Voice Acting In Baldur's Gate 3 Changed Gaming Forever

once upon a time we heard a story in which balers Gate 3 was setting an unrealistic and unprecedented standard for the rest of the gaming industry and the game proved as much it skated through every single award ceremony sweeping the game of the year and still today is the third most played game on Steam a widely singleplayer turn-based RPG almost 6 months after its release is still one of the most played games to date and with that said balers Gate 3 is a game that does a lot of things really well it does a lot of things incredibly well but it's a game that does some things that no one has either tried to do before or has even gotten close to this level of quality in the past larryan Studios put people real people in balers Gate 3 they lit actors act and as such the performances that were captured in this game the authenticity that was captured in this game is what widely makes this game such a memorable experience that everyone wants to be a part of tracing the lineage of performance capture and voice acting in video games reveals a really fascinating Journey from rudimentary Beginnings to its sophisticated art form that it is today in the early days of gaming characters were just pixels and text boxes with voice acting completely non-existent as technology advanced so did the methods of Storytelling in many of the games that we love in the late '90s and early 2000s we saw the introduction of basic voice acting which brought characters to life in a way that text never could however these performances were often limited by the technology and also their budget constraints leading to sometimes less than Stellar results the real Revolution began with the Advent of motion capture technology a game changer that allowed actors to infused their physicality into their digital characters this Leap Forward brought a new dimension into gaming one where characters actually moved and reacted in realistic ways enhancing A Game's overall believability games like the last of us or Uncharted pushed these boundaries even further integrating these emotional performances with High Fidelity facial capture techniques creating a completely different standard for narrative depth in video games moving forward balers Gate 3 stands on the shoulders of these technological Giants Taking performance capture to unprecedented Heights laran Studio's approach went beyond mere lipsyncing and prescripted motions they embraced a really holistic performance capture method where actors fully embodied their characters delivering performances in an incredibly unbroken and realistic manner this technique captured every single Nuance subtle facial feature Expressions to Dynamic physicality between the actors infusing each NPC with a genuine sense of Life the importance of this Evolution cannot be overstated especially in terms of a player's experience in balter's Gate 3 every interaction feels personal and impactful transcending the traditional boundaries between a player and a character the authenticity of these performances that are captured in balers Gate 3 does more than just tell a story it creates an experience a world where the player is not just an observer but an active participant in this living breathing narrative the leap from characters being mere vessels for gameplay to becoming these relatable entities with whom we can actually resonate with their stories and their backgrounds is a significant milestone in the evolution of games and storytelling as a medium if you've been a part of any balers Gate 3 Community Heck if you've been online over the past few months you have seen the outpour of support for the voice cast of balers Gate 3 and it's welld deserved these performances are not only authentic they are on the spot every single time and I don't think that I've ever seen or played a game that has had this many s tier performances captured in a single game outside of maybe Mass Effect or Dragon Age but even with that said I'm not even talking about the main cast I'm talking about every single voice actor in the game not just your carlac your Shadow heart your laelle no even minor NPCs people that only have one or two lines of dialogue vendors whoever questgivers they all have something to say and it's all given in an incredibly authentic way that I don't think that we're going to be seeing again for a really long time and if we do we're going to have to thank balers gate and laran Studios for it because they're the ones that are going to set that standard moving forward they're going to set players wanting that going forward and this is something that Sven vinka wanted he said before they even started making this game I want to play an RPG that is fully voice acted and they made it and it's incredible today's motion capture technology is a far cry from its earlier iterations it involves a sophisticated system that allows you to be able to capture almost every single minute detail of an actor's performance high resolution cameras and sensors that contract actor's movements facial expressions and even their eye movement creating these comprehensive digital models that mimic reality laran Studios took an Innovative approach by integrating voice acting with motion capture see traditionally voice acting and motion capture are often recorded separately with voice actors working in sound boosts and physical performances captured on a motion capture stage while some content was captured this way balers Gate 3 had almost every single voice actor to the sum of over 250 perform motion capture for all of the characters in the game this method ensured that the physicality of the performance matched The Voice leading to an unprecedented level of authenticity from the characters this holistic approach to Performance capture meant that for almost all dialogues actor's movements