Originally Posted by Chukkensorc
This game is based on Dungeons and Dragons. The “narrator” is the Dungeon Master describing what’s going on. Doing so allows it to feel like the tabletop while also allowing Larian to not have to create a cinematic to “show what’s going on”. If they want to throw in a mute option….okay? Again, they are trying to make this FEEL like DnD. It isn’t jarring to have the DM describe something. I personally love it, and I love the job the voice actor has done. The reason it isn’t a character from the story talking to you is because it is the DM. No offense intended, but it feels like a lot of complaints about this game stem from people not wanting a video game to be based on DnD while insisting on playing a game made specifically to be based on DnD.

This may very well be true, although I think part of the appeal of the CRPG over the Pen and Paper experience, is that in the former the "DM" is able to retreat completely behind their screen, and disappear into the aether. In a CRPG, if well executed, the DM simply becomes the Game, with no discernable separation.

Is that better for people who want a simulation of the Table Top experience? Maybe not, but absent an active DM participant to truly embody the game, they're going to hit that wall that separates story-time narration from active play at recess. BG1 had very limited narration, only at the start of the game and during the new chapter headers. Everything else was conveyed in-world and in-character.

That said, I love this voice actress so I don't mind when I hear her speaking. I actually look forward to it. She can read lines to me all night, and I'd never complain hehe. If I could choose her voice for my MC, so I could just pretend that its my character's inner monologue, I'd probably do that. Even though that goes entirely against everything in D&D, and would pretty much dispel completely my sense of unique characterization. But I don't have much of that right now anyway, alas.

They seem to have eschewed the most important component of a D&D game here in EA, which is Player Character customization and creativity. They seem to be prioritizing many of the wrong things in my view, if the goal is to create a D&D experience that is in any way true to the spirit of role playing. If they were on target, we'd be seeing most updates and patches focusing on the Character Creator. Instead they have given us role casting or role auditioning, or really just spectating like a member of the audience rather than part of the troupe on stage.

Still, it costs me nothing if others want the option to mute her vocals and just read the text, or even to remove the narration text entirely. Put it in the game settings and move on. There are so many things that need to be done before I can consider this a satisfying Baldur's Gate or D&D game. We're not even out of the valley yet. I can barely see the summit through the clouds. Even though I like the first impression, there's lot of climbing yet to do.

Last edited by Black_Elk; 17/10/21 02:46 PM.