Katawa Shoujo Forums

I just had a funny thought... Do you think that voice acting would make or break this visual novel experience?

Here's my thought: If this game was developed by various people across the internet, and it wouldn't ruin the game, why not get more people from across the internet to assist with giving each character their own voice?

Now don't get me wrong, just like there's an option to put the Teen filter on, if this ever did happen, there could be an option to turn off voice acting. What is everyone's opinion on maybe seeing something like this come to fruition?

I think It would be nice, although it might limit your own imagination of what each character would sound like. Also, I'm pretty sure fast readers would get annoyed pretty quickly if the voice acting was slow.

I understand what you mean

I personally would like to have voice actors, although 4LS won't add any in

However I think that the problem could be that people will have different expectations of the voices and although you may impress a lot of people, undoubtedly, there will be some who think that the wrong voice was used and could be disappointed
I like the idea of turning it off though

I think good voice acting could enhance the game nicely, if it were done well. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of faith in getting professional-quality voice acting from a collaborative Internet effort (although it's not impossible; KS was developed through a collaborative Internet effort, after all).

Now, on the other hand: KS doesn't need voice acting, and it definitely will not get official voice acting, because the developers do not plan to support such major modifications to the game.

So, you've got a good chance of failing at something that's not necessary for the enjoyment of the game, and even if you do succeed, it will never be more than an unofficial, unsupported, and awkward-to-use fan work. That's my take on it, anyway.

ShadeHaven wrote:I think It would be nice, although it might limit your own imagination of what each character would sound like. Also, I'm pretty sure fast readers would get annoyed pretty quickly if the voice acting was slow.

Yeah I'm not usually a fan of voice acting if there's nothing else going on to be paying attention to (like... moving pictures, or gameplay). If the full focus is on the text, I just end up reading it and getting spoiled before they get a chance to act it.

I don't think voice acting ingame would be a good idea, but I'm intrigued by the idea of recording voices for something like an internet radio series, or perhaps a podcast. If a group of actors could get the images from the game and narrate them in character, then I'd be quite interested.

I don't think I'd like it, personally.

As Lolzster said, everybody would have different interpretations of how the voices should sound. When I am reading it, Hanako has a low clear sort of mezzo-soprano voice, Emi is high and chirpy, Lilly's voice is warm and even, Rin's is flat and quiet, Misha sounds like my dear loud sister, Hisao sounds like I did when I was eighteen, etc.

I think most folks would be happier with how they imagine them sounding.

Breaker deGodot wrote:I don't think voice acting ingame would be a good idea, but I'm intrigued by the idea of recording voices for something like an internet radio series, or perhaps a podcast.

That, on the other hand, is a cool idea - I'd definitely try listening to that.

I think tampering with a good game too much after release is a bad idea in general. Thats including not adding voices to the game.

I personally think we should keep the thing we hold dear the same as it was when we downloaded it (aside from maybe typo fixes, etc.)

I'm one of them types that requires native language of the story location. Meaning KS would end up Japanese if voiced. I tend to have a very jarring disconnect from VNs, and anime when they are dubbed in english. Even movies shot by Hollywood do the same. Like the story happens in Russia, but everyone speaks english. <.< It does nothing but piss me off. I'd rather watch it in Russian with eng subs.

So for me, I think Voice acting would be bad, unless it were Japanese. Which would have been unlikely, so just bad.

Walrusfella wrote:I don't think I'd like it, personally.

As Lolzster said, everybody would have different interpretations of how the voices should sound. When I am reading it, Hanako has a low clear sort of mezzo-soprano voice, Emi is high and chirpy, Lilly's voice is warm and even, Rin's is flat and quiet, Misha sounds like my dear loud sister, Hisao sounds like I did when I was eighteen, etc.

I think most folks would be happier with how they imagine them sounding.

To be completely honest, that's exactly how I imagine everyone's voices as well.

That being said, of course everyone has their opinions about the voice acting, or won't want it on, which is why I think it would be good to have the off switch for it too. I have a feeling it wouldn't be supported by 4LS, but it could be an interesting endeavour and could give the characters a life of their own outside of just text...

It's not for everyone, but those who could deal with english voice acting could come and get a set voice for the character

I think voice acting would be a fairly horrible idea.

At that point you'd basically just be looking at still pictures while somebody else reads it to you. At least when you're reading it you have something you're actually doing yourself. Of course if you're doing Japanese voices, you'd still be reading, in which case you'd just have extra gibberish covering up the music. Either way you slice it, the pace a person reads and the pace a person talks is two entirely different things.

On top of that, there's a very good chance that at the very least one of the voice actors isn't going to fit who how you imagine the character anyway.

The biggest problem though it that it would kill the immersion for me. Reading the story, your imagination fills in the blanks. You decide how a character sounds, how they empathize words, what pace they use when talking. Your imagination helps flesh out the characters and personalizes the game for you.

Voice acting could either break the game, or make it...different. I don't think it'd improve it.
As it has been said, we've all got our own ideas on how the characters would sound. There's general agreements on how they sound, though. We all think Hanako is going to sound like Fluttershy or some other cute and shy character. The problem is that we'd have to find someone who could actually voice act, and considering some of the amateur voice acting I've heard for this story, most of the people available aren't particularly...good.
This is the only bit of voice acting that I could actually find that isn't that bad. It's not the greatest, and I think it could be better, but I'd be satisfied with it.

Bolodan wrote:

Walrusfella wrote:As Lolzster said, everybody would have different interpretations of how the voices should sound. When I am reading it, Hanako has a low clear sort of mezzo-soprano voice, Emi is high and chirpy, Lilly's voice is warm and even, Rin's is flat and quiet, Misha sounds like my dear loud sister, Hisao sounds like I did when I was eighteen, etc.

To be completely honest, that's exactly how I imagine everyone's voices as well.

What a fine coincidence! You likely don't know what my loudmouth sister sounds like, but you can probably guess.

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

no voice acting until the anime release