While there seems to be alot of gripe about the narrator, who of us actually like the narrator? You might complain that shes a bit condecending, but since when has there been a narrator who was not? personally I think the current narrator fits very well into the episodes and it wouldnt be the same without her, shes steped into some big shoes and played her part very well, and she makes me laugh, definatly a plus :).
It would be had to find another narrator as good as the classic, hes just filled to many of our memories and taken a big place in my life over all the previous games seeing as how I was so good at finding all of the moments of death. But this new narrator in my opinion is doing a very good job.
I really like the narrator too, yeah she comes across as sarcastic at times but personally I find it hilarious.
Glad you like her, too, erenoth! I love her voice, though I can see how it's a matter of personal taste. Overall I think it was a good decision to not try to emulate the previous narrators for KQ exactly--it would've come off too much as trying to exactly match something that no matter what wouldn't have matched up for just that reason. People have known that voice for so long it's somewhat idealized now.
Amy is fabulous! !!! I personally enjoy the sarcasm, though I understand how people would find it annoying to get the same sarcastic responses over and over again. So far, for the most part, I have known the solutions to the puzzles before they were solvable, so I didn't run into that so much. The rest of the time, I tend to skip through the responses.
I like Amy's voice--it's a nice change of pace and the lines are almost all very well-delivered. The sarcasm is a turn-off, but that's more a writing/design issue, since seemingly no (or very few) "straight" responses were included to balance out the sarcastic ones. But that's an issue that has already been addressed for the next episodes, so barring that, there's not much else to find fault with, in my opinion.
Also, I have to laugh at the way the narrator from one game out of a series of 8 is being referred to here as if he were the "voice" of all the KQ games. Only 2 games out of 8 had spoken narrations, KQ6 being only one of those. The narrator from KQ5 is probably the best voice-acted part of that entire game. The KQ6 narrator does a better job of setting the emotional tone of the story than the KQ5 guy, but then again, KQ6 also has better written dialog.
Yeah, I was mostly referring to KQ6, though somewhat to KQ5--both are male voices, with a fairly measured tone and pace. We originally had a male narrator quite some time back, and though I never heard any of his lines myself, general opinion from those that did was that it just wasn't working.
I never had issue with the narrator. It was shocking to hear a female voice, and so modern. But that's it. Dialogue never bothered me, found it made the game more interesting.
I don't know why, but it never struck me as at all odd that the narrator is female. Maybe because it had been so long since I had played any of the original games.
I liked the KQ6 narrator a lot, but I don't care for the KQ5 one. Then again, I don't really care for Graham's voice in KQ5 (heresy, I know).
Quote from: snabbott on October 26, 2010, 08:16:05 PM
I liked the KQ6 narrator a lot, but I don't care for the KQ5 one. Then again, I don't really care for Graham's voice in KQ5 (heresy, I know).
I second your heresy.
She's a great voice actor. Very talented and professional. Her direction for delivery and the comedy-narrator writing is what I have a problem with. The question of whether it's funny or not is not my issue. My problem is that it was meant to be funny in the first place. My opinion.
In many cases Amy imposed sarcasm/humor onto what were not originally intended to be sarcastic lines (as Cez, I think, has mentioned), so the writing isn't completely the fault of the narrator gripes.
Though to be fair, there are quite a few inherently sarcastic/funny lines.
I love Amy as a narrator, and I like the narrator's lines for the most part! <3
Quote from: MusicallyInspired on October 26, 2010, 10:17:51 PM
She's a great voice actor. Very talented and professional. Her direction for delivery and the comedy-narrator writing is what I have a problem with. The question of whether it's funny or not is not my issue. My problem is that it was meant to be funny in the first place. My opinion.
Stepping into the role of devil's advocate for a second (a rarity for me, I know ;D), it's worth pointing out that humor is pretty much totally subjective.
