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Discussion What game(s) has your favourite voice acting?

Irene

Irene

#TheProcessPrevails
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Voice acting can sometimes elevate a game, a character or a scene to tremendous heights.

Feel free to post examples, but mark spoilers.

Also, does the game(s) feature your favourite voice actor(s), and what are some other performances that they nail?
 
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Kid Icarus Uprising is an easy favorite here.

I'd probably have to replay it to get my actual favorites, but the Saturday morning cartoon feeling comes strong there, with the right mix of serious and cheesy.
 
Deathloop

Jason E. Kelley (Colt Vahn) and Ozioma Akagha (Julianna Blake) are electric

Their VA performance (and rapport) makes the characters’ rivalry feel real, which gets you much more invested in the invasion mechanic

It’s that extra dopamine hit when you win a 1v1 not just against another player, but against Colt or Julianna. See you next loop..

The wider cast of characters (including the various goons) have memorable lines too. Would be rude if I didn't:

I’ll smoke anywhere man!

I’ll smoke at the doctors office

I’ll smoke at a funeral

I’ll smoke when someone’s eating their breakfast right next to me!

Fuck your fried eggs!

You know what I’m saying?
 
Among my favorites:
All three Xenoblade games
All Kingdom Hearts games (especially KH1 with Mandy Moore as Aerith. She was perfect in that role. KH2's Brittany Snow as Namine also was pretty good)
Dragon Quest VIII the Journey of the Cursed King
Batman Arkham Asylum (can't get enough of Kevin Conroy)
Curse of the Monkey Island (Gary Coleman as the scammer kid was pretty much perfect)
Grim Fandango
Psychonauts (haven't played the second one but I'm hoping a similar quality)
Saints Row The Third (Robin Atkin Downes emulating Jason Statham as the protagonist is his peak performance. The rest is equally great: You need to replay the game for a second time as Laura Bailey)
 
Disco Elysium, likely. So many good performances, no joke feels undercooked despite full voice acting being added to the game later on.
Recently played Baldur's Gate 3 and have similar feelings. I suppose games with this much text will be the first that come to mind here, because the amount of effort on display is insane.
 
Hard for me to pick a single game, so I'll list out a few, and some of my favorite performances from each.

BioShock 1 and 2: Andrew Ryan (Armin Shimerman), Charles Milton Porter (Carl Lumbly)

The Last of Us 1 and 2: Ellie (Ashley Johnson), Abby (Laura Bailey), David (Nolan North)

FromSoftware's games: Eileen the Crow, Bloodborne (Jacqueline Boatswain), Owl, Sekiro (Darin De Paul), Gideon Ofnir, Elden Ring (Joe McGann)

Hades: Logan Cunningham. My god. Dude voices Hades, Poseidon, Achilles, Charon, Asterius, and the game's narrator. Everyone else does a stellar job too of course, but Logan does a phenomenal job as six (!!!) distinct characters.
 
I'd say (pretty easily) it's NieR:Automata for me.

Kyle McCarley (9S) absolutely plummeted my heart with this one.

 
Voice acting in games has gotten so good these past twenty years. Probably the most improved aspect of games besides graphics.

Some of my favorites:
  • Dragon Quest 8
  • Final Fantasy 12
  • Hellblade 2
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Dragon Age Origins & Inquisition
  • Freedom Planet (… parts of it, at least)
  • Battleblock Theater
  • Bioshock Infinite
  • Witcher 3
  • Hades
  • Hearthstone
  • Diablo IV
The list could go on and on and on…
 
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the answer is nier, pretty easily. laura baileys rant at weiss that's also used when you first boot the game is probably my favorite bit of english dubbed japanese game voice acting ever



silent Hill 2 and 3 are right behind nier. i know at least one of those actors, guy cihi, sucks pretty bad but the performances in those two games contribute a ton to their otherworldly, uncomfortable atmosphere. im particularly fond of vincent in silent hill 3 and angela in silent hill 2.

i played metal gear solid 1 for the first time a couple weeks ago and that quickly became another favorite. kazuhira miller fucking rules lol.
 
