Arby and the Chief beg to differ.Sol_HSA said:
Ontopic: that robot idea sounds fun, actually.
And funny, I got around the "Exile" part in Kotor II by naming my character "Exile Kun."
It worked wonders for immersion.
Character Names
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Ontopic: that robot idea sounds fun, actually.
And funny, I got around the "Exile" part in Kotor II by naming my character "Exile Kun."
It worked wonders for immersion.
I'm not really convinced that an English language voice synthesizer is quite feasible for this kind of thing yet, although that robot idea could work. Changing the protagonist for the western release of Nier was an interesting idea, but one which is slightly undermined by the fact that both versions of him look pretty terrible and unbalanced.
Every time Yahtzee mentions abuse of "input your name" I laugh again at the memory of a college friend who played through Suikoden with a main character named "Eyikeelu".
Maybe, if a synthesizer was sufficiently limited to only being a name, and nothing else, it could work. Especially if further limited to highly dramatic scenes like Yahtzee mentions. Though as people have suggested, any method of "Is this right?" the game tried would be horribly immersion-breaking. Though at least it'd be less immersion-breaking than listening to Yuna desperately trying to tiptoe around not usingTidus the-name-of-her-newest-Guardian-that-she-thinks-is-cute. (I actually rerolled without renaming Tidus in the hopes that the voice-acting had at least recorded a version with his name and a generic some-other-name version. Oh how naive I was.)
Maybe, if a synthesizer was sufficiently limited to only being a name, and nothing else, it could work. Especially if further limited to highly dramatic scenes like Yahtzee mentions. Though as people have suggested, any method of "Is this right?" the game tried would be horribly immersion-breaking. Though at least it'd be less immersion-breaking than listening to Yuna desperately trying to tiptoe around not using
Okay, I'm pretty sure Yahtzee is in my house.
My name is Frank, and when he mentioned my name after going on and on about hearing your name in games, it creeped me out.
Then he mentioned Puss in Boots with Shrek playing right next to me.
Yahtzee, get out of Illinois and go back to Australia.
My name is Frank, and when he mentioned my name after going on and on about hearing your name in games, it creeped me out.
Then he mentioned Puss in Boots with Shrek playing right next to me.
Yahtzee, get out of Illinois and go back to Australia.
MpSai said:
i didnt think so since all me friends call me by my last name and i've never had a girlfriend call by my first name.
I remember that the original Knights of the old republic somewhat alleviated this problem by having the aliens who didn't speak English say your name in the subtitles then near the end they revealed that the name you chose wasn't your real name so other characters could identify you directly like a normal person. Still a bit off at times but it kind of worked. The thing I wonder about is that if voice synthesizers get good enough will the need for voice actors ever drop off completely? It would certainly make some games cheaper to produce.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL UR MOM BEGS TO DIFR.The_ModeRazor said:
I really hope they manage to get a new series of that done.
They have the same Nier in Japan, but they have two different versions (Similar to Pokémon), where the protagonist is different on PS3 or 360, but they only released the father one here, because they wanted the Japanese to have a standard JRPG protagonist.
I remember 10 years ago when Deus Ex came out, it had the novel technical innovation of lip synching. Now not only did you have voice acting, but the characters lips moved to match! Such a little thing that went under the radar but now it would be wierd not to have. Personally I'm hoping some day we'll see the same thing with voice synthesizers.
...though not for the same reason other people are mentioning here, so that the game will properly pronounce the name it let you enter. But rather for the flexibility it provides in the dialogue. Because of voice acting, everything must be pre-recorded and scripted allowing for no flexibility in the game. Additionally, the increased cost of voice acting tends to lower the overal amount of dialogue in the games. There will be plenty on the main quest, but less for the more mundane less important things that can help bring a game world to life. And of course you won't have problems like in Oblivion where they had like 2 voices do the entire world.
...though not for the same reason other people are mentioning here, so that the game will properly pronounce the name it let you enter. But rather for the flexibility it provides in the dialogue. Because of voice acting, everything must be pre-recorded and scripted allowing for no flexibility in the game. Additionally, the increased cost of voice acting tends to lower the overal amount of dialogue in the games. There will be plenty on the main quest, but less for the more mundane less important things that can help bring a game world to life. And of course you won't have problems like in Oblivion where they had like 2 voices do the entire world.
I disagree somewhat, while it did let you choose your own first name it had no bearing in the game, I don't recall an instance in either 1 or 2 where the name you chose was even displayed.deth2munkies said:
RPGs are classified as such because one of the founding principles was that you get to name the character yourself, but if there is no point in naming can you still call it an RPG if you include the ability merely as filiing the staple (name, class, attributes, personal history) of an RPG?
While many point out the difference between characters, it seems to me that the western version IS the original version since it's also in Japan along with the teenage version, meaning it was Japan that localized the game differently for themselves, not for us.
To me, a big part of the appeal of Saints Row 2 is the whole "Just pick the character you like best and play that" aspect of it. Not just the visual customization, which is awesome, but the fact that you can choose from 6 different voices, that have full dialogue recorded for every cutscene and in-game bit of chatter, and even though the lines themselves are all more or less the same, the different voices all have clear personality differences in the way they deliver the lines.
More games should do stuff like that. Saints Row 2 is the only game I've played that really delivered on the "Play who you want!" idea. Well, so long as you want to play a sociopath.
More games should do stuff like that. Saints Row 2 is the only game I've played that really delivered on the "Play who you want!" idea. Well, so long as you want to play a sociopath.
When I typed in "Supercalafregelisticexpealadocious," the thingy sounded like GLaDOS dying.miraclefilms said:
Madden did it really well. They pronounced my name perfectly it made the game a great experience.