That said, I think it's also valid to say that certain things are ALWAYS cheesy, and that cheesy humor, while some may find it genuinely funny, tends to elicit groans and winces from a vast majority of people. A lot of the humor in TSL, in my opinion, can be accurately described as cheesy or cheeseball humor (ninjas and bonsai trees, anyone?) Some may find it funny--most will probably groan and make mental notes to click past those bits of dialog in future playthroughs.
Unlike a series such as Space Quest, for example, whose humor, though cheesy at times, is mostly rooted in parody and satire, King's Quest's humor has always been more light-hearted, and significantly, more subtle. TSL approaches the use of humor in a much more ham-fisted way, like a bull in a china shop (to use a KQ series reference), and throws in a lot of blatant cheeseball humor where it probably wouldn't have existed in the earlier games (likely being cut due to popular taste, since those were games made to sell commercially, rather than being made to serve the tastes of a nerdy elite few, as with many fan games, a class into which TSL certainly falls.)
Of course, the appropriateness of this type of humor in a King's Quest game, let alone a fangame that aspires to be taken seriously on a professional level, is a matter of debate as well. I would argue for the opposition. :)
Quote from: Lambonius on October 26, 2010, 11:48:37 PMStepping into the role of devil's advocate for a second (a rarity for me, I know ;D), it's worth pointing out that humor is pretty much totally suggestive.
You mean subjective?
Quote from: Enchantermon on October 27, 2010, 07:34:22 AM
Quote from: Lambonius on October 26, 2010, 11:48:37 PMStepping into the role of devil's advocate for a second (a rarity for me, I know ;D), it's worth pointing out that humor is pretty much totally suggestive.
You mean subjective?
Oh god! Yeah definitely. I don't know how I let that one slip by. :) Corrected.
Well, it's certainly true as written sometimes. :P
Quote from: Lambonius on October 27, 2010, 09:35:41 AM
Quote from: Enchantermon on October 27, 2010, 07:34:22 AM
Quote from: Lambonius on October 26, 2010, 11:48:37 PMStepping into the role of devil's advocate for a second (a rarity for me, I know ;D), it's worth pointing out that humor is pretty much totally suggestive.
You mean subjective?
Oh god! Yeah definitely. I don't know how I let that one slip by. :) Corrected.
Okay, cool, that makes sense now. :)
Quote from: Lambonius on October 27, 2010, 09:35:41 AM
Quote from: Enchantermon on October 27, 2010, 07:34:22 AM
Quote from: Lambonius on October 26, 2010, 11:48:37 PMStepping into the role of devil's advocate for a second (a rarity for me, I know ;D), it's worth pointing out that humor is pretty much totally suggestive.
You mean subjective?
Oh god! Yeah definitely. I don't know how I let that one slip by. :) Corrected.
I dunno, my humor is frequently suggestive.... :P
Quote from: kindofdoon on October 26, 2010, 10:27:27 PM
In many cases Amy imposed sarcasm/humor onto what were not originally intended to be sarcastic lines (as Cez, I think, has mentioned), so the writing isn't completely the fault of the narrator gripes.
Though to be fair, there are quite a few inherently sarcastic/funny lines.
Ah, well then I take a little of that back.
Quote from: Lambonius on October 26, 2010, 11:48:37 PMStepping into the role of devil's advocate for a second (a rarity for me, I know ;D), it's worth pointing out that humor is pretty much totally subjective.
That said, I think it's also valid to say that certain things are ALWAYS cheesy, and that cheesy humor, while some may find it genuinely funny, tends to elicit groans and winces from a vast majority of people. A lot of the humor in TSL, in my opinion, can be accurately described as cheesy or cheeseball humor (ninjas and bonsai trees, anyone?) Some may find it funny--most will probably groan and make mental notes to click past those bits of dialog in future playthroughs.
Unlike a series such as Space Quest, for example, whose humor, though cheesy at times, is mostly rooted in parody and satire, King's Quest's humor has always been more light-hearted, and significantly, more subtle. TSL approaches the use of humor in a much more ham-fisted way, like a bull in a china shop (to use a KQ series reference), and throws in a lot of blatant cheeseball humor where it probably wouldn't have existed in the earlier games (likely being cut due to popular taste, since those were games made to sell commercially, rather than being made to serve the tastes of a nerdy elite few, as with many fan games, a class into which TSL certainly falls.)
