Let's Talk About The Voice-Acting

[Laddy]

The actors were all very talented. Lulu, Rikku, Auron, and Kimhari were very well-voiced. The actors and actresses for Tidus, Yuna, and Wakka are talented, but suffered from a supbar script, weak casting for their respective parts, and/or misguided direction.

Tidus's actor has too old of a voice for such a young, chipper character. If he was acted with a more subdued style the actor would suit him better. Yuna's VA is too "delicate" for the character. She was no Lightning, mind you, but her independence and personal strength were lessened with such a light and overly meek voice. Wakka was just a bit over-the-top with his verbal quirks. The accent didn't bother me, though.

Semyour speaks like Hans Gruber minus the accent and with added flamboyancy. The difference is Hans Gruber was supposed to somewhat humorous, Seymour is supposed to be taken seriously. His design doesn't help either.

It's not bad voice-acting, but for such a narrative-focused game there are some moments that have their emotional weight undermined by spotty acting, and that's why people are critical of it sometimes. The characters feel gimmicky and one-dimensional at times because said voice direction. The voices focused far too much on bringing one element of the characters' personalities with the trade-off of having their deeper traits be upstaged.

An actor or actress needs to be cast by their ability to suit the entire character, and if they fulfill one element of the character but fail to be appropriate for the character during other moments, such as in times of despair or anger, then they come off as either grating or one-dimensional.

ACTOR'D.

[Shiny]

I HATED Rin's voice. It was just oddly nasally. Was he Canadian? WHY DOES IT SOUND LIKE THAT? Tidus' voice was also horrible. Even when he was doing his more mature sounding narration, it just didn't seem fitting to the character. Then again it's hard to imagine him with a man's voice when he looks like Meg Ryan. Everyone else that I can recall were good though.

[Loony BoB]

I didn't like Tidus, I didn't like Yuna, I detested Seymour's voice in particular though. As for "Then they succeeded! They were supposed to be annoying!" - Sure, and if I wanted to put a turd on your law, I could take a crap on it, but that doesn't mean it's suddenly a great example of good lawn management. What they intended is irrelevant - I found the voice acting to be subpar at best.

[Skyblade]

That's mean.

Seymour had some amazingly-delivered lines.

Like when you finally confront him in Macalania:
Final Fantasy X Walkthrough Part 58 Macarena Temple - YouTube

I love that "if you're offering your lives" line. It's so smug and matter-of-fact. Reminds me later when Kimahri spears him right through the frickin' heart and all he does is say "Unpleasant."

That's kind of my point, actually. Everything he says is so "matter-of-fact". He has no inflection, no emotions, no responses, nothing. He sounds bored and disinterested the entire game. He has no personality traits or character depth. You could replace him with a robot and not notice.

[Roogle]

Agreed John DiMagio is one of the greats, as is Tara Strong... it's awesome they got them to do voice work for FFX...

Yes, John DiMaggio is a seasoned voice actor. You might know him as Bender from Futurama. I can tell a difference between the performance of the more experienced voice actors and the lesser experienced voice actors from the line delivery. Of course, that's not a 100% thing -- a lot of it depends on the dialogue that you're given to work with, too. I feel bad for the two voice actors that got the laughing scene because there really isn't a way to pull that off well without being in the same room as the person. In fact, if they had recorded that together, it might have sounded a lot more endearing and not cringeworthy.

[Elly]

ikr, the entire game i was wishing he'd say "Bite my shiny metal ass, ya", but alas Wakka's not Machina, lol...
yes if Hedy and James got in the booth together and did a couple takes for the laughing scene, they could have found that awkward feel without it feeling so isolated from the rest of the mood in that scene...

[Jinx]

ikr, the entire game i was wishing he'd say "Bite my shiny metal ass, ya", but alas Wakka's not Machina, lol...

Haha, it would've been so brilliant if they had've found a way to make this in. They found a way to get the Macarena in!


Also, just noting for the people who are talking about experienced voice actors, I'm pretty sure James Arnold Taylor had voiced several things at that point.

[Rocket Edge]

I didn't find the voice acting bad at all. In fact, I really liked it. Never once did the thought come into my mind about "God s/he annoys me". Even Vanille out of FFXIII wasn't that bad. Unless it's painstakingly obvious these things don't bother me.

[Roogle]

Also, just noting for the people who are talking about experienced voice actors, I'm pretty sure James Arnold Taylor had voiced several things at that point.

I think that Final Fantasy X was the first video game that James Arnold Taylor had voice acted for. Unfortunately, due to the lower budgets, it's harder to work with then say a Western cartoon where all of the voice actors record together, like in Adventure Time.

[Braska]

Hope this doesn't count as spam, but it has to be done.

Ride ze shoopuf?

[Nebulance]

I didn't find the voice acting bad at all. In fact, I really liked it. Never once did the thought come into my mind about "God s/he annoys me". Even Vanille out of FFXIII wasn't that bad. Unless it's painstakingly obvious these things don't bother me.

I agree -- I thought they did a nice job on the voice acting, especially for Yuna. You could feel the emotions with these characters.

FFXIII, on the other hand, felt 'phoned-in,' except for Vanille and Fang. Those two came out pretty good. I detested Snow and Hope, however...

[Roogle]

Incidentally, I recall hearing in an interview from Hedy Burress that she had trouble delivering her lines because it was hard to speak as succinctly as her Japanese counterpart. I think I remember her having a specific problem with parts in which Yuna, in the Japanese version, would say something simple like "hai" very quickly, leaving problem areas in which Yuna, in the English version, would have to say "OK" or "yes" very quickly in ways that most English speakers don't use. Her pauses, to me, make her sound a bit strange in English. This is a result mostly of the localization of the game rather than voice actor performance.

[Jinx]

Incidentally, I recall hearing in an interview from Hedy Burress that she had trouble delivering her lines because it was hard to speak as succinctly as her Japanese counterpart. I think I remember her having a specific problem with parts in which Yuna, in the Japanese version, would say something simple like "hai" very quickly, leaving problem areas in which Yuna, in the English version, would have to say "OK" or "yes" very quickly in ways that most English speakers don't use. Her pauses, to me, make her sound a bit strange in English. This is a result mostly of the localization of the game rather than voice actor performance.

Why would they have her act exactly like her Japanese counterpart? Especially if it doesn't translate well to the way English speakers talk?

[Karifean]

Incidentally, I recall hearing in an interview from Hedy Burress that she had trouble delivering her lines because it was hard to speak as succinctly as her Japanese counterpart. I think I remember her having a specific problem with parts in which Yuna, in the Japanese version, would say something simple like "hai" very quickly, leaving problem areas in which Yuna, in the English version, would have to say "OK" or "yes" very quickly in ways that most English speakers don't use. Her pauses, to me, make her sound a bit strange in English. This is a result mostly of the localization of the game rather than voice actor performance.

Why would they have her act exactly like her Japanese counterpart? Especially if it doesn't translate well to the way English speakers talk?

Because otherwise the lip sync would be off.

[Renmiri]

People crucify Tidus VA but the japanese VA for Tidus was 10 times more whiny. And he was TOLD to make Tidus voice evolve from young & bratty to mature. To me he did a good job. The laughing scene was supposed to be awkward. So were his initial convos with Auron and on Luca / Besaid, etc.. he was just out of Auron's mentoring and had been thrown - he thought - 1,000 years in the future. My voice would be a high pitch squeal of EEEEEK if that had happened to me.