How big a difference does it make for you to have voice acting in a VN?

[Thyndd]

Lately I've seen quite a few topic of the sort in the forums, so I thought I might as well contribute some more to the trend 

You see, I've read quite a few of both voiced and unvoiced VNs, and never really paid any heed to it because there was just no choice: either you have the voices or you don't, so following my personal policy I say whatever, if your problem has no solution there's no point in hitting your head against a wall.

And then there's this latter VN I played, G-Senjou no Maou, which actually has both versions, and I definitely chose the voiced one. So that left me thinking... and I realised that actually voice acting is really important for me and does indeed make a big difference for my immersion. I think it's particularly important in emotional scenes, and not having them would, at least for me, lessen the impact in a significant amount.

On the other hand I know there's some people that actually go out of their way to turn the voices off when playing as they find them distracting. 

So what about you? How significant does it feel for you to have that piece of audiovisual content in comparison with good art or a good soundtrack?

[Mr Poltroon]

I prefer voices but do not consider them crucial to the experience. Not having voices is also never a point against playing something for me. If anything, it facilitates reading the text aloud.

[Plk_Lesiak]

You guys think that these new topics every day are a good thing? I try to save some time for actually reading VNs over here. ;p

 

With one OELVN lately I've gone as far as muting the voice acting early on, because I've found it unbearably poor. My other nemesis is partial voice acting - if it's going to pop up in random moments in between mostly silent segments, I'll mute it without hesitation. I understand that indie devs often don't have the budget and still want to show off some VA work (and especially have voiced h-scenes, as some people can't work with silent porn), but it's just not something that works for me. It completely takes me out of the experience.

So, if voice acting isn't going to be done really well, I prefer having none. I can give voices to characters in my mind well enough and "silent" VNs are often more convenient to read. I don't think I ever hated VA in a Japanese one though and if it's really good it can be a bonus. Simply, coming from western VN experience as my first contact with the whole genre, it's not something I really care about.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Plk_Lesiak

[mitchhamilton]

i prefer voices but dont mind reading when they dont.

35 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

And then there's this latter VN I played, G-Senjou no Maou, which actually has both versions,

cant technically all vns have both versions, you just mute the voices?

[Ranzo]

Though it's not mandatory, I really do prefer that it be voiced because I think it can add just another layer of enjoyment to the VN. There are a few times I come across a voice that I can't stand (I'm looking right at you Komari) but usually I have the option of muting them. I can play a voiceless vn just find but I always feel like there is something I'm missing out on take Enigma for example. Voices can also just make the VN, like, I can't imagine playing G senjou or Fate/Stay Night without voices.

Vn's with partial voice acting I'm fine with though sometimes it can be really jarring when it comes out of nowhere (usually when I have the volume up so I can really get into that music groove.)

2 minutes ago, mitchhamilton said:

i prefer voices but dont mind reading when they dont.

cant technically all vns have both versions, you just mute the voices?

On steam they have voiced and unvoiced at different price points for G senjou

[Thyndd]

3 minutes ago, mitchhamilton said:

cant technically all vns have both versions, you just mute the voices?

Well, not exactly both versions: you can turn every voiced VN into an unvoiced one, but the opposite doesn't hold true 

 

[mitchhamilton]

3 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

On steam they have voiced and unvoiced at different price points for G senjou

 

 

weird.

 

also, im tired as i didnt really go into my reasoning behind preferring voices but it should be obvious. the performances. sometimes theres just a line delivery from the va thats just so repeatable. whether its just something cute, or was delivered well, i can find myself repeating the voiced moment over and over again.

3 minutes ago, Thyndd said:

Well, not exactly both versions: you can turn every voiced VN into an unvoiced one, but the opposite doesn't hold true 

 

well, you just need to shove another vns voice pack in the files. like majikoi and katawa shoujo. doesnt make any sense but hey, its something!

[DharmaFreedom]

I love voice acting in VN's, it makes a difference for me. I like hearing the emotion of the characters, it makes them feel more 'real' rather than than say the emotions i allocate to characters when i'm reading a book. "I think" a characters feels a certain way, "I think" a character sounds this way. With voice acting, I know how they feel and sound instantly with the tones of their voice.

Shikashi! if a story is really good, i don't care and i'll read it anyway .

Haven't had a bad voice acting experience yet in all the VNs and anime i've viewed.

 

[MaggieROBOT]

I already embarrassed myself enough in the end of this blog post, the title says all about my opinion!

 

[DharmaFreedom]

@MaggieROBOT 

Quote

eargasm is really important in my games

[i can't add anymore likes today, i'll like your blogpost tm , it was interesting]

Edited February 11, 2018 by DharmaFreedom

[VirginSmasher]

I think that voice acting adds more immersion to the VN you're playing. I prefer VNs to have voice acting, even if I never end up listening to their voice acting because I'm too focused on reading.

[Okarin]

VAs generally do a terrific job, especially Japanese ones (since they're well regarded, paid and trained, so they deliver a good job).

But I can tolerate and enjoy a game that has no budget for them, such as Ebi-Hime ones (those are all about the writing, however).

