66 réponses à ce sujet

[_Aine_]

I think the voice actors in general were fabulous!  The Inquisitor voices, in my opinion, were very neutral and overly restrained.  I am positive it was on purpose too, I just miss the more obvious emotive delivery that is possible from VA of this caliber.  Hope they go back to their more demonstrative ways for DA4!  

[Reva-C]

Yeah, I enjoyed the distinct characters in how Hawke was voiced

[CENIC]

Oh thank the Maker I'm not the only one who cringes every time Cole says tear instead of tear.

[robertthebard]

How many potential companions did the Inquisitor kill when you played DLI.  Did not kill one, myself.  Don't believe there was ever an opportunity to go against that script.  Best you could do, was leave Blackstone in prison, knowing he would be executed.  Maybe I missed something, only played it once.
 
But, every single play through of DAO, my Warden ends up killing at least two potential companions.  Differences of opinion "shrugs".  While any free will in ANY role-playing game that has a plot and an ending is nothing but an illusion, it felt like DAO did far better to make the illusion seem real.  Obviously, there were always things I would have rather had a choice to do differently.  But, not near as often as I did in its sequels.

Are you accidentally in the wrong thread? This is a discussion about Voice Acting in the game.

[Dakota Strider]

Read the two posts above mine.  Seemed an answer was appropriate.

[aliastasia]

I agree with OP, and I really dislike the female VAs for the PC.
I love Tikaram, Ellis, Bloom, Kempa, and some of the other's voice-work, but most of the time, I tend to just turn the volume down in conversation heavy parts, because Alix  (which is my default because of preferred accent) just grates on me - it's not the timbre, that's pleasant enough, but it's the lack of direction in some parts, the blandness in others, and then the shrill/shrieky voice when she wants to be forceful - like that scene with Cass and Varric, that had me cringe, in addition to the issues with emphasis OP mentioned.
Maybe it's a headset thing - I usually have a headset on when gaming, and maybe it's more noticeable when it's pumped so closely into your eardrums?

 

/A
 

[Shinobu]

Yeah, I enjoyed the distinct characters in how Hawke was voiced

 

Funny, I hated Hawke for exactly that reason. It was partially the poor paraphrasing on the dialog wheel, but I felt like Hawke was an annoying stranger I could barely control. While I might have enjoyed a different voice/tone more than the one I chose I disliked the character enough the first time not to want to bother trying. So happy to get rid of her!

 

So far I think Jen Hale has done the best job of making a neutral sounding protagonist interesting. She had the advantage of playing a no-nonsense military type and also of having relationships that lasted 3 games so NPCs with defined characters could emote to her.

[BraveVesperia]

I think the voice acting was fantastic. I noticed a couple of instances where words were pronounced oddly or emphasised in a way that didn't quite fit, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.

 

The only one I remember was in the caves on the Storm Coast, American female voice says "Looks like the templars have dug in here." Made it sounds like they'd been doing a little digging. I think it was supposed to be more dug-in like the miltary sense, they've fortified their position. No emphasis on the word 'dug'. I can't remember how the English female voice said it, but I think it fit better.

[phishface]

I thought the title of this topic was clear: it's about voice direction, not acting. Just to clarify further, I'm not criticising the voice acting in general, or at all. Some of it was outstanding. For example, I think Cassandra's actor did a spectacularly good job. There are times when her voice catches, or changes pitch, which are just perfectly judged and add greatly to the character.

 

The point I was trying to make was that no matter how talented actors are, they need good direction, especially in games like this where they're not likely to understand the context of every line. Take the example given by BraveVesparia above. As a written line "dug in" can be spoken in different ways with distinct meanings. It's up to a director to tell the actor which meaning they're looking for, otherwise the actor has to make a guess. The scene could be about Templars digging for something, or it could be about them fortifying their position. The director should know which it is, and tell the actor.

[Fredvdp]

The only wonky voice work I've heard is the Inquistor's casual "What's going on here?" when at the first rift, as if the Divine were asking for a cheese sandwich.

Oddly, when the Fade memory is expanded a minute later and you see the entire scene your Inquisitor says the same line but with actual emphasis...so I'm left to think this was just an error in audio placement.

That's definitely the case. I've heard the casual "What's going on here" when talking to party members. They just picked the wrong one in the prologue.

[mLIQUID]

It comes with the territory I suppose. There were times where a tagline choice ended up being an erratic response by my character and I was just like... what? They consider it an rpg breaker to restart before convo but if you can't accurately converse with the taglines provided it is sometimes necessary. Otherwise you end up feeling like you've entered into a txt message war with your significant other.

[GT409]

I legit lost some respect for BioWare for that male NPC Chanter in Val Royeaux. Was there no director there at all?

This.

I've heard Tranquil more emotive than that guy!

[Reva-C]

Funny, I hated Hawke for exactly that reason. It was partially the poor paraphrasing on the dialog wheel, but I felt like Hawke was an annoying stranger I could barely control. While I might have enjoyed a different voice/tone more than the one I chose I disliked the character enough the first time not to want to bother trying. So happy to get rid of her!

 

So far I think Jen Hale has done the best job of making a neutral sounding protagonist interesting. She had the advantage of playing a no-nonsense military type and also of having relationships that lasted 3 games so NPCs with defined characters could emote to her.

 

Yeah, I'm guessing that's why they went more 'bland' with the Inquisitor. I liked Hawke for his characterful manner (I played nearly all my playthroughs with the male hawke)...but I can see how others wouldn't like him, so I can understand why they wouldn't want to take that risk with the Inquisitor again.

[zahra]

I thought the VA was fantastic save for the Inquisitor's voice. Bland, and at times just didn't suit the scene. Example, when you go to VR and confront the clerics, the f/British/Inquisitor shouts far too loud and seems a bit cray considering right after Cass speaks with the exact right intonation. 

 

I wish wish wish they had chosen better VAs for the Inquisitors. The Hawkes were perfect. 

[Linkenski]

The game supposedly had 80.000 lines of spoken dialogue. Even with voice direction that's bound to have some hits and misses.

Caroline Livingstone has been the persistent voice director at all Bioware departments for more than 10 years or so though, and she's actually pretty well known and acknowledged for her great work.

I hope Bioware's animation team nails the dialogue interruptions soon though. I'm getting sick of those.

Person A: "No, we just need to--"

*pause for 3 seconds*

Person B: "--need to do what?"

[DiscoGhost]

Only problem I have is lip syncing, you can tell who the main voice actors are though.

this guy is right,

 

but who needs a director when your freddie - all hail freddie. 

[PoisonSmog]

Actually, I think the voice acting was fine. To me, I thought the animation needed more work expressing the emotions that the voice actors are giving off. For example, there was a moment where Dorian being sarcastic and you could just picture the movements he should be making in your head. Instead, he's actually just standing there. All glassy eyed and minorly expressive. I think this is what most games have trouble with.