They cant put that much effort. Not enough money or workforce. They are afraid that even their best wont be enough to please the players! But thats where they are wrong, they cant put that much value in their games but if they do their best with what they have then the results are certain to succeed!
@@pedropimenta896 "They cant put that much effort. Not enough money or workforce." Yea, Activision/Blizzard for example has such a small workforce -- and there comes a small indie studio with a few hundred and blasts them away! I guess, the whole Microsoft corporation can just spare a few dozens of developers, because they are developing currently the new Outlook (for about 20 years now, I estimate).
@@pedropimenta896 but the executive meddling in many larger companies plus the underpayment of their staff leads to poor direction and low drive they're working a job and they arent paid enough accordingly therefore no passion
Fully agree. I felt like Amelia Tyler should of gotten the nod for voice acting as her narrations really build the world of the game, far more than any single companion that you might of missed in a playthrough. Another detail that caught my attention is the interactions between companions, which reminded me strongly of Dragon Age Origins; where you could just stand and listen to the banter of you party.
YES. She recorded SO many versions, too. She would use a different tone for each Origin playthru to make it more custom for each character. That woman has my heart.
IMHO Neil Newbon's award for Best Performance was actually a nod to BG 3 entire cast. I mean, all of the major characters and Amelia had stellar performances while the other contender games had 1 or 2 that stood out. So taken individually each one of them could have lost against Spider-Man/Alan Wake/Final Fantasy nominees, but as a group, there is no game, barring Witcher 3, which had such a numerous and amazing cast in the last decade. Neil is also a teacher and coordinator of motion-capture for VAs, so even more reason for him to win.
The response from Larian is amazing. They listen to our issues and fix them. There’s been so many hotfixes and patches. They show their support by listening to their fans! On a sidenote, all the voice actors truly love their job and love those game and you can tell by listening to their interviews and TikTok, etc.
You know what else is great about the way Larian fixes their game? THEY DONT FIX THINGS WE WANT TO STAY see spoiler below: Players expressed discontent at not being able to recruit Minthara because doing so required you to do evil things and lose several companions doing so, going to extraordinary lengths to recruit Minthara as a good player (see the Sheepthara Heist). So rather than patch out the gamebreaking Larian added a legitimate way to recruit her as a good player.
well 4 month after release very crucial bugs have not been solved... lets be honest, its the most buggy game I played for a long time, but its huge so its still ok. crashing during loading screens @ coop is still so stupid. some dialogs not loading and the game freezes etc etc.
Something I think is overlooked with BG3, or rather Larian studios, is that they arent just developers, the cast arent just actors, those titles seem trivial as to what they have actually achieved here. Larian studios and the entire team involved in the game are the single most advanced, competent, caring and passionate DM's/party members in D&D history. Every. Single. Ounce. of passion that has been poured into this game absolutely shines through and it truly involves us in that experience as individuals. I absolutely cannot wait to see what they pull off in the future, lets be honest, its only uphill from here for Larian and whatever they pump out.
For the near futur wincke himself said he wouldn t take a huge project for quite some time. Not only is everyone exhausted after 6years of perma crunch😅, but the sheer pressure of expectations must be daunting too...
Agree, the voice acting was a huge contribution to this game greatness, I did 3 full play throughs already (1 as dark urge), and I rarely skip the dialogues, while in other games, I find myself to just skip the audio, read what to do and move on
I like the term “performance capture”. We’ve gone past just vocal or motion capture. As you said, it is a more wholistic. I really hope studios do this in the future!
I try to play older games than Baldur's Gate 3 and they feel empty, boring, and completely lacking good performance. I think I made a mistake in playing Baldur's first and not finishing games that used to seem great to me. For example, I could never play FF15, but I always saw it in trailers and gameplays and it seemed wonderful to me. Now, I don't enjoy games like that because Baldur's is simply SUPERIOR in every aspect.
Let's not go fucking crazy here, my dude. The cast in BG3 is good, very good even, but it's not some kind of revolutionary performance that has never been seen before. I love the game and I think the cast does a phenomenal job, but the thing that sets it apart is not the performances, but both the writing and how many different tones you can experience in it. Performance-wise, again I love the game, but nobody lives up to David Warner as Irenicus in Baldur's Gate 2 for me. Edited to say that Amelia Tyler, the narrator for BG3, is actually my #2 spot... But as Nyrissa in Pathfinder Kingmaker, not the narrator in BG3.
I'm surprised that you can even notice changes on the performance of a character when you advance on the companion quest and/or romance. Lae'zel dialogue and tone, Karlach's too, and the other companions.
I’m new to D&D as well as turned based gaming. I just got to the under dark and am obsessed with how much freedom of choice u have. I am a 53 year old grandmother who rides Harleys in the summer months. In other words, I’ve been around a long time and have played a lot of games in my adult life yet I’ve never seen anything close to this. subscribing to your channel and looking forward to seeing what you put out moving forward. And thank you for what you do. Much appreciated.❤
I really wish there were "Outstanding Ensemble" or "Outstanding Casting" categories for voice acting. EVERYONE, particularly Amelia and all the main companions, in Baldur's Gate 3 was absolutely fantastic and deserve to be recognized as a collective.
"I want to know why Gale ate my shoes"! Funny as it sounds, this is just the kind of stuff that keeps you invested in the story, especially when afterwards he still looks sick and later asks you if he can consume your necklace, too. The story is well written and the actors made it feel so real. Just a great experience, and even a different one with every new playthrough.
You made a really good point about caring about your companions reactions and feelings to the decisions you make. I agree that Baldur’s Gate 3 was the game of the year, before the awards, but it also made me think of something that confirms this feeling. BG3 is a game where you are not just playing alone or traveling alone, the characters and companions around you can become friends (and lovers) and you end up caring about them and their needs, wants and happiness and these elements can give someone who might be lonely a sense of need and belonging to something bigger where your actions affect everyone, everywhere and that means something, when we live in a world like we do…sorry this is so long, but i wanted to convey what i was trying to say and feel. = )
In my first (blind) playthrough, I romanced Karlach. In my second playthrough, I killed Karlach for Wyll's sake. I was surprised at how shitty I felt for doing that, even though in the context of the second PT narrative, it was absolutely the right decision. So not only does your bond with the characters impact you in a single campaign, it carries over into subsequent campaigns.
Neil's performance as Astarion hits me right in the heart every time. At the height of his arc I feel the anguish he brings in my chest, like watching a real friend go through something traumatic
Makes me very hopeful for the actor’s profession in general. Video games with this technology rely on the skill and personality of actors, not on their physical appearance which is mostly genetic lottery. Kinda levels the field between beautiful and average people giving the true talent and skill a chance to shine
I think we're going to see a number of different approaches, some that don't require the expense of full performance capture. I was just gobsmacked by the facial animations of Cyberpunk 2077, and that's largely thanks to a facial animation scripting tool called Jali, and that also has benefits for localization to non-English speaking markets. ua-cam.com/video/uFIxiz0jwRE/v-deo.html It's likely that that we're going to see a mix of full performance capture, voice acting with scripted animations, and yes, a few games where more chameleon like character actors play multiple roles with the aid of AI voice changers and animation scripting, perhaps even AI detection of emotional inflection from the voice acting. And that it will be difficult to distinguish between the approaches solely from the finished product.
I completely agree. Actors truly can become anyone with this technology and the genetic lottery, as you put it, doesn't matter one jot. Just pure talent, skill, and force of personality can shine through. I love it.
I agree. The only time game companies hype up VAs is if they are A-list actors, like Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk for example. I can't tell you the names of who else voiced in Cyberpunk, but I can name the VAs for all the main and minor characters in BG3. It's great seeing a company hype and support their actors.
