Pyke's Voice Is Bad

Cosnirak·6/1/2018, 7:00:35 AM·11 votes·8,409 views

The processing on his voice feels so heavy handed and unnatural. Not in a spooky sort of unnatural way, but in a 'this is obviously the product of a program' sort of unnatural way. I'm sure there are plenty who disagree, downvote and flame away if you want, but it's just so in my face and bad that I felt the strong urge to give Riot this feedback.

In addition to it being acousticly awful, I feel like his VO lines range from lackluster to eye-rollingly bad. A lot of it feels like they're trying so hard to avoid certain cliche words and phrases that are associated with his themes that it actually stands out as awkward and forced. His word choice and phrasing suggest a far more well educated man than his story does. So much of it subtly says 'I was clearly written by someone else' when it should feel natural to the character but doesn't.

There's a strong attempt to avoid making him too much like Kalista and Nautilus but he is essentially Kalista at sea. Instead of sounding like a vengeful spirit he's a disjointed mix of sailor, Jack the Ripper, and spirit. If he's not an avatar of vengeance why does he want to kill more than his old crew?

And to top it all off he's overly calm. Why does a ghost killer hell bent on vengeance have the demeanor of a paid killer calmly stalking and catching prey? He lacks emotion (or maybe the processing is making it impossible to hear). He tells me he wants vengeance but at no point does he show it.

15 Comments

Chase Me Daddy6/1/2018, 9:15:51 AM7 votes

The Pyke in his VO is real different. This Pyke is self-aware and isn't getting revenge for himself. Pyke "They said you ain't innocent." Pyke "I got friends everywhere, especially in the depths." Pyke "I am not the only one who wants revenge on everyone." Pyke "Captains told me to kill fish, fish told me to kill captains, makes sense." Pyke "Not sure who's revenge I'm getting... Don't care!" Pyke "Every kill makes the voices louder... and I looove what they're screaming." The thing about all of this is, that the Pyke ingame feels a lot more like the man he once might have been that has been imbued with some kind of power in order to go on a mission like he was paid to do so. The one in the lore suggests a folklore like spectre that returned hateful after being swallowed whole and after the crew of the Terror, which seemingly never existed (again spooky ghost story element) died Pyke thought he was done, but from there on every time he came a across a captain he didn't go "Your names on the list, now die" but "Why is his name not on the list? Why? This must be a mistake, I must've folded it wrong. YES YOU WHERE THERE!". Pyke seemingly doesn't know himself why he's doing this, but his mind is so messed up from whatever happened to him that he's too deranged to notice that what ever revenge he's getting might not even be real.

RiotFauxSchizzle6/1/2018, 4:18:44 PM6 votes

Thanks for taking time to share your feedback! As Pyke's writer, I'd say that a lot of your criticisms were intentional choices in delivery and writing... there is a reason for a good chunk of the BLoodharbor Ripper's psychosis. I respect that it didn't resonate with you, and hope our next offerings make you happier.

TBH, we were way more afraid of Kalista overlap than Nautilus (boy did I underestimate that).

Ampson6/1/2018, 5:23:59 PM5 votes

Hey, Cosnirak!

Thanks for sharing your feedback on Pyke's VO processing! I am his sound designer and my goal was to try to capture what a dead man's shredded vocal chords that are perpetually wet would sound like. A little bit aquatic/amphibious, a little bit extreme vocal fry. When you play him in a match, you'll also hear faint sounds of underwater bubbles to help tie in the drowned fantasy. Of course, your aural perception of him will sound different between playing him in-game vs. listening to him on a YouTube video. We focus on how our Champions will sound in-game. Thanks for your honest feedback and we hope to give you something else to delight your ears! :)

Camille Ferrøs6/1/2018, 12:41:14 PM4 votes

His voice doesn't sound like he died and a giant sea monster's mouth then with some magic to be resurrected . He sounds like a normal guy that uses a cool voice changer. Not a person that has gone trough some deep deep shi,