Tagged as Daud, Billie Lurk, Corvo Attano, Emily Kaldwin, Morgan Pendleton, Custis Pendleton, Alexandria Hypatia

Contributors:

Custy, Edge, Chungy, Blue, Hydria, Megido, Dani,

Daud DLCs

The dlcs,,,,man there's smth so visceral about the beginning of the first mission in KOD with Billie briefing you and the sunset behind her as she talks like man that shit hits different for me for some reason

There’s smt so satisfying about like, Billie and Thomas’ briefings, Dauds nararation iver the scenes of Dunwall, the overall vibe of it just is so similar yet strikingly different than main game

I was thinking this earlier about how corvo and daud both interact with gangs and commoners in their games but in SUCH different ways

Yeah!!! Like the daud dlcs the gameplay feels mostly familiar with some spice to it, but like the story and the sort of narration aspects feel so unique, especially since in the main game there's no input at all from corvo.

Corvo is a tool for the gangs, a stranger to them who they sent to do their dirty work, while daud is A PART of that world, he’s a gang leader, he sees the filth and horrors everyday and he seemlessly blends into the gritty and awful world of say, the dead eels level or the Roth wild level

HOOO YEAH and the fact that for example Daud can buy favors and interact with these gangs in a greater aspect (the whole dead eels vs hatters situation, interacting with the brigmore witches, etc) like damn

AUGH yeah honestly, I think daud is their best voices protagonist, not because of his character or the games ect, but because I think that they used his input through his voice sparingly and well. He doesn’t talk too much, he says what he needs to at certain times and it’s interesting enough where as we still feel connected to him as somebody going with him on this journey but are also in awe of this man who has been living in dh walls underbelly for YEARS. the favors in particular show just how powerful and connected he is in the world where as corvo had been a stranger to it

One thing I've always liked about Daud's use of voice in the dlcs is that it feels like there's not too much of it? It feels balanced he's not constantly saying things during the flow of gameplay. They characterized him SUPER well with careful word lines and choices and just using his input sparingly in important places.

Like when you have a voice protagonist, it’s super important that you don’t separate the player from the character. It’s super easy for a player to be like wtf does this character want to do I would never do that or say that in this situation and it just feels wrong, kinda turning them off from the game. It would be SO easy to do that with daud, as he’s such a hard person to connect to. An assassin who killed the empress and feels bad about it like, that’s not smt most people can feel sympathetic towards. But dauds voice lines are important bc they don’t focus on the assassin and killer side of him (and this, the chaos portion of Dh), but rather, the man who has contacts, is well connected, feels regret, and is watching the horror develop around him with rapt curiousity, which most players CAN relate too

I think what Arkane did p well was avoiding making Daud super fucking edgy considering his role in the greater aspect of the story as an assassin, and they could've easily fallen into cheesy angsty lines but somehow they didn't? Most of what Daud responds to feels more realistic, like sure it's cynical but it never feels ridiculous

I mean I think it makes sense and also just wanted to say like the part u started with the player being all like wth and not connecting I felt like that happened in dh2 (for me personally anyway) with em and corvo. Bc it felt like they used the same lines and it was just like huh? They had no motives/ goals for themselves which sucks like I wish em had more lines tbh about her struggles and stuff

YEAH chungy I felt that, like Corvo and Em feel less detached...? Idk how to explain but it doesn't feel exactly RIGHT. And as we've talked about before there were so many opportunities for unique voice lines (them responding to daud's audiograph, for example) and just

I just feel like kod and bw had a lot of depth and made daud an interesting character without like going bonkers on voice lines and shit and edgy remarks whereas I feel in dh2 em and corvo had recycled lines that were edgy or just didn’t make sense for their characters. like it felt like they had no personality. Especially high chaos

The DH2 approach vs DOTO and Daud DLCs

Okay and yeah you actually said what I was gonna say next, the reason people felt disconnected with em and Corvo were bc their lines were TOO much. Dauds lines don’t really change regardless of chaos, making his personality more defined as we can see how he can swing one side of another. However, the wild jumping in dh2 from high chaos to low chaos personalities never gave emily or corvo a chance to develop a connection with the player as the purpose of their voice WASNT to echo what the player wanted, but just indicate chaos level

I'm thinking about Billie..and how personally to me her voicelines and such in DOTO were always my favorite? Not just cuz of protag favoritism but they just felt so emotional? Her words felt like they carried a lot of weight and I think that could be attributed to both the voice acting itself and the writing

