Voice sounds, y/n?

[uluuu]

This idea has almost certainly been thought of before, but I cannot find any posts or threads about it.

Basically, I was thinking of adding... uh... "Zelda-style-voice-sounds" to my game. Like the beginning of this, if we pretend that mister postman didn't say "Ya-!" every textbox.
I can't decide if this would add to the game (when only used in moderation to enhance dialogue, characterization, I can't think of the right words right now I am tired, etc.), or if it would just be annoying.
Input?

[Elli]

Something similar was done in Harvest Moon Rune Factory 2, actually. They also had dialogue for important events, a few "Eh?!" sounds, and such.
I rather liked it. =P I wouldn't say at the beginning of every line, but where it's applicable.
I've considered doing something similar myself, actually.
I feel like, in a vn, if it wasn't over done, and was implemented right, (along with some voice over for major scenes as well), it would work well.
=)
^ I'm going to shamelessly link to a place to find voice actors...
http://www.voiceactingalliance.com/board
*flicked*

[monele]

I might appreciate it more than full voice because it leaves room to the imagination while giving a little help as to how a voice might sound.

[JQuartz]

Reminds me of Pheonix Wright's Objection which I heard is quite popular with the player (I never heard it though because I seldom play with sound on)

[Vatina]

I have heard that in a few games too. For some reason I never thought of having it used in a VN, but if used well, then I think it could work nicely. A cute touch

[AngelicCarrot]

Definitely. :3 If you have a mic you can use Audacity to pitch your voice too, which makes it alot easier than finding a bunch of people just to do little sounds ^^

[DR]

It really depends on how you implement it. On the one hand, it could be a fun touch - it would be something unusual that helps people remember your VN. On the other, though, it could get extremely obnoxious extremely fast if you do it more than once in a while. Any gamer will have you know that plain text is preferable to bad voice acting. It's a razor's edge you have to walk.

My question, though, is this: does it really add anything at all? The time might be better spent finding ambient sound effects in general, rather than making such recordings.

[sake-bento]

I think it depends. For one that I'm working on right now, I really want the player to feel as if they are looking through the main character's eyes. So while I won't be doing any voiceovers, I will be recording voice sounds like giggles or gasps as reactions to what happens. But I'll also be recording a different sound for each reaction, not just play the same gasp each time something surprising happens.

But I don't know if I'd use the same system for other stories. If it's an action one, maybe? Just to add to the feel of a fight. But for a normal VN, probably not. Either full out voiceovers, or none at all.

[dott.Piergiorgio]

hmmm....

For the reasons explained in my presentation, I don't have much use of voices in games (in general) but I can agree that, in the renai context, important cues (and hints in VN's) can be given to player; and so I suggest that some means of indicating the tone of the voice in the text/subs will be more than welcome, not only for whose are deaf, but also for people whose happens to play with muted audio.

And there's also people whose aren't native to the language in which the VN or KN is written, so they are much confortable in reading (and translating) text with ease than hearing foreign-language (to them) voices.

my 2 (euro) cents

Dott. Piergiorgio.

[EwanG]

Have considered such myself before, but given all the other things I've tried, I'd suggest not doing voice "sounds" as you'll end up with as many complaints about them as you do folks who give you "extra credit" for doing more than just put up the text to read. Have a good BGM setup, and make sure the music and effects change with the tenor of the conversation, and you'll do just about as well.

Keep size in mind also. The difference between the RenPy version of my game and the Flash version is almost entirely the voice files, and it's about a 90 meg difference.

FWIW...