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FINAL FANTASY XV: The English Voice Cast

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Is Luna one of the first FF female characters to actually look like she's seen some fighting action? Just noticed that bruise and cut under her eye.

Tifa gets almost cut in two when she tries to attack Sephiroth. Tifa in general is just bae
 

wmlk

Member
I bet you didn't know Noctis' hair changed depending on his mood.

Tabata probably cut that too...

Somnus Nomura~
 

HeelPower

Member
Is Luna one of the first FF female characters to actually look like she's seen some fighting action? Just noticed that bruise and cut under her eye.

I am guessing this is a contextual injury and not part of the design.

Her new redesign is one of the "fairest", most "maiden~like"(if that makes any sense) looking in the entire series tbh.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
is that why its sometimes grey and sometimes black? thought that was just lighting.

No, it was true at one point, along with Noctis's eye color changing as well. We had seen it go from dark to blood red in the first Versus 13 trailer, and Nomura said it was a plot point due to his bloodline.

I think in Duscue actually, we saw his eyes changing color at one point.

But we don't know if the hair color thing is still in the game, or even the eye color thing really
 

wmlk

Member
No, it was true at one point, along with Noctis's eye color changing as well. We had seen it go from dark to blood red in the first Versus 13 trailer, and Nomura said it was a plot point due to his bloodline.

I think in Duscue actually, we saw his eyes changing color at one point.

But we don't know if the hair color thing is still in the game, or even the eye color thing really

His hair changed colours in Versus. Parts of the DK Sigma trailer looked way too different for it to be anything else.

And his eye colour does change still. It's part of the plot.
 
Is Luna one of the first FF female characters to actually look like she's seen some fighting action? Just noticed that bruise and cut under her eye.

Until they remake this anyway
sUhHVvD.jpg
 

HeelPower

Member
His hair changed colours in Versus. Parts of the DK Sigma trailer looked way too different for it to be anything else.

And his eye colour does change still. It's part of the plot.

I dont mind that they took this out tbh.

Hair colour change seems a tad tacky for a game striving for realism.

Eye colour change drives the point home that he has abilities.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Ignis's VA, "A tale of betrayal" hmmm
The problem with an in media res intro is that Ignis was there at the beginning so we know that a)none of them die, (at least until Chapter 0), and b)none of them probably do something so drastic as to be thrown out of the group forever. :/ Definitely would be worried about the supporting cast tho.
 

Nachos

Member
Let's assume that for a second that you don't know Japanese. If you listen to a Japanese audio snippet as someone without any knowledge of the Japanese language, the only thing that reaches you through the language barrier is the sound of the voice, but never the actual content of the message. Take a random YouTube video of your choice in a language that you don't know and try to transcribe what you just heard. Chances are that end up with meaningless gibberish. You probably won't even be able to properly identify the breaks between two words.

This means for video games and other media that rely on spoken language like movies that you will only be able to judge the actor's acting skills. The words (or rather, the writing) cannot cloud your perception of what you just heard as you simply don't understand it. However, if you do know the language, you get the full package: Acting and writing. The acting can be better than the writing and vice versa, but one factor will influence your opinion of the other one.

The scene with Noctis in the tombs with Cor that is also shown in this trailer is great example of that. Tatsuhisa Suzuki and Ray Chase sound incredibly alike in this scene, and yet I consider Ray Chase's performance inferior due to the writing as I understand English a lot better than I understand Japanese. Based on this little scene I'd say that Suzuki and Chase are equally skilled voice actors, but Chase's performance suffers from my knowledge of the English language. Once you are able to identify bad writing, even the best vocal performance collapses.
Yup. As much as the point of acting is to not sound like you're reading from a script, the script still dictates everything. Without a script, there's nothing to act; without words, there's nothing to vocalize. Obviously, that kills VO.

The script sets the pace, the tone, and the voice director's instruction, and channels all of the actor's impulses towards a given direction. Both the English and Japanese versions may be going in the same direction, but they offer different road maps for getting there, which makes for subtly different emotional journeys, both in the overall story and within each individual line. But, for an actor, subtlety and subtext are everything.

