Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

@Quarth You can't blame the actor for playing the character. She does a good job at it as I recall, never did much poorly performance wise. But I can agree the general way the character is made isn't the best. She could have grown more, but outside of Torna, she was a very questionable plot device that I still don't think needed to happen. She existed for shock value and to be a foil to Pyra which doesn't work when you are the same person...The voice actors who DID perform poorly were that for Rex(usually his all out yells weren't actually all out so it sounded really dumb) and Gramps/Azurda. Gramps had picked a voice, and he was chosen for his choice, not his ability to perform I am pretty sure. Most of his delivery felt like he was reading, and generally lacked the awareness of understanding why Gramps was saying what he was saying, so his work felt rather neutral the whole time. He was playing a voice, not a character.

Also it helps to know that Pyra/Mythra's VA was her first role, so I can personally cut a bit of slack there since everyone has to start somewhere. And I heard a bit of rumblings that the VAs were a bit rushed, but I can't confirm that.

Regardless Torna's VA I thought it was spot-on. There was not a bad spot I can point, which is more than I can say for X and 2 which had some spotty performances all around even if they were overall good.

@hirokun I don’t know what it is that makes my skin crawl. I just think she sounds insecure, even though the character is supposed to be confident (at least on the outside). It sounds like she’s trying to make the character tough, but don’t know how to express it, so it falls flat. I think it would have been better if she used her normal British accent instead of the fake American one.

But of course it’s not just the actors fault. As you say, the character has no real depth and the actor does a somewhat better job with Pyra, who feels like a more fleshed out character. And some lines were quite stupid, as well as the choice of music combined with the dialogue. The main problem with XC2 was the lack of tone.

Rex’s yells were dumb, but he felt more like a real character to me, so I didn’t have that much of a problem with his VA.

I think the VA is much better in Torna. Maybe they had more time recording the dialogue?

@EvilLucario Yeah, if it was rushed and her first job, I can understand why some of the delivery isn’t as good as it could have been.

@Quarth @hirokun Am I the only one that liked Pyra/Mythra's VA and thought Mythra mostly stole the show?

At first I liked Pyra more but by the end of the game I found that Mythra really seemed to be the prominent one with more interesting complexity than "perfect waifu Pyra." And IMO Skye Bennett (same VA for both) did a great job keeping them distinct yet the same as best as one can do anyway. Mythra's gruff and domineering but with an innocent naivete and that comes across well.

Technically when you include the Torna DLC, I almost think that Pyra was the disposable "shock value" character that almost didn't need to exist. Mythra is really the Aegis. Pyra was a construct of hers, ostensibly to seal away her power and hide, but practically it was as though she prophetically created an entity that served no purpose but to be a perfect siren for Rex 500 years later. Then Mythra comes back, is the main character for the Aegis, and pretty much flips off Pyra who gets to come out for a brief cutscene here and there. At first I was disappointed and wanted to focus on Pyra's role, but by the end I found I didn't really know why Pyra was even there. After Mythra returned she didn't have any particularly Pyra roles in the story other than as Rex's heartthrob.

I think Mythra is insecure. That's her charm. She's confident, domineering, at times arrogant, but inside she's insecure and conflicted (which makes her even pushier.) A.k.a. very human. Plus, in Torna, when she and Malos were newly bonded, both of them start of as kind of arrogant and self important. Both of them were tempered by the start of XC2 due to the events in Torna. In Malos's case (though it's subtle) he's a lot more human and a lot less arrogant. Still fixed on his goals, but with more intricate reasons and less (if any) joy in the task. In Tona he's having fun with all the carnage. By XC2 it's clear from the beginning he's doing it because that's what he must do, and he does it purely coldly if not bitterly. He changed a lot. Similarly Mythra was kind of arrogant, overconfident, eager to use her overwhelming power. And before the events of XC2 she's hidden herself away, created an alter ego, and sunk herself away from the world in fear and doubt of what she's capable of, hiding behind Pyra so she doesn't confront that again. The Mythra of XC2 is one of major confusion and self doubt, but with the hard exterior all the same. She's interesting. Pyra on the other hand is the happy home maker that wants to go home.

Mythra (and Pyra), Malos, Nia and Tora kind of stole the show, voice talent wise in XC though. Let's face it, the game has Nia. VA: 10/10.

Edit: I do miss Nia, but I will admit I love the more even, adult tone of Torna's VC and cast overall better.

@NEStalgia I agree with you. Mythra's VA was one of my favourites, along with Malos and Brighid. Everyone else was great too besides Rex and Obrona, although I think Obrona was meant to have an annoying voice. Rex himself wasn't too horrible, he just couldn't yell very well.

There was one annoying part of the voice acting in general, and that was the pauses after every few words. Most of the characters..... talked like this..... through all of...... their lines. I'm not sure if that was meant to make the length of the lines fit with the animation length, but it was a little annoying. Although I don't really remember it happening in Torna much, which is nice.

@Cynas At least I'm not the only one. Nia's voice was a stand-out good one. Tora wins as least annoying voiceypon in history of Nopon! Of course, when your competition is Heropon Ricky that may not be much comfort.

