I absolutely can't stand the voice acting in games like FFX etc. It completely detracts from the experience and really ruins the atmosphere in my opinion.. Are there any recent RPGs (in the past 5 years or so) that got generally high reviews but use only text and no voice acting?

It seems these games died out with the PS1 Final Fantasys + Chrono Cross being the last great releases. Is there anything else out there?

Any recommendations appreciated.

Secret of Mana.

Not Children of Mana, not Dawn of Mana, not Sword of Mana, not Legend of Mana...

Secret of Mana.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is pretty much the best RPG on the PS2 and is without voice acting. Good luck finding a copy though.

Legend of Dragoon...maybe older than 5 years old but excellent nevertheless.

The alternative is to start playing an MMORPG where the only voice acting is done by you!

I tend to voice act a black dude for my character on Knight Online. Just when I'm hitting something with my sword, I just say stuff like "Nigga looked at me weird! AND FOR THAT, HE MUST PAY!" Or the correct term in the gangster style language; mean muggin'. I laughed so hard the day I learned what that meant.

Anyways, I'd recommend Pokemon :).

Thanks for the recommendations yall!

I tend to voice act a black dude for my character on Knight Online. Just when I'm hitting something with my sword, I just say stuff like "Nigga looked at me weird! AND FOR THAT, HE MUST PAY!"

Maybe I should do that when I raid Karazhan in WoW. As my character's name is Ngrplz (Nigga please) it only makes sense.

Secret of Mana.

Not Children of Mana, not Dawn of Mana, not Sword of Mana, not Legend of Mana...

Secret of Mana.

Right on Bro.

You may have heard of the PSX or SNES Libiterian. Plenty of RPG's and the best RPG's on both of those. I kinda agree about voice acting ruining the atmosphere. It has to be done right, like in Suikoden V, its done great. But yea FFX and FFXII, the characters are just to damn cheery and shit.

Mario Party 8

The first Wild Arms is also very good and devoid of voice acting

Thanks again yall...I just added Wild Arms and Legend of Dragoon to my Goozex (http://www.goozex.com/trading/asp/join.asp?idr=4862526892) request list (Suikoden and the others are too expensive). I'll keep an eye out for them in the bargain bin. ;)

I'm pretty sure Legend of Dragoon has voice acting during cutscenes.

Yeah, Ominous is right, and LoD also had voices in battle scenes.

I think Star Ocean 'til The End of Time had them, but you could turn them off, so maybe that's a suggestion.

Yeah, Ominous is right, and LoD also had voices in battle scenes.

I think Star Ocean 'til The End of Time had them, but you could turn them off, so maybe that's a suggestion.

SO:TtEoT is a great rpg, imo.

Maybe I should do that when I raid Karazhan in WoW. As my character's name is Ngrplz (Nigga please) it only makes sense.
Lol. I'd laugh at the person who didn't catch onto that name right away. Unless, you know, they were too young to know what a 'nigger' was in the first place.

And I just though of another RPG, but can't remember the name. It was on the Sega Genesis...I think.

SO:TtEoT is a great rpg, imo.

Stupid name though.

Yeah, I agree with you on that one DaKine.

Actually besides the name there is only one quarrel I have with TtEoT and that's if you use a GameShark just to mess around with, at this certain part near the end you get stuck and can't proceed or go any further. Pissed me off... but I digress.

Dungeon Siege has little voice acting, only talking about the plot voice acting from what I remember. Otherwise, it's a wonderful game.

Morrowind has people talking when you walk up to them, but I think you can easily shut them up.

Vagrant story is only 8 years old but I think it has zero percent of voice acting.

Chrono Trigger, now that's a beauty. No voice acting at all but somewhat older, however that doesn't matter, now does it?

And yes, Secret of Mana. Name says it all.

breath of fire 3

Why does everyone hate the voice acting in FFX? I think it's quite good. If it annoys you that much you could just turn the volume down.

