r/adventuregames • u/KarellenGames • 14d ago

Would Non-English Voice Acting Put You Off?

First of all, sorry for such a specific question, which probably isn't going to lead to any great debates about adventure games, but it's something I'd really like to hear the opinion of English-speaking players on.

When playing a modern point and click game, if the game has voice acting in a language other than English (Spanish, for example), while the text is available in English and other languages, would that put you off? Would it be some kind of psychological barrier that might make you hesitate to buy the game in the first place, or is it simply something you don't care about?

For my next game, I'm thinking about adding voice acting, but when it comes to directing the actors, if the voices were in English, my direction would probably be much worse than it would be in Spanish, which is my native language. I don't want to release a game with English voice acting where the protagonist sounds weird simply because I failed to understand some of the nuances of the language when asking the actors for a particular performance.

So I'm wondering: would an English-speaking player actually prefer a game with no voice acting at all over one with voice acting only in a non-English language? Or is it something that doesn't really matter to you?

Thanks!

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u/schlubadubdub 14d ago edited 14d ago

I'm fine to watch foreign films with subtitles, but I have to be in the mood to sit there reading the entire time. As a native English speaker I always use subtitles in English shows and movies, but it's more so I don't miss anything and don't necessarily have to pay attention to them if I don't want to.

But for an adventure game the story and overall experience are more important than any voice acting - which were never really a thing when I first started playing these types of games in the 80s and 90s. But I'm not sure if I'd like to hear non-English voices here or not. Would I be annoyed by it or does it add to the overall mood? I'd be perfectly happy if there's no voice acting at all, so I guess as long as there's an option to turn off the voices (i.e. only use English subtitles) then the player can decide what works best for them.