How important are voice actors to a computer RPG?
It may sound silly but , have you ever noticed that certain games could have been much better if the npc's were better voiced?
Neverwinter Nights 2 is an example (my opinion, though) : Everyone has a strong american accent, and while I have nothing against it, it could have sounded better if different races and humans from different regions spoke with distinct intonations.
I believe that BG and IWD had excellent voice actors , their voices were completely part of the character, and not just a "female voice to match the subtitle".
In BG we can clearly realise that Jaheira , Edwin and Dynaheir come from different places, and it makes them more interesting. In IWD you can almost believe that Hrotgar is there beside you, and the sadness in Everard's voice is almost real.
So here's the question - how have felt towards character's voices in RPG games, both positively or negatively?
Neverwinter Nights 2 is an example (my opinion, though) : Everyone has a strong american accent, and while I have nothing against it, it could have sounded better if different races and humans from different regions spoke with distinct intonations.
I believe that BG and IWD had excellent voice actors , their voices were completely part of the character, and not just a "female voice to match the subtitle".
In BG we can clearly realise that Jaheira , Edwin and Dynaheir come from different places, and it makes them more interesting. In IWD you can almost believe that Hrotgar is there beside you, and the sadness in Everard's voice is almost real.
So here's the question - how have felt towards character's voices in RPG games, both positively or negatively?
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Comments
But I would say that while it's not necessary, it certainly adds to the experience.
Another very important thing of note is the quality of the voice acting.
While everyone can grab a mic, it takes far more than that to successfully pull off a character's "voice".
Be it voice tuning to better fit a written character's image, the fluent usage of numerous accents, multilingualism, or any other verbal techniques for that matter. There's a good reason as to why professionals in this field attended several years in voice acting schools after all.
Needless to say, this applies to any spoken languages. More than once I played games which originally had "good" native voice acting (be it English, German, or Japanese), but failed miserable in other languages. This can happens because the developers themselves are unable to verify the quality of a language they themselves cannot understand. Then they end up picking the nearest speaker at their disposal. Whenever the person in question also has talent sadly doesn't matter in this scenario.
On the other hand, I've seen a fair few games get low reviews (and therefore lower sales) for the simple reason that they didn't have V/O as part of the package. The newer generation of gamers appear to want stuff like Dragon Age. A lack of Voice over in a game like that would absolutely be critically reviewed for that reason alone. Lower reviews DO lead to fewer sales, it's a fact.
So it comes down to the numbers and your target market. I'd say that most fans of a game like BG (and probably more the older crowd) probably wouldn't let that make or break the game, but "Most" is not "all". And some of the newer crowd WILL put a higher emphasis on having it there.
"Go not to the elves for advice for they will say both no and yes. - Frodo Baggins. The Fellowship of the ring."
No voice over = game might lack depth;
Some lines are voice, some aren't = good.
I like BG's approach, important lines are voiced, others aren't, but I can enjoy a text cRPG just the same if it offers a good writing (or one wit ASCII chars as graphics that is as addictive as Angband or NetHack).
Good voice acting is paramount to add substance, believably and immersion to a game.
"Metal Gear?!"
Good voice work can absolutely enhance a character and contribute to the game's atmosphere. Even if not every line is voiced, once you are familiar with the tone and cadence you can "hear" the characters speaking the lines in your head as you read them.
The most significant problem IMO is finding the sweet spot between conveying information and natural dialogue. People don't speak the way they write, so having somebody straight up read the lines of, say, Planescape: Torment is not making proper use of voice overs as a game component. At the same time, the depth of the writing gets short-changed when it is completely dialogue focused.
For RPGs, using voiceovers primarily to highlight key moments or key conversations that convey character is the way to go IMO.
The full voice acting limits both how much content you can add and your ability to change content down the road.
The voice over should provide a baseline of characterization to get a sense of the character. Your imagination should handle the rest. This is how I see it.
I'd ask the question, if you turned off the sound or disabled your sound card and played the game, would you still enjoy the experience?
Then we have BG, which I feel does things right for it's own way. You wouldn't be able to possibly see them talking on screen, as the only place to see their face is the portrait, so it doesn't feel like it is detracting from the situation given what is available. They still supply you with some voiced lines, and these lines work well to give you a voice for the characters and then you can read the rest of the dialogue in that voice. Generally also a lot of the really emotional or important lines are voiced to express the character's feelings.
There is also the case of bad voice acting, in which case of course I can agree I would rather not even hear that. That and there are stuff like the Elder Scrolls games that reuse voices. I'll admit I can deal with reused voices, but mostly for totally non important characters, not when you put a single voice on a single race/gender option. Unfortunately Bethesda games all do really bad at this. You meet a major character and then some random guy sounds just like him. I can, however, get around Bioware's way of doing it with the additional voices that act out a bunch of random eavesdrop conversations and minor quest givers. In that case it is a forgetable or even no name character that I won't think back to when I hear that voice again.
For other games, where voice is less important, I can see with not having any (like Roguelikes, of which I occasionally play Angband, and Spiderweb Software Games like Exile/Avernum, Nethergate, Geneforge, and so on). I don't think I have ever played a fully voiced game (off the top of my head, I can't remember any), so I haven't had time to get used to that. I do get, though, that even in fully voiced games, sometimes, the dialogue options you pick are only the gist of what you say (and the actual voiced lines differ, which can be annoying) and most players don't listen to them, anyhow, forwarding through the conversation to get to the "good bits" (Quest, reward, whatever).
Of course Tony Jay as Mortanius, William the Just and the Elder God in later games is a master in his craft in my opinion. Michael Bell as Raziel and the others make this series so much more enjoyable and elevate it way above, than it would be with a written text.
I personally enjoy reading, but the sound is very important to me. Whether it'll be the music, the voices, or even sound effects, it all matters and adds to the experience (or makes it way worse, if done really bad). If the character is voiced, it's the first thing that catches my attention, not only in games, but in movies as well.
I don't mind if the whole game has only written text without voice over. Our mind works in such a way that we'll simply imagine how the character will sound like. We think using the language, so it's no surprise that we use the sound in our heads as well. The written quotes can be as memorable as the voiced ones. Planescape: Torment comes to mind, with many amazing descriptions and dialogues.
For IE games I've always used Polish versions and I must say that I enjoy them more than the originals. Similar with Gothic games, these are the examples where the language localisation was really well done. Sarevok in Polish version is even more scary with such deep voice.
Another favourite of mine is Paul Eiding, that epilogue of Diablo 1, his voice just fits perfectly with the dark atmosphere of the game, Blizzard in general did a great job with voice over in their games.