The voice acting in FFX

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

It was one of the first fully voice acted Final Fantasy games, they really had no idea what they were doing. And I agree coming from IX where I perfectly narrated all the voices to perfection in my head to that was extremely jarring to me back in the early 2000's as well.

What gets me about the VA thing is that it's not like VA was a new thing in 2001. VA had been in video games since at least the mid 1990's and you'd think a company getting into for the first time would at least look at the industry around it and see how to do it right. Especially when SE goes through the trouble to make the ingame graphics(and the prerendered cutscenes) look really good, yet decides to skimp on the Voice work.

Popful Mail was a Sega CD game that came out in 1994-5 and it has more competant voice acting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwZ9SQG9Dk

 

[Dalisclock]

It was one of the first fully voice acted Final Fantasy games, they really had no idea what they were doing. And I agree coming from IX where I perfectly narrated all the voices to perfection in my head to that was extremely jarring to me back in the early 2000's as well.

What gets me about the VA thing is that it's not like VA was a new thing in 2001. VA had been in video games since at least the mid 1990's and you'd think a company getting into for the first time would at least look at the industry around it and see how to do it right. Especially when SE goes through the trouble to make the ingame graphics(and the prerendered cutscenes) look really good, yet decides to skimp on the Voice work.

Popful Mail was a Sega CD game that came out in 1994-5 and it has more competant voice acting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwZ9SQG9Dk

I was thinking of pretty much every game from the Golden Age of Lucasarts and some of the better Sierra games, but you have a good point as well.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

So far, I'm only an hour or so into it(The group is just starting on their journey and haven't even boarded the boat yet), so I may be premature, but one thing that's kinda grating on me is Tidus's voice acting.

As in, it's really annoying. Wakka doesn't bother me(the fact that I keep hearing Bender/Jake the Dog helps there), Yuna isn't great but hasn't spoken much either(same with Rikku, but she's had a handful of lines before Tidus was washed off her boat). However, Tidus talks in a way that makes me wish that Wakka would reach over and smack him around a bit. I'm not really sure why, but it grates on me. Sadly, the only good thing I can think of is that he's not as bad as Vanille in FFXIII, who constantly had me saying "Goddamn, Vanille. Learn to talk like a normal person or shut up! Ask Fang to teach you how to speak"(The fact her VA sounds like a normal person IRL makes this more annoying, because that means she had to intentionally sound that annoying).

Does it get better? Please tell me it gets better. Right now I'm kinda missing IX where the characters didn't have VA.

How in the hell did you get that far already in only an hour? The insane amount of unskippable cutscenes at the starting hours makes that practically impossible. I don't recall even meeting Rikku for the first time within an hour when I started playing the remaster.

Everyone's already said how it's not going to get better. I don't think there's any reason to listen to the voice acting. It ranges from insurmountable (Tidus and Wakka) to merely passable (Lulu and Auron), and it's not like the dialogue is Shakespearean sonet demanding to be masterfully interpreted either. I'd suggest just muting your TV whenever cutscenes begin. The game was the first FF to have voice acting, but that's no excuse.

 

[Mangod]

It was one of the first fully voice acted Final Fantasy games, they really had no idea what they were doing. And I agree coming from IX where I perfectly narrated all the voices to perfection in my head to that was extremely jarring to me back in the early 2000's as well.

What gets me about the VA thing is that it's not like VA was a new thing in 2001. VA had been in video games since at least the mid 1990's and you'd think a company getting into for the first time would at least look at the industry around it and see how to do it right. Especially when SE goes through the trouble to make the ingame graphics(and the prerendered cutscenes) look really good, yet decides to skimp on the Voice work.

Well, there's a rather simple explanation for this. To quote Harrison Ford, in regards to George Lucas' dialog: "You can write this stuff, but you can't say it!"

Final Fantasy has always had weird dialog, but when you recite it in your own head, it seems a lot less akward than it does when someone actually has to say it out loud. Hence why FFX suffers so much in the voice acting department; you have no way to distance yourself from the dialogs akwardness. As someone else said, mute the dialog if it starts getting too much for you.

 

[bzcharkl]

Sadly, the only good thing I can think of is that he's not as bad as Vanille in FFXIII, who constantly had me saying "Goddamn, Vanille. Learn to talk like a normal person or shut up! Ask Fang to teach you how to speak"(The fact her VA sounds like a normal person IRL makes this more annoying, because that means she had to intentionally sound that annoying).