That sounds very similar to the practice in anime. I know people who watch shows simply because their favorite VA is in it. For the Japanese VAs anyway, not sure if that applies to the English dubs as well.
It's cool that the voice actors are still interacting on social media with the fans as their characters, or that Larian allows content creators to make all kinds of content using the characters from the game.
They didn't just allow it, they actually hired or sponsored a lot of content creators to make something about the game (Carbot Animation, Mo Mo O'Brien, mashed, Joel Haver, that one short with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, the High Rollers campaign, and a lot more all got paid and other support like access to the official voice actors by Larian). Not many talk about it, but the marketing for the game is just as phenomenal as the game itself. Using the voice actors so much by getting them do press tours, all kinds of interviews, livestream their own playthroughs, and so on was genius and worked fantastically. Of course the best marketing wouldn't have kept interest for so long if the game itself didn't live up to and even surpassed the expectations, but I bet we will see attempts at similar advertising campaigns in the future from other studios - which will probably be not nearly as successful unless its to promote a similarly great game.
I gave never cried over a video game before, but Karlach after Gortash and Astarion after Cazador had me crying like a baby. I hated Aradin and the wizard at Sorcerous Sundries. The Voice actors take you on emotional journeys that I never expected from a game.
Fantastic video! You can never skip a scene or npc to talk to as the performances are wonderful but the details and engagement that each npc provides is unprecedented. Bad decisions and the Dark Urge changes that occur from one playthrough choice to another is absolutely wild. You are absolutely right that it is hard to be bad in this game. Killer job on the writers, actors, and developers as a whole!
Started out the game wanting to get best dialog options to get best results but ive caught myself actually caring about how my companions think about certain situations/ conversations. Like instead of jumping in and guiding the outcome of EVERY conversation i now try to have my companions make their own decisions, whether good or bad. Like when shadowheart was doing the nightsong quest i honestly thought she would kill her without my intervention but because of how much i was invested in her character development and emotional reponse i let her make her own choice and she ended up not killing nightsong. I was so proud of her, legit 😅 i know i sound stupid
i let my shadowheart do what she wanted as well, and she killed the nightsong. i was surprised they actually had the balls to let your allies make such huge decisions like that with massive consequences.
Naughty Dog has been using motion tracking on actors for years, as did Kojima. The scale and paths is on another level though. I recently installed a mod that adds a lot of the interactions used for specific origin playthroughs to the whole game and its amazing how much different content I havent seen. For example, Shadowheart at camp trying to open the prism. this is my 6th playthrough and its amazing how much varied content they added. I cannot wait to see how insane a Divintiy game is with this depth of character interaction. Side note: Dude.....now I'm wondering how they did the Minthara scene......you know the one....
They had an intimacy coordinator on set for performance capture. Not all the spicy scenes were performed by the character's VA, but they were all motion captured
I think the decision of Swen to go all in on the voice acting was the main ingredient of making BG3 such an unforgettable experience. And this is why I love the fact that Larian has remained without a publisher for all this time, because we all know that if it were up to any publishers they wouldn't of had let Larian invest so much money into fully voice acting their 120+ hour long RPG. There has always been this stigma with the CRPG rennaisance or the genre in general that "I don't wanna read so much text" or "I'd rather go read a novel instead" so many people have been afraid of starting these type of games because of the minimal voice acting (also it was due to budgetary constraints). To play devils's advocate for a bit, however, having full voice acting in a game is an extreme plus but the writing usually takes a huge nosedive because you cannot be verbose in your language when you are speaking, whereas you can when in text and go into extreme detail. This is why I am still of a mind that Planescape Torment remains the best CRPG I have ever played because of the writing and how it conveyed it's world, characters, emotion via just text. It is unparalleled to me still to this day and only Disco Elysium has come close to that. But even Disco a lot of people didn't want to give it a chance until full voice acting via the narrator was implemented in the definitive edition released later. There has to be a compromise if you want to reach broader audiences, because their attention span is smaller than hardcore cRPG players that are used and accustomed to walls of text and engaging with the in depth combat systems to min max their character. Larian decided to take a risk and shoot for the moon and they actually did it. Are there still "purists" of the crpg genre that consider BG3 bad in terms of gameplay and storytelling? Of course, but as I've said compromises had to be made. You can't have the writing of Planescape Torment, the combat of BG2 or Pathfinder games ontop of AAA quality voice acting for every character for a 150+ rpg and expect it to reach mainstream appeal..at least not yet. And I don't think we will ever reach that point because it's requires stars to align perfectly and enough money to make that happen.
The moment my girl realized she could talk to ANY animal and get us some benefits out of it. THEN she understood all the game and is now rapidly becoming a DnD fan too.
I strongly disagree with your assertion that Planescape: Torment still has better narrative or writing than Baldur’s Gate 3. I have played hundreds of RPGs in my forty years of gaming, and for me the depth, nuance and breadth of BG3’s is superior to any other game I’ve played. Planescape had an imaginative, well-told story, but the depth there is middling, and the degree to which your choices actually make a substantial difference is much less than many modern RPGs. And a big part of that is it is actually a much smaller RPG that you can complete in 25-30 hours (reading included). It had great characters and a well-crafted (if short) story. But peek underneath the hood, and there’s not much else there.
@@williamegan6756 I strongly disagree with your strong disagreement. I love BG3, but I would assert that the writing is pretty middling at best and it spreads itself more thin than Planescape did. You're mostly saying Planescape was smaller than BG3 so BG3 is better. I think this is just a factually incorrect statement. The neat thing about a smaller game is that it has more focused development. Planescape is praised as probably THE most well written RPG in the genre with Disco Elysium as the only game to ever come close. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 also just have better writing than 3.
@@SaveMeXenu None of that is borne out by the Critic’s Scores, the Audience Scores, the number of Awards won, the number of copies sold, or any of the many other metrics that one would use or could to justify such a statement. What is frequently praised is the imagination of the Planescape world, the characters, the setting - and very little of that was actually created by Chris Avellone, the writer. Most comes from the very rich D&D lore upon which it was based. And sure, simple, focused stories can be good - but they are also far easier to write. It would be like saying Pan’s Labyrinth has a superior narrative to The Lord of the Rings. Some people might believe that, and sure it’s still a good story, but you cannot compare the complexity or the scale. The difference is one of those stories will still be around in 100 years, while the other, however praised, Will very likely be long-forgotten.
@@williamegan6756 Forgotten by mainstream audiences, sure. But BG3 will also be forgotten soon too. It's just the new hot thing right now among the mainstream. The only people who will remember BG3 are the people who are fans of the genre, the same people who will continue to love and appreciate Planescape, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Arcanum, etc, etc. The game is not even a year old, calm down on fellating it and praising its timelessness.
The fact that like 99% of every unique dialogue interaction with every single character, including random NPCs, have their own unique mocap animation is simply dumbfounding. I'm on my 2nd playthrough already and it's just unfathomable to me how many mocap actors, including the main cast, had to physically act out so many unique scenes. I think this is one of the main reasons why the game is so successful; it significantly upped the immersion factor when it comes to character interactions.
Something that a lot of people arent talking about, but that i think is a huge part of why this game is so loved, is the world. Faerun is a living breathing world that has been built by countless D&D okayers over 40 years. The world is so detailed, and the lore so deep, and that makes this game feel so imersive.
@@nickrubin7312 That is a fair point. I think, it goes even further -- like with developers, the company culture matters. When you can infuse the people (developers, voice actors, ...) with love for what you/they do, you get different results than when you are just an assembly line for games in the dozens.
