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No need for Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Liam O'Brien, etc... etc.. (The "typical" VAs)

V

Vex_

Banned
As you can see with the recent announcements of Persona 5's and FFXV's ENG VAs, There is no need for the "typical VAs".

I feel as though this good for the industry for 2 reasons:

1. The industry could use some new voices. Fresh blood, new talent.. what ever you call it. It is good news.

2. It is immersion breaking hearing Nolan North voice everything when we know he is Drake. He needs to stay Drake and stop it. Stop it right now.
(oh and Deadpool)

I cant be the only one who thinks this. Isn't it weird having the same VAs do... uh... like everything?

On a side note, Rockstar is one of the few who dont re use the same talent over and over again. Look at Red Dead or GTA.

You agree with me GAF? Or nah?
 
M

Moobabe

Member
Nah - the top voice actors have incredible range. It's no different to seeing actors in different roles in films.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I've been sick of the same voice actors in every game for a long time.

So much so that I even miss the shitty voice actors of 2 generations ago just because it was something different.
 
C

coolasj19

Why are you reading my tag instead of the title of my post?
But I love Laura Bailey. I've bought many a games because she was in them... I doubt I'll immediately fall in love so hastily without her voicing one of the people in the cast.
 
M

Mookie1515

Member
Data West said:
I've been sick of the same voice actors in every game for a long time.

So much so that I even miss the shitty voice actors of 2 generations ago just because it was something different.
Click to expand...

A sad problem with this is that these actors DO have great range. But they get cast for their 'famous' voice. That's why Nolan always seems to do his Drake voice, even though he almost went unnoticed as the creepy David in Last of Us, and probably no one even knew he was Hades in God of War 1.

The worst position to be in is Liam and Yuri's position, where they are super noticeable and recognizable, but don't have the cache to get the really big bucks like Laura, Troy and Nolan.
 
P

purseowner

Member
If I have to suffer through an English dub, having prominent characters voiced by people whose main work is on straight-to-DVD Barbie films is even worse than hearing the same voices yet again.
 
S

soultron

Banned
I just think that any writer working with North should henceforth be banned from making him say any variation of: "Oh, crap!"

That's it. That's all.
 
M

Malawhur

Member
David from the last of us, that is your Drake.
I mean, sure having new talent is always welcome but those guys are in so many games for a good reason.
 
D

DrArchon

Member
Moobabe said:
Nah - the top voice actors have incredible range. It's no different to seeing actors in different roles in films.
Click to expand...

They do indeed have incredible range, but that doesn't matter when they're only hired to do one voice over and over again. Hiring Nolan North to be the Penguin is fine because he sounds completely different. Hiring Steve Blum over and over again to do the same gruff Wolverine voice is not OK in my book.
 
T

TheJollyCorner

Member
I'm glad the VA talent pool is getting a bit deeper, for sure.

Then again, voice direction is still key, despite who you have. I like that games in the last few years have employed some really good VA directors for games.

It's why the redub of Silent Hill 2 and 3, with huge VA talent like Baker, Bailey, O'Brien, Lowenthal, still ended up being drab and uninspiring compared to the originals, which essentially cast no-names (and in some cases, not even professional 'actors'). The direction of the performers was just superior.
 
J

J 0 E

Member
Troy Baker + Nolan North's performance on TLOU was exceptional and far away from their regular rules.

Some VAs have the talent, I don't mind them working on more games.
 
S

Soulflarz

Banned
purseowner said:
If I have to suffer through an English dub, having prominent characters voiced by people whose main work is on straight-to-DVD Barbie films is even worse than hearing the same voices yet again.
Click to expand...

He meant random talent, not straight-to-DVD film quality actors.
Also "suffer through dub" is baiting dub vs sub >_>
 
EL CUCO

EL CUCO

Member
Love me some Laura Bailey.

I kinda agree about Troy Baker and Nolan North but ONLY when they play your standard army dude. When Troy did Joker it was amazing (still not better than Mark Hamill tho). Had no clue Nolan was the antagonist in TLoU till I heard about it. When these guys are allowed to display their incredible range, they're amazing.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
I'm not too fond of Troy Baker. His Ocelot was bad, and imo isn't that far from Booker, Sam and Arkham Knight (w/o mask). Both Baker and North were good in TLoU.

Liam o Brien is good but always the same, let it be the Pope from DMC4, or the book from Nier, War or Caius.
 
amdb00mer

amdb00mer

Member
I'm on the fence about this, but the really great ones as one poster stated, have range. As they said Nolan North does a lot more than you realize. Did you know he was the voice of the Penguin in the Arkham games?

