Who is your favorite character?

[Moksha8088]

Vilja.

 

Too bad Willow, Inigo, Heather Casdin, and R4-04 could not join Vilja in our Oblivion adventures.

These are all modded companions that go above and beyond the NPCs in the vanilla game. However, all the super companions in later Bethesda games seem to have their roots drawn from the Vilja for Oblivion mod extending what a companion is truly capable of doing. There are more lines of dialogue and more interaction than with vanilla characters. They frequently come with multiple quests and have a backstory. They achieve a technical proficiency that vanilla game characters cannot match because of time and budget constraints.

[originaljgf]

I also choose Vilja. I've not played Morrowind in several years (though it still occupies 30gig of a HD) but well remember many characters there, unlike Oblivion, which has no memorable characters.

[TheMastersSon]

I also choose Vilja. I've not played Morrowind in several years (though it still occupies 30gig of a HD) but well remember many characters there, unlike Oblivion, which has no memorable characters.

That's more than a little overstated imo, but I agree that Bethesda traded in depth for height and width in Oblivion. It's hard to remember anyone when moreless everyone has the same set of voices and script lines/personalities. If Oblivion taught me nothing else it's that no voice acting is infinitely more immersive in a game than apparently underfunded voice acting.

 

[originaljgf]

In that respect Morrowind was like reading a book - you read the dialog and your imagination created the voices.

 

With Oblivion I think Bethesda blew their voice budget getting Patrick Stewart, who, given how little on screen time the emporer has, probably came in one afternoon, read all his lines in fifteen minutes, and left. But couldn't they at least have offered a bonus to their employees - all the accountants and secretaries and programmers and artists and janitors, etc. - to each come in a read for a character. (Turn down the voice sound in options and play by just reading the dialog, it won't be long before you are "hearing" different voices for each character.)

[zymurgy65]

I like Jauffre and Baurus too - I do everything I can to keep them alive throughout the main quest. Haskill is another favourite - such a dry tone ("Always a pleasure"), he cracks me up.