American/British English voice actors

[SuperMillionaire]

I notice that with every English-language re-recording of spoken dialogue, the voice actors are always American. I can't help but wonder what the characters would sound like if they had British accents...

[charliepanayi]

Posh obviously, it's how we all talk in England.

Of course the dwarves of Conde Petie in FFIX have very Scottish-sounding dialogue, a shame we never got to hear voice acting for that (mind you, it would have probably been something like Mike Myers' attempt at one in Shrek and Austin Powers)

[Freya]

Gideon Emery or Balthier's voice from FFXII was slightly British. He was an English born actor, he does live in LA but he had that twinge of an accent.

[the AJman]

I heard quite a bit of different accents in XII. Most of the characters that came from Archadia had british or western european accents; not forget about Fran and Balthier as well. Many of the voice actors in War of the Lions had accents.

Though outside of the Ivalice Alliance I do agree that many of the characters in many of the FF games have a more northern or even northeastern american accent. Or as some from the deep south in the U.S put it, the voice actors typically have very yankee accents. I suppose the reason most of the voice work in the series is like that is because I imagine most of the voice actors are from the northern half of the U.S. However thats just a guess.

[SuperMillionaire]

I remember seeing somewhere that when American cartoons are released in the UK, the characters are re-voiced using British voice actors, and I wondered why the same wasn't done for video games.

I would say that the majority of English voice actors are either from the east coast of the west coast of the United States.

[Bolivar]

Yeah I would think it would be cool if for the UK localization they did that, have UK voice actors for it.

XII was amazing though. US, British, and Indian (i guess) accents in one game, Alexander O. Smith really nailed it with that idea. Not to mention the sheer quality of voice acting.

[Freya]

I think it's most likely because the market is bigger in america than the UK. There aren't nearly as many people living in the UK as there are in US. So they are just playing more to their market.

[P4ine]

I wish they always had, but in XII they were okay.
British accents are sooo extremely sexy.

[Rebellious Eagle]

Balthier always seemed kind of British to me. :/
But I want to see the characters in X with British accents. Now THAT would be hilarious.

[SuperMillionaire]

Better yet, imagine the characters of VII with British accents, or maybe even Dissidia! I like British accents.

[Bolivar]

^ Well, there's more than one accent in Britain. Which is ironic that I'm the one pointing it out, since I said XII had "british accents" in this very thread.

Anyway this just reminds me of playing MW2 with Rocket Edge from EoFF the other day. I had to ask him to keep repeating himself, which he apologized for having a heavy irish accent.

I think Layer Cake was a bunch of Scottish dudes, but yeah, I had to watch the movie on subtitles which I'm actually embarassed about, I mean this is the only language i really know for real.

Sorry for the tangent :(

[SuperMillionaire]

Not only that, but the British use different terminology that us Americans, and they even spell things differently! For example, many words that end with an "-or" in the US end with an "-our" in the UK (specific example: US "color" and UK "colour").

[Freya]

And aluminum with an I?! What is that?! D: Silly british.

[Raistlin]

The biggest insult to the language by far is pronouncing lieutenant as if it had an "F" in there somewhere.

(this debate never gets old)

[SuperMillionaire]

And aluminum with an I?! What is that?! D: Silly british.

I think you probably meant to say "an additional letter I;" I think it's spelled "aluminium."

Another example: "program" (US) and "programme" (UK).

[Bolivar]

hey guys I just thought some of you might be interested in this interview with Alexander O. Smith, the guy who localized some of our favorite masterpieces. It's pretty interesting, he goes into some good stories.

Gamasutra - News - Interview: Kajiya Productions on Translating Final Fantasy (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25985)

[Freya]

And aluminum with an I?! What is that?! D: Silly british.

I think you probably meant to say "an additional letter I;" I think it's spelled "aluminium."

Another example: "program" (US) and "programme" (UK).

I thought it was pretty self explanatory since that's one of the biggest comments about the differences in the accents. But whatever yeah pick it out :/

[SuperMillionaire]

And aluminum with an I?! What is that?! D: Silly british.

I think you probably meant to say "an additional letter I;" I think it's spelled "aluminium."

Another example: "program" (US) and "programme" (UK).

I thought it was pretty self explanatory since that's one of the biggest comments about the differences in the accents. But whatever yeah pick it out :/

Well thank you. Yes, American English and British English have a number of spelling differences and vocabulary terms.

