as an author you're the puppet master behind the curtain, attempting to maintain the illusion that the puppets are real people acting in real events. But the moment the audience becomes consciously aware of your presence, you've failed as an author.

Well put. I watched a bit of this game earlier and this sort of thing bleeds through all over the dub (and practically any western dub in general, which is why they're intolerable to me). The VAs, particularly the female ones, never sound like they're performing a real character. Instead they always sound like they're intoxicated by the cool novelty of voice acting itself, which they milk for every bit of quirkiness, ostentatiousness and bossgrrl assertiveness, trying to reinforce their own egos as people outside the game.

The performances and the English script for this game are some of the cringiest I've ever heard. Instead of actors in a story, they feel more like some knockoff Critical Role session performing to a twitch chat.