Originally Posted by Wormerine
Originally Posted by Worm
You have to have PC voice in your interactions with other characters. I mean I get it, I have BOTH Divinity games, but in todays game environment it really just comes off as lazy. It totally breaks the immersion, not to mention, there are times in the game that the PC speaks during random conversions while in the world. So why not just go all the way with it? 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.
I am a bit RPG buff, so I own and played most RPGs since 90s.

Generally, there is no feature that any games need by default. You might have a point here when it comes to marketing - main stream crowd might expect VO, open world, battle royals and whatever is popular right now. Those things, however, don’t necessary make a good RPG and might not be a good fit for the project depending on what they aim for. And if your aim is to create a cRPG - a game in which you give player freedom to heavily customise their character, including their race, sex, class, alignment, background and moment to moment decision making - then overriding all that with authored VO for better production value, is just counterintuitive. It’s like forcing your character to use certain weapon “for more immersive animations”, because look how well Devil May Cry5 looks. Different games, different goals.

And historically, more expensive production value results in a weaker RPG. Bioware catalog moves closer to action games then RPG, the more they invest in presentation, over roleplaying. While there are obvious examples (Fallout2>Fallout3>Fallout4, Dragon Age:Origins>Dragon Age:2,3). Cutscenes and VOs are influences from non-interactive mediums. There is a reason games like Dishonored barely use character cutscenes - choosing how you play and seeing the world react to you is the point of the game. Taking that away, and making it more like Call of Duty would directly undermine the fun of the game. Similarly, if players are asked to author a character in an RPG, taking control away from them is undermining their ability to roleplay.

Witcher3 is a worldwide bestseller - but it is barely an RPG. More importantly, it works well not because it is fully voiced, but because it stars a well defined main character with set race, sex, age, background, political and philosophical viewpoint, set romantic interests and set agendas. Players have no control over any of it. As such VO and cutscenes can present this character in-game better then they could with just text. What is Baldur’s Gate3 hoping to communicate through cutscenes and VO? What direction can they give to actors? What decisions they can make when composing the shots if they don’t know what could possibly be coming through characters head? I see only two options: either the VO and directing will be as bland as possible - which is bad. Or they will make choices as to how your character feels and thinks which will be constantly at odds which what player is having in his/her mind. While it’s work in progress, BG3 early access seemed to do both - from unimaginably (and buggy) staged close up conversations, that have nothing further to add through direction, to those odds moments when our character reacts with some over the top reaction for no good reason.

Yes but you have to look at it from a business standpoint as well. Hardcore "roleplayers" is a very small, very niche group of people. When studios make games, whether you like it or not, it is to appeal to a much larger customer base. So yes, VA and production value make a big difference in sales. The days of text non speaking games are in the past, because lets be honest the majority of people don't even like to read menus let alone a game full of text boxes. I will disagree with you about Witcher, because RPG is not just defined by how you roleplay your character (as in like the old day D&D days, it is making decisions that define what your character is going to be. To say that it isn't TRUE RPG because it is a set character, with a set voice, and I mean this in the most respectful way as I can, sounds like elitest drivel (because I do enjoy your posts and find them well thought out and presented and you don't seem like one of these obnoxious angry people). There is also a very large difference between a RPG having voice and being called more like Call of Duty, I mean that is about as apples and oranges as you can get.

They can't make games that are only attractive to people that go to D&D cons, that roleplay their favorite character and want to live in the days of the past. For better or worse, developers have to worry about production value more and more. I play a lot of RPGs (all the Diablos, All of the ME, DA, I played BG way way back when but unlike some I don't view it as some religious experience, DOS 1&2, I mean I can't list them all), I vary my characters and make the choices I see that version of the character would make and what I want to achieve with that character. Just because I don't feel the need to visualize my character with a particular accent, or particular tone of voice, or enjoy the cinematic experience of seeing and hearing well acted scenes, does not mean I am not role playing. I dare say, the majority of gamers out there, especially in the video game market tend to feel the same.

Last edited by Pandemonica; 24/02/21 05:20 AM.