[raven777]

voicea acting is important for me.

But if games are localized in english without japanese voice option, I wish they would at least give me option of turning off the voice completely.

[Eusis]

I think Lost Odyssey more or less already did this and got it right. Pretty sure only the cut scenes were voice acted?

I don't mind lack of voiceacting at all, but I think something in between (like Persona) is the best way to go. Voiced dialogue for cutscenes and non-interactive dialogue, then loads of plain text for everything else. Best of both worlds IMO

The annoying thing is this was acceptable for RPGs period until KotOR and especially Oblivion/Mass Effect changed that, and most RPGs stuck with that or still do it, so far only FFXIII and XIII-2 are the exceptions I know of that did this in the original release. It's frustrating to me since not every game NEEDS copious amounts of VA, and in fact can often be detrimental due to taking up more money and space, and sometimes just not sounding great.

So... yeah, put me in yay. I'm against stupid costly shit being the minimum accepted, and bad VA can do a lot of harm. especially bad if the voice actors are good but the base material shouldn't be spoken out loud in English (Star Ocean 4).

[DidntKnowJack]

I play a lot of rpg's on handhelds that (almost) always feature dialog boxes, so yea.

[Htown]

Sure, I guess, but it's not like voice acting is really a problem for JRPGs of that scale.

[Lindsay]

I haven't played the HD Yakuzas, but aren't they mostly just standing around? Just imagine something like FFXIII with all its body and facial movement. Now imagine the same thing, but in all the cutscenes, everyone's mouth would be closed and text boxes would appear instead. It would look really awkward.

I dunno its been a year since I last played 'em but I think they had some mouth movement, idle animations, reactions, etc. Never saw anything of FFXIII outside of some screenshots ages ago so I can't say nothing about that. All I was saying was that if it truly is a high budget console rpg it shouldn't resemble portable ones.

[Bisnic]

I dunno, some big epic cutscenes where people do not talk at all, or rather you see the mouth moves but only text shows up, would not have the same impact as having voices.

Sure, there is some bad voice acting like that english Riki in Xenoblade, but when everything else is decent, i can deal with it for better cutscenes. I dont think we really need it outside of it or in battle though.

[Busaiku]

I don't mind at all.

[IrishNinja]

not minding one bit in Radiant so far.

a related question: when given the choice, do you guys turn auto-scrolling text on or off?

on if there's no setting to move text fast enough for me. i have it on in fire emblem games lately.

[Mr Nash]

I'd rather have no voice acting than terrible voice acting myself. I'm okay with reading.

This is my take on the matter as well. Poor voice acting takes away from the experience, so I'd just assume read than have to deal with it.

[SatelliteOfLove]

I dunno, some big epic cutscenes where people do not talk at all, or rather you see the mouth moves but only text shows up, would not have the same impact as having voices. Sure, there is some bad voice acting like that english Riki in Xenoblade, but when everything else is decent, i can deal with it for better cutscenes. I dont think we really need it outside of it or in battle though.

[suzu]

I don't mind voice acting at all. It all really depends on the writing/dialogue.

[zkylon]

I was gonna bring up Persona as well. I don't need to hear everything, but if I didn't get to hear voices in Persona 4 it would of lowered my enjoyment, so there is a middle ground.

Yeah, exactly. Voice is just another layer of personality for a character to have. It doesn't have to be ever present, since that just limits what the writers can do, but voiceovers can really help a character come through. Middle ground is perfect.

[Odrion]

I always skip through dialogue as fast as I can read it, so voice acting isn't necessary for me.

This.

[AB12]

It would help out a lot with the budget, and mostly JRPGs have terrible cringe worthy VA, so that might also help out.

[NervousXtian]

I'd prefer no VA except cut scenes in pretty much all games, especially RPG's.

I'd rather read the dialogue than hear it, and the voice overs are just distracting.

It'd also seem to be a huge cost/time savings for devs, so win-win.

[BlazingDarkness]

I'm all for no dialogue
I actually turn it off in games like Persona, where people champion the VA, it's just not to my taste.

[Paracelsus]

Sure.

For portable Jrpgs, that is.

[Tellaerin]

I fall into the 'limit the voice acting to prerendered/noninteractive cutscenes' camp. I don't mind hearing the characters speak at key moments, especially when they're voiced well - it helps set a sound for them when I'm reading their dialogue - but most of the time I'd rather just read the exposition at my own pace. Waiting for VA's to deliver their lines feels painfully slow to me. Removing most of the spoken dialogue altogether wouldn't hurt the experience for me a bit, and it would save money on localization.

[Volcynika]

I love voice acting, so keep it!

[Schnei871]

I think I'd prefer it. My favourite RPGs have no voice acting. Just like why people like a book over a movie version, you decide how the voice is said in your head and that touch of personalization can be really effective.

