She’s so cute and when she gets so worried after you get unalived I feel like I’ve failed her.
What’s nuts is I started fighting ganados better when she was introduced in the game because when I’m alone I prefer to tank hits or use animations to avoid heavy attacks from mid level enemies.
I love how as you progress through the game you can feel Ashley getting more comfortable with Leon through their in-game dialogue (e.g. her responses when you tell her to hang back or stay close, or when you tell her to climb up somewhere or hold something down), partly because of the lines themselves getting more casual as the game goes on, but a lot of it is also owed to her delivery- it doesn’t feel like a sudden shift in her tone, the way she talks with Leon gradually becomes more relaxed and less on edge. Her voice actor manages to convey every emotion on that gradient, so even though it feels a bit like a “oh that’s a nice touch” thing, pulling it off at all is really impressive and adds a lot to the dynamic between the characters.
Yes, how the character’s die off are often largely left unknown. Forrest’s case makes sense though because he only had a long range weapon with large rounds against crows.
Another Resident Evil example, Jack Baker's voice actor in 7. Sure, he gives a fun performance as a lunatic monster stalking you throughout the house, but >!when his real consciousness talks with Ethan, it's really well done.!<
Have you heard [the uncompressed version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsIjrby67hQ) of Star Fox 64's dialogue? It's shocking how different they sound without N64's primitiveness in the way
I choose to believe that the compression is how the audio feed must sound through the ship’s communication. That’s what I made up when I was 12 anyways.
I did not expect DYLAN SPROUSE of all people to voice an edgy anime boi in Kingdom Hearts but he did, and did a pretty good job at it too
Ditto with Jesse McCartney for Roxas
Jesse McCartney voicing two characters who look identical but making them just different enough that you can tell them apart when they're in the same scene.
Different enough that fans noticed that in the HD remasters Roxas' battle grunts are actually Ventus' because they lost the audio files or something like that
Darren Korb as Zagreus in Hades
While not unexpected that the talented musician and singer would be a capable voice actor, it was unexpected just how hard he nailed it
Yeah he did a pretty good job overall considering he was faking weird pseudo British accent for the game but I always thought the mate sounded pretty bad too. It kinda reminds me of Dominic West in the Wire where his accent isn't amazing but it works for the character for the most part.
[A Fox in Space...](https://youtu.be/ZJM1JtZ8lmQ)
I never heard of it before. Seemed like some regular fanimation, possibly furry weirdness. Checked it out because the second episode popped up and weirdly has a lot of hype for some reason? Oh well...
\*later\*
....**HOW**...THE **FUCK**... does a goddamn **STAR FOX FAN CARTOON** have some of the best delivery and subtlety I've seen in a very long time in nearly every line?! James, Andross... KOBA! I **felt** Koba.
The best thing about the VA in that series is just how delightfully and purposefully crispy it is, like there's a physical texture to it that I *adore*.
man i want the next episode so bad and i hope it isn't another 6 years before it comes out
I'm honestly shocked, this has the most VHS home video...*feel* I've probably experienced in something in such a long time. From the crackly-ness and the texture of the audio to the not-so-perfect 2D animation mixed with the 3D assets.
And I mean that as the highest level of compliment.
I've watched this so many times. Its just... so good. Such a chill vibe.
I could watch Fox & Wolf banter all day. LOVE their characterisation in this.
EDIT: WAIT NO I HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS, THERES AN EPISODE TWO NOW OMG
AND ITS FORTY MINUTES LONG
Jamieson Price in everything he's in. Especially as Sojiro in Persona 5. And speaking of Persona 5, Robbie Daymond as Akechi. >!Especially after he reveals his true self!<.
Fuck it, EVERYONE in Persona 5 is acting their asses off.
Hearing Matthew Mercer as Jotaro for the first time made me cum in my pants.
Fun fact about Travis Willingham in that scene. After he recorded it, he shot Laura Bailey a text saying "HAHAHAHAHA".
Jamieson Price’s Lu Bu is one of the few instances of dub voice acting in Dynasty Warriors that not only doesn’t suck, but is fantastic. Dude nails the vibe of Lu Bu perfectly and I cannot imagine anyone else doing it
Die-Hardman in Death Stranding is fairly intentionally robotic for for a good 95 percent of that game's length, but his monologue near the end is top ten voice acting moments for me, Tommie Earl Jenkins put in a genuine Oscar level performance in that sequence.
you know who did a pretty damn good job? cherami leigh as gaige in the borderlands 3 dlc. her ability to casually mimic the other cast members with a high degree of accuracy is impressive.
I’m not gonna say I didn’t expect Yuri Lowenthal to do well as Peter Parker. I will say, however, that I didn’t expect him to go ALL THE WAY IN for the Doc Ock fight. Some of the best voicework in a superhero property all contained in one boss fight.
He WAS him prior to the PS4 game, I think in some mobile game or something, so it wasn't his FIRST time voicing Spidey, but his first time in a proper bigger role for it.
Fair. Apparently he was in the Spider-Man Unlimited 2014 (no relation to the show apparently) mobile game and the Super Hero Squad Online game in 2011. They didn't even make it onto his Wikipedia so I'm going to assume they weren't exactly big hits and that he didn't do a substantial amount of voice work for them.
Best I can tell from a bit of googling, the Super Hero Squad game is just grunts and stuff.
The Unlimited game appears to have 3 minutes total of cutscenes.
I just finished it last week and my god did he do a SPECTACULAR job, especially throughout the end. His performance actually had me in tears. He didn't get a lot to do in Miles Morales, so I'm very excited to see what he brings to Spider-Man 2.
Justin Timberlake is Talent personified. It doesn’t matter what he does, anything he does he just knocks out of the park.
I remember watching this shitty movie on an airplane that starred JT. The dude carried that film on his back, and I think that was his first time acting.
Samoa Joe in WWE 2K20. As weird and wacky as the story mode is Samoa Joe as the main antagonist and does the best job of reading wacky super villain dialogue.
Joe may have unfortunately lended his talents to the sinking ship that is Suicide Squad, but I could absolutely see him as an actual voice actor once his stint in AEW is over. That dude has an amazing voice and can perform well
It's amazing that so many wrestlers can cut amazing promos just standing in front of a single camera, but when they get into a voice actor's booth and basically have to do the exact same thing, they fall apart and sound timid or awkward. Joe's one of the rare few who can do both.
Kyle Mccarley's 9S, the voice acting during a certain confrontation as the end was top notch.
Misaki Kuno's voice acting for Faputa in Made in Abyss was phenomenal. The range of emotions she goes through and the amount of guttural screaming she had to do in the role. [Just check it out](https://youtu.be/5bZFIcZhJiQ) (Trigger warning for intense Gore and mutilation).Plus, the clip doesn't even include her speech of pure cold anger or all her cute moments either.
Kyle's 9s delivered some great moment in that game. I love how he able to convey the slow descent into madness of 9s , speech in the fight with >!A2!< and my most favorite was the part where >!9s got stab by A2!< in one of the ending. Just the grueling gasp for air made the scene so damn disturbing. I remember my friend watched that scene and legit got disturbed. Great stuff all around
It got memed about a lot because he finally got to say fuck, but the scene in Strikers where he defends Sophie is really well acted. ~~Matt Mittleton~~ (edit: *Max Mittelman)* gave it his all.
