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Is This Common For Modern Games?



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Face My Fears

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I was wondering if it was common for modern day games to have non-talking characters just stare emotionlessly into space and be robotic, like in this scene in KH3? Like I cannot stop looking at Kairi because she stays in the same position - only blinking - for almost the entire cutscene. She doesn't show any emotions or reactions to what Axel is saying. It's not just Kairi, but she is in the shot with Axel, so she's more visible.

I'm hoping that they can fix this in future games. I was glad when they finally got rid of fishface, but now it's robotitis they have to fix. Even that shot of them all looking at Axel, they all look like soldiers standing at attention listening to him.

I haven't played many modern day games, so I'm not sure how their cutscenes unfold. I'm just hoping that this isn't an industry standard and I hope KH can fix this issue moving forward.
 

Soldier

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With the advent of better graphics and more characters on the screen, it seems that this might be a reoccuring trend in the future. There will be games that don't do this (I've been playing Immortals Fenyx Rising and not once do any of the characters stare off into space like that, they do break the fourth wall though). But this will be more apparent the more characters are in a scene, because you need to have them looking at SOMETHING in the room. And in a small room like Yen Sids study, you can't really have them lloking anywhere else.
So bottom line is, this might just be something you'll have to deal with. But I have faith in you, that you'll be able to "Face your Fears" one day and overcome it.
 

Face My Fears

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With the advent of better graphics and more characters on the screen, it seems that this might be a reoccuring trend in the future. There will be games that don't do this (I've been playing Immortals Fenyx Rising and not once do any of the characters stare off into space like that, they do break the fourth wall though). But this will be more apparent the more characters are in a scene, because you need to have them looking at SOMETHING in the room. And in a small room like Yen Sids study, you can't really have them lloking anywhere else.
So bottom line is, this might just be something you'll have to deal with. But I have faith in you, that you'll be able to "Face your Fears" one day and overcome it.
Couldn't they at least design whoever is visible to at least LOOK like they're listening? Kairi looks like she's zoned out. They could have her nod, smirk, giggle, touch her face, something! Axel's trying to be comedic, but the room is filled with lifeless zombies. That's a major reason why I feel like Axel's humour sort of fell flat for me in KH3 - because there was barely any in-game reaction to it. You'd think Sora or Kairi or someone that's seen Roxas would take a second to look over Ven and make a comment about it.
 

Soldier

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Couldn't they at least design whoever is visible to at least LOOK like they're listening? Kairi looks like she's zoned out. They could have her nod, smirk, giggle, touch her face, something! Axel's trying to be comedic, but the room is filled with lifeless zombies. That's a major reason why I feel like Axel's humour sort of fell flat for me in KH3 - because there was barely any in-game reaction to it. You'd think Sora or Kairi or someone that's seen Roxas would take a second to look over Ven and make a comment about it.
Kairi's been notably withdrawn since Alyson Stoner took over the role, she sounds almost repentant down most of the time, Likely on account of the burden of being a key bearer placed on me. Either that or Nomura's really trying to change Kairi's once bubbly personality to one that is more...... Final fantasy esque.

They did acknowledge the similarities, for a brief moment or two before and after the final battle. Axel's jokes were never all that funny to me anyways, and though we don't know what direction he's going in from here on out, I doubt we'll hear much more of them.
 

Face My Fears

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Kairi's been notably withdrawn since Alyson Stoner took over the role, she sounds almost repentant down most of the time, Likely on account of the burden of being a key bearer placed on me. Either that or Nomura's really trying to change Kairi's once bubbly personality to one that is more...... Final fantasy esque.

They did acknowledge the similarities, for a brief moment or two before and after the final battle. Axel's jokes were never all that funny to me anyways, and though we don't know what direction he's going in from here on out, I doubt we'll hear much more of them.
Yeah, but regardless of whether Kairi is more serious or not... that doesn't mean she should be stuck in the same position staring into space. She could look at Axel and nod in agreement or tilt her head or look confused... something! Unless the direction Kairi is going in with the new girl as her voice actor is robot (even though I think the new girl did amazing in MoM).

I'm talking about in the scene I posted or any scene where someone is talking, and everyone else stands like robots waiting for their queue to respond. The scenes don't feel organic because one person is animated, while the rest are staring into space, then someone else becomes animated while the person who was just animated stares into space. It's like we're at Disneyworld watching the animatronics malfunction.

Although, I guess the scene I posted it's way more noticeable because the camera catches Kairi for a significant portion of the scene AND the room is loaded with characters, so it must be harder to give them something to do in a cramped location.
 

Sign

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Yeah, but regardless of whether Kairi is more serious or not... that doesn't mean she should be stuck in the same position staring into space. She could look at Axel and nod in agreement or tilt her head or look confused... something! Unless the direction Kairi is going in with the new girl as her voice actor is robot (even though I think the new girl did amazing in MoM).
Can you stop talking about Alyson in such a demeaning way? She's been voicing Kairi since fucking 2008. Show some respect.

