[General Discussion] Best and Worst of VAs

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.