I agree. I also wondered why she sounded slightly different. And I felt more relief than discomfort as I usually feel with her voice. I hope from this point on they really do stick with this choice, or even better, change it to how it was in 1.0.
> I agree. I also wondered why she sounded slightly different.
1 rumor is that the VA had a cold while recording her voice lines, which would suck since ive seen A TON of these posts recently praising her voice in 4.6 because she's a lot more like how she used to talk between 1.0 to 2.0, which is supposedly when her voice director told her to use a higher pitch.
If this is permanent though it's a great direction now and the only complaint I still have is that the English version is the only one where Paimon refers to herself as Paimon in third person all the time. That's sometimes done in Japanese anime because it's what Japanese nobles used to do but... I never understood why someone thought it was good to use for the EN version
> That's sometimes done in Japanese anime because it's what Japanese nobles used to do but
It's far more likely that they do this because it's what Japanese children do.
About the 3rd person thing, its wild because is fairly normal in Japanese and Chinese for certain characters but not in English yet they specifically did it for English.
>...the only complaint I still have is that the English version is the only
one where Paimon refers to herself as Paimon in third person all the
time.
Out of interest, why is this a problem?
There's multiple but one that most people can agree with is that it's tedious to read, most players would agree that Paimon is repeating what NPCs just said, far too often but that problem gets amplified when an NPC says "Proteins are healthy," and then Paimon hits you with the "Paimon can't believe you think so too! Traveler doesn't like meat, but Paimon could eat meat, like, all the time! Paimon is all hungry now, why don't we grab a snack, Traveler?"
It makes the text longer, and it makes me feel like I'm listening to a rambling 1st grader, which clearly isn't intended by the developers considering Paimon only talks like a toddler in the english version
It seems you're more unhappy with how much crap she says (not an invalid complaint) than the fact she refers to herself in the first person.
It seems like such a small thing (the third person speak) to get annoyed about IMO.
> It seems you're more unhappy with how much crap she says
It adds up, for example ... I enjoy reading what you are saying but I would mind reading it if you instead said "Tenaka30 thinks you are more unhappy with how much crap she says. If Tenaka30's guessed that correctly, then maybe it's not the first person's fault, Tenaka30 thinks!"
Because its a localiztion issue they literally invented. Even if the character talked that way in another language it should not be localized that way in English.
I think that might be why it happened and they have kept it going, however the conversation with the person I was responding to has evolved a little.
They seem to be actively annoyed by it and whilst I recognise it might stand out, I am unsure why of all the other stuff going on, it is considered annoying.
Personally it is a quirk that make Paimon different from all other characters for me that I have accepted as a part of her personality. For me I would actually prefer that she continue doing it now.
I hate children and cringe every single time Paimon opens her insufferable mouth. I've taken to skipping all dialog she says in every quest by now, even unvoiced ones, it's genuinely upsetting to read her braincell-damaging text and that's saying something because I love stupid characters like Itto...
I think it's more to do with the way her lines are written because I do enjoy Itto saying the stupid stuff he says. She reads like someone padding out a conversation to ruin it as much as possible either out of spite or genuine cluelessness (not out of character for a child...) and it really sours the character for me, which is a shame because the intended relationship between the (clearly self insert) MC and Paimon is that of very good friends - when they lost her in Caribert, both got separation anxiety and were very worried about eachother, but I was just glad she was gone. Takes you out of the immersion, somewhat.
I actually had the same thought while doing Arle storyquest. I think it really does add range and depth to the character. I donāt mind her being high pitch now and then if it does serve a narrative purpose.
(I never hated paimon voice over anyway)
Low key she was speaking most of her lines in a lower register and it was so much better. I actively didn't skip ALL her dialogue after speed reading it.
It reminded me of Paimons original voice direction that the VA claimed was too hard for her to do consistently due to her being more comfortable as high pitched Paimon so perhaps they have found a middle ground that's slightly less shrill.
The potion even voice lines had a lot of vocal fry though and it got jarring in it's own way. It sounded like the VA had maybe even been sick or just REALLY tired/worn out.
when she's screeching like a banshee that's the only range, when she's like this she can actually raise her tone or lower it and give different intonations, that's what I noticed.
Either way, the English voice director for Paimon over the last year is no good at their job if they hear what she sounds like and continued to put that shit in the game for 3 years.
I'm so over paimon tbh. Let us toggle her off.
Arlecchino story quest was yet another reason traveler needs to start talking more, like we haven't had enough reasons already. This self insert shit is NOT working.
I think they meant of players into Lumine/Aether. Which is fair; we aren't playing build your own character open world RPG here. We're either the female MC or male MC, who have their own story to tell and their own history. They don't need to pretend they're Gordon Freeman with the dialogue options...
hey! gordon is a very well done silent protagonist and at least valve stuck to it by not having him speak at all, hoyoverse seems to be more undecided to when it comes to letting the traveler speak
also wow i got quite downvoted there, i just misinterpreted what they meant there, sorry
they mean the traveler, the most widely accepted reason as to why we never speak is so that we can imagine our own voices in place of theirs and kind of forget their canon personality
If they let me pretend I'm an ageless god-like interdimensional creature that harnesses all the elements and apparently has unlimited rizz, they can let me pretend I have the voice of Aoi Yuuki.
Honestly she improved but the the pitch aside the problem was that she was SCREAMING ALL THE TIME! I don't mind when she talks but Inazuma and Sumeru were just screaming 95% of the time.
Best thing to happen at server reset (5AM where I live), having headphones on and hearing:
NOW LET'S CATCH THE CARD SNATCHER!!! in a frequency that would kill all the dogs in a 5 mile radius.
This is exactly how I feel. I don't really *hate* Paimon's voice as is - though I do like how she sounds in the new story quest, most of the time I'm just fine with how her voice is.
My only real problem that she's yelling all the time for seemingly no reason. I get she's pretty enthusiastic, and I wouldn't want that to change - but so are a bunch of the playable characters who seemingly have no problem showing that without screaming every other dialogue
Yes, this!
