Voices - Yay or Nay?

[Nathan Pringle 11]

Hey guys, I'm on the edge about this, so I'm asking you.

 

How would you feel if there were voices in a game? Obviously it would have to be good voice acting, but I'm not sure how it would work with a retro style video game. I feel like it wouldn't be too good but I figured I'd ask you guys to be sure.

 

Thoughts?

[SpookyMothman 361]

Voices are a-okay in RPGs.

 

How retro is this game you're talking about?

[LordSquirrel 150]

I personally prefer when characters have voices, but it can be hard to find voice actors who truly fit roles of characters.

[TheHarmp 155]

I dislike voice acting, unless it's done very well.
But some yells or oomphs during battle are nice.. again.. if done well.

[+ Sughayyer 163]

The Lunar remakesd for playstation had the classic sega-cd (that is, a little more technology than 16-bit RPGs) and had voices during the battles. Tales of Phantasia also had some IIRC.

And of course, if you can voice the cutscenes it's a nice thing. The problem is finding good voice actors.

[Overlord 4]

The Lunar remakesd for playstation had the classic sega-cd (that is, a little more technology than 16-bit RPGs) and had voices during the battles. Tales of Phantasia also had some IIRC.

And of course, if you can voice the cutscenes it's a nice thing. The problem is finding good voice actors.

 

Those both had horrible voice acting.

[Skysagi 219]

I like voice acting, but they have to be well made. They don't have to be PERFECT, but just good is not enough in my opinion.

[+ Sughayyer 163]

 

The Lunar remakesd for playstation had the classic sega-cd (that is, a little more technology than 16-bit RPGs) and had voices during the battles. Tales of Phantasia also had some IIRC.

And of course, if you can voice the cutscenes it's a nice thing. The problem is finding good voice actors.

 

Those both had horrible voice acting.

 

I played little of the playstation version, but Lunar Eternal Blue for sega CD had great voicings... Especially the actor who did Ghaleon, that guy is great!

[Shi-an 39]

In the context of RPG maker, nay.

 

I agree with everyone else that if done well, voice acting brings a whole lot to the game.

 

However, adding voice acting includes the risk of ruining the experience if done badly. Add to that the fact that the majority of RPG Maker games have no voice acting, which means the audience is not expecting it. You may put off certain players who simply don't want voice acting at all, or are less tolerant of it in general.

 

Also as many have mentioned, it's not easy getting voice actors who fit a character. Depending on how many characters you want voices for, you may have to get 10+ different voices actors, and the best ones have to fit the roles for your most important characters. Considering the diversity of humankind the likelihood of having people who both fit your characters, are good enough voice actors, and are willing to do it for free is very slim. Therefore you will have to pay for people who fit that bill, which will increase production costs (which probably isn't worth it unless you're making a commercial game)

 

 

Basically yeah, voice acting is good, but unless you have the right people to do it (which will probably cost a lot of money) it's too risky.

[LordSquirrel 150]

Voice acting alliance, and vocal-loco members generally do voice acting for free, and most are reasonably talented people.

[piggybankcowboy 13]

I'm also one to say "no" in the context of RM games. Now, if you're talking about putting well animated cinematic cut scenes in with some solid voice talent, then maybe, and I mean fully rendered 3D models where the mouth and body moves accordingly, not just sprites. As for in-game dialogue, stick with text. Not just because it's traditional, but it's what people expect, and changing that would likely be jarring to the experience of playing the types of games once can make with RM. 

[TheHarmp 155]

Also, I like to option to skip through text quickly (especially on a second playthrough), and with voice acting that might not be an option.
and like piggybankcowboy said, having voice acting doesn't really fit the 'style' most VX Ace games..

although I remember seeing one where the creator used busts/portraits with moving mouths with his voice acting (that was an insanely good game for a vx ace game, can't remember the name though.)
I'm not trying to say "don't do it, ever.", more along the lines of "if you do, and do it badly, it could easily ruin an otherwise fine game, so choose wisely."

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

Several months back, I saw a demo for an RPGMaker release that someone had decided to exhibit publicly at various cons. The stuff he showed overall had a lot of pretty serious issues (lots of his B and D tiles were randomly cut in half, the dialogue was full of awkward info dumps and didn't fit inside the text boxes, many of the events were just plain broken) but the thing that really killed it dead for me was the fact every single character was voiced by someone who didn't know how to use a mic. You know,  bad sound quality, tons of hissing and popping, and they were constantly breathing into the microphone.

