As an amateur voice actor, I know for a fact that even brilliant actors have delivered lines dreadfully if they aren’t given good direction or, worse yet, no direction at all.
The best example of this is probably Xenoblade 2. The game is full of talented actors, but suffers from poor direction, despite this several actors were able to deliver good performances.
That actor's second take being included in the dialogue reminds me of a kindle book I found the other day that still had endnotes from the editor about mistakes the author had made. You hate to see it Edit: It was just a random kindle romance novel, A Lady's Forever Love by Bridget Barton. I found an epub online that let me go to the end, but in the Amazon preview you can see the clickable footnotes are still there lol
In the original japanese there probably was a good hint there as the acid rounds he's giving you with that line are especially effective against e.g. hunters but less so against the undead
@@utarefson9 fun fact, the game is originally voiced in English and the Japanese version just has Japanese subtitles. The subtitles say something like "It's powerful ammo. It works really well against living things" I guess there's a little bit more emphasis on "living things", which makes you question what the hell he meant by that
@@davidnjihia6781 I think people would love my localization. I'd do everything myself. Yes it would be a mess but imagine how entertaining it would be to have every character voiced by the same guy doing a slightly different voice. And of course it would all be one take
Voice acting was such an afterthought it took people almost 20 years to figure out who the English voice actor for the main character in Silent Hill was.
+Austin Forbes Why him? I know he kinda silently un-cancelled himself all that time ago, so I have nothing against him, but what does he have to do with voice acting?
As a translator, what you described sounds much more like bad translation vs. localization. Actual good quality translation is not just translating things word for word, but translating them with their meaning in mind (without changing things too much to suit the target language/culture, like in localization). Localization can sometimes be a good choice and there are some excellent ones out there, but that is sadly not always the case and it's not even an option for every game/movie/book/etc because of the context, themes and story. Personally, I prefer good quality translations over localization, because that allows me to hear the creators' original voice and intentions better, but to each their own~ Sorry, I just had to comment ^^" Seeing people conflate or confuse bad (possibly machine or amateur made) translations with actual good quality translations makes me sad :< People usually only take note of translations when they are bad or ineffective (as one of the hallmarks of a good translation often is that it does not draw attention to itself), and it can be easy to think that translations are just bad more often than not. Good translators do not get nearly enough credit in pretty much any industry, but especially game industry.
Professional translation is NEVER one to one word conversation. All translation is (or at least should be) ALWAYS written with context and culture in mind. Even Google Translate tries to adjust to different tones by guessing the context. This is the first thing you learn when you learn any type of translation. Localization is just subcategory of translation.
Yeah that irked me too. Word by word translation is completely illegible so its not even a thing. Translation does adapt grammar and figures of speech to make sense. The difference is that localization goes even further, to the point of destroying nuance. For example pokemons' infamous jelly doughnuts which are actually onigiri, where they unnecessarily, and clumsily localized the snack. Translating them as a rice balls wouldve gotten the message across just fine and avoided confusion. Or ace attorney's almost tongue in cheek setting of its story in california, when the characters' entire lifestyle, from furniture to food, is blatantly japanese. That is localization, and its honestly kinda cringe and destructive cause if you have an internet connection, you should be able to search for foreign things you dont understand.
I was thinking the same thing. A localization (in my experience) is usually a bad thing and marks poor quality or low expectations from the audience as it erases pieces of culture and storytelling from the original to make it "easier" to consume. Changing the names, races, locations, etc of a story is a waste of time that only confuses everyone involved and takes away from (or sometimes introduces) story elements. I also have problems with localizations as they make the assumption that they can override the original works' intent with their own past what's considered okay from a translation.
im getting flashbacks to the time a gacha kid randomly dmed me on discord saying that they wanted me to do "a little voice acting" for a "mini movie" they were making i assumed it would be a small thing where i (not even a voice actor) record a little line or two and then go i was wrong i was told i was now the main two characters in this series i was given a movie-like script but without any notes on how i was supposed to say the lines, and they were very unclear in most of their messages and also seemed to have a hard time spelling. basically i backed out politely because i was not having that shit
9:24 This shit had me dying. "We must recover all the energy immedally, w- ... Mega Man?!" "But... where _is_ Doctor Wily?" "Dah's a goohd queshton. We may ab- ... be able to locate an... -other energy emmishun from the radar rooum? When we find that meatier, we'ww find Doctorw Waurwie!"
I saw this in something about mega man animation and I thought they were just doing it for a laugh but I did not know it was in the actual game. This is so much more funny now
He sounds like Homestar Runner saying "Dirk the Daring." Strong Bad makes fun of him and says "Dork the Daring," and Homestar replies "yeah that's what I said."
Another important thing to note is that when it came to recording english dialog, many Japanese devs would hire locally rather than outsource to studios in English speaking countries. A great example I always think of where you can see/hear this is the voice acting in the Mega Man Legends games vs. the voice acting in Mega Man 8 and X4. MML used canadian VAs and it sounds great, or at least fitting of the Saturday Morning Anime feel of the series (which is partially because that's where a ton of early dubs were done, and a ton still are at studios like Ocean and whatnot). Compare that the MM8 and X4 voice acting and... yeah. This is also the case with RE1 and Castlevania SotN among others... though I still think Robbie Belgrade is actually great as Alucard (save for a few lines), and I was super happy to hear him in Bloodstained.
