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Which former character voices do you miss the most?


batson

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Out of all the former voices we've heard from the characters in the past, which ones do you miss the most? It can be a voice from the original Dreamcast era cast, the Sonic X cast, or from a media adaption like one of the cartoons.

As for me, the one character voice change that I've NEVER been able to accept is that of Vector. I loved his original voice in Sonic Heroes as provided by Mark Biagi. It fitted the character perfectly, being gruff but with a certain almost paternal element to it. Ever since then, Vector has had this terrible cartoony voice that's just grating. I really can't stand it. And the worst part is that they had the perfect opportunity to get rid of it when they changed the 4Kids voice cast, but the VA they ended up with did an obvious impression of the former 4kids VA, resluting in the character essentially keeping his 4kids voice even though it was a different person providing it!

Another VA I'll always miss is the great Deem Bristow and his Eggman voice. I know a lot of people really love Mike Pollock, but I've honestly never been a huge fan of his Eggman voice. It sounds more like how you would imagine a big brute like Bowser to sound than a middle aged scientist.

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I actually really enjoy Keith Silverstein's Vector. The dude's got magic in his voice, being able to shift from someone like Gild Tesoro in One Piece Film Gold and Kimimaro from Naruto to a voice like Vector's. It helps that he's got gruffiness to his voice despite being more cartoony than Mark Biagi. Vector's 4kids VA was terrible though. It was just way too high-pitched and warbly. Jason Griffith had the same problem when it came to voicing Sonic, which is odd because he didn't have this issue when it came to voicing Shadow or Jet. 

As for ones I miss the most... I actually don't know. I guess I'd like to have Travis Willingham back as Knuckles but, to be fair to Dave Mitchell, he hasn't had a chance to sink his teeth in the role as Knux yet. 

I think the current cast is fine. I just think some of them vary in their performances. There's a lot of times where Kirk Thornton is killing it as Shadow and other times where he's dipping into his Kisame voice a bit too much. 

Roger is great as Sonic but he always, ALWAYS sounds so much better when he's on TV. Probably because they've got directors that give more of a shit than the games do.

I guess what I'm saying is that the voices are fine but I'd really like some improved voice direction from the games. Also, not playing hot potato with voice actors every few years would be nice. 

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I was thinking last night while watching Sonic Forces cutscenes that Eggman isn't the same without Chikao Ohtsuka. Kotaro Nakamura does a decent job in his place but he teeters between sounding similar enough to Ohtsuka and too growly for my tastes. Not Nakamura's fault in the least though, Ohtsuka was just that iconic of a VA and one of my favorite Japanese ones I've heard.

Thankfully most of the JP cast has remained intact since SA1 but it'll be a huge blow to me whenever Sega changes, for one reason or another, Sonic, Knuckles, or Shadow's VAs.

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I'll second Deem Bristow. Mike is good, but Deem's Eggman had an edge which helped sell him as a dangerous villain even in his more comical moments. Call me biased but I just can't imagine "You fool! Away! Before I make mincemeat out of you!" being near as effective coming from Pollock.

I also really miss Scott Dreier as Knuckles, he had just the right balance of youthfulness and maturity to give Knuckles gravitas befitting his status as the last echidna and guardian of the Master Emerald without sacrificing his more awkward and relatable side. Plus, he just sounded cool.

I also kind of want Ryan Drummond and David Humphrey or Jason Griffith back as Sonic and Shadow, mainly because I haven't been thrilled with RCS and Kirk Thornton's takes on the characters (though I can certainly tolerate them if they continue to perform like they did in Forces). 

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Personally I always dread voices changes in Sonic, then complain, then get use to them. Right now on the fence with Silver and Knuckles, but they may grow on me.

 

One exception: Shadow. I seen enough of this to be certain that I don't like Kirk Thomson. I'll take both of his VA any day over him.

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I tend to always prefer the Japanese voice cast but some games don’t give you the option to change the language.  


So I came in to say Marc Biagi as Vector. His voice is literally perfect for the guy and it’s probably a huge reason why I love Vector so much to begin with. He did so well making Vector sound grounded and realistic with lines like “darn I forgot to pay the electric bill“ and “why do you think we’re here, how else are we gonna make the rent?” It’s got the perfect level of gruffness and yet he doesn’t sound over the top like a cartoon, it sounds believable and ugh it’s just so great.

Vector’s 4kids voice was horrendous and I don’t like his current VA. I have gotten used to it and I don’t hate it like I used to, but he’s got nothing on my man Biagi. Literally the perfect Vector for me.

