Voice Acting in RPGs

by Jeffrey Zimmerman

Role playing games have, needless to say, come a long way since the olden golden days of the late 80's, when Nintendo reigned supreme and the most advanced voice hardware was the Intellevision II. Since then, we've been content to play our text and graphic-based role playing games like the Final Fantasy series, or for those fluent in PC RPG knowledge, the Quest for Glory series.

In these games, technology played a modest role in presenting the mood of the characters, being limited to genius script-writing ability, tiny changes within pixelized sprites to represent emotion, and of course, soul-wrenching music serenading deeply in the background. In Final Fantasy VI, Edgar's trademark "cockiness" stance, with the pointing finger and smile, hinted to the light hearted mood the player was supposed to feel, and it worked.

Then came the CD, which might be the artist's equivalent to the painting canvas, enlarged to a thousand times its original size. No other software medium allowed fo such elaborate video game creation, as demonstrated by the mixedly praised and cursed Final Fantasy VII. Full Motion Video was introduced, and the line between FMV and regular gameplay softens with the creation of Final Fantasy VIII. This leads the player, and consumer, to think, "What's next?"

And Square said, "Let there be Voice!" and it was so, and It was pleased. But was everybody else? Voice acting, like music, can lend a tremendous hand to gameplay, mood, and player reaction, if it is done well. As seen in previous attempts a video game voice acting, however, the future looks bleak.

The first problem is, obviously, talent. At the risk of generalizing, voice actors are a select sort of people. In many cases, they had been denied roles in cartoon or live acting parts, but found creative revenues within the world of video games. Many handle it quite well, while others incorporate whatever dramatic habits barred them from Broadway. A perfect example of such performace is Castlevania: Symphany of the Night. In this dark and depressing but intriguing video game, voices were added to enhance the effect of cutscenes. The voices were noticeably and ear-scratchingly overdone. This is not acting! This, as my esteemed drama instructor would say, is pretending. The characters all sound artificial, like toys or children's cartoons.

The second problem is the script. The authors of games are, in fact, script writers. Written material has that devious effect of becomming over-elaborate in the absence of voice. If a company decides to add voices as an afterthought, those elaborate lines become extremely drawn out, especially if the coive actor is using a voice not his own, or not intended for the character. I found it rather funny, at Dracula's death scene, to hear the throaty, expiring voice exclaim in agony, quote the Bible, analyze its meaning, ask a question, reflect on the answer, say goodbye to his son, his wife, and finally scream.

Thirdly, there is game pretext. Some games just shouldn't be heard. Brave Fencer Musashi didn't sound so very brave, the librarian seemed overwhelmingly delicate, and I found myself explaining embarrasingly to friends that I only bought the game for the Final Fantasy VIII demo. Certain games' voices are best left to the imagination of the player.

Finally, the hideous fiend of Bad Translation rears its ugly head. There's nothing worse than an actor who feels that he or she must read the script word-for-word, even if its origins were oriental. Castlevania fails this department once again, as actors read, unrehearsed, the stale English and chopped-up grammar. "What... do you here?" *Shudder* (However, I'd have to make allowances for some games. I'd love to hear "You Spoony Bard!" acted out, just once!)

All is not lost, however. It is indeed possible to create enthralling character visualization through voice; I know because I have seen it. The fourth of the Quest for Glory series, "Shadows of Darkness" takes place in the morbid land of Mordavia, and is packed with a wide number of creatues of various species. When they spoke, I believed. I was delighted to hear the Russian-accented Burgomeister stave off the blood-thirsty villagers from a prospective execution. (The whole game was a culture-mix; I know Burgomeister is German) The villagers themselves were excellently done. The actors were rehearsed and weren't afraid to deviate from the script. Sometimes, voice alluded to some other actor. I could've sworn I heard Rodney Dangerfield and Jack Nicholson playing as villagers in the town.

Thus I conclude, if Square has any brains at all, Final Fantasy IX WILL have voice acting, but it should be done with practice, patience, and feeling. They should have an American as well as a Japanese audience in mind. That way, I won't have to find some other reason I bought the game as an excuse to use on a friend.