Have you ever really been impressed by the voice acting in a game? Who have been some of your favorites? If you don't know their actual name (heck, I know I don't), feel free to just name the characters.

Also, which games do you think have had the best voice acting overall from what you've played?

And to tie it in I guess, which characters that you've heard do you think had the worst voice actors, and which game(s) do you think had the worst voice acting overall?

Y'know, the only game/character/actor that comes to mind at the moment, for games, is Liam O'Brien doing the voice of Lezard in Valkyrie Profile 2. Just... everything about it, I think O'Brien does an awesome job with.

Anyone else... pretty much just voices taken from series/movies the games were based on. Nothing really stands out for me in the gaming industry, at least not from what I've heard so far. If anyone but Lezard does stand out, certainly not enough for me to remember at the moment... Though I do have to say I like Auron's English voice in FFX, and I think Georg's English voice in Suikoden V sounds much better than the Japanese one. Neither is really a "favorite," though, I don't think.

On the other hand, worst? I'm just gonna pin this on Tidus and Vaan, though I'm certain there're worse out there. Both of them just get annoying easily, though. FF XII's cast in general isn't particularly wonderful (well, they're decent), and the super-compressed voice files sound rather static-y, which doesn't make things sound much better.

If I think of any others, for either category, I'll probably update.

Ever heard Lezard's voice in the Japanese VP/VP2? It is miles better. I love that deep voice he has =).

David Hayter deserves a nod here though =).

Easy, Fran from FFXII... seriously, I have never fallen in love with a voice before but her voice is so damn hot. It's a shame the rest of the voice acting in FFXII is either mediocre or just plain bad *cough*Vaan*cough* (Although I have an autograph of the guy who did the voice, of course I didn't tell him I thought he did a terrible job, he thought he was some kind of superstar).

Yuri Lowenthal is my favorite english voice actor for RPGs and anime. He did an amazing job as Luke (Tales of the Abyss) and Haseo (.Hack GU series). I think his quality acting is part of why Luke and Haseo are currently two of my favorite RPG characters. I didn't like his acting for Dean (Wild Arms 5). But that was a somewhat different kind of character to begin with.

My other favorites are Johnny Young Bosch (Guy from Tales of the Abyss and Kuhn from .Hack GU), Heather Halley (Tear from Tales of the Abyss, Chloe from Tales of Legendia, and Nel from Star Ocean 3), and Michael McConnohie (Van from Tales of the Abyss, Margulis from Xenosaga, and Marscal Godwin from Suikoden 5).

It's funny how much more seriously game and anime voice acting is taken compared to 10 or more years ago. Dubbing has come quite a long way, yes?

I forget if I have or not. Either way, I'm a really big Liam O'Brien fan, so my opinion's bound to be a bit biased. ^^; His voice just has such an awesome tone to it, similar to the way he does Gaara's voice in Naruto at times.

And d'oh! I forgot about Hayter, somehow. (Then again, I don't play much MGS.) Yes, kudos to him, fo' sho'.


I haven't heard him in many games, but I'll give him a mention nonetheless, since he's one of my favorites in anime as well. He does a handful of the einherjar in Valkyrie Profile 2 (Kraad, Roland, Seluvia, Xehnon... I think that's all of 'em), as well as an unnamed character (some random kid on the airship; he uses a similar voice to Renton from Eureka Seven for him) in Dirge of Cerberus.

Here, Chal: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KCA7lY9WHeI&feature=related
That is his Japanese voice <3

Um. Ew. x.x I really don't like that voice for him. Of course, probably because I heard O'Brien first, but even just looking at the character and all, I find O'Brien's voice so much more fitting, and just delivered very well.

English: http://youtube.com/watch?v=z50feD9SPi0
(End-game spoiler warning for VP2.)

I heard the English VP1 voice for Lezard and I hate it. He sounds like a 4 year old with that annoying voice. Then I got introduced with the Japanese voice and it remained my favourite.