If it's anything like Red Dead Redemption though I'm in. Game had fuckin great voices

[Fimbulvetr]

Very much yay, for all rpgs. I like reading, and using text allows devs to create more dialogue for more characters, without the burden and cost of recording. Plus I miss the days where text dialogue read more like a book than a script, describing character emotions, mannerisms and the overall mood of the conversation.

Can you elaborate on the latter?

[Esura]

A big budgeted JRPG with no voice acting whatsoever? That's ridiculous to me. I wouldn't buy it full priced at all, hell I probably wouldn't buy it at all. That would be so darn awkward with fully modeled characters not saying a word. Imagining the RPG I'm currently playing (Xenoblade) without voice acting.....nope.

Unless its a handheld JRPG, any console JRPG...no any console RPG in general pretty much requires some voice acting of some shape, way or form for me to give two cents about it.

[animlboogy]

I'm fine with how Persona does it. No need for full voice acting.

Same goes for WRPGs, really. I'd rather have a better game than a bunch of the time/budget going to getting a game fully voiced. SWTOR is the current example of why it's not a great idea.

I may not be the best person to ask, though. I have an incredibly high tolerance for jank if a game is good or has good ideas, and I never really understood the fetish for fully-voiced games in the first place, since the vast majority have absolute shit acting.

Can you elaborate on the latter?

He was talking about something that I actually think has no place in games with high-res graphics. The characters can and should emote themselves. In a text-based game or something very rudimentary, though, that sort of thing is welcome. I love it in the Spiderweb games, for example.

[Tellaerin]

A big budgeted JRPG with no voice acting whatsoever? That's ridiculous to me. I wouldn't buy it full priced at all, hell I probably wouldn't buy it at all. That would be so darn awkward with fully modeled characters not saying a word. Imagining the RPG I'm currently playing (Xenoblade) without voice acting.....nope. Unless its a handheld JRPG, any console JRPG...no any console RPG in general pretty much requires some voice acting of some shape, way or form for me to give two cents about it.

Just out of curiosity, when did you start playing JRPG's? Trying to get a little perspective on this.

[Esura]

Just out of curiosity, when did you start playing JRPG's? Trying to get a little perspective on this.

FFVII and Pokemon Red actually, and I believe I was about 7 or 8 years old, I think. I've been playing various JRPGs for years. Its my favorite genre but no voice acting for a console JRPG is like going from broadband to dial-up. Can't do it. I can go back and play older JRPGs without em fine and dandy and I also don't mind the lack of voice acting for newer JRPGs on handhelds but...I can't deal with it a newer console JRPG lacking voice acting. That's a step back.

[Mr_Appleby]

I read very quickly so I prefer dialogue boxes that I can skip through at my own pace. I hate being unable to click to the next box until the current one has slowly drawn all of its text. The first 20 minutes or so of Okami being text boxes destroyed absolutely any interest I had in playing it. (well, that and what was possibly a dysfunctional controller that wouldn't let me use the paintbrush thing properly)

My personal favourite solution is voice acting combined with a text box and button-to-skip-a-sentence. I'm pretty happy to forgo the voice acting too really, though it is getting better lately. I just don't have the patience to sit and listen while people slow-talk stuff I finished reading five minutes ago. Particularly if it's a very dialogue heavy game.

[Finaika]

Unless its Glorious Nippon voice acting, yay.

[Necromanti]

Strangely enough, I can't think of a single JRPG that I felt was better due to the fact that it had voice acting. If anything, if the VA was memorable, it was because I found it detrimental or distracting. The use of silence and music helps set the mood better, in my opinion. Maybe that's due to the quality of the voice acting, though.

[HoodWinked]

i love the stereotypical jrpg voice casting

first you have the loner, the tough guy with the deep voice, the mysterious sexy chick voice, and the super ear piercing high pitched voice.

[Esura]

I need more JRPGs with Laura Bailey and Cristina Vee in it, not less. :(

[Mr_Appleby]

i love the stereotypical jrpg voice casting first you have the loner, the tough guy with the deep voice, the mysterious sexy chick voice, and the super ear piercing high pitched voice.

oh god it's like the same 3 people every time too

[jayhawker]

I just played through Skies of Arcadia randomly. It was awesome. I was a bit shocked at first because I forgot it wasn't voice acted, but I quickly grew used to it and rather enjoyed the text.

[Aeana]

I need more JRPGs with Laura Bailey and Cristina Vee in it, not less. :(

Yes, we need more Laura Bailey.

[Kai Dracon]

I don't see video games as movies or television, so voice acting isn't a pre-requisite. Sadly, actual written text in games is something of an unappreciated concept; seen only as a stop-gap because you can't afford "real voices".

But, some things can 'sound' differently in your head when read, and text instead of voices also allows one to imagine a character sounds however they like. It also allows the player to read at their own pace (or skip at their own pace) without the attempted 'cinematic' cut scene seeming awkward as you page through it or let the characters go 'uuuuhhhh...' and linger in limbo between lines.

