Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback I LOVE the British accents

I've seen quite a few threads where people complain that everyone has a British accent but, for me, I just love it. There's something about the different British accents that lend themselves so well to the fantasy setting. (And I just love the way they sound) And the voice acting is *phenomenal*. I haven't encountered a line with poor delivery yet.

It would be nice to see some more variety but I hope the voices stay dominantly British. I thought the Dragon Age games struck a good balance--most characters had British accents with a few others thrown in and dwarves had American accents.

I have to agree, it's a nice change, to me.

I thought a few of them seemed to be New Zealand.

Astarion's accent is Transatlantic....which is a manufactured American accent mostly associated with old money types.

Is it really? I actually had no idea--it sounded English to me. You learn something new everyday! Nevertheless, I like it.

Yeah, when it was manufactured they wanted an accent that vaguely sounded European. It is a deliberately designed prestige accent.

That's incredibly silly but also very fascinating. I recognize the accent now that you've pointed it out (Winchester in M*A*S*H speaks with it) but I never would have guessed that it was an intentionally manufactured accent to denote wealth. But this is the kind of accent variety (in games) that keeps things interesting. I'm hoping we get some more accents from around Europe. Welsh, Scottish, French, and German, in particular.

You'll also here it in the Malkavian mansion in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, whenever you play the tapes left by the the owner of that place.

It really isn't. It is hyperbolic RP (Received Pronunciation); the vowel quality is way off in order to be Transatlantic. Listen to an actual Transatlantic accent; it only sounds vaguely similar. Obvious instances would be the way god(s) is pronounced; in transatlantic it would still be /gɑːdz/ but in Asteron's case it is obviously NOT that; he very clearly says /ɡɒdz/. There are plenty of other examples. Most versions of Transatlantic are also lightly rhotic whereas Astarion's is not at all. He CLEARLY has a British accent, a hyperbolic one, but a British one nonetheless.

Astarion sounds just mostly "posh" and theatrical to me.

As for accents. I don't mind them speaking with British Accents, but I'd prefer if they stuck to variants of English. I never liked the "put on" accents of "German Accent" and "French Accent". If they want that, at least get someone from those countries to act the part, and not "make it up", at least then it sounds more believable.

Mostly it sounds to me they use European actors, being an European company and all.

Seems to me it's mostly Americans who find it "off putting"? I guess to them it's something exotic, where as us Europeans are more used to British accents?

I think it comes down to a mistaken belief in there being a "standard English" that has no accent; for Americans, it's an American newsreader accent and they don't seem to understand it simply sounds like a generic American accent to everyone else, not an English one.

Obviously it's not only Americans who do this. As a Geordie who spent some time living in Hertfordshire I never heard the end of how outrageous it was that I had an indecipherable provincial accent compared to their no-accent-at-all. It was quite amusing listening to them having the same argument with Cockneys who also used the same argument, with everyone being largely incomprehensible to each other.

It's slightly tiring seeing all British accents described as "posh" and "snobby" though: I mean considering my PC is a rough-as-a-badger's-arse Cockney who I'm sure is about to yell "gercha!" at someone.

Fantasy races having British accents has been a staple for years(trope?). Americans get to do cowboy accents lol.

Could be. I'm American but my husband and I mostly watch British and Korean shows with the occasional German or Italian show thrown in. We don't care for most American TV.

Also, yes, good point. 100% I welcome all accents but from actors who can speak in them natively.

I agree, I like how it is. And there's a lot of variety to it.

I think most Americans have trouble discerning the different regional accents of Britain. By default, to the American ear, English accents sound posh or, depending on the person's inclinations, snobbish. I can definitely see how this could become obnoxious. Personally, I love all British accents and, yeah, when compared to American accents, they do sound higher class--even when they're not. Look at how often Micheal Caine get's cast in posh roles in American movies. His cockney may be tempered but it's still there. Perhaps it's cultural conditioning?

I find it funny how often I've seen the goblins described as having "posh" accents. Yeah, they sound British, but they sound like gritty thugs. lol I think it gives them a lot of character.




