Best and worst voice performance in the series?

[Alastor15243]

So, now that we've gotten some more games under the series' belt that feature voice acting, I thought maybe we should have a discussion of what the best and worst voice performances in the series are. For my picks:

Best: Ian Sinclair as Berkut. Mostly because I'm still thoroughly convinced that it's entirely thanks to Ian's incredible performance that Berkut has any fans at all. He managed to do a really, really awesome job with the material and make this spoiled, entitled piece of shit into a compelling character. I love it.

Worst: This is hard, as PoR and RD (along with Fates to a degree) give some pretty nasty stinkers, but there's a clear, incontestable loser in this regard if we ask this in the sense of "Which voice actor/actress failed the most at convincing me they were a character?" And in that case the clear, uncontested winner is Faye Mata's performance as Petra in Three Houses, because it was the single, absolute worst attempt I have ever seen to portray a foreigner struggling to learn the English language. No accent. I ask you! Even foreigners who are fluent in English have accents! I'm sure this is more the fault of the voice direction team than hers, but this is about performances, not actors or actresses, and her performance of pretending to not be fluent in English is about as convincing as David Hatyer pretending to be a six year old girl. She would have been sooooooooo much better if they told her to do an accent, and without it, I can't take a single word she says seriously.

[Yexin]

imo

best: the whole echoes cast

worst: PoR mist

[Anacybele]

Worst is RD Mist. She somehow manages to sound YOUNGER than her PoR self which makes no sense.

Best is probably Kaden. His voice is so glorious.

[Strullemia]

PoR and RD isn't that great and have some bad moments. I remember some bad scenes with Mist.

Three houses has to be my favorite. Dimitri's VA did a fantastic job with some of his lines after the timeskip and so did Edelgard's VA. 

[NinjaMonkey]

Best: The "The Queen's men are attacking!" guy from the Execution cutscene at the end of RD's part 2. Dude is hilarious as all hell, and never fails to make me laugh.

Worst: Radiant Dawn Mia (Lani Manella). Considering that she also did Micaiah's voice at the beginning of the game (which was fine), I have no idea how she put in such a terrible performance as Mia (or why she's still the voice of Mia).

Edited September 28, 2019 by NinjaMonkey

[Mukmuk]

Ian Sinclair killed the voice acting of Berkut. SoV in general, as most people would agree. 

I don’t know. I’m going to have to go with popular opinion here and say Mia from RD. I mean...it’s just awful. 

[Etrurian emperor]

32 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Worst: Radiant Dawn Mia (Lani Manella). Considering that she also did Micaiah's voice at the beginning of the game (which was fine), I have no idea how she put in such a terrible performance as Mia (or why she's still the voice of Mia).

She wasn't well received when returning in Heroes either. Well...okay she was but everyone enjoying making fun of her Mia going ''WA!'' probably isn't very flattering. 

 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

45 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Worst: Radiant Dawn Mia (Lani Manella). Considering that she also did Micaiah's voice at the beginning of the game

Interesting, I did not know that. 

Idk if it is the same case in other localizations. 

 

But yeah, in my version Mia's voice sounded so strange when I heared if for the first time. She sounds almost like a guy.

 

Still Mist's voice in FE9 is worse imo. 

Edit: It is even worse in FE10. 

 

Therefore Ranulf's and Zelgius's voice are fantastic. The battle scene Ranulf vs. Zelgius is simply the best in FE in terms of authenticity. 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Ingrid Brandl Galatea

[Silverly]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And in that case the clear, uncontested winner is Faye Mata's performance as Petra in Three Houses, because it was the single, absolute worst attempt I have ever seen to portray a foreigner struggling to learn the English language. No accent. I ask you! Even foreigners who are fluent in English have accents! I'm sure this is more the fault of the voice direction team than hers, but this is about performances, not actors or actresses, and her performance of pretending to not be fluent in English is about as convincing as David Hatyer pretending to be a six year old girl. She would have been sooooooooo much better if they told her to do an accent, and without it, I can't take a single word she says seriously.

I wouldn’t call Petra’s voice bad per se, but definitely agree it could’ve been a lot more convincing if they gave her an accent because otherwise it just feels like she has a speech impediment rather than her having trouble as a foreigner. 

My favorites would have to be Michalis and Claude for vastly different reasons.

Worst? I’d have to say it’s between Selkie and Caspar, though that’s most because I don’t like the way they sound at all. Performance wise, Zephiel was pretty... yikes.

[Hawkwing]

Best: I could say the entire Echoes cast, but I agree that Ian Sinclair turned what could have been a cheesy character into a convincingly tragic one. I'll also give props to Clam Clark as Arthur, simply because he's having a blast with every line he's given, and I can't help but smile along with him.

Worse: While I wouldn't say the performance is bad, Amber Connor sounds so bored as Faye, and I can't really blame her, given her lines. Felicia (Connor Kelly-Eiding) also seems to suffer from both a questionable direction and performance .I understand what they were aiming for, but the execution is noticeably off.

