Darkest Dungeon is one of the best dungeon crawlers period, and a huge part of its appeal is the dour, gravely tones of a mysterious “ancestor” who narrates your every move. The man behind the musings, Wayne June, sadly died last year—and in the wake of news like this, a ghoulish question tends to arise: who, or what, could fill his shoes? Red Hook co-founder Chris Bourassa took to Reddit last week to clarify that it certainly won’t be AI.
“In one of his last emails to me, Wayne gave us permission to train an AI on his voice, something he’d staunchly opposed prior to the end. We’d never asked to do it. I think he was trying to put the game/team/fans first—offer us a ‘way forward,'” Bourassa wrote. “I declined, and we donated to his family anyway.
Comments on the thread are elated by the stance. “It’s refreshing to hear yourself and the Red Hook team honour Wayne’s memory like this,” commented user Figgymcslickback. “Bravo sir.” User RiR_Crayon concurred: “Red Hook doing giga chad moves as always.”
It speaks volumes to the potency of June’s performances that he left such an impact on players, despite the fact that the Darkest Dungeon games are his only listed videogame credits (though he was also in Dota 2 in a Darkest Dungeon-themed announcer pack, and collaborated with PC Gamer on occasion). If you want to hear more of his voice work, he narrated a fair few audiobooks and has a YouTube channel with readings of stories by H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. He also used it to share this incredible shitpost where the Ancestor hosts a cooking show.
AI voice acting may have found a place in games like The Finals and Arc Raiders, but even Embark’s CEO has conceded that real voice work is better than its artificial counterpart. Voice actors in the gaming industry have been outspoken about AI’s inability to give a truly human performance, and even if the team at Red Hook were willing to take June up on his offer, the notion that the resulting line reads would compare to the man’s actual work is farcical.
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