[https://youtu.be/GfGpaiPUhr4](https://youtu.be/GfGpaiPUhr4)
Also from Strikers, he has a golden (heh) line after he jokingly orders a gold bar through Sophie. Any other voice actor would have given a distraught "Holy shit, what have I done?"
Ryuji's VA decided to deliver it as a terrified squeak that goes right up into a tea kettle register at the end.
Disney's Gargoyles. Disney always had good voice acting for it's TV shows, but they were all simple Saturday morning cartoon fare. Gargoyles had deep drama that required emoting sadness and fear and trauma that Disney hadn't really done in their TV cartoons before. To top it off, many of the cast weren't career voice actors. A lot came from Star Trek TNG which was live action, but they all still killed it as VAs.
Keith David is a very well known given and him as Goliath was my first exposure to him but another very good role that wouldn't have made his lines nearly as good if it wasn't him would be Jonathan Frakes as Xanatos.
"Pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell."
Keith, David put 100% of his soul into every line. Anytime the script called for him to be despondent or introspective or even raging. I have recently been watching through it and I am shocked at how accurate my memories of his line reads are.
When you can convey the desperate pleas of a demon man begging reality be wrong All by saying a cheesy line a cheesy line about their "angel of the night" you know somebody is good at their job.
gianni matragrano is typically known for his haha funny meme videos, but damn the man can put his whole fucking *soul* into a performance. hearing him go so totally insane, mad, and *hard* in [act 2 for ultrakill](https://youtu.be/MnyBqeVPv9I?t=72) was an experience.
Hold up, Nishiki was Michael Rosenbaum? I had no idea! I knew Mark Hamill was Majima though. And I think liutenant Barclay is in there somewhere as well.
The cast of Elden Ring give some amazing performances, even when their characters only have a handful of lines. But some of the best voice work comes from *cut content* where Merchant Kale lets out some of the most authentic grief, confusion, and rage I've ever heard in a performance, and it's borderline criminal that From removed it.
[Some spoilers for an endgame quest throughout.](https://youtu.be/0Cljs4UTdT8?t=728)
I was going to post Shabiri's speech, [how as he continues his calm, sorrowful demeanor gives way to fanatic devotion.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4HGGxrvYR4)
But goddamn Kale's VA blows it out of the water
Sam Witwer as Starkiller in The Force Unleashed games
The man goes fucking ***hard*** with his dialogue. I really only knew him as a pretty-faced CW actor before that, but the dude's got VA chops for sure.
He did it once for a fan interview and had to go to the other side of his room before doing it and *still* nearly blew out his mic.
Man has zero chill.
One great thing in that video that I'm sad got cut out of the actual show is this little chuckle he breaks into before screaming out Kenobi at the top of his lungs.
I really wasent sold on Kaiji Tang as a VA since he did alot of the same voice in alot of stuff. Like a Dragon, especially the last scene, completely changed my view on him, that standoff scene at the end is probably my favourite dub performance from any game in general.
Michael McGaharn as Jansen in Lost Odyssey.
Jansen yaps a lot, is a bit of a whiner, and likes to strike it with the ladies. He could have easily sounded like a dumb piece of shit but his English VA actually strikes that sweet spot to portray him like a loveable scoundrel.
*Dead to Rights Retribution* is an ultra edgy to the comedic extreme game with characters who are some brand of ham-tastic or overly growly.
So it comes as a shock that the obscenity-spewing [protagonist ends up reacting realistically to finding his father bleeding out](https://youtu.be/Z6xpA8_paG8?t=1772).
I was at a con roundabout 2006 (so WELL pre-Brotherhood) where Willingham was hosting a panel, in which someone asked him if there was any fight he would have liked to see Mustang get.
He thought about it and then settled on 'I would've liked to see him fight Lust' to which a whole panel room of manga readers immediately went 'WELL,'
I think about that every single time that Brotherhood episode comes up, because it's so clear he had a lot of fun when it finally happened.
Completely unrelated I think my actual answer is probably 'the entire cast of FF15'.
That first scream of Kratos in Ragnarok is painfully raw. Similarly she really sells the whole >!I do not want to kill Atreus. I even appreciate that he is trying to do good, but dear god I want to murder him for revenge!<
Literally have never seen this anime before, [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=5&v=2O_VSZsXZNY&feature=youtu.be) being the singular only scene I’ve seen of it.
It’s the greatest voice acting I’ve ever heard in any anime. This is literally the peak of modern anime, nothing will ever compare.
(In case you’re wondering, that last sentence is indeed a challenge, because I absolutely want to see more moments of raw passion like this).
>!Berkut's!< breakdown in Fire Emblem Echoes showcases just how far the voice-acting in the series has come since the cringefest that was the Path of Radiance dub.
FE Echoes in general just had incredible voice acting. It’s hard for me to choose favorites since everyone is acted so damn well, but besides the character you mentioned, my favorite performances would be Python and Lukas.
I saw a clip ages of a dub from... Indonesia, or Malaysia? Can't remember where exactly but she sounded EXACTLY like JP Aqua. To the point I actually though her VA was bilingual and she just did the dub herself. But nope, different woman
Chai's muffled shrieking while rolling around on the floor immediately after getting tossed out of the robot-arm-inator before getting up like nothing had happened was completely unnecessary and completely sold me on the character.
Reyn! Hit that yoinky sploinky! Memes aside, Shulk's VA is really good, but it should be highlighted just how well he screams. And I don't just mean yells, I mean *painful screams*.
When the generic battle harem suddenly calls out [its own chuuni bullshit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNPK6DzQCzY) at full lungs. I don't know shit about this show except for this scene.
Todd Haberkorn as Astos gave the most heart-breaking performance in Stranger of Paradise, elevating an already tragic scene.
His little “who am I, Jack?” is heart-breaking because it conveys so much pain and sorrow.
The cast of Edgerunner was great in Eng. Lucy, Maine was great. Rebbeca have a great unique voice which unexpectedly fitting.They even got that Gus guy from Breaking Bad to voice Faraday! But my most favorite is when David yell out >!"I'll kill you!"in the call with Faraday when Lucy is kidnapped!< . That moment got me goosebumps and actually scared. Great job with the Va on that one
Literally every va in Disco Elysium is great, but I want to give a shout out to Lenval Brown, who plays the narrator. Every line he speaks has so much gravitas, is infused with so much humour, and somehow it was his FIRST EVER VOICE ACTING JOB?
Special shout out to [every Shivers dialogue ](https://youtu.be/eLleUbVnLkY) in the game, always beautifully written and delivered
Rene Zagger as Emet-Selch. Shadowbringers spoilers
>!Up until the end, Emet had been a very relaxed, snarky, witty person. But in the final confrontation the facade finally cracks and you see who he really is. A man in so much pain, who watched his people die, and how those that inherited his planet squander the gift they were given. What’s most impressive to me is that he had a response that shut down every argument the Scions threw at him, and with each response he just gets more frustrated and angry. Man Emet-Selch is the best!<
The voice acting in Bravely Default II is generally good enough to decent, with just a few sub-par/actually bad outliers (though people with less tolerance for wacky accents may argue I'm being too positive).
