Final Fantasy

Vorash, which FFs did you think had bad voice acting? Was it certain games in particular, or just certain characters? Personally, I think they've done a pretty good job.

I don't mean to say it's perfect. I mean, ever since playing the Uncharted series, I've come to expect every game after it to have believable voice acting. But in reality, that's not going to be the case. JRPGs in particular are renowned for their silly, humorous, unbelievable voice acting, so I've sort of accepted that. I crave better, of course, yet with something like FFXIII, I think they got the majority of it nailed, so they're getting there, for sure. But I think in something like Dissidia, it's not even necessary to have Uncharted-level VAing, as much as it would be awesome to. So long as they deliver it in the titles that matter, like Versus XIII, then that'll be great. And the option of turning VAing on or off is a good one, although I have to say personally, after FFXIII, I'm more than content with the level of VAing they provide currently. Ali Hillis and Troy Baker ftw <3

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:21 by Azuardo )

No I didn't just contradict myself SuperLink so stop grasping at straws in a failed attempt to prove me wrong & Martin KIND OF got it right, except I STILL say that if they can't get believable voice actors then they shouldn't ruin the quality ofcthe experience with mediocre tallent, which means they shouldn't do voice work AT ALL!!

I'm not against voice work in games, great VA's are my FAVORITE aspect of games like Uncharted...but if you've got a bunch of amatures who sound like soulless robots or like their trying to hold back a strong urge to vomit (like Squall's VA in Dissidia) then you'd better let the text speak for itself instead of angering the fans by making their ears bleed.

Vorash Kadan said:
No I didn't just contradict myself SuperLink so stop grasping at straws in a failed attempt to prove me wrong & Martin KIND OF got it right, except I STILL say that if they can't get believable voice actors then they shouldn't ruin the quality ofcthe experience with mediocre tallent, which means they shouldn't do voice work AT ALL!!

I'm not against voice work in games, great VA's are my FAVORITE aspect of games like Uncharted...but if you've got a bunch of amatures who sound like soulless robots or like their trying to hold back a strong urge to vomit (like Squall's VA in Dissidia) then you'd better let the text speak for itself instead of angering the fans by making their ears bleed.

Final Fantasy XII had great VA
Kingdom Hearts has pretty solid VA for the most part (let's ignore Aqua's voice)

Yep Dissidia had a lot of bad VA but the story itself was also weakly directed- Dissidia 012 was a LOT better in both those ways.
S-E are more than capable of hiring good VAs.

Well Azu I'll only speak for the FF's I've played with VA's so that'd be 10 & 13.

With 10 the only VA's who made me frustrated to the point of drawing me away from the illusion of a real experience were Tidus & Seymour, it was the long drawn out pauses between sentences that killed the overall experience for me throughout the game, which granted I understand has to to with translations & lip matching since most Japanese words are longer than English but it still bothered me.

Secondly FF13 wasn't horrible......but MAN did I ever have a strong urge to shoot Vanille...

Over all I'm a bit of a critique when it comes to VA's, that's why I'm so iffy when it comes to anime since most anime sounds terrible on top of ridiculous little querks they have culturally.

If the actors don't sound human & believable (as in showing REAL emotion when it calls for it) I am completely taken out of the scene & left with a bitter empty feeling.

I fully understand that. On a personal level, I thought Tidus was great. You have to remember the type of character he is. He's a 17-year-old blitzball superstar. He's energetic and full of life. I think JAT perfected his personality, and commend Square on choosing him. I particularly loved his narrative segments which gave the player the indication he had grown up on his journey.

Concerning 13's Vanille, yes, she was the one that myself and others had pointed out right away as being annoying. However, it wasn't until I learnt in an interview with her VA that she was told by Square to do those grunts and lines she speaks to reflect her Japanese counterpart that I ended up having a different view of her. For some reason, it was because Vanille's character was designed to be like that, rather than her VA throwing in those things, that I had a new-found fondness for her. It's a strange one, I'll give you that, but she grew on me in the end. Not least because of the fact that her character actually grew the most in the game anyway, so you could put those orgasm moans behind you (even though I loved it inside...).

But you have to ask yourself as well, ever since Uncharted, which other video games have truly given you a believable VA experience? I have to be honest and say that it really wasn't until Uncharted that I discovered that. Maybe nothing else since then has given me the same feeling either. It's just one of those things that you sort of have to deal with in video games for now. Granted, they're improving all the time, with quality VAs being hired for plenty of games now. But it'll take time before every JRPG we get in the West has some Uncharted-level VAing.

I agree with you there honestly, a lot of dubbed anime also has weak and 'fake' voicing.. but that's the result of wanting cheap localisation efforts for a western audience which is still very much a niche. No point in hiring expensive talented VAs if the anime isn't going to make much money anyway..

