Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Narrator voice - opinions

Only people attracted to women are "supposed" to play this game insofar as only men are "supposed" to play, for example, Gothic because the player character is a man.

There's always going to be the majority audience. RPGs, I believe, have a bigger female audience compared to most other genres, but women are still not the majority. The majority are men, and the majority of men are straight. A female narrator would "cover" the biggest percentage of players, that being straight men, as well as bi men and women.

This is all assuming I'm not off-base regarding the motivation behind the choice of the narrator in the first place, of course. Which I might be.

I'm pretty close to the same camp as you. I mean, I think she's fine, but either way it's not a big deal. Also, I agree. She's not likely going anywhere. So why discuss?

I see the point that for a dark fantasy, she's not exactly Vincent Price. They could have picked a person with a more ominous voice, but again, not a big deal and it's likely not going to change.

And yet if you look at the romanceable companions, there are only two romanceable female characters (vs. three guys), and only one of them is conventionally pretty. Doesn't look to me like Larian is catering to your majority audience here.

Tbh, I find the narrator suspicious, she sounds almost smug at times. I wonder whether it isn't a set up similar to IWD.

I quite like the narrator. Of course this is a very subjective thing anyway so I can understand why someone else wouldn't be a fan.

Well the male companions are not far better - two are already in love with other persons and one is a complete asshole and murderhobo - so not that great options.

About the narrator, I do agree with Niara and otehrs, she sounds overly sexualised - it is grating sometimes. There are rare instances, where she does sound normal and then, I actually like her voice. And it really doesn't make sense that the narrator is the Absolute or some other powerplayer in the game, because then, she wouldn't know everything, our characters are thinking. I mean, if she knows everything, she could stop our characters right then and there at the beginning, so I don't find it convincing, that she is a 'bigger role' or even the BBE. And even if, why would she sound like a telephone sex worker?

The tadpole would know what your character is thinking. Also, you assume the narrator knows everything at the point the events occur, but she could be telling the story after the game's conclusion, similar as in IWD.

As I said, (and as you simply choose to ignore, it seems, Rag,) this doesn't matter; the facts of the situation are clear, and there is no 'unknown' information surrounding these:

If: 1) Narrator represents an active force in the game (Which, if it is doing ANYTHING beyond *reliable* external narration, it IS being pitched as; our narrator in this game IS doing this.)
and 2) Narrator is doing anything other than narrating its own direct thoughts and actions (which, again, it is doing since it's telling us what we think, feel and sense, and putting a deliberately motivated spin on them much of the time)
and 3) Narrator is also doing more standard factual narration for us as well,

Then: the narrator is no longer fulfilling the role of narrator. It is an unreliable narrator claiming, external to the game, to be a reliable one, and requiring us to accept it as a reliable one the vast majority of the time. There is a contradiction and conflict in the voice role here - a role which, with all of these elements, now needs to be served by two separate elements. This is bad design and bad writing. It literally Does Not Matter what in-universe explanation you use to justify it, or what elements you might suppose that we don't know about yet... this problem stands external to all of that, and none of that has any capacity to alter these details.

The narrator is not a person; Notice that you're using active pronouns for the role: don't. It's not a person. It's the narration. If you are ascribing persona, such as pronoun identification and desires, intentions, wants, and how characters think of or feel about it, to the narrator, then you are not describing a narrator - you are describing an in-universe entity. The narrator, if it is a narrator, is not that, unless it is narrating its own actions and thoughts alone.

If it has intentions or desires, if it manipulates or spins perspective, then it is NOT a narrator any more - it's a character. And a character is not a reliable narrator and should not be attempting to fill that role; it's poor design.

Basically, there is an in-universe force attempting to affect and influence us; that's fine! That's great! That's not the narrator and it should never be the narrator! The narrator should let us know and show us that this is happening, but they are not the same entity, because one of them is not an entity at all - it's the narrator. It's very easy to convey these things and still keep them apart; Larian haven't, and this is just plain bad writing and bad design, not an artistic choice or mysterious decision. It's just flawed.

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Here's something neat they COULD do: Have a new narrator voice for all of the reliable world narration, descriptions of scenes, settings and people; this one should not be dripping with sex and honey, because it is the story's narration. Then, have this second pseudo-narrator voice slide in, full of honey and seduction, all-and-only for the parts where it is actually spinning your perspective or trying to make you think differently about something; because unlike the narrator, this voice is an inner entity that our character is literally experiencing the actions of. Make that clearly distinct, but keep the interplay of the in-universe force attempting to influence us. That would actually work.

Last point to reiterate again: in a player-character driven RPG, a narrator should never, Never tell the player what their own character thinks or feels about anything. That is for the player to decide - having anything else tell us those things without us first indicating our desire to the game, is the very worst crime a character-driven RPG can commit.

So is Astarion. I havent listened them all, but probably they all are. This start to sound like Deep House.

