Originally Posted by Ivory Samoan
Originally Posted by eLeF
Having fully voiced NPCs, narration and so on is always preferable, even mandatory Id say especially in text heavy games. Adding a fully voiced protagonist on top of that however is a bit excessive. Single player should always be the primary focus in this kind of games and Im perfectly able to read my own lines. Not to mention it would only prolong the development even further and we dont need that.

Normally, I would concur with this statement 100%.

...but watching the gameplay videos, I feel a distinct inertia in the flow of things due to everyone else's lively performances....it highlights even more, the weird vibe of a silent protagonist when the camera angles are as they are.

When they talk as freely as they do as companions, then once the same characters are the PC they go mute, it just has that weird stop-go affect on me. In games like Wasteland 3, DOS2 and so on, I don't get that same inertia as the camera isn't right in my face, but it is here, and without VO work, it's straight weird IMO.

Obviously, Larian has said (in the AMA) that all lines will be voiced in the final product, and it's getting there with the narrator (for sure), it'll just be great to hear once it's fully realised.


I’m still not convinced that “fully voiced” means a voiced protagonist for every dialogue choice, but they may well be for some story related scenes.

Personally I think it looks much weirder watching someone else play than playing yourself. Especially if you’re watching someone really labour over every choice, or taking votes on what to say next.

I replayed a bit of Dragon Age Origins recently and I’d forgotten it was the same system. It seemed odd for maybe the first half hour.

What no one ever seems to mention in these debates is that the whole conversation is often structured differently for voiced protagonists compared to silent protagonists. With silent protagonists, you usually pick a line of dialogue, then they reply, then you pick another line, and so on. But very often with fully voiced protagonists, picking a dialogue option results in a two way conversation, and sometimes a lot more than that. You don’t just pick one line at a time, more steer the conversation and events.