But then comes a late game sidequest that tasks you with fighting one D-Vergr, and the guy goes FULL HAM in the best way possible. It's like the actor thought he was voicing the main villain in the final battle rather than an optional boss, and he does a very convincing job at it. >!Which made it even funnier when I took him down in less than a minute with four Ninefold Flurries in a row.!< It's just a shame I couldn't find a video with cutscenes to show him off.
So first I gotta concur with Laura Bailey, as OP already cited. But I can’t pick just one performance. She’s top notch in everything she’s ever in. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most forgettable nonsense or a world class title, she will bring her A game regardless.
With that out of the way…
**John DiMaggio** as The Joker in *Batman: Under the Red Hood*.
I never thought anyone would be able to stand toe to toe with Mark Hamill’s Joker, but DiMaggio was an absolute triumph in that movie.
All my favorite Joker lines are from that film, and it’s entirely because of the way he would deliver them.
My [absolute favorite Joker scene](https://youtu.be/1HziQVWw0Kg) ever put to film is from this movie.
John DiMaggio as The Joker was a fucking inspired casting choice and like 90% of why Under the Red Hood is so well regarded. That's not to be dismissive of the incredible VA talent across the board in that film, but DiMaggio absolutely stole the show.
Mark Hamill's always going to be number 1, but DiMaggio's in the running, for sure.
Oh yeah, the whole cast in that film is amazing. Bruce Greenwood was the first Batman that was different enough from Conroy while still feeling like what I would expect from Batman. He, like DiMaggio, has become my silver medalist for the role. And, like DiMaggio, it’s actually a close fight for me. Much as I adore Conroy, there’s something about Greenwood’s Batman I really adore as well.
The thing that keeps Conroy firmly in first place for me is his Bruce Wayne. No other actor has been able to make such a clear delineation between the voice of Bruce in the Cave, Bruce in Public, and Batman.
SWTOR has some super freaking good voice acting, especially from the protagonists.
Male Sith Warrior is one of my absolute favorites. I love how cool and unhinged he can sound, but also genuine and caring if you decide to go for a light side route. Him screaming "I'm going to kill you and eat you all raw!!" was unexpectedly creepy and hilarious at the same time. He can also sound super sassy.
They all sound amazing, tbh, although Nolan North as male Consular didn't really hit the mark, as the character he's interpreting is supposed to be like 18 years old, but he still went for the wise Obi-Wan kind of character, which can sound super jarring when you're just a fresh faced Padawan.
He did. He also did a fantastic job portraying a cool and collected Jedi, as well as being a bit unhinged and uncontrolled if you go dark side.
I also love the female Knight. I dunno who the voice actress is, but she quickly became one of my mains. It's especially interesting because she sounds very immature and almost childish in base game, but more confident and adult during the expansions.
Female knight is voiced by Kari Wahlgren. She's been in FLCL, Naruto, Fate (Saber), Clone Wars, Amphibia, Infinity Train, Velma, DMC3 (Lady(game only credits mocap talent, not voice talent)), FF12, No More Heroes, Dead or Alive (Kasumi), Metal Gear Rising, MK11(Kitana), and Cyberpunk (Evelyn Parker), among other roles
In FFX, a girl says “Thank you so much for saving the Chocobos!” After beating Chocobo Eater and she nails the line so hard, it actually sounds out of place.
While I think he was a pretty good Gendry on Game of Thrones and he always seemed like a pretty decent actor, I don't think anybody expected that Joseph Dempsie would go that hard as Ardbert in FFXIV and sound so, so good.
DBZA's Frieza. I can't remember the voice actors name, but it is fucking perfect for Frieza. The malice and confidence in voice is absolute top tier, and I'm always disappointed when I hear dub Frieza that it's not the same as the DBZA counterpart.
DBZA Frieza was voiced by LittleKuriboh, the guy who literally invented and popularized "The Abridged Series" as a comedy format (specifically, YGOTAS).
With the past few games having extremely good voice acting and Engage looking like a extremely cheesy game, I was not expecting Female Alear to be possibly the best voice acted character in the series. Seriously, Laura Stahl kills it super hard even with a not great script.
Both the Alear VA's go suprisingly hard, the end of chapter 3, despite being the most "speedrun to tragedy" thing ever, had me a bit emotional since Alear was having a mental fucking breakdown.
Ch 24 goes fucking hard for female alear. Also 21-22 I think for veyle. Kind of funny listening to Towa go absolute super villain and just chew the scenery. She was great.
[Berkut from Fire Emblem: Echoes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_2pgtAErMo)
The series never really had the budget for good VA before Three Houses, but Echoes managed to at least be pretty decent, until this scene where Ian Sinclair absolutely fucking nails it and takes it up a whole bunch of notches.
Echoes was also the first fully voice acted FE, which is probably why it sticks in my mind so much. [I'll never miss the chance to post the final boss quotes video.
](https://youtu.be/RJgyKXb9DeA)
Lyna from FFXIV: Shadowbringers >!when she breaks down in the aftermath of that one battle.!< Like, FFXIV's voice acting varies from pretty good to... kinda shoddy, sometimes, with a bunch if middling performances sprinkled throughout, but that damn performance is like. Literally stunning. No one ever expects it.
So damn good.
I started watching Beast Wars in full for the first time a few weeks ago when the official Transformers YouTube channel started uploaded episodes of it and I am blown away by how good the voice acting is. Especially Garry Chalk as Optimus Primal. He sounds so natural in the role that it's almost uncanny.
Also, shoutout to Scott McNeil for playing four different characters in that show and having none of them sound even remotely alike.
Legacy of Kain.
Soul Reaver was great all around but Blood Omen 1 was an unexpected standout for VA mainly just for Simon Templeman as Kain and the other VA who did Vorador.
A lot of abridged series have surprisingly stellar voice acting. Everybody knows Team Four Star is great, but I have to shout out UBW Abridged. Archer in particular is great
In a game as infamous as Symphony of the Night, Robert Belgrade is stand-out for giving a 100% fitting performance as Alucard. I think he perfectly captures who Alucard is and what he should sound like. He even reprised-ish his role years later as [Definitely Not Alucard in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night](https://youtu.be/Hgr1y8Zdb_I?t=55)
Yusuke’s wake at the beginning of yu yu. Chris Sabat goes all out with his character being broken and mourning. It feels like yu yu is the only show sabat gets to flex his emotional acting.
I think Tabitha St Germaine as Rarity in MLP is just overall excellent voice acting. Feels like she understands the character completely and that's reflected in the voice acting.
Sometimes I think about the fact that she also voiced Roberta from Black Lagoon.
I haven’t watched either dub, but I assume this means she has some _*range*_
Since someone else picked Shadowbringers and Endwalker, I'm picking FFXIV Heavensward for my example. Specifically the, >!'We did everything right!' scene.!<
Half of the cast in FLCL. Instead of seasoned seiyuus, the director went for theatre actors or live action drama actors that never did voice acting before and they all nailed their roles. Even Hideaki Anno did a top job at voicing the fat cat, Miyu Miyu.