There are characters whose voice I find phenomenal, like the French actress for the original Lara Croft or both Bayonettas.
But when it comes about an entire cast for one game, my favorite will forever be Final Fantasy XII, hands down!
 
Kreeth said:
There are characters whose voice I find phenomenal, like the French actress for the original Lara Croft or both Bayonettas.
But when it comes about an entire cast for one game, my favorite will forever be Final Fantasy XII, hands down!
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FFXII is a good mention! Love the dialogue of that game, both the dialogue itself (and what I believe to be amazing localization) as well as the performances.
 
Command and Conquer and Dawn of War have absolutely amazing voice acting to the point where it's pretty much the reason why RTS voice lines remain memorable to this day.

Outside of those, usually what stands out to me is when games go for a British voice cast rather than the usual Americanized voices (which suffer mostly from either a. Celebrity casting which sucks because celebrities always phone in their voices for gaming stuff so you're taken out of the experience or b. The same tiny pool of anime dub voices over and over which takes you out of the experience because you've heard this dude a thousand times before and he's exhausted his range). British voices tend to draw more from theater as far as I can tell, and going off of pure vibes, it's noticable in the performance, there's much less of the "Christopher Nolan" effect going on.

Xenoblade is notable for it, but I'll give my shout-out to all of Fromsofts soulsborne games specifically for their wide and varied use of regional British accents. It's a real highlight of their games, with Eileen's Yorkshire accent, Patches having a cockney accent and the... frankly surprising use of Welsh and Irish accents - you don't hear those often. Elden Ring would not be as memorable without those either; Ranni, Blaidd, Boggart, Iji, they're all very memorable characters in no small part because of their accents and they actually inform a surprising amount about their character and how they're seen.

ERs DLC also adds Igon and his almost Captain Ahab levels of inspiring divine vengeance by just being near him and it's awesome.

It actually makes both Sekiro and Armored Core 6's dubs look weaker since they just went with the general voice casts you see everywhere else (although with AC6, the VAs are at least clearly aware of the fact that the VA work is what's largely carrying the character, love Michigan - Sekiro should just be played in Japanese since it's set in Japan anyway).
 
Ooh good question!
One immediate answer I'll go to is Takaya Kuroda as Kiryu Kazuma. Even if I'm not well versed in Japanese, performances like his in Like a Dragon, The Man Who Erased His Name serve as an excellent, truly full hearted send off to the old series.
Max Mittelman, who voices Ryuji Sakamoto in Persona 5 rises above to me for whatever reason. It could be the raw kinetic energy of the character, but in a star studded cast, even he somehow sits above.
Steve Burton as Cloud Strife in the remake series isn't everyone's cup of tea- but I'll take it since I felt Square was obsessed with portraying him as permanently moody for a long stretch, so getting this catty, even at times whiny performance made me fall in love with him all over again.
I'm going with two more to close it out, Robbie Draymond tends to absolutely bring it on a lot of performances, but the stylish and high spirited dialogue he brings to Sheida Kayn in League of Legends makes me embrace the edgiest parts of him. It was either going to be him, or Shadow the Hedgehog for edgy bullshit. Actually... Robbie as Shadow would be amazing... League has a lot of really good voice acting, but with three total Voice Over sets, including fun extras like his Odyssey Space Outlaw skin narrating the game, or his edgy boy band persona, he sets something aside for his legacy.
And last but not least, Jennifer English as Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3. You know I don't have to say shit about Baldur's Gate. Everyone will have a favorite. I'm weak to her calling me out with her "Hey, You's" and I feel a particular meltiness at her story. Truly an artist of her craft.
(Indulgent answers are Paul Mercier as Leon in RE4 Vanilla and Terence J Rotelo as Frank West in Dead Rising, by the way. I love my Capcom cheese boys.)
 