gestures and physical performances were captured right alongside their vocal performances this data was then used to animate the characters in game resulting in NPCs feeling real and alive each actor's unique interpretations and their physical Styles directly influenced the characters that they played in in the game adding depth and personality to every single character that you came across for example the iconic mannerisms of characters like carlac or estaran were a direct result of the actor's physical performance when they were recording and I think that that's something that's relatively observable if you've watched any of the live streams of these voice actors playing balers Gate 3 for the first time or the High Roller campaign where they played D and D the interviews over on Dan Allen gaming there's a part of these voice actors that is very much their character they're almost one and the same in many ways it's almost like laran captured many of them in their natural state which is really great to see and it brings a level of authenticity to the game that's really difficult to be able to capture otherwise and because of that it also adds more value to the overall narrative when I think back of to games like Final Fantasy 6 a game where it didn't really feel like you were the main character it felt like everybody was the main character it's really difficult to pull something like that off not only narratively but even more so when you bring in voice actors but because they were able to capture these authentic performances from each one of them with such incredible narrative depth that the game already has balers Gate 3 kind of feels like Final Fantasy 6 in that sense where every character is a main character it's not just all about you it's about everybody you're as much a part of their story as they are of yours and that just feels good and I think we should continue to talk about feeling because I think that's very much in theme with balers Gate 3 as we journey through the game we encounter characters that are not just High Fidelity animated models but fully realized beings each with their own unique mannerisms and emotional depth this realism creates a world in which we can genuinely connect with making every interaction and every decision feel consequential as a result of how well those characters have been acted and how invested we are in those characters you know monsters right better than than anyone look into my eyes can't you see I'm not what you think the emotional connection that's forged between players and characters is a standout aspect of the game thanks to the Nuance performances captured from each actor characters in balers Gate 3 exhibit a wide range of emotions that resonate with each discussion and narrative Shadow heart looks uncomfortable or cold when you don't respect her privacy carlac is brimming with life and excitement at almost every given moment drinking in her Newfound Freedom this connection is crucial in an RPG where storytelling and character development are at the Forefront we find ourselves deeply invested in the fates and the stories of these characters making the game not just a series of quests and battles but a story that we are living and writing ourselves the realism and emotional depth of the characters influences our decision-making process I am no longer making choices based solely on game mechanics and outcomes I'm considering the emotional and narrative impacts of all of my actions this level of Engagement elevates balers Gate 3 from a simple game to an immersive experience that I'm emotionally invested in and that's an incredible feeling I've seen a lot of people cast judgment on balers Gate 3 for looking like a narrative movie where you just kind of pick your own choices and while they lack taste what I will say is that from an outsider's perspective yeah they're looking in and watching these people basically play a game where all they're doing is talking to people but what that's saying is is that we are just so raptured in the discussion in the narrative in these characters that we want to talk to them we want to know what they think about the decisions that we made what we're going to do in the future and what we should look out for I can't tell you how difficult it is to be the bad guy in this game because I'm so invested in the characters that I don't want to let them down I want to talk to them I want them to tell me what they think about what I've done so far or what's coming up in the future I want to know why Gail ate my shoes I want to know what carlac or aarian think of our next steps I'll tell you something and this is a little bit embarrassing but during one of my playthroughs I made a decision that ended up resulting in carlac never being able to get the rest of her upgrades I'm not going to spoil that any further but as a result I didn't even want to look at her I didn't want to talk to her I didn't want to have her in my party I didn't want to go near her because I was so remorseful over the decision that I made that I realized what the end result would be and with that said that is probably exactly the best case scenario that the writers and the voice actors wanted from balers Gade 3 that a player would be guilted into not even wanting to look at a character because of how bad it made me feel that is so cool now that isn't to say that only character actors are the only ones that are contributing to balers gate 3's Excellence this squirrel might be the single most adorable creature you can recall in all your stunted memory it would be ever so twe if it were climbing a tree terrific if I'm ever hared by a rodent I'll know who to call for you stare at the body before you you have no idea what just happened in traditional video games storytelling heavily relies on Visual and atory cues players receive information about