Author Topic: Tales of Symphonia voice actors... (Read 12238 times)

Griffin · « **on:** July 15, 2004, 04:57:34 PM »

I was playing ToS yesterday, and when I met Kratos in the game, I swear I had heard his voice somewhere before, and then it hit me...could he be the same voice actor that was Edward Roivas from ED?? He sounds REALLY similar....anyone have any info on who the US version voice actors are so we can confirm if it's him or not?

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #1 on:** July 15, 2004, 06:13:36 PM »

Cam Clarke does the voice of Kratos. He wasn't the voice of Edward Roivas from Eternal Darkness, but he DID do the voice of Anthony the Paige from the same game. He also did the voice of Ryudo from Grandia II (best RPG ever), Liquid Snake from all the Metal Gear Solid games, and Leonardo on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.

A fellow by the name of Scott Menville does the voice of Lloyd, who also did the voice of Kevin French from Mission Hill (excellent cartoon on the WB, and now Adult Swim).

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #2 on:** July 15, 2004, 06:31:53 PM »

Funny how I was thinking about voice acting before this topic was posted...I thought Namco actually did a really good job choosing VAs...Kudos, Namco!

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #3 on:** July 15, 2004, 06:34:59 PM »

I don't know why a lot of people think Japanese voice actors are somehow a thousand times better than American ones- you just can't tell if they're acting bad because you don't understand the language.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #4 on:** July 15, 2004, 06:51:37 PM »

That's not the case...Japanese VAs put a lot more emotion into their work...Though I can't understand the language, I can understand the emotion...And that's why I like Japanese VAs most of the time...But Namco did a good job, and I appreciate that...

Griffin · « **Reply #5 on:** July 15, 2004, 07:23:03 PM »

Odd, Kratos and Anthony have such different pitched voices...but then again, he IS a voice ACTOR...I could totally see the resemblence in Liquid though...just that particular voice sounded so much like Roivas. And I agree with Bill, so far the VA's in ToS are most excellent...which really helps make the game as great as it is.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #6 on:** July 15, 2004, 07:26:38 PM »

How do you know they put more emotion in their work? Different languages use entirely different intonations and stress entirely different parts of the sentence to convey emotions. Simply overacting isn't "expressing more emotion".

I don't think Japanese voice actors are any better or worse than American voice actors, you just can't tell if they're bad or not and simply assume they're good.

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #7 on:** July 15, 2004, 07:28:26 PM »

All I know is that Jennifer Hale has a big part. GOOD ENOUGH for me.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #8 on:** July 15, 2004, 07:33:47 PM »

Jennifer Hale also worked on Metal Gear Solid, Eternal Darkness, and Grandia II- they're all just one big family, eh?

Uncle Rich AiAi · « **Reply #9 on:** July 15, 2004, 07:43:12 PM »

And what a big happy family they are!

Back on topic. I agree w/ Bill. I find Japanese VA to put more emotion into their work.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #10 on:** July 15, 2004, 07:46:39 PM »

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Back on topic. I agree w/ Bill. I find Japanese VA to put more emotion into their work.

Guh! You don't know that at all! You're just assuming! None of you know Japanese well enough to tell me how well voice actors of that language emote.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #11 on:** July 15, 2004, 08:41:02 PM »

I know someone who can speak fluent Japanese, and I was around him enough at school that I know what "kinds of intonations" are used for different emotions...

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #12 on:** July 15, 2004, 09:14:31 PM »

Bill, I LIVED in Japan for 3 years and I don't know enough to tell you whether the Japanese voice actor I'm listening to is good or not, and until you personally know the inner workings of the spoken language yourself, neither do you.

My point is you are FAR more critical of english voice actors because it's your native language. You can recognize the the subtle discrepancies and nuances that convey emotion in english because you've been speaking the language all your life, and therefor can pinpoint the flaws in english voice acting. You couldn't possibly transfer that knowledge to another language, especially one so radically different as Japanese. You may THINK the voice actors are emoting better, but you since you don't know the language any judgement you come to is purely an assumption.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #13 on:** July 15, 2004, 09:38:22 PM »

Scott Menville, I think his name is, that Lloyd guy, I believe is also VIEWTIFUL JOE. Not bad!

I should check VJ's credits to make sure.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #14 on:** July 15, 2004, 09:39:26 PM »

Fine, I guess my only way to settle this is to learn Japanese, which I already planned on doing anyway...But you'll have to wait until I take it my junior year...

KDR_11k · « **Reply #15 on:** July 15, 2004, 09:41:16 PM »

Yep, you just think japanese VAs are better because you believe so. I'd only believe you if you were talking about characters like Cassandra from Soul Calibur 2 (hell, what was that american VA thinking?) who just sounds incredibly bad in english. Though I'd love to see (or, actually, hear) Til Schweiger in a game. Damn, his performance in Lammbock impressed me. He talked like somebody would in a real situation, with interruptions, repeated words, etc. Somebody apparently studied real dialogues and wrote the movie's dialogues accordingly. That's what makes voice acting much more believable. We're used to hearing one person talk and have another one start only after the first one finished.

EDIT: Professional 666: Voice Actors for videogames are listed on IMDB, too. Though Jennifer Hale's filmograhy contains a major spoiler for P.N.03...

Uncle Rich AiAi · « **Reply #16 on:** July 15, 2004, 09:49:24 PM »

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Originally posted by: mouse_clicker
Guh! You don't know that at all! You're just assuming! None of you know Japanese well enough to tell me how well voice actors of that language emote.

