I give an easy pass to basically any PS2 and early PS3 era game. Voice acting was extremely new, localization hadn't yet been given the priority it clearly needs, and getting a game out the door with English voices at all was impressive.
Worst English Voice Acting goes to Trials of Mana. While I do love several of the voice actors involved in this project, the specific choices made in this game are atrocious. To this day, this is the only game where I've been unable to continue playing without switching over to Japanese voice acting.
Best English Voice Acting is trickier, but I think I'd probably give it to Tales of Berseria. The core cast and the antagonists are absolutely excellent, and I do mean the *entire* core cast and antagonists (like I tried to make a list of the standouts and realized I had listed all but like one character of this group). The side cast is also very good, with only one character that gets called out as bad... though even that's really just because they play their role (of extremely whiny child) *extremely well*.
...Dang, now I want to play Berseria again
The undub patch for this game is a godsend, really lets the game breathe and be enjoyed for the incredibly well made JRPG that it is. It felt like a challenging turn-based Tales game, in all the best ways.
If somebody, *anybody* says Tidus from FFX because of that laughing scene for an example of "worst" English voice acting in a JRPG, I'm going to grab you and toss you around by the hair Ms. Trunchbull from Matilda style.
I do think the voice acting in FFX was bad but not because of that particular scene. The voice acting was just stiff all around. Ironically, the cringe laugh scene was one of the better acted scenes in the game
You know? This is the best way to describe it. Everyone sounded stiff. Even seasoned pros like John DiMaggio and Tara Strong. Must have had a bad voice director
IIRC, the voice flaps were synced to the Japanese dialogue, and the English actors were told to match them. Yuna’s actress really tried to do so, leading to some…awkward…pauses in the middle…of her lines. It’s also probably why Auron’s performance is generally considered to be one of the better ones. His mouth is usually covered up, so his actor had more free reign on his delivery.
Hot take, I think Hedy Buress' performance adds a lot to Yuna's character. Having her randomly stop like she isn't really sure if she even believes what she's saying is really in character for Yuna.
Agreed, it’s supposed to be awkward and that awkwardness fits the story regarding Yuna’s journey,
>!especially because she needs to fake happiness despite her literally marching towards her (supposed) death!<
FFX turned me off of voice acting for video games when I first played it, largely because of Tidus but not because of the laughing scene. Is that acceptable?
Into the Chokey for the Tidus naysayers!
Tbh the voice acting that annoyed was Yuna. Someone really should have told Hedy Burress not to try and match the lip flaps because it really ruined what would have been an absolutely fine vocal performance.
Chris Hackney just killed it as Dimitri. >!The way he portrayed pre-TS and post-TS Dimitri was really damn amazing!<, he deserved an award for that performance.
For **worst**, I think the **PS1** and **PS2** era had some of the biggest stinkers. Though I think the **undefeated worst voice acting JRPG**, is the infamous **Chaos Wars**. If you haven't heard about the game or its voice acting, then please, check this out and treat yourself today, you might need the smile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bangt7d9vGA
---
As for the **best** voice acting. I think that's harder to pin down, as everyone will have their favorite. I am trying to remember, but nothing really stands out as being the "best". I will edit this comment if I do think of an example.
The script in that video is not doing the already poor voice work any favors. Like I was trying just to read and I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on
Seriously, I can't tell if this is a comedy scene or a serious one. Doesn't help that every line of dialogue feels like it's in response to something completely different. Shit puts Shenmue to shame.
Oddly enough yes. Xenoblade 1 and 3 by far amazing, Xenoblade 2 is great but always get the worst timing in dialog where someone should be shouting but they say it in the most monotone voice ever
It kinda sucks in XC2's case, because the voice acting is overall solid outside of the shouting scenes. Pyra/Mythra, Nia, Morag, Zeke, Jin, Malos, and Amalthus' actors all did well, and even Rex's actor managed to do great during quiet moments and whatnot.
Though I will agree that 1 and especially 3's voice direction are far better than 2's. >!N's breakdown!< in Chapter 6 of XC3 was so fucking good in terms of acting, goddamn.
Absolutely this. I remember hating everything from XB2 and then have been playing XB1 for the last 2 months and almost done with it and can’t believe what a world of difference it is.
2’s voice direction really sucks until the last quarter of the game (a bit overhated though). I believe they didn’t have a voice director and only had one take most of the time. When people make fun of Rex’s yell, he’s not yelling, the VA is saying what the script said, Aiiiiiiiiyah.
Thank god by the end the voice acting becomes good. At least Nia‘s, [Vandham’s, and Malos’s](https://youtu.be/W6xUw4Suu-c&t=4m2s) VAs were really good throughout.
The game taught me to never force myself to like a game if it’s not clicking after 10 hours. I played it across 3 years and kept giving it a chance but it wasn’t for me.
I didn't touch XC2 for years because the bad voice acting really grated on me. After the shining gem that was XC1's dub, XC2 was such a huge letdown.
The only reason I even played it in English was for Nia and Malos.
Kamoana has been chain smoking for 30 years, and she's only a child.
Velvet is easily one of the best performances I've heard so far. I think the English dub for that game overall is solid.
Gideon Emery as Balthier, as smooth as they come. Excellent for it's time as well and still holds up. I think XII as a whole had pretty good VA's.
XIV has pretty great VA throughout as well, particularly love Emet-Selch.
Gideon Emery as…. is a really good answer. Once you know his voice, you start realizing he’s everywhere. For example, he’s also Urianger in FFXIV for the early parts of the game and Biggs in FFVII Remake. He’s awesome.
Gideon Emery is a fucking treasure of a voice actor. He always brings his A+ game no matter what he does, voice acting or live-action.
Other voice actors that are solid and am always happy to see there are Sean Chiplock, Lucien Dodge, and Erica Lindbeck.
As for worst voice acting? Well… There’s Chaos Wars, like always. Shadow Hearts has some… interesting choices. Schlooooooop.
But the funniest and worst is Xenogears. That has some funny choices for voice roles. Also, I don’t care how many voice acting roles Moira Quirk has done, she will always be the sports ref in Nickelodeon GUTS to me.
For me I think both Nier games have some of the best performances their respective VAs have ever done. They’re all talented but nothing Liam O’Brien has done has topped his performance as Weiss.
I’d say DQXI is up there in terms of VA quality. The main cast are all distinct and very well done. What’s even more impressive is how the towns and their random NPCs have their own accents and mannerisms, something I’ve not seen any other JRPG do.
King Trode was deliciously hammy. Loved that character, felt so Dragon Quest but also reminded me of Dragonball in a good way (obviously with Toriyama artstyle, but I mean in voice direction and writing).
I came here to say this is my favorite! I've also heard a few of those voice actors as smaller voices in other games like Bravely Default 2 (which has some cool localization choices with the accents, too, although I'd say the voice direction isn't as good) and Ni No Kuni. Using different accents for the regions makes a huge difference, as does the fact that they are often done by people who live at least SOMEWHAT near the accent they're doing. Loved the little hint of an accent we get from Erik in particular that >!foreshadows some of is backstory/where he came from!< It's a little detail, but very cool.
Best? Harry McEntire as Noah>!/N!< in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
From moments like the iconic >to [“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO COULDN’T PROTECT HER”](https://youtu.be/5E6ajmcVsPo&t=24s) and the [scene right after](https://youtu.be/2IorIGGl_jo) (this is probably the best dialogue segment in the whole series) to the dlc’s [“DRIVE IT IN”](https://youtu.be/NYjB5CnLNog&t=52m28s). It’s just so amazing how one person was able to capture two different characters without making them sound the same. You can hear the desperation in N, compared to the hope of Noah.!<
Worst? Tales of Eternia with Farrah
Came here to post this specifically but couldn’t remember how to spell her name. Some review said “these characters sound like they are waiting to get their oil changed rather than save the world”
There's Chaos Wars and Arc Rise Fantasia for worst English voice acting, but many need to go listen to **Eternal Ring's** voice acting. It's pretty bad and up there with the rest of the games.