[SubwayBossEmmett]

I think what’s interesting to me is how Fates can balance both pretty good and pretty bad voice acting overall. 

I mean say what you want about Niles as a person and character but he play a damn good creep/sexual predator in Fates

[Yexin]

3 hours ago, Anacybele said:

Worst is RD Mist. She somehow manages to sound YOUNGER than her PoR self which makes no sense.

i actually never heard RD's english voice acting, having always played the italian version, with italian voice acting

is it really that bad? as much as PoR or even worse?

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Yexin said:

i actually never heard RD's english voice acting, having always played the italian version, with italian voice acting

is it really that bad? as much as PoR or even worse?

Mist is worse, yeah. She's just too high pitched imo. And she wasn't high pitched in PoR.

[Hero_Lucina]

Best: 3H as a whole and Echoes as a whole (props to Berkut, Lukas and Dimitri)

Worst: The ova. The only few I can salvage is Gordin's "But Mars." and Marth's entire performance. He actually sounded like what Marth could've had for an english dub before we got Codename Steam 

 

Also was it just me or was the transition from OG Ike Va to his new one a lot smoother because of Fates being a middleground (and imo the worst ike voice. I'm totally cool with both ends of old and new, the transitional period was just wierd)

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Aww, you guys are mean. We could have just ignored the voice acting in the Tellius games or OVA. If we're just naming the oldest fire emblem thing that existed with voice acting, then BS Fire Emblem or whatever.

Not sure who my general favs are. I remember grinning at how I immediately identified Sothis' VA as Morgana when first hearing her speak in English. But Sothis' voice delivery is repeatedly hindered by bizarre word choices in the script. She's only ever at her best when she gets pissed off at Byleth and drops the cool, mysterious tone of voice. I also really enjoyed Matt Mercer's Chrom. I think any CG cutscene involving him worked wonderfully around his delivery, and his "Anything can change!" critical quote is iconic. And as far as memes go I really enjoy Zelgius in RD. "Interesting manuever" and "you are only wasting my time" shitposts get me giggling in the wake of Mangs' LP.

As for who I'd like to pick on...what's up with Mercedes? It sounds like she's inhaling as she delivers her lines. Try it for yourself right now to know what I'm talking about.

[vanguard333]

I haven't played Three Houses yet, so I can't comment on that one.

Best Voices:

• Berkut in Echoes. Honestly, as a character, Berkut is somewhat interesting, but extremely disappointing as an antagonist. It is the voice actor that really carries the character. It is a very good job. 
• Greil in Path of Radiance. One of the few examples of good voice acting in Path of Radiance (it may be my favourite FE game by a long way, but even I am not blind to its problems). He delivers the lines fairly well, and he sounds exactly like I would expect Greil to sound. He only really gets four lines in total, yet he delivers them pretty well. 

Worst Voices:

• Ike in Path of Radiance. To be fair to the voice actor, there are some lines he delivers fairly well. "[mumbles the Galdr of Rebirth] Mist; isn't that, mother's song?" and every line in the last scene between him and Elincia are handled reasonably well. However, the way he handles two lines in particular are just really bad: "The forest; it's returned." and "Father! Don't leave- don't leave me! Father!" They both almost kill the weight of their scenes with how bad they are. 
• The Black Knight in Path of Radiance. I like the idea of his voice actually being more on the higher-pitched side and very echo-ey. Most masked evil knight characters are usually given dark, booming or gravelly voices (gee; I wonder why cough Darth Vader cough), and it certainly was believable while also being unique among black-knight characters and still providing plenty of gravitas. The problem is that it's next-to-impossible to understand any of what he's saying. The first time I played the game, all I understood was, "I have been waiting for this" and "Do you, want to die?", and even then, it was a struggle. I still think his almost metallic-sounding voice could have worked, but it really needed much better annunciation. 

Of course, these are just ones that I remember off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other really good ones and really bad ones. 

Edited September 29, 2019 by vanguard333

[King Marth 64]

Best: Three Houses and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia casts.

Worst: (Japanese) Female Corrin, (Japanese) Male Kana, and (Japanese) Tatiana

The problem with the Japanese version of Female Corrin kinda doesn't fit right for a now turned adult woman, she kinda sounded way too young like a kid.

For Japanese version for Male Kana, he kinda sounded way too old for a child, his voice sounded like he should been used for around 16 years old, I mean that Kana did said he/she is the youngest of the army in one of Female Kana's support conversation and Kana's body looked like around preteen or less.

And lastly, the Japanese version for Tatiana in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, her voice kinda felt not very adult like she's actually 21.

