Ch-ch-ch-changes in Voice Acting

[Sheo_Dagana]

I'd be less pissed about Sutherland if it wasn't for the fact that Kojima is just doing this to reel in more eyeballs the same way that Beyond: Two Souls is using Ellen Paige and Willem Dafoe's names to get people interested who wouldn't have looked at it otherwise. David Hayter has done a lot more for the series than just voiced for Snake and he is what the fans want, so why the change? It's not like the character of Snake has ever been that young in the first place. Hayter himself is in his mid-forties.

Richard Doyle would have been fine if they were going for an older Big Boss since that worked out in MGS4, but Kiefer Sutherland? It's just so they can slap some washed up movie star's name on the box with the intention of selling more copies than it otherwise would have, which probably isn't going to work and is going to come back to bite them in the ass once you factor in how much it probably cost to hire Sutherland. 'Hollywood talent' doesn't come cheap.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I know that whoever was voice for Chie in original Persona 4 was replaced by Erin Fitzgerald in Persona 4: Golden and Arena. And so was Teddie, who got replaced by Sam Riegel. As for Teddie, I couldn't tell since I didn't hear the original, but Riegel does an amazing job. As for Chie, I heard a couple of original lines, and it's not like that previous actress was bad, but Erin just does so much better job in conveying Chie's character. She's loud, she's energetic, she's obnoxious even, perfect voice for a character such as Chie. But then, even though I think Erin is better suited for the job, I can definitely see where complaining side comes from. Fuuka Yamagishi's Voice actor was replaced for Persona 4: Arena, and even though she has like 2 lines in that game, change in a voice of a familiar character is so noticeable it's almost cringing!

Fuuka was replaced by Laura Bailey if I am not mistaken. Not a bad replacement, honestly. Hell, I loved Arena's dub, though hearing JYB yet again got old fast.

Just checked it, and new Fuuka is voiced by Wendee Lee, who voiced a couple of secondary characters in Persona 4.
And besides, having Laura Bailey voice two female support characters would be just silly.

 

[Ryu-Kage]

So... remember back in the mid-2000s when Sonic fans got pissed about changes in the acting for Sonic games? And how some of them were especially upset about Jason Griffth as Sonic the Hedgehog? Well... I have kind of an odd thing to say about that.

So, for those who don't know, there was a mostly consistent voice cast for Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes. And then, there was an entirely different group of VAs hired by dubbing company 4Kids to dub the anime Sonic X. Some time after Sonic Heroes, the guy who voiced Dr. Eggman in the video games died, so beginning with the next major Sonic game (which was Shadow the Hedgehog, a.k.a. Dark and Edgy Shitstain with Multiple Endings that Don't Actually Matter), SEGA hired the 4Kids actors to fill the roles.

And this was nearly the point I realized a good chunk of the Sonic fanbase was so repugnant, that if it were still that diseased today, they'd have turf wars with the bad part of the brony community.

Anyway, to my odd observation about the 4Kids Sonic actors. Well, I did notice that there were several characters whose voices sounded different between Sonic Adventure 2 / Sonic Heroes and Sonic X / Shadow the Hedgehog. Did I like these new voices? In a nutshell...

Shadow: No, he sounds too stiff, I guess.
Tails: Yeah, sounds like a kid.
Amy: Others don't like this voice, but I do. Lisa Ortiz always sounds pretty cute.
Knuckles: Hahaha no. Dan Green was miscast here.
Vector: Sounds a little too cartoony.
Charmy (a.k.a. "THE BEE JESUS?!"): Now THIS kid voice is a little grating.
Cream the Rabbit: It was different, but my dislike of Cream prevents me from caring about her voice.
Rouge: Just... no.
Dr. Eggman: This guy, Mike Pollock, is loving this.

And those are pretty much all the characters whose voices I noticed had changed. But maybe you can see that I forgot one. Many fans were particularly vocal about how much they hated Jason Griffith's portrayal of Sonic the Hedgehog and wanted Ryan Drummond to resume that role. But...

I actually had not noticed much of a difference between the different voices of Sonic the Hedgehog, the voice that received the most criticism I can recall. Maybe I just hadn't watched enough of Sonic X (why would I? It sucks.), but then, why would I notice that Knuckles' or Amy's voices didn't match the games and not the title character. I just never got the level of outrage against Jason Griffith as Sonic.

And I hear that there are different actors in the most recent ones like Colors and Generations, but I haven't played those games yet and couldn't tell you what I think of Sonic's voice in those. So... yeah. That's my interesting VA story, I guess.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

I get the feeling there's more to why Kojima didn't have Hayter than what was revealed, and the full truth won't come out till years later.

