Voice Acting Discussion

[Aya Lee]

It is amazing the difference in quality that Naughty Dog achieves by not only having the voice actors record together, but record WHILE also motion capturing the scene. It's like a play, and it's incredible just how much more natural it is.

Tell me about it. I think that's the reason "The Last of Us" grabbed me from the first five minutes. The voice acting was SO GOOD. I love Naughty Dog.

 

[Flare]

To me, "Yes, his name is Barret." Is funnier if I imagine Cloud saying it normally and Corneo still not getting that Cloud's a guy until he takes the dress off.

Cloud's normal voice: "Yes, his name is Barret..."

Corneo's thoughts: Oh my, she has such a manly voice! How exquisite!

Or something?

 

[Lex]

It is amazing the difference in quality that Naughty Dog achieves by not only having the voice actors record together, but record WHILE also motion capturing the scene. It's like a play, and it's incredible just how much more natural it is.

Tell me about it. I think that's the reason "The Last of Us" grabbed me from the first five minutes. The voice acting was SO GOOD. I love Naughty Dog.

I don't think I've ever played a game that's beat The Last of Us or Uncharted in quality of voice work.

It's always bugged me that VA's record their lines solo - sometimes with no direction and context. But it's also quite impressive that under those conditions some still manage to give a stellar performance. Jason Marsden (Noel's VA) springs to mind. His voice work for XIII-2 and Lightning Returns is exceptional, and he's made it clear in interviews that he doesn't even have a clue what Final Fantasy is, let alone the plot of XIII XD. Impressive. I also love his voice, but that might be due to childhood memories (he voiced Kovu in The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and when I first played XIII-2 I recognised him right away).

 

[Tennyo]

So I've been replaying FFVII and I played this part and Aerith was selected. Cloud does speak to Corneo's henchmen, but they don't realize he's a guy until his dramatic spin where he changes clothes.

 

[Strangelove]

noel was binx the cat in hocus pocus, my world is changed forever

 

[Cthulhu]

It's always bugged me that VA's record their lines solo - sometimes with no direction and context.

Not always; Enslaved didn't (and the VA's were also the motion actors), and South Park doesn't either (and there you have two VA's doing loads of different voices while trying to keep a straight face). IMO VA's should be able to get their performance done right as much as possible, especially when it's scenes involving multiple characters.

 

[Lex]

In general that's the case though, examples where it isn't (Naughty Dog, the two you mentioned) are rare exceptions rather than simply an alternative method some studios use. I think the numbers bump up a bit when you pull in cartoons/anime, but in the world of video games it's definitely rare.

Even Bioware's VA's record in isolation:

 

[lithiumkatana17]

noel was binx the cat in hocus pocus, my world is changed forever

WHAT?!?!?


AND he voiced Kovu in the Lion King 2?!!? Holy mother, I never noticed!! And I'm usually pretty good at picking up voices.

As far as VA's go, I really can't wait to hear Steve Burton voice Cloud again, because this is going to be such a different Cloud than any that he's voiced so far.

God, I hope they make him record lines doing a very bad falsetto--I think I might die.

 

[Tennyo]

Wait

Binx the cat was the dude from NCIS.

Does this mean he is Noel as well?

 

[Lex]

Binx the cat (and Noel, and Kovu) were voiced by Jason Marsden. Thackary Binx (the boy in Hocus Pocus who becomes Binx) is played by Sean Murray (the dude from NCIS).

They used Jason's voice and had Sean Murray lip sync for the scenes where human Binx is visible Hocus Pocus XD.

 

[Cthulhu]

Even Bioware's VA's record in isolation:

Lame. The next level for Bioware would be to do fully animated cutscenes, right now they're still at the level where characters sorta stand opposite each other and roll out their lines (which, it has to be said, is pretty good voice acting), but they'd add an extra dimension if it was fully acted out. They might need to scale down their games a bit though,

Also Claudia Black got... brown, . TBF though, only know her from Farscape.

 

[Tashasaurous]

I might be wrong, but found out about a few months ago, and this took me by surprise, but apparently Quinton Flynn, the voice for Reno and Axel/Lea, was the temporary voice of Timon in the "Timon and Pumbaa" Lion King TV spin off series.

I still prefer him in his roles in FFVII and Kingdom Hearts franchises.

Oh, and I also remember him being the voice of Issu or whatever in FFX.

 

[Channy]

noel was binx the cat in hocus pocus, my world is changed forever

Noel/Jason Marsden was a lot of things from my childhood

...mostly weird TGIF/Canadian shows but one that'll ring other bells to you is he was also Haku is Spirited Away

Jason Marsden is love <3

 

[Aya Lee]

I might be wrong, but found out about a few months ago, and this took me by surprise, but apparently Quinton Flynn, the voice for Reno and Axel/Lea, was the temporary voice of Timon in the "Timon and Pumbaa" Lion King TV spin off series.

I still prefer him in his roles in FFVII and Kingdom Hearts franchises.

Oh, and I also remember him being the voice of Issu or whatever in FFX.

I don't always prefer English voices, but when I do, it's Quinton Flynn.

