[General Discussion] Best and Worst of VAs

Best:

- God Hand. Everything fits. The voices fit their personalities extremely well for the cutscenes, even moreso for the enemies that talk to you during the actual game. Stuff like "Kickin' your ass" in that distinct voice from that certain enemy who fits the voice perfectly is quite gratifying.

- Disgaea. Apart from Captain Gordon, which of who I can't stand whatsoever, they pretty much nailed the voice acting on the head. I'd say this is also one of the reasons the game is so popular, and the characters' personalities really shine because of it.

- Persona 3. Characters like Junpei and Akihiko are extremely fitting to their appearance and brings you closer to the game's feel. Not without it's downfalls however, since Fuuka's voice acting is bad. Although, Yukari, Mitsuru, Junpei, Akihiko, and Igor, Elizabeth, and everyone else fit flawlessly.

Worst:

- Robot Alchemic Drive for PS2. I honestly had to mute the game while I was playing this. It's like listening to someone talking to you in plain English but constantly exaggerated all the time. Ugh.

- Star Ocean 2. I didn't mind Rena or Claude, but jesus, their battle voices sucked. As did the rest of the cast. AIR SLASH. AIR SLASH. AIR SLASH. AIR SLASH. WELL, THAT'S SOMEWHERE AROUND 80 POINTS. UNEXPECTEDLY WEAK! Oh fuck it I can't stand it any more, shit the game even PROMOTED you to unlocking the different pieces of sound to "paint a picture" which could be accessed through the sound menu via the main screen. Except you couldn't fill all the squares because some were missing.

- Castle Shikigami 2 (Shikigami no Shiro II) for PS2. DON'T COME. DON'T SOIL YOUR HANDS. Yeah, we all know this is a terrible, terrible dub which shouldn't even exist, but since it sells for dirt cheap I'm guessing the price is justified if only to laugh at how badly done the voices are. Good game though.

And yours?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Best - Suikoden V. Very professional, very believable (nothing overdramatic). One of many reasons I enjoyed this game.

Valkyrie Profile - Mostly the main characters (some of the minor characters were pretty lame). Lezard, Valkyrie and of course, Bloodbane were all great!

Guilty Gear - Again, can't think of a bad thing to say, very entertaining and very professional all around.

Worst - I have to second Star Ocean 2. There's nothing worse than having to listen to Precis for more than a minute.

Not a fan of any of the newer Nintendo voices. Mario is absolutely horrendous to listen to...I liked him better as a mute.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Best:

I would have to agree with Disgaea and Persona 3. The voice actors for both games fit their character extremely well.

Star Fox 64: Personally, the voices seem to fit pretty well in this game. Slippy's voice portrayed him perfectly. Just showed how annoying he was in-game. Otherwise, Falco's cocky attitude was there, Fox's commanding leader voice was well done, and Peppy's "Do a Barrel Roll" fit well. Among other characters, the voice acting was great for this game.

Gears of War: Just completely badass voice acting. Everything about it supported their characters macho attitudes... Even the Japanese Version did particularly well.

Worst:

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood - Voices were horribly misplaced on characters and they just didn't seem to fit the character they were portraying at all. I can't remember distinct characters since I didn't play the game too long. Not only did the voices bring down my experience, it was the slow and horrible gameplay that went with it.


I'll probably post more as they come along.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I will agree with you 110% that Castle Shikigami 2 has one of the worse dubs I've ever listened to in my entire life. Love the game and its gameplay but the voices are so bad that there is no feeling in it whatsoever. It just feels like they're literally reading from a script and they just want to get out of their voice recording session as soon as possible.

Some of the other games that I don't think had spectacular voice acting was

1.) Xenogears: You know this is my favourite game of all time but if I can pick out one flaw is that I don't think the game had great voice acting. Some of the voices were literally terrible. I'm sorry but the dubbing for the ending animation was horribly bad and I didn't feel any emotion from any of the characters when they were talking. The game still has some of the most beautiful video game music and gameplay but I don't think the voices of the game did the game any justice.

2.) Legend Of The Dragoon: This RPG has one of my favourite battle systems but still I feel this is another game that suffers from horrible voice acting. I thought the story was typical cliche rpg, but it had a strong story nonetheless. Its just some of the voices did not match the characters and some were just mind-numbing to listen to. I'm looking at you Meru, but I knew your voice was going to be cute but not overly too cute.

