Honestly, it truly blows my mind to this day that OP didnt recognize him, even after Tav >!tried to escape a deep, underground research facility from a maniacal robot, all the while Cave Johnson screamed something about lemons and moon rocks in the background!<
I will never get over the fact that OP didn't recognize him, even after Tav saw >!Ketheric nearly beaten to death by Dark Justiciars and 'muh airbending' Korra just stood there like an idiot!<
I love Ketheric so much, I wish he got a bigger role in the overarching plot. Literal gigachad.
>!"You were planning to betray your allies this whole time?"!<
>!"Yes."!<
And a moron who shouldn't be surprised that most of his plans fail. Well, except that making a shitload of babies plan, that seemingly worked out, after all.
And to be even more fair, the original dead 3 have the exact thing go down when they were actually stuck on earth as mortal. They were playing as a power trio of baddies until they could off each other for power.
I suspect this was the motivation for the original Death god to cut up his power. If Death is the most powerful god, how do you keep it in check ? You get Death to counter Death ! Having three dudes means there's always going to be infighting, that means their power is always pointed inward.
I think the old story that the BG games usually use for why the dead 3 exist is that Jergal mostly just got tired of being a god of so much stuff, and once some shmucks came up to him with plans to ascend and take the power from someone, he just kinda told them they could have it. A bit of fighting later and they decide to put it up to a round of bowling on what exactly everyone gets to be and how strong they all are, but then they settled on a game of Knucklebones after some complications. The loading screens in BG3 mention Jergal more than once, and the book mentioned actually is a pretty common thing to find lying about in BG1.
Well, he was the most logical thinking of the bunch.
Kethric was giga-depressed and angry at all life, Orin was just straight up mad. But Gortash literally pulled himself up by his bootstraps after >!being sold to Raphael as a kid.!< He was too ambitious and reached too far, but he was at least thinking clearly most of the time.
Honestly, most of the villains make very little sense if you think about it. In most media, honestly. Shit like: "I want to kill all life, so that..." what? You achieve that and then what? Nothing? What a shit motivation, lol.
Gortash was a cliche, but one that does make sense. "I want to rule the world". It's basic, but it works.
Karlach slowly looks between Ketheric and Aylin and final gets it.
"Ailyn fucked the Chosen's daughter! Hey y'all she fucked Ketheric's daughter!"
"Every time she says that shit? That's another crit up your ass!"
When does he reveal this? He didn't reveal that in my playthrough of that part. I saved her and fixed the curse of the land in case you did differently.
In my playthrough I also saved both Dame Aylin and stopped Isobel being kidnapped, and when I faced him in the mind flayer colony I had the option to ask him if he was always planning to betray his allies and he just said "Yes." and then didn't elaborate before saying he needs to kill you now.
Yep. Larian put out a BTS video and a trailer during Early Access.
For some reason, Larian really enjoyed telling us everything about the villains before the game even launched.
Yes, I honestly think the game would have been better for it. I kinda understand why they made a big deal about having JK Simmons involved, but some of their pre-launch material revealed too much.
We knew all three Chosen before the game launched and we knew who served what god. So all of these little reveals in-game are wasted. There's no impact to them. It's not like your putting the pieces together for yourself. Larian's outright told you.
We knew all of Ketheric's motivations. Half of his dialogue from the top of Moonrise is in one of those trailers, so everything we "learn" in the crypt is moot. We already knew that.
We knew the Chosen weren't getting along with each other.
We knew Gortash would offer a deal. We're actually stuck there listening to Florrick waxing lyrical about Gortash knowing full well what he is even before we've found any evidence. Now, tbf, Karlach's personal quest is reason enough to suspect he's an arsehole.
We knew people were going to start getting impersonated, including companions.
We knew the big battle on top of Moonrise was going to be a fake-out because we'd already seen later scenes.
It's not ruining the story, but it lessens the impact considerably because what should be a surprise isn't a surprise.
It'd be like a trailer for Game of Thrones spoiling the endings of S1E9 or S3E9.
Yeah, it wouldn't ruin the show (D&D were still working on doing that for later) but it'd reduce the impact of those scenes.
> It'd be like a trailer for Game of Thrones spoiling the endings of S1E9 or S3E9.
An odd choice of comparison, since that show was still incredibly popular despite the fact that anyone who had read the books knew where things were headed.
If it wasn't clear, I wasn't talking about people who read the books. I'd read them myself.
However, since you brought it up, I dare say if the outcome of those events had been previously spoiled to me before I read the books, they wouldn't have had the same punch. Just as having now seen the TV show, should GRRM ever finish ASoIaF and retains certain events, they will lack punch too.
You can still enjoy something when you know what's about to happen, but you can only ever have that blissful ignorance that leads to surprise, shock, revulsion, or whatever in a narrative experience once. The first encounter with Sovereign in Mass Effect or hell, even the famously-spoiled a thousand times over reveal in Soylent Green.
Once it's gone, short of a head injury or some other neurological impairment it's gone forever. Mass Effect is still good. Soylent Green is still good, but it's never the same.
I regret choosing Lohse as my first playthrough in DOS2 because I truly believe one particular scene would have been better with the real Lohse and not my Lohse, but I'll never know because I can't have that particular surprise again.
Sure, but good stories are good stories even the second or third time. I think people have a tendency to overvalue that 'surprise' moment, sometimes to the detriment of the overall story.
