Why voice-overs are killing RPGs

Not litterally. RPGs are still selling very well today. But I've noticed that today's RPGs are less rich and plentiful of dialogues since voice-overs became mandatory for a game to be "accepted".

Go back in the pre-Final Fantasy X era and take a look at the narrative of RPGs. Take for example Final Fantasy VIII, which had a hell of a lot of dialogues (and monologues). The staff behind the game could cram an infinite amount of text if they so desired. Reading doesn't take long, and nobody cares if the story is interesting. It's just like reading a book. All Final Fantasies were like that (especially VI, VII, VIII and IX). Lots of interesting text to read, which would make the story rich.

Now compare these to today's RPGs, in which there are voice-overs. Scenario writers can't let their mind run free and write plenty of dialogues. They've got to gauge the right amount of dialogues needed so the game doesn't feel empty, but not to much. Why? Because now they've gotta hire and pay voice-actors (which costs quite a lot). Not only that, but if the dialogues are too long, the game will get tiresome real fast. Take a scene from any RPG that would require between 5 and 10 minutes of reading. Take all of the text and add voice-overs. It'll take a lot longer to cover the same amount of information brought forward by reading, and the player would get tired. In the end, game company can't afford to write stories and dialogues as rich as before.

Of course, voice-overs have their advantages. Games are now more movie-like, and actors bring the characters to life. But that doesn't mean pre-voice-overs characters were lifeless. More dialogues and information is what a story and character needs. I'm not saying today's RPG characters are lifeless. Final Fantays XII has great, interesting and living characters. But it's not the same as before. Just compare the amount of information contained in FFVI, VII, VIII and IX to X, X-2 and XII. There's quite a difference in the amount of content. Also, when there are no voices, a character's personality will be forged only by his/her dialogues, whereas with an actor behind the character, the personality is kinda forced.

If voice was something crucial to the development of a characters, then books wouldn't have a purpose. But we know this isn't true. Everybody knows nothing will surpass the richness books offer. RPGs nowadays are like movies, but I prefer when they were like books. I prefer having a lot of interesting text to read than having to simply watch a cutscene that might have irritating voices. I could read for over 10 minutes-long and not be bothered at all, but not-so-much with cutscenes with voices. What's your opinion?

I definetly agree with the OP. FFIX is my favourite game of all time. The problem is...Well... Just look at Nintendo. They have been slow with including voice acting, and they are often punished for this in reviews. People expect voice acting, and for some reason people don't understand how text could be just as good if not better.

When i read the title i though it was going to be about the translation of stories in RPG's :)

I think KOTOR is what started a lot of it, the voice acting in KOTOR actually enhances the game a great deal.Zulgaines

Yes, KotOR is the exception. There are a hell of a lot of dialogues, and they aren't redundant. But KotOR is the only exception. No games are like it (except Jade Empire).

^^ Even so, much of KOTOR's dialogue was just garbled alien-speak.

RPGs rely on their dialogue and story-telling capabilities, so voice acting can be important in 'setting the mood' (or whatever). But voice acting will ultimately limit the quantity and quality of the dialogue, which could ruin the RPG...

I guess that the best option might be to have important characters speaking, while most other people just have text. If there's still too much dialogue, they could opt for only the first few lines/only the important lines to be spoken.
That worked for Planescape: Torment, which would have cost a huge amount of money and probably double the disc space (it was already 4 CDs) if they had decided to speak every line in the game.

But the reading is hard. Think of the children!

:(

some time the voice ruins the character, that's why.

I disagree. Voice-overs are great if done right with good writing and good acting.

Dragon Quest VIII is the best example of a old-school/new-school type of RPG with awesome voice-overs. I can't imagine playing this game without hearing Yangus crying, "Cor blimey!" It just won't be the same.

However, I do agree that some games go overboard. I thought FFX andValkaryie Profile2 did too much.

Not litterally. RPGs are still selling very well today. But I've noticed that today's RPGs are less rich and plentiful of dialogues since voice-overs became mandatory for a game to be "accepted".

