Katawa Shoujo Forums

Probably not a good idea at this point. Like people already said, everyone's got to know the characters and constructed their own mental image of how they should sound. A later addition of voiceover often tends to clash with this image, leaving the player turned-off. If you're gonna add voices, it's usually best to introduce them together with the characters themselves to avoid this phenomenon.

Also, voice acting on the internet is like writing. Most people think they can do it and most people overestimate themselves. Good voice-acting is pretty tough, even some professional actors tend to have trouble voice-acting because they're used to feeding off the chemistry between themselves and their co-actors and have trouble getting the inflections right when recording stuff in the booth. And in a story like KS, you need extremely skilled actors. Most people would be able to record the lines of some toughtalk-spouting space marine screaming at squadmates, but very few people would be able to get the inflection of some of the more emotional scenes in KS just right and pull it off convincingly. And it only takes one or two lines with the wrong inflection to turn a scene from a "feels"-fountain into a source of utter narm. (to use TV-Tropes terms)

I don't think at this point, is a good idea. People have different ideas on what their voices would be like. They would have different opinions about it. It's a big deal because while recording, everything needs to sound just as right. If it sounded wrong, then most likely some will not like it. I don't doubt the abilities of the VAs themselves but I'm fine with the way it is even without voice acting.

Kira Kira has voice acting and it really adds immersion to the game, i dont see voice acting as a bad thing on a visual novel. Ks is done, and there will be no update, but maybe, someone somewhere can make a unofficial voice acting patch. That would be nice, but i wont hold my breath.

Someone said that if there is voice acting people will argue about what voice is right for each characters, but then again, who cares? People will always argue about everything, as we say 'round here "You cant please greeks and trojans".

Unless it's good Japanese voice acting, then yes.

Otherwise, no. Absolutely no.

I don't understand why you'd want Japanese voice acting for something that was never in Japanese to begin with. It's not like you'd be preserving the original idiosyncrasies and details of the script, since it was originally written in English! If anything, you'd lose emotion and accuracy (just like you do converting any originally-Japanese script into an English dub).

Is it just that some people are so used to listening to anime with Japanese voice actors that they prefer that language even when it makes no sense for it to be used?

Mirrormn wrote:
Is it just that some people are so used to listening to anime with Japanese voice actors that they prefer that language even when it makes no sense for it to be used?

On that note, how many people who want Japanese voice acting actually speak or understand Japanese?

Oddball wrote:

Mirrormn wrote:
Is it just that some people are so used to listening to anime with Japanese voice actors that they prefer that language even when it makes no sense for it to be used?

On that note, how many people who want Japanese voice acting actually speak or understand Japanese?

I think people who watch anime prefer Japanese voice acting specifically because they don't understand it. It's harder to discern when a voice actor speaking a foreign language is acting good or bad, and it's easier to spot bad acting in a language you understand. At least that's what I think. I still prefer English voice acting done well over Japanese voice acting.

Fretless wrote:

Oddball wrote:

Mirrormn wrote:
Is it just that some people are so used to listening to anime with Japanese voice actors that they prefer that language even when it makes no sense for it to be used?

On that note, how many people who want Japanese voice acting actually speak or understand Japanese?

I think people who watch anime prefer Japanese voice acting specifically because they don't understand it. It's harder to discern when a voice actor speaking a foreign language is acting good or bad, and it's easier to spot bad acting in a language you understand. At least that's what I think. I still prefer English voice acting done well over Japanese voice acting.

Agreed. I prefer Japanese or English dubs, but for some reason i cant stand Portuguese dubs, it annoys me.
Maybe Anime and Visual Novels are the sort of thing that are not made to be heard on your mother tongue.

Mirrormn wrote:I don't understand why you'd want Japanese voice acting for something that was never in Japanese to begin with.

I think it's because the game is set in Japan, the characters are "speaking" Japanese (even if we are getting it in English), and it is imitating a Japanese visual novel.
Having the characters actually speaking in English would be terribly out of place and would feel like a dubbed over version even if it wasn't in reality.

If we are talking about "immersion", nothing breaks immersion for me faster then a Japanese (or French, German, ect...) character "speaking" their native language but having it come out English.

If we are talking about "immersion", nothing breaks immersion for me faster then a Japanese (or French, German, ect...) character "speaking" their native language but having it come out English.

and I can't get immersed in characters speaking something that's simply gibberish to me. I've tried. It doesn't work for me. I get more enjoyment out of silent movies than I do subtitled ones.

It appears we are at a stalemate.

Oddball wrote:I get more enjoyment out of silent movies than I do subtitled ones.

Well we do have a "silent" game (aside from music obviously)... Seems like we are already at that compromise, no?

while I agree that adding VO's for the game would be cool, I read rather fast so I'm fine without any VO work.

Personally, I think it's great without voice acting, and perhaps adding voices would take away from it...I'm not going to repeat what anyone else has said because I essentially agree...I just like the music and the text and the pictures together, it's calm, and I think voices would change that too much.

dawg...

Voice acting would not break the game, but I think it would make it worse. I like imagining what each character would sound like and the wrong set of voices can really ruin a character's personality.