Anyone else bothered by Square's choice of voice talents for Kingdom hearts?

Info from IGN,gameforms,gamers.com etc..: http://ps2.ign.com/articles/359/359415p1.html

"In a press release issued today, Square Co. Ltd. and Disney Interactive announced the English voice cast for Kingdom Hearts, the upcoming 3D action-RPG that blends the characters of both companies into a single adventure. It's a star-studded list, headed by Sixth Sense lead Haley Joel Osment, who will play the young hero Sora. Sora's close friend Riku will be played by Seventh Heaven's David Gallagher, and Hayden Panettiere (from Remember the Titans) provides the voice of the third original lead, Kairi.
Other roles will be played by Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), David Boreanaz (Angel), Mandy Moore (A Walk To Remember), Christy Romano (Even Stevens), and NSYNC's Lance Bass. "

I don't know about you, but these are some of the last people I want to hear blabbing throughout what looks to be a very fun game. I really hate when companies will use the flavor of the month(In this case, last month) actors in their games. Some of you may not be bothered by this, but I am. I really hope they have a Japanese voice track option, otherwise this game is gonna be a semi-painful game to play.

Yea, a star-studded list. Like I could give a rat's ass. I wonder if they bothered taking into consideration how well they fit the characters. I certainly can't tell from here, but Square USA's shown nothing to make me feel comfortable about it, either.

In any case, so long as they get Disney to do the Disney characters, I couldn't care less about how badly Square wants their characters to sound (as they've shown they don't), because I don't really care about most of the ones in Kingdom Hearts.

I don't mind that much, at least we can tell who did them but if they do a good job, it's cool. If not then I guess it just won't work, but SSX Tricky did have stars doing voices to their characters and I thought it went very well, especially David Arquette for Eddie Wachowzki.

Mandy Moore? N*Sync? I feel my "too cool for you" anti-bubblegum pop sentiments bubbling to the surface. YUCK. I WANT THEM OUT OF MY GAMES.

lame.

I'd axe Mandy Moore and Lance Bass, but I think the presence of Haley Joel Osmet and Sean Astin balances it all out (I only liked Sean Astin in The Goonies and Lord of the Rings, but that's fine and dandy for me).

EDIT: I just noticed that David Gallagher's in it. MUST CRUSH SQUARE!

How can you complain about something you have not even heard yet?
Give them the benefit of the doubt.

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Originally posted by Regus
Why complain about something you have not even heard yet?

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The problem is, I have heard. Most people have heard their voices at some time or another. There's no chance of Haley blah blah whatever's voice being non-irritating.

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Originally posted by Regus
How can you complain about something you have not even heard yet?
Give them the benefit of the doubt.

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Like Rob said, yes we all have. Aside from the 6th sense kid and "Rudy" none of the rest are even good at acting as themselves, let alone trying to voice random Square characters. Also, I think thr 6th sense kid's voice sounds way to young to fit the main character. I'm fine with "Rudy" so long as I don't have to see his face.

Once again, I really hope they have a Japanese voice option. They gave it to us in the Bouncer, but not for FFX so who can say if they will. Hopefully they won't pull a Konami with this(Same goes to Namco's localization of Xenosaga).

To tell you the truth, I much rather have overexposed celebrities over random b-actors, provided that they can actually act of course.

I'd say the same. I don't know about the Lance Bass, but
did anyone see Mandy Moore's movie? the reviewers were
nice about her acting. At least, with the people I recognize
on this list, I'd expect it to sound better than most voice
acting in games.


Remember when that saved by the bell chick was picked to do
the voice in Armitage 3? And she did a good job.

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Originally posted by Johnny Undaunted
To tell you the truth, I much rather have overexposed celebrities over random b-actors, provided that they can actually act of course.

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Ah, that's no fun.

I have a general dislike for voice acting, but when it's just between good and complete vulgarity (Grandia), it can be really entertaining. It's a rare game that I find the voice acting to actually be good, so I'd take humorous over skin crawling (this). And I hate being able to attach a face to the voice, hence a benefit of no namers.

Did the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts had voice-acting done by professional seiyuus or did they use non-familiar actors like FFX? I'm gonna check that out myself.

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Originally posted by Johnny Undaunted
To tell you the truth, I much rather have overexposed celebrities over random b-actors, provided that they can actually act of course.

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i have to agree there
b-level voice acting is much more annoying to me then a celebrity voice over

since most of them are actors they should do a decent job just the singers they should get ride of *LOL* get other actors in there

I can deal with it. If you can turn voices off, I'll be happy. I don't really like voice acting a lot in games because it stops me from listening to outside music. Sure, it may seem strange to listen to Punk music while playing Kingdom Hearts....

