Main Character in Rpgs: Voiced or Silent?

Andhaira · Mar 23, 2008

So in most rpg's the main character is usually silent (KOTOR, BG, NWN, Fallout, oblivion etc)

Some say its so the player can better imagine himself in the characters shoes. I personally believe thats baloney and the dev's are trying to save some $$$ on speech.
I think all rpg's should include full speech and dialogue for the main pc (s). Furthermore they should try to offer variety on the voicesets.(kind of like in wiz8, but more detailed since wiz8 was hack and slash while I am talking about full blow sory-based rpg's)

Thoughts?

someone else · Mar 23, 2008

So in most Japanese Erotic Games aka Hentai Games the main character's face is usually hidden.

Some say its so the player can better imagine himself in the characters shoes. I personally believe thats baloney and the dev's are trying to save some $$$ on art design. I think all Hentai Games should include full facial expressions for the main pc (s). Furthermore they should try to offer variety on the heads.(kind of like in wiz8, but more detailed since wiz8 was hack and slash while I am talking about full blow sex-based JEG)

Thoughts?

Andhaira · Mar 23, 2008

Plz stay on topic. lol

mjorkerina · Mar 23, 2008

Voice acting is a waste of money better spent on other things. I absolutely don't care if half (or even all) of the NPC are silent so there is no reason I should care for the main character. Games with full voice acting usually have less branching dialogue trees than those who don't care.

MetalCraze · Mar 23, 2008

PC must talk? no fucking way
I don't want my PC to say what I've already read or to say something by clicking icons/3-word line because I don't know what PC will really say.
do it old-school way goddamnit

Suchy · Mar 23, 2008

I like it Gothic way. PC has a voice too.

Shota Shernokavich · Mar 23, 2008

JRPG - PC should have voice acting

Any other RPG - PC shouldn't

Norfleet · Mar 23, 2008

There's a certain tradition behind games where the player character never says anything at all, period, voiced or otherwise. Everyone else talks around him, the main character just stands there in silence.

Aikanaro · Mar 23, 2008

Fully voiced NPCs are annoying as fuck. The last thing we need is fully voiced PCs.

Andhaira · Mar 23, 2008

If it were up to most of you, rpg'stoday would never have evolved from random encounter based hackers and slashers with crummy grafix, no interactivity and ZERO storyline/char development.

Wilco · Mar 23, 2008

Andhaira said:
Plz stay on topic. lol

I think voicing characters in an RPG is a step foward in immersion and storytelling...
ASS. ASS. PISS. PISSSSSSSSSSSS.

Personally I have no idea why you would want to go back to silent old days, reading endless, blocky texts...
PISS IN THE ASS.

When voice acting has clearly become the industry standard for modern RPGs...
PISS COMING FROM THE ASS.

This all goes back to my theory that the codex is based on nostalga and should start going with the mainstream flow...
PISS AND MULTI-HEADED DICKS COMING FROM THE ASS ONTO ANDHAIRA AND THIS THREAD.

fastpunk · Mar 23, 2008

It's irrelevant for me, although there's a larger risk of not getting to like your character if his voice sucks or just doesn't fit the character's appearance. Usually, a silent main character works best.

Rat Keeng · Mar 23, 2008

Q: What are the similarities between Andhaira and PCs?

A: I want them both to shut the fuck up.

mjorkerina · Mar 23, 2008

Andhaira said:
If it were up to most of you, rpg'stoday would never have evolved from random encounter based hackers and slashers with crummy grafix, no interactivity and ZERO storyline/char development.

If it were up to you RPG would be FPS with swords.

Andhaira · Mar 23, 2008

Umm, no! Not at all.

I am all for deep char development, great comabt system, lots of interactivity, engaging storyline where you can make a difference in many ways. etc

ghostdog · Mar 23, 2008

I agree with full voice acting IF it's done well.
But it's not that necessary, I'm ok with reading. What seems really stupid is when in some games your char doesn't speak at all and npcs just continue talking to your deaf and dumb pc like everything is ok. The really dumbfuck point is when they say to you: "not much of a talker, eh?"

Klaz · Mar 23, 2008

No voice acting, why spend all that money in voices while it could instead be spent in beta testers (REALLY needed in RPG games) or in making more quests?

Wyrmlord · Mar 23, 2008

It will not make the game more fun, so it is unimportant and can be done without.

Mikser · Mar 23, 2008

I think voice acting in general is unnecessary in a dialogue-heavy genre like RPGs. Voice acting is often a strait-jacket, since it severely constrains how much more dialogue can be added or edited after the dialogue has been recorded. The immersion argument is also vacuous, as most games recycle voice actors; it's quite grating recognizing the same voice in a different role again and again. It's money that could be better spent on just about anything.

deuxhero · Mar 23, 2008

Andhaira said:
So in most rpg's the main character is usually silent (KOTOR)

Did you miss the "what" and "I'm Here"?

Lesifoere · Mar 23, 2008

I just realized Andhaira's tag has been changed. Whee!

JarlFrank · Mar 23, 2008

Suchy said:
I like it Gothic way. PC has a voice too.

Yes. Gothic or Witcher way. But: only for RPGs where you have a pre-made character, RPGs where you can create your own character aren't good for voiced main chars.

Suchy · Mar 23, 2008

True... Kinda sucks when you make a stern old necro and then he sounds like some teenage mutant ninja turtle.
So yup, where you create your char it's better to make PC silent. Or add a whole bunch of voice sets - but this is not a valid option or we'd have one-line dialogues and zero voice acting.

Norfleet · Mar 23, 2008

Voiced protagonist only works when your main character is either premade or from a limited subset of premades and/or has very few lines. This will likely remain the case until computers are capable of lifelike text-to-speech. That, or all your protagonists are robots. It has been proposed that a game where characters are all robots would remove a lot of design obstacles. For one, if they ARE robots, nobody can reasonably complain that their speech sounds robotic. Or is entirely absent, given that there is not much reason robots would need crude voice communications.

afewhours · Mar 23, 2008

Voice acting can irritate me as I read faster than lines are spoken. Sometimes it even throws up horrid scripting that would otherwise pass under my radar. It's not high on my list of priorities for buying a game. Give me a nice screen of text. That will keep me happy.

Though I'll admit KOTOR was better for giving HK-47 a voice. HK-47 makes me laugh.

Main Character in Rpgs: Voiced or Silent?

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