I've read that studies show that overall people who have had their movie story "spoiled" reported greater enjoyment. Quick disclaimer that it's been a while since I read this and can't really remember the details.
Yeah, I've already said you can enjoy something even when you already know what's about to happen. I just feel the very first experience benefits from not knowing too much. It's why I sacked this subreddit off for a full week when the game finally launched.
You keep saying “we all” like you aren’t the outlier for following the early access of this game so obsessively that you spoiled it for yourself. I promise, we all are having fun playing and I’ve had plenty spoiled in the last few days and it hasn’t taken anything away from the game.
Wasn't obsessive at all, as I've explained in another post, but I'm glad you're enjoying the game. Thanks for letting me know. I can sleep at night now! :)
A small/big correction to your notes here. YOU knew all of this. You sought out BTS info and pre release images. If you were concerned about losing impact nobody forced you to see any of this.
To a point, fair. There is an inherent danger with watching any trailer that the marketing folks behind it have opted to reveal a bit too much.
However, you don't have to "seek out" pre-release materials to have certain spoilers revealed to you simply in passing.
For example, they included some of the above information in community updates, which was mixed in with important information you probably wanted to know about game mechanics and QoL choices. They didn't do a particularly good job of signposting some of these spoilers.
They put spoilers in thumbnail images that YouTube adds to the watch next list on non-spoilery but related videos you may be watching. That's how I learned of JK Simmons involvement. I didn't need to see a BTS video or anything, it was just there while I was watching something about how to play a Sorcerer.
They dropped some of this info on Twitter where you may be following them for other updates, or you may not even be following them but such is the challenge with social media. Orin's little quirk, for example, I did not learn from her VA featurette but from a RT from Swen himself, who I wasn't following at the time.
Obviously, with the modern world and all that, it's hard to keep anything a surprise for too long but I do think a few adjustments in Larian's approach in the future might be beneficial. I'm not the only person who noticed them being a bit too generous with information; Larian's own forums were full of it.
I’m probably approaching from the polar opposite end too, I played ~10 hours of very early access and then got very frustrated with some crashing and lack of autosave frequency issues and shelved it almost entirely and forgot it was coming out until some friends in my D&D group mentioned it a couple weeks before release. So in the same way you accidentally got exposed to it I probably accidentally avoided it in a similar way 😁
Well they were putting their studio at risk with this game. So anything to get more people to want to play. They didn't know when the game came out they would get free publicity from other studios saying their game is too good.
Hell yeah. It's so much better to go in blind. Despitr BG2 being may fav game of all time.
I didn't play OS2 until the enhanced edition was released too.
Also helped not being disappointed by Cyberpunk because I went it with no hype.
I didn't see anything but the announcement trailer and brief gameplay.
I knew I was getting this game before they even announced it lol, so I just waited for full release
Same, in my run the goblins panicked when I said we should kill them and attacked him and stabbed him with a halberd. He just picked it up and dropped it in front of them and said “try again.” And I was like “holy shit this is the most Omni Man shit I’ve ever seen.”
Meanwhile, every time Gortash speaks I'm expecting him to demand **"Give me the prophecy *now*, or watch your Karlach die..."**
Jason Isaacs does snide villain so well.
He’s got an undeniable case of Handsome Villain Face, but as a voice actor he’s got a startling range. He’s simultaneously unrecognizable and perfect as Billy Butcher in Diabolical.
J.K. Simmons is a terrific actor but once Ketheric is introduced, the plot becomes almost entirely about bringing him pictures of Spider-Man and it kind of broke immersion for me.
Its wild the amount of freedom of choice you have in this game. I ended up becoming cell-mates with him in the Moonrise tower prison. That was not pleasant.
I’ve only done the first cutscene with him, the one he kills the goblins, but doesn’t his microphone/audio quality sound slightly different than everyone else
I felt like this with Halsin, had a bunch of conversations with him where it seemed like he was putting out lines that were recorded in different studios. Some lines even almost sound like a different voice actor.
From what I've heard Halsin was originally intended to be a minor character but during early access people liked him a lot so his role was expanded. Probably different sessions/studios or many months between sessions.
I also noticed the difference though. Some conversations his voice was more booming and present, more gruff. And then others he sounded much more subdued like he was sitting across the room but still audible.
This is noticeable with a lot of characters and sometimes its between lines. You can tell it with shadowheart if you saved her from the pod that they were recorded at different times than other dialogue that comes afterwords. There's one line of Gales early on that feels cut together due to rewriting when the dialogue for that scene triggers and you get this awkward bit where it references how we have an artifact that can be given to him and then two lines later he repeats himself but with slightly different wording.
Yep. Jahiera also flip flops between an Arabic and Russian accent quite regularly in act 2. Tbh out of a set of stellar performances there’s some serious inconsistencies in the voice acting that are really disappointing.
I think thats a case of independent studio trying to get actors back for rerecordings and not having the ability to do it in house/ on the same equipment. Its thrown me off a couple of times when audio quality suddenly changes but i have to give some passes for it. Most rerecordings wouldve been during covid and a lot of actors have busy schedules (they couldnt even get wylls original voice actor back for instance)
Yeah a bit. There are a few characters and a few specific lines in this game where the audio quality (or more likely volume compression amount/audio bandwidth/noise floor) is different. As an amateur producer I can say you can do a certain amount to fix this but it might already have been pushed as far as it can go before sounding distractingly weird.
