I mean this all started in Dragon Age, where everyone spoke except the PC, but I mean even they integrated PC voice in DA 2.
And just like that, the quality of roleplaying and dialogue options from Dragon Age to DA2 got extremely downgraded. Unfortunetely this is unavoidable as quality of roleplaying and dialogue options are diametrically opposed to PC voice acting in video games, due to resource constraints.
You're reading into this what you want. DA2 was, for all its failures, part of the natural evolution of RPGs. The dialogue choices always tended to be overrated filler material that to a very large degree only lent the illusion of choice. DA3 was all voiced, including some of the overly convoluted "text-style" conversations, that and at least for me, boring, conversation with characters I didn't really care all that much for. I dislike "lore scrolls" that some RPGs consider staple with a passion as well..I have no inclination reading through hundreds of pages of text if the developer did not deem them important enough to have voiced. The days of text adventures has long passed for me.
I'm not sure how real those "resource constraints" when it comes to voice acting really are anymore. At least generally speaking. They certainly were back in the day before gaming became mainstream, but now with more people working for longer periods of time on AAA games than on most Hollywood movies? Not so much. It's all about prioritizing, and for many this issue is pretty vital. That said, I completely understand why Larian don't do it. Their "origin system" in effect requires mute protagonists as all the companions can play the role of the player character/protagonist. So we aren't really talking about just adding female and male voices, but the voices of all the companions too. The "origin system" is Larian's baby, but I would gladly throw it out with the bathwater for a fully voiced protagonist. I believe the large majority prefer making their own player characters rather than use Larian's, even in DOS2 where you were more clearly punished for doing so.
