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Josh: Hi, and welcome to the newest edition of RPGamer's Roundtable Section! We are pleased to have two new staffers on board: Chinroku_sama and myself. Today's topic is Voice Acting, and we have 3 readers and 4 staffers joining us today!
Liv: Thanks for everyone who came!
Josh: Indeed. But, without further ado...
Josh: Voice acting is a tremendous force in the video game industry today. With the many games being released these days that incorporate this addition, what are your thoughts on the current status? Are the developers doing well or poorly, and, if there is a problem, does it rest with the actors?
Liv: I've gone through a number of games where I couldn't stand the voice acting... it hurts the game.
Theo: I can't point enough fingers at Baten Kaitos.
Brian: Robot Alchemic Drive springs immediately to mind. It's not an RPG though.
Liv: I was thoroughly displeased with Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits.
Cara: My biggest problem with voice acting is when you can't skip it - I read a lot faster than they can talk.
Theo: BK was 100% the actor's fault, I think. Some of the lines were cheesy, but the delivery was absolutely horrible.
Theo: Can't blame the writers on that one.
Josh: I haven't played Baten Kaitos, but recently, I've played Grandia III, and I feel that the voice acting is quite good.
Liv: I would agree on both those counts - many times the sound is too slow, and it's usually just the actor's fault.
David: I agree that not being able to skip is a big downer for me.
Neill: I can vouch for that. I've never even played it, and I can vouch for it. You know when you're playing a game and the mid-battle quips don't annoy you to death that it's good acting.
Josh: Yes, if the VA isn't decent by any means, being able to skip it is a welcome addition.
Liv: That's what I usually end up doing if that's the case.
Theo: I don't mind VAs in battle at all.
Brian: I prefer the option to turn it off or down.
Neill: But it [bad voice acting] really detracts from the game. What's the point of playing a game if you're skipping all the plot because the actors are so bad?
Cara: In battle it is nice because it becomes a part of the sound effects.
Liv: I enjoy battle VA as long as it's done well and doesn't seem like they just put it in at the end.
Brian: In Wild ARMs 4, you get so incredibly sick of hearing the main character yell 'Jump!' everytime you jump.
Josh: Yeah, that tends to be a problem.
Cara: Variety in battle quotes is almost a must.
Brian: Even though the character himself was voiced well.
Theo: Yuna grunted every time she jumped in FFX-2. That was irritating too.
Josh: Hehe.
Liv: I think my biggest problem is that I can't imagine the characters having English voices because I know that it was made in Japan.
Liv: That might just be me, though.
Brian: Actually, WA4 was well done in regards to the battle VAs. The characters said things relating to the current plot progression instead of a grab bag of generic quotes.
Josh: Really? While some things I can imagine would be better with Japanese voices, for the most part, I hope that the developers include English as well.
Liv: Well, for me, when I played Arc the Lads I, II, and III, they were all done with Japanese voice acting.
Liv: When I play Twilight of the Spirits, I absolutely abhorred it because of the English voice acting.
Brian: It'd be nice if every game had the option for either language.
Theo: Japanese voices would be mostly lost on me.
Cara: Yeah, even though I speak Japanese, I don't necessarily want to be listening to it all the time. I much prefer English VAs.
Liv: And in La Pucelle, I switched it to Japanese voices because I hated the English.
Josh: Especially if they add VAs that are well known, such as many of the actors for KH...I appreciated the good voice acting in that game regardless of the crappy camera angle.
Theo: Seconded.
Theo: KH was an example of how voice acting can be done very well.
David: I prefer the ability to turn down the frequency of battle chatter as I see fit.
Liv: Personally, I don't want to hear Jesse McCartney in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts.
Neill: I disagree there - when voice actors are 'well known,' it always seems odd having them voice characters in games.
Brian: Not being a big movie or TV watcher, I can say that it didn't really bother me.
Josh: That may be true, but if they have experience voice acting, at least you know they probably would do a good job.
David: Too bad I can't make one of the characters mute, because Tidus grated my nerves by the halfway point. The others weren't nearly as bad though.
Cara: But VAs tend to get around and do a lot of work on different shows/games/etc.
Brian: I just appreciated the quality of the actors.
Neill: Well, I'd definitely agree that it's better than talentless actors voicing characters.
Theo: I agree - the quality of the actor is pivotal. Even a bad script can shine with good actors.
Josh: (Although, Hedy Burress improved GREATLY from FFX to FFX-2.)
Cara: Also related to that is the need for a good VA director.
Josh: Agreed.
Neill: I think that's most important.
Liv: One of my pet peeves is the soft-spoken characters' voices because they always make them sound entirely unnatural.
Liv: Like Collette in Tales of Symphonia.
Theo: Or adult females with zero skill voicing small children.
Brian: Ugh.
Liv: Agreed wholeheartedly there - get a small child if you have a small child in a game!!
Brian: It's 4Kids syndrome.
Neill: I'm not sure getting a real small child is the best solution there.
Brian: Nope. I think paying the extra salary for a talented actor would be best.
Cara: Why not? It worked great in Monsters Inc.
Theo: Actually, using children can be difficult. There are, however, many skilled actors who can fill the position.
Theo: The kid just gurgled.
Brian: And said 'kitty'.
Brian: I think.
Theo: And "boo."
Liv: Not that this is an RPG, but in the anime Steam Detectives, they finally used a real little boy to play the main character instead of a woman, and it worked out great.
Cara: Yeah, they had a kid about that same age voice Aang, the main character in Avatar: the Last Airbender, and he was fantastic.
Brian: Well, there ARE talented child actors, but how many are doing game voices?
Cara: I guess it's a matter of video game companies spending the effort to find them.
Neill: I would say talented child actors are really the exception to the rule.
Brian: I wouldn't complain if they got them though.
Theo: And the money. Development costs on voiceovers spill over into increased developent time and higher retail price.
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