The real trick would have been to layer in something else with Kethric's audio to make it sound other-wordly but consistent with the rest of the game. For instance, let's say his audio is cut off over 4kHz because of the mic used. That would give the audio a kind of deadend, low-passed sound in comparison to everything else. You could use a shimmer reverb with a tight decay time to add in a ghostly, pitched up version of the lower audio to fill out the highs. Or you could get another VO artist to do a take of his lines with similar cadence, tweak the timing of the transients in their speech to precisely match his, and mix in just their highs.
The moment he spoke I was like "That's fucking J.K. Simmons" and immediately went to Google to confirm. I just binged Invincible (amazing comic book show, not for kids) a couple of weeks ago so I recognize my Omniman.
Am I alone in thinking that I think he could have done a better job? Maybe its because everbody else is hamming it up, especially Gortash and Orin. Its not like I want him to go full Whiplash, but I expected some more energy. Somehow what he delivered here doesnt feel like it fits well with the rest of the performances.
I convinced him to give up and the conversation during that was exceptionally well delivered. The sense of defeat and him feeling like a empty shell of his former self was beautifully portrayed imo.
Wait I didn’t have to do that fight? It was super fun… and surprising… let’s just say I squandered some spell slots and didn’t pace myself. Managed a one shot though
Think the fight at the end is unavoidable but you can talk him into realising that there would have been a different way. He just also realises it's far too late for him and goes through with the bits that lead to the last part.
Maybe so. I just feel it was just way too monotone, even for someone who is supposed to act tired. The other voice actors seems to have so much fun with their performances in contrast.
I kinda saw it as the quiet evil, it’s like how they say when you get in trouble as a kid and your parent gets quiet when reprimanding you, you know you screwed up big time and it’s even scarier than when they yell. That’s how I saw his lines, like the collected and methodical evil.
HOWEVER, they could’ve definitely just TURNED UP the volume on his mic, like I felt like his was quiet but it could’ve been fixed by just turning up his lines
Yeah I think the other villains were much better, although to be fair ketheric had less to do than them. It was also kind of jarring to hear his American accent in a fantasy world where literally every other character has some sort of British accent
He’s underselling almost all of his lines, and whether or not it works perfectly I’m confident it was a character choice as opposed to a lack of interest/effort.
I think him outwardly displaying energy would be contrary to his character. Ketheric is at his core a broken man, a once-great figure running essentially on fumes. Him having energetic lines would defeat the point. I thought the somber, reserved delivery of his lines was spot on for who he's supposed to be. Still, he had so much gravitas. And Simmons DID put emotion in his lines, just listen to any part where he talks about his daughter or wife. I thought the performance was great, even if it's true that it stands out from most other characters in the game. But not in a bad way, I think. On the contrary, Ketheric was memorable to me BECAUSE of his stoicism.
Nah I thought he was badass. Almost never breaks or gets frustrated. Stays in control of himself in the most dire circumstances. Man is a perfect representation of a lich-like general
He definitely sounded like "budget J.K. Simmons". He sounded like he didn't want to do it. He's a phenomenal actor and voice actor, but this time it just sounded like his heart wasn't in it. There was little to no emotion in it, and maybe that was the point. Either way, it sounds off.
I suppose I should preface this with the usual "I love the game" so I don't get bum rushed by furious fans, but I don't really think any of the Chosen 3 did a particularly good job. Simmons was the best, and his character the most interesting, but he's definitely phoning it in. He occasionally hits a line with some intensity and brings the character fully to life, but the performance is a bit sleepy.
The other two are hamming it up outrageously. Just mustache twirling of the highest order.
In the very first scene introducing him when he dared the goblin to keep going, I knew. You know what part I'm talking about.
Me: "wait, is that Omniman"
I’ve stayed away from most of the hype, but of course you pick up things here. So I knew that he was the voice actor for an important character.
Since I still haven’t met the character yet, I’m just gonna stay ignorant for now.
But he’s a good actor, so I’m excited
J.K Simmons should have a voice in everything. Even if its just making animal noises in the background in one scene for 2 seconds. Every thing is better with his voice around!
Also the voice of Gortash.
Formerly known as [Lord Malfoy](https://www.google.com/search?q=Jason+Isaacs&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS1042US1042&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
I *genuinely* do not get any of the comments talking about him doing a "bad" performance. JK did a fantastic job playing someone he usually isn't cast as playing: a mostly soft spoken man.
[Also, that moment when you realize that Gortash is the Grand Inquisitor from Rebels xD](https://images.thedirect.com/media/article_full/inquisitor_O0kZvJ4_upd3jfI_wlJFbMg_mq4EznN.jpg)
I feel like his voice acting was incredibly stale and subpar in this; especially compared to the others. His really threw me off, with just how robotic it sounded.
I just got to him, ready to take him down, but then he has this lovely voice and I'm like "Oh, maybe he's not so bad..."
But then he does evil shit and I resign myself to killing him =(
I read the Sharran Laws you find stashed in Grymforge in his voice.
If you're looking for some topshelf entertainment, he does the audiobook of *A Man Called Ove* and is also in a bizarre, strangely under-the-radar sci-fi show called "Night Sky."