Edit: beaten by DrArchon
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
I will not accept anyone playing Jake but Troy Baker.
But with that said they are used a lot. I don't actually mind so long as they change their voice, which they are great yet. More than a few times I didn't even know it was a certain actor until far later.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Sounds like you don't really get how voice acting works, OP. Popular voice actors can do a lot of different voices. If you think Nolan North does too much Drake voice, it's because he's hired to do a voice like that. It's not his creative choice.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
They get hired a lot because they're talented, have great range, they're professional and they do great work on-time and without hassle. They've probably been in a ton of games that you don't even realize because with proper voice direction you would never guess The Penguin is Nathan Drake or David from the Last of Us.

I don't get what some people's obsession is with finding "new VA talent." There is new VA talent all the time, but developers aren't going to go cruise YouTube to find their 'next big VA' when they have an entire union of reliable workers they could call up and have the job done on time and on budget.
 
N

Neoxon

Junior Member
benicillin said:
They get hired a lot because they're talented, have great range, they're professional and they do great work on-time and without hassle. They've probably been in a ton of games that you don't even realize because with proper voice direction you would never guess The Penguin is Nathan Drake or David from the Last of Us.

I don't get what some people's obsession is with finding "new VA talent." There is new VA talent all the time, but developers aren't going to go cruise YouTube to find their 'next big VA' when they have an entire union of reliable workers they could call up and have the job done on time and on budget.
Click to expand...
Because in the case of companies like Atlus, Nintendo, & Capcom, they don't want to put forth the extra cash to choose from unionized VAs who only take union jobs.
 
M

Moobabe

Member
DrArchon said:
They do indeed have incredible range, but that doesn't matter when they're only hired to do one voice over and over again. Hiring Nolan North to be the Penguin is fine because he sounds completely different. Hiring Steve Blum over and over again to do the same gruff Wolverine voice is not OK in my book.
Click to expand...

Well the issue here is direction and writing - since they've all demonstrated that they can do a lot more than often asked.
 
H

HardRojo

Member
Nola North has incredible range and Baker did an amazing job with Joker in Arkham Origins as well as Joel in TLoU, so I'm fine with both of them as long as voice direction makes them go the extra mile for it. I don't like it when Baker does his "Kanji" voice though, which is apparently his regular voice.
 
M

Mesoian

Member
lol no op.

While I agree that we need to stop relying on a super super small pool of voice actors and that there is room for new talent in the VO world, that small pool of voice actors is more than proven and has a range unrivaled by most.

If anything, we need to stop hiring celebrity actors to do VO work in some sad attempt to drive star power to the project when they are literally unproven and mostly terrible. Micheal Madson ruined Yakuza 1 for me.

But we need to keep the Troy Bakers, the Laura Baileys, the Joe Manganiellos, the Phill LaMarrs, the proven, dedicated talent, around for as long as possible.
 
A

Auto-Reply

Member
I'd be fine with having textboxes back so the voice of the characters is created in my own head. There could be more abstract storytelling in AAA games in general instead of always following the cinematic hollywood route.
Ain't nobody got time for that
 
F

family_guy

Member
I believe everyone should get an equal chance at audition. If they simply say, "Get me Troy Baker", then yeah, that could get old. If Troy or one of the other famous VAs were most qualified during the audition, then I have no issue with that.
 
K

kobu

Member
As long as they don't sound the same in every game I don't care too much. Like the entire time I was playing gears 4 I kept wonder who the fuck they hired to do this poor mans Nolan North voice.
 
A

AndyVirus

Member
Vex_ said:
He needs to stay Drake and stop it.
Click to expand...

So he's out of work now?

All I think is they don't need to be the protagonist all the time. North had a bunch in 2007-10 all using his natural voice but given a chance to be different he produces Portal 2, Arkham & TLoU. Baker's had a similar experience with TLoU, Bioshock, CoD & Infamous but then look at him with Far Cry and Arkham.
 
L

LiK

Member
Don't blame the VAs, blame the voice directors on what they want from them. They all have incredible range but if the devs want them to use their regular voices, then it'll be done. I'm more annoyed when the characters look like the actors.
 
KLoWn

KLoWn

Member
I don't care if it's a famous VA or an unknown one as long as they're good.

With Nolan North and Troy Baker, even if they can be recognizable, you know you're going to get some top tier voice acting.
 
O

Ogawa-san

Member
SkylineRKR said:
Liam o Brien is good but always the same, let it be the Pope from DMC4, or the book from Nier, War or Caius.
Click to expand...
I feel it's not even his fault, he's just typecast a lot into his "Illidan voice".

He has range, took me a long time to realize he was P3 Akihiko's VA for example.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I don't mind if the same VA's do all the games as long as they do a good job and are relatively distinguishable from each other depending on the game.

The reason Nolan North gets a bad rep is because so many game makers hired him to do the Drake voice after Uncharted's success. The guy has genuine range, he was just type cast a lot in the last few years.
 
O

OnPoint

Member
Troy Baker always stands out to me and I wish people would use him less. Or he would change it up more. Sorry Troy.
 
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