Some of my favourite games with incredible voice acting:

Lunar: The Silver Star Story & Lunar: Eternal Blue: These games really did their homework when it came to finding proper voice actors for a lot of the characters since they knew these games had a lot of dialogue. I felt in this game that ever voice actor matched their role almost perfectly. You know games feel comfortable about their voice actors when they make voice out-takes for their games. I think more games should do that. Ghaleon has got to have some of the best voice out takes of all time and he has a great voice to boot.

Odin Sphere: Wow. Thats all I can say. The voice acting for that game is beautiful and matches the music almost perfectly. I think Odin Sphere's Music and Voices really make the game experience that much more enjoyable. I haven't fully conquered the game to be honest, I only at the third story book, but I have nothing to complain about the voice acting of that game.

Dragon Quest VIII: I loved the voice acting in that game. It felt very proper and not too over the top. I liked a lot of the different uses of many dialects and accents in the english language throughout that game. I felt that like the other games mentioned above a lot of the voices matched the characters perfectly. It really made the gameplay quite strong that good voice acting was used in that game.

I know there are many other games that have incredible voice acting, especially frist person shooters, survival horror, and other styles of games but they're not my gaming taste but I'm sure quite a few of them have stellar voice acting.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Baten Kaitos had some pretty wretched voice acting. Before I tired of the game, I had to turn the voices off.

Natch on Star Ocean 2. 3 is pretty uneven as well. Maybe it's a Star Ocean curse...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Generally, I'm not a fan of voice acting in games. I'd much prefer to read text than sit and listen to someone talk through things, plus it moves things along faster that way. That and it seems I've come across more instances of unfavorable voice acting in games.

It's easy to think of a game as having sub-par voice acting when there's some really dumb quote that stands out. Final Fantasy X's laughing scene, which was just hideous to watch, Zero's "What am I fighting FOOOOOR?" from Mega Man X4, and the aforementioned "WELL, THAT'S SOMEWHERE AROUND 80 POINTS" from Star Ocean 2 all come to mind right away. And then there are games that just suffer from poor quality, where the voice actors stand in a giant tube of echoes as they recite their lines. Castlevania: SOTN and Baten Kaitos come to mind here (I don't know if Baten Kaitos also had any terrible quotes because I didn't keep the voice acting on long enough to find out! And my enjoyment increased with voices off!)

As far as good voice acting goes, the Lunar games are the best example I can think of off the top of my head. Like everything else Working Designs did, they ran through that script until it met Victor Ireland's high standards of perfection, which sometimes went too high. But once the delays were over, you usually had an enjoyable product. And you can tell they put a lot of time and energy into the voice acting.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Mega Man X4 and Symphony of the Night are so campy and bad I find them enjoyable for different reasons. Unintentional hilarity is always great. I mean, there probably wasn't much to the writing in the Japanese version of X4 and how can you beat material such as:

"THE MOST POWERFUL ARRRMY IN HISSSSSSSSSTORRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

Simply brilliant. Really.

Tekken has had an interesting approach to the concept since Tekken 4, I appreciate, for the most part, the fact they attempt to have each character's voice stick to their apparent country of origin. Craig Marduk being a parody of Bob Sapp, he most certainly isn't going to sound Australian. Street Fighter 3 does the same thing and I felt it was fairly successful in this as well.

RPG wise, I give props to the team behind the American version of Dragon Quest VIII. I found every voice in that game to be pleasing and excellent to hear.

PC wise, the voice actor for the intro to Descent: Freespace is something I always reference on this subject. The panic in his voice feels very real and it did a good job of setting the stage for the rest of the military themed voices in the game. Being in the military, I can say that it is very true to life and really makes the experience that much more enjoyable.

FELIPE NO

FFXII had generally solid voice acting. Tales of the Abyss was also pretty good.

Quote:

the aforementioned "WELL, THAT'S SOMEWHERE AROUND 80 POINTS" from Star Ocean 2.

I still have no idea what that line means... and I've played through Star Ocean 2 a few times.

Most amazing jew boots

jb1234 --
CRAUDE HAS ADVANCED FORWARD.

loool. I've got a bad one most folks will overlook...

Bad Voice Acting:
Shining Force III (Scenario 1, US version). Holy donkey-fucking CHRIST. You talk about the absolute worst voice acting imaginable -- and I've played SO2 and Resident Evil. Dantares was the only voice I heard that sounded like he was trying and even then it wasn't too impressive.

