Board 8 > Xenoblade Opinions Day 37: Best Voice Acting

(+) Yeah! (+)

*assume spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (including Future Connected)*

Past results:
Best Character- Dunban > Melia > Shulk/Riki
Best Character in Battle- Shulk > Melia > Dunban
Best Antagonist- Dickson > Mumkhar > Egil
Best Area (1)- Satorl Marsh > Bionis' Leg > Eryth Sea
Best Area (2)- Fallen Arm > Valak Mountain, 3rd Sword Valley
Best Area (Final)- Fallen Arm > Satorl Marsh > Bionis' Shoulder
Best Battle Theme- You Will Know Our Names > Fogbeasts > Mechanical Rhythm
Best Boss Theme- Engage the Enemy > Unfinished Business > An Obstacle in Our Path
Best Battle Theme (Final)- Engage the Enemy > You Will Know Our Names
Best Area Theme- Satorl Marsh (Night) > Gaur Plain > The Fallen Land
Best Event Theme- Main Theme > Memories > Shulk and Fiora
Best Music (Final)- Main Theme > Engage the Enemy > Satorl Marsh (Night)
Best Unique Monster- Immovable Gonzalez > Territorial Rotbart/Flabbergasted Jerome/Gentle Rodriguez
Best Shulk Quote- "I'LL KILL YOU!"
Best Reyn Quote- "Man, wha' a buncha jokas!"
Best Fiora Quote- "Let's press on, and on and ON!"
Best Sharla Quote- "My rifle's getting hotter!"
Best Dunban Quote- "Born in a world of strife! Against the odds! We choose to fight! BLOSSOM DANCE!"
Best Melia Quote- "You must suffer more!"
Best Riki Quote- "Sharla more like mama. One mama enough."
Best Supporting Character- Alvis > Kallian > Meyneth
Best Monado Art- Buster > Speed > Cyclone/Armour
Best Wielder of the Monado- Shulk > Bionis/Dunban
Best Shulk Art- Back Slash > Light Heal/Shadow Eye
Best Reyn/Nene Art- Sword Drive > Wild (Mild) Down > Lariat/Bone Upper
Best Fiora Art- Final Cross > Speed Shift > Shutdown
Best Sharla/Kino Art- Heal Round(-a-Round) > Head (Noggin) Shot > Thunder (Crackle) Bullet
Best Dunban Art- Blossom Dance > Soaring Tempest > Electric Gutbuster/Gale Slash
Best Melia Art- Elemental Discharge > Summon Bolt > Summon Earth
Best Riki Art- Burninate > Happy Happy > Lurgy/Sneaky/Freezinate
Best Romantic Pairing- Shulk/Melia > Riki/Oka > Shulk/Fiora

Yesterday: After the dead heat of the previous day, Xord took a decisive victory for best Boss Fight!

1st- Xord (9)
2nd- Yaldabaoth (5)
3rd- Lorithia (3)

Today: Best Voice Acting! A stacked category, this game is packed full of great performances from people outside the usual video game voice actor bubble. (There were 3 too many characters nominated, I took Sharla and Meyneth off as I was their only backer, and Nene as she was the last listed by Lightning Strikes)

Tomorrow: Best Superboss

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It's Shulk. One of the best voice performances in any game.

With that said, I'd like to give credit to Reyn, who is absolutely perfect in the 'best friend' character archetype. He won't get as many votes as the main character, the badass types, or people's favorite waifus, but honestly he sells his role better than almost anyone in Xenoblade.

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Shulk probably has the best English VAing I've heard in any JRPG protagonist. It's really hard to pull off JRPG dialogue in a genuine way imo.

Yeah it's hard to deny Shulk here, though I will second KP's shout-out to Reyn. I also think Riki deserves a nod, it would be so easy for that performance to be annoying but he hits every right note.

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Shulk proclaiming I'll kill you is still one of the best voice acted lines ever

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And as much as I like melia her English voice acting isn't very good and it got even worse in future connected

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ninkendo posted...

And as much as I like melia her English voice acting isn't very good and it got even worse in future connected

I think Jenna Coleman is a good actor but her Melia voicing was a bit uneven sometimes, especially in FC. Some lines really didn't sound like her at all, which is understandable given the 10 year gap but Shulk sounded the same!

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If Adam Howden is so good (and he is!), why has he not become one of the dozen voice actors who get cast in every video game?

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You tell em Sholk

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Might as well do a Best Non-Shulk Voice Actor poll too, lol.

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andylt posted...

If Adam Howden is so good (and he is!), why has he not become one of the dozen voice actors who get cast in every video game?