Go back in the pre-Final Fantasy X era and take a look at the narrative of RPGs. Take for example Final Fantasy VIII, which had a hell of a lot of dialogues (and monologues). The staff behind the game could cram an infinite amount of text if they so desired. Reading doesn't take long, and nobody cares if the story is interesting. It's just like reading a book. All Final Fantasies were like that (especially VI, VII, VIII and IX). Lots of interesting text to read, which would make the story rich.

Now compare these to today's RPGs, in which there are voice-overs. Scenario writers can't let their mind run free and write plenty of dialogues. They've got to gauge the right amount of dialogues needed so the game doesn't feel empty, but not to much. Why? Because now they've gotta hire and pay voice-actors (which costs quite a lot).

AuthenticM

This point assumes that the developers of these games are being moderate. Having played games like KH2 which have far too much exposition I can't say I agree (though that is to do with more than just dialogue).

I disagree completely. I read all of the time, and much of my reading is spent immersed in fantasy novels. Which is where it should stay--they tell better stories.

I play RPGs to feel immersed in a role--usually the role of an epic hero. That's something I can't get anywhere else, and well-performed voice acting only adds to the immersion.

But I suppose if I were playing mostly Japanese-style RPGs, I would probably agree with you. But that's because Japanese-style RPGs are poorly designed and give you very little chance to actually immerse yourself in a role. *Dons flame-retardant suit*

[QUOTE="Zulgaines"]I think KOTOR is what started a lot of it, the voice acting in KOTOR actually enhances the game a great deal.AuthenticM

Yes, KotOR is the exception. There are a hell of a lot of dialogues, and they aren't redundant. But KotOR is the only exception. No games are like it (except Jade Empire).

Well, except for the looping alien noises....

[QUOTE="Zulgaines"]I think KOTOR is what started a lot of it, the voice acting in KOTOR actually enhances the game a great deal.AuthenticM

Yes, KotOR is the exception. There are a hell of a lot of dialogues, and they aren't redundant. But KotOR is the only exception. No games are like it (except Jade Empire).

Oblivion had a lot of dialogue. In fact, they had Patrick Stewart do the voice of the emperor, and he made the corny RPG dialogue sound a lot better.

[QUOTE="AuthenticM"]

[QUOTE="Zulgaines"]I think KOTOR is what started a lot of it, the voice acting in KOTOR actually enhances the game a great deal.IndianaJosh

Yes, KotOR is the exception. There are a hell of a lot of dialogues, and they aren't redundant. But KotOR is the only exception. No games are like it (except Jade Empire).

Oblivion had a lot of dialogue. In fact, they had Patrick Stewart do the voice of the emperor, and he made the corny RPG dialogue sound a lot better.

...but most of Oblivion's dialogue was redundant. Also, Patrick Steward only said about 15 lines in the entire game, so that's not much of a bonus.

Thinking of that, Vampire Bloodlines was entirely voice-acted, and that turned out rather well. So I guess it is possible to have lots of good dialogue and still be a good RPG.

I can complain about text also. How much useless fluff text do we get in RPGs also? How many times do I have to sit there and deal with bubble after bubble just to get to the point...they need help.

Like for Instance...Dragon Quest 8 or whatever. I pretty much had my first hour nothing but annoying text bubbles.

I think what they need to do is make dialog interesting, fun ,and have a point. Not so we can say OMG the game is 30hours long!

I think the best to do this was Kotor. Some of them spoke, some didn't but alot of times it didn't feel like it dragged on or anything else that.

But I suppose if I were playing mostly Japanese-style RPGs, I would probably agree with you. But that's because Japanese-style RPGs are poorly designed and give you very little chance to actually immerse yourself in a role. *Dons flame-retardant suit*OremLK

Oh please. Saying that Japanese rpg's are all poorly designed.....WoW *stands in awe of the great ignorance*

Maybe some people prefer actual character development, but oh well. I guess some people have so boring lives that they need "immersive" games to escape reality.