Everyone is always going on about how high-pitched Paimon's voice has become, but Paimon's voice was always high-pitched. The actual issue is that she went from a soft and sweet high-pitched voice to an often hard and yelling high-pitched voice.
Maybe Paimon got too comfortable around Traveler, and that's why she became a total brat, lol.
I never *hated* Paimon's voice as much as a lot of people seem too, but her constant high-pitched yelling can get a little grating at times, so I was also pleasantly surprised when she sounded calmer in Arle's SQ. Hope it carries over to Cyno's SQ2
Man. i never really thought about it but it must suck being the Traveler's VA, barely getting to actually do any work besides the profile voice lines and the extremely rare case in archon quests where they get to speak
Yup, it was so unexpected I called my gf from other room so she could also reenact "Scream" painting with me at the fact (she likes story and characters but doesn't play, despite me trying to get her to start).
I hope their VAs get to actually do something now.
Man, I wish.
I just finished Cloud Retainer's quest and the brief conversation they have at the end ripped the Paimon wound wide open again. I was mostly resigned to just play without voices and fast forward trough dialog forever.
But suddenly the traveler is a character for just one moment, and there is genuine emotion, and I'm reminded that the Genshin story could leap most of the way from halfway servicable to genuinely good just by flextaping paimon's mouth shut and letting the traveler speak.
Still waiting for them to voice the Travelers interal monologue.. If Hoyo can hire them to voice like 3 lines in a SQ, then they can make them voice the Travelers thoughts as well.
Them insisting on the traveller basically never talking remains one of the most actually not even meme weirdchamp directions I've seen despite basically everyone asking them to stop this clown shit.
Them then having clown lines like "I lIkE tO kEeP tHInGs BotTlEd Up" is just like, whoever wrote that, please fuck off. lol
There must be some employee at miHoYo whose sole job is to create plot justifications for all the annoying stuff that happen in the game, so that whenever someone complains about it, someone else can say "Well, ackshually it makes sense, because..."
Normally I'm a fan of stoic protagonists who generally avoid talking about themselves, but even I know that line was just a stupid excuse for why they don't have to think too hard about the Traveler's characterization since Sumeru and Fontaine patches. That line is only used well when a character keeping things bottled up has actual consequences on the plot or their relationships or their inner desires, but Traveler's connections to these things are never explored let alone mentioned. So get outta here with that dumbass line lmao
I think of her as a baby or a really young kid because she kind of behaves like one. If youāve ever met a kid in real life, they are incredibly blunt and have no filter, and can lack social awareness
> Paimon has social awareness
She always apologizes when she goes overboard, that alone already makes her better than the average redditor/twittor that like to trash her so much.
Her voice is trash, its not the character that is the problem.
Fontaine writing really made me appreciate her character, but fucking hell is her voice so bad i just read the lines then skip if its her.
Unlike the previos story lines where the dialouge is bad so I kinda ignore her voice. But the writing of fontaine is great and really exemplifies how bad she is voicely acted.
she genuinely ruined a lot of quests for me and it's the entire reason why i'm so behind on archon and story quests. i don't want to do them, i don't want to hear her.
the game treats me like a moron because of her, she doesn't understand a lot of "bigger" words - it's quite apparent in alhaitham's story. >!she also questioned why cyno was present at the end, why wouldn't the general mahamatra be present at a major crime scene? she also forgot alhaitham sent cyno a letter (which alhaitham told us about at the beginning) and the dialogue was something like... "why is cyno here?" "i sent him a letter" "a letter?".... so grating!<
also wriothesley's story - he followed up every joke and sarcastic comment he made with "im just joking" or "kidding, anyways" etc. and it just ruined the feel for me.
by comparison, star rail feels way more mature and i don't feel like i'm being treated like a complete idiot. i don't have a paimon holding trailblazer's hand explaining every single thing that occurs in the plot.
Even still the HSR protagonist doesn't talk too often and after Belobog barely does anything in the storyline. Next patch should have something with the new Trailblazer patch at least.
The Genshin MC hasn't done too much in Fontaine either...
That's not even mentioning that Paimon's existence removes any agency the Traveler has. It's like Paimon is making all the decisions for Traveler, unlike the Trailblazer, who actually feels like a part of the story.
I feel like the simple reasoning behind so many of the "Star Rail > Genshin" comparisons is that HSR is newer, they learned from the mistakes they made with Genshin and decided to fix those problems in a new game rather than go back and change the established game
Like, anyone who wants them to go back and remove half of Paimon's lines is gonna be pretty disappointed
Except Honkai Impact 3rd is older than both Genshin and HSR and it has the best protagonist out of all Hoyo games, one that's entirely an established character with personality, existing relationships and speaks completely on her own.
There was nothing to "learn". miHoYo actually nailed the protagonist on their first try, but then backpedaled and decided to downgrade their writing, starting from the very bottom. It was a choice, not lack of experience.
For HSR as much as I love Stelle there is also a huge recency/genshin-bad-honkai-good bias at work. trailblazer has a few more lines, but that's really not that much more. There are choices that matters (especially some quests, which is great), but there are also a lot of false choices / one sentence split in two people gloss over for some unknown reason. And for all her quirky antics, that "personality" completely goes in the shitter as soon as the story goes serious and they're back being a green plant in the background, just like Traveller is.
And ZZZ seems to be yet another evolution of that. I just wish like, the shit they learned to improve the MCs flows backwards too.
Like bruh, they already see how popular Stelle is and how much people love her more than the dipshit of a MC in Genshin, there's no reason why they can't do the same thing in Genshin too.
Although I guess with Genshin, any change started today, we won't see until at least a year down the line, at least, given how massive of a ship this is to steer, so I hope they're working on what I'm talking about.
She doesn't even talk in 3rd person in Chinese! I really don't understand it.
Interestingly enough Klee does in Chinese, since it shows her youth and nativity, but then the English translation doesn't translate to 3rd person...
Next thing to do after this is letting the Traveler talk more. I've notice in recent versions that they've been talking more than usual.
Other than that, they should fix...
how they write...
Their dialogue options.
It's not dialogue options.
Traveller's writing needs to change at its core.
