Pillars of Eternity II - Voice Cast Announced

@Gamewatcher Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire has announced its voice acting cast.

Obsidian had recently revealed a new detail about the voice cast of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. The previous title was partially voice-acted, with major plot-important conversations having full audio, but most of the dialogues being text-only. During the crowdfunding phase of Deadfire, one of the stretch goals was to double the budget dedicated to recording voice lines for dialogues, and now we know where that budget is going - the entire cast of Critical Role will be lending their voices to characters in the game.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Oh hello @CriticalRole cast. And welcome to #Deadfire!#CriticalRole + #Deadfire pic.twitter.com/uOSdvdXt9c

— Obsidian (@Obsidian) April 7, 2018[/quote]

More information.

Nice for some I suppose, but fully voiced dialogues is not something I care for or even want in games. It's just annoying to hear the first two-three words in every sentence when I read… I do like the first line or two to be voiced to set the tone in my head though.

Originally Posted by TomRon
Nice for some I suppose, but fully voiced dialogues is not something I care for or even want in games. It's just annoying to hear the first two-three words in every sentence when I read… I do like the first line or two to be voiced to set the tone in my head though.

Sometimes I mind and sometimes I don't. It depends on how wordy the game is and how things are paced.

I doubt the double budget covers all of Deadfire dialogues, it wouldn't even cover all of POE1 dialogues and Deadfire is larger.

I just need subtitles and my own music, thank you. Honestly, I'd prefer expenses such as audio to go into more content, but that's me

OTOH, a wider range of character voice sets would be a bonus, as would more response options. I usually only like a few of the voices available, so having more selections is good for replay value.

….Okay? So why are we supposed to care about people from Critical Role (whatever that is - without googling it I'm guessing youtubers who play D&D sessions or something?) being used as voice overs? Are they constantly throwing out different character voices during their show or something that makes this a good thing for getting them in as voice actors, or is it just trying to get their fan base to buy the game?

Originally Posted by Avantre
….Okay? So why are we supposed to care about people from Critical Role (whatever that is - without googling it I'm guessing youtubers who play D&D sessions or something?) being used as voice overs? Are they constantly throwing out different character voices during their show or something that makes this a good thing for getting them in as voice actors, or is it just trying to get their fan base to buy the game?

They aren’t youtubers. The critical role cast are all prominent voice actors, all of which have many credits in games and anime. It’s a pretty big deal. I like voice acting in RPGs so I hope that we get a lot more voices this time around.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I just need subtitles and my own music, thank you. Honestly, I'd prefer expenses such as audio to go into more content, but that's me

It's also pibbur.

BTW: One thing that annoys me. In quite a few games, the spoken greetings from NPC's are completely out of context. For instance in LOTRO, sometimes the NPC (mostly hobbits, methinks) complains: "Why can't you leave me alone". Even when I return after doing a task they actually asked me to do for them. I've turned off the voices in the game.

pibbur who sometimes writes faster than he talks, quite veident from the typos.

I'm in the 'didn't really care for poe' camp; but from the previews I seen poe-ii looks really good.

I have to agree in most wordy RPG's voice acting for it all is a pain in the ass. I tend to read way faster then the they narrate. Like it has been said by others the first line is OK to set the tone but leave the rest. That doesn't sell games on consoles though, either because it is too hard to read much across the room on the TV screen or console users just don't read much. So I think we will be stuck with more voice acting rather then less going forward.

Originally Posted by rjshae
OTOH, a wider range of character voice sets would be a bonus, as would more response options. I usually only like a few of the voices available, so having more selections is good for replay value.

You'll have more voice sets. The Critical Role members recorded new ones based on their D&D campaign characters. That means 4 new males and 3 new females voice sets (and probably 1 more female one to make it equal).

Originally Posted by Terry
I have to agree in most wordy RPG's voice acting for it all is a pain in the ass. I tend to read way faster then the they narrate. Like it has been said by others the first line is OK to set the tone but leave the rest. That doesn't sell games on consoles though, either because it is too hard to read much across the room on the TV screen or console users just don't read much. So I think we will be stuck with more voice acting rather then less going forward.

It's hardly the TV, my "Computer display" is a 52'' TV as well. I have nothing against gaming in the couch, as long as I still can use M&K. And I can play text heavy games just fine. Console users don't read much (or don't know how to read?) is probably closer to the truth.

Originally Posted by azarhal
You'll have more voice sets. The Critical Role members recorded new ones based on their D&D campaign characters. That means 4 new males and 3 new females voice sets (and probably 1 more female one to make it equal).

That I agree is money well spent then.

If people wants to hear what those Critical Role characters sound like.

D:OS (1 and 2) did a good job with voice acting. I'm sort of like silver - it depends on the game and if the voices add value. I also liked witcher voice acting.

Put me in the category of those who like voiced lines as well, provided they're well done. ELEX is an example of not well done.

I generally prefer partially voiced (first line + some important lines that adds character/atmosphere) but in saying that, it depends on what type of game it is. I really enjoyed full voicing in TW3 and ME trilogy. But I'd prefer partial voicing for games like PoE2.

Originally Posted by TomRon
It's hardly the TV, my "Computer display" is a 52'' TV as well. I have nothing against gaming in the couch, as long as I still can use M&K. And I can play text heavy games just fine. Console users don't read much (or don't know how to read?) is probably closer to the truth.

Ya you are most likely right. I am tempted to try out the the big screen of our TV but I am sure the wife will chase me back to my gaming dungeon if I tried it.

Originally Posted by delijoe
They aren’t youtubers. The critical role cast are all prominent voice actors, all of which have many credits in games and anime. It’s a pretty big deal. I like voice acting in RPGs so I hope that we get a lot more voices this time around.

I agree that this is huge. They're really talented bunch. Some of them like Mercer was already casted in PoE1 btw as Edér and Aloth plus few other characters. So this is really great news. These guys really understand rpgs. I don't mind reading, but quality voice acting really takes the game to the next level.