VIDEO SUMMARY: It's because: 1) A lack of money sometimes meant non-professionals had to do voice acting, or having a few voice actors do all of the voices in the games 2) Poor script writing 3) Use of translations (word-to-word conversions between languages), which lose nuances or just don't make sense, instead of localizations (which also changes the script to account for cultural differences) 4) Because of the poor formatting of the scripts (basically a list of voice lines without order) actors were not given the necessary context to figure out the inflection or tone intended 5) Actors often did not interact or even hear each other's lines, so they didn't have knowledge of the context of the scene 6) No director, meaning they had even less guidance and feedback (performers had to just guess) 7) No time for planning, practice, or rehearsal, and limited time in the audio booth, so actors got few or no retakes
Based on the title I was half-expecting just snide comments on bad voice acting, but instead I was delightfully surprised by a thoughtful analysis of the challenges of a difficult time period for even the best of actors. Thanks for taking the time to look deeper!
I love how the Perfect Dark team literally grabbed people out of the hall without notice to voice. I think the main character was a composer on her break. They did a good job tho in my opinion. It fit the game.
@@lvbboi9 The game was literally made by college kids in their free time cause they loved fiddling with Amigas. So they made a purposefully bad spaghetti western game parodying as much as they could think of.
Another thing is that I think some people mistake poorly written lines for poor voice acting. I don’t care who you are, nobody can make “I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with light!“ sound natural.
I thought CGI Norman Reedus' eyes looked kind of dead, but then you showed the live action comparison and I remembered, oh yeah that's just what he looks like. That feels kind of mean.
One game that really ruins the immersion is Red Dead Redemptions voices. The voice acting per se is actually fantastic, but the fact that the voices are incredibly compressed and scratchy really ruins your immersion. That and the fact that your horse will run away from you if you sprint towards it are my only complaints about the game
I really enjoyed doing VO for the Skyrim mod Enderal. I was supplied proper dialogue scripts with context, they had a database on how to pronounce every single one of the many special names an terms they had, and even though I did it at home alone with my desktop microphone I felt supported in the effort by the development team. Playing the game I also found that most of the performances were pretty great, especially given the fact that we all worked free of charge. Overall it was a fantastic experience and I recommend you give Enderal a play if you own Skyrim.
I didn't know they often read the dialogue out of order, I would've been so confused lmao Also didn't know a director is so important too, would've sucked to have no feedback or clues. I would've been SO lost lmaoo
This was so eye opening. It was really interesting to see an example of how a complex game script can be written in such a way that you have no idea what the context of the line will be. In the case of well known actors giving poor performances, I've always wondered if some of that comes from voice directors feeling star stuck. I got this idea watching the making of documentary that came with the GotY edition of Oblivion. They seemed so awe struck to have Patrick Stewart come in to read for the Emperor, that I had a hard time imagining any of them trying to give him any kind of direction on how to read the lines.
Awesome video. I’m a voice actor and I can vouch for a lot of this. All but one of my video game job voice scripts have been Excel spreadsheets. Translation rather than localisation also means that sometimes VAs will have to reword the scripts as they go. There is such an audible difference in working with a director too... it’s worth the extra money!
This video was fantastic! I'm reminded of John DiMaggio's documentary, "I Know That Voice", that had many VAs in it. What a lot of them said boiled down to, "If the performance isn't very good, then it's probably a rush job or bad voice direction." You can really hear the rush job theory if you play Fire Emblem: Warriors and compare it to Fire Emblem: Awakening. Both games were directed by Patrick Seitz and feature much of the same cast, but Warriors is significantly more awkward and less grounded sounding because it was a rush job. His most recently-directed game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, had more localization time and is a day and night acting quality difference. Thank you for the quality video!
that translation/localisation discrimination was really underresearched, Austin. The terms are different but you make it sound as though translation is not an inherent process of localising which is a broader term, and you also make it sound like one is inferior to the other. You might want to look up the term Equivalence which is more or less the product of what you have described as localisation. There is also word-for-word translation which is what you have dubbed translation, but there is also sense-for-sense translation as well. Neither is inherently better, mind you, as sense-for-sense usually sacrifices format for that message, useful for manuals or medical literature, not so much for belle-lettres. You may find more about multimedia transcreation and glocalisation on JoTrans, especially from Mangiron and O'Hagan
9:53 this is a practice I often do with "scripts for student actors" penny books I buy from local bookstores, great for practice but you'd be surprised just how hard it is to deduce inflection and tone from out of context script !!!
excuse me, there's a mistake in the video, Jeff Kramer's voice acting of FBI Agent Francis York Morgan in Deadly Premonition is one of the greatest and most charismatic performances in any medium ever... redo the video, I'll wait.