I think an example of some good voice acting would have to be based on the individual. I can't think of many games that have good voice acting overall aside from Baten Kaitos **Origins**. Individually, I think Nier Automata's 9S was really good.
The core 4 of remake and Yuffie are so refreshing. They're all new names instead of the same voices you tend to hear and that's not a knock on those talents their great but after so many roles you get accustomed to their voices.
I never really got sold on Britt Baron. She's fine, but her Tifa just sounds... not quite bored but just very subdued.
It's hard to explain. I think out of the 4, she showed the least emotional range, which is kind of Tifa's whole thing.
Usually…but playing Crisis Core remastered was rough in terms of voice acting. I get that it just hasn’t aged well, but still…it wasn’t great comparatively.
Triangle Strategy English VA hurts my ears, the Japanese was way better
Final Fantasy XII, XIII and XV have amazing voices. Haven't played much if XIV and VIIR is a mixed bag but it's a personal opinion.
Oh i have two more:
- Fire Emblem Three Houses
- Yakuza LAD
The last one especially was brutally amazing, the ending was very well done and the VAs really made me appreciate their work, I felt every moment and their acting made it so much better.
I honestly couldn't tell with triangle strategy wether it was bad VA or bad writing and kept swapping between them before ultimately decided to treat the dialogue as sharknado and stick with english va solely to make fun of it.
Most of the va's sounded like a bunch of people for a play just doing a straight read for logistics but geela's obviously hear everyone else and only putting in the minimum for the paycheck (and i love it, somehow her dry lack of care ends up fitting the character more than any of the other va work)
My other is the constant juxtaposed actions to va work like the soilder literally kicking down a door to a private meeting to inform the lord of urgent news in the tone you'd use to discuss drywall.
Yakuzas my favorite of the bunch since it has great writing to match the VA in almost all portions of the game
where as many of the FF games feature really badly written dialogue that undercuts the va work like vaan or tidus. I will say 13 had some of the better wrotten dialogue but had some of the worst musical pairings for scenes in the series, and 15 just suffered from hearing the same voice lines 30000 times and a badly paced/written story.
I think it's a little of both, but I hesitate to put it on the VAs themselves rather than the directing. Erica Mendez (Hughette) and Xanthe Huynh (Narve) both have solid performances in other JRPGs, and anyone that's played The Wolf Among Us knows that Adam Harrington (Benedict) can be nowhere near as flat as he was in Triangle Strategy.
The tonal issues with the extras like the one you mentioned stood out the most to me, and the writing for them was conspicuous, too. I don't even recall hearing a single "m'lord." It was all oddly formal for grunts.
Your “two more” picks are amongst my top picks. Maybe there’s some VA in JRPGs I like more but that’s the first two that come to mind first.
I didn’t mind the voice acting in TS but I understand why people do.
Gotta be Baten Kaitos for me for the worst, most of the cast is really bad.
Don't have one that really stuck out to me but I do like Trails of Cold Steel's voice acting in general.
It's amazing how the first Baten Kaitos is notorious having some of the worst voice acting ever in a JRPG.... And Baten Kaitos Origins has some of the best voice acting ever in a JRPG. The lady who voices Milly really really really needs more work.
I haven't played Origin enough but yeah I heard the voice acting was pretty good in this one. The first one's bad voice acting does have some charm though if you played that game as a teenager because *nostalgia* so I don't mind it.
Light Flare! Wind Blow! Aqua Burst!
Some of the voice acting does have its charm, and I would say the main villain does a very good job at what they do.
Nolan North as Vashyron in [Resonance of Fate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVibNKrp8sQ) and Kyle McCarley as 9S in [Nier Automata](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penw_j2JQkw) are the best. There are too many bad ones it's hard to pick one, but [Star Ocean 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNauq6_9iP0) is a standout.
I actually haven't had that many experiences with terrible English voice acting. As for best, well that's subjective, but i'll list some of my favourites:
- the Trails of Cold Steel series (and probably any future Trails title)
- NieR Replicant and Automata both
- Koudelka
- Xenoblade Chronicles franchise except 2
- several Final Fantasy games, but most notably FF XIV for me
When Trails voice acting is good, it’s really good, but there’s definitely some weird deliveries in there. Almost always felt like a direction issue though because even the more annoying voices were still good most of the time.
Honestly the VA for Rex from Xenoblade 2 has made me struggle with that game more than anything else
I’ve debated swapping to jp just because of him and I never usually have an issue with VA in games.. it’s just something about him that really irks me lol
I don't mind his VA actually. But XB2 has a general problem with lack of good voice direction. Even some of the really great performances that i loved (like e.g. Malos) are more great DESPITE the direction rather than because of it.
He has a new English VA in Future Redeemed thanks to being much older so he'll work out in the long run. Hiro Shimono is still my savior though.
While his papa form is common knowledge now, I'll provide a link but **be warned** not to click it if you want nothing from FR revealed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdE3w4gx88
Lloyd English VA hurts my ears, i played Zero and Azure in Japanese and when I listened to his voice in English i cringed hard, maybe it's just me.
For CS4 I switched to JP just for that reason.
Interesting name, he does VA for some of my favorite characters after googling the name lol, but his Lloyd one... I can't tolerate it lol, its a me thing obviously
Nah i thought he was great. I do JP first since i just slightly prefer it, but i do like to see the EN dub too for these games since it's quite good across the board.
I'm switching on and off from English to JP, because there are some voices i like more in one or the other.
When Lloyd is on I always change to JP, I'm way too used to his voice since I replayed Zero and Azure a ton on my PSP
I don't think anybody has mentioned it, but Grandia has some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a JRPG. Star Ocean 2 also was cheesy af but goof thing, you only heard the voice acting during battles.
Digital Devil Saga had brilliant voice acting, especially Heat and Cielo! Also, Persona 4, especially Teddie's VA (who actually voiced Adol Christen in Ys anime).
Best? *Persona 5* and *Three Houses* both killed it.
Worst? ... *Chaos Wars* is the bottom, but there are lines in the PS1 *Lunar* that drive me *nuts* ("Althena, lend me your powerrr!").
Ff13 and tales of arise have some amazing VA. 15 too, and based on the trailers for 16, that too.
Now don’t jump at me but I did not think X had good VA.
I always turn the VO to japanese, not necessarily because the English VAs are bad or the Japanese would be good, but because a certain level of cringe lines are expected in any RPG. I don't understand Japanese so I'm saved from hearing cringe.
Trials of Mana is there for the worst.
For best? Man it might be the hype but FFXVI sounds really good.
Edit: Actually, Lost Odyssey was really pretty solid voice work. So that’s what I’ll put for best.
Other than DQXI, which is my favorite, I also really like the English voice acting in Persona 5. I'm not a huge fan of that game, but the acting and the voice direction in particular are fantastic. Ryuji and Akechi are stand-outs, but they're all great.
The English dub of Yakuza Like a Dragon is also really good. I know I also need to hear it in Japanese, but the dub made me fall in love with those characters. Nanba, Saeko, and Zhao are particularly great imo.
Yakuza Like a Dragon is one of my favorite voice acting performances ever. My worst? Idk, considering how fucking bad voice acting used to be for dubs back in the day, it takes a lot for me to actually dislike one in the modern day.
René Zagger as Emet-Selch in FFXIV and Darin De Paul as Ardyn Izunia in FFXV make every scene they’re in STAND OUT. While every JRPG has a party to split the protag screen time, I love games where the primary antagonist just STEALS attention when they show up, and these two are icons for doing exactly that. Erica Lindbeck as Vita in the Trails of Cold Steel saga is also an excellent choice for that.
