Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) General A rolling rant and an honest plea

While I applaud Larian’s effort to redo the game’s vocals, I find myself nonetheless agreeing with those who find the new DK voice to be extremely irritating. First, let me be honest and state that I disliked the last DK voice, but now I find myself begging for its return. I’ve been buying games for years at an average rate of about two per month and I’ve only ever returned two titles – and those titles were completely bug ridden; BD sorely tempts me to return it to my local EB and, for the first time in my gaming history, it's not because the title is buggy.

Comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges, I think one would be hard pressedto find a commercial grade RPG with a primary character that had more annoying VO work. Sure, some will say that all opinions are subjective and that one opinion is no better than another. While this may be true to some limited degree, the real world impact here is that a number of people (of those who ACTUALLY have the final release in hand) are coming to the same conclusion with the DK’s voice.

It’s no great leap of logic to realize that most forum posters are Divinity franchise fans and that for every person here that voices their distaste for the DK’s voice there are probably a hundred (or more) purchasers of BD who feel the same way.

To switch gears a bit, and in conclusion, I call on Larian to amaze us once more by showing BD owners that they do indeed listen to objective criticisms. I realize that the DK’s voiceovers can’t be attempted a third time, but please do the next best thing and put together a large, optional “patch” that would supply the old DK vocal files and swap them out with the files that the new DK vocals use. Thank you, in advance, for your time in reading this.

I don't imagine it's likely that there'll be a patch to change the voice, but if there isn't already an option to turn the voice off then maybe a patch to enable that option would help? Or if you like all the other voices maybe a patch to just disable the DK voice.

I thought the DK was meant to be annoying and get on your nerves? All the more reason to unlock that soul-forge! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

I haven't got the game yet so I don't know about the voice at present.

Pleas - how do they taste ?

(Sorry, couldn't resist. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> )

I've seen plenty of people complain about the new DK voice even more than the old one (I thought the demo one was quite good actually. It seems bad to start with, but the dry detachment of it kinda grew on me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />)

But, to get to the point. Larian said that they'd redone all the voicework, yes? So surely, there must be all the old soundfiles sitting somewhere in Larian's offices. Including the original DK.

Maybe, just MAYBE, it would be possible to have a patch to switch to the old voice for him for those who really don't like the new one?

Sure, it'll probably be a pretty sizable download, but as all the work is presumably already done, all it would need is the patch to put the files back where they should be.

No doubt it's not even nearly that simple <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> but hey, thought I'd put the idea in peoples (and developers maybe <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />) minds.

*crosses fingers, hoping to get <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> tomorrow morning and find out what this new DK voice is like*

I like the new voice much more. The guy doesn't even speak that much.

In the demo you could disable all voices by turning the "Voice" volume down to zero.

While I do not have the retail game myself, I would believe that there is an option to do this in the final version. Me? I would personally turn down the voice volume as soon as I started. I like my RPG's textual and my women... well... (the word is not textual, I'll tell you that <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />)

at this point I would rather fixes/balances be put in then a voice

@ Plowking

I’d prefer my DK to sound delectably sinister with a sprinkling of sadism in his voice. If Larian was angling for “annoying”, then they should have soul-forged the protagonist character to an imp instead. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

@ Laeraneth

If Larian redid “all” of the voiceovers as you suggest, then they obviously used some of the same actors again as many of the characters sound exactly the same as they did in the demo – Fergus springs to mind. The ghost near the start and the first imp you run into with Fergus were definitely redone (the ghost no longer has a funky effect coupled to the voice, though surprisingly the first Imp has a sound effect applied now whereas he didn’t before). The DK is the only one that really bothers me. Considering that he (presumably) has the most spoken lines in the game, you’d think that the DK would have the best voice acting backing him up.

As to the DK’s voice, it sounds like someone working too hard to strain their vocal cords and shove their lines out of their mouth. It would be like me with a joe-average midtone voice trying to do a deep, rock-the-house, booming voice. Sure I could do it, but I’d sound utterly fake while doing it.

@ Greyclouds

If you truly prefer your RPGs “textual”, wouldn’t you have to find a way to turn off the visuals as well? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

(Has flashbacks to true text based games like Zork and Adventure in Colossal Cave)

I must admit I preferred the old Death Knight voice to the one in the final version, but the other voices that were in the demo are improved -

~Cent~

I've noticed that the new DK sounds a lot like Serious Sam. Too bad they couldn't get the guy that did Alastor's or Lucifer's voice in Painkiller. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'm so freaking curious now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Won't someone please post a sample of the DK's new voice as it is heard in the English version of Beyond Divinity, thank you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Raze gave samples of the new voice in another thread. I will look after it later.
I listen to one sample and i think that the new voice is irritating, the first one was smooth.

Now i am happy to see that the people who complained loudly about the DK's voice are not satisfied with the new voice.

In french (sorry) : c'est bien fait pour eux ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shhh.gif" alt="" />

Barta

EDIT : The samples of the voice are in the post of Raze
Worst voice I ever heard in a game

EDIT 2 : I have made a big error these samples are not the new voice but the old one ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />
I keep them in my post for the people who did not play the demo.

Yes,just like you i was irritated by the new voice to the point of not wanting to play the game, and its actually not the voice itself but the tone, he speaks like he's super angry and ready to shred anyone to pieces even when he says trivial things BUT, if you play further you'll notice the tone of the death knight changes for the better...a lot better, and thats when i noticed it was not the voice that was so annoying but the stupid tone of his speech. Game is great, im having lots of fun with it, its not divine divinity but its a very good game in its own right.

Barta -> In the thread you suggested Raze only refers to an old topic that was created to show modified versions of the Death Knights voice from the demo. But I want the actual, original, unmodified voice samples from the full.

Barta: The samples in that thread are the DK voice from the demo with modifications. There aren't any samples of the "official" new DK voice. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


EDIT: Yeah, what Tovi said. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Arent't those fan created voices?

They also seem to be 3 weeks old (before the release of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" />) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

I will preserve my judgement till the game arrives in the mail.

@ Tovi and Killbomb and Morbo

I am really sorry and i am the most stupid woman in the world !
I thought that these samples were the new voice !

lol! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> No need to apologize. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

But I will repeat my request: Will someone who has the full version please post a sample of the ingame voice of the DK?

you have to be a child to complain about the work someone did for you in an attempt to make that work better. Grin and be happy they even made the effort to change and make there game better. I am sure there will be a mod that will allow you to change the voice. and that's all I say folks Sayonara///

half of the problem with the game as a friend also pointed out is the dynamics in each voice.


why does one imp or guard have a echo/cave verbal sound...where the next guy sounds like he's standing outside without the echo?

there are inconsistencies