As far as I can tell, it’s now been 9 months since the last mention of subtitles in a dev blog (but I could be wrong as I didn’t look too hard). It has however been mentioned that localization in several languages is planned to be ready for 1.0.
Are subtitles also planned to be ready along with localization for 1.0?
I can’t overstate how important it is for accessibility options to be available in this (and any) game and how it can lock an entire subset of gamers out of playing or enjoying certain aspects of the game. I do understand that some things are more important or higher priority, but I feel like it’s been a long time without a lot of clear communication on the topic.
Could we get any further insight into the matter from any EHG employees?
I actually wanted to weigh in on this as well. The lack of subtitles at this point are extremely distracting, especially when it’s with an NPC who follows you for a bit and talks to you while you’re fighting away at top volume.
The most recent forum thread that I saw about subtitles was in June of last year, and then this one. As someone with a really keen interest in seeing subtitles in the game, I would like to know where we stand on that as compared to the last 9 months.
I just want to add my support for subtitles, too. I know NPCs keep talking, but I have not been able to understand a single thing any of them have said (due to the sounds of combat, background music, and ambient in-game background noise drowning them out), and I have perfectly fine hearing. I can’t imagine how much worse it is for people who have hearing issues or don’t speak fluent English. What’s the point of even having dialogue if people can’t tell what’s being said?
Came here specifically looking for this suggestion because I got the game after hearing quite a lot of positive comments about it. First thing I noticed in settings was that there is no subtitle option. As someone who uses subtitles, it’s really very disappointing that there are none (yet) in this game. The inability to have subtitles so I can read what’s being said by and to my character is a deal breaker for me because I miss quite a lot of a game’s content without them.
I’d like to try to describe my subtitle-free Last Epoch experience: the game started after character select, there was a brief cutscene with voiceover that I can only assume gave some context to what was unfolding on screen and what I was about to find when my character spawned in. I make the assumption because I could not hear the individual words, nor were there subtitles that I could read so that I would know what the voiceover was saying. I heard what may have been occasional comments from my character as I played, but again, could not hear/make out individual words.
As someone who generally likes lore and likes to hear the banter between characters (or even my own character’s little side comments as they encounter new things and different areas), to not be able to make out what’s being said and to not have access to any form of subtitles makes me feel like I’m missing out on half of the experience of the game. And it annoys me to pay for something and miss out on it anyway.
I get that the game is still in beta and because it is beta, I’m going to be patient, but I see from this thread, it’s been almost a year since the topic was mentioned. Before it “officially” launches as a finished product, accessibility needs to be addressed.
I think Subtile should be one of the standard options for games nowadays.
The subtitle will help people who have issues with hearing the words clearly (Whether due to accent or due to English not their native language) as they can get to read the words spoken and this ease of understanding on what is going on during the cinematics, will help to get new players into the story effortlessly which is important as part of the whole experience.
I get it other feedbacks could be more important but this is expected of a standard feature in new games.
I think English subtitles can be available sooner with localization at a later date.
Are there dialogues that play outside of the opening and heoborea cutscenes that have voices that aren’t just short variations of the text presented to you in a chat box? Most of the lines I remember either have a chat box above the models head or are just blurbs that npcs say when you click on them.
Being new to the game, so far the part that I encountered without the subtitles is the introduction story after selecting a new class. Unable to make out what the narration is talking, I deleted the new character and created another one but still cannot catch what the narration is saying.
After playing the first char for more than an hour, I started another new character to test out the playstyle and encountered the same issue - unable to make out what the narration is saying. Deleted the newly created char and created another to try to hear the story but in the end gave up, losing the introduction/back story to that class, causing a detachment…
Having to create another char to try to catch what the introduction story narration is saying is so much a hassle that can be resolved easily with the subtitle option. I sure hope I do not have to encounter another cinematics without subtitle. Imagine watching a movie that you cannot understand what is happening, especially with the ‘still’ pictures being shown, that’s enough to keep me detached from the game story and the introduction does not serve any purpose.