The lack of animation has nothing to do with the VA's performance anyway.
 

Face My Fears

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Can you stop talking about Alyson in such a demeaning way? She's been voicing Kairi since fucking 2008. Show some respect.

The lack of animation has nothing to do with the VA's performance anyway.
What did I say that was demeaning? I said that she did amazing in MoM.

I didn't bring up the VA's performance having anything to do with the animation issues.
 

Ballad of Caius

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Fans need to get in their heads that voice acting of a character also depends on the instructions given to the voice actors by the voice acting director.

Paul St. Peter has a video on YouTube pretty much saying that voicing Xemnas was weird due to direction.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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What did I say that was demeaning? I said that she did amazing in MoM.

I didn't bring up the VA's performance having anything to do with the animation issues.

You call her “the new girl” as though she isn't 1) a grown woman 2) hasn’t voiced Kairi for 12 years with Hayden only coming in once in that entire period to reprise her role 3) doesn’t have a name.

Use her name or say “Kairi’s current voice actor”. It comes off as demeaning and disrespectful. Would you say “the new boy” in regards to Mickey’s new voice actor?
 

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This is definitely not a current trend, just look at the similar 0.2 Yensid Tower cutscenes where background characters are always going through idle animations or even reacting to what's being said around them
 

Face My Fears

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You call her “the new girl” as though she isn't 1) a grown woman 2) hasn’t voiced Kairi for 12 years with Hayden only coming in once in that entire period to reprise her role 3) doesn’t have a name.

Use her name or say “Kairi’s current voice actor”. It comes off as demeaning and disrespectful. Would you say “the new boy” in regards to Mickey’s new voice actor?
I would probably call Mickey's voice actor the new guy because I don't even know his name.

And there's literally a TV show called "New Girl" that features an adult female as the new girl, so I don't think her being a grown woman has anything to do with the term "new girl" being offensive.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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I would probably call Mickey's voice actor the new guy because I don't even know his name.

And there's literally a TV show called "New Girl" that features an adult female as the new girl, so I don't think her being a grown woman has anything to do with the term "new girl" being offensive.

So you would call him a "guy", not a "boy" the equivalent of "girl". And you don't see where the issue is?

I am saying this to you as a woman, please do not call women "girls". It's demeaning, demoralizing, and outdated. Women are adults, girls are children.

The "New Girl" is a fictional comedy TV show that started airing in 2011 and it wasn't okay to use even back then, but got a pass because it was a comedy show and the phrase was being used as part of the quirky punchline of the show's plot.
 

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It’s mostly common to RPGs because they have an absurd amount of cutscenes. It’s just impossible for them to animate every single scene by hand.
 

Face My Fears

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So you would call him a "guy", not a "boy" the equivalent of "girl". And you don't see where the issue is?

I am saying this to you as a woman, please do not call women "girls". It's demeaning, demoralizing, and outdated. Women are adults, girls are children.

The "New Girl" is a fictional comedy TV show that started airing in 2011 and it wasn't okay to use even back then, but got a pass because it was a comedy show and the phrase was being used as part of the quirky punchline of the show's plot.
I won't call women girls on here, but in my culture we call adult men and women boy/man, girl/woman interchangeably in conversation, so I'm going to stick with what I grew up with in my real life.

The logic is insane to me that calling a man "boy" or a woman "girl" is so offensive. If that were the case, then why the hell do adults use the terminology "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" instead of "manfriend" and "womanfriend"?
 

Oracle Spockanort

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I won't call women girls on here, but in my culture we call adult men and women boy/man, girl/woman interchangeably in conversation, so I'm going to stick with what I grew up with in my real life.

The logic is insane to me that calling a man "boy" or a woman "girl" is so offensive. If that were the case, then why the hell do adults use the terminology "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" instead of "manfriend" and "womanfriend"?

Because of the evolution of language and courting and how these phrases were adopted into common use in 1900s (1960-ish is when they were popularized). Prior to that people would call their romantic partners their beloved, intended, or other terms that denoted endearment or relationship status. Dating wasn't really a thing until the a bit later into the 1900s anyways, and instead courtships were commonplace up until the turn of the 20th century (and even then it wasn't legal to "date" until some years into the 20th century). In the 1960s when the terms boyfriend/girlfriend were popularized through popular media, people were also using terms like "my steady" or "my old lady/man". Through the shift of time "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" stuck around while other terms fell out of popularity.

People have been shifting to more gender-neutral terms within the last few decades, though. "Partner", "lover", "bae", "hubby/wifey" are in the upswing, and I imagine in the next 20 so or years, the gender-neutral term will likely become the more common term over "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" just because of how more conscious people are about inclusiveness.

