Let's do a little voice actor trivia, shall we? Of course, knowing me, I tend to prefer dubs, and I'm playing Blaz Blue in English, so . . . yeah.
-Ragna is played by Patrick Seitz. Patrick has recently shown up on my radar, having voiced Steiner in Kurokami, Jaeger in Valkyria Chronicles, and now Ragna in BB. His deep voice is ideal for the hard-edged Ragna, and, well, he's just awesome in the role! "Shut up! You're nothing but stuffed toys!" I also hear he voiced Dracula in the more recent Castlevania games. I should play those sometime.
-Tager is voiced by Jamieson Price. I recognize him as Chad from Bleach, and Norb (my favorite performance of his) from Eureka Seven. He has a really deep voice, like the kind you'd hear in movie narrations. Now, I know a few dub enthusiasts who have criticized him for lacking feeling in his delivery. I'll admit, he sounded rather flat as Duke in Tales of Vesperia, but, he sounds perfect as Tager; calm and collected one moment, GIGANTIC TAGER THE NEXT!
-Arakune is voiced by Spike Spencer. Yeah, I know, I don't like his version of Shinji, but he is a good actor. It's hard to recognize his voice in BB though, since Arakune's speech is distorted. But if there's one thing I like about Spike, it's that he can sound absolutely deranged, and good God, is Arakune deranged. The laughter, the echoing, the hunger for power!
-And of course, Bang Shishigami is voiced by longtime veteran Tony Oliver. I've already given props to him in the past for directing E7, and making Konata's dad sound hilarious in Lucky Star. Well, he's impressed me yet again as Bang. I always appreciate a performer who can "ham it up" and still sound cool.
-Carl, being a young boy character, is voiced by Michelle Ruff, an actress. I've already gushed about her enough as it is. Although Carl's voice sounds too feminine, ("Dude, that is totally a woman doing the voice.") she still does a fine job acting.
-There's an NPC in Calamity Trigger who will become a playable character in Continuum Shift named Tsubaki. She's played by Julie Ann Taylor. I recognize her as Yui from Lucky Star, and Akane from Kurokami. In Blaz Blue, she also voices a character named Kokonoe. Tsubaki and Kokonoe sound absolutely nothing alike, yet it's the same person. That's quite the range; had me fooled.
-And lastly, there's an NPC named Jubei who's voiced by Kirk Thorton. I know him as Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss, among many other roles. He does a good job here, too.
There are some VAs in Blaz Blue I don't recognize. Before looking up tvtropes, I didn't know who David Vincent, Cristina Valenzuela, and Doug Erholtz were, yet they all sound freakin' awesome in this game. I will look out for them in the future.
Okay, it's official: BB has best the voice-acting I've ever heard in a fighting game. EAT IT, MORTAL KOMBAT! (Never was a fan of MK.)
Oh, and I'm not done talking about BB either. Not by a long shot.
