ESO Voice acting

Egonieser

So, after playing this game for a while and listening to numerous dialogues and NPC conversations, I finally wanted to check out the voice acting cast.
Despite the repetitive and re-used voices for many NPC's (same voice actor used for many "memorable" characters), there are some big names behind the scenes.
Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Malcolm Mcdowell to name a few.
I was rather shocked. As this means the budget for this game must've been huge, as hiring those big named actors and artists mustn't have been cheap.

The one name that seems elude me and google is the actress behind Naryu Virian. I have heard that voice before in films but i can't seem to remember, it's there but i just can't grab it... Which is weird, because she is quite an important character in the story, yet finding her in the cast is difficult. Maybe someone can shed some light into it perhaps as i am dying from curiosity.

All in all, I don't know if this has been discussed or not, but i just thought it would be interesting to go behind the scenes a bit.
For those who wish to know some of the names (the list here is incomplete, but still):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3485722/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

Sorry if this topic is a bit off-topic, but I am a curious person :P

Equinox

I just started Mass Effect, and keep having a double take because every time my character talks all I can think about is that axe swingin' titan Lyris. [Same actor, Jennifer Hale.]

You can find Raz on the list... but Naryu is just missing =/

Btw, isn't it funny that Kate was Selene and Nighy was Viktor in Underworld? Heh...

Oh man, some cross faction quest with Naryu + Raz + [whoever the DC badarse is] would be so cool =D. Sorry... haven't played through Cadwell's Gold yet =/

SantieClaws

"whoever the DC badarse is"

That would probably be Bumnog although others may disagree and say Darien Gautier.

I don't think they would have paid the actors movie levels fees for a couple of hours of voiceover work. It would have been a nice amount but not insane.

Kragorn

Surprised the OP didn't include John Cleese in his list, when I first heard Cadwell's voice in my first run through Coldharbour in the beta I was amazed.

Sadly of course this kind of acting is a two-edged sword, Gambon's lines are now intermixed with a very bad imitation as ZOS had to change the Prophet's scripts hugely as the beta progressed and the game moved live: having very famous actors is an albatross round your neck if your script isn't cast in stone by the time the actor does his work.

Throren

I still think a petition should be made for them to get Wes Johnson (the only true voice for Sheogorath) to come in and redo all the sheo lines. The VO they have for sheo in game right now is cringe worthy.

Kragorn

Throren wrote: »

I still think a petition should be made for them to get Wes Johnson (the only true voice for Sheogorath) to come in and redo all the sheo lines. The VO they have for sheo in game right now is cringe worthy.

I think the voicing for Sheo is excellent and totally in-keeping with the 'mad' image.

What *I* find cringeworthy, as an Englishman is the upper-class English accents, some of the female voice-acting especially is just totally embarrassing.

Egonieser

Kragorn wrote: »

What *I* find cringeworthy, as an Englishman is the upper-class English accents, some of the female voice-acting especially is just totally embarrassing.

Yeah, the over-the-top british accents in this game are a bit, well... Over the top...

Nords should have more Scandinavian accents, hence the Nords are what they are, a fictional version of Scandinavians, which often are referred to as Nords in real life. Imperials should have Latin accents, hence they are the the fictional Romans. Redguards, remind me of indigenous african tribes and should have more appropriate african accents, but the rest I am unsure as that is pure fiction...
But it wouldn't hurt to have more immersive and "regional" accents for each race to make it more realistic, instead of slapping a posh british accent on everyone, exception being a handful of poorly impersonated nordic accents on some NPC guards, which are done mostly by the same voice actor lol.

starkerealm

wenxue2222b16_ESO wrote: »

"whoever the DC badarse is"

That would probably be Bumnog although others may disagree and say Darien Gautier.

I don't think they would have paid the actors movie levels fees for a couple of hours of voiceover work. It would have been a nice amount but not insane.