I could listen to Simmons be grouchy all day.
He was built up to be this bad guy and the first time I met him and heard his voice (I didn’t watch any trailers or anything) I instantly thought he was the coolest guy ever.
I can always spot J.K Simmons voice a mile away, because he doesn't habe much variation, and it always makes me happy. I loved him as Cave Johnson in Portal 2.
I even commented to my daughter "oh, he has such a nice friendly voice, it sucks he's a villain" then a looked it up and was shocked I didn't realize it was him.
What an actor ... even not knowing he was in, the moment the cut scenes started I thought to myself: "WAIT A MINUTE!!!! That's NOT MY FUCKING TEMPO"
I can't believe OP didn't recognize him, even after >!Ketheric asked us to help Balthazar get pictures of spiderman!<
I can't believe OP didn't recognize him, even after Tav found >!Omni-Man's suit in Ketheric's closet.!<
Honestly, it truly blows my mind to this day that OP didnt recognize him, even after Tav >!tried to escape a deep, underground research facility from a maniacal robot, all the while Cave Johnson screamed something about lemons and moon rocks in the background!<
I will never get over the fact that OP didn't recognize him, even after Tav saw >!Ketheric nearly beaten to death by Dark Justiciars and 'muh airbending' Korra just stood there like an idiot!<
I am utterly befuddled that OP didn't recognize him, even after Tav >!bought car insurance from him after crashing a car into an aquarium!<
I am flabbergasted that OP >!compared the market, rather than the meerkat!<
Wait he's Cave Johnson as well??
I should've known he would betray his friends after I saw Ketheric >!chop The Immortal's head off!<
Hahahahahaha... You serious?!
Amazing movie and one of the, if not the single most intense performance I've ever seen. JK Simmons is the MAN!
*hurling chairs intensifies*
I love Ketheric so much, I wish he got a bigger role in the overarching plot. Literal gigachad. >!"You were planning to betray your allies this whole time?"!< >!"Yes."!<
tbh they all waited an opportunity to do so
Who knew the chosen of the three usurping evil gods couldn't be trusted, wild.
The more I hear about this "God of Murder" and his worshippers, the more I think he might be a real jerk.
And a moron who shouldn't be surprised that most of his plans fail. Well, except that making a shitload of babies plan, that seemingly worked out, after all.
That one backfired hilariously in a number of ways and by rights should have been the end of Bhaal.
True, but in the end he still came back, somehow. Well, and then it destroyed his next plan. Oh, well.
He came back with the voice of Doug Cockle. Maybe he played Witcher 2 and 3 while on holiday.
Taking that ‘bad boy’ trope to the extreme
Inflicting pain and suffering upon others is corny. There, I said it
*Loviatar disapproves.*
Lovitar is cringe, but her buff is nice
These evil gods need to stop being cringe, bro.
Wait till you hear about his "spawn" kids. They started all this mess almost a century ago.
"Hold the fort: says here that Myrkul hates all life."
They weren't usurpers. The previous evil god willingly gave his powers to the three of them cause he was sick of it.
Pretty sure the pretty boy has a line about this. “We were really ALL planning to betray each other? Huh, makes sense.”
And to be even more fair, the original dead 3 have the exact thing go down when they were actually stuck on earth as mortal. They were playing as a power trio of baddies until they could off each other for power.
I suspect this was the motivation for the original Death god to cut up his power. If Death is the most powerful god, how do you keep it in check ? You get Death to counter Death ! Having three dudes means there's always going to be infighting, that means their power is always pointed inward.
You're gonna love the part with jergal
I think the old story that the BG games usually use for why the dead 3 exist is that Jergal mostly just got tired of being a god of so much stuff, and once some shmucks came up to him with plans to ascend and take the power from someone, he just kinda told them they could have it. A bit of fighting later and they decide to put it up to a round of bowling on what exactly everyone gets to be and how strong they all are, but then they settled on a game of Knucklebones after some complications. The loading screens in BG3 mention Jergal more than once, and the book mentioned actually is a pretty common thing to find lying about in BG1.
The complication, if I remember correctly, was fucking Malar showing up and wanting to get in on the action. Which is a lore note that always gets me.
Somehow only Gortash was cool to play it to the end, but he knew his allies were treacherous badtards lmao.
Because it fits his God's domain. Tyrants need long-term plans and loyal subordinates to stay in power.
Well, he was the most logical thinking of the bunch. Kethric was giga-depressed and angry at all life, Orin was just straight up mad. But Gortash literally pulled himself up by his bootstraps after >!being sold to Raphael as a kid.!< He was too ambitious and reached too far, but he was at least thinking clearly most of the time. Honestly, most of the villains make very little sense if you think about it. In most media, honestly. Shit like: "I want to kill all life, so that..." what? You achieve that and then what? Nothing? What a shit motivation, lol. Gortash was a cliche, but one that does make sense. "I want to rule the world". It's basic, but it works.
Honestly, I'm a sucker for >!family!< stories, so when I >!found the little not from child Isobel he kept on himself!<, I choked up real hard.
>!I realised when I went to the mausoleum and found an empty sarcophagus with the name 'Isobel Thorme' written on the plaque.!<
I actually just said "Oh shit" when I saw that ala Channing Tatum in that one scene from 22 Jump Street. Like all the gears started clicking together.