I know it seems like I'm giving you grief about something so silly but you literally said you would call Mickey's VA a guy but call Alyson Stoner--the voice actor of your favorite character at that--a girl and it shows you aren't really seeing where the double-standard is. You say the terms are interchangable in your culture but there is absolutely no way that you'd say that if say...Sora's VA was replaced. You'd say "new guy" like you would Mickey's VA because it is the common colloquial phrase. It still denotes respect to that person. "New girl" has no respect in it, least of all to somebody who again has been around for 12 years. New or girl is the last thing Alyson is.
 

Face My Fears

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Because of the evolution of language and courting and how these phrases were adopted into common use in 1900s (1960-ish is when they were popularized). Prior to that people would call their romantic partners their beloved, intended, or other terms that denoted endearment or relationship status. Dating wasn't really a thing until the a bit later into the 1900s anyways, and instead courtships were commonplace up until the turn of the 20th century (and even then it wasn't legal to "date" until some years into the 20th century). In the 1960s when the terms boyfriend/girlfriend were popularized through popular media, people were also using terms like "my steady" or "my old lady/man". Through the shift of time "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" stuck around while other terms fell out of popularity.

People have been shifting to more gender-neutral terms within the last few decades, though. "Partner", "lover", "bae", "hubby/wifey" are in the upswing, and I imagine in the next 20 so or years, the gender-neutral term will likely become the more common term over "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" just because of how more conscious people are about inclusiveness.

I know it seems like I'm giving you grief about something so silly but you literally said you would call Mickey's VA a guy but call Alyson Stoner--the voice actor of your favorite character at that--a girl and it shows you aren't really seeing where the double-standard is. You say the terms are interchangable in your culture but there is absolutely no way that you'd say that if say...Sora's VA was replaced. You'd say "new guy" like you would Mickey's VA because it is the common colloquial phrase. It still denotes respect to that person. "New girl" has no respect in it, least of all to somebody who again has been around for 12 years. New or girl is the last thing Alyson is.
I would use "new guy" for Mickey's voice actor because there's a commonly used term "new guy", just like there is "the new girl". Hence there's a movie called "The New Guy", a TV show called "New Girl", and not "The New Boy" or "The New Man" or "New Woman" or "New Lady". It's literally just common terminology to address the gender of a person in a new position. There is no double standard if "new guy" and "new girl" are the gender specific terms used in those scenarios - probably used because the G sound flows better than "new boy"/"new man"/"new woman" etc.

Maybe it was wrong of me to call Alyson "the new girl" in regards to her role as Kairi, as she's been Kairi for a few games now. , Even though I was just trying to differentiate between the old voice actor for Kairi - Hayden - and the *gasp* new voice actor for Kairi - Alsyon - whose name I forgot in the moment I posted the reply. Just because she voices Xion doesn't mean I remember her name, I only remember the original 3 (Haley, David, Hayden), Billy Zane and Jesse McCartney. Everyone else, I vaguely remember.

Anyway, I'm sorry for offending people for using "new girl" to describe Alyson. I will never use that term on here again.
 

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Honestly, lately a lot of AAA games have had some terrible animation for (mainly) talking scenes.

They don't express their faces that much, or don't even talks in a way that their bodies would match their voices.

Horizon Zero Dawn is the one who comes to my mind. Everytime you arw having a dialogue it will be better if you only listen, because the expressions from the characters are awful most of the time lol

But KH has always been great at animation so I at least expected some more decency - however they always sucked at making the -not talking- character in the scene seem like it is dead or roboticized, so that scene was nothing new for me. Pretty disappointing indeed, that this scene wasnt better (like for real, this scene had so much potential for some great character exposition and interaction)
 

Face My Fears

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Honestly, lately a lot of AAA games have had some terrible animation for (mainly) talking scenes.

They don't express their faces that much, or don't even talks in a way that their bodies would match their voices.

Horizon Zero Dawn is the one who comes to my mind. Everytime you arw having a dialogue it will be better if you only listen, because the expressions from the characters are awful most of the time lol

But KH has always been great at animation so I at least expected some more decency - however they always sucked at making the -not talking- character in the scene seem like it is dead or roboticized, so that scene was nothing new for me. Pretty disappointing indeed, that this scene wasnt better (like for real, this scene had so much potential for some great character exposition and interaction)
Agreed! I was expecting Donald to fold his arms or scratch his chin while looking at Roxas or Goofy putting his finger to his head... any little background details would have been nice, even if they were stuck in that position. But it's like everyone is frozen in the exact same position. Kairi has it the worst because she's included in the shot with Axel, so she just looks like she's staring into space and not even reacting to what Axel's saying.
 

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This is definitely not a current trend, just look at the similar 0.2 Yensid Tower cutscenes where background characters are always going through idle animations or even reacting to what's being said around them
I feel like people ignored me so I'm just gonna post the 0.2 secret ending. You only need to watch the first 30 econds of both clips to see the difference

 

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I would say: Totally.

And I think it is totally acceptable taking into account we can't really expect every cutscene to be animated to it's full potential, there's over 10 hours of full blown cutscenes in this game, unlike other modern games that use "slow walking sections" or small talk sections as cutscenes.

Case in point:
 
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