That’s also why I think Billie is a p decent voiced character, I think it could’ve been cleaner but MUCH better than em and corvo, and that’s mainly bc doto DOESNT have true chaos levels and Billie was able to have a clearer characterization

dauds line in the dlcs are amazing at contributing to his character, his thoughts and feelings and they really add to the ganes stories by adding that extra dimension. i feel like the dh2 voice lines by comparison are just. Empty? Like more factual and stuff

YEAH just more of a informative sort of approach, which altho Daud was telling of like important gameplay aspects he still had other remarks and also those lines where characterized in a way?

yEAH daud does still provide facts and info but interspersed w his own perspectives and stuff which just adds to it

Emily and corvos lines were very generic and honestly I was expecting a lot more depth to Emily’s character since she was basically the main protagonist but it just felt so empty??? Like playing a husk

My basic train of thought here is that in order to connect to a character, you have to understand them. We can understand daud and Billie p well with their voice lines bc regardless of chaos, they seem to have a pretty set view of morals and goals and ideals in their life, while em and corvo are less structured, more confusing as their goals and morals change. Therefore, the player can’t understand them as characters and it’s just confusing and kinda bland

maybe in dh2 they tried to give the player that blank sheet to forumlate their own views (a la mute corvo in dh1) but wanted voiced and ended up with whatever... But the problem is that come dh2 emily and corvo are now EStABLISHED characters which corvo WASNT in dh1, thus we have certain expectations and so on

YEAH that’s a good point blue, I think Dh1 does a good job of showing both ways you can make a character, voiced to develop personality and no voice to leave as a blank canvas upon and dh 2 tried to find a middle ground which didn’t work out

Yeah I think that throwed it off big time (mute corvo gang where u at) and also idk. Just it feels like Emily is a completely different character. Like looks at baby em and looks at adult em. These aren’t the same where’s the trauma and struggle where’s the character depth

Mute Corvo's story impact

I believe in mute Corvo supremacy bc again that blank slate allows the player to sort of form their own thoughts and what Corvo would be thinkign, and it allows for a bit of creativity in how people play and form the story? People can project and justify their choices through what they believe would be what Corvo would do ("oh Corvo branded thr high overseer bc blah blah blah" "Corvo went high chaos after the flooded district bc blah blah blah")

Like even with the Daud dlcs you still get a sort of set vibe of Daud's thought processes and what actions he would do, bc he talks. He voices his opinion and you get certain vibes from that. But with dh1 corvo you have NO idea really about what his thought processes are, you can formulate and infer some of it (obvious grief and despair whilr in Coldridge, the emotional betrayal post-Burrows, etc), but never does Corvo even WRITE anything down. Any opinions or actions you take can all be justified by the player and they can sort of mold their own canon (in the ways of like lc vs hc for example)

Part of why I love Dishonored so so much is that you're able to make up your own stories and hcs that'd derived either from just rhe general idea/story or from bits of lore, I just love the amount of options you have to change the world around you

EXACTLY!!! It’s about how MUCH you want to characterize your characters and how sometimes, (at the right moments) lack of input is the right choice

NPC voice acting

[on the accents of the nobles]

Dani: It isn't a british accent it's more of a formal american accent, like what some of the nobles have. old school formal accents were around the time colonists were getting comfy in the us. the accents blended a bit, especially in the richer communities. it's not really an accent, more of a way of speaking, it's how he enunciates. Like pendleton speaks clearly and calmly, he has a wide vocabulary and speaks in the higher octaves. H*ram is the same, but his voice is intentionally nasally.

Custy: I love how well the voices project into the character, like all of the voices feel like they FIT, it's just. Voices gud,,, Like Daud's voice is very gruff and edgy that fits so well with his actual aesthetic of being an assassin, the twins (yes I will fave on main) have such a snobby arrogance in their voice that fits with their role as aristocrats, Hypatia and Alex's voices contrast so much in tone from sweet lil science woman to AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and just. Dishonored is SO good

Dani: also I really liked Emily's voice, she was really well cast in 2

Danny: not to be super biased but mindys voice is so good too, like it sorta communicates that hey shes a lil shady but shes also really cool

Dani: Hypatia's va did amazing, so good at pulling off 2 different energies. she pulled off the perfect tremble in her voice, and yells like a beast.

Hydria: like in hypatia's idle talk when it starts getting Weird her voice goes a little deeper and gains some of alex's raspy roughness but it's not fully alex's voice yet and i just think that's really neat,, but context of the words being said aside you can tell who's talking y'know. alex has a lot of variety in her tone like. if i were to have to send someone One line to demonstrate the voice i have no clue which one would best represent it, how she says things varies and i think that's neat. hypatia just sounding so. Gentle and the absolute contrast. the panic, the flash of anger when she says "her", mwah

the shaky/shuddering quality to it, just the way she says "sleep" idk how to explain it,