The same guy does also:

Eddie (Guilty Gear)
Seifer Almasy (Kingdom Hearts)
Ryosuke (Initial D)
Tatsuya (Persona 2)
Shingo Yabuki (KoF '99)
Sadashiro (Samurai X)
Aokiji (One Piece)
Fubuki/Usagi (Disgaea 2)
Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss)
Mwu La Fllaga (Gundam SEED)

So yeah, pretty much a famous seiyuu in Japan. Plus I really dig his voice =D.

Liam O'Brien doesn't do the voice in the original. The original game had some pretty horrid voice acting in general, and I definitely agree that Lezard, in particular, had a terrible English voice. However, VP2 fixed that, by getting O'Brien to do it. =]

I agree that VP2 had a better voice for Lezard, miles better.

Oh yeah, that Japanese guy also does Nicolai in Shadow Hearts: Covenant =).

Queen Arshtat (Suikoden V). She was great! And Auron (FFX) sticks out for me too.

Tidus' voice almost made me stop playing the game.

Hayter is an obvious answer to this one, and I agree with Flame, I loved Fran's voice, even though it annoyed a lot of people (or so I hear).

Another favorite is Albedo's voice actor from Xenosaga (Crispin Freeman?). Its so twisted and insane sounding that its absolutely perfect for the role.

I never played the game, but from what I recall, yes, it's Crispin. From what I've heard in YouTube clips, though, it's hard to believe. Crispin seriously needs more roles in... well, everything.

I have to agree with Chalryn on this, it seems to me Crispin Freeman doesn't get enough roles, and usually they're roles that are always similar to each other.

Dark and/or brooding characters, as he himself puts it, haha. He brings it up in almost all of his interviews and such.
I would list them, but that would be getting off-topic.

For the sake of remaining on-topic, though, Crispin also voices video game characters such as:

Balmung, Sakaki, and Azure Balmung, from the .hack series
Rude and Kunsel, from Crisis Core (also Rude in Advent Children)
Togusa, in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (also for the anime)
Setzer and Will Turner, in Kingdom Hearts II
Gale Dorban/Jaus, in Rogue Galaxy
Heat, in Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (1 & 2)
Sigfried, in Soul Calibur III
Albel Nox, in Star Ocean: 'Til the End of Time
Albedo and Gaignun, in the Xenosaga series, and Jin in the first game

Of course, I'm unfamiliar with most of these, but anything Crispin's involved in, I'm down for. For others reading, there they are, if you were ever wondering. ^^;

It's a shame though he's not doing Siegfried's voice in SC IV.

David Hayter has the best voice for a game I have heard. The deep sounding and the way it is. I actually quite like Ichigo's voice from the US Anime.

Oh, I can easily name a few I like (and just for the record, I highly dislike the Japanese language so you won't see any praise for Japanese voices from me):

Cam Clarke (as Liquid Snake in MGS1 & 2)
David Hayter (as Solid Snake in MGS1, 2 & 4 and Naked Snake in MGS3)
Jennifer Hale (as Naomi in MGS1 & 4 and Emma in MGS2)
Crispin Freeman (as Albedo/Nigredo in XSI, II & III)
Keith Szarabjaka (as Yuriev in XSII & III)
Brianne Siddall (as Jr. (aka Rubedo) in XSI, II & III)
Richard Waugh (as Wesker in RE0, RE: CVX, RE4)
Sally Cahill (as Ada Wong in RE2 & RE4)

There are tons more English voice overs that I think were at least decent, but I figured I'd only list the ones who really stood out high above the others. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch, I'll probably recognise other ones posted by other people here, so I might post a few more later.

(Edit: Remembered a few more)

I do like Albedo's voice as well, though that is mainly for one scene, which made him pretty much famous. I think we all know which one I am talking about.

Fran also has a nice voice, though the quality of the voice seems to be low, like low quality MP3's, like where you can here a bit of static noise, or something like that.

