Why have voiced protagonist?

[Suhiira]

True. Voiced protagonist good. Voiceless protagonist - a cheap knock off game

You got that backwards!

Unlike some I don't find a voiced protagonist game breaking, hell Saints Row 4 did fine with multiple voice options and a slider. But that's far, Far, FAR to expensive to produce and time consuming for any game with lots of dialog. So we're left with every avatar/character sounding like every other one. You can't be smart ass, or snide, or shy, or whatever with your conversation. You're stuck with however the voice actor decided to inflect that particular bit of dialog.

 

[atomowyturysta]

You got that backwards!

Unlike some I don't find a voiced protagonist game breaking, hell Saints Row 4 did fine with multiple voice options and a slider. But that's far, Far, FAR to expensive to produce and time consuming for any game with lots of dialog. So we're left with every avatar/character sounding like every other one. You can't be smart ass, or snide, or shy, or whatever with your conversation. You're stuck with however the voice actor decided to inflect that particular bit of dialog.

Yes. That's a tradeoff. Really, I can't see any pros in having silent protagonist instead of voiced. Of course, if the voiceover is done badly, then I'd understand, but it never happens. It can be not to a particular player's taste, but with the exception of some regional loclisations, that are not made by professional voice actors (you can be good actor and a terrible voice actor, and vice versa)
Voiced protagonist usually gives something to the game, a voiceless, autistic mute takes a lot away. Imagine singalongs in Saints Row without a voiced protagonist
But it's, like, my opinion.

 

[Suhiira]

Voiced protagonist usually gives something to the game, a voiceless, autistic mute takes a lot away.

Here we'll have to agree to disagree.

I said I didn't find a voiced avatar/character game breaking, I didn't say (or mean to imply) I preferred it. I'm more then happy with NPCs being fully voiced and the avatar/character being silent. Generally speaking the NPC is going to react/reply much the same if you're naughty or nice. They may (and sometimes should) have an affinity (i.e. do they like/trust the avatar/character) adjustment based on the overall response the player selects that should effect future interactions. That way the player can (in their own mind) add any inflection they wish to their dialog.

 

[atomowyturysta]

Here we'll have to agree to disagree.

I said I didn't find a voiced avatar/character game breaking, I didn't say (or mean to imply) I preferred it. I'm more then happy with NPCs being fully voiced and the avatar/character being silent. Generally speaking the NPC is going to react/reply much the same if you're naughty or nice. They may (and sometimes should) have an affinity (i.e. do they like/trust the avatar/character) adjustment based on the overall response the player selects that should effect future interactions. That way the player can (in their own mind) add any inflection they wish to their dialog.

I can understand that. But it's kind of like an RPG inside an RPG meta RPG Something Pynchon might come up Of course, it's best if you can play your RPG the way you like. But with the realtime, FPP cutscenes, it might not be possible to both have a cookie and eat a cookie. Still, maybe there'll be an option to mute V. I won't use it, but it sure would make Kofe happy

 

[Bloodartist]

I totally find a non-voiced protagonist gamebreaking if the other NPCs speak. I never want to hear another NPC going on a riciculous monologue while the protagonist just looks dumbfounded. For those who wonder what I am talking about, check The Secret World MMO. That silly NPC monologue with mute protagonist is immersion-breaking af.

 

[Suhiira]

Still, maybe there'll be an option to mute V. I won't use it, but it sure would make Kofe happy

Possible, but highly doubtful.
CDPR would need to make an alternate version of each and every cut-sceen in the game with text overlay for the avatar/character.

For those who wonder what I am talking about, check The Secret World MMO. That silly NPC monologue with mute protagonist is immersion-breaking af.

Like many things it's a matter of opinion.
I have a lev 50 character in Secret World so obviously it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

True. Voiced protagonist good. Voiceless protagonist - a cheap knock off game

 

[Sardukhar]

Voiced protagonist works only if the voice matches the person you are trying to create. Fallout 4 - making a bland white urban dude? Male voice works fine. Making, say, Riddick? No. I found it an impassable impediment when I didn't want to play as Bland Man and had to mod it away.

