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These days so many games have some sort of voice acting, some is good, some is awful.
Some of the highest quality IMO- Metal Gear Solid, Headhunter
Worst- so many to pick but Zombie Revenge stands out.
I always wondered why it was so hard to find talented voice actors, but it seems to be harder than it looks.
So what game had the best voice acting ever In your opinion?
I would say Terri Brosius' voice of S.H.O.D.A.N. is the best.
The worst would be the fruity voice at the beginning of Super Metroid.
Best: MGS2/MGS/Starcraft/Warcraft III
Worst: House of the Dead 2... don't come, don't come!
I really liked that Super Metroid voice. It was fruity, but it seemed to fit.
Star Fox 64 and both PS2 GTA games are tops in my book.
high quality - Japanese Shenmue II
low quality - English Shenmue II
What I want to know is if Sega purposely hires people to do "arcade voices". It's like the person was genetically predetermined to do a perfect arcade voice. Or maybe the voices are completely computer-generated.
Umm, can you speak Japanese fluently? If not... why the fuck are you praising Japanese voice acting in a Japanese language game? If you do... then ignore the last sentence.Quote:
Originally posted by Shinobi128
high quality - Japanese Shenmue II
low quality - English Shenmue II
The best voice acting I have ever heard is in Grim Fandango. The worst... is with too many games to count. But there's a Resident Evil in there somewhere. But generally games have moved on from the "take this lockpick" world of 1996, so thats a good thing (though its not really that great yet).
I don't know... I think you can tell to a certain extent if voice acting is good or bad when it's in a foreign language.
The best, of the best, of the best: The Legacy of Kain series.
And on the opposite end of the spectrum: House of the Dead 2.
Raziel's narration in the first Soul Reaver was perfect. Even though I haven't actually played it, what I heard was very good.
Uhhh... if you cant speak the language, pretty much no. Somebody who is not familiar with English may think that a game may have great acting because it has dramatic tones and rhythms... but in reality its just overacted and corny and stupid.Quote:
Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
I don't know... I think you can tell to a certain extent if voice acting is good or bad when it's in a foreign language.
Acting, expressing wonder, emotions, should be a universal thing, whether or not you can spit out your lines spot on. You can usually differentiate cheez from quality pretty easily.
Think about what you just wrote, think about Shenmue, and then think about what you just wrote again.Quote:
If not... why the fuck are you praising Japanese voice acting in a Japanese language game?
Fuck yeah.Quote:
The best, of the best, of the best: The Legacy of Kain series.
I pretty much always prefer the Japanese voices, whether in games or anime or movies. I find it more often just because that is the original language then more effort is put into it. Many english dubs sound like the actor is given a way to say something off a page, and then reads it without knowing whats going on in the game. For example, I'm playing MGS2 right now, and it seems like they just recorded Raiden saying, "what?" just once and kept using the same recording. Sometimes it works, but other times its like the voice actor is responding to some other conversation, it doesn't fit the context.
Anyways, Neo, you were talking about arcade voices. Capcom would fit right in with Sega.
Vice City has the best english voice acting I've ever heard.
Throw me in the Soul Reaver group. Honorable mentions go to Grim Fandango and Metal Gear Solid. While Shodan is creepy, I don't think she can compare to these casts.
I agree with Diffusion but I'm going to have to go ahead and say..
Kingdom Hearts, Japanese Version - Based on Donald alone, both awesome and hilarious at the same time. I wouldn't be suprised if the Japanese can't even figure out that stuff.
MGS - All the voices matched and there wasn't too much over acting. Very nice.
GTA3/VC - Chatterbox says it all for GTA3, and the cut scenes in VC are very nicely done.
As for worst voice acting? Sonic Adventure. I put the Japanese voices on just so I could read it instead and not deal with Sonic and Tails. The acting in that game gave new meaning to the word god awful.
I would just like to specify with my S.H.O.D.A.N. choice, that her presence was much more impressive and immersive to the experience in the first System Shock.
I don't quite see the point in listing games that have intentionally bad voice acting(Namely, all of Wow's games).
i don't believe i need to understand the language much to tell the difference between good and bad voice acting.Quote:
Originally posted by diffusionx
Umm, can you speak Japanese fluently? If not... why the fuck are you praising Japanese voice acting in a Japanese language game? If you do... then ignore the last sentence.
exhibit a
it's simply easier on the ears.
Resident Evil, yeah!
Damn, canadians...
best - Snatcher Sega CD
here's a link to some WAV files taken from Snatcher
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cham.../snsounds.html
worst - House of the Dead 2
my TV: Don't come, don't come!
me: ... :wtf:
edit: heh, I didn't even notice your first post SearchManX
Best: Sam and Max
Worst: Shenmue, simply because it's not the kind of game that should have such bad voice acting, and it really detracted.
good: resident evil (ps)
bad: resident evil (ps)
it's so cheesy bad in a spectacular good way that it's the best.
Kingdom Hearts is definitely the best I've heard. All of the main characters are voiced really well, and Ansem being voiced by Billy Zane was a treat. After watching the trailer for the next game, I'm wondering who's going to be picked to voice those. :)
Eternal Darkness. Maximillian's insane banter gets me all giddy.
Bad... there's too many to say. RE has my vote, but yea... in its own special way, its the best.