I also really miss David Humphrey as Shadow and Ryan Drummond as Sonic. They were the perfect English voice actors for those two. The current ones just don’t feel like Sonic and Shadow at all for me. I will give Sonic’s current VA credit though and say that his voice is perfect for Boom Sonic. But just as Jaleel White is great for AoStH Sonic, it doesn’t suit game Sonic at all. At least for me. 

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I think Kate Higgins is the one who I miss the most, but idk. I don't think I ever took much attention to VA actually. I just mention Kate because there's a strange backstory behind it. (Some say she did the test and strangely felt she wasn't going to pass it, other says it was a SEGA choice, I remember there's a few more, but can't remember now).

Btw, I still think she's very pretty and does some cool Jazz songs when I'm in a mood not asking for my usual electronics:

Spoiler

 

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Lisa Ortiz as Amy. She was the perfect voice actress for the character, since she give Amy a unique voice that perfectly matched her personality and appearance. Jennifer Douillard made her sound a bit too generic, and Cindy Robinson makes her sound 40 years older than she actually is.

Everyone else though, I can live without them. I’m fairly used to the current voice cast, and most of the performances I don’t like are from characters that a) never really had any performances I liked prior or b) rarely appear often enough to be an issue. Part of me kinda misses Jason as Sonic, though.

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I do wish to add that despite really liking Keith's Vector voice, I do wholeheartedly agree that Mark Biagi was excellent and hit the highest peak of vocal performances for the guy. The delivery of his lines were a special kind of something that hasn't been replicated and its a shame that 4kids Vector permiates so much more of Vector's vocal appearances than his.

Recently, I've grown to have a ton more respect for the original voice actors because they were tasked with making the characters their own and, in a lot of ways, setting the stage for how they were to sound down the line. Ryan wasn't Sonic's first voice but he was definitely the origin of a voice for Sonic's modern take and how he'd be viewed going forward.

Scott Drier and David Humphrey were standouts but I do want John St. John to get a little recognition for still having the best Omega voice as well.

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54 minutes ago, Menace2Society said:

...and Cindy Robinson makes her sound 40 years older than she actually is.

Where's this Rouge logic coming from, she doesn't sound 40+...

With Rouge it somewhat made sense when people said this about her 4Kids VA, but this really doesn't.

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I honestly miss Rouge's 4Kids VA. She sounded too old, but I could stand to listen to her at least. She characterised Rouge well. I really don't think that her current VA manages to do the job well at all. She's annoying enough to discourage me from ever using her in TSR.

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If we're talking Chaotix, I liked Corkery as Charmy the most. Birnbaum's could get annoying, and O'SHaugnessy's was just tails. Obviously they can't replicate that, but that energy she brought to the role was great.

On the other hand, I didn't really like Espio's heroes voice, felt way too gruff. David Wills was a good choice, and he served the character well. Baker had like three lines, but Mercer hasn't wowed me as much as his 4kids VA/

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49 minutes ago, thumbs13 said:

...O'SHaugnessy's was just tails.

Other way around, mang.

She voiced Charmy first, then Tails.

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4 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Where's this Rouge logic coming from, she doesn't sound 40+...

With Rouge it somewhat made sense when people said this about her 4Kids VA, but this really doesn't.

I was exaggerating just to exaggerate, lol.

But yeah, my issue is with her is that she sounds way too old. Maybe not 40+ age, but she certainly doesn’t sound like she’s emulating a 12 year old’s voice to me atleast. I also don’t think it really matches her personality very well, although at this point, I’m pretty sure they completely forgot what Amy’s personality is supposed to be, so whatever.

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If there are two (English-speaking) actors past or present who matched their voices to the characters perfectly imo, it's gotta be Lisa Ortiz as Amy and Jason Griffith as Shadow. While it took Jason some time to evolve his Shadow voice from "evil-sounding Sonic" into its own thing, I think he adapted quicker to the role and had slightly more of an emotional range as Shadow than he did with Sonic (who he also eventually became great at voicing), even if most of the time he was voiced by Griffith he was brooding, or angry to some degree. Those rare moments he wasn't were a good showcase of Jason's skills. Meanwhile, Lisa had a fantastic interpretation from the very beginning and not only was the voice very fitting for the character, she knew just how to change it up in order to make her effectively sound sweet, joyful, friendly, sad, upset, etc. when it was called for. I'm not a fan of Amy's writing in most of X but when she was bossy or rude with others, she at the very least had an actor who had the ability to work with that.