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And in that case the clear, uncontested winner is Faye Mata's performance as Petra in Three Houses, because it was the single, absolute worst attempt I have ever seen to portray a foreigner struggling to learn the English language. No accent. I ask you! Even foreigners who are fluent in English have accents! I'm sure this is more the fault of the voice direction team than hers, but this is about performances, not actors or actresses, and her performance of pretending to not be fluent in English is about as convincing as David Hatyer pretending to be a six year old girl. She would have been sooooooooo much better if they told her to do an accent, and without it, I can't take a single word she says seriously.

No, Petra mentions in Three Houses that she had trouble speaking properly in conversations. Faye Mata was probably doing her best speaking her lines as Petra in a troubled speaking conversation.

Edited September 29, 2019 by King Marth 64

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, King Marth 64 said:

No, Petra mentions in Three Houses that she had trouble speaking properly in conversations. Faye Mata was probably doing her best speaking her lines as Petra in a troubled speaking conversation.

Why does that cause it to make sense that she has no accent?

[Dricmeistr]

On 9/28/2019 at 2:48 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Worst: This is hard, as PoR and RD (along with Fates to a degree) give some pretty nasty stinkers, but there's a clear, incontestable loser in this regard if we ask this in the sense of "Which voice actor/actress failed the most at convincing me they were a character?" And in that case the clear, uncontested winner is Faye Mata's performance as Petra in Three Houses, because it was the single, absolute worst attempt I have ever seen to portray a foreigner struggling to learn the English language. No accent. I ask you! Even foreigners who are fluent in English have accents! I'm sure this is more the fault of the voice direction team than hers, but this is about performances, not actors or actresses, and her performance of pretending to not be fluent in English is about as convincing as David Hatyer pretending to be a six year old girl. She would have been sooooooooo much better if they told her to do an accent, and without it, I can't take a single word she says seriously.

It's on the voice director to have a character have a specific accent, not the voice actor. It's absolutely not Faye Mata's fault that you can't take her voice seriously. If we're judging her performance just by how well she did what was asked of her, I think she did really well.

[Alastor15243]

34 minutes ago, Dricmeistr said:

It's on the voice director to have a character have a specific accent, not the voice actor. It's absolutely not Faye Mata's fault that you can't take her voice seriously. If we're judging her performance just by how well she did what was asked of her, I think she did really well.

I recognize the performance was bad largely because she was told to do it in a way that was bad. I even said as much in the part you quoted. But that doesn't mean the performance wasn't bad. I recognize it probably wasn't her fault, but then I doubt Samuel L Jackson's wooden performance as Mace Windu was his fault. It was still a bad performance though.

[Fire Brand]

Best: Xander Mobus as Arvis and Innes in heroes was spot on imo, exactly how I'd imagine them to sound. I also thought Claude, Sothis and Ingrid were excellent in three houses. 

Worst: Mercedes, as mentioned before. Also not a fan of Julia, she sounds far too high pitched imo.  

As for the Petra complaints, I think her VA wanted to give her an accent, but wasn't given permission to?

[Ottservia]

On 9/28/2019 at 9:48 AM, Alastor15243 said:

And in that case the clear, uncontested winner is Faye Mata's performance as Petra in Three Houses, because it was the single, absolute worst attempt I have ever seen to portray a foreigner struggling to learn the English language. No accent. I ask you! Even foreigners who are fluent in English have accents! I'm sure this is more the fault of the voice direction team than hers, but this is about performances, not actors or actresses, and her performance of pretending to not be fluent in English is about as convincing as David Hatyer pretending to be a six year old girl. She would have been sooooooooo much better if they told her to do an accent, and without it, I can't take a single word she says seriously.

I think that's more so a case of a poor script more than anything else and I doubt either Faye Mata or patrick seitz(the voice director for this game) had much of a say in that. They just kinda work with what they're given. I mean I kinda feel more bad for the localization team in this case more than anything. Translating from japanese to english is hard enough on its own but then having to localize the dialogue of a character who has trouble speaking the original language while also keeping what they say clearly understandable for an English speaking audience? yeah that's tough. I think they did an okay job with it  from what I can tell. Cause the way petra speaks in japanese is much different from how she speaks in english. I believe in the japanese version she's constantly breaking her sentences which they just changed to poor grammar in english. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject but I think your beef has more so to with the localization team rather than the voice work.

[Alastor15243]

27 minutes ago, Fire Brand said:

As for the Petra complaints, I think her VA wanted to give her an accent, but wasn't given permission to?

Really? They actually explicitly stopped her? Damn. Good for her though!

[starburst]

I cannot stand Jakob's and Mercedes's voices. They are bad enough to kill those units as soon as possible. Insufferable.

[De Geso]

I think Ingrid's voice is really bland. From what I have heard out of her she sounds incredibly bored in the English dub.

My favorite voice performance in the series is Cherami Leigh's Rhea. I don't play with the dub but I've listened to her performance and she remains one of the only English VAs I consistently enjoy listening to.

Edited October 4, 2019 by De Geso