Why no voice acting for our avatar during character interaction cut-scenes?

[luvnot.myself]

Maybe it's because I've recently come from the Assassin's Creed franchise, or maybe it's the memory of how well Mass Effect handled dialog trees in their games, but I'm super disappointed in my character being mute during character interactions. It is jarring and pulls me out of game immersion to watch such a beautifully rendered character make inane facial emotes without once opening their mouth to speak.

What's the point of giving people a choice in how their voice sounds if all that voice does is inner-monologue catch-phrases? Yes, it would take a while for the voice actor to read through all of the option trees, but that's part and parcel of making this type of game. They are already paying voice actors for game-tree narration. Stopping at the NPCs makes no sense.

This isn't bad enough to make me want to stop playing - I've already spent the money. But it is bad enough that I'm not invested in finishing the story, I don't feel bad walking away from it to do something else, and I definitely won't recommend the game to friends.

[leopardson]

Yeah I was wondering about that too. I spent about 30 min just on my character creation and gave her a nice voice fitting of a paladin. But when I play the game, my character says nothing either in combat or in dialogue mode.
Strange. I heard Larian scrapped the character voice in game in favor of having a narrator voice instead. I hope there will be a patch or DLC to add character voice.

[Miro Fox]

Because its suppose to be You.

Make your own dialog when answering, Speak outloud.

SPEAK BOY SPEAK!

[Dave]

Originally posted by luvnot.myself:

Maybe it's because I've recently come from the Assassin's Creed franchise, or maybe it's the memory of how well Mass Effect handled dialog trees in their games, but I'm super disappointed in my character being mute during character interactions. It is jarring and pulls me out of game immersion to watch such a beautifully rendered character make inane facial emotes without once opening their mouth to speak.

What's the point of giving people a choice in how their voice sounds if all that voice does is inner-monologue catch-phrases? Yes, it would take a while for the voice actor to read through all of the option trees, but that's part and parcel of making this type of game. They are already paying voice actors for game-tree narration. Stopping at the NPCs makes no sense.

This isn't bad enough to make me want to stop playing - I've already spent the money. But it is bad enough that I'm not invested in finishing the story, I don't feel bad walking away from it to do something else, and I definitely won't recommend the game to friends.

It's a silent MC except in a few cases like combat and while adventuring. This is actually very common in many games. A lot of RPGs and JRPGs use the silent protagonist model.

Your character WILL speak, but not during dialogue with others - only side comments during combat or when running about the world.

it's a design choice - not a budget choice.

I would prefer the MC in any game be fully voiced, but it doesn't bother me that much if it's not.

[fox]

This game is made by a small studio.

[Kyros]

Originally posted by fox:

This game is made by a small studio.

Pretty much this.

I have no doubt that in time and with more successes they will be able to do it. Because it does enhance the experience, from Mass Effect to Fallout 4. If some want mute blue balls, there should be a on/off option.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Originally posted by fox:

This game is made by a small studio.

No.

The silent protagonist is just the norm in cRPG.

This game only similarity with Mass Effect and AC is because it's production value, but in its core it's an RPG through and through (yes, I'm implying Mass Effect was not a proper RPG, but it was a fantastic game nonetheless).

[RACHMANOVSKI]

^I'm saying even if they had the budget, making the protag talk will pissed off their original target audience: cRPG player.

The mass effect, the AC and the warzone player are just gravy.

[Zoner]

All of the background/race/class interactions for a custom character probably made this logistically impossible beyond text. Especially when you have to multiply that by however many voices you want to support.

[Eventide]

As has been said before, the entire point is supposed to be it's like playing Dungeons & Dragons. The character is *you*. Your dialogue choices are supposed to be *you* saying it. When my friend and I are playing we read out our choice most of the time. You are playing the character. You should be voicing it as well. A lot of RPGs do this because it's in the name.. "Role-playing game" where you're playing the role of your character. The ones that do add in voices usually don't have character creation or are trying to tell a story but you get slight choice. Here you have freedom of choice. If they added a voice line for every single possible thing *you* can say the game would be like 100gb bigger than it already is.. lol There's already so many things the other characters in the game have to say.

[smellibear]

There's no reason there can't be filler noises to fill in the stupidly extended pauses in converations though. They recorded enough dialgoue, a few hms and ha's would go a long way to making the experience less immersion defying

For everyone saying this is suppose dto mimic DnD then why voice it at all?I mean we can already choose our MC's voice! We got already got options in game! They recorded things! What are you guys talking about?

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Zoner:

All of the background/race/class interactions for a custom character probably made this logistically impossible beyond text. Especially when you have to multiply that by however many voices you want to support.

Exactly this. The player character has so many dialogue options they'd have to voice. They'd need different voices for different races. Different voices for different backgrounds. Different voice selection for everyone to pick like pitch and personality.. It'd be insane how much they have to add just to voice the player character.

Give it a voice yourself. That's the point.

[Eventide]

Originally posted by smellibear:

There's no reason there can't be filler noises to fill in the stupidly extended pauses in converations though. They recorded enough dialgoue, a few hms and ha's would go a long way to making the experience less immersion defying

For everyone saying this is suppose dto mimic DnD then why voice it at all?I mean we can choose our MC's voice! We got options! They recorded things! What are you guys talking about?

You are meant to be the one doing the "hms and ha's". Not your character randomly like "Hm" after everything that's said. YOU are your character(s). You want that immersion? BE your character as it's intended to be played. It's based on DnD after all.

[smellibear]

Originally posted by Eventide:

You are meant to be the one doing the "hms and ha's". Not your character randomly like "Hm" after everything that's said. YOU are your character(s). You want that immersion? BE your character as it's intended to be played. It's based on DnD after all.

Then why is the game voiced? Why is our main character voiced?

[Eventide]

Originally posted by smellibear:

Originally posted by Eventide:

You are meant to be the one doing the "hms and ha's". Not your character randomly like "Hm" after everything that's said. YOU are your character(s). You want that immersion? BE your character as it's intended to be played. It's based on DnD after all.

Then why is the game voiced? Why is our main character voiced?

Your character has some flair in thought as a prompt for you they're not really voiced. I wouldn't consider my character thinking something just to show off something in the world as being voiced. It's more like the narrator (or DM) is saying something.

They also have a 'voice' for when they get hurt so they aren't just standing there and you're supposed to know exactly when to grunt or anything.

[smellibear]

So you're saying a certain amount of reactive voice acting is good for immersion, yes?