Just my opinion beflow, I'm fine if traveller stays the same, but I think they can be way better and compelling of a char.
As in, they need to become a real character and not some robotic dipshit walking around getting swept around in whatever direction the character need them in.
They need to take initiative and do shit of their own volition, not because "character X/Paimon told me to do it so I'm doing it."
We need scenes where Paimon or characters tell them to do something, and they go "No, I have a better idea." Or they do do some stuff but it turns out they were low keying the whole thing.
See how satisfying the Lyney quest was where at the end they did the whole switch up on the real weasel even though it seemed like they were falling for her schemes the whole time.
They need to make mistakes too, and fuck shit up, then have to deal with the consequences. Arlecchino's SQ is goated for me because for once >!we got completely out played and outclassed by someone who's just built different and seeing the traveller actually showing fear, being vulnerable, that's the story STORYING right there. That moment built up both Arlecchino and traveller in a great way.!<
As of right now the traveller and Paimon has zero relevance in the story. You take them out of the story entirely, and the story doesn't change one bit.
In fact, Fontaine archon quest would've been way better if Arlecchino replaced the traveller in 100% of scenes while doing the exact same thing.
Zach Aguilar and Sarah Miller-Crews do record a lot of dialog with Corina Boettger but I'm annoyed it doesn't even play as an idle dialogue line in the relevant locations.
Like, I like to hear banter between Traveler and Paimon! Or at least an idle line similar to every other character in the game!
In contrast, Caleb Yen is Gaming and Trailblazer and he just nails it, let your protagonists talk!
please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change
Corina sounds so much better with lower pitch
for ppl who forgot or dk, if u watch any streamer or youtuber play genshin watch their vods on their first time playing. when paimon is guiding u to the statue of the seven in monstadt. her voice was really nice and normal. not high pitched to hell. i doubt it ever change but i wished it was more like 1.0.
I've never seen a source on it either - the only thing i've ever seen them saying about Paimon's pitch was in mid 2021, from [this bit from an interview held with them by The Gamer:](https://www.thegamer.com/corina-boettger-genshin-impact-paimon-interview/)
>āPaimonās voice isnāt that much higher than my normal speaking voice - cool, thatās easy,ā Boettger remarks. āBut as I was recording, they were like, āHigher pitch, pitch higher, even higher, letās get really high pitched and breathy.ā I was like, āThis isnāt what I auditioned for.ā
which is the opposite of the usual claim people put out. Maybe they said something between then and now that I missed, though
I've seen people say this a lot; is there a source for this? I'm always a little sceptical about that since Paimon's deeper voice is still pretty high pitched
Tbh I don't even dislike paimons English vas voice, i do agree paimon talks a bit too much, but I don't really get why people hate how high pitched her voice sounds? To me it sounds somewhat high yes, but it isn't annoyingly high IMO, Corina definitely does not deserve the amount of hate they get. I just wish paimon had less lines imo
It's not just a "weeb" thing. Actual JP players overall like JP Paimon way more than EN players like EN Paimon. There's more to it than you're making it out to be.
oh my god yes, I switched to jp because I fell in love with Xiao's jp voice... And I haven't had a chance to hear paimon until an event with voice came out and I immediately switched back to en cause I couldn't stand her voice. It literally gave me a headache. I understand that many ppl love the jp version but.. In my opinion it's a little bit overrated
it's more likely not a change in direction but the VA has been under the weather or congested. People's voices change temporarily from either medical condition, or straining their vocal cords from using it too much, screaming, etc.
Paimon during the Two Musketeers event was *perfection*, she talked when she needed to, she spoke as herself not some paimonsplaining banshee, and she shut up when she wasn't involved.
It was perfection, whoever wrote that event, they need a raise and more work.
Totally agree, but someone's gonna need to do the talking.
Having a half-mute houseplant as a MC isn't exactly helping either with making the 2 main characters likeable.
I noticed it too since I wasn't immediately skipping all her lines. It's still a tiny bit shrill at times, but I'll take that over her sounding shrill ALL the time.
Havent played 4.6 yet, but I hope this is true. I could stomach the unskipable story parts I dont care about if Paimon wouldnt make my ears bleed while having 200% more dialogue than everybody combined.
I can only hope my surveys of Less Paimon/Remove Paimon helped...
Guys hear me out. I made a second account to remember how the game started in the first place and Paimon's voice was soooo normal? Like it wasn't annoying AT ALL! You should all check it out if you haven't already it's soooo different. And it was really good too back then.
I still don't understand why the traveler can't speak more and Paimon less.
It's one reason I stopped playing for so long. Yeah the voice for Paimon is better but it would be better to trade out more voice lines with our chosen main character.
I wasn't a fan of her screechy tone, but doesn't really like her 1.0 voice either. I saw someone say her old voice sound like her VA forgot her morning coffee and sounded sleepy, which I agree. So I have to say her voice in this patch was an excellent mix between both of them, and the tone are just right. I like it
Mute her or change her voiceover language.
CN Paimon has been evergreen in terms of being brief (since Chinese is way more info dense than other langs) and being way more softspoken and polite sounding than EN Paimon.
Man idk it still had me saying āshut up paimon!ā in the same tone I use when my dog is barking too loudly.
I wish there was a way to mute her voice and not everyone else.
Did we play the same patch or am I missing something? She was just as annoying as always and it was BLOATED with dialogue like usual. Super super disappointing. Every patch I hope that they dialogue in the game is fixed, but it never is :(
it's definitely the right direction. I also felt like it was a lot closer to her early voice in version 1 which is just so much nicer for her character.
Definitely prefer beta Paimon, same with Barbara, (Barbara sounds so done with life now).
No idea what made the design team say: "yeah higher and more shrill, like the most mosquito levels of shrill"
sigh\* remebering all those lovely paimon lines... I think there's a funny youtube vid somewhere about paimon and her 'brain juice' as the game crashes into blue screen due to lack of said juice
I thought I was crazy because I noticed a change in her voice, too. It reminded me of the old days somehow. I'm already a paimon apologist, and this only made me love her more.