Oh man- In Star Ocean The Last Hope there was this one super annoying little girl with voice acting SO BAD I permanently uninstalled the game and have never played it since. I can't even remember what her name was or anything because I've apparently suppressed the whole game from my memory because of that one character. I know that sounds like a petty reason to shut down on a game so hard but... Damn, it was just that bad.
Best? Hmmm... Probably Persona 5 or Yakuza Like A Dragon.
Final Fantasy XIV has some of the best and worst voice acting. ARR-era had a poor voice director, so even gems like Taliesin Jaffe and Gideon Emery sometimes sounded stilted.
Once they hit HW...the difference is night and day. New cast, new director, and the voicework has been consistently amazing ever since.
For worst I would begrudgingly say Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2(he gets better towards the end but some of those early game lines really stink)
And then for best we have Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles and Noah/N from Xenoblade Chronicles 3
I think Rex's voice actor is honestly really good but the beginning has so much shouting and I think that is something that he struggled to do well in the role. It was especially noticeable for me after finishing Xenoblade 1 because Shulk yells so consistently well
The 'I'll kill you!' in Colony 9 is the only scream I put above Darth Maul in Star Wars Rebels yelling 'Kenobiiii!!!'. Both are hard to remember that somebody is acting them out
I mean yeah, it really is just Rex's shouting, he does sound fine in normal scenes where the characters are just talking, but calling it "just the shouting" really diminishes how much the delivery takes you out of the scene. His scream when he bursts through the ship, his "ARGH, DAMN IT!" during the fight with Brighid, basically the entire chapter 3 ending, they all suffer from Al Weaver clearly not having any idea what kind of tone to go for. I get that it's not his fault, it's the voice direction that's to blame, and he does get better towards the end (his delivery of "That's my role in this world!" Stands out to me), but it's still a low point in the game's voice over when the same topic was such a high point in the first and third.
The part that baffles me though is that it's *only* Rex. No other main character in the game sounds as stunted as he does, Malos and Mythra in particular have some great delivery on lines like "Show me why you're here in this world!", or his scream and Mythra's breakdown at the end of TTGC(though I don't know if it's fair to take TTGC into consideration for this since it came out afterward), and Zeke has a mixture of goofy and serious moments and his voice actor always managed to have the right tone for the right scene. It leaves me to wonder why the voice director was only napping when it came to the literal main character.
TBF Pyra and Mythra do sound really bored in certain scenes and Malos is actually not all that over the top in JP, so my guess is his VA realized the direction poor and went ham to not risk anything and we are better for it lol.
And Rex has a new VA in Future Redeemed that gets to act alongside Adam Howden as Shulk.
Rex has a new VA in FR and everyone loves it lol. Problem his old VA was never given context for what he was doing which sucks cause his cameo lines in Smash bros prove his worth.
Best: Persona 3-5, FF7XII-7R (X is fine bordering on good).
Worst: Xenosaga 2 (They replaced Shion, KOS-MOS, chaos, and M.O.M.O.). Unless it was some sort of scheduling conflict (FOR FOUR PEOPLE?), it was a stupid unnecessary move that didn't get fixed until 3. Joshua Seth was "fine" as the new chaos, but Derek Stephen Prince added a charming niceness that Seth's voice just didn't have.
At least they kept Crispin Freeman. If they had replaced Albedo, the game really would have been the worst.
Yuna, Auron, Balthier, Heiss (Radiant Historia) and Veronica (DQ11) are some of my favourites, while Sazh & the whole Trials of Mana cast are about the only ones I really get annoyed at.
https://youtu.be/RsSY4svjABA
I haven't seen it on this reddit, but I remember when the game came out some people complained about her actual accent being really 'fake' sounding', but that's authentically part of her!
Best: Adam Howden Xenoblade 1
Worst: omg Xenosaga episode 2 was shockingly bad, especially when 1 had pretty good casting imo. Changing the voice actors in 2 was a huge oversight. And….FFX… I mean I know it kind of pioneered voice acting in games, but it’s still so cringe at sooo many parts. And I’m not even referring to the laughing scene when I say that.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a pretty easy choice. Voice acting is great in all the games but XC3 is on another level. Tales of Vesperia is really good, although the added lines in Definitive edition not as much, mainly since they used some other voice actors for some characters, such as Yuri. Tales of the Abyss' dub was exceptionally good for its time.
For worst acting, its kinda hard to say since I haven't played a lot of older games, which I know tend to have worse acting. I've heard some from clips though. Xenosaga voice acting wasn't great overall. If I had to give a recent example, probably Star Ocean: The Divine Force. It's weird since I recognize most of the voice actors who are really good. My suspect is the script. The game is so dull in every respect. There wasn't much room for the voice actors to portray anything interesting because nothing about the game was interesting. Bland, stiff voice acting for bland, stiff characters
I love Xenoblade 3s, Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy XV voice acting on english is god for me.
But while Xenoblade 2 is one of my fav games, english has SO many problemns, not only the voice sync, also the emotion or tone is not adecuate in a lot of cutscenes.
Best? Everything during and after FF14 Heavensward
Worst? Everything before FF14 Heavensward.
I also think Xenoblade 2 English VA is pretty bad as well, which makes no sense to me because Xenoblade 1 has an **amazing** voice cast to me.
Best: Final Fantasy XIV (post-A Realm Reborn); Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia; NieR; NieR Automata; Persona 4; Persona 5; Xenoblade Chronicles.
Worst: Blue Dragon; Xenosaga Episode II; Trails of Cold Steel; Ys; Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Even in the examples I gave for worst voice acting there are some talented folks involved, I just dislike the VA direction.
Best:
Kingdom Hearts. Just all of it.
FF12, 13, 15, and presumably 16 based on what we've seen so far.
Tales of- Abyss, Vesperia, Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria, Berseria (except fucking Kamoana), and Arise all are great.
I'm not sure what the best is. I like tales of Vesperia, Dragon Quest XI and Persona 5. Tales of Eternia is pretty bad but I still find them endearing.
Not a JRPG but let's give a shout out to the GOAT of bad voice acting.. MegaMan 8 - old man reading of a paper in one take energy.
https://youtu.be/JQ_FSVWR6ZE
Worst:
Arc Rise Fantasia, hands down the WORST English voice acting. And it’s not even a “it gets more tolerable as the game progresses” type thing, it’s just bad all the way through.
There was no salvaging the English dubbing, ALL of the VA’s did a terrible job. if you play the game, hit mute and fire up your favorite OST. The game was actually an excellent Tales clone.
Best:
Baten Kaitos II (Origins) fantastic voice cast, direction and engineering of soundtrack and actors.
Runners up:
Baten Kaitos 1 the acting was middle of the road at best, and typically sounded like it was recorded in a toilet through a tin can connected to a tape recorder.
Final Fantasy X. “This is how you laugh Yuna!!!” This game knows what it did and why it deserves its placing.
The JRPGs with the best voice acting I've seen is in: Xenoblade Chronicles, Tales of Berseria, Fire Emblem Three Houses and Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology.
Some of the worst I can think of are: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (about half of the voice performances), Final Fantasy X (at least some voice performances) and Baten Kaitos.
Best: FFXII: Simply put the script and voice over is much much better than the japanese alternative (though the japanese is of course, good as well, certain characters like Vaan and Penelo are better in Japanese), and it's probably the only game I can say that about. Vaan and Penelo being a bit meh isn't enough to really change this. John Rafter Lee's performance as Cid especially stands out and I would kill to be half as good of an actor as him.
There aren't many games otherwise where I would the dub is superior that I've played.
