Does it annoy anyone else that companies still hire actors to put on accents in 2023?

[Corrie]

I'm talking specifically about Lifthrasir's French accent. The actor David Annen is no doubt a great actor but if Croteam wanted the character to have a French accent why didn't they hire a native French speaker? This is 2023, companies hire people from all over the globe and there's no shortage of voice actors available.

It's the number one thing that breaks immersion for me with voice acting in games these days. There was no need for LIfthrasir to have a French accent, it wasn't integral to the character. David's British accent would have worked just fine. Instead I get taken out of the moment every time I hear a word pronounced strangely.

I know it's a nitpick but I just find it a weird decision by the directors of the game. I had the same issue with Starfield too. I don't see why they don't either hire someone with the accent they want or just don't give the character an accent that is different than the actor's in the first place.

[rhombusx]

Who says it's a French accent? There is no France in the setting of the game and Lifthrasir is a name derived from Norse mythology. Almost everything the robo-humans do is an affectation to mimic or pay homage to us bio-humans, so I find it totally natural that a character would want to speak in whatever accent - real or fictional - they want. As such, I have no issue with an actor putting on an affected "fake" accent to portray that.

[truegod]

I thought it's a German accent.

But the OP does have a point here. I didn't think that Lifthrasir accent was intentionally chosen by himself... He just has that accent. And in that case, a German native speaker with the typical German accent would have been a nice choice for voicing.

[BeeftankFootball]

Honestly, I assumed he was an homage to Werner Herzog. He's a distinctive figure and the voice and style match pretty well. He's German, incidentally.

[Corrie]

Originally posted by rhombusx:

Who says it's a French accent? There is no France in the setting of the game and Lifthrasir is a name derived from Norse mythology. Almost everything the robo-humans do is an affectation to mimic or pay homage to us bio-humans, so I find it totally natural that a character would want to speak in whatever accent - real or fictional - they want. As such, I have no issue with an actor putting on an affected "fake" accent to portray that.

Yeah I guess that makes sense in terms of the world building they've done, just all of the other characters had pretty obvious and natural sounding accents. Lifthrasir was the only one that threw me off.

That being said I did question why they would have different accents in the first place. You'd think they'd all have the same one, but who knows I never finished the first game so I'm still not 100% sure on how they came to be. I was more interested in the discussion of consciousness and the theory of everything, I partially glossed over the history of how the robots ended up where they are in this game.

[ShugoTheRipper]

Does not bug me...

Well unless its like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls1Bf6XCEM4

[drewjc75]

Based on the name, I assumed Lifthrasir was some kind of Nordic accent—though I'm not familiar enough with them to know whether it was a well done accent or not.

As for the other accents in the game, from what I could gather, it sounds like accents were assigned randomly at the time the robot was created, so that there would be a mixture of various accents from the ancestors around the world. There may have been some mention of that somewhere during the course of the game, which could be why it's such a strong idea in my head, but I can't remember.

Truth be told, the only accents that really stick out to me, as far as oddness, were Lifthrasir's and Lynerks's. I don't have a problem with any of them or anything, but those were the only two accents that didn't fall into a "British" type or an "American" type, and as such they both seemed somewhat out of place. I'd have been happier if there were various geographical regions represented. But hey, game developers only have so many resources to work with. What are you gonna do?

[Corrie]

Originally posted by drewjc75:

Based on the name, I assumed Lifthrasir was some kind of Nordic accent—though I'm not familiar enough with them to know whether it was a well done accent or not.

As for the other accents in the game, from what I could gather, it sounds like accents were assigned randomly at the time the robot was created, so that there would be a mixture of various accents from the ancestors around the world. There may have been some mention of that somewhere during the course of the game, which could be why it's such a strong idea in my head, but I can't remember.

Truth be told, the only accents that really stick out to me, as far as oddness, were Lifthrasir's and Lynerks's. I don't have a problem with any of them or anything, but those were the only two accents that didn't fall into a "British" type or an "American" type, and as such they both seemed somewhat out of place. I'd have been happier if there were various geographical regions represented. But hey, game developers only have so many resources to work with. What are you gonna do?

There was definitely an Indian accent in there somewhere and a Barbados type as well but I can't remember their character's names.

[Vaxxman💉]

Linguist from Germany here!
When I heard Lifthrasir first, I was positively surprised, because I could tell it was supposed to be German, the VA swapped all /r/ sounds for the uvular fricative (which German very much got from French, so I absolutely see why it would also sound French to you), but I also noticed that Lifthrasir devoiced many, if not all of his final consonants (all /d/, /g/, /b/ get pronounced [t], [k],

) and that's something very distinctly German. Finding out the connection to Werner Herzog just made sense then.

For as to whether "fake accents" bother me in games, they normally do, because oftentimes it's done to exotify the atmosphere, or to "convey" the stereotypes that are connected to that accent (eg. characters who cook are French, characters who are stuck up are British). But for some reason not in this game. Because hiring non-native speakers here was probably not done out of convenience, but out of missing budget, seeing as there's also no full dub in any other language outside English. I doubt this was done in bad faith.