Also, you'll never convince me that the new VA for Fisher in Splinter Cell is not an downgrade. I just don't understand why they didn't make a new character. Not that I'm against a new voice actor on principle, it just feels like Ubisoft hired the cheapest guy they could find.

 

[Raggedstar]

Lara Croft seems to have had the most voice actors for any video game character (5 over the course of 10 games) and yet no one ever cares about that.

5 over 10 games? Carmelita Fox from the Sly franchise might win on the grounds that she always had a change in every game. Not as many games as Lara, but 4 actresses in 4 games seems like a significant number. At least Lara stays English, since Carmelita changes ACCENTS each game too (Sly 1 and 4 she's Spanish, American in 2, and Italian in 3). Some fans don't mind it (in fact, some would maybe get mad if she doesn't change in each game), but I find it irritating.

But OH GOD, those Silent Hill 2 ones are bad. It was bad in the original, but it was that special kind of awkward you get from bewilderment and insanity. Where something just ain't right. I guess horror games have a bit of leeway since awkwardness could possibly add to the experience, except unlike screwy controls, bad voice acting doesn't typically break a game.


OT: When you have an iconic voice actor bumped off, you better have a good reason (like him being dead or retiring). Even then, it might not be the same. I don't envy the man that follows up Mark Hammil for the Joker. I guess the only ICONIC character I can mention is Sonic. I prefer his current voice to his older ones (not like any of them are GREAT, but just personal preference).

Ratchet's voice actor was changed really early in the franchise (so hardly iconic at that point) but it was a really REALLY good change. Good ol' James Arnold Taylor. They wanted to make Ratchet less of a cocky asshole, so they changed voices to go along with his change in character and hasn't changed since (though for some reason they kept his falling down scream until ACIT 0-0). Hell, he's in the movie too.

 

[octafish]

I'm still pissed about Michael Ironside. Not because he they replaced him as Sam Fisher but because of why they did. And with whom.

I could probably stomach the fact that Ironside is no longer there but WHY in the world are they using a 20-year-old frat boy to voice a character in his fifties? And why did they need the voice actor to do the mocap anyway? what's the point? I just want a good game, I don't care about how Sam's face animates in cinematics.

OT: I thought that Ironside's performance in Conviction was as good as ever. It's just that the writing was kind of shit. I mean they can do a Splinter Cell game with great writing (see Chaos Theory) but it seems they chose not to for the sake of military abbreviations and laughable drama.

Ironside was still Ironside, a delicious combination of honey and gravel, but I feel his delivery was a little light on. I have a feeling he didn't like the direction the character he had given life to was being used. As the great Karl Malden said when working with Michael Douglas of Streets of San Fransisco "Son when your doing crap, do it quickly...We are doing crap". Conviction is crap.

 

[FoolKiller]

Just as long as they never replace TC Carson.

 

[Pink Gregory]

May I present the most compelling evidence to NOT chnage your voice actors. At least, not for a HD re-release...


My favourite game... butchered forever!

I'll agree with you that it's silly to completely redo the voices when rereleasing a decade-old game for the nostalgia market, but I wouldn't call that "butchered forever." Those new voices don't really sound better or worse, just... different. I'm more shocked about the rerelease's horrid technical issues that they officially announced they wouldn't patch.

Oh my, James Sunderland does not suit a deeper voice...

I 'unno, it's a bit like the film 'Scanners'; conventionally, the performances are terrible, but in context they complement the atmosphere.

 

[Gatx]

I don't get what it is about Kevin Conroy and Batman that drives people into such fanboy-ism. Yeah, he's a good Batman, but he can't do the role forever, and other people have done good jobs with him. Rino Romano in the Batman (yes, THAT one) pulled off a pretty good young Bruce Wayne/Batman, Bruce Greenwood has a nice balance between Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale's Batman voice, and Karl Diedrich Bader is just full of campy goodness.

Anyway, I've been watching Dragonball Kai recently on the CW and it bugs the hell out of me that they changed some of the cast, especially because it's the SAME SHOW. The effect is like watching newer editions of the original Star Wars trilogy and seeing stuff that wasn't there before.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Lara Croft seems to have had the most voice actors for any video game character (5 over the course of 10 games) and yet no one ever cares about that.

5 over 10 games? Carmelita Fox from the Sly franchise might win on the grounds that she always had a change in every game. Not as many games as Lara, but 4 actresses in 4 games seems like a significant number. At least Lara stays English, since Carmelita changes ACCENTS each game too (Sly 1 and 4 she's Spanish, American in 2, and Italian in 3). Some fans don't mind it (in fact, some would maybe get mad if she doesn't change in each game), but I find it irritating.

That's a good point; I forgot all about Carmelita! I've played Sly 1 through 4 and I definitely remember noticing that her voice was significantly different most times. I wasn't keen on her voice in 2 and 3 but I think they got it right in 1 and 4. I guess all the time she's shouting "I'll get you, ringtail!" it doesn't make much difference to me because her essential character remains intact. The Latino accent suits her most though I feel and that was something they sadly lost in Sly 2.

