Missing anything without voices?

[internisus]

I dislike all of the voice acting I've heard in various YouTube videos, so I'd like to turn the voice volume down to nothing in the options menu when I get started. But, if I do that, will I be missing anything? I can live without the little shouts in battle; there's nothing important in a "Here we go!" or a "Take that!" But in terms of story, do characters (or a VO narrator, even) ever say anything valuable that isn't also being written out in the text box?

Actually, I have the same question about the earlier voiced games in the series. What about the story-heavy Untold games? Is all of the story provided in text as well as voice so that I can turn off the voices if I want to?

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[CD-Man2021]

As far as I've gotten so far, nope. It's 100% optional, which is good for people who dislike the voices.

[Maxine MagicFox]

(I think everyone hated most of the voices overs for the Untold series) For the Etrian Odyssey Untold series most of the lines are restricted to basic single lines the characters say that do not match the text, just gave flavor. Only story heavy moments were fully voiced. There were cutscenes in EO1 but I don't recall anything that was fully voiced.

In both games you can go into the menu and turn the voices off. This will not impact the beautiful game music, so you do not have turn off your volume. You will not miss anything. Only the story version had party members talk, but the create-your-party did not. BUT it is fun to hear your story characters talk while exploring the labyrinth where they say things like "check this out" or "I feel a monster near by".

For Etrian Odyssey 5 the same continues to hold true and you can turn the voices off in the menu, BUT you get to choose the voices of your characters in the character creation screen. It makes it more fun. (And I think the voice acting for the shop characters is much better)

But no, there's nothing they say that's ever more important than "ha!" or "take that" or if you are in your menu and you heal them they will say things like "thank you" or "sorry".

But all important scenes are still fully text based.

[Kimiko]

For EO5 you can even choose the 'no voice' option for any of your own characters so they don't talk, and still hear the town's folks' and story characters' lines (insofar as they're actually voiced that is; often only the first sentences if it's a long story).

[heprea]

I went for the "no voice" option and I have zero regrets so far.

[TheTruthOfPerfection]

I kinda liked the voice acting in Millenium Girl. I find the voice acting in Beyond the Myth to be absolutely horrendous. I hated every second of it. I listened to the voices of each of the town NPCs once, then turned it off. Which is annoying to me, because I want the voice acting from my own characters, and miscelleneous NPCs in the labyrinth, but I don't want it in town. I am far too lazy to switch the settings every time I go in or out of town, too.

[Kimiko]

Did you know that if you don't do anything for a while in town (I dunno, a minute or so), each of the NPCs has some voiced comments (that don't get text on screen)? Those do add to the atmosphere of the town I think.

I wish we could have the Japanese voices. Over on GameFAQs someone posted a link to a hack that enables them, but it requires custom firmware on your 3DS.

[Maxine MagicFox]

Really? I actually loved the voice overs in 5. I love that they talk when I'm just standing there doing nothing.

I also love (and this has nothing to do with voices, I guess) that Jenetta will stop you when you wake up to surprise you with an egg breakfast on random occasions.

[Dangerus]

Unpopular opinion? I personally am relieved that the player characters don't say a word when they know a monster will pop up. I hated it in Untold and I was relieved to not hear my characters doing it. It just made me sigh with relief.



Spoilered my one complaint since I dread the horrors of what people would think.

[Daige]

I do want to point out that when your characters are allowed to have voices, they say something whenever you come to a special place in the labyrinth. Sometimes it's helpful that they react in that way, it makes it easier to notice special things.

[Kimiko]

But they do that in text as well, don't they?

[WillowWolf]

[Kimiko]

I don't think my characters have mentioned shortcuts (in text that is; all of them are 'no voice'd), but there was an instance of someone noticing something. Ah, maybe that was my Celestrian's Detect Mana skill. I don't recall what it was though.

[Fluffernuff]

The only thing Voices have done for me outside of flavor is when I was speeding through the labyrinth and my Masurao was like "HM!?" on a seemingly random tile which made me do a double take, head back, and find a campsite that I would have completely missed otherwise.

other than that, they speak up every single time with the same clip when you level up a skill, look at the super obvious what youre already staring at dungeon mechanic- "Did something just-!?", end a battle. It gets grating.

But I have never heard a voice clip for shortcuts, even when theyre unlocked. I'm also on the verge of turning my team's voices off. I still find a certain charm in the voices as a whole with the NPCs, but hearing the lackluster PC voices constantly have worn their lukewarm reception with me. it's more of an annoyance now than a favor, even if I appreciate finding the camp.

[Daige]