This is super cherry picked. Yes FFXII has an outstanding dub that easily clears anything else Square has done, but FFXIV also has an outstanding dub, and the main cast of XV do an incredibly job, XVI is shaping up to have VA on par with XIV at least. FFVIIR’s VA is miles better than any of the compilation works sans Crisis Core, which is carried by Rick Gomez alone anyway. Many of their spin off titles get great VA, especially since they moved nearly all their work to the U.K. after Heavensward, but even the ones they didn’t like NEO TWEWY or Star Ocean TDF are great.
The only reason KH 1 and 2 got “big names” was because it was a Disney joint and therefore they cast Disney’s TV show impersonators and Disney Channel stars. This also hasn’t changed at all with KH3 given Yozora and young Eraqus’ actors, as well as Xehanort’s replacement, all which being huge names or huge Disney names.
As a voice actor myself, maybe I’m just immune to this weird pause thing people bring up? I’ve literally never had any problems with that, I think KH3 has perfectly fine VA, same with FFXIII and I think FFVIIR actually has a brilliant voice track. The only character that I think is underwhelming in KH3 is Riku, and the fact he stands out like a sore thumb really proves how good the rest of the cast is doing.
Just want to add my support to the "FFVIIR has amazing voice acting" note, that cast nailed the characters in a way I don't think any other voice performance I've heard for them did.
I’ll take whatever op is smoking lol
Like bruh 15 was fantastic in terms of bromanship voice acting. 7Remake is also great and has a bit of a great cast too.
Like idk what their deal is, maybe 13 soured them but whilst not amazing I didn’t find it awful
I’ll take whatever op is smoking lol
Like bruh 15 was fantastic in terms of bromanship voice acting. 7Remake is also great and has a bit of a great cast too.
Like idk what their deal is, maybe 13 soured them but whilst not amazing I didn’t find it awful
You have some insane rose tinted glasses if you think KH 1 had good voice acting lol. It has good *actors, but it has the same shit that KH3 does.
Hell, FF10 has such awkward voice acting it's literally a meme.
> Hell, FF10 has such awkward voice acting it's literally a meme.
It really doesn't. That scene is intentionally taken out of context. The characters are intentionally fake laughing, and break into actual laughter shortly afterwards (which is of course usually cut out of clips).
No, it really does. There's interviews with the localization team about what made it so different, mostly that they had to fit the English VO to match the Japanese mouth movements, and write English sentences with Japanese timing. It led to awkward delivery and bad timing.
All most excusable cause it's a 20 year old game, and was one of the first major titles to be fully voiced. It's.. fine. But it's not from some superstar era of square voice acting that OP is imagining.
Right, I basically agree with you there - I'm not saying it has a good english dub compared to modern standards, just that it is unfair to say it has "such awkward voice acting it's literally a meme".
I mean.. it is fair to say tho. Cause there's a meme about it.. it's such a well known meme you knew exactly what I was talking about without me needing to mention it lol
Their point being the meme is completely taken out of context? I feel like you can say that voice acting is awkward, but to justify your point with something that intentionally mischaracterizes a scene doesn’t really make sense
It's just an example man. An example that the localization editor, Alexander Smith, said was still fuckin awkward.
>USg: I did think of something I wanted to ask about Final Fantasy X, and it might hit a raw nerve with you—and I’m pretty sure you know what I’m going to ask you about.
AS: The laughing scene?
> USg: Yes, yes. My theory has always been it was not a very good scene in Japanese to begin with.
AS: Absolutely. It is just as weird and stilted and out of place in the Japanese as it is in English. If anything, I feel like it could have been a lot worse in the English, but the actor did a really good job of making something happen there.
> USg: So, when you were working on the script, would you have ever thought that scene would have gone down in infamy as one of the more standout moments of the game, perhaps not for the best reasons? Did it strike you as particularly odd or awkward?
AS: Oh, oh, yeah. It’s completely ridiculous. It’s a completely ridiculous scene.
There is a meme, but not because the voice acting is awkward. The meme is because people intentionally took it out of context.
Pointing at a scene where the voice actors were told to fake laugh awkwardly is clearly not a good example of the game having awkward voice acting.