They're probably talking about the spymaster you see when you visit Emeric during the leadup to returning to Cold Harbour... and with that... I have no idea who she is. As far as I can remember she never appears during the Covenant storyline.

starkerealm

Equinox wrote: »

You can find Raz on the list... but Naryu is just missing =/

Fun trivia, Raz's voice actor was the same one who did Molag Bal in Skyrim. I think he's also the one subbing for Malcom McDowell, on the changed lines... but I'm not certain.

stumpy999

The problem with Scandinavian voice acting is the emphasis on certain words when they are over hamming it

"Sweetroll" for example

What they are trying to say is Swee Troll, the invisible trolls that inhabit Cyrodill. Everyone crys lag or rubberbanding and latency, it's actually the Swee Trolls getting stuck in. Given that they are actually invisible single use armoured troll pets.

" someone stole my Swee Troll" is actually referring to a pvp debuff etc

nerevarine1138

Egonieser wrote: »

Kragorn wrote: »

What *I* find cringeworthy, as an Englishman is the upper-class English accents, some of the female voice-acting especially is just totally embarrassing.

Yeah, the over-the-top british accents in this game are a bit, well... Over the top...

Nords should have more Scandinavian accents, hence the Nords are what they are, a fictional version of Scandinavians, which often are referred to as Nords in real life. Imperials should have Latin accents, hence they are the the fictional Romans. Redguards, remind me of indigenous african tribes and should have more appropriate african accents, but the rest I am unsure as that is pure fiction...
But it wouldn't hurt to have more immersive and "regional" accents for each race to make it more realistic, instead of slapping a posh british accent on everyone, exception being a handful of poorly impersonated nordic accents on some NPC guards, which are done mostly by the same voice actor lol.

Well, let's not get too caught up in the one-to-one parallels, especially since no one actually knows what something like a "Latin accent" would be.

In prior Elder Scrolls games, they've done a fairly good job of establishing consistent dialects for the different races. I agree that Breton and Altmer become pretty much indistinguishable, but I hardly find that most of the NPCs in this game are just sporting generic British dialects.

adriant1978

starkerealm wrote: »

wenxue2222b16_ESO wrote: »

"whoever the DC badarse is"

That would probably be Bumnog although others may disagree and say Darien Gautier.

I don't think they would have paid the actors movie levels fees for a couple of hours of voiceover work. It would have been a nice amount but not insane.

They're probably talking about the spymaster you see when you visit Emeric during the leadup to returning to Cold Harbour... and with that... I have no idea who she is. As far as I can remember she never appears during the Covenant storyline.

Her name is Copper Dariah, but I think you're right that she appears nowhere else outside that one quest.

Valen_Byte

Why no Patrick Stewart? Its an outrage! Conspiracy even!

cyclonus11

I was excited when I first heard Tuvok's voice.

Soulshine

Valen_Byte wrote: »

Why no Patrick Stewart? Its an outrage! Conspiracy even!

Hehe. I loved Patrick Stewart as Uriel Septim but sadly given the timeline of ESO, it would not be possible for him to be around. What charcter would you have liked him to voice in ESO? I have a hard time choosing

Gidorick

I hate that they have limited their ability for expanded stories. I'm sure they have some voice actors and actresses in house or on retainer but the big names... what's the likeliness of them getting those people back to record more voicework?

Gidorick

Soulshine wrote: »

Valen_Byte wrote: »

Why no Patrick Stewart? Its an outrage! Conspiracy even!

Hehe. I loved Patrick Stewart as Uriel Septim but sadly given the timeline of ESO, it would not be possible for him to be around. What charcter would you have liked him to voice in ESO? I have a hard time choosing

Patrick Stewart could always play Tiber Septim's great great great great grandfather... if they ever go that route.

Valymer

I don't know how historically accurate they really are but the accents that most of the characters have on that show Vikings would be pretty cool for Nords. Most of the Nords in ESO sound like a mix between Homer Simpson and the characters on that movie Fargo.

starkerealm

Valymer wrote: »

I don't know how historically accurate they really are but the accents that most of the characters have on that show Vikings would be pretty cool for Nords. Most of the Nords in ESO sound like a mix between Homer Simpson and the characters on that movie Fargo.

Yeah, I'm not hearing it. The Homer bit anyway. They still sound like that faux German accent the Nords have had since at least Morrowind. That said, Peter Stormare was in Fargo... so it's not terribly surprising that he sounds like himself.