[Mirage]

Aluminium is the only right way to spell aluminium. If you disagree, you should also consider renaming uranium to uranum, plutonium to plutonum, et smurfing cetera.

and don't even dare linking to a bastardised dictionary that has caved in and claims both are correct. :(

[Forsaken Lover]

Voice-acting and Final Fantasy are usually not a good mix.
I just heard Kuja's voice in Dissidia and...oh god.

Exceptions are:
Yuna's voice but only in X-2
Auron's voice
Cecil's voice (Yuri Lowenthal is a legend)
...and that's it.

So if they can't even get English sounding good I'm glad they're avoiding accents.

[Bolivar]

Voice-acting and Final Fantasy are usually not a good mix.
I just heard Kuja's voice in Dissidia and...oh god.

Exceptions are:
Yuna's voice but only in X-2
Auron's voice
Cecil's voice (Yuri Lowenthal is a legend)
...and that's it.

Have you played FFXI?

[Forsaken Lover]

I don't play the side games.

What is the point of your question, though?

[Mirage]

Voice-acting and Final Fantasy are usually not a good mix.
I just heard Kuja's voice in Dissidia and...oh god.

Exceptions are:
Yuna's voice but only in X-2
Auron's voice
Cecil's voice (Yuri Lowenthal is a legend)
...and that's it.

Have you played FFXI?

What are you talking about? There is no voice acting in FFXI. There is "oof" and "ugh" when you get hit/hit things, but that doesn't really count.

[charliepanayi]

I will say what I always say - Wakka's voice = Bender's voice, therefore it is great.

[SuperMillionaire]

Aluminium is the only right way to spell aluminium. If you disagree, you should also consider renaming uranium to uranum, plutonium to plutonum, et smurfing cetera.

and don't even dare linking to a bastardised dictionary that has caved in and claims both are correct. :(

No, both are correct, depending on whether it refers to American English or British English.


Voice-acting and Final Fantasy are usually not a good mix.
I just heard Kuja's voice in Dissidia and...oh god.

Exceptions are:
Yuna's voice but only in X-2
Auron's voice
Cecil's voice (Yuri Lowenthal is a legend)
...and that's it.

So if they can't even get English sounding good I'm glad they're avoiding accents.

What about Steve Burton as Cloud Strife?

[Mirage]

Supermillionaire apparently doesn't see the logical error in accepting "aluminum"

[Forsaken Lover]

What about Steve Burton as Cloud Strife?

That from Advent Children? Because I really wasn't pleased with most of the voices there either. Biggest letdowns were Sephiroth and the other villains, though.

[SuperMillionaire]

Supermillionaire apparently doesn't see the logical error in accepting "aluminum"

It would be an error in the UK, but not in the US. I'm from the US. Are you from the UK?

[Bolivar]

I don't play the side games.

What is the point of your question, though?

Oh I meant FFXII. You said the selection of good voice acting in Final Fantasy was limited and I was wondering what you thought of FFXII if you played it.

[Mirage]

Supermillionaire apparently doesn't see the logical error in accepting "aluminum"

It would be an error in the UK, but not in the US. I'm from the US. Are you from the UK?

Neither, and it's also irrelevant.

[Forsaken Lover]

Oh I meant FFXII. You said the selection of good voice acting in Final Fantasy was limited and I was wondering what you thought of FFXII if you played it.

Nope, haven't played it. I've heard good things...nothing too negative like the general view of FFX Voice-acting.

[Quindiana Jones]

Supermillionaire apparently doesn't see the logical error in accepting "aluminum"

It would be an error in the UK, but not in the US. I'm from the US. Are you from the UK?

Logical errors are errors in logic, not errors in geography.

Why does this argument even exist anyway? British English came first, and was changed in America to American English. There are enough differences between the two that I consider them different languages, so all these leiutenant/aluminium/colour arguments are pointless and just make all participants look like idiots. In my opinion, it's the same as having a go at the French for spelling "jealous" as "jalouse". Or at Germany for spelling "an insurance firm" as "versicherungsgesellschaft". No matter what your opinion, the fact remains that it's still off topic so if you really want to discuss this (again) then you should make your own thread.

Speaking of which: I'd like to see more British voicing in games. The problem is that the stereotypical British accent is really fecking annoying, so it'd probably ruin the game for me.

[SuperMillionaire]

Do you mean the "cockney" accent in the London area?

[Quindiana Jones]

For one, yeah. Take Saint's Row 2, for example. I had to use the Latino accent just because it was the closest accent to English. The cockney would've been alright if it was actually cockney.

[Fynn]

This. (http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=english) I got it from my phonetics teacher.

[SuperMillionaire]

Wow, White Wizard, that's pretty cool!