Voice Acting Reaction Thread

not sure if this has been done already.

But how would you rate the voice acting in this game? Overall I think it was definately one of the game's strong points - most of the voices seemed to fit the personality of the character they were representing very well. And having the talking-through-the-helmet effect for the judges was such a little detail that made a big difference.

My biggest problem in games with voice acting, specifically xenosaga and FFX, is that alot of the time they talk slowly, i guess to allow the player to read the script simultaneously. It gets too slow for me. This one had a good pace, I was actually delighted when a few characters said things a little too fast, it showed they weren't going to have that fault.

Yeah I enjoyed the voice-acting. Movie-quality is what I'd call it. That includes in-game shouts from characters. Just loved all the voices. And fair play to the genius behind Fran's accent. Bravo! :D

i loved the voice acting, Fran's voice is amazing, i loved listening to her talk, i like how she said "sup-por-ting" at the end. she juts sounds so cool.
Ashe's posh voice suited her, as vaan penelo and basch all very good voices too.
Loved Balthier's english accent, the guy that plays him, gideon emmory, was born in windsor which is litterally 15 minutes from my house.
Marquis Ondore???? what was up with that?!
B'gamnan i liked as well, all growly grrr

The majority of them were excellent.

Although I didnt particularly like Fran's or Vaan's. They spoke with such fluidity - if only they had had more to say!

i thought it was interesting how the archadians have english accents whereas the dalmascans have american accents. SE's play on the American War for Independence.

i heard fran and i was like: WTF!

her voice is so different from the JAP version. the other voices are fantastic. They should've done the cutscene-every-2-min-thing in FF12 instead of FF10 XD

I think that the Japanese voice acting is just slightly better. To me, they sound like they put a bit more feeling to it.

For example, watch and listen to Vayne's attacks in the English version of FFXII. (Find a video on Youtube, play FFXII, etc.)

Now compare them with this:
YouTube - Final Fantasy XII Final Boss

Like I said, it sounds like the Japanese voice actors put more feeling to it. Especially when comparing the English and Japanese versions of Ascension, Gigaflare Sword, and Teraflare. I don't know if it's just me, but there are parts in those attacks of the English version where I can barely hear Vayne's voice actor at all.

However, I still think it was very good voice acting in the English version. It surprised me how close it was to being as good as the Japanese voice acting.

Yeah, it's a real shame that Vayne's English voice actor couldn't put the oomph he had in his out-of-battle lines as he did in-battle.

That said, I really enjoyed the English voice acting, although some voices like Fran's took some getting used to. Well, except Vaan's...he sounds like he always has a cold.

i loved the voice acting, it was the best of all the final fantasy's, unlike X which was terrible
Frans voice is sooo cool, i dont knwo why alot of people dont like it

I loved the voices, especially Fran's, Balthier's and Ashe's. Vaan's voice I found a little annoying at first, but I eventually got used to it, and Marquis Ondore's irritated me a little. I wish Montblanc had voice acting.

I got tired of the accents, but it was pretty good aside from that.

I very much enjoyed all of the in-game voice acting. Like most above posters, I feel the cut-scenes were well done too.

However, one peeve I had was Ashe's voice actress. For the first half of the game, I could NOT get Raine from Tales of Symphonia or the narrator from FF:CC out of my head when I heard her speak. Oh how I wish she had a different actress. :[

I didn't like Fran's japanese voice at all, i prefer her english one it suits her far better

I liked the voices very much I also liked how they chose Balthier with what I think is a good british voice. While Fran with a calm voice.

British voice? theres lots of different accents in Britain as a whole. Balthier has a posh southern "english" voice. but yeah i like it too

The voice acting in this game is utterly flawless (though I've no idea how they got Balthier, the only South African in the whole game, into the mix) and Vaan's voice is everything Tidus' voice should've been.

FFXII's voice acting was top notch. Fran's voice/accent was annoying to me (just listen to the way she says "wood") but it still suited her.

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Originally Posted by ReloadPsi

though I've no idea how they got Balthier, the only South African in the whole game, into the mix

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interesting, i presumed it was just british (i'm an american, i can't help it). But this is truly on the lists of XII's strengths, how the localization team wanted to really add depth to the world by adding in the richness of the english language through its diversity.

