Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Voice acting becoming a necessity is one of the worst things to ever happen to gaming as a medium.

It should always be optional, but that's among the best things to happen to gaming imo.

 

[Calandrino]

	Choose Your Own Adventure	Fighting Fantasy	Visual novels	Otome / princess builders
single branch playthrough length	10 minutes	<30 minutes	hours	30 minutes
total length	10k words	50-80k words	50-100 hours	5 hours

Harrowing. The entire run of Breaking Bad is about 60 hours. It likely wouldn't take 100 hours to read the bible from start to finish. What does one do for 100 hours in a VN? What's going on in there?

 

[Pissmaster]

Harrowing. The entire run of Breaking Bad is about 60 hours. It likely wouldn't take 100 hours to read the bible from start to finish. What does one do for 100 hours in a VN? What's going on in there?

According to HLTB, Ace Attorney Trilogy is 66 hours long, though that's 14 different short stories, and not all are intertwined with one another. I don't know how any VN could make it to 100 hours while still telling just one story.

 

[Wesker]

It should always be optional, but that's among the best things to happen to gaming imo.

It was always going to lead to that with how fast tech was moving in the 90s. MGS1 was the first that I remember that gave you Hollywood production with a voice cast which all games from then on were built inspired by. Sure there were plenty of other voice acted games at the time but I remember how much that one stood out from the rest of the competition at the time.

 

[Nick Obre]

It should always be optional, but that's among the best things to happen to gaming imo.

Optional, as in, there's an option to turn it off?

That would make no difference. Games with that would still waste large parts of their budgets on 4th rate actors to do the voices, the writing would be constrained and diminished because you can record that many lines or make them too long, you can't write for too many situations, etc. Too much focus is diverted from writing and gameplay to voice acting, which is one of the reasons games are so shit and/or so expensive to make nowadays.

Voice acting should only be in games that absolutely need it. And there's not many of those.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

According to HLTB, Ace Attorney Trilogy is 66 hours long, though that's 14 different short stories, and not all are intertwined with one another. I don't know how any VN could make it to 100 hours while still telling just one story.

That site says the pair of Utawarerumono games takes about that long to beat (82 hours average, 121 leisurely). They were clearly made together and tell one story, but they also feature RPG battles sprinkled in which could eat up 20 or so hours of that time.

Optional, as in, there's an option to turn it off?

That would make no difference. Games with that would still waste large parts of their budgets on 4th rate actors to do the voices, the writing would be constrained and diminished because you can record that many lines or make them too long, you can't write for too many situations, etc. Too much focus is diverted from writing and gameplay to voice acting, which is one of the reasons games are so shit and/or so expensive to make nowadays.

Voice acting should only be in games that absolutely need it. And there's not many of those.

I just meant optional for people who don't like voice acting. The effect its inclusion has on production obviously would still exist, yeah.

But personally, I almost need voice acting in RPGs. I'm not reading all that shit anymore if I don't have to, and sometimes if it's good it elevates the game if it has good acting.

 

[Patrick Bait-man]

Art Direction > Graphics.

 

[Nick Obre]

But personally, I almost need voice acting in RPGs. I'm not reading all that shit anymore if I don't have to, and sometimes if it's good it elevates the game if it has good acting.

And that's why older RPGs had so many dialog options and outcomes, and as voice acting became more prevalent, we degenerated towards "yes", "no, and "no but snarky".

Voice acting severely limits the depth of writing for RPGs. You can have limited voice acting: some important lines get voiced, but most of the text is read. That's how Morrowind did it, and it's still the best Elder Scrolls game in that regard.

And if you're talking about jRPGs? God help you my man. jRPGs desperately need to retreat back to the SNES-to-PS1 era of small but physically expressive guys with zero voice acting or it becomes unbearably cringe, more so when the game is blessed with Japanese humor. And if the game is dubbed to English? The suffering is multiplied.

Exponentially.

Art Direction > Graphics.

Been saying it for over a decade now. Graphical fidelity is a dead end, we're deep into the diminishing returns where more and more effort is put into technological advance for less and less actual improvement. Look at Ray Tracing, oh the lighting is marginally improved, sure it's worth all this effort and upgrades and shit.

