Part of immersive gameplay is dealing with people who speak another tongue. Not something to be afraid of, but to regard as part of RPG challenge. The character you play chose to leave his home and explore the world he lives in, so embrace the challenge of language and accents. If you watch this series, you will see what I mean. They don’t speak Norse all the time.
In that case… we should have foregin languages and NO subtitles, don’t you think? Part of dealing with people speaking another tongue is communication issues, what if that viking couldn’t speak the britons’ language? Well, it would most likely have had the same outcome anyway, but…
And how many foreign languages are there in Bohemia? Czech is foregin to me, so Henry speaking Czech or with English with a Czech accent will be foreign, and I won’t really notice whenever other people are speaking in Czech in different dialects and accent. Only Czechs will notice that, and things like that don’t translate well into subtitles anyway, so it will only matter to Czechs.
Imagine a medieval game taking place in, I dunno, Gotland, Sweden (since I’m swedish). Would you guys want people to speak Swedish, Gutnish, and Danish? Would anyone here who can’t speak any Scandinavian language be able to tell them apart? Since Wisby in Gotland was an important town of the Hanseatic League, there would probably be German traders there, and you would be able to distingish at least them from the others. Personally, I wouldn’t want a game taking place on Gotland where the main character speaks Gutnish. Maybe mostly because it doesn’t sound too cool.
Gotta say another thing as well. Of course having everyone speak in Czech would be the most accurate option for the game. People speaking in their native languages according to their setting in films is awesome. But I don’t feel it works as well in games. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’ve never thought acting in foreign languages have been that good. Maybe because how you are the protagonist in such a game, and you make all the decisions and need to hear and understand what people say in certain situations, and memorize. But in films, you are watching other people doing that for you, you don’t really need to consentrate on the same things as in a game, you can read the subtitles much easier.
I got that. That’s why the protagonist and his people should speak English, but I prefer it to be English with slight Czech accent so that it sounds like Bohemia not England of 1403. Germans and Austrians should speak German though, as should the Czech lords when they speak among themselves (so they couldn’t be overheard by commoners).
Actually, I wouldn’t mind a game set in Gotland. As you can tell, I’m quite fond of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales.
There are different English accents. If a person from one part of Northumbria goes to a different part of Northumbria, perhaps over the hill, they speak a bit differently. If he goes to southern England they’ll not be able to understand him unless he speaks southern English. In some cities today they can often tell what street someone’s from by the accent.
There can be a variety of accents without them being from whole different countries. Perhaps the voice actors for Henry’s neighbours could be from the same village as Henry’s voice actor, and the people from the town from another village nearby, for example, if diversity of accents is a good enough reason to justify visiting more than one village for voice actors.
About that video: When the Vikings first arrived in Britain, them and the Anglo-Saxons could still understand each other because the languages were still similar enough Germanic languages, although they had to simplify their speech to avoid saying things that the other didn’t.
There should indeed be diversity of accents, whether game language be Czech or English or German.
I’ll stop pounding my wish of English with Czech accent, but it still holds.
Actually the main character in that TV series learned old-English from a priest that speaks old-Norse.
They took him prisoner at Lindisfarne in S01E02.
I would like a big mixture of most contemporary English accents as possible, to say US/UK/AUS/CA N etc. This gives a feeling of a diverse world, but should only be applied to certain circumstances. The main city should speak the main dialect, while travelers and villages should speak others. I also think it should be class-based. American English i a bit rougher and lends itself perfectly to soldiers and warriors, while British English is softer and more French-like which is perfect for the nobility and bards.
People who still don’t realise there’s no such thing as a ‘British’ accent
I encourage you all to read this finely crafted post regarding accents in the British Isles, because saying there’s only a ‘british’ accent when there’s like, at least 5 main ones and fifty or so other sub-accents thereof, is like saying in Europe there’s only the one ‘european’ accent 
Also my reaction when people suggest American accents should be in the game:
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The main issue with Czech accents for me is that it has to sound like it’s the native language of the characters. I have know idea how Czech citizens, residing in Bohemia whose native language is english sound like. But i am guessing they all sound different because there probably is no standardized Czech accent. And I assume there aren’t many regional differences in Czech accents that the audience could pick up on.
And that is exactly the problem with vikings if every thing was in old norse and old english it would be truly awesome. Sure theire norse accents are okay too but in the beginning of the series sometimes it seemed they spoke norse words in the middle of the sentences for no apparent reason, yet they used earl in stead of the very obvious Jarl. (a post-skyrim TV-series!) Old english is sometimes surprisingly understandable when you know german and english (edit:thought of a scene from s02e02, far easier than the one posted) and I really wouldn’t mind relying reading subtitles.
Yes that sounds like the game would sound fun(ny)!
That’s why there’s no point in fighting over whether an british or amarican accent should be used. They both can be anything. Dragon age originally used southern accents for dwarfs french for orleasians, a posh english accant for nobility,…
It all worked great until they broke there established lore and remade elves for the sequel. They used to speak a nothern amarican english but were change to welsh. (and reduced to half there weight)
English itself can not come close to authenticity, no matter what accent but it can be used to model regional differences just fine. For that propose I don’t mind if they use both to show that a character has come from far away but still speaks a related language.
No. You do not compare English and French men like that.
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Whahaha … I didn’t see that one coming.
Seeing how Bohemia at the time was a mix of both Czech and German’s (Germans in the west, Czech in the east) It would make a lot of sense for their to be both Czech and German accents based on geographic difference. This would also make for good conflict, especially since Bohemia was primarily German ruled.
Have it with modern dialogue though, don’t do like old english pronunciation. Please modern english with the accents.
Sure. Works for me. As long as they keep the word Knave 