Fire Emblem Fate English Voices Aren't That Bad.

[mikethepokemaster]

I personally think the hate against voice acting is really not needed, some are meh but none of them are bad.

I found it funny though when a character, for example, Ophelia. Her voice changes when she does a crit like her voice goes from soft spoken to I guess how the voice actress really sound like. Example of this is when she crits, and say 'Take this maiden seriously'. What are yours thoughts on this.

Edited May 16, 2016 by mikethepokemaster

[The DanMan]

"Take this maiden seriously!" (Was that spellcheck?)

There's a few voices that I'm less than thrilled with (Siegbert, anybody?), but the weeb-bashing of the English voice cast as a whole is just that: weeb-bashing. Follow anything Japanese long enough and you'll get used to people acting like that.

[Thane]

I thought the consensus was that, for the most part, the voice acting was pretty good and the complaints mostly came from people who exaggerated or judged the entire game from a few lines?

I mean, it's not perfect, but neither is the Japanese version.

[saisymbolic]

The English VA is not that bad at all. I agree with the above comment. I for one have a fondness for Selkie's voice; it's high-pitched, squeaky but cracks slightly. I think it's a perfect match for her. I mean it, too. Shout out to Arthur's voice actor because you can tell he was having fun and I can appreciate that because VA is a hard as hell job to do and I applaud the VAs that we have.

[mikethepokemaster]

"Take this maiden seriously!" (Was that spellcheck?)

There's a few voices that I'm less than thrilled with (Siegbert, anybody?), but the weeb-bashing of the English voice cast as a whole is just that: weeb-bashing. Follow anything Japanese long enough and you'll get used to people acting like that.

Yup I fix it though and thanks. Yeah I thought Camilla voice was bad, but it pretty good. I watch both sub and dub anime so I am not bias to the other.

[Shinehollow]

The English VA is pretty good with some awkward/bad ones but you'll have that in any game with voice acting. Most people who bash on it are probably just trying to nitpick on anything in Fates because they prefer the older games. FE's genwunners, if you will.

[Truthblade]

There were a few lines I was a bit unsettled with (like Camilla's "You'really so cute" and 75% of Ophelia'so critical lines) but overall, I have no idea why people would complain. I bet you could get the best acters in america, and people will still say in Japanese version is 100 times better.

[LeDom]

Even Felicia's voice which everyone made fun of at first turned out to be pretty charming.

Male Kana however I think is just plain bad.

[shadowofchaos]

There's a few voices that I'm less than thrilled with (Siegbert, anybody?), but the weeb-bashing of the English voice cast as a whole is just that: weeb-bashing. Follow anything Japanese long enough and you'll get used to people acting like that.

This is pretty much what I was going to summarize. There are even a few extreme fans that take liking anything in the English localization as "shit eating" conformists.

And they don't even know Japanese when they compare crap. Some of which wasn't even changed... they get it from hearsay.

That said... I personally prefer Japanese. But none of the English is as offensive as Chaos Wars, as some have even accused Fates of being.

Edited May 16, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[mikethepokemaster]

But the older Fire Emblem games didn't have voice acting. Well except the game cube ones, I heard their dub was terrible. But my favorite is Xander Voice actor my favorite is when he scremes 'For Nohr!' I feel the energy! While Matthews Royma is good I don't feel the hype when he said 'For Hoshido' but I like the ascent he does with it.

[saisymbolic]

But the older Fire Emblem games didn't have voice acting. Well except the game cube ones, I heard their dub was terrible. But my favorite is Xander Voice actor my favorite is when he scremes 'For Nohr!' I feel the energy! While Matthews Royma is good I don't feel the hype when he said 'For Hoshido' but I like the ascent he does with it.

The GC dubs barely have enough dialogue through the scenes to be considered terrible, in my opinion. The audio of the voices were a bit low but that was all. Remember, it was the first time they included VA into the game. I compare it to FFX VA which, for a first time attempt, was not as bad as people make it out to be.

Edited May 16, 2016 by SaiSymbolic

[gayserbeam]

Personally I think Caeldori, Arthur, Yukimura, Felicia, Benny, Odin, Laslow, Izana, Gunter, F!Corrin, Asugi, Kaden, Takumi, Selena, Sakura and Shigure all sound fantastic. I'm also very fond of Azura's "LOOK ME IN THE EYES!".

...but I'll admit that characters that used to be my faves in the Japanese version, like Kagero and Hinata, are less likeable with their new voices. But others, like Forrest and Reina, sound much better now. It's a competent job overall.

[Leif]

I think the VAs did an OK job overall.

The only ones I have a problem with are Felicia's, Male Kana's, Setsuna's, and Rhajat's voices (I think Tharja's voice in Awakening was way better).

The actors themselves are, by no means bad VAs; I just think if they re-recorded their lines once more, they would have done a much better job.

Overall, Awakening's voice performance was better. I think Fates's hit or miss performances were due to the fact that the game had, like, 70+ characters to voice. I think the sheer scale of this game was a bit overwhelming for them. It's VERY hard to voice three different characters, which many of the VAs for this game had to do.