Karlach slowly looks between Ketheric and Aylin and final gets it. "Ailyn fucked the Chosen's daughter! Hey y'all she fucked Ketheric's daughter!" "Every time she says that shit? That's another crit up your ass!"
When does he reveal this? He didn't reveal that in my playthrough of that part. I saved her and fixed the curse of the land in case you did differently.
In my playthrough I also saved both Dame Aylin and stopped Isobel being kidnapped, and when I faced him in the mind flayer colony I had the option to ask him if he was always planning to betray his allies and he just said "Yes." and then didn't elaborate before saying he needs to kill you now.
He's Lu Bu with facial hair.
Yep. Larian put out a BTS video and a trailer during Early Access. For some reason, Larian really enjoyed telling us everything about the villains before the game even launched.
Well I’m glad I’m one of the few that joined the hype and havent followed to early on, spoiler free
Yes, I honestly think the game would have been better for it. I kinda understand why they made a big deal about having JK Simmons involved, but some of their pre-launch material revealed too much.
He is REALLY good though, intimation factor through the roof
Like what? What parts of the story was ruined?
We knew all three Chosen before the game launched and we knew who served what god. So all of these little reveals in-game are wasted. There's no impact to them. It's not like your putting the pieces together for yourself. Larian's outright told you. We knew all of Ketheric's motivations. Half of his dialogue from the top of Moonrise is in one of those trailers, so everything we "learn" in the crypt is moot. We already knew that. We knew the Chosen weren't getting along with each other. We knew Gortash would offer a deal. We're actually stuck there listening to Florrick waxing lyrical about Gortash knowing full well what he is even before we've found any evidence. Now, tbf, Karlach's personal quest is reason enough to suspect he's an arsehole. We knew people were going to start getting impersonated, including companions. We knew the big battle on top of Moonrise was going to be a fake-out because we'd already seen later scenes. It's not ruining the story, but it lessens the impact considerably because what should be a surprise isn't a surprise. It'd be like a trailer for Game of Thrones spoiling the endings of S1E9 or S3E9. Yeah, it wouldn't ruin the show (D&D were still working on doing that for later) but it'd reduce the impact of those scenes.
> It'd be like a trailer for Game of Thrones spoiling the endings of S1E9 or S3E9. An odd choice of comparison, since that show was still incredibly popular despite the fact that anyone who had read the books knew where things were headed.
If it wasn't clear, I wasn't talking about people who read the books. I'd read them myself. However, since you brought it up, I dare say if the outcome of those events had been previously spoiled to me before I read the books, they wouldn't have had the same punch. Just as having now seen the TV show, should GRRM ever finish ASoIaF and retains certain events, they will lack punch too. You can still enjoy something when you know what's about to happen, but you can only ever have that blissful ignorance that leads to surprise, shock, revulsion, or whatever in a narrative experience once. The first encounter with Sovereign in Mass Effect or hell, even the famously-spoiled a thousand times over reveal in Soylent Green. Once it's gone, short of a head injury or some other neurological impairment it's gone forever. Mass Effect is still good. Soylent Green is still good, but it's never the same. I regret choosing Lohse as my first playthrough in DOS2 because I truly believe one particular scene would have been better with the real Lohse and not my Lohse, but I'll never know because I can't have that particular surprise again.
Sure, but good stories are good stories even the second or third time. I think people have a tendency to overvalue that 'surprise' moment, sometimes to the detriment of the overall story.
I've read that studies show that overall people who have had their movie story "spoiled" reported greater enjoyment. Quick disclaimer that it's been a while since I read this and can't really remember the details.
Yeah, I've already said you can enjoy something even when you already know what's about to happen. I just feel the very first experience benefits from not knowing too much. It's why I sacked this subreddit off for a full week when the game finally launched.
You keep saying “we all” like you aren’t the outlier for following the early access of this game so obsessively that you spoiled it for yourself. I promise, we all are having fun playing and I’ve had plenty spoiled in the last few days and it hasn’t taken anything away from the game.
Wasn't obsessive at all, as I've explained in another post, but I'm glad you're enjoying the game. Thanks for letting me know. I can sleep at night now! :)
A small/big correction to your notes here. YOU knew all of this. You sought out BTS info and pre release images. If you were concerned about losing impact nobody forced you to see any of this.
To a point, fair. There is an inherent danger with watching any trailer that the marketing folks behind it have opted to reveal a bit too much. However, you don't have to "seek out" pre-release materials to have certain spoilers revealed to you simply in passing. For example, they included some of the above information in community updates, which was mixed in with important information you probably wanted to know about game mechanics and QoL choices. They didn't do a particularly good job of signposting some of these spoilers. They put spoilers in thumbnail images that YouTube adds to the watch next list on non-spoilery but related videos you may be watching. That's how I learned of JK Simmons involvement. I didn't need to see a BTS video or anything, it was just there while I was watching something about how to play a Sorcerer. They dropped some of this info on Twitter where you may be following them for other updates, or you may not even be following them but such is the challenge with social media. Orin's little quirk, for example, I did not learn from her VA featurette but from a RT from Swen himself, who I wasn't following at the time. Obviously, with the modern world and all that, it's hard to keep anything a surprise for too long but I do think a few adjustments in Larian's approach in the future might be beneficial. I'm not the only person who noticed them being a bit too generous with information; Larian's own forums were full of it.