Vookatos said:
Disco Elysium, likely. So many good performances, no joke feels undercooked despite full voice acting being added to the game later on.
Recently played Baldur's Gate 3 and have similar feelings. I suppose games with this much text will be the first that come to mind here, because the amount of effort on display is insane.
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The inner monologue/skill voice of DE is so on point that it's easy to imagine a similar voice in your head IRL talking to you when pondering things over. Lenval Brown absolutely nailed that one (and I think it's his first gaming role?)
 
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English: Dragon Quest XI S or Dragon Quest VIII, both are fantastic.

Japanese: Fire Emblem Three Houses/Hopes or Like a Dragon Gaiden, Gaiden is a great ensemble cast and LaD Gaiden is amazing throughout (the ending is the series best performance)
 
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The voice actors for Baldur's Gate 3 also did their own mocapping and it shows. Very convincing and high quality stuff.

I'm fond of Yakuza 7's voice work on the Japanese VA side of things. Ichiban rocks.
 
Takaya Kuroda as Kiryu was mentioned above so I’ll say Kazuhiro Nakaya in the Yakuza series, where he plays two completely different characters: Akira Nishikiyama and Ichiban Kasuga!

Here are two scenes (one for each character) showing off his voice acting skills.

First, Nishiki from Yakuza 0 (spoilers for the end of chapter 6)



And now Ichiban from Yakuza Like a Dragon (spoilers for the end of the game)

 
Leica said:
The voice actors for Baldur's Gate 3 also did their own mocapping and it shows. Very convincing and high quality stuff.

I'm fond of Yakuza 7's voice work on the Japanese VA side of things. Ichiban rocks.
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Ichiban almost won for me! The ending of 7 is both a delight in Japanese and English but either way I was in tears.
 
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I'm very partial to British voice acting, we have such a range of accents that never would appear in a game were it not for British dubbing gaining steam.

In that vein, the Xenoblade series, FF12 (using British stage actors was an inspired choice only hampered by the audio compression of the original), and FF14 post-ARR when they switched to a British dub. The latter is particular is really consistent with only a few duds, remarkable for an MMO with so many characters.

For other games, Hades is fantastic. Darren Korb simply owns the role of Zagreus, as Logan Cunningham does Hades. Supergiant is just really good in general.

I'd say Yakuza 7's dub was really good too. I've not played Infinite Wealth to judge that.
 
No One Lives Forever
No One Lives Forever 2

Not only was the voice acting done by real professional actors (which wasn't that common back in those days), but the script writing was equally amazing, and really wish more games had fun with the script like they did. It would poke fun at many tropes of spy movies/novels, while also being real self-aware of itself, also not trying to always take itself too seriously. The conversations the baddies would have with one another is something I rarely see in any game, let alone a 1st-person shooter featuring a female spy in the 1960s. And Kate Archer is one of the coolest protagonists in video games, not just women protagonists, but protagonists in general.

Nearly 25 years later, I can still play those games, and enjoy the voice acting in the game. It's still that freaking good. Too bad though we may never see a NOLF3, or even a remake/remaster. :cry:
 
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Sly Cooper is mine, 2 and 3 moreso than the first one. Probably unusually good for its time; that the actors were in the booth recording together is still uncommon I think.
 
I think Jack Black in Brutal Legend and JK Simmons in Portal 2 are standouts to me as far as single character performances, but for an overall cast that elevated the game I'd say Xenoblade 3. All the main character performances knocked it clear outta the park.
 
I'm curious if English dubbing causes "mother tongue shyness" in English-speaking countries. I don't know if this concept is clear, but there's an example of Chinese people who are shy when they hear that a Japanese game or anime is dubbed in Chinese (which has to do with the quality of the Chinese dubbing as well). But I've noticed that there seems to be a high acceptance of English dubs for Japanese games in English-speaking countries.
 
