Language style: Old or modern?

Story & Setting
#125

Here I agree. I must admit, watching the Live Stream, the Shakespearian accent did grow on me (especially during the scene with the nobles in the castle keep). This might not be too bad if they got good voice actors (since live stream only showed place-holders). Although, the more modern voice style (which, I think, Warhorse are currently pursuing) might also work.

As for foreign languages, I disagree. I’ve heard many times on this thread that money won’t be a problem, and they will likely be recorded (for sale in other countries) anyway. So adding these to the English version of the game will not be “putting money” on a “minority”. One concern, however, may be time (since foreign-dubbed games are often released a little bit later than the original English).

1 Like
#126

Watching the livestream, I think people unfamiliar with the speech would get used to it very quickly. The acting and some of the word choice was at points a bit stiff or exaggerated, but much of it was good. I noticed the hero say “thanks”, which seemed out of place.

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#127

Yes, please no contemporary short forms, such as “Thanks”, “Ok”, …

2 Likes
#128

except assassins creed’s atmosphere was absolutely awful. it felt like a game, a very childish and non-serious game to me. part of that was the keanu reeves like accent of the protagonist

#129

OLD English please - the one in the livestream was pretty nice already, be it accurate or not, it gave a great “feel” of being authentic (and that matters, doesn´t it?)-
I understood everything pretty well, though English isn´t my native language.

3 Likes
#130

why not a toggle in the settings to allow for modern or older styles of speech.

#131

I understood everything perfectly fine when I wasn’t laughing at it. The Old English/ Shakespearian take was fine in respect to being comprehensible, but all I could think of were poorly done Shakespeare plays and Renaissance fairs. By the end of the Livestream, I was more immersed, but it was still difficult to take seriously. I’d be good with a more modern English or period-appropriate Czech with subtitles.

1 Like
#132

the corporal character’s dialog is i think a good model or example on how the rest of the dialog can be written. old and obscure terms like churl, mayhaps and granmercy is used, but no jarring sentences. phrases are fluid and spoken naturally.

maybe it has to do with the particular direction he was under or maybe his skill and talent. but i do notice the phrasing and diction was slightly more modern.

#133

I think the old language felt forced, and gave it a staged feel. I think the most important thing is that the dialogue feels natural, and that the audience feel the impact of the wording. We may quickly be able to learn what certain words mean, and how the word order works. But language is a lot more than that.

We haven’t experienced old english first hand. Of course we have heard it occasionally, but prolonged exposure is needed to understand the finer nuances of a language. A lot of the details in the voice acting would get lost. Even if you did find someone, who could make it sound natural.

I’m not saying you should go full-on swagger-underground-twitter culture. Just tone the old down to a bearable level. I think going with Shakespeare was very distracting, and constantly pulled me out of the immersion, because I had to focus on the extra step of understanding.

I have nothing against other languages. I’m from Denmark, so I am familiar with subtitles. It would be really cool to have the characters talk their own language. (I always watch movies in the original language). Just know that it’s a lot harder to convey a message in writing, than in speech.

#134

I may be a bit biased here in my opinion, but I really, really liked the archaic/Shakespearean style of English you used. I study Old and Middle English at University so even though I would love for the game to be in Middle English I think this is a bad idea from a business point of view and it would be hard to understand for a lot of people.

I do think it’s a great idea to take an archaic/Shakespearean English approach though if you do decide to do this please please do not half-ass it. Do it and do it properly or it will ruin the game. So either go with proper Shakespearean English (even though I know it’s not period correct) or put the game in German or Czech as I speak German anyway and playing the game in Czech with English subs wouldn’t bother me at all. The downside to this of course is the inability to use famous English actors like Sean Bean etc.

I have faith in you guys at the studio and I’m sure whatever option you choose you will do it well. :smile:

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#135

Because then they would have to get the voice actors to do two takes of everything which would cost a lot more and detract from other features of the game.

Your idea is good, but does not work in well at all in a business situation.

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#136

Sorry to be pedantic, but Old English is the language Beowulf was written in and one I highly doubt you would understand (not because of your level of intelligence, rather simply due to the difference between modern English and old English) Also the English used in the video was close to Shakespearean English which technically is the beginning of Modern English, which was around the 17th century aprrox. In this time they would have spoken middle English would be very hard to understand for those untrained.

I’m not trying to be mean, rather just throw in a little fact. :slight_smile:

4 Likes
Keep the Shakespearean language. Your fans aren't stupid!
#137

I would prefer old style English. Some accents are even better. Immersion is really important to this game.

2 Likes
#138

I’m German, but I’m usually sceptical about German localizations, most German voice acting is mediocre and even subs I prefer in English (chances are higher they’re well made).

In any way, I’d play in the language matching the lips. If it happens to be Czech, so be it (subs for me then). This would be great actually.

If English is the way, I’d prefer an easy to understand version without apparent modernisms (i.e. early 20th century), as many posters before me. No fake medieval “ye olde shoppe” crap please. That’s as cliché as crouching for stealth.

Latin for the clergy is a nice touch. Talking about immersion: an actual blacksmith’s son wouldn’t get Latin so it’s a good thing the player doesn’t either. Instead of eavesdropping, he’d have to ask the guys in question directly.

By the way, according to the Internet, most common people in Bohemia at that time spoke Czech, while upperclass folks spoke German (up until ~25 years earlier, Germans were the majority in Bohemia, but numbers declined from there).
To have this reflected in the game, well, I don’t know - a commoner like our hero wouldn’t understand German, would he? Unless you make the language barrier a plot point, I’d rather vote for the setting to take place in an all-Czech (or all-German) area. As opposed to him (us) magically understanding everything.

1 Like
#139

@Havelock I support this statement completely.

#140

While I do believe that using an older dialect would improve the immersion of the game, I believe that Warhorse will most likely use modern dialects with an older sound.

#141

My understanding is that German served as the lingua franca among those who had even a modest education in most parts of the Holy Roman Empire at the time. So while the town drunk might not speak German, the shopkeeper probably would. What I would like to see in game is people using the right language for the right situation. So two Bohemians would speak Czech to each other, two Germans would speak German, two Hungarians would speak Hungarian, etc. while a Bohemian and Hungarian would speak German to each other. Hopefully this will able to be modded in once all the localizations are finished.

The only problem I could see with doing a mod like this is that you will probably have different voice actors for the same character for each localization. This could lead to some quite immersion breaking situations. Dammit @warhorse ! I really want to play as Jindřich/Heinrich as the situation calls for it, not Henry. :wink:

1 Like
#142

Yes, that’s why it should be done by Warhorse themselves because if proper Lingua franca interactions would be considered right from the start, the world would feel immensely more consistent and accurate.
Unfortunately, a mod could never achieve this level of authenticity.

#143

I am also a fan of using traditional language with subtitles - not sure if it is for everyone, but it really add to the abience of the game

1 Like
#144

Just going to reiterate that the Shakespearian used in the lifestream sounded awful and I fully support Warhorse’s stated modern direction.

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