Of course, the appropriateness of this type of humor in a King's Quest game, let alone a fangame that aspires to be taken seriously on a professional level, is a matter of debate as well. I would argue for the opposition. :)
Well the debate on whether or not something meant to be funny is actually funny or not was not what I was getting at. My problem was simply that it was meant to be funny. Period.
I hold that this is the Second King's Quest Game with a Female Narrator.
KQ7 had a female narrator. All Narration was delivered in the Playable characters Voice as an inner thought.
Just finished watching a playthrough of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, which had a female narrator. At that point it occurred to me that maybe it isn't necessarily a gender that's idealized in terms of "the" narrator voice, but an age. The narrator of GK1 sounds older than middle aged, and the KQ5 & 6 narrators both sounded at least middle-aged. The result? Somewhere in our brains I think we associate that older voice with authority.
Just adding a random two cents without necessarily swinging either way myself.
Quote from: Michelle on December 05, 2010, 08:51:58 PM
At that point it occurred to me that maybe it isn't necessarily a gender that's idealized in terms of "the" narrator voice, but an age. The narrator of GK1 sounds older than middle aged, and the KQ5 & 6 narrators both sounded at least middle-aged. The result? Somewhere in our brains I think we associate that older voice with authority.
That's a very interesting point. You seem to have hit a truth.
The narrator has a point.
The Royal Cracker family is a family of kleptos.
I am really enjoying the narrator, Amy is great! I find the writing much better in Episode 2, some of Amy's responses to my clicks are truly laugh-out-loud funny. (Had to spell that one out because LOL is way over-used).
I particularly like [spoiler]Tick-tock, tick-tock... Oh! Are you done trying crazy things?[/spoiler]
So far in the game a vast majority of dialogue is by male characters so Amy provides a very nice balance.
In response to Michelle: The narrator from GK1 was met with mixed reviews. Some liked her, some hated her. Personally I LOVED her voice - I think it fits the mood of the game perfectly.
Quote from: C_Guy on December 14, 2010, 02:07:53 PM
The narrator from GK1 was met with mixed reviews. Some liked her, some hated her. Personally I LOVED her voice - I think it fits the mood of the game perfectly.
The style of voice and creole accent fit the tone of the game nicely, but she just read every liiine...sooo.....SLOOOOWWWWW. Ugh. Seriously, in a game with that much dialogue, it needed a much more snappy delivery not to get tiresome after a very short while. I shouldn't be done reading the paragraph before the narrator is halfway done with the first sentence. lol
Same thoughts here on that one, Lamb. The accent was really cool, her voice was great, and the stylized thing was cool and I get it, but yes, WAY too slow.
:yes: First thing I always do is turn her off :P
Quote from: KatieHal on December 14, 2010, 02:23:00 PM
Same thoughts here on that one, Lamb. The accent was really cool, her voice was great, and the stylized thing was cool and I get it, but yes, WAY too slow.
I have to admit agreement, but my theory is that she was chosen for having a certain "storytelling" quality to her voice--part of which is the age factor. But yeah, slowness definitely not a good trait for a video game narrator.
On my first playthrough of GK1 (which was only a few years ago, actually,) I left the narrator on, and enjoyed it for the most part--but that first playthrough of any Sierra game is always the one where I try to drink as much of the experience in as possible, drawn out narrations included. Actually, despite being in the shorter-is-better camp when it comes to TSL's narrations, I've done the same thing with my first playthrough of each episode so far. With GK1 though, I've turned off her voice in every subsequent playthrough--I just find it makes for a much more streamlined and enjoyable experience when I can breeze through the narrations at my own reading pace rather than waiting for her to catch up. :) Actually, I generally tend to feel that way about most games with spoken narrations, unless the narrator is really, REALLY good (like John Rhys Davies in QFG4, for example--I will always take the extra time to listen to his manly British vocals any day of the week. ;D)