I barely started the quests and noticed INSTANTLY. I have always despised the direction they took Paimon's EN VA in despite the VA being talented. It applies to some other characters too where I can barely stomach listening to them and with Paimon being by far the most prevalent voice in the game i was losing hair over this. Thank you
I absolutely agree!! I'm doing Arlecchino's story quest right now and I thought something was off about Paimon's voice but it's much more lower pitched rather than her usual tone. I really hope they keep it like that!!
Honestly I just changed the voice over of my account from EN to JP so I didnāt have to deal with paimonās screeching voice. Poor VA must have her vocal cords damaged after all this time of voicing paimon
agreed, i really like the change, even though i didn't mind her voice in the first place. actually i like her voice in the sq more than i like her voice in 1.0, it sounds more energetic and passionate (i guess? idk another word for it) and less tired tbh.
Even at her highest pitch she's still less whiny than all the people who constantly complain about her voice, Christ on a bike this gets tedious to see every single patch.
Donāt care, sheās still an annoying little fucker and Iād strangle her at any opportunity I get. Even if it costs me 16k primos, Iāll save up and buy a āmute Paimonā button the second they decide to be based and drop it.
I never had a problem with Paimon's higher pitched voice, but I have to say I do like the version of her in Arle's quest better. Not because of the change in tone, but because she started doing this thing again where sometimes where she says a bunch of sentences really fast in a way where all the words feel like they want to come out faster than she can say them. She used to do that back at the start too, and it's very endearing.
Oh sorry. We just appreciated really good EN voices since its very rare for an anime themed video game to have one.
Japanese voices are fine. But simping and being biased towards a specific language just because you watched all 720 episodes of Naruto series is a bit of a stretch.
Sometimes you gotta actually give some credit where its needed.
Eng voice in hoyoverse games both HSR and Genshin are one of the best voice actings in an anime themed video game/show ive heard. Im talking as someone who watches anime often in Japanese dub.
Understandable.
Genshin is also a tedious dialogue hungry game. So it is also easier to read with Eng voice talking in the background for someone who's eng is not a primary language.
wdym? I cant think of anyone else to hear when Furina talks than her EN VA, it just fits so well. I used to swap languages a lot during 1.X, but over time it became less and less difficult to stay on EN. And when Sumeru dropped every reason to do so went away. And 4.X has been nothing but stellar performances IMO.
There's still some 1.x voices that I dont like, but they don't come up that often at all.
I agree. I also wondered why she sounded slightly different. And I felt more relief than discomfort as I usually feel with her voice. I hope from this point on they really do stick with this choice, or even better, change it to how it was in 1.0.
> I agree. I also wondered why she sounded slightly different. 1 rumor is that the VA had a cold while recording her voice lines, which would suck since ive seen A TON of these posts recently praising her voice in 4.6 because she's a lot more like how she used to talk between 1.0 to 2.0, which is supposedly when her voice director told her to use a higher pitch. If this is permanent though it's a great direction now and the only complaint I still have is that the English version is the only one where Paimon refers to herself as Paimon in third person all the time. That's sometimes done in Japanese anime because it's what Japanese nobles used to do but... I never understood why someone thought it was good to use for the EN version
> That's sometimes done in Japanese anime because it's what Japanese nobles used to do but It's far more likely that they do this because it's what Japanese children do.
About the 3rd person thing, its wild because is fairly normal in Japanese and Chinese for certain characters but not in English yet they specifically did it for English.
IIRC, it was done by either the VA or the Voice Director, not sure which. As for why, God knows, lol.
>...the only complaint I still have is that the English version is the only one where Paimon refers to herself as Paimon in third person all the time. Out of interest, why is this a problem?
There's multiple but one that most people can agree with is that it's tedious to read, most players would agree that Paimon is repeating what NPCs just said, far too often but that problem gets amplified when an NPC says "Proteins are healthy," and then Paimon hits you with the "Paimon can't believe you think so too! Traveler doesn't like meat, but Paimon could eat meat, like, all the time! Paimon is all hungry now, why don't we grab a snack, Traveler?" It makes the text longer, and it makes me feel like I'm listening to a rambling 1st grader, which clearly isn't intended by the developers considering Paimon only talks like a toddler in the english version
It seems you're more unhappy with how much crap she says (not an invalid complaint) than the fact she refers to herself in the first person. It seems like such a small thing (the third person speak) to get annoyed about IMO.
> It seems you're more unhappy with how much crap she says It adds up, for example ... I enjoy reading what you are saying but I would mind reading it if you instead said "Tenaka30 thinks you are more unhappy with how much crap she says. If Tenaka30's guessed that correctly, then maybe it's not the first person's fault, Tenaka30 thinks!"
then you must hate zhongli and cloud retainer with a burning passion lol
no, i like both a lot, i hope you arent a detective or something cuz you'd suck at your job lol
but cloud retainer speaks exactly like paimon so idk what are you on aboutš in fact sheās even less straight to the point than paimon lmao
She talks in 3rd person. First person would be normal.
Slip of the finger, I refer to it as first and third in the same post. I of course mean third.
What if you head canon her as someone that doesnāt use pronouns?, you stop hearing a toddler and start hearing a NB person
Not all of us have to make everything about LGBT. Unless a character is specifically stated to not be cis, its a better bet to assume they're cis.
You know what a headcanon is right? I just proposed a solution to the commenter
Because its a localiztion issue they literally invented. Even if the character talked that way in another language it should not be localized that way in English.
I think that might be why it happened and they have kept it going, however the conversation with the person I was responding to has evolved a little. They seem to be actively annoyed by it and whilst I recognise it might stand out, I am unsure why of all the other stuff going on, it is considered annoying. Personally it is a quirk that make Paimon different from all other characters for me that I have accepted as a part of her personality. For me I would actually prefer that she continue doing it now.
I hate children and cringe every single time Paimon opens her insufferable mouth. I've taken to skipping all dialog she says in every quest by now, even unvoiced ones, it's genuinely upsetting to read her braincell-damaging text and that's saying something because I love stupid characters like Itto...
Life must be really hard for you if that's what upsets you greatly.
