JRPGs and having to read things.

[Ryan Hughes]

Listening to voice acting and reading dialogue engage the brain in different ways. Personally, I think the act of reading itself stirs the imagination in such a way that it enhances the world-building of the game, making non-voice acted games more suited for fantasy environments.

As far as people here who do not like to read text: please stop being so entitled. Also, what are you doing on a forum anyway?

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Money, basically. It could be a design decision, too, I guess. Personally, I really text boxes for some reason. It's probab'y just nostalgia because I grew up with games that used text boxes, but maybe some devs have a similar fondness?

Text boxes also let the player name their character without having to write really awkward dialogue that always avoids using the character's name.

 

[Rad Party God]

Okami is 30 hours of action adventure goodness (not an RPG) with walls upon walls of text.
I loved every single minute of it.

Also, although I still haven't finished it, I loved how in Strange Journey I could almost hear the voices of the characters by just reading the text, sometimes you get an audio cue to how some demon sounded like and I loved that.

 

[lacktheknack]

Because SO MANY LINES over SO MUCH GAME.

It costs them tens of thousands of dollars to do the voicework in a game like Skyrim, which had a lot of repetition as well as long stretches of no real voice acting.

Now, in a JRPG, you have line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line after line of text stretched over as much as a hundred hours. Tens of thousands of dollars? Try MILLIONS, especially if you voice minor characters. Plus, you only have so many hours in a sound booth each day (and each one you rent costs MOAR MONEY), so it could very well delay the release.

That's why so many unspoken words. If you like dialog but don't like reading it, try old adventure games.

Also, every time someone complains about having to read, be it in games, foreign movies or whatever, I'm always reminded of Pamela Anderson having lunch with Paris Hilton, and Paris complaining that she hates reading when given a menu.

A menu.

As Pamela said afterwards, "I'm blonde too... but come on."

 

[FFP2]

It's for budgetary reasons. Although I would prefer to have it voiced out due to my shitty eyesight.

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.

You do realize that the laugh was intentionally bad right?

 

[porous_shield]

I can't watch dubbed anime because I find the voice work to be so grating and like others have said there must be a pool of about 5 English voice actors that they get to do everything. It's the same problem with games only worse. You could end up spending vastly longer amounts of time with characters in games than you do with television programs and that means hearing the same bad voice work over and over again. I'd much rather read all the text than hear it in most cases and especially if I have to hear something over and over again like vendor dialogue or something like that.

The Longest Journey was ruined for me because of bad voice work. The mains are good but everyone else seems to share they same voice actors without them even trying to change things up.

 

[ItouKaiji]

It's for budgetary reasons. Although I would prefer to have it voiced out due to my shitty eyesight.

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.

You do realize that the laugh was intentionally bad right?

That doesn't make it any less painful or awkward to listen to though. That whole scene is just a cringe inducing example of something that might have been a little charming in my head if I'd just read it, but with the voices I can't watch it without wincing.

 

[Worgen]

It's for budgetary reasons. Although I would prefer to have it voiced out due to my shitty eyesight.

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.

You do realize that the laugh was intentionally bad right?

That doesn't mean its not still painful as hell to listen to.

 

[Maxtro]

Honestly, Ni No Kuni has far too many story segments that should have been voiced but aren't.

The game tries very hard to make you think you are playing a Studio Ghibli movie, and when a plot segment isn't voiced, that completely breaks the feeling.

I get the impression that the developer started running out of money near the middle of the game and became very selective of what segments to voice.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I... seriously? People are actually complaining about having to read instead of listening to people speak? Is this really something people today complain about? Holy crap. I have nothing positive to say about this or the people complaining.

So many people learned to read by playing games and reading dialogue. I remember being 6 or 7 watching my mom play through FF or Zelda or something and having her slow down so I could read everything. I already could read, as we got an NES when I was 6 or so, but I still lapped up every word on the screen.

I mean, I already know people don't read as much as they used to (or should), but... seriously? Reading in video games is hard?

I'm going to go upstairs into the stacks here at work so I'm surrounded by tens of thousands of books now, because otherwise I'll blow a vein or something.

 

[krazykidd]

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.

