V's Voice

[GW84]

Dragon Age Inquisition had 2 possible voice options for male and female players. I think for my 800+ hours of player time (yes, I liked the game a lot ^^) I think I tried the alternative voices for both genders once. Honestly it's just not worth it.

Like you I liked DA: Inquisition a lot, but I really apprechiated the choice betwee two distinct set of voices. My flimsy aristoratic mage sounded different from my no nonsense fighter.

That said, quality over choice in this case and recording two sets of voice acting per gender will be expensive.

 

[Snowflakez]

I’m not sold on the trailer voice, but I’m not sure I’d describe it as angst. Stereotypically dudebroish is more like it. But truth be told, RPG protagonists tend to get very generic voices, and it’s probably by design. Even if I don’t think it’s great, I’m confident it’ll stop registering once I get used to it.

My frustration is that it isn't memorable. Geralt was sort of a stereotypical "tough guy with a gravelly voice," but he WAS memorable.

Tough to say from such a short trailer. I'm keeping an open mind, and, as I said, waiting for the female V's voice to appear in gameplay.

 

[sv3672]

I guess it is harder to voice a player created character well, because there is no pre-defined personality, so the actors do not know what his or her lines should really sound like.

 

[PrincessCiri]

Like you I liked DA: Inquisition a lot, but I really apprechiated the choice betwee two distinct set of voices. My flimsy aristoratic mage sounded different from my no nonsense fighter.

That said, quality over choice in this case and recording two sets of voice acting per gender will be expensive.

Yeah that's fair enough, it's always nice for people to have the extra options ofc, but DA:I is covering a much more diverse range of characters and geographic locations than Cyberpunk. A British VA would stick out so much in Cyberpunk, whereas even a Welsh accent in Dragon Age would fit for some characters.

I would never say no to more potential VAs for my characters, but at some point those extra recordings are taking money away from other parts of the game, but I suppose as long as extra VAs aren't costing the game too much in other places then it's all good

 

[PrincessCiri]

I guess it is harder to voice a player created character well, because there is no pre-defined personality, so the actors do not know what his or her lines should really sound like.

It's why you need to make sure you get talented VAs. Like for example Jennifer Hale did a fantastic job with Shepard, and she had no specific pre-defined personality, she could have been paragon or renegade, but she absolutely nailed her lines.

 

[CognacSnack]

Why is there no option in this poll for no voice?

 

[Snowflakez]

I guess it is harder to voice a player created character well, because there is no pre-defined personality, so the actors do not know what his or her lines should really sound like.

As Ciri said, it's been done well in the past. I understand if it's hard, but I don't think we should accept mediocrity from CDPR for that reason alone. If they're going to take their time with the game, they might as well take their time with one of the most important aspects.

 

[sv3672]

It depends on how much player defined V is compared to Shepard, but then we also only heard a few lines on the trailer. It might be too early to judge before at least seeing some extended gameplay. Has it been confirmed by the way that there is one male and one female voice?

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

As Ciri said, it's been done well in the past. I understand if it's hard, but I don't think we should accept mediocrity from CDPR for that reason alone. If they're going to take their time with the game, they might as well take their time with one of the most important aspects.

The caveat is that however good a job the writer, actor and voice director might do, the character will always be V and nothing else. And the lines need to be adapted to the range of delivery the VA can produce for the lines to sound plausible as spoken by him/her. After that we get back at the starting point, is it V or is it "your" character.

 

[Snowflakez]

The caveat is that however good a job the writer, actor and voice director might do, the character will always be V and nothing else. And the lines need to be adapted to the range of delivery the VA can produce for the lines to sound plausible as spoken by him/her. After that we get back at the starting point, is it V or is it "your" character.

This is a good question, and I don't know the answer to it. I think V will obviously not be "our" character in the sense of a character in Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's gate, but it may be more (or less) our character than, say, Mass Effect. It really is tough to say.

I get the feeling outside of dialogue (since I don't know what the dialogue is like), we will have much more control over our decisions. It sounds like there's a very wide array of approaches to situations, which Mass Effect did not have (but The Elder Scrolls/Fallout games sort of did, due to their sandbox nature).

So if you consider a character "yours" based on the gameplay decisions you make (do I sneak and take out enemies nonlethally, go guns blazing, hack them, etc.), I think yes, it'll be more you than V.

It depends on how much player defined V is compared to Shepard, but then we also only heard a few lines on the trailer. It might be too early to judge before at least seeing some extended gameplay. Has it been confirmed by the way that there is one male and one female voice?

