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Amentallica · Jan 25, 2015

We laugh about it today, but it really kills the game in many ways for me. Although REmake wasn't exactly the best, either, it certainly was a giant step up from those fucking awful lines delivered in the original. Why and how did that game's voice acting come to be so bad?

Were the VAs encouraged to be campy?
Were they too inexperienced and simply did not know what direction to take?
Did they just say, "Fuck it, no one is going to give a shit about some game called Resident Evil"?

I mean, not to exaggerate, but I am certain that every single line delivered in this game is inappropriate to the mood and/or simply awful.

SDCowboy · Jan 25, 2015

It came out in a time when voice in games was still relatively new...and also typically bad.

Currygan · Jan 25, 2015

SDCowboy said:
It came out in a time when voice in games was still relatively new...and also typically bad.

yup

Y2Kev · Jan 25, 2015

I think it may have been cast and acted in Japan, where the pool of English speaking voice talent is narrower than it is here. And I'm sure the direction was weak.

OH BARRY

FLAguy954 · Jan 25, 2015

The game came out in '96 and there weren't many games around that had consistent voice acting at all, so I don't get the expectation that the voice acting was supposed to be good.

epmode · Jan 25, 2015

I don't know if this affected Resident Evil specifically but quite a few dubs were ruined by a low budget plus a Japanese voice director with a poor grasp of English.

edit: And yeah, fewer English speakers in Japan.

Amentallica · Jan 25, 2015

SDCowboy said:
It came out in a time when voice in games was still relatively new...and also typically bad.

That doesn't explain to me why each VA had to have awkward pauses in between words and placed emphasis on words that required no emphasis to begin with. New or not, why did a person suddenly behave unlike a person?

HaRyu · Jan 25, 2015

SDCowboy said:
It came out in a time when voice in games was still relatively new...and also typically bad.

Pretty much. Most PS1 games at the time either had no voice acting, or the voice acting in it was really bad by today's standards.

Gambit1977 · Jan 25, 2015

It was written by Tommy Wiseau

Bumhead · Jan 25, 2015

It came out in 1996.

The medium has evolved exponentially since then. Well, mostly.

Muchi Muchi Pink · Jan 25, 2015

Budget.

thekonamicode · Jan 25, 2015

Maybe they did it on purpose. We're still talking about it 20 years later.

VICI0US · Jan 25, 2015

RE1 was intentionally campy with b-movie quality dialogue and voice acting.

Napalm_Frank · Jan 25, 2015

Wouldn't have it any other way.

TGO · Jan 25, 2015

Professional VGVA's wasn't around in 1996.

Evolved1 · Jan 25, 2015

Amentallica said:
That doesn't explain to me why each VA had to have awkward pauses in between words and placed emphasis on words that required no emphasis to begin with. New or not, why did a person suddenly behave unlike a person?

There's a story about this... the voice director liked the sound of it... something... I can't really remember. Ask News Bot, sure he knows the whole story lol.

zoukka · Jan 25, 2015

It's better off being so-bad-it's-good.

liquidtmd · Jan 25, 2015

It's a camp classic, it's awesome

UnrealEck · Jan 25, 2015

Apparently they took whatever American actors they could find in Japan (I think specifically it was Tokyo).

HaRyu · Jan 25, 2015

Amentallica said:
That doesn't explain to me why each VA had to have awkward pauses in between words and placed emphasis on words that required no emphasis to begin with. New or not, why did a person suddenly behave unlike a person?

This might help
http://geekparty.com/d-c-douglas-an...-why-resident-evil-1s-voice-acting-was-awful/

Fisty · Jan 25, 2015

Muchi Muchi Pink said:
Budget.

This too, RE was just another new ip with zombies, at the time. Capcom didnt throw mountains of cash at the game

epmode · Jan 25, 2015

SDCowboy said:
It came out in a time when voice in games was still relatively new...and also typically bad.

FLAguy954 said:
The game came out in '96 and there weren't many games around that had consistent voice acting at all, so I don't get the expectation that the voice acting was supposed to be good.

TGO said:
Professional VGVA's wasn't around in 1996.

Quite a few Western games had great voice acting before 1996. Just looking at Lucasarts' adventure games:

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Sam and Max Hit the Road (1993)
Full Throttle (1995)
The Dig (1995)

All of which put Resident Evil to shame.

Death Metalist · Jan 25, 2015

VICI0US said:
RE1 was intentionally campy with b-movie quality dialogue and voice acting.

Pretty much but I feel it worked on the game's favor by now because it's one of the charms of RE1 that makes it special. That 80's action movie cast reveal alone sells the idea.

Gambit1977 · Jan 25, 2015

epmode said:
Quite a few Western games had great voice acting before 1996. Just looking at Lucasarts' adventure games:

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Sam and Max Hit the Road (1993)
Full Throttle (1995)
The Dig (1995)

All of which put Resident Evil to shame.

I don't remember Fate of Atlantis having voice acting? Was this on PC?

