Final Fantasy
General Gaming

Right....sooo again like I SAID don't do it. If you can't get it right before release do NOT do it at all.

I agree devs are responsable for a game's over all quality, but if they half ass the work then the devs shouldn't attempt it at all & with Final Fantasy VI being so well respected & being the best in the series thus far the 3D remake will be under HEAVY scrutiny...

Billy Zane IS the best Ansem in KH, why Square stopped using him I don't know but it was a bad decision replacing him with the VA who does Bato in Ghost in the Shell.

No that's silly and you kind of just argued against your own point.

You know for decades the games industry has run almost on a trial and error basis, if it doesn't work try it again and do it right. Devs are responsible for a game's overall quality, and if they screw up in one title they'll do it again in the next.

Graphics, gameplay, audio, they all fall under this rule.
Voice acting is arguably just as integral as music- if the game industry wants to be respected as a media platform it needs emotive talent.

I think the crux of his point is basically; if you're Square Enix then you can afford to give your stupidly-popular series a proper English voice track for the millions of English-speaking who will inevitably buy it. Final Fantasy is a pretty story-driven game. Other story-driven games have probably been beating the crap out of it for years in terms of quality of voice acting.

Vorash, which FFs did you think had bad voice acting? Was it certain games in particular, or just certain characters? Personally, I think they've done a pretty good job.

I don't mean to say it's perfect. I mean, ever since playing the Uncharted series, I've come to expect every game after it to have believable voice acting. But in reality, that's not going to be the case. JRPGs in particular are renowned for their silly, humorous, unbelievable voice acting, so I've sort of accepted that. I crave better, of course, yet with something like FFXIII, I think they got the majority of it nailed, so they're getting there, for sure. But I think in something like Dissidia, it's not even necessary to have Uncharted-level VAing, as much as it would be awesome to. So long as they deliver it in the titles that matter, like Versus XIII, then that'll be great. And the option of turning VAing on or off is a good one, although I have to say personally, after FFXIII, I'm more than content with the level of VAing they provide currently. Ali Hillis and Troy Baker ftw <3

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:21 by Azuardo )

No I didn't just contradict myself SuperLink so stop grasping at straws in a failed attempt to prove me wrong & Martin KIND OF got it right, except I STILL say that if they can't get believable voice actors then they shouldn't ruin the quality ofcthe experience with mediocre tallent, which means they shouldn't do voice work AT ALL!!

I'm not against voice work in games, great VA's are my FAVORITE aspect of games like Uncharted...but if you've got a bunch of amatures who sound like soulless robots or like their trying to hold back a strong urge to vomit (like Squall's VA in Dissidia) then you'd better let the text speak for itself instead of angering the fans by making their ears bleed.

I'm not grasping at straws.. you said gaming needs to be improved so let it be improved? One game with bad VA does not make a rule that every game will have bad VA.

Final Fantasy XII had great VA
Kingdom Hearts has pretty solid VA for the most part (let's ignore Aqua's voice)

Yep Dissidia had a lot of bad VA but the story itself was also weakly directed- Dissidia 012 was a LOT better in both those ways.
S-E are more than capable of hiring good VAs.

Well Azu I'll only speak for the FF's I've played with VA's so that'd be 10 & 13.

With 10 the only VA's who made me frustrated to the point of drawing me away from the illusion of a real experience were Tidus & Seymour, it was the long drawn out pauses between sentences that killed the overall experience for me throughout the game, which granted I understand has to to with translations & lip matching since most Japanese words are longer than English but it still bothered me.

Secondly FF13 wasn't horrible......but MAN did I ever have a strong urge to shoot Vanille...

Over all I'm a bit of a critique when it comes to VA's, that's why I'm so iffy when it comes to anime since most anime sounds terrible on top of ridiculous little querks they have culturally.

If the actors don't sound human & believable (as in showing REAL emotion when it calls for it) I am completely taken out of the scene & left with a bitter empty feeling.

I fully understand that. On a personal level, I thought Tidus was great. You have to remember the type of character he is. He's a 17-year-old blitzball superstar. He's energetic and full of life. I think JAT perfected his personality, and commend Square on choosing him. I particularly loved his narrative segments which gave the player the indication he had grown up on his journey.

Concerning 13's Vanille, yes, she was the one that myself and others had pointed out right away as being annoying. However, it wasn't until I learnt in an interview with her VA that she was told by Square to do those grunts and lines she speaks to reflect her Japanese counterpart that I ended up having a different view of her. For some reason, it was because Vanille's character was designed to be like that, rather than her VA throwing in those things, that I had a new-found fondness for her. It's a strange one, I'll give you that, but she grew on me in the end. Not least because of the fact that her character actually grew the most in the game anyway, so you could put those orgasm moans behind you (even though I loved it inside...).

But you have to ask yourself as well, ever since Uncharted, which other video games have truly given you a believable VA experience? I have to be honest and say that it really wasn't until Uncharted that I discovered that. Maybe nothing else since then has given me the same feeling either. It's just one of those things that you sort of have to deal with in video games for now. Granted, they're improving all the time, with quality VAs being hired for plenty of games now. But it'll take time before every JRPG we get in the West has some Uncharted-level VAing.

