Voice

[zuki]

Do you find it important that the characters have a real voice or do you prefer just the text balloons more ?

I was just wondering :):)

[Rantz]

I prefer just having it in text! Gives another atmosphere to the games that I like better.

[MJN SEIFER]

This may be the wrong place to be talking about this, as this game doesn't use VO, but while I have nothing against voice acting as a whole, I always thought RPGs work better when it's text, there's just something endearing about having a moving story on screen.

[Remon]

Text. It helps with imagination :p

[kotora]

voice acting as long as it doesn't suck

[Jessweeee♪]

I like anything that makes the characters more lively. Text is nice, but the more a game relies on my suspension of disbelief, the harder it is for me to get into it. That said, if any pre-FFX titles were to be remade with voice acting, the entire script would need to be redone. Some enjoyable bits of dialogue would sound extremely retarded said out loud :|


Also, I can't smurfing stand it when a text box says something like "*sob* *sob*" Surely there's a better way to show that a character is sobbing? It just totally ruins a tragic and powerful moment when a character shouts SCREEEEAAAAAM. (But for comedy it is okay.)

[kotora]

why is this on the ff8 board anyway

[Shaibana]

i do prefer voices over txtballoons bcaus it makes the characters more alive. and u hear the emotions better.

but ofcourse it always sucks when the voice actor screwes it up

[MJN SEIFER]

I like anything that makes the characters more lively. Text is nice, but the more a game relies on my suspension of disbelief, the harder it is for me to get into it. That said, if any pre-FFX titles were to be remade with voice acting, the entire script would need to be redone. Some enjoyable bits of dialogue would sound extremely retarded said out loud :|


Also, I can't smurfing stand it when a text box says something like "*sob* *sob*" Surely there's a better way to show that a character is sobbing? It just totally ruins a tragic and powerful moment when a character shouts SCREEEEAAAAAM. (But for comedy it is okay.)

I'm kinda the opposite. I for some God Mistaken reason, found that adding voices to FFX made the characters flatter, and less real - I know it's strange, but I kind of find RPGs to be a kind of "story" you're in contol of, and it loses it in voices. Also certain failed scenes like the Laughing Scene in FFX would have been better received - nobody got that Tidus was only laughing as a joke! That's why it sounded so unconvincing - it would have been more clear in text.

I agree with you about when they say what they're doing though - I can't think what I'd do for sobbing, but if I wanted my text based characters to scream, I'd probably type "AHHHHH!" or something like that, maybe there's a way to phonetically type a sob, or perhaps I should just break appart the normal dialogue, to show it. Either way, there's a better way than just "sob".

[kotora]

I thought it was pretty damn obvious they were fake laughing because it sounded super fake. How do you suppose people would have gotten that from a text balloon?

[Roogle]

Also, I can't smurfing stand it when a text box says something like "*sob* *sob*" Surely there's a better way to show that a character is sobbing? It just totally ruins a tragic and powerful moment when a character shouts SCREEEEAAAAAM. (But for comedy it is okay.)

Yes, this is one of the problems that I have with text boxes. It is very difficult to see the subtlety of emotion in a dialogue unless you fully understand the characters and the situation. Voice acting allows the characters to convey their emotions much better.

[Mirage]

I prefer voice acting if the voice acting is actually good.

[Roogle]

I agree. Poor voice acting can make a game memorable for the wrong reasons. For example, Resident Evil comes to mind with its camp voice acting. Have you ever heard any audio clips from the game before?

[MJN SEIFER]

I agree. Poor voice acting can make a game memorable for the wrong reasons. For example, Resident Evil comes to mind with its camp voice acting. Have you ever heard any audio clips from the game before?

STOP! Don't... Open...that door!

[Hot Shot]

I agree. Poor voice acting can make a game memorable for the wrong reasons. For example, Resident Evil comes to mind with its camp voice acting. Have you ever heard any audio clips from the game before?

STOP! Don't... Open...that door!
It's a memory that's better when forgotten. But a good point none the less.

I don't think any of the pre-X FF games would have worked with voices imo. Similarly, the newer voices wouldn't have worked without voice acting. I dunno why people complain about X's voice acting, I think it's better than XII and XIII.

[silentenigma]

voice acting as long as it doesn't suck

This, and as long as the writing is conducive to good, natural voice acting. I'm looking at you, FFXIII.

[MJN SEIFER]

I don't really find X's voice acting bad, I just think FFs are better text (i'd like FFX more if it was text, but I like the game)

[Hot Shot]

I don't really find X's voice acting bad, I just think FFs are better text (i'd like FFX more if it was text, but I like the game)
I think X would have sucked if it were in text.

