume they tried to mimic) the narrator worked great because it was a character by himself. He had personality and all that, it wasn't just someone reading a book.

[tinysalamander]

Yeah, this is one heck of a game for all the snowflakes out there.

Because, surely, anyone who doesn't like what you like is a snowflake, right? :}

Edited May 9, 2018 by tinysalamander

[Voss]

Is it Laura Bailey who does the voice?

Nope. Laura does Chokey.

 

Ashley Johnson does the narrator (and Ydwin). You might know her best from not appearing on Critical Role. Or some show called Blindsight.

[PEnglishWolfe]

I quite like the narrator's VO she does a good job though I am a bit of a fantasy snob and much prefer English to American.

 

If only we lived in a work where Stephen Fry does 100% of the VOs (rather than the 95% he seems to do)!

 

Or Bobcat Goldthwait!!!!

[Nyhilla]

No matter how many times you people delete my post I will post it again and again and again : The narrator is bad as hell, take too long too speak, break the immersion when she describe everything that you already see, and we need an option to get rid of her voice.

I'm a strong and independant man and I don't need no girl to describe me what I see !

But hey "gnagnagna he doesn't like it cuz it's a girl and gnugngnugnu mysoginist pig". No, t'would have been a man if the voice is cringy as f**** then the result and the reaction are the same.

[Wormerine]

I actualyl love the narrator!

[Voss]

Anyway...

 

I think the big up issues with voiced narration come down to three main things (none of which have anything to do with Johnson):

 

One, reading for a lot of people is actually skimming. They'll bounce right over and summarize things they don't particularly care for. A narrator puts the kibosh on this and drags everything (flaws and all) out for their attention. The writing for pillars tends to be uneven, swinging wildly between really choking purple prose and really bland 'tell not show' stuff. Skimming over it, the flaws are ignorable. A stately, moderately paced narration of the same thing really highlife the problem areas.

 

Two, the writing for pillars also tends to tell you what you think. No one really appreciates that, and even for the character, the intrusion on player agency can be annoying.

 

 

Finally, reading fantasy stories and description is a bit different from hearing it. Someone talking about it firsthand as if it were real gives the impression that the speaker takes it seriously, and should either be locked up immediately or laughed at. This is especially true in a setting obsessed with soul mechanics and gods.

 

 

But hey, at least It isn't as bad as current World of Warcraft stuff, and it very well could be, given the overlap in voice actors. So far nothing is quite as bad as chasing Malfurion around Valsharah while he and Tyrande frantically moan about missing each other, punctuated by frequent Mark Hamil-style yells of 'Nooooo!'

Edited May 9, 2018 by Voss

[xzar_monty]

The narrator made me want to quit right in the beginning: it's way too slow, it's extremely immersion-breaking, it's a total distraction if you want to read at the same time. And if you don't want to read at the same time, you will proceed slower than a snail's corpse stuck in frozen tar.

 

I think it's great that she's there, for anyone who likes the narration. But boy would I enjoy the option to just turn her off.

[Starwars]

For me, I guess I'm not against the narration for the more important bits of story. I just don't think this particular narrator is good... at all. I don't think she has the... I don't know, poise, to pull it off well.

 

I mean, I loved the narrator in Mask of the Betrayer, who basically worked in the same way in that he only showed up for the important story bits (though he was an actual character in the game, revealed near the end). I think he had the right dramatic tension to sell it.

[PatrioticChief]

I completely disagree. I really enjoyed the narrators voice. If you have any reading capability you should be able to skip it after she has spoken a couple of words anyways. Not hating on your opinion, because you certainly have a right to it, just not how I feel. 

[ser_renely]

What did people think of POE 1 narrator?  I did not like it, for some reason, I will have to listen to him again to be exact, but I remember immediately not impressed with his voice.  I am also a voice actor snob....

Edited May 9, 2018 by ser_renely

[Kassie]

I didn't mind the PoE narrator, but he only really did the text intro scene for each act and to tell you to g'ather your party before venturing forth'. For Deadfire, I don't care for having a narrator, nothing against the voice actress or anything, I just find having a narrator to be distracting. Also, somehow having a narrator in the beginning makes the descriptive text seem more weird and awkward than it does just reading it myself. I don't want to turn down the voice volume, since my only issue with having a narrator, and I hate cutting off voiced narration (just a personal nitpick).