You seem to missunderstand me ...
I wasnt trying to say that Narrator "represents" and active force ... Narrator "represents" our inner voice from start to end ... BUT if our own thoughts, our inner voice, are affected by some "active force" ... then our inner voice should act acordingly to that affection.

That is why i used that scene when you pick tadpole from Eodwins corpse:
Eodwin Tadpole reach to your tadpole, and they both forces you to like it ... that is their defence mechanism ...
In such case Narrator, YOUR inner voice, YOUR own mind even, talks smooth and sweet ... bcs your own perception was affected by tadpole influence ... it dont change to voice of that Tadpole, or the Absolute, since its still your own mind, but THAT is alterned by the tadpole ...


I quite honestly cant agree with this statement either ...
You cant tell if writing was bad until you know full story ... i mean i know many quite good stories, where people heared voices in their head, wich they concidered to be their own mind, and much much later (basicaly at the end) "surprise" come out that they were actualy someone else, who just manipulated them.
(Even tho i usualy like more those stories, where it works other way around.)

I mean, if you ARE supposed to believe that sweet and seductive voice is your own mind ... there is no better way to sell the idea, than through Narrator. :-/


I dont know what this is ...
I never learned english, as you probably noticed.


Agreed ... its no longer narrator ...
But until story reveals the fact that it is not a narrator, it should act like one.


In the right time, yes ... and i bet they will, if that is the case.

But to let it know from the start would be as mysterious and surprising as puting HUGE NEON SIGN abowe Mintharas head saying:
"WARNING: THIS CHARACTER WILL MURDER YOU IN YOUR SLEEP IF YOU SIDE WITH HER". :-/


I dont like the idea ...
I like surprises and if there is some entitry influencing us succesfully, i dont want to know about it until it reveals itself.

I mean if this is the case, i believe tone of curent narator should be enough ...
I can try to focus more on her voice in next patch playthrough, maybe you open my eyes once again. But as i recall it right now, it seems to me that "amount of seductioun" in her voice is higher in the parts when we are affected by something that as they say "makes our heart beat faster" and that is why i like it.


And finaly i cant even agree with this statement. :-/
How would you like to describe any of your feeling or thinking, when they are affected by some magical influence ... while leting player to decide them? O_o

I understood fine: you are applying an in-game, in-universe detail to the narrator - in this case, the inner thoughts of the player character. You're missing the point again. Go back, read what I wrote again, and try to obtain it this time. There's no point in me repeating myself when you didn't obtain it (and from your response, did not appear to understand what was said) the first time.


Again: the story is irrelevant, as are the details of it. I mapped out why this is the case in my previous post. I'm not talking about the story or its details; I'm describing a very clear series of cases which, if met, have a direct conclusion, and this is external to the story and its details. These conditions are met by this game, and so the conclusion follows. You either ignored that, or didn't understand it; go back and try again please - there is no way to have a productive conversation if you are not on the same page... and it seems you aren't.

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It is obvious from the outset that this voice is not reliable external narration. There is nothing pretending to be otherwise here. The problem is that, at the same time, while it is very obviously being an in-universe entity with motives and opinions, we are *also* being required to simultaneously accept it as our actual narrator, and being required to trust it as a reliable external narrator for many other things. It cannot be both, they are mutually exclusive concepts, but it is being made to act as both, and so it falls apart. This is a problem.

The MOMENT that voice starts describing anything, it's obviously dripping with bias and motive... there is no surprise here, it's not hidden. There is nothing that you are being theoretically 'spoiled' on, because it's very obviously and deliberately made clear from the very beginning. It's just done in a very bad way.

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Again: It is not the game's place to tell me what my own character is thinking or feeling. It can, and should, give me information about sensations I'm experiencing, or perceptions I have, but it should not, ever, be trying to tell me that these are *my* thoughts - The game does not know what my character thinks or feels about anything unless I tell it, and it cannot presume to.


There are a myriad of ways to do this well. Just as any moderately competent DM. Telling players how their own characters feel about something, or what they think about something, is a total, kick them from the table, cardinal sin. You don't do that. You never do that. It's not your right and it's not your place to do that, under any circumstance.

What you DO do, is you tell the player about sensations they receive and impressions they get; you provide them with sensory data, but you don't tell them what they think.

There's a difference between:

"You go to climb the ladder, but as you get there, you look around, and you think better of it. You don't really feel like climbing, and you think you'd rather wait down here for now."

"As you go to climb the ladder, you're struck by a sense that you shouldn't. The thought sticks in your mind, at odds with your choice to follow your friends, a moment ago. You don't know where it comes from, but the sense, that you should wait, lingers in the back of your mind."

