Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Please give Rek'Sai a voice

DragonPup·11/26/2014, 7:15:23 PM·14 votes·2,774 views

Visually she looks pretty awesome and monstrous. Good work there.

On the audio side, I feel there is a missed opportunity with just giving her 7 minutes of growling with zero dialogue. Back at PAX East 2014 I was at the panel where Riot was discussing the reworking of Twitch. As the presentation explained, a champion needs to be fleshed out visually and with their audio. The presenters showed us how the same Twitch lines performed with a different tenor changed how the character came across in personality, behavior and motivation. It was a really nice panel.

Back to Rek'Sai. We don't have long bio's or champion judgements these days, so it's the ingame that gets across what makes a champion who they are. On top of that, she is the first female void creature in the game, and the first female 'monstrous' monster so leaving her speechless feels even worse. By having no dialogue we are left to wonder what is Rek'Sai aside from a seemingly unintelligent monster unlike the other established Void creatures. Is Rek'Sai hungry? Blood thirsty? Vengeful? Searching for something? Bored? What is does it mean to be Queen of the Xer'Sai? Is she protecting her "kingdom"?

Imagine new Sion with his old dialogue, Vel'Koz with only grunts and growls, Dunkmaster Darius with his base voices, Azir with just bird chirping. None of those would be nearly as great representations to those characters without their voice work and I hope you consider adding voice to Rek'Sai, even if it is post launch. A voice over along the 'feel' of the established growls could be amazing. A long, low guttural voice would sound great on her.

Thank you for reading.

21 Comments

A Superb Villain11/26/2014, 7:32:33 PM10 votes

Azir with just bird chirping.

That would be the most persuasive, eloquent emperor ever to have achieved sovereignty.

BLU Medic11/26/2014, 7:54:28 PM7 votes

They don't even need to give her a lot of dialogue, they can intersperse growls and roars with short voice clips, a bit like what Kog'Maw has. But right now, she's no better than Baron Nashor, Vilemaw or the Dragon.

DJ Hatsune Miku11/26/2014, 7:41:40 PM5 votes

You make some very good points. It's also curious the void monsters, excluding kog since he's kinda like a baby, are fairly intelligent. Rek'sai, however, comes across as an instinct driven beast. She feels like a grunt or underling character with no voice to give her character. She doesn't need to speak outwardly, but hearing her thoughts as she moves and fights in the rift would make her more memorable. Gnar at least has ancient gibberish, showing some intelligence, Rek'Sai feels like I'm playing something that could be an objective in the Crystal scar.

Rebonack11/26/2014, 9:21:46 PM5 votes

I feel the need to point out that making her 'queen of the xer'sai' is incredibly pointless if the xer'sai are just a bunch of mindless animals.

LDinoriderR11/27/2014, 7:01:07 PM3 votes

Her lack of voice is what makes her unique among the other void champs. Giving her lines would just result in even moar "consume all life" we have already with the other void champs. Her lack of speaking also shows even more the theorized "the void is a harsh place for survival" thing. While the other void champs always speak about some sort of hunger in order to survive, Rek'Sai is simply pure, brutal nature. She does what she has to survive, which is eating every other lifeform around her. She doesn't need to talk, because it won't help her. She is pure survival.

dustwind811/26/2014, 7:20:36 PM2 votes

On the audio side, I feel there is a missed opportunity with just giving her 7 minutes of growling with zero dialogue.

She is in beta, thus has not been finalized. They are still working things with her. She is being tested for bugs, and improvements will be made up to, and upon release.

Fried Noob11/26/2014, 10:58:45 PM2 votes

Rek'Sai does not need a voice. Though you make a fair comparison with the other void creatures (and you could throw in Gnar as another decent comparison) they have a reason to talk. Kha'Zix consumes as adapts, so it's reasonable that he would pick up the language of his prey. Kog'Maw was brought over by Nalz (if I recall the lore correctly) so he would have learned some langauge from him. Vel'Koz mission is to observe and learn. With Rek'Sai though, she has no reason to learn human language. She is a (presumably) a hive queen. She exists to a spread her swarm and conquer all. Why bother learning the langauge of those you seek to destroy? You say that having no voice weakens her character, I argue that it's what makes her great.

GreenLore11/26/2014, 10:59:53 PM2 votes

I think that is the point with her,she is a pretty bestial monster. She only acts on instincts,there are no greater thoughts behind that.

Thats not to say she is a flat character as even animals can have personalities,but in the end she is an animal.

Also everyone wanted a female monster character(or more monsters in general) and now Rek'sai is too monstrous for them?

TheFrozenIsles11/27/2014, 2:25:08 AM1 votes

No please no voice! I love the sound she makes. It make me as happy as when I heard the first Velociraptors from the first Jurassic movies. I just love those sound. Really ever one can talk. So it so good to see some thing that cant talk like us for a change. Really I hope when they give a Vu to the older Void monster they add a bit more sound to them then just words.

I really hope her lore/story will be some hunter that think she only some dumb animal but fall for a trap she has stey for them showing that even though she cant talk she is way smarter then them.

Garens Harem11/27/2014, 7:03:53 AM1 votes

english2mainstream

Chaotic Reks11/27/2014, 12:01:17 AM1 votes

They could use me... if i was a chick...

Sukishoo11/27/2014, 7:18:51 PM1 votes

I don't believe all champions NEED a human-like speech pattern. I find the voice style that they gave Rek'sai go be a nice change, giving us something that we haven't had before.

Krizalid11/28/2014, 7:14:34 AM1 votes

I will disagree. It's the only champion which has made me tremble.