Ten Games With the Most Hilariously Bad Voice Acting - Article
by Taneli Palola , posted on 19 May 2016 / 29,160 Views
Voice acting in video games has come a long way in the medium's short history. It's not really that long ago that bad voice acting was just something you accepted as a necessary evil. It was either that or not play certain video games at all.
However, there was also a difference in the kind of bad voice acting you'd get. Sometimes it was just plain bad and listening to it was a chore that you barely tolerated simply because you wanted to play the game. Other times the voice acting was so bad that it actually became entertaining to the point that you wondered how it ever got through to the final product. All you could do was laugh at the absurdity of it all. That's the kind of voice acting we're looking at today.
Here are ten video games, in no particular order, with voice acting so horrendously misguided that it has become infamous, as well as hilarious, as a result.
Resident Evil
Let's start with what is possibly the most famous example - Resident Evil. It's an obvious choice, but it is so for good reason. Everything about the voice acting in the original Resident Evil is just wrong in all the right ways. The writing is atrocious, the cast's delivery is awkward, the voices barely fit the characters, the emotions in the voices constantly feel wrong in the context of the game's scenes... and yet somehow it all combined to produce some of the funniest examples of video game voice acting ever recorded.
Most gamers, even those who don't particularly enjoy Resident Evil games, know about “Jill sandwich” or “master of unlocking”, and just about every single recorded line in the game is equally off in both delivery and writing. It's like it was written by someone who knew English in theory, but who had no idea how it was actually spoken. To be fair sometimes it felt like the actors had a similarly vague grasp of English as well.
Deep Fear
Deep Fear was Sega's attempt at creating a survival horror franchise that could rival Resident Evil, and to a certain extent it's actually a very competent stab at the genre even if it's not quite on par with Capcom's franchise. It does, however, completely eclipse Resident Evil in the terrible writing and voice acting department, and considering quality of writing in the first Resident Evil that's a pretty notable accomplishment.
Terrible voice acting is often a combination of several different things going wrong at once, and this game is a prime example of that. It feels like every single line of dialogue is awful in its own unique way. The writing is often nonsensical and the acting is hilariously uneven, going from campy to bland within the span of a single sentence. The takes are also filled with mistakes and weird stumbles that apparently were still the best (or the only) ones recorded.
Castle Shikigami 2
Castle Shikigami 2 is a vertical scrolling shooter that features some very satisfying gameplay. Too bad it also has a story to go along with the gameplay. Whoever did the translation from Japanese to English also decided to be as literal as possible, resulting in some absolutely amazing sentences that make no sense in or out of context.
Then there are the voice actors, who apparently had no idea what they were doing. That's the only explanation that I can think of for them just going along with lines like “Slaves for Fashion dislike bulges.” Listening to the dialogue in this game is a bizarre experience. It's filled with mistranslations, cryptic lines that don't make any sense, and general weirdness that's just really difficult to explain. Just listen and you'll understand... maybe.
Last Alert
Here we have the oldest game on the list, Last Alert. This is a top-down shooter released on the TurboGrafx-16 CD in 1990. I really can't say whether the game was any good or not for its time, but it seems harmless enough. However, the voice acting is anything but harmless. Last Alert features some of the most amazingly atrocious voice acting in video game history.
Last Alert was localized rather hastily in order to give people something to actually play on the TurboGrafx's CD add-on, and it certainly shows. The actors sound like they were picked based on who happened to be passing by the office at the time, so as to get the game onto store shelves as quickly as possible. This results in every character sounding completely uninterested in the events unfolding around them. Together with the over-the top imagery the game often uses it makes for some unintentionally funny moments.
Link: The Faces of Evil
Here's another one that many of you are probably already familiar with. The Zelda games on the Philips CD-I are infamous for their poor quality in just about every respect and the voice acting is no exception.
The voice acting in The Faces of Evil is filled with weird decisions and baffling mistakes. The writing is also once again horrible, sounding like something from a cheap fan film or bad piece of fan fiction. The voice actors constantly put emphasis in the wrong places and in general just sound fake and unbelievable.
Mega Man 8
Mega Man 8 isn't just a game with bad voice acting, it's a game filled with mistakes the likes of which any professional voiceover director would have had redone immediately. Not here though. Apparently silly things like retakes had no place in Mega Man 8. It was much more sensible to just record the lines once and be done with it as quickly as possible.
The actors keep stuttering, tripping over their lines, pausing mid sentence to correct themselves, and even use the wrong words. The majority of them are also completely miscast, sounding nothing like what you'd expect. This makes for a strange experience where, for example, Dr. Light sounds like a stuttering drunk with a lisp and Mega Man comes off like a five year old girl.