Japanese games, due to the history of the JRPG, also sometimes make the text dialog and word balloon technique into its own stylistic choice, creating uniquely scripted and timed sequences that wouldn't work the same way with voices.

Plus, it can give more creative freedom; certain kinds of narrative and dialog don't sound natural when acted out. Some prose is designed to be prose.

I realize that this is not a view most would share these days; it seems most folks have come to see video games as movies where you make stuff happen by pushing buttons. Therefore it is expected that the presentation will imitate that of a motion picture.

The irony of going full voice acting and the associated pressures to conform to an appropriate style of presentation will remove uniqueness from the gaming medium. One example is the way in which Nintendo has made it a trademark to use textual dialog in unorthodox ways. Interspersing colored words, highlights, and even icons in place of actual proper names for commands or key items.

[Man God]

Is the cast British?

If not then I don't care.

If it is, then I want voice acting.

[Bisnic]

Is the cast British? If not then I don't care. If it is, then I want voice acting.

Let's not lose our heads though!

[Zeer0id]

I think if they're going to use FMVs then those at least should have voiceover. But I'd be perfectly fine with a game having no in-game voiceover, and likewise omitting FMVs altogether if required.

[Esura]

Yes, we need more Laura Bailey.

That was bad. Star Ocean 4 is just a fluke of badness. I've never heard any voice acting as bad as that ever and I solely blame Tri-ace's direction with the dialog, not the actors, for this travesty. No one could make those lines sound good.

Let's not lose our heads though!

Wait...that's what they said in Xenoblade after a battle? I thought it was "Let's not lose our heads love!" everytime I take out a Upa.

[Dapperk]

Ideally voice acting that doesn't make me want to stick a rusty screwdriver in my ear would be best. But since that isn't happening I'll take the dialogue boxes.

[Aeana]

That was bad. Star Ocean 4 is just a fluke of badness. I've never heard any voice acting as bad as that ever and I solely blame Tri-ace's direction with the dialog, not the actors, for this travesty. No one could make those lines sound good. Wait...that's what they said in Xenoblade after a battle? I thought it was "Let's not lose our heads love!" everytime I take out a Upa.

I like Laura Bailey, but only when she's not using that Welch-style voice, which she has used for other characters as well. Like Hewpoe in Klonoa Wii.

[Man God]

You can't spell Rainbow without REYN.

[gooey kablooie]

As long as I can put the dialogue on the fastest setting and skip it as fast as I can read it, then yet please. I always have subtitles on anyways because it's easier for me to read than listen.

[Rahxephon91]

Ideally voice acting that doesn't make me want to stick a rusty screwdriver in my ear would be best. But since that isn't happening I'll take the dialogue boxes.

What recent JRPG's have had bad voice acting?

[Bisnic]

You can't spell Rainbow without REYN.

Oh yeah baby!

[Tellaerin]

FFVII and Pokemon Red actually, and I believe I was about 7 or 8 years old, I think. I've been playing various JRPGs for years. Its my favorite genre but no voice acting for a console JRPG is like going from broadband to dial-up. Can't do it. I can go back and play older JRPGs without em fine and dandy and I also don't mind the lack of voice acting for newer JRPGs on handhelds but...I can't deal with it a newer console JRPG lacking voice acting. That's a step back.

Gotcha.

I'm an old fart (my first gaming memory was playing Pong at a friend's house in elementary school), and I've been playing RPG's since the 8-bit days. I think my perspective's probably a little different because of that. For me, voice acting's nice, but not essential. If done badly, I think it can hurt a game more than it helps.

I suspect a lot of people who got into gaming in or after the PS 1 era probably share your feelings, since fully voiced RPG's have become so prevalent since then. Kind of a shame, though, since that's one more thing feeding into the whole unsustainable development budget spiral the industry's stuck in nowadays.

[hampig]

I'm replaying ff9 right now and I'm really realizing how much I love the lack of voice acting. I can't imagine the voice actors having half the personality I put into the characters automatically in my own mind.

[Esura]

I like Laura Bailey, but only when she's not using that Welch-style voice, which she has used for other characters as well. Like Hewpoe in Klonoa Wii.

Usually most of the characters she portray, at least the ones I heard, sounds somewhat similar to Welch...but oddly better. Only character she voiced I couldn't tell if it was her right away was Lust from FMA.

[Nekofrog]

Prefer to read, because I can imagine the voices in my head and I read fast enough to never hear a full VO sentence anyway.

On the other hand if I ever have to read another " ... " in a JRPG I think I'll scream.

[DR2K]

Nay, just allow it to be turned off for those who do want it.

[Mr_Appleby]

On the other hand if I ever have to read another " ... " in a JRPG I think I'll scream.

... !