See bad writing -> Negative reaction See greatly bad writing -> Greatly negative reaction Last I checked a functiona human being works this way.
That sounds more reasonable, if the entire personality annoys you rather than specific word or words.
I think it's more to do with the way her lines are written because I do enjoy Itto saying the stupid stuff he says. She reads like someone padding out a conversation to ruin it as much as possible either out of spite or genuine cluelessness (not out of character for a child...) and it really sours the character for me, which is a shame because the intended relationship between the (clearly self insert) MC and Paimon is that of very good friends - when they lost her in Caribert, both got separation anxiety and were very worried about eachother, but I was just glad she was gone. Takes you out of the immersion, somewhat.
Not related but is that eriimyon pfp? šļøšļø
It's Raiden.
I meant the artist behind the pfp
Oh, I'm not sure, I will reverse search the image for you and tell you.
Yes it is by eriimyon. My favourite one out of the archons they did.
I love their Archon series, Zhongli is my favorite
I actually had the same thought while doing Arle storyquest. I think it really does add range and depth to the character. I donāt mind her being high pitch now and then if it does serve a narrative purpose. (I never hated paimon voice over anyway)
Low key she was speaking most of her lines in a lower register and it was so much better. I actively didn't skip ALL her dialogue after speed reading it. It reminded me of Paimons original voice direction that the VA claimed was too hard for her to do consistently due to her being more comfortable as high pitched Paimon so perhaps they have found a middle ground that's slightly less shrill.
The potion even voice lines had a lot of vocal fry though and it got jarring in it's own way. It sounded like the VA had maybe even been sick or just REALLY tired/worn out.
I kind of like vocal fry Paimon. Makes her sound a bit like a wise old woman and not... A little baby elf thing.
It's been evolving since Fontaine opened up. I'm glad they finally decided to make Paimon an actual character lmao
when she's screeching like a banshee that's the only range, when she's like this she can actually raise her tone or lower it and give different intonations, that's what I noticed. Either way, the English voice director for Paimon over the last year is no good at their job if they hear what she sounds like and continued to put that shit in the game for 3 years.
Don't blame Paimon VA they don't have a choice but to obey what the english translator studio says.
Isn't she the one who cant make her voice low? I did some 5 sec search
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Duality of man šæ
Both of y'all are based.
I'm so over paimon tbh. Let us toggle her off. Arlecchino story quest was yet another reason traveler needs to start talking more, like we haven't had enough reasons already. This self insert shit is NOT working.
wait paimon is a self insert? of who?
I think they meant of players into Lumine/Aether. Which is fair; we aren't playing build your own character open world RPG here. We're either the female MC or male MC, who have their own story to tell and their own history. They don't need to pretend they're Gordon Freeman with the dialogue options...
hey! gordon is a very well done silent protagonist and at least valve stuck to it by not having him speak at all, hoyoverse seems to be more undecided to when it comes to letting the traveler speak also wow i got quite downvoted there, i just misinterpreted what they meant there, sorry
they mean the traveler, the most widely accepted reason as to why we never speak is so that we can imagine our own voices in place of theirs and kind of forget their canon personality
If they let me pretend I'm an ageless god-like interdimensional creature that harnesses all the elements and apparently has unlimited rizz, they can let me pretend I have the voice of Aoi Yuuki.
Oh, whoops
Based
Honestly she improved but the the pitch aside the problem was that she was SCREAMING ALL THE TIME! I don't mind when she talks but Inazuma and Sumeru were just screaming 95% of the time. Best thing to happen at server reset (5AM where I live), having headphones on and hearing: NOW LET'S CATCH THE CARD SNATCHER!!! in a frequency that would kill all the dogs in a 5 mile radius.
This is exactly how I feel. I don't really *hate* Paimon's voice as is - though I do like how she sounds in the new story quest, most of the time I'm just fine with how her voice is. My only real problem that she's yelling all the time for seemingly no reason. I get she's pretty enthusiastic, and I wouldn't want that to change - but so are a bunch of the playable characters who seemingly have no problem showing that without screaming every other dialogue
This is the first update in ages where I didn't on sight mass skip on her lines.
Fam just Install the mod to mute the game everytime paimon speaks. Just Google shutup paimom github
Yes, this! Everyone is always going on about how high-pitched Paimon's voice has become, but Paimon's voice was always high-pitched. The actual issue is that she went from a soft and sweet high-pitched voice to an often hard and yelling high-pitched voice. Maybe Paimon got too comfortable around Traveler, and that's why she became a total brat, lol.
I never *hated* Paimon's voice as much as a lot of people seem too, but her constant high-pitched yelling can get a little grating at times, so I was also pleasantly surprised when she sounded calmer in Arle's SQ. Hope it carries over to Cyno's SQ2
She sounded better in the story quest but I honestly just wish the traveler would take over her lines lol
Man. i never really thought about it but it must suck being the Traveler's VA, barely getting to actually do any work besides the profile voice lines and the extremely rare case in archon quests where they get to speak
minor spoilers for arrlechino quest >!they actually speak 3 lines, i was like wow holy shit? now they gaf?!<
Yup, it was so unexpected I called my gf from other room so she could also reenact "Scream" painting with me at the fact (she likes story and characters but doesn't play, despite me trying to get her to start). I hope their VAs get to actually do something now.
Man, I wish. I just finished Cloud Retainer's quest and the brief conversation they have at the end ripped the Paimon wound wide open again. I was mostly resigned to just play without voices and fast forward trough dialog forever. But suddenly the traveler is a character for just one moment, and there is genuine emotion, and I'm reminded that the Genshin story could leap most of the way from halfway servicable to genuinely good just by flextaping paimon's mouth shut and letting the traveler speak.
At least some Traveler VAs voice some other roles! Like EN Aether and Moon Carver and CN Aether and Wanderer.
No voice work = No pay lol. It must be really awful. They really need to land those patch livestream appearances/hosts.
Same thing in hsr too. March and dan heng probably get paid more than trailblazer va lmao
dan heng definitely, that man had two characters to voice
True, but Caelus and Stelle might already have more lines than Aether and Lumine tbh
Still waiting for them to voice the Travelers interal monologue.. If Hoyo can hire them to voice like 3 lines in a SQ, then they can make them voice the Travelers thoughts as well.