Why does everyone hate the voice acting in FFX? I think it's quite good. If it annoys you that much you could just turn the volume down.

ugh, you can't be serious...I almost puked when I heard Tidus's 20 second girlie laugh near the beginning. His voice just sounded very whiny and not at all tough as you'd expect a badass hero to be. The other characters were no better...The lines all sounded forced and unnatural. All modern games should at least give you the option to go with text instead of vocals...especially with random NPC encounters in villages, etc. Conversations go much faster when you can quickly read the line, rather than waiting for the camera to zoom in and animate the entire conversation.

ugh, you can't be serious...I almost puked when I heard Tidus's 20 second girlie laugh near the beginning. His voice just sounded very whiny and not at all tough as you'd expect a badass hero to be. The other characters were no better...The lines all sounded forced and unnatural. All modern games should at least give you the option to go with text instead of vocals...especially with random NPC encounters in villages, etc. Conversations go much faster when you can quickly read the line, rather than waiting for the camera to zoom in and animate the entire conversation.

Yuna's especially. That's why I see her with half a voice box and one lung. I found it funny as hell to hear Tidus' high pitched voice and laughing, it didn't suit him at all and that's what made it humorous, then again he does cry a lot.

Douse yourself in good voice acting by playing VTM:B?

Disregarding any game with voice acting just because you didn't like one is silly. It's like saying you won't go to any movie just because you didn't like the way an actor portrayed a character in one movie.

There are lots of fantastic RPGs with excellently done voice-over work.

SO:TtEoT is a great rpg, imo.

It is OK, but the voice acting was definitely a minus for it, in my view. Very annoying and predictable, particularly Fayt and Nel. The characters themselves were also a bit stereotypical for my liking.

However, it did have some particularly good one-liners.

Cliff: "I have at least found one thing out about this strange world."
Fayt: "What's that?"
Cliff: "The whips on this planet hurt, too."

Quality. :D

My main gripes with it though would have to be its pacing and disappointing linearity. You only get to explore a couple of planets properly, which for a game entitled 'Star Ocean' was not what I was expecting.

Just as a follow up to my last post, I found out yesterday that Nocturne has been reprinted (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-43-49-en-70-bug.html). If you don't want to pay $100 for a used copy on ebay in the future, now's the time to buy it.

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

Golden Sun 1 and 2 for the game boy advance is a very good game to get, though the mumble thing that goes on when the text is goin across the screen is somewhat gay.

DBZ: Legacy of Goku II and Buu's Fury. Great games.

Just as a follow up to my last post, I found out yesterday that Nocturne has been reprinted (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-43-49-en-70-bug.html). If you don't want to pay $100 for a used copy on ebay in the future, now's the time to buy it.

I'm gonna have to second this. While I have been spending more time with P3: FES I will definitely go back and play Nocturne when I am finished. I tried convincing my cousin to buy this because of the reprint and all but sadly he did not, and is now dead to me.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is pretty much the best RPG on the PS2 and is without voice acting. Good luck finding a copy though.

Agreed. SMT: Nocturne is my favorite RPG of all time and it's got nice text for you to read ^_^.

Skies of Arcadia Legends is mostly text. Yes, there is some voicing (in battle and in conversation mainly to show the characters' emotional states), but you'll be reading pretty much everything that matters.

Unfortunately, it's another one of those rare as hell games, so good luck finding it.

I think Chrono Trigger would sound pretty funny with voices (kiddie? adult? all female?)

But the funniest would have to be Baldur's gate, with all the ridiculous answer choices u have...a funnier Mass Effect me thinks

Imoen: Thank you for rescuing me! Now how do we get outta here?

u: Beat it Imoen, i have no need for you.

Can't you just turn off the voices in most RPGs? I turned them off in Dragon Quest VIII (a game which didn't have voices in the Japanese version), because I didn't have the patience to wait for them to finish talking long after I've read the text. I'm currently having the same problem with Ar tonelico, so I'll probably turn them off there too.

But RPGs where you can't even turn off the voices are rare. Sure, you couldn't do it in FFX, but you can't even skip cutscenes in there either. Back when Square-Enix used to be Squaresoft, they were so forceful in having you play the game exactly how they intended.

But anyway, Dragon Quest VIII is one of the best RPGs of all time. I recommend it to *anyone*.

I would recommend Golden Sun and it's sequel, The Lost Ages. Riviera: The Promised Land is also pretty fun, but the PSP port has voice acting dialogue and the GBA port has a few voice acting elements in battle.