Yeah I think you’re right to some extent. It’s definitely harder to get invested in the ones with no or less VA. However, I think there’s also something to be said for the tutorials/starts of these games. The Larian games I’ve played had relatively punchy tutorials that lead into a nice amount of structured freedom very early into the experience. Disco Elsyium also gets you into the the thick of things without much explicit tutorializing because it’s so mechanic light your “tutorial” ends up just being gradual introduction to your main characters, the setting, and the case, which is what you’re here for anyway.
The other CRPGs have hit me with the double whammy of tutorials that lead me by the nose for way too long while also just dumping paragraphs of exposition on me that have almost nothing to do with the immediate characters or plot.
EDIT: Thinking about it a bit more: While you don’t need all the voice acting and cinematic to make good, dramatic, character focused story bits, I think the converse is true: It would have been a waste to get all these great VAs only to have them stand around and dryly deliver exposition. So it kind of had to be very character focused if it was going to work and be worth the effort.
Imagine how much worse the start of BG3 would be if you run into Laezel and you just stop for like 5 minutes while you exhaust all her dialgogue options so she can explain the entire history of the Gith and the Ilithid. Even fully voice acted that would have killed the pacing.
(again breaking character from my experimental persona thing on most posts) Voice acting and no voice acting are good for different things. Planescape torment is far deeper than bg3. But i think its just a practicality thing for the most part. Writing is just easier to churn out i think compared to voice acting. And voice acted games require writing and voice acting. If you dont have much or any voice acting there is more time to dedicate to the aspects of the game that arent making a cinematic experience. Also i think some people just require a cinematic experience for some reason. I wonder if its because of a lack of creativity for lack of a better less rude sounding term that comes to mind. But i can mentally project myself into the first person on top down crpgs. I dont have trouble being immersed that way. Although i used to and had to only play games with cinematics or first person views
Yeah I think you’re right to some extent. It’s definitely harder to get invested in the ones with no or less VA. However, I think there’s also something to be said for the tutorials/starts of these games. The Larian games I’ve played had relatively punchy tutorials that lead into a nice amount of structured freedom very early into the experience. Disco Elsyium also gets you into the the thick of things without much explicit tutorializing because it’s so mechanic light your “tutorial” ends up just being gradual introduction to your main characters, the setting, and the case, which is what you’re here for anyway.
The other CRPGs have hit me with the double whammy of tutorials that lead me by the nose for way too long while also just dumping paragraphs of exposition on me that have almost nothing to do with the immediate characters or plot.
EDIT: Thinking about it a bit more: While you don’t need all the voice acting and cinematic to make good, dramatic, character focused story bits, I think the converse is true: It would have been a waste to get all these great VAs only to have them stand around and dryly deliver exposition. So it kind of had to be very character focused if it was going to work and be worth the effort.
Imagine how much worse the start of BG3 would be if you run into Laezel and you just stop for like 5 minutes while you exhaust all her dialgogue options so she can explain the entire history of the Gith and the Ilithid. Even fully voice acted that would have killed the pacing.
(again breaking character from my experimental persona thing on most posts) Voice acting and no voice acting are good for different things. Planescape torment is far deeper than bg3. But i think its just a practicality thing for the most part. Writing is just easier to churn out i think compared to voice acting. And voice acted games require writing and voice acting. If you dont have much or any voice acting there is more time to dedicate to the aspects of the game that arent making a cinematic experience. Also i think some people just require a cinematic experience for some reason. I wonder if its because of a lack of creativity for lack of a better less rude sounding term that comes to mind. But i can mentally project myself into the first person on top down crpgs. I dont have trouble being immersed that way. Although i used to and had to only play games with cinematics or first person views