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I have seen countless posts about voice acting, especially Sora's, but I've decided to make one with some criticisms. Comment with your criticisms and hopes for future releases' voice acting.


Sora



  • Many people have been saying voices change with age, myself included, which is correct, but I have seen a few people act like this completely excuses Haley Joel Osment from improving. He should still try and improve.




  • I think Haley needs to practice more since it's been a while since the last KH game. He sounded a lot better in the Gummi Ship scene than he did in the Mysterious Tower scenes, but he still sounded a little iffy. It sounds way too forced, so he needs to practice to make it sound more natural. The ending of every sentence goes up in tone which makes him sound too whiny and childish.




  • Haley has aged naturally, but they haven't allowed Sora to age naturally alongside Haley, because of all the non-Sora games since KH2. They shouldn't be afraid to make Sora sound slightly more mature. Sora is slightly older after all. Haley's regular voice sounds basically like a less evil Vanitas, so maybe they should go with something a little closer to his regular voice, except slightly more in-character and Sora-esque of course.




  • Sora's voice sounds sort of like a 30 year old man trying to do a teenager impression, which is strange, because Haley's regular voice sounds like a natural teenage voice even though he's not a teenager. This is why I think they should try out something closer to his regular voice.



Kairi


  • I definitely hope they're able to get Hayden Panettiere back for KH3. I like Alyson Stoner, but it wouldn't be the same if any of the main characters' voices were changed. In my mind, Hayden is Kairi and Alyson is Xion. They don't feel like the same characters if their voices are reversed.

Riku


  • He sounded perfect, except he sounded younger in a few parts which is strange. Especially when he said "Sora-esque". Not that noticeable, just a minor criticism. I don't really care if they fix that or not, he sounds great either way.

Donald


  • Donald sounded very slightly different as well. I actually like this change though, because it seems like they're making his words easier to understand.

Mickey


  • Mickey sounded fine for the most part, they can't perfectly replace Wayne Allwine of course. There were some moments though where he sounded straight up weird. Especially when he said "I thought, I heard her voice in the distance". It didn't sound like Mickey at all, it sounded all nasally. I'm not sure what's up with Bret Iwan, because he sounded perfect in Dream Drop Distance. He seems to have gone back to how Mickey sounded in Re:coded. I'm not sure how you can improve so much, then go right back to how it was before like that. Maybe he just forgot? They should definitely try and see if he can make his Mickey voice just like how it was in DDD again.

I also wanted to add a quick note here about lip syncing. It was fine for the most part, but there were definitely noticeable moments. Yen Sid during the after credits scenes was especially bad. Since it's the last cutscene, I'm assuming that was rushed. This is why I'm glad KH3 doesn't have a release date yet. No release date means things aren't rushed. Let's hope KH3's release date doesn't get announced until after they're pretty much completely finished.


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I have seen countless posts about voice acting, especially Sora's, but I've decided to make one with some criticisms. Comment with your criticisms and hopes for future releases' voice acting.

Sora

  • Many people have been saying voices change with age, myself included, which is correct, but I have seen a few people act like this completely excuses Haley Joel Osment from improving. He should still try and improve.

  • I think Haley needs to practice more since it's been a while since the last KH game. He sounded a lot better in the Gummi Ship scene than he did in the Mysterious Tower scenes, but he still sounded a little iffy. It sounds way too forced, so he needs to practice to make it sound more natural. The ending of every sentence goes up in tone which makes him sound too whiny and childish.

  • Haley has aged naturally, but they haven't allowed Sora to age naturally alongside Haley, because of all the non-Sora games since KH2. They shouldn't be afraid to make Sora sound slightly more mature. Sora is slightly older after all. Haley's regular voice sounds basically like a less evil Vanitas, so maybe they should go with something a little closer to his regular voice, except slightly more in-character and Sora-esque of course.

  • Sora's voice sounds sort of like a 30 year old man trying to do a teenager impression, which is strange, because Haley's regular voice sounds like a natural teenage voice even though he's not a teenager. This is why I think they should try out something closer to his regular voice.

Kairi

  • I definitely hope they're able to get Hayden Panettiere back for KH3. I like Alyson Stoner, but it wouldn't be the same if any of the main characters' voices were changed. In my mind, Hayden is Kairi and Alyson is Xion. They don't feel like the same characters if their voices are reversed.

Riku

  • He sounded perfect, except he sounded younger in a few parts which is strange. Especially when he said "Sora-esque". Not that noticeable, just a minor criticism. I don't really care if they fix that or not, he sounds great either way.

Donald

  • Donald sounded very slightly different as well. I actually like this change though, because it seems like they're making his words easier to understand.

Mickey

  • Mickey sounded fine for the most part, they can't perfectly replace Wayne Allwine of course. There were some moments though where he sounded straight up weird. Especially when he said "I thought, I heard her voice in the distance". It didn't sound like Mickey at all, it sounded all nasally. I'm not sure what's up with Bret Iwan, because he sounded perfect in Dream Drop Distance. He seems to have gone back to how Mickey sounded in Re:coded. I'm not sure how you can improve so much, then go right back to how it was before like that. Maybe he just forgot? They should definitely try and see if he can make his Mickey voice just like how it was in DDD again.

I also wanted to add a quick note here about lip syncing. It was fine for the most part, but there were definitely noticeable moments. Yen Sid during the after credits scenes was especially bad. Since it's the last cutscene, I'm assuming that was rushed. This is why I'm glad KH3 doesn't have a release date yet. No release date means things aren't rushed. Let's hope KH3's release date doesn't get announced until after they're pretty much completely finished.