[QUOTE="OremLK"]But I suppose if I were playing mostly Japanese-style RPGs, I would probably agree with you. But that's because Japanese-style RPGs are poorly designed and give you very little chance to actually immerse yourself in a role. *Dons flame-retardant suit*_Tobli_

Oh please. Saying that Japanese rpg's are all poorly designed.....WoW *stands in awe of the great ignorance*

Maybe some people prefer actual character development, but oh well. I guess some people have so boring lives that they need "immersive" games to escape reality.

I won't get into this argument here, since it's not an appropriate thread for it, except to clarify that I didn't say all Japanese RPGs are poorly designed. I meant that they typically are. Nothing is universal when it comes to art. As for ignorance, I played through a number of the best-regarded JRPGs in my younger days, and have sampled the newer ones enough times to know that I no longer have any interest in the genre.

Saying japanese rpg''s are typically poorly designed is like saying valve's fps games are poorly designed. Japanese rpg's are what made rpg's what they are and stand way above wrpg's in all most every aspect when it comes to charecter desing, story, world, art etc. Tho wrpg's and jrpg's are way different so I could not see someone comparing these two genres.

Voice overs are not killing rpg's and it totally depends of the game. Imagine graphical powerhouse games like Final Fantasy X (in its time) and oblivion where everything is very detailed. It would look stupid if everyone would be just moving they mouths and only text would come out. Then imagine something like Final Fantasy VII or Fallout and in that case voice overs would sound stupid.

Japanese rpg's are what made rpg's what they are and stand way above wrpg's in all most every aspect when it comes to charecter desing, story, world, art etc.

Pessu

That's purely a matter of opinion - I disagree with you on these points.

Also, WRPGs came first - so they technically made RPGs 'what they are'.

Then imagine something like Final Fantasy VII or Fallout and in that case voice overs would sound stupid. Pessu

Fallout had voice overs, with some known actors saying the lines - including Macguyver!

I don´t think Voice-overs killing the RPGs.It´s the people who by "show-off RPGs" like Final Fantasy X which was a Story-downfall par exellance.They cut down a usually deep (even sometimes pretty stupid...look at FF8 ) Storyline to a 2h-Hollywood-Movie.Nice Cutscenes and Grapics and the people bought it like crazy while really awesome RPGs are not hitting the shelves in the US or Europe or collecting dust.

Bad dubbed-versions are a different thing.Of course,there are positive examples like Enchanted Arms (exept one Character :x) or Xenosaga Episode 3,but stuff like Persona 3 (plus wrong translated stuff!),FFXII (exept the main-characters absoluely horrible,plus the sound-quality is worse)kill games.And what some people don´t know : Some speech is also lost in translation ("Tales of"-Series) or even completely kicked (Growlanser 3).

Voice overs can be great if done correctly. Sure, they will cost a little extra money, but some actors have even noted that they would love to do a voice over for a game that they enjoy.

Doing voice-overs should be like cast directing. You think of an image for that character and then decide what type of person they are, then choose what person would best fit that description and choose them to portray that character. It's the same way when a cast director chooses the persons for a movie.

In some cases doing voice overs can benefit to the games affect and appeal while other times simple text dialogue can help better a game. It all depends on the game and the image that game is going for.

So all in all, I wouldn't say voice-overs are killing RPG's, as long as they are performed correctly and they don't throw just any voice to any character. However, some games would have bombed (more to say) if they would have just relied on simple text dialogue for each of the characters.

Merely opinion.

I am one of those people who think that the more senses you include an in experience the richer it is in stark contrast to reading a book. While clearly a well written book is better than a decent game, a great game takes everything of a book and adds and multiplies it to a point where you can experience it on more that one level.

Just because some stodgy old professor in a tweed jacket and leather patches on his elbows told you that "Call of the Wild" is a classic and has about 10 kajillion interpretations doesn't mean you can't do the same thing for a video game. Once you picture video games as more than mere entertainment, you will appreciate them too.

