Benefits of having voice actors?

[Caveat Lector]

I'd like to get others' opinions on this subject: From your experience (either as the one recruiting and working with VA's, or as a VA yourself), what are some of the benefits of including voice acting to your project? Are there any downsides to it? How much does having voice acting add to your project? Is it relatively easy to work with?

[A2_Eater]

The obvious downside is the amount of time it takes to record and separate the voice files, and then the added filesize as a result. It can add a whole new layer of depth to your script though, especially at emotional parts! Think of it as the icing on top your cake.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I'd like to get others' opinions on this subject: From your experience (either as the one recruiting and working with VA's, or as a VA yourself), what are some of the benefits of including voice acting to your project? Are there any downsides to it? How much does having voice acting add to your project? Is it relatively easy to work with?

Obviously voice acting can add a lot to a game emotionally and drama-wise if it is done well. IF.

The downsides, however, are many:
1) It will take a LOT of audio files for a finished game that is fully voice-acted. It takes a considerable amount of time to get that many files recorded, cleaned up, and inserted with the correct timing into the game. So it adds a lot of extra work.
2) It can be expensive if you can't find good free voice-actors.
3) You will need GOOD voice actors. Good voice-acting enhances a script, poor voice acting HURTS a script. Even one or two bad voice-actors in the mix can drag down the experience and detract from the good voice-acting present.
4) It becomes more difficult and time-consuming to make any script changes or add extra scenes. You'll have to "lock" your script at some point before you start recording dialogue. After that point, you can't change ANYTHING in the dialogue without re-recording audio.

I personally think the risks and downsides outweigh the potential benefits in a VN. You've already got an audience willing to read a LOT of text. Most will click-thru your expensive and time-consuming voice-acting anyway to advance the story, because they'll read faster than the lines are spoken. And again, if the voice-acting is bad, it'll be worse than having nothing at all. Just my two cents.

[SundownKid]

Benefits:

Adds emotion to your project and makes it memorable.
Increases the value of it as a product (perhaps greatly if the VO is done well)

Cons:

Can cost a lot of money
(If you don't pay money, it can be very unreliable/time consuming)
Takes some extra time and/or money to put the lines in
A few bad actors can detract from the whole game
Sound quality can be uneven and needs audio editing to come out right
Any flaws in the writing will be amplified x100

So yes, the risk is bigger than the reward in this case, which is why few people bother to do it.

[Rosstin]

I concur on the risk/reward factor. I like to just record some stock noises that the characters make and use those rather than doing full VA.

[Ferdokki]

To be honest, as a gamer of several genres, I don't really like voice-acted games.
Voice acting is often distracting. Like, certain games have a mood that doesn't need to be disrupted with people reading text that's in front of your face.

Another thing, as others have mentioned, is sometimes the voice-acting is sooo horridly awful, and it makes the game feel kinda lame (ex: the first game in the "Jack French" series. I like the series, but the first game, I guess being somewhat experimental, had terrible voice-acting, and it made me not want to play certain parts).

Some games, however, do a great job with voice-acting. Examples would be "Emerald City Confidential" and "Phantasmat".
"Emerald City Confidential" is a mystery/adventure game, so it's kinda cool to hear the protagonist interrogating the suspects and hearing their responses. It's especially humorous since the protagonist is super sarcastic, since everyone around her is either airheaded or corrupted.
"Phantasmat" is kind of a suspense/mystery puzzle game. The voice acting for this game is one of the best I've ever come across, and to top this would be a challenge (in my opinion; and if someone did manage to get a group of voice actors to top it, I'd definitely play that game, no questions asked). The mood for the game is kinda creepy and eerie, so the voice acting adds on to the unsettling environment. This would be an example of voice acting that added onto the game's quality.

Another game series, the "Kate West" series, is a mystery/puzzle/supernatural game. The unique part of the voice acting for these games is that they are partially voice acted. Instead of having every single sentence read out to the player, the characters instead only "speak" the important lines. Like, if a dialogue is occurring, and it ends with the character naming a suspect, only those lines in which the suspect being discussed/revealed will be read. I like this, as it gives some interaction while not being distracting.

One reason I dislike voice acting (in addition to the reasons I stated at the beginning) is because when I read through a VN, I read the character dialogues in my mind the way I imagine the character to sound. If voice acting is done for the character and the voice is way different from the way I thought/hoped, it'll be disappointing and distracting. For me, it will also take away from the value of the game.

In short, you don't have to use voice acting for your game. Personally, I don't think most games need voice-acting, and sometimes seeing that a game has been voice acted is a turn-off for me. Oftentimes I will play with the voices off (or the volume off, if there's no "voice off" option) because I don't care for the voices, and in that case, all your hardwork of inputting the voices pretty much goes to waste.
From being part of other game blogs/forums, I know that others often do this too.
Voice acting can be charming for the right game. Otherwise, it's not really needed.

[Starshine]

I think one main benefit of having someone voice your character or characters, is that the character will sound how you want them to and go about how you want the character to be perceived by the public, although from what i have read most people are actually put off by it. I say go for it, just hire people with clear mic's if you plan on adding voices to your game.


What i have now learn't about voices in games:

1. Don't use too much voice-recordings, they take up too much MB even in OGG which is the smallest music file ever.

2. Make it short and simple & use emotion-sounds, instead of full blown lines that go on for ages & use main-voice acting for a small intro of your game. (Sometimes you can mix games where there will only be voice acting at a certain point in your game and the rest could be all text and sound effects)

[Asceai]

I think one main benefit of having someone voice your character or characters, is that the character will sound how you want them to and go about how you want the character to be perceived by the public

That's both an advantage and a disadvantage. It's not easy to compete with someone's imagination, especially on a budget.

[Head_Phones]

I personally prefer partial voice-acting, simply because it gives the reader a certain amount of freedom when imagining the characters, yet still manages to convey the emotions of the character. There's a thread here.

I think everybody's brought up valid points, although a downside to full voice-acting I'd like to emphasise is that for me personally, I am fairly impatient. So unless the VA's voice is heavenly, or they're just extremely good at what they're doing, I will prolly just click and cut off their dialogue midway, or mute their voices.

[qirien]

I agree with Ferdokki; unlesss the voice acting is totally awesome, I usually just click past it or download the no-voice-acting version. Part of this is because I am an impatient person and don't like to wait for them to finish talking...

The exception to this would be cinematic scenes, where the voice acting feels more integral to the story.

[trooper6]

I love good voice acting. I think it can really add to the artistry of a game. Of course, bad voice acting is bad.

But again, I come to visual novels from a) a theater background, b) a table top role-playing background where I think of VNs more like radio plays than like books, c) a fan of modern voice acted RPGs. So I am a fan of voice acting in general.

That said, my undergraduate major was electronic music composition and that involved quite a few sound and recording classes...and poorly recorded voice acting and sound engineering is not good for me. I really enjoyed the adventure game Still Life, but there is some seriously distracting voice acting I that game.

[Green Glasses Girl]

I'm a fan of voice acting in games. It's still kind of nice when there are 2 versions released (one with, one without). Of course, there can be an option to switch off the voice acting in the game, but it still adds to the size of the file.