There’s no separating Wayne June from Darkest Dungeon. Like Logan Cunningham’s work because the narrator in Supergiant Video games’ Bastion, each slender victory and heart-wrenching defeat in Pink Hook Studios’ darkish fantasy dungeon crawler is punctuated by June’s grim, unwaveringly sorrow-filled voice. He handed away in January 2025, and director Chris Bourassa lately confirmed he would by no means use generative AI to attempt to resurrect his ghost.
“In one in every of his final emails to me, Wayne gave us permission to coach an AI on his voice, one thing he’d staunchly opposed previous to the tip,” Bourassa wrote on the Darkest Dungeon subreddit this week in response to followers discussing how a possible Darkest Dungeon 3 may deal with the deceased actor’s one-of-a-kind skills. “We’d by no means requested to do it. I believe he was attempting to place the sport/crew/followers first – provide us a ‘manner ahead’. I declined, and we donated to his household anyway.” Cyberpunk 2077 used generative AI to imitate the voice of the actor who performed Viktor Vektor within the Polish-language model of the sport after he died of most cancers in 2021. “Don’t f*cking try this,” Deus Ex voice actor Elias Toufexis stated when a modder tried to swap his voice into CD Projekt Pink’s sci-fi RPG utilizing AI. Epic Video games even used it to have James Earl Jones bark at gamers in Fortnite as Darth Vader. Pink Hook Studios is drawing a line the place others haven’t.
“I’d by no means, ever erode his unimaginable and timeless performances by educating a machine to sound like him,” Bourassa wrote. “His voice and supply was *human, and I’m without end grateful I bought to jot down for him.”
June’s voice is very affecting in Darkest Dungeon 2, the place a roguelike journey construction supplies more room for dramatic storytelling and ambient rigidity. “Wayne’s singular baritone and masterful cadence elevated all the pieces he learn. He was a consummate skilled, and his love of his craft was an inspiration,” Bourassa stated when he handed. “His inimitable work is woven into the very material of our trade in a manner that can’t be forgotten.”
