Guild Wars 2

I got my first character to 80, a female charr. The HoT story has been a little…jarring, because it seems like her voice has changed quite a bit. It’s lower and sounds like someone putting on a voice, when before it seemed much more natural.

Did this happen with all the other VOs? Are there some that are just as good (or better) as they originally were, are there others that also seem to have gotten worse? I know it’s not a huge deal since you still have the original voice for most things, but if I make another character to get to 80 with it’d be nice to know what to expect. I tend to take a lot of time making a character and checking out their skill animations and the VO lines for when they get protection/might/etc. to make sure I like how it all fits together, so this was a sad surprise and something I can’t really test myself.

There are a few places where the tone/pacing is off between lines. Like you could tell they must have had the voice actors record the lines individually and then spliced them together to form a dialogue.

As far as I know, only one player character actor changed (Charr, male). Some of the others took feedback from ANet (which largely came from us players) about how they sounded… and they’ve had time to learn more about the game. I’m still not a big fan of the human female voice, but I like it much, much better in LS3 than I did previously.

I agree with you that the changes for the female charr seem for the worse. I’d describe it as if the actor doesn’t seem “present” in the same story as everyone else. Unfortunately, that’s a common hazard for voice actors, since they literally are not in the same room/same time as their fellow actors.

More specifically:

• Human: no changes. Personally I like the female better; I don’t notice a difference for the male
• Norn: male is ok, the female… well, I cringed so much during the personal story that I needed spinal surgery, and I’m probably not giving her a fair chance for LS3 (I still can’t stand the voice)
• Charr: new male actor (some people like him better, some not; I’m ambivlaent). Female… I don’t like her as much, but it’s not a major difference for me.
• Asura: no change. Just as good as before.
• Sylvai: no change, although the female voice isn’t as strong, imo.