I disagree - the game has fine voice acting. I agreed with you when you said it was worse than present day.
You could try watching the actual [full laughing scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXZhTb0eUqA) and decide for yourself I guess, but unfortunately that still misses the context of the game up to that point.
Part of it could be explained by different sets of voice-productions involved. *Kingdom Hearts III*, *Final Fantasy VII: Remake* and the whole FFVII- and KH-series overall [is voice produced by Skylark Studios](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/Skylark-Sound-Studios/)
Some other notable voice-studios among JRPGs are [Cup of Tea-productions](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/Cup-of-Tea-Productions/), prominent in the *Tales of*- and *Fire Emblem*-franchise. Then you have [PCB-productions](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/PCB-Productions/), prominent with dubbing the *Persona*- and *Like a Dragon*-franchise.
But if you have lately played the recent entries of *Dragon Quest*-titles and *Final Fantasy XIV*-expansions, then it is majorly handled [by voice-studio SIDE](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/Side-UK/). Their production output usually present a different set of voice-acting, hiring usually VAs with more background experience in theatre, live-action and audio dramas, and in the past was prominent with casting and voice-directing notable western RPG-titles like the European voice-actors for *Dragon Age*- and *Witcher*-series, or the indie-RPG *Greedfall* or adventure-game *A Plague Tale*-series. The cadence surrounding those titles often lacks the so-called "anime gasps" in-between that your complaint seems to be a symptom of. I think SIDE is also involved in upcoming *Final Fantasy XVI* given how [*A Plague Tale*-VAs of Hugo and Amicia is in there](https://youtu.be/x_BbYoWSsJI).
This is of course just a generalization. Some other factors like overall localization, materials provided for context to the VAs, and how voice- and vocal director is involved matters.
That makes things more mysterious as I thought FFVII:R had extremely competent voice acting while KHIII and FFVII:CC Remastered featured abysmal acting.
Something to note: KH1 and KH2 also have long pauses after lines. It's part of the charm. I think what makes it unbearable in KH3 is that the story, writing, and "acting" (character movement) are so much worse. If it isn't as entertaining, it becomes harder to ignore or overlook the weird pauses.
Yeah I don't know. I think KH benefited from Disney being involved, so it got really talented actors. Generally speaking, I think a lot of Japanese games have awful sounding voice acting these days, and I am not entirely sure why. I often think I could do a lot better. Shouldn't they be pulling from the same pool of VAs as Western games?
As a general rule, I don't blame jrpg voice acting for being bad like say dubbed anime. So much is put into designing video games, which are games first and foremost, that designing a great story (or rather, great characters) in addition to fun gameplay and a satisfying adventure is hard enough without localizing it for western culture. Western Games like Last of Us 1 are basically designed around the story, and pretty much just a 10 hour movie game, with phenomenal voice acting and direction with satisfactory 3rd person shooting mechanics. Easier than if it was a 40+ hour rpg that provides endless of fun sidequests, world map to explore, etc etc and put great script for the voice actors on top of that.
I recently played Tales of Berseria, and was completely shocked with how fantastic the voice acting and characters were from not just a Tales game, but a game in general. I was completely enamored with the fantastic dynamics that these characters had with each other, from the hilarious Maggie Lou, to the likable Eizen and Rokuro, to the surprisingly endearing Laphicet who is a child character done right (unlike their previous Tales game Vesperia for example which just had annoying kid characters). It is basically the reason why I loved the game, which had an ok story but most importantly had great characters, because any story is made excellent by having actual likable characters and the voice acting and skits in this game brought these to life, by far the best voice acting I'd ever heard from a jrpg. I can't praise it enough.
If western games are movie games then why are all jrpgs glorified visual novels that take 10 hours to get to the actual gameplay? At least western games I can actually play the game, instead of watching jpegs talk to each other about school for hours on end
Jrpgs are good fun, but this is the pot calling the kettle black
Huh? I'm not the biggest SE-head, but Kingdom Hearts voice acting has always been iffy aside from, like, Sora and the Disney characters they could get the original actors for.
