Updating the voice actors for FE characters

[NoirCore]

Please do not use this thread to speculate on whether a character will get into Smash or not. That is a discussion for one of the other threads. This is merely a hypothetical for if every FE character in Smash returns.

So, as we know, since Melee, Marth and Roy have been limited to speaking in Japanese in the Smash games for three installments. In addition, Ike has been voiced by Jason Adkins for all his appearances, Lucina was played by Laura Bailey, and Lyn has been voiced by Lani Minella.

However, things have changed VA-wise for these characters.

Marth, starting in Codename Steam and more prevalently in Warriors, has recently been voiced by the likes of Yuri Lowenthal. Roy has gotten Ray Chase (who was a fan of Roy even in the Melee days) in Heroes, his only English-voiced appearance, Lyn now has been voiced by the likes of Wendee Lee, and Lucina and Ike both have gotten new VAs in the form of Alexis Tipton and Greg Chun, both of them presumably due to some legal stuff (I'm guessing).

With this in mind, do you think that, in the hypothetical situation that all these characters return, they will have their VA work updated for the next Smash?

Personally, I think at least Marth and Roy will get their English voice actors. I feel like while some will argue tradition to avoid giving them English voice acting, there will just be a Japanese voice pack and we'll get them in both languages. I'm guessing Lucina and Ike may keep their voices unless new voice lines need to be recorded or they have to, but Lyn likely will have a new voice recorded since her old voice isn't really fitting much.

[SoulWeaver]

If I'm being honest, both voices I've heard for Lyn sound a little too old to me, considering they're supposed to sound like an 18-year-old for the overseas audience but also like a 15-year-old for the Japanese one. Her Assist Trophy voice is definitely more jarring on that count, though, so I could see them at least asking Wendee Lee if she'd be willing to give it a shot, especially if they end up overhauling her to be a fighter like I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping.

I have more to say but I've gotta go, so I'll edit the rest of my thoughts in later.

[Johann]

A few things about this:

• Recording new voice lines for existing characters might not be a priority for them. It takes time and money to bring in the VAs, after all. Yet, it does seem that they do rerecord voice lines between games (or at least between Melee/Brawl/Smash 4), so there's certainly a possibility.
• It might be in their interest to use the newer voice actors simply because of how well Smash promotes Fire Emblem, assuming that some people value consistency between Smash and a character's home series.
• VAs being replaced is not as often for legal (or more specifically, union) reasons as it would be for the VA being simply unavailable. As I understand it, Laura Bailey (Lucina) has become a much higher profile VA since Awakening and has an extremely busy personal life (expecting a child, no less), so she may have to be a bit pickier with roles she can take due to the pay, scheduling, etc. Dunno about the guy who used to voice Ike though.
• Meanwhile, from what I understand, voice acting in Japan is supposedly a much bigger deal for whatever reason, and voice actors maintain roles for decades. The guy who did Marth's voice has been doing it since they made that goofy anime like 30 years ago.

[NSSKG151]

Marth/Roy can go either way. I could see them giving Marth/Roy their English voice to match up with Heroes and unlike other Japanese video game companies Nintendo is far more willing to have their characters dubbed with English voices (and is sometimes the only option in worldwide releases). At same time though I could see them only speaking Japanese again due to 'Smash Tradition' (because we all know how the Smash community is stuck in the past) and too cut costs for voice acting despite my last sentence. I will say though I will play as Marth in Smash but only if he voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.

Lucina/Ike I could see them keeping their old voice especially if they there are no new lines being added into the game unless for some reason Laura Bailey/Jason Adkins are not allowed to be heard as those characters anymore due to contract reasons or something.

Lyn will probably be voiced be Wendee Lee from now on especially if she somehow ends up being a playable character (Sorry to Lyn fans but I really hope she stays as an AT). Lani Minella made her sound older than she really was.

[maybe]

since they gave fox an actual english voice i'm assuming marth and roy would get theirs too

edit: i looked it up and apparently the voice actors for fox in brawl and smash 4 are actually different, with the smash 4 one being the original sf64 guy

so yeah if they bothered to do that i think theyll definitely at least change marth's since he's had an english voice for like 4 different games now

Edited April 28, 2018 by unique

[Johann]

43 minutes ago, NSSKG151 said:

Lucina/Ike I could see them keeping their old voice especially if they there are no new lines being added into the game unless for some reason Laura Bailey/Jason Adkins are not allowed to be heard as those characters anymore due to contract reasons or something.

I believe it'd depend on whatever terms were in their contract, which probably gives both the developers and the VAs the option to decline reusing the voice clips. If they do reuse them, they'd have to pay the VAs again, though they'd save on production costs.

