I think I’m the exact opposite. An unvoiced main character often feels incomplete and breaks my immersion. Unless there is a believable reason for the characters muteness.
I know it’s not a literal muteness, but it still feels like there is a disconnect between an unvoiced PC and voiced NPCs that respond to dialogue that was never spoken. Maybe I just struggle with projecting my own identity into a character that literally can’t talk, but I never feel connected or as immersed in games that don’t have a voiced main character.
It’s ultimately a purely subjective argument and there is no better method in the voiced vs unvoiced debate.
My mistake then, I misunderstood your intent and only meant to provide clarity to the discussion. And I completely agree that it’s a subjective argument that has no “right answer”. Depending on the game, I’ve greatly appreciated and been put off by both methods.
Mass Effect and The Witcher for example, hell yeah, love me those voiced protagonists. Brought so much personality to those games. Fallout 4 and Dragon Age 3 on the other hand… well I’ll say they weren’t my cup of tea.
Fallout New Vegas and the Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, loved the control I had over who my character “was”, and I have simply never felt that level of control using a voiced character. And having that control brought a different kind of immersion to the games for me.
Really about bringing the right tool for the job. All I can say is that I hope a voiced protagonist is the right tool for the job in VtMB2, because there are many features the first game had that will almost certainly have to be sacrificed at the alter of voice acting. Including the item at the top of my personal wish-list, completely rewritten Malkavian dialogue.
Anyway, sorry for the rant and the mis-understanding.
I think I’m the exact opposite. An unvoiced main character often feels incomplete and breaks my immersion. Unless there is a believable reason for the characters muteness.
An unvoiced character =/= a mute character. In the first VtMB, the main character was unvoiced but had tons of dialogue options.
I know it’s not a literal muteness, but it still feels like there is a disconnect between an unvoiced PC and voiced NPCs that respond to dialogue that was never spoken. Maybe I just struggle with projecting my own identity into a character that literally can’t talk, but I never feel connected or as immersed in games that don’t have a voiced main character.
It’s ultimately a purely subjective argument and there is no better method in the voiced vs unvoiced debate.
Have you tried reading the dialog from the mc in your head with the voice you want them to have?
Yeah, but the conversation still feels distractingly one sided and disconnected
:(
My mistake then, I misunderstood your intent and only meant to provide clarity to the discussion. And I completely agree that it’s a subjective argument that has no “right answer”. Depending on the game, I’ve greatly appreciated and been put off by both methods.
Mass Effect and The Witcher for example, hell yeah, love me those voiced protagonists. Brought so much personality to those games. Fallout 4 and Dragon Age 3 on the other hand… well I’ll say they weren’t my cup of tea.
Fallout New Vegas and the Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, loved the control I had over who my character “was”, and I have simply never felt that level of control using a voiced character. And having that control brought a different kind of immersion to the games for me.
Really about bringing the right tool for the job. All I can say is that I hope a voiced protagonist is the right tool for the job in VtMB2, because there are many features the first game had that will almost certainly have to be sacrificed at the alter of voice acting. Including the item at the top of my personal wish-list, completely rewritten Malkavian dialogue.
Anyway, sorry for the rant and the mis-understanding.