Granted, a performance can be good despite whatever production issues there might be, but it can't exist in isolation. It's so contingent on other factors out of the actor's control that it has to be influenced somewhat. Emotional fidelity and facility don't mean anything if you can't channel them properly, or in most cases, channel them with enough specificity. The better the starting point – the better the script is standalone – the more the actors have to work with for hitting specific emotional points. Ideally they should bring as much of themselves and their sensibilities into the work as possible, but they're still doing voice acting, not voice improv.

I couldn't play this game because of how bad the dialogue and VO was.
Yeah, it just made the high school-ish anime tropes even more grating.
 

cftrooper

Member
Meet the cast of talented voice actors that bring the characters of FINAL FANTASY XV to life.

Voice Cast:

Ray Chase – Noctis
Adam Croasdell – Ignis
Robbie Daymond – Prompto
Chris Parson – Gladio
Jim Pirri – King Regis
Amy Shiels – Lunafreya
Darin De Paul – Ardyn
Kari Wahlgren - Aranea]

rlmeRm4.gif
 

Mediking

Member
All joking aside.... the game REALLY does honestly look great. I still have a few worries but they're nothing huge.
 

luxarific

Nork unification denier
No Troy Baker.

SAD FACE.

Still buying collector's edition or whatever the feck it's called, day one.
 

JBwB

Member
As a massive fan of Overwatch it's nice to hear that some OW VA's found their way into the game. I knew Cor sounded familiar!

It's High Noon!
 

Astral

Member
Is Ignis voiced by Balthier? It sounds just like him. In any case, this actually got me pretty hyped for the game. I'll still remain cautious though. The Platinum demo's bad impression is still worrying me.
 

Squire

Banned
Is Ignis voiced by Balthier? It sounds just like him. In any case, this actually got me pretty hyped for the game. I'll still remain cautious though. The Platinum demo's bad impression is still worrying me.

Nah, different guy. Balthier is Gideon Emery, who also voiced Sam Gideon in Vanquish.
 

Liquid_015

Gold Member
Engine Blade is in the game.

It is that i'm aware of, but I doubt what was shown above is still in game (used as Armiger).

All of Noctis' blades from E3 2013 are still in the game. We've seen them numerous times.


I suppose so, but don't you think after Kingsglaive the blades have changed no? Cuz back then the King could summon Noct's engine blade. Actually, did the director confirm that? I know he said there's a category of blades called Engine in game.
 

wmlk

Member
I suppose so, but don't you think after Kingsglaive the blades have changed no? Cuz back then the King could summon Noct's engine blade. Actually, did the director confirm that? I know he said there's a category of blades called Engine in game.

Nah, there are simply more swords and weapons in the game right now. During Versus, we heard Noctis could use multiple weapons, but now we're seeing the possibilities of shurikens, guns, sword and shield, crossbow, etc. All of the older weapons are still there.

I think it's pretty cool. There are older, medieval style weapons that contrast nicely with the more outlandish, stylized designs for weapons that they also have.

The Armiger looks different, though. There's a mix of all styles in there now. Not sure how I feel about that, but it's likely a gameplay decision instead of every Phantom Sword being a blade that is functionally very similar.
 

SoulUnison

Banned
No Troy Baker.

SAD FACE.

Still buying collector's edition or whatever the feck it's called, day one.

You WANTED Troy "always the same voice" Baker as a main character in XV, after he was already JUST a main character in the XIII trilogy?

People are complaining that this "sounds like an anime dub" and then bemoaning that the cast list isn't full of their favorite overused anime and video game VAs.

The fuck?
 

Liquid_015

Gold Member
Nah, there are simply more swords and weapons in the game right now. During Versus, we heard Noctis could use multiple weapons, but now we're seeing the possibilities of shurikens, guns, sword and shield, crossbow, etc. All of the older weapons are still there.

