Must not gush over Lunar, must not gush over Lunar, must not gush over Lunar.
So, to score myself points, at my own amusement, I must do things in character I haven't already done since I got my 360. I know! I'll talk about the best 360 game I've played so far; Tales of Vesperia.
And maybe I'll also do a little VOICEOVER TRIVIA!
*bleep bloop*
["Hail (name of VA)!" Impress your readers with your knowledge of voice actors and actresses. 15G]
Well, it's safe to say that TOV has the best voice-acting I've heard in a Tales game yet. And who can blame my gushing? One of the playable heroines in your party is played by Michelle Ruff. Michelle Ruff, peoples! I can count the number of roles she's played on ten fingers, and still have fingers left over! Not only that, but Rita really comes to life, thanks to her vocals! And also, one of the villains in the game is played by Liam O'Brien, much like in Tales of the Abyss. He doesn't sound quite as delightfully evil as Dist in TOTA was, but he still does the "creepy nobleman" voice to perfection. And Flynn is voiced by Sam Regal, who does a good job here. When I think of him, I think of Taniguchi or Minoru Shiraishi, as in comedy roles, but he can also do more serious characters well. Oh, and there's this one character, Duke, whose VA is Jamieson Price. He plays deep-voiced characters, such as Chad from Bleach, Norb from Eureka Seven, and the Spiral King from Gurren Lagaan. He sounds really cool in this game, too.
There's other voices I didn't recognize 'til I read a credits list. The main hero, Yuri, is played by Troy Baker. He's . . . not quite as god-like as he was when he played Abel Knightroad in Trinity Blood, (one of my favorite performances ever, voiceover or otherwise) but I like how he doesn't sound like most other RPG mains. He's got a cool voice, and he's sarcastic in the role. Karol, a boy character, is played by actress Wendee Lee, who actually does a passable job faking a little boy's voice. Estelle, another party member, is played by Hynden Walch. I totally can't tell it's her; she sounds so different from her takes on Nia from GL and Yutaka from Lucky Star respectively. And Zagi, one of the villains, is played by Vic Mignogna, which I think is actually one of his better performances. You really get a feel for just how batshit insane his character is. According to my sources, there's also characters also played by Spike Spencer, Stephanie Sheh, Megan Hollingshead, and Kate Higgins. Damn. If that's not an impressive lineup of talent, I don't know what is.
The acting in TOV is slightly better than TOTA's, is much better than the acting in Tales of Legendia, and is a hell of a lot better than the 'acting' in Tales of Eternia. So, at this rate, the next game's acting quality should be able to rival that of a LucasArts adventure game. Excellent.