[Funyarinpa]

It can definitely add a lot of character, charisma and significance, but the Nintendo DS era proved, quite definitively, that VNs can be expressive, varied and engaging even without it. (I'm thinking about Ace Attorney and 999 here, mainly)

I don't think I've ever decided no voices was better than any provided VA, though.

[Clephas]

If they are voicing the heroines, I want them to voice the protagonist too... but I don't mind VNs without VAs.  Probably because several of my favorite VNs don't have voice-acting, lol.

[Dergonu]

Voices in VNs are very important to me. Not having them makes the characters lose some of their personality, in my opinion. You can truly shape someone's personality with the way their voiced line is delivered, which is something that is totally lost when a game doesn't have voices.

So, it makes a massive difference to me.

[EastCoastDrifter]

I usually don't mind VNs with no voice acting, just as long as the quality of the writing is good. Voice acting to me can be hit or miss. If delivered properly, then voice acting can enhance my overall experience. If delivered poorly, then I just mute the voices. I judge a VN by its core writing, so to me, voice acting is just a bonus.

[Inorin]

Voice acting is very important to me. I didn't actually know about voice acting in vns when I started to play my first vn (Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney). It wasn't until I played Danganronpa did I realise how different a vn with voice acting can be compared to one without voice acting. However, while I may prefer voiced vns over voiceless vns,  that doesn't mean I avoid voiceless ones entirely as I've enjoyed playeing Higurashi, Fata morgana no Yakata and Tsukihime which all do not have voice acting.

Edited February 12, 2018 by wei123

[1P1A]

It's not really a make or break for me. It's a shock going from voice to non-voiced, but that only lasts for the first couple hours.

[r0xm2n]

Well I completed every ending in Katawa Shoujo. So lack of voiceacting isn't a dealbreaker (though I REALLY would have loved to hear what Rin sounded like in that game).

[Strike105X]

Its crucial for me, as i love both hearing jp language and the female seyu voices, it just makes the experience more worthile for me and i get completely immersed in it. That said, its not like I can't get into one without them as one of my favorites katawa shoujo didn't had voice acting as i remember...

[littleshogun]

12 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

You guys think that these new topics every day are a good thing? I try to save some time for actually reading VNs over here. ;p

Well there's some topic that almost the repeat of another topic, but it's not like it'll be hurt if I post at some topic here anyway so there's that.

As for the topic, well I guess it slightly make a difference which mean that if I have unvoiced VN that mean I didn't need to heard the voice (Duh). But still I understand that some people would prefer the voiced characters, and actually I like if there's some famous (ie well known) seiyuu voicing the VN that I played. So in the end, I'm more or less slightly in favor to have voice in VNs, even though I'll probably gonna lose focus on hearing that when I'm reading.

[Overlord87]

As a first reaction, I'd say that voice acting is extremely important for me, maybe even mandatory. Then I think that Higurashi is one of my favorite VN ever, so maybe it's not that important after all  

[Kabu]

I'm somewhere in the middle. I love voice acting as an art form and very much enjoy having it in my VNs but then on the other hand two of my favorite VNs of all time, Katawa Shoujo and Tsukihime specifically, are unvoiced and as such leave me without any major preferences, though having voices is very much appreciated.

[-soraa]

Well, if the translation isn't good then Voice Acting helps me a lot to understand most of the things.
An example would be:

Spoiler

Saku Saku: Hanako calls the protagonist Asa-baka but the translation...

Well, good job SP and Shinku Translation. Every time she calls him Asa-bat I didn't bother to read it. Therefore I was really happy for the Voice Acting. 
They don't have to translate everything into english... I mean do you want to read "Big Sister" or "Onee-chan"? 
In a Yuri VN's with a Incest-Route I don't want to read Big Sister.... but "Onee-chan/-san/-sama"

Furthermore there were also some other wrong translation. 

 

Voice Acting is for me actually really important. Thats one of the advantages of a VN.
As well you get a new picture of the Heroines and you understand their feelings better. (sad, happy, excited, depressed... and so on)
If you mute the voice acting it's like you are reading a completely different VN. No, it's an entirely different experience with and without Voice Acting.

Of course some Voice Acting are really good and some others annoying... e.g. Makina from Grisaia... I don't like her voice because it's too childish but she is a lolicon-heroine.

Special Bonus, another reason why I love Voice Acting in VN's:

Spoiler

If you just read the dialog, you won't get the same experience/feeling.

 

Edited February 12, 2018 by -soraa

[Zalor]

20 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

You guys think that these new topics every day are a good thing? I try to save some time for actually reading VNs over here. ;p

Back when Fuwanovel was really active back in 2013, 2014 and 2015; we had topics like this all the time. Like 5+ a day sometimes, lol. Honestly I miss those days of Fuwa. It really shows how much the forums have slowed down that we only get like 1 of these threads a day. But I'm glad that people are trying to keep the forums a live. Its kind of like keeping a fire alive. And damn, the fire of fuwa used to be raging!

But yeah, one of the problems I had when the forums was that active was that I spent a lot more time talking about VNs then actually reading them, lol.