They've said there is a male and female voice, but not that there's only one each. But it seems like a reasonable bet, since no journos have mentioned a voice selection choice.

 

[Gwydden]

The caveat is that however good a job the writer, actor and voice director might do, the character will always be V and nothing else. And the lines need to be adapted to the range of delivery the VA can produce for the lines to sound plausible as spoken by him/her. After that we get back at the starting point, is it V or is it "your" character.

By your definition, I don't think any cRPG protagonist can ever really be "your character," certainly not to the extent of tabletop. The main characters of Baldur's Gate and certainly Planescape Torment are not "mine" either because everything is predefined, while in P&P I can do literally anything I can think of. In a video game, it's not a matter of whether there are predefined options, because of course there are, but of how many.

Different media are good at different things.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

By your definition, I don't think any cRPG protagonist can ever really be "your character," certainly not to the extent of tabletop.

No, not to the extent of the table top. And I wouldn't even ask for that kind of thing. Gotta understand, though, that the point here is that, while there will always be some definition to the character, the player "owning" him/her is compromised through voice acting because the voice is kind of a character-overlay in and of itself already. It invades the characer.

But... For a semi recent (and viable in this context) example. Take a look at Fallout New Vegas. No voiced protagonist and it is taken care of that you can express yourself in plenty of ways based on your characer build and intentions (and you can look like an ape just as well as a hotshot wastelander without a voice disrupting it). It would not feel the same to the player if there was Mark Meer speaking those lines; what ever you could choose to say, it'd be characterised by Mark's voice and that creates a wholly different feel to the whole thing.

 

[Cyber_Renaissance]

To be honest, I think that until we perfect voice synthesis, voiced protagonists in RPGs are always going to be an issue, so it doesn't bother me that much. I would, however, like it if the tone and mood of our voice dynamically changed throughout the story based on our background and stats, to sort of give more of a personality to our character.

 

[ImbaKing]

Those are not enough options for me so I cannot vote precisely enough to match my opinion.

I think you should have a "main voice" from which it starts, but be able to change it through some device, but already from the start. The first cinematics / videos / tutorials / whatever should already put that into topic.
Imagine one of the first cinematics, just kind of like the trailer, and at some point he says
"... we hack around, we can change our apperance, or our voice [other voice], like this, [other voice] or this [original voice] and nobody will notice, ..."
Or whatever, I haven't thought that through, but you get the idea.

 

[EngryEngineer]

I voted yes, mostly because if there is 1 character voice so often it is the Christian Bale Batman voice for males or if female either the breathy seducer or baby voiced innocent waif, and those options are just so overdone (especially the male one).

When I answered this I completely forgot that we actually hear (male) V in the trailer until I was reading in thread comments. I know this is completely subjective, but I actually love V's voice, he has enough edge to sound no-nonsense/street but not so much that it sounds like he's talking from his throat through grinding teeth in a clearly put on voice. For me that's the main qualifier for if I like a voice, does it sound like it is authentic or an impression.

I'd lose my mind (in a great way) if the female voice has similar edge, the classic hard/serious female voice is normally almost aristocratically sexy voice and lacks that sharpness. Something like a harder (not gruffer, as gruff is fine) version of Katey Sagal, Laura Prepon, or Lyndsy Fonseca.

Back to the original idea, I'm not going to be upset if they only have one voice but with how subjective taste is, I think it would be nice to have 2 or 3 options.

 

[delverion]

If I can I always play a female character and I don’t really care that much what she sounds like. Of course I have a preference; just about any game voice done by Laura Bailey. I love her voice. Fell in love with it when I played Saints Row 3. So a voice that does not sound like the character is old, more like in her twenties. Maybe a tiny bit raspy, too. I find that hot. But, I accept all kinds of variations, in the end.

Angry Joe said the female's voice was amazing!

 

[atomowyturysta]

Jennifer Hale for FemV

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Please no celebrities... Too recognizable.

 

[GW84]

Jennifer Hale for FemV

Seconded

 

[HellKnightX88]

Jennifer Hale for FemV

God, please no. Don't get me wrong, she absolutely nails it but I doh't want to be constantly thinking "why am I playing Commander Shepard in CP2077?" Same thing if they hired Courtenay Taylor, I couldn't get it out of my head that I'm playing as the female protagonist of FO4 (or Jack from ME).