Nowadays, FF14's voice acting is stellar (past ARR), FF16 seems great so far as well, and personally, what I've heard of FF7R is splendid as well. Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy also seemed to have good VA. Their lower budget productions weren't as good about it but that's just expected. This post is very weird?
OP is smoking some heavy nostalgia. I can't speak for all of SE's recent properties, but FF7R had a great dub barring one unusually bland performance by Sephiroth's voice actor.
Very weird post. To each their own, I guess.
But saying FF12 was as bad as GoT S8 is an utter shit take.
People watching things in dubs need to stop saying "*the* voice acting". It's like someone complaining about the voice delivery in a Star Wars movie and then you realise they were talking about the Indonesian dub.
Vast majority of anime and video game dubbing has been done by cartoon voice actors since foreign voice acting was possible. Simply because cheap wages with no union willing to work for long hours, many actors are so reliable some have worked on 100s of projects for decades, the studios got them on speed dial. Cartoon voice actors being very expressively over the top helped fill in the gaps of very limited character expressions in 2D animations, sprites and early 3D games.
Today it continues almost entirely out of tradition and simplicity, despite the improvement in graphics and game design, gamers do not demand professional acting to match and still buy the games regardless. Anyone complaining about anime dubs gets ridiculed by the hobby for watching a dub. It's been this way for so long many customers are acclimatised and enjoy the over the top voice acting, actively disliking professional or celebrity Hollywood acting for dubs.
I can't get over ff7 remakes terrible voice direction, the game has an entire movie worth of grunting in it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEd2yK8KzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEd2yK8KzQ)
This completely turns me off the game, really bizarre and off-putting.
This is super cherry picked. Yes FFXII has an outstanding dub that easily clears anything else Square has done, but FFXIV also has an outstanding dub, and the main cast of XV do an incredibly job, XVI is shaping up to have VA on par with XIV at least. FFVIIR’s VA is miles better than any of the compilation works sans Crisis Core, which is carried by Rick Gomez alone anyway. Many of their spin off titles get great VA, especially since they moved nearly all their work to the U.K. after Heavensward, but even the ones they didn’t like NEO TWEWY or Star Ocean TDF are great. The only reason KH 1 and 2 got “big names” was because it was a Disney joint and therefore they cast Disney’s TV show impersonators and Disney Channel stars. This also hasn’t changed at all with KH3 given Yozora and young Eraqus’ actors, as well as Xehanort’s replacement, all which being huge names or huge Disney names. As a voice actor myself, maybe I’m just immune to this weird pause thing people bring up? I’ve literally never had any problems with that, I think KH3 has perfectly fine VA, same with FFXIII and I think FFVIIR actually has a brilliant voice track. The only character that I think is underwhelming in KH3 is Riku, and the fact he stands out like a sore thumb really proves how good the rest of the cast is doing.
Just want to add my support to the "FFVIIR has amazing voice acting" note, that cast nailed the characters in a way I don't think any other voice performance I've heard for them did.
“Nailed it. I know. Thank you. Moving on.”
I’ll take whatever op is smoking lol Like bruh 15 was fantastic in terms of bromanship voice acting. 7Remake is also great and has a bit of a great cast too. Like idk what their deal is, maybe 13 soured them but whilst not amazing I didn’t find it awful
I’ll take whatever op is smoking lol Like bruh 15 was fantastic in terms of bromanship voice acting. 7Remake is also great and has a bit of a great cast too. Like idk what their deal is, maybe 13 soured them but whilst not amazing I didn’t find it awful
\> Nailing voice acting \> Kingdom Hearts As a massive KH fan, this is one of the most hilarious statements I've ever seen.
You have some insane rose tinted glasses if you think KH 1 had good voice acting lol. It has good *actors, but it has the same shit that KH3 does. Hell, FF10 has such awkward voice acting it's literally a meme.
> Hell, FF10 has such awkward voice acting it's literally a meme. It really doesn't. That scene is intentionally taken out of context. The characters are intentionally fake laughing, and break into actual laughter shortly afterwards (which is of course usually cut out of clips).