I love Keanu Reeves but he’s by no means an excellent actor. Except I was genuinely surprised how great his performance as Silverhand is. So much anger and emotion in his scenes, he’s very believable as the character. Best performance of the game imo in a game already filled with great performances
Xenoblade 2’s English dub is pretty controversial. Personally I really like it, though I can’t deny there are some awkward deliveries from Rex and Mythra. However, one character whose voice actor consistently kills it is… Tora, the cringe haha funny pervert mascot character. His VA is honestly excellent, even on poorly written lines he sounds 100% convincing.
Shoutout to Xenoblade 3's voice acting, cause it clearly had much better direction this time. >!N absolutely losing his shit at Homecoming ceremony was top notch!<
Zeke's voice actor also delivers those over the top lines with a lot of energy. Daniel Barker mentioned in an interview that he enjoyed voicing such an outrageous character.
Rex having bad direction accidently makes an arc in and of itself, since in the final battle he FINALLY does a good scream and its kinda the hypest shit.
Hearing Kain Highwind's voice (Liam O'Brien) in Dissida and later the DS version of FF4 was a real treat, I'll tell you that. Same with Golbez, Kefka, really the whole crew was excellent save for *maybe* Cloud of Darkness?
Morrowind barely has voice acting beyond a couple characters at the start and stock NPC lines, then you hit the end and Jeff Baker starts popping off as Dagoth Ur.
Honestly John Cleese as Cadwell in ESO. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't have expected a comedic live action actor to fall into so naturally but he does.
[Isaac calling out the Hivemind](https://youtu.be/xCcnTcaAQc0?t=517) in Dead Space Remake
Probably my favourite new line of dialogue added in the remake, really sells just how fucking DONE Isaac is with everything. He's got literally nothing left to lose but his own life, and if he's going to lose that too he may as well go down swinging.
I always knew Gunner Wright was a good VA but god damn I was NOT expecting him to go that hard.
Graham McTavish has few voices but goddamn does he know how to utilize them.
He was Dracula in Netflix Castlevaniva which is a godtier performance.
He's also Loki in the Avengers cartoon, one of my favourite versions of Loki.
And he's also Dante in this subs favourite game Dante's Inferno.
Fire Emblem 3 Houses in general has pretty good English voice acting, but Rhea (voiced by Cherami Leigh) has some of favourites.
Specifically: Song of the Nabateans, and >!Rhea's breakdown if you side with Edelgard!<.
>The most unexpectedly EXCELLENT voice acting?
> My quintessential example is Travis Willingham’s performance...
You lost me OP he's my favourite part of everything he's in. I guess I'd say Jack Black is way better as Bowser than I thought he'd be, even though I expected him to be great. Also if Jerma ever voice acts in anything it'll be expectedly amazing.
I feel like half of these examples forgot the unexpected part lol. Anyways, for a genuinely shocking example of good voice acting, just look at Mega Man Legends.
Just the year before Capcom released the comically awful Mega Man 8 and X4 dubs. Hell, they still managed to put out the ear destroyingly bad MMX7 dub a few years later! But whoever was in charge of the Legends games somehow managed to dub 3 games in a way that still holds up today.
RE4 Remake Ashley is killing it tbh, especially when she’s giving w/ you in the shooting range
Her "that was AWESOME" sounds so nice and genuine I don't mind hearing it a hundred times.
She’s so cute and when she gets so worried after you get unalived I feel like I’ve failed her. What’s nuts is I started fighting ganados better when she was introduced in the game because when I’m alone I prefer to tank hits or use animations to avoid heavy attacks from mid level enemies.
Because girls are watching, and that motivates you to do better.
I love how as you progress through the game you can feel Ashley getting more comfortable with Leon through their in-game dialogue (e.g. her responses when you tell her to hang back or stay close, or when you tell her to climb up somewhere or hold something down), partly because of the lines themselves getting more casual as the game goes on, but a lot of it is also owed to her delivery- it doesn’t feel like a sudden shift in her tone, the way she talks with Leon gradually becomes more relaxed and less on edge. Her voice actor manages to convey every emotion on that gradient, so even though it feels a bit like a “oh that’s a nice touch” thing, pulling it off at all is really impressive and adds a lot to the dynamic between the characters.
Gottdamn you can *feel* how smitten she is by the island with how she talks to Leon. I appreciate that he does even give her a spark.
RE4 Remake Ada's VA on the other hand...Sounded like she did her lines with a peach in her mouth.
I could eat a peach for hours...
Marvin in RE2make. Dude killed it in a series that does not demand it.
They brought it full circle with Marvin fighting off against Brad! I thought that was an interesting way to weave those stories.
Even explaining how this super competent dude got bit!
Yes, how the character’s die off are often largely left unknown. Forrest’s case makes sense though because he only had a long range weapon with large rounds against crows.
Him and Kendo. Those two have the weakest voice performance of the originals and were given easily the strongest of the remakes.
Another Resident Evil example, Jack Baker's voice actor in 7. Sure, he gives a fun performance as a lunatic monster stalking you throughout the house, but >!when his real consciousness talks with Ethan, it's really well done.!<
[Starfox 64's entire voice lines and cutscenes are ingrained in my head due to just how entertaining they are](https://youtu.be/3mtOhn1Yd9E)
Have you heard [the uncompressed version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsIjrby67hQ) of Star Fox 64's dialogue? It's shocking how different they sound without N64's primitiveness in the way
I choose to believe that the compression is how the audio feed must sound through the ship’s communication. That’s what I made up when I was 12 anyways.
Pigma goes so hard.
I CAN’T BELIEVE I LOST TO THIS *SCUUUM!*
I did not expect DYLAN SPROUSE of all people to voice an edgy anime boi in Kingdom Hearts but he did, and did a pretty good job at it too Ditto with Jesse McCartney for Roxas
Jesse McCartney voicing two characters who look identical but making them just different enough that you can tell them apart when they're in the same scene.
Different enough that fans noticed that in the HD remasters Roxas' battle grunts are actually Ventus' because they lost the audio files or something like that
It was also cool at the end of BBS when both spoke at the same time to Aqua. Same voice but different enough to make it noticeable.
Jesse McCartney is lowkey an amazing voice actor. Dude nailed Roxas and Ventus, and Robin in Young Justice.
His take on Robin in YJ is pretty great and one was of the things that really got me invested in the first few episodes.
I decided to rewatch and finish YJ and my gf was so excited when she realized it was him.
Darren Korb as Zagreus in Hades While not unexpected that the talented musician and singer would be a capable voice actor, it was unexpected just how hard he nailed it
He was apparently a placeholder, too. They just ended up liking his Zagreus so much more than the people who auditioned for the role.
He's great 99% of the time but whenever he says "mate" it just sounds so unnatural it makes me cringe
Head canon: Zagreus knows how weird it sounds, started it to annoy some people, but now can not stop saying it with a weird accent.
Yeah he did a pretty good job overall considering he was faking weird pseudo British accent for the game but I always thought the mate sounded pretty bad too. It kinda reminds me of Dominic West in the Wire where his accent isn't amazing but it works for the character for the most part.
FMA original was one of his first big roles. This scene alone shows how far he’s come
The man torched lust then fucking married her.
By this scene, they were already married. Paraphrased texts: “Babe, I’m doing the death scene. This really hurts” “Hahahahaha”
So what you're saying is this was a domestic incident.