He's not part of the American voice cast that get used in almost every game, which happens due to location and familiarity. The reason Xenoblade has the VA it does is because Nintendo of America refused to localize the game, leading Nintendo of Europe to pick up the slack. This ended up being a blessing in disguise.

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Yeah I love how unapologetically Bri-ish XC is.

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Adam Howden is in a lot of stuff thats done in London, hes quite prolific. Id recommend FFXIV (Heavensward on) because its basically a Xenoblade reunion - Shulk, Fiora, Mumkhar, Egil, and Alvis all have big roles. Timothy Watson is playing spectacularly against type there.

Melia is fantastic by the way, and in Future Connected as well aside from that one line at the very start. She really delivers a great performance in not her natural accent that uses that accent to convey the character. You must suffer more would be super generic if not for her delivery.

I narrowly voted for Egil though. He delivers a commanding performance that turns academic and emotional when it needs to. He also gets the two best lines in the game in the same cutscene.

I dont want to say that Shulk is overrated because he deservedly gets a lot of praise for an amazing lead performance in a role it would be very easy to flub, but honestly it is wall to wall great acting.

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Egil owns every line he has.

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KamikazePotato posted...

Nintendo of America refused to localize the game

I'm glad things turned out as they did, but... why did they refuse?

Lightning Strikes posted...

Adam Howden is in a lot of stuff thats done in London, hes quite prolific. Id recommend FFXIV (Heavensward on) because its basically a Xenoblade reunion - Shulk, Fiora, Mumkhar, Egil, and Alvis all have big roles. Timothy Watson is playing spectacularly against type there.

Ah right, I guess I'm not as tuned in with British stuff weirdly! And lol, don't get me wrong I really appreciate the recommendation (and I didn't know it was a Xeno reunion!), but it's very funny how it seems like every FFXIV player is a walking advertisement for the game lol. As foreign as MMOs are to me, enough people have made enough of a fuss that I will probably get around to XIV after I've finished the single player FFs.

Lightning Strikes posted...

I dont want to say that Shulk is overrated because he deservedly gets a lot of praise for an amazing lead performance in a role it would be very easy to flub, but honestly it is wall to wall great acting.

Yeah I get this. I mean I probably consider Shulk my fav performance, but there are so many great ones here it's a bit unfair that he's so dominant! I'm surprised Dunban isn't doing better in the poll tbh given how popular he is.

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They didn't localize it because they didn't think it would sell well.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rainfall

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Xenoblade needed a big fan movement called Operation Rainfall pushing for it to be localized for Nintendo to seriously consider the option. Even then, they were hesitant.

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Wii days were a very painful era of Nintendo making a buncha Japan-only games.

EU was inexplicably a step up getting stuff like Disaster Day of Crisis, Fatal Frame 2 Remake, Another Code R

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Ah right, I do remember hearing of Operation Rainfall now. Not at the time, probably during my playthrough. Were the other two games any good? I vaguely recall hearing 'eh' things about The Last Story. At least Xeno paid off.

Honestly it's difficult to imagine Nintendo being as receptive to a similar campaign these days, but I guess they're not making nearly as many Japan-only games now anyway.

Grimlyn posted...

EU was inexplicably a step up getting stuff like Disaster Day of Crisis, Fatal Frame 2 Remake, Another Code R

Lol it's so weird when EU gets stuff and NA doesn't. Last Window baby!

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I enjoyed The Last of Us, Syrenne & Lowell were a joy. I've heard complaints about a plot twist being predictable but that wasn't my experience

It was a nice looking game with cool gameplay but lorddddddd allllmightyyyy the performance was dreadful. I've never been one to be startled by framedrops but TLS just could not handle itself on the Wii.

I'd love to play it again on a system that could actually run it, there was even an online multiplayer but I never got into it since I played an import copy due to NoA sucking... I can't imagine playing online multi with Wii's online run from another region with a game that already performs that bad offline.

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Grimlyn posted...

I enjoyed The Last of Us,

*The Last Story

And I thought it was OK but nothing spectacular

Never played the other game

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lmao i have never played any the last of us whoops

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Can't wait for The Last Story: Part II

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Not to talk down Operation Rainfall since it was a big part of the game getting early press and I doubt Pandoras Tower leaves Japan without it (as that is a much smaller game than the others) but Xenoblade ultimately got a US release because it sold well in Europe. If it didnt, it probably never would have cone out there.

Its also funny that it helped make British VA casts a thing. There are many games that use them now, JRPGs in particular.

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I liked some of the gameplay stuff in The Last Story but it never really all clicked for me. And the story is....weird.
Pandora's Tower though I did have a lot of fun with. It's much more straightforward than the other two but very enjoyable.


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