I’d like to see it in language accurate to the time period and region, with subtitles.
…Because I’m just a language nerd like that I guess. Plus I’m guessing it’s a good bit cheaper to not have to do different voiceovers for a bunch of locales. Translate it, throw the subtitles on there and boom. Subtitles for all.
I don’t think enough people have heard the Czech accent if they actually want to hear it in game. If that was to happen it’d have to be a very light mid-european accent as opposed to a thick, layered accent like you might find on an old timer in some tucked away German village.
My vote would be for the standard British accent, using modern English that mixes in many archaic phrases. The clergy might also throw in Latin phrases as they speak, and perhaps have a slight accent. That’s just how I would do it to access as big a population as possible.
That said, I’m the type of person who’d be perfectly fine with the whole game being in Czech and me having to read the subtitles, I just realise that a lot of people won’t be and no one will be surprised to hear another British voice over.
Just anything but the American voice. It irks me enough in today’s world, let alone Medieval Europe.
Approaching this question from the protagonists point of view (as we are taking the role of good ol’ Henry after all), who is a native to the area.
As such, the Czech option is out of the question, as I would not understand it, even though I should (as Henry). Given that there is no option for German VOs in the poll, and given that even big budget games often feature questionable localization and/or voice acting, I am content with English.
Reasoning along the same lines, modern English with the odd archaic expression be it. Shakespearean English might be closer to the time period than modern, but it would not be more accurate from a historic point of view. And it would not feel natural. It might have been quite befitting a game like Ultima 7 (if indeed that was Shakespearean English – plenty of "thee"s and "thou"s there, at least), where a contemporary earthling gets magically summoned into a medieval fantasy world. But that’s not the case with KC:D. We are natives to the game world and thus what we hear there should come close to what we might hear in our birth place.
Mind you, when the choice is “International English”, I don’t want to hear Texan slang or something out of a Glasgow ghetto (anyone else remember the movie GamerZ?), but rather something that is devoid of any strong accent or regional flavour. So no Czech accents either. The only conceivable situation where some kind of an accent might actually make sence would be if we meet somebody in-game that isn’t a local (Dragon Age had that mostly correct, when citizens of Orlais speak with a french accent). But even then, not everyone has the same thick accent when speaking a foreign language … so it can be overdone.
Lastly, it is a matter of chosing the appropriate wording (and that may again depend very much on the NPC doing the speaking). Avoid slang and neologisms, but also make sure it comes over naturally, so that voice actors can easily pick up the mood and deliver a perfomance that does the situation justice. (Something that might be much harder, if the language is stilted and archaic).
Personally, I will probably turn on subtitles anyway and skip over bigger parts of the voice action, as reading is just so much faster than listening. But if it’s any good, I’ll certainly enjoy it more :-).
Sorry, I was away on a weekend away. The video you give us (I do love this one, very immersive.) is pretty spot on with what I’d like. I do say I am happy with it as a mix of Czech, German, Latin, and whatnot with subtitles, but I’m also happy with English being used throughout with a Czech accents (And the use of foreign words used here and there). Why just British? Do you know how many accent we have alone in England? Let alone Scotland, Wales, Ireland, etc… etc… Most people on here think that Modern English is completely different from Middle English or Old English; this is not true! Most of the changes are grammar and region slang terms.I all suggest every one of you reads these wiki pages thoroughly as it is rather good and should give you all an idea of how alike Modern English and Middle English is! The problem is Standardised Spelling wasn’t around yet, and this is a bugger as everyone would spell something differently (Look at English vs American for standardised spelling wars still going on!)
Links:
Regards,
Warrior Rose
is it possible that the Voice of “Jerry” worked for BiS ? … i kinda missed his voice !! XD
Hi!
Somehow I think we’re over thinking this, for the sake of Warhorse I think we should just say “Use the bloody cheapest options!” What’d you think @TobiTobsen? 
Regards,
Warrior Rose.