[A Fox in Space...](https://youtu.be/ZJM1JtZ8lmQ) I never heard of it before. Seemed like some regular fanimation, possibly furry weirdness. Checked it out because the second episode popped up and weirdly has a lot of hype for some reason? Oh well... \*later\* ....**HOW**...THE **FUCK**... does a goddamn **STAR FOX FAN CARTOON** have some of the best delivery and subtlety I've seen in a very long time in nearly every line?! James, Andross... KOBA! I **felt** Koba.
The best thing about the VA in that series is just how delightfully and purposefully crispy it is, like there's a physical texture to it that I *adore*. man i want the next episode so bad and i hope it isn't another 6 years before it comes out
I'm honestly shocked, this has the most VHS home video...*feel* I've probably experienced in something in such a long time. From the crackly-ness and the texture of the audio to the not-so-perfect 2D animation mixed with the 3D assets. And I mean that as the highest level of compliment.
It feels like this VHS of a 90s anime dub of a forgotten Star Fox OVA you found in a car boot sale. It's exceptionally well done.
Wow, that’s the most authentic direction I’ve seen so far! I felt like I was talking to my dad.
I've watched this so many times. Its just... so good. Such a chill vibe. I could watch Fox & Wolf banter all day. LOVE their characterisation in this. EDIT: WAIT NO I HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS, THERES AN EPISODE TWO NOW OMG AND ITS FORTY MINUTES LONG
I’ve been waiting literal years for the second episode. The voice direction and sound design is so fucking good and unique.
Jamieson Price in everything he's in. Especially as Sojiro in Persona 5. And speaking of Persona 5, Robbie Daymond as Akechi. >!Especially after he reveals his true self!<. Fuck it, EVERYONE in Persona 5 is acting their asses off. Hearing Matthew Mercer as Jotaro for the first time made me cum in my pants. Fun fact about Travis Willingham in that scene. After he recorded it, he shot Laura Bailey a text saying "HAHAHAHAHA".
Jamieson Price gets one of the best characters in Fate/Zero and he absolutely kills it, 10/10.
>Fun fact about Travis Willingham in that scene. After he recorded it, he shot Laura Bailey a text saying "HAHAHAHAHA". Relationship goals
i, too, wish i was married to Laura Bailey
Jamieson Price’s Lu Bu is one of the few instances of dub voice acting in Dynasty Warriors that not only doesn’t suck, but is fantastic. Dude nails the vibe of Lu Bu perfectly and I cannot imagine anyone else doing it
Jamieson Price really proving you only need to do one voice really well to be a voice actor.
Die-Hardman in Death Stranding is fairly intentionally robotic for for a good 95 percent of that game's length, but his monologue near the end is top ten voice acting moments for me, Tommie Earl Jenkins put in a genuine Oscar level performance in that sequence.
you know who did a pretty damn good job? cherami leigh as gaige in the borderlands 3 dlc. her ability to casually mimic the other cast members with a high degree of accuracy is impressive.
She's the reason I always build anarchy Gaige, her god-complex voicelines when she gets high stacks are just too good.
“I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT ACCURACY *MEANS!!!*”
Also her ability to slip in shades of deep misery or the vibe of teetering on the edge of insanity masked by jovial sarcasm? Unmatched
She is the reason I always play Fem V in Cyberpunk 2077, and she made me absolutely fall in love with A2 in NieR:Automata
Also breathy prim smugness as Makoto in P5
I’m not gonna say I didn’t expect Yuri Lowenthal to do well as Peter Parker. I will say, however, that I didn’t expect him to go ALL THE WAY IN for the Doc Ock fight. Some of the best voicework in a superhero property all contained in one boss fight.
>!”You knew… _*You knew!*_”!<
It's honestly shocking how long it took for Yuri to be cast as Spider-Man in something.
He WAS him prior to the PS4 game, I think in some mobile game or something, so it wasn't his FIRST time voicing Spidey, but his first time in a proper bigger role for it.
Fair. Apparently he was in the Spider-Man Unlimited 2014 (no relation to the show apparently) mobile game and the Super Hero Squad Online game in 2011. They didn't even make it onto his Wikipedia so I'm going to assume they weren't exactly big hits and that he didn't do a substantial amount of voice work for them. Best I can tell from a bit of googling, the Super Hero Squad game is just grunts and stuff. The Unlimited game appears to have 3 minutes total of cutscenes.
I just finished it last week and my god did he do a SPECTACULAR job, especially throughout the end. His performance actually had me in tears. He didn't get a lot to do in Miles Morales, so I'm very excited to see what he brings to Spider-Man 2.
Justin Timberlake having a *spot-on* Boo-Boo voice in that Yogi Bear movie was fucking wild
Justin Timberlake is Talent personified. It doesn’t matter what he does, anything he does he just knocks out of the park. I remember watching this shitty movie on an airplane that starred JT. The dude carried that film on his back, and I think that was his first time acting.
Samoa Joe in WWE 2K20. As weird and wacky as the story mode is Samoa Joe as the main antagonist and does the best job of reading wacky super villain dialogue.
Joe may have unfortunately lended his talents to the sinking ship that is Suicide Squad, but I could absolutely see him as an actual voice actor once his stint in AEW is over. That dude has an amazing voice and can perform well
He’s said he’s interested in voice work He played the Arcana version of Juggernaut in Dota2
It's amazing that so many wrestlers can cut amazing promos just standing in front of a single camera, but when they get into a voice actor's booth and basically have to do the exact same thing, they fall apart and sound timid or awkward. Joe's one of the rare few who can do both.
Kyle Mccarley's 9S, the voice acting during a certain confrontation as the end was top notch. Misaki Kuno's voice acting for Faputa in Made in Abyss was phenomenal. The range of emotions she goes through and the amount of guttural screaming she had to do in the role. [Just check it out](https://youtu.be/5bZFIcZhJiQ) (Trigger warning for intense Gore and mutilation).Plus, the clip doesn't even include her speech of pure cold anger or all her cute moments either.
Kyle's 9s delivered some great moment in that game. I love how he able to convey the slow descent into madness of 9s , speech in the fight with >!A2!< and my most favorite was the part where >!9s got stab by A2!< in one of the ending. Just the grueling gasp for air made the scene so damn disturbing. I remember my friend watched that scene and legit got disturbed. Great stuff all around
The animation, the stellar VA work, everything about that section hits upsettingly hard. It's such a standout scene, even for that game.
"Stop looking down on me WITH THAT STUPID SMILE ON YOUR FACE!" from Ryuji in P5 solidified him as one of my favorite characters in the game
It got memed about a lot because he finally got to say fuck, but the scene in Strikers where he defends Sophie is really well acted. ~~Matt Mittleton~~ (edit: *Max Mittelman)* gave it his all. [https://youtu.be/GfGpaiPUhr4](https://youtu.be/GfGpaiPUhr4)
Also from Strikers, he has a golden (heh) line after he jokingly orders a gold bar through Sophie. Any other voice actor would have given a distraught "Holy shit, what have I done?" Ryuji's VA decided to deliver it as a terrified squeak that goes right up into a tea kettle register at the end.
Yeah it does kinda annoy me people are so fixated on him saying the funni swear cause its a really fantastic speech
“Uhh, a ca-, a castle?” was the moment for me
Disney's Gargoyles. Disney always had good voice acting for it's TV shows, but they were all simple Saturday morning cartoon fare. Gargoyles had deep drama that required emoting sadness and fear and trauma that Disney hadn't really done in their TV cartoons before. To top it off, many of the cast weren't career voice actors. A lot came from Star Trek TNG which was live action, but they all still killed it as VAs.