@@FreelancerND Why is it misleading? Because you fall asleep when talking to people in Starfiddled? [ ] you understand that those games you mentioned are not current games for a long time now? That mentioned, you are the one wanting to mislead!
great video, i would also like to add that a lot of that result is due to the hardwork of all animators as we tend to overlook them in favor of all the mocap techniques that they themselves have a lot of input on
Good voice acting in games is a bit older than that. I think the first well-acted game I ever played was the first Discworld game with among others Eric Idle, Tony Robinson, and Rob Brydon. These were all proper professional (voice) actors that all did a good job. And this was in 1995!!!!
The first game that kicked off acting to another level - in my experience- was Mass Effect. Though still just voice acting, it was combined with uncommonly realistic handcrafted animations and movie-like camera in cutscenea and conversations.
A good narrator can elevate an experience to crazy levels. Can you imagine a game like Darkest Dungeon without the narrator? His commentary helps with both hype and tension. Especially since the characters don't have a great deal of expressions they can make.
Another game which had a stellar and widely praised use of a narrator was Bastion from 2011. He was reactive to the players actions, how good or bad you did in fights, what you encountered, gave background information about the lore and the character you encountered and generally was half the reason people played it so much (not that its a bad game, its just that the narrator was so outstanding).
If you look for stellar voice acting in other games, check Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines. Some of the characters there were on the same level as BG3. Of course, the amount of play is a very small fraction of that in BG3.
His interviews are amazing. Just noticed he’s still getting actors in like Nettie and this morning the Dark Urge , Neil Roberts. I stayed up until 2am, I couldn’t stop, great interview. Dan is a legend.
You can tell that 3 whole years of love and a passion for not just gaming but D&D went into this masterpiece. People who hated on this game before playing it admitting they were wrong once they actually tried playing, if at first to prove themselves right. Players feel seen by companions and their stories. I remember first connecting to Shadowheart because I knew what it felt like to feel as if you owe someone everything because you can't remember a time not depending on them, but there were not as great a person as I believed. And the writing is impeccable. Every character from companion to NPC felt real, their reactions to responses and actions made by the player felt real.
the voice acting was really amazing its an impossible task to pick the best VA for this game because everyone is peak from the main characters to the smaller npcs like the child Tiefling Arabelle or the her mother at the druid camp Shadowheart, Lazel etc like
You know, you can tell when someone is "into" their voice lines - it's the difference in emotion and excitement between hearing original crisis core voice lines and crisis core reunion's borderline text-to-speech recitation. If someone says something inspiring, it tends to hit harder if you can hear their own excitement and doubly if you can see the expression match the tonality. BG3 hit those marks wonderfully.
After playing BG3 and cyberpunk last year, I have a very high bar for my expectations of video games going forward. Developers need to do way better if they want me to buy a game at full price.
One minor thing I saw early that really helped was that when characters were interacting with my halfling, they LOOKED like they were talking to someone shorter than them. They were facing the right direction for my character's height.
Great video. On an even higher lever, Larian did an excellent job with the source material. Furthermore it is the writing that makes a story. The voice and video takes it to another level. I hope Larian continues on this path.
I honestly never played a game where you could tell by tone of voice at what stage of their character progression the characters are. Especially when replaying and noticing how distant they now sound at the start. Be it Shadowhearts cold tone or Astarion being way more extra so you can tell his is lying through his teeth. Or that you can play a random sound bit and can tell if Astarion ascended or not just by tone of voice. In a similar way Amelia Tyler recorded 17 different narration types based on your character origin and you can really tell when playing normal, durge or an companion origin character. For durge she sounds sometimes demented, sometimes lost, sometimes sad while when playing Astarions origin for example she sounds so smug when narrating his thoughts because it fits the character. One narrator performance of that quality would have been amazing but 17 versions of it is just insane.
Ages ago you mentioned that Alfira scene as one of your favorites, and I tried finding it for hours and hours in Act 3 on my first save and only today did I finally realize that that's the Grove and the reason I never found that scene is I always play along with her, it's truly amazing how much is in this game
I was stunned to discover narrated epitaphs on the tombstones. When I think of other game studios and what they might have done, I don't see any adding this to the game. If they had added it, the epitaphs would have been text. It was such a treat to learn all the fates of the deceased...almost like finding treasure itself. Similar reaction to the little dark spheres dropped by Shadows...memories of the former corporeal beings before they were turned to shadow. It would have been easy just to hand wave and have them drop coin for loot. But Larian says no, these creatures are insubstantial, so can't be dropping regular loot. Instead what if they drop memories. Narrated story snippets of the person's last thoughts. Just brilliant.
@5:39 -- *That's* it! That's the reason the game feels so fluid: the voice acting is *physically* bound to actor's actions! Thank you! I've been trying to put my finger on that for months! 😊
Well said. I completely get what you are saying about the emotional attachment you indicated you have with Karlach and couldn't even look at her after you had 'failed' her. I had a very similar experience with Shadowheart. Without giving any spoilers away there is a point where you have to choose which path she is going to take that is life altering for her and I know all of you that have played the game. Having experienced the 'good' path I had planned to push her down the 'evil' path on my second playthrough. But in the end I couldn't do it, not knowing her full story from my first playthrough. I just couldn't betray her knowing that it would ultimately let her down and I would have felt like I had failed her.
What you said about everyone feeling like they are main character and part of the story just as much as the protagonist is very much like old Bioware games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 Mass Effect and Dragon Age which were essentially companion-based games, and it's really nice to see Bg3 follow in the same footsteps.
Thank your for your great analysis! I am already subscribed, but today you would have earned my subscription! Yes, the storytelling and the voice acting (which belong together IMHO) are one of the big pillars of the greatness of BG3. One other is the combat system, but I guess that is already on your list ....
I usually turn sound off of most games i play, but Baldur's is one of the few games i leave with sound on! Amelia's Narration voice is 20 out of 10 in audio beauty! I love the voice acting in the game, it is so perfect!
Completely agree with you with regards to the sheer brilliance of the voice acting and narration in BG3 however I wonder how can one play games with sound off?? 😂 Like games just feel empty to me without sound lol
@@MinaeVain I usually have UA-cam, Twitch, music or an audio book going in the background. I usually only have sound going in Minecraft or No Mans Sky!
@@shallendor Interesting. Guess it depends on what you're playing, I play 1st person shooters most of the time so I kind of have to hear what's going on around me. With sims I usually have something on my 2nd monitor to watch while I play although I still don't turn off sound, at most I'll lower the music volume
Last night I did house of grief and it's conclusion to one of the characters and despite being relatively short I took my awhile as I was so reluctant to accept the outcome and wanted to carefully choose the dialogue option that would be best for the NPC involved. Just like when your actually have a friend going through difficulty you are super careful with your words to reassure and comfort but not disrespect the situation.
I am glad BG3 came out when it did. If it didn't come out at all, games would be voiced by AI, but it did come out, so there is a bar set for games going forward
I just found you, and the first thing that catched my eye, is the Alucard poster, from the first Hellsing anime, respect : ). Love your video about BG3 I think you're spot on with what you say.
Even the voice actors for the cats and rats are great. 😆 Especially the cats! Not only that, the dialogue of the cats and the personalities of the cats were clearly written and designed by cat people (as in, people who own and love cats).
The only problem with the acting in BG3 is that, sometimes, you can see the characters poses and facials expressions completely reset in neutral position between lines that should be in a continious flow. Other than that they did an amazing job with it !