T.R.A.G: Mission of Mercy
Here's a rule that you may want to follow if you're ever made responsible for a voiceover recording. If a laugh sounds unnatural, cut it out of the script or use an actor who can actually laugh without sounding like an idiot. Awkward laughter seems to be one of the hallmarks of bad voice acting in video games, and T.R.A.G: Mission of Mercy is a perfect example of that.
Of course, it's never just one thing that's wrong with the voice acting in these games. The acting is mostly flat and emotionless, and when the actors do try to add some nuance to their performances it's as if emotions were an alien concept to them that they had just learned about from a book and were in the process of attempting to replicate. It's actually wonderful to listen to.
Shining Force III
Remember how I just mentioned a rule about unnatural laughter? Well, the voiceover director from Shining Force III didn't get that memo. Another lovely aspect of this game's voice acting are the battle voices. They are, as you would expect, repeated over and over and over and over and over and over again throughout the whole game. So, you'd think they would make an effort to have them at least sound decent, right? Well, have a listen.
And now imagine having to listen to that kind of voice acting every single time you get into a battle. It's an absolute mess of a voiceover in every way. Nothing in it works, and what makes it even worse is that otherwise Shining Force III is a really good game. The voice acting detracts from its overall quality and enjoyment factor.
Dynasty Warriors 3
This pick could have been reserved for just about any game from the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series, but I found this one to be especially hilarous to listen to. With a myriad of awkwardly delivered lines by some seriously miscast actors giving out the cheesiest possible performances, Dynasty Warriors 3 is an absolute treasure of horrendous voice acting.
Once again it's all about the delivery here. Every single actor seems deadset on giving out the most over the top performance they possibly can. It honestly sounds like they immediately realized how silly the whole thing was and just decided to at least have some fun in the process. If nothing else, it makes for an enjoyable, silly gaming experience.
Chaos Wars
Things not to do when you're in charge of recording a voice over for a video game:
#1. Do not cast actual kids to voice children.
#2. Do not hire your own friends and family to do the voices in order to save money.
#3. Do not hire people with no experience, training, or interest in voice acting as voice actors.
Unless you're working on Chaos Wars, in which case do all of the above. This game combines the worst aspects of every single other game on this list into one gloriously horrendous package. Chaos Wars took all the progress that had been made in video game voice acting in the previous 20 years, looked at it, and threw it away. It's amazing that in 2008 something as horrendous as this could still be made, but somehow someone found a way.
Naturally there are a huge number of other games with enjoyably bad voice acting, but I can only cover a small number in one article. These are simply the ones that I feel are the funniest and most entertaining in their awfulness. Still, I'm sure you have your favourites that give you the biggest laughs, so share them in the comments below.
As always, thanks for reading.
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Chaos Wars is hilarious
They sound so invested in the game XD
What about House of the Dead 2? Surely that epic final boss fight should qualify on the list.
When you remember all the youtube poop videos that came from the Zelda cutscenes
You guys played Star Ocean 4 right? The voice acting made me stop playing.
0/10 too little Xenosaga Episode II. It was like chaos and Canaan were battling over who could have the worst voice acting ever! Lol.
Backthen, as I kid I loved RE voice acting.
FFX? Nobody? Come ooooon
It wasn't the voice acting that was bad it was the script writing (in the beginning only though before the Mi'ihen highroad). After that the voice acting and writing seemed to significantly improve and the story started to get better and better.
Look i'm a big of the Shenmue series but for anyone who has played either game will know the voice acting in both games is pretty bad. Yeah it adds to the charm of the game for us who were gaming during the beta stages of voice acting in video games but still... Just search YouTube for Shenmue voice acting to see what I mean haha.
Check it out! (Didn't think it would allow me to link the video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz5IPs_a8Eg
Megaman 8 and the CDI Zelda games definitely deserve it.
I may get tons of shit, but SOMEONE has to agree with me when I say FFX is absolutely atrocious too. I mean, I love James Arnold Taylor, but his work as Tidus is a complete joke. "Soooo, I guess he was saying we should all worship some old guys or something".
That's not the voice acting, that's the script writing. Annunciation, tone, speed and emotional output are more subject to the voice actor though.
Great article! If I may be so bold, I'd also nominate The Legend of Kay (not only bad but borderline racist) and Mortal Kombat Deception.
I was wondering which Dynasty Warriors game would be on the list. I'm glad to see the remark that it could be just about any of them.
