Feedback on fictional characters

Wilem

I'm new, I'm into level 21 and on my way to completing half of Grahtwood.

Negative first: 95% of game dialogues are dull (and I read all of them). Voice actors as well.

The good stuff: But what prompted me to write this feedback was meeting Dringoth the jolly skeleton! He is an excellent example of what fictional characters should be. He's got *personality*. You can actually remember him and laugh at his jokes among the rest of the dull NPCs out there.

And while I'm at it, the other character to remember is the daedric Mad Prince.

It's like both the prince and the skeleton were done by entirely another production team.

I wish we had more characters like that. I don't mean every single peasant under a castle's walls should be Craig Ferguson, but at least key NPCs? More humour, more hatred, more emotions in a word.

Cheers.

traigusb14_ESO2

Wilem wrote: »

I'm new, I'm into level 21 and on my way to completing half of Grahtwood.

Negative first: 95% of game dialogues are dull (and I read all of them). Voice actors as well.

The good stuff: But what prompted me to write this feedback was meeting Dringoth the jolly skeleton! He is an excellent example of what fictional characters should be. He's got *personality*. You can actually remember him and laugh at his jokes among the rest of the dull NPCs out there.

And while I'm at it, the other character to remember is the daedric Mad Prince.

It's like both the prince and the skeleton were done by entirely another production team.

I wish we had more characters like that. I don't mean every single peasant under a castle's walls should be Craig Ferguson, but at least key NPCs? More humour, more hatred, more emotions in a word.

Cheers.

There are good ones and there are bad ones. I don't think Ghratwood is the best of quest zones for personality of NPCs. Dringoth is definitely good. I fend the Elf Queen to be the most bland of the Aliance leaders too.. sometimes she sounds like she is reading...

There are some great ones waiting for you out there.oh yes.

Unckle Sheo just gets better and better...

I found the fighter's guild quest NPCs to be a bit boring.

Main quest is a mixed bag... with Abner Tharn being excellent.

Danny231

Rasum-dar has a good voice actor.

Wilem

traigusb14_ESO2 wrote: »

I fend the Elf Queen to be the most bland of the Aliance leaders too.. sometimes she sounds like she is reading...

Exactly my impression. Didn't know how to put it into words.

traigusb14_ESO2 wrote: »

Unckle Sheo just gets better and better... Main quest is a mixed bag... with Abner Tharn being excellent.

Haven't quite gotten to these two yet. Thanks for heads up.

traigusb14_ESO2

Wilem wrote: »

traigusb14_ESO2 wrote: »

I fend the Elf Queen to be the most bland of the Aliance leaders too.. sometimes she sounds like she is reading...

Exactly my impression. Didn't know how to put it into words.

traigusb14_ESO2 wrote: »

Unckle Sheo just gets better and better... Main quest is a mixed bag... with Abner Tharn being excellent.

Haven't quite gotten to these two yet. Thanks for heads up.

Uncle Sheo is the Daedric mad prince Sheogorath. He refers to himself that way so we do too lol.

Cheese and roast beef for everybody!

crashen17b14_ESO

I despise Sheogorath, because he is just so stupidly 'lol random omg so funneh". That's not what insanity is. True insanity is terrifying, unpredictable, and unnerving. You can always count on Sheogorath to be silly and wacky and not at all what a daedric prince of madness should be.

My dislike of him aside, a lot of the voice actors are Bethesda regulars, and they all have that sort of... generic way of reading their lines. It's like they have been voice actors for so long, they have it down to a routine, with the right amount of inflection, clarity, speed, and expression to get the general idea across, but at the same time, you can tell that this is just one more NPC voice among an unending list of generic NPC's they have to voice for Bethesda. So while it is technically proficient, it lacks feeling and real emotion. But this isn't really their fault entirely, since they aren't written particularly interesting lines to read.

But, from time to time, you'll find a character that matches the voice perfectly, and it meshes well and suddenly you can see why these voice actors keep getting work for Bethesda games. Then you also have the important characters (but who aren't important enough to warrant a big name actor like John Clease or Bill Nighe), and they are given better personality for the actor to portray.

Cernow

The voice acting varies hugely in quality. Some of it is top notch - I totally agree about Dringoth, Razum-Dar and Sheogorath, all very enjoyable. But too much of it is generic and sounds like the actors are just reading the lines, rather than inhabiting the characters. It doesn't help that the default racial voices are reused so frequently and some of the actors have such distinctive voices it is really noticable when they keep getting re-used for different characters. I know they couldn't have a vast cast, but the actors might have made some effort to alter their voices.