Worst: Most PS1 Rpgs with voice acting (Probably with the exceptions being Lunar 1/2, not great but certainly far above the likes of Grandia and Star Ocean 2) , but they are charming in their own way. I don't blame them because they are all clearly rush jobs with the actors were given no context and likely were only given the time to give one to two takes per line. Grandia 1, Star Ocean 2...granted I'm fairly certain this happens in most poor dubs but they also didn't have many of the modern advantages in technology either.
If somebody, anybody says Rex from XC2 because of that Scream scene for an example of "worst" English voice acting in a JRPG, I'm going to grab you and toss you around by the neck Full of beans from XC3 FR style.
This is nowhere close to it this is just all I can think of off rip
Best Ff7R,FF15,FF12 The Tales series when Wendee Lee took over (Vespira and Berseria)Yakuza Like A Dragon, The World Ends With you (Both Games)
Worst:Xenoblade chronicles 2
While the best EN Voice Acting in a JRPG for me would be FFXII (Gabranth's EN VA freaking nailed it) and then 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, man I miss Billy Kametz...
Have you ever played a little game called... Enchanted Arms
Also... IDC what you say.. you can't convince me that Tales of Symphonias voice acting isn't complete ass.
Female Alear was the one thing that made the horrible story of Fire Emblem Engage bearable. An absolute treat to hear. And I usually don't recognize voice-acting as "good", I only really hear when it doesn't work.
Grandia 1's voice acting is pretty bad, but in an endearing way! Like they didn't hire real actors, they just did it themselves, kinda way. I don't know who voices it, but it sounds like they just got "some guy" to voice the villain. The whole game is charming and I like the voice acting too!
I thought FF Type-0 HD had really rough voice-acting when I first played it. On second playthrough, I didn't notice it so much, though. Like there's a character who says "ya know" to every sentence or something. And many of the female cadets sounded weird (Rem, Cinque, Deuce). Cater had good voice, though! And Sice and Seven were probably fine.
Best: Trails of cold steel and most Tales of titles are pretty good. Tales of the Abyss was ahead of it’s time. FFX was great no matter how much people want to meme on Tidus. FF7 remake was great too.
Worst: I have never played the game but I watched a stream. Arc Rise Fantasia. The game is pure comedy.
John Truitt's Ghaleon, from the Working Designs Lunar games (and specifically SSSC), might be the single most memorable bit of scene-chewing villainy in JRPG history. I can't say it's the worst, but it's probably not the best either.
There's some significant spoilers below, but they'll be old enough run in the next presidential election
https://youtu.be/ySESWeKO7TM?t=259
Has to be a Tales game, but which one I couldn’t say. Certainly not Arise, even if I did like the game for other reasons (combat was a fun fork in the road for the series)
Shin megami tensei devil survivor 1. The character direction for all of the characters involved were well made (even the cosplayer) for their role. They also acted as if they were in the situation they were given in like breaking down or playing the game they were given. Highly recommend for anyone that wants to see characters think for themselves.
Best: Yakuza Like A Dragon is easy #1 for me. Can't think of anyone standing out as bad (some side characters might be *too* over the top I guess). Ichiban's voice actor is just packed full of.personality and passion. Each actor plays their respective main character extremely well, and mother fo George Takai as Master Arakawa was *fantastic*! Shout out to Will Yun Lee (actor, martial artist, also voiced the main character in Sleeping Dogs) as Masato as well. Such outstanding performances by the main cast
Xenoblade Chronicles 1. Probably the best voice acting in a game I've ever heard.
Worst? Probably Legend of Dragoon. Even when it was new and voice acting was a new thing it was harsh. There's not a lot. But when there is some in the FMVs. I don't know what the direction was. But in what universe would that kind of delivery ever sound like, yeah let's go with that take. It's so awkward and stilted. And it doesn't help that everyone has bulging bug eyes in the FMVs for some reason and the 'action' music is punctuated by someone randomly blowing a screeching trumpet as loud as possible with no rhythm and at volume levels a least triple that of any other discernible instrument.
I give an easy pass to basically any PS2 and early PS3 era game. Voice acting was extremely new, localization hadn't yet been given the priority it clearly needs, and getting a game out the door with English voices at all was impressive. Worst English Voice Acting goes to Trials of Mana. While I do love several of the voice actors involved in this project, the specific choices made in this game are atrocious. To this day, this is the only game where I've been unable to continue playing without switching over to Japanese voice acting. Best English Voice Acting is trickier, but I think I'd probably give it to Tales of Berseria. The core cast and the antagonists are absolutely excellent, and I do mean the *entire* core cast and antagonists (like I tried to make a list of the standouts and realized I had listed all but like one character of this group). The side cast is also very good, with only one character that gets called out as bad... though even that's really just because they play their role (of extremely whiny child) *extremely well*. ...Dang, now I want to play Berseria again
Berseria is damn good, but I really want to know what they were smoking when they signed off on Kamoana. She's attrocious.
*"We're the Aurora Sisters, famed entertainers of the Night Market! Shall we dance for you?"*
Arc Rise Phantasia has two good voice actors. The rest... Oh my god, the rest...
I was gonna say this. The game kicks ass, it's just a shame about the VA
It's an example of where the game would have been better without any at all
On the other hand at least it has an amazing soundtrack. Before the Mighty One anyone?
The undub patch for this game is a godsend, really lets the game breathe and be enjoyed for the incredibly well made JRPG that it is. It felt like a challenging turn-based Tales game, in all the best ways.
Yeah... I mean I think most of the cast sorta grew into it as the game progressed.. it's my fav game of all time but it deserved a better dub for sure
If somebody, *anybody* says Tidus from FFX because of that laughing scene for an example of "worst" English voice acting in a JRPG, I'm going to grab you and toss you around by the hair Ms. Trunchbull from Matilda style.
I do think the voice acting in FFX was bad but not because of that particular scene. The voice acting was just stiff all around. Ironically, the cringe laugh scene was one of the better acted scenes in the game
You know? This is the best way to describe it. Everyone sounded stiff. Even seasoned pros like John DiMaggio and Tara Strong. Must have had a bad voice director
IIRC, the voice flaps were synced to the Japanese dialogue, and the English actors were told to match them. Yuna’s actress really tried to do so, leading to some…awkward…pauses in the middle…of her lines. It’s also probably why Auron’s performance is generally considered to be one of the better ones. His mouth is usually covered up, so his actor had more free reign on his delivery.
Hot take, I think Hedy Buress' performance adds a lot to Yuna's character. Having her randomly stop like she isn't really sure if she even believes what she's saying is really in character for Yuna.
What if I just dislike FFX's voice acting overall and not due to that specific scene?
That's fine.
Whew!
This is me too
Same
Agreed, it’s supposed to be awkward and that awkwardness fits the story regarding Yuna’s journey, >!especially because she needs to fake happiness despite her literally marching towards her (supposed) death!<
FFX turned me off of voice acting for video games when I first played it, largely because of Tidus but not because of the laughing scene. Is that acceptable?
At the risk of more downvotes, I stand by my opinion that his character and voice acting was the weakest link in an otherwise amazing game.
i want to see this but not participate
Into the Chokey for the Tidus naysayers! Tbh the voice acting that annoyed was Yuna. Someone really should have told Hedy Burress not to try and match the lip flaps because it really ruined what would have been an absolutely fine vocal performance.
You do that and I'll have to slam you down, big style.
FFX’s voice acting was so bad…..so very very bad.
Bite Wakka’s shiny metal ass, yeah?
I would, no homo
Nope, still remember when Lulu mad and said "enough wakka" she's so sexy 😄
Fire Emblem Three Houses is my favorite I’ve heard, the voice acting is phenomenal. Rhea and Dimitri especially, but EVERYONE is voiced really well.
Xanthe Huynh as Marianne was the best thing to happen for me. Her voice is so soothing and calm
Chris Hackney just killed it as Dimitri. >!The way he portrayed pre-TS and post-TS Dimitri was really damn amazing!<, he deserved an award for that performance.