Geralt worked great, because a) Geralt and b) Doug Cockle. Same for Jensen. Not so well for Fallout 4 though. 2077 we'll see. Fem V sounds great. Male V, not my cup of tea so far.

Modern/up to date/current standards are all well and fine, when it comes to, say graphics technology, but that has nothing to do with character protrayals. "Wow, man, it's 2056. Playing a person and not an embodied AI is so 2020." Uh huh.

Some things kofe and I disagree on, but -making- you use a certain "accent" for -all- your characters? That's not versatile role-play design. It's not. It's doable, but it's a weak point.

 

[AdamChattaway]

I like my char having a voice. Geralt for example.

 

[Nefla]

Yes. That's a tradeoff. Really, I can't see any pros in having silent protagonist instead of voiced. Of course, if the voiceover is done badly, then I'd understand, but it never happens. It can be not to a particular player's taste, but with the exception of some regional loclisations, that are not made by professional voice actors (you can be good actor and a terrible voice actor, and vice versa)
Voiced protagonist usually gives something to the game, a voiceless, autistic mute takes a lot away. Imagine singalongs in Saints Row without a voiced protagonist
But it's, like, my opinion.

The pro of having a silent protagonist is being able to have a lot more dialogue options of many different types and personality expressions. It's way cheaper to have text on a screen than it is to have professional VO therefore something with a voiced protagonist will have way fewer dialogue options. Since the game is in FPP we wouldn't see the PC standing around mute and the character is supposed to be us or whatever so you could just read that dialogue option out loud and bam no more "voiceless, autistic mute"

Post automatically merged: May 7, 2020

I personally love voice acted lines because I absolutely hate games that have walls of text that you have to read, I think reading text really takes me out of the immersion.
One RPG known as Disco Elysium felt really poor for me in terms of immersion just because you have an endless amounts of text you have to read and I like to play videogames if I wanted to read walls of text I'd get a book.https://zaumstudio.com/


Hearing my character speak when I pick certain options, and if it's voice-acted well, it immerses me way more than any set of 'cool text' someone writes.
You might have more options when you use text-based no voice-acting, yes, but that also means there are players who just skip it, like I ended up doing in Disko Elysium.

That's just my two cents.

Maybe this isn't true of yourself, but I would argue that most players who skip text also skip voiced cutscenes and just want to get to the gameplay/action parts.

 

[Codecypher]

Text is cheap. I'd not imagine Mass Effect 2 to have been as great of a game if it was solely done with text dialogue. The voice actors seem real nice too also imagine them having Keanu Reeves but you only see text from his character xD

 

[Nefla]

Text is cheap. I'd not imagine Mass Effect 2 to have been as great of a game if it was solely done with text dialogue. The voice actors seem real nice too also imagine them having Keanu Reeves but you only see text from his character xD

That's how Dragon Age: Origins was done and I loved that game T_T <3 (all the NPCs were voiced so you'd still have your voiced Keanu lol) to be fair Mass Effect 2 wouldn't have been as great of a game if you only ever saw Shepard in in-game mirrors or when getting into or out of the Hammerhead. Don't get me wrong, I like voiced protagonists just fine. If the devs can have both a voiced PC and a satisfying amount of dialogue/dialogue choices then I'm completely fine with it but from what we've seen the options are few.

 

[Mebrilia]

Text is cheap. I'd not imagine Mass Effect 2 to have been as great of a game if it was solely done with text dialogue. The voice actors seem real nice too also imagine them having Keanu Reeves but you only see text from his character xD

That is an important point. There are rpgs out there with truly breathtaking stories and they don't have a voiced protagonist. Granted i played all the mass effect saga Andromeda excluded and i do agree what makes it interesting is the cinematics as Mass Effect is not know for the roleplay option and some don't even consider it an RPG but more an Action RPG:

If an RPG had to rely soley in voice acting and cinematics then sorry but as an rpg will be pretty bland and i am not saying that would be a terrible game or will have a less engaging storyline i am saying that there are games out there that do a way better jobs at being RPG.