I'm not saying you have to like Vanille, but Fang? I can tell you as an Australian, the first time I heard Vanille I knew her voice actor was Australian, and the first time I heard Fang I knew hers was not. The attempted accent is a step up from what typically passes as "Australian" to an American audience, but it's still quite grating to hear her compared to Vanille.

For what it's worth, I think the voice acting in FFX is decent. Could be better, but it could be a whole lot worse too.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I am now obligated to post the original and far worse japanese version of that scene. I hope you're happy with yourself.

snipped

Are you kidding? That crow impersonation is sublime.

I actually forgot that it was almost exactly the same situation in Japanese.

 

[Just Ebola]

Laughter is not the best medicine.

I haven't played the game since it came out, but my brother maintains that Tidus' voice isn't so bad when he's narrating. It only gets annoying when he's actually speaking in-game, supposedly.

Still, that means he sounds like a seagull who's territory is being threatened like 80% of the time.

 

[Frankster]

I didn't mind the VA at all but if you hated Tidus then...Eugh, I feel this is going to be annoying you all game and ruin your enjoyment for sure xD

I'm afraid it doesn't get better at all so..yeah.

But hey, nice one for having finished FFIX *fist bump*.

 

[Windcaler]

Does it get better?

And I'll murder anyone who mentions the laughting scene, dear good people, fine, it's a stupid scene, happy?

...i'm sorry

Ehhh. If it's already been noticeably grating for you, I don't think it'll improve too much. I don't mind his voice too much outside of a few awkward late 90s/early 2000s voice acting quirks like that laugh scene, but I can see how it might get to the point of frustration. What's kinda funny to me is how much I don't like John DiMaggio as Wakka because of Wakka's verbal tics. Even though I like him in almost every role he's ever played.

Is there any way to switch to Japanese voices? I'm not sure if the HD remaster that came out is the one you're playing or if there was even such an option in it.

Sadly everyone uses that laughing scene as the quintessential poor VA scene without realizing the context behind it. Yuna wants her journey to be filled with laughter, good memories, and all around companionship despite all the turmoil. That fake laughing is trying to just that, to push away the bad memories and create a journey filled with laughter.

Its always puzzled me about the "atrocious VA" claims. Most games seem acceptable or even decent but perhaps I have a much higher tolerance for it

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Hopefully I'll get used to it as the game goes on.

I really enjoyed IX, thanks for asking. I just haven't decided if it displaces VI for my favorite game in the series now or just ties for first. My biggest annoyances were the fact it seems to take forever for the battle screen to load(were the load times always this bad or is it because I haven't played a PS-era final fantasy game in nearly 20 years?), and Freya's arc is incredibly tragic, only to get completely dropped right after most of her race is wiped out and she finds out her BF doesn't remember her. Minor annoyances include how easy it is to miss stuff(the coffee subquest in particular).

It also felt like ending to IX feel like the creators were wrapping up the series and saying goodbye one last time. There just seemed to be a sense of finality about it, though that maybe colored by knowing what happened to the main FF games since then.

Edit: Changed the last paragraph to be a statement rather then a question.

I'm glad to hear you liked it. IX is probably my favorite of the series, but I share your complaints about it. Maybe if the FFVII remake is handled well, I'll have good faith that Square can fix those issues in a remake someday.

It does seem like IX was a send off for the classic style. Maybe everyone involved knew the next few games that were currently being worked on or existed in concepts (X-XII) would be drastically different and thought they should give that style one final grand farewell for the foreseeable future.

 

[Nazulu]

I found the whole cast fucking grating, and the dialogue and story do not get any better either (or make any fucking sense). They are easily the worst cast I have seen/heard/everything for any game.

To answer your question, No! He's always a pompous dickhead doing stupid shit.

 

[Nazulu]

Sadly everyone uses that laughing scene as the quintessential poor VA scene without realizing the context behind it. Yuna wants her journey to be filled with laughter, good memories, and all around companionship despite all the turmoil. That fake laughing is trying to just that, to push away the bad memories and create a journey filled with laughter.

Its always puzzled me about the "atrocious VA" claims. Most games seem acceptable or even decent but perhaps I have a much higher tolerance for it

It doesn't matter in the slightest why it exists. If the execution is piss poor, it's piss poor. I can see many people here can tolerate this game, but I shouldn't have to tolerate anything. Hell! There is no reason why an awkward scene can't still be fun or clever. I've seen it done well in many other things, it's not impossible to make awkward scenes great.

Not having a go at you for liking it, I just don't see how this could puzzling.

