Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Female/Male narration in games

What do you think about letting people choose the voice for the narrator? In BG3 or in general.

Giving the option could be really interesting for "tinting" and shifting narration in different directions without changing the content. It is such an important part of every story but as far as I know, there is no game that offers this opportunity.


There are many spoken lines, so having several options might be expensive. On the other hand, it's just dubbing one voice with the same lines.

I love the voices in BG3, the voice over is really really good for every character, so much work went into it and it really shows!
Nontheless I'd love to hear the voices of characters tailored to the origin characters, Astarion's master, Gale and Wyll get a female mistress voice, Lae'Zel hears her queen and Shadowheart gets Rasaad to narrate.

Have a good one

Tuv

I don't see it in this sense. This is extra work.
A woman who is a narrator is beautiful, I mean her voice.
It is pleasant to hear it for everyone: both men and women, and all other genders that exist in our difficult times.

It seems rather pointless investment of money. I will take as many protagonist VO variations as I can, but recording full, two narrators seems rather pointless. About the same, as giving various VO versions to NPCs. One will do just fine (and on a side note, I am digging BG3 narrator quite a bit. Well done).

It comes with the downside of paying for recording every line twice.
I could do without it, but hey, it's Larian's money.


You guys at some point just need to come to terms with reality, because so far you are asking for:

- more voice options for your characters
- character that are fully voiced, from start to end.
- fully voiced "Origin characters" too
- character's mocap that comes in different flavors according to your attitude of choice
- multiple options for the narrator.

In the end you'll have to realize that probably the purse isn't bottomless and you'll have to pick a priority.

We need 20 narration Voices, and the same for each character of each race.
Quests, companions and all this nonsense Larian can not do

It's not asked for. The feasibility was meantioned as well.

What do you think about it possibly adding to a game though?
Lot's of customization options but the narrator stays the same in every game, although the same story could be told from different angles. With minor changes in writing, impactful passages can lead somewhere completely different in the readers mind, especially in a second playthrough.



That is not even close to the same, unless the npc follows you around all the time and is the narrator.
Would be strange for an NPC to have different voices but different NPCs depending on what choices one has made, that sounds like something.



There can be pleasant male voices too, the voice that was chosen is really good though and should work for everyone

Don’t need it.
That said player choice is always nice so, meh... not against, though it would have to be waaaaay down the priority list in terms of voice recording, even if Larian entertained the idea (which I doubt).

I think that it'd be kinda odd to have characters in the game be narrators too.
I dunno but I think that it just works better when the narrator is a bit more '' neutral ''.

There is an established trope of female voice-over for narration like this, maybe linked to the idea of computers having female voices going all the way back to Star Trek? It's probably just cultural programming, but we tend to trust the female voice more than a male one. Maybe some genetic Mother imprinting?

Anyway, I don't care and the voice acting I've heard for the narrator is very good so far, nicely nuanced. I don't think Larian needs to spend more money on this part of the game.

DOS2 had a male narrator. I generally enjoyed it except *ahem* the boat scene. But I think I do prefer female voice as it has a little bit more variety and character, the male voice sounds more flat.
But as you've mentioned the biggest issue is probably cost vs benefit. I'd assume having two options would double the expense, and I'd rather they gave us voiced protagonist.

I like a committed, designated narrator and their sex or gender has no bearing whatsoever on my experience.
As long as their lines are voiced well, I'm all for it.

D:OS2's narrator was fantastic. Whimsical, punchy, and gravely serious when necessary. He felt like a character unto himself and really enhanced my experience along the way.
BG3's narrator is also fantastic. Nice to hear Malady's voice in a more subdued cadence without all of the stress in her voice, and there's a cool air of mystery about the way that she speaks.

My only issue with the narrator in this game is that I think that she talks a bit too much in certain parts, like in romance scenes for example I don't want a narrator telling me what characters are thinking and describing things.
I'd prefer it if it was more private and the narrator almost sounds like she's trying to be a part of it lol.
She's not just neutrally reading it it's like she's winking at you verbally or something.

Do you trust the narrator in the game?

I think it also has to do with the story and we will meet the voice at one point. So the idea of having a male voice with that potential female character is out of the window anyway as that would probably not sell so well.

It's a very alluring voice, perfect for the temptation elements everywhere. Trusting? Not so sure, but I'll abuse the tadpole powers just in case and nothing bad will happen





Totally agree! Sounds like the narrator enjoys her job in game and in life for sure.
I have been trying to remember just which game had which narrator and it is not something that stands out that often. Bastion comes to mind but the Kid didn't have a voice as far as I remember.

I never liked the BG narration that much but since it is attached to the game, it still worked for me.

I really hope we get a more voiced protagonist but since there are only 2 options for each, they are still working on it.

I tend to find the female voice much more irritating than the male one. There is literally only one female singer I actually like. This imprinting has failed on me.

I don't really care what voice is used here, usually narration is short. My issues with a lot of games are with overly faked voices and the stupid constant grunts when your character is taking damage or attacking. Nearly all the time I play stealth types and all that useless noise is completely immersion breaking.

So far in this game I have had more nights than usual with sound turned on, so perhaps these voices are less irritating than in other games. Usually is only turned on in survival pvp games.


I skipped through the only romance scene I got so far, but this sounds like it will be really annoying.