I have zero trust for english voice acting in games like these nor for anime either. I immediately chose Japanese VAs for this game without even sampling the english. I was very satisfied as usual, Japanese VAs never disappoint I find.
I recently played a cutscene with the english voicing just to torture myself though. I chose the scion scene to hear each of them. Needless to say I was horrified.
What makes good voice acting? When the tone and accent actually suits the character. It is especially bad with females but I swear that english VAs just never take their job seriously outside of big franchises/console games.
Thancred is meant to be a youthful, desirable male but he sounded nothing of the sort from what I recall.
Papalymo sounded like a jolly, little leprechaun whose voice would never serve me any immersion in any respect that I can imagine.
Yda sounded a bit annoying I think. Granted she's kinda meant to be a bit eccentric but the VA didn't do her justice and made her seem more insufferable than anything.
Mysterious Elezen might have been 'okay'.
Y'shtola certainly wasn't the worst but, as with so, so, many english female VAs, she sounded too old. Minfillia was the same but to a much greater extent. The sentences were far too solid and unemotional, totally lacking anything that says "I am not reading from a script".
Its not about having high standards. I don't sit in front of a cutscene for the first time, waiting to critically judge the work of the VAs. I hear the voice and wince and recoil in horror as I listen to what the developers are trying to pass as 'quality acting'(in cases where I didn't like it). I don't know how these people have earned themselves jobs outside of fan-made games/productions. I simply can't imagine how people could take it seriously, let alone subject themselves to it.
I have a question though. How many of you heave heard the English VAs and find them bad/questionable/lackluster or simply 'okay' and still choose to listen to them over a different language that could easily offer a better experience? Not once have I found the Japanese language lacking myself. The VAs are incredible. They are emotional in their dialogue, TOTALLY suiting their characters' personalities and age and just brings everything to the table that you'd come to want and expect. I don't understand why anyone would say:
"Oh, well English is my language so I best listen to it even though I don't really like it". Why are subtitles so bad, especially when you spend 90% of the game reading what the characters say anyways?
I recently played a cutscene with the english voicing just to torture myself though. I chose the scion scene to hear each of them. Needless to say I was horrified.
What makes good voice acting? When the tone and accent actually suits the character. It is especially bad with females but I swear that english VAs just never take their job seriously outside of big franchises/console games.
Thancred is meant to be a youthful, desirable male but he sounded nothing of the sort from what I recall.
Papalymo sounded like a jolly, little leprechaun whose voice would never serve me any immersion in any respect that I can imagine.
Yda sounded a bit annoying I think. Granted she's kinda meant to be a bit eccentric but the VA didn't do her justice and made her seem more insufferable than anything.
Mysterious Elezen might have been 'okay'.
Y'shtola certainly wasn't the worst but, as with so, so, many english female VAs, she sounded too old. Minfillia was the same but to a much greater extent. The sentences were far too solid and unemotional, totally lacking anything that says "I am not reading from a script".
Its not about having high standards. I don't sit in front of a cutscene for the first time, waiting to critically judge the work of the VAs. I hear the voice and wince and recoil in horror as I listen to what the developers are trying to pass as 'quality acting'(in cases where I didn't like it). I don't know how these people have earned themselves jobs outside of fan-made games/productions. I simply can't imagine how people could take it seriously, let alone subject themselves to it.
I have a question though. How many of you heave heard the English VAs and find them bad/questionable/lackluster or simply 'okay' and still choose to listen to them over a different language that could easily offer a better experience? Not once have I found the Japanese language lacking myself. The VAs are incredible. They are emotional in their dialogue, TOTALLY suiting their characters' personalities and age and just brings everything to the table that you'd come to want and expect. I don't understand why anyone would say:
"Oh, well English is my language so I best listen to it even though I don't really like it". Why are subtitles so bad, especially when you spend 90% of the game reading what the characters say anyways?
![[Image: ecec20e41f.png]](https://puu.sh/xvMxb/ecec20e41f.png)
Characters: Andre Winter (Hy'ur) / K'nahli Yohko (Miqo'te)