Cheap doen’t have to be best! But we’ll choose the best fitting for sure! 
Voting for Czech, is no question of authenticity but instead more of a wish for high quality dubing. (Mafia, Mafia, Mafia).
Of course if both are made and English will be significantly better I will use that.
You made some interesting points on Czech accent.
Problem as I see it is that Czech accent is not distinguishable if epxerienced speaker uses it.
When you listen to Roden you can tell that he is not native English speaker, but if I didn’t know him I would not dare to presume that he is Czech.
In assassins creed the Italian accent works well but accents there, are pretty strong.
I would compare it to Czech accent of Radek Zelenka from Stargate Atlantis. That is clearly distinguishable Czech accent.
In other words, Czech speakers with good english (Roden) would have little value as their English would just sound different and would not provide immersion.
But on the other side thick Czech accent (zelenka) are not one of the most pleasant to hear.
Though from that short example of Kurková accent, it seems that she is somewhere between Roden and Zelenka and might be usable.
But all this just tells us that there are many levels of Czech accent and hit the right one is quite difficult.
Zelenka’s accent is faked and even sounds like that. The actor lives in Canada and speaks perfect english. He is czech, but his “czech” accent isnt representative at all.
But this whole debate about czech accent is imo compeletely pointless, there is no way Vavra will allow to butcher his game by cringeworthy czech accent. Its also completely ilogical, because czech accent would make them sound like foreigners in their own country struggling with their language.
Actor of Zelenka also speaks perfect czech. His accent sure does sound authentic to me. But that is not important.
I do agree on anything alse you said.
Except “cringeworthy accent” that quite insults any Czech that does not speak perfect English.
I also did came to similar conclusion that Czech accent is not exactly ideal.
I speak with cringeworthy czech accent, I reserve my right to offend all czechs speaking like me. 
touché.
I just have some aversion to word “cringe”.
This in my opinion is what i want the game to be like
I believe part of the the immersion of a game is the voice actors delivery of a sentence. If it is in Czech I wouldn’t understand where to laugh, where to be sad, mad etc. I know some people are way into realism, but there’s a limit to where it becomes too much.
Think also of how walking around the city when people talk to each other you have no idea what they are saying, that surely would annoy me.
I am all for some Czech phrases and words that can be used here and there, that would be cool. But at least let me know the context.
Lastly, when I have a conversation I want o hear the conversation, not read it. That would be less realistic to me. I want to enter a world I feel part of, not one where I feel confused and foreign in.
IMO any NPC that you can interact with should speak English to you, but other NPCs that are just there for ambience should speak Czech (with subtitles).
Hey
I just recently joined and pledged.
I was looking for a post about the Voiceovers and well, I found one
Here is what I wish would happen: Shakespeaean English is the most known language of that time period. But I completely agree that it has nothing to do with this Game so Ill get over it.
Here is what I think should be implemented instead: If youre going to Use modern International English try to make the poor people really sound like poor People . So for example, The Bailiff of Samopesh seems pretty rough but he is a stubborn guy so give him a “Redneck-ish” accent. And by that I dont mean the typical Redneck way of speaking. I thought about him swallowing some words he says so its difficult to understand him, make him seem tough :). Its pretty Important for me that you make the difference between highbornes and lowlifers (to put it in a rough way) clear
As long as there’s no British accents I’m fine either way, although too modern language breaks immersion.
I some what agree with you there i would ultimately like Czech accents in the game. I’m not sure why people think everyone everywhere back then had British accents. But there’s a problem with voice acting. Warhorse has mentioned several times who they might want for voice actors and British accents are a lot easier to pull of than a lot of other accents for native English speakers.
Well, thats not historical accurate either People here did not speak English with modern Czech accent.
People are just willing (learned?) to accept that illusion that British accent = medieval. That country is well known for many medieval stuff (from legends to castles… etc) so it became iconic for medieval. I dont think people actually believe everyone spoke that.