This is why appreciate the voice acting in Ys Book I&II on the PC Engine CD/turbografx so much and I wish it was discussed or mentioned in this video. Even though it came out in 1990 it had multiple professional voice actors and great direction. Just listening to the opening narration is amazing
Hey, at least you guys HAVE voice acting. I have something I have nicknamed "Blips" - deep, high, low pitches repeated to imitate older games that didn't have voice acting: with deep blips going to male leader roles, medium blips going to main heroes and supporting cast, and high blips being almost always female.
And now we have masterpieces in voice acting like Spiderman PS4 where they recorded most of Spider-Man’s lines twice, one where he was winded which played if you were swinging on your web or running and one normal if you were just walking or standing still
Pretty sure the two terms you're looking for is transliteration and translation. Transliteration is translating the words word-by-word. Translation conveys the idea of it.
Benny was voiced well (aside from maybe the sex scene). Also while there were some bad voice acting in early games there were some good ones too. Same with writing, whole down early games had bad writing, there were many that had good writing.
most of the good early voice acting for videogames came from games where only the main character (or some other important character) had 90% of the lines, and didn't have to interact with any other character
Rosalina, in Super Mario Galaxy had a line in a cutscene right before the final boss fight and it was "Go, Mario" and it sounded like they forgot to have her record that specific line and caught her in the middle of a hallway and recorded it on a cell phone. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
I think the divide between linear games and open world games makes this even more complicated. Rumor says that the lines for Oblivion (2006) were recorded in alphabetical order. Obviously not actor friendly, but in a game with hundreds of NPCs and thousands of quests, how else do you even begin to organize everything? But look at a linear game from the same era, Resident Evil 4 (2005). Cheesy, sure, but you can't deny that the performers hit the mark they were aiming for. But that game had the advantage of being linear, and was probably in a much easier to read script. This is part of what makes RDR2 and God of War from 2018 so impressive: RPG freedom with linear quality acting and writing. If we can look forward to quality like that in the future, even in the most open of games, I think we're in for some really special and immersive titles. (Great video, BTW. Very decent of you to give these poor VAs some credit for the impossible task a lot of them were handed.)
I remember playing InuYasha the Secret of the Cursed Mask. The same amazing voice cast from the English dub of the anime were used. But you could tell they were not given proper voice direction.
Did you know: Until 2016, the “Happy Birthday” song was not for public use. Meaning, prior to 2016, the song was copyrighted and you had to pay a license to use it.
More context! Is was made by a school teacher, and was originally titled "good morning to all". She would perform it most mornings to start the day off well with a bit of music. Gradually, she would start adapting the lyrics for specific holidays and occasions, including birthdays. The birthday version especially gained popularity, and a music company claimed copyright for it. It wasn't until very recently that the copyright claim was found invalid, and the song entered the public domain
As someone who frequently uses Fiverr to find voice actors, I can definitely say that it's a lot easier to find affordable voice actors now than in the past. The amount of resources available to game developers and others with their own projects is astounding and really shouldn't be overlooked.
It was definitely good especially for the time. I spent hours and hours combing over the game to find every single little Easter egg and snippet of dialogue
@@dimesonhiseyes9134 "Alderaan... the Jedi Envlave is in Alderaan", and of course who could forget the infamous "Are you an Angel? Hope no kid ever uses that line." Iine KotOR 2. I love the KotOR games. Hundreds of hours well spent.
I found most voice actors to do a good enough job of displaying emotions honestly, only Bastilla lacked any emotion beyond the torture sequence and her getting annoyed with you.
@@jimmym3352 I love how these two comments contradict each other, oh well. I found the main characters to be the better VC parts of the game but sometimes when you doom an NPC to death it feels really c tier acted out.
Part of me wishes you would have given some recognition to the early games that got voice acting right, like Metal Gear Solid, Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Medievil. Those all have great VA, and MGS is a great example of localization.
You know, I had always thought the "bad voice acting" was intentional. I was just a kid. Absolutely no idea that scripts existed or they were voices from real people.
Valve may not know how to take care of their games, but TF2, Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2 even the original Half Life, which were all made before 2010(except for portal 2), all have better voice acting than most voice acting today.
![Дон ДОН, Алаудинов и СБЕЖАВШИЕ из под Курска ахматовцы 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dEfCf5IK26Q/mqdefault.jpg)
To be crystal clear, I'm not any better. ua-cam.com/video/OqJ1fPEDGSo/v-deo.html
Ooh boy this video
Ngl, was expecting a clip from that video to show up XD
Mm
pretty sure a town with no name was a joke
Was just going to comment this
As an amateur voice actor, I know for a fact that even brilliant actors have delivered lines dreadfully if they aren’t given good direction or, worse yet, no direction at all.
Yeah, exactly!
Voice actors are artists too, and you can’t give them zero resources and expect them too succeed.
Exactly! The same applies when an actor completely messes up an accent.
I was a voice actor for a game when I was a kid. Maybe it’s different me being a kid; but the directing was EVERYTHING
SamWallace Art what game?
The best example of this is probably Xenoblade 2. The game is full of talented actors, but suffers from poor direction, despite this several actors were able to deliver good performances.
