#i needa devolp these more but this is the impression i've always got from their voices

[lancer-fan-club-was-taken]

Looking at you with big puppy dog eyes....I want to read the ut character voice analysis 👁 👁

Toby Fox, being able to make a non voice acted game, FEEL, voice acted to the point that streamers all use the same voices with them is crazy cool. They all have inflections, and you can feel the pauses and tone the characters are using it's just so good 👌. Alphys getting really passionate when talking about mew mew to the point no streamer can even read what she's saying and the fact you can tell she wrote all the true lab entrys...she easily has the most 'range' in the game followed closely by flowey and undyne to me

hey, glad someone else is interested :]

toby honestly is one of the strongest character writers in any media. ever. not just video games, and i feel like he really doesn't get enough credit for that. all his characters are instantly recognizable just by their speech quirks and sometimes even just their grammar.

i'll prolly need to separate every analysis into a different post, cuz i do have a lot to say about em all, but ill give a brief run-down with the things i think are most interesting.

flowey:

he shares many vocal tics with his dad, which fits with his personality as asriel, and the sort of persona he puts on for frisk and papyrus. "howdy," has a very friendly connotation, so using it right off the bat kinda forces the player to see him as non-threatening.

when his "friendly" persona does slip, it's made pretty obvious that he is a child. he doesn't swear like undyne, he doesn't try to play it cool like sans, he says you're an idiot, and accuses you of trying to make him suffer. the sequence where he mocks you for calling for help, is prolly the best example of how childish his outlook on life is, despite how jaded he is. him specifically using the phrasing of "mommy" and "daddy" makes him sound like an older brother bullying their sibling rather then a final boss.

his voice reminds me a lot of porky minch tbh.

toriel:

my favorite thing about toriel's dialogue is how she doesn't use contractions. i think it really helps set up undertale as this twist of both old school rpgs and of fairy tales, which typically didn't use contractions either.

her dialogue has a very formal air about it, it really shows that despite her appearance, she's pretty old.

i think she has the simplest voice personally, i also haven't analyzed her too closely so i might be missing sth lmao-

sans:

sans is interesting, because he's the only main character with an accent rendered in his diarlogue. he uses a lot of new york slang, and cuts the g's off words with the "-ing" suffix.

it's a pretty subtle way to hint that he and papyrus aren't from snowdin, which is based off rural towns opposed to hotland or new home which are large cities. at first glance, his accent just looks like it's him being lazy, like "oh he can't even put the g at the end of words," or "he can't even put spaces in between words." then he says "capiche" and you realize you've been had. /silly

personally, i've always interpreted his text being all-lowercase as his voice being very monotone and inexpressive, opposed to papyrus whose implied to be constantly yelling and seems to be pretty emotive, but i think that's more-so up to the individual.

papyrus:

oh my god, papyrus.

i love this dudes character voice sm, it's so like- specific?

he uses a lot of obsolete words like "boondoggle," will make up his own words like "bonetrousled," will say words that are seen as childish and/or silly like "wowie" and "neato," or, my personal favorite, sometimes he'll just talk like starfire, the phrase "steam-thingies," will never leave my brain.

his grammar is also pretty distinct. he switches between using contractions and not using them. he also ALWAYS uses more then one exclamation point or question mark.

his speech patterns don't say anything too definitive about his character that you couldn't already tell from the story itself, but i think it really highlights his pompous and silly, but kind nature.

undyne:

her voice is honestly one of the most fun to analyze imo, because it ranges from being pretty realistic, to being so damn hammy and over the top.

her dialogue quirks change a lot depending on the context and whose she's talking to, and it honestly adds a lotta depth to her character. before her battle, she speaks very formally, it's clearly rehearsed, but it shows that she takes her job pretty seriously.

her dialogue with papyrus has her come of as a sort of older sister to him, their phone dialogue is seriously so damn funny/sweet- so many of their calls really show off her more playful side, with her purposefully just annoying the shit out of pap.

all the teasing nicknames she gives frisk really add to this imo, she views you and papyrus as both being "innocent," so she treats them both as her younger siblings.

anyway i love comparing her dialogue w alphys and asgore to her dialogue with you and pap. she clearly views people younger then her as surrogate siblings.

alphys:

i totally agree with al having the most range. she reads like a real person to me, and her dialogue sprites definitely help with that.

her dialogue starts off as pretty nervous and stilted, she stammers a lot, but that seems more to do with her shyness and self-loathing rather then it being a speech impediment.

after true lab, she begins stammering less, and is way more confident around everyone. her character development is so clear just through her speech quirks, its such a nice detail.

from what i remember, she never actually gets mad, just upset, and NEVER at anyone else. most of her wording implying that she really doesn't like it when people get hurt. (idc what people say about the hotland segment, she is clearly SO worried when you get hurt. she turns off the lasers if you keep getting hit by them- i just-)

all of her little bursts of energy are SO interesting, and idk if this was intentional, but it is so reminiscent of infodumping to me. it def reinforces her social awkwardness, because it does always come outta nowhere. autistic queen.

asgore:

asgore shares a lot of voice traits with tori and flowey. he shares toriel's somewhat archaic manner of speech, but also has the very friendly speech patterns of flowey's persona.

a lot of his dialogue comes off as very melancholy in a way most other characters don't. i can only assume this is due to us only really seeing him interact w frisk and tori, but he does genuinely seem so beaten down just based on his pauses and the way he talks to you. i don't remember the exact line, but his line before he fights you where he basically just asks if you have any unfinished business kinda encapsulates his whole character voice to me. it's very simple and respectful, but also caries so much grief behind it.

like alphys, after true pacifist his dialogue changes a lot, and his character voice becomes really indicative of a normal dorky dad.

(my favoritism is so obvious in this post lmao-)