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I have stated in my staff bio that one of my hobbies is voice acting. For the sake of better understanding where I'm coming from when I write this, let me clarify a bit. Voice acting was a hobby that has since grown into a full blown obsession/passion that has consumed my thoughts and attention for years. Of course, being an anime fan, my hope was to be a voice actor in anime, but now I also want to expand into other areas: American cartoons, video games, voiceovers; you name it, I want to do it. Anyhow, I spend a large amount of time listening to different kinds of voices in all kinds of media. Since I also play video games a good deal as well, I get to hear plenty of voice acting, good or otherwise. Now, I've said I'm an anime fan, which means I'm no stranger to hearing a whole range of opinions on voice acting (some more vehement than others), and not just in anime either. For my part, I think it's important for foreign properties that come over to the United States to be viewed in their original language. I try to watch anime in Japanese before checking out the dub, but I really love good dubs too (I mean, why else would I want to voice act for anime in the States?). I could really delve into this if I wanted, but my general point is if you want to watch or listen to something that's in a language other than its original one, fine. Just don't be lazy or use it as an excuse to never see the original version.
Now, with video games, this is a bit tougher. I mean, with movies and shows, you can usually get a DVD with dual languages, one of which is almost always the original. Atlus has been good enough to put dual language options on several of their games, and the .hack games have always featured a Japanese language option as well as English. But we've got tons of other RPGs that give you no choice but to stick with the English voice acting. I can be fairly forgiving when it comes to the quality of voice acting in games, but sometimes I'm just left with the question in my mind, "Did they not know how bad this sounded when they recorded it? Were they drunk or something?" (By the way, if you want to hear some REALLY laughable, really inexcusable bad voice acting in games, check out Audio Atrocities on the web. I laugh myself close to wetting my pants everytime I go there.)
So what's my point in all this? I can probably explain it a bit better if I focus on one game series. I had a sort of revelation a year or so ago about just how much the voice acting in a game can affect how the player reacts to the story and characters. I got Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean for my GameCube. I finally bothered to finish it just a month ago, but I remember right from the very beginning that I was incredibly put off by the voice acting. Of course, this is just my opinion, but Baten Kaitos was the first game that made me wish with all my being that I could turn off the voices. Above everything else that was wrong with that game, the voice acting is what really dragged it down for me. But I finished it and put the game to rest in my video game graveyard (it's actually these two drawers in my bureau), with the bitter sound of the lackluster voice acting still ringing in my ears. Then I heard that a second Baten Kaitos game was coming out and (because I am a RPG whore) I heaved a sigh since I knew I was going to end up getting it. For those of you who haven't played Baten Kaitos: Origins, know this. The voice acting is good. It's really good. I will say with unabated enthusiasm that I love the voice acting. In this game, almost all the characters were actually cast with actors that give them great personalities and energy. Maybe I'm still riding on the backlash of the first game, but voices are such in the latest game that I look forward to every cut scene and story-related dialogue.
Playing these two Baten Kaitos games has really made me aware of just how much influence the voice acting has in the overall gaming experience, if you really think about it. For one, most RPGs can take up to forty hours to finish. Depending on the game, that can mean a good couple hours in which you're going to have to watch story related scenes. You'd probably want it to be accompanied by decent voice acting that doesn't make you want to bury needles in your ear drums just to stop the searing pain. Also, it's hard to be moved by a dramatic event in the game's storyline, or in the plot in general, if the voice actors aren't bringing it to life. And unfortunately, when the voice actors sound bad, it transfers onto the characters as well. Let me put it this way. Would the death scene at the end of the first disc of FF7 have been nearly as heart-wrenching if someone with Keanu Reeves's acting ability was voicing Cloud? Would you have cared as much about Aeris if she had the voice of a blond, gum-chewing valley girl? Seriously try to imagine that in your mind, and see if it doesn't make you grimace.
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