 

[Dalisclock]

I found the whole cast fucking grating, and the dialogue and story do not get any better either (or make any fucking sense). They are easily the worst cast I have seen/heard/everything for any game.

To answer your question, No! He's always a pompous dickhead doing stupid shit.

I've heard that Tidus is supposed to be an ass, and if that's legitimately part of his character arc, that's one thing. However, it's still kind of hard to get over him dressing like a clown and talking like an idiot when he's supposed to be my PC, mostly because of the annoying factor. Among other things, why Tidus doesn't just ask someone what the hell is going on after he learns he's been gone for 1000 years and his hometown is a bunch of ruins that people don't really talk about. Rikku listens to his story but never bothers to really explain "So, here's a few things you need to know about how the world works now".

Zidane was kind of a brash womanizer when IX started but a least he was likable, and he got a lot better as the game went on.

I am interested by X's universe and I want to see where this goes, so I will press on. I'd be happier if Tidus actually.....matures, I guess is the word I'm looking for.

 

[Dalisclock]

but the VA is not even in the top 10 of what is wrong with FFX

I'm not sure if I even want to ask.

I've heard some people say FFX is perhaps the last of the good FF games, which gave me hope.

 

[Ayen Matthews]

Slightly off topic here, I know people like to heap the blame on voice actors but I always wonder how much we should be pointing the finger at the director too. I fucking adore John DiMaggio in Futurama but his performances as Wakka and Kimahri are pretty lacklustre.

Well, they managed to screw up having Troy Baker and the lady who plays Liara from Mass Effect in one of their games, so anything's possible.

That being said, the VA in X never bothered me, but it's been a while since I played it.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

To be fair, this was the first fully voiced Final Fantasy game. From what I heard even the Japanese voice work wasn't that great. For the most part, though I think it's passable.

I never really been bothered by the voice work in FFX. Hell, even the laughing scene, while awkward, just sorta came and went for me, and there was a context to it. It wasn't really a scene that stuck out to me until the internet made it stick out.

As for Tidus himself, well, I never hated him, and in the end I did end up kinda liking the guy (but that's sorta typical in a 50+ hour game.) Would I have preferred a different character as the protagonist? Sure. I honestly would've liked Yuna as the main protagonist, since the game always felt more about her (and do NOT bring up FFX2 (never played it either.)) But as a protagonist, I get Tidus' point.

 

[Silvanus]

It's sub-par, but not terrible, I'd say.

FFX is a very worthy Final Fantasy experience nevertheless. Great game, great story (for the most part), and a battle system I might actually prefer to ATB.

 

[Dalisclock]

Slightly off topic here, I know people like to heap the blame on voice actors but I always wonder how much we should be pointing the finger at the director too. I fucking adore John DiMaggio in Futurama but his performances as Wakka and Kimahri are pretty lacklustre.

Well, they managed to screw up having Troy Baker and the lady who plays Liara from Mass Effect in one of their games, so anything's possible.

Yeah, someone dropped the ball with....well, with XIII in general. It's not even so much the VA, but the dialogue in general is just terrible("Moms are tough" *Groan*). I mean, pretty much everything was terrible, which annoys me because on paper the concept is great. If someone made a 16-bit version of XIII without the VA, rewrote the dialogue to be less shitty and fixed the pacing, I'd probably buy it. You know, like that Lighting Returns trailer that came out summarizing the first two games in 16-bit format.

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

but the VA is not even in the top 10 of what is wrong with FFX

I'm not sure if I even want to ask.

I've heard some people say FFX is perhaps the last of the good FF games, which gave me hope.

Here's a guy explainig, over like an hour and a half, why this game sucks. http://spoonyexperiment.com/game-reviews/it-begins-again/ The first few minutes are a little strange, but just bear with it. Spoilers ahoy btw.

Assuming you want to trust Spoony's opinion. I mean, this is a guy who never played IX because of "furries".

 

[Dalisclock]

but the VA is not even in the top 10 of what is wrong with FFX

I'm not sure if I even want to ask.

I've heard some people say FFX is perhaps the last of the good FF games, which gave me hope.

Here's a guy explainig, over like an hour and a half, why this game sucks. http://spoonyexperiment.com/game-reviews/it-begins-again/ The first few minutes are a little strange, but just bear with it. Spoilers ahoy btw.

Assuming you want to trust Spoony's opinion. I mean, this is a guy who never played IX because of "furries".

I can only imagine the Breath of Fire games would make him have a stroke.