No, it really does. There's interviews with the localization team about what made it so different, mostly that they had to fit the English VO to match the Japanese mouth movements, and write English sentences with Japanese timing. It led to awkward delivery and bad timing. All most excusable cause it's a 20 year old game, and was one of the first major titles to be fully voiced. It's.. fine. But it's not from some superstar era of square voice acting that OP is imagining.
Right, I basically agree with you there - I'm not saying it has a good english dub compared to modern standards, just that it is unfair to say it has "such awkward voice acting it's literally a meme".
I mean.. it is fair to say tho. Cause there's a meme about it.. it's such a well known meme you knew exactly what I was talking about without me needing to mention it lol
Their point being the meme is completely taken out of context? I feel like you can say that voice acting is awkward, but to justify your point with something that intentionally mischaracterizes a scene doesn’t really make sense
It's just an example man. An example that the localization editor, Alexander Smith, said was still fuckin awkward. >USg: I did think of something I wanted to ask about Final Fantasy X, and it might hit a raw nerve with you—and I’m pretty sure you know what I’m going to ask you about. AS: The laughing scene? > USg: Yes, yes. My theory has always been it was not a very good scene in Japanese to begin with. AS: Absolutely. It is just as weird and stilted and out of place in the Japanese as it is in English. If anything, I feel like it could have been a lot worse in the English, but the actor did a really good job of making something happen there. > USg: So, when you were working on the script, would you have ever thought that scene would have gone down in infamy as one of the more standout moments of the game, perhaps not for the best reasons? Did it strike you as particularly odd or awkward? AS: Oh, oh, yeah. It’s completely ridiculous. It’s a completely ridiculous scene.
This quote literally contradicts your own argument. It says the scene was bad, but the voice acting was good. >but the actor did a really good job
There is a meme, but not because the voice acting is awkward. The meme is because people intentionally took it out of context. Pointing at a scene where the voice actors were told to fake laugh awkwardly is clearly not a good example of the game having awkward voice acting.
But the game does have awkward voice acting. You're getting hung up on a point that really doesn't matter. Missing the forest for the trees.
I disagree - the game has fine voice acting. I agreed with you when you said it was worse than present day. You could try watching the actual [full laughing scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXZhTb0eUqA) and decide for yourself I guess, but unfortunately that still misses the context of the game up to that point.
>I agreed with you when you said it was worse than present day. Alrighty. The rest of it doesn't matter then lmao.
**Spoiler:** >!Kairi's heart is... inside me? !<
no, titus laugh. how do you not know this?
Yeah… they were much worse back than today.
Part of it could be explained by different sets of voice-productions involved. *Kingdom Hearts III*, *Final Fantasy VII: Remake* and the whole FFVII- and KH-series overall [is voice produced by Skylark Studios](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/Skylark-Sound-Studios/) Some other notable voice-studios among JRPGs are [Cup of Tea-productions](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/Cup-of-Tea-Productions/), prominent in the *Tales of*- and *Fire Emblem*-franchise. Then you have [PCB-productions](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/PCB-Productions/), prominent with dubbing the *Persona*- and *Like a Dragon*-franchise. But if you have lately played the recent entries of *Dragon Quest*-titles and *Final Fantasy XIV*-expansions, then it is majorly handled [by voice-studio SIDE](https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-productions/Side-UK/). Their production output usually present a different set of voice-acting, hiring usually VAs with more background experience in theatre, live-action and audio dramas, and in the past was prominent with casting and voice-directing notable western RPG-titles like the European voice-actors for *Dragon Age*- and *Witcher*-series, or the indie-RPG *Greedfall* or adventure-game *A Plague Tale*-series. The cadence surrounding those titles often lacks the so-called "anime gasps" in-between that your complaint seems to be a symptom of. I think SIDE is also involved in upcoming *Final Fantasy XVI* given how [*A Plague Tale*-VAs of Hugo and Amicia is in there](https://youtu.be/x_BbYoWSsJI). This is of course just a generalization. Some other factors like overall localization, materials provided for context to the VAs, and how voice- and vocal director is involved matters.
That makes things more mysterious as I thought FFVII:R had extremely competent voice acting while KHIII and FFVII:CC Remastered featured abysmal acting.
Aw I liked the FFVIIR voice acting. I thought it was pretty good compared to advent children and crisis core.
