JRPGshave come a long way from the days of relying on expansive text boxes to tell their stories. Now, many games in this genre featurefully-voiced dialogue, allowing players to experience the story and characters in a more immersive way. While fans of JRPGs forgive games that have little to no voice acting, what really grinds the gears of most fans is if a title’s VA work is just downright boring.
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Localization is a slippery slope for most Japanese media, sometimes leading to the English voice acting sounding rather awkward or stilted. However, there are times whenbad voice acting can be charming in certain instances, leading to unintentionally funny dialogue that become legendary in its own right.
10Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Final Fantasy 7 Remakeis a great game, but players who want to be immersed in the story properly should switch over to the Japanese voices. The delivery is perfect and does a great job of capturing the emotion in every scene.
Meanwhile, the English version features voices that try and emulate Japanese mannerisms with varying degrees of success. Some of the dialogue delivery can feel so out of place and emotional scenes fall completely the moment a character opens their mouth, although this can be hilarious in certain cases.
9Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Xenoblade Chroniclesis easilythe biggest JRPG series on the Nintendo lineup of consoles, featuring amazing stories and engaging world design that makes exploration a blast. While voice acting hasn’t been an issue in these games for the longest time, the same can’t be said forXenoblade Chronicles 2.
Many people found the English voice acting to be painful to sit through at times, while others laughed at its sheer ridiculousness. It was a mixed bag, but the charming nature of the dialogue made these moments easier to sit through.
8Kingdom Hearts 2
Kingdom Heartsisone of the best action JRPGs around, combining the best of Square Enix and Disney to make for a pretty unique game. The second game is considered by many to be the best of the bunch, with its voice acting being a gem in its own way.
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Given how old this game is, it’s only a given that the voice acting inKingdom Hearts 2is far from its best aspect. However, some of the performances definitely try their best and help the game stand out in its own unique way.
7Arc Rise Fantasia
Arc Rise Fantasiais a game with a brilliant combat system thatfans of unique JRPGs will have a great time with. While the game can be awfully generic at times, there’s no denying that the worst — or the best, depending on the player’s viewpoint — part of the entire experience was the game’s horrible voice acting.
Every character in the game sounds like they’re fresh out of drama school, turning each story moment into a laugh-out-loud moment. If players don’t want to take the story seriously, then this English dub ofArc Rise Fantasiais the way to go!
6Chaos Wars
Chaos Warsis known as the game so legendary for its bad voice acting that many players check out just to experience these performances for themselves. Apparently, the CEO of the company handling the localization didn’t have the money to hire voice actors.
So, instead of talking about this issue with the publisher, he decided to give this responsibility to the members of his family instead. The end result is amateurish and hilarious voice acting across the board that did more to marketChaos Warsthan the official marketing campaign for this game!
5Shadow Hearts
Shadow Heartsis a unique combination of Lovecraftian elements and classic JRPG elements that makes for a great time.The title’s unique use of Sanityand a dark, brooding story makes for a great time as players get through this short-yet-sweet title.
That being said, the English voice acting can be pretty cringeworthy at times, even if some players may look back on these voices fondly. A highlight comes during the moment when an old lady tells a ghost story, with the English dub making each and every line sound so over-the-top that most players can’t help but laugh uncontrollably.
4Star Ocean: The Second Story
It’s one thing for a game to have intermittent bad voice acting during some scenes. However, it’s a completely different can of worms if the main character himself sounds downright insufferable!
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This is the case withClaude fromStar Ocean: The Second Story, who sounds especially bad in a game where the voice acting is already pretty campy. The localization is so bad that Claude even goes so far as to mispronounce his own name in certain instances!
3Suikoden Tierkreis
It’s pretty impressive to integrate English voice acting in a DS game,especially a title likeSuikoden Tierkreiswhich has so many playable characters as is. Unfortunately, the voice acting in this game ranges from barely serviceable to downright painful.
The funniest part about this game’s voice acting is that people talk so quickly that the audio genuinely feels like it’s been sped up at times. Characters become downright incomprehensible when they talk at times, making for some prime unintentional comedy.
2Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Oceanis a pretty engaging JRPG with a solid plot that is perfect for fans of the genre. The remaster of the first two games is the best way to enjoy this masterpiece, although some fans may question why the English voice acting was missing from this package.
This is becauseEternal Wings and the Lost Oceanfeatures hilariously bad voice acting across the board. Characters are either stiff as a board with their delivery, overly emotional to a fault, or employing fake accents and falsettos that are so bad that it’s downright surreal to hear this dub in its full glory.
1Final Fantasy 10
Many people would be fuming at seeingFinal Fantasy 10here, given that the voice acting was amazing for its time. However, the years have not been kind to the game’s English dub, with dialogue feeling stilted and jarring at certain moments because of how it’s structured.
This isn’t even a dig at the unfairly lampooned laughing scene — players who replay this masterpiece will notice how dialogue can feel rather awkward in certain moments. However, the game doesn’t suffer from this issue, and most people will agree that this aged voice acting ispart ofFinal Fantasy 10’s charm.
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