Art direction tho? Irreplaceable. A PS2-era game (let's say upscaled, to make it fair) with good art direction can stand up to a graphically intensive but artistically mediocre game of today.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

NBA Courtside 2002 was the best Kobe Bryant-themed game that actually could have been a great competitor with NBA Street.

Plus, the commercial for it was the best:

 

[Psyduck]

Art Direction > Graphics.

Been saying it for over a decade now. Graphical fidelity is a dead end, we're deep into the diminishing returns where more and more effort is put into technological advance for less and less actual improvement. Look at Ray Tracing, oh the lighting is marginally improved, sure it's worth all this effort and upgrades and shit.

Art direction tho? Irreplaceable. A PS2-era game (let's say upscaled, to make it fair) with good art direction can stand up to a graphically intensive but artistically mediocre game of today.

While i completely agree, that's one of the most universally agreed upon opinions in gaming, i'd say

If anything, here comes the actual unpopular opinion: Sometimes devs want to make their style so "distinguishable" that it ends up looking fucking *awful*

And if you're talking about jRPGs? God help you my man. jRPGs desperately need to retreat back to the SNES-to-PS1 era of small but physically expressive guys with zero voice acting or it becomes unbearably cringe, more so when the game is blessed with Japanese humor. And if the game is dubbed to English? The suffering is multiplied.

Oh my god... Japanese humor...

The only thing from it that gets a slight chuckle out of me is being able to tell when the english voice actors grit their teeth with embarrassment as they recite their lines

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

And that's why older RPGs had so many dialog options and outcomes, and as voice acting became more prevalent, we degenerated towards "yes", "no, and "no but snarky".

Voice acting severely limits the depth of writing for RPGs. You can have limited voice acting: some important lines get voiced, but most of the text is read. That's how Morrowind did it, and it's still the best Elder Scrolls game in that regard.

And if you're talking about jRPGs? God help you my man. jRPGs desperately need to retreat back to the SNES-to-PS1 era of small but physically expressive guys with zero voice acting or it becomes unbearably cringe, more so when the game is blessed with Japanese humor. And if the game is dubbed to English? The suffering is multiplied.

Exponentially.

That game I mentioned earlier, Utawarerumono, is fully voice acted for about 70 hours. It's just some mid tier Japanese developer too, not a Microsoft-backed AAA blockbuster title. If Starfield ends up with just "yes", "no", and "no, but snarky" then it should be panned because there's no good reason for that. Only indies have a good excuse for not including it imo.

And JRPGs just need to be good again, and they haven't been since halfway through the 6th generation. FFX was the first fully voiced FF, and it's still good (remember--the Tidus laugh was bad on purpose):

(I just got chills watching that, even though I've heard it a billion times)

 

[The Feline Solution]

Voice acting becoming a necessity is one of the worst things to ever happen to gaming as a medium.

It made FFX unplayable for me when it came out, having shit fully voiced took me right out of the experience. I don't mind it nowadays were it has become the standard. That said, american voice actors and everybody involved in their cult of personality should kill themselves for the betterment of humanity. Nothing worse than hearing yank voices dubbing my slant media.

And JRPGs just need to be good again

Man, i've been waiting for so long for this to happen already, i'm not sure if we ever get back to that point. The genre's fucked, with the occasional splendid outlier like Y7, ever since Square turned into jap Activision.

 

[Nick Obre]

That game I mentioned earlier, Utawarerumono, is fully voice acted for about 70 hours. It's just some mid tier Japanese developer too, not a Microsoft-backed AAA blockbuster title. If Starfield ends up with just "yes", "no", and "no, but snarky" then it should be panned because there's no good reason for that. Only indies have a good excuse for not including it imo.

And JRPGs just need to be good again, and they haven't been since halfway through the 6th generation. FFX was the first fully voiced FF, and it's still good (remember--the Tidus laugh was bad on purpose):

(I just got chills watching that, even though I've heard it a billion times)

FFX is where it started to go wrong. I hate the extremely awkward cutscenes with bad animation and bad acting and bad camerawork and bad pacing that became so commonplace in jRPGs from FFX onwards.