Bloodlines, Fallout New Vegas are two fine examples. Both have a silent protagonist but in both of them you can roleplay the character you want. As your character is not defined by the developers (aka. You are X) how it happens in Cyberpunk 2077 or Witcher 3.

This is also one of my main issue with this game. We were told we could create our character from the ground up. Instead V seems to have a defined personality manner of talk and in the cutscenes sometimes he/she speak with no player imput it is just another Geralt but with gender selection and some limited visual customization.

It also don't help that the game seems to have a total lack of character development because the skills so far are all related to Combat/Stealth/Crafting.

 

[king4bear]

I greatly prefer voiced player characters so long as the actors have the right sound. When the protagonist sounds off... It can make playing the game impossible (The Council for example, great npc acting, god awful player character).

 

[Codecypher]

I greatly prefer voiced player characters so long as the actors have the right sound. When the protagonist sounds off... It can make playing the game impossible (The Council for example, great npc acting, god awful player character).

The council had amazing premise for a story driven game. Your character skills really impacted how you uncover the plot. Unfortunately and without spoiling anything the episodes after first really dropped the ball for me. Its like they came up with an amazing build up for mystery and intrigue and then just didn't know how to continue without resolving to what they did. I also agree that the voice acting was a bit bad but not so much that I'd stop playing, still better than silent protagonist imo

 

[Restlessdingo32]

That is an important point. There are rpgs out there with truly breathtaking stories and they don't have a voiced protagonist. Granted i played all the mass effect saga Andromeda excluded and i do agree what makes it interesting is the cinematics as Mass Effect is not know for the roleplay option and some don't even consider it an RPG but more an Action RPG:

If an RPG had to rely soley in voice acting and cinematics then sorry but as an rpg will be pretty bland and i am not saying that would be a terrible game or will have a less engaging storyline i am saying that there are games out there that do a way better jobs at being RPG.

Bloodlines, Fallout New Vegas are two fine examples. Both have a silent protagonist but in both of them you can roleplay the character you want. As your character is not defined by the developers (aka. You are X) how it happens in Cyberpunk 2077 or Witcher 3.

This is also one of my main issue with this game. We were told we could create our character from the ground up. Instead V seems to have a defined personality manner of talk and in the cutscenes sometimes he/she speak with no player imput it is just another Geralt but with gender selection and some limited visual customization.

I don't know. I could see an argument an RPG does not need to maximize freedom for the player when creating the character. It's fine to prefer this style. This is different from insisting it must be true.

In regards to voiced player characters.... People taking issue with feeling the voice is forced upon them, thereby limiting their capacity to express the character as desired, is extremely easy to correct. Add a toggle for the player character voice acting. Say, separating the volume slider adjustment for voice volume into NPC and player character sliders. There ya go, fixed.

 

[Mebrilia]

I don't know. I could see an argument an RPG does not need to maximize freedom for the player when creating the character. It's fine to prefer this style. This is different from insisting it must be true.

In regards to voiced player characters.... People taking issue with feeling the voice is forced upon them, thereby limiting their capacity to express the character as desired, is extremely easy to correct. Add a toggle for the player character voice acting. Say, separating the volume slider adjustment for voice volume into NPC and player character sliders. There ya go, fixed.

It still mantain the core problems of it. Written lines have to be reduced in order to mantain voice actors costs decent and because of that you ware forced to work with minimal approach as opposed to silent protagonist or a game that is unvoiced. Voice acting is good and all but not for rpg first and foremost.

 

[Kid_SixXx]

Voiced protagonist will give the game a more cinematic feel. I'd hate for all of that great scenery and game immersion to be ruined by me having to pause to read my own dialogue.

That said, I am really looking forward to giving Meredith Stout a dirt nap. Her voice is grating on the nerves and she is quite the corpo asshole.

 

[Guest 4211861]

well if you don't have a voiced character, then you have to say all the dialog yourself and your family will think you've gone crazy, yelling "where are my eddies!" as you kick the dog

 

[Mebrilia]

Because reading is boring....right?