I keep replaying BG3 and get different details etc each time! I haven’t come across one npc that doesn’t have great voice acting, facial expression, etc. This game keeps delivering a new experience after four play thru
Great points, well made, you've got a new subscriber 😊 I'm not sure we'll see the likes of BG3 level immersive storytelling again. Except from Larian of course (hopefully). I've been gaming since Atari VCS but mostly passed by RTS and other turn based games since am not on PC. I needed the hook of compelling storytelling and found it in BG3. First time I've ever got absorbed in a game purely from watching the super engaging actors talk about their characters on YT. So glad the game exceeded my expectations when it eventually hit xbox 😂
I’ve only heard a couple of games with voice acting this amazing. One was Bayek from ACO, one was Asura from Asura’s Wrath (which is mostly just screaming tbf), and the last was the entirety of DOS2.
The effect of having the mindset of "we will do it, there is no other way" shines as a pillar of light towards the power of "I think I can" all the way up the hill
15:34 they have in the cast one of the most famous Dungeon Masters, which the narrator technically is a DM. But even if Larian had asked Matt Mercer to be the Narrator, I don’t think he would’ve wanted bc it would’ve overshadowed the game and it’s story simply bc HE was the dm.
Watching the VAs play bdb was wild. Like they don't look like the characters but watching them speak and interact, the body language... It's like watching the characters. The feel like their characters.
10:10 i can relate! i did an evil durge run and i didn't talk to wyll and specifically went out of my way to not meet karlach because the guilt of raiding the grove was too much. i still haven't finished that run, it's sad without them and the tieflings! i miss them! that's how invested i am in these characters!
Wish you gave more examples of the dialogue to make your point. I love video essays. Thank you so much. But i haven’t played the game yet and would have still liked to learn from your essay and a few examples edited in would be a huge perk
Red Dead Redemption 1&2 have great voice acting & mocap in the main cast and the NPCs too and they even motion-captured horses and other animals.. AND... it's continuous as you play, not just for cut scenes.
I would love to see a video comparing some of the best acting done in the games nominated for best performance. Not to tear any of the other actors down, because they were all top tier, but to let viewers see and hear the difference in everything you described in this video. When a studio gives an actor so many tools, the result is on another level.
It’s is really simple, they truly cared about the quality of the product and what their fans and gamers wanted (were not to arrogant to make changes based on feedback). Cared enough about to devote tons of time, money and resources to the project with the confidence if you build it (correctly), they will come (buy, play and promote your game) Once all that was done the gamers bought, played and promoted their game, providing a ton of free marketing. It has been a real love affair between Larian and those of us that love it.
i tried to play a dark evil playthrough with a friend that was playing the dark urge. There was so many things that was holding us back from being evil because we love this game. We would NEVER harm Scratch, we knocked out the tiefling bard so we wouldn't have to kill her (for reasons), we didn't know if we should side with the absolute or go against them to seem more evil. We killed shadow heart very early on as a sacrifice to the fish people and didn't know that she would be very important to doing something evil (like killing a certain someone with a spear)..... We TRIED to be evil but are choices early on made it hard to do so since we were going in blind and didn't know the outcomes. We only knew everything in Act 1, everything else was brand new to us. There was also NPCs that we couldn't bring are selves to kill, thats right, NPCs!!! Like a kid that lost there mother and had an orange cat with them. My friend wanted to help the kid, i wanted to talk to the funny cat. In any other game (besides dragon age), I don't have much of a connection with character or let alone the NPCs of the world. So being rude to them or ending them was nothing, i felt nothing for them. To me, it was just 1s and 0s, or a robot in a program. BG3 on the other hand, i constantly forget sometimes that im playing a game bc I feel so emersed in it all. EVERYTHING has life and purpose, all your actions matter, and the choices you make the world reacts to it, no matter how small. I LOVE BG3!!!!
People misunderstand the devs who say BG3 is an anomaly. The devs saying that dont say that because they are lazy, they sat it becauze with the way executives are its true. Every dev dreams of working on a passion project like BG3, where Larion gave them as much time and resources as they needed to craft a wonderful game. Larion's CEO is a gamer hes passuonate about the medium. Most gaming CEO's are not and only care about the bottom line. They know a rushed game with battle passes and micro transactions will sell well. Thats why we dont see more games like BG3. If you want more games like it then stop buying unfinished micro transaction laden games.
This team work between the writers and the voice actors broke new ground imo. Larian Studio's respect for the actors was integral to this quality. Most companies want to make actors feel replaceable, but their interpretation of the characters is creative and key. Actors aren't substitutable. AI isn't nearly sentient enough to understand how the characters feel. Following the actors and writers is more important than following brand names.
I’m glad someone is finally talking about this, every character is so much more real than in any other game, in my opinion, Karlach is the best example of feeling real
God what you said about being a “bad person” in game and how you just don’t want the companions to react negatively to the decisions you make and how their lives will play out because of it because it makes you feel BAD in real LIFE. No wonder I’ve struggled so hard with “evil” playthroughs 😭
I recently ordered the physical Collectors Edition (2nd Batch) for the PC, despite having it already as Digital edition on steam, because it is soo good :D
I can't agree more that being bad in this game is super hard. After I lured Isobel into Lorrakens lair after handing over ayelin. Watching Dame Aylein curse us after Isobels death nearly broke me.
They do a great job, but they're hardly the first. Of late, Final Fantasy XIV and XVI, Spiderman, Cyberpunk and Jedi Fallen Order come to mind as standouts.
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Haha, I just realized the think was wrong. fixed it.
Other studios just complain, because they just don't want to make the effort that Larian Studios has made to create a game with love for gaming.
And what are those other Gaming Companies?
They cant put that much effort. Not enough money or workforce. They are afraid that even their best wont be enough to please the players! But thats where they are wrong, they cant put that much value in their games but if they do their best with what they have then the results are certain to succeed!
@@pedropimenta896 "They cant put that much effort. Not enough money or workforce."
Yea, Activision/Blizzard for example has such a small workforce -- and there comes a small indie studio with a few hundred and blasts them away!
I guess, the whole Microsoft corporation can just spare a few dozens of developers, because they are developing currently the new Outlook (for about 20 years now, I estimate).
@@pedropimenta896 but the executive meddling in many larger companies plus the underpayment of their staff leads to poor direction and low drive
they're working a job and they arent paid enough accordingly therefore no passion
@@samflood5631 bethesta, ubisoft, ea, lmao
Fully agree. I felt like Amelia Tyler should of gotten the nod for voice acting as her narrations really build the world of the game, far more than any single companion that you might of missed in a playthrough. Another detail that caught my attention is the interactions between companions, which reminded me strongly of Dragon Age Origins; where you could just stand and listen to the banter of you party.
That's a fair point
YES. She recorded SO many versions, too. She would use a different tone for each Origin playthru to make it more custom for each character. That woman has my heart.
IMHO Neil Newbon's award for Best Performance was actually a nod to BG 3 entire cast. I mean, all of the major characters and Amelia had stellar performances while the other contender games had 1 or 2 that stood out. So taken individually each one of them could have lost against Spider-Man/Alan Wake/Final Fantasy nominees, but as a group, there is no game, barring Witcher 3, which had such a numerous and amazing cast in the last decade. Neil is also a teacher and coordinator of motion-capture for VAs, so even more reason for him to win.
I heckin love these little dialogues between party members
THIS. She not only captures the vibe of a perfect DM, she brings so much personality to every single encounter
The response from Larian is amazing. They listen to our issues and fix them. There’s been so many hotfixes and patches. They show their support by listening to their fans! On a sidenote, all the voice actors truly love their job and love those game and you can tell by listening to their interviews and TikTok, etc.
