Divinity: Original Sin 2 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Infinitron]

Four studios pumping out VO. Larian is now truly in AAA territory. Let's hope their gamble pays off once again.

 

[Valky]

Well if it still has a million lines I don't think they sacrificed anything. Enhancing the gameplay probably not but the experience as a whole? I dunno, I guess Im a Sven fanboy, I trust him to deliver

I love Swen too no homo but if the game ends up being weak in any aspects, the first place of blame will be this fully VO done by 4 studios move.

 

[Grotesque]

Live orchestra music in games is the most overrated shit that there is out there

 

[J_C]

Live orchestra music in games is the most overrated shit that there is out there

LOL no. It is not essential at all, but it is always nice to have. There are a million more overrated things in games.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Live orchestra music in games is the most overrated shit that there is out there

Pure bullshit. Enough to re-listen Grim Fandango or Hitman 2's OST.

 

[Terra]

Full VO sounds like decline.

I have similar concerns, BioWare's rapid fall from grace and descent into dialog wheel retardation was heralded with full VO, didn't take long for the "hurr, why the protagonist no voiced!?" crowd to start the ball rolling into the chasm of decline after that. Plenty of people were already bitching about DOS2's second person dialogue style from the early access build, add romances and displaced Bio fans to the mix and I can definitely see the potential for things to go very wrong quite rapidly on the good ship Larian, praying it won't be the case though.

 

[imweasel]

Sound great and the music is fantastic. My RPG boner is ready for some more Larian goodness.

Full VO sounds like decline.

Only if it is shitty, but judging from what I heard in the video that won't be the case.

 

[Trodat]

Full VO sounds like decline.

I have similar concerns, BioWare's rapid fall from grace and descent into dialog wheel retardation was heralded with full VO, didn't take long for the "hurr, why the protagonist no voiced!?" crowd to start the ball rolling into the chasm of decline after that. Plenty of people were already bitching about DOS2's second person dialogue style from the early access build, add romances and displaced Bio fans to the mix and I can definitely see the potential for things to go very wrong quite rapidly on the good ship Larian, praying it won't be the case though.

What does it even matter if the gameplay is good? Bioware games haven't had good gameplay in 10 to 15 years.

With full VO I may actually have the interest to listen to most of the overblown dialogue the game will ship with.

Music sounds really good. I get a little HoMM 2 vibe which is never bad.

 

[Lacrymas]

DA:O's gameplay is playable, it's not the best ever, but I don't want to slit my wrists while engaging with it. Its most egregious sin is copy pasted trash encounters and little enemy variety, not the combat itself.

 

[Jaesun]

They better be doing VO for the man of many cheeses!

 

[Lacrymas]

I just now realized they have 4 studios doing VO. Such a waste of budget I can't even.

 

[Fry]

Full VO sounds like decline.

I have similar concerns, BioWare's rapid fall from grace and descent into dialog wheel retardation was heralded with full VO.

It's not like Larian's writing and VO were ever good, though. Merely decent writing would be an improvement for them.

 

[Sizzle]

The VO for Dragon Commander was pretty good, I thought.

 

[Efe]

Yea it was top notch, too bad they failed on primary game mechanic.

 

[Wild Slop]

What an undertaking!

The 'fully voiced' news will do a lot of good towards a friend of mine who, while leaning towards buying the game, was disappointed with it not being in.

For myself, while I enjoy the quiet (but slow) reading of text - and voices tend to disturb that, this is still very welcomed. I need to emphasize the dopey slowness of my reading as that could hamper the game flow of co-oping with me. Because of that I tend to self-conscientiously opt to rush through dialog, sometimes missing out on good stuff. So this helps keep pace. Then again, this is probably me just me hyper aware of what I consider slow reading which is still probably much faster than the time it takes for anyone to speak the lines.
Whatever (like, whatever!) This will add atmosphere, looks great, sounds great - and the music .


*I haven't played the EE version of D : OS and all that went with it being fully voiced but am well aware of the Cheese Merchant.... umm.... scandal.

 

[Valky]

I prefer partial voice acting, where key characters and npc's are voiced, but everyone else is silent. It lends more highlight to the important characters and makes them feel more fleshed out, but when you voice the entire game, that's all lost.

 

[Wild Slop]

I do too but don't necessarily think it's "all lost" - in theory - if fully voiced. I want to believe! Just you wait maybe this will make you believe too.


and why not? We've already seen that a Golden Baby can fly!

 

[Valky]

Oh well, why not, I have nothing else to look forward to. Please don't fuck this up, Swen.

 

[HoboForEternity]

the recorded music sounds awesome. i guess the music in the beta is placeholder. thye sound kinda bland compared to kirill's but the real orchestra sounds aweomse

 

[Iznaliu]

I have nothing else to look forward to

Have you not seen the light of Balance?

 

[bataille]

They better be doing VO for the man of many cheeses!

He's gone, the balance prevailed! Not a single cheese remains!

 

[Salvo]

They better be doing VO for the man of many cheeses!

Nobody has as many friends as he does!

 

[Lacrymas]

the recorded music sounds awesome. i guess the music in the beta is placeholder. thye sound kinda bland compared to kirill's but the real orchestra sounds aweomse

The last piece they play is Kirill's, like Bobby said, just a (not very well) orchestrated version. The first piece they play (at 5:22) sounds interesting, even polyphonic in places, very Russian and Kirill-like, the mix between the harpischord and accordion is unusual so I'm not sure if it's not another one of Kirill's pieces. Let's hope it's not. The others are generic.

Kirill used a lot of synth in his music, though, to the point of some pieces not being able to be played by an orchestra because the effects can't be replicated (A Wind of Aleroth, Halls Beneath the Ground, f.e.), so full orchestra is not always the best go-to option. The orchestra is a wild beast which is hard to tame well, but also a good masking technique. You can mask a lot of ineptitude as a composer with it.

 

[Iznaliu]

so full orchestra is not always the best go-to option.

Could you get an orchestra to record the relevant parts and then add in the synth sections?

 

[Lacrymas]

Could you get an orchestra to record the relevant parts and then add in the synth sections?

Yeah. You can even add some effects, like the echo in A Wind of Aleroth on the spot, but it requires a specific set-up. You can do whatever you want to the recording after it's done, it depends on how the parts have been recorded. F.e. to add the flute echo effect in A Wind of Aleroth in the orchestra you need to have recorded the flute part separately and added it as a track. AFAIK you can't separate different instruments in a recording if they've been recorded simultaneously like in the video, so if you add an echo effect it's going to affect the whole orchestra.