I personally feel like having a voiced main character usually has the opposite effect. Being able to project myself into an unvoiced protagonist is far more immersive.
I think I’m the exact opposite. An unvoiced main character often feels incomplete and breaks my immersion. Unless there is a believable reason for the characters muteness.
An unvoiced character =/= a mute character. In the first VtMB, the main character was unvoiced but had tons of dialogue options.
I know it’s not a literal muteness, but it still feels like there is a disconnect between an unvoiced PC and voiced NPCs that respond to dialogue that was never spoken. Maybe I just struggle with projecting my own identity into a character that literally can’t talk, but I never feel connected or as immersed in games that don’t have a voiced main character.
It’s ultimately a purely subjective argument and there is no better method in the voiced vs unvoiced debate.
NOOOO!!
Voiced protagonists just limits dialogue so so much! Just look at Fallout 4 :(
The original Bloodlines is one of my all time favorite games, mostly because of the 10/10 dialogue.
Yeah it’s actually kind of disappointing, but understandable, given the way they set up premade vs custom characters.
I honestly can’t think of a choice heavy RPG that’s done a good job of a voiced character since Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2. And EA did everything they could to sabotage DA2.
I’m not surprised they choose to go down this route, but it does make me a bit bummed. Fair to assume we won’t be seeing a return to clans having completely rewritten dialogue. Now, no matter who I try to make, I’ll just be the male or female “Vampire Shepard”.
I frankly haven’t liked anything i’ve heard and seen these days about this game. Feels very unlike the first one. One of the things i loved about the first one’s dialogue is that you had every type of follow up you could reasonably think of when having a conversation, with each clan having their own style of logic and speech. With voiced protagonists i have never found that to be the case.
The Chinese Room’s Bloodlines 2 might well turn out alright in its own way, but I’m sad we’ll never get the full Brian Mitsoda-led sequel. The first game had such a distinct and charming style, writing and atmosphere and I doubt this studio will be able (or even interested in trying to) replicate that. It’s especially a shame that Rik Schaffer came back to do music for the sequel for Hardsuit Labs, but I’m guessing they’ll go in another direction there as well. His Bloodlines OST is so iconic and was a huge part of the atmosphere.
I’m assuming you are talking about Redemption and not the first Bloodlines. In the first Bloodlines unless you were Malkavian all the Clans had generally had the same dialogues with minor variances were it made sense. IE Tremere talking to Strauss, Nosferatus having the initial conversations with people, etc.
Wasn’t Bloodlines 2 supposed to be released like 5 years ago now? It’ll get out of my vaporware pile when I see it in action.