I always enjoyed Billy Kametz. It was really sad to hear of his passing a couple years ago. He was great as Ferdinand in Three Houses, but imo even better as Maruki in Persona 5 Royal. Here's an example, spoilers for Persona 5 Royal endgame:



Staying with the theme of Persona dubs, Alejandro Saab was fantastic as Akihiko. I never played the original Persona 3, so I won't compare the two, but he did great with the character. Example below, major spoilers for Persona 3 Reload:



Aufhebung RPG said:
I'm curious if English dubbing causes "mother tongue shyness" in English-speaking countries. I don't know if this concept is clear, but there's an example of Chinese people who are shy when they hear that a Japanese game or anime is dubbed in Chinese (which has to do with the quality of the Chinese dubbing as well). But I've noticed that there seems to be a high acceptance of English dubs for Japanese games in English-speaking countries.
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I watch anime entirely in Japanese with English subs, but I don't really have an issue playing English dubs of Japanese games. Kinda strange now that I think about it, since some games are basically anime in video game form.

In the case of English dubbed anime, there are some good ones out there, but a lot of them give me second-hand embarrassment from the exaggerated way the characters talk. Since Japanese isn't my native language, I don't recognize those moments as much when I watch with subtitles.
 
Aufhebung RPG said:
I'm curious if English dubbing causes "mother tongue shyness" in English-speaking countries. I don't know if this concept is clear, but there's an example of Chinese people who are shy when they hear that a Japanese game or anime is dubbed in Chinese (which has to do with the quality of the Chinese dubbing as well). But I've noticed that there seems to be a high acceptance of English dubs for Japanese games in English-speaking countries.
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There's definitely people in Germany who hate German dubs no matter what, even though our dubs are often of very high quality.
 
Aufhebung RPG said:
I'm curious if English dubbing causes "mother tongue shyness" in English-speaking countries. I don't know if this concept is clear, but there's an example of Chinese people who are shy when they hear that a Japanese game or anime is dubbed in Chinese (which has to do with the quality of the Chinese dubbing as well). But I've noticed that there seems to be a high acceptance of English dubs for Japanese games in English-speaking countries.
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There wasn't always a high acceptance for English dubs. In the early days of dubbing anime (like 90s and early 2000s) the quality of most dubs was so bad that anime fans developed a bit of an elitist attitude over watching in the original Japanese with subtitles. There were a few standout dubs at the time but like seriously only a few.

When games began getting full voiceovers the problem was there too. I think the properties coming over from Japan just weren't taken as seriously as homegrown stuff so there wasn't enough attention paid to doing really quality work. It's gotten much, much better lately but there's still something of a tendency among some English speakers to switch to Japanese voices, I think because it's easier for people to pick out iffy performances in our own languages.

I think age has something to do with it, too. I was watching anime in the 90s when the dubs were rough and I have somewhat negative associations with dubbed Japanese media, even if it's good there's like a little barrier in my brain or something. But I've talked with people who are much younger than me and genuinely prefer dubs (even some in particular that are grating to me) because it's what they grew up with and all they've really known. It sounds normal to them.


TL;DR: to a degree, yes. But it's changing with a new generation of fans and with generally much higher-quality dubs in general becoming the norm.
 
Top 3 for me are probably Portal 2, Kid Icarus Uprising, and Return to Monkey Island (the Arkham games also come to mind but let's be real, using the Animated Series VAs kinda feels like cheating for this conversation; do I really need to gush about how Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are Batman and the Joker?)

Return to Monkey Island has a strong showing from Dominic Armato in particular imo (though everyone else is doing a decent-to-good job as well). He's been playing Guybrush since 1997 and there's a sort of comfort and naturality(?) in a performance that can really only come with that sort of decades-spanning familiarity with a character
 
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Can't believe I'm the first person in here to mention Red Dead Redemption 2. Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan is obviously excellent, but it's Benjamin Byron Davis as Dutch who gives a legendary performance. The Arthur role is a pretty standard one - gunslinger with growing regrets. But Dutch is a seriously difficult role - he simply HAS to be so charismatic that you understand how this collection of outlaws and outcasts could follow him into these impossible, terrible situations and still believe in him. And he is. Incredibly so. And he has to very slowly change from charismatic but stable gang leader to unhinged death-cult leader, and he does so so well that people still argue over when the real change happens. That's probably my number one.

