Can* English Voice Acting ruins Characters in RPGs?

[Akanbe-]

Sometimes.

Tales of Abyss' voice acting pisses me off.  It's the worst voice acting I've heard in a newer release.

[dalucifer0]

Then you'd probably hate the voice acting in the anime that's been released in the U.S. the past few years, if you even watch anime. For example, the VA for Luke is the VA for Sasuke in Naruto, the VA for Jade is the VA for Jin in Samurai Champloo, etc.

[Bernhardt]

Tales of Abyss' voice acting pisses me off.  It's the worst voice acting I've heard in a newer release.

High standards? What do you think is better?

[Prime Mover]

Then you'd probably hate the voice acting in the anime that's been released in the U.S. the past few years, if you even watch anime. For example, the VA for Luke is the VA for Sasuke in Naruto, the VA for Jade is the VA for Jin in Samurai Champloo, etc.

VA for Guy was the main character in Last Excile, as well as Miaku in Please! Twins. Both serious, of which, I was watching at the same time as playing the game.

Yeah, basically the Tales games draw on the expanding group of American Anime voice actors (I wonder if its a particular company, union, or guild). I think this is currently the best voice acting we have in the states, at this time. Their quality has improved about 500% over the past few years, and their vitality really is starting to show. But if you're not a fan of them, you're bound to hate VA for any Tales game.

[Akanbe-]

Tales of Abyss' voice acting pisses me off.  It's the worst voice acting I've heard in a newer release.

High standards? What do you think is better?

TotA, imo, has the worst voice acting I've heard in a long time.

Better?  Every game I've played recently.

-Digital Devil saga 1 and 2
-Final Fantasy 12
-Suikoden 5
-Warcraft 3 (pretty old game but voice acting is much better than Abyss)

The only other game i've played recently that has voice acting is Disgaea 2, but I played it on japanese audio.

[dalucifer0]

I watched my friend play Warcraft 3, and everytime I heard a character speak, I started laughing. Warcraft 3's voice acting is as bad as Baten Kaitos's voice acting, at least in my opinion.

[Prime Mover]

I watched my friend play Warcraft 3, and everytime I heard a character speak, I started laughing. Warcraft 3's voice acting is as bad as Baten Kaitos's voice acting, at least in my opinion.

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I actually thougth Baten Kaitos' voice acting was worse than Star Ocean 2... and that's saying a lot. Still can't figure out why he hated Abyss's voice acting, it's full of vitality and emotion without being cheesy or over-the-top, the dialog is quite amazing as well. Even the battle voice (which is usually the first to suffer) acting is pretty top-notch, except for a few of Natalia's bits.

Currently playing Ar Tonelico, whose voice acting flucuates wildly. The battle voice acting is attrocious ("Lyner, ya better back me up!") and usually the FMV voice acting is pretty bad ("Oh no, that airship is going to crash!"), yet the in-game voice acting is actually pretty good. It almost feels like they had different voice actors for the battles and FMVs, some of the voices don't even sound the same.

[CluelessWonder]

I have to agree with you on Ar Tonelico.  The battle calls are what got on my nerves.  I switched to Japanese so I wouldn't have to hear the same thing over and over again.  I switched back to English during any scenes involving plot.  

As for Tales of the Abyss, I like the voice acting.

[Prime Mover]

I have to agree with you on Ar Tonelico.  The battle calls are what got on my nerves.  I switched to Japanese so I wouldn't have to hear the same thing over and over again.  I switched back to English during any scenes involving plot.

Yeah, battle voice acting is just bad 95% of the time, no matter the game. Even some of the best voice acted games have terrible battle calls because designers always fall back on crappy cliches, and lines that you're forced to hear over and over again. Now, a few games like Tales and the Final Fantasy's with VA have group victory cheers, many of which are priceless. I especially liked Anise's "These monsters were LOADED!" victory cheer, and Genesis/Lloyd's "Drawven Vow #7" was a gem too. I'd like to see more of these kinds of things. But I understand, when you have 1000+ battles in a game, it's hard for victory cheers to NOT get repetative. That's why I think victory cheers should be limited to the end of boss battles, or a limited number of group cheers.

[MeshGearFox]

I never got the complaints about Fran's voice. It's a pretty standard Scandinavian accent. Pretty Björkish. A little deeper, but...  I don't get the claims that it's an annonymous accent.

Also, I've yet to hear Japanese voicework that I didn't hate, honestly. It sounds like the same goddamn four people (Serious Man, Twenty-something Male, 20-something female that sounds inexplicably ten, another one of the above) for all of the important roles. It all sounds incredibly over-the-top and very corny.

Also, VA's have celebrity status in Japan? That's... wow. Just wow.

[Ashtrot]

Guy in TotA is voiced by Johnny Young Bosch, and anyone who thinks he is bad at voice acting should have their genitals ripped off and fed to pigs, then die in a fire.

[dalucifer0]

His voice as Renton in Eureka Seven is bad though, they made him make too high of a voice.

[Lucid]

He was a power ranger wasn't he? Good enough for me =p

I thought Tales of the Abyss had some pretty good voice acting too. It seemed like they really got into their characters, and gave them a certain style. Unlike a lot of english voice acting, where they remain kind of monotone, and you feel like they are just reading lines.