Originally posted by drewjc75:

As for the other accents in the game, from what I could gather, it sounds like accents were assigned randomly at the time the robot was created, so that there would be a mixture of various accents from the ancestors around the world. There may have been some mention of that somewhere during the course of the game, which could be why it's such a strong idea in my head, but I can't remember.

Yes, I also like to think the accents the robots have show a little of linguistic diversity among them, just to attest for how international the dataset was which created them all.
I also like to think the robots might have listened to voice recordings of past humans and tweaked their own voice banks to sound like particular people they liked or admired, we know that it's possible for them to change voices (like the purple dude).

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by Corrie:

Originally posted by drewjc75:

Based on the name, I assumed Lifthrasir was some kind of Nordic accent—though I'm not familiar enough with them to know whether it was a well done accent or not.

As for the other accents in the game, from what I could gather, it sounds like accents were assigned randomly at the time the robot was created, so that there would be a mixture of various accents from the ancestors around the world. There may have been some mention of that somewhere during the course of the game, which could be why it's such a strong idea in my head, but I can't remember.

Truth be told, the only accents that really stick out to me, as far as oddness, were Lifthrasir's and Lynerks's. I don't have a problem with any of them or anything, but those were the only two accents that didn't fall into a "British" type or an "American" type, and as such they both seemed somewhat out of place. I'd have been happier if there were various geographical regions represented. But hey, game developers only have so many resources to work with. What are you gonna do?

There was definitely an Indian accent in there somewhere and a Barbados type as well but I can't remember their character's names.

Helga. And i think someone else but can't remember.
Lifthrasir a very "stereotypical" German accent. Not bad at all, just get "the typical (movie/tv-show) German psychologist" wibe from hearing him.

Lif and Lifthrasir from Norse mythology: The only two humans (Woman and Man) surviving Ragnarok.
(Líf - life, the life of the body. Lífþrasir - "Líf's lover, lover of life, Striving after Life)

[MASTAN]

Even Valve made fake accents in Team Fortress 2:

https://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2193

"Why is the Sniper such a fake Australian? Aren't several members of the TF2 team Australian?"

Yes, it's true, the Sniper is a fairly unconvincing Australian. Most of his lines make him sound more English than Australian, and the voice actor is clearly an English actor faking an Australian accent. As for why we didn't fight to make him more authentic, we though it was appropriate that he was about as convincing an Australian as the Demoman is a Scotsman, or the Medic a German.

[rattkin]

Voice acting is one of the few misses in the new game. For me, most voices, no matter the accent, felt quite out of place and I am left with an impression that I wander amongst a nation of sophisticated English butlers.

Also, by looking at androids and not feeling it, I’ve discovered how much of a person we connect with their voice, from the overall looks. But androids all look pretty much the same and only differ by some color plates here or there. Hearing different voices out of them still feels like an uncanny valley and I just can’t help it. When it was two distinctive voices of Elohim and Drennan, and you can’t even see them, that was very evocative and powerful. Now, it feels kind of weird. As such, I’ve found that I’m reacting best to the narration of Trevor who, for better or worse, is the only voice and story there that feels and sounds natural and human.

But I remember the team saying in one of the interviews by the end of summer that they’re just finishing voice recording. I imagine that it was rushed time or budget wise, one way or the other. None of the other voices are distinct enough for me to remember them.

[gilmir]

I'd say Lifthrasir has a Israeli / Hebrew accent. Pretty clear imho.
This would kinda go with the "Jewish scientist" stereotype.
It's definitely NOT a German accent. Also, definitely NOT French ;)

Originally posted by rattkin:

For me, most voices, no matter the accent, felt quite out of place and I am left with an impression that I wander amongst a nation of sophisticated English butlers.

That's weird. The only totally "posh British" character I recall is Miranda. Which is a bit absurd, given that both her "parents" speak "Northern Atlantic" "neutral English".

[Vaxxman💉]

Can I offer you Yiddish[en.wikipedia.org] to not completely disagree with you on the notion that the accent should absolutely not be Germanic?

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by gilmir:

I'd say Lifthrasir has a Israeli / Hebrew accent. Pretty clear imho.
This would kinda go with the "Jewish scientist" stereotype.
It's definitely NOT a German accent. Also, definitely NOT French ;)

Originally posted by rattkin:

For me, most voices, no matter the accent, felt quite out of place and I am left with an impression that I wander amongst a nation of sophisticated English butlers.

That's weird. The only totally "posh British" character I recall is Miranda. Which is a bit absurd, given that both her "parents" speak "Northern Atlantic" "neutral English".

He sound (to me) very much like the stereotypical German Psychologist from movies, tv-shows etc.

[Garamoth]

Now that I know that Lifthrasir is a Werner Herzog spoof, I love him even more.

"To make art, you must have walked a mile barefoot through broken glass.

I loathe anyone who hasn't killed a deer with their bare hands and eaten the warm, still-beating heart of the animal.

How do I motivate my actors? I look them in the eye and tell them: if you do not perform at the level I know you can, I will kill you and your entire family. It works, more often than not."