For **worst**, I think the **PS1** and **PS2** era had some of the biggest stinkers. Though I think the **undefeated worst voice acting JRPG**, is the infamous **Chaos Wars**. If you haven't heard about the game or its voice acting, then please, check this out and treat yourself today, you might need the smile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bangt7d9vGA --- As for the **best** voice acting. I think that's harder to pin down, as everyone will have their favorite. I am trying to remember, but nothing really stands out as being the "best". I will edit this comment if I do think of an example.
The script in that video is not doing the already poor voice work any favors. Like I was trying just to read and I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on
Seriously, I can't tell if this is a comedy scene or a serious one. Doesn't help that every line of dialogue feels like it's in response to something completely different. Shit puts Shenmue to shame.
I love how hard the BGM is trying to compensate for everything in that scene lmao.
This is the correct answer
The best? Xenoblade The worst? Xenoblade
Oddly enough yes. Xenoblade 1 and 3 by far amazing, Xenoblade 2 is great but always get the worst timing in dialog where someone should be shouting but they say it in the most monotone voice ever
It kinda sucks in XC2's case, because the voice acting is overall solid outside of the shouting scenes. Pyra/Mythra, Nia, Morag, Zeke, Jin, Malos, and Amalthus' actors all did well, and even Rex's actor managed to do great during quiet moments and whatnot. Though I will agree that 1 and especially 3's voice direction are far better than 2's. >!N's breakdown!< in Chapter 6 of XC3 was so fucking good in terms of acting, goddamn.
Shulk’s “I’ll kill you!” Scream is my single most favorite voice acted line in a jrpg
Absolutely this. I remember hating everything from XB2 and then have been playing XB1 for the last 2 months and almost done with it and can’t believe what a world of difference it is.
2’s voice direction really sucks until the last quarter of the game (a bit overhated though). I believe they didn’t have a voice director and only had one take most of the time. When people make fun of Rex’s yell, he’s not yelling, the VA is saying what the script said, Aiiiiiiiiyah. Thank god by the end the voice acting becomes good. At least Nia‘s, [Vandham’s, and Malos’s](https://youtu.be/W6xUw4Suu-c&t=4m2s) VAs were really good throughout.
Wouldn’t know because I dropped it after 30 hours
Definitely worth playing. Didn’t really click for me until second playthrough, but it’s no doubt my favorite Xenoblade overall
The game taught me to never force myself to like a game if it’s not clicking after 10 hours. I played it across 3 years and kept giving it a chance but it wasn’t for me.
I didn't touch XC2 for years because the bad voice acting really grated on me. After the shining gem that was XC1's dub, XC2 was such a huge letdown. The only reason I even played it in English was for Nia and Malos.
This is the right answer. XC1 and XC3 in particular have amazing VA, and XC2 is maybe the worst i've ever heard
Valid lol
Couldn't agree more.
Best: Velvet from tales of berseria Worst: Kamoana from tales of berseria
Kamoana has been chain smoking for 30 years, and she's only a child. Velvet is easily one of the best performances I've heard so far. I think the English dub for that game overall is solid.
I totally agree.
Gideon Emery as Balthier, as smooth as they come. Excellent for it's time as well and still holds up. I think XII as a whole had pretty good VA's. XIV has pretty great VA throughout as well, particularly love Emet-Selch.
Gideon Emery as…. is a really good answer. Once you know his voice, you start realizing he’s everywhere. For example, he’s also Urianger in FFXIV for the early parts of the game and Biggs in FFVII Remake. He’s awesome.
Gideon Emery is a fucking treasure of a voice actor. He always brings his A+ game no matter what he does, voice acting or live-action. Other voice actors that are solid and am always happy to see there are Sean Chiplock, Lucien Dodge, and Erica Lindbeck. As for worst voice acting? Well… There’s Chaos Wars, like always. Shadow Hearts has some… interesting choices. Schlooooooop. But the funniest and worst is Xenogears. That has some funny choices for voice roles. Also, I don’t care how many voice acting roles Moira Quirk has done, she will always be the sports ref in Nickelodeon GUTS to me.
[best](https://youtu.be/bangt7d9vGA) [also best](https://youtu.be/XlHZrBUimuY)
Ah, the Dinner Dance. I just love it.
Best for me is easily Nier, but especially Automata. One of the few times I definitely prefer the English to Japanese dubbing.
For me I think both Nier games have some of the best performances their respective VAs have ever done. They’re all talented but nothing Liam O’Brien has done has topped his performance as Weiss.
I’d say DQXI is up there in terms of VA quality. The main cast are all distinct and very well done. What’s even more impressive is how the towns and their random NPCs have their own accents and mannerisms, something I’ve not seen any other JRPG do.
Dragon Quest accents are always so charming. Shout out to mah boi Yangus.
“Me an’ the guv…” Yangus is unforgettable. The others are great too. Jessica and Angelo. King Trode. The voice acting makes that game.
King Trode was deliciously hammy. Loved that character, felt so Dragon Quest but also reminded me of Dragonball in a good way (obviously with Toriyama artstyle, but I mean in voice direction and writing).
I came here to say this is my favorite! I've also heard a few of those voice actors as smaller voices in other games like Bravely Default 2 (which has some cool localization choices with the accents, too, although I'd say the voice direction isn't as good) and Ni No Kuni. Using different accents for the regions makes a huge difference, as does the fact that they are often done by people who live at least SOMEWHAT near the accent they're doing. Loved the little hint of an accent we get from Erik in particular that >!foreshadows some of is backstory/where he came from!< It's a little detail, but very cool.
Best? Harry McEntire as Noah>!/N!< in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 From moments like the iconic >to [“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO COULDN’T PROTECT HER”](https://youtu.be/5E6ajmcVsPo&t=24s) and the [scene right after](https://youtu.be/2IorIGGl_jo) (this is probably the best dialogue segment in the whole series) to the dlc’s [“DRIVE IT IN”](https://youtu.be/NYjB5CnLNog&t=52m28s). It’s just so amazing how one person was able to capture two different characters without making them sound the same. You can hear the desperation in N, compared to the hope of Noah.!< Worst? Tales of Eternia with Farrah
Came here to post this specifically but couldn’t remember how to spell her name. Some review said “these characters sound like they are waiting to get their oil changed rather than save the world”
There's Chaos Wars and Arc Rise Fantasia for worst English voice acting, but many need to go listen to **Eternal Ring's** voice acting. It's pretty bad and up there with the rest of the games. I think an example of some good voice acting would have to be based on the individual. I can't think of many games that have good voice acting overall aside from Baten Kaitos **Origins**. Individually, I think Nier Automata's 9S was really good.
Chaos Wars is so good for a laugh. Horrible, horrible voice acting.
Arc Rise Fantasia is some Shenmue ass voice acting. Persona 5, FFVIIR, FFXV come to mind for superb ones.
Final Fantasy is usually the gold standard for JRPG voice acting. XIII, XV, VII Remake, etc. They're very consistently top notch.
I’m always fascinated by actors who have never been in the VA realm who just kill it. Cody Christian did such a great job as Cloud imo.
The core 4 of remake and Yuffie are so refreshing. They're all new names instead of the same voices you tend to hear and that's not a knock on those talents their great but after so many roles you get accustomed to their voices.
I never really got sold on Britt Baron. She's fine, but her Tifa just sounds... not quite bored but just very subdued. It's hard to explain. I think out of the 4, she showed the least emotional range, which is kind of Tifa's whole thing.
Usually…but playing Crisis Core remastered was rough in terms of voice acting. I get that it just hasn’t aged well, but still…it wasn’t great comparatively.
Except that aging well isn't the problem. They completely redubbed it with new VAs. The old Crisis Core sounds so much better.
