I liked all the floppy versions of the Lucasarts adventures!
Gabriel Knight 1: I finished the floppy version. Later when I heard the talkie version (with Tim Curry I believe) it sounded really weird. I guess you imagine a certain voice in your head...

Then again, I could mention Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song. In that PlayStation 2 game:
a) There is quite a bit of dialog in that game. Some of it is essentially small talk (similar to much of what you get in SaGa Frontier, as well as in SaGa Frontier 2 when revisiting towns outside of events), but even that is still voiced. It may not have as much dialog as, say, Dragon Quest 8 (English PS2 version), but unlike in DQ8, in RS:MS, *all* of the dialog is voiced, even that with ordinary townspeople.
b) RS:MS was made by a major videogame developer (Square-Enix), but it was certainly not their flagship game. At this point, the US branch was really pushing Dragon Quest 8, while RS:MS got comparitively little attention, so I can't imagine them wanting to spend too many resources on that game. (On the other hand, as the game was distributed on DVD, there isn't much of a problem with space.)

Also, for the "mumble mumble", are you thinking of games like Banjo-Kazooie or Celeste here? Or are you thinking of commoner dialog in Badur's Gate 2, where NPCs (other than the most important ones) often have one little bit of speech, but have full text. If it's the former, that works fine; if the latter, you run into the problem I mentioned in the other thread where the text and voice are at odds with one another.

Anyway, I could mention that, for Might and Magic: World of Xeen, I think I prefer the non-voiced version to the voiced verson. (One other difference; The non-voiced version asks copy protection questions a total of 3 times during a playthrough (and it's possible to dodge the one in Darkside if you're familiar enough with the game), while the voiced version occasionally asks you to change CD-ROMs (the GOG voiced version changed the text, but if you follow the listed instructions, you are actually telling DOSBox to switch virtual CDs).)

Unless devs have triple A budgets, they should just skip voice work altogether. There are plenty of games that have mediocre to outright bad voice acting while otherwise being perfectly fine. It can detract quite a bit from my game experience.

Also, the replacement gibberish sound annoys the shit out of me. If you've got it in your game, give me an option to mute it!

To gibberish, I actually prefer the like I recall some Infinite games had (IIRC), that the NPC says some generic sentence but the actual message is only in text.

I think the "gibberish" is more prevalent in older console games than PC games, like Nintendo (including N64) games and such.

The problem with the NPCs having generic sentences is, as I just mentioned in the topic, that the sentence is sometimes at odds with what is actually being said.

Example:
Voice: "Hello. How are you doing this fine day?"
Text: "Die fools! You don't belong in this world!" (Battle ensues.)

Sorry, I hadn't thought of all the valid questions prior to posting...

My original intention was to find games (preferably RPGs but open...) that have good written dialogue but weren't voiced. Yea, that was my intention. ;)

Also, all the best NWN and NWN2 modules, if you don't count the standard one-liners with which the player character reacts to commands during exploration and combat. And the best Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures modules, too. ;)

The gibberish I was referring to is the type found in games like

Magicka
Stikbold
Chuchel, etc.

It's very silly, but not as terrible as the monotonous style of games like Okami, which really annoyed me, too. Then again, I guess the first three would probably be considered examples of games with voice-acting, regardless of the gibberish, because it's not just sound but made up / mixed up languages.

Writing-wise, Spiderweb games are not too bad.

I second Leroux's mention of the Forgotten Reams games, and I'd throw in Myst for consideration as well.

Higurashi.-

Knowing the parameters a bit better, a game that technically contains voice samples for attacks but is not voice acted in its dialogue that I enjoyed was Tales of Destiny.

The Ultima series for never really having any recorded speech until the last game. Later games had a one-liner here or there at the cost of a speech expansion pack and a sound card (which not everyone had).

I'd also include any isometric/top-down RPG. A lot of them, especially modern ones, have limited characters who are voiced, but for the most part everything is text. And I love it. There is so much dialogue and so many characters as they are not constrained by production. Notable examples would be Albion, Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity and Baldur's Gate.

Of the new batch of non-voiced RPGs, what would you consider the most memorable dialogue?

I've been playing Legends of Eisenwald, and while it has a lot of dialogue and seems like what I'd look for, it's a bit dry.

That's a tough question... most of these games draw me in due to their unique worlds or worlds that I simply find appealing. I can't choose one out of these. I can only really describe what I enjoy.

Albion is still one of my all-time favourite RPGs. The sci-fi setting was just so engrossing. I spent so much time talking to NPCs and gobbling down all the lore and information about the world that I could. The combat system was a first-person affair in the vein of many dungeon crawlers of the time. The rest of the game outside of dungeons and combat was a top-down view with a nice art style. There is zero voice work in this game and there are hundreds if not thousands of characters you'll meet along the way.

Pillars of Eternity I haven't finished yet, but so far, I love it. It feels like a familiar fantasy setting at first, but as you delve in further you realise it's not. Where everything else seems so Tolkien/Norse/that inspired, this almost seems, Welsh? Gaelic? I can't quite say as I've only just started. But I'm honestly enjoying it so far. In terms of gameplay mechanics, it feels a lot like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale or Tyranny with that classic 90's, 00's, PC RPG feel.

Tyranny just stands out for some brilliant characterisation and an incredibly unique fantasy setting. It's a classical world, as opposed to medieval, on the cusp of a dark iron age. Evil won. You can be evil. The game has multiple endings as well. The game rewards you for being evil or challenges you to survive a harsh world with your morals. Very refreshing!

Baldur's Gate is set in the Forgotten Realms. Not a terribly appealing fantasy setting for me in general, yet I always enjoy the games and novels and I think that's its strength. It's a bit of a generic canvas that has potential to really create something enticing. Whereas if Tyranny or Pillars had of been terrible games or stories, I'd still be reading the world lore regardless. Baldur's Gate's story, without getting into it too much, has a lot of literary mechanics that I love. Flashbacks, a self-reflecting storyline, well defined protagonists and antagonists, a story that revolves around you as a player character and not a typical 'chosen one' type player character either. Baldur's Gate didn't leave me wanting to learn too much more about FR, it's obvious what the world is about, it left me craving more games like it. Even in other settings.

These games, especially ones such as Tyranny which has some brilliant and limited voice work, leaves me craving full voice-acting. But not having all of that is what allows the game to have branching dialogue and plots in the first place. :)