The main character casting spells or techniques would have him say "Tah?..."

The female monk character sounded like Mr. Hanky whenever she attacked "HaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Then there was that male mage with the gray hair that sounded like the stereotypical flaming faggot complete with nasal voice and a horrendous sorta list. "Now bear my arctic blatht~"

It bugs me that they did it to such an excellent game. I mean, they aren't even TRYING =( So sad.

Great Voices, Bad Voice Acting:
Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant. The voices for the most part fit well. Joachim bugged some folks but he struck me as a goofy character type, so the voice fit nicely. Anastasia and Karen had good voices, and Yuri's struck me as spot on. I mean, the voices matched, but a good number couldn't, well, TALK properly. Yuri sounded like he was reading lines out of context at times, but it makes me sad because his voice is the best they could've gotten =( Roger Bacon's voice is absolutely incredible, and Gepetto's is very fitting as well.

For best, Persona 3 would be a shoe-in. I don't think it needs further explanation =) Fuuka is the only bad voice, and from where I left off, I just got her. We'll see how the other voices sound. The child's voice is a little spacey, but I think it fits how it should. He's supposed to be creepy I think =) In addition to that, DQVIII is excellent. I love the voices they picked as well as some of the localization (ie: "Guv").

Symphony of the Night is pretty lol. "HMM. A SWITCH." Alucard's voice struck me as fitting, though. The acting? Eeeeehh... "EGH EGH. THANK YOU"

How ya doing, buddy?

I see these are virtually all RPGs. How little games you guys play.

PC games have had excellent and professional voice acting for years. Everyone remembers Lucasarts games, I personally like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle best. Not only did most of the games have tons of well written dialogue, they were delivered with care and poise, giving you properly fleshed out characters talking and reacting to themselves, instead of the hollow double monologues you're mostly used to in games. Manny's and Glottis' banter is especially excellent, Tony Plana is just that great. Half-Life 2's work was also wonderful. Brilliant delivery and timing, and a surprising amount of subtlety in such a hectic game where you can miss a lot.

Many Rockstar games have also excelled in writing and voice acting, with Bully and Manhunt being particular favorites of mine. Brian Cox just added that much more talent to the pool.

Halo 1 and 2 are also very fondly remembered by me. 2's storyline was a bit of a mess, but its actual dialogue was great, excellently delivered by some talented actors (I'd never heard of). And Jen Taylor is of course lovely.

In terms of dubs, I've found most of the RPG dubs being praised as great are merely standard anime dub level. Overacted, ill-judged and usually terrible at pronouncing japanese names to boot, they will still somehow manage to stand out when the rest is even worse. I loved Grandia 1 to bits and the voices themselves are well picked, but the acting itself is pretty dreadful. The only RPG I recently remember with competent voice acting is FFXII. Balthier and Basch were particularly good.

The best dub I can recall is still the first Metal Gear Solid. David Hayter somehow lost his ability to act after that, focusing all his efforts into making his voice gruff, but his performance in the first MGS is still fantastic. The rest of the cast fared just as well, producing an extremely satisfying listening experience, so crucial for such a story and cutscene-heavy game.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Best VAs:

Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) - Granted that sometimes the audio was a little hard to hear (thank you, subtitles), there was no doubt that this was the best voice acting in any of the Sonic games to date. The voices fit the characters really well, plus Ryan Drummond (Sonic) and Deem Bristow (Eggman) gave their best performances yet. The first Sonic Adventure had good voice acting even though sometimes the voice didn't match the mouth movements, but the sequel is where it truly shined and the current cast at that point should've been permanent.

Metal Gear Solid (PSX) - There's no denying that this was a great game, but this also had some awesome voice acting. Doug Stone was freaky to hear as Psycho Mantis, while both of the Snakes were awesome. There was something about David Hayter (Solid Snake) saying "Damn!" that made me laugh every time, especially after the communications satellite had been destroyed. Everyone else did a really good job, but whenever I think of this game the first thing to pops into my head is "Damn!"

Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) - There's only one problem with the voice acting in this game: Mena Suvari. Everyone else gives a superb performance. You've got to hand it to Square-Enix and Disney, they know who to cast for the bad guys and mostly the good guys in this game series. If there was one person that really stood out, it had to be Quinton Flynn. I may have disliked him as Raiden in MGS2...I take that back, I just didn't like Raiden at all. In Kingdom Hearts II, he IS Axel. "A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"


Worst VAs:

SONIC the Hedgehog (X360) - No this doesn't change my opinion on the game, I still love it and it's still better than Secret Rings. There are a few voices that are excused: Lacey Chabert (Princess Elise), Pete Capella (Silver the Hedgehog), and Dan Green (ONLY Mephiles). Also, I somewhat excuse Mike Pollock (Eggman) and Jason Griffith (Shadow, JUST Shadow) since they seem to be trying. Everyone else I had a problem with or I'm not too fond of. I don't care much for Bella Hudson as Blaze the Cat but she doesn't bother me as much. I'll probably leave some out but there are some that I want to focus on.

Dan Green (Knuckles) - I think he had a deep voice for Knuckles at first, but now it's gotten higher. Sorry, but I'm used to Knux having a low voice. He did a good job as Mephiles though, that laugh is freakin evil.

Amy Palant (Tails) - Tails sounds almost as bad as the person that played Tails in the dubbed Sonic OVA. It sounds like he's stuffed up or he's got a sore throat.

Lisa Ortiz (Amy Rose) - Freaking annoying, though depending on your view of Amy you might not have a problem with that. Anytime I hear this voice, I think I'm hearing a chalkboard being scratched. Get her away from me.

Jason Griffith (Sonic) - This man is horrible as Sonic and the reason I started switching over to Japanese voices in any Sonic game from now on if possible. This isn't even the voice I have the biggest problem with. He doesn't show emotion in his voice very well and...Griffith just sucks as Sonic.

Kathleen Delaney (Rouge) - Worst voice in a Sonic game...ever. She sounds like she's old and she has no emotion whatsoever. Even if there's a part where Rouge is supposed to be exclaiming, she sounds like it's a normal everyday activity. Horrible. Simply horrible.


Megaman 8 - Rock was bad, but Dr. Light is the only explanation I need. "You go after Wowy."...we will find Dr. Wowy." It's a good thing Megaman Legends made up for that mess.


There's probably more I can praise/bash but for now these are the only ones that come to mind.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Best:

Metal Gear Solid
The voice acting of the series in general is quite legendary. However it was the fine tuned wording for the english version's script that enhanced the voice acting which is where most translations drop the ball.

Makai Kingdom
All the characters here were casted perfectly. From the badass Zetta to the flamboyant Micky. This game had a colourful cast of characters all around and it was the VA that was key to making that happen.

Makai Kingdom Opening:

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

Heavenly Sword
Yes it just came out this week however anyone who's played this game (demo doesn't count) will tell you that this game is a deserving nominee. Yes the graphics are pretty, and the lip-synching is truly next gen. But that's not what I'm talking about here. When you can close your eyes, listen to the character's voice, and then open them to see the characters that you imagined would go with that voice, that's what VA is about in my book.

HS CH2 Footage-Minor Spoiler:

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

Worst:

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood
I've never seen a sub title so fitting next to Duke Nukem Forever. Atlus's biggest budget game in a long time. With pretty graphics that could rival any game at the time and a combat system that didn't seem to bad (though no one plays it long enough to really know how good or bad it really is) but before you even touch the controller it all gets single handedly destroyed by the HORRIBLE VA. Tears of Blood eh, I get it.

Magna Carta Opening:

YouTube Video

Baten Kaitos
This is another pretty looking game that was also destroyed by it's VA. The combat system was a little time consuming too, but the recording of the voices was puzzling how it could have been so bad. Some characters were ok, but others sounded like they were always speaking through cardboard tubes. WTF?

Baten Kaitos Opening (minor example):

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

That's all I can think of for now at least. I may update this if I think of any more.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Best-o

Grand Theft Auto III/Vice City

Everyone seemed to put in a great effort, even the characters you might only see for one or two cutscenes. Then there's the absolutely fantastic radio stations. Lazlow. <3 SA not included because the amount of swearing laced between each word dragged it all down for me. "Give me a shitty fucking hamfuckburger" "Here you fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck go!"