Egonieser

Valymer wrote: »

I don't know how historically accurate they really are but the accents that most of the characters have on that show Vikings would be pretty cool for Nords. Most of the Nords in ESO sound like a mix between Homer Simpson and the characters on that movie Fargo.

Haha, we love that show. I come from the Baltic states myself, so it's a part of our history. And my wife has a crush on Ragnarr, because he looks so much like me it's scary lol. And yeah, those are very realistic accents for ancient nords. Not too similar to modern day scandinavian, but not too far apart either. ESO team should take some notes, hehe.

Esha76

I love the voice work in this game. All the main characters are fantastic.

But as the OP pointed out, there are some sub-characters throughout the game that I would love to know who has done the voice work for as well. I have sent numerous /feedback's (reminders) in the hopes they re-hire the actresses for:

1. Naryu (as OP stated) Deshaan and Eastmarch

2. Irrai the Twilight - Grahtwood

3. Vaermina/Duchess of Anguish - Vaermina = Rift quest & Stormhaven/ Dutchess = Halls of Torment Main Quest

PSLAnimal

I'm hoping, in one of the DLCs, they'll get Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to voice a pair of traveling skooma dealers.

deathmasterl_ESO

PSLAnimal wrote: »

I'm hoping, in one of the DLCs, they'll get Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to voice a pair of traveling skooma dealers.

I don't know why... but I have to imagine I couldn't help, but lmfao and rofl if I were to hear that in game... it needs to happen.

Cody

wenxue2222b16_ESO wrote: »

"whoever the DC badarse is"

That would probably be Bumnog although others may disagree and say Darien Gautier.

I don't think they would have paid the actors movie levels fees for a couple of hours of voiceover work. It would have been a nice amount but not insane.

darien. Bumnog sucks in comparison.

Soulshine

PSLAnimal wrote: »

I'm hoping, in one of the DLCs, they'll get Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to voice a pair of traveling skooma dealers.

Add John Leguizamo to that and you have the winning Trifecta

UrQuan

Soulshine wrote: »

PSLAnimal wrote: »

I'm hoping, in one of the DLCs, they'll get Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to voice a pair of traveling skooma dealers.

Add John Leguizamo to that and you have the winning Trifecta

Adding John Leguizamo to anything never results in a winning trifecta...

Roechacca

In guild chat we call the DC story line "The Steve Bloom Experience".

Soulshine

UrQuan wrote: »

Soulshine wrote: »

PSLAnimal wrote: »

I'm hoping, in one of the DLCs, they'll get Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to voice a pair of traveling skooma dealers.

Add John Leguizamo to that and you have the winning Trifecta

Adding John Leguizamo to anything never results in a winning trifecta...

Clearly "never" doesn't apply since there is at least one person who finds this so... as is I think you missed the point I was really after anyway. S'Ok.

UrQuan

Soulshine wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

Soulshine wrote: »

PSLAnimal wrote: »

I'm hoping, in one of the DLCs, they'll get Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong to voice a pair of traveling skooma dealers.

Add John Leguizamo to that and you have the winning Trifecta

Adding John Leguizamo to anything never results in a winning trifecta...

Clearly "never" doesn't apply since there is at least one person who finds this so... as is I think you missed the point I was really after anyway. S'Ok.

Actually, it was just a throwaway line to express how much I hate John Leguizamo...

nerevarine1138

Gidorick wrote: »

I hate that they have limited their ability for expanded stories. I'm sure they have some voice actors and actresses in house or on retainer but the big names... what's the likeliness of them getting those people back to record more voicework?

I don't think it's limited them terribly.

We already know we're not going to be running in to anyone from the main story again (minus Abnur), unless they want to add a new solo-instanced quest line. Those haven't been terribly popular, so I don't see it happening.

The faction leaders were the main focus of each faction's storyline, so there's not a huge need to bring them back anytime soon.

In general, I think the writers did a good job ending the storylines involving big-name actors, such that they shouldn't have to worry about them as missing elements in future storylines.

Merlight

Kragorn wrote: »

Surprised the OP didn't include John Cleese in his list, when I first heard Cadwell's voice in my first run through Coldharbour in the beta I was amazed.

Same here. When I got out of the Wailing Prison and talked to him, I stopped in awe A real knight with a kettle on his head, the quest was bound to be epic!