I can't understand the audio, but subs are bad.

I keep running into issues where I can't understand what's being said. The characters either have really thick accents or voices have lots of filters on them. The solution is obviously to turn on subs, but they are extremely distracting and I don't like to read ahead of the dialogue (anime watching has taught me to read almost instantly).

I save frequently so I've occasionally done scenes over again and there have been some major things I've missed without the subs on.

Is anyone else having this issue? What's the possibility of getting additional sub options patched? I believe Mass Effect and maybe even Inquisition would have the subs appear after the dialogue was spoken and you could advance the scene whenever you were ready, but maybe I'm imagining that.

Some of the accents are pretty thick, but I haven't had big issues with them. I still keep subtitles turned on, as I do with most games. Luckily the audio mixing in the Witcher 3 is good compared to most games.

I don't know what to say regarding subtitles being distracting. Yes you're right, but in a story heavy game like this I'd rather keep track of what's being said.

I don't think I've ran into a single accent I couldn't understand, hell, even the Wild Hunt dude was no problem.

For a solution? I don't really know. That sounds like a very specific issue, so I don't know whether CDPR would devote much in the way of resources to it, but they are wonderful people so they might.

As english is my third language i have this problem in pretty much every game and movie. Dont expect it to be patched.

You should use the subtitles for a while. It isn't the accents necessarily but the words. Everyone likes adding random As to places where an A should never voyage. After you get the hang of it it's easy listening but getting the hang of it, at least in your case, might require subtitles for a while.

I was playing with no subs and then got to a scene that takes place under a tree and could not here anything that was being said as the background noise and dialogue overlapped (also what was being said was very crucial!) so after that i have subs on.

That's the exact scene that made me post this topic. I missed the crucial part the first time and just did the thing. I reloaded and will not do the thing again.

@golguin: the quest logs give a nice summery of what is going on so i just looked at that

Can't say I've encountered this, everything has been perfectly clear and understandable so far.

Yep same here.

I'm totally running with CC on but I haven't had any issue, just keep it on what does it matter that your reading it if your problem is understanding what is being said?

I have to agree. But I'm someone who plays all RPGs and basically any story heavy game with subtitles on so maybe I'm just so used to it. Don't even think about it. There's no moment where I'm thinking "I just read what he said a second before he said it". It's all just a cohesive whole.

I haven't had much issues with the audio/voice acting. Plus I've never had a problem reading ahead on sub's in anime so this game doesn't bother me.

Yeah, some accents are pretty thick, especially among the lower-class folk. If that's an issue, there's really no getting around it. As for the audio mixing itself, I've had no problems. I think it's done better than in most games, actually.

There are some games where I don't mind subtitles, but something like this with all the high quality facial animations going on just means I keep looking at the subtitles instead of the cutscene. Takes me out of it, so I've kept them off.

Had the same problem in the same scene as @thom_hill, and then shortly afterwards when a trio of characters was introduced with one of them having a purposely muffled voice. It's a bit irritating, because I'm pretty sure in Geralt's nightmare at the very start of the game had subtitles for the Wild Hunt dude, but I've never seen them do that again-- even with other Wild Hunt dudes. Haven't had any issues with the accents though.

It also seemed like Geralt's voice was louder than some other characters during a fair few dialogues, but maybe that's just me.

I wonder how people are faring with the accents on Skellige. I think this is the first time I've played a game with Northern Irish accents, which it seems Skellige is full of, but they are all rural Northern Irish-sounding rather than what you're more likely to hear in Belfast. I think I even heard someone say he was going to go 'get blocked' at the tavern, which instantly pulled me out of the game as I burst out laughing. I don't think our accent is one for media, sounds terrible to me personally.

Its like going to a stand up show and reading the manuscript beforhand, kind of takes the edge out of everything. All timings, cutins and punchlines get screwed with text thats 10sec ahead of the conversation.

As with dealing with accents in games and real life, just keep listening and you with catch on. You could also go into the audio setting and turn down the music and environmental audio and boost the dialogue. Perhaps, with less distractions you will catch onto the accents faster.