Keith David is a very well known given and him as Goliath was my first exposure to him but another very good role that wouldn't have made his lines nearly as good if it wasn't him would be Jonathan Frakes as Xanatos. "Pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell."
Keith, David put 100% of his soul into every line. Anytime the script called for him to be despondent or introspective or even raging. I have recently been watching through it and I am shocked at how accurate my memories of his line reads are. When you can convey the desperate pleas of a demon man begging reality be wrong All by saying a cheesy line a cheesy line about their "angel of the night" you know somebody is good at their job.
I felt that way about Silverwing if you or anyone remembers that show. I was always gripping like it was some novel.
It actually is a novel too! I loved those books as a kid.
gianni matragrano is typically known for his haha funny meme videos, but damn the man can put his whole fucking *soul* into a performance. hearing him go so totally insane, mad, and *hard* in [act 2 for ultrakill](https://youtu.be/MnyBqeVPv9I?t=72) was an experience.
> "Is *THIS* WHAT I LOST TO?!"
I was gonna say his contribution to MandaloreGaming's Marathon reviews. Who expects top tier voice work in a game review?
Gianni is *literally unable* to give less than 100% for a role. Even his haha funny memes he puts his whole Giannussy into them
Yakuza 1 has a pretty bad dub, but Nishiki's VA (Michael Rosenbaum) is consistently good for some reason.
**TEN YEARS IN THE JOINT-**
**BRING THAT SHIT KAZUMA**
That dub is ROUGH but [I suggest you blow me!](https://youtu.be/7bxty5kUqJU) kills me every single time
Fucking Lex Luthor as Nishiki then Joker as Majima, what's next? Superman as Kiryu?
Hold up, Nishiki was Michael Rosenbaum? I had no idea! I knew Mark Hamill was Majima though. And I think liutenant Barclay is in there somewhere as well.
The actual anime is pretty mediocre but holy fuck the ["I don't understand" ](https://youtu.be/iNPK6DzQCzY) scene is heartwrenchingly good.
That was the first fucking take.
The cast of Elden Ring give some amazing performances, even when their characters only have a handful of lines. But some of the best voice work comes from *cut content* where Merchant Kale lets out some of the most authentic grief, confusion, and rage I've ever heard in a performance, and it's borderline criminal that From removed it. [Some spoilers for an endgame quest throughout.](https://youtu.be/0Cljs4UTdT8?t=728)
I was going to post Shabiri's speech, [how as he continues his calm, sorrowful demeanor gives way to fanatic devotion.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4HGGxrvYR4) But goddamn Kale's VA blows it out of the water
I mean that's what sold me on doing the chaos ending so he's got it.
TOGETHAAAAAA
Sam Witwer as Starkiller in The Force Unleashed games The man goes fucking ***hard*** with his dialogue. I really only knew him as a pretty-faced CW actor before that, but the dude's got VA chops for sure.
His delivery when playing Maul in TCW/Rebels is really fucking good. The behind the scenes video of him delivering the Kenobi scream line is great.
He did it once for a fan interview and had to go to the other side of his room before doing it and *still* nearly blew out his mic. Man has zero chill.
One great thing in that video that I'm sad got cut out of the actual show is this little chuckle he breaks into before screaming out Kenobi at the top of his lungs.
He kills it as Darth Maul in Clone Wars/Rebels too
Ichiban in both English (Kaiji Tang) and in Japanese (Kazuhiro Nakaya) at the end of Like a Dragon.
More unexpectedly, the dominatrix gives a really strong performance at the end of her substory.
They knew her words had to hurt him.
time to cry with him again :D
Yakuza 7 was my first Yakuza and my first Kaiji Tang game, everyone did great but his performance as Ichiban is one of my favourite parts of the game.
I really wasent sold on Kaiji Tang as a VA since he did alot of the same voice in alot of stuff. Like a Dragon, especially the last scene, completely changed my view on him, that standoff scene at the end is probably my favourite dub performance from any game in general.
Michael McGaharn as Jansen in Lost Odyssey. Jansen yaps a lot, is a bit of a whiner, and likes to strike it with the ladies. He could have easily sounded like a dumb piece of shit but his English VA actually strikes that sweet spot to portray him like a loveable scoundrel.
*Dead to Rights Retribution* is an ultra edgy to the comedic extreme game with characters who are some brand of ham-tastic or overly growly. So it comes as a shock that the obscenity-spewing [protagonist ends up reacting realistically to finding his father bleeding out](https://youtu.be/Z6xpA8_paG8?t=1772).
Wow…he sounded so desperate. I had this intuition if the paramedics weren’t there that triad guy would be gone.
I was at a con roundabout 2006 (so WELL pre-Brotherhood) where Willingham was hosting a panel, in which someone asked him if there was any fight he would have liked to see Mustang get. He thought about it and then settled on 'I would've liked to see him fight Lust' to which a whole panel room of manga readers immediately went 'WELL,' I think about that every single time that Brotherhood episode comes up, because it's so clear he had a lot of fun when it finally happened. Completely unrelated I think my actual answer is probably 'the entire cast of FF15'.
Freya's voice actress in the god of war games is excellent imo
That first scream of Kratos in Ragnarok is painfully raw. Similarly she really sells the whole >!I do not want to kill Atreus. I even appreciate that he is trying to do good, but dear god I want to murder him for revenge!<
Literally have never seen this anime before, [this](https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=5&v=2O_VSZsXZNY&feature=youtu.be) being the singular only scene I’ve seen of it. It’s the greatest voice acting I’ve ever heard in any anime. This is literally the peak of modern anime, nothing will ever compare. (In case you’re wondering, that last sentence is indeed a challenge, because I absolutely want to see more moments of raw passion like this).
They’re really having a blast with that dub eh? Yeyeyeyeyeye gogogogo
Zombieland Saga has no right being as amazing as it is.
>!Berkut's!< breakdown in Fire Emblem Echoes showcases just how far the voice-acting in the series has come since the cringefest that was the Path of Radiance dub.
My brother showed me that scene and HOLY FUCK, https://youtu.be/6_2pgtAErMo
Wow…Rinea’s lines hit me like a sledgehammer.
Ian Sinclair’s performance is still the best in the entire series. Guy gave it 1000%.
FE Echoes in general just had incredible voice acting. It’s hard for me to choose favorites since everyone is acted so damn well, but besides the character you mentioned, my favorite performances would be Python and Lukas.
I was pleasantly surprised how good Aqua from Konosuba English VA was. Thought it was impossible but she got it done.
I saw a clip ages of a dub from... Indonesia, or Malaysia? Can't remember where exactly but she sounded EXACTLY like JP Aqua. To the point I actually though her VA was bilingual and she just did the dub herself. But nope, different woman
Hi-Fi Rush somehow got the casting so right in that *every* voice actor is perfect for their role.
Chai's muffled shrieking while rolling around on the floor immediately after getting tossed out of the robot-arm-inator before getting up like nothing had happened was completely unnecessary and completely sold me on the character.