[kotora]

Yeah it would be super lame looking at those cinematic cutscenes only to have to read all the dialogue

[Depression Moon]

I couldn't really imagine IX with voice acting. I do have an imagination with how Vivi and Quina would sound in my head, but I think it would be difficult to find an actor that could portray those sounds and when Zidane and Kuja did get voice overs in Dissidia I didn't like either of them.

VII's cast already had voices and they were okay. I didn't really care though as I didn't care for the game much and I don't think it would be difficult to find suitable voices for VIII's cast.

[kotora]

More important than having the right sounding voices is having dialogue that doesn't sound retarded when spoken. That's what I fucking hated about the voice acting in Dissidia. It just sounds lame when you actually have to say all that stuff.

[Depression Moon]

I think the problem in that game was the VAs themselves. In this Kuja Zidane cutscene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GizJ_8r0Sqg) there are many unnecessary pauses. It's the way you say them rather than what's being said.

[MJN SEIFER]

I don't really find X's voice acting bad, I just think FFs are better text (i'd like FFX more if it was text, but I like the game)
I think X would have sucked if it were in text.


Yeah it would be super lame looking at those cinematic cutscenes only to have to read all the dialogue

You'd be in more control of the dialogue though, and feel like you were there, at least I would anyway - are you the kind of FF players who skip through dialogue, I see know difference between any other FFs like VII or VIII.

[Jessweeee♪]

More important than having the right sounding voices is having dialogue that doesn't sound retarded when spoken. That's what I smurfing hated about the voice acting in Dissidia. It just sounds lame when you actually have to say all that stuff.

This is what makes Kingdom Hearts so adorable.
KINGDOM HEARTS.
IS LIGHT!




I don't really find X's voice acting bad, I just think FFs are better text (i'd like FFX more if it was text, but I like the game)
I think X would have sucked if it were in text.


Yeah it would be super lame looking at those cinematic cutscenes only to have to read all the dialogue

You'd be in more control of the dialogue though, and feel like you were there, at least I would anyway - are you the kind of FF players who skip through dialogue, I see know difference between any other FFs like VII or VIII.

It's weird when a game does both at the same time and there's an odd pause between every bit of dialogue. I always challenge myself to press X at just the right moment so it doesn't sound unnatural. I'm never too successful with that. I'm not complaining about it, I just like it better when a game picks one or the other.

[MJN SEIFER]

If they could at least invent a way for you to choose which you'd prefer out of voice and text (which we were promised for X) then I could have put up with the game better. I can't just turn the sound down because a) I'm still not in control of the text, and b) I still want to hear everything else in the game.

[Karifean]

I want to be able to choose what the character says. Like choosing to almost kiss Don Corneo in FF7. :D

You could choose a lot less when voice acting came in. So I'm pro Text Boxes.

[Roogle]

I think the problem in that game was the VAs themselves. In this Kuja Zidane cutscene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GizJ_8r0Sqg) there are many unnecessary pauses. It's the way you say them rather than what's being said.

I wonder if this is a problem with the localization rather than the voice actors. It is necessary to consider the following: the voice actors likely recorded their lines in succession without regard to the scene or the context; the voice actor was probably forced to insert a pause there in order to keep with the timing of the scene as the traditional localization process does not modify the duration of a cutscene or the actions taken by a character model.

It can be very difficult to produce quality voice acting when you take the above into consideration. I would actually attribute the awkward pauses to the localization process and the writing as I am sure that the pauses sounded more natural in the Japanese version. If the Japanese version does not have similar pauses, then it certainly lies solely in the writing.

[Shaibana]

u know.. Uncharted (game) does the cutscenes And voiceacting in 1x ...
so they have those weird suits on with dots on it for the cutscene and at the same time they do the voiceacting... that way it looks more natural ^^

i know thats gonna be a little hard with FF :P but just saying.... ^^

[Roogle]

u know.. Uncharted (game) does the cutscenes And voiceacting in 1x ...
so they have those weird suits on with dots on it for the cutscene and at the same time they do the voiceacting... that way it looks more natural ^^

Yes, that is a good point. The difference is that the Uncharted series is developed in North America for North American audiences, and the Final Fantasy series is developed in Japan for Japanese audiences. I doubt that Square Enix would want to invest that much effort into localization if they can simply dub over the dialogue.

[Depression Moon]

Half assing :bou::bou::bou::bou: is more insulting to me. I would rather have the Japanese audio with English subs than that.

[Shaibana]

ya thats wy i say: itll be a little hard for FF :P

but i wouldnt mind Japanese voices at all ^^

[Jessweeee♪]

Half assing :bou::bou::bou::bou: is more insulting to me. I would rather have the Japanese audio with English subs than that.

I feel like less effort is put into subtitles than anything, even when done professionally at times. "It smells like urine" can mean something like "you are so immature." How is a western audience going to get that? JRPGs can get weird enough without the half-assed idiom translations. When it's voiced out loud someone's more likely to say "wait a second this sounds extremely retarded."