D: Cowboy accents.

As someone who wrote the first thread about the massive over-abundance of British accents in the game, I can categorically say that is *NOT TRUE*.

I *do not* have a problem with there being characters with British accents in the game.

I *DO* have a problem with seemingly *EVERY* character in the game having a British accent. Why, on all of Faerun, would a goblin grunt pronounce words with the same tones and phrases as someone from a completely different plane of existence (Githyanki)??

There is no excuse for this. At all. Watch the video below, I've included links at the relevant time stamps. For those that don't recognize it (as I suspect many will not) this is literally the first few minutes of gameplay of Baldur's Gate 2. Within the first few minutes we get *five* different and distinct accents, which is pretty much more than exists in the entirety of BG 3 EA.

Irenicus (British) - https://youtu.be/RRSMCuJISdw?list=PLzw_r3FRBpcMejn_maOZjBKo51RkDue_3&t=530

Golem (flat mechanical) - https://youtu.be/RRSMCuJISdw?list=PLzw_r3FRBpcMejn_maOZjBKo51RkDue_3&t=563

Imoen (mid-western/California American) - https://youtu.be/RRSMCuJISdw?list=PLzw_r3FRBpcMejn_maOZjBKo51RkDue_3&t=599

Jaheira (Eastern European/Arabian mix) - https://youtu.be/RRSMCuJISdw?list=PLzw_r3FRBpcMejn_maOZjBKo51RkDue_3&t=807

Minsc (Russian) - https://youtu.be/RRSMCuJISdw?list=PLzw_r3FRBpcMejn_maOZjBKo51RkDue_3&t=981

About 5 minutes worth of gameplay. Already more audible diversity than all of BG 3. There is no excuse for BG 3, made 20 years later and with access to phenomenally greater resources, to have the same voices for characters from entirely different backgrounds, races, and planes of existence. Heck the voice actor for Astarion (Neil Newbon) did a Russian accent for a recent Resident Evil game, so it clearly isn't a technically issue. This is a design issue.

Your viewpoint is valid but this is just personal preference. There are no set rules for accents in a fantasy setting. This is far from the only fictional world to have aliens that speak in the same/similar accents to the main character. I'm enjoying the abundance of British accents immensely. But I'm sure they'll introduce more as the game goes on since we don't even have all of the main cast introduced.

Yes, we do have rules for accents in *THIS* fantasy setting. We literally have the voice acting for Baldur's Gate 1 & 2. You know, those games this one is supposed to be a sequel to?

How stupid do you think LotR would be if every single character in it has the same accent? I don't care whether that accent is British, Russian, French, Chinese, Indian, whatever. The fact that a random goblin guard sounds the same as a being from another plane of existence is stupid, period. This game has incredible visual diversity, absolutely top marks to their art department on that one. But as soon as they open their mouth and the goblin, Githyanki, Tiefling, Ogres, machine constructs, and undead lord all sound like they grew up on the same block together, immersion is lost.

You are obviously a person of good tastes and breeding. Naive, perhaps, but of of good taste. Some British accents sound harsh and/or odd even to other native British people. They conjure up certain stereotypes; 'Brummies' (from Birmingham and the wider Black Country) are seen as slow, friendly and slightly thick, 'Geordies' and 'Mackems' (North-East, Newcastle and Sunderland) are drunken party-animals, West-Country (Wiltshire and the South-West) are slow, backward yokels who get drunk on cider and chew straw. I speak as one whose accent is generally fairly RP, but reverts to West Country when I have a drink or two.

RP (received pronunciation), by the way, is the classic old black-and-white BBC newsreader English accent, and is often regarded as being 'posh' even though it is really not. It is, rather a deliberate non-accented way of speech.


I would add the example of Dame Maggie Smith, whose natural accent is not terribly posh but generally seems to be picked to play 'posh' women.


If those goblins are posh, I hate to think what the social position of the rest of us is.

Just to make it absolutely clear, Astaron's accent IS British and not Transatlantic whatsoever.