Rouge Voice Actor Karen Strassman Lists ‘Sonic II’ on Resume

[Rad Dudesman]

Probably Sonic Adventure 2.

Sonic Adventure 2 was released in 2001, Strassman didn't start voicing Rouge until 2010.

[Marcello]

Sorry Hero but Rouge was nowhere to be found in Transformed.

Although that doesn't mean all too much. Kyle Hebert did some recordings for Big in Generations, but it was all cut in the end.

 

But, I'm guessing this is a mistake. Can't see them having voices for her since 2012 in a game that still hasn't been released. Unless this supposed to be Mario & Sonic in London, which was the new voice actors' first M&S game.

[Chili Dawg]

Although that doesn't mean all too much. Kyle Hebert did some recordings for Big in Generations, but it was all cut in the end.

 

 

And I'll never stop being sad about it...

[Tani Coyote]

What is most amusing is how this hasn't been found until now.

Something tells me voice actors will be a bit more on their toes with credits after this sort of thing, though.

We gotta remember, Boom was spoiled a year in advance or so by a writer simply adding it to his credits. Kind of amused SEGA didn't flail like a Gmod ragdoll all over him for it, but I'm guessing pushing against something like that would have confirmed it as legit.

But seeing as this is way back in 2012, I'm stumped. Can't imagine any kind of game from Sonic having so much dev-time that they were already in the voicing stage three years ago.

Well actually...

The Unleashed team had finished Generations in presumably early to mid 2011, and assuming they continued to work on something new while the Colors team did Lost World, they would have had a window to record lines by early 2012.

My question is: do they record lines that far in advance? I would have thought the lines are one of the later pieces of a work...

But on the other hand, recording lines early might also make sense for animation purposes. I don't know if Sonic games are made with the English or Japanese lines in mind for the animations, though.

[Salamander]

Knowing about a cancelled game would cause the last few years of Sonic releases to make sense, but would a project that they canned in its entirety really have been allowed to get so far as recording lines?  They still released RoL, after all.

[Gabz Girl]

If Strassman's lines were recorded in 2012, it could've been for the new Sonic Team game that has supposedly been in production since 2012. Then again, I always thought recording lines for a videogame was the last thing they did, at least in Japanese games (like with anime). I think it could just be a simple mistake.

[Wittymations]

Well actually...

The Unleashed team had finished Generations in presumably early to mid 2011, and assuming they continued to work on something new while the Colors team did Lost World, they would have had a window to record lines by early 2012.

My question is: do they record lines that far in advance? I would have thought the lines are one of the later pieces of a work...

But on the other hand, recording lines early might also make sense for animation purposes. I don't know if Sonic games are made with the English or Japanese lines in mind for the animations, though.

While I'm not sure, I do dabble in animation quite a bit. Normally, I like to have lines recorded before I begin animation work. The animation acts as a timer for when someone says something or does something.

 

The reason I bring this up is this up is that to begin animation, you would already need to have your maps/world laid out before you even begin the animation process, at all. That early means they've already got the world being built up to, at least, some extent. It may be a small area, untextured-lightly textured, and undecorated but it's there.

 

I imagine it'd be

Game mechanics built up > Writing > World Construction > Recording of Lines > Animation of cutscenes

 

Of course, there's no reason, at all, for them to take it from a step by step approach, often times maps for cutscenes won't be anywhere in the maps you play. So you could have one team designing the levels while another animates the cutscenes.

 

However, this is just judging from my own experiences from Flash to Source Filmmaker and my own weak knowledge of the game design process. So what I do and what makes sense to me is likely very different from the professional standard.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I think there's a number of possible explanations...

 

However, I'm leaning towards this being either a mistake or it's Mach 2.

 

Think about it logically in terms of work. 

 

We know from insiders that Sonic team was at the least testing something new with regards to Sonic, this was at some point last year... which came as a surprise to nobody.

 

And everybody is expecting something either later this year or middle of next for the 25th anniversary. 

 

Well... wouldn't the english VA's have done work for the game by May 2014? 

 

Think about it, even if you started development around January 2014 for a game on a scale of Generations or SLW, it would only be around now that it would be in a position where you could confidently reveal it as a work in progress.

 

Voice actor work would likely have been done, or at least the English and the Japanese work since somebody somewhere at some point on the development team would be working to put them into the game, it would be work that would be done and can then be kept or stored until the time came to actually use them, I don't think it would be a case of.

 

"Ok we got all this work done, time to bring in the voice actors"

 

"Ok we got the voice actors work, lets put them in the game"

 

I think it would be more likely that.

 

"Right we can now start work on putting in the voices and work on some of the story elements, can someone pass me the audio files with the VA's please."

 

Well not literally like that but you get the idea.

