I'm okay with it, despite my first exposure being that joke in the car and I wasn't expecting it. That's what I get for not paying attention to the changelog then. But while I wasn't sure at first, I think the current way you're doing it is perfectly fine. I'm sure it'll take some time to get it all down anyway, but a suggestion is that you want to do most of the voice recording close together. Quality, time, etc. That way you won't get different results for later lines. And so long as there's an option to turn it on/off then I can't say anything else about it. Story should be built up first, of course. That's important.

Hey everyone! Thanks for the feedback. I won't have time to individually respond to all the suggestions, but please know I've read everything and taking it all into consideration. Thanks for your time 😸

I think the voice actors should try and change their voices to better match the characters they belong to. When listening to the different characters' voices, they all felt way too similar and often not matching the characters' design/personality. I personally think you could go the direction you gone with Dave's voice, aka giving each one a distinct element on their voice to make the reader go "oh, that guy" immediatelly when you listen to their voice.

Voices are a nice touch, my only problem is that some of the voices felt jarring to hear like they didn't belong to the character that was speaking.  I know voices don't always match the person and it is subject to opinion so this is hard to fix. I do think the less full lines route would be a good option. 

Personally, I'd like the Legend of Zelda approach the best with vocalizations and little phrases. They'd mostly be there for flavor then, and would just be used to accentuate to certain lines (although idk how your voice actors would feel about having their roles essentially reduced to grunting). I just found it distracting to be reading and then, suddenly, hearing someone speak mid-conversation even though they'd been silent up until then. I also agree with some of the other comments that which lines were chosen to be voiced or unvoiced felt somewhat arbitrary and strange. Once I'd heard every character say at least one line just so I could hear them, I turned the voices off.

Another large reason is just the mixing/sound. A lot of the voices were a fine volume, but some lines (particularly April's) were consistently too quiet. Also, about half the cast have good mics, but the other half sound crunchy and crusty. I don't think this is something that can be improved in the future since it's just a matter of who owns what equipment.

Lastly, most of the voices just didn't really capture me. Moriah, April, and Eddy were good, and Dave was a standout because of the accent, but all the rest of the characters just sounded like... normal guys. Same Midwestern accent, fairly similar in pitch and tone. The voice talent wasn't bad or anything, they just didn't feel very distinct from each other, so I didn't find that it added much to the experience. Maybe I'd hear more differences if there were a bigger sampling of voice lines? Regardless, I'd either push the cast to do more "character-y" voices, or reduce the amount of voice acting entirely.

Of course, you should also feel free to ignore all this and do whatever makes you happiest! If players don't like whatever direction you take the voice acting, there's always the option to just turn it off entirely, so it doesn't really matter either way. Also, I'm kind of biased against voice acting in VNs anyway since people tend to read faster than people speak, so you're already done reading the lines but you still have to sit and wait for the actor to finish. Sorry that I had so many thoughts and that most of them were negative lmao. Even though the voice acting was one aspect that I unequivocally didn't like, I loved everything else about the first build. Great work so far!

I think the currrent implementation of voice acting is good, just having I guess "key" scenes voiced. I was actually looking forward to the voiced lines while playing. I think it's fine to have fun moments to be voice acted, doesn't all need to be serious shit but occasionly the conversation would be as mundane as "Do you sit or stand when you piss" and that line would be voiced for some reason. It doesn't need to be removed but just something to think about in the future.

The only other thing i could mention was the quality of the some voices which isn't really a big deal. You're a indie dev not expecting s teir shit, I get it. Don't get me wrong, I actually like some of the acting but I won't name names since I'd feel like a  asshole for being a snob about it.

One idea is for best/worst case, scrap it for now going forward and then at some point, maybe half, and finished go back and add it in, if you desire most or all of it voiced.  Else stick with mostly sounds to provide tone and expressions and keep it simple.  Either way its a secondary focus that can be worked on later, story first!

I like the voice acting but I think it would be better to have the generic one or two word responses mixed with the occasional full sentence. Something like Dream Daddy where the characters mostly have generic voice lines when talking but there's also parts where the characters say full sentences like at the end of a date or when Amanda (your daughter) says she loves you too.

Gotta say, it's pretty nice to have voicelines since it helps make the characters feel more fleshed out. Maybe it's too early for me to think this, but, like a comment I saw somewhere, they sometimes feel like they don't fit the situation or are just simply jarring to hear. I'm fine with the current setup(Few dialogue boxes have voices), but if you don't like it, I think the more generic voicelines will work just as well. 

This is mostly a nitpick though, I'm thoroughly enjoying the story. The voices really help make FVN feel more real. Hope you keep up the good work! 

Will have to admit it I wasnt expecting the voices at first but its a nice feature x3