English Voice Actors

[Lyckantropen]

So, what are your thoughts on the PSP English Demo...more specifically the English voice acting?

[RubyEclipse]

I was actually really impressed. At first I thought they'd pulled in a new voice actor for Ethan, but it's the same as AOTI. Overall I thought they did a much better job than with the original offline PSU story mode.

[Lyckantropen]

I was actually really impressed. At first I thought they'd pulled in a new voice actor for Ethan, but it's the same as AOTI. Overall I thought they did a much better job than with the original offline PSU story mode.

Ethan is in the english demo of Phantasy Star Portable?

[Stixxx]

Anyway.. seemed a lil slow.. maybe its the button pressing in between that just jacks the flow of it..

but i didn't have a hard time with it when i couldn't understand it at all.. aka (j) demo/game

still tho wasn't bad..

[RubyEclipse]

Ethan is in the english demo of Phantasy Star Portable?
No, sorry. The final version.

[Lyckantropen]

No, sorry. The final version.

Wait...so you have, and have been playing, the final U.S version of Phantasy Star Portable? Because I was asking about the English voice actors.



Anyway.. seemed a lil slow.. maybe its the button pressing in between that just jacks the flow of it..

but i didn't have a hard time with it when i couldn't understand it at all.. aka (j) demo/game

still tho wasn't bad..


Ok...see im asking about your opinions on the English demo of Phantasy Star Portable.

Did you guys get the U.S copy early, or something?

[Stixxx]

Ok...see im asking about your opinions on the English demo of Phantasy Star Portable.

Did you guys get the U.S copy early, or something?

nah i meant the demo in my reply, what i was talking about was when i couldn't understand the Japanese game.. i didn't have any problems with the flow of the conversation cause i didn't understand.. but in playing through the story mode in the demo for the US ver.. sure it was quality voice work.. but at the same time, having to press buttons to advance it kinda threw me off .. like the flow of a normal conversation A talks then b talks.. etc etc where as a talks then you gotta press to advance the conversation and if your not spot on .. it just doesn't sound like they are talking to each other... or you ..

had the same issue with star ocean tho i guess so all in all its ok ..

still would rather have no button pressing interrupting the conversation..

but ya at least it wasn't some squeaky tee hee girl types..

[Akaimizu]

Almost all Japanese games and/or anime have at least 1 of those squeaky tee-hee girl types. They're just too popular to not include. Ok. Not all, but enough of them to be included in a high percentage. In the Phantasy Star Univere realm, Hal is the closest thing to one. In pretty much the same way that 1 girl in Star Ocean is. If you're playing it, you'll know the one. :)

[Stixxx]

humm

tru tru.. KATARL KATARL! o wawit.. she was kick hiney

[foamcup]

The voice acting is terrible.

[Stixxx]

well how so? maybe i missed it

[KamiKazeKenji]

Well that opinion actually varies IMO. Some, like Mina (IMHO) are just terrible... But then Nav sounded just fine. I really think that judgment depends on each Character and different opinions...

Helga sounded pretty... "Lifeless"? Or maybe she's supposed to be like that...

[Akaimizu]

Interesting choice of word to describe Helga. :) :) :)

[landman]

I like the voice acting, I thoug the actors changed but then realized it was my psp speakers that made the difference

[Akaimizu]

For me, it feels like a real genuine effort is put into the voice presentation, and it has made some of the game more enjoyable for me. It's also interesting to hear the voices in-mission at times, as well. And they speak with a frequency that's low enough that you don't hear too many repeated samples. Instead, it's more like, "Did he/she just say that?" Having them in, with that level of frequency hits a pretty good balance.

It's not super awesome like "El Hazard: The Wanderers", but it's decent and presents a somewhat simple yet fun story.

(Note: Mentioned the El hazard one because it's by far my favorite Dub of all time. One of the few times in which the Dub easily eclipses the original voices...and also adds layers of background audio and voices not present in the original language. (Which is how they also add even more comic-lines than the original script.) It's an anime that pays to watch it, and then watch it again and listen closely to the stuff said in the background.)

[Dustin27]

I thought the voice acting was pretty good.

[StamiStar]

I like Vivienne's voice. Very naïve, soft, yet deep. Sheena's irks me, but it's funny(sounds like Tara Strong, because it sounds like Bubbles). I like Helga's because she sounds like those sly, evil women in fictional media. But I'm not fond of Lou, don't know why(changed actor?), maybe when she says her first line, she reminds me of some Shakespearean actors.