I always wonder and laugh at the irony of us asking for Japanese tracks instead of crappy American dubbing, since there is a very good chance that the original Japanese voices are even worse than our native ones, we just don't know it :)

Either way, crappy or not, I would rather the American voices. After all, I like understanding what the hell I'm hearing.

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Originally posted by Johnny Undaunted
To tell you the truth, I much rather have overexposed celebrities over random b-actors, provided that they can actually act of course.

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Nail on head. To be honest, I don't know the guy from N*Sync's voice, and I don't even know who Mandy Moore is. It seems like all you people who bitch about pop culture wallow in it a bit too much yourselves.

Anyway, I'm a lot more concerned about the Disney characters' voices. We all know what Mickey Mouse and Ariel sound like, so Square needs to nail them or the game is going to feel wrong.

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Originally posted by burgundy
Anyway, I'm a lot more concerned about the Disney characters' voices. We all know what Mickey Mouse and Ariel sound like, so Square needs to nail them or the game is going to feel wrong.

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Quote from Gamepro:

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The Disney characters, of course, will be voiced by the original film voice actors.

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You can rest easy now.

From what it seems, only the main characters will be voiced by these "celebrities". Which I hope to be the only chars voiced by "them" seeing as how the FF character sin the game have never been heard aloud before and I'd hate to have any of the aformentioned people affiliated with them.

For this game, I think b-grade voice acting would actually be better than what the current line-up, mostly because you can at least get used to the b-grade voice actors. On the other hand, I know who the "celebrities" are and I hate them, thus I will never get used to them.

DVD ended the war of subs vs dubs, how about the same for videogames eh?

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Originally posted by burgundy
To be honest, I don't know the guy from N*Sync's voice, and I don't even know who Mandy Moore is. It seems like all you people who bitch about pop culture wallow in it a bit too much yourselves.

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Couldn't be further from the truth.

I haven't watched TV or listened to the radio for more than a few hours this year in total. I couldn't tell you what a #1 song has been, or even a single album that has been released by anyone. What do you think drove me to shut it all out? Mandy Moore and N*Sync.

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It seems like all you people who bitch about pop culture wallow in it a bit too much yourselves.

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I agree with Rob on this, but part of it is also some of us complain about them a lot because we're forced to listen to their crap, hence my wallowing in it. I work at a job where I'm pretty much the only fan of electronica, one of three fans of Celtic and Irish, and one of two fans of orchestral.

I don't normally hate pop music and can tune it out quite well (the females usually have great music videos when coupled with the power of the "mute" button), but when forced to listen to it all the time because of being outnumbered in tastes (or lack thereof), it tends to grate on me after a while.

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The Disney characters, of course, will be voiced by the original film voice actors.

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Thank the Gods. At least the good characters will be done right.

i just want to know where the hell britney spears is? if they had her instead of mandy moore, i'd buy it.

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Originally posted by burgundy
To be honest, I don't know the guy from N*Sync's voice, and I don't even know who Mandy Moore is. It seems like all you people who bitch about pop culture wallow in it a bit too much yourselves.

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You assume to much. Just chill out, your typing always seems stressful.

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Originally posted by Rob
Couldn't be further from the truth.

I haven't watched TV or listened to the radio for more than a few hours this year in total. I couldn't tell you what a #1 song has been, or even a single album that has been released by anyone.[/i]

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Congratulations. You are a hermit. Like Obi-Wan. Three cheers for you. You are teh cool.

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Originally posted by MechDeus
I agree with Rob on this, but part of it is also some of us complain about them a lot because we're forced to listen to their crap, hence my wallowing in it. I work at a job where I'm pretty much the only fan of electronica, one of three fans of Celtic and Irish, and one of two fans of orchestral.

I don't normally hate pop music and can tune it out quite well (the females usually have great music videos when coupled with the power of the "mute" button), but when forced to listen to it all the time because of being outnumbered in tastes (or lack thereof), it tends to grate on me after a while.

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Okay, I'll give you that much. I forgot what it was like to work at a job with pop crap blaring at me all day.

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Originally posted by 88mph

Congratulations. You are a hermit. Like Obi-Wan. Three cheers for you. You are teh cool.

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Being the recluse that I am, this "Obi Wan" reference is lost on me, friend.

Side note: this "teh" thing should stop. So dumb that... it's still dumb (as opposed to "so dumb it's funny"). It's a battle that must be waged until it's snuffed out of message board existence. Help the good cause, soldier.

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Originally posted by Chojin

You assume to much. Just chill out, your typing always seems stressful.

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LOL! I have a therapist now!

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Originally posted by 88mph


Congratulations. You are a hermit. Like Obi-Wan. Three cheers for you. You are teh cool.

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I just don't have cable. And I live in the middle of nowhere, with little other than country radio stations.

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Originally posted by burgundy
LOL! I have a therapist now!

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And for free no less, too!