 

To be fair, a lot of these actors don't get to voice their characters for years at a time, and tend to be busy with lots of other projects, most of them requiring their more adult voices and performances. To be honest, I'm actually pretty satisfied that Haley and David sound as good as they do here after so long of a wait for new voice work. As for the Disney actors, Bill Farmer is on top as usual, Donald I have to admit sounded a bit odd at first, but towards the third scene he kind of returned to the style I'm used to.

 

Bret I will admit kind of always had on again, off again moments for me with his Mickey. It always sounds like he's doing his best to follow Allwine's memorable performance, but then occasionally having difficulty mixing it with his own natural talents. A good consistent Mickey can be a tricky thing to do, making your voice both high pitched falsetto and nasally, but at the same time not being too much of either, so I can tell he's trying his hardest, but some tiny hiccups do rear up every once in a while. Still, while his DDD performance was more solid, his job in 0.2 is still much more seasoned than his BBS and Re:Coded days, and even then he was still doing pretty decent. Still, I will admit that it is a bit strange that Iwan wouldn't have his Mickey completely nailed by this point in his career, but I guess he hasn't gotten as busy of a time as Wayne did, he doesn't even voice Mickey in the currently running cartoon series (I find the guy who does voice Mickey in that series to be pretty decent for what the show is, a much more modern take on Mickey shorts scenarios. Certainly not KH or Disney Parks material, but a fun little show like this? Completely serviceable). But maybe I'm underestimating him, there's still plenty of Mickey work that Disney gives him, and even then Wayne occasionally had his own off days as Mickey (I'm almost convinced that he was recovering from a cold when he voiced for Re:CoM but just couldn't reschedule, thus a more nasally Mickey), so for all he's done, he's still the top mouse of our day.

 

Alyson, I'll be frank, I think her Kairi is fine, certainly serviceable for small things like this, Re:CoM, and Days, but I would still really rather have Hayden return in KH3, it just wouldn't feel the same to have a different voice for Kairi for a much larger duration of time, and this was probably the longest scene Alyson ever had as Kairi yet, and you can tell she's really trying to match Hayden's style. The weird thing is, there almost seems to be a pattern with how Hayden and Alyson switch off on Kairi every other game. KH1 is Hayden, Re:CoM is Alyson, KH2 is Hayden, 358/2 Days is Alyson, BBS is Hayden, Re:Coded didn't technically use either of them as Kairi, same with DDD, and then 0.2 came back with Alyson, in probably the longest Kairi role she's had yet. Now, if patterns ever meant anything (which sometimes they really don't, but it's fun anyway), this would suggest that there's a good chance that Hayden would return as Kairi for KH3, and quite honestly it feels more than certain at this point, it's one of those projects where it would be crazy not to get all of your top people back together who are still alive and available. Though again, it will probably depend on how available she is by the time they need her for recording, cause among herself, Haley, and David, I believe Hayden tends to get a bit more work in between KH projects, which is why they need Alyson to be her understudy every other game or so. Either that or her agent would rather she get paid to do more than just a few cameo lines, though that didn't seem to stop her from returning for BBS's secret ending. In any event, hopefully she will return for her biggest Kairi role in a while, since the crew and fans alike all love her, and I believe she still has a good fondness of KH as well. Plus, she's got a daughter of her own, maybe she'd be excited at the prospect of getting to voice a much more butt-kicking go-get-em style Kairi, especially if she likes the more modern Princess movies.

 

On a final note, while I am disappointed that we didn't get to hear more Jessie in this title...in this whole compilation actually, but DDD gave a few nice nuggets here and there, and it's nice to know he has a clearer idea in his head about the differences between his Roxas and Ventus performances, so I really appreciate that. Hope he gets more lines in KH3, I need moar of that McCartney voice...T3T". Anyway, for what 0.2's scenario was, it makes sense that Ven wouldn't be speaking, so yeah, there really wouldn't be any point to calling Jessie over to voice. I am happy to hear how solid Jason Dohring is as Terra now, he's really come a long way from his rocky start (Ha!) in the early start of BBS, and now it feels like he's got a consistent hold on his performance as Terra. Richard Epcar. Nothing else to really say, the guy is awesome. More please.

 

In fact, everyone else was pretty good, I can't really complain with how this whole thing turned out. Of course I'd want everybody to be a little less rusty by the time they start voicing for KH3, but I have confidence that they're going to fish for these actors' best and that they will give it their all in return, considering the magnitude of the title they're working on.

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I could say what Hero of Light said, that a lot of the VAs haven't voiced their characters for years at a time, and them being too busy with other projects. So of course they sound a bit different.

 

I would also add the whole SAG_AFTRA thing. The "On Strike" thing a lot of VAs were doing, months ago. Of stuff I would hear that these VA's voice sessions are too long, and want their sessions hours to be lowered to a better time, and other stuff that they were protesting about. One VA guy had some tough health issue regarding his sessions, of what I've heard from Steve Blum (if I recall of what he said.). Not to mention 2.8 was on the list of this matter. (That's just me with the SAG_AFTRA thing... I'm not sure if you guy could agree with this...)  

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I would love to hear more of Hayden voicing Xion and Kairi.

 

nooooo :sad: I love Alyson as Xion. It wouldn't feel like the same character if Alyson didn't play her.

Edited by Elfdemon_

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I thought HJO this time around sounded a bit too whiney; I know Sora is very aloof and innocent, but the Gummi Ship scene killed me with how whiney it was. 

I actually like Alyson as Kairi as well - I heard more emotion.

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