This was the only time I had an issue understanding what was being said. I noticed that listening to that part either with headphones or through my surround sound system helped a lot.

@colourful_hippie: What did you listen through the first time, your controllerspeaker?

I've not run into any issues understanding anyone, but perhaps that's just because most of the accents seem to be from the UK so I'm used to them? Also I have subtitles on but then I do that with every game I play (and if I ever watch TV, too). I did also set the volume mix on both Music and SFX to lower than Voice, which I do in a lot of games too just to make it stand out - but I now think the audio mix might even be too weighted towards vocals. There are one or two weird scenes where the audio will go quiet for some reason (when you leave White Orchard it does this on a shot where the camera is panned far out from the characters talking and I could barely hear them).

I haven't had this issue at all. The only audio/subtitles issue I've had was that one character in Skellige had completely different dialogue from his subtitles.

I have found the audio for this game to be off slightly. With every other game I play I keep my volume at about 25% and can hear everything clearly. With this game I have to turn my speakers up to about 45-50% for it be heard clearly through the game. This is the only game I've had to do this with. Once I have the appropriate level though everything is pretty crystal clear on my system.

There are multiple points in the game where someone is speaking elvish, or a troll is talking to you, or a ghost has some kind of wispy voice, and you can barely make out what is being said. Not frequently enough to warrant having subtitles on, but enough for it to be annoying when it pops up. I'm actually really surprised, with how well polished this game is, that CDPR left out some incredibly simple options, such as subtitles that only appear for hard/impossible to understand voices.

It's absolutely not like that at all for me. The comparison is not accurate (I'm not reading minutes/hours ahead of the game script like your example) and reading something a literal second before it is said has no effect. Seriously, reading something that will be said in one second does what exactly? Is that like a spoiler? I really don't get it. It's not a punchline like stand up comedy, it's just dialogue. This game isn't dropping huge bombs on you constantly like punchlines.

If it's distracting, I guess I would get used to subtitles or turn them off and suffer the consequences. An option for just certain difficulty dialects or something would be nice but I have been reading subtitles for years for foreign films and in basically all the story heavy games I play. This effect doesn't exist at all for me. I don't' see the issue. I'm usually not looking at subtitles on unless I search them out on screen because I didn't catch something. Otherwise I'm listening and looking at the visuals.

If you have this problem, it's certainly not CD Projekt's fault. Like I said, maybe one more option for difficult dialects or something would be nice but otherwise this is just how subtitles are.

I'm surprised to hear you find subtitles distracting, despite being an experienced anime sub-watcher. I don't find subs any more distracting in games than I do in non-interactive videos, so my default answer is to just get used to them; they really do help a ton.

I agree that it would be nice if devs would figure out a better mix between dialog and ambient audio - maybe some kind of dynamic background audio ducking like audio mixers or streaming software have. That probably isn't ideal as it would take control away from the scene directors, but I would appreciate being able to hear what characters are saying - even if I can read it.

@artisanbreads: Well obviously its not minutes ahead of the gameplay but you can be one or two sentences ahead and it destroys all timings in the acting. Its like you see 5-10sec ahead that triss is gonna interrupt zoltan or whatever and then you just sit and wait and wonder "Are they gonna get a good timing on this or will there be an awkward silence between zoltan stops speaking midsentence and Triss cuts in". It breaks the 4th wall constantly.

Im not blaming CDPR or anyone for this but there are games/movies which have subtitles that are finetuned to not mess up stuff like that and there are also the very sloppy ones. The Witcher 1 are really bad and witcher 2 and 3 are ok but there are room for improvement.

Aside from two or three occasions I don't think the accents or dialects are that bad.

What's more annoying to me is a bug that keeps happening where people in the background of the world talk over dialogue cutscenes. That leads to a lot of not understandable gibberish. So yeah, I'm also playing with subs on.

I fucking hate video game subtitles. In most forms of media, subtitles are fed to you one line at a time. Surprises, interruptions, and cutoffs are usually well-timed. Yet in video games you often get an entire page of dialog as soon as someone starts speaking, to the point where it will actually spoil the game. Does anybody know why this is?