Apparently this is something that's missing from the Japanese version, obviously it's two completely different cases. But I think that this aspect of the game is very commendable, and the amount of thought put into it is something I feel should be used in translation of japanese games.

Balthier's accent is most certainly not South African!

Its an 'upper class' English accent, which is typically well annunciated.

noooo Gideon Emery (Balthier's va) was born in britain, but he grew up in South Africa. Balthier's accent is a southern english accent, usually considered posh but not necessarily upper class all tho stereotypically associated with being upper class.

Fran's voice was the undeniably best part of the entire game. I really enjoyed Mjrn's voice too. It sounded Arabian, or Persian. I just really love Mjrn! She deserved more screen time!

I didn't like Penelo's voice at first, it was annoying. And Vaan's voice was almost as stupid as his abs. But I eventually warmed up to them.

Ondore's voice was really awesome too!

Ondore drove me mad, i liked when he was on screen, but the only thing i didn't like about this game was the bits Where Ondore is reading like from a book over the map. grrr i hated those bits.

Mjrn was cool, (SPOILER)"Power Hungry Hume!" was one of the best line in the game, it totally summed Ashe up for that part of the game.

LOL I was waiting for Ondore to say

"Thank you, come again."

I think the voices complement the characters perfectly!
I really love Fran's voice,i think hers is the best one and most original.
I hate Balthiers accent and voice but that is propably because i also hate his character too.

Balthier annoyed me. Pennelos sounded a bit off. Didn't like the accents of the common Imperial soldiers. But the rest were gewd. Totally loved the Judges. Oh yesh.

FFXII's voice acting and dialogue just blew me away. One great performance after another. The use of regional accents was a good feature, too - it's easy to get tired of fantasy settings where everyone is English or American. The use of Indian-influenced accents for Bhujerbans and older Rabanastrans was well done.

Overall, the greatest voice acting in the game belonged to Fran and Balthier; for the villains, Judge Bergan and Cid were fantastic.

The weakest acting, I felt, was from Vaan and Ashe; but even though they were unremarkable, they were still capable and effective. Adequate, without being exceptionable.

Actually, I guess I do have one gripe about the voice acting. Even though the acting itself was superb, after fighting the final bosses again yesterday, I noticed that the actors put the wrong emphasis on certain words, so that the lines they were speaking didn't sound right. I just thought that was kinda weird. Does anyone else remember lines like this?

(SPOILER)"I will put your futile efforts at rebellion............to an end." :/

I mean half the time the camera isn't focused on most of the villain's faces, so it isn't like FFX where the lips didn't always match up with the lines.

Voice acting was the one area in which XII improved on X in every way.

The voice acting was good for everyone but Vaan. He sounded like a mallrat. xP

Agreed, I didn't care for Vaan's voice at all. Penelo's was ok until she would scold Vaan for something then she was too motherly. Ashe's was to be expected, I mean she is a Princess, Ondore's was ok It could have been better though. Too German-like for me. Basch and Balthier, No complaints and Fran's I could listen to all day, It is smooth, and it fit her.

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Originally Posted by Roto13

The voice acting was good for everyone but Vaan. He sounded like a mallrat. xP

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The voice acting was revolutionary.

British (Imperials) , Italian (Al-Cid), Indian (Can't remeber his name, that Indian guy under Rabanstare), German (Marquis Ondore).

It's quite like Dragon Quest VIII, where they used a bunch of Australian voice actors too. I reckon it's great, Americans aren't the only people in the world, so it's good that they're trying different things.

Not one character had a bad voice actor. The voice acting of Baltheir, Basch, Vayne, Fran and Gabranth was especially good. Gabranth I reckon is the best voice actor ever, with and without the helmet.

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Originally Posted by PuPu

I think that the Japanese voice acting is just slightly better. To me, they sound like they put a bit more feeling to it.

For example, watch and listen to Vayne's attacks in the English version of FFXII. (Find a video on Youtube, play FFXII, etc.)

Now compare them with this:
YouTube - Final Fantasy XII Final Boss

Like I said, it sounds like the Japanese voice actors put more feeling to it. Especially when comparing the English and Japanese versions of Ascension, Gigaflare Sword, and Teraflare. I don't know if it's just me, but there are parts in those attacks of the English version where I can barely hear Vayne's voice actor at all.