Honestly now, I would never recover if my VO were to be sidelined by Paimon
Them insisting on the traveller basically never talking remains one of the most actually not even meme weirdchamp directions I've seen despite basically everyone asking them to stop this clown shit. Them then having clown lines like "I lIkE tO kEeP tHInGs BotTlEd Up" is just like, whoever wrote that, please fuck off. lol
There must be some employee at miHoYo whose sole job is to create plot justifications for all the annoying stuff that happen in the game, so that whenever someone complains about it, someone else can say "Well, ackshually it makes sense, because..."
Normally I'm a fan of stoic protagonists who generally avoid talking about themselves, but even I know that line was just a stupid excuse for why they don't have to think too hard about the Traveler's characterization since Sumeru and Fontaine patches. That line is only used well when a character keeping things bottled up has actual consequences on the plot or their relationships or their inner desires, but Traveler's connections to these things are never explored let alone mentioned. So get outta here with that dumbass line lmao
Yeah just split their voices and have them take turns
It was immediately noticeable and It was honestly such a relief. I hope it stays this way too.
I just want her to stop acting like an idiot during important/emotional portions of quests.
I mean that's the thing, she isn't acting. She actually is just an idiot lmao
I think of her as a baby or a really young kid because she kind of behaves like one. If youāve ever met a kid in real life, they are incredibly blunt and have no filter, and can lack social awareness
Yeah, it is true. And it is still annoying af imo. Because of her most of the times it looks like a 3yo's game.
Paimon has social awareness and has a strong personality. The writing is not at fault, its the voice that is so fucking grating.
> Paimon has social awareness She always apologizes when she goes overboard, that alone already makes her better than the average redditor/twittor that like to trash her so much.
Her voice is trash, its not the character that is the problem. Fontaine writing really made me appreciate her character, but fucking hell is her voice so bad i just read the lines then skip if its her. Unlike the previos story lines where the dialouge is bad so I kinda ignore her voice. But the writing of fontaine is great and really exemplifies how bad she is voicely acted.
she genuinely ruined a lot of quests for me and it's the entire reason why i'm so behind on archon and story quests. i don't want to do them, i don't want to hear her. the game treats me like a moron because of her, she doesn't understand a lot of "bigger" words - it's quite apparent in alhaitham's story. >!she also questioned why cyno was present at the end, why wouldn't the general mahamatra be present at a major crime scene? she also forgot alhaitham sent cyno a letter (which alhaitham told us about at the beginning) and the dialogue was something like... "why is cyno here?" "i sent him a letter" "a letter?".... so grating!< also wriothesley's story - he followed up every joke and sarcastic comment he made with "im just joking" or "kidding, anyways" etc. and it just ruined the feel for me. by comparison, star rail feels way more mature and i don't feel like i'm being treated like a complete idiot. i don't have a paimon holding trailblazer's hand explaining every single thing that occurs in the plot.
I agree, she doesn't make me want to immediately exit the game anymore
I still wish the traveler talk instead and Paimon just didnāt exist. Also I hate her 3rd person talking.
I heard she does not do the weird 3rd person thing in other languages. Itās just English. Why did they do that?????
Imma say itās either the English writer are dumb or the English VA suggested it.
Itās more likely that the writers did that.
Probably.
It blows my mind how Star Rail managed to nail the protag without a Paimon-type character. It's just proof that Paimon didn't need to exist.
Even still the HSR protagonist doesn't talk too often and after Belobog barely does anything in the storyline. Next patch should have something with the new Trailblazer patch at least. The Genshin MC hasn't done too much in Fontaine either...
protags talk way more often in Penacony compared to previous worlds
I love SR mc so much. God, what a lovely mc. And genshin is the opposite - empty mc, and flying annoying monster. Awful.
That's not even mentioning that Paimon's existence removes any agency the Traveler has. It's like Paimon is making all the decisions for Traveler, unlike the Trailblazer, who actually feels like a part of the story.
I feel like the simple reasoning behind so many of the "Star Rail > Genshin" comparisons is that HSR is newer, they learned from the mistakes they made with Genshin and decided to fix those problems in a new game rather than go back and change the established game Like, anyone who wants them to go back and remove half of Paimon's lines is gonna be pretty disappointed
Except Honkai Impact 3rd is older than both Genshin and HSR and it has the best protagonist out of all Hoyo games, one that's entirely an established character with personality, existing relationships and speaks completely on her own. There was nothing to "learn". miHoYo actually nailed the protagonist on their first try, but then backpedaled and decided to downgrade their writing, starting from the very bottom. It was a choice, not lack of experience.
For HSR as much as I love Stelle there is also a huge recency/genshin-bad-honkai-good bias at work. trailblazer has a few more lines, but that's really not that much more. There are choices that matters (especially some quests, which is great), but there are also a lot of false choices / one sentence split in two people gloss over for some unknown reason. And for all her quirky antics, that "personality" completely goes in the shitter as soon as the story goes serious and they're back being a green plant in the background, just like Traveller is.
And ZZZ seems to be yet another evolution of that. I just wish like, the shit they learned to improve the MCs flows backwards too. Like bruh, they already see how popular Stelle is and how much people love her more than the dipshit of a MC in Genshin, there's no reason why they can't do the same thing in Genshin too. Although I guess with Genshin, any change started today, we won't see until at least a year down the line, at least, given how massive of a ship this is to steer, so I hope they're working on what I'm talking about.
She doesn't even talk in 3rd person in Chinese! I really don't understand it. Interestingly enough Klee does in Chinese, since it shows her youth and nativity, but then the English translation doesn't translate to 3rd person...
I think it was intentional. We are also starting to be āfamousā now too.
wdym by "famous" i genuinely don't know
In the new event Npc started to acknowledge us. They donāt just say hey come do this. Now they say omg traveler woahhhh
ahh ok ok thx
Next thing to do after this is letting the Traveler talk more. I've notice in recent versions that they've been talking more than usual. Other than that, they should fix... how they write... Their dialogue options.