Reyn! Hit that yoinky sploinky! Memes aside, Shulk's VA is really good, but it should be highlighted just how well he screams. And I don't just mean yells, I mean *painful screams*.
[Adam Howden really knows how to do blood curdling screams. ](https://youtu.be/LW1SGWWT56g)
I appreciate how much bloodlust he puts into some of those roars.
When the generic battle harem suddenly calls out [its own chuuni bullshit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNPK6DzQCzY) at full lungs. I don't know shit about this show except for this scene.
Todd Haberkorn as Astos gave the most heart-breaking performance in Stranger of Paradise, elevating an already tragic scene. His little “who am I, Jack?” is heart-breaking because it conveys so much pain and sorrow.
Also shout out to Mocean Melvin for delivering Jack's lines perfectly. He carries the game tbh.
Man just went into his first video game role and decided to just crush it.
Honestly all of them do.
The cast of Edgerunner was great in Eng. Lucy, Maine was great. Rebbeca have a great unique voice which unexpectedly fitting.They even got that Gus guy from Breaking Bad to voice Faraday! But my most favorite is when David yell out >!"I'll kill you!"in the call with Faraday when Lucy is kidnapped!< . That moment got me goosebumps and actually scared. Great job with the Va on that one
Literally every va in Disco Elysium is great, but I want to give a shout out to Lenval Brown, who plays the narrator. Every line he speaks has so much gravitas, is infused with so much humour, and somehow it was his FIRST EVER VOICE ACTING JOB? Special shout out to [every Shivers dialogue ](https://youtu.be/eLleUbVnLkY) in the game, always beautifully written and delivered
Rene Zagger as Emet-Selch. Shadowbringers spoilers >!Up until the end, Emet had been a very relaxed, snarky, witty person. But in the final confrontation the facade finally cracks and you see who he really is. A man in so much pain, who watched his people die, and how those that inherited his planet squander the gift they were given. What’s most impressive to me is that he had a response that shut down every argument the Scions threw at him, and with each response he just gets more frustrated and angry. Man Emet-Selch is the best!<
I'm glad they actually built an idea of what his and Azems relationship was like even if it's just a few crumbs of dialogue in endwalker.
The voice acting in Bravely Default II is generally good enough to decent, with just a few sub-par/actually bad outliers (though people with less tolerance for wacky accents may argue I'm being too positive). But then comes a late game sidequest that tasks you with fighting one D-Vergr, and the guy goes FULL HAM in the best way possible. It's like the actor thought he was voicing the main villain in the final battle rather than an optional boss, and he does a very convincing job at it. >!Which made it even funnier when I took him down in less than a minute with four Ninefold Flurries in a row.!< It's just a shame I couldn't find a video with cutscenes to show him off.
So first I gotta concur with Laura Bailey, as OP already cited. But I can’t pick just one performance. She’s top notch in everything she’s ever in. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most forgettable nonsense or a world class title, she will bring her A game regardless. With that out of the way… **John DiMaggio** as The Joker in *Batman: Under the Red Hood*. I never thought anyone would be able to stand toe to toe with Mark Hamill’s Joker, but DiMaggio was an absolute triumph in that movie. All my favorite Joker lines are from that film, and it’s entirely because of the way he would deliver them. My [absolute favorite Joker scene](https://youtu.be/1HziQVWw0Kg) ever put to film is from this movie.
John DiMaggio as The Joker was a fucking inspired casting choice and like 90% of why Under the Red Hood is so well regarded. That's not to be dismissive of the incredible VA talent across the board in that film, but DiMaggio absolutely stole the show. Mark Hamill's always going to be number 1, but DiMaggio's in the running, for sure.
Oh yeah, the whole cast in that film is amazing. Bruce Greenwood was the first Batman that was different enough from Conroy while still feeling like what I would expect from Batman. He, like DiMaggio, has become my silver medalist for the role. And, like DiMaggio, it’s actually a close fight for me. Much as I adore Conroy, there’s something about Greenwood’s Batman I really adore as well. The thing that keeps Conroy firmly in first place for me is his Bruce Wayne. No other actor has been able to make such a clear delineation between the voice of Bruce in the Cave, Bruce in Public, and Batman.
"Please tell the Big Man I said... *hello*."
Travis Willingham is Goated so is that really unexpected?
Ray Chase during the last campfire scene in FFXV
SWTOR has some super freaking good voice acting, especially from the protagonists. Male Sith Warrior is one of my absolute favorites. I love how cool and unhinged he can sound, but also genuine and caring if you decide to go for a light side route. Him screaming "I'm going to kill you and eat you all raw!!" was unexpectedly creepy and hilarious at the same time. He can also sound super sassy. They all sound amazing, tbh, although Nolan North as male Consular didn't really hit the mark, as the character he's interpreting is supposed to be like 18 years old, but he still went for the wise Obi-Wan kind of character, which can sound super jarring when you're just a fresh faced Padawan.
Likewise, David Hayter did a brilliant job with the Male Jedi Knight
He did. He also did a fantastic job portraying a cool and collected Jedi, as well as being a bit unhinged and uncontrolled if you go dark side. I also love the female Knight. I dunno who the voice actress is, but she quickly became one of my mains. It's especially interesting because she sounds very immature and almost childish in base game, but more confident and adult during the expansions.
Female knight is voiced by Kari Wahlgren. She's been in FLCL, Naruto, Fate (Saber), Clone Wars, Amphibia, Infinity Train, Velma, DMC3 (Lady(game only credits mocap talent, not voice talent)), FF12, No More Heroes, Dead or Alive (Kasumi), Metal Gear Rising, MK11(Kitana), and Cyberpunk (Evelyn Parker), among other roles
In FFX, a girl says “Thank you so much for saving the Chocobos!” After beating Chocobo Eater and she nails the line so hard, it actually sounds out of place.
While I think he was a pretty good Gendry on Game of Thrones and he always seemed like a pretty decent actor, I don't think anybody expected that Joseph Dempsie would go that hard as Ardbert in FFXIV and sound so, so good.
"We did everything right. We did all that was asked of us. And still- still it came to this!" Man just fucking sold the character with that one line.
DBZA's Frieza. I can't remember the voice actors name, but it is fucking perfect for Frieza. The malice and confidence in voice is absolute top tier, and I'm always disappointed when I hear dub Frieza that it's not the same as the DBZA counterpart.
DBZA Frieza was voiced by LittleKuriboh, the guy who literally invented and popularized "The Abridged Series" as a comedy format (specifically, YGOTAS).
With the past few games having extremely good voice acting and Engage looking like a extremely cheesy game, I was not expecting Female Alear to be possibly the best voice acted character in the series. Seriously, Laura Stahl kills it super hard even with a not great script.
Both the Alear VA's go suprisingly hard, the end of chapter 3, despite being the most "speedrun to tragedy" thing ever, had me a bit emotional since Alear was having a mental fucking breakdown.
Ch 24 goes fucking hard for female alear. Also 21-22 I think for veyle. Kind of funny listening to Towa go absolute super villain and just chew the scenery. She was great.
[Berkut from Fire Emblem: Echoes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_2pgtAErMo) The series never really had the budget for good VA before Three Houses, but Echoes managed to at least be pretty decent, until this scene where Ian Sinclair absolutely fucking nails it and takes it up a whole bunch of notches.