As a voice actor, I can say that The Town With No Name has the greatest voice acting of any game. Ever.
I think that nearly every aspect of the town with no name is perfect
I always felt he was trying badly imitate John Wayne on purpose
didn't ask stfu
@@poopcatgameplay8495 fuck you
@@poopcatgameplay8495 You must not understand the concept of starting a fucking conversation. Please, gtfo and get some friends.
"So how come you have got a spider as a pet?"
"My elephant ran away"
Is this a dad joke i'm too young to understand?
me too buddy
No it’s just a really dumb joke
No, it's just bad
I think what he meant is...that oldman actually have an elephant as a pet b4..and then it ran away so he get a spider now as his new pet xD
Wild West version of
"Did you teleport here!?"
"Well yeah, my lamborghinis at the mechanic"
The game 'The Town With No Name' was designed as a western shitpost satire. That explains the Awkward voice acting... partially.
it's also a super-cheap game made by Amiga enthusiasts going to university
they knocked this shit out for fun
partially by an extend
Woosh goes the drink
The drink falls to the ground and the cowboy stares at the bar tender, stunned, confused... scared.
B A R T E N D E R
What? The town with no name’s voice acting is amazing.
WELL I WON’T SAY DAT UNTIL AN HOUR TILL CLOSING TIME
LitterBox YOU MEAN THIS ISNT DODGE GULCH?
Thank you, *Harry*
Well I dant satha tillanaraclaosing tie.
MAH NAMES NOT SHAYNE KID
That actor's second take being included in the dialogue reminds me of a kindle book I found the other day that still had endnotes from the editor about mistakes the author had made. You hate to see it
Edit: It was just a random kindle romance novel, A Lady's Forever Love by Bridget Barton. I found an epub online that let me go to the end, but in the Amazon preview you can see the clickable footnotes are still there lol
What book was it? I'm curious.
Please don't say House of Leaves.
Was it free at least? Or did you pay for that experience
@@katymoore4678 I would pay for that experience 😁
Wow... Of course mistakes are possible, but I’m still quite surprised how bad a mistake can get for even professional things. 😆
"Wait, let me do that one again."
_That poor actress._
F in the chat bois
F
FFF
F
"what is that?"
"It's a weapon, it's extremely powerful, especially against living things"
glad we got that cleared up
yes the floor is made of floor
@@watema3381 Darn, you beat me to it
In the original japanese there probably was a good hint there as the acid rounds he's giving you with that line are especially effective against e.g. hunters but less so against the undead
@@utarefson9 fun fact, the game is originally voiced in English and the Japanese version just has Japanese subtitles.
The subtitles say something like "It's powerful ammo. It works really well against living things"
I guess there's a little bit more emphasis on "living things", which makes you question what the hell he meant by that
@@sanny8716 I suppose he means the non-undead enemies.
Finds homeless person on street
gives dollar: how would you like to be in a video game
Even THAT might end up being better. Look up “homeless man with the golden voice”.
Why don't you try localizing a video game and we'll see who's talking, eh?
@@davidnjihia6781 bro it's a johk chill
Squid-Boy he must be a shitty voice actor
@@davidnjihia6781 I think people would love my localization. I'd do everything myself. Yes it would be a mess but imagine how entertaining it would be to have every character voiced by the same guy doing a slightly different voice. And of course it would all be one take
In the early days of PC gaming in Russia we had a meme: "Voiced over by a professional programmers"
bahaha
Hahahaha.
"ohH noOoO, it's cOoMinG, oHh nooOo, it'S goIng tO exPlodE"
She sounds like she's a narrator for a damn porn film
omfg she does XDDD
When step sis walks in after you forget to lock the door
i thought that too
Voice acting was such an afterthought it took people almost 20 years to figure out who the English voice actor for the main character in Silent Hill was.
Cheryl!
"Do you have the right time old man?"
The old man proceeds to then have reality unfold around him.
"No"
what?
@@aturchomicz821 The town with no name, its the very first game in the video
It is the funniest game ever made, whether it be by coincidence or no
(This is sarcasm)
Blake Brill how can you say that with sarcasm???
Who remembers this game?
That's why we need people like ProZD in this world
yes.
Mi agras
+Austin Forbes Why him? I know he kinda silently un-cancelled himself all that time ago, so I have nothing against him, but what does he have to do with voice acting?
@@meowtherainbowx4163 literally his job
I THINK THAT ENEMY GOT.... THE POINT
"pass me a drink bartender"
Note how there is no capitalization, or punctuation. This was on purpose
But that can also be used to prove how lazy they were..
Its always fucking hilarious when I hear it
Oh yeah I love drink bartenders lol
It was actually a pretty good John Wayne voice.
As a translator, what you described sounds much more like bad translation vs. localization. Actual good quality translation is not just translating things word for word, but translating them with their meaning in mind (without changing things too much to suit the target language/culture, like in localization). Localization can sometimes be a good choice and there are some excellent ones out there, but that is sadly not always the case and it's not even an option for every game/movie/book/etc because of the context, themes and story. Personally, I prefer good quality translations over localization, because that allows me to hear the creators' original voice and intentions better, but to each their own~
Sorry, I just had to comment ^^" Seeing people conflate or confuse bad (possibly machine or amateur made) translations with actual good quality translations makes me sad :< People usually only take note of translations when they are bad or ineffective (as one of the hallmarks of a good translation often is that it does not draw attention to itself), and it can be easy to think that translations are just bad more often than not. Good translators do not get nearly enough credit in pretty much any industry, but especially game industry.
