I'm going to throw a little appreciation at Neverness To Everness but not to the whole team, much though they deserve it. I think it's already apparent how much I appreciate their work from all the highly complimentary posts I've been writing about the game since it started.
No, I'm going to be a little more specific, although by no means as specific as I'd like to be. I want to say how much I appreciate both whoever it is that writes the dialog for Zero aka The Appraiser aka Coco aka the Player Character aka Flora (In my case only, that last one.)
Gacha games are unusual in that they have a central character that's simultaneously very clearly the avatar of the player, in the way a character in an MMORPG would be, but also a scripted NPC in terms of the main storyline. PCs in MMORPGs can do pretty much whatever they like, central characters in RPGs have to operate within very specific parameters but gacha leads get to walk a middle path.
That puts them in a very awkward place when it comes to relatability. They can either go the Silent Protagonist route, all nods and eye rolls, or they can be fully scripted. Both choices have their attendant risks. Both risk alienating the player if the balancing trick doesn't come off.
I used to be very firmly in the Silent Protagonist camp. I felt quite strongly about my characters having words put in their mouth. I'd much rather only hear them talking in my imagination than have to listen to someone else getting it wrong out loud.
In a fully scripted RPG, it's only a problem if the writing or the voice acting is really bad. There, you know you aren't playing your own character. You're not really "playing" a character at all. You're just steering one around the screen. You're borrowing them. You don't own them. You're not them. They have their own agenda. Your job is to facilitate them in achieving their goals.
In an MMORPG, conversely, even if the character you're playing is given lines to speak, you're most likely going to ignore them. Your character is either yours or it's you, depending on perspective. The great majority of the time, you won't be interacting with NPCs in conversation anyway, nor choosing responses in cut scenes; you'll be killing monsters and chatting to your friends and guildmates.
Gacha open world rpgs, though, kind of straddle the fence. There's a strong, linear storyline that's going to take up a good deal of your time but there are also countless other activities in which you'll be either alone or with NPCs. A lot of those won't involve much talking but some will and the ones that do are likely to be the more interesting ones, like the ones where you get to hang out with your imaginary friends and just chat.
It gets even more confusing when the game uses the peculiar convention of the genre that sees you naming a character in Character Creation, only to find all the NPCs calling them something completely different. This is an annoying but supposedly necessary function of many voice-acted games, where clearly the voice actors can't magically enunciate the names of thousands and thousands of player-made characters so a generic substitute (Like "Commander" in Guild Wars 2.) has to to stand in for whatever the character calls themselves.
I'm surprised, all the same, that with modern technology that can't be improved. Maybe that would be an acceptable use of in-game AI: to slot the player character's name, correctly enunciated, into pre-recorded dialog.
It already happens with text dialog, of course. Occasionally NPCs will even ask you what you'd like them to call you. And then sometimes they forget and call you something else anyway!
The whole thing is prone to both confusion and frustration. If you find yourself stuck playing a character who keeps saying things you can't imagine "your" character saying, it not only breaks immersion, it can break your relationship with your own character, too. It's probably even worse when you have to listen to "your" character talking in a voice that sounds absolutely nothing like the voice you hear in your head.
The Appraiser, a job title I have come to like very much in the past few months, since it really does seem to describe what she does, maintains a deliciously dry, skeptical attitude to pretty much everything. She's never cynical or dismissive but neither does she take anything at face value. She's always alert for nuance and subtext and she can spot it lurking in the floweriest language.
People do not easily fool The Appraiser. Appraisa l isn't just her job; it's a core aspect of her personality. She can spot a scam or a con almost before it starts and she's ever alert for someone presenting themselves as something other than what they really are.
Some of this is expressed in the kind of mildly questioning response you might give to a friend who's telling a story you feel might be a little exaggerated. You can imagine her raising one eyebrow as she does it although I'm not sure NTE's animations quite run to that yet.
What really reveals the depth of her skepticism, though, are the internal monologues. The Appraiser frequently runs what someone has just said through her internal monitoring system and we get to hear her thoughts. That's when I sometimes laugh out loud.
All of that is in the writing. I don't know if the same person handles all the main character's dialog or whether duties vary but however it's done, so far it's been extremely consistent. I would absolutely love to be able to offer my appreciation to the individual writer or writers responsible but as is almost always the case, there's no direct accreditation.
I just tried googling it and Gemini tells me "Specific individual writer credits for the player character's (the Appraiser / Esper Zero) dialogue in Neverness to Everness have not been publicly named by Hotta Studio". Exactly as I expected.
It's a lot easier to find out the name of the voice actors who bring your favorite characters to life. I'm not sure why that should be, other than that writers tend to be bottom of the heap when it comes to respect in almost all collaborative media. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer, write books. At least there you get your name on the cover.
The voice artist for the female version of The Appraiser is Suzie Yeung and she does a superb job. She hits just the right tone; confident and yet somehow still a little uncertain, friendly and caring, yet slightly reserved. She gets that "...erm... really? Are you sure about that?" skepticism down perfectly. There's no conflict whatever between Flora's voice as I hear it in my head and how it comes out of the speakers. Suzie Young is Flora now.
There is always a risk in getting attached to a particular vocal rendition of a character in an online game, as I saw - or rather heard - to my annoyance in GW2. Sometimes actors move on to other jobs or can't be booked for certain updates because of scheduling conflicts. Or the studio for some reason doesn't choose to keep using them. It's jarring when a character you're familiar with starts talking differently, especially when it's your character.
I hope that never happens to The Appraiser. Long may Suzie Yeung keep speaking for her. And long may whoever it is that's putting words in her mouth keep doing that, too!
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