Just played a few hours of Hearts of Stone and Im enjoying it a lot but one thing i can't quite place is Shani's accent. I know there's a lot of regional UK accents in Witcher so can anyone enlighten me as to what kind of accent Shani is affecting?

From the little excerpt I've just seen it's not a UK accent at all. It's an american *maybe* trying to do something, but not trying very hard, to the extent I don't think it's even an attempt at one of our many many regional accents.

(I am from the UK FWIW)

Yep, I'm taking it as generic N American with a bit of UK English or vice versa.

I've not played OG Witcher in ages so can't be sure but I doubt it's the same voice actress as the original Shani either.

The Witcher games are filled with wonderful regional UK accents ... just not here. ;)

Yeah, she's definitely different to Witcher 1's voice actress.

It sounds almost like half British half American and she's spent time in both areas... It's a weird accent for sure.

@dudeglove: Geralt is not from Rivia.

But he does put on a Rivian accent.

Yeah I've no idea what's supposed to be but one of the christ knows how many accents we have in the UK it ain't.

Yeah, that's his title but he's really not from Rivia. I can't remember the exact reasoning but it's explained in the novels.

Back on topic, it seems like Shani was someone who spent time from one region growing up and then her speech started changing when she became a transplant.

Rivia? Everyone knows Witcher Gerry is modelled on Belfast Gerry.

It's really weird. It seems to warp between English, Irish, Australian and American. Maybe even a bit of Welsh in there.

Basically, it's someone trying to do an accent and screwing it up.

@dudeglove: I'll take my tongue out of my cheek then.

To me, it sounded like someone trying to do an American English accent, and not fully getting it down.

^ This. Most definitely this.

I too was disappointed and even a bit disoriented when hearing this voice actor. It's so awkwardly all over the place -- they could be from any number of European countries. But no person from North America could talk with an accent so inconsistent like his if they tried.

@uberdubie: Seriously? She sounded absolutely fine to me. In fact, I thought she was much better than the one they used for The Witcher 1.

Definitely better than the voice work in 1 but the voice work in 1 was awful in general. Still a weird choice for them to get an American girl and tell her to do a terrible English accent.

It really doesn't sound like she's doing an English accent at all though. If anything it's more likely the other way around, an English actor doing an American accent. An American doing a terrible English accent would be way more blatant. Have you never heard an American try to do a bad English accent before? It's nothing like Shani.

@zeik: Aside from the consistent accent-shifting in nearly every sentence, I suppose she was fine otherwise.

And as I said before, I agree with you that the voice actor is *not* American. It's obviously the other way around as you say.

Yeah there's an awful lot of it is AAA games.

@alexw00d: Which version? I hear the original version had some bad voice work, but the version I played, the one that fixed stuff, I thought Shani sound totally fine. I don't know if they even changed her voice, but just saying, it was good to me from what I remember. I think in this one, she sounded totally fine as well other than the times when she would talk with the weird accent, as it didn't sound 'bad', it was just weird.

It almost sounded like someone from Europe who moved to the States and hasn't quite lost their accent yet. So there was a mixture of pronunciations. It's fitting for the character though.

It's an English (possibly Irish going by her pronunciation of "battle") actress trying to do an American accent. I'm actually kind of convinced it's the same voice actress as Ciri, which would be a bit creepy....

Hot news!

I Tweeted CDPR and Shani is voiced by an English actress called Susannah Fielding.

@haze: That would fit with Shani moving around the Witcher world quite often. An adopted accent with some pronunciations from the original still present.

Here's Shani from W1 for comparison

I just love this quest anyways. Witcher 1 was pretty lovely :D

I'm not sure this one is the enhanced edition though. Think it should be

@dudeglove said:

@dave_tacitus said:

Rivia? Everyone knows Witcher Gerry is modelled on Belfast Gerry.

Beard aside, Geralt looks nothing like Adams. Until he got older and a bit stockier, Adams looked somewhat lanky and nerdy thru the 80s and 90s.

If he ever winds up in court over y'know, the stuff, he can use amnesia as a defence.

@shindig: If he says he was never a member of the Scoia'tael, I believe him!

@dave_tacitus: Look, the Scoia'tael don't even exist any more, and even if they did (they don't), they would be committed to the peace process, but they aren't because they don't. I hope that clears everything up.

@pcorb: They haven't gone away, you know... ;)

@dave_tacitus: They have gone away, they've said so themselves (or they would have if they were still around, which they definitely aren't).

I know, that was the joke!

@pcorb: Heh, sorry. That was a famous (to us in this dysfunctional little statelet, anyway) Adams quote.

I think we've derailed this thread enough!

Someone needs to kickstart a cartoon called The Provisional Ghostbusters.

@shindig: As opposed to the Continuity Ghostbusters?

I hear they're about to split up into the Legitimate Ghostbusters and the Definitive Ghostbusters. There's a real brand crisis and they can't decide on uniforms.