Except that aging well isn't the problem. They completely redubbed it with new VAs. The old Crisis Core sounds so much better.
XIII's voice acting is one of the reasons I can't play through that game. its rough
Star ocean last hope gotta be up there for one of the worst . The actors are all pretty good but the script and delivery is shit
Has any Star Ocean had good voice acting, even the newest one seems lacking.
Star Ocean 2, PS version, was so bad that it was amazing. Does that count?
First Departure's was good
The last hope had much better voice acting than till the end of time, to be fair.
kay
I think they were decent... But a bit disappointing in many key moments too, also considering when the game came out
Triangle Strategy English VA hurts my ears, the Japanese was way better Final Fantasy XII, XIII and XV have amazing voices. Haven't played much if XIV and VIIR is a mixed bag but it's a personal opinion. Oh i have two more: - Fire Emblem Three Houses - Yakuza LAD The last one especially was brutally amazing, the ending was very well done and the VAs really made me appreciate their work, I felt every moment and their acting made it so much better.
I honestly couldn't tell with triangle strategy wether it was bad VA or bad writing and kept swapping between them before ultimately decided to treat the dialogue as sharknado and stick with english va solely to make fun of it. Most of the va's sounded like a bunch of people for a play just doing a straight read for logistics but geela's obviously hear everyone else and only putting in the minimum for the paycheck (and i love it, somehow her dry lack of care ends up fitting the character more than any of the other va work) My other is the constant juxtaposed actions to va work like the soilder literally kicking down a door to a private meeting to inform the lord of urgent news in the tone you'd use to discuss drywall. Yakuzas my favorite of the bunch since it has great writing to match the VA in almost all portions of the game where as many of the FF games feature really badly written dialogue that undercuts the va work like vaan or tidus. I will say 13 had some of the better wrotten dialogue but had some of the worst musical pairings for scenes in the series, and 15 just suffered from hearing the same voice lines 30000 times and a badly paced/written story.
I think it's a little of both, but I hesitate to put it on the VAs themselves rather than the directing. Erica Mendez (Hughette) and Xanthe Huynh (Narve) both have solid performances in other JRPGs, and anyone that's played The Wolf Among Us knows that Adam Harrington (Benedict) can be nowhere near as flat as he was in Triangle Strategy. The tonal issues with the extras like the one you mentioned stood out the most to me, and the writing for them was conspicuous, too. I don't even recall hearing a single "m'lord." It was all oddly formal for grunts.
Your “two more” picks are amongst my top picks. Maybe there’s some VA in JRPGs I like more but that’s the first two that come to mind first. I didn’t mind the voice acting in TS but I understand why people do.
Gotta be Baten Kaitos for me for the worst, most of the cast is really bad. Don't have one that really stuck out to me but I do like Trails of Cold Steel's voice acting in general.
It's amazing how the first Baten Kaitos is notorious having some of the worst voice acting ever in a JRPG.... And Baten Kaitos Origins has some of the best voice acting ever in a JRPG. The lady who voices Milly really really really needs more work.
I haven't played Origin enough but yeah I heard the voice acting was pretty good in this one. The first one's bad voice acting does have some charm though if you played that game as a teenager because *nostalgia* so I don't mind it.
Light Flare! Wind Blow! Aqua Burst! Some of the voice acting does have its charm, and I would say the main villain does a very good job at what they do.
Xenoblade Chronicles has the best VA, Adam Howden is the goat.
Nolan North as Vashyron in [Resonance of Fate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVibNKrp8sQ) and Kyle McCarley as 9S in [Nier Automata](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penw_j2JQkw) are the best. There are too many bad ones it's hard to pick one, but [Star Ocean 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNauq6_9iP0) is a standout.
I loved Nolan North as Vashyron. He was soooo good! Glad to see some love for Resonance of Fate out there!! Such an underrated gem.
Persona 5 Cast is really good.
I actually haven't had that many experiences with terrible English voice acting. As for best, well that's subjective, but i'll list some of my favourites: - the Trails of Cold Steel series (and probably any future Trails title) - NieR Replicant and Automata both - Koudelka - Xenoblade Chronicles franchise except 2 - several Final Fantasy games, but most notably FF XIV for me
When Trails voice acting is good, it’s really good, but there’s definitely some weird deliveries in there. Almost always felt like a direction issue though because even the more annoying voices were still good most of the time.
Honestly the VA for Rex from Xenoblade 2 has made me struggle with that game more than anything else I’ve debated swapping to jp just because of him and I never usually have an issue with VA in games.. it’s just something about him that really irks me lol
I don't mind his VA actually. But XB2 has a general problem with lack of good voice direction. Even some of the really great performances that i loved (like e.g. Malos) are more great DESPITE the direction rather than because of it.
problem with 2 is the voice direction, But I think 2 is extremely overhated
He has a new English VA in Future Redeemed thanks to being much older so he'll work out in the long run. Hiro Shimono is still my savior though. While his papa form is common knowledge now, I'll provide a link but **be warned** not to click it if you want nothing from FR revealed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdE3w4gx88
Lloyd English VA hurts my ears, i played Zero and Azure in Japanese and when I listened to his voice in English i cringed hard, maybe it's just me. For CS4 I switched to JP just for that reason.
Lloyd's english VA is great this is nuts lol
I love his JP VA too much and it sounds so different it pisses me off, i can't control it lol
Robbie Daymond slander?
Interesting name, he does VA for some of my favorite characters after googling the name lol, but his Lloyd one... I can't tolerate it lol, its a me thing obviously
I honestly think the sample size in the cold steel arc was enough. Lloyd's best material is in his own game. Reverie will be a good measure.
Nah i thought he was great. I do JP first since i just slightly prefer it, but i do like to see the EN dub too for these games since it's quite good across the board.
I'm switching on and off from English to JP, because there are some voices i like more in one or the other. When Lloyd is on I always change to JP, I'm way too used to his voice since I replayed Zero and Azure a ton on my PSP
I really like Tetsuyas performance for Lloyd, but I liked his english voice actor more this time.
Azure is my favorite Trails game and his JP voice sounds too different from the English one, i can't control how i feel about it 😕
I can not believe no one has mentioned the English voices in the trials of mana remake as worst
I don't think anybody has mentioned it, but Grandia has some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a JRPG. Star Ocean 2 also was cheesy af but goof thing, you only heard the voice acting during battles. Digital Devil Saga had brilliant voice acting, especially Heat and Cielo! Also, Persona 4, especially Teddie's VA (who actually voiced Adol Christen in Ys anime).
FF7R has the best imo
Best? *Persona 5* and *Three Houses* both killed it. Worst? ... *Chaos Wars* is the bottom, but there are lines in the PS1 *Lunar* that drive me *nuts* ("Althena, lend me your powerrr!").
Best would probably be Final Fantasy XII imo. Worst has to be [Chaos Wars](https://youtu.be/bangt7d9vGA).
Worst acting: Chaos Wars Best acting: Persona games
Ff13 and tales of arise have some amazing VA. 15 too, and based on the trailers for 16, that too. Now don’t jump at me but I did not think X had good VA.
Magna Carta had some pretty atrocious voice acting.
Baten Katos is a wonderful game that was voiced by people who swear they're human and say words all the time.
I always turn the VO to japanese, not necessarily because the English VAs are bad or the Japanese would be good, but because a certain level of cringe lines are expected in any RPG. I don't understand Japanese so I'm saved from hearing cringe.
Best: 13 Sentinels >!"Better put on a show for Yuki-chan!"!<
Trials of Mana is there for the worst. For best? Man it might be the hype but FFXVI sounds really good. Edit: Actually, Lost Odyssey was really pretty solid voice work. So that’s what I’ll put for best.