Others:
All main characters in Last of Us Parts 1 and 2;
All main characters in Portal 2

I'm typically allergic to "anime" voice acting, but if I had to choose my favourites there it'd be Xenoblade Chronicles and XC3.
And Kid Icarus Uprising goes for the episodic "Saturday morning cartoon" vibe and just murders it (in a good way). Ridiculously fun performances there.
 
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chocolate_supra said:
There wasn't always a high acceptance for English dubs. In the early days of dubbing anime (like 90s and early 2000s) the quality of most dubs was so bad that anime fans developed a bit of an elitist attitude over watching in the original Japanese with subtitles. There were a few standout dubs at the time but like seriously only a few.

When games began getting full voiceovers the problem was there too. I think the properties coming over from Japan just weren't taken as seriously as homegrown stuff so there wasn't enough attention paid to doing really quality work. It's gotten much, much better lately but there's still something of a tendency among some English speakers to switch to Japanese voices, I think because it's easier for people to pick out iffy performances in our own languages.

I think age has something to do with it, too. I was watching anime in the 90s when the dubs were rough and I have somewhat negative associations with dubbed Japanese media, even if it's good there's like a little barrier in my brain or something. But I've talked with people who are much younger than me and genuinely prefer dubs (even some in particular that are grating to me) because it's what they grew up with and all they've really known. It sounds normal to them.


TL;DR: to a degree, yes. But it's changing with a new generation of fans and with generally much higher-quality dubs in general becoming the norm.
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It's funny because Chinese dubbing was basically dominated by Taiwanese accents in the early days, and there was actually very little local dubbing in mainland China at that time, and the dubbing was mainly focused on live-action movies, so it's fair to say that we basically grew up listening to Taiwanese dubbing at that time, but when I watched the original Japanese dubbing, I couldn't get over it in either the Taiwanese dubbing or the mainland dubbing because I realized that the Chinese dubbing was always intentionally mimicking the playfulness of the Japanese speech as well as the tone of voice, and that made me itch a lot.
 
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (English) - Noah and Mio are voiced absolutely beautifully. Harry McEntire and Aimee-Ffion Edwards brought those characters to life, and play a big part in XC3 being my favorite Xenoblade.
  • Final Fantasy XVI (English) - Clive. You get it.
  • Disco Elysium - Duh.
  • Portal 2 - JK Simmons (Cave Johnson) and Stephen Merchant (Wheatley) are the standouts here, but the cast overall is solid. Ellen McClain (GLaDOS) is still great here, too.
  • Sekiro (both) - I love both the English and the Japanese dubs of this game. The performances are great, with juuuuust the right amount of cheese to really drive home the feeling of an old samurai movie. As far as the English dub goes, my favorites are Gyoubu (dude goes full Metal Gear with his boss intro. So cheesy I love it), Genichiro, and Owl. Japanese dub highlights are Isshin and, again, Owl. I love Owl's deep, gruff voice in the Japanese dub, but the way Owl yells the Iron Code at you after you die to him in his fight is one of my favorite moments in the game.
  • NieR Automata (English) - Just... peak. Kyle McCarley as 9S is so good.
  • Hades (English) - Every character is so animated in this game, including their voices. Just a really really good dub.
 
I'm a Japanese dub purist. So if the game is made in Japan (and ESPECIALLY if the game is set in Japan), I'm going with OG Japanese voice acting.

But if we are talking English dub, it has been mentioned before but Disco Elysium's voice acting blew me away. If only my inner voice is so sexy. And the maniacal 'BRATAN' voice acting for the tie always brought a smile. Sometimes, I replay the youtube video of the firebomb scene to hear the last mournful, crazy conversation between Harry and the tie.
 
lattjeful said:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (English) - Noah and Mio are voiced absolutely beautifully. Harry McEntire and Aimee-Ffion Edwards brought those characters to life, and play a big part in XC3 being my favorite Xenoblade.
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Takahashi is known as the Hideo Kojima of the animation world, so I'm always listening with the Japanese dub on lol, and honestly the xb series Japanese dub is characterized by being very solid, and it's very typical to do it in a similar way to Japanese animation performances as well as dubs
 
komicer said:
I'm a Japanese dub purist. So if the game is made in Japan (and ESPECIALLY if the game is set in Japan), I'm going with OG Japanese voice acting.

