Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Well they don't really affect the story though do they. They're just given lines to read out for the most part. The story would be identical if it was completely silent. I'd argue that voice acting has actually done less for RPGs than it has for other genres. Most of the dialogue in RPGs is when you're just standing around anyway so just reading things was always fine. Which is why to this day, most people's favourite RPGs were ones that had no voice acting. I'd put voice acting on par with good graphics in terms of RPGs. It's a nice novelty, but for the most part they were fine without it.
The place where voice acting has really added considerable value to games is the party based (AI party) action and adventure types. Last of Us, Uncharted, Half-life 2, Portal 2, FFXV. Before voice acting came along, you just couldn't have someone talking to you at the same time as any kind of action on screen, because you can't pay attention to text at the same time as realtime events on screen. The Last of Us before voice acting would be a much inferior game. Final Fantasy before voice acting was not inferior at all.

Next year, when Squenix fixes their broken DLC and season pass nonsense and compiles everything in a obligatory complete edition, I'll happily give the game a go. Until then, I'm looking forward to playing TLG later today, finishing up some quests in The Witcher 3 and hopefully spend some time on my backlog during the upcoming holidays.

@Haru17 Just a FYI, the Witcher novels are translated into English, and the characters are pretty much the same. It's not some weird distant adaptation, the writing, mannerisms and all are eerily close. Give me a piece of Geralt's monologue from the game and the book, and it's hard to tell where it came from. So in a way, yes, most of the character development happens already in the books.

@Dezzy Silent Movies were also frequently enjoyed before talkies came about.

Look, I know what you're trying to say, but I find it hard to believe anyone could sit through hours of cutscenes (both cinematic and otherwise) and other dialogue without having some proper voice acting. Hell, I highly doubt I'd care about the Geralt if it weren't for his delivery in his dialogue. The way things are said has such a huge impact on how we human beings percieve things emotionally you saying "his lines would be just as effective even if it was pure text!" ranges between alien and utter bull$#!+ in my eyes.

@CanisWolfred I can sit through hours of talky-talky with older JRPGs and do just find without voice acting. The writing, character animations, and music can help to convey the emotions in a scene.

Heck, just did that with the first Trails in the Sky. The game didn't feel like it was missing something because the frequent dialogues weren't voiced.

Don't get me wrong: good voice acting can really help. But it's not a necessity.

@CanisWolfred

Did you not care about any characters before voice acting then? Cos I think the cast of FF9 is probably my favourite set of characters in any game ever.
I think people are just forgetting how much their imagination fills in when there's no audio.

@Dezzy - No, but only because I was already forced to use my imagination in those older games. I would not accept that from a modern game with frequent cinematics and conversations that clearly show the characters talking to eachother. Skies of Arcadia alone proved that to me, I just can't get used to silence.

At the same time, bad or bland voice acting can ruin a game, in ways that I'd hope anyone who suffered through the 32-bit/64-bit generation could understand. Hence why a good performance shouldn't be taken for granted.

My point is simply that good voice acting only adds to the cinematic experience that has become a standard of the genre, and I'm trying to explain why. I don't see why this is so difficult for you to understand, unless you're deaf and aren't used to listening to people talk.

My top 10 favourite games of all time (Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last of Us, Skyward Sword, Chrono Trigger, Ghost Trick Phantom Detective, Twilight Princess, The Witcher 3, Mother 3, Bloodborne, Ni No Kuni) are all plot focused/story heavy, but whilst I will always praise those games that are greatly enhanced by the voice actors (TLOU and TW3 there) I won't outright dock a game for its absence, especially in the case of Chrono Trigger where voice acting in videogames was far from normal in its time, or Ghost Trick where it lacked the budget to afford one amongst other issues that prevented that game from succeeding.

