|
Last week, I wrote an article on Magna Carta: Tears of Blood, bemoaning the
horrors of how the franchise was ruined for me thanks to a bad port and
confusing gameplay. One of the points I touched on was the voice-acting, which
got me to thinking about voiceovers in RPGs in general. And that leads me to the
topic of this week's rant.
Action RPGs. Some people love them for the fast-paced gameplay, some people
hate them for moving away from the values of "traditional" role-playing games. I
think both sides can agree on one thing, however. The voiceovers, in general, are the most
annoying thing to make an eardrum bleed since the Numa Numa fad.
Why? Oh, the reasons are legion, but we'll start with one of my favorite gems:
Shining Force Neo. Now, I love Shining Force. I love SRPGs in general, and I was
intrigued by the idea of a game that was pitched to me as a mix between Dynasty
Warriors (another title I love) and Shining Force. That sounded like peanut
butter and jelly to me: the perfect combination. I didn't know this sandwich
also included pain.
And Pain, thy name is Meryl. Never before have I experienced such misery.
Don't believe me? Play for yourself. Five minutes into the first battle
involving her, you'll know what I mean. By an hour, you'll be begging for the
sweet release of death, or at least you'll turn off the volume on the TV. "Hot stuff,
coming your way!" Oh what a vicious, evil thing to say. Every five seconds. And
I mean that literally. At the top of your lungs in what sounds like the voice of
a twelve year old girl on speed. Did I mention she does this repeatedly? The
phrase "ad naseum" has never been more accurate. When you actually cheer because one
of your own party members dies, just because the misery will stop, you know it's bad.
Meryl's not the only example, sadly. Many of the other characters in this
game say the same lines over and over and over and...well, you get the picture.
Luckily for the most part the voices aren't nearly as grating, though. And nor
is this the only game guilty of such sins. Take Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
into consideration. Now, it's not an ARPG as such since battles don't take place
in the world you travel through, but combat is real-time and action oriented.
And once again involves the incessant repetition of attack names. Who hasn't
played this game and not heard "Side Kick!" a few hundred times in a row? It
gets old fast. Or, take Tales of Legendia for example. I love this title, despite its tepid
reviews from fans and the media alike. But even I admit sometimes the voices
were a little too excitable.
This is one of the real problems with this type of game. You have a normal
attack of some sort, but you quickly will find your real damage comes from
special attacks. And since battles are frequently difficult, spamming these
specials as fast as you can becomes rote. Since your character screams out his
attack name each time he uses it...well, you see where this is going. One thing
I'd like to see in the future with this type of combat system would be a piece
of code that prevents the character from repeating the phrase every time they
attack. Maybe use multiple phrases per attack, or better yet make it so there's
a time delay between how often they could repeat the same phrase. No matter what
the same line will get old after 40+ hours of gameplay, but it least it won't
get old after 40+ minutes.
The other thing about voiceovers in RPGs that gets irritating is the voices
themselves. Now, I'm an anime geek, I admit it. And I'll be the first to admit
the old school stuff that came to America in the 70s and 80s had a tendency
to overact, to say the least. A tendency to go over-the-top is still
pretty common in the dubs of many more kid-oriented series like Pokemon or Zatch
Bell. Sadly, many RPG developers seem to have subscribed to the same acting
school. The sounds of battle turn to constipated grunts (or worse), and every
attack is screeched out in a manner befitting Sailor Moon or Yu-Gi-Oh.
Now, they're not all like this. Square, for one, has been learning. FFX was
their first real foray into full speech and, honestly, was both good and bad.
Lord knows I wanted to shoot Tidus and/or Yuna by an hour into the game, but
some of the other roles (Lulu, for instance) were pulled off with style. Kingdom
Hearts also did a pretty fair job of voicework, which got only got better in
KHII. And I have high hopes that FFXII will only be a further improvement. A
recent trend in hiring more experienced and talented voice actors (as well as
sometimes more well-known celebrities) seems to be curing both the anime and the
RPG community of the stigma of the over-the-top voiceover.
But I beg you, Squeenix, Namco, and most importantly Sega, who
has another action-esque Shining Force title in the wings. Learn from the lesson
of Meryl. Please let the hurting stop, so my ears can finally heal.
|
RSS feed
iTunes