I also liked Dias Flac's voice in Star Ocean: The Second Story. It was RIDICULOUSLY deep, both in Japanese and in English, though I think the English voice was deeper than the Japanese one. 10 seconds /quote

Another voice I find entertaining is a voice we all know from the movie adverts.
That guy that does almost all adverts/trailers =P. There was a man............. he had a party........there was this girl..... xD

I take it you're talking about the scene where he rips his own head off. The first time I saw that I was quite impressed with his voice acting at that point. However, after having finished Xenosaga: Episode II for the first time, I went back to playing Xenosaga: Episode I again. However, this time when I reached that scene again, I was less impressed than before. Mainly because in Episode I his voice is quite high pitched the entire game, while in Episode II his voice was less high pitched and I liked his voice like that more than his original performance. Either way, in Episode III his voice sounds closer to his Episode I performance again, leaving me a little disappointed after impressing me so much with the less high pitched voice in Episode II.

Just felt like ranting about that. Still a good voice actor, though. =P

Yeah, the scene with all the puppets and his massive long rant. Very impressive scene that was and good voice acting.
Really set down Albedo as another insane villain I liked, for the same reasons I like Luca Blight. I love an insane villain with cliché lines =D.

You mean like this? Lol.

I can't think of one JRPG where I've actually been that impressed by the voice acting, it's not terrible I liked Xenosaga and FFX but still nothing springs to mind as being all that great either.

Favourite game voice acting for me ould be:-

Broken Sword 1, 2 and 3
Mass Effect
Omicron The Nomad Soul
Fahrenheit
Knights Of The Old Republic - Definitely think they got the Star Wars feel in the voices.
Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay - Vin Diesel
Condemned Criminal Origins - voiced by the cop from Heroes.
Oblivion - Terrance Stamp and the rather brief voice over from Patrick Stewart.
GTA Vice City and GTA IV are great.



I can't remember Jin having a speaking role Xenosaga 1? Hope I didn't miss anything, was it over that intercom thing in the early stages of the game?

Jin is Shion’s brother, right? (dunno if these will be major spoilers for anyone, but thought I’d black it out for those that haven’t played the game.). I think the only time you hear him speak (if I remember right) is when Shion first goes aboard that one smuggling ship thing (where you first meet Chaos and those people) and they have dinner together. She has a backflash of life at home and how Jin did nothing but read in his room or something. Actually, I don’t even remember if he spoke or not.... I may be thinking of the wrong person entirely. It’s been a while since I’ve played the game. But maybe someone knows which part I’m referring to?

I think we're forgetting about this man.

Steven Jay Blum

Here's a look on some of his credentials

Games - (Yata from .hack/GU, Bagammon from FF XII, Ares from God of War, those are the only ones I can name from the top of my head)

Anime - (Too many to list, but most famous for Spike Spiegal from Cowboy Bebop).

Nah, like this =P
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7zLhZ9BWT08

I know which scene you are referring to, but I can't remember either if he spoke at that point. However, I'm 100% sure he speaks to Shion over the intercom when he calls her on the Woglinde. But I had no idea that Crispin Freeman did Jin's voice in that scene. I don't think Jin's voice actor was credited in Episode I. And to be honest, I thought that whoever voiced Jin in the first game really stinked. xD I'm disappointed to hear it was Crispin Freeman...

I forgot to mention Albel in Star Ocean: Till The End of Time. Both his Japanese and English voice are good, though many are more known to his English voice =P.

~The point is at the tip of my sword, fool. Now fight me!

or

*Albel sees Fayt get hit by a rock*
Learn to dodge, fool!

Albel = <3

That's Takehito Koyasu. I'm sorry, but no one disrespects Mwu La Flagga / Lord Zetta / Jade Curtis in my presence.
He's a brilliant voice actor, and one of my favorites. Even though I haven't heard him as Lezard since I never played that game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4w_BPHkZos

"Zetta Beeeeeeaaaaaaam!"
That laugh is just godly.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites.

Auron: Click
Go to 05:17 (Press "Watch in high quality")

I freakin love Auron in Japanese! Anyone who doesn't like it is clinically insane. It's Uchiha Itachi for gods sake.
Oh yeah, and maybe you'll notice that his name is Aaron, so it should be pronounced Aron in English and not Oren. *facepalm* Tidus is still annoying in Japanese, that's his character. Though considerably less, and is voiced by Ichigo.

Fran from FF XII in English is another favorite. She just sounded so awesome, so soft, so unique.

In Xenosaga I liked Albedo and Shion in English, but prefered KOS-MOS in Japanese.