I agree with you there honestly, a lot of dubbed anime also has weak and 'fake' voicing.. but that's the result of wanting cheap localisation efforts for a western audience which is still very much a niche. No point in hiring expensive talented VAs if the anime isn't going to make much money anyway..

I digress, but FFXII had great VA, XIII's wasn't even bad even if it had some weak links.
Also I thought Vanille's voice was kawaii as fuck ok. (◡‿◡✿)

That and Dissidia 012 had much better VA than the first, Crisis Core also had really great VA.

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:45 by SuperLink )

Lol yeah, I get WHY she was ao chipper (trying to hide the guilt she felt from what her & Fang did) but REALY NOW...she didn't have to sound like a cross breed of an Aussie with a Texan lol!!

XII I have to agree on, definitely. Balthier, Basch - quality VAs. Need more actors like those.


Really? Her VA is Australian and sounded Australian to me.

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:50 by Azuardo )

Her voice actor is actually an honest to good Australian so it's kind of funny that she sounds like she lacks authenticity to a lot of people.

Myself included at one point.

EDIT: Balthier's voice honestly gives me feelings in my pants.
I mean really and I'm straight.

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:50 by SuperLink )

Oops yeah thanks for the reminder SuperLink (again I'm using my phome so sorry for the DP here) I LOVED Crisis Core!!....except for Aerith...she still sounded as spacy & bland as she did in Advent Children.

I stand my my Mantra, if you can't get it right then DON'T DO IT AT ALL!!

Ah, Crisis Core, the memories. I shed tears at the end of that game. Despite knowing what to expect, it tears you apart.

I just can't agree with the 'don't do it at all' approach though. I love VA in my games now. Sure, I could deal without it, but I don't think it's bad in any way that I'd not want to see it in any FF again.

I don't like Aerith in general, I don't think VA was going to make me like her.
But Cloud's VA's performance in CC was so much stronger than it has been in anything else.


I actually played it before FFVII, I knew what would happen but wow it's one of the saddest games I've ever played ;;


Pretty much, especially since VA is generally improving with each succeeding release rather than getting worse.

Well you guys have more patience than I do & I genuinely applaud you for it. I just can't get into a game no matter the type (unless the action is awesome like Ninja Gaiden) if the VA's are substandard. Oh well yeah I know they're getting better, & without falling a few times how can one learn to improve; but I'd think BY NOW Square would know better since there have been examples of success why would you ever stray from that unless a VA dies or just doesn't want to continue forcsome reason.

An example of great acting: in the movie Tora Tora Tora (about Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor) even though I don't understand Japanese I could feel the emotion in the inflection the Japanese soldiers gave when speaking & felt they were better actors overall compared to the American actors.

Voice Acting is a huge industry in Japan because a very considerable portion of their mainstream entertainment is non-live action (anime and video games).

The same can't be said for the west, cartoons aren't produced at the rate anime is in Japan so there's less demand for that sort of thing. The really good VAs are more expensive.

In any case, if a game has an option to turn VA off (and let's be honest, every game should probably come with that option for personal preference regardless of how good VA is), there's not really any reason to complain.

I concur....so long as you can disable it yes. But with Tora Tora Tora that film came out in the 70's, WAAAAAY before video games or anime were mainstream enough to warrent true quality.

In the 70s Hollywood was also filled with genuine talent. I'm sure at least a couple of films could demonstrate that. If anything, live-action is more the west's forte.

As a matter of fact when someone who is usually an experienced live-action actor acts as a voice-over their roles are generally stronger. Which is why a lot of animated Disney or Dreamworks movies hire big Hollywood stars and such.
But of course they're expensive.

Anyway digressions. Talent is expensive, S-E have more than enough money and resources to talent seek, so poor voice direction and actors in general is their own problem. I generally think it's getting pretty good though.

With live acting yes I agree, which is why I was saying itvwas more impressive that Japanese actors out played Americans & that I hqve a keen sence of voice quality wince I was able to understand the emotions from the Japanese in Tora Tora Tora even though I don't speak it.

Anywho Square's been around long enough that they're held more accountable than most for shoddy workmenship, so there's NO excuse when something of low quality slips by onto the market....they should know better BY NOW!

I'm now hunting for "Huge Materia", gotta go to Fort Condor. I love some of the translation in this game. They could have gone for a different name than literally translating "Huge Materia"

Yeah but then you would miss the poor translation nostalgia like "Spoony Bard" & "Did him in".

Just about to kill Hojo.

Yep I always thought that was a bit daft- and a few classics like "this guy are sick".


Which was subsequently kept for every succeeding translation of FFIV.
FFIV DS developer's room: "The bard was definitely spoony, we checked!"

VA's in dubs are usually terrible, it's the same cycle of 15 actresses and 15 actors. The amount of times you hear the same voice from different character with no deviation is relatively high