I think it's pretty cool. There are older, medieval style weapons that contrast nicely with the more outlandish, stylized designs for weapons that they also have.

The Armiger looks different, though. There's a mix of all styles in there now. Not sure how I feel about that, but it's likely a gameplay decision instead of every Phantom Sword being a blade that is functionally very similar.

I hope so, I had raised that concern a long time ago that there was a change in how armiger and the design of Noct's weapons look. I personally prefer the more stylistic engine weapons used as Armiger over the classic "medieval" styled weapons to be honest. The engine weapons fit Insomnia's style to be honest. I suppose, I should be glad that engine weapons are still in game, since so much shit has changed.

Yeah, Lucian engine Armiger is gone in favor of more traditionally mystical medieval weapons. I thought this was a bit of a shame, too.


I agree 100%. The Lucian blades were better designed. As I said before, the bloody design from kingsglaive is bleeding over into the game.
 

Squire

Banned
You WANTED Troy "always the same voice" Baker as a main character in XV, after he was already JUST a main character in the XIII trilogy?

People are complaining that this "sounds like an anime dub" and then bemoaning that the cast list isn't full of their favorite overused anime and video game VAs.

The fuck?

Baker is a stage capable actor that got priced out of the anime industry altogether through AAA games. That guy hasn't been in an anime in years now.
 

luxarific

Nork unification denier
You WANTED Troy "always the same voice" Baker as a main character in XV, after he was already JUST a main character in the XIII trilogy?

People are complaining that this "sounds like an anime dub" and then bemoaning that the cast list isn't full of their favorite overused anime and video game VAs.

The fuck?

Yes, cause he's a great actor and doesn't always use the same voice (Joel in TLOS does not sound like Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins who does not sound like Sam Drake in Uncharted 4). Don't blame the actor when it's VA directors who are asking him to do his "Troy Baker" voice.

That said, I think this cast is going to be fine.
 

Stiler

Member
Some of them seem fine, I just wish some of them were less "stereotyped/cliche" sounding, like you really brash/deep voice guy, the English "smart/proper" guy, etc.
 

kurahador

Member
Some of them seem fine, I just wish some of them were less "stereotyped/cliche" sounding, like you really brash/deep voice guy, the English "smart/proper" guy, etc.

Yeah. Just because you're playing a smart/proper guy, you don't have to sound like it all the time.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Tis a shame, I always hoped the writing and VA direction for this game would align more with XII, but it seems to give me a similar vibe to XIII. Thankfully it's a notch or two above XIII, but still nowhere close to the gold standard that is FFXII!
 
It is a damn shame what they did to the great lighting the game once had. It is actually the biggest gripe I have regarding the visuals. Who cares if it isn't fully HD or there are a few jaggies (mostly just visible in stills) but the lighting...? :(

KaleidoscopicRevolvingAlbertosaurus.gif


There's no depth and no plasticity anymore, no artistry. It looks as if Luna is on a theater stage with cardboard props behind her. The whole atmosphere of this game took a huge hit.
Other games, even in the last console generation, do a much better job. What the hell happened here?

Do we actually know what that scene looked like pre-downgrade?
 

Tyaren

Member
I think people actually agree that this is one of the upgraded scenes. There's more detail in general. What's the props complaint when the buildings actually look like buildings now? There are airships, Leviathan actually looks wet, fog, etc.

Those don't look downgraded to me. Quite the opposite in fact.

The lighting was definitely downgraded. (That was what my post was referring to.) The developers said it was dialed back during the Siggraph conference. So that should be treated as a fact.
Yes, the geometry improved since they were still working on that scene. Altissia grew bigger with more buildings and spires and they added the airships. Also Luna's bruises and ripped clothes can probably also be considered an upgrade. ;)
 

Korigama

Member
Kari Wahlgren and Matthew Mercer are the only ones here I'm familiar with (the post directly above mine aside, would've expected the former working on FF again to draw more attention, having had a much more important part in XII).
 
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