Nolan North is replacing Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage as the voice of your Ghost in Destiny. The change will coincide with the release of the title's upcoming expansion, The Taken King, but North won't just be appearing in the add-on - his voice will be incorporated into the entire game, from start to finish.
But why has Bungie decided on doing this in the first place? Gamespot asked lead concept artist Jesse van Dijk that very question, although the answer's a bit more fuddled than we'd have liked. "We wanted to improve the sense of what goals players were chasing after," Djik says, adding: "What we wanted to do was chart that more clearly, and ultimately that led to something that we call 'questification'. All of The Taken King content has been given that treatment." In other words, the developer reckons that North's performance and dialogue helps better convey what's happening on-screen. Apparently, Bungie was so happy with how the new approach turned out that it decided to apply the same treatment to the rest of the release.
Djik explains further: "When we started looking at voice actors, and we decided to work with Nolan North, the consistency of the entire universe is very important to us, so we decided to give the full treatment to all of our previous content too. [This] is why Nolan North is also your Ghost from the very moment you start [the game]."
All in all, it sounds like this could be a decent switch to us. Destiny's story is disjointed enough as it is, so perhaps having the voice of Nathan Drake tie things together with a little more gusto will be just what the Speaker ordered. Do you think that this will turn out to be an improvement? Take your narrative seriously in the comments section below.
[source gamespot.com]
Comments 23
Nolan North is a very good voice actor, there is a reason why he is so popular. I think this is a good move, it's also good it's been added to all the content & not just The Taken King.
"Gamespot asked lead concept artist Jesse van Dijk that very question, although the answer's a bit more fuddled than we'd have liked."
Again though:
"lead concept artist"
Sounds like they might have asked the wrong dude.
@glassmusic I thought the exact same thing - didn't want to comment on it in the article though!
A little more enthusiasm can't save crap writing. Bungie can back pedal, sidestep and throw others under the bus all it wants but Dinklage wasn't the main problem.
@Gamer83 I actually liked Dinklage's performance. He sounds like an emotionless robot, as he should... playing an emotionless robot.
@eaglebob345 exactly
When I played the Alpha and Beta that was one thing that kept throwing me off. I couldn't stand Dinklage's performance. It was awful! I couldn't believe that they spent so much money on the game and THAT was what they went with.
I'm still undecided if I want to return to Destiny when Taken King drops. Ditching the light leveling is almost enough to get me on board, but what about the story missions? Crucible improvements and new game modes? Finding people to raid/prison of elders with? I would like to see major improvements all across the board before I commit more time and money into this.
Well, its not like he had that much work to do, he could probably get all the vanilla games lines recorded in a weekend.
I played the beta too and not once did I think that Dinklage's voice was naff. It's like @eaglebob345 said, he's supposed to play an emotional droid.
You can never go wrong with Nolan North, yes he is very overused, but at the same time no matter what he is given he always nails it out of the park, so i guess that not a bad thing. But there was a certain amount of humor involved with dinklebot from just how bad a delivery it was that will be missed.
@eaglebob345 Exexpt he was crashing lame jokes like "it was your idea to get in this, not mine" (or something really close) when you're entering a Lv. 4 earth public event as a Lv. 32. I think your ghost having emotion is clear with the dialouge, but Dinklage makes it sound like it's supposed to be emotionless.
Am I the only guy who think's Dinklage's best role was in Elf?
Dinklebot......noooooooo....
Should have gone with him from the start.
NN's voice alone may sell more copies of Destiny: The Taken King.
@Cowboysfan-22 But he's famous! THIS WILL PAY OFF GUYS!
Still cant beat the line "the wizard came from the moon" haha
Because Dinklage's voice was boring. Simple as that.
Poor Peter. I quite liked what he did. I'm sure this glances right off him but the fact that he was in it is partly what drew me to the game. I'll say it again: why does the ghost need to be some unesessary comedian? I think it's messed up they're replacing all his parts.
Pay no mind to the false midget! Dinklebot was the best...disappointment is essentially guaranteed. Like everyone has pretty much said...the voice acting isn't the problem...the boring convoluted story line is what makes this game terrible. the gameplay is the only saving grace, really.
Language -Tasuki
@audiobrainiac I'm with you brother. You really summed up exactly how I felt when I found out about this.
Dude I really like Dinklebot......his performance was fine. I mean not spectacular but he is just a floating AI companion. It's Bungie's fault for creating a shattered story that doesn't make sense yet, not Peter Dinklage's voice acting. Its not like he wrote the script....
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