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I found Vayne's voice in Japanese during the Final Battle horrifyingly bad. I vastly prefer the english voice-acting for the Undying. It's true that you can't hear him as clearly as in Japanese, but for me that just added to the epicness of the battle, as his voice had a more "echo-ish" thing going for it, unlike the Japanese voice-acting. Besides, all Vayne did during the Final Boss battle was screaming and I found that the english Undying screamed better than the Japanese one. XD
Outside of that battle though, Vayne's Japanese voice was alright.

I loved XII's voice acting. I'm now playing X for the first time and some of the voice really annoy me, which I didn't have for any voice in XII. In my opinion Doctor Cid and Vayne had the best english voice acting. Cid's "mad doctor" laugh was just perfect. ;)

Balthier, as a pirate, should've had a Liverpudlian accent. You know, it's English, he specialises in stealing, it would've been perfect. Especially if he'd referred to Vaan as "ahh kid."

Having said that, Balthier was very well done and I didn't have much a problem with any of them. Ondore always made me smile a bit though, because it just seem a bit of a funny voice. German accent or something? As Swan pointed out, Gabranth was also well done.

it is funny when u read a fanfic writtern by someone who isn't english or doesn't know to much about the different british accents.
cos they make Balthier say things like "Mate" and "Love" (in the manner of adressing someone) and things like "oi" which are usually considered cockney and terms used in london and totally not posh. lol. its not like they could know that but it still amuses me.
it would be like
Balthier: Oi love! jack up them glossiar rings will ya!?
Fran: awwwight guvnor! hold ya horses
just doesn't work really does it lol

Fran's voice makes me all squishy inside. :love:

it does me as well. Fran has just such a cool voice, and she comes out with such cool stuff as well.
ps u live in reading thats near where i live, and i work there!

Vaan- Cheesy american hero...
Penelo- Its like rikku but mature
Basche- ALWAYS SO FORMAL
Ashe- Omg make up your mind miss Americenglish accent
Balthier- Bit overdone? :X
Fran- Awesome in a bunny outfit.

Al Cid- Brother?
Cid- Stop talking
Larsa: AHHH, AHHH AHHHH AHHHHHHHH

IMO...

Vaan - Typical teenage voice, speaks too fast at times.

Penelo - One of the better voices.

Basch - ....Good, but like someone said, overly formal.

Ashe - Nothing really special.

Balthier - Well done. Has a nice feel to it.

Fran - BRILLIANT. The accent has an extremely nice feel to it, seeing how she's a Viera and stuff.

Cid - Sounds like a psycho.

Larsa - ........Bad.

NPCs: Quite good actually.

I'll always prefer the voice acting in FFX though. No matter how....strange it could be at times.

Balthier sounds english because he's archadian.

For me by far (and I can't believe no one has mentioned this) the best voice in the game was Cid's. It was just so damn cool. And I quite liked the voices of the Occurians. I liked the diversity of the accents depending on where they are from. It seemed to go like this:
Dalmasca - American
Archadia - English
Bhujerba - Indian
Rozaria - Russian

That's all the ones I can remember. I think thats it tho.

It was the quality of the voice acting that doubled the disappointment of infrequent cut scenes :(

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Originally Posted by PeneloRatsbane

I didn't like Fran's japanese voice at all, i prefer her english one it suits her far better

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Fast Fact!: Fran's Japanese voice is played by Rika Fukami, a popular voice actress in Japan who has done such works as Sailor Venus on my favorite anime, Bishoujo Senshi, Sailor Moon!

I thought Fran's voice was teh sex of FFXII. :bigsmile:

They talked slow in 10 because their lips weren't changed to English motions.

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Originally Posted by Sword

Rozaria - Russian

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I thought Al-Cid's accent sound more Middle Eastern or Spanish. Also, the word, "al" is placed in front of Arabic words a lot, though it's weird to see it before a name :Oo:

The voice acting was great on this game!
I love Fran's :D !

I think the voice acting in this game was great! Some of the best I've heard in a game yet. I hope there is stuff like this in the rest of the games.