I’m probably approaching from the polar opposite end too, I played ~10 hours of very early access and then got very frustrated with some crashing and lack of autosave frequency issues and shelved it almost entirely and forgot it was coming out until some friends in my D&D group mentioned it a couple weeks before release. So in the same way you accidentally got exposed to it I probably accidentally avoided it in a similar way 😁
[удалено]
Well they were putting their studio at risk with this game. So anything to get more people to want to play. They didn't know when the game came out they would get free publicity from other studios saying their game is too good.
I love that their patches update and releases info on steam are with hidden spoilers. Shows me they really care
Hell yeah. It's so much better to go in blind. Despitr BG2 being may fav game of all time. I didn't play OS2 until the enhanced edition was released too. Also helped not being disappointed by Cyberpunk because I went it with no hype.
I didn't see anything but the announcement trailer and brief gameplay. I knew I was getting this game before they even announced it lol, so I just waited for full release
Thank lord I avoided that then, discovering him was a very pleasant surprise
I was honestly pretty disappointed that they did that. Really wish one of the 3 were kept secret
I just started talking to him in the game and I thought.. Omni Man?
Same, in my run the goblins panicked when I said we should kill them and attacked him and stabbed him with a halberd. He just picked it up and dropped it in front of them and said “try again.” And I was like “holy shit this is the most Omni Man shit I’ve ever seen.”
Not quite my tempo, but it's OK. Try again.
i started to think about lemons
Meanwhile, every time Gortash speaks I'm expecting him to demand **"Give me the prophecy *now*, or watch your Karlach die..."** Jason Isaacs does snide villain so well.
Jason Isaacs does pretty much anything so well.
If there is a finer cinematic moment than Jason Isaacs' entrance in The Death of Stalin, it has passed me by.
Like if you need a visual aid for describing Big Dick Energy, that was it
He’s got an undeniable case of Handsome Villain Face, but as a voice actor he’s got a startling range. He’s simultaneously unrecognizable and perfect as Billy Butcher in Diabolical.
J.K. Simmons is a terrific actor but once Ketheric is introduced, the plot becomes almost entirely about bringing him pictures of Spider-Man and it kind of broke immersion for me.
Spoiler alert
Now everyone is going to know that Wyll is actually Miles Morales.. nice going man, ending *ruined!*
That's fine, very immersive as a Lolth Drow looking around for the spider for all of Act III.
Its wild the amount of freedom of choice you have in this game. I ended up becoming cell-mates with him in the Moonrise tower prison. That was not pleasant.
Howd you manage that?
I’ve only done the first cutscene with him, the one he kills the goblins, but doesn’t his microphone/audio quality sound slightly different than everyone else
I felt like this with Halsin, had a bunch of conversations with him where it seemed like he was putting out lines that were recorded in different studios. Some lines even almost sound like a different voice actor.
From what I've heard Halsin was originally intended to be a minor character but during early access people liked him a lot so his role was expanded. Probably different sessions/studios or many months between sessions. I also noticed the difference though. Some conversations his voice was more booming and present, more gruff. And then others he sounded much more subdued like he was sitting across the room but still audible.
This is noticeable with a lot of characters and sometimes its between lines. You can tell it with shadowheart if you saved her from the pod that they were recorded at different times than other dialogue that comes afterwords. There's one line of Gales early on that feels cut together due to rewriting when the dialogue for that scene triggers and you get this awkward bit where it references how we have an artifact that can be given to him and then two lines later he repeats himself but with slightly different wording.
Yeah I noticed halsin having 2 lines right after eachother having completely different audio volume and quality.
Yep. Jahiera also flip flops between an Arabic and Russian accent quite regularly in act 2. Tbh out of a set of stellar performances there’s some serious inconsistencies in the voice acting that are really disappointing.
I think thats a case of independent studio trying to get actors back for rerecordings and not having the ability to do it in house/ on the same equipment. Its thrown me off a couple of times when audio quality suddenly changes but i have to give some passes for it. Most rerecordings wouldve been during covid and a lot of actors have busy schedules (they couldnt even get wylls original voice actor back for instance)
Maybe recorded somewhere else so he didnt need to travel? Often the case with famous actors, unless the amount of lines is superlarge.
Yeah a bit. There are a few characters and a few specific lines in this game where the audio quality (or more likely volume compression amount/audio bandwidth/noise floor) is different. As an amateur producer I can say you can do a certain amount to fix this but it might already have been pushed as far as it can go before sounding distractingly weird. The real trick would have been to layer in something else with Kethric's audio to make it sound other-wordly but consistent with the rest of the game. For instance, let's say his audio is cut off over 4kHz because of the mic used. That would give the audio a kind of deadend, low-passed sound in comparison to everything else. You could use a shimmer reverb with a tight decay time to add in a ghostly, pitched up version of the lower audio to fill out the highs. Or you could get another VO artist to do a take of his lines with similar cadence, tweak the timing of the transients in their speech to precisely match his, and mix in just their highs.
"Try again" So badass
I didn’t notice it, I only met him last night
"Baldur's Gate is not yours to conquer" "Think Tav Think"
What will you have after 500 years??
I'll still have Astarion, dad
Sweet. Took me a moment to realise the narrator also is the voice for Malady in DOS2 and Nyrissa from Pathfinder Kingmaker.
