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For those of us who love the narrator

Started by erenoth2002, October 26, 2010, 08:09:26 AM

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erenoth2002

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.

wilco64256

I really like the narrator too, yeah she comes across as sarcastic at times but personally I find it hilarious.
Weldon Hathaway

KatieHal

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.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

snabbott

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.

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Lambonius

#4
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.

KatieHal

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.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Big C from Cauney island

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.

snabbott

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).

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

kindofdoon

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.

Daniel Dichter, Production/PR
daniel.dichter@postudios.com

MusicallyInspired

#9
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.

kindofdoon

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.

Daniel Dichter, Production/PR
daniel.dichter@postudios.com

crayauchtin

I love Amy as a narrator, and I like the narrator's lines for the most part! <3
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

Lambonius

#12
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.  :)

Enchantermon

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?
So what if I am, huh? Anyways, I work better when I'm drunk. It makes me fearless! If I see a bad guy, I'll just point my sword at him and saaaaaaaaaay, "Hey! Bad guy! You're not s'posed to be here! Go home or I'll stick you with my sword 'til you go, 'Ouch! I'm dead!' Ah-ha-ha!" Ha-ha. *hic* See? Ain't no one gonna be messin' wit' ol', Benny!

Lambonius

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.

snabbott

Well, it's certainly true as written sometimes. :P

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Enchantermon

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. :)
So what if I am, huh? Anyways, I work better when I'm drunk. It makes me fearless! If I see a bad guy, I'll just point my sword at him and saaaaaaaaaay, "Hey! Bad guy! You're not s'posed to be here! Go home or I'll stick you with my sword 'til you go, 'Ouch! I'm dead!' Ah-ha-ha!" Ha-ha. *hic* See? Ain't no one gonna be messin' wit' ol', Benny!

crayauchtin

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
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

MusicallyInspired

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.

jazzguy+87

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.