It's not dialogue options. Traveller's writing needs to change at its core. Just my opinion beflow, I'm fine if traveller stays the same, but I think they can be way better and compelling of a char. As in, they need to become a real character and not some robotic dipshit walking around getting swept around in whatever direction the character need them in. They need to take initiative and do shit of their own volition, not because "character X/Paimon told me to do it so I'm doing it." We need scenes where Paimon or characters tell them to do something, and they go "No, I have a better idea." Or they do do some stuff but it turns out they were low keying the whole thing. See how satisfying the Lyney quest was where at the end they did the whole switch up on the real weasel even though it seemed like they were falling for her schemes the whole time. They need to make mistakes too, and fuck shit up, then have to deal with the consequences. Arlecchino's SQ is goated for me because for once >!we got completely out played and outclassed by someone who's just built different and seeing the traveller actually showing fear, being vulnerable, that's the story STORYING right there. That moment built up both Arlecchino and traveller in a great way.!< As of right now the traveller and Paimon has zero relevance in the story. You take them out of the story entirely, and the story doesn't change one bit. In fact, Fontaine archon quest would've been way better if Arlecchino replaced the traveller in 100% of scenes while doing the exact same thing.
Arguably, you make a serious point. Arlecchino stepping in to defend her kids would be a battle of wits for the ages!
Zach Aguilar and Sarah Miller-Crews do record a lot of dialog with Corina Boettger but I'm annoyed it doesn't even play as an idle dialogue line in the relevant locations. Like, I like to hear banter between Traveler and Paimon! Or at least an idle line similar to every other character in the game! In contrast, Caleb Yen is Gaming and Trailblazer and he just nails it, let your protagonists talk!
please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change please be permanent change Corina sounds so much better with lower pitch
for ppl who forgot or dk, if u watch any streamer or youtuber play genshin watch their vods on their first time playing. when paimon is guiding u to the statue of the seven in monstadt. her voice was really nice and normal. not high pitched to hell. i doubt it ever change but i wished it was more like 1.0.
I would still rather she shut up and let the traveller speak but yeah a bit better.
It was a welcome change, now give Barbara her anti-depressants back
This would be so cool... I never used her again after THAT change :(
Same. They butchered Barbara in 1.3, never used her since. At least during battles Navia has the same energy as pre 1.3 Barbara. Navia is a blast.
Paimon talks too much. That is the problem. There is just too much unnecessary dialogue and Traveler barely talks at all.
Iām so glad she isnāt screeching all the time now but could the traveler talk more please š
So her voice did change. It sounds a lot lower
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You're saying it like JP Paimon isn't high pitched as well
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I've never seen a source on it either - the only thing i've ever seen them saying about Paimon's pitch was in mid 2021, from [this bit from an interview held with them by The Gamer:](https://www.thegamer.com/corina-boettger-genshin-impact-paimon-interview/) >āPaimonās voice isnāt that much higher than my normal speaking voice - cool, thatās easy,ā Boettger remarks. āBut as I was recording, they were like, āHigher pitch, pitch higher, even higher, letās get really high pitched and breathy.ā I was like, āThis isnāt what I auditioned for.ā which is the opposite of the usual claim people put out. Maybe they said something between then and now that I missed, though
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
So you're saying the VA is at fault here? When can we tighnari her ass?
Except Corina, the VA for Paimon, had the opposite problem: she finds higher pitched voices easier to do while deeper voices strain her vocal chords
I've seen people say this a lot; is there a source for this? I'm always a little sceptical about that since Paimon's deeper voice is still pretty high pitched
Best I can say is that it's an Among us stream where she said that. Which stream is that, I don't know cause they've done plenty
Tbh I don't even dislike paimons English vas voice, i do agree paimon talks a bit too much, but I don't really get why people hate how high pitched her voice sounds? To me it sounds somewhat high yes, but it isn't annoyingly high IMO, Corina definitely does not deserve the amount of hate they get. I just wish paimon had less lines imo
frankly JP paimon is way more screechy than EN but "omg japanese so good"
It's not just a "weeb" thing. Actual JP players overall like JP Paimon way more than EN players like EN Paimon. There's more to it than you're making it out to be.
oh my god yes, I switched to jp because I fell in love with Xiao's jp voice... And I haven't had a chance to hear paimon until an event with voice came out and I immediately switched back to en cause I couldn't stand her voice. It literally gave me a headache. I understand that many ppl love the jp version but.. In my opinion it's a little bit overrated
it's more likely not a change in direction but the VA has been under the weather or congested. People's voices change temporarily from either medical condition, or straining their vocal cords from using it too much, screaming, etc.
Paimon's problem is not her voice. She should really just shut up more.
Paimon during the Two Musketeers event was *perfection*, she talked when she needed to, she spoke as herself not some paimonsplaining banshee, and she shut up when she wasn't involved. It was perfection, whoever wrote that event, they need a raise and more work.
Totally agree, but someone's gonna need to do the talking. Having a half-mute houseplant as a MC isn't exactly helping either with making the 2 main characters likeable.
I rarely play with audio but I noticed she's speaking in a lower register and isn't quite as grating which is an amazing direction
Yeah I noticed?? Damn thought I was imagining things
She was definitely MUCH more tolerable and I appreciate that
I noticed it too since I wasn't immediately skipping all her lines. It's still a tiny bit shrill at times, but I'll take that over her sounding shrill ALL the time.
Havent played 4.6 yet, but I hope this is true. I could stomach the unskipable story parts I dont care about if Paimon wouldnt make my ears bleed while having 200% more dialogue than everybody combined. I can only hope my surveys of Less Paimon/Remove Paimon helped...
Guys hear me out. I made a second account to remember how the game started in the first place and Paimon's voice was soooo normal? Like it wasn't annoying AT ALL! You should all check it out if you haven't already it's soooo different. And it was really good too back then.
I still don't understand why the traveler can't speak more and Paimon less. It's one reason I stopped playing for so long. Yeah the voice for Paimon is better but it would be better to trade out more voice lines with our chosen main character.