Now I can see where the problem lies in having crappy voiceovers, but then chances are anyone who does crappy voice work probably has crappy graphics, gameplay and a story. So like in the case of a bad book, you probably wouldn't be reading it anyways.

Words will always be far more descriptive than voice, even if voice can be more emotive aurally. When playing a text-based adventure game, you use your imagination to create everything, including the view of the world... far too many games these days are removing the imagination and just inserting us into a pre-determined world instead of giving us the flexibility and creative interpretive capabilities that our minds do.foxhound_fox

Exactly!! These new "overproduced" (like someone above said, awesome!) games are taking the "role" out of role-playing games. I no longer feel like the character, I'm just a spectator now.

Another great point made by the OP was the use of monlogue in FF8. That was great. Being in Squall'a head made you feel that much more that you were him.

I actually agree with the TC.

Though, I wouldn't necessarily say the voice-overs are killing RPGs, since they've helped enhance the experience of some, KOTOR being a prime example....rather I would say the expectations of high production values that many gamers feel a new RPG should have in order to be good (which includes voice-overs) is killing the potential for RPGs.

If the same technical expectations and high production values that are expected of todays RPGs were expected of RPGs in the past, even adjusted for cost back then, I don't think legendary RPG games like Planescape Torment would have been made.

Planescape Torment is probably a prime example, with the amount of rich dialogue in that game, it would just cost WAY too much to do it in a voice over....not to mention, many of the written descriptions worked better as text left to the players imagination, rather if it had been done as a voice-over or cutscene.

And I think that's why we see few RPGs today like the greats of yesterday, if you notice, most RPGs today are either MMO, Action-adventure RPG hybrids, Hack & Slash, or Action-RPG hybrids rather then traditional character driven RPGs in the past that used to make the genre so great.

I think with the expectations of high production values, which includes voice-overs, have left many potential independent RPG developers who can't afford such budgets out in the cold, and have stiffled the genre a bit.

I don´t think Voice-overs killing the RPGs.It´s the people who by "show-off RPGs" like Final Fantasy X which was a Story-downfall par exellance.They cut down a usually deep (even sometimes pretty stupid...look at FF8 ) Storyline to a 2h-Hollywood-Movie.Nice Cutscenes and Grapics and the people bought it like crazy while really awesome RPGs are not hitting the shelves in the US or Europe or collecting dust.

Bad dubbed-versions are a different thing.Of course,there are positive examples like Enchanted Arms (exept one Character :x) or Xenosaga Episode 3,but stuff like Persona 3 (plus wrong translated stuff!),FFXII (exept the main-characters absoluely horrible,plus the sound-quality is worse)kill games.And what some people don´t know : Some speech is also lost in translation ("Tales of"-Series) or even completely kicked (Growlanser 3).

Ash2X

I think you shouldhave swtiched between persona 3 and xenosaga. Man the second game haswaaay too many text that it turns you off before even knowing what the drill is. Persona 3 just had a natural and everyday dialoug...It was good.

[QUOTE="Ash2X"]

I don´t think Voice-overs killing the RPGs.It´s the people who by "show-off RPGs" like Final Fantasy X which was a Story-downfall par exellance.They cut down a usually deep (even sometimes pretty stupid...look at FF8 ) Storyline to a 2h-Hollywood-Movie.Nice Cutscenes and Grapics and the people bought it like crazy while really awesome RPGs are not hitting the shelves in the US or Europe or collecting dust.

Bad dubbed-versions are a different thing.Of course,there are positive examples like Enchanted Arms (exept one Character :x) or Xenosaga Episode 3,but stuff like Persona 3 (plus wrong translated stuff!),FFXII (exept the main-characters absoluely horrible,plus the sound-quality is worse)kill games.And what some people don´t know : Some speech is also lost in translation ("Tales of"-Series) or even completely kicked (Growlanser 3).

gamingqueen

I think you shouldhave swtiched between persona 3 and xenosaga. Man the second game haswaaay too many text that it turns you off before even knowing what the drill is. Persona 3 just had a natural and everyday dialoug...It was good.