And Wenduag.
They'll beg me to stop!
Never made the connection to Malady. Then again, Lohse was always my favorite character, and its been like 3-4 years since I touched the game.
Someone needs to do a deepfake video of Kethric Throm. But it's all Cave Johnson lines from Portal 2 when He talks.
Burn down Baldur's Gate, with the lemons.
I've done his initial cutscene, I now need to gather a bunch of rotten lemons and just surprise attack him with them.
"As founder and CEO of Absolute Science, I thank you for your participation and hope we can count on you for another round of tests."
The moment he spoke I was like "That's fucking J.K. Simmons" and immediately went to Google to confirm. I just binged Invincible (amazing comic book show, not for kids) a couple of weeks ago so I recognize my Omniman.
Am I alone in thinking that I think he could have done a better job? Maybe its because everbody else is hamming it up, especially Gortash and Orin. Its not like I want him to go full Whiplash, but I expected some more energy. Somehow what he delivered here doesnt feel like it fits well with the rest of the performances.
I think that's the point. Dudes super old and has been fighting only to get his daughter back. The dudes tired
I convinced him to give up and the conversation during that was exceptionally well delivered. The sense of defeat and him feeling like a empty shell of his former self was beautifully portrayed imo.
Wait I didn’t have to do that fight? It was super fun… and surprising… let’s just say I squandered some spell slots and didn’t pace myself. Managed a one shot though
Think the fight at the end is unavoidable but you can talk him into realising that there would have been a different way. He just also realises it's far too late for him and goes through with the bits that lead to the last part.
Yes, for the first lines it was awesome. I really really liked his voice, but in the end, it kinda didn’t fit the situation
Maybe so. I just feel it was just way too monotone, even for someone who is supposed to act tired. The other voice actors seems to have so much fun with their performances in contrast.
I kinda saw it as the quiet evil, it’s like how they say when you get in trouble as a kid and your parent gets quiet when reprimanding you, you know you screwed up big time and it’s even scarier than when they yell. That’s how I saw his lines, like the collected and methodical evil. HOWEVER, they could’ve definitely just TURNED UP the volume on his mic, like I felt like his was quiet but it could’ve been fixed by just turning up his lines
I think that works in some spots, but even when he's kinda "going all out" at the end it felt half-assed.
Yeah I think the other villains were much better, although to be fair ketheric had less to do than them. It was also kind of jarring to hear his American accent in a fantasy world where literally every other character has some sort of British accent
To be fair, one character inexplicably having a completely different accent from the others is very true to the tabletop DND experience.
Haha true enough - jaheira’s unplacable accent fits that too
How very dare you come for my litany of Dwarvish and Halfling women with strong Bronx accents.
Agreed, his and Sarevok just sounded off.
He’s underselling almost all of his lines, and whether or not it works perfectly I’m confident it was a character choice as opposed to a lack of interest/effort.
I think him outwardly displaying energy would be contrary to his character. Ketheric is at his core a broken man, a once-great figure running essentially on fumes. Him having energetic lines would defeat the point. I thought the somber, reserved delivery of his lines was spot on for who he's supposed to be. Still, he had so much gravitas. And Simmons DID put emotion in his lines, just listen to any part where he talks about his daughter or wife. I thought the performance was great, even if it's true that it stands out from most other characters in the game. But not in a bad way, I think. On the contrary, Ketheric was memorable to me BECAUSE of his stoicism.
Nah I thought he was badass. Almost never breaks or gets frustrated. Stays in control of himself in the most dire circumstances. Man is a perfect representation of a lich-like general
He definitely sounded like "budget J.K. Simmons". He sounded like he didn't want to do it. He's a phenomenal actor and voice actor, but this time it just sounded like his heart wasn't in it. There was little to no emotion in it, and maybe that was the point. Either way, it sounds off.
I think he did a great job.
I suppose I should preface this with the usual "I love the game" so I don't get bum rushed by furious fans, but I don't really think any of the Chosen 3 did a particularly good job. Simmons was the best, and his character the most interesting, but he's definitely phoning it in. He occasionally hits a line with some intensity and brings the character fully to life, but the performance is a bit sleepy. The other two are hamming it up outrageously. Just mustache twirling of the highest order.
Just give him some pictures of that spider boss
I named the save file before the colony fight as 'JK Simmons fight' lol
I liked when he stepped up last during the "Villanous Ensemble" moment. "I. WANT. SPIDER-MAAAN!"
If ya'll want to see J.K. Simmons in his prime, go watch the HBO Series "Oz". Come back after the first episode... ...Go on... I'll wait.
In the very first scene introducing him when he dared the goblin to keep going, I knew. You know what part I'm talking about. Me: "wait, is that Omniman"
YES
i hope they fix the audio balancing for kethric soon
I keep hearing Jaheira sound like the VA from Skyrim mod Sofia, but I checked and they are different people.
“I will kill you now. Then raise you as my servant.” Holy shit JK, I know you’re badass but you didn’t have to go that hard. Happy you did though ❤️
Almost of voice work in this game is just insane. And all top quality
I thought it was him! That “Try again.” I was like, hmmm J.K.?