HaRyu · Jan 25, 2015

epmode said:
Quite a few Western games had great voice acting before 1996. Just looking at Lucasarts' adventure games:

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Sam and Max Hit the Road (1993)
Full Throttle (1995)
The Dig (1995)

All of which put Resident Evil to shame.

Well yeah, but those games didn't have a Japanese Voice Director who didn't really have English as a native language.

liquidtmd · Jan 25, 2015

HaRyu said:
This might help
http://geekparty.com/d-c-douglas-an...-why-resident-evil-1s-voice-acting-was-awful/

Thanks for this, insightful

...contextless bits of dialogue with multiple takes, and when the person choosing the audio doesn’t speak English as a native language, it makes sense that some really bad bits can get chosen for the final cut.

Goldblumandthereitis.gif

Muchi Muchi Pink · Jan 25, 2015

Fisty said:
This too, RE was just another new ip with zombies, at the time. Capcom didnt throw mountains of cash at the game

They weren't expecting to even sell 1 mio copies.

epmode · Jan 25, 2015

Gambit1977 said:
I don't remember Fate of Atlantis having voice acting? Was this on PC?

Yeah, Lucasarts would often release a text-only version of their adventure games on disk along with a "talkie" release on CD. Fate of Atlantis definitely has a version with full voice acting.

They didn't get Harrison Ford.

HaRyu said:
Well yeah, but those games didn't have a Japanese Voice Director who didn't really have English as a native language.

Yeah, I mentioned that in an earlier post.

There are quite a few people that believe that great voice acting wasn't a thing until years after Resident Evil.

protomouse · Jan 25, 2015

It's the script/translation too.

"The master of unlocking"

Marc13 · Jan 25, 2015

When the game first came out, I didn't know any better. I thought it was the greatest thing ever!

Amentallica · Jan 25, 2015

HaRyu said:
This might help
http://geekparty.com/d-c-douglas-an...-why-resident-evil-1s-voice-acting-was-awful/

Certainly does. Thank you.

Asherdude · Jan 25, 2015

I was afraid that they'd clean up the voice acting.

LiK · Jan 25, 2015

Japanese VO directors didnt understand how bad it was.

Even when I was kid playing it when it came out, I cringed at how bad the VO was.

REmake has better VO at least.

strafer · Jan 25, 2015

what are you talking about?

its amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVyOCssIXgQ

daninthemix · Jan 25, 2015

"Kenneth was our old partner, you know."

liquidtmd · Jan 25, 2015

Been eaten to death and laying in a bloody heap

"He's a mere shadow of his former self"

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa????

Air Zombie Meat · Jan 25, 2015

I'd imagine it's for similar reasons as to why english translations in old japanese games are full of errors. Done in house by people with a limited grasp of english.

Phediuk · Jan 25, 2015

There was virtually no budget for video game voiceovers in the 90s--especially for import games--so devs typically went with amateur or non-union actors.

Rymuth · Jan 25, 2015

And yet, I still prefer ol' Wesker to the nasal acting of REmake's Wesker. Actually, I'd pretty much take all of the original cast.

Napalm_Frank said:
Wouldn't have it any other way.

This.

Great-God · Jan 25, 2015

Phediuk said:
There was virtually no budget for video game voiceovers in the 90s--especially for import games--so devs typically went with amateur or non-union actors.

As an amateur actor (With hopes of going pro, but you get it), this is an offense.

hammertomb · Jan 25, 2015

CHRISTHISWAY.

Sword Familiar · Jan 25, 2015

Barry definitely steals the show. I dunno, would we remember RE 1 as fondly if the voice acting was immaculate? On second though, I don't think the actual VA is all that bad. It's hard to work with mediocre material no matter how good you are.

Forkball · Jan 25, 2015

You don't get it because you, amentallica, are not the master of unlocking.

Also everyone should watch this video.

jett · Jan 25, 2015

Y2Kev said:
I think it may have been cast and acted in Japan, where the pool of English speaking voice talent is narrower than it is here. And I'm sure the direction was weak.

OH BARRY

Yeah this is why.

Also, ever 90s Sega game that had voice acting.

Rhomega Beta · Jan 25, 2015

The late '90s were filled with bad voice acting. I'm looking at you, Mega Man 8, Mega Man X4, and Sonic Adventure.

Flappy · Jan 25, 2015

"It was a huge snake. And also. Poisonous"

I love it. It goes with the whole no-budget 80's horror thing.

liquidtmd · Jan 25, 2015

Sword Familiar said:
Barry definitely steals the show. I dunno, would we remember RE 1 as fondly if the voice acting was immaculate? On second though, I don't think the actual VA is all that bad. It's hard to work with mediocre material no matter how good you are.

Even just his voiced over announcement in the Live Video intro sticks in my head

*Deep Cheese Gravelly*...."BARRRRYY BURRRHTON"

Revolutionary · Jan 25, 2015

The voice acting and live action cutscenes were INCREDIBLE. It was a B horror movie come to life.

JohnSpartanLee · Jan 25, 2015

Is that voice Enrico's?

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...yeah!

HF2014 · Jan 25, 2015

What is it?
Blood.

Yop, remember that. God it was awful, but funny at the same time.

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