Starfox 64 / Lylat Wars

It's cheesy, but in the best possible way. No other Starfox game has matched this amount of awesome! Adventures took itself too seriously, and Assault's weird highly compressed talking-into-a-can-of-baked-beans-under-the-ocean didn't help the dull lines any.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

Does an INCREDIBLE job of making you feel like you're there. The monologue between each level can be especially.. uh.. emotional? Yeah! I'll secret spy edit the Ace Combat series into this new exciting sentence for the same reason, really.

Worst-o
There are far, far too many games to slot in here, sadly.

World Super Police

The English version was picked up by a very small publisher, who always insist on trying to dub everything despite their zero dollar budget. There's a lot of voice acting in this game, cutscenes, constant radio chatter, briefing, SO FORTH. TWO people do the voice work for every character in the game. It's not even funny bad in a House of the Dead 2 kind of way, this is just plain shocking to listen to. You often can't tell people apart which leads to problems in most missions.

Lunar

I'm going by the Sega CD version. Did the PlayStation one have a redub or anything? It's like everyone had a trumpet shoved up their arse or something. "OH HI MAIN CHARACTER, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEEEELET'S SING OKAY LA LA AAAARRRUUUUGGGGHHBLAAAAAAFFFFUUUUUAAAA" What is this monster, the first boss of the game?!

Disaster Report / SOS The Final Escape

Oh how I love this game, but the voice acting is a nightmare. It's like hey, you're trying to escape a building as it's crumbling around you, let's spew our lines out like we're waiting for the bus. Proper cutscenes are even worse, the voice actors pick out the wrong words in their sentences to emphasise every single time.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Best Voice Acting

Metal Gear Solid - Probably the first video I've heard good voice acting in, or perhaps voice acting in general. The actors really delivered their lines providing for a solid (no pun intended) and emotional punch.

Soul Reaver - A fantastic adventure game that had some extremely well done voice acting. It really added to the atmosphere of the game.

Futurama - Sure the game wasn't that great, but it had the same actors from the show and they are absolutely fantastic in their performance.

Grand Theft Auto series - This franchise has always had quality voice actors and regular actors lending their voices which really enhances the experience of the game.

Worst Voice Acting

Two Worlds - I've only seen the opening cinematics but that was some of the worst voice acting I've ever heard. It doesn't help with the cheesy Monty Python line being in there.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - "What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets!" That is all that needs to be said about this game.

Most amazing jew boots

Good:

Tales of the Abyss - I was surprised by how well this was done. Major improvement over the past Tales titles released in the US. Too bad people still complain that they don't have the Japanese track.

Valkyrie Profile - I fell in love with Valkyrie's voice <3

Shitty Voice Acting:

A lot of Sega Saturn games had terrible dubs done by Sega. The first that comes to mind is Shining Force 3. Words cannot describe how terrible the voice clips sound.

Sample
Sample2

And if you think that's bad this is from a game called Deep Fear...

Oh god it hurts

Audio Atrocities (TM) :: Deep Fear (Saturn)

Audio Atrocities (TM) :: Shining Force III (Saturn)

FELIPE NO

Oh Christ. I was hoping nobody would follow up my post with sound clips ;__;

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by jb1234

FFXII had generally solid voice acting.

I will agree with you only unti Vaan begins to speak. I hated him to so many extents.

Best:

Starcraft: Well written, well delivered, voices suited their characters, i was, and still am quite pleased with Starcraft's voice acting even today. I hope Starcraft II can live up to that.

Red Alert 2: I guess this isn't really voice acting so much as just straight up acting. I'm quite impressed with this game as they didn't do a slack job of the cut scenes. All Comand and Conquer games did this very well.

Ghost Hunter: Slightly cheesey lines to begin with, but the actors did a good job of compensating for that. A very well put together game, very overlooked in all aspects. This game probably has my favourite voice acting in it.

Darkwatch: Pretty good all around. Really, not complaints, other than some slightly awkward writing at times.

Inbetweens:

Kingdom Hearts I and II: Great acting, although the writing wasn't always there. I appreciated most of the original character's voices and voice acting, but most of the imported character's voices bothere me (don't even get me started on the Pirates of the Caribbean world. I can do a better Jack Sparrow and Barbossa than either of those hacks.

