Are there plans to use an older style of languages, e.g. middle english (common at that time) or Shakespeare’s modern english or Luthers german? Or in Czech the digraph orthography was common instead of the diacritic of todays dialects.
Older styles add a lot of atmosphere though they are harder to understand.
It could result as a great limitation for those who can barely speak english.
That would be nice though…
Goethe is too recent. “Luther German” would be better. Or Early New High German (Frühneuhochdeutsch, period 1350 to 1650).
example: Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (ca 1530)
There is no real point in that. I even think it would be a bad idea. We are used to hear modern language as those people were used to hear old languages. I think they should stick with the language that feels natural to the player! Otherwise, it would feel like a Medieval Englishman hearing someone talking saxon
I don’t see how ‘middle english’ could be better then modern English - both of them are but translations after all.
I do hope to hear authentic Czech, German, and Latin as spoken languages in the game set in Bohemia in 1403 - with as many localized subtitles as possible, in present-day languages!
Not gonna happen. It’s just impossible to achieve.
And for what? To not understand spoken word in a game and be forced to read subtitles? No, thank you.
I think English-speaking people have a HUGE bias against subtitles. Most non-English-speakers play games that have English-voices and their local subtitles, few games/films are re-dubbed.
Many of my friends live in Eastern Europe, and play such games - they say they don’t mind (they get used to subtitles) and it adds to authenticity. You don’t what a Polish dub, when playing a cowboy game, for example, because cowboys speak English with a distinctive American accent.
I think English-speakers need to get over their petty problems with subs, and embrace the authenticity of Czech or German voices in a game set in Bohemia!
This is actually a very interesting topic and we would definitely welcome your ideas and thoughts on this. For the publishers’ demo, we went with English that was quite ‘archaic’, with characters saying things like: ‘I smite thee!’ and ‘Pray, do tell! Gramercy.’
It was no Chaucer and not even Shakespeare, more like Tristram Shandy, but even so it felt forced and not believable. At this moment we are thinking of making it even more modern, of course avoiding things like: ‘It’s cool,’ or ‘OK’, basically going for language of early 20th century.
What do you think? How common should a second person singular (thee, thou, thy) be? How should they greet each other? It would be also great if you can indicate what language version you would (ideally) play. Thank you.
Dekssan, you’re not right. There was a little and rather underfinanced game just last year called “Nicolas Eymerich, inquisitor” - set in 1364 and fully dubbed in Latin.
Now that was a pleasure to hear 
Well, as a French gamer, I will definitely play in English. I’ve never seen a single game with better voice over in French than in English.
As I said earlier on this topic, I think that this game is mostly about immersion. And having to get used to an older form of the language is not natural. So I think to feel like we are the character, we should have a more modern English. Otherwise, it would feel like the NPCs speaks Saxon.
To put it n a nutshell, I would go for modern English but without the really modern words (bro, cool, etc.)
With czech dubbing coming maybe after the game release in the best scenarion, i will have to stick to EN. But depends on quality. Some games were awsome in other languages, for example Stalker or Metro with RU, but Witcher 1 with czech or even poland dubbing was disaster. English dubb is almost every time the best neutral choice.
Since Warhorse is based in Czech republic, and KCD set in Bohemia, it would be great to have a Czech-dubbed version!
I guess English will be the most popular option, but I’d prefer to play a Czech version with English subs! All of KCD seems to focus on authenticity/realism, I don’t want it ruined by English speaking.
I guess it also comes down to some other questions: Which is economical? Can good voice actors be found for English, Czech, German, etc.?
personally i hope for just a modern english while imershen into the time is what im going for. lissing to old or varents of older english is some times tedus and i find it if anything quite annoying. that’s my 2 cents anyway.
I think this is a good idea. IMO ‘Shakespearean’ English is the worst of both worlds: it’s completely the wrong period (thus unrealistic) and would be difficult for players to understand, especially non-native speakers playing the English version. Plus, it would take a lot of research to get it right so it doesn’t feel ‘forced’ as you describe. Better to use relatively modern English (i.e. no 'thee’s or 'thou’s), but avoid anything too obviously 20th/21st century.
Either way, I would be playing it in English. I’d actually be quite happy to have the dialogue in Czech with subtitles, but I suspect that isn’t the case for most English speakers.
escatly use modern english but i swear to god if an npc shots yolo i will be upset with the creators.
I thought the movie was quite rubbish otherwise but one thing I liked about Gibson’s Passion of Christ was people talking in Latin and Arameic (with English subtitles of course). Similarly, I loved the way Tarantino played with language(s) in Inglorious basterds. Germans spoke German, French spoke French, English and Americans spoke English and then there was this hilarious Italian bit with Brad Pitt’s heavy American accent “bon giorno” and Christoph Waltz replying in perfectly fluent Italian. Even though the film had not even pretended to be realistic (which was part of the fun) this was still very enjoyable.
I would prefer modern Czech, German and Latin (well, there is probably no such thing as modern Latin…). I suppose there is going to be a Czech localization and a German one is also quite likely, so you could then simply mix those and add a little bit of Latin (that would be used only by a couple of priests at masses and not much otherwise anyway) and add an “accurate” localization option this way without too much additional expenses (the only expenses would be putting the language versions together and hiring someone, perhaps an actual priest, to come to the studio for a day and recite a couple of masses in latin).
Also this way you could work with details such as Henry not understanding what a Teutonic knight is trying to tell him or what the priest at a mass is actually saying while making that believeable. And I think that at least there should be a lot of latin texts around (if there are even going to be any books in the countryside apart from the bible in a church, after all this is still almost 50 years prior to the invention of the printing press) and only very few Czech ones.
Period Czech and German might be nice but noone would understand that today not even modern Czechs and Germans…and it would mean additional expenses atop of a “standard” localization (all in Czech, all in German, all in English,…).
Whatever you do please do not try to make up differences in languages by adding an accent. Nothing annoys me more in games (or films) than German (or Russian) characters talking in English with a silly German (or Russian) accent when it is clear from the scene that he is supposed to be talking in his own language and speaks English only so that the player (audience) understands it. Either ignore the language difference entirely or do it proplerly with Germans actually speaking German (I don’t think many people at the time could speak foreing languages…diplomats and clergy probably, but not a knight and especially not peasants so there would be very few occasions of a German actually trying to speak Czech or vice versa).
Definitely no accents, that’s really annoying, I agree. I would also like the mix dubbing, English, Czech, German, Latin. It would be nice to have the languages in the period form, but it can be modern too. In every case, I would be against Shakespearean English, that’s the worst compromise.
IMO
Always spoken medieval Latin for churches and students of university.
If that’s not possible:
2.Spoken modern Czech, German, English etc. .
If that is also inpossible:
3. Spoken modern english, but no english names. No “Henry” please…
Well, too late mate! The hero’s name is Henry …
Why not do what Stronghold,witcher,elderscrolls does with games set in medevil times? use modern English without any slang, sprinkled with nouns for middle-ages: place,objects: castle,moat,smithy, trebuchet, wench etc etc etc.