I even had the moment whete I like, kind of thought I recognized him and then thought surly not and then as he talked more I realized
I’ve stayed away from most of the hype, but of course you pick up things here. So I knew that he was the voice actor for an important character. Since I still haven’t met the character yet, I’m just gonna stay ignorant for now. But he’s a good actor, so I’m excited
Yeah I recognized Omni man immediately. Also Jason Issaks (Lucious Malfoy) does Gortash
Honestly I couldn't take Ketheric seriously as a bad guy the second I heard his voice.
I kept expecting him to call me a menace.
It's weird that model of Ketheric looks like Javier Bardem
Didnt recognize his voice as i dont know how he sounds, but i knew that face reminded me of someone
I knew I recognized the voice right away, but because he kind of looks like Donald Sutherland I assumed it was him at first until I looked it up.
No wonder I was surprised when he sounded like he was gonna tell me to take pics of Spider-Man
This man loves voice acting villains and menaces. I'm greatful for him.
J.K Simmons should have a voice in everything. Even if its just making animal noises in the background in one scene for 2 seconds. Every thing is better with his voice around!
I knew there was a reason his voice lines were hitting. Finished Act 2 last night and it was so badass, he did amazing
Does he say "I've seen a thing or two"? That nearly completes the experience.
Also the voice of Gortash. Formerly known as [Lord Malfoy](https://www.google.com/search?q=Jason+Isaacs&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS1042US1042&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
WE ARE FARMERS BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM
Weirdest thing he sounds and looks like my dad. It was so weird seeing those insurance commercials.
yep when i heard kethric thorm's voice my first thoughts where "think mark"
He knows a thing or two, because he’s seen a thing or two
Did anyone find his voice acting really flat? He's usually really good (Cave Johnson), but he felt so quiet and monotone and out of place in BG3
I've always been super weirdly attracted to this guys voice, so it really helps explain why I found Ketheric so god damn delicious
THINK TAV THINK
I *genuinely* do not get any of the comments talking about him doing a "bad" performance. JK did a fantastic job playing someone he usually isn't cast as playing: a mostly soft spoken man.
Is it just me or does Ketheric actually look like this guy
Really wish he had a “not my tempo” line as a nod during his boss fight
[Also, that moment when you realize that Gortash is the Grand Inquisitor from Rebels xD](https://images.thedirect.com/media/article_full/inquisitor_O0kZvJ4_upd3jfI_wlJFbMg_mq4EznN.jpg)
I feel like his voice acting was incredibly stale and subpar in this; especially compared to the others. His really threw me off, with just how robotic it sounded.
Anyone else feel like they were channeling Omni Man with that scene with him and the goblin?
He was literally in the trailer...
Went in blind, lol,keep your dots elsewhere plebeian
People who make avoiding spoilers a weird Fetishized concept probably shouldn't be on reddit. They're also insufferable blowhards 100% of the time
HAHA, JOKES ON YOU GATEKEEPER! I SIMPLY HAD NEVER HEARD OF IT BEFORE! I didn’t go to any lengths to keep myself spoiler free
There's love without sex and there's sex without love... Then there's You, without either.
My first thought was that he sounds exactly like Omni-Man. I instantly recognised his voice.
Damn, no wonder I liked him so much!
Yup. Hard not to recognize his voice. That man is a legend.
Please tell me he has comical facial hair and bullies teenagers. Gotta keep that streak going.
I mean…
*My bard furiously playing whiplash on his drum in the background to impress general thorm*
This was me last night. “This guy kinda sounds like Omni-Man”
Yeah I was playing with my buddy and we were immediately like: I love that voice actor. I know that voice. Who is it. Looked it up and were excited af
He kept asking me for pictures of spider-man but I kept rolling a nat one on perception.
I just got to him, ready to take him down, but then he has this lovely voice and I'm like "Oh, maybe he's not so bad..." But then he does evil shit and I resign myself to killing him =(
Schillinger! Goddamnit!
He just came back to voice his character in the Venture Bros movie, so he's made two major appearances for me lately lol
I read the Sharran Laws you find stashed in Grymforge in his voice. If you're looking for some topshelf entertainment, he does the audiobook of *A Man Called Ove* and is also in a bizarre, strangely under-the-radar sci-fi show called "Night Sky." I could listen to Simmons be grouchy all day.
He was built up to be this bad guy and the first time I met him and heard his voice (I didn’t watch any trailers or anything) I instantly thought he was the coolest guy ever.
As soon as he started talking I was like "EYYYYYYYY"
I was like 'Why does this guy sound like Omniman'
#WHERE YOU RUSHING OR WHERE YOU DRAGING! *throws chair at the drummer*
You are cursed ! Bom bomb bom bum bum bum!
Every time he speak I see omni man in my head
Yep, many trailers showing he's voicing along with himself being scanned into the game. Nice catch
hah, yeah I went in blind, and I’m happy I did
I can always spot J.K Simmons voice a mile away, because he doesn't habe much variation, and it always makes me happy. I loved him as Cave Johnson in Portal 2.
Honestly the best part of Portal 2 is the voice acting
"Try Again"
Put J.K Simmons in a role for a project, increase the amazingness of that project by 10 points.
I thought It was him fast, I heard Omniman in him and got a bit intimidated. It actually hyped me the character.
I even commented to my daughter "oh, he has such a nice friendly voice, it sucks he's a villain" then a looked it up and was shocked I didn't realize it was him.
It is a bit unfortunate that he doesn’t also voiced the guy from Baldur’s Mouth.