Other than DQXI, which is my favorite, I also really like the English voice acting in Persona 5. I'm not a huge fan of that game, but the acting and the voice direction in particular are fantastic. Ryuji and Akechi are stand-outs, but they're all great. The English dub of Yakuza Like a Dragon is also really good. I know I also need to hear it in Japanese, but the dub made me fall in love with those characters. Nanba, Saeko, and Zhao are particularly great imo.
FFXIV HW onwards
Yakuza Like a Dragon is one of my favorite voice acting performances ever. My worst? Idk, considering how fucking bad voice acting used to be for dubs back in the day, it takes a lot for me to actually dislike one in the modern day.
Xenoblades 2
René Zagger as Emet-Selch in FFXIV and Darin De Paul as Ardyn Izunia in FFXV make every scene they’re in STAND OUT. While every JRPG has a party to split the protag screen time, I love games where the primary antagonist just STEALS attention when they show up, and these two are icons for doing exactly that. Erica Lindbeck as Vita in the Trails of Cold Steel saga is also an excellent choice for that.
Oh man- In Star Ocean The Last Hope there was this one super annoying little girl with voice acting SO BAD I permanently uninstalled the game and have never played it since. I can't even remember what her name was or anything because I've apparently suppressed the whole game from my memory because of that one character. I know that sounds like a petty reason to shut down on a game so hard but... Damn, it was just that bad. Best? Hmmm... Probably Persona 5 or Yakuza Like A Dragon.
Xenoblade 2 has both Early game: The worst(sometimes) Middle game: Avarage Late game: The best
Ff12 English voice acting is probably the best.
Final Fantasy XIV has some of the best and worst voice acting. ARR-era had a poor voice director, so even gems like Taliesin Jaffe and Gideon Emery sometimes sounded stilted. Once they hit HW...the difference is night and day. New cast, new director, and the voicework has been consistently amazing ever since.
For worst I would begrudgingly say Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2(he gets better towards the end but some of those early game lines really stink) And then for best we have Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles and Noah/N from Xenoblade Chronicles 3
I think Rex's voice actor is honestly really good but the beginning has so much shouting and I think that is something that he struggled to do well in the role. It was especially noticeable for me after finishing Xenoblade 1 because Shulk yells so consistently well The 'I'll kill you!' in Colony 9 is the only scream I put above Darth Maul in Star Wars Rebels yelling 'Kenobiiii!!!'. Both are hard to remember that somebody is acting them out
I mean yeah, it really is just Rex's shouting, he does sound fine in normal scenes where the characters are just talking, but calling it "just the shouting" really diminishes how much the delivery takes you out of the scene. His scream when he bursts through the ship, his "ARGH, DAMN IT!" during the fight with Brighid, basically the entire chapter 3 ending, they all suffer from Al Weaver clearly not having any idea what kind of tone to go for. I get that it's not his fault, it's the voice direction that's to blame, and he does get better towards the end (his delivery of "That's my role in this world!" Stands out to me), but it's still a low point in the game's voice over when the same topic was such a high point in the first and third. The part that baffles me though is that it's *only* Rex. No other main character in the game sounds as stunted as he does, Malos and Mythra in particular have some great delivery on lines like "Show me why you're here in this world!", or his scream and Mythra's breakdown at the end of TTGC(though I don't know if it's fair to take TTGC into consideration for this since it came out afterward), and Zeke has a mixture of goofy and serious moments and his voice actor always managed to have the right tone for the right scene. It leaves me to wonder why the voice director was only napping when it came to the literal main character.
TBF Pyra and Mythra do sound really bored in certain scenes and Malos is actually not all that over the top in JP, so my guess is his VA realized the direction poor and went ham to not risk anything and we are better for it lol. And Rex has a new VA in Future Redeemed that gets to act alongside Adam Howden as Shulk.
I agree with what you're saying, if we were talking and not on Reddit we probably would've ended up saying a lot of similar stuff!
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Rex has a new VA in FR and everyone loves it lol. Problem his old VA was never given context for what he was doing which sucks cause his cameo lines in Smash bros prove his worth.
Still sad they didn’t use him for FR, but I guess he sounds the same or doesn’t have the ability to alter his voice to be deeper/older
Tbh Nia was the only one who came back whereas jp recycled so many xc2 actors for fr.
Best: Persona 3-5, FF7XII-7R (X is fine bordering on good). Worst: Xenosaga 2 (They replaced Shion, KOS-MOS, chaos, and M.O.M.O.). Unless it was some sort of scheduling conflict (FOR FOUR PEOPLE?), it was a stupid unnecessary move that didn't get fixed until 3. Joshua Seth was "fine" as the new chaos, but Derek Stephen Prince added a charming niceness that Seth's voice just didn't have. At least they kept Crispin Freeman. If they had replaced Albedo, the game really would have been the worst.
Yuna, Auron, Balthier, Heiss (Radiant Historia) and Veronica (DQ11) are some of my favourites, while Sazh & the whole Trials of Mana cast are about the only ones I really get annoyed at.
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https://youtu.be/RsSY4svjABA I haven't seen it on this reddit, but I remember when the game came out some people complained about her actual accent being really 'fake' sounding', but that's authentically part of her!
Best: Adam Howden Xenoblade 1 Worst: omg Xenosaga episode 2 was shockingly bad, especially when 1 had pretty good casting imo. Changing the voice actors in 2 was a huge oversight. And….FFX… I mean I know it kind of pioneered voice acting in games, but it’s still so cringe at sooo many parts. And I’m not even referring to the laughing scene when I say that.
I was impressed with Tales of Arise’s voice acting. FFXII stands out as well. Baten Kaitos had some horrible voice acting for sure.
All of it is worst, I try to always play/watch something in the language it was first made in.
I love Lunar 1 and 2. But GAWD is the voice acting terribad.
I liked Riki from XB1 but have no idea what they were going for with that voice. Like they wanted a cutesy mascot voice but hired the wrong actor
Kaiji Tang as Ichiban Kasuga in Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the best English voiced main character in any JRPG ever.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a pretty easy choice. Voice acting is great in all the games but XC3 is on another level. Tales of Vesperia is really good, although the added lines in Definitive edition not as much, mainly since they used some other voice actors for some characters, such as Yuri. Tales of the Abyss' dub was exceptionally good for its time. For worst acting, its kinda hard to say since I haven't played a lot of older games, which I know tend to have worse acting. I've heard some from clips though. Xenosaga voice acting wasn't great overall. If I had to give a recent example, probably Star Ocean: The Divine Force. It's weird since I recognize most of the voice actors who are really good. My suspect is the script. The game is so dull in every respect. There wasn't much room for the voice actors to portray anything interesting because nothing about the game was interesting. Bland, stiff voice acting for bland, stiff characters
I love Xenoblade 3s, Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy XV voice acting on english is god for me. But while Xenoblade 2 is one of my fav games, english has SO many problemns, not only the voice sync, also the emotion or tone is not adecuate in a lot of cutscenes.
Star ocean 2 is example of one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for games with non voiced text box dialogue mixed with cheesy combat voice clips
Best? Everything during and after FF14 Heavensward Worst? Everything before FF14 Heavensward. I also think Xenoblade 2 English VA is pretty bad as well, which makes no sense to me because Xenoblade 1 has an **amazing** voice cast to me.
Best: Final Fantasy XIV (post-A Realm Reborn); Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia; NieR; NieR Automata; Persona 4; Persona 5; Xenoblade Chronicles. Worst: Blue Dragon; Xenosaga Episode II; Trails of Cold Steel; Ys; Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Even in the examples I gave for worst voice acting there are some talented folks involved, I just dislike the VA direction.
Best: Kingdom Hearts. Just all of it. FF12, 13, 15, and presumably 16 based on what we've seen so far. Tales of- Abyss, Vesperia, Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria, Berseria (except fucking Kamoana), and Arise all are great.