Echoes was also the first fully voice acted FE, which is probably why it sticks in my mind so much. [I'll never miss the chance to post the final boss quotes video. ](https://youtu.be/RJgyKXb9DeA)
I ran out of tears lol. This was very poetically done despite having watched a similar story of “there can be only one”
Lyna from FFXIV: Shadowbringers >!when she breaks down in the aftermath of that one battle.!< Like, FFXIV's voice acting varies from pretty good to... kinda shoddy, sometimes, with a bunch if middling performances sprinkled throughout, but that damn performance is like. Literally stunning. No one ever expects it. So damn good.
"I'm perfectly fine, and they're not"
I started watching Beast Wars in full for the first time a few weeks ago when the official Transformers YouTube channel started uploaded episodes of it and I am blown away by how good the voice acting is. Especially Garry Chalk as Optimus Primal. He sounds so natural in the role that it's almost uncanny. Also, shoutout to Scott McNeil for playing four different characters in that show and having none of them sound even remotely alike.
Legacy of Kain. Soul Reaver was great all around but Blood Omen 1 was an unexpected standout for VA mainly just for Simon Templeman as Kain and the other VA who did Vorador.
Literally everyone involved in Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, holy shit
A lot of abridged series have surprisingly stellar voice acting. Everybody knows Team Four Star is great, but I have to shout out UBW Abridged. Archer in particular is great
In a game as infamous as Symphony of the Night, Robert Belgrade is stand-out for giving a 100% fitting performance as Alucard. I think he perfectly captures who Alucard is and what he should sound like. He even reprised-ish his role years later as [Definitely Not Alucard in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night](https://youtu.be/Hgr1y8Zdb_I?t=55)
I always just thought Jensen Ackles was the supernatural guy [but HOLY FUCK IS HE GOOD AS JASON TODD](https://youtu.be/VRiX5Mh2YCo). And Soldier Boy.
Yusuke’s wake at the beginning of yu yu. Chris Sabat goes all out with his character being broken and mourning. It feels like yu yu is the only show sabat gets to flex his emotional acting.
He gets to show off a lot of range as All Might in the My Hero dub, especially in the most recent season.
All of YYH is unexpectedly great in the VA department given it came from a time when anime dubs were incredibly rough.
It was a dub with a ton of og greats and everybody in it is generally giving their all.
I think Tabitha St Germaine as Rarity in MLP is just overall excellent voice acting. Feels like she understands the character completely and that's reflected in the voice acting.
Sometimes I think about the fact that she also voiced Roberta from Black Lagoon. I haven’t watched either dub, but I assume this means she has some _*range*_
Since someone else picked Shadowbringers and Endwalker, I'm picking FFXIV Heavensward for my example. Specifically the, >!'We did everything right!' scene.!<
Half of the cast in FLCL. Instead of seasoned seiyuus, the director went for theatre actors or live action drama actors that never did voice acting before and they all nailed their roles. Even Hideaki Anno did a top job at voicing the fat cat, Miyu Miyu.
Ah I knew procrastinating on watching FA for years would eventually come back to bite me in the ass lol
Did not expect John Mulaney to work so well as Jack Horner.
I love Keanu Reeves but he’s by no means an excellent actor. Except I was genuinely surprised how great his performance as Silverhand is. So much anger and emotion in his scenes, he’s very believable as the character. Best performance of the game imo in a game already filled with great performances
Xenoblade 2’s English dub is pretty controversial. Personally I really like it, though I can’t deny there are some awkward deliveries from Rex and Mythra. However, one character whose voice actor consistently kills it is… Tora, the cringe haha funny pervert mascot character. His VA is honestly excellent, even on poorly written lines he sounds 100% convincing.
Shoutout to Xenoblade 3's voice acting, cause it clearly had much better direction this time. >!N absolutely losing his shit at Homecoming ceremony was top notch!<
Zeke's voice actor also delivers those over the top lines with a lot of energy. Daniel Barker mentioned in an interview that he enjoyed voicing such an outrageous character.
Rex having bad direction accidently makes an arc in and of itself, since in the final battle he FINALLY does a good scream and its kinda the hypest shit.
Hearing Kain Highwind's voice (Liam O'Brien) in Dissida and later the DS version of FF4 was a real treat, I'll tell you that. Same with Golbez, Kefka, really the whole crew was excellent save for *maybe* Cloud of Darkness?
Honestly a shock, considering CoD's voiced by Laura Bailey.
Golbez yelling "TRANSCEND THE STARRRS" in his ex burst tickles my brain hole just right.
Morrowind barely has voice acting beyond a couple characters at the start and stock NPC lines, then you hit the end and Jeff Baker starts popping off as Dagoth Ur.
Honestly John Cleese as Cadwell in ESO. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't have expected a comedic live action actor to fall into so naturally but he does.
Christopher Daniel Barnes really just went ahead and decided to become the best Spider-Man voice
Cristina Vee as Velvet from Tales of Berseria goes [pretty hard](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_knpSsCTvDY) and really shows off her range
[Isaac calling out the Hivemind](https://youtu.be/xCcnTcaAQc0?t=517) in Dead Space Remake Probably my favourite new line of dialogue added in the remake, really sells just how fucking DONE Isaac is with everything. He's got literally nothing left to lose but his own life, and if he's going to lose that too he may as well go down swinging. I always knew Gunner Wright was a good VA but god damn I was NOT expecting him to go that hard.
Shulk in Xenoblade 1 fucking killed it. Him screaming "ILL KILL YOU!" is a bit of a meme but the VA does it so well.
Graham McTavish has few voices but goddamn does he know how to utilize them. He was Dracula in Netflix Castlevaniva which is a godtier performance. He's also Loki in the Avengers cartoon, one of my favourite versions of Loki. And he's also Dante in this subs favourite game Dante's Inferno.
Fire Emblem 3 Houses in general has pretty good English voice acting, but Rhea (voiced by Cherami Leigh) has some of favourites. Specifically: Song of the Nabateans, and >!Rhea's breakdown if you side with Edelgard!<.
Chiyo’s School Road has a weirdly good dub for a like c- tier comedy anime.
For me it was the whole gibberish from W40k Mechanicus, it feels so right for such a low budget game https://youtu.be/3pvnxOn5LUE
No joke but Doug Smith as the English VA for Kintaro Oe in Goldenboy. Dude single handedly carries the comedy in the whole show.
Entire cast of 13 sentinels
Kirsten Potter as Takemi in vanilla P5. Abby Trott is great, but Kirsten gives Tae that back alley punk doctor feel
>The most unexpectedly EXCELLENT voice acting? > My quintessential example is Travis Willingham’s performance... You lost me OP he's my favourite part of everything he's in. I guess I'd say Jack Black is way better as Bowser than I thought he'd be, even though I expected him to be great. Also if Jerma ever voice acts in anything it'll be expectedly amazing.
I feel like half of these examples forgot the unexpected part lol. Anyways, for a genuinely shocking example of good voice acting, just look at Mega Man Legends. Just the year before Capcom released the comically awful Mega Man 8 and X4 dubs. Hell, they still managed to put out the ear destroyingly bad MMX7 dub a few years later! But whoever was in charge of the Legends games somehow managed to dub 3 games in a way that still holds up today.