I hate when people post this video without context . It's a forced laugh! To relieve stress . Tidus' point in that scene , was to make Yuna feel better because she was feeling anxious . She didn't feel like laughing ( like most people when they are anxious ) so he's like , do " THAT" and you will feel better . It wasn't suppose to sound real , or good .

 

[Worgen]

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.

I hate when people post this video without context . It's a forced laugh! To relieve stress . Tidus' point in that scene , was to make Yuna feel better because she was feeling anxious . She didn't feel like laughing ( like most people when they are anxious ) so he's like , do " THAT" and you will feel better . It wasn't suppose to sound real , or good .

It doesn't matter what the context is, its always going to be painful to listen to.

 

[krazykidd]

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.

I hate when people post this video without context . It's a forced laugh! To relieve stress . Tidus' point in that scene , was to make Yuna feel better because she was feeling anxious . She didn't feel like laughing ( like most people when they are anxious ) so he's like , do " THAT" and you will feel better . It wasn't suppose to sound real , or good .

It doesn't matter what the context is, its always going to be painful to listen to.

Wha... Are you serious? Don't make that out to be some Voice Over freak accident . It's Was supposed to sound like that . Context is everything . You can't call that bad voice acting if the result was exactly what was intended .

EDIT:

It's for budgetary reasons. Although I would prefer to have it voiced out due to my shitty eyesight.

I prefer to read dialog, rather than hear it, especially oddly written dialog which jrpgs have in spades. You can't honestly tell me this scene would be more painful being just read as opposed to fully voiced.
]

You do realize that the laugh was intentionally bad right?

Oh snap just realise someone beat me to it

 

[Arpegus]

I barely ever post, but I want to point out something about Ni no Kuni. I played most of the DS game that was released in Japan a few years ago, but I quit that game when I discovered that the PS3 version in development would have most of the same story, just slightly extended. When the PS3 game was finally released, I was really disappointed with it.

Almost all of the animated scenes and voicework in the ps3 version were straight from the DS game. There was obviously space constraints on the DS for voice acting and video, but it seemed really lame that they didn't add more for the ps3.

Most likely, the Japanese voice acting and animation was finished 3 or 4 years ago in Japan, and rather than bring everyone back in the studio to record more stuff for the ps3 game, they just used text boxes instead. A few extra things were voiced, but instead of creating more animated scenes, they went for in-game CG instead. It feels like studio Ghibli quit contributing to the game post-DS release, leaving Level-5 to finish the ps3 game alone.

Anyway, it felt really lame to me that I was playing a ps3 game for a story which had been crippled by being released on the DS first. But maybe it was just playing through the long awkwardly paced opening for a second time that turned me off.

 

[alphamalet]

Wha... Are you serious? Don't make that out to be some Voice Over freak accident . It's Was supposed to sound like that . Context is everything . You can't call that bad voice acting if the result was exactly what was intended .

Hey, I love FFX as much as the next guy, but being intentionally horrible is still HORRIBLE.


OT: I don't mind reading. If it means a richer story that wouldn't have otherwise been in the budget if all lines were to be voiced acted, then I say bring on the walls of text.

 

[FFP2]

That doesn't mean its not still painful as hell to listen to.

Haha yeah but it was their first time doing VA in a FF game. And it sure beats Lightning's monotone voice.

That doesn't make it any less painful or awkward to listen to though. That whole scene is just a cringe inducing example of something that might have been a little charming in my head if I'd just read it, but with the voices I can't watch it without wincing.

But how would an intentionally bad laugh translate into text?

 

[CAPTCHA]

With dialog heavy games I prefer text. It makes further playthoughs quicker as most are written like this:

"...and that's why we need to go back to the TEMPLE as soon as possible. BIG BAD is still around and we need to KILL it."

You can just skip through the text, but the bolded parts still catch you eye. If it was voiced and you skipped it you'd miss the info.

 

[Lunar Templar]

As some one who has never been big on VO in games, meh, I don't mind having to read text, hell, even with VO i tended to read the text scroll anyway

 

[Yopaz]

I like text as long as you can get instant text speed. I usually read faster than the voice and moves ahead before they have finished the sentence. Occasional voice acting in a game that also have text only at other times is my favourite. A good cut scene needs some voice acting and sound effects to work, but sometimes you just want to read and move on.

In Borderlands however I almost never read quest descriptions. I took quests, did them, got the rewards, rinse and repeat.