their environment characters and plot through whatever we can see or hear directly however this method sometimes falls short of conveying full depth of a scene this is where the narrator in balers Gate 3 steps in filling in these gaps and creating a rich texture for the game and its narrative the narrator in balers Gate 3 acts as almost like this skilled Storyteller weaving in details into the game play that players would have missed otherwise for example in seeing where Visual and audio elements are focused on the action the narrator is providing insights to more subtler aspects of the environment or the internal thoughts of the character will cast out every stranger a death Viper you have mil that poison before a single drop of it could kill that child in a heartbeat without naration we wouldn't know the context of the snake and the danger of the situation nor would we know how deadly that snake is if we remove that context of the snake the situation becomes a little bit less dire and less urgent another example is the NES just before they transform you hear what comes next before you see it the sharp snapping of Bones and a Yelp of pain as her body starts to twist and undulate theena moans softly as its body contorts ribs cracking and flesh tearing laran puts a perception check into the game so you can tell whether or not you know what's going on with these animals and what they're going to change into however if you fail that role the narrator still provides context so that you know that something is happening something gruesome and frightening the narrator's role extends Beyond just filling in narrative gaps they add layers of emotional depth by describing characters reactions and feelings in ways that would be relatively difficult to communicate through animations or dialogue this approach allows for a more nuanced portrayal of characters making them feel more real and complex the narrator's presence also enhances the overall game's immersion by describing elements that are not readily apparent to the player such as the Ambiance of a location or the tension in the air the narrator helps in creating a more Vivid and tangible Game World this storytelling technique allows players to experience the game at a much more sensory level connecting with the story in a much more intimate and personal way which this ends up solving a unique challenge for video game storytelling by adding additional content emotional depth and sensory details the narrator enriches our experience making the game World feel that much more immersive and the story that much more engaging I only came to realize how important the narrator is after bouncing between Divinity original sin 2 and balers Gate 3 and I'm really happy that this is something that they held on to because in Divinity it was something that you needed to be able to give you more context because well they didn't really animate a whole lot of scenes so you needed to have that context otherwise you couldn't see facial expressions or anything like that however in balers Gate 3 it's adding a completely different level of depth to the overall Narrative of the game there's certain things that characters and animations even scenes can't really communicate to you how cold it is why my character feels a certain way how did I come by the knowledge of knowing that the death Viper had incredibly toxic venom I think this comes really into view once you start playing the dark urge because without the n narrator the story for the darkers just really wouldn't make a whole lot of sense otherwise because without having that context of what's going on inside your head you really wouldn't know what's going on you wouldn't know why you feel certain ways you wouldn't know why your character reacts in certain ways and honestly if you go and play the game and just remove the context of any of the narration from any scene you'll immediately see how a lot of stuff just stops making sense Amelia Tyler did a killer job absolutely killer job and I don't know if they could have gotten anybody else to do a better job but regardless their use of a narrator is not only profound in this game but it's something that I'm hoping to see be used in games to come wait that's [Music] [Music] it I love balers Gate 3 I love everything about the game I love the narrative the characters the voice actors The Studio that made it I love the cats I love everything and as such I want to continue to do videos like this where I'm dissecting what makes balers gate so significant such an enjoyable experience not just for myself but for many others so with that said this is part of a video series where I'm going to do just that I'm going to dissect the most significant parts of Balter Gate 3 in obsessive detail and probably even a few things aren't really all that significant either and if you guys would like to support me on this journey feel free to subscribe to the channel I'm also going to leave a link to my patreon down below if you guys would like to support me any further I don't mind having sugar mommies daddies teelings ORS I guess probably wouldn't be all that bad get the yane that would be bad stay cool stay righteous stay safe my friends I'll see you in the next video peace all the love I could rep

Channel: Legendary Drops

Views: 51,572

Keywords: baldurs gate 3, baldur's gate 3, bg3, Baldur's Gate 3 expansion, Baldur's Gate 3 Mods, mods, expansion, bg3 mods, bg3 expansion, baldurs gate 3 gameplay, baldurs gate 3 tips, baldur's gate 3 gameplay, baldurs gate 3 tips and tricks, baldurs gate 3 review, baldur's gate 3 review, baldurs gate 3 classes, baldurs gate 3 guide, baldurs gate 3 mods, baldurs gate 3 beginners guide, baldurs gate 3 secrets, bg3 tips, bg3 gameplay, baldur's gate 3 story, baldurs gate 3 news

Id: FF0c5yeWmPY

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 12 2024