I never minded Rex's yelling I read so much about. I didn't expect him to be raw throat screaming like Shulk which was itself kind of annoying. (Plus they had an actor problem with XC1 with all the screaming and throat injuries/rawness so I'm sure they instructed them to keep it toned down.) I guess he's kind of flat...but I found his acting better than his "power of friendship" character writing

LOL the pauses! The dreadful...........pauses! I presume most of that is indeed due to the animations, and specifically that the cue timings for the lines to be played back are probably based on the length of the lines in Japanese. It creates weird timing issues since some full sentences can be distilled into a syllable or two in Japanese, while more often a few words turn into lengthy passages in Japanese. Especially with the reverse grammar the English version may be time-weighted on the back end of a dialogue and the Japanese version weighted at the front.

I know I've seen that effect in budget JRPG translations a lot. They have to really work on timing for the localization to make it work, and with the timetable for launch I imagine they did the VA recordings before all the scenes even had their JP recording timings placed. But yeah it's annoying and awkward, where you sit and watch thinking "...aaaaand?"

@NEStalgia Good points!
I like Nia more too. I thought there was more chemistry between her and Rex, than between Rex and Pyra/Mythra.

@Tsurii Thanks for calling me an idiot.

Actually Mythra was my least main favorite character prior to Torna due to her (then) underdeveloped character and a bit ehh performances. Now though, I warmed up considerably to her.

<--- Didn't have an issue with Zelda's english voice acting. She sounds like an articulate, but not entirely self-confident girl who was raised as royalty. In other words, perfect for that version of the character.

Rex was painful to listen to when he was yelling or trying to express strong emotions, but I liked the other voice actors in XC2. Although Nia's voice acting, as fun as it is to listen to, often conflicts with the character animations, which were designed to be paired with a much more high-pitched female voice.

Not a big problem either way. I'm convinced most of the complaints I hear about the English voice acting in these games is from hardcore weebs.

Haha. I tried the Japanese voice track for XC2, but actually preferred the English cast, flaws and all.

I’m really enjoying Torna! And the music’s great. Especially love that remixed Gormott track. Jazzy!

Anyone play through the main game in BoC? What teams were you using? I don't want to just spam crit heal Mythra.

Currently filling affinity charts. My favorite blades are Pyra/Mythra, Telos, Elma, KOSMOS, Shulk, Fioria, Catalyst, and Corvin.

Thinking Zeke, Rex, Morag combo. Never really used Morag tbh. Usually stuck with the main crew in the main game and NG+ except for post game.

I wish PoppiQTPi was moveable.

@Quarth I feel bad for everyone who used the JPN voice pack when the game came out. Don't forget!

@Quarth I reflexively downloaded the JP voice pack and then proceeded to never actually use it. And I definitely don't regret it: I got to experience the full, obnoxious glory of the Ardanian Soldiers english battle dialogue before Monolith ruined it with a patch.

When I replay the entire game with the DLC bonuses, I'm totally going to do so in Japanese, though. Ditto with BotW. Both have good Japanese voice acting. But people who act like they're unplayable in English are being ridiculous.

I get preferring Japanese. I was a hardcore sub purist weeb myself for many, many years, and I still, in general, prefer to watch most of my anime in Japanese, but I can also watch it in English and enjoy it most of the time. Some shows are actually better in English (like Spice and Wolf: the banter is an absolute joy in English).

I will always maintain that some people prefer Japanese because they don't understand a lick of it so any bad acting flies over their head. I mean, I tried to play Bayonetta and Xenoblade 1/2 with Japanese voices and it just sounded like nothing to me and instantly swapped back.

Speaking of Japanese voices though, one thing I found REALLY cool was this game Nioh. It takes place in fictional 1600s Japan with Japanese-speaking guys AND English-speaking guys all in one. Some characters are even bilingual between Japanese and English, which really makes the game feel cool and that you're an outsider (since you play as an English dude in Japan). But that's really the only game I found where Japanese voices really enhanced the experience in my games, and even then those Japanese performances were mixed with English voices.

As a zelda super fan, I died on the inside with the VA all around. The guy in charge was the same guy who screwed it up for Mass Effect Andromeda. Totally incompetent. Its like he just listened to the first 15 auditions for each role, put their names on a dart board and that is how he picked. But I can say that for a lot of videogame stuff it is harder than almost any other type of Voiceover work due to the circumstances of recording. So when you hear a good performance, cherish it.

Or people just prefer the Japanese language option because they really don’t like the English VA’s. Even if my Japanese language skills are poor, I still get the overacting/bad acting because of body language, voice use etc.

As someone who loved the English VA of the original Xenoblade, X and 2 are pretty disappointing.

@Tsurii lol, you tell 'em!

@Ralizah well, all of them are designed for high pitched Japanese va's, but nothing screams out to me about any animation that the voice doesn't fit or that it feels like she should sound like that. Agreed though. I'll never understand the "this needs the Japanese track" crowd when they don't even understand it. Unless it's really cut rate English actors. Though i won't let anyone take away my Tokyo mirage jp voices.. They're perfect as they are.

@NEStalgia Morag's English voice is a LOT closer to the Japanese equivalent than Nia's is. Pretty much all of them are. The character's face and body are often visibly animated, which isn't a great match for the way the English voice actor emotes. Good voice, but not great casting.

All of those English regional accents (and Rex especially) did my head in for the first ten hours or so but they grew on me and by the time I had finished I found them endearing. More regional accents in western games please.