You know what else is great about the way Larian fixes their game? THEY DONT FIX THINGS WE WANT TO STAY see spoiler below:
Players expressed discontent at not being able to recruit Minthara because doing so required you to do evil things and lose several companions doing so, going to extraordinary lengths to recruit Minthara as a good player (see the Sheepthara Heist). So rather than patch out the gamebreaking Larian added a legitimate way to recruit her as a good player.
well 4 month after release very crucial bugs have not been solved... lets be honest, its the most buggy game I played for a long time, but its huge so its still ok. crashing during loading screens @ coop is still so stupid. some dialogs not loading and the game freezes etc etc.
Something I think is overlooked with BG3, or rather Larian studios, is that they arent just developers, the cast arent just actors, those titles seem trivial as to what they have actually achieved here. Larian studios and the entire team involved in the game are the single most advanced, competent, caring and passionate DM's/party members in D&D history.
Every. Single. Ounce. of passion that has been poured into this game absolutely shines through and it truly involves us in that experience as individuals.
I absolutely cannot wait to see what they pull off in the future, lets be honest, its only uphill from here for Larian and whatever they pump out.
For the near futur wincke himself said he wouldn t take a huge project for quite some time.
Not only is everyone exhausted after 6years of perma crunch😅, but the sheer pressure of expectations must be daunting too...
Absolutely agree with you. One of the best entertainment experiences of my life.
When you look at the totality at what makes BG3 great, Amelia Tyler is the glue that makes the experience what it is!
Agree, the voice acting was a huge contribution to this game greatness, I did 3 full play throughs already (1 as dark urge), and I rarely skip the dialogues, while in other games, I find myself to just skip the audio, read what to do and move on
I like the term “performance capture”. We’ve gone past just vocal or motion capture. As you said, it is a more wholistic. I really hope studios do this in the future!
Their voice acting isn’t just above the standard of gaming, it is above the standard of television and movies.
I try to play older games than Baldur's Gate 3 and they feel empty, boring, and completely lacking good performance. I think I made a mistake in playing Baldur's first and not finishing games that used to seem great to me. For example, I could never play FF15, but I always saw it in trailers and gameplays and it seemed wonderful to me. Now, I don't enjoy games like that because Baldur's is simply SUPERIOR in every aspect.
Let's not go fucking crazy here, my dude. The cast in BG3 is good, very good even, but it's not some kind of revolutionary performance that has never been seen before. I love the game and I think the cast does a phenomenal job, but the thing that sets it apart is not the performances, but both the writing and how many different tones you can experience in it. Performance-wise, again I love the game, but nobody lives up to David Warner as Irenicus in Baldur's Gate 2 for me. Edited to say that Amelia Tyler, the narrator for BG3, is actually my #2 spot... But as Nyrissa in Pathfinder Kingmaker, not the narrator in BG3.
I'm surprised that you can even notice changes on the performance of a character when you advance on the companion quest and/or romance. Lae'zel dialogue and tone, Karlach's too, and the other companions.
I’m new to D&D as well as turned based gaming. I just got to the under dark and am obsessed with how much freedom of choice u have. I am a 53 year old grandmother who rides Harleys in the summer months. In other words, I’ve been around a long time and have played a lot of games in my adult life yet I’ve never seen anything close to this. subscribing to your channel and looking forward to seeing what you put out moving forward. And thank you for what you do. Much appreciated.❤
I really wish there were "Outstanding Ensemble" or "Outstanding Casting" categories for voice acting. EVERYONE, particularly Amelia and all the main companions, in Baldur's Gate 3 was absolutely fantastic and deserve to be recognized as a collective.
"I want to know why Gale ate my shoes"! Funny as it sounds, this is just the kind of stuff that keeps you invested in the story, especially when afterwards he still looks sick and later asks you if he can consume your necklace, too. The story is well written and the actors made it feel so real. Just a great experience, and even a different one with every new playthrough.
You made a really good point about caring about your companions reactions and feelings to the decisions you make. I agree that Baldur’s Gate 3 was the game of the year, before the awards, but it also made me think of something that confirms this feeling. BG3 is a game where you are not just playing alone or traveling alone, the characters and companions around you can become friends (and lovers) and you end up caring about them and their needs, wants and happiness and these elements can give someone who might be lonely a sense of need and belonging to something bigger where your actions affect everyone, everywhere and that means something, when we live in a world like we do…sorry this is so long, but i wanted to convey what i was trying to say and feel. = )
Man, I'm sad every time I swap a companion and they complain that I leave them in the camp ;_;
In my first (blind) playthrough, I romanced Karlach. In my second playthrough, I killed Karlach for Wyll's sake. I was surprised at how shitty I felt for doing that, even though in the context of the second PT narrative, it was absolutely the right decision. So not only does your bond with the characters impact you in a single campaign, it carries over into subsequent campaigns.
Neil's performance as Astarion hits me right in the heart every time. At the height of his arc I feel the anguish he brings in my chest, like watching a real friend go through something traumatic
Makes me very hopeful for the actor’s profession in general. Video games with this technology rely on the skill and personality of actors, not on their physical appearance which is mostly genetic lottery. Kinda levels the field between beautiful and average people giving the true talent and skill a chance to shine
I think we're going to see a number of different approaches, some that don't require the expense of full performance capture.
I was just gobsmacked by the facial animations of Cyberpunk 2077, and that's largely thanks to a facial animation scripting tool called Jali, and that also has benefits for localization to non-English speaking markets. ua-cam.com/video/uFIxiz0jwRE/v-deo.html
It's likely that that we're going to see a mix of full performance capture, voice acting with scripted animations, and yes, a few games where more chameleon like character actors play multiple roles with the aid of AI voice changers and animation scripting, perhaps even AI detection of emotional inflection from the voice acting. And that it will be difficult to distinguish between the approaches solely from the finished product.
I completely agree. Actors truly can become anyone with this technology and the genetic lottery, as you put it, doesn't matter one jot. Just pure talent, skill, and force of personality can shine through. I love it.
Still playing bg3 and still in love with the game
Also consider that larian is brilliant at focusing marketing mainly through voice actors. I don't remember another company that did this
I agree. The only time game companies hype up VAs is if they are A-list actors, like Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk for example. I can't tell you the names of who else voiced in Cyberpunk, but I can name the VAs for all the main and minor characters in BG3. It's great seeing a company hype and support their actors.
EA with Command and Conquer Red Alert 3?
That sounds very similar to the practice in anime. I know people who watch shows simply because their favorite VA is in it. For the Japanese VAs anyway, not sure if that applies to the English dubs as well.
It's cool that the voice actors are still interacting on social media with the fans as their characters, or that Larian allows content creators to make all kinds of content using the characters from the game.
They didn't just allow it, they actually hired or sponsored a lot of content creators to make something about the game (Carbot Animation, Mo Mo O'Brien, mashed, Joel Haver, that one short with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, the High Rollers campaign, and a lot more all got paid and other support like access to the official voice actors by Larian). Not many talk about it, but the marketing for the game is just as phenomenal as the game itself. Using the voice actors so much by getting them do press tours, all kinds of interviews, livestream their own playthroughs, and so on was genius and worked fantastically.
Of course the best marketing wouldn't have kept interest for so long if the game itself didn't live up to and even surpassed the expectations, but I bet we will see attempts at similar advertising campaigns in the future from other studios - which will probably be not nearly as successful unless its to promote a similarly great game.
I gave never cried over a video game before, but Karlach after Gortash and Astarion after Cazador had me crying like a baby. I hated Aradin and the wizard at Sorcerous Sundries. The Voice actors take you on emotional journeys that I never expected from a game.
