The Voice of Dark Souls. .

. . . this may sound trivial to some, but if you recognise Dark Souls as more than simple hack and slash game, then you'll probably agree that the atmosphere of a game can be critically wounded when the voice acting or writing is pi$$ poor!

in fairness, its another reason I admire FROMs perspective on games design, given the setting of Dark Souls it would have been an easy option easy to riddle it with cheesy cliches, but the writing and delivery is taught, restrained and in my opinion, beautifully done, really punctuating the hostile world with atmosphere, mystique and character.

So, im interested to hear youre favourite voice acting or writing in Dark Souls, whether its the Sultry tones of Rhea, the bumbling but gallant Seigmeyer or affable saaf London brogue of Laurentius. Maybe also some examples of where it has gone woefully, hilariously wrong in other games. Or if you totally disagree with everything ive just said, how so? How important do you feel this is to a game such as Dark Souls?

Anyways, a personal favourite example:

The certifiable Oswald of Carim in his entirety, I particularly love his laugh 'it is only human to commit a sin. .ho ho ho . . . ' get you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBkqKlv3EPk

also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCdqoo6gLc


also, I apologise if this has been covered elsewhere but I searched high and low and couldnt find anything similar.

Quelaan's voice gets me every time. I actually get a little depressed listening to her but feel enough sympathy to keep talking to her. For her sake.

yeah me too, I always feel really sad for her, i'm a sucker for a pretty face and a mutated spiders abdomen!

same with the firekeeper under firelink!

I watch anime. Actions and atmosphere set the tone better than voice acting for me. Voice acting is nice, but if its bad it doesn't detract from my experience.

Gwyneveres voice is my favorite, her tone is similar to the tone my mom uses, so its comforting.

One of my favorite lines in the entire game is when Patches says, "This is what I do, my friend!" I just feel like it was so perfectly done and the first time I heard it, I immediately wanted to kill him. Then once I got back out, he convinced me otherwise. I didn't even know he was a merchant, he just had such a way of talking that it changed my emotions.

Voice acting is a really big thing for me to get absorbed in a story, I'd compare a game with bad voice acting to watching Citizen Kane with Don Knots as Kane.



The Crestfallen Warrior is my favorite, the desparity in his voice along with his attempts to see some sort of normality in the hell he exists in. I really love him for his voice.

Priscilla.

Enough said.

This game has so many stand outs for voice acting. I can't think of a single character that's not done at least "very good." Most are excellent. Frampt and Kaathe are perfect for instance. They could have copped out and really just done the same thing for both but Frampt always conveyed a little mirth with his voice. Almost like he's amused by you as he's tricking....um....helping you. Kaathe is like the stressed out version where he's trying not to be a jerk and impatient but it's on the surface anyway. If actual gods or primordial beasts around for eons were to speak to me I would think they'd sound like one of these two.

Tolvo wrote:The Crestfallen Warrior is my favorite, the desparity in his voice along with his attempts to see some sort of normality in the hell he exists in. I really love him for his voice.

absolutely. I always take real note of the voice acting in games, and the crestfallen warrior being the first does an amazing job of setting the tone, his being slightly sardonic, you always feel like there's plenty he's not telling you but you cant help but lke the guy!

I love the pace too, everything seems very slightly slowed down, apart from Domhnall, which makes it feel more ethereal and dream like. This is more likely for clarity and diction, but it also has a positive affect on the atmosphere.

edit: I guess the proof that theyve done an amazing job is that I always feel quite sad at having to kill anyone who turns hollow!

In particular he reminds me of one of what I think is the best examlples of Voice Acting in a game. G=Man. The interruptions in thought and speech following an inhuman flow with an understanding of words but not tone, it is creepy as all hell. Crestfallen reminds me of a form of that, almost unsure of his words but more so feeling that what he has to say is something he'd rather not believe, yet knows to be true. Finding false amusement within this just to cope with what he understands of the world. By the end of the very first line he speaks you already understand his entire character.

nicely put!