But if we are talking English dub, it has been mentioned before but Disco Elysium's voice acting blew me away. If only my inner voice is so sexy. And the maniacal 'BRATAN' voice acting for the tie always brought a smile. Sometimes, I replay the youtube video of the firebomb scene to hear the last mournful, crazy conversation between Harry and the tie.
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I'm generally the same way, but it depends. I like to research to see what offers the best experience. For example, I'd never watch the Attack On Titan dub, but the Fullmetal Alchemist/FMA: Brotherhood dub is so good that I really think you should watch it in English. Another one would be Final Fantasy XVI because it was written in English first, so the English dub is the intended experience.
 
As I scrolled through Hideo Kojima's Twitter feed, I realized that he's a man who knows a lot about Japanese voice actors, as well as his own love of Japanese animation, but it's surprising that he hasn't produced anything that resembles the acting style of Japanese animation, as well as the dubbing style, to date, and is still passionate about the American style of cinema.
 
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Currently I'd give it to Apex Legends. One of the few GAAS games where you can really tell the voice talent genuinely loves the characters both in and out the game.

Game also introduced me to Anjali Bhimani who voices Rampart, my main. She's awesome.

Other games I'd give nods to would be Deathloop, Unicorn Overlord, Tactics Ogre, JoJo ASB (the one with the best Josuke voice!) and Back 4 Blood.
 
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as a long-time hater of voice acting... here are the games that spoke to my tastes and made me appreciate the medium.

1. Disco Elysium — by far some of the best and most effective voice acting I have ever stumbled into. So much so that even a hater like me thinks the increased voice acting version is truly definitive.

2. Hades — equal turns campy and droll, and really, really good! I was kind of shocked — Supergiant's voice-acting sensibilities, while iconic to some, kind of put me off their prior games. Hades blew that perception out of the water. I ate my fucking words!

3. Portal 2 — more segmented and isolationist, but a real testament to using voice acting to elevate stakes and keep shit funny. The humor has probably aged a bit, and I wouldn't be shocked if younger folks find it irritatingly millennial... but if it's going to be reduced to that, it stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Honorable Mention: Elden Ring

look gang, voice acting in souls games... it's more like a punchline or a little bit of pepper in a dish. I don't find it "good," per se, regardless of the talent of individual actors.

but — I really do want to give Elden Ring a few points for camp here. if you let it be campy, it's something of a win. big shout out in particular to the Super Omen Bros. for loving to dunk on you. Varre gets a few points for being supremely catty.

Very Honorable Mention: Hollow Knight

See, this is probably my favorite voice acting, but since it's all made up and doesn't count... I'm putting it down here.

Very few things with nonsense syllables have so much range of character, phrases that stick in your mind despite being a non-existent bug language (with just enough threads to infer).

Like. the second you hear: sigh, "bapanada" — you know exactly what Iselda is thinking.

Zote's precepts are just as grating in gravelly false bravado as they read on the page.

Hornet is both cutting and curious but won't take any shit. Her voice perfectly reflects this, and she's given a ton of range to mourn and rage.

You can hear the misted loss in Sly's voice when you find him, and watch him snap right back to "shopkeeper mode" right away, until... later events grant a moment for resonance.

Speaking of... what a boisterous-to-melancholy arc Ogrim gets. Tender in loss, wistful in dreams...

Quirrel. Cloth. Jiji. Lemm. Nailsmith. Sheo. among so many others, and even minor characters (hot tub greek chorus)...

this is my IDEAL, tbh. Those other games really do make a case for straightforward voice acting. But... damn. Hollow Knight's voice acting and faux language are embedded in me.
 
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