Memorable Voice Lines
Tags
Disclaimer
This article contains spoilers for the following video game series:- The Last of Us
- Mass Effect
- Uncharted
Additionally, I should mention that you will probably not be able to fully understand the context of the voice lines if you have not played the games.
Table of Contents
Motivation
As for many of my projects, especially in the software realm, the inspiration for this projected originated in the desire to learn a new skill. This project started with me being interested in learning how to program software for processing audio files. Whenever I am keen to learn a new skill, I always try to combine it with a creative project. This increases the chances of staying motivated during the sometimes long and difficult process of learning a new skill. So I came up with the idea of collecting some of the most memorable voice lines from some of my favorite video games and visualizing their waveforms in an artwork.
The Artwork
The artwork consists of six memorable voice lines from three of my favorite video game franchises. The artwork contains quotes from The Last of Us Part I & Part II, Mass Effect 3 and Uncharted 4. I wrote a Python script that could read Waveform audio files and generate a visualization of their waveforms through a continuous line. The artwork is drawn on a DIN A3 canvas by a plotter that I built myself. A plotter is a CNC-machine that can move a drawing device, such as a pen, to draw on a canvas.
Everyone has left me!
The first voice line is spoken by Ellie Williams in The Last of Us Part I during what I find to be the most memorable and impactful scene in the entire game. The Last of Us is, in my opinion, the best video game ever made and if you haven’t played it, strongly recommend you to stop reading this article and go play it before continuing to read the following spoilers. Furthermore, you won’t be able to fully grasp the meaning of the quote if you haven’t played the game. This generally applies to all games and quotes discussed in this article.
The scene happens in chapter 7, also called ‘Tommy’s Dam’. Joel, who has accompanied Ellie for some time, now plans to leave her with his brother for the remainder of her trip to the Fireflies. Ellie, who has none else left beside Joel, confronts him about leaving her:
Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me. Everyone - fucking except for you! Ellie Williams
Full Scene
Honor and War
The second line is said by Javik the last surviving Prothean that you meet in Mass Effect 3. In the middle of the gruesome war between the Reapers and the galactic alliance of intelligent races, Javik and Commander Shepard discuss their different viewpoints on honor and maintaining the values you hold dear during war.
Stand in the ashed of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer. Javik
Full Scene
My favorite shop
The third line is also from the Mass Effect franchise, but it has more of a light-hearted backstory than the first two quotes. In the Mass Effect series you play as Commander Shepard and during the story you become well known across the galaxy. You can use your fame to bargain for discounts in the many stores on the space station called Citadel by offering the shop owners to record an advertisement for them.
The funny thing about this is that you can do that for most shops on the station. So eventually, every store you go to plays an advertisement stating that their shop is the favorite shop of the great Commander Shepard, which is quite funny and has turned that line into a meme in the gaming community.
I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the Citadel. Commander Shepard
Full Scene
En garde, dickhead!
The fourth line is also more light-hearted. It is said by Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 at the very end of his long journey that has spent four games and many adventures. During the last confrontation with his adversary Rafe Adler, which happens to include fencing with pirate rapiers, Nathan shows of his witty nature by starting of the fight with this funny line.
En garde, dickhead! Nathan Drake
Full Scene
That’s a big boy!
The second to last line is again said by Ellie Williams but this time in the second installment of The Last of Us. During one of the flashbacks to Ellie’s teenage years, she and Joel visit a science museum that happens to include a giant statue of a Tyrannosaurus rex or, as Ellie puts it, a ‘big boy’. I think this quote perfectly describes the funny nature of Ellie and also shows of the remarkable acting skills of Ashley Johnson who voices this character.
That's a big boy! Ellie Williams
Full Scene
Sic parvis magna
The last line I selected stems again from Uncharted 4. It includes the motto of Nathan Drake and reccuring Latin proverb ‘Sic parvis magna.’ This line often appears in the Uncharted games, but I choose the last time it appears so it can reflect on the long journey that Nathan has endured. The last time this line is said is in the epilogue of Uncharted 4 when Nathans daughter Cassandra Drake finds the notes from all his adventures.
Sic parvis magna. Greatness from small beginnings. Cassandra Drake
Full Scene
Technical Details
There are not a lot of interesting technical details to discuss for this project. The software that I have written simply analyzes an audio file to determine the waveform values and generates a single line that moves up and down to visualize the voice line. The following image shows a close up of Ellie’s line ‘That’s a big boy’ to illustrate how the visualization works.
