The voices behind video game characters

A video game doesn’t feel right without voice acting. Sure, there are a ton of games that are successful with a silent protagonist (like Link in The Legend of Zelda), but the rest of the NPCs and characters within those games have voices to match their roles. 

Ryu from Street Fighter wouldn’t be as memorable as he is without his signature scream of “HADOUKEN!” or Skyrim’s Dragonborn iconic shout of “FUS RO DAH!”. Giving characters voices gives them a very different breath of life. 

But you can’t just get someone with a nice voice from the street and have them become your character—voice acting requires a specialized kind of acting.

How hard is it to step into the shoes of a video game character and become their voice? A legendary voice actor from an equally legendary video game series answers in our latest podcast episode!

Five game insights we think will pique your interest!

When you think of Mario, you already know what he sounds like. That’s how powerful and imprinting well-casted and passionate voice acting can be. Interestingly, Mario’s longest voice actor also voiced Luigi, Wario and even Donkey Kong at one time!

Every gamer already knows what to expect of a typical video game hero’s voice; charismatic, distinctive and has that undertone of justice in it. But almost everybody forgets that these qualities can manifest in villains and antiheroes as well. Martin Sheen’s performance as The Illusive Man in the Mass Effect series is one of the most famous and highly-regarded celebrity voiceovers in video game history.

We’re talking about all these video game voice actors, but what was the first mass-market video game with actual human voices in it? Many sources would say Disney’s Dragon’s Lair, but in fact, it is Sun Electronics’ Stratovox. It’s a Japanese arcade game that was initially released in Japan and then brought to North America by the Taito Corporation.

Voice acting in video games started to gain a lot of traction in its golden age, especially among role-playing games focused on storytelling. Final Fantasy X, released in 2001, is the first in its series to implement high-quality voice acting (except, of course, the awkward Tidus laugh moment). 

The impact of the lines the voice actors did in that game was so strong and emotional that it remained the top Final Fantasy title worldwide for several years and in Japan for almost a decade after its release. Even modern streamers weren’t able to hold their tears in this climax scene.

A well-voiced game can easily outshine the cons it may have. One of the primary powers of voice acting in a video game is its ability to make characters feel alive through the lines that they deliver. Whether they’re a hero or a villain, a character that has the right voice acting to complement their appearance and role will always steal the show.

However, no matter how good the writing is, it will flop if the voice acting can’t deliver. While this quote from Maya Angelou, American poet, storyteller, activist and autobiographer, has a different meaning altogether, her words apply to this topic quite well:

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.”

You’re nearly finished with the week, and you’ve earned a nice rest! While you’re taking your time to relax, why not hang out with the guys in our latest YouTube video?

And if you want to learn more about what we’re up to at Hey, Good Game, you can find out more right here.

See you next Friday!

-The Hey, Good Game Team