Taril, thank you for such good wording of your arguments, you did a far better job than I have
I like how NPCs are fleshed out, how they react to my character and the world around them, but I would also like to be able to react as well - in the same manner. I like how my dialogue options are crafted, I just need to see and hear them to actually FEEL them.
Hail to everyone's powers of imagination if you prefer to imagine your reactions by internally modifying the response you've just read into whatever you feel would be appropriate, but I prefer having my character feel cinematically alive and being an actual part of the world I'm experiencing. I can't feel like a part of that world if I'm just absently staring at everyone and reading voiceless lines. It throws me off, it makes me feel like a construct, and all the "freedom" that a mute protagonist offers becomes a constraint.
If I was playing a game where everyone is mute just like I am, I wouldn't have a problem. I would feel normal, because everyone else is "suffering" from the same shortcoming.
But in this game, it's just ME. I have a few lines here and there, but that only makes it worse. The game is forcing me to imagine my player's speech based on those voiced scraps. It's inconsistency. It feels more like cut content than intentional feature.
And this is especially grating when I'm playing as an origin character. When they are followers, they feel so alive and nuanced, but when I'm the one directing them, all that personality falls flat. This is the biggest reason why I avoid playing as either of them. Their personalities are basically replaced by a mute void.
Well, I want that "cut content". However Larian makes it, I want the voiced protagonist. Judging by the quality of voiced content in ALL of their games, I don't think any of my role play value would be ruined - quite the contrary. And I would be honored to be my character's guide through the game.
Right now, as it is, I'm just... coping. I'm forced into this setup and I have to make do. I can't establish a proper connection with my character, no matter how I devise it, and that's why I've found myself starting the game over and over again. I just can't immerse myself properly into that pretty mute zombie. And if I ever abandon this game, regardless of its regular updates and new content, this will be the main reason.