Honorable mentions would be Ryan Drummond, who was my favorite Sonic for his energy and extremely fitting voice, Scott Drier and Travis Willingham as Knuckles; the former because his voice just sounds so chill and while he was kinda flat in SA2, he showed some good range in Heroes, and the latter because of just how well he could make the comedic stuff work, and he fit in perfectly with the more lighthearted stories he was in. From the time I heard him ask "Did you gain weight?" I knew I was gonna love this guy as Knuckles. Deem Bristow as Eggman deserves a special shout-out too for being able to sound both bombastic at times and pretty intimidating in others. Also David Willis as Espio...no particular reason other than he sounded really fucking cool.

And that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

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12 hours ago, Jango said:

I miss Ryan, man. I miss him and the whole Sonic Heroes' cast, minus Tails. He's VA from SA1 is -miles- better 😏

Same. I’m sure Ryan could knock it out of the park if he came back and had better direction to work with but that’s not happening anytime soon.

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Definitely Jason Griffith's Shadow. Out of all three Shadows, he was definitely my favorite. He managed to refine that deep gravelly voice into a distinct stoic drawl completely different from his Sonic voice. His yells and other emotes were also great and well delivered. He had some amazing writing in Shadow the Hedgehog and even 06 which he handled with masterful delivery.. (06 has my ideal Shadow characterization. "If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have" - this is the kind of Shadow I want). I miss his Shadow voice dearly, his Shadow was the best Shadow for me.

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@Solister Don't forget that she also sang "Jump Up, Super Star" in Mario Odyssey. :)

As for me, I miss Jon St. John as Big. I like Kyle Hebert's version of the character, but St. John's rendition was just the perfect level of dopey-sounding.

David Humphrey was far and away the best Shadow to me. Jason's Shadow voice was good, but his acting continuously fluctuated from good at best to downright terrible at worst. Dude's a talented voice actor, but I always thought his acting in the Sonic series was rather poor. Kirk Thornton has the opposite problem; he delivers a constantly competent performance, but his voice just doesn't fit.

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Jason Griffith as Sonic, with a catch. I kinda sorta liked him in his older Sonic material, but the delivery felt kind of lackluster. Take 06 for example, nothing he said there felt natural at all. Even Sonic X had better delivery by comparison. By the time of Unleashed, he nailed Sonic down perfectly. I would guess that Black Knight would be just as good, but I never played the game so IDK for sure. The only game where I don't switch to Japanese VO just so I don't have to hear Sonic's annoying voice is Unleashed. If Griffith continued as Sonic, it would be perfect. So that means I only enjoy hearing Sonic's voice in, like, a single fucking game. I guess Sonic was pretty decent in SA2, minus the poor pacing of every character's lines. SA1 had some laughably bad delivery at times. 

Ryan Drummond is overrated imo plz don't flog me

The current voice over for the rest of the cast has actually been pretty good, minus maybe Shadow (idk about Rouge, lot of people seem hit or miss on her new voice). Tails is excellent, I like Silver's new voice, Knuckles' voice fits him pretty well, and Amy's voice doesn't annoy me anymore! I just don't like the new Sonic. Roger Craig Smith was meant to be Batman and Ezio, Sonic he ain't. 

And please, SEGA, whatever you do, keep Mike Pollock for as long as you can. He is the quintessential Eggman voice, both goofy, demanding and threatening at the same time, just as he should be.

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9 minutes ago, McGroose said:

Roger Craig Smith was meant to be Batman and Ezio, Sonic he ain't. 

No he wasn't...

He did a lot of voices on Regular Show, listen to those and say he was "meant" to be those 2.

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13 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

No he wasn't...

He did a lot of voices on Regular Show, listen to those and say he was "meant" to be those 2.

Uh... sure? What's your point? Did you interpret what I said there as that he should voice two single characters and absolutely nobody else? Of course I didn't mean that. They were just two random examples. I'm aware he has voiced numerous other characters. He has done, in my opinion, quite a decent job with most of them (with the one's I am familiar with anyway, including his roles on Regular Show), including, but not limited to, Batman and Ezio. I used those two because those two characters are what I know him the most for. I guess I should have said he was meant to be Kiichi Goto, Prince Phillip, Temujin, Steve Rogers, a couple other dozen characters, and Ezio and Batman.

I just don't like his voice as Sonic.

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1 minute ago, McGroose said:

Uh... sure? What's your point? Did you interpret what I said there as that he should voice two single characters and absolutely nobody else?

Clearly not, but I'm assuming that list of characters is meant to be his range.

Which is also what I was saying.

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