That´s why I named Ep3,the second wasn´t that good.I play the 3rd right now and it is really wel made.In case of Persona,the voice acting is pretty split...most are pretty bad but there also some well spoke characters.The wrong translations which should seem japanese but not have been in the japanese version (!),but parts still typical american...awful.

Example: Mr and Mrs are American but all the "sempai" and other stuff is randomly put in,even most are unused in the japanese original and untypcal,because even if these words exist,they aren´t used.That´s why some gamers heard "titles" they never met before and thought it was awesome translated.

By the way,the game still remains great,but it´s a freak-game and freaks want in most cases the original japanese voice acting.It´s no mainstream-game so they could at least put in an option to switch...it´s not like there isn´t egnough space on ther disc.Plus most people will get a Undub-Copy from the internet,wich came out faster then you can look.

I disagree. Voice Acting is need only if it's good. FFXII Had EXELLENT Voice acting. FFX was a breath of fresh air, although the voice direction could be better. Could you imagine if Final Fantasy VIII was remade with voice acting? That would SELL me a PS3 instantlylegacyzero

...like I said:The main characters are ok,but side characters like the prince or the boy in the beginning are absolutely awful...you can even hear how it should have been spoken right.Plus the sound-quality of the voice-acting was compared to the well mixedjapanese Version prettymedicore too.

Before I forget to mention : German Voice-Acting can kill ANY game...equal how bad the English-Version is,the german is in 99,9% of all cases worse.Try it if you can...some XBox360-Games and almost all European games are switchable...

[QUOTE="gamingqueen"][QUOTE="Ash2X"]

I don´t think Voice-overs killing the RPGs.It´s the people who by "show-off RPGs" like Final Fantasy X which was a Story-downfall par exellance.They cut down a usually deep (even sometimes pretty stupid...look at FF8 ) Storyline to a 2h-Hollywood-Movie.Nice Cutscenes and Grapics and the people bought it like crazy while really awesome RPGs are not hitting the shelves in the US or Europe or collecting dust.

Bad dubbed-versions are a different thing.Of course,there are positive examples like Enchanted Arms (exept one Character :x) or Xenosaga Episode 3,but stuff like Persona 3 (plus wrong translated stuff!),FFXII (exept the main-characters absoluely horrible,plus the sound-quality is worse)kill games.And what some people don´t know : Some speech is also lost in translation ("Tales of"-Series) or even completely kicked (Growlanser 3).

Ash2X

I think you shouldhave swtiched between persona 3 and xenosaga. Man the second game haswaaay too many text that it turns you off before even knowing what the drill is. Persona 3 just had a natural and everyday dialoug...It was good.

That´s why I named Ep3,the second wasn´t that good.I play the 3rd right now and it is really wel made.In case of Persona,the voice acting is pretty split...most are pretty bad but there also some well spoke characters.The wrong translations which should seem japanese but not have been in the japanese version (!),but parts still typical american...awful.

Example: Mr and Mrs are American but all the "sempai" and other stuff is randomly put in,even most are unused in the japanese original and untypcal,because even if these words exist,they aren´t used.That´s why some gamers heard "titles" they never met before and thought it was awesome translated.

By the way,the game still remains great,but it´s a freak-game and freaks want in most cases the original japanese voice acting.It´s no mainstream-game so they could at least put in an option to switch...it´s not like there isn´t egnough space on ther disc.Plus most people will get a Undub-Copy from the internet,wich came out faster then you can look.

I watch subbed animes and I can tell which of the subbed or dubbed is a better version. In the case of Persona 3 I'd simply and quickly choose the english. Sorry...The fes version having a better dialoug apart from parts being lost in translation is a joke. The only thing superior they have is the extras at the end and Junpei and Yukari's story. Aside from all those additives the english version remains better in terms of voice acting. You can't even tell the differences between voices in the *** version!