Fantastic video! You can never skip a scene or npc to talk to as the performances are wonderful but the details and engagement that each npc provides is unprecedented. Bad decisions and the Dark Urge changes that occur from one playthrough choice to another is absolutely wild. You are absolutely right that it is hard to be bad in this game. Killer job on the writers, actors, and developers as a whole!
Started out the game wanting to get best dialog options to get best results but ive caught myself actually caring about how my companions think about certain situations/ conversations. Like instead of jumping in and guiding the outcome of EVERY conversation i now try to have my companions make their own decisions, whether good or bad. Like when shadowheart was doing the nightsong quest i honestly thought she would kill her without my intervention but because of how much i was invested in her character development and emotional reponse i let her make her own choice and she ended up not killing nightsong. I was so proud of her, legit 😅 i know i sound stupid
i let my shadowheart do what she wanted as well, and she killed the nightsong. i was surprised they actually had the balls to let your allies make such huge decisions like that with massive consequences.
Naughty Dog has been using motion tracking on actors for years, as did Kojima. The scale and paths is on another level though. I recently installed a mod that adds a lot of the interactions used for specific origin playthroughs to the whole game and its amazing how much different content I havent seen. For example, Shadowheart at camp trying to open the prism. this is my 6th playthrough and its amazing how much varied content they added. I cannot wait to see how insane a Divintiy game is with this depth of character interaction.
Side note: Dude.....now I'm wondering how they did the Minthara scene......you know the one....
I don't know the Minthara scene
@@1Dark.Paradise.Lost1 I'm gonna guess they are talking about her romance scene, which if you haven't seen yet well, here's for another playthrough ;)
They had an intimacy coordinator on set for performance capture. Not all the spicy scenes were performed by the character's VA, but they were all motion captured
Agreed about Amelia Tyler. And Weeping Dawn is one of my favorite songs. Loved this, and and am already subscribed.
I think the decision of Swen to go all in on the voice acting was the main ingredient of making BG3 such an unforgettable experience. And this is why I love the fact that Larian has remained without a publisher for all this time, because we all know that if it were up to any publishers they wouldn't of had let Larian invest so much money into fully voice acting their 120+ hour long RPG. There has always been this stigma with the CRPG rennaisance or the genre in general that "I don't wanna read so much text" or "I'd rather go read a novel instead" so many people have been afraid of starting these type of games because of the minimal voice acting (also it was due to budgetary constraints).
To play devils's advocate for a bit, however, having full voice acting in a game is an extreme plus but the writing usually takes a huge nosedive because you cannot be verbose in your language when you are speaking, whereas you can when in text and go into extreme detail. This is why I am still of a mind that Planescape Torment remains the best CRPG I have ever played because of the writing and how it conveyed it's world, characters, emotion via just text. It is unparalleled to me still to this day and only Disco Elysium has come close to that. But even Disco a lot of people didn't want to give it a chance until full voice acting via the narrator was implemented in the definitive edition released later.
There has to be a compromise if you want to reach broader audiences, because their attention span is smaller than hardcore cRPG players that are used and accustomed to walls of text and engaging with the in depth combat systems to min max their character.
Larian decided to take a risk and shoot for the moon and they actually did it. Are there still "purists" of the crpg genre that consider BG3 bad in terms of gameplay and storytelling? Of course, but as I've said compromises had to be made. You can't have the writing of Planescape Torment, the combat of BG2 or Pathfinder games ontop of AAA quality voice acting for every character for a 150+ rpg and expect it to reach mainstream appeal..at least not yet. And I don't think we will ever reach that point because it's requires stars to align perfectly and enough money to make that happen.
The moment my girl realized she could talk to ANY animal and get us some benefits out of it. THEN she understood all the game and is now rapidly becoming a DnD fan too.
I strongly disagree with your assertion that Planescape: Torment still has better narrative or writing than Baldur’s Gate 3. I have played hundreds of RPGs in my forty years of gaming, and for me the depth, nuance and breadth of BG3’s is superior to any other game I’ve played.
Planescape had an imaginative, well-told story, but the depth there is middling, and the degree to which your choices actually make a substantial difference is much less than many modern RPGs. And a big part of that is it is actually a much smaller RPG that you can complete in 25-30 hours (reading included). It had great characters and a well-crafted (if short) story. But peek underneath the hood, and there’s not much else there.
@@williamegan6756 I strongly disagree with your strong disagreement. I love BG3, but I would assert that the writing is pretty middling at best and it spreads itself more thin than Planescape did. You're mostly saying Planescape was smaller than BG3 so BG3 is better. I think this is just a factually incorrect statement. The neat thing about a smaller game is that it has more focused development. Planescape is praised as probably THE most well written RPG in the genre with Disco Elysium as the only game to ever come close. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 also just have better writing than 3.
@@SaveMeXenu None of that is borne out by the Critic’s Scores, the Audience Scores, the number of Awards won, the number of copies sold, or any of the many other metrics that one would use or could to justify such a statement. What is frequently praised is the imagination of the Planescape world, the characters, the setting - and very little of that was actually created by Chris Avellone, the writer. Most comes from the very rich D&D lore upon which it was based.
And sure, simple, focused stories can be good - but they are also far easier to write. It would be like saying Pan’s Labyrinth has a superior narrative to The Lord of the Rings. Some people might believe that, and sure it’s still a good story, but you cannot compare the complexity or the scale. The difference is one of those stories will still be around in 100 years, while the other, however praised, Will very likely be long-forgotten.
@@williamegan6756 Forgotten by mainstream audiences, sure. But BG3 will also be forgotten soon too. It's just the new hot thing right now among the mainstream. The only people who will remember BG3 are the people who are fans of the genre, the same people who will continue to love and appreciate Planescape, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Arcanum, etc, etc. The game is not even a year old, calm down on fellating it and praising its timelessness.
The fact that like 99% of every unique dialogue interaction with every single character, including random NPCs, have their own unique mocap animation is simply dumbfounding. I'm on my 2nd playthrough already and it's just unfathomable to me how many mocap actors, including the main cast, had to physically act out so many unique scenes. I think this is one of the main reasons why the game is so successful; it significantly upped the immersion factor when it comes to character interactions.
Something that a lot of people arent talking about, but that i think is a huge part of why this game is so loved, is the world. Faerun is a living breathing world that has been built by countless D&D okayers over 40 years. The world is so detailed, and the lore so deep, and that makes this game feel so imersive.
Just compare the Voice acting of BG3 with that of Starfield. It is like day and night.
I think it more on script and tech, as well as probably proper direction for actors, less on actors themselves
@@nickrubin7312 That is a fair point. I think, it goes even further -- like with developers, the company culture matters. When you can infuse the people (developers, voice actors, ...) with love for what you/they do, you get different results than when you are just an assembly line for games in the dozens.
And the characters expressing themselves while talking.
That is a purposly misleading. Let;s compare BG3 voice acting with Mass Effect or Dragon Age Inquisition?
@@FreelancerND Why is it misleading? Because you fall asleep when talking to people in Starfiddled?
[ ] you understand that those games you mentioned are not current games for a long time now?
That mentioned, you are the one wanting to mislead!
The narrator is my favorite part of the voice acting it really reminds me of having a real dm at the table
great video, i would also like to add that a lot of that result is due to the hardwork of all animators as we tend to overlook them in favor of all the mocap techniques that they themselves have a lot of input on
Good voice acting in games is a bit older than that. I think the first well-acted game I ever played was the first Discworld game with among others Eric Idle, Tony Robinson, and Rob Brydon. These were all proper professional (voice) actors that all did a good job. And this was in 1995!!!!