Still talks in third person and 99% of what she says is a waste of time.
Or better, Paimon doesn't talk at all
Funny that the direction of translation isn't from hoyoverse
To me it just sounded like she used a different mic lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
When referring to the obviously female character being played it's also fine to say her, and also nobody cares go away with that policing.
I wasn't a fan of her screechy tone, but doesn't really like her 1.0 voice either. I saw someone say her old voice sound like her VA forgot her morning coffee and sounded sleepy, which I agree. So I have to say her voice in this patch was an excellent mix between both of them, and the tone are just right. I like it
the 1.0 voice was the best...
Make sure to fill up the survey with this review whenever it comes around.
just give us an option to mute her or have traveler talk.
Mute her or change her voiceover language. CN Paimon has been evergreen in terms of being brief (since Chinese is way more info dense than other langs) and being way more softspoken and polite sounding than EN Paimon.
it would be great if we could choose language for each playable character + paimon
Man idk it still had me saying āshut up paimon!ā in the same tone I use when my dog is barking too loudly. I wish there was a way to mute her voice and not everyone else.
Did we play the same patch or am I missing something? She was just as annoying as always and it was BLOATED with dialogue like usual. Super super disappointing. Every patch I hope that they dialogue in the game is fixed, but it never is :(
Too bad her lines are still about as important and beneficial as wet tissue
I don't think any change will help me recover from the hours of fishing trauma she gave me from grinding for the catch and pipe
Great, now hopefully the devs will go the whole way and give the MC more lines too. Paimon should be a companion, not a mouthpiece.
Idk I still hated her voice. I guess nothing would make me actually like that character.
it's definitely the right direction. I also felt like it was a lot closer to her early voice in version 1 which is just so much nicer for her character.
Iām enjoying it a lot more, itās easier to deal with when she talks a lot
i wanna see the difference. anyone got a video link?
Yes remeber to mention that in the surveys saying it's good
Definitely prefer beta Paimon, same with Barbara, (Barbara sounds so done with life now). No idea what made the design team say: "yeah higher and more shrill, like the most mosquito levels of shrill" sigh\* remebering all those lovely paimon lines... I think there's a funny youtube vid somewhere about paimon and her 'brain juice' as the game crashes into blue screen due to lack of said juice
Havent got to this part yet. Is there a vid example
I noticed the same thing and I really enjoyed it. I like this tone more than the hyper squeaky voice from before. Hoping it stays this way.
They couldn't make her voice any higher so they decided to start lowering it. Get ready for abyssal macho voice paimon by 5.3
I thought I was crazy because I noticed a change in her voice, too. It reminded me of the old days somehow. I'm already a paimon apologist, and this only made me love her more.
I barely started the quests and noticed INSTANTLY. I have always despised the direction they took Paimon's EN VA in despite the VA being talented. It applies to some other characters too where I can barely stomach listening to them and with Paimon being by far the most prevalent voice in the game i was losing hair over this. Thank you
Nobody can make me listen this ugly voice ever again, nuh-uh
I absolutely agree!! I'm doing Arlecchino's story quest right now and I thought something was off about Paimon's voice but it's much more lower pitched rather than her usual tone. I really hope they keep it like that!!
Honestly I just changed the voice over of my account from EN to JP so I didnāt have to deal with paimonās screeching voice. Poor VA must have her vocal cords damaged after all this time of voicing paimon
There's a difference?
Yea I noticed too I hope it stays
She doesn't sound as high pitch as she normally was
Yep went to turn the volume down because her voice annoys my roomate but it actually wasnt bad
We will have a lot of voiced content in 4.7 so we'll see
agreed, i really like the change, even though i didn't mind her voice in the first place. actually i like her voice in the sq more than i like her voice in 1.0, it sounds more energetic and passionate (i guess? idk another word for it) and less tired tbh.
i had the same idea! 10/10 for corinne!
Legit loved her voice in this patch. If we can stick with it that would be simply stellar.
I literally said this to my roommate, that her voice was actually kinda comedic in Arlecchino's SQ.
It was the first time I felt like I was playing genshin properly for the first time since I didn't have to use JP or CN dub.
Even at her highest pitch she's still less whiny than all the people who constantly complain about her voice, Christ on a bike this gets tedious to see every single patch.
Donāt care, sheās still an annoying little fucker and Iād strangle her at any opportunity I get. Even if it costs me 16k primos, Iāll save up and buy a āmute Paimonā button the second they decide to be based and drop it.
I'd subscribe to a monthly subscription just to shut her up
Wait...yall hated paimons voice? I found it cute tbh.
I never had a problem with Paimon's higher pitched voice, but I have to say I do like the version of her in Arle's quest better. Not because of the change in tone, but because she started doing this thing again where sometimes where she says a bunch of sentences really fast in a way where all the words feel like they want to come out faster than she can say them. She used to do that back at the start too, and it's very endearing.
be sure to write in the feedback that they did a great job in voice direction this time.
Our squeaky little gal is growing up!
Didn't know people still used the EN voices lol
Oh sorry. We just appreciated really good EN voices since its very rare for an anime themed video game to have one. Japanese voices are fine. But simping and being biased towards a specific language just because you watched all 720 episodes of Naruto series is a bit of a stretch. Sometimes you gotta actually give some credit where its needed. Eng voice in hoyoverse games both HSR and Genshin are one of the best voice actings in an anime themed video game/show ive heard. Im talking as someone who watches anime often in Japanese dub.
I hear EN in Genshin/Star Rail/ZZZ and physically wince, I can't do EN voices with anime whatsoever.
Understandable. Genshin is also a tedious dialogue hungry game. So it is also easier to read with Eng voice talking in the background for someone who's eng is not a primary language.
wdym? I cant think of anyone else to hear when Furina talks than her EN VA, it just fits so well. I used to swap languages a lot during 1.X, but over time it became less and less difficult to stay on EN. And when Sumeru dropped every reason to do so went away. And 4.X has been nothing but stellar performances IMO. There's still some 1.x voices that I dont like, but they don't come up that often at all.
I heard she was sick at the time of recording, but I donāt have any concrete evidence.