The A-list voice acting is so-so. A few of them seem to have made an effort to get into their characters (notably Bill Nighy and Kate Beckinsale) while others seem to be just dialling it in and reading the lines rather than engaging with them, particularly Michael Gambon. John Cleese is John Cleese, but he does suit Cadwell. Even the normally excellent Jennifer Hale manages to sound disengaged from her character.

But the voice actors aren't really to blame. I think a lot of it is down to the writing, which also varies hugely in quality. I think in some cases the actors have the looked at the script and found it hard to see past the wall of fantasy waffle and lore jargon.

TheShadowScout

Personally I always thought the way Ayrenn is voice-acted fits the "annoyingly detached altmer" thing perfectly... but I guess that may be just me.

As for the dialouge in general... yes, it varies. Some is great, some is bland...

Sheogorath... is a special case I suppose. Refreshing sometimes, annoying other times... but as has been mentioned, there is something missing in all his randomness. The darker sides of madness. Oh sure, he touches upon in... but... in an very "defused" way. As portrayed here, you hardly ever get the impression he is anything more then comic relief... (and quite frankly, he is kinda outdone by cadwell in the "comical madness" department) when as I see the character he should be switching between that and hardcore "joker"-level insanity at a moments notice... oh, well.

Abner Tharn and his quibs at the other companions are fun, I have to say. Especially since the other companions are a bit... on the bland side...

Dringoth... heh... I liked that one. There are quite a few memorable side characters scattered between the quests... Naryu for example, I liked her snarky comments in Eastmarch... or the dremora Lyranth, in shadowfen and coldharbour... following the trials of Stibbons also comes with some humourous occasions, especially if one made a certain choice early on in the covenant story... and of course, occasional comments by wandering guards are often neat.

But I would agree with the general notion that more NPCs with flavor to them are always a good thing! Well, here's looking to upcoming DLC...

Muizer

To each his own I guess. I personally felt Dringoth's dialogue and voice acting were a dissonant. Reminded me of barnabas (sp?) the talking dog in Skyrim.

Wilem

Muizer wrote: »

To each his own I guess. I personally felt Dringoth's dialogue and voice acting were a dissonant. Reminded me of barnabas (sp?) the talking dog in Skyrim.

He reminds me of Fallout ghouls. Crazy and fun.

traigusb14_ESO2

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Personally I always thought the way Ayrenn is voice-acted fits the "annoyingly detached altmer" thing perfectly... but I guess that may be just me.



Sheogorath... is a special case I suppose. Refreshing sometimes, annoying other times... but as has been mentioned, there is something missing in all his randomness. The darker sides of madness. Oh sure, he touches upon in... but... in an very "defused" way. As portrayed here, you hardly ever get the impression he is anything more then comic relief... (and quite frankly, he is kinda outdone by cadwell in the "comical madness" department) when as I see the character he should be switching between that and hardcore "joker"-level insanity at a moments notice... oh, well.

I always found her completely detached from the plot... heh... I am biased from seeing an interview where she seemed pretty unclear about what her character was about apart from being a woman in charge.

Sheogorath does mostly have a 2nd and 3rd level beyond the buffoonery if you stop for a second.

At the start of one of his quests he lights the soul of a mummy from a previous quest on fire.. and it runs away screaming. ha ha ha buffoonery... EXCEPT.. his SOUL is on fire.... think about that for a second... Moe just hit curly with a 15 pound hammer... is that really funny?

Merry japes.. there are people locked in rooms in his manor for hundreds of years.

He stole an entire island (which is hinted at having a population at the time.. .where did they go? )

He is driving mental icepicks into Velaste's mind... no wait.. he's making her do it to herself out of a sense of duty.. oh yeah.. he's making Shalidor watch and be responsible for her suffering by making the books unreadable for him. Is the island worth it?

There is a lot of darkness there very poorly covered up by "bonk" noises and random cheese references. I'm not sure I'd describe it as diffused though

Danny231

The profit is has the actor from the Harry Potter films micheal something.

Enodoc

Danny231 wrote: »

The profit is has the actor from the Harry Potter films micheal something.

Michael Gambon. Also, Cadwell is John Cleese, and John Cleese is great