What’s the difference between video games and films? The popular answer nowadays is: “not much at all”. Where once technological capacity limited programmer’s storytelling aspirations to simple pixelated sprites, uncomplicated primary coloured backgrounds and text based narratives; processing power is now so great that grand vistas, intense motion-blurred action, and overwhelming visual effects are not just possibilities but necessary fundamentals for triple-A titles. There seems to be an underlying assumption, at least in the minds of the more mainstream developers and fans alike, that the more Hollywood-ised a videogame, the better it is. A stirring soundtrack; clever and provocative camera angles; eye-popping visuals; and dramatic cut scenes grace almost all the major current best-sellers – and, if nothing else, their presence makes for fantastic marketing potential. Is there anything wrong with this? No, not in and of itself. One might object to our favourite artistic medium acting in such a way that implies it can better itself best by aping another medium, however it’s fair to say that, at least in some cases, this may actually be so.

A series like Uncharted draws heavy inspiration from cinematic sources and is all the better for it in its Indiana Jones inspired action sequences and storytelling. Likewise, games like Metal Gear Solid find a successful compromise between intricate gaming elements and cinematic grandeur and spectacle. Both of these games are fully voice-acted and both are undeniably improved greatly by it, with expertly chosen highly-talented and appropriate voice actors bringing characters to life in a manner that would simply be impossible should vocals have been represented in text rather than audio. In games like this – games that are really cinematic hybrids rather than pure gaming experiences, voice-acting is appropriate and welcome. Elsewhere however, in games that either expect the player to form a deeper involvement with the central character or create an uncanny world atmosphere; not instantly recognisable through conventional eyes, that I object to voice-acting, at the very least for the lead.

This is not the old ‘it’s better to read the book than see the film’ argument – not everything has to be contextualised by the player. Videogames have the unique advantage of being able to hybridise the process of storytelling somewhere between a novel, a motion picture, and a toy box. This arrangement allows the player to actively engage with a fictional universe while simultaneously passively observing it and allowing it to exist on its own terms. This means that the player can contextualise the interactions of the characters they temporarily indulge in, without having to also construct the environments around them, which exist independently much like in the actual world.

The RPG series: Final Fantasy was voiceless until its tenth numbered iteration. The much lauded Final Fantasy VII was a game full of words but utterly without spoken voices. Everything the characters said was played out in the player’s head, in the voices and tones they imagined appropriate in the context. Not only did this allow for a deeper integration of the player’s expectations (thereby allowing further involvement and suspension of disbelief in the game universe), but it also retained a degree of separation which reminded the player that they were looking into a universe other than their own – one they could observe and interact with, but that was not the same as the one outside the game. Such a universe was to be examined and marvelled at, not taken for granted as familiar territory.

By comparison to its predecessor, Final Fantasy X was fully voiced. In the UK by American actors which, to my ear; did not embody the roles they were intended for at all. Gone was the surreal yet recognizable universe of Final Fantasy VII, filled with characters I could relate to and understand; here was a cast of melodramatically acted caricatures of the kind I would expect to find in a by-the-numbers American comedy-drama series. The reality is that the writing in Final Fantasy X was probably no worse than that in Final Fantasy VII; it’s just that when American voices are put to it, evidently and inappropriately trying to match the melodrama from the Japanese recording, my absorption in the universe becomes impossible.

It’s this reality that fuels the ever present desire that particular Japanese games be playable in their original Japanese as opposed to an American-English dub. This is not because UK players prefer the sound of the Japanese language; nor out of a desire to play the game as it was originally conceived. Rather, the hope is that a Japanese voicing will provide the same welcome distance and open opportunity to self-contextualise that was offered previously via text boxes and written narrative. In the Zelda series, Nintendo have understood these realities perfectly.

Providing a non-verbal but audible indication of mood accompanied by a text box is an entirely appropriate means of engaging the player with the character in the context that the writer desires. In the same vein, a silent lead character is a welcome opportunity for involvement in a game, not a jarring oddity as it can be in a film. Although a player understands that they do not embody the central character on-screen, there is a connection between player and lead-protagonist that allows the player to think for the lead (and thereby consider what he or she might say) without actually having to think that they are the lead-character nor hear them speak out loud. The player neither needs to actually be the character in the game, nor to be so alienated that a voice track is necessary. There is a middle-ground, of understanding but not identification, that is filled fine by a silent protagonist – in first or third person view.

In summary, many games are much improved by voice-acting. It provides a level of cinematography that the game is aspiring to, and in these cases – a stellar and highly talented voice cast is both necessary and (in the major triple-A titles) usually present. But voice-acting is not always suitable. Where player integration with character rather than plot is the intended outcome, in games where it is vital that the gameworld is to be the player’s surrogate home rather than a fantastic spectacle for them to marvel at, voice-acting can keep its distance. And if you must include it, for the love of God, please don’t take off the Japanese voices!

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