Here's the voice cast:

[SPOILER-BOX]Ethan ---- Nick Tagas
Karen ---- Erin Beers
Hyuga ---- Andrew Ceglio
Nav/Hiru Vol ---- Darren Jennings
Tylor/No Vol/Leo/Curtz ---- David Rosenthal
Tonnio/Vivienne ---- Amy Rubinate
Helga ---- Aileen Casas
Lou ---- Maile Sandidge
Dallgun/Rutsu ---- Owen Thomas
Tomrain ---- David Nowlin
Maya/Lumia/Norphe ---- Amy Provenzano
Kalam/Liina ---- Melissa Hutchison
Do Vol/Narrator ---- Roger Jackson
Laia ---- Gina Tuosto
[/SPOILER-BOX]

I can't find Lumia in the game even if she's credited; odd.

[randotenshin]

I guess they're not that bad. Helga's voice was kinda sexy IMO.

[ErtaiClou]

Most of them were pretty good. Others like Sheena were completely off, she has grammar problems, not a baby voice! O and nice try on the cover up act, trying to change S.U.V. to SUV. As if they could play it off the players had misinterpeted it the whole time.

[Revial]

They did alright. But if you played the japanese version, you can tell that sometimes the American versions sound horrible.

But, it wasn't bad. Not as great, but still a passing grade.

[Omega-R7]

post there names plz. psp cant open pic above ^ .

[KamiKazeKenji]

Omega... You... You use the PSP to webbrowse too!? Ahh... so much memories... But I really suggest buying a laptop... you can get one for the same price as a PSP ya' know! (I wouldn't have bought three PSPs if I knew that... T.T )

Ethan ---- Nick Tagas
Karen ---- Erin Beers
Hyuga ---- Andrew Ceglio
Nav/Hiru Vol ---- Darren Jennings
Tylor/No Vol/Leo/Curtz ---- David Rosenthal
Tonnio/Vivienne ---- Amy Rubinate
Helga ---- Aileen Casas
Lou ---- Maile Sandidge
Dallgun/Rutsu ---- Owen Thomas
Tomrain ---- David Nowlin
Maya/Lumia/Norphe ---- Amy Provenzano
Kalam/Liina ---- Melissa Hutchison
Do Vol/Narrator ---- Roger Jackson
Laia ---- Gina Tuosto

Perhaps that is why I have those opinions, BECAUSE I heard the Japanese voices first.

[Omega-R7]

ty. and i have labtop but i broke it. hint hint

[KamiKazeKenji]

Hmm... then perhaps you could use that shiny PSP to hack a bank/PAYPAL account and get a new one...XD

[Omega-R7]

nah im good 4 now. @.-

[Jaspaller]

I was disappointed when I heard Leo's new voice. The old voice actor was one of the few people I thought did a decent job.

[Deco_Bryl]

I think the overall voice acting in PSP has become even more uneven than before. Most of the actors reprising their roles are either as good as before (e.g., Darren Jennings as Headmaster Nav) or better (e.g., Nick Tagas as Ethan). Andrew Ceglio (Hyuga), however, sometimes inexplicably narrates or just plain reads too slow when he should be having a conversation, which he proved he could in Episode 1.

Gina Tuosto, who plays Laia again, doesn't sound like she's improved much since AotI. Two-thirds of the time, she sounds more like she's narrating than conversing. Also, in my opinion, her voice sounds too smooth compared to Laia's tough-beast-woman nature. She only sounded feral enough to me whenever she screamed "I'LL DESTROY YOU!" for a nanoblast.

On the brighter side, Amy Provenzano still sounds great as Maya. However, Maya sounds different this time—less bubbly, more down-to-earth. Maybe it's because of Maya's experiences in Episode 1, or maybe Provenzano just kinda-sorta forgot how she played the part before. Who knows? Anyway, it's a different, yet equally, if not more, enjoyable performance. I like this new Maya. I found myself wanting to hear more.

Next, we have the new characters. Amy Rubinate, who has played Tonnio, Ethan's partner machine Pete, Hal, and Mother Brain, adds Vivienne to her already long list of PSU characters. As Vivienne, Rubinate sounded somewhat artificial and stiff to me, at first, even for a CAST. Gradually, though, her innocence, naïveté, and sweet nature won me over. I even think she gradually sounds more natural as the story progresses. Maybe that was the plan all along.

