Regarding Lance Bass as Sephiroth

[Wiegraf]

Whenever I play against Sephiroth in KH1 FM I can't help but wonder what the big deal was. I haven't really heard a "reason" outside of the guy being a homosexual singer to be quite honest.

Whenever I play against him, I really think that his voice added a lot to the fight. The echo and muffling really gave Sephiroth's voice an otherworldy, supernatural tone to it that seemed very intimidating. In fact, it almost seems "angelic" which in my opinion is perfect for someone like Sephiroth.

^This is a new video I made using extracted, music-less audio clips of Sephiroth from KH1. It is very clear, and a good listen.

Like here for example, I really like the way he says "HA" and the other sword strikes as well. It doesn't even sound that high there, which is the main reason I hear.

I kind of wish that he could have gotten at least one speaking role (specifically, the Final Mix "Showdown of Fate" scene could have been voiced) so we would have at least a basis of comparison for dialogue acting. I like Newburn, but to be honest, he can sound like a generic villain sometimes, which is a pretty stark contrast to Lance Bass having one of the more unique voices for a Final Fantasy character.

What did you think?

 

[Ryushikaze]

mufflemuffle-sin harvest-mufflemuffle.

I couldn't tell you much because the audio quality on his recording was just that shit. Regardless of how good he was as Sephypoo or not, the audio they had of him was shit.

 

[Madame Mayor]

Ya I think I was more disappointed that he didn't really speak as Sephy. I think he could have made a good one.

 

[Masamune]

What's wrong with one flaming homosexual voicing another?

It's impossible to form an opinion based on a few muffled lines of dialogue. That said, he couldn't have been much worse than Newbern, who sounds positively bored out of his skull.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

To be fair, bored out of his skull is fairly in character for Sephiroth. I still prefer his Japanese VA though.

 

[Tetsujin]

To be fair, bored out of his skull is fairly in character for Sephiroth.

Eh, no.

 

[Super Mario]

He doesn't sound manly enough.


That's the only good reason I can throw out there, help me out here guys.

 

[Tennyo]

Disney brought in Lance Bass because it was a big name to attract fangirls to purchase the game.

There isn't enough to go by to form an opinion. All he does is grunt, and say muffled lines.

The only reason people hated him is because he was in N'SYNC, in my humble opinion. :/

Because I guess hating on pop celebrities makes you cool, or something.

 

[Super Mario]

Give the fag a chance kids.

 

[Mariketsu]

I honestly didn't see what was so wrong with Lance Bass voicing him either, but as Tenny said, it most likely was due to him being part of a boy-band at the time. So he was in a boy-band, big effin' deal, srsly. People need to grow up. Regardless tho, there really wasn't enough to go on voice-wise.

Raz

 

[Super Mario]

I think it had to do with his lack of masculinity than the fact he joined N-Sync or whatever they're called these days.

 

[Mariketsu]

That was probably a large factor as well, but I actually did hear a lot of Sephy fans pissin' about the boy-band factor . Still, I agree tho.

~ Raz

 

[Masamune]

To be fair, bored out of his skull is fairly in character for Sephiroth. I still prefer his Japanese VA though.

Sephiroth is supposed to sound cold, menacing and contemptuous.

A good voice-actor would be able to manage that without sounding monotonous.

 

[Wiegraf]

Honestly, I have to say that I think that Sephiroth both looks AND sounds too old in every game he's appeared in post-KH1.

 

[ForceStealer]

Sephiroth is supposed to sound cold, menacing and contemptuous.

A good voice-actor would be able to manage that without sounding monotonous.

Newbern's is going more for cocky and overconfident, imo. But we've had this discussion before

And yeah, I dunno how people had an opinion. I admit I wasn't crazy about the idea myself at the time. It's wasn't so much a lack of 'masculinity' (I mean, have you SEEN Sephiroth?) as just how are we supposed to be afraid of a boy band voice? But yeah, you can't hear it. Smeh.

 

[Wiegraf]

I think that Lance Bass more accurately portrays Sephiroth as he appears in FFVII to be honest. I mean, in FFVII he was youthful, and a former hero. That said, I think that KH1 is also the best representation of his fighting style (outside of Bizarro and Safer Sephiroth) that we have seen. He used powerful magic, and in the tradition of the Iaido fighting style, he had his sword in a sheathed pose while hitting with quick, precise strikes (and not that cliched faster than the eye can see crud).

George Newbern more accurately portrays him as he is in the Compilation though, for better or worse.

 

[Masamune]

This is the guy who should have voiced Sephiroth:

 

[Makoeyes987]

You know, I always thought that too. Billy Zane would've made a perfect Sephiroth.

 

[Wiegraf]

Correction: Billy Zane should have voiced every male character in every game, ever.

 

[Lumina]

Billy Zane is amazing. I loved his work as Ansem, too bad he didn't keep it up for the following games.
@Wiegraf , put

 

[Super Mario]

I really hated Richard Epcar as 'Ansem'/xehanort/ etc etc. They should've just used Billy Zane for crying out loud, it would've added badass points. Richard epcar, not heavily dissing, sounds too goofy and ... I dunno funny as the voice of 'Ansem'.