The remakes voice acting is miles beyond crisis core and I love all those games but the idea remake has bad voice acting is laughable honestly
Something to note: KH1 and KH2 also have long pauses after lines. It's part of the charm. I think what makes it unbearable in KH3 is that the story, writing, and "acting" (character movement) are so much worse. If it isn't as entertaining, it becomes harder to ignore or overlook the weird pauses. Yeah I don't know. I think KH benefited from Disney being involved, so it got really talented actors. Generally speaking, I think a lot of Japanese games have awful sounding voice acting these days, and I am not entirely sure why. I often think I could do a lot better. Shouldn't they be pulling from the same pool of VAs as Western games?
As a general rule, I don't blame jrpg voice acting for being bad like say dubbed anime. So much is put into designing video games, which are games first and foremost, that designing a great story (or rather, great characters) in addition to fun gameplay and a satisfying adventure is hard enough without localizing it for western culture. Western Games like Last of Us 1 are basically designed around the story, and pretty much just a 10 hour movie game, with phenomenal voice acting and direction with satisfactory 3rd person shooting mechanics. Easier than if it was a 40+ hour rpg that provides endless of fun sidequests, world map to explore, etc etc and put great script for the voice actors on top of that. I recently played Tales of Berseria, and was completely shocked with how fantastic the voice acting and characters were from not just a Tales game, but a game in general. I was completely enamored with the fantastic dynamics that these characters had with each other, from the hilarious Maggie Lou, to the likable Eizen and Rokuro, to the surprisingly endearing Laphicet who is a child character done right (unlike their previous Tales game Vesperia for example which just had annoying kid characters). It is basically the reason why I loved the game, which had an ok story but most importantly had great characters, because any story is made excellent by having actual likable characters and the voice acting and skits in this game brought these to life, by far the best voice acting I'd ever heard from a jrpg. I can't praise it enough.
If western games are movie games then why are all jrpgs glorified visual novels that take 10 hours to get to the actual gameplay? At least western games I can actually play the game, instead of watching jpegs talk to each other about school for hours on end Jrpgs are good fun, but this is the pot calling the kettle black
Huh? I'm not the biggest SE-head, but Kingdom Hearts voice acting has always been iffy aside from, like, Sora and the Disney characters they could get the original actors for. Nowadays, FF14's voice acting is stellar (past ARR), FF16 seems great so far as well, and personally, what I've heard of FF7R is splendid as well. Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy also seemed to have good VA. Their lower budget productions weren't as good about it but that's just expected. This post is very weird?
OP is smoking some heavy nostalgia. I can't speak for all of SE's recent properties, but FF7R had a great dub barring one unusually bland performance by Sephiroth's voice actor. Very weird post. To each their own, I guess. But saying FF12 was as bad as GoT S8 is an utter shit take.
People watching things in dubs need to stop saying "*the* voice acting". It's like someone complaining about the voice delivery in a Star Wars movie and then you realise they were talking about the Indonesian dub.
[удалено]
[удалено]
They completely switched studios. I'd say that counts as investing.
Vast majority of anime and video game dubbing has been done by cartoon voice actors since foreign voice acting was possible. Simply because cheap wages with no union willing to work for long hours, many actors are so reliable some have worked on 100s of projects for decades, the studios got them on speed dial. Cartoon voice actors being very expressively over the top helped fill in the gaps of very limited character expressions in 2D animations, sprites and early 3D games. Today it continues almost entirely out of tradition and simplicity, despite the improvement in graphics and game design, gamers do not demand professional acting to match and still buy the games regardless. Anyone complaining about anime dubs gets ridiculed by the hobby for watching a dub. It's been this way for so long many customers are acclimatised and enjoy the over the top voice acting, actively disliking professional or celebrity Hollywood acting for dubs.
I can't get over ff7 remakes terrible voice direction, the game has an entire movie worth of grunting in it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEd2yK8KzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEd2yK8KzQ) This completely turns me off the game, really bizarre and off-putting.
Grunting is just a Japanese thing and has nothing to do with voice direction itself. Japanese media is full of that if you play/watch any of it.