You get a thumbs up just for mentioning Discworld. 👍
Wait... Gimme the title pls!!!
@@kikow3792 It was called Discworld (no, really) and pretty good fun.
@@magusi9029 And YOU get a thumbs up for thumbs upping a mention of Discworld ;-)
The first game that kicked off acting to another level - in my experience- was Mass Effect. Though still just voice acting, it was combined with uncommonly realistic handcrafted animations and movie-like camera in cutscenea and conversations.
A good narrator can elevate an experience to crazy levels. Can you imagine a game like Darkest Dungeon without the narrator? His commentary helps with both hype and tension. Especially since the characters don't have a great deal of expressions they can make.
Another game which had a stellar and widely praised use of a narrator was Bastion from 2011. He was reactive to the players actions, how good or bad you did in fights, what you encountered, gave background information about the lore and the character you encountered and generally was half the reason people played it so much (not that its a bad game, its just that the narrator was so outstanding).
If you look for stellar voice acting in other games, check Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines. Some of the characters there were on the same level as BG3. Of course, the amount of play is a very small fraction of that in BG3.
Yep, definitely a fair comparison. VtM:Bloodlines was also a one-of-a-kind for its time, and it's still fun. Except maybe Act 3... 😂
Oh yeah, the VtM games are masterclass voice acting. I wish I knew why all the voice acting is so agonizing in BG3. Maybe mods can fix it someday.
nice call out to Dan! been loving those interviews!
His interviews are amazing. Just noticed he’s still getting actors in like Nettie and this morning the Dark Urge , Neil Roberts. I stayed up until 2am, I couldn’t stop, great interview.
Dan is a legend.
You can tell that 3 whole years of love and a passion for not just gaming but D&D went into this masterpiece. People who hated on this game before playing it admitting they were wrong once they actually tried playing, if at first to prove themselves right. Players feel seen by companions and their stories. I remember first connecting to Shadowheart because I knew what it felt like to feel as if you owe someone everything because you can't remember a time not depending on them, but there were not as great a person as I believed. And the writing is impeccable. Every character from companion to NPC felt real, their reactions to responses and actions made by the player felt real.
Malady becoming the narrator was such a great choice!
the voice acting was really amazing its an impossible task to pick the best VA for this game because everyone is peak from the main characters to the smaller npcs like the child Tiefling Arabelle or the her mother at the druid camp Shadowheart, Lazel etc like
Anyone that is surprised by how good/useful the narration is, has never played D&D, that's basically what the DM does.
You know, you can tell when someone is "into" their voice lines - it's the difference in emotion and excitement between hearing original crisis core voice lines and crisis core reunion's borderline text-to-speech recitation. If someone says something inspiring, it tends to hit harder if you can hear their own excitement and doubly if you can see the expression match the tonality. BG3 hit those marks wonderfully.
Makes me think of the scene where Astarion gets really F'ed off when he's resurrected after dying from the monastery collapse. Goosebumps!
I love how passionate you are in all your videos about BG3. Pretty sure I'm going to watch them all. :)
After playing BG3 and cyberpunk last year, I have a very high bar for my expectations of video games going forward. Developers need to do way better if they want me to buy a game at full price.
Yeah I also love to hear the dialogue in Cyberpunk! It just works.
Witcher 3 was also great.
8:48 especially true. I made a separate save because Karlach's response when you tell her you're romancing someone else felt so real
One minor thing I saw early that really helped was that when characters were interacting with my halfling, they LOOKED like they were talking to someone shorter than them. They were facing the right direction for my character's height.
Great video. On an even higher lever, Larian did an excellent job with the source material. Furthermore it is the writing that makes a story. The voice and video takes it to another level. I hope Larian continues on this path.
Not just minor characters.
The freaking CATS!
Hiss! I say, Hiss!
I honestly never played a game where you could tell by tone of voice at what stage of their character progression the characters are. Especially when replaying and noticing how distant they now sound at the start. Be it Shadowhearts cold tone or Astarion being way more extra so you can tell his is lying through his teeth. Or that you can play a random sound bit and can tell if Astarion ascended or not just by tone of voice. In a similar way Amelia Tyler recorded 17 different narration types based on your character origin and you can really tell when playing normal, durge or an companion origin character. For durge she sounds sometimes demented, sometimes lost, sometimes sad while when playing Astarions origin for example she sounds so smug when narrating his thoughts because it fits the character. One narrator performance of that quality would have been amazing but 17 versions of it is just insane.
Ages ago you mentioned that Alfira scene as one of your favorites, and I tried finding it for hours and hours in Act 3 on my first save and only today did I finally realize that that's the Grove and the reason I never found that scene is I always play along with her, it's truly amazing how much is in this game
YESSS OBSESSIVE DETAIL! I'M READY
Yes it is true, I was drawn to Minthara at first but after a certain point of no return quest done with Shadowheart, I feel like I owe her my love.
"Gale ate my shoes!" I loved it.
I was stunned to discover narrated epitaphs on the tombstones. When I think of other game studios and what they might have done, I don't see any adding this to the game. If they had added it, the epitaphs would have been text. It was such a treat to learn all the fates of the deceased...almost like finding treasure itself.
Similar reaction to the little dark spheres dropped by Shadows...memories of the former corporeal beings before they were turned to shadow. It would have been easy just to hand wave and have them drop coin for loot. But Larian says no, these creatures are insubstantial, so can't be dropping regular loot. Instead what if they drop memories. Narrated story snippets of the person's last thoughts. Just brilliant.
@5:39 -- *That's* it! That's the reason the game feels so fluid: the voice acting is *physically* bound to actor's actions!
Thank you! I've been trying to put my finger on that for months! 😊
Another game deserving praise for solid, grounded acting and fantastically animated dialogue and cutscenes is Cyberpunk 2077.
Well said. I completely get what you are saying about the emotional attachment you indicated you have with Karlach and couldn't even look at her after you had 'failed' her. I had a very similar experience with Shadowheart. Without giving any spoilers away there is a point where you have to choose which path she is going to take that is life altering for her and I know all of you that have played the game. Having experienced the 'good' path I had planned to push her down the 'evil' path on my second playthrough. But in the end I couldn't do it, not knowing her full story from my first playthrough. I just couldn't betray her knowing that it would ultimately let her down and I would have felt like I had failed her.
What you said about everyone feeling like they are main character and part of the story just as much as the protagonist is very much like old Bioware games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 Mass Effect and Dragon Age which were essentially companion-based games, and it's really nice to see Bg3 follow in the same footsteps.
Thank your for your great analysis! I am already subscribed, but today you would have earned my subscription!
Yes, the storytelling and the voice acting (which belong together IMHO) are one of the big pillars of the greatness of BG3. One other is the combat system, but I guess that is already on your list ....
I usually turn sound off of most games i play, but Baldur's is one of the few games i leave with sound on!
Amelia's Narration voice is 20 out of 10 in audio beauty! I love the voice acting in the game, it is so perfect!
Completely agree with you with regards to the sheer brilliance of the voice acting and narration in BG3 however I wonder how can one play games with sound off?? 😂 Like games just feel empty to me without sound lol
@@MinaeVain I usually have UA-cam, Twitch, music or an audio book going in the background. I usually only have sound going in Minecraft or No Mans Sky!
@@shallendor Interesting. Guess it depends on what you're playing, I play 1st person shooters most of the time so I kind of have to hear what's going on around me. With sims I usually have something on my 2nd monitor to watch while I play although I still don't turn off sound, at most I'll lower the music volume
@@MinaeVain Other than the 2 games i listed, i play only turn based games!
It's a "living" book and I'm here for it.
Thank you, great video!