First thing first. Calm down MC. You take some things too seriously and you might have a stroke one day...

Secondly, I was referring to Japanese VA in general. Not just video games. Yes, your argument still apply, and yes, my Japanese isn't good enough at this stage, but I know I can get a good idea whether either the Japanese or English VA is better if I can listen to both.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #17 on:** July 15, 2004, 09:53:42 PM »

AiAi: I'm perfectly calm at my computer.

I may sound pissed off, but I have a huge grin on my face most of the time.

And learning Japanese doesn't do jack squat- you have to understand the actual language, how it's spoken, how it's used, etc, etc, which you can't do unless you've lived for years upon years among that language. Like I said, the only reason you think Japanese voice actors are better than American voice actors is because you don't know enough Japanese to truly judge it on the same level as english.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #18 on:** July 15, 2004, 10:17:11 PM »

Thanks for the note, KDR_11k. I still gotta play VJ again to verify; VJ isn't listed under Menville's credits there.

~~~~~

I like those sorta-high pitched voices utilized by female Japanese VA's. Cute. And sexy. Especially in hentai. Aww yeah. (!!)

Gremio · « **Reply #19 on:** July 15, 2004, 11:23:43 PM »

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Originally posted by: BillThat's not the case...Japanese VAs put a lot more emotion into their work...

I like the Japanese VA most of the time too for mostly the same reason

(or sometimes no VA - I'm still not very comfortable with hearing voice acting in games as it is). But for me it really depends on what kind of a game it is. A game with an American or European atmosphere with good voice acting (i.e. Metal Gear Solid), I'd probably prefer to hear in English but a game with a quirky or oriental atmosphere I'd much prefer to hear in Japanese.

About VA being better... for me at least, it really depends on what the atmosphere is and who the voice actors are. Now, I'm not fluent in Japanese myself, so I'm only speaking my opinion on the matter, but I have been around the language since I was a kid (considering my parents are fluent and from Japan) so I do understand enough of spoken Japanese to feel comfortable around it - and that's probably a strong reason why I prefer to hear stuff in Japanese in games and such if that was the original intended language. I've heard some say that English VA is "better" because it conveys certain emotions and such through tone that are unique to specific culture and someone who's not familar with the *foreign* language would not catch on to those variations in tone. I think that might be true for some because one of my cousins who knows almost no Japanese at all prefers the English VA's in anime and games unless they are obviously bad actors.

Some games like Metal Gear Solid, Viewtiful Joe and Eternal Darkness had great English voice acting that conveyed a lot of emotion. Or at least I thought so, considering I haven't heard the Japanese VA for any of those games to make a comparison. I haven't really heard enough of the Japanese vs English VA in games to consider which ones I thought were better overall but from the Anime I've seen I just can't get used to hearing the English VAs because it doesn't feel natural to the characters to me. I remember seeing Cowboy Bebop first dubbed and thinking the voice acting was done pretty well but after hearing the original Japanese VA couldn't go back to the dub. Same for Trigun. I'm guessing this probably happens when something is made for a particular language - dubbing, whether from English to Japanese or vice versa is probably inferior to the original work, just because it is dubbing. I'm thinking it's the expressions and they way that they act that just can't be conveyed accurately in another language because of differences in the way the languages are spoken and that's why the original language seems to convey more emotion. (i.e. you take an American/European film and dub it in another language the dub, even if with good actors it will probably not be conveyed in the same way as the original piece).

For Tales, I just turned off the voices. The actors are much better than I expected but I'm associating Kratos too much with Liquid Snake every time he speaks. I'm not sure if she's the same VA or not but Colette really sounds like Luna from Lunar.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #20 on:** July 16, 2004, 03:04:57 AM »

To be more specific, it isn't LIQUID SNAKE...

...it's MASTER MILLER!

Miller time, baby!

nitsu niflheim · « **Reply #21 on:** July 16, 2004, 04:10:41 AM »

Jennifer Hale is a very busy lady. Also she does the voice of my favorite ToS character so I love her even more. And she is good looking too!

Draygaia · « **Reply #22 on:** July 16, 2004, 04:44:10 AM »

I agree mostly with mouse_clicker. I also do believe some people prefer Jpn voice acting over Eng because of the fact they change some things in the Eng va that might affect the story just to fit the mouth movements. Atleast thats the conclusion I seem to come up with. If they translated it correctly from Jpn to Eng it might be too short or too long that you would have to speak fast or slow in eng in order to fit the mouth movements and not make it weird. To me as long as it works in Harmony that the game or anime is understandable I'm ok with that. Plus some actors actually kind of make things up in a way so it can sound correct. Thats some hard work right there but if they do a good job of it I don't see a problem with it. Atleast they put work into and you have the right to bust out the cash and buy the right version of it.

Pale · « **Reply #23 on:** July 16, 2004, 05:58:05 AM »

Dude, Lloyd is Robin isn't he?? That sure jumped right out at me... =P

DrZoidberg · « **Reply #24 on:** July 16, 2004, 08:07:08 AM »

I'm dissapointed Billy West wasn't a voice of something, he needs to be in every good game ever. I like how he's in I-Ninja, it's a good start.

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Fine, I guess my only way to settle this is to learn Japanese, which I already planned on doing anyway...But you'll have to wait until I take it my junior year...

pinku is japanese for pink.

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Author Topic: Tales of Symphonia voice actors... (Read 12238 times)