So I'm planning on doing a 5th walkthrough of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, but I'm planning on reading the dialogue while playing unless it's a voiced cutscene, which would make it a let's play? I'm probably also going to make comments every now and then. However, I've only done two let's plays: Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits and Dragon Quest VIII, which has been going on since 4/2/2011, both with a friend, so I have no experience with a solo let's play. Any tips would be appreciated.
From my understanding, a lot of LP'ers tend to know the game fairly well, record their playthrough/video before hand and add commentary later. Some even make notes. You may awready do that with you friend but might be good to think about if you don't. Or maybe you're one of those guys that like to wing it and are fairly good at it. xD Try and keep you commentary on the game and don't ramble. Funny comments and all that jazz keep the viewers engaged.
Yeah, I've played this game to death. I have save files on all three PS2 memory cards I have, and each can hold 16 files. The third one hasn't reached 16 yet, but I've also overwritten files on the others, too. Here are the only let's plays I have to give you an idea of our comments and such, if you're interested: Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Right well, This sounds daft, but you have to have an ok sounding voice. It's a sad fact that some people just have awful, grating voices, avoid high pitch squeeling and such, really annoys people. Know your game inside and out, if you're gonna talk about a game, it really helps to know about it. Do not speak of spoilers in the very game you're playing, it will kill the experience for some people. Avoid giving characters voices if you're going to speak for them, in my experience no one does it very well and it all gets rather annoying, just speak normallly. Another suggestion, this one just is a preference thing, but your videos are too long, it's a psychological thing, but someone is much more likely to sit through 4 ten minute parts than one 40 minute parts in one sitting, I know it's daft, but 15-20 minute videos are what I find to be the best and most enjoyable. These are just some times to help any aspiring let's player.
Personally when i've LP'ed i've only ever recorded live commentary, post commentary to me is only worth it if you want to really talka bout something specific on the game you're playing, or want to describe things in more detail. Let the game do most of the work itself, try not to talk over the dialogue and not skip scenes, so your audience cna get a better idea of things. nd you don't have to know the game inside, in my opinion, sometimes people wanna see you play the game like you've never played it before and get reactions like that. I prefer that in story based games really, commentary after could kind of spoilt hings. It's just about willing to talk loads and to have fun with it to me.
I agree with PaW on the post commentary thing, i forgot to mention it, 9/10 the videos come off better with live commentary, more natural and feels less rehearsed, any jokes made during post just seem like padding, the audience prefers a more genuine experience at times. Not so much on the game knowledge but that's a preference thing, I've never much liked "blind" LP's, but I can easily see the appeal.
Yeah, this is live commentary. Only the beginning parts of the Dragon Quest VIII let's play my friend and I are doing were post commentary, because we were still figuring out how to do commentary while recording in good quality (Roxio Easy VHS to DVD capture card) compared to what we did for the Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits let's play (digital camcorder with built-in microphone), as well as recent parts 15 and 16, but that was because my friend's old microphone didn't record us for some reason, then he got a new one, which worked, and then I got my own. A few parts were also recorded with my digital camcorder because we wanted live commentary, and we didn't know how to do live commentary at the time without a digital camcorder recording, and then I learned of the Sound Recorder application the computer came with by default. One advantage that I can think of with post commentary, though, is that if you mess up while, say, describing something, instead of wasting more time by explaining it again (live commentary), you can start over.
So here is part of Darc's first chapter. Thanks for your guys' feedback. It's very much appreciated. Spoiler: Chapter 1 - Darc