Worst:

Grandia III: I hated the voice acting so much. It was good in the beginning, but totally fell apart about half way through. The in battle lines are what drove me to nuts. The lines were good, but the actors delivered them so badly. Cut scenes were terrible, with very few redeemig features. Cheesey delivery, bad writing, and really over done emotion. This game drove me nuts trying to finish it.

probably many more that i just can't think of for one reason or another.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

[quote]I will agree with you only unti Vaan begins to speak. I hated him to so many extents.[/i]

I thought Vaan was okay... although you only really hear him in the first five or so hours. After that, he becomes as unimportant as the majority of the cast.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

Lunar

I'm going by the Sega CD version. Did the PlayStation one have a redub or anything? It's like everyone had a trumpet shoved up their arse or something. "OH HI MAIN CHARACTER, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEEEELET'S SING OKAY LA LA AAAARRRUUUUGGGGHHBLAAAAAAFFFFUUUUUAAAA" What is this monster, the first boss of the game?!

Same cast, but the script changes pretty much forced them to redub all of Silver Star and most of Eternal Blue. With several years of experience under their belts (and Working Designs not fucking with the script nearly as much), the cast did a much better job the second time around.

Good:
Front Mission 4.
This one gets overlooked because exactly three people ever played it including myself, but the cast did an outstanding job with it. None of the accents sound particularly fake, although it's a bit noticeable when people who SHOULD have accents lack them. Nevertheless, the speech all sounds perfectly natural and emotive. It's a jewel of localization.

Really, my nomination should be Everything Squeenix has done recently. Seriously, their localization department is really good. I may not like the games they're putting out, but I can't say much bad about the voice acting.

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2
"Go for the eyes, Boo, GO FOR THE EYES!" Everyone is entertaining to listen to, but Jim Cummings really delivers. They got a lot of notable voice actors for both games, and they're both sadly overlooked.

Bad:
Disgaea
Was I playing an early draft or something? Laharl's voice acting was so bad I switched to the Japanese voice track 10 minutes into the game. His VA couldn't even manage a decent evil laugh, and that's pretty much gutting the core of the character. Etna was all right, but everyone still sounded like they were phoning in their parts.

Star Ocean 2
Did I mention how interested I was in the remake? Maybe Precis will be usable without blood shooting out my ears. We're not kidding here, folks, she is THAT shrill and annoying to listen to. Nobody could agree on how to pronounce Rena's name; Leon says it two different ways! And Ashton's penultimate attack... "Oh, the all-mighty Tri-Ass!"

Some of the cast went on to voice Legend of Dragoon, which should explain a bit.

Megaman 8
Megaman X4 got brought up, but 8 was just as bad, if not worse. We'll wook for Dr. Wiwy in the wadar woom!

I'm told X4 and 8 were such disasters because Capcom was so cheap, they just handed English lines to the original Japanese VAs and told them to go at it, which is why everyone has such bizarre pronounciations. It's especially obvious listening to the Colonel and General in X4.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Monkey King

Star Ocean 2
Did I mention how interested I was in the remake? Maybe Precis will be usable without blood shooting out my ears. We're not kidding here, folks, she is THAT shrill and annoying to listen to. Nobody could agree on how to pronounce Rena's name; Leon says it two different ways! And Ashton's penultimate attack... "Oh, the all-mighty Tri-Ass!"

Pretty much why I went and burned myself a copy of the undub version, even though I own the game already.

How ya doing, buddy?

Undub version? You mean you played the JP version? =o Or wut? I'm curious.

I was speaking idiomatically.

As in, someone took the US release and haxed the japanese audio back in place and then torrented it. So now it has english text, but Japanese audio.

They've done this for Wild Arms 4 and 5, a few Tales games and Persona 3 recently, but they're not always succesful (Tales games still have pieces of english here and there, I heard). But the Star Ocean 2 one I grabbed out of curiosity, same for Stella Deus, as the dub in that was dreadful.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Persona 3's undub is good, but I really like the English VAs so much that I'd rather play it in that. Besides.. Takaya's voice changes from Japanese to English randomly near the end of the game. This happens for Ken, too.

How ya doing, buddy?

Huh. Didn't know undub was a big thing at the moment. I know Xenogears did it (<3<3<3) but that was all I'd heard of.

I wouldn't want to try Persona 3 undubbed; the localization and voices are absolutely perfect (except Fuuka >\).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

"Ha, ha... you almost became... a... Jill sandwich"

Got to give the original Resident Evil a nod for some of the most laughably stilted dialogue I've encountered in gaming. There's no doubt worse out there, and in a way it added to the charm of the game, but it was pretty terrible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.