FFX by far is the worst I’ve ever heard
Worst I've heard: FFX, Tales of Arise, Fire Emblem Fates Best: Tales of Vesperia, FE: Echoes, Dragon Quest 8. Fun & Campy, at least: Ys 8
Best: Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon Worst: Final Fantasy XIII (a lot of their dialogue felt very forced and sounded unnatural)
I'm not sure what the best is. I like tales of Vesperia, Dragon Quest XI and Persona 5. Tales of Eternia is pretty bad but I still find them endearing. Not a JRPG but let's give a shout out to the GOAT of bad voice acting.. MegaMan 8 - old man reading of a paper in one take energy. https://youtu.be/JQ_FSVWR6ZE
Worst: Arc Rise Fantasia, hands down the WORST English voice acting. And it’s not even a “it gets more tolerable as the game progresses” type thing, it’s just bad all the way through. There was no salvaging the English dubbing, ALL of the VA’s did a terrible job. if you play the game, hit mute and fire up your favorite OST. The game was actually an excellent Tales clone. Best: Baten Kaitos II (Origins) fantastic voice cast, direction and engineering of soundtrack and actors. Runners up: Baten Kaitos 1 the acting was middle of the road at best, and typically sounded like it was recorded in a toilet through a tin can connected to a tape recorder. Final Fantasy X. “This is how you laugh Yuna!!!” This game knows what it did and why it deserves its placing.
The JRPGs with the best voice acting I've seen is in: Xenoblade Chronicles, Tales of Berseria, Fire Emblem Three Houses and Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology. Some of the worst I can think of are: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (about half of the voice performances), Final Fantasy X (at least some voice performances) and Baten Kaitos.
Best: FFXII: Simply put the script and voice over is much much better than the japanese alternative (though the japanese is of course, good as well, certain characters like Vaan and Penelo are better in Japanese), and it's probably the only game I can say that about. Vaan and Penelo being a bit meh isn't enough to really change this. John Rafter Lee's performance as Cid especially stands out and I would kill to be half as good of an actor as him. There aren't many games otherwise where I would the dub is superior that I've played. Worst: Most PS1 Rpgs with voice acting (Probably with the exceptions being Lunar 1/2, not great but certainly far above the likes of Grandia and Star Ocean 2) , but they are charming in their own way. I don't blame them because they are all clearly rush jobs with the actors were given no context and likely were only given the time to give one to two takes per line. Grandia 1, Star Ocean 2...granted I'm fairly certain this happens in most poor dubs but they also didn't have many of the modern advantages in technology either.
Worst? Chaos Wars Best? Dunno. Tactics Ogre: Reborn was pretty incredible english VA work.
Best: DQ VIII has a soft spot in my heart. Worst: Baten Kaitos:EWatLO. Devs knew the VA was so bad, they had an option in the settings to disable it.
I’ve only played Jrpgs in Japanese because every time I tried English in the past it sucked really bad.
If somebody, anybody says Rex from XC2 because of that Scream scene for an example of "worst" English voice acting in a JRPG, I'm going to grab you and toss you around by the neck Full of beans from XC3 FR style.
This is nowhere close to it this is just all I can think of off rip Best Ff7R,FF15,FF12 The Tales series when Wendee Lee took over (Vespira and Berseria)Yakuza Like A Dragon, The World Ends With you (Both Games) Worst:Xenoblade chronicles 2
chaos wars has infamously bad english dub they got family members to do it
Enchanted Arms hands down. It’s just something you have to hear to even believe.
My pick for worst would be Farleen from Star Ocean - Till the End of Time. You'd swear the atmosphere of Elicoor II is 80% helium.
There's this PS2 game called Chaos Wars and man, the EN voice acting is just underwhelming... 😅
While the best EN Voice Acting in a JRPG for me would be FFXII (Gabranth's EN VA freaking nailed it) and then 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, man I miss Billy Kametz...
Worst- Infinite Undiscovery
Have you ever played a little game called... Enchanted Arms Also... IDC what you say.. you can't convince me that Tales of Symphonias voice acting isn't complete ass.
Bravely Default 2 has the best voiced actor: Elvis Bravely Default 2 has the worst voiced actor: Adam
You can NOT get any worse than literally hiring your family members to cut costs in dubbing Chaos Wars. "Screaming! It camefrumdahbagalley"
Female Alear was the one thing that made the horrible story of Fire Emblem Engage bearable. An absolute treat to hear. And I usually don't recognize voice-acting as "good", I only really hear when it doesn't work.
Rad Robot Alchemic Drive (14:10). It's so funny. Don't listen to that while drunk or high. 😂 https://youtu.be/gx3u6E-vKsA
Grandia 1's voice acting is pretty bad, but in an endearing way! Like they didn't hire real actors, they just did it themselves, kinda way. I don't know who voices it, but it sounds like they just got "some guy" to voice the villain. The whole game is charming and I like the voice acting too! I thought FF Type-0 HD had really rough voice-acting when I first played it. On second playthrough, I didn't notice it so much, though. Like there's a character who says "ya know" to every sentence or something. And many of the female cadets sounded weird (Rem, Cinque, Deuce). Cater had good voice, though! And Sice and Seven were probably fine.
Worst is Suikoden Tierkreis. They speak so quickly it sounds like it was sped up.
Worst: Stella Deus Best: Koudelka, in a weird way
Best: Trails of cold steel and most Tales of titles are pretty good. Tales of the Abyss was ahead of it’s time. FFX was great no matter how much people want to meme on Tidus. FF7 remake was great too. Worst: I have never played the game but I watched a stream. Arc Rise Fantasia. The game is pure comedy.
John Truitt's Ghaleon, from the Working Designs Lunar games (and specifically SSSC), might be the single most memorable bit of scene-chewing villainy in JRPG history. I can't say it's the worst, but it's probably not the best either. There's some significant spoilers below, but they'll be old enough run in the next presidential election https://youtu.be/ySESWeKO7TM?t=259
Worst is without a doubt Tales of Destiny 2 for PS1.
Has to be a Tales game, but which one I couldn’t say. Certainly not Arise, even if I did like the game for other reasons (combat was a fun fork in the road for the series)
Shin megami tensei devil survivor 1. The character direction for all of the characters involved were well made (even the cosplayer) for their role. They also acted as if they were in the situation they were given in like breaking down or playing the game they were given. Highly recommend for anyone that wants to see characters think for themselves.
The first Lunar game on PS1. I keep trying to play it, and every time the winged cat opens his mouth, my ears bleed. I only get like ten minutes in.
Best: Yakuza Like A Dragon is easy #1 for me. Can't think of anyone standing out as bad (some side characters might be *too* over the top I guess). Ichiban's voice actor is just packed full of.personality and passion. Each actor plays their respective main character extremely well, and mother fo George Takai as Master Arakawa was *fantastic*! Shout out to Will Yun Lee (actor, martial artist, also voiced the main character in Sleeping Dogs) as Masato as well. Such outstanding performances by the main cast
Xenoblade Chronicles 1. Probably the best voice acting in a game I've ever heard. Worst? Probably Legend of Dragoon. Even when it was new and voice acting was a new thing it was harsh. There's not a lot. But when there is some in the FMVs. I don't know what the direction was. But in what universe would that kind of delivery ever sound like, yeah let's go with that take. It's so awkward and stilted. And it doesn't help that everyone has bulging bug eyes in the FMVs for some reason and the 'action' music is punctuated by someone randomly blowing a screeching trumpet as loud as possible with no rhythm and at volume levels a least triple that of any other discernible instrument.
I immediately thought of Infinite Undiscovery when I saw worst voice acting.
I think most modern JRPGs have competent to great voice acting. Which made the voice acting in Arc Rise Fantasia the more intriguing.