My recent release of Something’s In The Air Redux had a new feature for a major game: Voice. Yes it was AI driven, but it adds a new dimension to the visual novel experience and I plan to roll it out to all my games.

Date Ariane Remastered has now been added to that list. Strip Crazy Eights was first and SITAR was second, but now DAR gets the AI voice treatment. This is part of the game as of version 1.5, and it is a free update if you have the old version. I’ll explain below how to update, as where you got the game matters.

AI Voicing Date Ariane Remastered

Because DAR is about a third of the size as SITAR line wise. I decided to voice every Ariane and NPC line in the game. Narration and player lines are still unvoiced. Recently playing Starfield, has assured me not voicing the player is the right call.

Well almost every line. The lines Ariane says during sex scenes are unvoiced, because the sex noises do a better job.

If there are any unvoiced NPC lines, it’s a bug. Another potential bug is if the line is completely different from the text on the screen. Might want to note those if you find them and post in the comments. I thoroughly tested the game, and could not find any, but it is a big game with a lot of paths, so I could have missed one.

There are occasionally lines that almost say what the screen says, these are normal and involve lines that contain variables or lines that need extra detail either on the voice or text side. The very first voiced line in the game is this way: You read, “Hello, I’m Ariane. You must be (your picked name), come on in.” But you hear, “Hello, I’m Ariane. You must be my date this evening, come on in.” Almost all lines are identical read as voiced, but they are occasionally different. See also the board game dice, what dress part was found while buying a dress, why she does not like the lingerie you picked out, and Ariane discussing how many drinks she had at the car. The text is the correct version in these scenes, the voice is just supplemental.

This means you can play without voice (Go into the Preference screen and set Voice to 0) and have a meaningful experience. Note the voices are generated by AI via Eleven Labs voicing. I have discussed the ups, downs, and ethics of this kind of voicing in a previous essay, and it all applies to this as well. I used mostly the same voices as I did with SITAR, except Stacy sounds like the diner waitress. Stacy was a low key emotionally down character in SITAR, but upbeat and excited in DAR, so I couldn’t use the same voice in both.

Bonus Changes!

Every version of Date Ariane has new content, and I didn’t want to disappoint. There is new content in the bonus section, and I also made the bonus a lot easier to get to. Previously you needed to reach 70 of the 79 achievements to unlock the bonus. That number has been dropped to two specific ones: “All five dinners” (yes I know that requires five dates to achieve) and “Sex Endurance” which proves you went all the way on a date. Once you get both, prove it by running the achievements check, and it will invite you to the bonus. To unlock the bonus, you then need to go to “Character” and create a bonus character. This will hide the help screens in bonus mode (they don’t work correctly anyways). To get back to regular, you can go to preferences and turn off the bonus, or character and go back to a regular character.

A handful of scenes in the bonus have new content, which I will not spoil for you.

Text changes

A third category of changes in 1.5 has to do with text changes. Most of this is driven by voice, but I never made the game impossible to play without voice. Many lines without contractions (I am, that is, it is, etc.) have been changed to contraction form (I’m, that’s, it’s, etc). I made sure these changes were grammatically correct so no sentence ending with “it is” is changed to end with “it’s” as that makes no sense.

There are also places with repeating text, like during the make out scenes, Ariane keeps saying “That was nice keep going.” which does not matter without voice since the player is deciding what to do next. I added a lot more Ariane commentary with Ariane talking or asking about your last move to replace all the “That was nice keep going” lines.

Many places have expanded dialog. This was a historical problem when the game was an HTML game it had a limited number of characters. That is obviously not a problem for Renpy, so several lines are longer, sound more naturally conversational and explain more.

One loss is that lines with multiple versions, which the game picked randomly to display are now gone, replaced by a single line that is longer and contains all the important info.

Where to get DAR 1.5

If you don’t have Date Ariane Remastered yet, you can purchase it at any of the stores linked on this page. The “Demo” version found on Steam or itch.io or the site store is also voiced now too if you want to try it out first.

If you do have the game already, you just need to update. In the Steam store, just click on “Play” or “Update” in the steam library and depending on settings, it will update the game for you. The game works on Steamdeck with no added settings, though if it hides the prompt to type your name, press the menu button (hamburger ≡) to switch it to the bottom so you can see what you are typing.

On Itch.io, you need to download it again. I am not releasing a patch as those tend to be problematic, and the game is around 700 MB. This is where you can find Mac, Linux, Android, PC, and PC 32bit versions all of which have been updated. The only one that hasn’t been is the “lores” android for old phones because it is too big, but if you have a better android phone get the “hires” APK file.

The site store (aka Payloadz) does not have a good updating system, and things I tried in the past, like release updates as free samples, no longer works. Go to the PC or Mac store, and click on Contact Seller and send a message using the email you bought the game under, and I’ll send you a new link as soon as I verify the purchase. I have to do this manually, so it will not be instantaneous.

Conclusions

Tell me what you think. Tell me any bugs you find. I’m planning on voicing Ariane in Paradise next followed by Hopepunk City, and then put both on Steam in 2024. A new game is in the works, which I’ll talk more about next year.