It was a pointless distinction
This is what I thought too
Translation requires localization to some degree
Professional translation is NEVER one to one word conversation. All translation is (or at least should be) ALWAYS written with context and culture in mind. Even Google Translate tries to adjust to different tones by guessing the context. This is the first thing you learn when you learn any type of translation. Localization is just subcategory of translation.
Yeah that irked me too. Word by word translation is completely illegible so its not even a thing. Translation does adapt grammar and figures of speech to make sense. The difference is that localization goes even further, to the point of destroying nuance. For example pokemons' infamous jelly doughnuts which are actually onigiri, where they unnecessarily, and clumsily localized the snack. Translating them as a rice balls wouldve gotten the message across just fine and avoided confusion. Or ace attorney's almost tongue in cheek setting of its story in california, when the characters' entire lifestyle, from furniture to food, is blatantly japanese. That is localization, and its honestly kinda cringe and destructive cause if you have an internet connection, you should be able to search for foreign things you dont understand.
I was thinking the same thing. A localization (in my experience) is usually a bad thing and marks poor quality or low expectations from the audience as it erases pieces of culture and storytelling from the original to make it "easier" to consume. Changing the names, races, locations, etc of a story is a waste of time that only confuses everyone involved and takes away from (or sometimes introduces) story elements. I also have problems with localizations as they make the assumption that they can override the original works' intent with their own past what's considered okay from a translation.
“The thing is.... the game was rigged from the start.”
Idk why he’s shown in the beginning. Perry’s a fine actor, and did great with Benny.
@@lemonlite_ I agree
In my opinion the intro to new vegas is one of the best video game intros ever
Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter....
Agreed
im getting flashbacks to the time a gacha kid randomly dmed me on discord saying that they wanted me to do "a little voice acting" for a "mini movie" they were making
i assumed it would be a small thing where i (not even a voice actor) record a little line or two and then go
i was wrong
i was told i was now the main two characters in this series
i was given a movie-like script but without any notes on how i was supposed to say the lines, and they were very unclear in most of their messages and also seemed to have a hard time spelling.
basically i backed out politely because i was not having that shit
Q
@@usernametaken017 Q indeed.
Damn
What a nice way to avoid people pinging you
9:24
This shit had me dying.
"We must recover all the energy immedally, w- ... Mega Man?!"
"But... where _is_ Doctor Wily?"
"Dah's a goohd queshton. We may ab- ... be able to locate an... -other energy emmishun from the radar rooum? When we find that meatier, we'ww find Doctorw Waurwie!"
I saw this in something about mega man animation and I thought they were just doing it for a laugh but I did not know it was in the actual game. This is so much more funny now
He sounds like Homestar Runner saying "Dirk the Daring." Strong Bad makes fun of him and says "Dork the Daring," and Homestar replies "yeah that's what I said."
Dr. White's va sounds like they got some kid's grandpa to fill in for the role
_"You'll just have to wait until after the test, Gordon"_
- Half-Life
*_S T A H P_*
I don't know what you mean, Half-Life voice acting was more than adequate for it's timeperiod.
@@slyseal2091 it sounds so shrill and off-putting, but it works for some reason, and I love it
ey, the voice acting in half life was great and exactly fitted in with the game
They're waiting for you, Gordon. In the TEST C H A M B E R.
Austin, I feel like this is just an excuse for your poor voice acting in that video game you did as a kid 😆🤣😆🤣
My excuse is that I was 10. 😂
Oof.
@@nagitokomaeda3237 On the meat bone?
@@googas1 Exactly. That was what I thought. Meat on the Bone.
Ooh, what game?
>"bad voice acting"
>shows fallout new vegas intro
that's it, im getting the belt
The truth is, the game’s voice acting was bad from the start.
"Early Video Game"
Fallout: New Vegas release year: 2010
Now tell me, is THAT early?
patrolling the mojave makes me want to fucking die
Benny's voice acting is objectively bad. But the game just wouldn't be the same without it.
"Sorry Link, i can't GIVE credit. Come back when you're a little... MMM, richer!"
You don't KNOW bad voice acting.
Another important thing to note is that when it came to recording english dialog, many Japanese devs would hire locally rather than outsource to studios in English speaking countries.
A great example I always think of where you can see/hear this is the voice acting in the Mega Man Legends games vs. the voice acting in Mega Man 8 and X4. MML used canadian VAs and it sounds great, or at least fitting of the Saturday Morning Anime feel of the series (which is partially because that's where a ton of early dubs were done, and a ton still are at studios like Ocean and whatnot). Compare that the MM8 and X4 voice acting and... yeah. This is also the case with RE1 and Castlevania SotN among others... though I still think Robbie Belgrade is actually great as Alucard (save for a few lines), and I was super happy to hear him in Bloodstained.