 

"So, noble night, hhhhhhhh, what is it that you have come to request from me? GgghhhhhhhuuuuuI'll have you know that I will not suffer fools glady and hhhhif you intend to mock me I shall strike theehhhhhhhhhh down."

 

On top of that, I'm just gonna be a huge jerk and say that a lot of amateur voice actors just aren't that great. I'm not saying there aren't any good ones (I've met a few folks who're insanely talented) but a big chunk of amateur VAs are just people who just scream really awkwardly in a stereotypically 'anime' kind of way. ("I'm the quirky girl so my voice is suuuper squeaky and weird, nyah!"/"I am the stoic warrior type and so I talk like I'm bored of living."/ etc.) 

 

 

So, yeah. Sorry for the long (and somewhat jerk-ish) post, but I honestly think that unless you can somehow get ahold of a professional actor, it'd be better to just not have voices in your game. Bad voices can just destroy the tone of your game.

[INDOJIN 70]

Also, I like to option to skip through text quickly (especially on a second playthrough), and with voice acting that might not be an option.

 

 

Yeah you can do that. That's why there is a "Stop SE" command

 

>Play SE

>Show Text

>Stop SE

 

This would ensure the voice is cut off before playing the next and since show text is sandwiched in between, the player has control over its flow.

 

At the OP, I'd say go for it only if you're aware of the cons. Bigger filesizes, extra effort in putting it in (see above), extra effort finding decent voice actors and you need to take care to actually show who's speaking the lines. NEVER simply playback dialogue in a 2D setting without dialogue boxes or pictures to show who's talking. You might argue that people can identify them by voice, but to pin voices to their owners, you need to give them some kind of clue in the first place.

 

A game of uh..*cough* a rather adult setting named "Legend of Queen Opala II" (RMXP) has them and I never found them off kilter or anything, They just play alongside standard dialogue boxes and it works rather well.

Edited March 6, 2014 by PickleBros.

[sjw_rm 1]

Seems unnatural for RPG Maker. Voice acting is good but I mainly like them in long cutscenes (e.g. Kingdom Hearts series). You could make it work, however.

[tillypope 1]

Generally, I like voice acting in my RPGs but I find too many indie and RPG maker games are riddled with terrible VO. Especially if it's a fantasy game...too many prepubescent boys trying to sound like burly knights lmao!

[LakiLarian 3]

As a writer, I think there's a sort of charm to leaving the voices to the readers' imaginations. In RPG Maker's format in particular, I would say that artistically there are a lot of possibilities, but Reading is still the primary mode of displaying dialogue. I think one reason why voice acting in these kinds of games gets a bad rap very easily is because the player can read along with the actor, and can most likely read the whole line before the actor is done 'performing' it.

 

That makes a bad actor worse, and a 'decent' actor boring, competing with the player's imagination of how the text Should sound. So overall, I would say voice acting is likely unnecessary during the sprite-driven portions of the game. Let the quality of the writing catch the player's interest. However, cutscenes are a free-for-all based on talent and what kind of 'pazazz' you're going for. Also, high-quality recorded noises, like "grrr" or "hrmm?" may be welcome additions to the in-game sprite scenes.

 

Unless you're game is a comedy of the 'doesn't take itself seriously' variety. Then let the cornball commence! An odd voice may actually sell it. But mic quality, as Kidd described brilliantly, is still very important. Unless the plot somehow calls for intentionally bad mic quality... *imagines a game about a couple of guys trapped in a cell-phone commercial*

[Valen 2]

I don't have much to say on the topic.

 

I think the more realistic you get, which I know is difficult with RPG Maker, the more justified it would be to include voices.

 

For example, having static characters (No Kaduki, no battle animation) with generic facesets.would not constitute

the implementation of voices. That would be weird.

 

I think voices are sort of a reward for how much effort you put in. The more effort, the better the voices will be.

[Team ACA 2]

Hmm Glad to see someone beat me to this post so that's one less thing I have to ask about *makes lazy yawning face* but sounds like there is a general dislike to voice acting due to 1) record quality 2) bad actors 3) tradition although there are many pros, seems like everyone is saying it's a possible good idea but opens up a whole can of rotting dried up worms. hmmm

-James

[sjw_rm 1]

People usually don't see VA in RPG games like these and it may put them off.

[Tussin 1]

i really loved how Lufia added voicing for Curse of the Sinistrals on Nintendo DS. i never really experienced it much besides Dissidia on PSP which was merely a Fighting style RPG based game and White Knight Chronicles on PS3. it really added another layer of immersion into the gaming experience and the world of the story said game is playing in. i give it a big thumbs up.