Yeah, he does awesome voices. =D



Aron? I always thought his name would be pronounced with the Germanic A, so similar to Ahron, or something like that. Ah well. Good voice nonetheless.

Yeah. But you can't expect the English translators to actually be accurate, but rather go with what's familiar. In that case Aron is the closest. I have no idea where Oren (Aron), Meister (High Summoner), Caladbolg (Ultima Weapon) came from, but they did a great job at annoying people who played the original.

I forgot about a part of this topic:


Let me start with Hojo. Whoever did his godawful voice in Dirge of Cerberus deserves a slap in the face.

Next, I know I said I enjoyed Jennifer Hale as Naomi/Emma in the Metal Gear Solid series, but for some reason she sounds like a braindead zombie when she voiced Naomi again in the remake Twin Snakes. They must have drugged her when they were recording her voice or something, I've no idea how else to explain the extreme drop in quality.

I suppose I could nominate the original Resident Evil as crappiest voice acting in a game, but the voice overs were sometimes just so cheesy that I felt like laughing out loud, so I won't.

Steven Blum, Vincent's voice actor, is the greatest. I think he's so perfect for voice acting he can totally pull off a good guy sounding evil.

I also really like the voice actor who did Ed in FMA in English. He did Junpei in P3 and Junpei sounded so natural, I loved his voice acting job.

Another notable would have to be Balthier's. He also sounded very natural. I know lots of times voice acting sounds cliche or robotic, but his and Junpei's voice actors sounded totally normal, it makes the characters so much more alive and realistic.

Isn't that pretty much the same? Close enough.



I never said I had anything against the voice actor himself. I just don't think the voice fits the character that well, or at least not as well as Liam O'Brien's does.

Here's Lezard's lovely laughter, by the way, both in English and Japanese: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vNJzIVgtyAc
I think Liam O'Brien does the laugh better, actually. I like the deeper scream at the end in Japanese, but again, I just don't think it (the tone) fits the character that well. (And again, this might just be because I'm used to Liam.) Either way, I don't think there's any argument that it's awesome in both languages. XD

And yeah, Auron in Japanese ain't bad, but I prefer the English. For one, it's got that sort of gruff tone to it, which I think fits Auron very well.



I thought it seemed kind of odd at first, in Advent Children, but after playing Dirge of Cerberus, I grew pretty fond of it.

It is the same style, but I was referring to that guy in the trailer I linked. Don LaFontaine I think his name is. His voice is so universal, I think he has voiced in over 5000 trailers of movies/games/whatnot.

And for the reasons you like Liam, I like Takehito Koyasu =P.

Nah, not me. I didn't like Vincent's voice at all. Way too cliché, emotionless, and typically Solid Snake-esque rough voice. It didn't do it for me. The voice acting in Dirge of Cerberus was rather disappointing in general (as was the game), but that's just me.

You're like Wein Cruz 2...

Just for the record, I think pretty much the entire Japanese cast for Bleach sound better than the English cast. I don't mind Johnny Yong Bosch as Ichigo, though I would definitely agree that Masakazu Morita's voice sounds better. And this is just one example, simply to point out that I do prefer the Japanese sometimes as well.

Actually, I'm pretty sure there's at least one Japanese seiyū whose work I'm rather fond of... If I think of 'em, I'll try to remember to post 'em up here.



Edit: So sorry about that argument. >.< Deleted, and would like to get this topic back on its feet.

I just realized that I still haven't said who my favorite ones are. Oops. Well, when they had voices in Legend of Dragoon, I remember liking them. Though when I played it through later, I didn't like Rose's as much, but overall I liked the voice acting. Then again, it's been a while since I played it last.

Otherwise I actually usually have the sound down low. The only other game that comes to mind that I've listened to the VA would be the Tales games, Symphonia (liked Sheena, disliked Collette, etc.) and Abyss (liked most of them when I heard them, actually.).

That's just my two cents. I don't remember the voice acting from other games well enough (that and I haven't played too many to begin with).

Oh! But I do have to agree with Flame regarding Fran in FFXII (while I remember). Absolutely love her voice. Balthier's pretty good too. And Nel, from SO3, wasn't too bad either, if I recall.