Sempi does exist, sempi and kun and sensi and chan and all those are used to adress people.

[QUOTE="Ash2X"][QUOTE="gamingqueen"][QUOTE="Ash2X"]

I don´t think Voice-overs killing the RPGs.It´s the people who by "show-off RPGs" like Final Fantasy X which was a Story-downfall par exellance.They cut down a usually deep (even sometimes pretty stupid...look at FF8 ) Storyline to a 2h-Hollywood-Movie.Nice Cutscenes and Grapics and the people bought it like crazy while really awesome RPGs are not hitting the shelves in the US or Europe or collecting dust.

Bad dubbed-versions are a different thing.Of course,there are positive examples like Enchanted Arms (exept one Character :x) or Xenosaga Episode 3,but stuff like Persona 3 (plus wrong translated stuff!),FFXII (exept the main-characters absoluely horrible,plus the sound-quality is worse)kill games.And what some people don´t know : Some speech is also lost in translation ("Tales of"-Series) or even completely kicked (Growlanser 3).

gamingqueen

I think you shouldhave swtiched between persona 3 and xenosaga. Man the second game haswaaay too many text that it turns you off before even knowing what the drill is. Persona 3 just had a natural and everyday dialoug...It was good.

That´s why I named Ep3,the second wasn´t that good.I play the 3rd right now and it is really wel made.In case of Persona,the voice acting is pretty split...most are pretty bad but there also some well spoke characters.The wrong translations which should seem japanese but not have been in the japanese version (!),but parts still typical american...awful.

Example: Mr and Mrs are American but all the "sempai" and other stuff is randomly put in,even most are unused in the japanese original and untypcal,because even if these words exist,they aren´t used.That´s why some gamers heard "titles" they never met before and thought it was awesome translated.

By the way,the game still remains great,but it´s a freak-game and freaks want in most cases the original japanese voice acting.It´s no mainstream-game so they could at least put in an option to switch...it´s not like there isn´t egnough space on ther disc.Plus most people will get a Undub-Copy from the internet,wich came out faster then you can look.

I watch subbed animes and I can tell which of the subbed or dubbed is a better version. In the case of Persona 3 I'd simply and quickly choose the english. Sorry...The fes version having a better dialoug apart from parts being lost in translation is a joke. The only thing superior they have is the extras at the end and Junpei and Yukari's story. Aside from all those additives the english version remains better in terms of voice acting. You can't even tell the differences between voices in the *** version!

Sempi does exist, sempi and kun and sensi and chan and all those are used to adress people.

Of course they do,but the ones used in the US-Version aren´t the ones used in the japanese Version.They added some of them to sound like it´s well-translated and even worse they changed some!I played the japanese version...by the way I think Junpei and Yukari are really well made,but the others...I just say the little boy who sounds like Michael Jackson (wasn´t much better in the japanese,but he sounds really awful) and some others let the gamer really scream for undubbed versions.But,I have to admit,I choose English Voice-Acting pretty often.It´s just easier to understandand unlike subbed Animes the translation is the same as the english voice-acting,and not directly translated from the japanese.

Their biggest mistake wasnot hiring more voice actors. It was obvious that the one who did chidori's voice was ken kun and akihiko is yukari's father and the main strega guy was mitsuru's father and the velvet room guy was their nutty chairman. So many voice actors had to do two characters instead of one in that game. They were okay but the result could have been better if they brought more actors. Perhaps Atlus was short of money...

As for too much usage of titles...It's disrespectfulfor Japanese to call people without the kun and chan thing.

Their biggest mistake wasnot hiring more voice actors. It was obvious that the one who did chidori's voice was ken kun and akihiko is yukari's father and the main strega guy was mitsuru's father and the velvet room guy was their nutty chairman. So many voice actors had to do two characters instead of one in that game. They were okay but the result could have been better if they brought more actors. Perhaps Atlus was short of money...