[omegaxis1]

I have one question. 

A lot of times, people quote Ike and how he "fights for his friends". Except has Ike ever actually used that line in the Tellius series?

Frankly, Ike gave me the feeling like he doesn't really fight for his friends. Yeah, he fights for what's right and wants to be stronger, but by Radiant Dawn, he gave the feeling like he fought for the sake of fighting strong opponents.

[indigoasis]

1 hour ago, omegaxis1 said:

I have one question. 

A lot of times, people quote Ike and how he "fights for his friends". Except has Ike ever actually used that line in the Tellius series?

Frankly, Ike gave me the feeling like he doesn't really fight for his friends. Yeah, he fights for what's right and wants to be stronger, but by Radiant Dawn, he gave the feeling like he fought for the sake of fighting strong opponents.

There's an unused voice clip of Marth saying something that's a bit out of character for him in Melee, so maybe they wanted to give Ike a tagline for people to know him by, similar to another slightly out of character voice line from Marth that's rather iconic for him (in Smash, anyway).

[omegaxis1]

5 minutes ago, indigospace said:

There's an unused voice clip of Marth saying something that's a bit out of character for him in Melee, so maybe they wanted to give Ike a tagline for people to know him by, similar to another slightly out of character voice line from Marth that's rather iconic for him (in Smash, anyway).

The first one, definitely. But the second one, not so much. Minna, Miteite Kure! means "Everyone, watch over me!" This goes with Marth's character as he believes himself to be weak alone, but strong when he has the support of his allies. That's been entirely on Marth's character, so this line no doubt fits him. 

[indigoasis]

Just now, omegaxis1 said:

The first one, definitely. But the second one, not so much. Minna, Miteite Kure! means "Everyone, watch over me!" This goes with Marth's character as he believes himself to be weak alone, but strong when he has the support of his allies. That's been entirely on Marth's character, so this line no doubt fits him. 

Ah, shoot. My bad. I always thought it meant, "Everyone, please watch me!" which made me think he was being cocky and drawing attention to himself to show off. Now that I know Marth's character a bit more nowadays, I'm surprised that I didn't catch on sooner, so thanks for the clarification.

[Etrurian emperor]

Marth and Roy will probably remain with their Japanese voices out of tradition. Yuri was already voicing Marth before Smash Wii-U so if they wanted his voice changed they would have done it in that game. Smash is wacky and surprising but its also a stickler for its own traditions at times so I see Marth remaining the same as he always has. 

[NoirCore]

9 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Marth and Roy will probably remain with their Japanese voices out of tradition. Yuri was already voicing Marth before Smash Wii-U so if they wanted his voice changed they would have done it in that game. Smash is wacky and surprising but its also a stickler for its own traditions at times so I see Marth remaining the same as he always has. 

Uh, Sm4sh on Wii U came out before Codename Steam. Marth did not have Yuri voicing him before that game.

Honestly, I'd expect a free Japanese voice pack. There's plenty of relevant characters to be in the next game to justify including one, and by extension, give reason to give Marth and Roy English VAs because if you want Japanese voice acting, just get the voice pack.

[SoulWeaver]

On 4/27/2018 at 11:34 AM, NSSKG151 said:

(because we all know how the Smash community is stuck in the past)

That's it, Fox Only No Items Final Destination, I'll see you there in four Waveshines and a Moonwalk.

Well, I waited too long to edit my last thoughts here, so a separate post it is.
Frankly, I didn't even realize Lucina's VA was changed from Sm4sh to Heroes, so I can go either way there as both do a good job. For Ike, I did notice a slight difference, but assumed it was simply time passing, like how there's a detectable difference between Severa and Selena. Overall, I think I'd take Greg Chun.
Marth and Roy are indeed tricky. I've gotten rather used to Yuri Lowenthal and wouldn't be opposed to him, but at the same time it's kind of a meme that he's 'that one sword guy who only speaks Chinese or whatever' to Smash newbies, and the Smash Community is nothing if not one giant meme so that has to count for something. Meanwhile, as someone who was introduced to him through Melee, my RoyBoy prejudice says keep Jun Fukuyama, but I will admit Ray Chase did much better than I initially was afraid of.

[Lord_Brand]

They've been voiced in English long enough, I say give them English voices in Smash.

[Perkilator]

I kinda doubt they’ll get their voices changed. I mean, I’m not saying it’s impossible or anything.

[Midnox]

Had I'd stumbled upon this thread before, my answer would have been no. But, surprisingly, at least Marth will have an english voice in the upcoming Smash Ultimate, which is a welcome change for me. By this, it's almost guaranteed Roy will get the same treatment as well