<b class="Bold">On the lack of Jaheira's Voice.</b>
BillyH666
Member Posts: 96
Now I just want to say I'm not mad, just disappointed about this. I understand that they couldn't find the original VA for her and couldn't find a voice actress with a similar enough voice, but it's just so incredibly jarring to be walking around the map when a party convo pops up and half of the conversation is silence. It's like a gaping lack of content, and it just stuns me that they didn't just bite the bullet and put another voice actress in the game (Heck, Minsc sounds somewhat different despite having the same VA, due to general aging.). Yes, people would be disappointed, but I think it would have been preferable to what we currently have. That being said, I understand Beamdog's reasoning and hope at somepoint they find the VA and get her to do the lines for the patch, or come across someone who can replicate the voice well. So, what are your thoughts on the lack of our clubwielding half-elf's voice?
Post edited by BillyH666 on
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Its also kind of funny because a lot of the old complaints about Jaheira were that she never shuts up.
Believe it or not, this was a bit of a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario. Had we released what we had for Jaheria the boards would have lit up over how jarring and non-Jaheria her voice was and how horrible we were for changing Jaheria.
The call was made by the powers that be that putting Jaheria's old voice back in where we could and leaving the rest of it unvoiced was the best scenario we could hope for, and I, for one, stand by that as the right decision.
Nostalgia is a bit of a harsh mistress which you can see through some of the other threads on the boards.
This is why I'm grateful to what they have managed to do. For me, the fact we can hear new lines (and perfectly voiced over) by the same voice actors for Minsc, Viconia, Imoen, Sarevok and Edwin is amazing, it's enough for me, I can't ask for more.
As for no new voice for Jaheira, I think that if you can't find an ideal variant, you'd better not choose any variant then. For Safana, they managed to find Stefanie, and she did wonderfully to capture the Safana's voice. If it was not possible to do the same in terms of Jaheira, I fully understand it and have no complaints.
Unless of course the issue is that the new voice actress' portrayal was too nagging and sexist cliché. Impossible to say for sure, not having heard her.
If they find Heidi Shannon, they said that they will gladly cast her and dub Jaheira's lines.
Is there someone that can hire a detective to find her?
But I also get what @Illydth says. And here's where I feel Beamdog did itself a huge favor. Having the "wrong" VO would definitely have lit up the forums with the complaints of the purists (and I'll be honest - I don't care for the purists at all), and that would've hurt the game right out of the gate. But adding in the VO at a later date in a patch I think would be much less controversial and any complaints at that point would generally get ignored by most people.
When Wayne Allwine died (the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1977-2009), Disney, of course, found a new actor for Mickey. The first time I heard the new actor (while my daughter was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), I turned my head and thought "That's not Mickey!". Of course, I got used to it. I can still tell which episodes of Clubhouse are done by Wayne Allwine and which are done by Bret Iwan, but it doesn't bother me.
Adding it as an optional download though, now that would be a good compromise. People who wants the new voice acting gets it and the people who doesn't want it aren't affected.
And, I found her character sounds! Ok. I'll make a mod for this.
It might take a few days. I'm finishing up my Chatty Imoen mod.
Only use the first few words from the audio files and leave the rest for the user to read on screen. It only becomes very obviously not the same actor as the performance trails on. A few words wouldn't be as jarring.