With regards to Ratchet's original voice, I'm glad they changed it. He sounded like too much of an obnoxious surfer dude in the first game, too flippant and snarky. Like you say, they made a really good call! Which all just goes to prove that voice acting isn't simply a case of good and bad; sometimes it's just down to whether the voice truly fits the characters.

 

[ninjaRiv]

First off, are you trying to do a David Bowie reference with the title of this thread?

lol

No, I have a genuine stutter...

Okay...let's dive in.

Ok, so we're all pretty pissed about the Hayter thing, right?

Batmant needs to be younger in origins (I still maintain he's hard at work with Rocksteady on the next Arkham right now) and Conroy is not a young man anymore. I know "But he played a young Bruce in Mask of the Phantasm!" He did. In the early 1990s. I just don't think he can do that now.

As for Fisher, I don't think Ironside has it in hi anymore. I thought he sucked at it in the last game. I know they didn't hire him due to the stunts and such and this is stupid. But I'm not sad to see him go. I am, but imo he finished as Fisher after Double Agent.

Personally, as much as I liked Hayter as Snake, there was something sorta cheesy about the way he enunciated that sorta threw me off. Sorta felt like he could have toned it down some. Plus, his voice never suited when the game started revving up the drama, and Snake was in the middle of it. Still, I wouldn't want him to be replaced, but, I'm not exactly sad to see him go either.

As for Batman. I use to think Conroy was a good Batman voice until I heard Robocop do it. I mean, I've never found Batman that...well...like Batman, until I heard Peter Weller in the animated movie 'The Dark Knight Returns'. I mean after Robocop...screw Conroy, screw Christian Bale, screw everyone...it's HIM!



As for Fisher...bad move...very bad move...now that pisses me off. I don't even like Sam Fisher but I love Michael Ironside.

I loved Hayter as snake. I'll admit, Sutherland seems like a good fit but... Anyway, my biggest problem was how it all went down (providing it's not a hoax). The way he was treated was horrible.

The Dark Knight Returns was an incredible adaptation and they did the book justice with the actors, style and the fact that they split it in two. But I don't think Weller is the best Batman. Second best, out of all of them, yes. But I gotta go for Conroy. He's not the voice I hear when I read Batman but he's the closest I know of.

Everyone loves Ironside! But I don't think his heart was in it in the last game... Also, if you didn't already know, he played Batman for a few minutes in the Animated Series. He played the Dark Knight Returns Batman! Pretty cool, right?

 

[ninjaRiv]

I don't get what it is about Kevin Conroy and Batman that drives people into such fanboy-ism. Yeah, he's a good Batman, but he can't do the role forever, and other people have done good jobs with him. Rino Romano in the Batman (yes, THAT one) pulled off a pretty good young Bruce Wayne/Batman, Bruce Greenwood has a nice balance between Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale's Batman voice, and Karl Diedrich Bader is just full of campy goodness.

Anyway, I've been watching Dragonball Kai recently on the CW and it bugs the hell out of me that they changed some of the cast, especially because it's the SAME SHOW. The effect is like watching newer editions of the original Star Wars trilogy and seeing stuff that wasn't there before.

The fact that it was the best version of Batman probably helps people love his voice more but, for most, he's just the best Batman. Although, I agree others have done a great Batman. I really enjoyed The Batman, thought the voice was great for all characters. I'm not so much on Greenwood, he seems kind of like a poor imitation of Conroy at times, but he's good.

It's not always a bad thing to change voice actors for the exact same show. look at One Piece.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Conroy is crap in both Arkham games, I don't know why anybody cares.

They care because they really liked Conroy in the Arkham games... That's why.

 

[Woodsey]

Conroy is crap in both Arkham games, I don't know why anybody cares.

They care because they really liked Conroy in the Arkham games... That's why.

People seem more concerned with him keeping possession of the character after all these years than they do with the quality of his actual performance nowadays.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Conroy is crap in both Arkham games, I don't know why anybody cares.

They care because they really liked Conroy in the Arkham games... That's why.

People seem more concerned with him keeping possession of the character after all these years than they do with the quality of his actual performance nowadays.

I don't think so. Personally, I think the maturity of his voice perfectly matches the darkness of the Batman we have today. I think he's doing his best stuff now. You disagree, obviously but there's a lot of people who think the same as me. Sure, there's nostalgia but a lot of people support the likes of Greenwood and Weller so I don't think it's so much about wanting him and only him to play Batman. If that were the case, Young Justice wouldn't have as many fans crying for its returns and several batman animated movies wouldn't have done nearly as well as they have.