There is, in fact, a very important difference between those two phrases - sensitivity to the agency of the personal character - but it's a difference that both Larian, and possibly you as well, Rag (?) - seem to be blind to. And before you suggest it - no, there's not an element of one of these 'spoiling' a secret, or revealing something that the other keeps hidden; in both cases it's directly obvious to the player that they are being influenced in some way.

I could say the same ... exactly the same.
You dont make the expression of understanding either, nor even slightest desire to do ... so since you just refuse to comunicate futher, i gues this is how it ends. :-/
Shame, but hardly surprising. :-/


Nope ...
How exactly it even can be irellevant?

If narrator is talking as your character inner voice, its totally relevant, even important, if that character is thinking what is he thinking bcs he thinks it ... or bcs some other being put that idea on his head.
How the hell could this difference be irellevant?


I do.
You sure know that one of difference between mologoue and dialogue ... this isnt your lecture, you dont have ultimate truth ... we both have opinion and if we are suppose to talk about them, we both need to listen to the other one. -_-


As i said my (supposedly missunderstanding) post ... yes:
IF Narrator is talking as some being, in that specific moment its not a Narator, but that being ... wich is totally story related to the story by the way, so i still cant see how can story be irellevant ...

But if you are suppose to think FOR STORY PURPOSES that the voice you hear in your head is your own, and IF the narrator is used as your inner voice, then that being HAVE TO be presented to you as the Narrator ...
There is no other way, unless you want to rise huge red flag "alert alert, something that is only discuising as your own mind is now talking".


So basicaly you are pissed that you discovered the grand finale reveal before you reached that point?

Funny ... i cant even remember when was the last time i have seen, read, or played anything that would actualy surprise me.
I gues im used to this, so i simply accept what im expected to do ... is this voice called Narrator, bcs im supposed to take it as a Narrator? Well, then i do. :P


I would agree on the table, when you can lead dialogue with your GM to get exactly the expression he want you to have ...
In PC game tho, you have to describe everything as precise as possible ... this is the easy way, but its definietly effective.

You dont like it i get it, well ... too bad for you i gues. :-/


Well i gues you could expect me to drag it again ...

You know the situation with Eodwins Tadpole.
Please describe me that my character feels compassion with the creature without telling me that my character feels compassion.


There is, in fact, a very important difference between those two phrases that i see aswell indeed ...

In first sentence the idea to go down and wait seems like my own ... mainly bcs that is what i have ben told.
In second one, it dont seems like it ... especialy thanks to the part "you dont know where it comes from" ... that allone seems to me like indicator of that my character is aware that this idea isnt his own, that it strangely pop up out of nowehere ... that would raise my red flag.


Yes im suggesting it, bcs i see it there ...
Just as you see the Narrator "obviously from the outset that this voice is not reliable external narration".


Dunno ... im used to that my DM is telling me what my character MAY think ... so its not so huge issue for me.
Sometimes he is completely off, and my idea is totally different, true ... but in that case we have agreement, its still my character and if i want to play it in some way, i simply do ... and if he is not completely off, well, i see no problem there, since if his description is fitting my character there is no reason for me to refuse it, just bcs it was not from my head ... that smells like being stubborn. :-/

On the other hand tho, i think we allready know that Larian is great storyteller, but horrible DM ...
Or at least *i* get the expression when we (it was you i believe?) were talking about killing childern in this game, and other situations when Larian chase you to the corner and gives you one and only option to get out.
I would never concidering this good DMing ... but i understand its necesary evil for them to keep the game in some line. :-/ Sure, there may be other ways, some more effective, and certainly some more elegant ... but taking it over and over, i gues i can deal with it ... and to be brutally honest, i dont think we get other choice.

She's the voice of Talana and Ygerna from Divinity 2. Pleasant surprise.

Hopefully the voice of Rhode is in the game as well.

I like her. A lot.
I then saw a video of her outtakes, I am now in love.

My wizard will find the power to break the weave and romance the narrator,

A bit sultry for my tastes, but I'll survive.

I could listen to that silky smooth voice all day. I love it.

A bit of a necro'd thread, this one, but I've been looking for a topic like this. Surprised to see that much passion in that last year's debate. I really like the voice. I did not associate seductiveness, but rather an attempt to draw me into the scenes. And it has worked exceptionally well so far. I guess it won't work for everyone. It never does, this is very subjective. But I consider myself lucky to like the voice. After all I'll be hearing a lot of it.

The low and slow method is a great technique for dms trying to generate engagement. Doesn't matter if its a pretty lady or Monty Martin. Honestly if a dm doesn't know how to do this, a very basic thing, ots a red flag.

I think I don't care either way, but if you care, then you care. Jennifer Hale's voice grates on me but most people seem to love her.

There were a couple of more recent threads discussing the narrator, one from when Amelia Tyler released some out-takes of her voiceover sessions and another from a forum member requesting the ability to mute the narration.

If it's doable, someone will make a mod to use xvasynth (or whatever) to make the narrator sound like Minsc.