For some reason I think he just has the most PERFECT voice for Reno AND Axel. Funny they both have red hair, lol. I love Reno's Japanese voice as well, but Flynn just has that low-key Turk sounding vibe.. IT'S PERFECT.

 

[e.suna]

Are Reno and Axel also voiced by the same dude in the Japanese too? Fujiwara I think his name was?

And yes, I think Quinton Flynn will nail Reno's lazy badass lines. <3 I can't wait.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

I can't wait to hear Newburn voice Sephiroth again. I know some people don't prefer him, but I'm so used to hearing him as Sephiroth that I can't imagine anyone else voicing him in the English dub. I just can't wait to actually hear a lot of Sephiroth's lines from the Nibelheim incident actually being voiced, instead of scrolling through text like in Crisis Core (which I know was done so the game could fit on one UMD). I want to hear him reading those Jenova Project files in Shinra Manor...

It's going to be so epic.

 

[Flare]

^I frickin' love George Newbern's voice. Omnomnom every time I hear Sephiroth on screen.
Ooooh now I'm getting excited to see all of his scenes in the Remake and wait--there'll probably be even more! I can't wait!

 

[RedFFWolf]

I might be wrong, but found out about a few months ago, and this took me by surprise, but apparently Quinton Flynn, the voice for Reno and Axel/Lea, was the temporary voice of Timon in the "Timon and Pumbaa" Lion King TV spin off series.

I still prefer him in his roles in FFVII and Kingdom Hearts franchises.

Oh, and I also remember him being the voice of Issu or whatever in FFX.

He voiced Timon in the first season. And I do remember him voicing Isaaru in FFX too. So calm and pleasant...until FFX-2 at the part he's pretending to be some kind of temple guardian.


On George Newbern, I know there seems to be a general dislike towards Nooj (or, at least, his hair), but I loved him as Nooj - maybe it's a case of "no" to Nooj but "yes" to his voice ? Though I can't find the link I'm thinking of anymore, I read somewhere that it was his voicework as Nooj that helped him earn his role as Sephiroth. (The FFWiki mentions this, as does Newbern's Wiki, but they haven't their own sources either [but, meh, getting unnecessarily academic now])

 

[Starling]

I didn't play FFX-2 so I had to look up Nooj to see why people didn't like his hair. I... don't think his hair is the main issue there.

GLD says hi, by the way.

 

[Splintered]

I love Sephiroth's voice. I think he's a perfect mix of how I imagined him and being a talented va altogether. Imo he's the best cast in the English dub. Well Reeve is great too.

 

[Tashasaurous]

I don't always prefer English voices, but when I do, it's Quinton Flynn.

For some reason I think he just has the most PERFECT voice for Reno AND Axel. Funny they both have red hair, lol. I love Reno's Japanese voice as well, but Flynn just has that low-key Turk sounding vibe.. IT'S PERFECT.

During developments of both KH Chain of Memories and KH2, Nomura decided to experiment on using a similiar character in a different role for the KH series, and that's when he decided to create Axel who is actually based on Reno, despite the two being completely different people with similiar looks and personalities.

Yeah, Quintion Flynn is the best for Reno and Axel. I heard that on his twitter account he wanted to voice Reno again, so, I'm seriously hoping he'll return for the remake.

Are Reno and Axel also voiced by the same dude in the Japanese too? Fujiwara I think his name was?

And yes, I think Quinton Flynn will nail Reno's lazy badass lines. <3 I can't wait.

Yes, Fujiwawa is the voice actor of both Reno and Axel in Japanese. Guess he likes to voice both of them too. While I'm not a fan on the Japanese voices, I hope most actors from the Compilation in both English and Japanese will return.

Personally, I said this before, but Hojo's definately getting two new actors in both langauges, because 1), his original Japanese actor has died a few years ago, and 2), Paul Eiding didn't like voicing Hojo anyway.

Though I heard a rumor that Red XIII will get a new actor too, which is a bit sad.

 

[ForceStealer]

Eh, Red's voice was already Kain and Caius, and only had one line anyway. I can live with him changing. Dude has range though, so I'm sure it'd be fine if he didn't change, either. Not sure that I anticipated him having a British accent though.

 

[lithiumkatana17]

I'm really curious as to how President Shinra will sound. Does anyone have any preference as to how they imagine him sounding?

 

[Aya Lee]

I'm really curious as to how President Shinra will sound. Does anyone have any preference as to how they imagine him sounding?

I imagine him with Tom Selleck's voice lmao:

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Liam O'Brien was apparently told to mimic Sean Connery when voicing Nanaki, so I think it'd be cool if they got the actual Sean Connery to voice him. That said, Liam O'Brien is one of my favorite VAs, so I hope he's in this regardless. I'll be surprised if Yuri Lowenthal doesn't end up voicing someone in this, as he's one of the most prolific VAs in the industry, and does a very good job IMO. Other cool VAs I'm hoping for are Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Matthew Mercer, Keith David, Phil Lamarr, Nolan North, Troy Baker, Tim Curry, Wil Wheaton, and John DiMaggio.