 

So it is possible that this is Mach 2, and that the German VA only recently got the job since they're in a state where they can add the localisation process for Europe. Given how Sonic games tend to be a Western first thing, it would make sense. 

 

 

However... the problem comes with that Generations and Anniversary thing.

 

We know/believe that Generations was called Anniversary, thanks to the Spanish community guy and that leaked artwork(?). 

 

Which leads to another possibility.

 

Strassman gets a script/job for a role in Sonic Anniversary, lists it on her CV as Sonic Anniversary.

 

Strassman then gets a second script for a role in Soni Anniversary (additional voice work for the same character), however this time the script is called Sonic Generations.

 

See where I'm going with this? 

 

Mike Pollock has said on many occasions that he doesn't/isn't aware of the full story when he gets work, it's a job, and looking at how Strassman has arranged her CV, I think she too treats everything as just a job, but also I think she does that thing where you make a lot of work stand out more than it really is e.g. "Lead" and "Various voices" Lead implies a more important role, but would anyone consider Rouge a lead character in Generations?

 

So it's a codename for something which is already on her CV.

 

However there are two other things which might explain it.

 

1: Cancelled Generations DLC.

 

2: Sonic 11.

[Kuzu]

Pretty sure its a mistake.

[Wittymations]

I'm curious as to why most are pointing towards it being a mistake. Not saying it isn't just a little odd. Do voice actors make mistakes like this regularly, or her in particular?

[Detective Shadzter]

I bring an update. Thanks to the Wayback Machine we can see there were no Sonic listings on March 14th 2012, but all four are there in the next capture on September 5th 2012, including 'Sonic II'.

http://web.archive.org/web/20120101000000*/http://www.karenstrassman.com/karen_credits.pdf

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'm curious as to why most are pointing towards it being a mistake. Not saying it isn't just a little odd. Do voice actors make mistakes like this regularly, or her in particular?

 

I'm thinking more mistake in that it's a code name for a game which is already out/that she already has on her list.

[SSF1991]

So the listing appears in January 2012, vanishes by March, then reappears in September of that same year?

 

Okay then.

[Tara]

A reminder that this list is in chronological order, not by order of release date or by order of series each title belongs to.  That means that even if it isn't a mistake, it could have absolutely nothing to do with Sonic the Hedgehog.  However, researching anything by the name Sonic II appears to lead to nowhere except Sonic stuff, so that doesn't seem to be the likely conclusion, but it's still possible.  Granted, the fact that all four Sonic titles appears simultaneously probably renders this untrue, but again, there are a number of explanations for that as well.

[Dizcrybe]

I'm in the "this is a mistake" boat. She probably misnamed whatever game "Sonic II" is supposed to be.

[Detective Shadzter]

Strassman has now removed 'Sonic II' from her voiceover resume linked on her site here

http://www.karenstrassman.com/#!resume/c1ikp

 

The one linked in credits on her voiceover site still lists it, though.

http://www.karenstrassmanvoices.com/

[Tani Coyote]

"Just a typo."

 

A typo for what?

 

I'm sensing a half-truth here. The game isn't called Sonic II, but I doubt the person making the list randomly threw the numeral right next to the word Sonic.

 

Even if Sonic II isn't the correct title, obviously it must have been something similar.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

So is "Sonic II" a new game right? Or just a typo of a name of an older game?

[Tani Coyote]

So is "Sonic II" a new game right? Or just a typo of a name of an older game?

 

It really sounds to me like it could be either. The name Sonic II is incorrect.

 

But since she didn't specify how it was incorrect, we're led even more confused than before.

 

I can only assume it was something else that was misnamed. While there is the possibility of it being added entirely by mistake, I sincerely doubt that. While no employee is perfect, I don't think they'd just randomly throw "Sonic II" in there unless they had some sort of sheet in front of them saying something similar.

[Jango]

Rouge's VA is hot, btw.

[Gabz Girl]

Glad that's cleared up. I mean it could still be something, but at least we now know it was just a typo for...something Sonic related.

[Gatestormer]

She does seem to suggest that this happened several years ago though, might be totally irrelevant now. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

A typo for what?

 

Sonic 11

[TheOcelot]

It was obviously a typo.

 

While no employee is perfect, I don't think they'd just randomly throw "Sonic II" in there unless they had some sort of sheet in front of them saying something similar.

[Nepenthe]

I understand the potential of there being a mistake, but what is the logic underlying the mistake? What does "Sonic 2" actually refer to? She has never starred in any game that's a direct sequel to a single title in the franchise, unless she's just so sloppy that she would list SA2 because herpaderp that also had Rouge in it. But in order for her to know that she would've understood that the game was "Sonic Adventure 2" and simply listed it as that.