Newcomer Aileen Casas plays the unnaturally powerful villainess Helga Neumann (or Noimann in the cutscenes). Casas does the self-assured-and-smug thing well enough, but when Helga's supposed to be angry or otherwise stressed, a few times, Casas just doesn't sound angry or stressed enough. I doubt this is her underplaying those scenes; even if she was, it comes off as lacking raw energy to me.

The actresses for Mina, Sheena, Reina, and Mana—the GUARDIANS receptionists—are, oddly enough, uncredited. Mina sounds too stiff most of the time. In my opinion, whoever's playing her really needs to relax more. Other than that, the character sounds surprisingly professional and mature. I thought she'd sound younger. (Curiously, in the PSP demo, it sounds more like Maile Sandidge, who plays Lou in the final version of PSP, is playing Mina. The speech patterns sound exactly the same to me.)

Sheena sounds jarringly, really jarringly, childlike. The games don't say much about CAST maturation, but like Ertai, I've always imagined Sheena had a normal-sounding voice despite the bad grammar. The way she is, she's rather scary to hear! :-o

Reina sounds exactly as I'd expected—smooth, very professional, and calm. I think this performance is competent—no more, no less. It won't win any awards, but it probably won't "win" any Razzies (http://www.razzies.com/), either.

Last, but not least, there's Mana. Whoever plays her sounds a little more rough and irreverent than I was expecting, but she also injects a catty playfulness I really liked. To me, this makes Mana the most fun of the four receptionists to hear.

Finally, let's talk about the replacements. David Rosenthal fills in for Mark Atherlay as Leo. Rosenthal's performance is competent but too different from Atherlay's for me. Rosenthal's Leo sounds slightly more excitable and considerably less paternal. I miss the old Leo. :(

The biggest disappointment, though, is Maile Sandidge replacing Bret Walter as Lou. In the early scenes, she emotes just a little too much, spiking her inflection on certain words when Walter would have raised it subtly like the emotionally restrained CAST Lou is. Also, Sandidge's Lou frequently sounds older, or at least lower-pitched, than Walter's. The most serious problem with Sandidge's performance, however, is her slow, choppy reading throughout the game. It's uncomfortable to listen to at best and awful at worst. If you thought Tagas's Ethan was horrible, Sandidge's Lou makes Ethan sound golden.

Beyond the actors, I've got to nitpick a few inconsistent pronunciations. First, all the actors pronounce Vivienne's name the same as the name Vivian (i.e., "VIV-ee-un"). With that spelling, I was expecting something more like "viv-ee-ENN." I grew up in Canada (eh?), so maybe what little Canadian French my teachers managed to drill into my head is shaping my expectations. It's not too big a deal.

What I liked a lot less, though, is how the actors pronounce Headmaster Nav's name. In Episode 1, it was pronounced "NAYVE," like "knave." In PSP, however, everybody pronounces it "NAV," like "NAVigation." That really irked me. Can't the directors, producers, or whoever's in charge be more consistent?! I wish they'd just pick one and stick with it. :-?

PSP's voice acting has quite a few bright spots, but the dull spots and downright messy smudges smother that light. It's a shame—I really did enjoy several of the performances.

[landman]

I wasn't sure if lou and leo had different voice actors, thanks for confirming it.

Another inconsistence with names is Tonnio's surname, in the cutscenes they say Lima, but his name in the party is still Rhima xD

[Deco_Bryl]

I wasn't sure if lou and leo had different voice actors, thanks for confirming it.

And I've got to thank KamiKazeKenji (cool name! 8-)) for writing down the voice credits! All I had before was a blurry cell-phone recording thereof! XD Thanks so much! :-)


Another inconsistence with names is Tonnio's surname, in the cutscenes they say Lima, but his name in the party is still Rhima xD

You're right! I totally forgot about that! Technically, it's more of a writing problem, but the actors pronounced it without thinking, so I guess it still counts. :P Never mind that it's just one of many gigs for them and they couldn't be bothered like some of us to memorize the PSU character names, even one. *whistles innocently* (*snigger* "Lima..." :-D)

Come to think of it, the most blatant change, error, or failure of the dialogue team to communicate with the game-text team, at least concerning character names, may be Helga, whose surname is Noimann in the cutscenes and Neumann in the game text, like in the vision phone. If I stretched my imagination a bit, I can kinda see "Noimann" as a European or otherwise alternate pronunciation of "Neumann." But an actual European would know better than me. :P Regardless, as with the Headmaster, they really should have picked one and stuck with it! :-? (Sigh.)

Oh, Sega. You're so consistently inconsistent. XD