[Eaglegun]

I want to be able to choose what the character says. Like choosing to almost kiss Don Corneo in FF7. :D

You could choose a lot less when voice acting came in. So I'm pro Text Boxes.

I agree that text is better for RPGs because of the possibility for branching dialogue. I guess you could do that with voice acting, but it would be more difficult. Branching dialogue(even the limited kind) makes the player feel more involved in the story, which should be a point in "role playing" games.

[Vyk]

I agree that some lines should just not be spoken. I have no real preference as long as it's done well. The issue with the actions or emotes in text could easily be remedied with sound bytes akin to Kefka's laugh, or the Moogle or Chocobo sounds from FFIX. Or a more terrible but also relevant example would be baby Mario or the baby penguins from Mario 64

Another great alternative would be character portraits in dialog that have multiples to convey different emotions. It worked great in Lunar, and to an extent in Xenogears. You wouldn't have to type out *sob* if the portrait next to the text is bawling its eyes out

Also that strange pause and lack of context issue in spoken dialog has been around forever and I think its long past time to put it to rest. What the hell are the localization teams thinking not giving actors context? Why in the world would you just tell someone "here, say this line". There has to be a director behind that. Why wouldn't they tell the actor what's being said before and after this line, and what emotion they should be trying to inflect in their voice. They're not psychic, they're not going to know what connotation to use. And I think they could do a better job with the timing in general. I know Working Designs demonstrated in a lot of Making Of videos they released in their final few games what a painstaking process they went through trying to make everything sound just right, and they weren't afraid to do thirty takes on a single line just to get the timing and emotion just right, to the director's approval. Granted processes that extensive may have contributed to their overall financial issues and stuff, but its not like other companies can't at least try half that hard

The writing's always been bad and I think there's always room for improvement. But in this regard I think it falls more in the lap of the voice acting director. And I would much rather text if they're not going to put much effort into doing voices

[Wolf Kanno]

Since this is more about voice work in general, I moving it to General FF.

I prefer text myself. I've seen some great VA work in games but they are rare, and SE certainly doesn't do it often. X's VA work wasn't so bad considering their earlier track record but some of the VA's bombed it, specifically Yuna's who tries too hard to emulate the Japanese performance which doesn't work so well in English, and Seymour's performance was also a little too campy for my taste. XII had a pretty good VA cast imo though I still kept subtitles on anyway so I could understand some of the characters who have really thick accents. XIII's VA work is actually pretty good, its just the writing is awful and no performer could have sold it as serious drama.

Dissidia has some awful VA work but I blame it more on the fact that none of the games had voices before and yet fans have had years to form their own idea of how they sound. I'll tell you now that a majority of the formally un-voiced characters didn't sound like I had imagined in Dissidia, I still can't get around Terra, Kuja, Kefka, and Zidanes VA work. The really bad thing is that I don't like the Japanese versions any better, so switching it to another language wouldn't work for me either.

Other examples of bad VA choices is Cid Highwind, I wish I could punch the lights out of the guy who thought it would be neat to give him an American Southern Hick accent. It really destroyed the character for me and the idea of a remake with that voice is enough for me to pass. :argh: Hell most of VII's VA are not so great beyond the leads. Even FFIV has some awful VA work with Tellah, Cid, and a few others imho.

This is partially why I don't mind text, I actually like creating my own idea for the characters voices and often time, its easier to stomach cheesy dialogue when you're reading as opposed to listening to it. I've yet to play a Squaresoft/Squenix title that was improved because of voice overs, I'd rather they just drop them entirely if they are not going to use it properly.

[DMKA]

Voice acting of course.

[magemasher]

I think it works both ways. On the older consoles pre ffx then I prefer text bubbles.

Now we have these great graphics it would be weird having text bubbles instead of voice acting.

[Mercen-X]

Depends


If the game has full-motion or cutscenes, I want them voiced. But then I want the whole thing voiced, not just those parts. That's one thing I hate about Kingdom Hearts.
It's one way or the other! Not both! Drop it!
Cutscenes can be dialogued with text rather than voice-acting, but if you need to control the flow of the text so you don't miss anything, then the cutscene will be considerably slower.
Personally, I prefer voice-acting. It adds another element of immersion to the game. If I'm staring at a bunch of people who are gesturing or making faces and no sounds are coming out, I react the same way I do if there's no music or sound FX. If I wanted to play a text-based game, I'd pick up a text-based game.
I have mixed feelings about the voice of the main character. On the one hand, I don't want my character wandering around as a mute that other characters somehow understand. On the other hand, that's not my voice! There's no win, because the level of immersion taken from the main character is the same whether he has a voice or not.