As for too much usage of titles...It's disrespectfulfor Japanese to call people without the kun and chan thing.

gamingqueen

The game wasn´t expected to sell well...and it didn´t.That´s why P3Fes won´t come out which was also idiotic because the japanese Version came so long ago,and in cases of SMT:Nocturne we already got the Extended Version.I didn´t mean that the usage of the titles is too much...they just adressed the characters wrong...never seen that before,and if they do it they should at least do it right and not just from time to time...whatever.And that every Atlus-RPG-game is now a Shin Megami Tensei in the US...Nocturne was the only US-released SMT,Digital Devil Saga (in original DDS:Avatar Tuner) and Persona never have been part of the series,even if Persona was always treated like a spinn-off.By the was have you seen the differences between the US-Persona 1 and the japanese Version?Well at least Persona 2 (actually a 2nd part of a 2-game series and the US-Version is the worse one!)and 3 have been relative ok ported over...

Not litterally. RPGs are still selling very well today. But I've noticed that today's RPGs are less rich and plentiful of dialogues since voice-overs became mandatory for a game to be "accepted".

Go back in the pre-Final Fantasy X era and take a look at the narrative of RPGs. Take for example Final Fantasy VIII, which had a hell of a lot of dialogues (and monologues). The staff behind the game could cram an infinite amount of text if they so desired. Reading doesn't take long, and nobody cares if the story is interesting. It's just like reading a book. All Final Fantasies were like that (especially VI, VII, VIII and IX). Lots of interesting text to read, which would make the story rich.

Now compare these to today's RPGs, in which there are voice-overs. Scenario writers can't let their mind run free and write plenty of dialogues. They've got to gauge the right amount of dialogues needed so the game doesn't feel empty, but not to much. Why? Because now they've gotta hire and pay voice-actors (which costs quite a lot). Not only that, but if the dialogues are too long, the game will get tiresome real fast. Take a scene from any RPG that would require between 5 and 10 minutes of reading. Take all of the text and add voice-overs. It'll take a lot longer to cover the same amount of information brought forward by reading, and the player would get tired. In the end, game company can't afford to write stories and dialogues as rich as before.

Of course, voice-overs have their advantages. Games are now more movie-like, and actors bring the characters to life. But that doesn't mean pre-voice-overs characters were lifeless. More dialogues and information is what a story and character needs. I'm not saying today's RPG characters are lifeless. Final Fantays XII has great, interesting and living characters. But it's not the same as before. Just compare the amount of information contained in FFVI, VII, VIII and IX to X, X-2 and XII. There's quite a difference in the amount of content. Also, when there are no voices, a character's personality will be forged only by his/her dialogues, whereas with an actor behind the character, the personality is kinda forced.

If voice was something crucial to the development of a characters, then books wouldn't have a purpose. But we know this isn't true. Everybody knows nothing will surpass the richness books offer. RPGs nowadays are like movies, but I prefer when they were like books. I prefer having a lot of interesting text to read than having to simply watch a cutscene that might have irritating voices. I could read for over 10 minutes-long and not be bothered at all, but not-so-much with cutscenes with voices. What's your opinion?

AuthenticM

on the other hand.... MGS series had way too much voice overs but was necessary to understand the story too. well, as long as you can skip it, especially after hearing the dialogue before, there's really no problem with voice overs.

Well I have to say, Persona 3 FES was one of those games with rare and amazing voice actors, pretty much most of Atlus games have Voice acting. Though Voice acting is rare these days but then I only see Atlus publish PS2 games these days.

Though I know how bad voice acting affects a character, one of the characters of P3FES was hated for voice acting, and the worst part is that she would state every obvious thing within battle, everyone always seemed to hate her.

[QUOTE="AuthenticM"]

[QUOTE="Zulgaines"]I think KOTOR is what started a lot of it, the voice acting in KOTOR actually enhances the game a great deal.Cube_of_MooN

Yes, KotOR is the exception. There are a hell of a lot of dialogues, and they aren't redundant. But KotOR is the only exception. No games are like it (except Jade Empire).

Well, except for the looping alien noises....