I digress, but FFXII had great VA, XIII's wasn't even bad even if it had some weak links.
Also I thought Vanille's voice was kawaii as fuck ok. (◡‿◡✿)

That and Dissidia 012 had much better VA than the first, Crisis Core also had really great VA.

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:45 by SuperLink )

Lol yeah, I get WHY she was ao chipper (trying to hide the guilt she felt from what her & Fang did) but REALY NOW...she didn't have to sound like a cross breed of an Aussie with a Texan lol!!

XII I have to agree on, definitely. Balthier, Basch - quality VAs. Need more actors like those.

she didn't have to sound like a cross breed of an Aussie with a Texan lol!!

Vorash Kadan said:
Lol yeah, I get WHY she was ao chipper (trying to hide the guilt she felt from what her & Fang did) but REALY NOW...she didn't have to sound like a cross breed of an Aussie with a Texan lol!!

Myself included at one point.

EDIT: Balthier's voice honestly gives me feelings in my pants.
I mean really and I'm straight.

( Edited 05.02.2012 01:50 by SuperLink )

Oops yeah thanks for the reminder SuperLink (again I'm using my phome so sorry for the DP here) I LOVED Crisis Core!!....except for Aerith...she still sounded as spacy & bland as she did in Advent Children.

I stand my my Mantra, if you can't get it right then DON'T DO IT AT ALL!!

Ah, Crisis Core, the memories. I shed tears at the end of that game. Despite knowing what to expect, it tears you apart.

I just can't agree with the 'don't do it at all' approach though. I love VA in my games now. Sure, I could deal without it, but I don't think it's bad in any way that I'd not want to see it in any FF again.

Vorash Kadan said:
Oops yeah thanks for the reminder SuperLink (again I'm using my phome so sorry for the DP here) I LOVED Crisis Core!!....except for Aerith...she still sounded as spacy & bland as she did in Advent Children.

Azuardo said:
Ah, Crisis Core, the memories. I shed tears at the end of that game. Despite knowing what to expect, it tears you apart.

I just can't agree with the 'don't do it at all' approach though. I love VA in my games now. Sure, I could deal without it, but I don't think it's bad in any way that I'd not want to see it in any FF again.

Well you guys have more patience than I do & I genuinely applaud you for it. I just can't get into a game no matter the type (unless the action is awesome like Ninja Gaiden) if the VA's are substandard. Oh well yeah I know they're getting better, & without falling a few times how can one learn to improve; but I'd think BY NOW Square would know better since there have been examples of success why would you ever stray from that unless a VA dies or just doesn't want to continue forcsome reason.

An example of great acting: in the movie Tora Tora Tora (about Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor) even though I don't understand Japanese I could feel the emotion in the inflection the Japanese soldiers gave when speaking & felt they were better actors overall compared to the American actors.

Vorash Kadan said:
An example of great acting: in the movie Tora Tora Tora (about Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor) even though I don't understand Japanese I could feel the emotion in the inflection the Japanese soldiers gave when speaking & felt they were better actors overall compared to the American actors.

The same can't be said for the west, cartoons aren't produced at the rate anime is in Japan so there's less demand for that sort of thing. The really good VAs are more expensive.

In any case, if a game has an option to turn VA off (and let's be honest, every game should probably come with that option for personal preference regardless of how good VA is), there's not really any reason to complain.

I concur....so long as you can disable it yes. But with Tora Tora Tora that film came out in the 70's, WAAAAAY before video games or anime were mainstream enough to warrent true quality.

Vorash Kadan said:
I concur....so long as you can disable it yes. But with Tora Tora Tora that film came out in the 70's, WAAAAAY before video games or anime were mainstream enough to warrent true quality.

As a matter of fact when someone who is usually an experienced live-action actor acts as a voice-over their roles are generally stronger. Which is why a lot of animated Disney or Dreamworks movies hire big Hollywood stars and such.
But of course they're expensive.

Anyway digressions. Talent is expensive, S-E have more than enough money and resources to talent seek, so poor voice direction and actors in general is their own problem. I generally think it's getting pretty good though.

With live acting yes I agree, which is why I was saying itvwas more impressive that Japanese actors out played Americans & that I hqve a keen sence of voice quality wince I was able to understand the emotions from the Japanese in Tora Tora Tora even though I don't speak it.

Anywho Square's been around long enough that they're held more accountable than most for shoddy workmenship, so there's NO excuse when something of low quality slips by onto the market....they should know better BY NOW!

I'm now hunting for "Huge Materia", gotta go to Fort Condor. I love some of the translation in this game. They could have gone for a different name than literally translating "Huge Materia"

Yeah but then you would miss the poor translation nostalgia like "Spoony Bard" & "Did him in".

Just about to kill Hojo.