Worst voice acting award goes to: Grandia II – DC
Best: Metal Gear Solid (Konami, PSX)
Worst: Resident Evil (Capcom, PSX)
I'd say the best is in Sword Of Berzerk, Soul Reaver, And Metal Gear Solid (with the exception of Liquid Snake, UGH!)
Crappiest of all goes to Last Alert on TG-16 CD, Final Zone 2 (same cast of NEC accountants as Last Alert), and the enlish language in Carrier.
Resident Evil is not just bad acting, the dilogue is horrible to boot. But It makes me laugh, just the same.
Adol: I'm in agreeance with you on Liquid Snake...James Flinders confused girly man pansiness with a British accent...eek.
"I'm not gay, I'm British!"
OK, I never played the first Shenmue in English, but I completed the game in Japanese.
When I got Shenmue II, I watched the Shenmue movie to see what the English version was like.
Fer chrissakes it was horrible! I really thought everyone had to be overracting when I read about how laughably bad it was, but I was wrong. It's almost like they did it on purpose. That game exudes a lot of class, and the voice acting brings it down more than one notch. What a shame.
Now, as far as liking the Japanese voices better: whether the Japanese acting is any good or not, I can't tell. However, the English voices assault my ears, so I vote for the Japanese voices.
And, the LoK series does in fact have awesome voice acting. I also like Bruce Campbells narration on the training level in the Spiderman movie game.
Best = Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver (and 2), hands down.
Worst = House of the Dead 2 "Suffer like G did?"
One of the most funny is in Sunset Riders.. "Buuurryyy me with my MOOneyyyy.
Here are some good examples:
Run Like Hell - Lance Henriksen provides excellent performance as the lead, and most of other actors are also very good.
Red Faction 2 - Again Henriksen is the man, and so is Jason Staham.
GTA3/VC - Whole group of Hollywood actors doing great jobs with voices.
I find the English acting in Shenmue pretty good
I agree with diffusionx.
I hate video game voice acting for the most part, even the "quality acting" like Metal Gear Solid (simply put, David Hayter sucks in every way imaginable).
My favorite would have to be C-12: Final Resistance; they don't overemphasize and their accents are plain fucking rad (imagine Trainspotting meets Terminator). And Red Faction 2 sounds like it could be great if it has Jason Statham in it.
I like the voices in Snatcher(I have it and you don't, nyah, nyah), but my vote goes to the Legacy of Kain series.
I'm supised I haven't seen Sewer Shark yet - the dude who played Commisioner Stinchler is great in every movie he's in. Total Recall and The 4th Floor come to mind.
ºTracer
i LOVE the voice acting in the original res evil...it gives the game a total b-movie feel...i really wish they had an option to open the original voices in the gc version by completing it in a certain time or something...Quote:
Originally posted by Ashen Victor
good: resident evil (ps)
bad: resident evil (ps)
it's so cheesy bad in a spectacular good way that it's the best.
...saddest part is that the gc versions voice acting and dialog is just a tab better than the ps version...
Worst: Shenmue (DC)
Grandia (PSX) "Earthquakes are scary!"
omg, lance henriksen is in both of those? I think he's awesome... sigh, and I didn't want to try either of those games due to reviews (rlh) and my experience with the first one (rf2). I was quite curious about rlh for awhile though, is really that bad?Quote:
Originally posted by Despair
Here are some good examples:
Run Like Hell - Lance Henriksen provides excellent performance as the lead, and most of other actors are also very good.
Red Faction 2 - Again Henriksen is the man, and so is Jason Staham.
hmm, voices
I can't think of any truly standout good ones, though there are a decent amount, but I will say some bad ones have been so bad as to prevent me from playing the game, which is pretty horrible :/
... "ya got MEAAAAHHH!!!"Quote:
Originally posted by Valgar
One of the most funny is in Sunset Riders.. "Buuurryyy me with my MOOneyyyy.
Best VAing ever:
Grandia - Hidaka Noriko, Inoue Kikuko, Hisakawa Aya, Touma Yumi and Yamaguchi Kappei all in one package? It's a dream team right there.
Honorable mentions go to:
Kanon with Kouda Mariko, Iizuka Mayumi, Horie Yui, Sakamoto Maaya, and Konishi Hiroko.
Grandia II ain't too shabby either with Iwao Junko, Konishi Hiroko and Tomokazu Seki.
Best English dub jobs go to:
Space Channel 5 - I normally detest Apollo Smile but she actually did an incredible job in bringing out Ulala's personality.
Metal Gear Solid - It was really good, although it annoyed me that Mei Ling sounded like the typical Asian stereotype.
And for the record... Shenmue VAing blew chunks in both English and Japanese. I don't know if Suzuki Yu spent all his money on the production that they couldn't afford real VAs but man... despite how bad the English Shen Mue is, the Japanese language one isn't really better.
"WOW!!! Look at the size of that battleship! Keep your finger on the trigger, rookie!"
"..juuuust a couPLE MORE SHOTS!!!!"
"All right!!! You did it, kid!"
"Thanks for playing this game. BYE!!!"
Classic lines from DonPachi's in-game commentator. It's cheesy as hell, yet so effective on the gameplay you'd have to hear it to believe it. Hearing "just a couple more shots" when a boss is almost dead (and throwing everything it has at you) makes my heart race and my knuckles turn white.