This is one of the reasons why I want the next FE to have a smaller cast.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Leif

[TheCaptain]

I think the biggest thing was that people got used to the Japanese voices first, which led to a sort of thought like, "OK, this is what these characters should sound like". The English voices were quite different, and I think a lot of the ones that were bashed the most initially were those that had the most dramatic changes, like Felicia for example. Now that we have gotten more used to the English voices, any criticism is less shock and more real opinion

[TheWerdna]

Honestly I feel like the problems with a lot of it was also lack of direction. Like, apparently the actors were told basically nothing about their characters.

[saisymbolic]

Honestly I feel like the problems with a lot of it was also lack of direction. Like, apparently the actors were told basically nothing about their characters.

Really? I thought during jobs, they were given like a brief, vague few descriptive words about their characters.

[TheWerdna]

Really? I thought during jobs, they were given like a brief, vague few descriptive words about their characters.

Which is what I mean by basically nothing. Voice actors generally need more more than vague details.

[saisymbolic]

Which is what I mean by basically nothing. Voice actors generally need more more than vague details.

Oh.

[Water Mage]

Honestly I feel like the problems with a lot of it was also lack of direction. Like, apparently the actors were told basically nothing about their characters.

That's not quite correct.

They weren't told anything when they auditioned for the roles, but when they recorded the lines, they were most likely told about their character.

And, quite frankly, considering who the voice director is, I think that lack of direction is extremely unlikely if not impossible.

We can't blame this one on the voice director, if there is anything to blame at all.

That woman is a professional.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Water Mage

[Qilin]

I don't think it's bad. I think it has just taken a step down from Awakening. Lon'Qu and Donnel were absolute perfection and sounded exactly like how I imagined they would. In fact pretty much everybody sounded appropriate in Awakening.

On the other hand Effie sounded nothing like she would. In fact I think she and Reina should have switched voices. Peri's quiet voice also didn't match her mostly screaming portrait. I don't think any of the acting actually bothers me. Most of the things that bother me seem have more to do with casting, and there are only a few of them. For example Arthur had exactly the correct voice actor. The voices for the game overall could have been so much better if they just rearranged a few roles of the actors and actresses.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Qilin

[dtmahanen101]

I'm going to be frank, I haven't actually been able to get the game yet. I'm still abroad, and I want a physical copy. Having said that, I've watched parts of Let's Plays, and I've heard some of the voice acting.

In my opinion, Awakening had marginally better VA all around. There weren't any performances that I would call explicitly "bad" in Awakening, while there are a couple that I really don't like in Fates (M!Kana almost makes me not want to use F!Corrin, it stoinks so bad). However, I've made it through Persona 3 and Fuuka/Ikutsuki, so I can handle it.

[Taka-kun]

I think the English VAs are fantastic. Sure, there are some dissapointments that does not hold to the Japanese VAs (I prefer Hinoka's and Effie's soft-spoken voice than the harsher one they have in the English and Kagero sounds too young). But some are great. Matthew Mercer is great as Ryoma and I love Laura Bailey (it's her right?) voicing Elise.

Some English VAs stand out for me though: Cam Clarke's Arthur (a god-send I swear) and the second voice of M!Corrin (Yuri Lowenthal I believe). Especially Corrin since he sounds like a wimp/bland in the Japanese version (no offense to Nobunaga Shimazaki, I think he is a great VA) but the English one managed to make him sound strong and determined. Now is only his personality could be better as well.

And let's not forget Rena Strober as Azura. One cannot simply not love her voice. Good call bringing her in Nintendo. Good call.

[Czernyl]

Many of the women in the Japanese version sounded too high for me. Like Felicia and Peri...the English version did a great job voicing everyone in the game.

They even found someone so talented to voice and sing as Azura!

Btw, male Kana is still a CHILD so his voice fits perfectly in my opinion. He's so lovable and cute!

Edited May 16, 2016 by Czernyl

[Slyfox]

I don't find the voice acting to be any worse than Awakening. Still really stereotypical, but we are used to that I guess.

I think we need to step back and realize that voice acting as a whole is really, really exaggerated. I am struggling to think of a voice in movies or games that sound even remotely like a normal human being.

Red vs Blue is a good example of some characters sounding like their va's actual voice.

Anyway, in regards to comparing the voice acting of the West to that in Japan, here are my thoughts. The West had a great many terrible years when we first started watching anime or playing Japanese games with our own dubs, not to mention our own original stuff for many years before that. The Japanese dubs were the dubs to listen to. Now though? I feel like it's the reverse. I can't hear a Japanese dub without cringing or muting the volume. The West doesn't exaggerate voices nearly as much now. Eh, shots fired...

[Ennui]

I have gotten used to this game's voice acting and quite enjoy it now. I feel that overall Awakening had a better VA performance, though. I acknowledge that I might be a little biased though because I did not follow Awakening's development like I did this game so I had no preconceived notions about what characters should sound like.

Honorable mention goes to Marisha Ray as Oboro. "THIS SCUM DOESN'T STAND A CHANCE!" is my favorite Dual Support quote in this game.