I usually enable the subtitles because sound mixing can be fucked up and drown out the voices, reading them also helps me remembering what was being said more. I had no trouble with subs in Witcher 2 which I am playing now.

@sessh people talking over dialogue cutscens? Unheard of!

@doctordonkey: Well when it comes to trolls it's kind of meant to be hard to understand :P

I think this game has been very clear spoken. And I usually have trouble with accents. Though I do play with subtitles, so maybe I've just subconsciously covered any gaps in my hearing.

I understand the accents but have run into occasional mixing issues.

@cale: For some reason, there are a bunch of Northern Irish guards scattered around in Assassin's Creed 3 and 4. Hearing the accent alone is enough to take me out of the game, never mind colloquialisms. Guess it's just such a rarity it stands out.

While I completely understand that if this is an issue for you, its something worth bringing up..I can't say there is a solution, at least not when you in the same complaint shoot down the obvious one.

Like..can't understand whats being spoken? Subtitles. Don't like subtitles spoiling dialog? Then um, listen?

The solution that solves the "I can't understand them but don't want to use/read the provided subtitles gets into territory that is obviously undoable/unuseable. Like, would you like them to re-record all the dialog, for a mere 20$ you get new voice packs that are free of accent? Or you could just..stop playing? like if you can't understand the story but need too to advance..stop playing and there you go, problem solved.

You see my point though? Like not that it isn't something you can be annoyed about, but there is not going to be any magical cure. The useful advice is "Suck it up and use the subtitles". And eh..that's clearly already known and thus unhelpful.

@bladededge: Well the question is if CDPR are gonna patch in better subtitles eventually but i would say the chances for that are veeery slim to non existant.

CDPR patching in a re-recorded dialogoption with easy english is even more unlikely.

@cale: I believe a few in The Witcher 2 had N.I accents, I think remember that Kaedweni mercenary (Adam) having one?

No problems with the accents but I also keep subs on because that way I can always double check on something if I'm not sure what they said. It beats "full immersion" at the cost of sometimes not knowing what the hell is going on because I got a phone call or something.

Only spot I've had difficulty understanding so far were the Crones and under the tree. Both of which were back to back so it really made me consider turning on subs. I just stuck it out because my eyes always wander to the text rather than watching the characters and scenes, so I try to avoid it when possible. So far those two specific spots were the only real issues I've run into. Maybe its just something going on with my setup, but the audio overall seems really wonky. I've gone through the audio settings and yet I still find myself turning my speakers up way higher than I need to for anything else just to get a decent audio level where I can hear the characters.

Whispering Hillock is awful for this.I had to quit out, put subs on and reload.

The audio balance during conversations could certainly use tidying up. It doesn't seem uncommon for the music to randomly swell right over the top of a conversation.

I don't have an issue with the accents, but being from the UK I'm used to them. I did have to turn them on for a few of the monsters though, not because I didn't understand them but because they talk soooooo slowly it was getting annoying so I needed to skip ahead.

Just set the game to Polish audio and English subs and *boom* instant foreign film experience. Unless you never watch media in a language you don't speak?

I can't understand the audio AND subs are bad.

You shouldn't use but if both are issues.

My only suggestion would be to potentially use headphones if you already aren't.

I'm playing with gaming headphones, a Turtlebeach PX51. It's the first game in a long time that I've wound up turning subtitles off, as well. Haven't had any issues with hearing dialogue, even the music seems balanced well without overlapping dialogue (which happens in most games).

I solved this by playing in Japanese. It's actually pretty surprising how well done the Japanese dub is.

Yeah setting the language to Polish seems like the ideal solution to me. You don't know how bad the voice acting is because you don't understand the language, but emotions still come through, and you can read the subtitle text at your own pace! I almost always change the audio language in games if I have the option.

I would find it far more distracting if all of the mythical creatures spoke like a normal person.

You think the voice acting in this game is bad?

As someone who speaks Polish it's a pretty poor job especially considering the game came out of Poland.