VIDEO SUMMARY:
It's because:
1) A lack of money sometimes meant non-professionals had to do voice acting, or having a few voice actors do all of the voices in the games
2) Poor script writing
3) Use of translations (word-to-word conversions between languages), which lose nuances or just don't make sense, instead of localizations (which also changes the script to account for cultural differences)
4) Because of the poor formatting of the scripts (basically a list of voice lines without order) actors were not given the necessary context to figure out the inflection or tone intended
5) Actors often did not interact or even hear each other's lines, so they didn't have knowledge of the context of the scene
6) No director, meaning they had even less guidance and feedback (performers had to just guess)
7) No time for planning, practice, or rehearsal, and limited time in the audio booth, so actors got few or no retakes
Thanks his pretentious voice is irritating
@@mrwhippy101 Well that is rude
@@L16htW4rr10r k
Adam you watch Austin?
Thanks for the summary!
Did he say “a moo point” at about 5 min in?
Yeah. It's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter. It's moo.
AustinMcConnell lmao 😂 fair enough
John A it’s a Friends reference ;)
It's a mood point you dumb dumb.
Have I been watching his videos too long or did that make sense?
"To protect the life cycle, I have made a creature to rule over mankind!"
-Kermit the Frog
Based on the title I was half-expecting just snide comments on bad voice acting, but instead I was delightfully surprised by a thoughtful analysis of the challenges of a difficult time period for even the best of actors. Thanks for taking the time to look deeper!
_"I HOPE SHE MAKE LOSTA SPAGHETTI..."_
*~ Mama Luigi (Hotel Mario)*
You mean Gay Luigi
*Mama*?!
The voice acting in Hotel Mario is pretty good besides Bowser
Mario's "no" wasn't bad either
guys i losta spaghetti recipe
Oh great, another question I never asked that I now need the answer to.
I liked Chandler's performance in Fallout.
Yes, I know the actor has a name, but could he be any more Chandler?
On the flip side, I played fallout before watching friends so I was just like.
"Omg that's Benny"
Give those charlies a shake for the Ben man
Honestly, even though Benny's lines arent always well executed, his role in the intro is unironically some of my favourite voice acting.
You mean Matthew Perry?
@@pacorka9943 No, I mean Chandler. :)
I love how the Perfect Dark team literally grabbed people out of the hall without notice to voice. I think the main character was a composer on her break. They did a good job tho in my opinion. It fit the game.
It did-matched Perfect Dark's B-movie sci-fi vibe perfectly.
I always thought the voice acting in perfect dark did a pretty a good job.
Im pretty sure Voice acting is the least of the problems of The Town With No Name.
it’s supposed to be bad
What do you mean that game has *problems*, bartender
@@sci_pain3409 I damn hope so, couldnt be any other way
@@lvbboi9 The game was literally made by college kids in their free time cause they loved fiddling with Amigas. So they made a purposefully bad spaghetti western game parodying as much as they could think of.
@@hotcrossballs Thats really cool
Didnt know that
Thx
I love the town with no name
The animation is on par with the voices and it plays like garbage it's great
Based
Another thing is that I think some people mistake poorly written lines for poor voice acting.
I don’t care who you are, nobody can make “I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with light!“ sound natural.
I thought CGI Norman Reedus' eyes looked kind of dead, but then you showed the live action comparison and I remembered, oh yeah that's just what he looks like.
That feels kind of mean.
One game that really ruins the immersion is Red Dead Redemptions voices. The voice acting per se is actually fantastic, but the fact that the voices are incredibly compressed and scratchy really ruins your immersion. That and the fact that your horse will run away from you if you sprint towards it are my only complaints about the game
I thought that only happened in Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed: Origins. Why do horses like running away from you in open world games? 😂🐴🏇🏻
I haven't played that game, but the voices might be compressed and scratchy to give it an 80's spaghetti western feel
I really enjoyed doing VO for the Skyrim mod Enderal. I was supplied proper dialogue scripts with context, they had a database on how to pronounce every single one of the many special names an terms they had, and even though I did it at home alone with my desktop microphone I felt supported in the effort by the development team. Playing the game I also found that most of the performances were pretty great, especially given the fact that we all worked free of charge. Overall it was a fantastic experience and I recommend you give Enderal a play if you own Skyrim.
9:14 ... the character was like "uhmm... you're not supposed to do that" while looking on the sides not knowing what to do
I'm pretty sure a Town with no name was the first Shitpost ever no one could have unironically made that
“oh no somethings coming.”
“oh no he’s gonna explode.”
forgot to say something it is the best voice line lol
This is why sonic didn’t speak until they found Jaleel White.
11:19 The emotion in those eyes, holy shit man.
0:11
We did it!
*WE DE-ACT-IV-A-TED THE BOMB.*
Some of my favorite bad video game voice acting comes from the early days of the Nancy Drew PC adventure games. They're hilarious 😂
Yesss!