As for Tidus, suuure, JAT did his job wrong on puuurpose yeah I believe him, The entire character was incredibly grating, not just that laughing scene. Incidentally, just as an anecdote, back a good ten to fifteen years ago I used to be in a community where they did humorous recaps of various games. It wasn't the most hilarious thing ever but we had our laughs and it was a product of its time. Anyway, the most common motto and core tenet of that community?
TIDUS IS A WANKER.

Anyway, sure, it makes for some good, effective scenes sometimes. But on the whole, voice acting takes away more than it adds in most kinds of games, and for sure in w/j RPGs.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

FFX is where it started to go wrong. I hate the extremely awkward cutscenes with bad animation and bad acting and bad camerawork and bad pacing that became so commonplace in jRPGs from FFX onwards.

As for Tidus, suuure, JAT did his job wrong on puuurpose yeah I believe him, The entire character was incredibly grating, not just that laughing scene. Incidentally, just as an anecdote, back a good ten to fifteen years ago I used to be in a community where they did humorous recaps of various games. It wasn't the most hilarious thing ever but we had our laughs and it was a product of its time. Anyway, the most common motto and core tenet of that community?
TIDUS IS A WANKER.

Anyway, sure, it makes for some good, effective scenes sometimes. But on the whole, voice acting takes away more than it adds in most kinds of games, and for sure in w/j RPGs.

DID YOU NOT FEEL THE CHILLS?

 

[Nick Obre]

DID YOU NOT FEEL THE CHILLS?

No, not with that c-tier acting and that epileptic camera

I didn't back when I first played it and I don't now

 

[anustart76]

I just meant optional for people who don't like voice acting. The effect its inclusion has on production obviously would still exist, yeah.

But personally, I almost need voice acting in RPGs. I'm not reading all that shit anymore if I don't have to, and sometimes if it's good it elevates the game if it has good acting.

Completely agree, just having giant blocks of text isn't particularly interesting. Good voice acting can make the same dialogue much more enjoyable, otherwise it's just a slog of "skim text, hit skip, get to gameplay." Most story-based games naturally have a lot of dialogue, but if I'm playing a game, I don't want to just read the text, that's what books are for. A nice cinematic does a much better job of keeping the immersion going.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

No, not with that c-tier acting and that epileptic camera

I didn't back when I first played it and I don't now

Okay, the camera and animation issues are valid, but come on, it was an early PS2 game. But Auron's voice actor is a champ, dammit.

 

[Nick Obre]

Okay, the camera and animation issues are valid, but come on, it was an early PS2 game. But Auron's voice actor is a champ, dammit.

Look, at that point it's a matter of taste, so let's not argue that.
But it's a fact that having to take voice acting into account eats into the budget in terms of money and of effort in the development of modern games. It forces a sacrifice of depth in favor of a cinematic experience, which in my opinion is the wrong thing to looking for in games.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Look, at that point it's a matter of taste, so let's not argue that.
But it's a fact that having to take voice acting into account eats into the budget in terms of money and of effort in the development of modern games. It forces a sacrifice of depth in favor of a cinematic experience, which in my opinion is the wrong thing to looking for in games.

For AAA that really shouldn't be an issue. It'd be bizarre to see a game like Final Fantasy 16 have pop-up text boxes appear. Those are a relic of the past which existed due to hardware restraints, and the second it was possible to use voice acting everybody with any kind of budget did. Hell, they were trying to get voices on the Atari 2600:

Gaming is naturally cinematic. It's a hybrid of cinema, music, art, and of course the unique element of control inherent to gaming which makes it what it is. It's unnecessary to try to remove any part of that, striking a balance is what's important, which varies by genre.

 

[byuu]

Gaming is naturally cinematic. It's a hybrid of cinema, music, art, and of course the unique element of control inherent to gaming which makes it what it is. It's unnecessary to try to remove any part of that, striking a balance is what's important, which varies by genre.

Gaming is naturally interactive. Listening to someone talk is very passive while reading puts me more in control and is therefore a better fit for games.