It really is incredible, I do not even like D&D or dice games but the storytelling kept me engaged.
Trying the ‘evil run’ shows it best, I just couldn’t do it…😭
Last night I did house of grief and it's conclusion to one of the characters and despite being relatively short I took my awhile as I was so reluctant to accept the outcome and wanted to carefully choose the dialogue option that would be best for the NPC involved.
Just like when your actually have a friend going through difficulty you are super careful with your words to reassure and comfort but not disrespect the situation.
I am glad BG3 came out when it did. If it didn't come out at all, games would be voiced by AI, but it did come out, so there is a bar set for games going forward
Keep em coming, nailing it!
The game is already legendary. There will be official modding support..
I just found you, and the first thing that catched my eye, is the Alucard poster, from the first Hellsing anime, respect : ).
Love your video about BG3 I think you're spot on with what you say.
Even the voice actors for the cats and rats are great. 😆 Especially the cats! Not only that, the dialogue of the cats and the personalities of the cats were clearly written and designed by cat people (as in, people who own and love cats).
The only problem with the acting in BG3 is that, sometimes, you can see the characters poses and facials expressions completely reset in neutral position between lines that should be in a continious flow. Other than that they did an amazing job with it !
I keep replaying BG3 and get different details etc each time! I haven’t come across one npc that doesn’t have great voice acting, facial expression, etc. This game keeps delivering a new experience after four play thru
Great points, well made, you've got a new subscriber 😊 I'm not sure we'll see the likes of BG3 level immersive storytelling again. Except from Larian of course (hopefully). I've been gaming since Atari VCS but mostly passed by RTS and other turn based games since am not on PC. I needed the hook of compelling storytelling and found it in BG3. First time I've ever got absorbed in a game purely from watching the super engaging actors talk about their characters on YT. So glad the game exceeded my expectations when it eventually hit xbox 😂
I’ve only heard a couple of games with voice acting this amazing. One was Bayek from ACO, one was Asura from Asura’s Wrath (which is mostly just screaming tbf), and the last was the entirety of DOS2.
Gotta agree with you. It's going to be a LONG time before we see another studio put this much effort and soul into their work.
Astarion's catharsis after killing Cazador choked me up. Only Hellblade has ever hit me quite like that.
looking forward to this as a series! you’ve earned a sub from me!
The effect of having the mindset of "we will do it, there is no other way" shines as a pillar of light towards the power of "I think I can" all the way up the hill
I enjoy taking a break from the game to hear you talk about it. :-)
This is the first game in awhile that I actually felt emotionally connected to the characters. It's an amazing game.
15:34 they have in the cast one of the most famous Dungeon Masters, which the narrator technically is a DM. But even if Larian had asked Matt Mercer to be the Narrator, I don’t think he would’ve wanted bc it would’ve overshadowed the game and it’s story simply bc HE was the dm.
Watching the VAs play bdb was wild. Like they don't look like the characters but watching them speak and interact, the body language... It's like watching the characters. The feel like their characters.
10:10 i can relate! i did an evil durge run and i didn't talk to wyll and specifically went out of my way to not meet karlach because the guilt of raiding the grove was too much. i still haven't finished that run, it's sad without them and the tieflings! i miss them! that's how invested i am in these characters!
Wish you gave more examples of the dialogue to make your point. I love video essays. Thank you so much. But i haven’t played the game yet and would have still liked to learn from your essay and a few examples edited in would be a huge perk
Even the npcs are well voiced especially the goblins
Red Dead Redemption 1&2 have great voice acting & mocap in the main cast and the NPCs too and they even motion-captured horses and other animals.. AND... it's continuous as you play, not just for cut scenes.
I may be wrong but motion capture and voice capture at the same time is what Ninja Theory implemented in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice 🤔
I would love to see a video comparing some of the best acting done in the games nominated for best performance. Not to tear any of the other actors down, because they were all top tier, but to let viewers see and hear the difference in everything you described in this video. When a studio gives an actor so many tools, the result is on another level.
It’s is really simple, they truly cared about the quality of the product and what their fans and gamers wanted (were not to arrogant to make changes based on feedback). Cared enough about to devote tons of time, money and resources to the project with the confidence if you build it (correctly), they will come (buy, play and promote your game)
Once all that was done the gamers bought, played and promoted their game, providing a ton of free marketing.
It has been a real love affair between Larian and those of us that love it.
i tried to play a dark evil playthrough with a friend that was playing the dark urge. There was so many things that was holding us back from being evil because we love this game. We would NEVER harm Scratch, we knocked out the tiefling bard so we wouldn't have to kill her (for reasons), we didn't know if we should side with the absolute or go against them to seem more evil. We killed shadow heart very early on as a sacrifice to the fish people and didn't know that she would be very important to doing something evil (like killing a certain someone with a spear).....
We TRIED to be evil but are choices early on made it hard to do so since we were going in blind and didn't know the outcomes. We only knew everything in Act 1, everything else was brand new to us. There was also NPCs that we couldn't bring are selves to kill, thats right, NPCs!!! Like a kid that lost there mother and had an orange cat with them. My friend wanted to help the kid, i wanted to talk to the funny cat.
In any other game (besides dragon age), I don't have much of a connection with character or let alone the NPCs of the world. So being rude to them or ending them was nothing, i felt nothing for them. To me, it was just 1s and 0s, or a robot in a program. BG3 on the other hand, i constantly forget sometimes that im playing a game bc I feel so emersed in it all. EVERYTHING has life and purpose, all your actions matter, and the choices you make the world reacts to it, no matter how small. I LOVE BG3!!!!
People misunderstand the devs who say BG3 is an anomaly. The devs saying that dont say that because they are lazy, they sat it becauze with the way executives are its true.
Every dev dreams of working on a passion project like BG3, where Larion gave them as much time and resources as they needed to craft a wonderful game.
Larion's CEO is a gamer hes passuonate about the medium.
Most gaming CEO's are not and only care about the bottom line. They know a rushed game with battle passes and micro transactions will sell well.
Thats why we dont see more games like BG3. If you want more games like it then stop buying unfinished micro transaction laden games.
This team work between the writers and the voice actors broke new ground imo. Larian Studio's respect for the actors was integral to this quality. Most companies want to make actors feel replaceable, but their interpretation of the characters is creative and key. Actors aren't substitutable. AI isn't nearly sentient enough to understand how the characters feel. Following the actors and writers is more important than following brand names.
The golden dice flex :D
I post my honour mode this week, so I'm feeling envious...
I don't play a wide variety of games but, to have a custom character who has their own voice to me feels amazing!
I’m glad someone is finally talking about this, every character is so much more real than in any other game, in my opinion, Karlach is the best example of feeling real
Another great video!!
I love this game because it reminds me of playing actual in person D&D and I miss playing it (we don't have a group anymore) and it is amazing
God what you said about being a “bad person” in game and how you just don’t want the companions to react negatively to the decisions you make and how their lives will play out because of it because it makes you feel BAD in real LIFE. No wonder I’ve struggled so hard with “evil” playthroughs 😭
I recently ordered the physical Collectors Edition (2nd Batch) for the PC, despite having it already as Digital edition on steam, because it is soo good :D
I can't agree more that being bad in this game is super hard. After I lured Isobel into Lorrakens lair after handing over ayelin. Watching Dame Aylein curse us after Isobels death nearly broke me.
They do a great job, but they're hardly the first. Of late, Final Fantasy XIV and XVI, Spiderman, Cyberpunk and Jedi Fallen Order come to mind as standouts.
Attention Game Devs - THIS IS YOUR STANDARD NOW! We expect all RPGs to be this good now!