I didn't know they often read the dialogue out of order, I would've been so confused lmao
Also didn't know a director is so important too, would've sucked to have no feedback or clues. I would've been SO lost lmaoo
This was so eye opening. It was really interesting to see an example of how a complex game script can be written in such a way that you have no idea what the context of the line will be. In the case of well known actors giving poor performances, I've always wondered if some of that comes from voice directors feeling star stuck. I got this idea watching the making of documentary that came with the GotY edition of Oblivion. They seemed so awe struck to have Patrick Stewart come in to read for the Emperor, that I had a hard time imagining any of them trying to give him any kind of direction on how to read the lines.
Awesome video. I’m a voice actor and I can vouch for a lot of this. All but one of my video game job voice scripts have been Excel spreadsheets. Translation rather than localisation also means that sometimes VAs will have to reword the scripts as they go. There is such an audible difference in working with a director too... it’s worth the extra money!
This video was fantastic!
I'm reminded of John DiMaggio's documentary, "I Know That Voice", that had many VAs in it. What a lot of them said boiled down to, "If the performance isn't very good, then it's probably a rush job or bad voice direction."
You can really hear the rush job theory if you play Fire Emblem: Warriors and compare it to Fire Emblem: Awakening. Both games were directed by Patrick Seitz and feature much of the same cast, but Warriors is significantly more awkward and less grounded sounding because it was a rush job. His most recently-directed game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, had more localization time and is a day and night acting quality difference.
Thank you for the quality video!
"Oh God, they're eating her!"
"And then they're gonna eat me!"
That one's not a video game, though.
@@ieaiaio9 still funny tho
“OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!”
Nobody:
The girl from the intro:
🇰 🇪 🇪 🇪 🇦 🇾 🇦 🇦 🇦 🇭 🇭 🇭
How did u make your text B L U E
@@imjasonyo1418 emojis
@@imjasonyo1418
Search up lingojam
“Dang! Just a few more pages and I would have finished this book!”
that translation/localisation discrimination was really underresearched, Austin.
The terms are different but you make it sound as though translation is not an inherent process of localising which is a broader term, and you also make it sound like one is inferior to the other. You might want to look up the term Equivalence which is more or less the product of what you have described as localisation. There is also word-for-word translation which is what you have dubbed translation, but there is also sense-for-sense translation as well. Neither is inherently better, mind you, as sense-for-sense usually sacrifices format for that message, useful for manuals or medical literature, not so much for belle-lettres. You may find more about multimedia transcreation and glocalisation on JoTrans, especially from Mangiron and O'Hagan
this guy translates
9:53 this is a practice I often do with "scripts for student actors" penny books I buy from local bookstores, great for practice but you'd be surprised just how hard it is to deduce inflection and tone from out of context script !!!
"You were almost a Jill Sandwich"
Ya I think that game just had some awkward writing
I still love it, though
Can I just say I love how random your channel is. It inspires me.
Thanks! More to come.
"KEEEEEYYAHHHHHH" - that girl from the intro
Posted 16 seconds ago and The Town with no Name in the thumbnail? nice
I'm a duck too.
"Wait, don't let him pass! Arrast him"
excuse me, there's a mistake in the video, Jeff Kramer's voice acting of FBI Agent Francis York Morgan in Deadly Premonition is one of the greatest and most charismatic performances in any medium ever... redo the video, I'll wait.
*flashbacks to your short career as a voice actor*
"All your base are belong to us"
@Nobody comments are not funny you troglodyte r/woooosh
@Nobody comments are not funny you troglodyte It has something to do with you not paying attention to the video.
This is why appreciate the voice acting in Ys Book I&II on the PC Engine CD/turbografx so much and I wish it was discussed or mentioned in this video. Even though it came out in 1990 it had multiple professional voice actors and great direction. Just listening to the opening narration is amazing
That's a great example.
When the awkward voice acting just makes the game more charming and fun to play: "Don't worry, Mama will fix it."
Really interesting videos lately! Loving the content, keep it up :)
The town with no name was made as a joke by some college friends, so I think it was made bad on purpose.
This is exactly the kind of video I was hoping to find. Excellent work!
Hey, at least you guys HAVE voice acting. I have something I have nicknamed "Blips" - deep, high, low pitches repeated to imitate older games that didn't have voice acting: with deep blips going to male leader roles, medium blips going to main heroes and supporting cast, and high blips being almost always female.
0:44. Benny's voice acting worked with his character. This mr. hide-no-hair thinking he was slick into controlling vegas.
Sonic Heroes has a classic missing concept example.
Cream: "Mister Sonic must be really-"
Amy: "Really?? What??"
And now we have masterpieces in voice acting like Spiderman PS4 where they recorded most of Spider-Man’s lines twice, one where he was winded which played if you were swinging on your web or running and one normal if you were just walking or standing still
How hard would it have been to put a separate column and next to each line have you can indicate tone “sarcastic”
I adore Matthew Perry’s performance as Benny and I don’t care what anyone says🤷♂️
Pretty sure the two terms you're looking for is transliteration and translation. Transliteration is translating the words word-by-word. Translation conveys the idea of it.
“Somethings coming... he’s going to explode” 👀
"So... How come you've got a spider for a peh T?"
