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Full spoken dialogue Rpg's
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MC_Renzy
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Joined: 04 Nov 2001
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Full spoken dialogue Rpg's
   

Are there any other rpg games besides Gothic 1 and 2 that has full spoken dialogue? What I like about Gothic is the characters get right to the point unlike games like Morrowind where you gotta read a few thousand pages of boring text. The only text type rpgs that I liked so far are the final fantasy's seeing as there isn't to much jibberish to read and its usually always interesting and straight to the point. Any games like these that are near release or already available for the pc? Also like to note, black isle games such as neverwinter nights and baldurs gate I also found to be very boring and tedious. It felt like doing chores while playing these types of games. All that bloody boring text to read just doesn't fancy me.
Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 9:18 am
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Val
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There are older games that I remember that had fully spoken dialogue. I doubt you'd be interested in them. They aren't like Gothic. Except Ultima 9 possibly, which has spoken dialogues and a nice 3D world.

As for up-coming games:
Apparently when Riftrunner is released it'll have spoken dialogue.
LoK: Defiance looks like it will have a PC release at least in England early next year and they always have excellent spoken dialogue in those games.

I don't think I've heard of any game like Gothic that has spoken dialogue that's coming up. That's not usually something I look specifically for.

EDIT: Slipped my mind, but VtM: Bloodlines will probably have all spoken dialogue when released. Although it's starting to look more like an FPS than I'm comfortable with. I hope the devs either buckle under pressure from fans or that the fans can make some good mods for it.
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Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:48 pm
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Gorath
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Riftrunner: as I understand the new interview it´s intended but not confirmed.

The Fall will have full spoken dialogs.



For me the absense of spoken dialogs is a clear malus. If I had to create a rating system I would give 1/3 of the audio rating to dialog. Half for existence, the rest depending on quality.
This means that a game without spoken dialog could not receive more than 67% audio rating, per definition.
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Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:14 pm
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elkston
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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has fully spoken dialog as well....
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Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:09 pm
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Ariel
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In the "RPG light" category, there's Deus Ex, although the amount of dialogue is relatively limited.
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Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:58 pm
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Jaz
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Both System Shocks had full spoken dialog, and in SS1 you could even switch between English/German/French during the game without having to reinstall (or whatever).
Then again, it wasn't much of a *real* dialog because you got most of your info via tape/data disks. But you never really noticed because you were desperately trying to meet those people who sent you the news... a real scavenger hunt at times .
If I recall correctly, JA2 had full spoken dialog as well.
Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 5:55 pm
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MC_Renzy
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What does ja2 and ss1 stand for? As for starwars, I thought all of lucasarts products where action/adventure type games.
Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 7:17 pm
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Korplem
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Knights of The Old Republic was developed by BioWare as an rpg.
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Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 7:20 pm
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Val
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JA2 -> Jagged Alliance 2
SS1 -> System Shock 1
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Post Wed Nov 26, 2003 10:07 pm
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Secret Agent Lawanda
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I could list off a bunch of console games with spoken dialogue, but I doubt you'd be interested in those. heh
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Post Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:45 pm
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NeverDark
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Personally, I prefer it when only the key NPCs are supplied with a fully spoken dialog. In order to provide every in-game character with a spoken dialog, I assume devs would have to substanitally reduce the amount of the dialogs, and simplify them. Basically, they'd need to dumb down the story. In my opinion, BG series had it just right - the key characters had fully spoken dialogs, while less important characters spoke only first one or two sentences of their dialogs, and finally, all other characters would only say random garbage, like "Hello stranger", or "Welcome to my shop", whenever the player initiated a conversation.
Post Mon Dec 01, 2003 2:33 am
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MC_Renzy
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[quote="NeverDark"]In order to provide every in-game character with a spoken dialog, I assume devs would have to substanitally reduce the amount of the dialogs, and simplify them. Basically, they'd need to dumb down the story. quote]


I wouldn't really call it dumbing down the story. What there doing here is getting straight to the point such as in Gothic and Final Fantasy. These are truly the type of games I like. Games such as baldurs gate is like reading a boring novel that goes into way too much detail about stuff that really has nothing to do with the story. I truly can't stand these games and this is why I am looking for full spoken dialogue. Like you said, alot of the conversation is taken out, but at least it keeps you interested all the way through. The only exception I can think of where text actually works for me, is in the final fantasy games. There's quite abit of text throughout, but it's usaually always to the point and most character when they speak, its roughly only 2 sentences to a small paragrah. Short and sweet is what I say. Just too bad most people don't agree. Beacuse of this, these type of games are few to come by.
Post Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:16 am
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icecream830628
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哈哈
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Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:19 am
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Cm
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I think Arx Fatalis fits that category of full spoken. It is now near as big as Gothic 1 & 2 but I have played all three and would put them into same type as far a dialogue goes.
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Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 5:58 am
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piln
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Long-winded dialogue occurs a lot, a sign that there are still too few skilled game writers around - the sooner dev's recognise this is a priority, the better. I wish they'd hurry up. Even the best RPGs like PS:T are a bit flabby in the dialogue department (that game is saved by a great story, but most others aren't). System Shock 1&2 are good examples - the logs are sometimes long, but the player is not forced to wait while they listen (and some of the voice acting is superb). Arx is a bit of a mixed bag - some voice-acting is fantastic (like the goblins), some not so great, but the writing for all the human dialogues and cutscenes is appalling (ok, they had translation problems).

The quality of writing in games, in general, really is poor at the moment. Even though it's now a massive industry, we've still got game scripts being written by designers or programmers as an afterthought. I think that's shocking. Possibly the best example of game writing IMO is Half Life - all the dialogue occurs during gameplay so it doesn't obstruct the player (which also improves the atmosphere) and it's concise - it baffles me how often dev's think it's believable or necessary to have NPCs tell you their life story at the drop of a hat. One of my housemates writes screenplays, and I can see him physically cringing when subjected to the clumsy waffling of game characters (which unfortunately is the norm right now).

As for speech vs. text, I think that's an interesting question - with speech, you're forced to experience dialogue at one speed, whereas you can read text at your own normal pace. Quite often, spoken dialogue takes a lot longer to deliver the necessary info than it should (due to poor writing and overcooked voice-acting), and the player is frozen during conversation (which is often portrayed with absolutely no visual flair - Outcast is a notable exception) - this breaks up the flow of a game with periods of waiting, and the stop-start feel can be highly irritating. Plus, poor voice-acting can totally ruin your sense of immersion.

Text still suffers if the writing is bad, but the player is deciding the pace at which dialogue moves, so the feeling of gameplay being broken up by non-interactive sequences is not as apparent. And the atmosphere is safe from cheesy voice-acting.

If the acting and writing are good (like in SS1 & 2, HL, Azrael's Tear and Outcast despite some overly talky bits) then I prefer to hear the words, otherwise I think it's better to read.
Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:18 am
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