The Steamy Sounds of Hentai & The Voices Behind Them
- Nutaku
- 2017/08/23
The world of hentai can be a very noisy place. Various sounds of squeezing, squishing, sliding, and spurting can paint a colorful picture in the player's immersion; often making the difference between a generic clicker and an epic story of sexual conquest. Sound is important in gaming, and erotic games are no exception. In fact, the voice acting and music in an erotic game, as well as the multifaceted cultures surrounding their production, show the fingerprints of a vibrant culture even in games without sound.
All the various moans and groans, sighs and screams gasping out some of the dirtiest dialogue alongside some decidedly normal fantasy fare tends to get people's attention. Unfortunately, due to the embarrassing nature of the content, the field of erotic voice acting, or even normal voice acting for an erotic game, can be overlooked. Most readers will probably notice that many games available online have no voice acting, and sometimes not even music! However, the ones that do, often tend to stand out through this merit alone.
Dragon Providence , a game from DMM Games, is fully translated into English. It is listed asone of the top trending games on the site, alongside the Kamihime Project R and Harem Heroes, which also have their own musical scores, and in the case of the Kamihime Project, there is some very meticulous voice acting. In some games it can be noted that only sex scenes of a certain rarity contain sound; showing how the inclusion of that innocent girl, or mighty goddess, talking about her naughty parts can even be used as a direct motivator for players.
Specifically for Japanese games, players of translated versions can immediately notice how focused the game is on hearing a beautiful and strong heroine say something downright scandalous; and many will even note that this trend has affected how dialogue even in non-Japanese erotic games has developed. However, games by Western developers such as “Harem Heroes” is also a top trending game on Nutaku but doesn’t even have actual voice acting, revealing the complexity of a successful game.
But really, nobody takes porn that seriously, right? Unfortunately this is often the case. But as a multifaceted medium, the tenacity of hentai in particular is noteworthy. Even if half a million players, in the case of Kamihime Project R, only like your game because of the boobs; chances are they're still hearing the music. And we all know they’re definitely listening to the voices.
Case in point, there is a successful YouTuber, Amanda Lee, who is well known for translating and covering English language versions of popular songs from anime and video games. In fact, Amanda Lee’s cover of “Unmei Hirari” the excellent opening theme for Nutaku's free to play Flower Knight Girl has almost 500,000 views on YouTube.
In Japan, there are several academies dedicated to voice acting. Even in the west, voice actor’s like Amanda Lee show many characteristics of an educated voice actor/performer. Going forward, we can surely expect to see more voice actors emerging as hentai becomes more popular in the west. Will this encourage developers to add more sounds and voices in their games, or will they continue to strategically use silence? Keep an eye out for the next big online game and keep an ear out for any sounds, or silence, that contribute to its success.