"Mah elephant ran away."
I want to be a voice actor, but I’m sure I’ll end up sounding like this.
Benny was voiced well (aside from maybe the sex scene).
Also while there were some bad voice acting in early games there were some good ones too.
Same with writing, whole down early games had bad writing, there were many that had good writing.
most of the good early voice acting for videogames came from games where only the main character (or some other important character) had 90% of the lines, and didn't have to interact with any other character
I am happy that you included "all your base are belong to us!" great meme!
Rosalina, in Super Mario Galaxy had a line in a cutscene right before the final boss fight and it was "Go, Mario" and it sounded like they forgot to have her record that specific line and caught her in the middle of a hallway and recorded it on a cell phone. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
Exact same goes for anime dubbing back in the 80's and 90's. Any actor that was around back then is sure to have some horror stories for you.
I think the divide between linear games and open world games makes this even more complicated. Rumor says that the lines for Oblivion (2006) were recorded in alphabetical order. Obviously not actor friendly, but in a game with hundreds of NPCs and thousands of quests, how else do you even begin to organize everything? But look at a linear game from the same era, Resident Evil 4 (2005). Cheesy, sure, but you can't deny that the performers hit the mark they were aiming for. But that game had the advantage of being linear, and was probably in a much easier to read script.
This is part of what makes RDR2 and God of War from 2018 so impressive: RPG freedom with linear quality acting and writing. If we can look forward to quality like that in the future, even in the most open of games, I think we're in for some really special and immersive titles.
(Great video, BTW. Very decent of you to give these poor VAs some credit for the impossible task a lot of them were handed.)
He didn't even mention Metal Gear Solid english dub and how important it was for voice acting in games and it came out in 1998.
When I play old games like that I just don't turn the volume on and read the lines on the screen in my head
I remember playing InuYasha the Secret of the Cursed Mask. The same amazing voice cast from the English dub of the anime were used. But you could tell they were not given proper voice direction.
Did you know: Until 2016, the “Happy Birthday” song was not for public use. Meaning, prior to 2016, the song was copyrighted and you had to pay a license to use it.
copyrighted by who
Motzart of course, jk
So, it was made in 1946? It's young.
@@biteszadusto8854 some sisters
More context! Is was made by a school teacher, and was originally titled "good morning to all". She would perform it most mornings to start the day off well with a bit of music. Gradually, she would start adapting the lyrics for specific holidays and occasions, including birthdays. The birthday version especially gained popularity, and a music company claimed copyright for it. It wasn't until very recently that the copyright claim was found invalid, and the song entered the public domain
I always found Dracula's line from Castlevania really cool
As someone who frequently uses Fiverr to find voice actors, I can definitely say that it's a lot easier to find affordable voice actors now than in the past. The amount of resources available to game developers and others with their own projects is astounding and really shouldn't be overlooked.
2:55 Lamp oil, Rope, Bombs? You want it? It's your's my friend, as on as you have enough rupees.
I love KotOR, one of the greatest RPGs of all time... But the voice acting... Whatever, all hail our lord Trask Ulgo.
It was definitely good especially for the time. I spent hours and hours combing over the game to find every single little Easter egg and snippet of dialogue
@@dimesonhiseyes9134 "Alderaan... the Jedi Envlave is in Alderaan", and of course who could forget the infamous "Are you an Angel? Hope no kid ever uses that line." Iine KotOR 2. I love the KotOR games. Hundreds of hours well spent.
I found most voice actors to do a good enough job of displaying emotions honestly, only Bastilla lacked any emotion beyond the torture sequence and her getting annoyed with you.
Jennifer Hale is a good voice actor.
@@jimmym3352 I love how these two comments contradict each other, oh well. I found the main characters to be the better VC parts of the game but sometimes when you doom an NPC to death it feels really c tier acted out.
Part of me wishes you would have given some recognition to the early games that got voice acting right, like Metal Gear Solid, Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Medievil. Those all have great VA, and MGS is a great example of localization.
Didn't fit his blatant agenda
@@MunkiZee what “agenda” do you speak of?
@@gavinthegreatgavinthegreat97 He's got some sort of chip on his shoulder about translation, Last Samurai syndrome
“Give me a drink bartender”
*intense shattering*
You know, I had always thought the "bad voice acting" was intentional. I was just a kid. Absolutely no idea that scripts existed or they were voices from real people.
Francis York Morgan was voiced perfectly.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream's voice acting is phenomenal.
A lot of old point and click adventure games had excellent voice acting.
You'd still think acting is pretty easy even with a low budget. I have no professional voice training but I consider myself decent at voice acting
The beginning montage of “shitty performances” just sound so sarcastic I love it
guys, remember, this video is coming from a former video game voice actor. he knows what he's talking about.
He doesn't though
Valve may not know how to take care of their games, but TF2, Half Life 2, Portal, Portal 2 even the original Half Life, which were all made before 2010(except for portal 2), all have better voice acting than most voice acting today.
They predicted today's humour in 1992
"Oh no he's *coming* !"
*"Oh no he's going to explode!"*