Martin_ said:
I'm now hunting for "Huge Materia", gotta go to Fort Condor. I love some of the translation in this game. They could have gone for a different name than literally translating "Huge Materia"

Vorash Kadan said:
Yeah but then you would miss the poor translation nostalgia like "Spoony Bard" & "Did him in".

SuperLink said:

Vorash Kadan said:
An example of great acting: in the movie Tora Tora Tora (about Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor) even though I don't understand Japanese I could feel the emotion in the inflection the Japanese soldiers gave when speaking & felt they were better actors overall compared to the American actors.

Voice Acting is a huge industry in Japan because a very considerable portion of their mainstream entertainment is non-live action (anime and video games).

The same can't be said for the west, cartoons aren't produced at the rate anime is in Japan so there's less demand for that sort of thing. The really good VAs are more expensive.

In any case, if a game has an option to turn VA off (and let's be honest, every game should probably come with that option for personal preference regardless of how good VA is), there's not really any reason to complain.

VA's in dubs are usually terrible, it's the same cycle of 15 actresses and 15 actors. The amount of times you hear the same voice from different character with no deviation is relatively high

OK, I'm about to go into the North Crater to face Sephiroth. I've got Cloud and Vincent levelled up into their 50s, with Yuffie and Cid lingering in the late 40s. Vincent is actually my strongest character, with Cloud a close second. All the rest are miles behind, having not been used since disc 1.

General advice from you FF boffins? You see, I can't really be bothered to do all the chocobo breeding to get the Knights of The Round summon. I may do one or two side quests, but nowhere near all of them. I want to finish this story, once and for all. I'm so close!

So, what's yous wise guys' opinions on general items and materia setups, character builds etc I should have going into the north crater? I'm probably going to run with Yuffie > Cloud > Vincent. The guide book I have says most enemies in the crater have the ability to instantly kill your party. How the hell to I protect against that?

General advice, go!

Ribbon accessory is a life saver. Protects against all status effects including Death. Very helpful for last battle. They're only in certain locations though.

- Gaea's Cliffs, a hidden path on disc 2 only
- Temple of the Ancients, room V in clock room
- Gold Saucer, win 10 Special Battles
- Morph a Master Tonberry in North Crater, or Ho-chu in Gold Saucer Special Battle

Hopefully you've managed to grab the ones from Gaea's Cliffs and Temple of Ancients. The other locations you more than likely won't have done.

I'd highly recommend going to the sunken Gelnika airship at the bottom of the ocean with your sub. Holds some dangerous enemies, but the treasures here are brilliant. Especially Double Cut materia - lets you attack twice in one go. Level it up to attack four times in one go. Overkill. Cid's LV4 limit is here, as well as Yuffie's ultimate weapon, the Conformer. So is the Hades summon matiera, which, if you don't have a third Ribbon for your third battle member, you can put Hades linked with Added Effect in your armour to protect against a bunch of status effects. Furthermore, the enemies here can be Morphed into stat boosting items (Sources), but not sure your characters can handle dealing with them yet, and not really necessary to beat the final bosses.

However, you may not need to worry about any of this. In the North Crater there is a swamp area (you'll know you're in it when the music changes. Make your party go left, then up when you get a choice further on) which contains two piss easy enemies that can level up your characters massively. Magic Pots and Movers. Magic Pots require you to feed them an elixir before you can damage them, and they will never attack you anyway. They grant massive EXP. Obviously try to save your elixirs for them (W-Item materia item duplicate glitch works wonders here). Movers attack but are pretty weak - they look like 3 red balls. Kill them for massive AP. Perhaps think about buying some HP Plus from Mideel and levelling that up in the swamp area?

So if you wanna walk through the final bosses, you pretty much only need to hang around in the swamp area for a bit, where the enemies are pretty easy, and just level up your characters and materia.

As for characters, Cloud, Yuffie and Cid is my preference since they have the best limit breaks, but it's pretty much personal preference really. If you have strong materia like Double Cut for 4x attack, characters won't matter.

( Edited 12.02.2012 16:24 by Azuardo )

Yeah, I already did the Gelnika thing and got all that stuff. Hades is my favourite summon, so far. He just looks so fucking cool when you call him. I've gotten all the other summons except for Alexander, Knights of The Round, and anything you find in North Crater. According to the guide, if I get KOTR, the end game will pretty much be a cake walk. True?

I plan on getting Cloud and Vincent's ultimate weapon. I already have Yuffie's (from the Gelnika). With Vince (as I have named him) I only need to go back to that woman's cave. So that's no biggie. I haven't read yet what I have to do to get Cloud's.

I don't think I have any of those ribbon things, which sucks. I'll have a go at getting some. I have a lifetime ticket at the golden saucer, so maybe I'll just have to hit the special battles hard. I glossed over the golden saucer this time, since I've seen it three times already. Might go back and set some high scores.