And out of those games I listed there, the one whose story/characters impacted me the most would be Mother 3, without even a fraction of the money/technology/expertise in this area that allowed TLOU to be as fantastic as it is. Because of course as has been pointed out, a game without such luxuries will in all probability just be a worse experience if amateurs who don't know how to direct try to create a 'cinematic' videogame, David Cage being a brilliant example there.

Performance matters, but is definitely not essential and is definitely secondary at best to great gameplay.

I've honestly wanted to see someone for a long time make a AAA (or AAA looking), cinematic, modern day game...with no voice acting. And have the lack of voice acting be a part of the story.

I would love this.

Well, I won't be getting FFXV for any price, apparently. I've had a few people independently confirm that the game infinitely spams imperial dropships every few minutes like in the Episode Duscae demo when you're exploring the world. That was incredibly aggravating, and I have no desire to experience that again in the full game.

Forget that noise.

So, I've been playing The Last Guardian, and me being me, I spend a lot of time looking around the environments for hidden details and whatnot. Anyway, the thing I noticed is the E3 2015 segment somewhere high up above me. I've noticed it two times now, the second time I was a lot closer to it. From what I understand, we're climbing a tower, so I guess that's one of the upcoming part then. Pretty neat that you can see certain parts of the game early on, you just have to know what you're looking for. I can appreciate little details like that in a game.

@Octane It's similar to Dark Souls III and Bloodborne to a lesser extent, in that you can see distance areas or landmarks that you shall eventually reach at some point during your arduous journey. I get a real kick out of those little moments, and The Last Guardian provides those moments in spades.

I don't know how long the game is, and I don't particularly wish to say where I am at in fear of spoiling things for you and everybody else however, if the game continues to carry the joy I'm feeling at present right the way through to the end, then I think it will quite happily take The Witness place as my favourite game of the year.

It's a spellbinding experience, and one that I doubt we'll see the likes of again.

I'll come back when I have finished, and hopefully you'll have finished it by then too!

@Peek-a-boo I've heard about 12 to 15 hours, but I have no idea how long I've been playing, probably somewhere between 3 and 5 hours. I just arrived at the part from the E3 demo from last year, I think that should be enough to let you know how far I am without potentially spoiling anything.

I'm really enjoying it so far, and it keeps getting better! I'll let you know when I'm done!

OMG! Anyone else play Nitroplus Blasterz? The last boss on story mode is utterly insane. I'm so salty. I'm not sure how to beat her, even on normal difficulty!

No, but I want to. I'll load it up.

@CanisWolfred I'm getting the feeling she's probably easier with quicker, fighter-style characters. I had a really hard time fighting her with Saya and Super Sonico, though. Not impossible, but a huge difficulty spike compared to all the other characters you fight in story mode.

The game itself is surprisingly fun. I'm not really into fighting games, but I could see myself enjoying this.

Yeah, it's a fun game. The only advice I can give you is that beating her is like beating Saber and the other Angel ***** from Demonbane: Stop thinking. Clear your mind, and let pure, unadulterated rage take over. Do not stop beating it for even one second. Forget specials, forget supers, just never let up, and use high-grade Rush attacks when possible.

I beat her as Muramasa. I don't know if I recommend that. She's clearly a carbon copy of Spiderman from Marvel vs Capcom, to such an extent that it feel like she doesn't really belong in this game. The rest of it is a toned-down version of Arcana Hearts, and most of the time she's at a genuine disadvantage compared to the rest of the cast. She's mainly good at rushing her opponents, and the final boss was the only time when I felt like that was imperative.

@CanisWolfred Thanks for the suggestion. Next time I have the chance to play the game (it actually belongs to a friend), I'll try beating her with a character that is quick and comfortable for me to play with.

Google Chrome tells me that one of The Last Guardian's Japanese trailers is titled "Eagle Toriko of eating people."

Seems legit.

Now do you see why I find it so scary?! I tell you, how can you look at this face and say that it doesn't eat people? I don't buy it. Not one bit.

@CanisWolfred Aww, but it's cuuuuuute when it's crying pitch-black blood.